diff --git "a/Drexel-AMT-Corpus.csv" "b/Drexel-AMT-Corpus.csv" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/Drexel-AMT-Corpus.csv" @@ -0,0 +1,5708 @@ +author_name,text,Age,Language,Gender,Education,Occupation,Background +j,"High levels of organizational justice result in better outcomes from a possibly point of conflict because the employee, while still feeling the pains of the negative outcome of the result, is not further exacerbated by feelings of injustice, unfairness and outrage. By delivering a high level of organizational justice within performance reviews, the positive outcomes will most likely be a movement by the employee to what is expected of them in order to earn the pay raise they seek rather than to retaliate against their employer for a perceived injustice. +The specific things that can improve the justice in employee performance reviews are as follows: +Show concern for employees. When communicating bad news, do not act as though the employee deserved what they got, but rather empathize with their disappointment and suggest ways to improve results in the future. +Involve employees in making decisions. At some point before the appraisal is complete, the employee should be allowed input to their own evaluation. +Share information. Give examples of expected behavior and reasons that outcomes have happened. Do not conceal anything pertinent to the decisions made, an air of mystery only fuels speculation +Reinforce good work with positive feedback. Otherwise the good an employee does may be lost because they feel they are unappreciated +Distribute rewards fairly. People with the same evaluation and same qualifications should receive the same reward. If this does not exist, then employees become disenfranchised. +Show respect and trust. No good can come of disrespect and distrust. +Use fair processes. As much as possible, use qualitative and empirical data to back up your assertions. +Seek collaborative win-win solutions. Delivering news of no raise should come with it instructions on how to earn the raise in the future. By giving the employee a roadmap to success, they will get the raise in the future and the company will get a better employee. + + +Journals of medical and chemical research have developed a new demographic in their subscribers. No longer is it just the aspiring doctor or research scientist pouring over the confounding academic material, but now, the new age synthetic drug dealer scours the research to find a pathway to the legal high. Synthetic cannabinoids (Marijuana), methamphetamines, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, PCP are all on the market as incense, bath salts, toilet cleaner or some other legitimate product bearing the “not for human consumption” disclaimer. Each of these products are different from the real article on the molecular level but are similar enough to target the same receptors in the brain, resulting in the same high without the legal consequences. +You might be outraged already, but there is always more. Hundreds of new chemicals are developed every year. Some show promising applications and are evaluated for human consumption by the FDA, others simply languish in obscurity. By virtue of this obscurity, these chemicals are perfectly legal, as they have not been made explicitly illegal. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," Interviews are time consuming and waste time of valuable employees, it should be moved to second from first. Tests are relatively inexpensive and are easy to administer with minimal involvement from employees, they should be administered first. Assuming the same ratios of elimination, the attached matrix would be rearranged as shown below. +This would result in 60 fewer background checks and 90 fewer interviews conducted. +I also believe cutting out TV ads would be a wise move to improve recruiting. + +Rule 1 – Don’t Make Threats. A manager should never engage in intimidation or retaliation. Suppose an employee were to bring a lawsuit without merit, if a manager were to make a threat along the lines of “you better hope that you win the lawsuit, because if you don’t you’re gone,” then the employee has gone from a case without merit to a clear example of creating a hostile workplace. +Rule 2 – Avoid Making Promises. A manager should never imply contracts of job security. If a manager tells a new hire “no one gets fired if they get their work done,” any subsequent job loss is met with suspicion that the employee is being treated differently than everyone else. +Rule 3 – Don’t Denigrate People. A manager should never denigrate people based on race, sex, religion, national origin or any other protected or intrinsic quality. In fact, a good rule of thumb would be to never make any comments at all that single out any of these groups as even seemingly positive comments can be misconstrued. If a manager were to tell a Hispanic employee, “I love you Mexican workers; you always give it your best!” Although the manager attempted to give what he thought would be a complement, this may be very offensive because it singles out a group based on their national origin. Additionally, it presents the contra positive argument that whites do not work very hard. +Rule 4 – Avoid Asking Improper Questions. A manager should keep their questions to the very narrow focus of the job at hand and never ask questions about disability, national origin, union affiliation or personal matters. A question about disability may carry with it an implication that the manager does not believe the candidate is capable of the job description regardless of the applicants assurances they can handle it. +Rule 5 – Keep an Accurate Record of Hours Worked. A manager should ensure that employees are paid according to hours actually worked. Allowing an employee to trade current weekly hours for future time off is illegal and may result in dishonesty in addition to the legal ramifications. +Rule 6 – Be sensitive to Sexual Harassment. A manager should never ignore any inkling that sexual harassment is taking place in the workplace. The managers should always report complaints and should never permit a hostile or coercive work environment. The company should do its best to ensure there is an intimidation free and effective method to report these types of behavior. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," +When discussing the 4/5ths rule, it is important to note that the law distinguishes between disparate treatment and disparate impact of protected classes. Disparate treatment is intentional discrimination of a protected class and requires no more than a finding that protected classes were intentionally treated differently because of their membership in a protected class. Examples of such behavior would include a rule against the hiring of bus drivers over the age of sixty or a policy that prohibited women from being hired to do heavy machining. +Disparate impact is different in that the rules for hiring practice do not specifically or intentionally treat members of a protected class differently, but rather, seemingly innocuous employment rules turn out to have a greater adverse impact on the members of a protected class regardless of the intent of the rule. Examples of disparate impact would include a hiring rule that an employee must be able to lift 150 pounds above their head, because women are less capable of this action than men, or employee must have college degree, because whites tend to achieve higher levels of education than minorities. +Disparate impact claims do not require proof of discriminatory intent, but rather, the plaintiff must show that the apparently neutral employment practice creates an adverse impact on a protected class. This is an appropriate point to assert that the protected class may shift from one group to another depending on the impact on the group. If men are being hired at a much higher rate than women, women are the protected class, if, however, women are hired at a much higher rate than men, men then become the group adversely impacted by the hiring policy. +Up until this point in the conversation, adverse impact has only been discussed in qualitative terms, “much higher” etc. The 4/5ths rule gives a definite and quantitative measure to determine the disparate rejection rates and can be used to show whether or not the rejections rates of protected classes are indeed disparate. The 4/5ths rule proceeds as follows +The selection rates for each protected group that makes up more than 2% of the applicant pool. This is determined as # hires / # applicants +The group with the highest selection rate is singled out for comparison to other protected classes. This is not always the majority class. +The disparate rejection rate is calculated by dividing the highest selection rate determined above by 4/5ths. +Compare the hiring rates of the other protected classes to this rate. If the hiring rates are below the disparate rejection rate, then the rule shows adverse impact. +An example of the 4/5ths rule is provided below. + +In the above example, let us assume that the only demographical information we know about the applicants is their gender and race. Therefore, we must examine the possibility of adverse impact on all groups within each of these two classes. First we calculate the hiring rate for men and women at 47% and 55% respectively. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j,"Hunt Companies is in a unique position to turn a perceived detriment of our operations into a tremendous benefit, both perceived and actual, to the City of El Paso and to the residents thereof. As Hunt Communities develops land in the suburban areas of El Paso the clearing and grading operation destroys countless desert plants. As we are all aware, certain segments of the population are very vocal in expressing their displeasure at this perceived ‘injury’ to the community, but the community as a whole regards this as a necessary evil. Is it possible to appease both the environmentalists and the consumer who wants rock bottom prices? I believe it is +It is tremendously feasible to relocate select desert plants from the areas to be developed into areas of the city that could use cheap or free landscaping. Because these plants are native, they require little to zero maintenance landscaping. This operation would turn what is described as a necessary evil into a huge positive, and would not only improve the Hunt brand within El Paso, but would give us a competitive advantage over the other developers in the area. + Put as simply as possible, desert plants will be excavated from land to be developed, then transported to a candidate’s home and planted. Volunteers will perform most of the work involved in transporting and planting the vegetation and will also perform maintenance on the front yard to provide a polished finished product. + Obviously, it is quite difficult to dig an ocotillo out of the mountain side. There are several ways that this can be addressed. One way to address this would be to add excavation of cacti and other select plants to the contract of the earthwork sub. This would be the easiest, but would have a cost impact on the development of lots. A second method would be to trade vegetation for excavation. I have spoken with one grower in town that might be interested in harvesting some of the cacti for resale in his nursery. In return for plants a grower could provide us with the service of digging up the plants we intend to re-plant in a candidate’s home. A final way to address this would be to hire perhaps two laborers in charge of excavation & transplanting plants. Whatever method is chosen for excavation, this operation would also provide opportunities for community involvement as volunteers can be organized to perform the work at a candidate’s home. + The involvement of a candidate or beneficiary of this service opens an opportunity to further our brand within the military community. Two possible types of candidate could be a member of the retired military currently residing in El Paso, or a home of a deployed soldier. In the case of the former, native plants would be particularly attractive in that they require little maintenance for the retired/elderly to perform. In the case of either, the Hunt brand would be strengthened within the military community by providing this service to its brethren. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," + +With numbers so staggering it is easy to assume that prostate cancer isn’t getting publicity because of the taboo nature of the screening process, but Dr. Cox offers another explanation. “Prostate cancer has a very low mortality rate. 1 in 6 men get prostate cancer at some point in their life, but very few of those are actually going to die from it. Because of its low mortality rate people assume that it’s not a bad cancer and if they get it is treatable and they will survive and be fine, but the reality is because so many men are getting it, it still has a high death rate.” + +Despite its low mortality rate, the American Cancer Society recommends yearly screening after the age of 50 for most men or 40 if you are at an increased risk level. In the case of prostate cancer, as in the case of most cancers, regular screening and early detection is your best bet, but Dr. Cox’s work is focusing on the late stage of cancer in order to provide a treatment where there was none before. + +As Dr. Cox explains “Prostate cancer has very few treatments. In the early stage cancer it is very treatable. We have drugs that largely cut the supply of androgen or testosterone off, but once these cancers progress to late stage, much like breast cancer, we have no treatment options besides harmful chemotherapy and radiation therapies. The majority of efforts these days are trying to develop drugs that target late stage cancers, where we have no drug options available. My lab is developing new small molecules that look very promising for treating both early and late stage cancer. We’ve got a series of compounds that we’ve just patented and are showing great promise, in fact, they’ve generated a lot of excitement at meetings around the world.” In addition to prostate cancer, Dr. Cox’s research has serious implications on the treatment of breast cancer, diabetes and obesity. + +The research that Dr. Cox’s lab is conducting is so promising that the collaboration between scientists at the University of Houston and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and UTEP has received a 5.2 Million dollar grant from the Cancer prevention and Research Institute of Texas. + +With current economic conditions, federal funding of projects like Dr. Cox’s is on the decline. For every research opportunity that is funded, several others go without, and the development of earth changing technology is delayed. “Most new technologies are the results of hundreds of different research laboratories around the world taking small steps and publishing their results, so these things are very slow to develop. This country needs to put a lot more effort and funding into research. When I was a graduate student 20 years ago, you could score in the 40th percentile of an NIH grant and get funded, but now you have to score in the top 8 percent to get funding. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," A $2000 investment in web based advertising produced more hires than`a $75000 investment in TV ads and the percentage of people completing probation from web based ads was double that produced by hires generated from TV ads. Not only would web based advertising be less expensive, it would require fewer interviews, background checks and tests to be administered. + The reason for the higher cost per hire from TV ads is essentially that the television media is more expensive than other media. Additionally, television is a passive method to recruit applicants. In other words, people are not watching television with the hopes that an advertisement for jobs comes on in the form of a commercial, rather, it just may happen that a prospective applicant stumbles across the TV advert. In the other media, the people the advert is exposed to are already actively seeking employment. The other media are a far more target rich environment than TV. Therefore, TV is not only more expensive than the other media to begin with, but the people targeted contain a smaller percentage of job seekers and a smaller percentage of employable people. + If the company persists in TV ads, it would do well to better target potential applicants. If the job is 9 to 5, it should advertise during those normal working hours to ensure the people watching are already available during working hours. The company should also use the variety of cable stations to target their demographic. Adverts for zoo keeper might air on Animal Planet, while an advert for a crafts coordinator for summer camp might air on pbs sewing show. + The most widespread effort for increasing the number of employee referral job applicants is to offer incentives to the employee to provide the company with such referrals. Cash bonuses are often offered for employees providing leads to quality applicants. Other methods for increasing the employee referrals might be to pre-release job opening to members of the company and ask if they know anyone who might be a successful candidate. Some companies train their employees to recruit applicants from the company’s customer firms. + There is a potential for problems to arise with EEO because many people socialize within their protected class. The people they refer will often be of the same race, religion etc. and because referrals generate high quality applicants with better chances of being hired, there is a potential problem in creating a disparate impact as judged by the 4/5ths rule. However, many studies show that the referral process can help to diversify the work place, in that while 70% of minority applicants search the corporate website while only 52% are referred, actual hires report that 6% came from corporate website while 25% came from referrals. + The first thing that strikes me as a potential improvement to the recruiting procedures is to rearrange the steps in the hiring process. Because of the high cost of background checks, it should be last of the three steps. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," The standard deviations, attached in appendix 1, were determined by taking the historical prices for each of the stocks on a weekly basis, adjusting for dividends paid, then calculating the returns. It must be noted that the standard deviation calculated on weekly prices were weekly standard deviations and had to be adjusted to be yearly standard deviations. Once these values were obtained for all the relevant stocks and ETFs, a T-Test was performed to evaluate whether or not these samples were statistically different from one another. Using excel, the two tailed T-Test formula was used, testing the weekly standard deviations for the past year, the results are shown below + +Specifically, this shows that at the alpha = .05 level, these are not statistically different. The T-Test value came back at .959, so at an an alpha of .01, we would say that these are statistically different. + Now that we can say with some certainty that the portfolio comprised of the top ten holdings gives a reasonable estimation of the ETF as a whole, we postulate the question of whether or not we can create a better combination of these portfolios by using a sharp optimal portfolio rather an the current weights. The process to form a sharp optimal portfolio was rather involved, but the major difficulty was in creating the covariance table and array weights shown below + + Once these were created, a simple excel solver function was all that was necessary to form the sharp optimal portfolio. I constrained the weights of each stock to be within 5% and 25% of the total, as I felt these were reasonably close to the weights of the normalized portfolio. The changes between the weights of the normalized portfolio are shown below. + These revised weights give the portfolio a higher sharpe ratio, indicating a higher return per unit of risk, however does this ratio and weighting system translate into higher returns. Over a period of fifteen days, the prices were tracked of each stock, then the weights were applies to determine the return of this sharp optimal portfolio versus the returns of the ETF. The results of the tracking are shown below + + Surprisingly, the sharp optimal portfolio did perform slightly better than the ETF, although, once again, it is doubtful that the differences are statistically significant. We can only be sure that using these tools to optimize your portfolio will help remove the idiosyncratic risk associated with the market. This was quite useful exercise, and I am using it on my 401k! + + + As a major land developer in the greater El Paso area, Hunt Companies struggles with the traditional negative impressions associated with land development. The modern consumer struggles with their own environmental consciousness and desire for ‘green’ consumption is placed directly at odds with price sensitivity. It is often said that the perfect innovation increases demand and decreases cost, and I believe that with the current portfolio of companies, Hunt has an opportunity to do just that. +",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," + + An ETF, or exchange traded fund, is a security that is designed to track an index, a commodity or a basket of assets like an index fund, but is more flexible and trades like a stock on an exchange. An ETF gives you the diversification of an index fund and the benefits of single stock ownership like the ability to sell short, buy on margin and purchase as few as a one share in any transaction. Though these benefits are extremely attractive, the expense ratios of ETFs are far lower than those of the average mutual fund. Unfortunately, there are some down sides, such as the need to pay a commission on any trade involving ETFs, just as you would pay on a stock order. Another benefit of ETFs is the wide variety of funds available. Though these benefits are clearly stated, it is always a good exercise for the savvy financial investor to evaluate whether stated benefits, like diversification, do indeed exist, and the extent to which they exist. For the purposes of this effort, we will be examining the ETF IHF and comparing it against the top 10 holdings that comprise the ETF to determine whether the benefits of a owning a single ETF come close to the benefits of owning a diversified portfolio of the ten stocks and also whether or not there are better configurations of the same stocks that would provide a more optimal sharp ratio or return. + In order to evaluate the ETF, it would become rather unwieldy to include every holding, therefore we have decided to include only the top ten holdings accounting for 63.58% of all the assets in the ETF. Below are the top 10 holdings and the percentage of total assets. + + In order to gain an estimation of how well these ten stocks represent the ETF IHF as a whole, we can use the current % of assets, normalized to 100%, to calculate the contributions of each stock to a portfolio’s Beta and Return if the portfolio was made up entirely of these 10 stocks in the proportion that the ETF has established through their holdings. The calculations of Beta and return are included in the below chart. + +From the above chart it is evident that the return of a portfolio containing only the top 10 holdings is 6.11% higher than the ETF, a 16% increase in returns. It is also evident that the Beta of the top ten holdings is .12 lower than the ETF as a whole. From the results completed thus far, it seems that a portfolio of just the top 10 holdings could provide a higher return with a lower beta. However, there is a possibility that the means of these two portfolios may not be statistically different from each other. + In order to evaluate whether or not these portfolios are statistically different, the standard deviation of each of the top 10 stocks is determined and normalized to 100% in order to compare their accumulated standard deviation to that of the ETF IHF. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," If an employee discusses sexual harassment with a manager, and is dismissed, regardless of the merit of the claim or seriousness of the incident, the dismissal by the manager would go toward showing that the employee is incapable of receiving a satisfactory resolution and would increase the likelihood of litigation. +Rule 7 – Document Everything. A manager should document everything related to performance, misconduct, discipline and evaluations of an employee that may ultimately lead to an employee’s termination. If indeed an employee is incompetent, if there is no documentation, then there is little evidence to support termination. Suppose a manager tells an employee several times to shape up their performance, if they never document it, they must then testify that they told the employee a number of warnings, but never documented it. This gives the jury a very bad impression of the manager in question. +Rule 8 – Be Consistent. A manager must never treat people differently based on prohibited factors. In fact, it should be a goal of every manager to treat everyone as equally as possible. Obviously, if people are treated differently along lines of a protected class, this is clearly an example of discrimination, but treating your friends differently than others may create the appearance of impropriety. Suppose a White manager allowed his college friends, who all happened to be white, to rearrange their schedules but denied a similar request by a black employee. While this may have been just a favor to his friends, the manager has now created a situation where there appears to be racial discrimination. +Rule 9 – Be Safety Conscious. A manager should always report accidents in the workplace and adhere to the standards of workplace safety set by OSHA. The manager should never tolerate deviations from best practices in safety arena as it creates an atmosphere of tolerance to violations. If a roofer does not wear his safety gear and falls from the roof the success of a lawsuit filed on the employee’s behalf may hinge upon whether the manager was aggressive in stamping out safety violations or was lax in their administration of rules. +Rule 10 – Seek Help in Unusual Circumstances. A manager should do their best to be knowledgeable about employment scenarios that occur everyday, but he should also realize that the company employs specialists for a reason. When in doubt, spread it out. In scenarios where the manager is unfamiliar, he should always consult specialist whether that be a supervisor, HR or EEO. If an employee asks a question about FMLA, rather than hazard a guess, refer them to HR who can handle questions with information and answers that may not misrepresent the stance of the company. +Rule 11 – Consider Implications of Leave or Special Requests. A manager should do their best to consider the implications of leave, and should do so from the point of view of the company. It is almost certainly inconvenient to comply with FMLA and other legal requirements where leave is considered, however, the ramifications of not complying with such legislation would be far more costly and inconvenient. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," These private sources of funding foundations donations are becoming all too important because the federal funding is just drying up. I think that these types of events to raise money for research are very important and it’s important to highlight the contribution that potential donors are going to make to medical research.” + +So, Ladies and Gentlemen, be sure to attend the bachelor auction on June 23rd at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing. You will be contributing directly to the research being conducted at UTEP by Dr. Cox and his associates, so, you may not just meet the man of your dreams, you may save his life. + + +The policies and practices involved in carrying out the “people” or human resource aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding and appraising. The responsibility of an organization to use their employees to the most productive and constructive degree possible. +A manager who assists and advises line managers. The staff manager is typically responsible to senior managers and acts as a liaison between senior management and the managers on the floor or in the midst of production. +A manager who is authorized to direct the work of subordinates and is responsible for accomplishing the organization’s tasks. Typically a line manager is located in the immediate area of the work or production and is tasked with overseeing a narrow range of work and given the authority to direct workers in that work, but is still responsible to a superior. +The right to make decisions direct others’ work and give orders. The power to do something. The area or a company’s tasks that belong to a specific individual and the right to direct operations in that specific area. +The tendency of firms to extend their sales, ownership and / or manufacturing to new markets abroad. The growing importance of economic, social and cultural factors in all countries of the world resulting in a tendency towards one single world market rather than markets in each country independent from one another. +An integrated set of human resources policies and practices that together produce superior employee performance. A High performance work system seeks to achieve synergy by accomplishing two outcomes simultaneously, 1 all of the organizational parts are aligned and 2 all of the employees are engaged and impassioned about their work. +Formulating and executing human resource policies and practices that produce the employee competencies and behaviors the company needs to achieve its strategic aims. Strategic human resource management is the linking or aligning human resources with the strategic goals and objectives of the company in order to create an atmosphere of cooperation that fosters innovation and flexibility. +The role of clearly and quantitatively defining how human capital strategies impact the business. This is accomplished through the establishing of metrics to be measured and tracked by the HR department and focuses on the business strategy metrics identifying how their human capital strategies are linked to these key figures. +",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," From the diagram we see that random selection at a .10 selection ratio yields 50% successful hires. Using Unstructured interviews, a selection procedure with a validity of .10, the percentage of successful hires becomes 54% . This may not seem like a huge step forward, but remember the low validity of unstructured interviews. Using other techniques with higher validity further increases the percentage of successful candidates. Reference checks have a validity of .2 and result in 64% successful hires. Ability Tests have a validity of .3 and result in 71% successful hires. Integrity tests have a validity of .4 and result in 78% successful hires. Structured interviews have a validity of .5 and result in 84% successful hires. And finally, a combination of these valid selection procedures has a validity of .6 and results in 90% successful hires. It can therefore be seen that employers can achieve a 90% successful hiring rate by using a combination of valid selection procedures in conjunction with a low selection ratio. + + Organizational justice in its simplest form is the attempt by the organization to ensure that managers treat employees fairly. Organizational justice is involved in employee performance reviews through the manner in which the review is conducted and the manner in which information is disseminated. Essentially, organizational justice is the perception of fairness in the performance review process by the employee being reviewed. It is therefore imperative that any negatives be communicated without an accusatory tone, and that positives are used to reinforce good work, that specific examples be used to back up all ratings (positive and negative), that the employee be involved in the decision making process and be allowed to communicate his side of the story, and that all rewards be distributed fairly using as quantitative a method as possible in an open manner to illustrate honesty or the process. +Suppose that a manager must communicate to an employee that he is not getting a raise. If the verdict is delivered in a manner of fact tone, the employee feels that they are not given the chance to give their side of the story and are being ignored, therefore they feel they are treated unfairly. If, on the other hand, the information is communicated with reasons for the lack of pay raise and information on what was required to earn the raise, then the employee feels less taken advantage of. While they are not pleased with the outcome, they are certainly less angry. +Positive outcomes of organizational justice include all situations where conflict is avoided and all situations where retaliation is minimized. High levels of organizational justice reduce the frequencies of complains, lawsuits and motivations to get even by stealing or breaking rules. High levels of organizational justice increases the frequency and likelihood that employees will be good organizational citizens and volunteer or produce extra work even when they don’t have to. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," By pouring over those medical journals, and reading about the drugs that never made it to FDA approval, the synthetic drug manufacturer is provided with a nearly endless list of chemicals that can be manufactured and sold legally. These drugs have not been evaluated for their effects on humans and are often manufactured in less than ideal circumstances by people who have limited knowledge of chemistry and human physiology. +Regardless of your belief in an individual’s right to chose what goes into his/her own body, you need to know two absolute facts when it comes to synthetic drugs. 1. In an unregulated industry, run by armchair chemists, there are wild variations in the product produced. These variations exist not only from one product to the next but within the product itself. Testing shows variations from the manufacturing process of the same synthetic marijuana made by the same manufacturer range from 2 times to 500 times stronger than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. 2. When you slightly modify a chemical, the effects may also be slightly modified. In the case of synthetic marijuana, these slight modifications result in hallucinations. +Your brain is filled with chemical receptors, and these receptors are like locks on doors to your feelings and emotions. Fear, euphoria and basically everything else you feel is triggered by the interaction between chemicals and receptors in your brain. There are two receptors in the brain termed CD1 and CD2, but although their names are similar, the emotions they unleash are drastically different. When a chemical bonds with the receptor CD1, a feeling of anxiety and hallucinations are produced while CD2 produces a feeling or relaxation and calmness. THC bonds with CD2, but synthetically modified THC often binds with CD1, giving rise to news reports of hallucinations caused by the synthetic drug. +Many states are making entire classes of chemicals illegal so that small modifications in the drug cannot circumvent the legislation, but I am torn in establishing any logic that can be used that would make synthetic drugs illegal, while not having consequences on other items we consume in America. They are dangerous, so is alcohol. They have no nutritional purpose, neither does tobacco. How can we justify their banishment without accepting the consequences of our logic? Do we simply just pick and choose, or do we endeavor to a higher level of logic? Is it the government’s responsibility to protect our health at all costs, or our freedom to choose? At the very least, you should endeavor to know what you’re putting into your body, and I would recommend these synthetic drugs not be on your list of consumables, but you should be able to make the choice for yourself. + +In the Texas Legislature, HB126 seeks to require drug screening for applicants and recipients of unemployment benefits. While the initial guttural reaction to this idea is positive for most conservative thinkers, the concept must be thoroughly examined because it straddles two of the conservative’s most fervently held ideals. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," Because women have a higher hiring rate, they are selected for calculation of disparate rejection rate. At 55% *4/5ths, the disparate rejection rate is 44%. We then compare men’s hiring rate to the disparate rejection rate. Because the hiring rate for men if 47%, higher than 44%, men are not adversely impacted by the hiring policies in place. + We then turn our attention to race. We calculate the hiring rate for each ethnicity. Immediately, the hiring rate for African Americans jumps out at us at 0%. However, because there was only one African American applicant, the group does not make up at least 2% of the applicant pool of 100, so the 4/5ths rule does not apply to the group. Whites and Hispanics have hiring rates of 64% and 42% respectively. Because Hispanics have a higher rate, they are selected for determination of disparate rejection rates. 64% * 4/5ths = 51%. We then compare the hiring rate for Whites with the disparate rejection rates, and since 42% is less than 64%, whites are adversely impacted by the hiring policies currently in place. This example shows not only that the majority can be adversely impacted, but also that some hiring policies that seem very egalitarian, hiring 25 Whites and 25 Hispanics seems as equal as can be, but further examination reveals the disparate impact. + Suppose a White plaintiff was to bring this information to light in a lawsuit against the employer, he would have proven a ‘prima facie’ case of discrimination, showing that the employer’s selection procedures had an adverse impact on a protected class. Just because there is adverse impact does not mean that the employer may not use the selection procedure, but the burden of proof shifts to the employer once adverse impact has been established as in the above example. + There are two basic defenses against the employment practices that have adverse impact on protected groups, the bona fide occupational qualification defense and the business necessity defense. The bona fide occupational qualification allows employers to hire “on the basis of religion, sex or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.” The business necessity requires showing that there is an overriding business purpose for the discriminatory practice, and that the practice is therefore acceptable. In the above example, suppose that the employer required employees to be bilingual because most of its business is done in Mexico, the employer could therefore justify its discriminatory hiring practices because of overwhelming business purpose. By establishing positive correlations between test results, like those of the wonderlic test, and job performance, a company can prove that the test, while creating an adverse impact, is still representative of job performance and therefore a reasonable policy to maintain regardless of its discriminatory impact. + + Absolutely yes. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," +Rule 12 – Be Careful in Situations Involving Employment Termination. A manager should never take the decision of termination lightly. They should always consult with higher managers, HR or EEO to ensure that the termination is merited and that the termination does not occur in a manner that would cause hostilities or legal ramifications. +Rule 13 – Be Aware of the Laws. A good manager should recognize the changing landscape in HR. Though it is impossible to be perfectly knowledgeable of all the legislation involved in HR, the manager should strive to comply with the basic requirements and obtain a functional knowledge of the laws within the scope of his day to day operations. + + Intuitively, a large applicant pool is important because for any given number of hires, you are getting a more exclusive cross section of employees with regards to their percentile position in the field of applicants. In other words, suppose you were going to hire 10 people. If 10 people applied, you would be forced to hire them all, the very best, the average and the well below average in order to fill your positions. If 20 people applied, then, assuming that your hiring procedures were effective at determining the best applicants, you could hire the best 10, or everyone that was above average. Now suppose you had 1000 applicants. If you still had to hire 10 people, you would be getting the best 1% of all applicants, a far more desirable result than being forced to hire everyone that showed up at your door. + More empirically, studies have determined that the percent of successful hires vary not only by the procedure used to hire, but also by the selection ratio. In the below diagram, it is evident that in all structured procedures, the selection ratio plays an important role in determining the percentage of successful hires. This diagram proves that the larger the applicant pool, the better the chances of hiring a successful candidate. + From the above diagram it is also possible to examine the implications of the usefulness of alternative types of selection procedures. Despite the proven effectiveness of certain selection procedures over others, the selection rate plays a vital role in the distinguishing of the most effective procedures. As can be seen, with a selection ratio of .90, or hiring 9 out of 10 applicants, there is little difference between random selection at 50% successful and the use of all selection procedures at 54%. Given this small difference, there would be little use in performing all the selection procedures with a payout of only 4% increase in probability of hiring a successful employee. However, when the selection rate decreases, the increase in probability of hiring a successful candidate becomes quickly apparent. The implications are clear, without a sizable applicant pool, all the best practices in the world produce little gain. + On the other hand, however, a selection ratio of .10, or 1 out of 10 applicants hired, produces fantastic results when combining the valid selection procedure. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +j," Few marketing tools could provide such positive PR with such little cost. In summary, by providing these groups with desert landscaping, we not only beautify their home and increase its value, but we are not giving them a chore to keep up with it, as these plants require little to no maintenance, as an upkeep responsibility might negate the initially positive reaction. + Hunt and its employees are strategically positioned to mobilize a large number of youthful volunteers. In discussion with several of my colleagues, most everyone seemed enthused about volunteering for this effort and were also confident that they could recruit their friends to participate. This type of event is what is lacking in the city of El Paso. Few volunteer opportunities exist that allow for a commitment of only a day or two. The menial nature of the tasks and the camaraderie provided through the people involved would engage a demographic of volunteers in their 20’s and 30’s, precisely the market that the homes being developed are being marketed toward. By involving themselves in the development process, they would be more likely to purchase a Hunt developed house, and would spread the word to their friends about our commitment to the environment and to El Paso. In discussions with a few restaurants in town, I feel confident that we could arrange special pricing for the volunteers to enjoy a post-volunteer meal and drink, furthering the camaraderie and commitment to the cause. + This idea is a good marriage of need, opportunity and PR for Hunt Companies, Hunt Communities & Hunt Military Communities.  Landscaping for the deployed or retired military should be as low maintenance as possible, i.e. use desert plants and shrubs.  Any attempt by us (volunteers) to transplant vegetation from land to be developed (by Hunt Communities) into the front yards of the retired military in an attempt to beautify El Paso would be viewed as a very positive thing, regardless of the quantity of plants transplanted or the number of yards beautified.  Hunt monetary contributions would be minimal, perhaps providing some yard working tools and materials and the use of a company truck and laborers. An investment of a few thousand dollars would provide quality material for the billboards around town, press releases and would engage the upwardly mobile youth of El Paso. This is a Win-Win-Win for Hunt, El Paso, and the residents receiving the landscaping. + +Every year in the United States, over 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and every year 32,000 men die because of it. In fact, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men, behind lung cancer, and the front line in the fight against the disease is right here in El Paso. At the University of Texas at El Paso, Dr. Marc Cox and his team of research scientists are hard at work developing a late stage treatment for prostate cancer and other hormone related diseases. ",30,English,male,Master's,Engineer,"N,N,N,N,N" +p," Oh, and that first quarter at UCSD turned out to be a D not an F. I guess that leaves me with something to accomplish still. + + + + + +Jack continued to stare at the ground in front of him. Grey, brown concrete. Green grass, pale in dying spots, bright in new ones, deep in the healthy areas. Brown earth, rich as candy, filled with rocks and bugs. Jack raised his head, quickly but without a sharp snap, and looked up and down the straight lines of the street. No, it wasn’t here yet. Just another large truck rumbling by. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, slowly. +Sometimes he didn’t have to look, he just knew. Instead of waiting impatiently, checking every mechanical noise, and every passerby, he would just close his eyes and let the world attenuate itself to his senses. He would simply wait, resting his mind, while reality serenely washed over his soul like a water color painting in motion. At such times he did not have to look for the bus, because he just knew when it was there. Those were good days. +Today was not one of those days. Today, as for the last several, Jack could not keep his eyes closed and could not simply rest, and wait, and listen. No, today he felt a need to fluctuate between serenity and annoyance, patience and agitation. Jack was unable to sink into the warm, comfortable, secure, universal, immortal center of his self because his focus was continually being readjusted by some tugging-urging-scampering-tickling-fleeting otherness. He tried to fight it by tensely straining his shoulders against the straps of his backpack, and tried to ignore it by closing his eyes to melt away, and tried to co-exist with it by giving in to whatever seemed to interest it at the moment, but nothing would satisfy that other consciousness. So Jack found himself looking up and down the street, fidgeting, relaxing, stretching, and self consciously fiddling with the two quarters he held in his jacket pocket. Serene or agitated, he thought to himself, the bus would not arrive any sooner. +As he waited, Jack’s mind rolled over various concerns. He would have to stop for a sandwich, after the forty minute bus ride, to give his body’s muscles fuel for the four mile walk. Jack had tried to go without food during his walks, to save money, but every time he did, upon reaching home, his body would explode into a hundred jaws angrily gnawing and gnashing and growling for sustenance. He would have to rest when he got home. He had tried immediately jumping into study and homework after the hour of walking, but his body would rebel in repugnance at his mind’s commands, forcing desires towards rest. Jack found he wasted too much time when he ignored the demands of his body so, although he had once prided himself on the ability to exert mind over matter, he now acquiesced to the body in order to maximize the efficiency of his day. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," +Downwards I stared, mind blankly comprehending the view in front of me. Unemotionally, silently, with a practiced awareness that studied but refused to relate the object of study to any abstract understanding my mind analyzed the picture before my eyes. Thoughts slipped into my mind and slipped out again almost faster than they appeared. So smoothly and so cleanly my consciousness worked that it seemed I had no real thoughts of my own, just an active and liquid experience of what I was looking at. +Once, on advice from an artist I worked with, I purchased an art instruction book called The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I had wanted to learn how to draw ever since I was six years old and this book teaches everything from understanding what a pencil is to processes the brain uses to interpret lines. One technique the book teaches is to place a square frame around any picture the artist wishes to study. Thus transforming an overwhelmingly detailed picture, for instance a bowl of fruit sitting on a table located in a kitchen that is connected to a dining room, into an easily grasped picture, that bowl of fruit sitting on a simple plane. +At the time, staring down at the bowl in front of me I could not mentally project that artist’s frame. I was so overwhelmed, so awed that I could only stand and gaze in wonderment. Picasso went through his blue phase, Monet loved greenery, Italian Renaissance masters displayed a rainbow of colors. If I had any pretensions of casting my perspective as worthy of the title Artistic then before me were the beginnings of my picture, the start of my story, Work in Brown. +Fingertips alighted on my chosen implement of artistry, muscles tightened and relaxed as my hand passed through space, my mind’s will given shape and form in what could have been the most creative moment of my life. Water swirled, serene and smooth, crystal clear and clean. Flakes of matter broke away from the whole and were carried away to nothingness. Muscles tightening, jerking and spasming a little more quickly and anxious the second time, my hand smacked the handle of the toilet again. The offensive brown package refused to move, stuck like a slug on the bottom of the toilet. +Mop gripped loosely in hand, feet set a foot apart, green tie knotted uncomfortably around my throat, I frowned slightly as I stared at the rude bundle of processed animal and plant matter someone had left as a message for the suckers who cleaned the bathrooms at Rite Aid. A few flushes more, a few more tranquil introspective moments to myself, then my hand moved towards the wall to my right, gripped the sheet at the end of the toilet paper, and began mummifying itself until it resembled an oven mitt. Standing up straight, then bending at the waist, my hand dipped slowly into the bowl, like a mother going into an oven for the Thanksgiving turkey…. +",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p,"In a job whose primary means of promotion was political maneuvering, and undermining another’s decisions and actions, Jack felt his situation and his attitude towards his work to be a bright neon sign. He knew that any of the hundreds of ground floor wage slaves would be happy to take his job, as he had once taken another’s. +Jack noticed a minty smell and dank chill. He waited for a snide word, a painfully biting comment, but heard none. As the atmosphere cleared, Jack knew he only had a few options: get his act back together; get into the politics of relationships. Neither seemed possible, not with the bleakness of the prospect of continuing his work day in and day out until he made enough money to buy a house and rot away in the dark, hooked up to some virtual simulation of a secluded and sunny beach. Jack stared into empty nothingness as the variables of his life and future tumbled through his mind in different combinations. +As his screen floated by a particularly juicy looking bit of data, a perfectly shining orb of golden radiance which was a unique, artistic enough piece of psychological code to have turned his fortunes into an upswing around the office, Jack quietly rose from his seat. Before he walked away from his desk he covered the tiny star in a recursive bit of code that would hide it from the other reapers, and make it appear to the corporation’s server as featureless, native programming. Then he reconnected it to the originator’s persona, giving the customer free benefit of their own creation, which seemed to be a well constructed bit of code that would allow the individual to indulge in perpetually happy thoughts. +Jack walked away from his desk, through the corridor, and stepped through the silent, normally invisible double doors of the building entrance. The security system recorded his leaving an hour early, the fifth time he had done so in the last 30 days, which triggered an “attention” flag in his employment file. Tomorrow, his manager would be prompted to have a sit down talk with Jack about his punctuality, work ethics, and commitment to the corporation’s goals. +Jack had no plans of being anywhere in the vicinity of his desk, or the office building, tomorrow. Approaching his car, a regrettably new purchase, Jack ran over a list of things to do: clean out bank account; pack up valuables. +Driving away, Jack wondered what he would do. He figured he could sleep in his car for awhile, buying cheap food and roughing it through mountain ranges, forests, and deserts. He could also drag himself to relatives, people who would house his chemical riddled body and mind, while his flesh and psyche repaired themselves. +Maybe, he thought, he would just get drunk and wasted until he ran out of cash and fell on hard times. Or, maybe he could get another job. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," My fingers twitched, then again, then smoothly and assuredly as they answered the part of the essay question that I knew, with what memories I had. As I wrote my mind calmed my body as it planned out the immediate future and courses of action. I finished the second and final page of what should have been a six page essay, and closed my blue book, then grinned with relief. Walking towards my hippy swirl, multi-colored, tie-dye shirt wearing T.A. with blue book in hand and a toothy smile on my face I mentally added Failed a test, Failed a class to Quit a job and Got fired from a job as things I was truly happy I had worked hard to accomplish. + “Tap-Clack-Click” goes the keyboard. I stare past the computer monitor, past where it sits on the breakfast nook table, to look at the refrigerator. It’s full sized now, with a freezer and enough space to hold a few weeks worth of food. The rectangular box of a room is slightly larger this time. All three of us are still packed into a one room studio. + This time the room is in Mira Mesa, where we’ve lived since 1991, and which is located just five miles from UCSD’s campus. Five minutes of walking from our front door gets me to the MTS 921 bus that drives me to UTC in La Jolla where I can catch the SDT 41 that goes straight to UCSD’s campus; Total travel time twenty five minutes. There are two beds now, and even though mine is an uncomfortable fold out couch, it’s still right next to the air conditioner. A living arrangement I consider a very good thing. Three people in one room is still stuffy business. + The last year of school has been a lot better than the first. My financial aid was processed in March when the financial aid office grudgingly accepted my 8.0 units of enrolled classes as sufficient to fulfill their student aid requirements. And again in September when the FAO grudgingly accepted my 12.0 units of enrolled classes, personal letter of support from the Provost of Muir, essay length letter of explanation as to the difficulty of my circumstances hyphen steps taken to rectify those circumstances, multiple accurately filled out official forms, and two personal slash two impersonal references as sufficient to provide student aid and temporarily suspend my academic probation. + As far as classes go, in my second quarter of Spring ‘03 I achieved a B+ and an A. Which kind of surprised me because I had no idea UCSD gave +’s and -‘s on official transcripts. From all my work this quarter it look’s like I’ll be getting a C in Literature English 21, a B in Latin 1, and probably a B in Literature Writing 8C. I’m not quite sure about the last one because that grade depends on this paper, and I always feel my writings are failures. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p,"Once in a while there was a rhyme and reason to the process. On those days the line formed according to who had been there first, courtesy for elderly people, and consideration of minutiae of social status. Those were odd days. They weren’t special, like the relaxed and relaxing days Jack enjoyed. They were just… odd. On these days it was as if some universal concept of social order and space had propagated to each mind. +Most often the line seemed to form according to a mix of motivations. Some individuals would push themselves forward, others would fit in where they could, and certain others would attempt to establish a personal sense of order with their movements. Usually Jack just fell towards the back, or the very end of the line. Only on days of extreme agitation would he push himself forward; or on days of extreme self interest, such as when the line was remarkably long and space would be standing room only on the violently rolling bus. +Today was cold, but the line was short, so Jack fell towards the back of the line. As he stepped, clip clop pace to the double door, a middle-aged black lady approached from opposite the line. She obviously was not a student, in her elegant black and brown dress, and because she had not attempted to fit into the line. Jack glanced at her face, smiled very slightly, dipped his head just a bit, and waited for her to enter the bus before him. For some reason, perhaps because she felt the order of the line to be special and students to be somehow privileged, she stood patiently still while lightly smiling at Jack. This signaled to Jack that he should enter before her and so he did. +Jack trod the triple steps of the bus entrance. He glanced up to see who was driving today. Each driver had a different personality, a different style of driving, a different way of managing the passengers, and Jack had a different way of responding to each. He frowned just a little, as he recognized the driver he most disliked. +Today Jack was trying to maintain his calm. To do so he would have to ignore, avoid, or deal with things disliked and so he gave the driver no more attention than necessary. He clomb the last step, and stood in front of the metal box where one paid fare. Glancing at the balding head, the white hair, the red-white skin, the sunglasses, the mustache, and the blue shirt, Jack dropped the two quarters into the machine. Flattening the dollars, he watched them slide, machinery whirring, into the guts of the bus. After a last, neutral glance at the driver, he turned and looked at the passengers and seats. +For Jack, choosing a seat on the bus was a simple procedure. The public transportation buses Jack rode had doors in their middles. If the seat directly opposite these doors was open, he sat there. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," Jack washed his hands and hoped people had wandered away from Bill’s cubicle. If so, he could return to his own cube while Bill basked in the glow of social indulgence. +Stepping cautiously through a grey corridor, past a decoration here and there proclaiming awards or corporate information, Jack noticed a lack of noise. When he reached the entrance to the large room that housed his workspace, full of cubicle upon cubicle, he heard Bill humming softly and typing contentedly. Smiling, Jack returned to his seat and began moving things around to let Bill know that his only reason for not continuing pleasantries was the necessity of work. This, being more than half truth in a company that monitored how much each employee accomplished each day, would be an acceptable social excuse and so Jack was comfortable in tuning out any further considerations of Bill. +Staring at his screen and the numerous avatars and objects floating on the landscape, Jack began to actually feel some impetus towards work. Perhaps it was the onerous interactions with his workmates that gave him enough disregard for humanity and existence to overcome his usual distaste for his job, but whatever the excuse he knew he had to do it anyway; after all, the problems of bread and bills did not solve themselves. +Scanning the virtual horizon and reattaching his controls, Jack paid attention to the brightest or most structurally interesting objects. They were bits of data waiting to be analyzed, automatically flagged for attention by complex routines and mathematical formulas in the server computer’s and home computer’s software, culled from customer activity which had, through depth or complexity of interaction, created something that might be of propagational use. As they had signed over any right to any control over anything they did while within the corporation’s hardware and software, Jack was, as agent for the corporation, within legal rights to appropriate any such information regardless of intellectual creator. Willing his screen towards a particularly shiny maze, Jack analyzed the object. +It was, upon a short minute’s inspection, a simple psychological routine, created by someone spending their time contemplating sunsets on beaches. Its effect was to reroute several autonomic nervous functions into self-willed pleasure stimulation. Although it was run of the mill in complexity and depth, it was a unique take on classic psychological code. Jack knew if you cobbled six or seven such bits together you had a rather stunning mind twister which might take the average brain a week or more to experience and send to stimulus-extinction-land. +Jack spent a few minutes scanning the digital landscape, looking for anything beyond the base processing structure of the server. Except for the sunshine maze, everything was either a part of the corporation’s server, active customer entities, or junk constructions. Junk constructions were flagged data that turned out to be emotional and psychological waste; self-pity amplifiers, acquisitional routines, self-aggrandizing delusions. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," Though such negative bits of human psychology could be of profitable use, these particular ones were all redundant to those owned by Reap-Tech already and so Jack discarded them readily. +Jack considered the sunshine maze as he floated through the landscape, hoping to find another useful bit of data. He thought of tracking down the customer who had, unwittingly, created a useful and artistic bit of psychological data, in hopes of finding more. Stopping at a virtual hill-tree-stream, Jack decided against doing so. He had acquired an aversion towards exploring the near hallucinatory escapades of the customers. +Some of the other employees liked to exert the operator’s right to information to peek in on the minds of customers, into the worlds they were creating for themselves, to delight in castles in the sky and to indulge in the naughty thrill of voyeurism. The thought of doing so made Jack ill. He had satiated his desire to know what customers at the other end of the screen were doing at the start of his employment. After a few months, though, he had developed an aversion to doing so. Sick sexual escapades, ultra-violent daydreams, and real life conflicts twisted into puerile, recreated scenarios had inoculated Jack against any spark of desire towards spying into the customer’s worlds. He didn’t care whether they were riding unicorns or humping rhinoceroses, exploring universes of the human soul or assassinating the president. For Jack, the only part of his job that mattered anymore was appeasing the unspoken data quota, a quota based on random, fluctuating ceilings set by the top reaper and the average set by everyone else. +Chewing his lip, as he willed his screen past a desert-mountain-flower-raindrop, Jack momentarily recalled a time when he had been top reaper, culling the brightest most interesting bits of data, cobbling together the most effective lines of code which operated most profitably on the greatest number of customers. The first several months of his employment had been a non-stop explosion of energy, desire, ambition, fulfillment, and satisfaction. He had drifted through social groups easily, accomplished his work without effort, and been rewarded with promotions and an ever increasing salary. + Not anymore. Now Jack merely dragged his body through the day, doing just enough to maintain his job so he could haul himself back home to watch television and indulge in a choice intoxicant. The thrills of success, the tarnished glow of social relation, the promises of reward were no longer sufficient motivations to entice Jack into giving 100 hours of work a week, as he had once done. Even the minimal effort needed to mark himself as one of the valuable components in the corporate machine was too much. The horror he felt at the content of his work, of the software, the customers and the company hobbled his will to even try. He now only wished to forget everything about his days as quickly as possible and to float passively in shimmering rays of drug and media. +",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," Otherwise he sat wherever there was a free space, preferably with a lot of room between himself and other passengers. He would patiently wait, at every stop checking to see if the middle seat was about to be vacated, and move into it when it was. +An open seat to Jack was one of the cushioned double chairs, facing towards the front of the bus, on either side of the center aisle. Jack only considered them “open” if no one was sitting in either of the two chairs because he hated sharing a seat on the bus. There were many reasons for this selective misanthropy: bad smells, unwanted psychotic conversations, a sense of safety. There were other factors in his seating choices, but after a year of riding on the bus he no longer bothered justifying the thought process to himself. So, if he could, Jack would sit opposite the middle doors, throw his right leg up onto the second seat and press his back against the side of the bus, and close his eyes. +Today the seat opposite the middle doors was open. Seeing this, Jack relaxed slightly and felt happier. He always thought that any day the middle seat was open was a good day. With a whisper of a benign smile he moved down the aisle, matching his steps to the rolling of the bus. +Past an ocean of sensations, the rolling-rumbling-swerving movement of the bus’ floor, Jack saw the faces of the other passengers. His smile darkened a bit. He took no displeasure in their presence, did not dislike them, or find them objectionable. Yet, meeting the eyes of several strangers, his mood was depressed and deadened. +Riding on the bus was something Jack would never become comfortable with. Since it was cheap and effortless, the bus attracted a great many destitute, unhappy, unfortunate individuals. Some were psychotic and homeless wrecks, sleeping wherever they could at night, and carrying all they owned in two or three bags. Some were hard-luck drunks, going from here to there as cheaply as possible. Some wore the shirts and hats of minimum wage, customer service employment. Often they looked ill or malnourished, with sunken eyes and sallow skin. They looked like ghosts, like after images in a photo, like ripples in a sea of tranquility. +There were more than a few such individuals on the bus today. As he moved down the aisle, Jack consciously relaxed his upper body, and scratched his neck against the interior of his thick, red, woolen jacket. He strolled past seats filled with students, past seats occupied with twenty-some-things both prosperous and poor on their way to work, past elderly men and women, and past the ghostly individuals with their empty, disturbed eyes. + As he made his way to his favourite seat he was cheered by the sight of the students. Jack found it hard not to be entertained at the sight of them. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p,"Brisk steps carried my body forward as I entered the one room motel studio my family called home. Relief at having quit a job I hated and fear that my mother and brother would resent me for losing work that brought in a hundred and fifty dollars a week colored my comments as I related my story. No glares confronted me as I spoke, just looks that conveyed the weariness and worry all three of us had become accustomed to. +Outside the electric buzz of the hotel’s hallway lamp lights never ceased. Less than a mile away the highway’s oceanic roar of traffic continued even at the late hours of the night, suffusing existence with a soft white noise. From where I sat, near our one window, off in the distance I could see bright blue-white and orange points of light that I knew to be the houselights of hundreds of homes that cover the hills of Mission Valley. Inside the 70’s era lampshades tinted the milky-white light bulbs shading the entire room an unhealthy orangish-brown. The ambience reminded me of the coloring of that restroom package, the color of waste people create after a strict diet of hamburgers and cola. +I mentioned my financial aid would be in soon, hoping to brighten the mood. They looked at me with empty faces and I tried to smile while frowning and grimacing. There were a lot of causes for my failure to achieve satisfactory financial aid status when I returned to school in January. None of them mattered to the women who sat behind the desks in the financial aid office and informed me that satisfactory financial aid status requires 8.0 units of enrolled classes. None of that mattered to my family as they stared at me blankly and then quietly looked away from me. +It was April now and we were still living in this run down motel, making thirty five dollar payments on our day to day room. I couldn’t blame them for being a little upset, so was I. My brother had refused to get a job since he graduated high school in 2000. No amount of pleading could get him to stop smoking weed and staying out until four in the morning. My mother had consistently refused to stop gambling away her money at Barona casino. No discussions could stop her from claiming her right to do WHAT she wished HOW she wished WHEN she wished with HER money. So, following their example, I quietly turned my face towards the TV to see what was on that night. I think it was NBC. + At first the one room box, part of a fourth floor that to me bizarrely felt like it was sagging towards the ground, of a motel situated between a very loud highway and a rarely visited river was just a place to sit and wait while circumstances rearranged, reshaped themselves until they could provide a better place to sit and wait.",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," There was no message in the media, no goal in the experience, no value in the reality. The program existed to lure the customer in through promises of sensual delight, hooked them with easy fixes to their human problems, kept them in psychological and emotional mazes, in traps of simplicity and complexity, and would not let go as long as a shred of desire existed within their psyches. These were worlds of self-defeating indulgence, of rack and release, where bodies and memories rotted away in stale sweat and spittle as the individual went through elaborate, emotionally and intellectually draining exercises. The only winner in the equation was Reap-Tech, monetarily and technologically. +Jack’s job was to monitor their experience, to invisibly encourage them in the right ways, to shore up any weakness in the automated program, and to reap any mental constructions which would add value to the psychological repertoire of the program. It was, Jack felt in the back of his mind, the worst job in existence, lacking any moral, spiritual, intellectual, or basic human value. But it paid well. +“Oh my god! Did you see that?!” Yes, he had seen it, but Jack said nothing; only smiled hysterically and nodded when Bill looked at him. Soon a few other people in the office got up to investigate the seemingly positive disturbance, to indulge in a few wasted lazy minutes, and to stretch their legs. As they crowded into Bill’s cubicle, and Bill became distracted by the task of analyzing them and calculating the best way to wring the most pleasurable human interaction from them, Jack slipped away with the excuse of needing to go to the bathroom. +While Jack walked to the shiny, cream tiled bathroom, the sun beat down on the glass exterior of the Reap-Tech office building. Composed entirely of opaque, black panes, the building resembled a glass box. Even the roof was glass. Flat, black, reflective, and bullet proof. It stood as a personification of corporate ideals; dark, hard, unfathomably incomprehensible and impenetrable. +As Jack finished urinating, an employee approached the entrance of the building. He waved an electronic gizmo, which most employees used as a keychain because it was exactly the right size and the corporation encouraged it, in front of the flat glass wall. The security system scanned the passkey. Each key was satellite monitored, and unique to the individual employee. They continuously generated random codes, which were cross referenced with complex programs in the building’s security system. +Lines, slicing from ground to just over head height, appeared and formed two tall glass rectangles. With a slight escape of air pressure, the doors jutted away from the building a fraction of an inch and separated, allowing entry. As the employee entered the building the computer system recorded the exact amount of time he had taken for lunch. Not only did the key open doors, it was a good way to monitor employees at and away from work. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," If left to it’s own devices the areas’ ecosystem would drive powerful knotted tree roots under the man-mixed concrete to twist and tear it apart, freeing the ground for trees, brush, and grasses to grow as far from the river as could be supported. +In April, a month before my financial aid arrived and just before I quit my job, I came home one night to find multiple police cars, a crowd of news reporters, and several forensic vans in the motel’s parking lot. Worn out from another day of mopping bathrooms, collecting carelessly discarded shopping carts, scooping ice cream for sweet faced kids and hungry looking adults, selling drugs photographs alcohol cigarettes and chocolate bars to people whose bodies looked like they were constantly experiencing shocking caffeine fueled explosions, and also learning about 17th century British authors I trudged up to our fourth floor, one room, motel studio. My mother, who had picked me up from work but went to the front desk to find out what the commotion was about, came in afterwards with a look expressing excitement and that type of paranoia that expresses itself as gossip anxiety. She told me, in a voice that sounded like it should be telling a ghost story, that someone had found a body in the river. +The police had dragged the deceased onto the banks, so the coroners and detectives could examine the remains. It turned out to be a woman, blonde, no description of the state of dress or bodily injuries. She was said to have resembled a well dressed lady who had been seen accompanying different businessmen to their rooms in the previous several months. I frowned slightly, trying to express concern sadness empathy fear and personal weariness with my eyes, as she spoke. She stopped talking, and asked me to step outside and look with her. We did, studying the scene for awhile. She asked me some questions about remembering the businessmen and the lady, which I did and said. Taking in all I wanted to I returned to our room, my mother remaining outside then returning to watch the news, myself sitting and contemplating. The feelings I had developed for the motel’s dark but warm ambience, the river’s serene but liquidly active voice, and the forest’s harsh and gothic yet strangely evocative setting deteriorated not long after. +The slick ink line of my pen danced epileptically between the strict rows of the test book. Muscles over my eyes were spasming uncontrollably with jolts of energy my body was releasing every time my brain tried to remember which English writer wrote which poem from 300 years ago. My hand cramped painfully, screaming at me in a voice I learned way back in first grade; “Relax your grip! Slow down!!” +The guy to my left, sitting sideways in the auditorium’s forward facing seats looked at me amusedly then calmly returned to working on his final. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p,"From January to March, when I had no job and only one class there was a lot of time to study the room we were staying in. After awhile, though, the place began to feel like a forgotten piece of history, one of those weird out of the way places most people don’t know about, a museum that showcased the relics of a time that evoked sweet muddy memories that people were glad to be rid of. +The air conditioner was a beige box mounted on the wall underneath the window. Two knobs that looked like stovetop dials controlled the air conditioning. One controlled the level of “warm/cool”. The other selected high or low heat and cold, fan only, and off. None of us ever turned the dial to “off”. As far as we were concerned it could have had only one setting; full blast cold. The cold helped deaden noses that didn’t really want to experience three people packed into a space smaller than the size of a shipping crate. The air current exchanged clean new air for our heavy dank breaths. +The big brown machine looked like it had been sitting on that wall since the sixties, an example of plastic’s ability to make everything better. When it was running it sounded like an airplane on a runway. Every night I slept on the floor next to the air conditioner. I felt as if the thing was alive, freezing cold and quivering, encased in brown plastic from the acid sixties, sputtering coughing and blaring, reluctantly doing what was requested of it. +The room itself was shaped like a human sized refrigerator box. If you stood up you almost felt as if your head would brush the ceiling. Half of the space was dominated by a bed two people could sleep in. A quarter was taken up by the bathroom, sink, waist high refrigerator, and faux closet. The rest was split between a desk, a desk/dresser, two night stands, and walking space. My brother slept on the floor next to the bathroom. My mother claimed the bed. +The walls were the typical cardboard construction. Stiff cardboard planks attached to beams, slathered with a thick mash, covered by a light paint job. The carpeting looked like it had been laid down when the air conditioner was installed. The furniture had handles that fell off. Walls, rug, and furniture were shades of brown. +There was one bathroom, with one standup shower, and one toilet. There was a tiny refrigerator with a faulty ice tray that led to the growth of a pungent fungus. On the third floor there were two washers, and two dryers next to two soda machines, one snack machine, and an ice machine that continually soaked the tile floor with water. There was a TV with Cartoon Network, HBO, NBC CBS ABC and Fox. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," He had, at one time, decorated his walls and desk as every other employee took pleasure in doing, but the cheap posters and knick-knacks only amplified his agony in the abhorrence of his surroundings. He had removed them, almost immediately, and found a sort of peace in the simplicity, the cheap fabric existence of fuzzy grey walls, light tan desk, and brown carpet. +Using this personally significant memory as a catalyst, Jack cultivated a space of serene contemplation. Breathing calmly, evenly, Jack fingered the computer interface nodes to his temples and began to navigate his computer screen through the virtual landscape of the corporation’s online system, the space in which he performed his job; reaping. Moving cautiously at first, afraid to ruin the ripe conceptual frame of mind he had worked half the day to create, Jack could not hear the tiny whirring and humming of the miniature ceiling camera focused on the back of his head. Identical to the other hidden cameras watching the other employees at Reap-Tech, it recorded every movement and every decision he made. +Jack thought of his work as he moved aimlessly around the electronic landscape. Data reaping. The concept still half amused him, as it was supposed to, even after a year of the same tedious occupation. The job title was aesthetic embellishment for an otherwise bland resume entry, crafted by the company to appeal to prospective employees of Jack’s general temperament and psychology. It was, really, a fancy way of saying data analyst; a data analyst with special skills and a few months of training, but still just a data analyst. +Jack suddenly felt a sickening chill pass over him. Without turning he knew it was Paux, his once sometimes “friend”. Only Paux had that minty smell, that soggy atmosphere of chewing tobacco, and that thin, forced breathing pattern. +“What’cha doin… Jack?” Paux asked in a tone that was a thick mixture of ingratiation, challenge, self-control, derision, smugness, and anger ranging from irritation to hatred. A practiced smile, tense at the corners and loose in the lips, split his sallow, ashen skin, as he waited for Jack to turn around. +“You know, work,” replied Jack, tugging the control nodes from his skin as he turned in his chair to face Paux, in a tone that was a mixture of uncaring and purposely distanced disconcern, inconsolable depression due to feelings of being trapped in an inhuman and torturous system, slight annoyance, and boredom. He kept his face passive as he watched Paux mentally tabulate possible responses. +“Don’t look like it,” Paux said bluntly, with heavy touches of amusement and contempt. +“Yeah, well… I’m having trouble concentrating,” Jack replied bitingly, implying that Paux was not helping the problem. +“That sucks. Wanna get some lunch?” Paux said with nearly complete sincerity, just a hint of loneliness, and only a nascent conception of transference of self-loathing. + +",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," In the mornings there were free muffins and pastries you could finish with several bites, of which my brother would procure four or six, two each for whoever wanted something to jam up the passage between his or her stomach and intestines before work, community college, or Literature English 22 class. There was a maid service that disrupted your thoughts and required you to stand outside for half an hour while they cleaned your room. There was an elevator displaying graffiti the hotel wouldn’t or couldn’t remove, with a floor that sagged as disturbingly as my imaginary perception of the fourth floor. There was a pool and sauna I never tried. +Outside the hotel was the end of Hotel Circle, a street that carries cars past a view of the Marriot across the highway, the Holiday Inn, and the mighty Red Lion Inn with it’s towering sign board that itself seemed almost as big as the motel we stayed in. A sign that displays the weekend’s brunch and during Easter displayed an incomplete message that read “Young Rabbits and Ducklings”. Above our room’s bed was a painting, the only piece of conventional decoration, done in four shades of dark red-brown with sharp curving lines depicting several cranes in flight. +Outside the window I claimed as my portion of the room was a view of the arrow straight San Diego River that gurgles into existence in the mountains east of the city, it’s dark surface sliding west through what was once the farmland of Mission Valley, at it’s end gently disappearing into the ocean’s chameleon sky. Along the river’s edge for miles in both directions thousands of dead leafless trees covered the embankments, their bare branches intertwined, grasping each other, extending into the air. So many trees so close together that, even though only a few hundred feet wide at the thickest point, the forest’s interior was an impenetrable wall to the eye at even a dozen feet. +A dozen feet or so is as close as one can get to the interior of that forested area. There, a few hundred feet from the water, the steel wiring and metal poles that constitute a fence block entry to the area. One sign states the area is a wild animal preserve, no trespassing allowed. From our window I often saw flights of birds that resembled cranes, near the fence in the motel parking lot we saw brown furred rabbits. Twice we saw kayakers skimming over the waters in their long, slim, pointy nosed, yellow boats. +The park itself thrived, even in the dead of winter when the trees wore only their grey brown skin. It grew so well that for two weeks during our stay a huge work crew, equipped with a machine that lifted chainsaw wielding workers into the sky, was employed to cut down trees and branches, and to pull up stumps that encroached on commercial properties. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," The girl to my right looked like her entire body was trying to yawn in boredom at the quizzical demands set before her. I stared at the words in front of me, my eyes feeling like they were going to explode from their gelatinous settings onto the blue book with the force of a thousand ruptured capillaries. +Heart relaxing, thumping pumping ocean of blood turning into a gentle bumping and then a calm river. Dry black ink on dry white paper. My mind read the prompts in front of me again and again. The essay portion of the final was asking the student to relate different writings, different characters, different writers and their views into a coherent thesis on a socio-political issue from Britain spanning a period of 200 years with very clear support from the literature in question recalled by memory from the student. My eyes cut a razor’s edge across the situation. Over half of the final’s grade was based on this question. Forty percent of the grade I was about to receive in the class was based on this final. I had returned to school, put aside my dream of working on video games, put up with family arguments and family drama, ruined my credit and was about to lose my car all for this moment…. +Downwards I stared, reading the question again and again. My brain felt like a bulbous mass of greasy yellow cholesterol, a useless lump of fat. Short lived sparks of electricity moved around the slimy, curved, gray matter inside my skull, each futilely searching for necessary information and each silently dying a lonely, unfulfilled death. Quietly, regretfully my brain resigned itself to the conclusion that it did not hold within its jellied tubules the knowledge it needed to construct a piece of writing that would fulfill the requirements of the test sitting on the scarred and pitted wooden desk in front of it. +Breathing slowly I anticipated waves of stressful stomach gripping pain I knew to be my bodies response to failures like 10th grade trigonometry tests, pissing off bosses, losing jobs, drinking half a bottle of tequila, or horrible sexual experiences. A few moments more and I knew I knew would receive a D or an F and a possible expulsion from school. While I sat staring straight ahead of me at the green “Exit” sign directly in front of my seat in room 212 of the Center building in UCSD for the final of Literature English 22, a place I figured I would not find myself at much longer, my brain made some quick, complex decisions I still cannot understand and decided it knew a way to redeem itself. +Staring downwards, jaw clenched in agony, the muscles in my arms twitching slightly, my consciousness was suddenly drenched in rivers of rich, thick, wet, buttery liquid sensation as my brain gave me answers for my immediate situation. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p,"“Nah. Thanks,” replied Jack in a tone he hoped did not reveal his dislike of the person talking to him, and desire not to be near him. +“Fine, later then,” said Paux, in a tone that said that he realized exactly those things. +“Yeah,” said Jack, in a tone that said “I don’t care if you do realize those things, just get away from me.” +As Paux walked away the dank miasma of his body chemistry receded. Breathing deeply, Jack stared in empty loathing at the missing wall of what he wished was an office, or just any room where he could close the door. Rubbing his stomach he swiveled in his chair to face his computer monitor. +Staring at the empty screen, Jack felt a desperate sudden need to recreate the expansive, conceptual contemplation that Paux had ruined. Of late, the days Jack could manage a space of emotional stability, psychological integrity, and intellectual contemplation were few. Jack felt his face burning and his eyes swelling as he grieved the interruption. Anxiously rubbing his hairline, he breathed evenly and smoothly and tried to calm himself. +It was at this moment that Bill popped his head over the cubicle wall. Wearing a grin that was rictus in the middle, and perversely forced, in an odd way that spoke of pleasance, at the corners, he stared at Jack and said, “You gotta see this. You won’t believe what they’re doing to this girl.” +“No thanks, I gotta do some work,” answered Jack in strained civility, barely concealing his disgust and annoyance. He immediately regretted the slip of tone, knowing it was the wrong way to deflect Bill when he was excited. +“Dude, you have to see this,” Bill said in a nervously energized voice alternating between a high squeak and a soft boom, a voice that told Jack he would physically force him to watch the video if necessary, which Jack knew he would do from previous experience. +Jack gave Bill an empty stare for an infinite second, then stood up in acknowledgement of necessary forces. He knew it would cost him less energy, less emotion, that it would save him from more agitation and lingering annoyance, if he gave in to Bill’s occasional requests for solidarity in exercising a psychotic need to indulge in media of questionable content. The alternative was to put up with days of pointed glances, cold shoulders, and off hand remarks. Moreover, Bill was the current favorite of the current Vice President, and displeasing Bill was tantamount to letting your own blood. Luckily Bill was not such a bad guy. He manipulated people’s senses of space gently, and it was common knowledge that the Vice President would not be around much longer. +Jack was certain Bill’s requests were meant to consolidate his political base in the office, bulwarking his employment against the inevitable and forcible “retirement” of Brad, the current VP. +",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," By openly parading the happily, consciously perverse twists and knots of his psyche, a mindset that wasn’t uncommon in an office full of twenty-something big-money hopefuls, and showing his need for human association he was quickly building a network of political friendships. +Jack’s aversion to joining Bill in such matters was small. Jack had no desire to see any turmoil in the office, as infighting would only decrease his already small space of comfort and peace. Jack was on thin ice with his bosses anyway, for wasting too much time staring into space, taking one too many days off, and for pissing off one too many of his “peers”. So placating Bill seemed a good way to profitably operate on several problems at once. Jack forced a sharp smile onto his face, both for Bill’s sake and in amusement that he was bothering to attempt to defend his position at a job he despised so greatly. +As he stepped out of his cubicle, just two steps from desk to implied door, the camera continued to record his work space. There were the three grey walls, which formed one cubicle of four in a square, the brown carpet, the light tan desk pressed up against the grey walls, and the computer screen. On the screen was a greenish-greyish monochrome landscape of random land mass and water. Above were stars or sky or billowing masses of flame filled hallucinations, depending on time of day and user determination. Across the infinitely large landscape floated clouds, sometimes shimmering like oil, sometimes dull like mist. At times an organism would float by in some random form; a face, a body, a brain, a heart, or some other human symbol. +“Dude, can you believe that? Sick!” Bill trumpeted loud and sharp, happy to have human reassurance of his inhuman amusements. +On Jack’s computer screen the customers of Reap-Tech floated in a world of sensational indulgence. They had been hooked and landed by smart marketing, aimed at personalities even marginally interested in realities grim, dangerous, or exciting. Sitting in their homes, connected by brain scanning nodes, the desires and thoughts of their minds became fodder for an interactive world of amusement, anything within bounds of mass media restrictions. +They paid to live their lives, to waste their time, in a world of electronic projections, of imaginary vistas, and impossible realities. Working on a month to month payment plan, the customers connected via their computers to Reap-Tech Entertainment’s super computer. Each user ran a copy of Reap-Tech’s newest software, a program that would analyze their emotional desires and encourage them into Skinnerian loops, into self flagellating denials and rare approvals, into constantly running and never stopping and when stopping only long enough to feel good enough to get back to running. +The program performed these psychological manipulations by monitoring the most stimulating and effective sensual material from each individual’s mind and creating imaginary worlds perfectly suited to each user’s consciousness. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," +The elderly couple took their last little steps off of the bus. The driver closed the doors behind them, looked left, and turned the wheel sharply. The bus slipped into the river of blue, green, brown, white, black, and silver cars with utter confidence born of its size. The little cars might take chances around the bus, cutting it off or slipping around it at a stop, but they never disputed its right and ability to command the space it needed for changing lanes and stopping. +Sighing quietly to himself, Jack stared at the double doors. Black rubber, yellow metal handles, two rectangular glass panes. They looked like a childish, stylized face. The mouth was made of the two handles, each slanting downwards into a “V”. The window panes were its eyes. The doors its… Jack couldn’t stand analyzing the stylized door-face yet again. He studied the face, something a kindergartener would draw, every day. Closing his eyes, he tried to sink down into himself, to find the relaxing immortal center where he could let the overwhelming sensations of the world melt away. +As he did so, he felt a grinding in his midriff. His stomach seemed to be gnawing on itself. Satisfied, Jack figured this was what was upsetting him and resolved to buy something before walking home. Money was tight, and he had planned on going without food for the walk, but he’d make up for it by eating cheap soup during the weekend. Opening his eyes, the door handle smile seemed beneficent and kind. +As the bus rumbled down the road, and the world swam by in a river of motion, Jack unfocused his eyes and let his mind and existence attenuate to each other. As existence careened around his face, he let his eyes relax and take in everything before him: the smiling doors, the interior of the bus, the floating heads, and the river of movement beyond the windows. Sensation seemed to burn, orange warm, around the sharp edges of his sight. Skin cold, body warm, he breathed slowly, peacefully and watched the world pass by. + + + Jack sat and stared at the fuzzy, grey wall. Reaching out he took the fluffy surface between his thumb and forefinger and tore away some of the kinked, plastic threads. Staring at them, as if through complete visualization comprehension could be perfected, and if comprehension was perfected then acceptance of the basis of his existence could be achieved, Jack felt upset. Jack could not explain the foundation of his anger, though he knew intuitively and abstractly that it stemmed from dissatisfaction with his work. Unhappy, Jack dropped the threads on the floor, which was exactly the same as the wall but brown. +As he sat staring at the walls of the cubicle he tried to move his contemplations towards a reality of peace. Jack fleetingly wished he had decorations in his space, though he knew they would not help his mood or his work. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," +As he thumbed the ridges of the quarters Jack thought of his work, of the papers he had to write and the books he had to read. Have to write six page paper, he thought. Have to read a hundred pages. Have to do eighteen translations. One hour, he calculated to himself for the translations. One hour, he added for the hundred pages. Four hours, he estimated for the paper. Time and a half, for error and revision and laziness, he multiplied for the final answer of nine hours work. Add an hour, he added again, just to be safe. Ten hours, he thought. +His brain rebelled at the thought of dedicating so much time to academic endeavors. Somewhere in his mind Jack wanted all of those hours for himself, to waste on whatever passing fancy would be most pleasant or enjoyable to him at any given moment. Yet, Jack also enjoyed and was pleased by his academic work. He was gaining knowledge, skills, and experience at a slow but sure pace. And, though it was slow, there were few places and few times in his life where he had grown and learned so much; even during years of working different jobs. Wryly smiling to himself, Jack promised to waste a lot of time in between assignments. Whenever he felt a strong aversion to homework, wasting several hours always helped. +Suddenly Jack’s senses danced into excitement. His nose sniffed, smelling that particular mix of rubber, asphalt, and exhaust fumes. His ears strained, listening to air escaping under pressure and the loudest engine on the road. His head turned and his eyes tensed as they focused on the mammoth black, blue, white box of a vehicle moving towards him. +Gathering himself and his thoughts, Jack planted one foot beneath himself and stood up from his seat on the sidewalk. Giving a nervous tug on his backpack straps he set his face against the force of air pressure created by the massive bus stopping. Warm exhaust fumes rolled across his body. The smell was unpleasant, if you did not like the smells of cars, but the air was a warm respite on a cold day. One hand thumbing the quarters, the other flattening two dollar bills, he surveyed the other students lining up to get on the bus. +A ragged line took shape as Jack carefully shuffled towards the open bus door. He recounted to himself who had been the first people waiting at the bus stop, and he observed which people were more quickly or slowly adjusting their places in the growing line. It always amused Jack to watch the line for the bus form. Some days the line formed according to no rule other than quickness and willingness to advance to the front of the line. He could find no rhyme to the process. It was much like a school lunch line. Whoever wanted it most pushed themselves forward, and it was usually one or several of the older, and more consciously sophisticated, students. +",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +p," They wore crazy t-shirts, sporting slogans and pictures, which shouted their individuality, personal beliefs, and desires. Many wore skin tight jeans that spoke of their youthful prime. Most seemed child-like to Jack, who was an almost elderly thirty years old, and were obviously not yet of drinking age. These youths had smooth skin, with pimples and skin blemishes. To Jack they seemed like they belonged in high school, and he knew it had probably not been long since they had been there. +A few of the students were older. Jack thought of them as Just-Turned-21ers, which was a period of life, he knew from experience, that lasted anywhere from five to fifty years. They usually wore more exotic, bright, or “in fashion” clothing. At school they were the ones who took expert drags off cigarettes, spoke loudly to each other, spoke loudly on cell phones, offered sophisticated observations on the ridiculousness of the world around them, and cast incredibly lusty looks at nearly anyone within sight. They reminded Jack, somewhat, of himself at their age. +Standing in front of his seat, Jack put everything from his mind. He slipped one arm out of his backpack, used his elbow to swing the heavy bag off of his other shoulder, and caught the pack by the strap with his left hand. He turned and fell backwards, heavily landing on his backside, and sighed to himself as the cheaply cushioned seat quickly sank beneath his weight. After lifting his right leg onto the empty seat, he pushed against the floor with his left to scratch and press his back into the metal wall. Doing so made him feel, somehow, more a part of the seat, more comfortable. Sheltered by the little cubby, he hugged his backpack to his chest as extra insulation against the cold day. He dragged his glasses off of his face, folded their arms together, and slipped them into his jacket pocket. Without any words to read he had no need to wear his glasses, and could give his strained eyes some rest. + The bus stopped. Jack looked to his left, past disembodied necks and heads floating above seats, and watched an elderly couple very, very slowly disembark from the bus. As he stared at them he felt… tired and… upset. He didn’t understand why. +He had not been sitting for more than a few seconds, in the comfort of his favourite seat, before a sense of unhappiness pervaded his mind. He reflected on it for awhile and considered the cause. It was not his fellow passengers, he concluded. They might have discolored his rosy portrait of the world a little, but their presence was what it was, and Jack could not change that fact. Therefore their presence and existence did not overly upset him. Jack thought of his money troubles, but they were minor and currently a stable factor in his life. Jack had long ago learned to deal with the financial difficulties of academic life. ",34,English,male,Master's,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"The area in which one lives such as urban, suburban, or developing could determine the amount of vulnerability sensed by an individual. Cross cultural factors could look at religious obligations, traditions, morals, races, and ethnicities that play a role in the cognitions involved with insomnia. While biological factors are an important aspect of insomnia, the sociocultural model of insomnia explains the environmental factors associated with the disorder. + +The sociocultural model of insomnia takes into account the social aspects as well as the cultural applications of the lack of sleep or the unsatisfying sleep that defines insomnia. The social model of sleep disorders focuses on environmental factors such as living, communication, and events that affect sleep disorders. Because the mental disorder of insomnia deals with the topic of sleep deprivation, it is important to study the effects of sleep deprivation on the ability to perform tasks. Certain authors sought to find the cognitive effects that would be found when depriving willing participants of sleep for five days. Those who volunteered were studied in a laboratory setting for a total of 11 days in which the first two days the time in bed (TIB) allowed was 8 hours, followed by 5 days of four hours of TIB, and lastly, there were 3 days of eight hours of TIB. Predictions were made based on the days (baseline, restricted sleep, and recovery), the session (morning, noon, and evening), and the context (30 minutes of rest, after testing, and during normal activities). Subjective responses of sleepiness ratings were obtained from the participants, and their ability to perform a monotonous task was observed. Findings showed that sleepiness increased based on the type of day. Sleepiness was highest at the end of the monotonous task, and lowest at the end of the free activity. This implies that latent sleepiness was brought on by the monotonous task. + +The weakness of this study was that the sample size was of only 9 participants, all of which were males. But it was a strong point that the participants all possessed similar characteristics: they were all moderate coffee and alcohol drinkers, they were all healthy, and they were all of the same general cohort. A strength study’s findings that overall subjective sleepiness responses were strongly related to sleep deprivation; this is can be backed up: in reviewing 8 other studies on subjective sleepiness ratings, all eight revealed the similar results. + +A study of rural Caucasian fifth grade students sought to experiment with the teacher’s ability to predict sleep-related problems in students based on their performance. This study related to the cultural factor of the rural setting from which the participants were obtained as well as the indirect application toward economical factors such as the economic opportunities that education provides. Questionnaires were given to the teacher and students about problems (of the actual students and not of the teacher) that arose during the day. Students kept sleep diaries of the amount of time spent sleeping and in bed. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c," + This study had a very good strength of looking at the Maori and non-Maori populations of New Zealand because of the differences in health status between the two groups. There were no conceivable weaknesses of the study. The Multiple Logistic Regression analysis was able to strongly answer the research questions. The measures used, while not standardized measures, were presented very well to participants and provided seemingly accurate information and explanations of the information found. + + Cross-cultural studies of insomnia compare differing races and ethnicities on factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, and demographic differences. A meta-analysis showed a trend of a female predisposition for insomnia in comparison to males in 28 out of thirty-one. The studies looked a multiple countries such as Western countries, European, and Asian countries. Female insomnia was found at lower rates in East Asian countries than in other countries. It was interesting that the studies on Finnish and Japanese individuals showed that males and females had similar rates of insomnia. This was possibly attributed to less marked variation of economic status of the Japanese compared to Westerners; no explanation was given for the findings with the Finnish. + + In critique of the findings a specific weakness was the limitation of the finding that East Asian females had the lowest rates of insomnia. This limitation was methodological; four out of 5 of the studies showed lower rates, and the sample size of the one study that did not show lower rates contained a very small sample size. The strength of this study was the presentation of the specific comparison of the studies. It was also a strength that the constructs were conceptualized as variables. And all the measure captured the meaning of the constructs of interest, such as those related to the frequency and duration of insomnia, and the distribution of males and females throughout the different sample in the separate studies. + +Nomura did a cross-cultural study of the Asian cultures of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. This looked at the impact of insomnia on health dissatisfaction within those cultures. This study sought to add to sleep research by looking at the sociodemographic characteristics associated with the quality of sleep and mental and physical health. The relation between insomnia and subjective health ratings was observed in the study as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. Findings showed that insomnia has a relation to dissatisfaction with health as a function of sociodemographic factors. Japan had the lowest level of prevalence for insomnia. And in comparison to previous studies, Japanese participants showed less insomnia than in Western cultures (which could have resulted from the time frame of more 2 weeks that is used in diagnosing). The results suggest that Japanese culture has less health dissatisfaction based on insomnia than does Western culture. Reasons for this could be the differences in lifestyle and the strategies and attitude differences of coping with life. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c," + The research I read taught me a lot about insomnia. I learned that anxiety and physical tension seem to be the main focuses of the drugs in reducing insomnia or time spent trying to fall asleep. I also learned that economic and cultural factors differ for those with insomnia. And that women have higher rates of insomnia across almost all cultures. As a female, I am at risk for insomnia more than a male would be. + In order to reduce the risk of experiencing the symptoms of insomnia, I think that it would be important to focus on my bedroom as a place of sleep. I could possibly study in the dining room, which I do sometimes. This would be one way to reduce the environmental cue of my bedroom as a place of concentration and focus. Studying in a different room would allow for my bedroom to be a place that I could associate with relaxation, which is not always the case. Another thing I could try is to try relaxing and clearing my thoughts before sleeping, such as learning some meditation techniques. I would not want to try using benzodiazepines, I do not really take any pharmaceutical drugs, but I would be willing, perhaps, to attempt to cease consuming any caffeine at an hour later than noon. I usually drink a cup of Yerba Mate tea before I study. And at times I drink about 2 or 3 cups. While Yerba Mate has about a third the amount of caffeine as coffee, it tends to make me very alert and focused on whatever the task is I need to complete. But without it I have a lot of trouble focusing. Overall, I did not learn that my family is at risk, but I was better able to notice that we can sometimes have strange sleeping habits which are most likely related to environmental stressors. +Insomnia and Biological and Sociocultural Models Page numbers + + + Ignoring the influence of Asian influenced education on American society is nearly impossible. On the surface, the masses comment on certain Asian student groups (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students) as being smarter than other American ethnic minority populations and as scoring higher or equal to Anglo Americans on standardized tests. As many current ethnic studies courses teach, it is not a nationality or an ethnicity that one is born into that determines grades, study habits, test scores, education levels and job opportunities but it is rather cultural advice and traditions that give rise to how a parent makes use of resources for their child’s education. +The educational systems in many Asian countries differ greatly from those in the United States; there are many countries that demand high standardized exam scores from a student in order for graduation and advancement to the next stage of schooling (such as middle school to high school and high school to college). Because of the demands of these school systems, the students are expected to not only score good in classes, but to learn how to take standardized exams very well. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"In comparison to American schools such as those in Los Angeles County, there are schools such as preparatory and some private schools that prepare students early on for SAT. And even fewer public school systems allow for classes and tutoring that is written into the curriculum or that is at the very least affordable for working students of parents. SAT courses such as Kaplan and Princeton Review, while popular, are extremely expensive such as $1000 for average cheap courses. These classes tend to be attended by sophomores, juniors, and senior high school students. In comparison to the juku cram schools in Japan which would be attended from about age 13 during junior high or even earlier and throughout high school. +Another important comparison is knowledge of and access to such schools. In Japan, the juku crams schools are expensive. Some schools rate very high for acceptance to top high schools and top universities, while others rate lower on the scale. But nonetheless, the students learn from such schools about standardized testing very early on. The affordability of these schools varies. And juku schools are more of a common knowledge for parents. If a parent in Japan cannot afford or decides not to send their own child to juku, it is likely that the student will know at least some other friends that do attend juku or will at least be given other means through knowledge of the parent to pass exams early on (such as providing textbooks or a private tutor). +Juku allows for dangerous competition between students in the face of college entrance. Rohlen mentions that such competition even leads to student suicide at times. Juku systems began as a means of increasing public school comparisons to private schools. The study of juku school systems was recently studied by scholars in the 1980s. The juku focus is on primarily one subject area such as history, language, or science, or math. The school will not focus on details or information such as what may be found outside of the entrance exams. Juku also differ from one another, such as the shingaku juku, where the top students attend, or hoshu juku where the students use the juku school to catch up if they are behind other students in their regular school evaluations. +In LA County prep schools for American standardized testing are not always readily available. They are extremely expensive, and the student may even begin to start the classes much too late to learn the material for an exam such as the SAT adequately. In many instances students and parents alike are not taught much about how important the SAT exam is. +Because the school system is different in Japan in comparison to the USA, the standardized testing preparation follows that pattern. In Japan standardized testing really drives many important aspects of a student’s future. In the US a student can do poorly on the SAT and still go to a community college and then graduate from a UC and possibly be admitted to a prestigious university afterwards for a Masters or PhD degree. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"American schools in the US do have standardized exams, yet these exams rarely impede a student or determine their future to the extent of those exams in some foreign countries. Immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent have brought to the US programs such as Kumon and Juku schools which are popular for teaching standardized testing skills in ways similar to the schools in Japan which they were modeled after. +There is an extreme need for cram schools such as Kumon as they teach specific information needed to pass exams. Kumon was founded in Japan by a father as a means of his son with problems in school math skills. This method of teaching speed and accuracy in math and reading is now available worldwide in over 40 countries and is located is a very popular and open educational system for any nationality of person. Kumon students are expected to complete their work at their own pace and they advance to the next level once they have placed in the appropriate score range of standard accuracy and speed in comparison to a previously computed expectation. The mathematics curriculum ranges from the easy level of counting through advanced math, algebra, advanced algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and to the difficult level of statistics for a total of 27 math levels. (In some cases students may have assignments in calculus or physics). The 7 reading levels consist of reading, phonics, vocabulary building, grammar, punctuation, and reading comprehension. +The goal of Kumon according to the author Ukai is to eventually lead students to have the ability to solve differential equations in calculus school work. And it introduced even the possibility for students as young as elementary school age to also be able to solve calculus problem if they are introduced through small and increasingly more difficult steps daily. Many elementary, junior high and later high school math textbooks require that a student learns nearly a new subject each day. And while the new day’s subject is generally linked to the previous lesson, there is nearly no consideration for the student’s ability to answer the previous day’s questions with increasing accuracy, or with a personalized level of understanding of the materials. Such a method in many American schools has been used for many generations. There are many people who express a dislike for math. Some students may obtain low scores. But it is possible that if the classes were designed similar to a Kumon class, there would not be so many students left behind. There is a flaw in teaching a new skill every day as some student that did not understand the previous day’s skill will not understand the newly introduced and more complex lesson the following day. One main issue of learning math at a level that is not based on personal skills is that once you get behind you are still responsible for doing homework and exams that may not make sense at the time. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"For example, Western thought usually has a monistic description of lifestyles, and constantly focuses on separating the physical body from the mind; Japanese lifestyle focuses more on dualistic properties and links the body and the mind. These ways of thinking allow for different ways of processing the regular events of life. + + The weakness of this study was the limitation that it used different methods of obtaining a sample for each group. This could have led to biased results. There may have also been errors in translation due to the fact that the data was obtained via interview. In addition, the Japanese participants were less likely to report that they knew their household income: this limitation was due to cultural differences. The strength of this study was the sample size, with several hundred participants per ethnic group. Also the overall design helped to answer the research questions. And the concepts sought to study were answered by the method of obtaining information. The variables were standardized, and the conclusions of the authors show ways in which future research in the same area could be carried out. + + Treatments for insomnia suggest that overall, specific benzodiazepines help to improve symptoms of insomnia and the insomnia disorder. Treatments suggest that the root of preventing insomnia deals with anxiety and physical tension. Glass composed a meta-analysis to quantify and compare the benefits and risks associated with sedative hypnotics for treatment of insomnia in a sample of older people. Examples of such pharmaceuticals used for sleep difficulties are the benzodiazepines zolpidem, zopiclone, and zaleplon. Participants gave subjective reports on variables related to sleep; this studied the benefits of the sedative hypnotics. Adverse events (nausea, drowsiness, nightmares, etc.) and psychomotor impairments (falls, car crashes, and broken bones) were noted to study the sedative hypnotic treatment effects. + +The findings showed that 24 studies found benefits of sedative hypnotics in that sleep quality improved by increases in the amount of time spent sleeping and decreases in the amount of times one woke up during sleep. Risk factors of sedative hypnotic usage were found for adverse events and psychomotor troubles: There were more adverse events reported with the use of sedative hypnotics such as events involving cognitive processes and events in which psychomotor ability was important. This means that while there are benefits related to sleep, which is the actual problem the participants sought to solve, the risks may be high for the individuals who take sedative hypnotics; the high risk factor comes from the fact that those spoken of in these tests were older individuals. While there may already be some problems with some older people in their cognitive slowing, this could be enhanced by the sedative hypnotic pharmaceuticals. It may be too high a risk for an older person to have physical or mental difficulties due to a drug, It may also be very difficult because older people are not so quick to heal from injuries. A fall or accident or broken bone could cause many unexpected problems for an older person. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c," +An article that pushes for changes is one by Nishino and Larson. They insist that school causes stress, extended schooling causes long hours, little sleep and exhaustion, and with little spare daylight hours juku students are not allowed the exercise and free time they need to socialize and grow in areas other than academia. Japanese students are expected many times by parents to not only enter high school and university, but to attend the highest possible ranking schools. The students are given a lot of expectations and responsibility yet they are forced to endure the pressure on their own many times without encouragement and with lack of involvement on the part of the parents other than paying for schools any making certain their children are obtaining high scores. While this may not hold true of all families of juku students, overall the students could benefit from regular activities with less pressures. +In addition to regular school and juku, there are other alternatives. Students can be involved in baskets, or after school programs that are organized for sports matches and skills, after school clubs such as debate teams or social clubs, or other school activities such as student council. Bakatsu offers a more well-rounded education as it includes socializing, similar interests with peers, and physical fitness. According to the authors, other time spent outside of academic regular and after school settings is spent 2 hours of watching television or listening to music; the researchers found that only 1 hour was spent on average with social interaction and talking outside of school; other activities were found to take place from 5-7pm or on weekends (including television watching and social interaction). + Overall, Torrance and Gardena school have very high enrollment in public schools for Anglo Americans and Asians and Asian-Americans; much higher in fact than the Latino/a, Black, and Native American populations. The demographics of the public schools are consistent with the regions in Torrance and Gardena. Overall, Torrance schools have very high success rates for standardized exams such as the SAT as well as for acceptance out of high school into the UC system. + The city of Torrance has as abundance of opportunities for learning about and enrolling in prep classes for the SAT. While Torrance and Gardena, unfortunately, are not very close to many universities there is still some library and bookstore access where free resources such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Bobrow books can be read and used for free during open hours. The store clerks never harass students for reading the materials even if they go in each day to read and they never buy a thing! This is very great because most students do not have a lot of spare money. + The one thing that I think is a great disadvantage about living in Torrance is that if a student is accepted into a university the commutes can be difficult. And it is also hard for college students to find late night places to study because the communities seem to cater to high school age students. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"Students in a Kumon class will not run into a similar problem since these students are only allowed to advance once they meet a requirement of accuracy. +There is also Kumon for preschoolers and kindergarten age students. The main website does not seem necessarily tailored to only Asian students (as is the case for juku schools). There are 6 listed Junior Kumon schools throughout Torrance and Gardena (including the surrounding areas of Carson, Rolling Hills, Manhattan and Redondo Beaches, Palos Verdes, and San Pedro) to which Gardena and Torrance residents can easily drive or bus. There are 5 Kumon schools for older children. + In Japan, Juku is primarily an after school learning system that generally begins after the regular school day and ends at about dinner time nearly every weekday and at times during one or both weekend days depending on the juku campus. Japanese school systems consist of a grade 1-6 elementary system, 1-3 for junior high, and 1-3 for high school. Following junior high school education a Japanese student will take an entrance exam through which the scores determine the quality level of high school education and prestige of high school that the student will be accepted to attend. Upon completion of high school the student will take another entrance exam to enter a prestigious university such as the prized Tokyo University. The high school acceptance gives opportunities to be better prepared for the college entrance. And graduation from a prestigious university affects the access to jobs and other resources as well as social factors. In some more recent cases there are even competitive preschools and kindergartens that prepare students for competition of standardized testing and study habits. + Because the Japanese school system in Japan is primarily driven by the ability to score high on standardized tests, students who come from Japan as well as their parents and family members who may move to an area like Torrance or Gardena, California, already have a background in how to accurately achieve high scores on standardized exams. This is one much overlooked reason as to why even international students are able to achieve high SAT scores and later MCAT, GRE, etc. scores. + An article about juku in the US showed results that the amount of homework given to students who attended juku was completed about 80-90% compared to the amount of take home assignments that the student was required to turn in. When comparing American juku students (studying in US juku) with Japanese juku students (studying in Japanese juku) it was shown that overall the students in Japan still scored higher possibly due to attitudes of learning, social pressures, and academic relevance and realities of juku in US versus juku in Japan. +Gains were greater for public school students who attended extracurricular activities. The schools from high SES background areas tended to show higher standardized testing scores. The author insists that improving scores in schools should start at home in which the parent or caretaker should provide opportunity, interest, and help for a student such as encouragement and strong involvement in academic performance. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"The constructs of interest are conceptualized as variables in this study, which is another strength; the researchers sought out to find the effects of insomnia on professional life, and they studied good sleepers in comparison to those with insomnia, and they studied the effects of sleep on professional life and medical health in relation to their careers. One weakness is that there is not a critical test in the articles that tests two opposing theories; while this is not necessary for all strong studies, it would have strengthened the. For example, they could have studied insomnia theory, which allows for the problems in sleeping to effect daily life. This could have been compared to sleep deprivation theory which, while similar, it states that long term sleep deprivation studies show that participants do not have as much difficulty in everyday life as do those deprived of sleep on a short term basis. There do not seem to be conceivable limitations of the study, and therefore this study’s results seem valid. + + Overland did a historical cohort study related to the topic of socioeconomic factors. They sought to study insomnia and depression, and how the disorders predict disability pension. It was found that insomnia and depression were both predictors of disability pension at similar rates. There was also a higher rate of somatic disorders for participants who had insomnia alone (without depression). The mentioned associations were stronger for those under the age of 45. And insomnia was related to more work-related types of disabilities than was depression. These results imply that there is a predictive aspect to insomnia, which is that in addition to health risks insomnia can ultimately result in the need for financially assisted living. + + Seemingly, the only weakness of this study was the limitation that the “non-attendees” were unable to provide an adequate amount of data; this is important because the non-attendees seemed to have higher rates of disability pension award as well as higher rates of illnesses . Otherwise, this study showed many strengths: The theoretical propositions of past research were explored and a new approach of comparisons of theoretically comorbid factors were studied. These results added to future research and especially added to the knowledge of socioeconomic factors related to insomnia. + + A study of New Zealand’s Maori and non-Maori populations researched the links between the symptoms of insomnia, ethnicity, gender, age, employment status, and socioeconomic deprivation. Population prevalence information was considered and self-reports of insomnia symptoms were recorded by the experimenters. The findings of this study showed that the Maori participants reported more sleeping problems and insomnia symptoms. There was a strong association between unemployment and socioeconomic deprivation with insomnia as well as with sleep problems that lasted longer than 6 months. The focus of the authors was to look at health inequalities in New Zealand, and the results indicated that there are health inequalities which are based on socioeconomic deprivation. +",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"It was found that students showed similar sleep patterns to other students in the US (such as those in urban areas) as well as to those in other developed countries of the world. It was also found that overall many students seemed to have problems with sleep related behavior. But teachers were not found to be able to accurately identify the students with sleep problems based on their performance. This study’s findings have cultural implications in that they stated that many developed countries other than the US show similar sleep patterns in fifth graders. Possible economic implications of the study are that for future jobs these students may injure certain chances or opportunities they might have had if their sleep had not interfered with their school performance. A strength of the study is that it has a very good sample size of about 200 participants, about half male and half female. It is also a very notable thing that this study used minors as participants, which in the field of sleep is not studied often. + + A very interesting socioeconomic study looked the direct and indirect impact of insomnia on health and professional aspects of those with insomnia. Good sleepers were compared to those who met the criteria for insomnia. Findings showed that the participants who met the criteria for insomnia had been hospitalized more often and showed more medical checkups. This implies that the need for suspended consciousness is to aid in medical health and social functioning. There have been case studies in which a voluntarily sleep deprived student was kept awake until he chose to sleep. He was able to stay awake for about a month; but he suffered by becoming irritable and he hallucinated and was easily distracted and had trouble focusing while in classes. On the same note, it has also been found that sleep deprivation to extreme measures can cause death; and as a torture technique it is seen as one of the worse forms of torture to be a victim of. The most severe of those with insomnia missed work at a rate of twice as much as the good sleepers. In addition, the participants with insomnia had trouble concentrating, performing tasks, and showed more work-related accidents compared to the good sleepers. Such results indicated that insomnia can have negative economical consequences: such as losing a job, getting demoted, losing job stability, or getting pay cuts based on poor performance. Although the purpose of sleep is controversial throughout the field of study, one sleep theory is that the purpose of sleep is to replenish the body’s needs through a “suspended conscious” state. Lack of sleep makes one vulnerable to medical, psychological, and social problems. + + In critiquing the article of 2002, it should be mentioned that the authors deserve recognition for a very strong study. The sample, materials, and procedure were strong methods used that supported their findings. The standardized questionnaire administered was able to determine the actual effects that sleep or lack of sleep had or good sleepers or those with insomnia. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"It is also possible for the opposite, and a bad SAT score leading to no choice of college perhaps due to a lack of funding or knowledge about college from a parent or student. But community colleges do not require SAT scores, and colleges near Torrance and Gardena, California such as El Camino College, Harbor College, and Santa Monica College are frequented by many students who need a smoother transition. Many of these students get bachelor’s degrees from Cal States and UCs once they transfer after 2-3 years. +Asunaro Soroban Juku: This specialty Japanese calligraphy class is quite difficult to find online information about. The main website is in Japanese and there is not a listed curriculum. +(Wanpaku-Juku is currently closed and has been for some time). + +East-West Juku is known as Tozai cram school. It is run by the Japanese Adventist Christians. And is a cram school for Japanese language learning. With the use of Google Translate one can find that the information on the website consists of prices, location, time, and mission statements. This school seems to focus not only on the grades the students receive but also on a holistic learning that teaches peace of mind, pride in accomplishments, duty and hard work, and focuses on the values taught through the religious beliefs in addition to learning Japanese language. +Upon studying about cram schools I can definitely see that the differences in Japanese versus American school systems and how they are driven towards college/ university and lifestyle opportunities. I can see that these forces also affect students who may come from Japanese families or those who live in areas where there is a high concentration of Japanese and Japanese-American families. The local resources should be changed to be more accurately distributed for those who wish to attend college. In less affluent communities in LA County there are fewer resources and knowledge about resources for students and their parents. +At the very least the cost of these prep schools is far too great. To ask a parent to pay over $1000 for a course that lasts perhaps 5 weeks for 4 hour sessions once or twice a week is far too expensive. There should be private school options if parents wish to pay. But the government ought to consider funding these classes. Access to preparation seems to clearly be related to the ability of resources. If a family cannot afford to get help then the student may do poorly on the exam. This is extremely unfair. Especially since these courses cannot even guarantee that a student is adequately prepared for an exam. They only boost skills. +In addition, I believe that cram schools such as Kumon definitely have benefits. These schools can be used by even young students. And it not only helps with standardized tests but it also helps with their homework and school work and school exam grades which is a more immediate need. +",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"The less overlap between sleep and food site, the fewer sleep sessions the artificial organisms had, specifically, there was a tendency for monophasic sleep patterns. This finding implies that animals are more likely to have monophasic sleep patterns when there is a high cost in changing from wakefulness to sleep. It was also found that the more quickly the food was depleted, the less amount of sleep time the artificial organisms partook in, implying that foraging impact sleep time in relation to needs. More time was spent by the artificial organisms in acquiring sleep or food if sleep or food was not readily available. This could imply that the brain is sending signals of what the body needs, and this is the neurological response required to keep the organism healthy and alive. + + There are notable strengths and weaknesses. The strongest part of the study is the generalizability of findings with artificial organisms to realistic mammalian behavior. Almost all of the studies that the author made reference to were mammalian studies on general mammalian models or with specific species of animals (such as box jellyfish and giraffes). The weakest part of the study is that there seem to be only about 2 studies performed prior to this one about the topic of artificial organisms combined with the topic of sleep. One is “Sleep Response of Digital Organisms” ; The other study is the “Artificial Organisms that Sleep”. Both articles are in the “In Advances of Artificial Life” scientific journal. Artificial modeling is fairly new. And its applications to all fields have not yet taken place very thoroughly. + +This study had sociocultural implications towards human mammals. Firstly, it can be noted that there are risk factors toward sleep disorders found from what this study mentions. In application to the sleep disorder of insomnia, this study suggests that if individuals with insomnia have a biological need or a need that they believe their environment requires of them, they will sleep only one time during a 24 hour period (a monophasic pattern). This period of time may not be the adequate amount of sleep needed due to brain signals. Such signals may fire allowing for the person to, instead of seeking out sleep, the person may seek out the activities or mentally (consciously or unconsciously) consider the activities their culture demands of them which their brain may be sensing as a pending need. And thus the person has much difficulty sleeping because organisms seek out what they are being deprived of. A possible prevention for this is to try and find a way to cause the brain to fire to signal that sleep is what is needed instead of the perceived need to attend mentally or otherwise to pending activities or cognitions. A specific treatment could be an applied cognitive behavioral therapy approach. Such a prevention plan would focus on the factors that the person may deem important. Each factor could be analyzed thoroughly. Factors that were considered to be distressful would have to be made to seem more attemptable. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"Their reason for looking at such information was because insomnia is one of the most prevalent health complaints. The comorbidity of insomnia was examined and it was found that in relation to onset of the disorder, patient responses to treatment, and long term history with the disorder, insomnia can often be independent of conditions in which it is also comorbid. This implies that usual thought of insomnia as a symptom is not always the case, one may have insomnia in isolation of another disorder. + +This study was strong in that it thoroughly examined other studies on insomnia. The researcher sought to find information about insomnia as a symptom (a very common belief) versus insomnia as a separate disorder (which is a more rare finding). The informative information on insomnia as a separate disorder many times sheds light on the current field and also on current assumptions outside of the field. + + No one in my family has been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, let alone insomnia. But at times some of my family members, I included, have strange sleeping patterns, sleep problems, and the inability to fall asleep. The earlier I have to wake up the more difficult it is for me to go to sleep. I naturally get tired around the hours of 3am-6am. It is easiest for me to wake up and feel rested at about 10am. I have always had difficulty sleeping because in the past years I have needed to be at 8 o’clock classes which required me to wake up at about 6am. I rarely felt rested in the mornings. And because I usually had to commute it was not possible to sleep in. Currently, and for the past year, I have been able to sleep and wake as I please (with the exception of this quarter). I have felt much more productive. I have held 2 jobs in the past that required late night working shifts at stores. I do not take sleeping pills and I do drink energy beverages to try and force myself awake or asleep. + I remember when I was younger, my father would work late hours and he would also study late into the night when he was doing his medical training. My mother worked as a nurse when I was young, working the 12 hour night shifts. + I have 2 siblings. My brother is 2 years younger than I am. He is usually asleep by 10pm and awake by 5am. My sister is 8 years younger than I. She usually goes to sleep around midnight or 2am and has to be at school by 8am, from which she lives a quarter mile. + I am not sure if I have a history of sleep disorders, but I notice that my immediate family does not always have to most regular of sleep schedules. My father has migraines and he drinks a lot of coffee. We all drink a lot of tea, which does contain caffeine most of the time. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"Negative aspects of after school cram schools are that those which last from about 4-7 are very hard on a student. The student will still have their daily homework to consider as well as possibly their cram school homework. An article by Harnisch (1994) explained the curriculum and daily lifestyle of a case study student named Taro. This fifth grade student attended regular school from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. After the hour break the student attended juku from 4:30 pm to 7:45 pm, after which the student went home, ate dinner, and afterwards began homework which was due the following day for both regular school as well as juku. +Many students that I know who went to schools such as Tozai Japanese language juku or a Kumon class express that they had trouble staying awake during their normal class days. But on a more positive note, these students, while possibly overwhelmed at times, they did not seem to have so much trouble grasping the material or keeping good study habits. They were very efficient and accurate in their work and many of these students were much better prepared during junior high and high school classes. +Some parents may force their children to attend cram schools. While others may not be able to afford these schools, and still some do not even know about such options. If I had children, and growing up as I did, I know I had a lot of trouble with math and it did not really click until the 8th grade or so. This was a year of drastic class size reduction and competition due to my class enrollment being about 10 students in the private school South Bay Junior Academy (Torrance). The teachers were able to help with every little problem and they always had time. And the small class size allowed us to help and teach each other as well as have friendly competition which was a great motivator. +It is possible that in Japan, the cram schools serve a very important need as the opportunities there allow for little “leaving behind” of students. I am sure that there are even school systems in Japan that are for the elite. And likely those who are involved in either no or less superior cram schools may feel at a disadvantage. In the US there seems to be (at least in LA County) more room for error. While community colleges are changing due to economic struggles and classes are extremely difficult to enroll in and transfer rates are dropping as universities are less able to accommodate so many transfers, it is still possible to go to a very poor high school and attend community college. But it is still a matter of preparedness once the student is in college. If a student places into low math and English courses they will still have to take maybe an entire year or more just to place into the appropriate level college course which is required to take general and later core classes before transferring. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c," + + + The following paper addresses the Biological and Sociocultural models in relation to the disorder insomnia. The biological model focuses on genetic information that is inherited as well as medical aspects of health. The Sociocultural models look at environmental relationships and their applications to race, ethnicity, demographics, and socioeconomic status. The following review of insomnia looks at these models and explains each piece of research chosen to relate to and to better explain the models. The explanations of the research and their findings are then critiqued to mention their specific strengths and weaknesses. + +A sleep disorder can be characterized as a primary sleep disorder, a sleep disorder related to another mental disorder, or a sleep disorder related to other issues. The Primary sleep disorders are Dyssonmias or Parasomnias while sleep disorders related to another mental disorder are related to an Axis I or Axis II disorder. Other categories of sleep disorders can be due to medical complications or the intake of a substance. The Dyssomnias are: Primary Insomnia, Primary Hypersomnia, Narcolepsy, Breathing- Related Sleep Disorder, Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder, and Dyssomnia Not Otherwise Specified (NOS). While Primary Insomnia is a complication in adequate or maintained sleep, Primary Hypersomnia is a difficulty in staying awake, both for at least a one month period of time. Narcolepsy involves cataplexy and/ or automatic REM. While Dyssonmias focus on initiating and remaining asleep, the Parasomnias are sleep disorders associated with behavioral abnormalities and/ or physiological occurrences. Parasomnias are Nightmare Disorder, Sleep Terror Disorder, Sleepwalking Disorder, and Parasomnias Not Otherwise Specified. The sleep disorders related to another mental disorder involve sleep difficulties due to Axis I (Clinical Disorders) or Axis II (Personality Disorders or Mental Retardation). The following review focuses on insomnia, and somewhat on primary sleep disorders in general in relation to the biological and sociocultural models. + + The biological model of sleep disorders focuses on genes, heritable factors, and physiologically acquired aspect of sleep disorders. Neurons in the hypothalamus containing orexin are responsible for the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. This study experimented with mice and found that there are phenotypic GABAB receptors on the orexin neurons which are specifically responsible for sleep/ wake states. The activation of the GABAA receptor induces responses that promote sleep. If it is inhibited from firing, this can cause reduced anxiety and induce sleep. The GABAB agonist (baclofen) increased sleep time (Matsuki et al., 2009). Such results imply that the animal models of mice can be generalized to studies in humans. This shows that there is a genetic and environmental basis for the physical GABAB receptor in humans. A problem or absence with this receptor could alter the ability of one to have adequate sleep without medication. The sociocultural implication of this study is that if the phenotype was inherited, this could regulate sleep, and an alteration of the receptor would naturally disturb sleep for an individual. This would negatively impact aspects of life such as school, career, and every day events that involve monotonous tasks and focus. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c," + +The risks and benefits discussed in the study could be very helpful for an older individual to consider. This article was a very strong meta-analysis. In looking at 24 other studies, they noted the selection criteria, inclusion criteria, the data sources, and they identified the studies used. This is helpful in validating their results. An additional strength of the study is the charts of the characteristics of each study, with categories such as “Quality score, Drug dose, length of treatment, Study population, and Study design.” All such information adds to the strength of the results they compiled. A limitation of the study is toward helping older people with insomnia; while they mention that alternative treatments may be more beneficial for older individuals, they only slightly mention that CBT is beneficial, but they do not give any details about how an older person seeking non-pharmacological treatment might differ from those who receive sedative hypnotic treatments. + +A meta-analysis study by Holbrook was conducted on benzodiazepines overall in which 45 studies looked at benefits and risks of benzodiazepines associated with insomnia. This study was done on adults, but not specifically on elderly adults. They sought to find the associations of benzodiazepines with insomnia. Findings showed that, again, while benzodiazepines increased the duration of sleep, there was also an increase of adverse effects found with those taking benzodiazepines. They recommend using non-pharmacological methods of treating insomnia. The findings imply that the results are valid due to correspondence with the study’s similar findings. + +A weakness of the study is that failed to include any studies related to their research question of whether or not there is tolerance that occurs when taking benzodiazepines. This would be important to know due to possible needs to increase dosage for an effect if benzodiazepines were to be prescribed to an individual. Another weakness of the study was that there was not an overall listing of the direct comparisons of the study. Comparing the studies directly to each other provides more understanding toward the differences between each study. This study was relatively strong due to the fact that these findings were soundly representative of the findings in the study. + +An interesting review article added information to insomnia treatments in reference to the Holbrook study. The author’s review sought to better explain the treatment of primary insomnia. The major argument identified for review was that the research lumped the treatment for insomnia under the category of benzodiazepines; there are many different components of benzodiazepines, as well as different effects that are caused by the different compounds and different drugs that the benzodiazepine pharmaceuticals consist of. Such differences allow for different side effects, depending on the exact consistency of the specific benzodiazepine. An addition to the information about benzodiazepines is that there is often times the side effect of difficulties in breathing while sleeping with their usage. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"Findings can be generalized specifically to the elderly, which is the target population for problems of sleep fragmentation (or waking and sleeping multiple times during one sleep session). + + This study was very strongly done: the hypotheses were based on past knowledge, and the researchers used what they knew to find new and more specific information about the GABA receptors. The study showed that the results were consistent with previous literature by tying their findings to what was previously known and showing how their information added to similar previously known concepts. The implications of the results were generalizable to human models. There were not any problems with the experiment: the sample, materials, and procedure were all controlled and designed adequately. The amount of time and effort put into breeding the mice and manipulating the genetic components of the mice brains can definitely be appreciated. Although the discussion explained the results and the study very well, the authors could have possibly explained the figures in more detail in the discussion. They also could have mentioned more about possible future research. + +A study of the ecology of sleep in artificial organisms observed the environmental effects on artificial organisms and factors related to sleep. The future of the artificial organisms such as offspring was able to be computed as well. By looking at monophasic and polyphasic sleep patterns of artificial organisms, the researchers were able to generalize to all species the effects of the sleep patterns on offspring. A monophasic sleep pattern is one that is the duration of one entire period of sleep. A polyphasic sleep pattern is the division of a sleep into at least 2 sessions within a 24 hour period of time. The monophasic and polyphasic patterns specifically looked at fitness of the organisms based on their sleep and eat patterns. The experiment sought to find offspring trends and explained evolutionary adaptive circadian clock limits in different ecological conditions of which sleep and food relations were studied (Acerbi et al., 2008). + +The artificial organism study was used to find out if sleep duration (monophasic, polyphasic, sleep flexibility, sleep inflexibility) is impacted by ecological factors (physical spatial distance between sleep site and food site, the rate of food depletion, the amount of food and sleep sites available). The following method was used in testing these interests. The parameters of the experiment were input into the computer program. The parameters were: distance between sleep and food (interDistance), food depletion rate, number of food patches, number of sleep patches, and number of sleep and food patches. The extremes were input for each parameter; these were the minimum and maximum ranges within which the artificial organisms would have access. For each parameter there were certain traits that were held constant. The paramerters were also given steps which were increments by which traits were set to vary. + + The study found that monophasic and polyphasic sleep patterns were determined by the amount of overlap of sleep and food patterns. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +c,"The implications of this review article is that future research should look more intently on finding specific differences between the available benzodiazepines, such as: the specific populations they work best for, the duration of usage a patient should be suggested, and the impairments that have not been considered significantly different but that are nearly significant. + +The Montplasir article showed valid strengths by adding expert advice to a meta-analysis. In a straightforward way the article reviewed competing information and offered solutions. Also, the suggestions for future research are critical to the area of the insomnia disorder. A weakness is that the author does not suggest too much information about how to improve critical tests. Although the author mentions that more specific information should be obtained about pharmaceutical usage, the specific differences between the brands of drugs offered is not provided in the article. + +Morin studied the treatment of pharmaceutical and behavioral treatments on insomnia. Older adults (mean age 65) were studied through the intervention of cognitive behavioral therapy, temazepam (benzodiazepine), a combination, and a placebo condition. The randomized pre-treatment post-treatment design resulted in the following findings: the most effective treatments were the CBT and combined drug and CBT conditions. The drug condition also decreased the time taken to fall asleep. Such findings imply that temazepam and CBT are both helpful in allowing for an increased onset of sleep time. The findings also yield important information toward prevention of insomnia. Because temazapam contains the properties of a drug that produces anti-anxiety and muscle relaxation effects, this implies that a possible problem to insomnia is a problem of anxiety and physical relaxation abilities. This also applies to the CBT. This therapy used sleep diaries to monitor that participants were compliant. Participants were to associate the bed and the bedroom with sleep, and were not to do activities such as watching tv, writing, reading, and worrying. When any of the forbidden activities was to occur in the bedroom, the participant was to leave the bed and the room. Such information implies that the root of insomnia lies in physical and mental difficulties caused by deep thinking, worry, anxiety, and discomfort that allow for trouble sleeping. + +The main strength of this study is that the results and methods extend from other studies. In theory, it is most acceptable to consider therapies for mental disorders by taking a combined therapy and drug approach. It is also of known importance to see the results of each different intervention in relation to the mental disorder. This study did just that. This is very important in weighing and knowing the options that a potential client can be given. The weakness of this study is that while it mentions that over a long period of time the best treatment is CBT, it does not give a possible explanation for such a finding. + +Buysee reviewed the literature to look at insomnia as a symptom and as a disorder. ",28,English,female,MA,unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +x,"Cardiovascular disease mortality was lower among women in the top quintile of the aMed diet score (RR, 0.61). + +It is reasonable to accept the results of this study as valid because (1) the study population was very large; (2) nurses would likely keep accurate records; (3) where judgment was called for, the authors made choices to increase the rigor of their analysis, including making the criteria of their aMed diet harder to achieve than the Med diet; (4) the paper was peer-reviewed; (5) the authors are a highly-respected team, and (6) the study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and therefore is more likely to be free of commercial or similar bias. + +Although the authors acknowledge that the conclusions must be limited to women, for anyone at higher risk of stroke, adopting a Mediterranean diet is a sensible choice, based on this and prior studies, without further epidemiological research to support the conclusions of this study. Funding and political resources should be devoted to education and policy changes, including changes in tax policy, to begin to change American eating behavior, tax eating behavior that increases costs to society and provide incentives to improve dietary behavior. If such changes cannot be encouraged without further research, future studies should concentrate on proving cause and effect and be of the intervention type. + + + This paper analyzes a 2002 Perrier Jouet–Belle Epoque Champagne print advertisement (the “Nude Ad”), and sets the ad in an historical context. The primary ads for comparison will be an ad from about 20 years earlier in the early 1980s (the “Bottle Ad”), and another from 2008, a significant revision of the 2002 Nude Ad (the “White Dress Ad”). I will show additional ads to enhance the understanding of the historical evolution–one from 1926, and a very recent (2010) update. I will also note additional promotional materials found in connection with the Nude Ad and White Dress Ad. + Both the Nude ad and the White Dress Ad were found at a source for advertisements (www.visit4info.com/advert/Perrier-Jouet-Champagne-Perrier-Jouet/17882). It has not been possible to identify the context in which the ad was used–which magazines, for instance–but tear sheets and the other ads were found as items for sale on eBay or similar sites. All three ads have a style that suggests they may have appeared in national American magazines such as Gourmet or The New York Times, publications aimed at higher income, sophisticated readers. At least one additional promotional item was found, a video that may have been used as a television commercial and appears likely to have been placed on the Perrier-Jouet website, a +website that currently displays many videos relating to this product. And of course the Champagne bottle itself, with its artistic white flowers, contributes to the strength of a campaign. + + For the purposes of this paper, I will assume that the target audience was always higher income, educated Americans, who read national publications such as food and wine magazines and The New York Times. +",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"Together, integrated, they create not a sum of the meanings but a new whole. Giacomo Festi, Lecture, UNISG Colorno, 2010. + Let’s take an initial look at the ad, including denotative aspects. On the left is an artistic photo of a nude female figure. Although she is crouched, she is on her tiptoes and holds her legs with her arms. She looks up and away, a bit distant or dreamy, somewhat unclear, partly innocent, partly seductive, partly questioning. Her shoulder is tattooed with a flower, the same flower that bedecks the glistening bottle of Belle Epoque that sits beside her, and which her body faces. Her light flesh is set against a dark ground. The bottle of Belle Epoque is large, shiny and moist with condensation. The bottle, which is distinctive and covered with artistic flowers, bears the French language, indicating the name, year and style of the Champagne. The eye eventually finds, in small typeface on the dark ground, the word “Unforgettable” (not visible in this photo) The dominant typeface reflects an Art Nouveau (Belle Epoque) style of the logo. + + At first glance, the ad conveys simple sophistication, luxury, pleasure, some form of social connection, quality, possibly relaxation and elegance. The ad is about the experience of the consumer, not that of the producer. The terroir of the wine may matter because it is Champagne, but it is not referred to in the photos or figurative text (which here refers to the English language words appearing in the ad). Although this ad is somewhat serious in form, it is not about such serious, even dull matters as sustainability or methods of production. The sign intends to draw in the consumer, who is to enter into a relationship with the figures in the ad, and thus with Perrier Jouet Champagne, and thereby derive personal meaning. + How did Perrier Jouet attempt to do this–to valorize its product? Using the semiotic square, the ad is about a lifestyle, dealing with existential values and subjective rebound. The emphasis is on the consumer–the object–and his or her perceptions and reactions to the images and texts. This ad is not about technological values or price. The viewer will likely expect that the price is high, as the photograph will suggest, to an educated, sophisticated American audience. This is serious photographic art. The ad is also about taste and playability, again about the consumer. Taste implicates lifestyle and vice versa. The woman is not yet inside the bottle, as in the later ads, but is a subject of the ad. And the nude body with flowers “tattooed” on her shoulder is clearly not about the pragmatic or utilitarian. + The ad is also about both the feminine and the masculine. The body is obviously that of a female. Her skin is pale and appears smooth and soft. The flowers are also feminine. But the Champagne bottle is bigger than the whole female body. It is tall, hard, glistening with moisture, presenting a more masculine sign. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," + The artistic references are not to a contemporary style or photographer such as Liebovitz or Avedon, but to a Dutch Old Master or still life artist who would be known to the upper middle and wealthy classes who would have studied art history. Their recognition of the reference would inspired confidence, reminded them they were of an educated class and drawn them into the aura of elegance and luxury, encouraging a purchase–if they were attracted at all to look at the fairly staid ad. + The intention of this ad may have been to convey subtle instruction on how to serve Champagne, through the glasses pictured and the amount of wine poured. The use of the word “ultimate” in “Uncork the Ultimate” evokes feelings of luxury, and the style of the photo, suggestions of elegance and high art. Or it may be that there was as yet so little competition for sparkling wine consumers at this time, that the French purveyors took a lax, even arrogant approach. When compared with both the earlier 1926 ad and later 2002 Nude Ad, it is clear that the values Perrier Jouet continued to convey were those of the elegant and exclusive. But the ad is not yet appealing primarily to the sense and there is nothing sexual in the appeal. + The 2002 Nude Ad represented a dramatic improvement from this Bottle Ad. The artistic element, the larger font size for the brand name, the larger size for the bottle, the word “Unforgettable”–all of these were dramatic improvements in conveying sophistication, class and identity of the product. The turn towards greater fun and away from more pompous self-assurance may have been drive by the enormous competition that developed in the 20 intervening years, with the rise of the California wine industry, and the availability in the United States of prosecco and Franciacorta as competition for the French, as well as Americans’ greater sophistication in wine buying. Perrier Jouet could no longer just set a bottle on a table and assume an anxiously awaiting buyer. +2008 White Dress Ad + With the 2008 White Dress Ad, we see that Perrier Jouet carries forward some of the visual, plastic concepts of the 2002 ad, with two photographic versions of the bottle of Champagne, the artistic photo of a female model, the colors remain predominantly green and white with sharp contrasts. The white is expanded and intensified with a flowing, luxurious ball gown on the woman–no longer nude–and the woman has been placed inside the bottle. Curves remain prominent, both visually and graphically, but are now more swirling. The figurative text has changed and includes a quote from Oscar Wilde–“Beauty is a form of genius”. + In this ad, the white dress becomes prominent in scale and movement. The values of luxury and elegance conveyed in 2002 remain, but are intensified and modified to a more conservative style. Their representation changed with the times. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," +This study was to show that adherence to a “Mediterranean Diet” (Med diet), as reflected by a high “alternate Mediterranean (aMed) diet score”, is associated with reduced risk of chronic heart disease (CHD) and stroke and stroke mortality. The aMed diet is a modified version of the Med diet and is characterized by higher consumption of plant foods, including plant proteins (excluding potatoes, but including fruits, nuts, whole grains and legumes), monounsaturated fat (compared to saturated fat) and fish, and lower consumption of animal products and saturated fats. Moderate intake of alcohol is allowed. + + +Prior prospective studies documented an inverse association between adherence to a Med diet and risk of total and cardiovascular (CVD) mortality and an intervention trial showed the Med diet to be more effective than a low-fat diet, in promoting weight loss and lowering the ratio of total to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in obese individuals. Prior studies did not focus on stroke or stroke mortality. + + +This epidemiological study followed 74,886 women, 38 to 63 years of age, without a history of CVD or diabetes, who are participants in the Nurses' Health Study, a cohort study of 121,700 female nurses in 11 US states. Six times, from 1984 to 2004, the authors computed an aMed diet score from self-reported “food frequency questionnaires” (“FFQs) designed to assess nutrient intake during the preceding year. More than 95% of nurses continued participation throughout the 20 year period. FFQs were subjected to validation studies. Reports of CHD, fatal CHD and stroke were confirmed by review of medical or hospital records, autopsy or death certificates. Where records were not available, cases were considered “probable” and included, with about 17% of all strokes and 24% of nonfatal myocardial infarcts so classified. Body mass index, smoking status, aspirin use, multivitamin intake, menopausal status and use of postmenopausal hormone were calculated for each FFQ, and beginning in 1986, leisure-time physical activity was assessed. + +To reduce random variation for an individual and better represent long-term dietary intake, cumulative averages of the aMed score from the repeated FFQs were calculated (averaging together scores from two prior years). Adjustments were made for “confounders” (factors that could confuse results) by adjusting for age, smoking, BMI, menopausal status, postmenopausal hormone use, multivitamin intake, alcohol intake, physical activity and aspirin use. + +Cox proportional-hazard modeling was used to assess the association between an aMed score and risk of CHD and stroke, using separate models for fatal and nonfatal CHD and stroke types. + +Greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet, as reflected by a higher aMed diet score, was associated with a lower risk of incident CHD and stroke in women. During 20 years of follow-up, 2391 incident cases of CHD, 1763 incident cases of stroke and 1077 cardiovascular disease deaths (fatal CHD and strokes combined) were found. Women in the top aMed quintile were at lower risk for both CHD and stroke compared with those in the bottom quintile (relative risk [RR], 0.71). ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," + + Comparing the 2002 Nude Ad with both earlier and later ads highlights some of qualities and aims of Perrier Jouet throughout the changing eras in which the ads were used, and reveals semiotic differences. + Recalling again the 1926 ad in the form of a typeset announcement similar to a formal, engraved wedding announcement, the 1980 Bottle Ad reflects the change brought by a dramatically broader and larger potential market. With the economic boom after World War II, the U.S. market would have expanded from the class of the wealthy, educated and initiated, to draw in a larger number of wealthy and a broader potential universe of “receivers”, to include the large “upper middle class”. + This 1980 Bottle Ad uses the photograph to support the representational and “instructive” and figurative text to convey information. The photograph shows an open green glass bottle of Champagne with the white flower artwork. The top of the bottle has hints of yellow reflection, similar to the color of the Champagne in the glasses. The tan cork with red metal top sits on the surface below. Two Champagne flute style glasses sit adjacent, half filled with Champagne, a correct level. A string of yellow confetti of the sort used at New Years’ Eve celebrations winds through this scene. The figurative text reads only “Uncork the Ultimate”, and the brand name. + As noted, this ad is stolid, even boring. It says almost nothing about Champagne as a celebratory, happy drink, let alone conveying sensuality. It seems aimed at those who already know the wine. The name of the product is barely visible, the typeface is so small. + At the time of this ad, wine was not yet popular in the US in the way that it was 20 years later and is today. The California wine industry was still young and imports were not nearly as common as they are today. Mixed drinks took preeminence among the more affluent and wine had not yet become widely understood. Champagne flute glasses were only beginning to be in wide use in the United States, replacing the coupe style used in prior decades. + While this ad takes advantage of new technologies of color photography not available in 1926, the photo remains strongly linked to the past in its formality and representational nature. In fact, the scene suggests a Dutch painting of the 17th Century. The photo is primarily factual, not fictional; literal, not metaphorical; realistic not idealized, at least for the target audience of those affluent enough to be able to buy this product. + + The plastic is clearly not dominant here. The subject is the bottle and glasses. While they signify luxury, the ad evokes, at best, a restrained emotional response, not an intense one as in the 2002 Nude Ad. The designer has not interjected himself between the object and the final photo, as in the 2002 ad, where the product itself seems subsidiary to the overall design and possible shock effect–and emotional reaction to–the nude woman’s body. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"The nude, curved, soft woman faces the masculine bottle. The moisture can be a further sign of the sensual, and also suggests the bubbly, cool quality of Champagne. The angle of the woman, the positioning of her bent knees, point upward towards the bottle, the flowers, the product’s identity. This appears to intersect the feminine and masculine in contrast to the later ad (2008, see below), that steers towards angel-like qualities. + The Nude Photo as Art. It is worth looking more closely at the visual and plastic values of this ad as an artistic vision of its time. By way of contrast, the 1980 Bottle Ad reflects a traditional, typical of pre-Impressionist artistic traditions, accurately representing the subject (see analysis below). This nude photo is not to convey information in the same sense. Instead, it interjects the perspective of the photographer as artist. + +Through this ad, the artist can communicate to the consumer a sense or impression. The photograph is thus freed from the necessity of depicting merely the product, allowing it rather the promise of properly representing the sense and meaning of it. Harrison and Wood, id., p. 159 (citing Fernand Leger, Contemporary Achievements in Painting). The photo of the nude clearly does not represent Champagne, but “represents” modern ideas and feelings about a lifestyle that includes consuming Champagne. At the same time, paired with the photo of the bottle of Champagne, essential information is of course conveyed. + As art, this photo seems consistent with, and perhaps derivative of, a well known 1980 Annie Liebovitz photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of Rolling Stone, all thoroughly modern subjects, and thus would have spoken in particular to a highly sophisticated, affluent audience. + + + + Details of the Work of Art. The woman’s figure creates an Art Nouveau curve, leading the eye towards and highlighting the Art Nouveau design of the labeling and logo of the bottle and brand. Her flowered shoulder provides a similar visual link with the by now famous flowers on + +the bottle. + The woman’s figure, a true depiction (with modification from the shadows and unnatural fetal position for an adult) may seek to reveal a sense or meaning of sensuality, willingness to submit, vulnerability, when viewed by a target audience man. Viewed by a woman, a secondary target audience–a savvy woman ready to make a buying decision about an expensive Champagne and knowledgeable about such things as wine and art–the core meaning would be different. It appears to tell this woman that she is bold enough to take off her clothes and choose to take control in a male world, represented by the bottle. + We have white, black, brown. The only real color is green, the Champagne bottle, allowing it to stand out in contrast to the more sepia tones of the nude. The contrast between black background and light skin tone and the white of the famous, iconic flowers is sharp. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," + + + + +Pouring wine sound. Burbling pasta sauce sounds. Some kind of music about eating cool food. Oinking pig sound. + +Do you love great food? Good wine? Do you want to be at the cutting edge of the latest action in the food world? Live Your Dream . Become a New Gastronome and give your career a jump start. Live Food in Italy while earning a Masters Degree! Get Academic Credentials that can Change Your Life and Help you to Make the World a Better Place. + + + The graphic in this ad is of far less importance than the visual and figurative, but can be noted briefly. The font used for the identification of the product is, unremarkably, identical to that used on the bottle and thus supports the brand. The font has clearly been retained over the decades and reflects the Art Nouveau origin of this Champagne and nearly shouts France and French-ness. Compared to the 1980 Bottle Ad, the font is large and easy to see on the simple dark background. Graphic qualities also derive from the photographic and visual–shapes, curves, lines–as described above, and help to lead the viewer’s eye to the bottle. This is not a graphic ad, however, as plastic values predominate. + + In addition to the print ad, I located a video that may have been used for TV advertising and has been placed on You Tube by Perrier Jouet, along with ads from more recent years. The You Tube ad had been viewed very few times. It shows two “blobs” of colored liquid–one green, the other purple–changing shape to become elongated, moving constantly in a fluid way, with the following written text appearing as the video progresses: + + This video is graphic, not photographic and relies on the written text to convey the meaning. It is thus very different from the Nude Ad in style. The messages are consistent, however. “Power and body” is an obvious reference to the body of the nude in the photo and the powerful black background that the body is set against. The bottle also appears powerful, both because of its firm shape and because it is disproportionately large compared to the human body. The section of the video that states “consistency of style” is accompanied by the separate green and purple elongated fluid shapes coming together–possibly sexually suggestive. “Alchemy of opposites” reflects the sharp contrasts in the print ad–soft and white and curvaceous versus hard, straight-lined and dark. While the video is quite different from the print ad, the messages are consistent. These components spell out explicitly what Perrier Jouet has attempted to do in the print ad. The question of whether it worked will be addressed later. See “Analysis–The 2002 Nude Ad–Does This Ad Work?” below. + The bottle itself is like a work of art and, sitting on the shelf at the wine store, or displayed prominently in the window, sends it own message of something special, different from other Champagnes, originating in a glamorous Art Nouveau age, luxurious. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"And a genius will know to buy this Champagne. + There may also be a simile. The phrase itself uses a simile, a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind–that genius, a matter of the mind, is “beauty”, which is generally a matter of the visual. And so there is a subtle suggestion that the beauty of the woman and the dress, and even the flowered bottle, are a form of “genius”. + The emphasis of the plastic described above is on beauty, sensuality. In the figurative, the word “genius” to describe “beauty” appeals to the masculine. In the American society, the female should be beautiful. The male should be smart, so that he is interesting and also financially productive. So this ad may be trying to tell the American male that if he appreciates this obvious beauty established by the feminine plastic figures of the ad, and implicitly denoting the Belle Epoque champagne, he must be a “genius”. This allows a somewhat angelic, feminine ad to speak more to men. It does not lose female viewers, however, because by 2008, many American women may care more about their own genius than a gown. + The sensual and elegant photo draws these receivers into the narrative, swirling, lush and elegant, by references to a lifestyle lived or desired. The emotions have been tapped, the target viewer has been drawn in–and now he or she is told, figuratively, through the Wilde quote, that he is a “genius” for having responded. Thus, the values of luxury and exclusivity have been solidified for a receiver who is sufficiently educated and affluent to receive and understands these values. The figurative has entertained, if not instructed, the viewer through the play of language and may, if successful, have persuaded them of the value of the message conveyed and may reinforce the memory of the meaning of the message and its figurative expression. + The graphic is the 2008 White Dress remains the same as in 2002, contributing to ideas of elegance and luxury conveyed by the plastic and figurative. + + The 2008 White Dress ad and more recent modifications have been supported by videos on the Perrier Jouet website and You Tube. Among these are at least two that emphasize the company’s desire to make a link between its product and fine art. For instance, one video focuses on a table designed by a known artist, in the shape of a white flower. Another, clearly designed to increase Asian sales, extensively highlights 14 Korean artists, using the bottle image, flowers strewn around the video screen, along with photos of the artists with their works, and music. + The primary target audience for the Nude Ad appears to be affluent Americans and, I propose, aimed at men. Champagne advertising was traditionally directed at women, beginning in the 19th century. By 2002, with international competition, this ad appears to be aiming for increased sales to men. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"In 2002, the United States had not yet been governed by a conservative Republican Administration and Congress for over six years. In fact, it had just changed from a President who brought sex to the White House in a very public way. A nude figure advertising a quality champagne was probably still possible to accept. But by 2008, the United States had twice elected conservative Republicans to govern. It was time for the woman to put on a dress. And not just any dress, but a gorgeous ball gown, appropriate for a White House dinner, a dinner with dancing, energy and, finally, some fun. Perrier Jouet fully realized that it needed to convey the “Champagne experience”. + This ad also moves towards the angelic. The abundance of white represents purity. There is a second striking difference with the elimination of the nude, in addition to the political and cultural. I would propose that by 2008, Perrier Jouet was seeking to expand its customer base to a much broader female market. This ad appeals to the Cinderella or bride fantasy in the minds of women, even women who have worked hard enough to be able to make the buying decision on an expensive bottle of Champagne. The photo of the whole bottle is now small in relation to the woman. She is in command. She faces away from the whole bottle, instead of towards it, though gives a look back over her shoulder. The 2002 masculine bottle no longer predominates or dominates her. + Why is she inside the bottle? Is this mere playability, style, designed to show she can do as she pleases, keep a “barrier” between herself and the bottle sitting to the right, outside of the bottle she herself is in? Is the bottle her own home that she can control–a reality for more and more American women who make big salaries and big purchasing decisions, take wine classes and understand sophisticated products once in the realm only of men, and in 1926, only of wealthy, educated, upper class men? Or is it to convey how glamorous and fun it is to drink Champange–especially this flower-bedecked Belle Epoque? + The language or figurative of this ad is again limited. Apart from the bottle labeling and name of the brand, the only words are “‘Beauty is a form of genius.’ Oscar Wilde.” It takes an educated person with some literary background to know about Oscar Wilde and his lifestyle, which enhances the meaning of the phrase, but the words convey meaning even without that background. + This phrase is a metaphor (a phrase applied to something to which it is not literally applicable). The Champagne bottle is beautiful but is not a genius. The woman is beautiful, but we do not know if she is a genius. So the phrase is not explaining either to us. It is symbolic of something else–it suggests, arguably, that the person who knows this Champagne, is familiar with Oscar Wilde’s literary works, and who appreciates the beauty of this photo as art, is, surely, a genius. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"Sophisticated American women are certainly not excluded from the target. And so we now conclude by considering whether this American will respond to this ad. + An ad with the strong artistic, plastic components of this ad is not mere decoration or communication of the availability of the product. This ad, and the 2008 White Dress Ad as well, are representations of a particular world–a world available to only a few–and both ads attempt to invite the audience to confirm its prior experience, and to expand on it, within this special world. For the ad to be successful, it must tap into this personal experience, probe and penetrate it, but also persuade, motivate, create “needs”, stimulate interest. To do this, the plastic values in particular must be strong, to reach the emotional level. + Do the form, the plastic values, shape the audience’s attitudes, aspirations, beliefs and buying patterns? The plastic values of this ad are very strong, as described at length above. A link is made in the subconscious of the viewer, and he enters into the narrative. He is captivated by the elegant round curve of the woman’s body, something not usually seen except in intimate circumstances. He cannot fail but to look. He feels the intimacy. He sees the flowers on her shoulder, beautiful, but perhaps a bit scandalous in a higher social class, to have a tattoo in 2002. The curve of her body and the flower tattoo lead his eyes to the round flowers on bottle, the subtle curve of shoulder of bottle, subtle curve of shoulder of women, flowers on the shoulder of the bottle, all of this can be his. Soft curves, whiteness, flowers, woman, glistening moisture on the bottle of Belle Epoque. + The strength of these plastic, visual values is important to this ad. A verbal statement alone would be inadequate to convey an understanding about the “affective” life represented by a luxury Champagne–the emotions, feelings. Words alone could not convey elegance or sensuality of the product to the target audience, so that the audience will perceive the product as worth having. Only the use of plastic values will create the intensity of emotion necessary to create the desire, demand and ultimately a purchase. This ad would have been understood by the artistic, the refined, those with a sense of “style” and an appreciation of the arts. As noted, this could also include women, but the comparison of this ad with the 2008 White Dress Ad tells us that women became more of a target audience by 2008. + As noted above, the figurative is intended to strengthen the message by affirming the unforgettable nature of a sensual experience. It tells the viewer who has entered into the Perrier Jouet world of the artistic nude that he will, or should, not forget. The “plastic values” of art and the “secondary meaning” of the figurative express and invoke an intensity and communicate subtleties and intricacies of human feeling and even sexuality. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x,"The white of the woman’s skin suggests innocence, invoking a contrast with her nudity, which seems not as innocent. The contrast of the light and dark invokes “a dissonance, and hence a maximum expressive effect.” Id. p. 161. + + The language or figurative of this ad is limited in the extreme. In the photo accompanying this paper, there appears to be no verbal text, but in other versions of the ad (for sale on eBay, for instance), the word “Unforgettable” appears, just to the left of the nude’s back and under the brand name. + Perhaps this is a simile. Is it the Champagne that is unforgettable–or a night as or with this woman? With the use of the word “unforgettable”, our understanding of the plastic may tip from beauty and sensuality towards sexuality, allowing the American male to be drawn further into the fantasy. The figurative then reinforces the conative and phatic messages of the link between the unforgettable and Belle Epoque, and tells the viewer not to forget–the Champagne. + On a less remarkable note, the bottle is probably also figurative, even representational, especially of a chilled bottle read to enjoy. “Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.” This bottle, of course, tells the viewer what Champagne to buy in order to live the promise made by the ad. The visual element of drops of moisture, however, adds to the sensuality and supports the visual and figurative qualities and values described above . + + Based on the results of my survey research on American adult consumer perceptions of Italy, and to reflect the results, I developed culinary tours in Florence and the surrounding area. The strong stereotypes of food, wine, art, architecture and landscapes lead to Florence. Americans have known and been drawn to Tuscany for its food, wine, art and architecture for generations. It is one of the first places new travelers want to visit. And because of the food and art, it remains a draw for repeat visitors throughout their lives, as confirmed by the survey results. As a center of style, shopping is also a draw. + + After giving serious consideration to developing tours for Parma, where excellent food and art also unite in one place, I decided to concentrate on Florence, for its better weather and greater symbolism. Notwithstanding intense competition from existing tour operators, success seems possible in a city with a huge English-speaking tourist presence. + + In the US, leisure travel buyers generally do not use travel agencies. The mass market traveler may use a travel agent to buy a cruise or trip to Disney World. Therefore, if I were offering these tours in the US, I would rely on word of mouth initially, in order to keep capital expenses as low as possible, and later would develop a website which would offer the opportunity to buy the tours in advance, using an online payment service such as Paypal or another online ticket service. +",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," + To see more dramatically the evolution and modification of advertising for this wine and to enhance the diachronic perspective of the three ads being compared, I have placed the ads together in chronological order, in Appendix A. They will be reordered for analysis. + Over this long period, the advertising strategies have changed, sometimes dramatically, sometimes more subtly. These changes reflect the principle that “...advertising is a communications activity through which social change is mediated % and wherein such change can be witnessed.” Giacomo Festi, Lecture 1 Slides, UNISG, 2010 (citing Social Communication in Advertising, p. 192). + The 1926 ad (Figure 1) presents text only, almost like a formal, engraved wedding invitation used by the higher classes in the United States. The receiver needed to be educated to understand this referential message because it contained a foreign language (French) generally known only by the educated classes. The words “By Appointment” refer to the monarchy in England, which assumes that the American reader will be educated and know that the product is approved for use by the monarch, and thus has a special quality and aura. There are no plastic values to appeal directly to the emotions or create intensity of desire. In 1926, this message was conveyed to the previously “initiated”, simply, without embellishment, on the assumption that the receiver already knew enough to be able to make a choice. + By 1980 (Figure 2), we see a photograph in the Perrier Jouet ad. It is stolid. The intended receiver appears to have changed to a broader audience and the intention of the ad appears to be to educate. See analysis below. + + The ad of 2002 (Figure 3) represents a sharp departure from the 1980 Bottle Ad of only + +20 years earlier. The bottle is still there, but a photograph of woman is added, with no clothes. It appears that by this time, the Champagne may be better known, times have changed and the advertising effort is again modified. It suggests that a broader market has been achieved, and that the receiver is ready to respond to values that are intensified and extended, including to shock appeal and to the possibilities of new photographic technology. See analysis below. + A few years later, in 2008 (Figure 4), the woman remains in the photo, but she has put her clothes on, an expensive gown, and gotten inside the bottle. See analysis below. + Just this year, Perrier Jouet has introduced a new “muse” (model) and a new ad, still with a model, a gown and the bottle (Figure 5). The woman remains clad, though it is not easy to see on first glance, and her head appears imprisoned within the bottle. This ad is not analyzed here, and is provided only for context, but it likely conveys emotional responses to the dramatic changes wrought by the global economic crisis. + + As a print ad, this syncretic text used primarily visual (pictures) and verbal (words) languages, but also includes some graphic (drawing, lettering) language. ",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +x," + With regard to placement with a travel agency, I would make an exclusive arrangement with one travel agency in a high income, high education area (such as xxxxxxxx, as indicated on the brochure). This brochure and exclusive offering could be a benefit to an American travel agent who is looking for methods to add value and encourage sales to the independent traveler who no longer uses the agencies, thus perhaps increasing their hotel and car rental bookings. + + In addition, in view of how Americans buy their travel and make their plans, I would plan to place this brochure not only with a travel agency, but also in selected retail locations such as speciality food shops, public libraries which are intensively used in high income areas, and wine bars. I would also advertise the tour in newsletters of the Italian Cultural Society and Slow Food, and make alliances with law firms and medical practices, to offer the tours to their members and employees. + + The target market for these tours is not all American adults, but those who have an interest in food and wine, and want to go a little bit off the beaten track, whether first time travelers or subsequent visitors. Business travelers with a free morning before departure would also be a target. + +I’ve always loved Italy and the pleasure of eating tasty, fresh food. So when I found out about the Masters degree program at University of Gastronomic Sciences near Parma Italy, I applied. Now that I’m here, the real thrill is that I am learning what I need to do–and what I need to pass on to others–to unite these loves with action to attain gastronomic harmony. We are learning to be new “gastronomes”, protecting our food systems and environment, blending culinary and agricultural traditions with new farming techniques to achieve agricultural sustainability. + + +As gastronmes, we don’t just eat prosciutto, we engage in discussions about whether eating meat has an impact on climate change. We come from around the world and learn to be culturally aware and view the food we eat in a global context. + + + +Studying at UNISG to be a new gastronome is more than eating for pleasure. It is acquiring the tools to make a difference in how others eat and that we may all continue to eat. + + + +We love to eat at unique, local restaurants. Compare recipes and notes on new vintages from our neighbors in the Willamette Valley. Search for heirloom seeds in southern Europe. Cook for our friends …and grow exceptional produce for chefs inspired by the seasons. + +With a constant eye on +We believe that food is beautiful. Complex. Expressive. It is distinct from year to year, season to season. It communicates emotions and culture; and while it provides nourishment, it has a short life span - enjoyed for a brief moment in what may have taken years to produce. + +We are farmers and this is our craft. + +ENTER, and come savor Oregon's seasonal ambrosia with us. +",64,english,female,JD and masters,retired/unemployed attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +i,"She was able to gain insight and work toward moving beyond her stereotypical views, which were ingrained at an early age. Adichie mentions a time in her life when her family had “live-in domestic help.” When Adichie was eight years old, a boy named Fide came to help around the household. All Adichie ever heard about this young man was that his family “was very poor.” Adichie then comments, “Poverty was my single story of them.” She did not consciously realize that the family was more than a single descriptive word, that they could actually “make” something, like a patterned basket. Adichie only saw the family as poor before that point. Throughout the video, Adichie warns the audience against creating “a single story” of a people or culture. She mentions that the consequence of doing such “robs” the individual or people of dignity and emphasizes the differences among us, rather than the similarities. With this insight, Adichie claims that stories can be used to “empower and repair dignity” and also, “when we reject the single story, we regain a kind of paradise.” In this sense, Adichie was able to allow herself to grow beyond impressions and stereotypes, trying to view the world in a different light. While Adichie’s words move the audience to think beyond the stereotype of a people or individual, or to grow and gain insight, Dr. Khamalwa Wotsuna and A. Bame Nsamenang describe a more literal sense of the idea. Dr. Wotsuna described a culture in which males must make a rite of passage in order to be considered adult men. In that particular culture, men are not considered adults until they decide that they want to be circumcised. If men are not circumcised, then they are not considered adults and are not given the responsibilities that other men of that culture are given. Dr. Wotsuna mentioned one particular elderly man that had not been circumcised and was essentially shunned by the rest of the community. The elderly man was shunned because the culture views the circumcision of men as an important milestone in their lives, allowing them to develop or grow into adult men. The chapter by A. Bame Nsamenang is more concrete than the other two perspectives. He describes individuals as a “product of the transaction” (27) of genetics and the environment; which also can be described as a debate among many - nature versus nurture. Essentially, A. Bame explains that the genetic inheritance and community in which one lives is a vital part in the development as a whole of the individual. + + The differences among the three can be described through the perspective that each presents to the readers/audience: non-conformity, conformity, and a scientific approach. Adichie, in a sense, refuses to conform to the views around her. Instead of taking another’s words at face value, Adichie tries to look beyond what is being said; she tries to look beyond “the single story.” She notes: “How impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story.”",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i," Adichie tries to get the audience to realize that there is more to recognize than a single rumor or a single story told about an individual or people. Essentially, her message is to not judge or criticize until the whole story is heard. Dr. Wotsuna described a culture where conformity is very important to the community. In this culture, males must be circumcised in order to become adults in the eyes of the others; thus, they must conform in order to prosper. The chapter by A. Bame Nsamenang is more of a scientific approach to explain human development and behavior. He also describes conformity and non-conformity in a culture, but is more scientific; he includes genetics into his discussion and how they can affect certain behavior in a culture (30-32). + + Using Adichie’s words and her quest to listen beyond what we initially hear, I believe that the concept will allow me to be less judgmental and critical. I will fight against the stereotypes that I hear, and look at the bigger “picture” in my personal and professional life. Listening to Dr. Wotsuna’s presentation on his culture and the rite of passage of males gave me the opportunity to realize that even though cultures are very different from one another, I must not focus on the differences, but rather, the similarities between our cultures. The idea that the men must conform in order to be viewed as adults is as basic a principle in Africa as it is here. As a whole, individuals must conform in order to be well-perceived in their society, no matter the culture. Again, this will allow me to be less judgmental and critical of other cultures and will allow for a more broad perspective of people with different cultural backgrounds. The chapter by A. Bame Nsamenang describes individuals as a product of both genetic inheritance and their environment. The idea of a combination of nature versus nurture is very important because it does not limit one’s perspective. In order to help others, one must look at genetic predisposition and the environment that surrounds them. + + Overall, the messages that Chimamanda Adichie, A. Bame Nsamenang, and Dr. Khamalwa Wotsuna presented are important and should be integrated into personal and professional life. One must not think in a stereotypical way, but move beyond these stereotypes. And if one wants to truly understand an individual, s/he must look at both genetic predisposition and the environment in which one was raised. It is also important to understand that certain customs/conformities must be met in society, no matter the culture; each society has its own customs. Rather than analyzing the differences, one should look at the similarities. + + + Upon reading this case, I felt sympathy for the couple’s situation. However, as I read further into the case, I wondered if the sexual problems were due to a lack of physical attraction; both the female and the male seemed to present themselves in an unkempt matter and have “pronounced body odor.”",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for analysis, while the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for recognizing patterns. Evidence from numerous studies show that one hemisphere of the brain may be preferred over another in an individual, known as hemispheric preference. Cerebral lateralization affects the way an individual learns, especially through self-esteem and emotional states, which correlate with academic success. Researchers suggest that negative emotional states engage the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left hemisphere of the brain. Hemispheric preference also affects the way individuals learn. Modern schools are structured more toward educating individuals who are predominantly left-hemisphere preferred (mainly girls), and because of that, right hemisphere preferred individuals (mainly boys) are uncomfortable and have a tendency to act out. In order to help students achieve academic success, Beck describes three learning style inventories (LSI) to help teachers better educate all their students: the 4MAT System, Dunn’s LSI, and Renzulli and Smith’s LSI. Sonnier and Sonnier conclude that affective education is necessary to ensure a nurturing learning environment for students. + + + Attempting to discern my individual strengths has been a very difficult experience for me. After careful consideration, I was able to identify a few of my best qualities: determined, dedicated, open-minded, compassionate, and responsible. The aspects that I am most proud of about myself include my uniqueness as an individual, and my ability to overcome obstacles in my life. These obstacles include managing my anxiety disorder, my ability to overcome sexual- oriented and religious issues, and to overcome negative past experiences in my life. Some of these include rape, physical and emotional abuse, and being a victim of bullying. I think that the most difficult experience for me was being raped and later molested by one of my closest friends. I mention the study conducted by Thompson and Kingree (2010) to essentially describe how life was for me during that point in time and the fact that I was able to overcome these negative sexual experiences and their consequential impact on my life. + In addition to my various strengths, some skills that I have continued to improve and build upon include motivation, persistence, goal- and detail-oriented, social perception, excellence in writing and communication skills. Skills that I contribute to my work environment in addition to the aforementioned skills include punctuality, dedication, dependability, flexibility, friendly nature, and excellent organization skills. + In the past, my family has not been very supportive of me and my “originality.” I was known as the “rebellious” child and did not receive much support. However, as the years have progressed, my family have been much more supportive of me emotionally and financially. I have been struggling financially for quite a while because of the decline in the economy and not being able to find a suitable job. However, in order to earn my master’s degree at Kennesaw State University, my parents have graciously allowed me to move back in with them and to support me financially while I earn my degree. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"In regards to this case, I am curious as to why the client would want to be a mother to future children when she cannot be a mother currently. + After reading this situation, I was surprised that I was not seething with anger at Mr. O. Rather, I felt a sense of shock that he would abuse his own daughter, but I also felt a feeling of somewhat understanding. If he was raised in an abusive household, he probably does not realize that his aggressive and abusive behavior is not acceptable. He needs to learn how to cope with his anger in a healthy manner. I personally cannot imagine ever abusing my future children, but then again, I was not raised in an abusive household. Although, I must point out that my father did on occasion hit me. However, that stopped soon after it started. I am shocked, however, that abuse does occur in domestic situations. I know it happens (especially since I did experience domestic abuse for a brief time), but I would like more information and knowledge about the reasons behind it. + After reading this situation, I honestly felt like crying. Why would a teenager want to live with her sexually-abusive father? I am shocked and do not understand why this would happen. This 13 year-old girl is too young to have sexual experiences. I realize that some young teens decide differently, but they at least are able to make their own choices regarding sexual experiences. If, however, this young girl lied about her dad “enticing” her to have sexual relations with him, then I feel angry. To accuse someone of sexual abuse is not to be dealt with lightly; I believe that it is very inhumane to force or entice others to have sexual relations. When I was in high school, I was almost raped by a male, and I was later raped by a female. Her name still haunts me to this day and I wish that I had never met her. Anyway, I hope that this young girl did not lie about her father and his enticement for sexual relations. + I am honestly not sure what my initial reaction is to this case. I felt sympathy and empathy for Mr. X because he is depressed, anxious, and dissatisfied with his life. However, to me, I felt as if he is overstepping boundaries when he began selling drugs. I am not necessarily angry with Mr. X, but I guess I am shocked to learn that selling drugs is making Mr. X more satisfied with his life. Drugs can ruin lives, and Mr. X is assisting people with that destruction. Is he to be hated? I am not really sure. I believe that Mr. X does not realize the eventual consequences that could happen by selling drugs to people. I think this is a clear case of misconceptions. + Obviously, from the descriptive title that I gave this particular case, I felt extremely angry. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"Why does the female have to stay at home and look after the children? Why can’t this describe the male, instead of the female? Why can’t the female go back to school and earn her degree like anyone else? Why does Mr. M think it is her sole responsibility? Marriage should be a partnership and a “team” effort. I wish I had the answers to the questions I have listed. I do not believe that the female in a relationship should put her education on hold to look after the children. If she chooses to do so, then that it fine; it is her choice to make. We are all individuals and should do what we want to do, taking into account our responsibilities as adults. With that being said, we should treat each other as individuals and human beings, not as slaves. I am completely and utterly disgusted with Mr. M and wonder why Mrs. M married the man that she did. After reviewing my reaction, I realize I may have some issues with the de-empowerment of the individual. + My initial reaction is confusion and shock (and a little laughter, as well). Obviously, he needs to learn appropriate boundaries and possibly needs a lesson on cultural norms (I can’t believe I’m agreeing with cultural norms on this one, but in this case, I must). He may also have a sexual disorder or he may be unhappy with his marriage. I am shocked by this situation, although I do know that it happens. If I could just get to the subconscious reason why he is making obscene phone calls to college students, then maybe it would be less of a battle to get him to stop these inappropriate behaviors. I also want to know the reasons because I am confused and shocked, and am thirsting for information. However, the bottom line is that I would definitely want to help curb this behavior even if my initial reactions are inappropriate. + The word “irresponsible” is the first word that I thought of when I read this scenario. The client seems to have grandiose visions of her life, whether induced from drugs or mental instability. She is obviously not ready to be a parent if her two children are in foster care and she continues to use drugs. This situation made me somewhat angry that she would want to have another child, when that child would probably end up with similar neurological and developmental problems as her other two children. I would strongly recommend a drug rehabilitation center for her if she wishes to pursue her desire for more children. I was very angry when I read about this and I wish I could shake some sense into this woman. Drug-using is not an ideal situation to bring children into, and unfortunately, I do know people who continue to use drugs and try to raise children. I do not agree with it; those children deserve more from their parents. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i," + In pursuing an education in social work, I intend to follow a career path with the Division of Family and Children Services to help children who have been abused or neglected; and to provide support for troubled families. Values that I can provide to the social work field include the following: service, respect, ethical nature, commitment to help improve relationships between others and to improve myself professionally to remain competent in my field. These core values are not just important to social workers; they are important to me personally. + + I have always wanted to help others, but I was unsure of the career path that I wanted to follow. Throughout my years in high school and college, I saw many individuals flee from their problems in denial and a few used coping mechanisms that were less than ideal. Because of situations that I have witnessed, I chose to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Still unsure of a career path, I decided to take a break once I graduated from Piedmont College in 2009. One day that summer, I visited a friend who introduced me to a sixteen year-old boy sitting nervously on her couch. She explained to me why he was visiting: to escape his abusive parents. The next day, I learned that he had called the police to his parent’s residence. To see if I could help in any way, I drove over to his parents’ house. Once there, I privately explained my concerns to the police and told them I had just graduated with a degree in Psychology from Piedmont College. The police requested that I talk to the parents since there was nothing that the law could do for the teenager. When I questioned the parents about the situation, they seemed nervous and used excuses to describe their son’s “manipulative” behavior for involving outside sources to resolve “simple” disputes. After this particular experience, I began to seriously consider a career in social work to help children with “simple” disputes among family members. + + Another value that is important for the field of social work is social justice. As a society, we claim that the individual is important and we mourn those that we have lost. The concept of the “individual” that society holds is more a follower of archaic traditions than actual uniqueness. So, if society mourns lost individuals, then why do we strive to be similar to “everyone else?” I am an individual and do not enjoy placing limitations on myself to be similar to others. Throughout my years at high school and college, I protested against social injustice whenever I could: coloring my hair unnatural colors, wearing clothing that fit my personality, piercing my ears past the traditional set, declaring my involvement with GSBA (Gay Straight Bisexual Alliance), fighting against both racism and discrimination whenever I witnessed it, etc. I believe in social justice and I will continue to protest against social injustice. +",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i," I found myself disgusted with this addition of body odor; I could not imagine being attracted to someone who does not care about their appearance or body odor. Actually, from past experience, I ended a relationship with a male who was constantly sweating; that was not attractive at all. After carefully examining my reaction to this scenario, I found myself being more disgusted with the female rather than with the male. I believe I had this reaction because of the nurturing factor in my life. I was taught that women should wear clothes that fit them properly and that they should essentially “take care of” their partner. Even though I may have been raised this way and it still influences by biases at times, I tend to view my relationship with my fiance as “teamwork,” rather than one partner taking care of the other. + My immediate reaction to this case was anger. This case provoked anger because of personal experience. After I graduated from college, I moved out of my parents’ house and had a lot of trouble finding a job; I either had too much or too little experience in the work force. I also have an anxiety disorder (manageable at this point in my life), and was limited to what jobs I could handle with my disorder. I had to eventually apply for government assistance because of this. The whole time that I was receiving government assistance, my parents made rude comments about the subject to me. It was embarrassing for me and I did not like the judgmental view of the businessman, who reminded me of my parents and their critical views. I also had a problem with the view of the businessman because he essentially claims that people should be animals - that the “weak” should not survive and should be “allowed,” if you will, to die. There is no compassion in his view and strangely reminds me of animalistic behavior. Human beings are not animals and we should not treat each other as such. + After reviewing this case, I felt complete sympathy and empathy for the couple. I understand how hard a relationship can be to maintain, and sometimes, it is difficult to express one’s feelings with a significant other. Also, situations can be misconstrued at times, so it is always better to try to explain yourself as clearly as possible and to keep communication open and honest. The couple’s problems remind me of the problems a past girlfriend and I had. After examining my reaction, I realize I might be more sympathetic to the couple because I have been practically in the same situation. Obviously, I have no ill feelings toward this couple because they are lesbians; rather, I understand how difficult it is to maintain a lesbian relationship. Others can be judgmental if lesbians or gays show affection to one another in public; it is irritating. I am a firm believer in sexual orientation rights and I hope that it gets easier in time to behave like any other “normal” couple. +",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"This type of learning environment, based upon the left-hemisphere preference, is better suited for females than males. Since males are generally right-hemisphere preferred, they feel uncomfortable in modern schools and tend to act out. + Beck describes three learning style inventories that educators can use to select which various teaching strategies are the most appropriate, depending on the student and how s/he learns: the 4MAT System, Dunn’s LSI, and Renzulli and Smith’s LSI. The 4MAT System is similar to “affective education,” as described by Sonnier and Sonnier. This learning style inventory focuses on using teaching strategies for both hemispheric preferences, but using the strategies in a cycle. This cycle alternates teaching methods based upon left- and right-hemispheric preference. For left-hemisphere preferred students, who tend to think “analytically,” educators must focus on teaching strategies grouped into the following categories: expositive, investigative, and individualistic. For right-hemisphere preferred students, who tend to think “imaginatively,” educators must focus on teaching strategies grouped into the following categories: deliberative, associative, and performative. Thus, if educators chose to use the 4MAT System, then the teaching strategies, for example, would switch from expositive to deliberative or from associative to individualistic. + While the 4MAT System is a cycle of teaching methods that alternates strategies, Dunn’s LSI is more of a focus of five preference categories: emotional, environmental, physical, psychological, and sociological. The emotional aspect is described as the “structure element,” focusing on either creative (right-hemisphere) or sequential (left-hemisphere) processing and the environmental aspect essentially describes the immediate learning environment: Either flexible or established (structured). The physical aspect is the “perceptual element,” focusing on visual or auditory learning and the psychological aspect focuses on cognitive processing: imaginative or factual. Finally, the sociological aspect focuses on the self: group interactions or independence. Gremli suggests that left-hemisphere preferred individuals—also known as analytics or “inductives” —learn successively, by building to understand a problem or situation. Gremli also recognizes right-hemisphere preferred individuals—also known as “globals” or “deductive” —and the way they learn: narrowing a general concept to understand a problem or situation. + The last LSI was developed by Renzulli and Smith, designed to allow students to be able to rate teaching styles on a ranged scale from “really like” to “really dislike.” The teaching styles are divided into nine categories: “projects, independent study, drill and recitation, discussion, lecture, programmed instruction, simulations, peer teaching, and teaching games.” Although this LSI may seem like the easiest and quickest way to appropriately choose teaching strategies, it has limitations. Of the 65 items on the inventory, 60% refers to left-hemisphere preferred teaching styles, while only 40% refers to right-hemisphere preferred teaching styles. The three learning style inventories (LSI)—the 4MAT System, Dunn’s LSI, and Renzulli and Smith’s LSI—show that hemispheric preference does affect students and how they learn. + Hemispheric specialization focuses on the idea of inequality of the brain; different regions perform specific roles, also known as cerebral lateralization. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i," + + My commitment to building relationships and improving myself in any way that I can is also very important to me. I have learned in the past that relationships need work to be maintained. However, those relationships are necessary for the personal well-being of an individual; Umberson and Montez (2010) note the importance of relationships, which can affect physical and mental health. Although I have realized this personally multiple times, I understand that it may be difficult to maintain certain relationships among family members. It is important to at least make an effort to improve our relationships, and seek assistance from an outside source, such as a therapist or social worker, if needed. I am also committed to improving myself, professionally and personally. After graduating from Lassiter High School in 2005, I enrolled at Piedmont College to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. I chose this degree because I wanted to learn as much as possible to help others, to gain insight into the human psyche, and to improve myself intellectually and professionally. + + Other personal qualities that I can provide to the social work field include honesty, self-discipline, tolerance, trust, compassion, and determination to make a difference. I believe that my values and personal qualities are appropriate for my educational and career goals. In the fall of 2011, I would like to attend Kennesaw State University to work on an education in social work. Once I complete my degree, I intend to apply with the Division of Family and Children Services to provide support for children and families. + + + In the video, The Danger of a Single Story, featuring Chimamanda Adichie, the Nigerian novelist speaks about her growth as an African writer. She explains that when she was younger, she wrote from a euro-centric point of view and learned to realize her strength as an African writer. Overall, themes of prejudice are discussed throughout the video and Adichie notes to be cautious when dealing with “a single story.” Her words move the listeners to think beyond the single story; to think beyond what we hear as to not create stereotypes of a culture or people. The excerpt from the book, Human Development in Cultural Context: A Third World Perspective, by A. Bame Nsamenang describes human development in the environment. He proposes that both genetics and the cultural environment of the individual influences behavior. The theme that he presents in his chapter are a combination of nature and nurture to describe the individual and one’s behavior. Dr. Khamalwa Wotsuna presented a documentary and a discussion about his culture. The major themes that he discussed were the rite of passage of males (male circumcision) and the idea of a community coming together to raise a child. + + Among the three authors/speakers, a commonality that exists is an idea that is more abstract; the idea of development or growth. In the video, Adichie’s words move the audience to think beyond the stereotype of a people or individual. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"I also fulfill religious, political, and gender roles. These values are important to me; I believe that my ultimate goal to become a social worker incorporates these values as well. + In relation to my roles and responsibilities in a family setting, I pride myself on all these values. As a daughter, I hold respect for my parents and as a sister, I value my individuality. Because I am a twin, it has been hard to separate myself from my sister. As a child, it was a competition to see who succeeded at what subjects and who performed the best. As adults, it is no longer a competition, but I value my individuality and my ability to separate myself from her, even if I do sometimes compare myself to her. As a fiance, I value the equality in my relationship, my individuality as a person with unique ideas and beliefs, open-mindedness to explore my fiance’s perspective, and respect for him as an individual. + As a student, I value equality, individuality, open-mindedness, and respect for others. Equality is important because even though we, as students, are all individuals, we need to see each other as equals and not make judgements of others. Individuality is important because we do not want our sole description of ourselves to be that of a student; we are so much more. Being open-minded is important so that we can listen to each other’s different perspectives and not be judgmental. Finally, these different values lead to respect for others. We cannot be equal or open-minded if we do not respect the individual. + As an intern and a possible role-model, I value equality, individuality, open-mindedness, and respect for others. My internship is with Success for All Students, a program that is a part of the Cobb County School District. My main role and responsibility is to gather screening information to possibly provide interventions to students if necessary. It is necessary to see the students as equals and as individuals, not as just “cases” to be examined. I must also maintain an open-minded perspective while performing my job responsibilities. Above all else, I must respect the family and student and not jump to conclusions based upon the screenings I perform. As an intern, I may also find myself as a possible role-model to the students during possible interactions with them. + As for political, religious, and gender roles, it is important to express my four chosen values. Politically and religiously, I recognize that my perspective is not the only one, which means I must value open-mindedness and respect for others. As a female, I realize I must always fight the stereotypical “women should be in the kitchen” viewpoint. Granted, this stereotype is rarely referred to anymore, but it still circulates, and thus, my four values come into play: equality for both genders, individuality to express that every woman is different, open-mindedness and respect in order to realize that not all woman mind that stereotype. +",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"Negative emotions, according to the researchers, have a harmful affect on schooling because negativity distracts students from the assignment and weakens motivation. The researchers also note that environments and evaluations by others influence emotions and those emotions then influence the student’s learning and achievement. + Although emotions in a learning environment affect students positively or negatively, Schultheiss, Riebel, and Jones note that when experiencing negativity, one hemisphere of the brain will become more engaged than the other. In this particular study, the researchers analyzed “activity inhibition” and possible associations with the functions of the left- and right-hemispheres of the brain. AI is described as a measure of how often an individual uses the word “not” in written or spoken language. The researchers conducted four experiments to study the associations between AI and the hemispheres of the brain, using a dot-probe task (DPT), a Picture Story Exercise (PSE), and a mood measure to monitor stress levels. A DPT is when a dot is presented on a computer screen in either the left- or right vision field of the participant, who then must press a key to signify “which side of the screen the dot appeared on.” A PSE is a tool to measure AI in which participants must imagine a story to coincide with pictures given to them. The results show that from experiments 1 and 2, the participants who had high AI “levels” noticed stimuli presented to the left vision field (right hemisphere) quicker than stimuli presented to the right vision field (left hemisphere) in the dot-probe task. The results show that from experiments 2, 3, and 4, if participants felt “threatened, frustrated,” or experienced a “negative mood,” the right hemisphere of the brain was more engaged than the left hemisphere and the participants also had higher “levels” of AI. + As shown from previous studies, cerebral lateralization affects students and how they learn. Studies conducted by Szirony et al. and Pekrun et al. focused on self-esteem and emotional states in relation to students and their academic success. Schultheiss et al. show that negative emotional states engage the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left hemisphere of the brain, thus, demonstrating a relationship between negative emotional states and cerebral lateralization. Hemispheric preference also affects students and how they learn. Sonnier and Sonnier note that students think and learn either visually or analytically because of different hemispheric preferences. The researchers propose that in order to provide education to both right- and left hemisphere preferred individuals, the teacher must incorporate “affective education” through holistic means. Sonnier and Sonnier describe affective education as a nurturing learning environment, in which educators teach analytical thought processing to the visual learners and teach visual thought processing to the analytical learners. + As a whole, schools are structured more toward educating individuals who are predominantly left-hemisphere preferred; the modern school environment focuses on schedules and facts, also favoring verbal instruction over written instruction. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"Why would a mother throw away her baby? This is definitely murder to me. Although the attorney said that she could have gotten an abortion a couple of weeks earlier and the end result would have been the same, I am still angry. As a side note, I believe that abortion should only be available to women who have been raped or if they find out that their child will be born with a debilitating disease. I disagree with the women who get an abortion because they had sexual intercourse, and ended up pregnant when they did not want to be pregnant. However, I feel no anger toward women who get an abortion; I just think it’s irresponsible. But this mother in the case let her baby suffer for hours or days simply because she did not want to take care of the infant. That is murder, plain and simple. + + + Hemispheric specialization is the idea that different regions of the brain perform specific roles. Examples of different regions include: the frontal lobe, visual cortex, Broca’s area, and Wernicke’s area. While Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area focus on processing language, the frontal lobe controls higher-order thinking, and the visual cortex controls visual stimuli. “Cerebral lateralization” describes the specific roles that each hemisphere—left or right—performs. Some tasks, such as recognizing words and faces, are respectively performed by the left side and right side of the brain. More specifically, the left hemisphere is responsible for speech and analysis, while the right hemisphere is responsible for recognizing patterns and interpreting language by tone of voice and body language. Although it is not accurate to claim that someone is “left-” or “right-brained,” evidence from numerous studies show that one hemisphere may be preferred over another in an individual, which is known as “hemispheric preference.” Do cerebral lateralization and hemispheric preference affect the way individuals learn? + In a study conducted by Szirony et al., the researchers proposed that there is an association between cerebral lateralization and the notion of “self-concept” in a learning environment. Generally, the notion of self-concept, also known as self-esteem, is how an individual perceives him- or her-self, whether that is based upon positive or negative characteristics. In this particular study, the use of self-concept is focused more on the positive characteristics an individual portrays; the more self-confident an individual is, the better that individual will be in accomplishing academic achievements. Kutob, Senf, Crago, and Shisslak note associations for positive and negative self-esteem in students: (a) “positive” self-esteem is positively correlated with academic success, while “negative” self-esteem is negatively correlated with academic success; and (b) “positive” self-esteem is linked with having good coping skills and interpersonal relations and “negative” self-esteem is linked with being harmful to an individual, resulting in possible psychological problems, such as depression or behavioral disorders. Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, and Perry also found that emotions in a learning environment affect the students and how they learn. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i,"My fiance, who continues to positively surprise me every day, supports me emotionally and sometimes financially; I hate to use the cliche, but he is the other half of my soul. The best characteristics about my family include their ability to overcome past negative experiences, support me financially and emotionally, and their determination in everything that they try to accomplish. + My friends, I believe, are my essential support system, but it must be noted that I also include my fiance in this description. As for social, recreational, or counseling groups, I do not believe I really belong to any except for my social network of friends. My friends support me emotionally and also help me realize certain aspects about myself, both strengths and weaknesses. My friends also make me feel like I belong and give me a sense of hope when negative events occur in my life. + The only organization that I have belonged to is the Society of Leadership and Success, or Alpha Sigma Pi. I was able to receive leadership training, and listen to motivational speakers that made me rethink a few aspects of my life. Because I am a first-year student at Kennesaw State University, I have not learned all of the support systems that it provides. I do, however, know that if necessary, counseling is available along with disability services if needed. + As for community strengths, I am not aware of any resources available to me. However, when I was having financial issues, I was able to receive food stamps from the United States government and there are agencies available to help those in financial crisis. Religiously, I have not found many people who share my same views, so I cannot draw from them as a community. + In a way, the negative aspects of my life that I have experienced have made me grow stronger and allowed me to find my place in the world, seeking to continue my education in a help-based profession as a social worker. I want to help others who have had the same experiences as me and help them realize that they too can become strong individuals and learn to cope from past experiences in a positive manner. I like to remember to not dwell on the past because we cannot change it. What we can change, however, is our present and how it relates to our future. As I begin my education in the masters of social work program, I value my friends, family, and my fiance; they have helped me in tremendous ways and I hope that I have also given back to them. + + + Of the values listed, I chose equality, individuality, open-mindedness, and respect for others as the most important values to me. The rank that I chose to place these values in are as follows: equality, respect for others, open-mindedness, and individuality. Roles and responsibilities that I fulfill as an individual include daughter, sister, fiance, student, intern, and role-model. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +i," My initial reaction upon reading this case is happiness for the couple. I do not see why their case should be problematic in the least. I am also confused when I think about racial injustice that is so rampant in our society. It is improving, but I still find myself being shocked at what others say in a racist manner. I personally have never understood racism, even when I was a child; a person was simply another person to me and I continue to follow that belief. If someone does say something racist to me, I turn into an argumentative individual. At one point in time, my aunt made a racist comment and I essentially “flipped out” on her. I yelled at her and told her that if she ever said another racist comment in my presence, then we would no longer be as close as we once were. All I felt for this couple was happiness that they decided to adopt, plain and simple. + My initial reaction to this case was anger. The male in this case is lying to receive workman’s compensation and to possibly live in a lazy fashion. I do not appreciate lying and this case really fuels my anger. Some people who actually really do need workman’s compensation do not receive it, while other people who do not need workman’s compensation do receive it. I am disgusted by someone who would lie in order to receive payments; that is just plain laziness to me! If you are able to work, then you should work. I was taught this concept from the cradle. If the problem is hatred for the job, then apply somewhere else! There are ways to fix an unhappy job experience. I was raised to believe that everyone should have a job (if able) to provide for themselves and their families. If nothing else, a job keeps away the boredom (at least with some jobs). + After reviewing this case, I found myself having mixed feelings. While it would be disappointing to see the agency dissolved, I would probably also be annoyed if I were constantly harassed by homeless individuals. I do not think I would support the decision to remove the agency, but I also do not think I would be lobbying the government for the agency to remain. I realize I may sound heartless, but I have personally been harassed by the homeless before; it frightened me. It also reminded me of the time at a point in my life when I was raped. Although this happened years ago, I still do not like feeling harassed or possibly over-powered. Fear in my life tends to send me fleeing instead of fighting. Maybe my reaction would have been different had I not been raped, but because of this experience, it hinders my ability to not flee from a possible ill situation. + Based upon first reactions to this case, I am angry with Mr. M. ",25,English,female,Bachelor Degree,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," It could not force the states to join the Union,‭ ‬and it could not stop them from leaving it at will. In fact,‭ ‬he sometimes pushed for secession. The Federal government existed for considering foreign affairs,‭ ‬and sometimes for determining relationships and decisions between states,‭ ‬but never for interfering with the people of those states. It did not have the power to force a state to do anything. He considered the rights of states to be given to them all by each other,‭ ‬and not by the Federal government. He even claimed that the Bill of Rights was dangerous,‭ ‬because it implied that the government gave people rights,‭ ‬rather than the people giving the government power. +‎ ‏With this framework in mind,‭ ‬it is clear that Taylor believed sovereignty to lie with the people that make up the states. He claimed that the people were the only safe party to hold power,‭ ‬because they are not inclined to oppress a minority. A minority,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬can live parasitically off of the majority. Taylor also dismissed the idea of a social compact on the basis that there is no one for the people to make a compact with. If the people enter a contract with the government that assures them rights,‭ ‬then the implication is that those rights can be taken away. The natural right of self-government would cause the people to write a Constitution,‭ ‬which would create a political society and government. He was not entirely democratic,‭ ‬however‭; ‬while he believed that the people were capable of governing themselves,‭ ‬but that because of their nature,‭ ‬they must still be restrained by political laws. +‎ ‏Because of the size of the country,‭ ‬Taylor believed that the election of representatives should be done by sections of states rather than by the entire state. He did not believe in a natural aristocracy based on intelligence,‭ ‬virtue,‭ ‬or skill,‭ ‬and rejected the principle of leveling altogether. He claimed that the will of the majority should be the government's primary principle,‭ ‬and that minority groups should not have the same rights,‭ ‬because they could only represent an aristocracy. To this end,‭ ‬he even believed in a per-state vote rather than per individual,‭ ‬to avoid domination by a minority of states. Therefore,‭ ‬he believed that three-fourths of states must agree. As for the representatives themselves,‭ ‬he believed that rotation in office,‭ ‬short terms followed by ineligibility,‭ ‬and low wages would encourage‭ “‬beneficial disinterestedness‭” ‬and discourage fraud and the use of force. He claimed that representatives should feel the weight of their own laws,‭ ‬and therefore be restrained by accountability. They should also not be judged by their loyalty to the executive,‭ ‬but to the people. +‎ ‏He wanted a complete separation between the Federal and State governments,‭ ‬as he believed their duties did not overlap. He states plainly that the‭ “‬Federal is not a national government‭; ‬it is a league between nations‭” (‬Construction Construed,‭ ‬pg. 234‭)‬.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d,"‎ ‏Taylor's opinions on the economy should not be surprising. He believed that the economy should be completely outside the Federal government's sphere of influence. He considered the National Bank unconstitutional,‭ ‬claiming that banking offends the‭ “‬partnership,‭ ‬called society‭” (‬Inquiry,‭ ‬pg. 370‭)‬. The Federal government already taxed State banks,‭ ‬and did not even tax them evenly. He defined oppression as the immoral distribution of property,‭ ‬and therefore opposed measures that did so,‭ ‬such as tithes,‭ ‬tariffs,‭ ‬and interest on the national debt. In fact,‭ ‬he considered all taxes theoretically bad. +‎ ‏The biggest potential drain on the economy,‭ ‬of course,‭ ‬is war. He believed that the only people who profited from war were contractors and capitalists. Wars cause taxes,‭ ‬and create the opportunity for the President to extend his personal power. He believed that wars were usually caused by ambition,‭ ‬prejudice,‭ ‬or injustice,‭ ‬and that they were only justified when repelling an invasion or promoting emigration to new land. However,‭ ‬he considered the right to bear arms essential,‭ ‬as he trusted the militia. The Navy was not trustworthy,‭ ‬because it was expensive,‭ ‬and could potentially cause problems if accidentally attacking or attacked. He did believe,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬that if war was unavoidable,‭ ‬the U.S. should side with England,‭ ‬because they had a powerful Navy. +‎ ‏As much as Taylor promoted personal freedom and self-government,‭ ‬he agreed with most of his conservatives that although slavery was wrong,‭ ‬it should not be abolished. He generally supported the institution,‭ ‬claiming that slaves were mostly docile and happy. He feared that abolition would lead to problems between the races,‭ ‬and even slave insurrections,‭ ‬and therefore supported the deportation of free blacks. He foresaw that any agitation of the slavery issue would plant a deeper wedge between the North and the South,‭ ‬ + John Taylor of Caroline was almost a textbook Old Republican.‎ ‏He wanted the best for the people of the States,‭ ‬and was prepared to jealously defend their rights against the corruption of the government. Although he did not seem to have much faith in man as an individual,‭ ‬full of evil and corruption,‭ ‬he still believed that everyone had the right to govern themselves,‭ ‬as long as they did not infringe upon others. Similarly,‭ ‬of course,‭ ‬he did not want the government to infringe upon those rights,‭ ‬either,‭ ‬which was the far more likely event. + +‎ ‏John Randolph was many things—Virginian planter,‭ ‬Congressman,‭ ‬skilled orator—but most interesting about him is his lifelong representation of Old Republican ideals. ���“‬Old Republican‭” ‬is a term that has many facets of meaning,‭ ‬and yet Randolph seems to encompass them all. Here I will endeavor to draw a brief account of his stance,‭ ‬proudly and eloquently voiced by him during numerous addresses and debates,‭ ‬on various subjects relating to Old Republicanism. +‎ ‏As a Republican,‭ ‬specifically an Old Republican,‭ ‬Randolph's main concern was always the interpretation of the constitution.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," The only answer,‭ ‬to Randolph,‭ ‬was to follow England's course,‭ ‬and to let slavery end slowly as it became less and less profitable to landowners. As this was already occurring in the South,‭ ‬Randolph saw it as only a matter of time before slavery ended almost of its own accord.‭ ‬ + Despite this somewhat cold view on the suffering of millions,‎ ‏it shows that Randolph did not believe in personal feelings interfering with the way the state must be run. All accounts seem to show that Randolph was kind to his slaves,‭ ‬and that they respected and cared for him as much as he did for them. And although it did not turn out well for the former slaves,‭ ‬Randolph did free them upon his death,‭ ‬and had set aside a plot of land for them in Ohio. There are even letters that show that he referred to them by name to his friends,‭ ‬and in one letter he lamented,‭ “‬...in these poor slaves I have found my best and most faithful friends‭” (‬Ibid.,‭ ‬p.‭ ‬44‭)‬. While clearly this does not ameliorate the position of the more than two hundred slaves Randolph owned,‭ ‬it at least shows that he was personally opposed to slavery,‭ ‬which is also made clear in his professional opposition to the reopening of the slave trade in South Carolina,‭ ‬as well as in every other instance. However,‭ ‬Randolph's stern dedication to strict government rules even outweighs his hatred of slavery—in‭ ‬1806,‭ ‬he vehemently opposed a proposal to prohibit the importation of slaves,‭ ‬because it contained a proviso stating that a master might be stopped from moving his slaves between the states. This Randolph saw as an interference on the part of the Federal government with the rights of the States and the people within them,‭ ‬and even the prospect of halting the slave trade could not make him sway from his position as jealous protector of free-government. +‎ ‏John Randolph was an intriguing person,‭ ‬to say the least. His staunch dedication to the freedom of the people of the United States is to be admired,‭ ‬even if it seems that he only meant wealthy white people. In Randolph's eyes,‭ ‬it was the duty of the people who had the capability to run the government to do it so that everyone,‭ ‬even those who could not be trusted to take care of themselves,‭ ‬would benefit and be free. Despite how problematic this is for me as a modern student,‭ ‬I can respect Randolph's position,‭ ‬as well as his intent. It was his goal always to guard against Federal corruption,‭ ‬and to protect the rights of the State,‭ ‬as he believed was the intention of the writers of the Constitution. Even when this made him unpopular,‭ ‬Randolph stood firm and refused to accept a compromise of what he believed was the best system of government. This,‭ ‬I believe,‭ ‬makes him an admirable figure in our nation's history. +",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d,"‎ ‏Taylor also argues against the idea that the tariff was temporary,‭ ‬and would bring profit to everyone eventually,‭ ‬if only the majority agriculturalists would suffer in the meantime. He notes that those in power seem to only consider this situation to be wrong if it is permanent‭; ‬as long as everyone is still claiming it is temporary,‭ ‬it is not wrong. He scorns the idea of an economy controlled by the government. He claims that a restrictive system can do nothing but harm the citizenry,‭ ‬and that any justification the government can give cannot support such an oppressive system. +‎ ‏The most important arguments Taylor makes against the protective tariff are that it will ruin commerce,‭ ‬but specifically agriculture,‭ ‬which Taylor holds to be the noblest of occupations. Because those in power have suggested that exports are the key to a successful economy,‭ ‬Taylor must argue against this idea by stating that in the post-war world,‭ ‬prices are dropping,‭ ‬and that‭ “‬By expelling foreign commodities,‭ ‬the United States are prevented from reaping any benefit from the universal fall of prices‭” (‬136‭)‬. He also points out that the government is receiving a far greater percentage than in previous years,‭ ‬when the economy was successful,‭ ‬and claims that this is one of the reasons for the decline. He claims that while‭ “‬the constitution empowers Congress‭ '‬to regulate commerce with foreign nations,�� ‬and among the several States,‭ ‬and with the Indian tribes‭'” (‬143‭)‬,‭ ‬they have extended this power to regulate commerce between individuals,‭ ‬which Taylor calls unconstitutional and ruinous. +‎ ‏ Taylor qualifies his following diatribe by admitting‎ “‏a predilection for agriculturalists,‭ ‬and an enmity towards mechanicks‭” (‬147‭)‬,‭ ‬before stating all the ways that the protective tariff is dangerous to agriculture specifically. He compares the current state of affairs to the feudal system,‭ ‬stating that‭ “‬If a law was made to bestow all the lands of the United States upon a few persons,‭ ‬it would be equivalent to a policy for enabling capitalists to build factories,‭ ‬and‭ ‬monopolize mechanicks‭” (‬152‭)‬. This Taylor believes to be equivalent to the English system,‭ ‬which he has previously stated is ineffective and ruinous to happiness. He states that agriculture must suffer if the duties are to continue,‭ ‬because‭ “‬exclusive privileges,‭ ‬which bestow the capital,‭ ‬are too wise to invest it in an occupation,‭ ‬the profits of which are tapped perpetually by their various gimlets‭” (‬158‭)‬. Indeed,‭ ‬it would make no sense to invest in a business that you have made it your business to tax into submission. Taylor proposes removing the protective duties in order to prevent the destruction of the agricultural system,‭ ‬which he and his fellow Old Republicans hold so dear. +‎ ‏Taylor's final argument is more abstract,‭ ‬and confronts the general idea of tyranny. He suggests that governments are not inherently tyrannical or not‭; ‬it depends on the people of the nation to jealously guard their liberty. The government,‭ ‬he claims,‭ ‬will eventually become corrupt and tyrannical,‭ ‬without the opposition of the people to say what it can and cannot do.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," Here Taylor takes the opportunity to again disparage the judicial system,‭ ‬and call for caution against executive power,‭ ‬which by veto can either encourage liberty or destroy it. He states again that‭ “‬Taxation disguised in any way,‭ ‬is disguised tyranny,‭ ‬so far as it exceeds the genuine necessities of a good government‭” (‬228‭)‬. He rejects the idea that money is the measure of liberty,‭ ‬and calls for a frugal,‭ ‬limited government,‭ ‬with separate,‭ ‬independent powers. He again supports the government as a federation of States,‭ ‬not a national republic,‭ ‬and makes his stance clear on the state of the nation and the decisions that must be made by the American people. +‎ ‏ John Taylor of Caroline was a man who defined constancy and dedication.‎ ‏He represents Old Republican ideals in every way—he wanted a free nation,‭ ‬and he knew that that entailed jealously guarding liberty,‭ ‬and opposing a government that would inevitably become corrupt and powerful. Freedom to John Taylor and the Old Republicans meant free-trade and self-‭ ‬government,‭ ‬which necessitated a small government that stayed out of the way of its citizenry and allowed it to flourish. + +‎ ‏Old Republicans have played a vital role in the formation of the United States,‭ ‬yet the term is relatively unknown among the public. What and who they were can be difficult to pin down. At the same time,‭ ‬those men that we can firmly call Old Republicans were generally quite vocal about their beliefs,‭ ‬and because of this we are able to know where they stood on the issues of the day and the future of the country. +‎ ‏The principles upheld by the Old Republicans are many,‭ ‬but they all come down to the same belief—freedom. Not the meaningless word that gets thrown around in our current time,‭ ‬but true freedom of self-government,‭ ‬and trade. Inspired by English patriots like Bolingbroke,‭ ‬the Old Republicans desired to create a Union that would live up to the definition of a free nation,‭ ‬with each man conferred the natural rights given him at birth. They wanted a very limited Federal government supported by States,‭ ‬with the people of the Union making up the true sovereign power. They demanded that all rights not specifically delegated to the Federal government were reserved by the States,‭ ‬which had willing entered a Union that was to be a federation of independent states. + They knew that governments easily became corrupt,‎ ‏and so insisted on a strict instruction of the Constitution,‭ ‬refusing to allow any interpretation that expanded the powers of the government. This was especially important in opposing issues that arose from the necessary and proper clause and the general welfare clause,‭ ‬which had the potential to be constructed very broadly. They worked for a government made up of completely independent systems,‭ ‬rather than the English system of monarchy,‭ ‬aristocracy,‭ ‬and democracy. Because of their belief that governments would inevitably become corrupt and corrode over time,‭ ‬they placed themselves as opposition to such corruption,‭ ‬and fought against such things as the Alien and Sedition Acts.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," He claimed that despite claims that more exports meant a more successful economy,‭ ‬it is actually imports that make an economy successful. Taylor's defense of free trade and agriculture is a typical example of Old Republican ideals. +‎ ‏ Taylor also places some of the blame on the legislators.‎ ‏He believed that they were corrupt and avaricious,‭ ‬which leads to the support of a privileged minority. At the same time,‭ ‬he knew that Congressmen could not be unpaid. He knew that if the salary for a Congressman was too low,‭ ‬that the job would not attract good men. He believed the trick was to find a rate of pay that was‭ “‬between two extremes‭; ‬one,‭ ‬a rate of wages so low as to expel talents‭; ‬the other,‭ ‬a rate so high as to awaken vices‭” (‬Tyranny Unmasked‭ ‬72‭)‬. Clearly,‭ ‬Taylor knew which direction the wages had taken to create the current situation. +‎ ‏ Taylor spends a good portion of‎ ‏Tyranny Unmasked proclaiming the evils of protective duties. He gives many reasons why they are detrimental to the Union,‭ ‬and remarkably for Taylor,‭ ‬most of them are practical rather than ideological. He begins,‭ ‬of course,‭ ‬by plainly stating that the duties are unconstitutional. He uses a metaphor that those in power consider the Constitution as‭ “‬a lump of fine gold,‭ ‬a small portion of which is so malleable,‭ ‬as to cover the whole mass‭” (‬99‭)‬. This strict construction is nothing new for Taylor,‭ ‬or for Old Republicans. He sees no justification in the Constitution for the tariff,‭ ‬and the only justification outside of it to make the capitalists more wealthy. In fact,‭ ‬he considered the implications dangerous:‭ “‬If Congress cannot find a line which prohibits it from borrowing and appropriating money to monopolies and exclusive privileges,‭ ‬I do not see why they may not create a king‭” (‬102‭)‬. +‎ ‏Beyond its unconstitutionality,‭ ‬Taylor claimed that the tariff was no longer necessary. He claimed that the only people who profited by it,‭ ‬the capitalists,‭ ‬and this at the expense of the majority of citizens,‭ ‬already had more money than they knew what to do with. Therefore he wondered why those not profiting should continue to give profit to those that admitted they had an overabundance of their prized paper money. Additionally,‭ ‬he considered the process that the tariffs were protecting,‭ ‬manufacture,‭ ‬to be injurious to morals. He claimed that‭ “‬pauperism and crimes are more frequently produced by hard labour for daily wages,‭ ‬than from any other source‭” (‬104‭)‬. He noted that crime rates were higher in manufacturing areas,‭ ‬such as New York. One of the crimes he claims increases is smuggling. He believed that people would find a way to trade their goods regardless of the duty,‭ ‬and that smuggling was the only way to make a profit. He claimed that smugglers were not thieves,‭ ‬only traders who were enjoying the system of free-trade denied to them by the government. +",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," He would accept no less than the strictest construction,‭ ‬always with a mind to the intention of the writers rather than the literal interpretation,‭ ‬which could sometimes lead to loose or liberal motions by the Federal government. This meant that he believed in the barest minimum of a Federal government,‭ ‬with the states holding the majority of power over themselves. It also meant that he did not agree with majority-rule Democracy‭; ‬Randolph preferred that the state be governed by tradition and common sense,‭ ‬which allowed for the Constitution to be interpreted sensibly. + Though Randolph deplored such abstract concepts as sovereignty,‎ ‏human nature,‭ ‬and society,‭ ‬he chose to focus his attention on the practicalities of such ideas. He believed that such idle speculation was pointless,‭ ‬because human logic is very fallible. Therefore,‭ ‬the only conclusions that can be reached by considering these topics are false certitude,‭ ‬or nihilism,‭ ‬neither of which are useful to the running of a government. Rather than muse on the current state of the government,‭ ‬or the nature of man,‭ ‬he stated his position plainly—true power lies in property,‭ ‬and while the two may change hands,‭ ‬they can never be separated. And where true power,‭ ‬and thereby sovereignty,‭ ‬should lie is with the people. + Randolph was a staunch proponent of what he called free-government‎; ‏that is,‭ ‬the right of the people to govern themselves. However,‭ ‬in his mind not every man was created equal,‭ ‬and thus not all men should have the vote. To him,‭ ‬this meant the election of a representative who could accurately and loyally speak for his constituency,‭ ‬and did so. To this end,‭ ‬Randolph did not believe in a set number of Congressional representatives,‭ ‬and preferred that a State was represented by as many Congressmen as was necessary to ensure that each section or population received the close attention it deserved. This removed the need for the common man to vote on legislature he probably did not understand,‭ ‬as well as for the‭ “‬one man,‭ ‬one vote‭” ‬method of government that Randolph so despised. He believed in an aristocratic voting body,‭ ‬where the proletariat are not permitted to vote,‭ ‬nor considered real citizens. Randolph considered only those men who could claim some stake in the country—farmers,‭ ‬merchants,‭ ‬men with skills and education—worthy of having a voice in the government. But this was not out of a sense of apathy towards those he considered lesser than himself. Randolph followed Edmund Burke's statement that it is the duty of the aristocracy‭ “‬to enlighten and protect the weaker,‭ ‬the less knowing,‭ ‬and the less provided with the goods of fortune‭” (‬Edmund Burke,‭ “‬Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs,‭” ‬Works,‭ ‬III,‭ ‬85-86‭)‬. Though Randolph's opinion that those without property were weaker or inferior people would not be popular today,‭ ‬it was rooted in his desire for a people free to do what is right for themselves,‭ ‬even if that meant giving up your opinion to someone more knowledgeable than you. +",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," It is only responsible even for the territories as a trustee until they become states,‭ ‬at which time they will be responsible for themselves. To him,‭ ‬the states existed as a kind of buffer between the Federal government and the people,‭ ‬serving both to protect the rights of the people and to guard against the expansion of the Federal government. He also believed strong states to be necessary because the country was too large for a national government to address the needs of everyone equally. + Taylor believed that all sections of the government must be independent,‎ ‏and therefore equally accountable to the people. He discounted the theory of monarchy,‭ ‬aristocracy,‭ ‬and democracy on the basis of it being artificial,‭ ‬and instead concluded that the natural alignment was a limited,‭ ‬responsible government,‭ ‬with rights retained by the people. He believed that a strong executive was the natural enemy of free-government,‭ ‬and claimed that the best check on an ambitious President was a strong militia. Similarly,‭ ‬he disapproved of parties and factions,‭ ‬because they are only self-serving and encourage intrigue and corruption. +‎ ‏The only department that Taylor trusted less than the executive was the judicial department,‭ ‬specifically the Supreme Court. He believed that most social evil began in the legal system. Since judges are appointed rather than elected,‭ ‬they are not accountable to the people,‭ ‬but to the executive. And if a judge judges poorly,‭ ‬there is no recourse. Impeachment is not a sufficient method,‭ ‬because a judge cannot be impeached for simply making a bad call. Further,‭ ‬Taylor believed that one man or a small group of men should not be responsible for judging Constitutionality,‭ ‬but that that right belonged to the states. How can a small group make a decision that should be made by three-fourths of the states‭? ‬He believed that the Constitution did not give the Supreme Court the right to determine State and Federal powers. Similarly,‭ ‬he did not approve of the idea of legal precedent,‭ ‬because he believed that it would lead to relying on one man's judgment,‭ ‬and the abandonment of principles. +‎ ‏Taylor was so adamant in his pursuit of state supremacy because he believed that it was the only way to secure the freedom necessary for a successful agrarian society. He thought that it was not the purpose of governments to create liberty,‭ ‬as that was a natural right,‭ ‬but to secure it. Primarily,‭ ‬this meant allowing for an environment suitable to agriculture and the perfection of that system,‭ ‬which he believed would naturally create a nation of free,‭ ‬honest,‭ ‬and successful citizens. He claimed that only agriculture as a system could be trusted,‭ ‬because it has no means of living off of others,‭ ‬and that a system that goes from natural to artificial,‭ ‬meaning from agricultural to paper,‭ ‬was tyrannical. Clearly,‭ ‬because of this stance,‭ ‬he disapproved of tariffs and high taxes on crops. He also supported research into soil conservation,‭ ‬which would allow for more effective agriculture. +",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," Because of this,‭ ‬Old Republicans vehemently opposed Henry Clay's American System. They believed too much power would be given to the Federal government if they allowed protective tariffs,‭ ‬internal improvements,‭ ‬and especially the National Bank,‭ ‬which they considered unconstitutional. They argued against the consolidation of a national debt,‭ ‬because they believed that States should be independent,‭ ‬and it was against the principles of the Union to require one state to be responsible for another. +‎ ‏They generally opposed any motion that would cost the public money beyond the necessities of running the government. To this end,‭ ‬they argued against extravagance,‭ ‬war,‭ ‬and standing armies. They especially did not want a Navy,‭ ‬as they are expensive to maintain,‭ ‬and created the potential for problems if there was conflict between ships in times of peace. They did not want to be involved in the problems of other countries. ‭ ‬They preferred a professional militia,‭ ‬and placed high importance on the right for a man to bear arms and to defend his home against invasion. However,‭ ‬they considered wars of aggression to be motivated by greed and injustice,‭ ‬and believed that the monetary cost was too great. +‎ ‏With regard to the social issue of the day,‭ ‬slavery,‭ ‬Old Republicans were both of one mind and divided. Some,‭ ‬such as John Randolph,‭ ‬opposed slavery and despised the slave trade,‭ ‬while John Taylor and others admitted that slavery was wrong,‭ ‬but still defended the institution. They were alike in that they opposed Federal intervention in the issue,‭ ‬as they viewed it as being under State jurisdiction,‭ ‬and always vehemently opposed State rights being usurped by the Federal government. There existed among them the common idea of the time that complete abolition would create chaos between the races,‭ ‬which were incapable of coexisting without one being enslaved by the other. It was the belief of some that slavery's end was inevitable,‭ ‬and therefore it would end naturally,‭ ‬without any interference from the government at all. Others called for the free blacks in the United States to be deported back to Africa. Their similarity was in their adherence to Old Republican ideals of freedom and lack of interference from the government in State matters,‭ ‬regardless of the potential for them to influence the outcome based on their personal feelings. +‎ ‏Despite the agitation brought on by the issue of slavery,‭ ‬and the continuing importance of States‭' ‬rights,‭ ‬most Old Republicans did not approve of secession. There seemed to grow a divide between true Old Republicans,‭ ‬who believed in the Union,‭ ‬and those more radical Republicans,‭ ‬such as former Federalist John C. Calhoun,‭ ‬who would support secession. +‎ ‏Later in the period,‭ ‬despite the attempts made by John Quincy Adams to create a more monarchical,‭ ‬Federally powerful nation,‭ ‬the election of Andrew Jackson led to a renewal of Old Republican principles. Winning the election on a platform of‭ “‬Reform,‭ ‬Retrenchment,‭ ‬and Economy,‭” ‬Jackson fulfilled each one,‭ ‬reducing the size and powers of the national government,‭ ‬eliminating the national debt and the Bank of the United States,‭ ‬and significantly lowering tariffs.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," +‎ ‏John Taylor's‭ ‬Tyranny Unmasked continues the Old Republican tradition of opposition. Taylor's frustration with the current state of the Union is clear in his work,‭ ‬perhaps even more so than in‭ ‬Construction Construed. Making comparisons between the operations of a theocracy and the current United States,‭ ‬Taylor points out the dangerous path the Union is currently taking,‭ ‬and makes arguments for the return to principles that seem forgotten by the current administration. +‎ ‏Taylor addresses what he sees as an attempt to recreate the government of England in the United States,‭ ‬and not in a favorable way. This would mean supporting the manufacturing industry rather than agriculture,‭ ‬which Taylor vehemently opposed. He disagrees with the idea that an overflowing treasury is the key to happiness,‭ ‬and points out that this situation has not improved the happiness and freedoms of the majority of England's citizens,‭ ‬nor that of the citizens of the United States. Yet because the current situation in the United States consisted of high duties that supported manufacture and punished agriculture,‭ ‬Taylor was forced to argue against the concept of precedents altogether,‭ ‬and yet again make the point that bad policy should not continue just because it currently exists or existed in the past. +‎ ‏ Taylor blames the current state of the Union on these bad policies.‎ ‏He claims that banks,‭ ‬exclusive privileges,‭ ‬taxes,‭ ‬and war have ruined the economy. He calls for a return to pre-war Jeffersonian policies,‭ ‬as that was a time of plenty and success for the economy. He addresses the idea that agriculture cannot be a better choice than manufacture,‭ ‬because it does not bring profit‭ ‬to all of the states. By this logic,‭ ‬Taylor claims,‭ ‬some states must be responsible for the success of all the others. This is entirely the opposite of the federation of states that Taylor claimed was the basis for the country. He argued instead for a free market,‭ ‬which would allow each state to grow or manufacture according to its ability,‭ ‬and trade what it produced with other states that produced different things. He believed that the limitations placed on trade only served to make capitalists richer,‭ ‬and agriculturalists poorer. + He argued vehemently against the method of trade proposed by the capitalists,‎ ‏which he viewed as a transfer of property rather than a fair exchange. He questioned the stated motive of the trading restrictions,‭ ‬that the privileged European nations would harm the Union's trade. He claimed that a nation cannot harm another nation with its monopolies,‭ ‬but that the government of a nation could certainly harm its own people,‭ ‬and he believed that was the current situation in the United States. He argued against trading goods for paper money,‭ ‬which was essentially useless as its value was unstable,‭ ‬only to have to then trade that paper money for the other goods that you traded your goods to get in the first place,‭ ‬when you should be able to just trade goods for goods.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d,"‎ ‏Randolph opposed any motion that he believed could lead to a more corrupt government. With this in mind,‭ ‬he did not approve of the keeping of a standing army. He considered it a drain on government resources,‭ ‬and thought that an army made up of mercenaries would never be as effective as a properly trained and supplied militia. This is similar to Randolph's disbelief in wars of aggression. A standing army is not necessary if there are no invasions to be made,‭ ‬and a militia will suffice in the event that you are invaded yourself. Randolph also famously opposed Federal corruption with his famous statement quoting Edmund Burke,‭ ‬that‭ “‬All policy is very suspicious...that sacrifices the interest of any part of a community to the ideal good of the whole‭” (‬Richmond Enquirer,‭ ‬June‭ ‬4,‭ ‬1824‭)‬. Randolph did not believe that the government had the power to give rights to some at the expense of others,‭ ‬or that the majority had the right to usurp the rights of the minority. If we allow the Federal government to make exceptions,‭ ‬those exceptions can easily become rules. +‎ ‏In matters of economics,‭ ‬Randolph followed a similar method of thought. He wanted free trade,‭ ‬with little to no interference from the government. To this end,‭ ‬he believed that an agrarian society was best,‭ ‬because it allowed each man to be self-sufficient and supply for his family and subordinates without the need for assistance from the government or other outside forces. In fact,‭ ‬he believed that help from the government would only serve to create a lazy populous. He opposed the federal bank at every turn. He opposed protective tariffs whenever they were proposed,‭ ‬because they interfered with the rights of the people to trade with whomever they pleased,‭ ‬including outside countries such as England. He felt that trade with England was important,‭ ‬because while the United States remained a mostly agrarian land,‭ ‬England had given over to industrialization and manufacture. Because of this,‭ ‬Randolph thought that the United States and England could have a mutually beneficial relationship,‭ ‬exchanging crops like tobacco for manufactured items. A protective tariff,‭ ‬even one supposedly temporary in order to encourage a local market,‭ ‬could easily turn permanent,‭ ‬and therefore ruinous to such trade as Randolph imagined. +‎ ‏Randolph's stance on the social issues of the day are the most problematic to the modern student,‭ ‬although they are in line with the position he always held,‭ ‬and by some accounts must have proven just as problematic for Randolph himself. The Congressman faced an enormous problem in the issue of slavery. A slave-holding Virginian himself,‭ ‬Randolph already held a stake in the argument. Frustrated by abolitionists who demanded immediate emancipation for all slaves,‭ ‬Randolph asked questions that had been asked in England decades before—where will they go‭? ‬Will they be a draw on society‭? ‬Can two races even exist side by side without conflict or ownership by one side‭? ‬",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," They saw these Acts only as ways to prevent the opposition party from curtailing corruption. +‎ ‏In running this government,‭ ‬Old Republicans wanted a Legislative system that actively and loyally represented its constituency. They believed that it was necessary for every section of a state to be represented,‭ ‬and therefore Old Republicans like John Randolph of Roanoke opposed‭ ‬limiting the number of representatives in Congress. However,‭ ‬some opposed expanding the country westward and admitting new states,‭ ‬as they believed that if the nation grew too large,‭ ‬the government would no longer be able to make decisions that benefited everyone. As another attempt to avoid corruption,‭ ‬they wanted short terms of office for legislators,‭ ‬and limits on their pay. They also opposed political parties,‭ ‬believing that they only caused potential for intrigue and infighting where there should only be one goal. +‎ ‏Some Old Republicans differed on who should be allowed to vote,‭ ‬however. While John Randolph believed in a natural aristocracy of men,‭ ‬and essentially that most people were not intelligent or virtuous enough to know what the country needed,‭ ‬others,‭ ‬like John Taylor of Caroline,‭ ‬opposed this thought,‭ ‬and denied the concept of leveling. He believed in the right to vote for those that owned land,‭ ‬and therefore had a stake in the country,‭ ‬with which Randolph agreed. +‎ ‏Old Republicans saw potential for corruption everywhere. They encouraged a frequent return to the good principles they believed the Union to be founded upon,‭ ‬in an attempt to curtail corruption and man's natural avarice. They opposed any measure that increased the powers of the Executive,‭ ‬and did not want a legislation that was loyal to the Executive instead of the people. They especially opposed the growing power of the Judicial branch. Old Republicans like Philip Pendleton Barbour argued against the Supreme Court on many occasions,‭ ‬in opposition to the powers that were being assumed based on a loose interpretation of Section‭ ‬25‭ ‬of the‭ ‬1789‭ ‬Judiciary Act. They wanted State judicial systems that were supreme,‭ ‬and tried to keep the Federal court in its place as an arbiter only of disputes between states,‭ ‬without the power to determine constitutionality or judge cases between the Federal government and the States. Old Republican Spencer Roane wrote against the judicial nationalism that began to spread under the Marshall Court,‭ ‬and called for a return of power to the States. +‎ ‏Most Old Republicans believed that agrarian society was most beneficial to a nation. It was honest work,‭ ‬and allowed for a natural economy,‭ ‬rather than an artificial one supported by paper money,‭ ‬the value of which was unstable. They opposed the rise of manufacturing,‭ ‬specifically because it led to taxes,‭ ‬protective tariffs,‭ ‬monopolies,‭ ‬and a moneyed aristocracy. They generally wanted to keep the United States as an agricultural nation,‭ ‬and trade with Europe for the manufactured goods they needed. They wanted completely free trade,‭ ‬without interference and restrictions from the Federal government. They also fought against the government showing favoritism to certain industries at the benefit of another,‭ ‬such as was happening between agriculture and manufacture.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +d," +‎ ‏John Taylor of Caroline was an early and ardent proponent of Republicanism. Though he was primarily an agriculturalist,‭ ‬that very profession along with his brief career in politics created a man known for his dedication and outspokenness in matters of personal freedom and government. His dedication to an agrarian system was the basis for almost all of his opinions concerning the government. It was his attempt to preserve and encourage what he considered the most superior of all careers that colored his arguments on sovereignty,‭ ‬Constitutionality,‭ ‬and even the judicial system. +‎ ‏John Taylor believed that the United States had a great opportunity to create an ideal system,‭ ‬because there was no native tradition to hinder the creators of the government,‭ ‬which allowed for the establishment of a system of self-government. He believed strongly in the natural rights of man,‭ ‬and in the fact that they are all interdependent—meaning that if one is denied,‭ ‬then they all will fail,‭ ‬and the value of those remaining is lessened. These rights should therefore be beyond the reach of the government. He claimed that what some called the‭ “‬state of nature‭” ‬meant that those with physical prowess and malevolent intelligence were the ones that profited,‭ ‬but that in a civilization,‭ ‬this must not be the way. +‎ ‏In order to create this ideal society,‭ ‬Taylor believed that a government must be made that accounts for the inherent good and evil inside of man. Taylor was very rigid in his opinions on a dualistic morality. He claimed that‭ “‬As government is exercised by man,‭ ‬all its virtues and vices must be human‭” (‬Ibid.,‭ ‬pg. 167‭)‬. He defined good principles as those that protect private property,‭ ‬improve agriculture,‭ ‬and discourage capitalism,‭ ‬and believed that a government founded in good principles would function equitably regardless of its administration,‭ ‬which would inevitably be led by avarice and self-interest. Self-interest,‭ ‬he believed,‭ ‬was man's motivation in all things,‭ ‬but that the trait was only considered evil when it led beyond the creation of a society based on the public good to sub-societies that lived at the expense of others. A good government was necessary to retain man's natural evil,‭ ‬and even then it must be under careful observation to avoid the addition of bad principles. +‎ ‏Taylor,‭ ‬like many other staunch Republicans of his time,‭ ‬called for a strict construction of the Constitution. He wanted an extremely limited Federal government,‭ ‬with no more rights or powers allowed to it than were explicitly stated in the Constitution. He knew that an extensive Federal government was expensive,‭ ‬and therefore likely to be despotic. However,‭ ‬he believed that a simple,‭ ‬literal interpretation was dangerous,‭ ‬and that without reference to the intent of the writers,‭ ‬such a method could easily become corrupt. Even more,‭ ‬he considered the Declaration of Independence the true charter of the United States,‭ ‬because it more explicitly describes the country as a group of sovereign states rather than one nation.",25,English,female,College - Bachelors,Substitute Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," + This policy crafted at a time when ecological considerations were null and void in public policy decisions. From 1872 on, most changes in mining policy were undertaken to add additional economic provisions for mining corporations. Changes have not been done to amend the 1872 law to deal with the ecological damage from the damaging mining practices of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Ideas such as ecological conservation and protection were to develop later, and thus were not considered when setting this policy as the de facto mining regulation. Had this policy been crafted a century later, it would be influenced by the emerging public consciousness of environmental impact and protection which came to the forefront of public policy in the 1970s. + While the bulwark of mining policy is governed by a policy from 1872, environmental regulations established in the 1970s create a dichotomy of public lands management. Congress and the powers that be seem unwilling and perhaps unable to reach an agreement of how best to adapt mining policy for the future. With the environment a heated issue in public discourse and lands throughout the United States damaged from the harmful mining practices of the past, little has been done to produce any change to the General Mining Law of 1872. + In altering the policy set forth in 1872 it would be hard to reach a consensus. The interests of the environmental community differ widely from those of the business community. Gordon and VanDoren (1998) explain that any change in the 1872 law would anger those in the economic community, who argue that the law needs no change do to it’s narrowing applicability; they state that mineral deposits that are on public land are unique and rare and that criticisms of the 1872 law are unnecessary. Also, supporters of the 1872 law argue that the law does not excuse mining corporations from abiding by newer federal laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act (McClure and Schneider, 2001). + Implementing change which could effectively close mining operations due to making them economically unviable would harm many rural communities in the West. McClure and Schneider (2001) state that the more than 100 operating hard-rock mines are the “economic savior” of many rural communities in the West, providing high paying jobs in areas which would otherwise be mired in poverty. Therein lies the true challenge in changing the law; any change could destroy the rural mining communities of the West by taking jobs. + Those who challenge the validity of the over century-old law cite the law’s point toward the essential giveaway of Federal land to mine operators, the environmental damage perpetuated by the law and the exclusion of royalties for profits accumulated on public lands. Hard-rock miners today pay nothing for the minerals they procure from public lands, which have prompted major calls for change from a broad spectrum of the American Public (McClure and Schneider, 2001). ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," + The United States of America and Mexico are an example of two nations which at one time were beset by an enduring rivalry which spanned 57 years, from 1836 to 1893. (Diehl and Goerts 2000 p. 145). The high-water mark of this rivalry was the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, where the United States attacked and defeated Mexico and secured for itself Texas and the American Southwest as new territory. Many other clashes happened between the two nations, finally abating just before the First World War. The rivalry began as Americans and Mexicans clashed on key issues such as religion, culture and tradition and had a major clash of material interests (Schmitt 1974 p. 30-31). + This is not unlike many other nations who have an enduring rivalry with a neighbor. Nations which share a border tend to have clashes of interests which lend to the creation of rival positions between the nations. The United States and Mexico are not unlike many other enduring rivalries between nations which share a common border. David M. Pletcher (1977) states that “Only in Mexico and Cuba can one find long-lasting overarching American diplomatic problems” (p. 41). Indeed, both of these nations are geographically close to the United States and have been rivals to the United States, while other nations in Latin America enjoy and have enjoyed good relations with the United States. + Religious issues created a rift between the two nations, a problem which has beset many nations through history. Sally Frahm (2001) states that ”if in the twentieth century Americans were opposed to fascism and communism, in the eighteenth and nineteenth they were opposed to Catholicism and monarchy” (p.86). Not unlike the Cold War’s rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was part ideological struggle and part a competition over interests each nation deemed vital. In this case, however, the ideological struggles weren’t based on the political structure but on instead the religious preferences of the United States and Mexico. This distrust grew from the distrust between the English and Spanish. Inheriting these feelings of distrust from their former colonial rulers was a major obstacle in the establishment of amiable foreign relations between the United States and Mexico. + Diehl and Goerts (2000) list 17 disputes between Mexico and the United States in the 57-year rivalry period. The majority of disputes between the rivalry period described by Diehl and Goerts are territorial issues relating to border raids from Mexican territory into Mexico and other frontier problems. Border raids by bandits and outlaws from on American border towns were a major problem which remained until both the United States and Mexico exerted military force on their borders (Schmitt 1974 p. 97). +Schmitt (1974) explains the rivalry between the two nation began to abate as “Mexico became clearly dependent on the United States in a substantial way” (p. 109) and finally ended as American ambitions “changed from territorial expansion to economic intervention into Mexico” (p.110) in the later part of the 19th Century. +",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," The public should not be burdened with the cost of cleaning up ecological damage as a subsidy increasing profit for a mining operation. No industry should engage in activities that generate environmental harm and be subsidized with public funds in order to generate higher profits. + + In order to both represent the best economic interests of responsible mining entities and the industry as a whole, mining operations which run without profit should not be subsidized into profitability as a means to garner ecological cleanup. Instead, these mining operations should be handled either one of two ways: profitable entities should be offered the operations with the stipulation of engaging in economic cleanup by merger or outright buyout of the corporation, or the operation should have mining activities cease and the operating entity should be allowed to produce an acceptable strategy to deal with ecological cleanup. + In the event that an operating entity cannot cope with creating an environmentally-acceptable strategy, the entity should be barred from the mining activities in question until a reasonable solution can be reached between creditor, the entity and others who may be involved in the mining operation. The mining industry and the federal government should help in finding an acceptable solution to the problem. + For closed mining operations which pose an environmental threat and have no controlling entity still in existence, a tax-based incentive should be created by the government to provide tax breaks for existing mining operations to take over the closed mining operation. By giving mining operations a tax-based incentive to manage former sites, the federal government will not be forced to subsidize or take control over mining operations in order to clean them. As for using a tax-based incentive system as opposed to a government subsidy, money not appropriated is not money lost. + In no instance should the federal government pay a current mining entity to engage in cleanup of a contaminated site. If the event that tax incentives are not enough to get a mining entity to engage in environmental cleanup, it will be necessary for the Federal government to engage in cleanup of the site at the cost to the taxpayer, through use of the Superfund or other means. This should be made acceptable to the public through an ad campaign and/or statements from public leaders explaining why this step is necessary. + As a means to both provide for continued mining operations within the United States in the foreseeable future and to best implement environmentally responsible mining practices, the mining industry should employ newer and less environmentally damaging mining practices and technology. This should be employed by using tax incentives as a means to entice the mining industry to choose new equipment, as opposed to forcing the use of new technologies and methods through legislation, which could harm the economic viability of mining in some areas. This also protects the movement of mining operations to other nations which have less environmental controls by making the shift to more environmentally-friendly mining methods and techniques more fiscally attractive through tax incentives. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," +This is a typical problem with modern works; many writers may be conscious that mindsets and culture of the past was different but do not put this into thought as they judge those of a previous era; this is one major flaw of Black Elk’s Story in that it is easily noticed within the first chapters. Judging Neihardt with the values of today is an unfortunate drawback to readers of Black Elk’s Story and one which many students of history would find a hindrance to Rice’s work. This aside, Julian Rice presents his argument showing skill as a writer and in a way understandable to the reader and this helps to overcome what readers might find discouraging about Black Elk’s Story. +In just simple terms of readability, Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks wins; not only is the book easier to follow but also tells the story of Black Elk much better than Rice is able to in Black Elk’s Story. As Rice weighs most of his argument on the events which Black Elk told Neihardt and how Neihardt transcribed those events, he seemingly ignores the actual telling of the life of Black Elk in great detail. One could challenge the validity of titling Rice’s book Black Elk’s Story with the major focus on the interpretation of Black Elk’s life by other authors. Flaws aside, Rice writes his work using not only the work of other biographers of Black Elk but also delves deeply into his research of the Sioux holy man; Black Elk’s Story quotes such items as oral interviews with Sioux and many other works concerning both Black Elk and other Sioux from the period of Black Elk’s life. (Rice 157). Had Rice been able to interview Black Elk for his work, he would most certainly have produced a work far different from Black Elk Speaks, as his book shows how he would interpret the details told from Black Elk in a different manner than Neihardt transcribed them. Rice even begins to discredit how Black Elk describes his story and that he uses “concepts and metaphors to make them [his stories] sympathetic and comprehensible to a Christian audience” (Rice 63). +In comparison, Black Elk Speaks relies solely on Neihardt’s interviews with who had at the time become Nicholas Black Elk, a former Sioux holy man converted to Catholicism. Black Elk Speaks follows Black Elk’s life only to the massacre at Wounded Knee. In a letter from Neihardt to Black Elk printed in the appendix of the 2004 paperback edition it seems that this is as Neihardt wished it to be as he wrote “I would want you to tell the story of your life beginning at the beginning and going straight though to Wounded Knee.” (Neihardt 212). It could be assumed that Neihardt found this portion of Black Elk’s life the most important and interesting, and possibly thought it would be the most enjoyable to the reading public. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," Tracy Warner, editor of the Wenatchee World noted how Eastern Washington interpreted the action of the Seattle City Council in saying “Seattle [and Western Washington] had looked east and said: You are a mistake.” Such actions have increased the drive of splitting the state. +The prospect of dividing Eastern Washington from Western Washington is not historically new, and has had support by many from Eastern Washington for some time. There have been many proposals to split Washington into two separate states, yet most have not had the amount of support the most recent bill had, which was introduced by State Senator Bob Morton to the Washington State Legislature in January 2005. While being mainly passively supported in Eastern Washington, many residents of Western Washington were decidedly furious over the idea. Articles appearing in Western Washington papers such as The Seattle Times and Vancouver’s The Columbian not only played down the idea, but rationalized the need of Western Washington and Eastern Washington to remain together. Yet these articles fail to address questions posed by many from Eastern Washington, why should Eastern Washington be forced to submit to the political whim of Western Washington when even the most simple of ideas in each area are the opposite in the other? +The differences between Western and Eastern Washington can be studied scientifically with factors such as climate and geography, economically by noticing the very different economies the scientific factors create, and historically by noticing the historic aspects of what make up the “Cascade Curtain.” The more modern aspects of the Cascade Curtain must be noted as well. The Cascade Curtain divides Washington into two political entities, the West very Liberal and the East very conservative. During the mid-20th Century this was not as heightened of a difference as there is today. The politics of Washington have morphed taken the shape of the divide in Washington. +To most people in Washington, the brand of politics a candidate represents are not as important as where the politician is from. 44 percent of Washingtonians polled would refuse to vote for any candidate, regardless of political leaning, if that candidate was from Eastern Washington. +The two major parties of the state have taken the feeling of the citizenry, as now the Republican Party represents the interests of Eastern Washington and Democratic Party those of Western Washington. The Spokesman Review, Eastern Washington’s largest and most widely read and distributed newspaper has said the Democratic Party of Washington is “the party of the downtown Seattle environmental lawyer” as opposed to the Democratic Party’s own view as being the “party of the little guy.” The Washington State Republican Party has essentially become the party of Eastern Washington. Even the party’s logo shows Eastern Washington in red with an elephant crushing the blue of Western Washington. +While downplayed by most in Western Washington, the division in Washington State is clear. As Western and Eastern Washington grow, the division of the state only appears to heighten. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," + Another major challenge in changing current mining policy is how best to regulate the closure of mines which have scared the landscape and present an ecological hazard. Any major change in mining policy that would be more restrictive on the economic viability would create a new set of problems. Not only would workers become jobless, the 1872 law is unclear of who should bear the responsibility of ecological cleanup because there was no such question in 1872. + The true challenge in modifying the 1872 law is that with these problems compounded upon one another, no mutually amiable solutions can be suggested for modification of the law. With no simple solutions to the problem there are few willing to tackle the antiquated policy, which would risk alienating a portion of the population. This extends not only to mining policy but to public lands policy as a whole. Most find it easier to allow a policy none are happy with to continue as opposed to making a single group happy. + Thus, the challenge in creating a comprehensive overhaul of mining policy relates not just to the balancing of interests in a new policies creation but in the general ambivalence by those in charge of policy. + In order to best amend the current mining policy the economic realities of modern resource-extraction must be taken into account, along with the socio-ecological aspects of modern business practices. With these ideas as a base, comprehensive policy changes could be created. The first recommendation will deal with how best to institute policies which would address the current mine operators which operate with profits in relation to responsibility for environmental cleanup and pollution abatement. The second recommendation will address how to implement strategies from Recommendation One on operations which do not operate with profits. The third recommendation will address how best to implement environmental cleanup on sites which have been abandoned and for which no current entity has ties to the former operator. The last recommendation will describe how best to implement new technologies to extend the economic viability of mining in the United States with making it socially and politically acceptable. + Modern American mining corporations should be forced to pay for any ecological damage for which they are responsible on American soil. Thus, it is necessary implement a policy forcing responsibility of cleaning up ecological damage at current mining and former mining operations which are under the auspices of a currently-existing mining corporation or other existing entity. Of course, in the event of an entity that cannot afford to clean an area it would be prudent for another option to be available to better take care of ecological damage. This will be addressed later. + Existing companies which manage and operate mining operations and obtain profits should be able to implement strategies for both reducing ecological damage and for dealing with current ecological problems due to the fact that the profits being reaped for the company come from the exploitation of the environment. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," This limitation aside, Rice deeply studies his subject in great detail and his work, especially after reading Black Elk’s Story, is very helpful in gaining more insight into the life of Black Elk. + From reading any book on the life of Black Elk a reader could discern that his life was quite complex. In Black Elk Speaks Neihardt is able to write the story which Black Elk wished to tell and wished to be written about him, a note which must be noticed by any reader. Indeed, one could stretch and skew details on one’s own life or exaggerate details to explain their own life in a way different from what a more objective writer may have written in a biography. This aside, any comparison between Black Elk Speaks and Black Elk’s Story would find that Neihardt’s interview of Black Elk provides a much better narrative of the holy man’s life than Rice is able to provide in his work. This can be attributed to two factors: the audience intended by each author and the authors themselves. + John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, unlike Black Elk’s Story, is intended for a general audience and not necessarily as a scholarly work. In the early part of the 20th Century, books concerning stories of the “Wild West” and especially Native Americans were very popular. Although Black Elk Speaks was originally published in 1932, it could be assumed that as the popularity of “Wild West” stories and stories of Native Americans was still ever-present in American Culture through the 1960s that this book was not only conceived as a way of telling the story of Black Elk but was written with the knowledge that the book would become popular to the general public and thus generate a substantial profit. This aside, Neihardt seemed to have an interest in allowing Black Elk to tell his life’s story. + John G. Neihardt was a writer of mainly poetic works during the 20th Century. He attended what was then Wayne Normal College (now Wayne State) in Wayne, Nebraska and developed an interest in poetry. (Nebraska state historical society). Neihardt would begin writing poetry after graduating at the age of sixteen (nde.state.ne.us). As he began his interviews with Black Elk he did not have the idea of writing about the Sioux Holy man but “for no other reason than that he knew Crazy Horse” (Neihardt xxiv) as he was researching for his poems. Neihardt had written a previous poetic works centering around the Sioux Chief Crazy Horse who was the second cousin of Black Elk, and Black Elk had “known the great chieftain well” (Neihardt xxiv). While interviewing Black Elk in his research of the Plains Indian Wars, he describes the preface of the 1932 edition that “I was deeply impressed by the scope of [Black Elk’s] life experience” (Neihardt xx) and that after his initial short visit he returns a year later “for an extended visit, [in the hopes] that he might relate his life story to me in fulfillment” (Neihardt xx).state.ne.us).",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," + By employing the most modern mining techniques and methods, the economic viability and feasibility of American mining could be protected and protracted for the foreseeable future. Alyson Warhurst and Ligia Noronha (2000) explain that using “state-of-the-art-processing technologies [and] new production methods with pollution prevention techniques and environmental management systems [will] achieve lower cost and environmentally proficient production” and make companies both more competitive and economically viable (p. 19). Thus, this recommendation would improve environmental quality along with protecting American jobs and businesses as much as possible by employing fiscally-sound policy. + Many updates to the 1872 law have been proposed an assessed, but most are generally ignored by those in charge of policy making. Making a change to current policy would force responsibility of the change upon policymakers. Any change which lead to the closure of a mine and loss of jobs would reflect upon the policymaker. Policymakers are beholden to the electorate, who could seek retribution for losing their jobs in an election. Policymakers are also beholden to mining corporations as an interest group, and risk alienating these groups if they push forth a policy which harms mining interests. The conclusions suggested above and others have a very low probability of being implemented in the current climate of policymaking. + As long as it remains easier for lawmakers and government officials to leave current policy unchanged and blame its failings on previous generations of policymakers, current mining policy will remain unchanged. Recent attempts to amend mining laws in the latter days of the Clinton Administration are a case-in-point for the difficulty of finding a way to change the laws without severe criticism. McClure and Schneider (2001) explain that both mining corporations and environmental groups found President Clinton’s attempts to reform mining policy unsatisfactory and former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton essentially mitigated any changes attempted by Clinton (p. 9). + Even if changes are attempted it will remain a challenge for the changes to be accepted by either side of the debate. Policy will remain little changed until the problem becomes such that it must be dealt with. In conclusion, until the problems with current mining policy hemorrhage they will remain unchanged. It is unfortunate that many problems are approached by such an attitude of ambivalence. Mining policy is but one policy which will remain little changed in the foreseeable future. + + During the second half of the 19th Century, the Sioux tribe would become a major influence upon the United States. From the beginning of the Bozeman Trail into Sioux territory in the mid 1850s to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, the Sioux have affected the United States and its military profoundly. Sioux such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse have become known to Americans in their own lifetimes as power Sioux leaders and warriors and are still recognized over a century after their death. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," Even after this change in American interests hostility remained in Mexico against the United States and remained until the Second World War. + Other major disputes happened after the rivalry period as described by Diehl and Goerts, most notably the incursion of American troops into Mexico in response to border raids by Mexicans into the United States before the American entry into the First World War in 1917 in response to illegal border crossing and raids by outlaws, bandits and fugitive Indian groups (Schmitt 1974 p. 156). This reasserted the fear of Mexico that the United States intended to seize its territory and incorporate the Mexican States into the United States. American interests abroad have historically concerned the protection of its citizens and their property (Schmitt 1974 p. 110). + The beginning of major rival behavior began with Texas during the mid-1830s. The settlement of Texas by Americans and independence movement there began to galvanize public opinion against Mexico through condemnatory journalism prevalent in the United States (Pletcher 1977 p. 44). This, coupled with the existing distrust between the Americans and Mexicans over issues like religion, became the catalyst of the enduring rivalry between the two nations. + When Texas declared its independence from Mexico, the United States recognized Texas as a new nation, while Mexico did not (Frahm 2003 p. 90). This created a situation in which the two nations found themselves at opposing ends, which would eventually lead to war when the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, sparking the Mexican-American War. Pletcher (1977) explains that the Mexican-American War created a ‘set of relations’ for the United States to follow with Mexico and other nations in Latin America (p. 41). Indeed, the war set the climate of relations between the two nations for some time. + Mexico became fearful of future American aspirations toward its territory after the war and the United States following its ‘Manifest Destiny’ on the North American continent at their expense. Mexicans feared conquering by the United States because they feared living under similar circumstances as Native Americans and be considered inferior and reduced to a position of servitude (Frahm 2001 p. 95). Pletcher (1977) quotes Historian Gene M. Brack term for this innate fear of Americans by Mexicans during and after the war as “Yankeephobia” (p. 44). + Much like the Cold War and many other enduring rivalries, each side was increasingly skeptical of the other during the rivalry period. Mexico was fearful of American ambitions and continually feared imminent conquering by the United States. The United States also looked skeptically upon Mexico, viewing it as foreign a place as any in the world (Frahm 2001 p. 96). This caused a continuing resentment of the United States by Mexico, which was only magnified as American mercantile interests began to penetrate deep into Mexican territory. + Indeed, while Diehl and Goerts suggest that the essential Mexican-American rivalry abated in 1896, Schmitt (1974) argues that America and Mexico remained at odds until the 1940s (p.7). +",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," Today the Puget Sound region firmly has power over the entirety of the State of Washington. And as in the first conflict, it wishes to retain its power. The borders which we see today in Washington were not made with Eastern Washington in mind, indeed they were made for giving the Puget Sound region a maximum of power over what would become Washington State. Across the United States we see a similar problem develop in the early 19th Century in the State of Massachusetts and what would become the State of Maine. + Maine’s drive to statehood mirrors conditions which exist in Washington today. Massachusetts and what is now Maine were geographically separated from each other, much like the two sections of Washington. Indeed, the boundaries of Maine “served to remind those in Maine …that the union of Maine and Massachusetts was not only an unwilling but an unnatural one.” Also like Eastern Washington, the climate of Maine was much more extreme than that of Massachusetts. The case of Maine becoming a State could be an avenue for Eastern Washington to take in a quest for statehood. Maine also had many unsuccessful drives to independence from Massachusetts, much like the past and contemporary movements in Eastern Washington. There have been moves for Eastern Washington to cede from Washington and become both its own state and to join what was once part of the Washington territory, Idaho. Over the 20th Century we see the demographics of the situation change. +While Western Washington had a population explosion during the 20th Century, Eastern Washington grew at a more steady pace. While the entire State of Washington had a population growth of around 20 percent per decade in the mid-20th Century most of this growth was limited to the Seattle Megalopolis, from the Kent River Valley in the south to Everett in the north. We see the population of Eastern Washington dwindle from 35% of Washington’s total population to in the early 20th Century to only 21% nearing the end of the 20th Century. Even today, while Eastern Washington contains some large cities, only nine cities have a population of over 15,000 people. Three-fifths of the population of Eastern Washington lives in one of these nine cities. It is the amazing growth of Western Washington which has heightened the division of Eastern and Western Washington along with the natural and historical differences in the area. Eastern Washington cannot help but succumb to the political whim of Western Washington, as the votes of the entirety of Eastern Washington are not enough to combat those of Western Washington. Even The Seattle Times notes that just the voters in King County outnumber the 646,000 registered voters in Eastern Washington. +Recent events have intensified the divide between Eastern and Western Washington. When a resolution passed by the Seattle City Council called for the breaching of Snake River Dams, despite Seattle being located nearly 200 miles from where the Snake River enters the Columbia near the Tri-Cities, tempers raged in Eastern Washington. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," The Sioux have been romanticized as well within American culture, with Sioux such as Sitting Bull joining traveling shows like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and films made surrounding the history of the United States military and the Sioux such as Little Big Man. Other Sioux would become popular like Sitting Bull with William Cody’s Wild West Show; the Sioux Holy Man Black Elk would tour with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. + While not a military leader as the likes of the Sioux chiefs Crazy Horse or Sitting Bull, Black Elk is attached to the relations of the Sioux and the United States military. He fought in his early years against the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn and would be a major force in the adoption of the Ghost Dance by the Sioux in the late 1880s, which precipitated the massacre at Wounded Knee. Indeed, Black Elk, as many other members of the great Sioux Nation, acutely affected the military policy of the United States during the late 19th Century. Black Elk was the focus of many literary works throughout the 20th Century, chiefly of which is Black Elk Speaks, the autobiography of Black Elk transcribed by John G. Neihardt. + The chief source of information about Black Elk for any scholar would undoubtedly be his essential autobiography Black Elk Speaks. Black Elk Speaks is written along similar lines to the essential autobiography of the Apache leader Geronimo in Geronimo: In His Own Words. Niehardt transcribes the story which Black Elk tells to Neihardt and wishes to have known. While telling the story of the life of Black Elk though the tumultuous times of the late 19th Century, Black Elk Speaks also describes to the reader the life of the Sioux in a state of disarray as the number of whites in Sioux territory increases and the number of buffalo decrease. It is during this period of decline for the Sioux that major events in Black Elk's life take place. + Another work tackling the story of Black Elk in a different manner is Black Elk’s Story by Julian Rice. Rice, unlike Niehardt, was not able to interview Black Elk to write his work on the Sioux holy man as he was born in 1940, only ten years before Black Elk’s death. Rice writes his book Black Elk’s Story as almost more of an anthropological view of Black Elk’s life than a literary one despite the fact that Julian Rice was a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University. (quote source). The title he chooses for his book is almost misleading, as the author focuses most of his effort on analyzing the visions and mannerisms of Black Elk with little placed on the actual life of Black Elk. For a reader or researcher’s benefit, it is almost imperative that they have read Niehardt’s Black Elk Speaks prior to reading Black Elk’s Story for an adequate understanding of Rice’s book. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," Diehl and Goerts do not go into detail on the parameters set in their study of enduring rivalries, but certainly they did not take into account the fall of the Díaz regime in Mexico and the near decade of turmoil which it brought. Americans had a renewed resentment of Mexicans following the 1910 Revolution, which many Americans viewed as the rise of “Red Mexico” (Schmitt 1974 p. 7). Likewise, the revolution stirred up latent anti-American sentiment in Mexico by Mexican intellectuals through books, plays, and paintings (Schmitt 1974 p. 8). It is only after World War II and a more stable government in Mexico that the true rivalry between the United States and Mexico subsides. + Clearly, the rivalry began through general feelings of aversion between Americans and Mexicans toward one another, based on past feelings of resentment between both Catholics and Protestants and English and Spanish culture. American interests in Mexican territory, and the decision of the United States to annex the independent Republic of Texas, stirred even more anger from Mexico which only exacerbated the rivalry condition between the United States and Mexico. It was beset by countless frontier problems in which bandits, outlaws and Indian groups used Mexican territory as a safe-haven in order to stage raids against American targets. The situation changed somewhat as American interests shifted from territorial ambitions to economic interests within Mexico but was not truly over until the 1940s. + Schmitt (1974) explains that “Americans have won more often than the Mexicans, but they have also suffered serious losses both in lives and property” during the rivalry (p. xi). Indeed, the many years of raids from Mexico have affected the people of the United States for a time forced a continuous military presence between the United States and Mexico. Perhaps as this became unnecessary it spurred the move toward more economic activity in Mexico, and lent itself toward an end toward this rivalry. + + + Mining in the United States, and especially the American West, was a major economic activity throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. It was a catalyst that drove settlement westward after the annexation of Mexico’s northern territories and the Oregon Country in the middle of the 19th Century. In the modern United States mining activity has severely declined in the face of economic globalization; formerly economically viable mining operations now lie unused as American companies find new and more profitable ore deposits in other nations. + The problem related to mining now is that the United States much face the lingering affects of mining which dot the American landscape, especially in the western United States. The government of the United States must find a way to deal with the ecological damage and economic considerations remaining from its antiquated mining policy, which remains essentially unchanged since 1872. Robert McClure and Andrew Schneider (2001) of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explain a major shortcoming of the antiquated policy: “miners cart away […] minerals worth about $11 billion. +",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," What most people do not know, however, is that the “coastal Pacific Northwest [has] become increasingly intertwined with the inland region providing significant support to the coast.” Mainly agricultural Eastern Washington provides support to the coastal regions, by giving them “hydroelectric power, aluminum production for the airplane industry, and food to feed the ever-expanding population”. Though during the last century the economy of Eastern Washington has diversified, the backbone is still agriculture. Kay F. Reinartz explains in The Inland Northwest that “there is more to the [division between Western and Eastern Washington] than economics, but economics makes it strong[er].” +These economic differences, coupled with different climates, have created two very different areas within one political boundary. The division of Western and Eastern Washington are commonly referred to as the “Cascade Curtain,” as the Cascade Mountain range divides the two regions of Washington. It has been the development in each region, along with the end of settlement that has allowed the proverbial Cascade Curtain to spring up. The understanding of how two such diverse regions were placed in one political boundary is essential to understanding the political division within the State of Washington. The first settlers who migrated to what would become Washington State were largely composed of settlers from the Mid-Western part of the United States. +When the Washington Territory was carved out of the Oregon Territory in 1853, it contained only a few thousand settlers along with a few missionaries and employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company scattered though what today is the entirety of Washington, Idaho, and portions of Montana and Wyoming. Though later there would be influxes of largely foreign settlers in the latter part of the 19th Century, the population of Washington was very dynamic in number until the 20th Century. +Early population booms with the discoveries of precious metals brought the first real settlements to what would become Eastern Washington, along with modern Idaho as well, during the mid-19th Century. This allowed for the first East-West conflict, as the territorial capital of Olympia, which today remains the capital of Washington State fought to hold on the power it had as territorial capital. This conflict created the boundaries of Washington that can be seen today. Those who migrated east of the Cascades expressed dissatisfaction with the territorial government of Washington, and called for a territory to be created out of modern Eastern Washington and Idaho, along with parts of Montana and Wyoming. Many population centers vied to be made capital of the Washington territory, yet the capital remained in Olympia. +Washington’s boundaries were sealed at their modern limits, with Olympia keeping enough territory so it could keep a large amount of land while keeping the most population, and thus most power in the territorial government. Indeed, we see that such struggles for power in Washington are not only a modern occurrence but today mirror the old struggles of the 19th century. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," Neihardt continues in his letter saying that “this book would be not only the story of your life, but the story of the life of your people” (Neihardt 212). It seems that Neihardt not only had an interest of telling the story of Black Elk but taking the story of the life which Black Elk lived in his early years before the essential assimilation of the Sioux in the early years of the 20th Century. This keeps in line with the early reason Neihardt began interviewing Black Elk for his other poetic works and his interest in the Great Plains. +Despite any addition of ideas Neihardt may have inserted while transcribing the story of Black Elk, it is obvious that compared to Rice’s Black Elk’s Story it is Black Elk Speaks which better tells the story of Black Elk. By attacking Neihardt as a writer and attempting to discredit both Black Elk Speaks as a true story of Black Elk’s life and the means by which Black Elk told his own life story. + +From the beginning of the Republic to the Presidential Election of 2004, divisions have been made apparent in our society. The division, historically and contemporarily, has been dependent on many factors ranging from the Urban-Rural divide to class structure and standing in society. The Pacific Northwest epitomizes the divides. This difference is especially noticeable in the State of Washington, where nearly every extreme can be seen within a few hours distance. +The settling of Washington did not lend itself to this regional rivalry which exists today; it is rather the product of the establishment of distinct social and political climates which have developed in the time since settlement. Today we see two distinct areas of the state: Western Washington lying west of the Cascade Mountain Range, and Eastern Washington lying to the east of the Cascades. To understand the division within the State of Washington the most basic underlying factor must be explained: the climate of Washington State. +Indeed, the differences in Washington’s regions can be expressed most notably in climate differences. Though known as the “Evergreen State,” most of the State of Washington has a very arid climate. For example, while Western Washington may receive 160 inches of rain annually, Eastern Washington on average receives only 6 inches of rain per year. This disparity creates two distinct regions within Washington State, which over the history of the state have come to represent more than a climate difference between the regions, but political and social differences as well. Another factor linked to regionalism within Washington State is the economical differences between Western and Eastern Washington. +Economics within the State of Washington is nearly as different as the two distinct climates of Washington. While gigantic companies such as Boeing and Microsoft make their home in Washington, most large businesses in Washington State offer little in terms of employment to Eastern Washington. The bulk of Eastern Washington’s economy lies within the agricultural sector. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e," The majority of Neihardt’s writing was poetry published after the publication of Black Elk Speaks (nde. Black Elk Speaks would become the most widely read work written by Neihardt, but only many years after its original publication. John Neihardt would become Poet Laureate of Nebraska and the Praries in 1921 (Nebraska Historical) and hold the title until his death in 1973 (nde.state.ne.us.). While John Neihardt was not a journalist or historian, his interest in the Great Plains and interviews with Black Elk produced a work which should be considered scholastic and historical and stands as the de facto story of Black Elk. + This must be contrasted, along with other factors, to how Julian Rice wrote Black Elk’s Story. By virtue of age Rice was not able to have the same access to Black Elk that Neihardt had as he was only ten years of age when Black Elk passed away. Julian Rice takes a much different spin on the life of Black Elk, and focuses much more on being a holy man than on Black Elk’s life as a whole. Much like Neihardt, Rice has a background in literature and was a professor of English as Florida Atlantic University. From looking at other works written by Rice, it is obvious he has his own interest on the Sioux and especially on Sioux spirituality and other anthropological studies of Sioux culture. This interest can be noticed in Black Elk’s Story as the book explains the visions of Black Elk in great detail as the author challenges the means by which John Neihardt has transcribed the account from his interview with Black Elk. + Early on in Black Elk’s Story Julian Rice speaks of other biographies of Black Elk and seemingly explains the need he felt to write his book and denigrates Black Elk Speaks as a book that should “be relegated to the ranks of nineteenth century curios, reflecting white misconceptions of Indians” (Rice 14). From this early tone, the entire purpose of this book appears not only to convey the story of Black Elk but to attack Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks by focusing a major portion of his writing for the first few chapters against John Neihardt. Rice attacks Neihardt by calling his philosophy on life “part of that Euro-American arrogance that has infected even literary giants from Mark Twain […] to T.S. Elliot” (Rice 17). Rice continues by saying that “Neihardt’s social attitudes are conventionally assimilationist” (Rice 19). +While it is obvious that Rice has vested a good amount of time and energy into studying the background of both Black Elk and John Neihardt, Rice places the weight in his argument more on attacking Neihardt as an individual and fails to discuss how what he describes as the purported racism of Neihardt was the general mindset of Americans in the early part of the 20th Century. ",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +e,"Not only does the U.S. Treasury get nothing, Congress has granted miners a tax break worth an estimated $823 million.” + Modern mining corporations are subject to policies which were enacted nearly 135 years ago, at a time when the United States looked toward economic development to unite a nation that had been gripped by regional conflict and diverging economic interests which had lead to Civil War. Despite attempts by the Federal government to adjust the 1872 laws to better suit the United States of today, debate over how best to change these policies rages. Perhaps more unwilling than unable, mining policy remains little changed throughout a nearly 135 year period. + Early attempts to regulate mining activities began in 1807, when congress passed an act enabling the leasing of lead deposits for mining, which was changed in 1846 to allow the sell of public land to private firms for mining development (Maley, 1979, p. 2). Early controversy in mining policy took place after gold was discovered in the newly annexed California Territory in 1848, yet major reforms in mining policy were not undertaken until after the Civil War. The General Mining Law of 1872, which remains as the major legislation regarding mining policy, was the final step in three major mining policy acts which were meant to both codify mining policy into the legal code and aid early mining corporations in development throughout the United States, including the West (Mayer, 1986, p. 624). + Maley (1979) explains that changes in 1872 were prompted by necessary additions to the legal code regarding mining claims, and that after the laws were enacted in 1872 they remained essentially intact and unchanged (p. 3). The law was passed in the hopes it would spur economic development, especially in the West, by making mining economically viable and attractive. Following the Civil War the United States looked toward economic development as a means by which to heal the wounds of the Civil War. This economic climate helped create the 1872 law; at the time common opinion was that mineral exploration and mining were beneficial to the United States (Footer and VonLunen, 1999, p. 118). Through major policy changes both economic development and settlement moved into lands that remained unsettled in the American Midwest and West. The 1872 law helped not only the American economy to expand into mining but also drew settlers into uninhabited areas of the American West. Certainly this was the intent of Congress as it crafted and passed the Mining Law of 1872. + The chief aspect of the economic considerations of the policy can be noted through in the language of the act, which states: “all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United states [are] to be free and open to exploration and purchase” (Maley, 1979, p. 6). Public lands were open to those who could find minerals to mine from public lands, and the General Mining Law of 1872 established a loose framework as a means to carry out this means of economic expansion. +",27,German,male,Bachelor of Arts,Unemployed,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"I have trouble imagining a scenario where he could introduce conclusive evidence in either case because, just like objective value, either example would still include the disagreement involved in his original argument which makes them require consistency. His most likely response would be to utilize the same strategy and infer here that the best explanation is they are different cases altogether and require different lines of reasoning. This however simply adds to the inconsistency in which he uses that line of reasoning and does not solve the problem. Rather it strengthens some convictions I have been attempting to develop between the lines about the nature of inference to the best explanation as a form of argument. +The lack of evidence needed to infer the best explanation by Mackie’s standards frankly frightens me and shows its true ineffectiveness. How can correlation between disagreement and objective truth be simply inferred without conclusive evidence? Because it is the easiest answer? That does not seem at all satisfactory to me; that reasoning is flawed and can not conclude anything with certainty. It is as if we are simply accepting the wrong answer for now until new information and evidence comes to light instead of searching for that evidence. This makes inference to the best explanation seem distinctly inappropriate reasoning in any case of disagreement. Why then does Mackie instinctually pair the two (as he has no real evidence that this is appropriate)? There must be some relation between the two that caused this association and I believe the commonality lies within the flaws already laid out against inference to the best explanation. What this says about disagreement is that it is a form of argument that lacks enough evidence to make any remark concerning objective moral values. In fact I believe that the two can not even associate with one another. +Disagreement is incorrectly defined by Mackie and others as something that is objective because how could it say anything about objective truth if it was subjective? The answer here is that it can not. Disagreement is wholly subjective to the human condition; it is a facet of our nature. We do not only disagree about morality, we disagree about non-moral fact so disagreement is not something specific to morality, rather it is specific to humanity. It takes on different forms, for example compromise. And how could we compromise about objective value? Mackie would say this only alludes to the fact that there is no objective value, but the true answer here is that disagreement lacks the ability to comment on things objective in their nature. Would it not only then be natural for us to disagree about morality regardless of its objective nature? It is a mistake to link the two because they are completely separate and lack the ability to provide insight about one another; disagreement is subjective in its relation to humanity and therefore can hold no sway over the truth or falsity of objective value. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"It is for this reason that I find the argument from disagreement, or in Mackie’s case the argument from relativity, irrelevant. + + + + In Wuthering Heights, many characters shift their feelings toward one another; relationships often transform from love into hatred and vice versa. Heathcliff is an interesting case because we can see his transformation spelled out in his own words and it does more than simply change his opinion of his relatives, dead or alive. At this moment in Heathcliff there are some drastic and warranted changes being made to his character, wherein his motives evolve. + Heathcliff is the master of both the Heights and grange at this point in the novel and is in complete control of the last of his living relatives, his vengeance is almost complete. So what is the change he speaks of that cast its shadow over him if he is the master of this world? It therefore can only be a change within himself. The change, as he describes it, seems to represent that Heathcliff is losing the will to live or, in other words, crossing into the next world. Before it could be said that Vengeance was the driving force in his life, it caused him to seek his fortune and come back to the Heights. Though his vengeance would be incomplete by his own standards it seems that Heathcliff has misplaced his grudge and as a result searches for peace, which inevitably takes the form of death. Instead of wishing to torment both Catherine and Hareton, he yearns to never see them again as they remind him of his dead love. Again he chooses peace over vengeance. It comes to fruition that the grudge he held is what caused his own torment, a self-perpetuating cycle that caused him to be more and more callous. This selection shows us the collapse of that cycle and the search for peace and resolution taking its place. + The intricate similarities between Catherine and Hareton, and Heathcliff and his Catherine, are what drive Heathcliff to yearn for peace of mind. The tides have now turned and Heathcliff reveals that the two torment him by reminding him of the relationship he had with Catherine; It pains him to see the two together as he once was with his own love. These are the thoughts that consume him and take away his will to live. He continues on pg. 289 to say that “- I have to remind myself to breathe – almost remind my heart to beat!” alluding to his obsession with these thoughts, how they have taken hold of him; even life will take a backseat to these musings. The vengeance he yearned for has evolved into something that is completely introspective, and instead of lashing out to gain some sort of peace out of revenge he begins to lash inwards to seek out the heart of what remains to cause his torment. + How sad must the man have been if when he loses his lust for revenge he loses all will to live. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"This is also the line of argument that he implements to account for disagreement; the best explanation for disagreement would be that there are no objective moral values, they are instead relative to ones culture. Due to this line of thought for any consistency to be established it must then follow that for culture to be an appropriate cause of morality there must also not be any disagreement within each group. + Mackie believes to have solved this issue as well, accounting for the possible disagreement within groups through what he calls moral heretics or reformers. The idea here is that disagreement involved with these reformers is simply about non-moral facts and is an extension of their more faithful adherence to the codes relatively derived form their culture. Mackie uses the word “consistency”, stating that the disagreement established by the reformer’s stricter observance of the codes is required for the consistency he or she seeks within the rules the culture has developed. The disagreement, in accordance with this account, is then derived from differences in application of morality and not morality itself; it is in the realm of non-moral fact. + I believe that this account of moral reformers and heretics is unsatisfactory in that it only takes into account a specific moral reformer. Moral disagreement can be established within specific groups if one looks past this singular example of reformation. I would like to bring up a contemporary example, a type of moral disagreement in this culture, the reformer pushing for gay rights and more specifically marriage. The argument against gay marriage is usually one from a standpoint of religion where they state that a union between two men or two women is morally wrong. It is clear then that this is a moral disagreement and not an argument about the definition of marriage or any other non-moral fact, here the disagreement is about the moral value associated with being gay. Mackie would most likely respond by trying to claim that these are two separate relative groups each with there own moral codes which would make this type of disagreement the one he has already accounted for in his original argument. My response would be to claim that his definition of group, or way of life, is too vague and if he were willing to make this separation within a single nation where would the final line be drawn? Could we go as far as to claim that morals are specifically relative to ones immediate family? I think not. In fact I argue that if he were to allow this to be the case his original argument would be drastically different and would not account for the disagreement he used to refute objective moral value. It would instead have to encompass all kinds of disagreement because it would attempt to turn all moral disagreement into non-moral fact by becoming more specific with its definition of group or way of life. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg," + Victorian novels are characterized by their overwhelming attention to detail and their focus on the aristocracy of the period. Two novels that are considered Victorian but stray away form this tradition are Oliver Twist and Wuthering Heights. Both novels employ an element of mystery and a flare for the bizarre, atypical of the novels from the period, which strengthens the characters within each work; providing insight that elaborates on their motives and emotions. + +“And now, hosts of bewildering and confusing ideas came crowding on his mind. He seemed to be still walking between Sikes and Crackit, who were angrily disputing: for the very words they said, sounded in his ears; and when he caught his own attention, … he found that he was talking to them…. Suddenly he started back at the report of fire arms; and there rose into the air loud cries and shouts; lights gleamed before his eyes, and all was noise and tumult, as some unseen hand bore him hurriedly away. Through all these rapid visions, there ran an undefined, uneasy consciousness of pain, which weared and tormented him incessantly.” +(Dickens, 220) + + + The two novels utilize this mystery often through dream sequences or dreamlike states, though the content and function varies in each specific case. In Oliver Twist these strange happenings often reveal some insight concerning Oliver’s inner layers, what pains him, and his awareness about the true nature of the things happening around him. When the shooting of Oliver is finally revisited in chapter 28, Oliver relives the shooting vividly, as if in a dream, while he struggles to find help (see left). The passage stresses the lack of control that Oliver had over the events that unfolded, as well as the dire straights his health had come to occupy, which was strongly present via Oliver’s hallucinations of Sikes and Crackit. The shooting itself overwhelms him, all his senses are numbed as he does not notice the “unseen hand” that bears him away; he experiences his despair over again removed from the shock of pain, as the pain is now constant and is linked with fear rather than surprise. With Oliver being overwhelmed the question arises about whose will brought about his misfortune, because it was certainly not his own. This shooting reinforces the notion that Oliver has little control over anything in that he can not bring himself to even attempt to gain control of an event’s outcome, even while his life is in danger. A growing sense of defeat in Oliver is also implied by this selection, as if old Fagin had begun to break him, forcing him into accepting this despair, influencing his ability to react. For otherwise it can be assumed that Oliver would have made some effort, at least simply for the sake of his own life. + + +“The day passed off – day! There was no day; it was gone as soon as come – and night came on again; night so long, and yet so short; long in it’s dreadful silence and short in it’s fleeting ours. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"So now every night he would silently watch as his robed twin would stumble over the cliffs like a hermit grown mad from loneliness now giddy from the sensation of the wind flowing over him with a smile on his face to match. Not once had Max stayed asleep long enough to watch the inevitable collision at the bottom of the cliff; each night he chases away his acceptance and startles awake before the fall is finished. Until tonight. +Talking to himself while shuffling out of the bathroom, Max wonders “Maybe I should see a shrink….. I mean this has got to mean something.” He reaches the light switch on the wall near his bed only to find that the power is out. “That would explain the heat, no ac.” Mumbles Max in realization. So now he wanders over to the only light source left in the room, the curtains which glitter orange from the rising sun behind. “Now to let some light in,” he says but as he pulls the curtain back he is not greeted by the morning sun. Instead a scarred earth lay beyond his window; burnt orange and red littered with the ghosts of skyscrapers and covered in ash. Stunned into paralysis, a feeling of realization rushes over Max and his heart sinks into grief. Unfortunately his dismay consumes his thought and he does not notice the hulking creature soaring around his 12th story window. Its skin is burnt and its wings full of holes like that of a tortured bat. Max whispers to himself, “I must be….” Only to be interrupted by two claws bursting through his windows ripping at his chest. Max struggles to stay inside bracing himself against the window frame but his attempt is feeble and with unknown strength the creature slings him into the ashy orange air. + + + In book two of his Epistles, Letter LXVI, Seneca explains in depth the concepts of virtue and indifferent actions through the explanation of conversations had with a dear friend of his, Claranus. The interweaving of virtue and indifferent action is shown clearly, he explains how they are related and dissimilar and why virtue is the end all goal of life. This is first established through the example of his friend Claranus who, even though his body is feeble and frail, lives a happy existence because of his sound mind. Seneca links this in to why virtue is the greatest good and the only way to true happiness. + Virtue is generally defined as living in accordance with nature, or doing as one was designed by a higher power whether it be the cosmos or some deity. It is the greatest and only good, all other actions, if not virtuous, are indifferent and all virtuous actions are equal. Seneca explains that even two opposing actions, like for example enduing torture and sex, are equally good if done virtuously. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"For Black entertainers both performance art (music, dancing, and the like) and the role of the performer were changed forever by Jazz and the Blues. Sammy Davis Jr., who worked through the transition from “spectacle to respectable” and during his career furthered that shift, is an example of the culmination of that change. +One particular piece of media that embodies the result of the previously mentioned transition is a performance at a Rat Pack benefit in St. Louis of the song “One for my Baby and One for the Road” by Davis. In this performance Davis talks about how the song has been sung by countless vocalists over the years and then proceeds to impersonate many of those singers throughout his own version. He touches upon singers of the day, both black and white, such as Nat “King” Cole, Dean Martin, Louie Armstrong, Tony Bennet, and Fred Estair who sang the original version. He finishes the song with a flourish, belting out the lyrics in his own voice. It is how he plays these characters, and how he presents his own persona, which truly personifies the change he was so instrumental in bringing about. +In the early 1900’s blacks were performing as caricatures of themselves on stage. Black face was still widely used and the characters portrayed the black American in a highly negative and stereotypical light. Black music was essentially non-existent outside of its own circles and never recorded. With the explosion of Blues and Jazz and the Harlem nightlife that accompanied them, the black performer was given a chance to redefine his image. Davis strove to mold one that fostered respect and presented the black man with dignity and class. One can see his success in his performance with the Rat Pack in St. Louis. The song is sprinkled with comedy and beauty, and even during the impersonations where he pokes fun, Louie Armstrong and Dean Martin, he does so in a way where respect is given to each other performer. He does this by pouring himself into the character and giving it up to the other singers a little before he does so. When he begins his impersonation of Armstrong he takes a moment and gathers himself before unleashing the raspy voice Louie was known for. Not only is the bit spot on accurate, but the audience can see in the way that he sings that nothing is held back. With Martin its more of the same. Drink in hand, Sammy dives into the character and takes a couple shots at Martin (a common occurrence between Pack members). The comedy in the act does not discriminate, nor does it make a spectacle of Davis himself. It is simply commentary, given with a little bit of love, and the laughs he receives pay homage to each other performer. +Before beginning his bit on Nat “King” Cole, Davis says a little extra about the man. “Starting out first, not in terms of ridicule or any other reason. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg," This is a costly oversight on Mackie’s part and the resultant disagreement can not be accounted for by the realm of non-moral fact. The moral heretic in most cases would be someone who has developed an individual moral code separate from the conventional one. A cereal killer would be the easiest example here but due to the involvement of insanity it would really only muddle and distract the argument on either side. Instead I offer up the example of a criminal, nothing specific just your average run of the mill deviant the only stipulation being he isn’t committing crimes out of desperation. A criminal is immersed in the culture of whose laws he breaks, and yet he continues to break them. Should his moral code not reflect the code of his relative culture? Why then does he defy the accepted or conventional moral rules? To use Mackie’s own reasoning, the best explanation here is moral disagreement; it is simpler and more likely to be the case. +My ability to utilize Mackie’s own line or reasoning in this case, inference to the best explanation, illuminates another inconsistency within his argument. If the best explanation for disagreement within morality is that there is no objective moral value then wouldn’t it be the case that the best explanation of disagreement within moral code derived from culture is that morality is not culturally relevant? Why is it the case that the best explanation of disagreement is the refutation of the underlying premise in one case but not in the other? If we were to follow his line of reasoning then there are two options that come to the surface concerning relative morals. First is that we would have to conclude that the claim that morals are culturally relevant is false which would leave us without an adequate account of morality. This speaks to my major concern, the second option, that if we no longer have an account of morality that can survive the argument from disagreement inferring falsity as the best explanation then is inference to the best explanation a line of reasoning that can explain conclusively that there are no objective moral values? If used consistently it can not, and consistency is certainly required. +In response Mackie would most likely first argue that in the case of culture disagreement comes in the form of non-moral fact and there is no true moral disagreement, but I have already shown this not to be the case. He also could argue that objective value is a special case in which inference to the best explanation is the most accurate line of reasoning. Accomplishing this would be no small task but he could go about it two distinct ways, arguing that objective value is a special or dissimilar case in regard to relative moral beliefs or in regard to moral reformers and heretics. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"But simply because of the fact that this man contributed something that no one else will ever be able to duplicate or to fill the gap now that he’s missing. Out of sheer and total respect, just a few bars of Mr. Nat ‘King’ Cole.” Another thing that Sammy did was play himself on stage, outside of his impersonations. The man talking to you between songs was Davis, not his on stage persona. He carried himself with the utmost poise and did so because he wanted, above all other things, respect. This impersonation is the exemplification of his class. Davis makes it seem like an honor to be doing a bit about Cole, you can see his actual admiration for the man. It is almost like he is introducing him to come out and play but Cole’s voice comes out of Davis instead of the man coming up on stage himself. Davis is paying his respects to the dead singer through his own routine. And the way in which he introduces the late Cole, not to be overlooked, is an incredibly articulate preamble to his bit. But this was always the case with Sammy, he drove himself to speak as an educated man would even though he himself had not attended kindergarten. It was all part of how he presented himself, always with the utmost class leaving no room for anyone to look down upon him. +It is the way Davis carries himself between impersonations that shows the true character of the man and marks the difference in performance for Black artists that he helped bring about. On stage Davis is himself, and so he carries himself with class and earns the respect of the audience. What he is not doing is making the performance about the color of his skin, winning laughs with a caricature of blacks in America. He showcases his talent and lets it speak for itself, like at the end when he goes for the big finish with his own voice. The figurative floodgates open up and Sammy fills the room with his voice, outshining any of his previous impersonations. It is the highlight of the song, the part that sticks in your head, the “wow” factor. The audience can’t help but to be impressed at the flare and skill he displays. That is how he won rooms and that is how he wanted to represent black America, with displays of his talent. +The respect and dignity which he gave and demanded as a result of his performances was something that Davis had made a conscious effort to include in all his appearances. In an interview with Alex Haley in 1966, Sammy spoke about his motivations and his career. One incident that he spoke about stands out as the true beginning for his philosophy on performance. While in the armed forces Sammy did shows for his fellow troops, singing and dancing. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"It would seem that vengeance was the only thing he had to live for and as it became a futile expression of hate, his life became just the same. This lead to his yearning for peace and as he could not find it in his life, he sought it out in the ground, next to his only love. + +Sweat soaks the shirt resting between Max’s back and the sheet he sleeps upon. It pools around his midsection and begins to cool and Max startles awake as his cold, damp, salty sheet drives a shiver like a spike into his spine. He shoots up from underneath his covers and gasps for air clutching his face in his hands. When he finally calms his shaking he mumbles, “Shit,” under his breath and through his fingers as if someone is listening. Rolling out of bed he stumbles in the dark towards his bathroom to splash some water on his face. His sweat soaked plain white t-shirt is gripping his chest like paper mache and his boxers, damp and heavy, seem to sink with each of his steps. Like his shorts the air in Max’s apartment was hot and thick with moisture. A heat wave had set in on the city and taken hold in his building making it feel as if each room was on the brink of a summer thunderstorm. Yet, oddly enough, the heat was not the cause of Max startling awake tonight, rather it was due to a recurring problem of his. +Max is of average height and build and his skin is, for lack of a better word, loose because until recently it encompassed a much larger man. This is of course also the cause of his slipping underwear but Max has chosen to ignore his weight loss as it was not planned or caused by any gumption of his own. Max’s face, though currently pale and distraught, is defined by soft features and deep dark eyes, topped with ragged brown hair. As some color returns to his visage and some warmth crawls back into his limbs, Max notices that his bathroom is sweating as if having its own nightmare. The sight of the dripping tile walls draws his attention back towards his dream and Max whines to himself, “Falling, its always falling.” +For the past month this particular dream has been the headlining act in Max’s subconscious. Every night he drifts into sleep and is met with a peaceful cliff top scene overlooking a mighty river winding through the valley below. Grass on the cliff has lost its color; blades made grey from fear of the perilous heights. But braver the grass was than the trees for not even the mighty oak had dared to wander near the cliff. Among the courageous blades, clad always in a silver robe, Max sees himself dangerously near the cliff’s edge gazing up towards the sun. At first he would shout to himself warning of the coming cliff but his words repeatedly proved futile. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"How she refused to let go, allowing herself to be cut by the window repeatedly, showed the passion with which she aspired to return into the house; a passion that rivaled madness, spirit or not. Heathcliff’s reaction to Lockwood’s account of the ghost reveals his own involvement and his turmoil concerning this spirit. Cold and angry, he ushers Lockwood away and once alone in the room cries for Catherine. “ ‘Come in! come in!’ he sobbed. ‘Cathy do come. Oh do – once more! Oh! my heart’s darling, hear me this time – Catherine, at last!’ ” (Dickens, 24). Clearly Heathcliff yearns deeply to see this ghost and to have her wish fulfilled, calling her his “heart’s darling” she is clearly the object of his affection. He loved her so, and it is then easy to assume that her death may be the cause of Heathcliff’s general misery and callous behavior. The miserly man curiously seems to wish to be haunted, calling out to Catherine out of an extreme yearning to be near her. + + +“She showed herself, as she often was in life, a devil to me! And, since then, sometimes more, and sometimes less, I’ve been the sport of that intolerable torture!... When I went from home I hastened to return: she must be somewhere at the Heights, I was certain! And when I slept in her chamber – I was beaten out of that – I couldn’t lie there; for the moment I closed my eyes she was either outside the window, or sliding back the panels, or entering the room, or even resting her darling head on the same pillow as she did when a child.” +(Bronte, 257) + + +This assumption is proven true in a later conversation (see right) where Heathcliff tells of his first haunting and of his lust to see the ghost again. Further insight can be taken from this scene as to the potency of Heathcliff’s passion for his lost love and how it has absorbed his life and motivations. It both tortures him and drives him, for he only desires to be with her. As he said, he no longer leaves the house for long worrying he’ll miss her appearing, and sleep escapes him because he imagines her near and can’t rest knowing it. This obsession drives him into madness, it is the cause of his decent and resulting death. His madness reaches its height when Heathcliff digs up the body of Catherine and reveals his desire to be close to it still, to lay next to it in eternal slumber. Here he has arrived at the point in his delusion where it tortures him into a resolution, he must be with her and figures that death is the only way to accomplish that, thusly he loses his will to live and carry out his vengeance. + +During his decent into madness Heathcliff tells Nelly about his change in motivation from vengeance to his obsession over his dead love, how the mania affects him physically is what qualifies the incident as bizarre. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg," The emotions and feelings invoked by the action are indifferent and have no affect on the action being good or bad; if an action be intended by nature then that action is intrinsically good whether it be preferred (things that would be referred to as good, in a common sense of the word, such as pleasure) or avoided (things often regarded as bad like pain). Seneca explains this as such, he states that one action that is fitting can be no more fitting than any other action that is fitting as well, hence nothing is more honorable than that which is honorable. + In this same sense, no indifferent action is more important than any other. Some things are preferred and some avoided, but this is all due to reason and the attempt to live virtuously. He explains that though pleasurable actions may be more enjoyable to your physical existence, if done without virtue they are no more good or bad than any action which may cause pain or discomfort to your physical self. If done without virtue, no action can be good and therefore it does matter if you find yourself in pain or pleasure, both are equally unimportant what truly matters is if the action was in accordance with nature. The Sage would be neither afraid of pain or content with pleasure, he knows that true happiness comes only from virtue and these things are of no importance. It is this mindset that allows Seneca to see the cause of Claranus’ happiness. + Claranus may have a frail physical existence full of discomforts, but he himself is a very happy man. Seneca links this to his sound mind; even though he is plagued by his physical discomfort, Claranus has a strong mind and strong reason and his reason allows him to discern what is truly important in the stoic sense. Claranus overlooks his physical disabilites and regards them of no importance, though they may cause endless hassles; he knows that true happiness is a result of virtuous actions and instead of dwelling on his curse, he strives to be the virtuous man. In this way, Seneca believes that any man may overcome his troubles and find true happiness. One much just realize that these things do not matter, they only have power because they are given power, take away your belief in them and they will no longer affect you. + In his letter, Seneca speaks of and explains the good that these views can accomplish if applied with reason. One can overcome his troubles, as was the case with his friend Claranus, and make strides toward true happiness. The letter is a kind propaganda for the stoic way of life and it is very effective. + + + +Black culture has been a wildly influential component of the melting pot that is American society. The culture that Americans embrace today is often considered the child of Black influence in the first half of the 20th century, most prominently with regards to music and entertainment. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"In its most extreme application, I believe this would even include disagreement within the self. As a whole this line of reasoning does not service his claim that there are no objective moral values and in fact leads to a more difficult assertion about disagreement in general. + The possibility of disagreement within reformers is also not taken into account by this claim and obviously if we can find moral disagreement within the reformers it would be considered the same type of moral disagreement Mackie refutes outside the category. I introduce the concept of violence versus non-violence; different reformers both embrace and condemn the use of violence as a means to their reformation. Mackie would call this another case of non-moral fact and I would agree with him if this distinction only represented itself, however it does not. Beyond its affect on the actions of the reformers, this distinction represents an underlying disagreement in the morals of the reformers. It represents their conception of the morality of violence, and whether or not it is morally acceptable to implement violence in order to achieve their goals. Therefore it is not within the realm of non-moral fact but rather is the type of disagreement we require and because we can ascertain moral disagreement regardless of its relation to a sub-category we can again conclude that, based on Mackie’s original line of reasoning, morals can not be derived relatively from culture. As I had him argue in this case, I believe Mackie would attempt to categorize all disagreement within the reformers as disagreement in non-moral fact. As he defines it would only be disagreement in how they bring about their reformation and not on the basic moral level. What Mackie doesn’t consider is that disagreement in non-moral fact does not rule disagreement in moral fact. In fact a disagreement in non-moral fact could certainly stem from an inference developed from a deeper disagreement the two hold about a moral fact. And if we follow his original line of reasoning, inference to the best explanation, this would be the best answer based in the fact that disagreement qualifies the underlying premise as false. + Next I would like to examine the case of the moral heretic as I do not believe Mackie accounts for this instance of disagreement in his examination of moral reformers, even though he does mention the concept. He defines moral heretics and reformers as, “…people who have turned against the established rules and practices of their own communities for moral reasons, and often for moral reasons we would endorse.” I highlight the end of the phrase to draw attention to the conflict between this definition and the moral heretic. He casually lumps the heretic in with the reformer almost as if dismissing or overlooking the concept entirely. It is not the case that a moral heretic would have any endorsement from his culture because he does not hold conventional beliefs. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg,"At one time he raved and blasphemed; and at another howled and tore his hair. Venerable men of his own persuasion had come to pray beside him, but he had driven them away with curses.” + +(Dickens, 430) + +We often find our protagonist stumbling into this half-awake dreamlike awareness because it can service the development of a character like Oliver, who often keeps his mouth shut. Dickens describes the state as such, “Although Oliver had roused himself from sleep, he was not thoroughly awake. There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed…” (Dickens, 64). Near the end of the book we see Fagin experiencing a similar state, though maybe straying farther than Oliver into madness, as he waits to be hanged (see right). + +Fagin is simply waiting to die with no possibility of escape and no semblance of control, resultantly his behavior becomes bizarre. His inescapable end is an equalizing factor for him concerning Oliver, as it shows the two characters having similar encounters with death; both characters touch upon madness through delirium and hallucinations, though Fagin is the only one to get the full experience. The aforementioned commonality paints death as an equalizing inevitability; the fact that death is inescapable creates a dilemma for all people in that they must die despite fear of what it may be like and what it may entail. That fear drives Fagin close to madness and his semiconscious state is strikingly similar in its origins to those of Oliver’s vivid dreamlike hallucinations. The statement this makes about death also adds to the underlying morality of Dickens larger commentary on class; effectively saying that all of man is equal in that we all live and die, and luxury should not be withheld for some, while despair is forced on others. + +“As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child’s face looking through the window – Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled it’s wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood soaked the bed-clothes: still it wailed, ‘Let me in!’ and maintained its tenacious gripe almost maddening me with fear.” + +(Bronte, 20-21) + + +Wuthering Heights has its own things to say about class, but for this work mystery and the supernatural serve to reveal motive and create tension rather than develop larger concepts. For example, the dream Lockwood has about the ghost of Catherine Linton, when he stays at the Heights, implies some things about the motives of Heathcliff and alerts the reader to his inner strife; which may account for his callousness. The brutality of the dream itself, where Lockwood bloodies the ghost’s wrists by dragging them across the broken glass; and the ghost struggles not, wanting only to be let in, suggests something about the nature of the ghost; it’s desire to return into the house was strong as a result of desperation. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +gg," He isn’t eating or drinking and he is seeing Catherine’s face in everything, wherever he looks, whoever he looks at, becomes Catherine. The ghost is what has driven his madness to begin affecting him physically and it plays a similar role for the reader. Without the ghost the reader has no physical representation of Heathcliff’s despair, it would otherwise all be in his head. For the reader, the ghost is the manifestation of Heathcliff’s obsession and the mental and emotional turmoil he experiences over it; it makes Heathcliff’s problems graspable, outside of him directing them to the audience in a monologue, and heightens the tension surrounding Heathcliff’s misery by adding the element of the supernatural. +Both novels, Wuthering Heights and Oliver Twist, use mystery and the supernatural as an exciting agent that sets them apart as gems of the period. Tension is built up like a storm in scenes of violence that are both brutal and eerie, sometimes leaving it open as to what was real and what exactly was a dream, like when Oliver relives being shot or when Lockwood dreams of ghosts. It bolsters the development of characters in their motives and emotion, dramatizing their misery and despair. But the real beauty of this element in each story is the way each author uses it to weave together ideas, questions, and dilemmas in the mind of the reader; how it inspires curiosity and intrigue that locks the audience in. + +In the chapter from his book, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, entitled “The Subjectivity of Values” J.L. Mackie argues that there are no objective values in the case of morality. The aim of this paper will be to refute the arguments he makes in the section “The Argument from Relativity” where he attempts to prove this claim through what is essentially an argument from disagreement made by an inference to the best explanation. This will be attempted by means of an attack on his account of relative morality through a reapplication of his own arguments against objective moral value. + The basic form of his argument is that for morality to have an objective value then there must not be disagreement, but there is disagreement so therefore morality can not have objective value. His explanation for the disagreement is that moral codes are developed instead from culture and community and that different groups have a different set of beliefs, which of course leads to disagreement within the groups. “Disagreement about moral codes seems to reflect people’s adherence to and participation in different ways of life.” (Mackie 109). Monogamy, as a value, is his main example for this section: he concludes that the best explanation would be that people approve of monogamy because they participate in a monogamous way of life and not the reverse. Here we see him clearly making an inference to the best explanation in that the weight of his claim is derived from it seeming more likely or plausible. ",21,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," + + German colonial rule has been noted by various observers for its brutality, notably with respect to the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama in German South West Africa. Of course nothing so broad as an entire colonial empire can be accounted for by such a simple description. The German colonial empire was as varied in policies and ruling style as it was in geography. Educational provision across the colonies was similarly diverse. When the British took over German East Africa (Tanganyika) in 1919, they found a large population of educated and literate Africans. German educational efforts in Kamerun and other colonies were also praised by contemporary authors. +The situation in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) presented a stark contrast. Unlike in East Africa, where the government established state schools and played a prominent role in the education of the natives, in South West Africa the task of native education was left almost entirely to missionary societies that received limited government support. The government did however invest significant resources towards the education of Europeans in the colony, establishing s system of state schools as well as more heavily supporting and regulating missionary schools. These educational policies had longstanding effects on South West Africa, even after German rule. While other German colonies boasted significant numbers of literate and educated Africans, in South West Africa “the overwhelming majority of the population remained untouched, uneducated, and illiterate.” Various social, political, and economic factors led to the divergent experience of South West Africa. This paper seeks to expand the discussion by identifying these factors and paying particular attention to new research on the attitudes of settlers and colonial authorities to native Africans. +There is a wealth of literature dealing with education in the German colonial empire specifically. Most of these sources are in German and were written in the early twentieth century, during or shortly after the period of German colonial rule. The aim of early works was primarily to describe the features of educational systems in these colonies. Later writings in English expanded the discourse through comparative studies of education in the various German colonies and more detailed analyses of specific aspects of education. These studies illustrated significant differences in the educational systems of different colonies. The most prominent work to explicitly address the topic of this paper is Cohen’s study of education in South West Africa and East Africa. Cohen compares the educational systems of the two colonies and discusses the factors that account for the differences between them. According to Cohen, the large settler population of South West Africa explains many of the distinguishing aspects of the colony’s educational system. +Compared to Germany’s other colonial possessions, South West Africa had a moderately temperate climate, although much of the territory is covered by arid desert. The European population of South West Africa reflected the relatively hospitable conditions. By 1913 nearly 15,000 whites lived in South West Africa, while only 5,336 lived in the colony with the next largest settler population, East Africa. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," +Steinmetz shows that colonial policy was heavily influenced by European attitudes towards native populations. In South West Africa several distinct forms of native policy were enacted during various periods of colonial rule and with respect to different native groups. + The foundation for European attitudes was laid during the mid-eighteenth century with the arrival of German missionaries in the region that would become German South West Africa. Two African groups dominated the area in this period: the Bantu-speaking Ovaherero, who had migrated from the north during the 17th and 18th centuries; and the Nama, or Namaqua, numerous Khoikhoi tribes from South Africa who moved into the region at the start of the 19th century. Another group, the Berg Damara, previously occupied the area and was thereafter subjugated by the both Ovaherero and Nama. Small bands of Bushmen, possibly the true original residents of South West Africa, live scattered throughout the territory in various marginal areas. Another Bantu tribe, the Ovambo, lived in the tropical area along the border with Portuguese Angola, but did not play a major role in German colonial affairs because they were so separated from the rest of the colony. +Of the tribes, the Nama have the longest history of contact with Europeans due to their presence in the Cape Colony. German perceptions of the Nama derived from this old discourse. Described by some commentators as noble savages, the Nama were also characterized at times as “men of implulse” having “idle and dissolute habits.” Altogether European depictions of the Nama were highly varied and inconsistent. +Sustained contact with the Ovaherero was not made until the nineteenth century. Although missionaries initially viewed this group positively, praising them for their beauty and strength, these flattering descriptions were soon replaced by claims that they were a base and crude people, prone to violence, robbery, and lies. Hugo Hahn, the founder of the first Ovaherero mission, framed his depiction of the Ovaherero in a wider Darwinian context. He characterized them as an innately inferior race that was destined to naturally die out. + Steinmetz claims that these negative portrayals of Ovaherero were partially a result of the limited progress the missionaries had with the tribe. Missionary education also floundered in early years. Schools were mainly focused on converting natives, but teaching them European customs and modes of living was also seen as an avenue for eventual conversion to Christianity. Though some schools had moderate success, missionaries were also driven out of many communities. In the late 1860s a movement opposed to Christian conversion formed, further hindering missionary efforts. By 1874 less than 1% of the Ovaherero had been baptized, and by 1904 this proportion only grew to 6%. Other Europeans were frustrated by the Ovaherero’s refusal to sell their cattle. This resistance to change and “Europeanization” helped reinforce perceptions which would legitimize a policy of land and cattle appropriation and eventually extermination. + When Germany formally claimed South West Africa in 1884, colonial authorities looked to missionaries as primary resources on the native populations. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," In the north the FNLA began a major offensive, their ranks bolstered by hired western mercenaries and Zairian soldiers and artillery. The CIA and China also provided the FNLA with generous military aid in the form of money and arms. The MPLA continued to receive arms shipments from the Soviet Union and in May recruited the fiercely anti-Mobutu Katangese rebels who had previously served the Portuguese as counterinsurgency troops. The FNLA offensive reached the outskirts of Luanda, but was stopped by the arrival of 1,500 Cuban soldiers and additional Soviet weapons in August. The poorly equipped FNLA guerillas, even with Zairian and foreign mercenary support were no match for the highly trained Cuban soldiers that supported the MPLA and were soon routed and forced to retreat into their strongholds in the north and back into Zaire. + Further south the MPLA faced attacks from both the FNLA and UNITA and starting in October a massive invasion by the South African Defense Force (SADF) from South-West Africa (modern Namibia). Without Cuban support, the MPLA in the south quickly folded to the SADF and within a month the southern front was only 120 miles from Luanda. + By the time November 11 came, battles between the three nationalist movements and their foreign allies raged across Angola. Three separate independence ceremonies were carried out: one in Huambo by UNITA, and in two different neighborhoods of Luanda by the MPLA and FNLA. However, UNITA and the FNLA would soon be defeated and the MPLA acknowledged by most of the world as the legitimate government of Angola. + After pacifying the urban podar popular movements, which had been causing internal conflict within the organization, the MPLA focused on neutralizing the FNLA and UNITA threats. In contrast with that of the USSR and Cuba, the American and South African presence in Angola was more clandestine and less popular. Cuba, another poor country with a colonial heritage, was seen as extending Third World solidarity to the Angolans and defending them from a racist South Africa. Both South Africa and the US also had strong ties with the Portuguese, and this association with imperialism made them unpopular with many groups in Angola. Once it became better known that the US was providing arms to the FNLA and that UNITA’s military successes in the south were largely due to the SADF, international and domestic opinion increasingly sided with the MPLA, and South Africa was soon pressured to leave Angola. War-weary from Vietnam and wary of new Third World conflicts, a new Democratic Congress in Washington moved to ban military aid to the FNLA. +The departure of the South Africans and American aid, together with infighting between UNITA and the FNLA led to the MPLA taking decisive control of the country in 1976. Though the FNLA ceased to be a major political force, UNITA continued to actively oppose MPLA-rule for another twenty-six years. The violence from 1974–1976 cost over 100,000 Angolans their lives and drove tens of thousands of Ovimbundu and Bakongo into Zambia and Zaire. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"Portuguese Angola and Mozambique were seen as potential solutions to South Africa’s economic and security problems, and South Africa had worked with the Portuguese colonial government in the past. With both territories possessing large settler populations, friendly post-colonial régimes could be set up with South African military intervention, turning the former Portuguese colonies into buffer states and important allies in a hostile neighborhood. Furthermore, Angola’s developed infrastructure and rich resource wealth could help South Africa economically, as it felt increasingly isolated by the international community. +Having the largest and most powerful military of the region, South Africa had the means to accomplish its objectives. Military bases in South-West Africa (Namibia) served as a useful staging ground for intervention in Angola. In addition to its own motivations, South Africa was encouraged to intervene by the United States, who felt that they were needed to counter the Cuban and Soviet support of the MPLA. After invitations from both UNITA and the FNLA in the early days of the civil war, South Africa made its first incursion into Angola in June of 1975. This action would be the first of twelve invasions by the SADF, which would be vital for the survival of UNITA as a viable military force. The continued involvement of South Africa forced the MPLA to rely on Cuban and Soviet military support throughout the civil war. The transition to a post-apartheid government in the early-90s and the independence of Namibia meant that South Africa would no longer intervene militarily in Angola. UNITA would have to depend on its other regional ally, Zaire, for continued support against the MPLA. +Sharing a large border and deep cultural ties that went back to the Kongo kingdom, Zaire and Angola were strongly connected. Throughout the liberation war, Zaire served as a base of operations for the Bakongo-dominated FNLA and provided it significant military assistance. Besides the solidarity showed to their Bakongo kin, Mobutu’s Zaire had other important reasons for fighting the MPLA. Some of these were ideological; Mobutu was a staunch Cold War ally of the US and was highly critical of communism. His experience with Soviet-supported Katangese rebels in the late 1960s helped establish these views and when this group began to fight on the side of the MPLA in 1975, it only increased the animosity between Mobutu and the MPLA. Other aspects of the MPLA and Mobutu’s ideologies also clashed. While the MPLA espoused multi-racial and cosmopolitan views, Mobutu was a black nationalist with strong ideals of African authenticity. Starting in 1975, Zaire sent several battalions of regular soldiers as well as commando units into Angola, after unsupported FNLA guerillas proved ineffective. Even with significant weapons provided by the US and other Western nations, the Zairians were decisively defeated by the MPLA and their Cuban allies. In the disorganized retreat back into Zaire, the troops wrecked havoc on the countryside and abandoned large amounts of American weapons, exposing the US’s somewhat clandestine support of the FNLA. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," The commitment to fighting communism and the US’s previous relationship with Holden Roberto trumped the opinions of the dissenters and the US continued to support the FNLA. +US weapons, foreign mercenaries, and Zairian and South African forces were unable to defeat the MPLA with their Cuban and Soviet allies and American involvement declined during the following years under the Carter administration. The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan brought the US back into the fold of the Angolan Civil War, with continued support of UNITA. +Though UNITA achieved some military victories with the help of the SADF, particularly at Cuito-Cuanavale in 1988 where they beat off a large attack by MPLA and Cuban forces, it became increasingly clear that neither side would gain an upper hand and that most of the military successes on both sides were due to the Cuban and South African forces. As both Cuba and South Africa agreed to leave Angola where they were both essentially fighting another country’s war for them, US support for UNITA also decreased and under the Bush and Clinton administrations closer ties were made with the MPLA and it was recognized diplomatically as the legitimate government of Angola. With the Cold War over and its oil interests safe, the US had little reason to be actively supporting rebel movements in Angola. + China was the third superpower to project its power in Angola. Chinese involvement was mostly limited to the first two decades of war and was rooted in its opposition to Soviet expansion coming out of the Sino-Soviet split. This anti-Sovietism held together the curious alliance of two African nationalist groups (the FNLA and UNITA), Zaire, apartheid South Africa, communist China, and the United States. Starting with the training of UNITA operatives in Beijing during the late-1960s, Chinese support eventually rested primarily on the FNLA. After the events of 1974–1976, China was discouraged by the course of the war and withdrew its military advisors and materiel aid. + The Angolan War of Independence together with the Angolan Civil War cost hundreds of thousands of Angolans their lives, and occupied the country for over forty years. The effects of the conflict are still felt today as thousands of landmines make farming in many areas very dangerous and tensions between different ethnic and political groups still exist, though not on the scale it previously did. + The underlying causes of the long conflict are many and complicated, having their roots in nearly five centuries of disruptive Portuguese rule in which millions of Angolans were enslaved or forced into labor and the population was divided into a racial hierarchy that led to distrust and resentment between groups. + Constant internal factionalism and massive foreign intervention prolonged and intensified the conflict, leading to one of the most devastating wars on the African continent. The past eight years have been relatively peaceful for Angola and the economy has been growing at a rapid rate, though much of this is due to oil revenues and expansion of the oil industry. A fledging democracy is forming. + + +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"Further south in the central highlands, the primary commercial crop was cotton, and British and Portuguese cotton plantations displaced the native Ovimbundu. Unlike the Bakongo farmers of the north who largely stayed together and settled in Zaire, the Ovimbundu dispersed in all directions, some remained in the area to work the cotton fields, while others migrated north to work on the coffee plantations or south to less populated areas. The employment of Ovimbundu on land formerly occupied by Bakongo farmers created tensions between the two groups. Furthermore as they were largely employed in lowly paid plantation work, the Ovimbundu occupied the low end of the economic scale, being scorned by both the Bakongo and Mbundu as crude and subservient. The animosity displayed by the other ethnic groups toward the Ovimbundu caused many of them to reject the two dominant nationalist groups, the FNLA and MPLA, during the liberation war, in favor of UNITA, an explicitly Ovimbundu-based organization. +The continued fragmentation of its nationalist movements set Angola apart from other Portuguese colonies. In Mozambique Julius Nyerere united the various factions under the banner of FRELIMO, and Amílcar Cabral convinced the assimilados of Cape Verde and the peasants of Guinea-Bissau to unite as PAIGC. In both of these situations, the rebel groups fought successful united campaigns against the Portuguese and were on the verge of victory at the time of independence. By contrast, no single nationalist movement in Angola was able to unite the various rebel factions in the struggle against Portugal for independence, and the three major groups that came to dominate the fourteen-year liberation war often fought each other as much as the Portuguese. + The Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) was initially formed in the late 1950s by a young group of Angolans studying in Lisbon and Paris, including Lúcio Lara, Agostinho Neto, Mário de Andrade, and José Eduardo dos Santos (Neto’s successor and the current president of Angola). Counting urban mestiços and assimilados, in addition to some liberal whites among its ranks, the MPLA was explicitly inclusive and set out to unite Angolans of different ethnic, religious, and regional backgrounds into one independence movement. Many of the founders had been members of the Communist Party of Angola (PCA) and a Marxist class-based ideology was adopted by the movement, partially as a uniting force for a group without a strong ethnic or regional base. Despite this, the MPLA initially struggled to build popular support. Many Angolans were suspicious of the MPLA, which represented the old mestiço and assimilado elite of the coastal cities and had a history of dominating the largely rural populations of the interior. Rival groups like the FNLA highlighted this distrust by publicly condemning the MPLA as out of touch with the peasants that made up 93% of the Angolan population. They further stated that an independent Angola under the MPLA would be dominated by urban mestiços and assimilados, effectively transferring power from one class of colonial masters to another. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"To supply their favored nationalist movements with weapons, the Soviet Union and United States together had spent more than $1 billion. + With the MPLA now in control of the government, UNITA continued to fight guerilla warfare in the Angolan bush, although with only limited support from the US and South Africa where new administrations partially withdrew from the conflict. By 1983 his army had reached the large diamond fields of northeastern Angola. Diamonds would become a major source of revenue for UNITA, bringing in enough money to make the organization less dependent on foreign support. 1983 also brought renewed support from South Africa, with another SADF-led invasion. Throughout the 80s UNITA, with the help of the SADF would continue to fight battles with the Cuban-backed MPLA all across Angola. US arms shipments also increased under the presidency of Ronald Regan. Political change in South Africa and the coming end of the Cold War led to the withdrawal of most South African and Cuban troops in 1988. Violence between the MPLA and UNITA continued through 1991, when the Bicesse Accords were signed, setting up the framework for multi-party democracy and elections in the country. Upon the actual elections, which pitted Jonas Savimbi against the José dos Santos, president of MPLA, dos Santos got 49.6% of the vote against Savimbi’s 40.1%. Under the agreement run-off elections were supposed to take place, but were cancelled by the MPLA after hostilities flared up again. +Though the elections were judged by UN authorities to be fair, UNITA alleged that they were fraudulent, and soon embarked on a renewed military campaign against MPLA. Fighting would continue off-and-on until Savimbi’s death in 2002. Without its charismatic leader, UNITA could not maintain its cohesion and disbanded, bringing over forty years of conflict to an end. + From the mid-fifteenth century expeditions along the West African coast, to the independence of its colonies in 1975, the Portuguese were in some ways both the first and last European colonizers of Africa, maintaining a presence on the continent longer than any other European power. The legacy of nearly five centuries of Portuguese rule lies at the root of many of the problems that have plagued Angola in the modern period. Though many of these features are common to the European colonization of Africa in general, some belong to the peculiar brand of colonialism practiced by Portugal, which often ran counter to the experience of other European countries. The Portuguese themselves acknowledged these differences with the theory of lusotropicalism, particularly under the régime of António Salazar. + Lusotropicalism held that Portugal was uniquely egalitarian and benevolent among the colonial powers. Proponents of this theory asserted that because of their unique history and character, the Portuguese did not have the exploitative tendencies of other Europeans and racism was absent among them. The example of Brazil was regarded as proof of the theory, due to its racially-mixed nature and large mestiço population. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"This economic power soon became political, and by the nineteenth century the Afro-Portuguese dominated the areas of the central highlands closer to the coast, presiding over several semi-autonomous kingdoms (reinos) centered on the coastal ports of Luanda and Benguela. These reinos were under the technical sovereignty of the Portuguese crown but were in practice ruled by the leading mestiço families. Seeing themselves as ethnically distinct from the indigenous Africans, the Afro-Portuguese were nonetheless visually indistinguishable from black Africans and often spoke Kimbundu as well as Portuguese. Still, the Afro-Portuguese “seldom, if ever, identified with the Africans because for all practical purposes they were Portuguese in nearly every way except colour.” + +Later in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, some of the old Afro-Portuguese families began to merge with the other Kimbundu-speaking peoples of coastal and central Angola to form the modern Mbundu ethnic identity. The history of Afro-Portuguese dominance and compliance with the Portuguese colonial authorities created rifts between the coastal and inland peoples, which would continue to manifest themselves in the post-colonial conflicts, as the coastal and Mbundu-dominated MPLA struggled to win support among the Ovimbundu people of the interior. + +The relative dominance of the Afro-Portuguese began to be challenged in the late 1800s, as the Portuguese were increasingly pressured to “modernize” their colonies by their colonial neighbors, the British and Germans. To do this, the old system of indirect rule through mestiço and African allies had to be replaced by direct Portuguese control and white settlement. Though European settlement continued at a relatively slow pace through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, restrictions were gradually made on which civil service and military positions Africans or mestiços could occupy. As the Afro-Portuguese were increasingly excluded from the higher levels of colonial administration, they had to compete with poor white immigrants for lower level jobs. Modern forms of transportation like the railroad and steamships began to dominate trade at the expense of the old mestiço-controlled caravans, further undermining their economic activities. The Afro-Portuguese were also challenged by a growing population of urbanized and mostly missionary-educated Africans. + +In an attempt to create a more defined social hierarchy, the Portuguese implemented as system of assimilation, drawing a distinction between indígena (indigenous) and assimilado (assimilated) populations. Members of the indígena group were given access to few political rights and restricted to only the lowest and most menial forms of employment. By contrast, assimilados, mainly urbanized, were granted some political rights and eventually Portuguese citizenship. Becoming an assmilado meant showing a certain degree of educational attainment and financial security, in addition to adopting the Portuguese language and culture. The criteria for entry into the assimilado class were regulated by the Portuguese colonial authorities. + +Assimilados were further divided into two groups, “assimilated objects” and “assimilated groups,” with the former mostly made up of the established Afro-Portuguese families who worked in various levels of the colonial government and the latter of the growing class of missionary-educated Africans. +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"According to a British diplomat serving in Angola in 1902, “nobody regarded the contract laborers as anything other than slaves.” + Claims of racial tolerance aside, the Portuguese set up social, political, and economic hierarchies based on race throughout their reign over Angola. These distinctions and inequalities, as well as internal displacements of African tribes, created significant tensions between members of different ethnic and racial groups which would come to shape the formation of nationalist movements and the course of the post-colonial civil wars. + For the first few hundred years of Portuguese rule, the European population in Angola was minimal and largely limited to the coast. Though several attempts were made to found agricultural outposts with white settlers in the interior, these were largely failures. The oppressive tropical climate and hostile African neighbors made life difficult for settlers, many of whom lacked agricultural experience or expertise. However, at the root of the early failures of white settlement lied the Portuguese system of penal colonization. As with overseas colonization in general, the Portuguese were the first to begin and the last to stop the practice of using convicts as settlers in their colonies. The difficult nature of life in Africa made it difficult to find voluntary immigrants, so convicts, called degradados, were seen as an effective subsitute, as well as a solution to the problem of overcrowding in Portuguese prisons. Used as soldiers, settlers, and sailors, the degradados, together with exiled Jews, gypsies, and other “undesirables,” formed a large majority of the white population in Angola until the beginning of the twentieth century. The mortality rate among degredados was alarmingly high, and this further discouraged free immigration to Angola, creating a cycle of continued penal settlement. Because of their small numbers and unreliability, the degredados could not fulfill all the roles of colonial administration and commerce, a class of mestiços, also called the Afro-Portuguese, rose to take many these positions. +Originally descendant from the union of Portuguese soldiers and merchants with indigenous African women, the Afro-Portuguese eventually became their own distinct ethnic group and grew to wield significant economic, and later political, power. The influence of the mestiços began with the slave trade, in which they often served as middlemen between the Portuguese traders and indigenous African kingdoms, leading and accompanying trade caravans into the interior. Though the slave trade was initially associated with the areas in and around the Kongo kingdom and its capital of São Salvador, Afro-Portuguese traders began to penetrate the central highlands to the south to find new sources of slaves. Luanda and later Benguela were established as ports to facilitate direct the new trade with Brazil and the other colonies. The decline of the Kongo due to a series of wars with the Portuguese in the seventeenth century, together with the stronger and more direct connections with colonial traders enjoyed by the Afro-Portuguese led to the eclipse of São Salvador by Luanda as the center of the Angolan slave trade, and by extension, economic activity in the region. +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," Initial relations between Portugal and Kongo were respectful, with both sides exchanging ambassadors and gifts. Within twenty years members of the Kongo royal family, including the king, had adopted Catholicism and encouraged Portuguese missionaries to spread the faith among the people. +However, this relationship soon became strained as the trade in slaves became the primary interest and occupation of the Portuguese in Africa. By 1575 more than 400,000 slaves had been exported, primarily to the plantation-based colonies of São Tomé and Brazil, as well as to other New World colonies. The effects of the slave trade severely weakened the Kongo state and removed nearly all vestiges of the friendly relationship and interest in Portuguese religion and culture that existed upon contact. Until the late nineteenth century Portugal’s presence in Angola was mostly limited to the coast, and much of the territory was controlled indirectly through semi-autonomous fiefdoms held by African allies or mestiços of mixed European and African descent. Because the European population was so small, mestiços, also known as Afro-Portuguese, performed key roles in the military, civil service, and business, occupying a privileged social position above the indigenous Africans and below the Portuguese. The Afro-Portuguese were also heavily involved in the slave trade, which dominated nearly all economic activity in Angola prior to its abolition in the 1870s. + At Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 the European powers divided most of Africa into zones of influence, as they competed for influence and dominance of the continent. The so-called “scramble for Africa” was brought about by the industrialization of Europe and the need for both important natural resources and markets for finished industrial goods. Like its neighbors and rivals, Portugal asserted its hold over its colonies in this period and began to develop and settle the interior. + New attempts to start plantations and agricultural settlements in the interior mostly failed, but a greater number of Portuguese settlers, mainly impoverished peasants, immigrated to the colony, settling primarily in the cities along the coast. As the number of whites in the cities increased, they began to displace the mestiços, and new restrictions were placed on bureaucratic positions. By the 1920s the old Afro-Portuguese elite had mostly lost its prominent place it had occupied during the nineteenth century. The dissatisfied members of this group would form much of the leadership of the various rebel groups during the liberation war. + Though the European population in Angola was rising it wasn’t until after World War II that large scale white immigration began. The war had been a successful period for neutral Portugal, and the economy of Angola grew as demand for tropical commodities increased, and Portuguese exploitation of African labor was expanded. Under the system of forced labor, African groups were moved around the country, causing conflicts between the displaced tribes which would continue into the modern era. Unlike industrial France and Britain, Portugal was relatively poor and undeveloped and thus more dependent on its overseas possessions for its economic well-being. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"In the 1990s Zaire served as the main supporter of UNITA, as South African and American support for the organization dwindled. In 1997 a coup supported in part by the Angolan government overthrew Mobutu, and Zaire was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Without the aggressive Mobutu régime as a neighborhood, the situation in Angola stabilized and the MPLA was finally able to crack down on internal dissent without being troubled with foreign intervention, ending the civil war a few years later in 2002. + Like most other Third World conflicts of the twentieth century, the wars in Angola were heavily affected by the Cold War. In addition to the competition between the US and the USSR, several other factors motivated the involvement of international powers: the Sino-Soviet split, Third World solidarity against Western exploitation and imperialism, and in the case of the US, Angola’s large oil reserves. + The USSR was involved with the MPLA from its foundation in the late-1950s. Starting in 1958, MPLA founding member Mário de Andrade would travel to Moscow on a regular basis for various conferences and meetings. During these visits the MPLA developed a relationship with the Soviets, securing funding and in 1961 the explicit support of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who stated that “the patriots of Angola can be sure that the sympathies of the peoples of the great Soviet Union are fully on their side.” Many MPLA leaders would go on to be educated in Moscow. + The USSR chose to support the MPLA over rival movements in Angola for a number of reasons. As a left-leaning Marxist movement that explicitly condemned the imperial powers, the MPLA followed the same basic ideological principles as the USSR. The UPA/FNLA was more ambiguous on this issue, receiving support from the US and sometimes practicing anti-communist rhetoric. The MPLA was also not as focused on regional or ethnic issues, as the predominately Bakongo UPA based in northern Angola was. The USSR also practiced the policy of recognizing and supporting only one rebel movement within a conflict, a policy not shared by all of its peers. + Early Soviet support of the MPLA included food and clothing as well as weapons and increased progressively during the course of the war from goods valued at $25,000 in 1961 to $220,000 in 1973. Large scale Soviet assistance did not come until 1975 though. In this year another foreign power would join the equation, with Cuba’s shipment of two shiploads of T-55 tanks and 500 military advisories. Though the Cubans and Soviets would work together closely in Angola, early actions were not coordinated as is widely assumed. Cuba was not simply a Soviet proxy but rather had its own agenda for being in Angola. As a Third World country with a colonial past and communist government, Cuba wanted to sustain the global conflict against the West and imperialism through spreading Marxist-Leninist revolution. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq," +Lacking strong domestic backing, the MPLA looked abroad for military and economic support. Its leftist revolutionary agenda naturally aligned the MPLA with communist nations and the Soviet Union and Cuba became the movement’s strongest allies, with the Soviets providing material aid, money, and weapons and the Cubans eventually sending soldiers to assist with security and military campaigns. Other communist countries in Eastern Europe also supplied arms and military advisors, including the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). +Support from other African countries was more limited. Neighboring Zaire and South Africa actively backed the FNLA and UNITA, both committing significant numbers of soldiers to fight the MPLA. Other African nations were less hostile; during the independence war the organization was based at different times in Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania, and Zambia. Tanzania and Zambia also served as transit points for incoming Soviet arms shipments. +Though a relatively unified group during most of the civil war, divisions within the MPLA threatened its existence in its early years and into the 1970s. At the root of the inner factionalism was the disparate backgrounds of MPLA members, which included both educated mesticos and assimilados as well as uneducated peasants. Various groups formed factions that struggled for dominance within the movement. One major split was the Eastern Revolt led by Daniel Chipenda in the early-1970s, which set the guerillas doing most of the fighting against the political organization led by Agostihno Neto in Luanda. Chipenda eventually joined the FNLA and helped elicit the support of South Africa in the war against his old organization. +The Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) grew out of the UPA (Union of Peoples of Angola, previously Union of Peoples of Northern Angola), a predominately Bakongo movement based in northern Angola and led by Holden Roberto. While the MPLA had its origins in Lisbon and Luanda, the UPA was founded in Léopoldville (modern Kinshasa) in neighboring Congo, also home to a large Bakongo population. In the late 1950s and 60s, Léopoldville was a center of nationalist activism, hosting a large refugee community from Angola and over fifty Angolan political organizations, mostly made up of Bakongos. Unlike the ideologically based MPLA, the UPA and other Bakongo nationalist movements appealed directly to the Bakongo ethnic group and the heritage of the old Kongo kingdom. Though Holden Roberto had ambitions of making the UPA/FNLA a nation-wide movement with broad-based support, it remained for most of its history an organization dominated by Bakongos, and was responsible for numerous acts of violence against mestiços, assimilados, whites, and non-Bakongo Africans, particularly the Ovimbundu who worked on the coffee plantations of the north. +Its reputation for violence and the lack of discipline among its ranks led many to distrust the FNLA, and greatly decreased its effectiveness. Infighting plagued the organization throughout its history as well. According to John Stockwell, chief of the CIA’s Angola Task Force in 1975, the FNLA “had few educated men at the top—no intellectuals—and had spent much of its history in the cocktail parties of Kinshasa. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"Increasing antagonism with the US meant that Cuba was also looking to foil American plans abroad, and the Angolan crisis was a perfect opportunity for Cuba to use its strong military to embarrass the US. Fidel Castro initially acted unilaterally and without notifying the Soviets on his intentions in Angola. However, Cuban and Soviet collaboration soon led to highly effective assistance to the MPLA, with the Cubans provided tens of thousands of well-trained soldiers and the Soviets technical expertise and military equipment, particularly in the field of heavy artillery and tanks, which were previously absent in the Angolan theater. By the 1980s, a Soviet investment of $5 billion in military hardware helped lead the MPLA to victory in the war. Weapons provided included ���T-34 and T-54 tanks, 100mm guns, 120mm multiple rocket launchers, amphibious vehicles, helicopters equipped with 20mm cannon and air-to-ground rockets” as well as MIG-17 and MIG-21 fighter jets. Soviet and Cuban presence continued until the late 80s when global political changes and the end of the Cold War took away many of the incentives of remaining in Angola. Without Cuban and Soviet backing, the MPLA would have never been able to defeat its opponents, who also had the support of foreign superpowers. + The initial reasons for United States intervention in Angola were primarily economic. American oil companies were well established there since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, and in order to protect these interests, the US supported the Portuguese during the liberation war. By the time the Portugal was preparing to leave the continent in 1974, the threat of communist takeover by the MPLA with Cuban and Soviet support influenced the US to fund alternative groups to prevent a communist victory. A Soviet friendly nation in southern Africa might tip the balance of power in favor of the communists and set off more leftist revolutions in the region. Since 1961, the US had been supporting Holden Roberto with a modest stipend of $10,000 a year. In the light of the new situation, this sum was increased to $300,000 in 1975, and throughout that year $35 million was spent on arming the FNLA through airbases in friendly Zaire. US involvement was relatively clandestine at this stage, mostly involving the CIA and indirect aid to the FNLA through Zaire. An American population weary from Vietnam was not willing to enter another bloody Third World conflict so far from home. +Despite the official backing of the FNLA, many within the US establishment did not agree with the decision to support the FNLA. Two important US officials in Luanda, Robert W. Hultslander, the CIA station chief, and Tom Killoran, the American Consul General, agreed that the MPLA were the most qualified of the groups to govern and sought peaceful relations with Washington. Hultslander further stated that its leaders “were more effective, better educated, better trained, and better motivated”; by contrast the FNLA “was led by corrupt, unprincipled men who represented the very worst of radical black African racism.”",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"This new system created even more divisions in Angolan society by separating the population into groups, which actively competed with one another. The old Afro-Portuguese families, who often identified economically and culturally with the white settlers, saw their historical privileges taken away and became increasingly critical of the colonial government and at odds with white settlers. Mestiços also felt threatened by the newly educated class of Africans, who were seen as usurping their traditional roles in the colonial hierarchy. This split within the assimilado group carried on through the civil war, with the MPLA leadership coming mostly from the older established group, and the leaders of FNLA and UNITA from the newer group. +Besides the divisions among assimilados, there was also significant tension between assimilado and indígena populations. When they went through the process of assimilation, assimilados made a conscious decision to completely abandon their African heritage and adopt European culture. This process detached the assimilados from the largely rural, uneducated indígenas and often made it difficult for the two groups to see eye-to-eye and identify with one another. Though Africans continued to enter the assimilado class, the stringent restrictions on assimilation and the reluctance of many Africans to give up their African culture meant that less than 1% of Angola’s population was ever formally assimilated. +In the post-WWII period white immigration to Angola reached new highs as industrialization brought about massive rural unemployment in Portugal. Immigration to Africa was seen as both a solution to Portugal’s excess population problem and as a way to strengthen Portuguese control over its colonies. With the white population in Angola increasing from 44,000 in 1940 to 325,000 in 1974, Europeans soon took over not only upper and mid-level positions, but also most low-wage jobs in the city, displacing most of the urban African population. Having lost much of their status to poor white settlers, mestiço and assimilado populations felt increasingly marginalized by the Portuguese, and members of these groups would form the leadership of most of the independence movements in the 1950s and 60s. In addition to the social-cultural hierarchy imposed by the Portuguese, ethnic divisions were also intensified by other colonial policies. +The effects of the plantation system in the early twentieth century also exacerbated tensions between African ethnic groups. In the northern part of the country, large numbers of peasants were displaced to make room for commercial coffee plantations. Many of these farmers, mostly Kikongo-speaking members of the Bakongo ethnic group, fled to neighboring Zaire, where they flourished as small-scale commercial coffee farmers. As successful small entrepreneurs, many of the Bakongo diaspora in Zaire would be wary of the socialist policies of the MPLA, and would instead choose to support the ostensibly more business-friendly FNLA, which was also led by Bakongo and based in Zaire. After living in francophone Zaire for several generations, most of the Bakongo refugees adopted French, further dividing them from the mostly Portuguese-speaking groups in Angola. +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"The Cold War brought the global struggle between the West and communism to Angola and many other African countries also going through the decolonization process, but nowhere did foreign intervention reach such a large scale or involve so many different parties as in post-colonial Angola. While the United States, China, and the Soviet Union openly or clandestinely funded and armed factions, actual soldiers from Cuba, South Africa, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) participated in the war on the sides of various factions. In addition to having ideological bases, the rebel groups were also affiliated with particular ethnic groups and other segments of society (such as the urban-rural divide). The situation was complicated by Angola’s massive mineral wealth in oil and diamonds. The legacy of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule also had a heavy bearing on the conflicts. +After an outline of the history of Angola from the period right before European contact until the end of the civil war in 2002, this paper will identify and analyze the various social, political, and economic factors that contributed to the violence and instability of the area in the past half-century. + + + + Angola is a relatively large country; at 1,246,700 sq. km, it is slightly less than two times the size of Texas. It shares borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the east, Zambia to the southeast, and Namibia to the south. Blessed with rich agricultural land and a tropical climate, it has significant oil reserves, mostly concentrated in the northwestern exclave of Cabinda, and large commercial diamond fields in the northeast. 13,068,161 people (2010 est.) live in Angola, and like most other African countries the population is very young, with a median age of 18. The population is divided into three main ethnic groups: the Ovimbundu in the central highlands (37%), the Mbundu along the coastal plain and around the capital city Luanda (25%), and the Bakongo people of northern Angola (13%), who are also a prominent group in neighboring Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other African ethnic groups, Europeans, and people of mixed European and African descent (mestiços) make up the rest of the population. Portuguese is the official administrative language, though a significant portion of the population, particularly in rural areas, does not speak it. Various African languages (chiefly Umbundu, Kimbundu, and Kikongo, spoken respectively by the Ovimbundu, Mbundu, and Bakongo peoples) share co-official status with Portuguese and are spoken as mother tongues by much of the population. + Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, southwest Africa was occupied by several Bantu-speaking kingdoms that had displaced previous Pygmy and Khoisan peoples. These states included the large Kongo kingdom situated along the Congo River and the Kimbundu-speaking Kingdom of Ngola to its south, which gave rise to the Portuguese name for the colony. +First contact with Europeans came in 1483 when an expedition led by Diogo Cão encountered the Kongo kingdom. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"Just as most other European countries were beginning to exit or disengage from their African colonies, Portugal dug in, strengthening its connections with and increasing its presence on the continent. Angola was used as a repository for Portugal’s underemployed and impoverished excess population, and settlers continued to flock to urban areas. With the white population increasing from 44,000 in 1940 to 325,000 in 1974, Europeans soon took over not only upper and mid-level positions, but also most low-wage jobs in the city, displacing most of the urban African population. +The discovery of oil in the exclave of Cabinda in the 1960s and the continued development of coffee, cotton, and diamonds as viable exports, led to Angola having one of the most robust and diversified economies of Africa in this time. Maintenance of these commercial activities was however highly dependent on European technicians and specialists and was almost completely controlled by these groups, preventing the majority of the population, who were largely engaged in subsistence farming or as laborers on commercial farms, from reaping the benefits of this wealth. + Starting in Tunisia and Morocco in 1956 and extending to Sub-Saharan Africa with Ghana in 1957 , most African countries had achieved independence from their European colonial masters by the mid-1960s. In the Portuguese colonies independence was a longer and more drawn out experience, as the Portuguese continued to assert their control and encourage new white settlement right until 1974, on the eve of independence. + In February of 1961 a large group of Africans armed with knives and clubs attempted to free militants from a Luanda prison. The effort proved unsuccessful and violent reprisals led to hundreds of deaths. This event was widely reported on around the world and marked the beginning of Angola’s fourteen year struggle for independence. + On the onset of the war, two main groups challenged the Portuguese, the MPLA and the FNLA (previously UPA). Established in Luanda, the MPLA derived much of its support from Mbundus in the cities and along the coast. Marxist-leaning mestiços and assimilados made up most of the group’s leadership and formed ties with the Soviet Union and other communist countries. Agostihno Neto, an assimilado doctor educated in Lisbon, was the early leader of the MPLA and would later become the first president of independent Angola. The FNLA, led by Holden Roberto, was based in neighboring Congo (Léopoldville) and largely a regional and ethnic group representing the interests of the Bakongo people of northern Angola. The United States and later China provided monetary and material support to the FNLA and under the régime of Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sésé Seko), Zaire would send its own troops into Angola to bolster the FNLA’s ranks. + Due to differences in ideology and ethnic composition the MPLA and FNLA were unable to unite against the Portuguese and fought each other nearly as much as their common enemy. A third group, UNITA, was founded by Jonas Savimbi in 1966. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"German colonies like Togo and Kamerun with more tropical climates had even smaller European communities. +The large settler population shaped South West Africa’s development and had a direct effect on the employment opportunities for educated natives. Middle and lower level positions in colonial administration and other jobs which required literacy and a degree of education were largely occupied by whites. Of the Africans who finished school, few were able to find employment and actually put their educations to use. Teaching in missionary schools was one of the more common occupations for educated Africans. The mixed-race population, known as coloureds or Mischlinge, had more opportunities for jobs than pure Africans but were still generally restricted to artisan labor and very limited work in colonial administration. +The labor market in East Africa offered greater opportunities for educated Africans and Mischlinge. Because the settler population was much smaller both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total population, the colonial government sought to develop a literate class of Africans to fill positions in lower administration. Africans were also significantly cheaper to employ than Europeans, further motivating their recruitment by the cash-strapped government. The need for loyal native subjects led to the development of state schools, as missionary-educated Africans could possess conflicting loyalties if they had attended schools run by foreign missionaries. +The different opportunities for educated Africans in the two colonies manifest themselves in their respective educational systems, which differed greatly in size, composition, and scope. East Africa boasted 984 schools for natives in 1911, including 80 government schools, compared with only 88 total in South West Africa, all run by missionaries. Schools in South West Africa also focused primarily on handiworks and “practical” skills for natives, while those in East Africa offered more specialized and higher-level education including technical schools for industrial training and high schools with more advanced curricula. +In contrast with the system of native education in South West Africa, education for Europeans was highly developed and heavily supported by the government. While the German government spent 329,500 Marks on white education in 1914–1915, only 9,000 Marks were spent annually on education for Africans and Mischlinge. +Besides the limited employment opportunities for natives in South West Africa, Cohen asserts that settler attitudes also influenced education policy. Settlers protested government funding for native education and resented native competition for jobs. Their opposition resulted in several vocational programs for natives to be scaled back or eliminated. +Cohen’s work identifies the settler population and the lack of economic opportunity for educated natives as the reasons for the limited development of native education in South West Africa, but does not focus on these factors or try to explain further underlying issues which influenced settler attitudes and the formation of the economic system in South West Africa. New research on the relationship of European attitudes to natives and colonial policy sheds light on these issue and can be applied to the question of education policy as well. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"The FNLA soldiers [were] slathering animals.” +Though consistently armed by the US and China and supported by troops and artillery from Mobutu’s Zaire, the FNLA was not able to maintain military success against the Cuban-backed MPLA and ceased to be a major force in Angolan politics after 1976, + The União Nacional para a Indêpendencia Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was a latecomer in the independence struggle, formed in 1966 by Jonas Savimbi. A Swiss- and Portuguese-educated Angolan émigré of Ovimbundu descent, Savimbi was for a time a member on the FNLA but left the organization in 1964. The Mbundu and Bakongo ethnic groups dominated the MPLA and FNLA leadership, while the largest group, the Ovimbundu, had limited representation. Seeking to create a nationalist movement for his own people, Savimbi formed UNITA, basing his power among the Ovimbundu capital of Huambo. + UNITA received aid from the US and South Africa for most of its existence and espoused an anti-communist agenda, though Savimbi had himself been a Marxist at one time. After being defeated right after independence UNITA retreated deep into the Angolan bush and built up an army of several thousand men with fanatically loyal officers. Savimbi’s charisma and previous training in China helped him build an effective fighting force that challenged the MPLA for over twenty-five years. However, the fact that UNITA was built around Savimbi meant that after his death the movement disintegrated. + Through the entire course of conflict in Angola from 1961 to 2002, foreign powers were involved in various degrees, from direct military assistance to monetary and diplomatic backing of one or more of the internal movements. Ranging from global superpowers like the United States and the Soviet Union to regional players like South Africa and Zaire, numerous countries entered the conflict and complicated the situation. American, Soviet, and Chinese involvement were rooted primarily in the existential Cold War struggle of ideologies and global geopolitics, with economic interests also playing a major role for the United States. Regional powers were influenced by the superpowers and motivated by a number of other factors as well. The changing nature of world politics would alter the course of the war and most of the major powers would withdraw from Angola in the late-1980s and early-1990s. + Chief among the regional powers involved in Angola were Zaire and South Africa. Both countries had strong motivations for their presence in Angola and importantly the means to affect the course of the war. The rise of Black Nationalism and the decolonization of many countries in the region posed a major threat to the survival of the apartheid régime of South Africa. Politically and economically based on a persistent system of racial oppression and exploitation, South Africa, as well as the other remaining settler colony, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was under heavy international pressure to grant rights to its African majority and faced various boycotts and trade embargos as a result. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"The precolonial conceptions of the Nama and Ovaherero formed the basis for early colonial policy. Both the Nama and Ovaherero were generally viewed as uncivilized. The groups were constantly at war with one another and the Germans made agreements with various groups at different times. The Landeshauptmann (state captain) of South West Africa from 1891–1894, Curt von François believed that the Nama had “outlived their day” and embarked on a policy of extermination with regard to the Witbooi, a prominent Nama tribe led by Hendrik Witbooi. When he was unable to defeat Witbooi in battle, Theodor Leutwein was appointed as his replacement. + Leutwein’s ten-year rule in South West Africa was marked by two distinct policies: preservation and tolerance of the Witbooi and the gradual appropriation of the Ovaherero’s resources. Rather than continue Von François’ goal of exterminating the Witbooi, Leutwein formed an alliance with them and gave them special privileges. This marked a major shift in native policy. During this period the Witbooi were depicted as noble savages and attempts were made to promote and preserve their culture. The Witbooi were given a significant reservation and a degree of political autonomy. This mirrored similar policies that were carried out in Samoa, where natives were also represented as noble savages. +Part of Leutwein’s motivation for these policies was rooted in the social rivalry between bourgeois and aristocratic elements in Wilhelmine Germany. Government in Germany was still dominated by landed nobles, though members of the educated middle class were starting to occupy prestigious positions. By pursuing relatively liberal policies towards the natives, Leutwein was able to distinguish himself from his aristocratic predecessor, Von François. +Leutwein’s liberalism did not however preclude policies with the explicit intent of marginalizing the Ovaherero and appropriating their resources, he merely sought to achieve this goal through relatively peaceful means. The “Treaty of Borders” authorized the government to seize 5% of any Ovaherero herd found grazing on European land. This led to a gradual transfer of cattle into European hands, called a “peaceful bleeding” by future governor Friedrich von Lindequist. During his tenure Leutwein also established a system of reservations for the Ovaherero, though these were often in marginal areas. +Settlers were not impressed with Leutwein’s policies and criticized them for being too soft. Leutwein in return said that settlers “felt superior and paid no attention to the treaties” and blamed their exploitation of the natives for African uprisings. Leutwein’s tenure in South West Africa in some ways reflected that of Wilhelm Solf’s in Samoa. Like Leutwein, Solf was also often at odds with German settlers and came from a liberal family. The image of the Samoan as a noble savage was even more prominent in Samoa than that of the Witbooi in South West Africa. Solf however had much greater success in his policies than Leutwein. In Samoa white settlement was mainly limited to the capital, Apia, and native traditions were more generally respected. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"In Angola however, black Africans never made up less than 95% of the population, so the demographic situation there (and in the other Portuguese colonies) was never the same as it was in Brazil. Furthermore, the claim that racial mixing equates to racial egalitarianism is problematic, as there are significant racial inequities in Brazil and other countries with large mestiço populations. The fact that the Portuguese were leaders in international trade of African slaves for nearly 400 years also challenges the theory. Despite its ostensibly obvious contradictions, lusotropicalism was widely accepted among the people of Portugal until the mid-1970s, and was used by the government to justify its continued involvement in Africa during a period when most European powers were leaving or had already left the continent. These colonial policies of the twentieth century instigated the forty years of conflict in Angola. However, a long history of violence and exploitation created the context for these struggles, starting with the Atlantic slave trade in the late fifteenth century. +After Vasco de Gama secured a passage to India at the turn of the sixteenth century, Portugal lost interest in Kongo and other African kingdoms as major trading partners, and began to view them primarily as sources of slaves. The slave trade came to dominate Portuguese-African relations and nearly all economic activity in Angola. As a highly lucrative business, it was often the primary occupation of most Portuguese in the area, including members of the colonial administration, with the governor essentially the largest slave-dealer. The Portuguese were leaders in the Atlantic slave trade, supplying not only their own plantation-dependent colonies with labor, but also those of France, Britain, and Spain. According to some estimates, as many as 8 million slaves were taken from Angola, a figure higher than the total population of the country upon independence in 1975. The slave trade caused major disturbances in the interior, with the associated violence and depopulation ultimately leading to the demise of the Kongo and other indigenous states. +The abolition of the international slave trade in the 1830s and of slavery throughout the Portuguese empire in the 1870s did not mark the end of forced African labor in Angola. Domestic slavery, particularly among the Kongo chiefs and highland kings of the interior was still widespread and slaves continued to be exported to Indian Ocean markets further east. Forced labor continued in a legal form under the new system of forced labor outlined in the 1878 Regulamento para os contratos de serviçais e colonos nas províncias de África (Regulation for contracts of servants and colonists in the provinces of Africa). This document essentially made former slaves into “servants” or serviçais, who had to be “contracted” into labor. The Regulamento also stipulated that any Angolans who were not fully employed were considered “vagrants” and could be legally forced into five-year contracts. While slaves were no longer exportable commodities on the same scale they were before the abolition of the slave trade, slavery persisted in much the same way it had in the past centuries, despite the change in nomenclature. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"Having previously served as the foreign minister with the FNLA, Savimbi left the organization for a number of reasons and formed UNITA out of the Ovimbundu of the south. Though ostensibly an independence movement, UNITA seldom fought the Portuguese and was mostly engaged against the MPLA. Some allege that UNITA was given authority over Ovimbunduland by the Portuguese in exchange for fighting the MPLA. Portuguese documents reveal that over the course of the liberation war, nearly two-thirds of all military engagements against the Portuguese involved the MPLA and over a third the FNLA, while less than 5% involved UNITA. Outside of the country UNITA received support from the United States and South Africa. + The infighting between and within the three nationalist movements reduced their effectiveness against the Portuguese, and by 1974 little progress had been made to overthrow the colonial government. From a military perspective the Portuguese had enjoyed a relatively successful war, employing anti-guerilla tactics and heavily recruiting Africans, including a group of Katangese rebels who were exiled in Angola after unsuccessfully trying to create an independent state in southeast Zaire in the late-60s. By the end of the liberation war three times as many African soldiers served in the Portuguese military as in the various guerilla armies. Revolutionary events in Portugal itself would however change the situation in Angola. + In 1974 a left-leaning military coup overthrew the government of Marcello Caetano, ending the authoritarian Estado Novo (New State) that had ruled Portugal since 1932. The unpopular colonial wars played a large role in the coup, and the new government pledged to withdraw Portuguese troops from the colonies and grant them independence. In Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, which had unified nationalist movements, this process was relatively straightforward, with the Portuguese colonial authorities handing power over to FRELIMO and PAIGC, respectively. The fragmented state of nationalism in Angola complicated the situation and meant that a framework for régime change had to be created. + In January of 1975 Neto, Roberto, and Savimbi met in Alvor, a suburb of Lisbon, and signed a power-sharing agreement that set November 11 as the date of independence and calling for elections before this date. The peace after the Alvor accords did not last long and violence between the three groups quickly broke out. On the streets of Luanda MPLA and FNLA partisans fought for control of the capital and both sides were responsible for massacring unarmed recruits of the opposite factions. Within the MPLA self-defense committees of the podar popular (people’s power) movement had formed in the previous year to counter violent riots by whites. Led by Nito Alves, the podar popular committees began to commit atrocities of their own and threatened the MPLA leadership with their radicalism. Faced with violence in the streets of Luanda and particularly in the northern areas controlled by the FNLA, whites, mestiços, and assimilados fled the country in large numbers—nearly 250,000 left during a six-month long airlift starting in May of 1975. +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"The Ovaherero who survived the war were largely rounded up and put in concentration camps, where they went through a process of cultural assimilation to fulfill their roles as a proletariat of labor to support the white population. Though education was disrupted during the war, enrollment surpassed prewar levels by 1905. Many natives sought humanitarian assistance from missionaries and converted to Christianity in this period. Missionary societies filled the gap left by the destruction of the native tribal structure. A much smaller and more concentrated population was easier for them to manage and influence than the large nomadic groups present before the war. These final steps of settler domination in the colony led to the full development of the educational system as earlier described, one in which Africans were trained to be a proletariat occupying only the lowest rungs of the labor market and for the benefit of the settler population. + An account of European perceptions of native groups in South West Africa and their relation to colonial native policy in general provides a useful background for understanding German education policy in the colony. Through much the colony’s history, both the Nama and Ovaherero were characterized as relics of another time and likely to die out on their own. Though there were periods where certain groups were praised, most notably the Witbooi under Leutwein, the overarching perception of the natives as in a sense obsolete had the greatest effect on colonial policy. The German effort in South West Africa could be characterized as native policy being abandoned for native massacre. With this move to extermination, native education was not of particular concern to the colonial government, and therefore received little funding or regulation. This analysis reinforces Cohen’s argument that settlers and economic conditions led to the educational system of South West Africa. The decade of 1894–1904 provides an another insight into the effects of a changing perceptions of natives. In this case, Theodor Leutwein’s promotion of the Witbooi was not enough to overcome the established discourse on the Nama and did not have the same type of lasting effect on policy that European perceptions of Samoans had in Samoa. Though it is beyond the scope of this paper, further research into the relationships between European attitudes to native populations and colonial policy in other German colonies would be a fruitful endeavor. + + + +Among the many liberation and civil wars in Africa, the forty-year long conflict in Angola was one of the lengthiest, bloodiest, and most complicated. From 1961 until 2002 the country was embroiled in conflict between rebel groups and the government with only intermittent periods of peace. Both the fifteen-year war of independence against Portugal (1961–1975) and the ensuing civil war (1975–2002) were characterized by heavy casualties and acts of brutality committed by forces from all sides of the conflict. +",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +qq,"European perceptions of the Samoan were not unanimously positive, but the idea of the Samoan noble savage had more support than that of the Witbooi noble savage, as colonial discourse on the Nama was largely mixed and often negative. White settlement was also of a much smaller scale in Samoa, in part due to its tropical climate. Because of these factors the education system for natives in Samoa was more advanced and featured secular schools that trained Samoans for jobs in colonial administration. The situation in Namibia was vastly different and would not allow similar policies. Settlers blocked attempts to improve native education and continued to exploit the indigenous population. Meanwhile Leutwein’s own passive policy of appropriation would contribute to his downfall in the events of 1904. + In the second week of January 1904, the Ovaherero rose up against the Germans in a series of spontaneous and possibly coordinated attacks on European farms and military posts. In the opening days of the uprising 126 settlers and soldiers were killed. Women, children, and missionaries were generally spared. There is some debate over whether the uprising was a reaction to a German military offensive or a planned revolt. Although the Ovaherero had at this point lost approximately 10% of their grazing land to white settlers, this was only one factor in the rebellion. The Ovaherero were protesting settler conduct and a legal system that treated them as juvenile subjects. This was aggravated by “business practices which not only systematically swindled the Herero, but also drove them into traps of debt.” + Initially the Germans were unable to effectively resist the Ovaherero. Against the 8,000 Ovaherero fighting-men, 6,000 of whom were equipped with firearms, the Germans could only present a 750-man garrison. This proved to be a major embarrassment for the German colonial administration. Soon more soldiers were called in from Germany and Lothar von Trotha replaced Leutwein as commander of the military. Von Trotha was an experienced general with a reputation for brutal repression of native uprisings in East Africa and China. Perhaps fearing that Von Trotha would turn on them after defeating the Ovaherero, the Witbooi and other Nama groups joined the rebellion. This led to the end of Leutwein’s native policy and his eventual replacement as Landeshauptmann in 1905. + Von Trotha went on to lead a military campaign of genocide, relentlessly pursuing the Ovaherero into the desert where many died of thirst and starvation. Out of a population of 60,000 to 80,000 Ovaherero in South West Africa before the war only 15,130 remained by 1911 and of the 20,000 Nama only 9,781. Von Trotha’s campaign succeeded in reducing the Ovaherero population by nearly 80% and the Nama by over 50% as well as destroying the social and political structures of the tribes. +The war in 1904 marked the end of African political significance in South West Africa and the beginning of the total supremacy of white interests in the colony. ",22,English,male,College,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +k,"If I had the chance to go back to the summer before my freshman year and tell myself to get a bike, I would do it. And as the campus expands, I would urge every able-bodied new student to invest in a bicycle. I will not be around to experience life in this town once the school begins to get truly huge, but I can guess what it will be like. Pollock road will be just as bad as ever. + Pollock is pretty much the main street on campus, home to the HUB, Willard and Thomas buildings, Old Main, and other important school locations. On a regular school day, much of this road is off limits to motor vehicles, but is often crammed with pedestrians and bicyclists. This is a problem because the road is narrow and intersects lots of roads and walkways. Bikes trying to get through are surrounded on all sides by students who often don’t bother to look where they’re going before crossing the street. Every day accidents and near-misses happen somewhere on Pollock. When it snows, the danger increases. People slip and fall just walking along. I'm not saying these things don’t happen elsewhere on campus, but Pollock is the road most traveled. Curtin road, which parallels Pollock, is also bad. Trying to drive from one end of campus to the other takes an impossibly long time during school hours, especially when a lot of students are walking around. Long lines of students cross the street, blocking all motor vehicles. Also, the bus system is not adequate to carry all the people it needs to, particularly in winter, and this is unlikely to change in the future. Despite global warming, the snow will still be just as bad, and I'm not looking forward to riding my bike over ice. + My proposal to solve these problems: build a raised, enclosed bicycle pathway, or an underground bike tunnel so that people can ride long distances without having to stop or slow down for pedestrians. As for the problem of congestion on Curtin, foot bridges could be installed so that pedestrians can cross the street without getting in the way of cars. Eventually, some of the loop buses could even be put on their own specially designated roads, or even be replaced by a light rail system. However, these are all expensive, long-term projects, and some of them may take years or never be implemented at all. These may even be cause more harm than good. Serious research needs to be done to determine what would be the best long-term solution. As Penn State grows, it needs to remain eco-conscious and attempt to maintain the natural beauty that makes this campus so special. The university's idea of solving problems seems to be to throw money at them. This isn't always the most intelligent strategy. Look at the IST building, for example. This is a nearly 59 million-dollar building. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"I watched the bear until it gave up and walked away. The next day, an entire Jaguar club came through. An unbroken stream of Jaguars of all ages and types passed by, driving down the only road. After what seemed like hours, the last stragglers came, like the wounded or sick following after a stampede. These are only a few of the things that spring to mind. That was a weird trip. These memories, however, are only a few random, fleeting flashes out of 20 years of strange experiences, most of which I remember fairly well. The only things I have trouble remembering are the names of people I didn't know very well. Seeing these things didn't have any kind of profound impact on me in the traditional sense, but in the sense that I can be nothing more than a collection of thoughts and feelings wrapped up in a fragile physical body they're very important. If I hadn't remembered those things, I would have thought of something else, and then I wouldn't be the same person, would I? So perhaps these things do have something to do with who I am. + Let's see what we have so far. I don't like schoolwork, and I like to see things like bears and British cars. This almost makes me wonder if I shouldn't be in a forest or a mechanic's shop somewhere instead of in college. Then I remember exactly why I'm in college. It's a great reason, too. I want to have lots fun without a lot of responsibility, and that's what college is perfect for. I realize that this doesn't do much for my fellow man. Millions of people are slaves around the world, billions are poor, and countless numbers die every day of nasty and easily preventable causes because they are so poor. The world is a terrible place, and it needs to be fixed. One day I'm going to do everything in my power to help change the world. For right now, I'm going to party. I don't feel bad about it because for one thing, there's really not much I can do at this point. I realize that for all intents and purposes I'm still a child. I'm still trying to spell refrigerator, and I'm okay with that. When I've learned what I need to learn, then I will be a man. I might never have any real power to change the world, but as long as I do everything I can, I will be satisfied. + Satisfaction is a hard thing to define. What is it about something that satisfies or dissatisfies us? I've always been into movies. I guess you could say I've always been a pretty casual observer of the world, ever since I was a little kid. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k," +I have been a student here at University Park for about two and a half years now, or four and a half semesters. For many, including myself, getting around on campus can be a problem. My freshman year I was placed in an East Halls dorm room; pretty much the furthest eastward limit of campus, not counting the stadium and Bryce Jordan Center. Traveling from my home in Stuart Hall to classes in such faraway places as Willard building, near the center of campus, could take up to 25 minutes by foot, especially if the weather was bad, as it often is in State College. Speaking to an alum not much older than myself, I learned that not long ago the East Halls dorms were set apart from the rest of the school by huge tracts of unused land. Today that empty space has been filled with sports fields, huge new buildings including the new Creamery and new health services building, and surrounded with apartments. As our campus continues to expand, getting from one place to another becomes more and more difficult. What is the best solution to the problem of mobility? On a college campus, it is the bicycle. But the bike by itself won't solve any problems. Students need to ride them, and the campus needs to be built to suit the needs of bicyclists. + I was talking to a friend of mine who recently resumed bicycling after a several-year hiatus. He mentioned that he wondered why he ever stopped. “Bikes are great,” he said, “for a few years it wasn’t cool to ride a bike, but it’s the only way to get around.” In addition to being good for your body, bicycling is the most efficient way to travel. A bowl of oatmeal and a little physical exertion will take you 30 miles or more. Like many undergraduates, I now live off campus; just as far from the center of campus as some dorms. The smartest decision I’ve made this year was to buy a bike. Every day, I have class in Thomas building, easily a twenty-five-minute walk from my home. Riding a bike can cut that time down to 5 minutes if I pedal fast enough. The only problem is, Pollock Road is the straightest shot to Thomas building from my house, and it's not always an easy road to travel on, bike or no bike. There are things to be said for walking as well, but personally I’m too busy to walk. If I didn’t have my bike, walking would be my only reliable option for getting to class. Walking to Thomas every day would take an extra 30-40 minutes out of my day. That’s over two and a half hours every week. Add to that all the other time I would have to spend walking to and from other classes, appointments, and etc. That’s more time than I can spare. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"What makes us different? I wear different clothes, look different, have a different kind of body, listen to different music and do different things with my time. These aren't differences, actually. They're really similarities. Everyone wears clothes, looks different from everyone else, etc. The differences are more than skin deep, but the similarities go much deeper. My experiment is to try and think of what it is that's deep down inside myself, and put it into words. This is hard to do. All I can think of right now is something that happened to me when I was a kid. + When I was in the first or second grade, I once had to sit alone in my classroom through an entire lunch period because my teacher wouldn't let me leave until I finished an activity. It was a sort of brain-teaser thing. I was stuck on the last sheet, on which nine squares were printed. I was supposed to spell out the name of whatever object was pictured in each of the nine spaces. I started working, and being a good speller, I found it pretty easy. I got to about the third one, which was pretty obviously supposed to be a refrigerator, though the drawing was not exactly lifelike. At first I thought it would be easy. I started to write “fridge,” then realized that there were twelve spaces for letters. “Fridge” was too short. So, I thought about it, couldn't figure it out, then moved on to the next one. By the time I was finished, I had realized that fridge was short for something. I tried to fit “refridgerator,” seemingly the only logical spelling, but it was too long. The bell rang, and I was still trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I stared at the picture, thinking that perhaps it wasn't a fridge at all, but something I had never before encountered. As the minutes passed, I began to get anxious. I was the only one left in the room. I felt like the teacher was sadistic for keeping me there for such a pointless activity. I may have even known enough curse words at this point to be cursing her out in my head as I sat staring at the paper and spacing out, or perhaps I just thought she was a jerk. Why couldn't the teacher have helped me out? I was only one letter off. I think this may have been the moment I began to despise school. + You can't forget about the past, especially your own, even if you want to. And even if you did, what good would it do you? At the same time, how sure can you be that you remember things correctly? One time, while staying at a cabin in some park in California, I looked across the street and saw a brown bear jumping up and down on the hood of a parked car. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Federal law remains the same, so the DEA sometimes raids these clubs. This cannot be ethical. Consider Amy, a college student in Sacramento. Amy was born with a condition that causes her severe discomfort and often powerful nausea and stomach pain. For long periods of time, Amy can't keep down a meal without cannabis. Other medications don't work for her or have side effects that are worse than the pain. Undoubtedly, not every customer at one of these clubs has a serious medical condition, but what's the point of differentiating between serious and insignificant ailments when the drug has negligible side effects? Pot can also help people with insomnia, depression, asthma, severe pain, muscle spasms, and numerous other ailments. And who gives the DEA the right to take away medication that people can't do without? Amy is a real person. + In 1969 the Marihuana Tax act was found to be unconstitutional because it violated the 5th amendment. It was replaced by a new law that did not violate the 5th amendment. In reality, any federal law relating to drugs is unconstitutional. The constitution says that any power not belonging to the federal government is a power of the states. It says nothing about drugs. Not only is it unconstitutional, it is also unethical and just stupid. They have taken away some of our personal freedom, not just to use it as a drug but to use it as a medicine and make an industry out of it as well. The same way gangsters made millions on illegal alcohol during prohibition, organized crime is making millions today selling marijuana. A lot of small time dealers are in jail, costing us tax money, while new ones spring up on the streets to replace them immediately. Otherwise “normal” kids are having their futures ruined over a harmless activity. If marijuana becomes completely legal, it is hard to predict the economic and social effects, but it will certainly solve the problem of overcrowding in our prisons and reduce our spending on the legal system. + Why shouldn't people smoke pot? Some claim it reduces decision-making skills and makes people unmotivated. This has some truth to it. Marijuana does affect the short term memory, and can hinder cognitive development to some degree for people under 21. Still, If it were up to me, pot would be legal for everyone over the age of 18. Let them decide for themselves if they want to make learning that much harder. Pot also changes one's motivations. In general there is a shift from motivation to work hard and succeed to a drive to relax and enjoy life, especially with frequent users. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Marijuana does not turn responsible adults into lazy hippies. Teenagers often become lazier when smoking pot, but adults are rarely affected this way and in fact are sometimes more motivated. Many successful people are cannabis users. Recently, bloated claims have been made that marijuana leads to schizophrenia. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"George Washington, being a farmer, grew hemp, including two smokable varieties. Growing hemp was encouraged by the government to help the country flourish. Hemp use declined in the late eighteenth century, however, because processing hemp by hand requires a lot of work. Today it is illegal to grow any type of hemp in the united states, though it is not illegal to import the innocuous kind. The reason things changed was that in the early 1900's a wave of mexican immigrants introduced recreational marijuana use to the American public. Propaganda of the time proclaimed marijuana to be a deadly, mania-inducing drug that was corrupting the white population's youth. Laws began to be passed, and soon every state had some sort of prohibition on marijuana. + The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act was the first federal legislature making pot illegal. The law restricted the selling, cultivation and possession of marijuana for any use other than industrial or medical, but also essentially restricted its use for those purposes as well, with an expensive tax and a stamp system that made it impossible for anyone to legally get away with it. The law required people to buy tax stamps that would allow them to buy and sell marijuana, but the stamps were not made available, and the taxes were huge. The man behind the act was Harry Anslinger, the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, today's DEA. Anslinger was a racist who was appointed by his uncle-in-law, a man who was closely involved with Dupont Chemicals, which had just invented a new way of making paper. Of course, Dupont didn't want to have hemp to compete with, because it can be used to make paper as well. America saw a rise in hemp cultivation again in 1942, when it became useful to the government for the war effort. When the war was over, a new law was passed, keeping marijuana illegal. Since then, the restrictiveness of cannabis laws has risen and fallen several times, but has generally stayed pretty much the same. Most recently, it looks like marijuana's image has changed to that of a harmless plant in most people's views. Decriminalization is looking better and better to the people who make the laws as more is learned about the real effects of marijuana, and of marijuana prohibition. + In the late nineteenth century, marijuana became a common ingredient in medicines and easily available at pharmacies. Today, Medical marijuana is making a comeback. In 1996, California passed prop 215, allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients. Marijuana's most widely known use today is to control nausea and vomiting, especially for cancer and AIDS patients. It can also be used to treat glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. Most large cities in California now have cannabis clubs where anyone with a prescription can buy highly potent medical marijuana with prices ranging up to $700 per ounce, and the pot is worth it. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Ugh, that idiot can't really be wearing that same stupid hat he's had on every day this year, can he? Yes, he can. But that's no reason to go home and beat your wife. Besides, that will only create more relationship stress. Yes, sheer contempt stress is real. Rarely, it is automatic, but often when stress builds to a certain point, people can develop a contemptuous attitude. This causes more stress, just because when the person with this attitude looks around, all he sees are more things to stress him out. Trying to tell the person suffering from contempt stress to mellow out will only lead to more contempt. + Loneliness Stress – Everyone has got a partner except you. Nobody wants to read your crappy paper. That cute girl would never go out with you. The people who are as lonely as you won't even talk to you, for the same reason you won't talk to them, and sometimes that cute girl is even one of them. And if she's not, she might try to talk to you, get weirded out, and then never talk to you again. This is much worse, because you've had your chance and there is no longer any hope that she might like you if she just gave you a chance. Loneliness can cause people a lot of emotional distress. Loneliness can be real, when the person is literally apart from all others – or perceived, when the person sees himself as alienated from the people around him. Loneliness stress, like relationship stress, is often characterized by an empty feeling and a lack of motivation, but differs in that it often goes unnoticed even by those suffering from it. + Talking to the professor stress – whether it be a simple email or a long discussion about plagiarism policy, every student dreads talking to his or her professors. We've all been there. You flunked the first exam of your toughest class, haven't been there in two weeks, and you have a hundred journal entries a month overdue. Or, maybe you just have a question about something trivial. But who asks those? This is one of the more easily bearable types of stress we are familiar with. The numbing recognition that has to be made – that there's no way you can keep putting things off without failing the course – leaves you with a blank expression on your face, signifying your underlying lack of presence in the moment, probably partly due to sleep deprivation. + Sleep deprivation stress – this one can be good for some things, but bad for others. Staying up all night helps lots of people write papers, but it can also be as bad as alcohol when it comes to impairing a person's driving. The state of mind that sleep deprivation leaves one in grows steadily worse as the time without sleep lengthens. At first, it is a kind of manic state which leads to some loss of inhibitions, and at worst it can lead to total delerium. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Here Vonnegut combines appeals to Ethos and Pathos: in an audience of young Americans, or for that matter any audience, most people can relate to an experience of peer pressure; Vonnegut has a right to make this conjecture about “the most powerful force in the universe” because he had witnessed firsthand the results of peer pressure in Nazi Germany. + One night his parents have two upper-class friends, a husband and wife he refers to as the Swans, over to their house as guests. The Swans show up in a brand new car, with an expensive fur coat and new sapphire ring. This is during the Depression, a period in American history when almost everyone was destitute. “It was as though this one couple had been allowed to defy the law of gravity,” Vonnegut observes, pointing to the logical conclusion to be made about their mysterious wealth. Young Kurt asks Mr. Swan how much his new star sapphire ring had cost him, and this prompts his father to hit him on the seat of the pants. It turns out the Swans were there to con the Vonneguts out of their remaining savings, telling them about a great, secret investment opportunity in a growing coal monopoly, which of course turned out to be fake. When he has finished telling this story, Vonnegut explains that it was his parents' nice manner which had allowed them to be conned, and prevented them from suspecting that their friends might be crooked. “Good manners had made them defenseless against predatory members of their own class. There we have our old friend peer pressure again, of course.” + There is a break in the essay here, and after the blank line, a narrative begins about a phone call in which Kurt Vonnegut is talking to his cousin in Indianapolis, and tells her that he dreads coming to his home town, since he had a hard time believing that his older relatives could hate his books and love him at the same time. This is clearly an appeal to Pathos. His cousin explains to him that his older relatives were all Victorians and too old to change. “They could not help themselves when it came to loathing dirty books.” This leads him to think about queen Victoria, the longest reigning British monarch, and ask himself why she would have been so interested in good manners. This is where the logical appeal of Vonnegut's argument is most prominently displayed. “I asked myself why any mention of bodily functions should have pained this queen so. I cannot believe that Victoria herself would have suffered a moment's genuine dismay if I had shown her the picture of my asshole which I drew...” A line drawing of an anus is pictured here. + This belief about queen Victoria's constitution is drawn from observations about human nature that anyone could make. Nobody is really offended by course language, they are just conditioned to act as if they are. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"What satisfies me in a movie is the way the movie draws you in and makes you a part of it, and at the same time makes itself a part of you. When a movie is really good, it makes this look effortless. However, one's satisfaction with a movie depends on one's taste in movies. Some people like horror movies and some don't. Satisfaction in life, similarly, depends on one's outlook on life. Nobody wants to be a slave, but once a person has the basic necessities of life – food, water, shelter, and freedom – happiness is a state of mind. As I see it, it's all in your head. Take it or leave it, this is just my opinion. I think everyone deep down is just looking for happiness. There is a lot of unhappiness in the world, but I think that can change. I think over time man will evolve to a point where we can control our own minds. In fact, man may not need to evolve further. Some people are already capable of this. + It's impossible to capture all of the random points one's mind wanders through in a given period of time, but I've tried here to give you a general idea of what my thought process was like as I wrote this paper. If it seems as though my mind jumps from place to place, this is because that is how my mind works. I couldn't avoid writing about my past, which was my intent, but only because memories pop up unexpectedly. In fact this paper was not really written in one sitting, as it might seem. I did, however, make all of this up off the top of my head. I can't fake that, and I refuse to make any kind of plan before I start writing. There wasn't much call for me to write this, except that it was required for a class. Nobody really needs to know any of this stuff. Hopefully if you've read it you might know a bit more about who I am. Or at least about who I was when I wrote this essay. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go make myself a sandwich. + There are different types of stress. Some types are “good,” according to our high school health classes, while others are bad. In reality, though, all stress is the same. Avoiding stress can't bring anyone peace for long, just like constantly seeking pleasure won't bring anyone true happiness. Stress is an inevitable part of everyone's life. It is a part of our nature, hard-wired into our brains, evolved over eons as a function of our minds. The stress response is a natural, uncontrolled reaction triggered by the hypothalamus. In a dangerous situation, it can help us react appropriately, in fact this is it's purpose. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"He gives a brief but detailed history of her life, describing her as a gallant and pretty little woman, then explains that he mentions her in this article on obscenity because she was his friend, and told him that, though the dirty words he used in his books did not astonish her, the words should not be published. Riah claimed that her circle of friends all agreed with her, imagining that he used the words to cause a sensation, in order to make his books more popular. “Her friends could not bear to read me anymore,” he states. + He gives another example, quoting a a newspaper article likening his use of four-letter words and line drawings to “a small boy sticking out his tongue at the teacher.” “This small boy sticking out his tongue was fifty years old at the time,” he says, appealing to Ethos by giving himself credibility. In fact, Vonnegut began to use these things more often as he matured as a writer, and their purpose, he explains, is not to shock anyone, but to make the people in his books talk the way really people talk. He wants to make jokes about our bodies, because he doesn't see any harm in it. Here he summarizes the opinions opposed to his own, that of those against bad manners and obscene language, then explains himself and his position. His counter-argument -- “Why not?” -- simply but effectively sums up his opinion that there is no harm is obscenity. + He goes back to Riah Fagan Cox and her friends. All of them, he has been assured, would not have been wobbled or astonished, because they had heard all the words he used many times before. “They would have insisted that the words should not be published anyway. It was bad manners to use such words. Bad manners should be punished.” The lack of logic here is self-evident. He doesn't need to point it out to further his logical argument. He then states his thesis, which I quoted earlier, but which begins “But even when I was in grammar school...” thereby furthering his Ethos, because he has held this point of view for such a long time. In the next paragraph, he says that he had this hunch confirmed when he was in the fourth grade or so. + Vonnegut next tells a personal story from his childhood. The story takes place during the Great Depression. He was the son of wealthy parents and had been sent to private school before the Depression, but had been moved to elementary school, therefore associating more with the middle and lower class children he went to school with than with his upper-class parents. “Peer pressure, which is the most powerful force in the universe, had actually made me a scorner of my parents' class,” he explains. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"It's true that marijuana use can exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders, but this is rare. Often, marijuana can do just the opposite and help people to recover from emotional problems. There is no evidence that marijuana causes schizophrenia. Another health issue is the carcinogens in the smoke. Firstly, these are avoidable in numerous ways, including vaporization of the THC without burning the plant material, and oral ingestion. Secondly, no correlation between smoking of cannabis and rate of lung cancer has been found. None of these are reasons why the government should be able to stop us from using it. The only person who can be hurt by these things is the person smoking it, and Marijuana is still less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. + Why should pot be illegal? Some worry that people driving around high on weed will cause a tragic accident. Really, this is not any more likely than a sober person causing a tragic accident. Being high doesn't make people into idiots. They know they're driving while high, and they slow down and pay attention to what they're doing. High people aren't usually willing to drive recklessly or even incautiously. It's true that in a high speed collision, a split second of reaction time can mean the difference between life and death, but the person driving high probably isn't driving as fast. Another thing people point to is marijuana's reputation as a “gateway drug,” or drug which leads first time drug users into harder, more dangerous drugs, like heroin or cocaine. While there is some truth to the stereotype that harder drug users often start with cannabis, cannabis does not necessarily cause people to move on to harder drugs. Correlation does not equal causation. The same junkies probably also started out with alcohol and tobacco before they tried hard drugs. Yes, it is possible to abuse cannabis as with anything else of its kind, but this does not make it a bad thing. + The fact of the matter is, marijuana was made illegal because of racism almost a century ago, and now remains illegal because of organized crime, the paper industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and other industries that would suffer if they had hemp to compete with. I should say that it is still illegal because not enough people have stood up together at once and demanded change. But this is not the whole story. Many people still harbor negative attitudes toward cannabis, due in large part to anti-pot propaganda. Today's propaganda paints pot users as slacker teens wasting their lives and aging losers crashing their cars into children. Parents are still afraid that if pot is legal, their kids will get hooked. Apparently they don't realize that it is currently easier for high school kids to get weed than to get alcohol. They also don't seem to realize that dealers today often spray their product with strange chemicals or other drugs; there is no guarantee that the bud you buy is safe. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"They ditched the air conditioner in the side of the road and found a dollar store where they bought some cookie sheets and duct tape. Then they taped the cookie sheets to the roof to keep the rain out. They did not care that they were destroying the truck because it was their truck, and not a rental. You see, a used moving truck was worth more out west than it was where they bought it, so they were earning enough for the gas to get them there just by driving. I suppose you've got to be pretty clever to get away with living as a ski bum. With the roof repaired, the journey continued. It was at three in the morning, on a steep and curvy stretch of road coming into Salt Lake City -- final destination for their trip -- when the cookie sheets blew off in the wind. + Who I am is not something you can find out by reading this paper. My mother told me 'you are what you eat.' If that's true, then right now I am a red plastic cup full of water, half full or perhaps half empty. Earlier today I was a half-cooked hot dog wrapped in a whole wheat bun, with Heinz ketchup and Grey Poupon. I was my roommate's orange juice, and some hummus with tortilla chips. Last night I was approximately one quarter of a pineapple, some spicy Cheez-its, and a big hunk of Gouda cheese. From time to time I have been bananas. In my past I have even been a bad burrito once or twice, and one time I was this absolutely disgusting turkey sandwich. Very soon I will become some frozen chicken nuggets, when they're ready. One of my favorite things to be is sashimi. Just being a simple, perfect piece of buttery, raw, untouched salmon is bliss. You're probably wondering why I'm going on about food. It isn't because I'm hungry, It is because I can't think of any better way to describe myself. I could tell you all about where and how I grew up, what I do with my life, and so on, but that wouldn't really tell you any more about me, and I would be bored just thinking about it. I would rather write about food. What can I say, I am a Kellogg's corn flake. + Someone, perhaps it was Kierkegaard, once said, “If you label me, you negate me.” I, like everyone else, change in subtle and unpredictable ways at every moment. We can't put labels on people, because every person is unique, and everyone is in a state of flux. Everyone experiences the world subjectively. To understand who someone is, you must first see the world through his or her eyes. I want to try an experiment. My head is a blank slate. Deep down I feel that everything is connected, I know that everyone is really the same in all the ways that matter. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Headache and loss of perception of time are common. Caffeine can add to this stressor's positive effects, but in the long run can also contribute to its negative effects. The typical sleep deprived person is rarely all there, as their minds tend to wander or just space out. + + + Cannabis should be freely available to all. Yes, it should. All smoking pot does to someone is get that person high. Why should getting high be a crime? It is that impossible thing – a victimless crime. It hurts no one. More serious drugs can have serious consequences. Marijuana does not have serious consequences, except jail time due to many countries' bad legislation. Currently federal law classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no medical value. This makes it illegal to possess, sell, or use. In truth, cannabis is less addictive than caffeine and offers several medical benefits for the seriously ill. Of course, if cannabis was made available for medical purposes, it would still be used recreationally by people who don't need it, and this is true of many prescription drugs, but why should we worry about that when it grows in the ground and is less dangerous than a toaster? There is a long list of reasons why pot should be legal and reasons why keeping it illegal is hurting us. Let's start by looking at what cannabis is, and why it's illegal today. + Cannabis sativa is the scientific name of the plant we know as marijuana. The drug in its herbal form is taken from the female cannabis plant. The dried flowered buds, the part of the plant with the highest concentration of trichomes (glandular hairs which produce THC), are crushed up and smoked. Hashish, which is more potent, is produced by separating the trichomes and making them into a resin or oil. THC, short for delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive chemical found in the cannabis plant, though there are a few others, and most are unique to the plant. This is what gets one high. The high produced by smoking cannabis lasts about two to three hours (up to 8 or more hours when consumed in edible form) and is uplifting, producing relaxation and laughter, pain and nausea relief, and increased sensory stimulation and appetite. The high is not caused by the destruction of brain cells. Rather, certain receptors related to appetite in the brain are stimulated. There has never been a documented fatality from THC or marijuana overdose. Evidence has been found of cannabis use as early as 4000 BC. + Hemp is a term that describes the entire cannabis family of plants, but usually refers to cannabis grown for industrial purposes, containing less than 1% THC and useless as a psychoactive drug. Hemp was one of the United States' most important crops during the country's early years of independence, when it was used to make rope, sails, food and clothing, among other things. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"However, if one is in a situation where the danger is not real, but only perceived, then the stress response can be problematic. Some people neurotically imagine danger everywhere, but most people at least have an unnecessary stress response in situations involving public speaking or during awkward social situations. We perceive not imminent bodily harm, but rather an attack on our perceptions of ourselves. Many, if not all, types of stress are merely subjective, based on our perceptions. If the pitcher didn't care about the big game, he wouldn't be stressed out about pitching well. This is only an example, but it applies to practically every situation. The way we deal with stress makes a big difference on how stress affects us. Some kinds of stress, however, are just worse than others. + There is some horrendous stress being shouldered these days by the youth of our country. Every college freshman knows the stress of being awake at 8 in the morning, just starting work on his or her next big assignment, due in mere hours. Many know what it's like to flunk a class, or give a presentation in front of a huge audience, at least huge for a kid. Every college freshman comes to school the same way, and the stress can be overwhelming. Here we will look at some of the causes of stress, or stressors, often encountered by the typical student. + Relationship trouble stress – perhaps the most deeply unsettling kind of stress imaginable. What kind of person makes you feel wonderful, only to bring you crashing down all the harder for it? The most important person in your life, of course. This kind of stress is characterized by an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach, along with a complete lack of motivation to do anything. Often compounded with other forms of stress, due to its extremely influential nature, this stress can make your life a living hell. According to an article on stress, ongoing or long-term events such as coping with a divorce can produce a lasting, low-level stress that's hard on people. “The nervous system senses continued pressure and may remain slightly activated and continue to pump out extra stress hormones over an extended period. This can wear out the body's reserves, leave a person feeling depleted or overwhelmed, weaken the body's immune system, and cause other problems.” There's no Advil you can take to make this kind of headache go away. In short, relationships can be a downward spiral. We lean on them to relieve our troubles, but they only cause more problems than they solve. This leads us to lean on them more and more heavily, until they topple over. + Sheer contempt stress – holding the entire world in a state of utter comtempt can be rough business. Jaw-clenching, teeth-grinding, hair-pulling – these are the telltale signs of contempt stress, though not necessarily limited to it. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Having established that these are not legitimate reasons why she would have been anti-obscenity, he then presents his idea of the legitimate reason that she was. He suggests that she would have sensed it as an attack on her power to intimidate. She would have wanted people to remain quiet about things like “the suffering of the Irish, or the cruelties of the factory system, or the privileges of the nobility, or the approach of a world war, and on and on.” He sardonically asks “If she would not even acknowledge that human beings sometimes farted, how could she be expected to hear without swooning of these other things?” At this point in the essay, Vonnegut stops to admire the subtlety of Victoria's scheme. “She persuaded them that they would deserve to be self-governing only after they had stopped thinking about all the things that human beings can't help thinking about all the time.” This would lead mothers of the Victorian era to discipline their families to try to make them do the same. “And on and on” is repeated several times through the essay, to drive home the idea that everything is connected. + The next portion of the essay is a story Vonnegut describes as the dirtiest story he ever wrote. He also claims it to be the first story in the history of literature to have “fuck” in the title, and probably the last short story he would ever write. Establishing this gives a large amount of credibility to the author. The story is filled with words like “fuck,” “shit,” “jism,” and “fart,” but never uses them in a way that could be called obscene. This is part of what makes it satire, because it seems serious superficially, and its underlying themes are serious, but it uses humor to illuminate the ills of society. + Entitled “The Big Space Fuck,” it is a 5 page satirical and darkly funny dystopian short story, set in 1989 ( about twenty years in the future when it was written). Human life is coming to its end, and everything has “Turned to shit and beer cans and old automobiles and Clorox bottles.” The Big Space Fuck is the official name of the plan to spread human life to other parts of the galaxy, a rocket ship with freeze dried sperm cells (jism) in its nose, which is to be fired toward the Andromeda galaxy. The Rocket is actually called the Arthur C. Clarke, and is to be fired on the Fourth of July. The story begins by telling us that in 1987 it became legal for children to sue their parents for the way they were raised. The story then brings us to the home of Dwayne and Grace Hoobler, who at ten o'clock on the night of the launch are watching the countdown in their home on the shore of the polluted and giant lamprey-infested Lake Erie. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Our campus is best described as 'sprawling.' Much of the student body comes from suburban areas, and so is used to suburban sprawl, but what they need to realize is that this kind of unchecked development is the reason why our planet is getting warmer at an alarming rate. Every individual has an impact on the world around him or her. + I guess the conclusion to be drawn is that people need to think about what they're doing and the consequences of their actions. This includes everyone. Pedestrians need to look where they're going. The same goes for bikers. Even high school kids, the prospective future students of this fine university, need to think about whether going to school here is really worth the trouble of getting around. But, most importantly, the people making decisions affecting the future of this school (and the rest of the world) need to think about whether what they're doing is benefiting anyone, or simply helping to make them more wealthy. The school is currently working on a new 60 million-dollar law building, the Lewis Katz building, and is spending 9 million on an adjacent arboretum. These are across from my old home in Stuart hall, and extend the campus by at least another quarter-mile, not including parking lots. Construction of an enormous science building is set to begin in July of this year. The sports fields that were the last open space between East halls and the rest of campus have been torn up and are being prepared for construction of this building. Rumor has it that in the future the Bryce Jordan Center will be the center of campus. The center of campus. This would make the scale of this university campus almost inconceivable. Does it really need to be that big? Most of the people that these developments will affect don't bother to ask these questions, or even know what their school is doing. + How would a designated bike path help the school and the community at large? By itself, it wouldn't. It would require the participation of the people who have to travel on campus. In other words, kids would have to use bikes. One of my friends recently bought a bike, but stopped using it because the campus is too hilly and he was afraid he would crash into someone on the street. Even if you forget about bicyclists, the kids who walk up and down Pollock road every day have a hard time getting around when it snows. Every time I go out I see people slip and fall in the snow and slush. An enclosure over the road and its sidewalks would greatly reduce this problem. And as long as they're building a roof over it, why not make it into a raised, enclosed pathway? They already built one over Shortlidge Road between two buildings, the Chemistry and Life Sciences buildings. It would be well within the school's budget to do this. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"It seems obvious, but if pot was legal, it would be easier to get and much cheaper. These are two of the biggest reasons smoking pot causes problems for people – by being a drain on their money and sometimes exposing them to toxic chemicals. Many adolescent kids are drawn to marijuana use because it is something they are not supposed to do. It's the fact that it's against the rules that makes it so interesting. + If all this is accurate, then what real reason can there be to keep cannabis illegal? There is none to be found, and plenty of reasons why the prohibition should be repealed. Right now Ron Paul and Barney Frank are trying to pass a bill that would allow anyone to possess up to 30 grams for personal use. There's no way this bill will be passed, but at least there are some brave people willing to try. We've done enough damage to ourselves as a nation already, it's time to turn things around. The same way smoking cannabis won't solve all the problems in a man's life, repealing prohibition will not solve all the problems in the world, but it will make the place that much better. Expect the day that cannabis is legalized to be a monumental day in history, and hope that it doesn't come too late. + + Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis in 1922, volunteered for military service in 1943, and survived the bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II. He was an American prisoner in the city, and one of the few people who survived its total destruction. After the war, he wrote satire prolifically, often emphasizing the terrible things people do to each other. Vonnegut has been criticized for his use of “obscene” words, and in his article on obscenity he articulates his views on the value of obscenity. His thesis is best summarized when he writes, “I suspected that warnings about words that nice people never used were in fact lessons in how to keep our mouths shut not just about our bodies but about many, many things – perhaps too many things.” Here he implies that not only should we perhaps be able to speak openly about our bodies, but also about other things which we have trouble speaking about, such as oppression. He also implies a connection between these two ideas. + Vonnegut begins his essay with a story about a woman he once knew. Her name was Riah Fagan Cox and she was his first mother-in-law. Her story is that of a woman who built herself up from nothing, and with the money she made, helped her brother and her children. Vonnegut immediately sets up an emotional connection with the reader by bringing one into the life of this inspiring woman. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"When you think about it, it almost seems like the school doesn't care about the comfort or convenience of its students, but rather about being big, flashy, and impressive. Just look at the dorms the freshmen are forced to live in. They fit two people into a concrete box almost eerily similar to a prison cell, most of the time without even considering whether these people will be able to live together without killing each other, in buildings where the elevators don't work and the bathrooms don't even have paper towels or soap. Meanwhile, huge, extravagant, multi-million dollar glass and brick works of art are popping up all over campus. That's why it's up to us to make the people in charge of this school think twice about what they're doing. + + The problem of transportation and mobility is one to seriously consider as this campus continues to expand. If the many acres of open space east of campus are going to be developed, the needs of students need to be kept in mind. To be honest, the campus as it stands today is good enough. People get from place to place pretty well, without too many complaints. But this won't always be the case unless we plan ahead for the future of this school. Bike paths are necessary, as is mass transit. Not everyone can drive to school, and even if they could, it would cause a lot of problems. If you build bike paths, people will use them, and more people will be encouraged to buy and use bikes. I hope in the future this school will be more considerate of the needs of its students. To be completely honest, though, if you're looking for a school where it's easy to get from place to place, Penn State is probably not the place for you, and it probably never will be. Oh well. + + + My name is Michelle, and I am a drag queen. The first time i dressed in women's clothing was when i was 4 years old, but that has nothing to do with my story, or why i am the way i am. When i dance, I am beautiful. I am graceful, like a tape and tuck Ginger Rogers. I love the pageantry and flash of the drag shows. I thrive on it. Some people were born to entertain. + It was amateur night at the Flamingo, and i looked stunning in a backless aquamarine number. I don't mean the Flamingo in Las Vegas – the Flamingo was a shady bar and nightclub in sunny Fort Lauderdale, the kind of place that doesn't stay open for very long, for whatever reason. It was my first time on stage, my first year away from home. I'd be lying if i said i wasn't nervous. Strutting my stuff in front of a hundred Pabst bastards like a piece of some strange meat. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +k,"Donna Summers playing over the PA, a rainbow of different colored lights, i felt like a goddess. It's never like it was that night anymore. Today's music, nothing but clicks and whistles blasted at high volume, you can't be heard over it, and the drag queens have no class anyway. + Afterwards, at the bar, i'm scoping out the gentlemen while the bartender fixes me a long island. The guy next to me is cute, and i tell him so. We make some small talk, and i like him, so i tell him he has a nice ass. “So my proctologist tells me.” Then, like a prom dress hitting the floor of a cheap hotel, it hits me. He would probably never realize it unless i told him, but we've met before, many times before. When we were kids my cousin Jeffrey and his brother used to tease me about my big teeth. Now i stop smiling because i don't want him to recognize them. I don't want him to recognize me. I become aware that i'm blushing, beet red probably. My skin feels hot, i'm sure i'm sweating, even though it's an unusually chilly night for Florida. + I try to make a quick exit. I say i'm going to the little girl's room. I sound ridiculous, so awkward, so embarrassed. “OK John” he says without missing a beat. I'm frozen to the floor. I look down to make sure i'm not on an ice-skating rink. I look back up and he's smiling. He tells me he came to see his brother. I follow his pointing finger to the tall one in the off-white dress. + + It was the summer. They were newlyweds, my mother and father. Not a year into their marriage, they made the decision to become ski bums, so they left their lives behind and moved to Utah. Apparently, Colorado was too cold, and too popular. Probably they were more interested in burning all their bridges to the seedy underworld of Philadelphia and making a new start where they could be alone together. At least that's why i would have left, and i have the sneaking suspicion that they were just like me in those halcyon days. So, immediately they quit their jobs, bought a truck, and hit the road. + So they were driving into Utah when they realized that rain was coming in through the roof of the truck. My dad pulled over and found that the air conditioner on the roof of the truck didn't have any support, it was just attached to the sheet metal. The air conditioner was so heavy that the sheet metal had ripped and the huge air conditioner was about to fall on their heads. My father, being the expert mechanic that he still is, made short work of removing it from the roof along with the aid of Lou, one of their traveling companions and an equally proficient mechanic. ",23,English,male,Some College,Unemployed,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," From Freud and Jung’s psychoanalytic theories to the behavioral interpretations of Skinner and Rodgers, the different schools of psychological thought strive to explain the perplexing and all too often contradictory motives behind human behavior–unfortunately, often with negligible concrete results. In fact, in the world of psychology, where so much of what goes on inside each individual’s psyche is carefully hidden behind ego defenses, habitual behaviors, and socially dictated norms, how we dress–from the clothes we wear to the way we style our hair and decorate our bodies–is one of only a very few clear indicators of an individual’s personality, self–image and at times even his or her world view. In every sense of the word, we +“dress to impress,”— to make a statement to the world about who we are and how we want the world to see us. + +But what are we saying with what we wear? Not everyone is an expert on style, certainly. We all know what we like, and our personalities will permeate our individual choices, but how can we predict with any degree of certainty how our style of dress will affect others, or, conversely, how other’s appearance may impact our opinions without our knowledge or conscious participation in the process? + +Surprisingly, the answers to these issues are not all that difficult to come by. The same research that provides us with so much information (albeit with very few conclusions) about personality development also helps us to recognize how our outward appearance reflects our personality to others. Here are just a few examples of some styles of dress that are popular today and the kinds of information they can convey about those who wear them. + +The conventional dresser dresses for his environment rather than from a sense of personal style. In the business world the conventional dresser is the man or woman wearing a simple, traditionally styled suit in blue, gray or black with a white or pale pastel shirt, conservative tie and sensible shoes. On college campuses he or she is usually in a pair of chinos and a button down shirt, topped off by perhaps a “V” neck sweater and a pair of loafers. Conventional dressers tend to be “conventional” people– drab and sometimes boring, risk averse and lacking in confidence, they tend to be introverts who like to blend in with the crowd. + +Sloppy dressers generally look as if they slept in the clothes they are wearing. Their wrinkled, soiled, mismatched outfits, often including torn, frayed blue jeans and deliberately ripped T- shirts are usually topped off by unwashed, uncombed hair, unshaven faces and –on women-heavy, sloppily applied makeup. The “Grunge” look is the uniform of the “Anti-establishment,” and while those who sport this style tend to view themselves as free-thinkers who reject conventional norms, the look also screams of a poor self-image, immaturity, lack of motivation, and an “I don’t give a damn” attitude that others will assume-often correctly-carries over into every aspect of a person’s life-from job performance, to work ethic and personal relationships. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," Many people with EDS are unable to work, cannot enjoy formerly pleasurable pursuits such as sports and hobbies and lack the energy for even a normal intimate relationship with a spouse or significant other. Depression in people with EDS is common. + +People with EDS frequently also suffer from a condition called “microsleep,“ which is characterized by sudden, unexpected, very short mini-naps, usually lasting from as little as 1.5 seconds to 30 seconds. Microsleep is real sleep; the person is unaware of his surroundings, may actually dream, and is often disoriented upon waking. Alarmingly, most people who experience microsleep are completely unaware that they were sleeping. Microsleep can have devastating, even fatal, consequences if it occurs while driving or operating dangerous machinery. + +The causes of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness are numerous. EDS is, in fact, mostly viewed by medical experts not as a primary diagnosis, but as a symptom of other neurologic conditions, sleep disorders, metabolic diseases, and psychiatric conditions. It is also a fully amendable effect of certain life style choices such as self-imposed sleep deprivation, shift-work, or drug and alcohol abuse. + +By far the most common causes of EDS are two closely related neurologic conditions, narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. The first, narcolepsy, is a chronic neurologic condition thought to be genetic in origin, although the exact cause remains unclear. Narcolepsy usually occurs in young people; prevalence is greatest from age 10 until the early 20’s. However, it can be seen in any age group. + +Classic symptoms of narcolepsy include excessive daytime sleepiness, microsleep and a condition called “cataplexy,” a sudden loss of muscle control that can be partial (such as the drooping of the face or severe weakness of one extremity) or complete, resulting in total collapse. Cataplexy frequently occurs in conjunction with a strong emotional reaction such as laughter, surprise, or sudden, severe pain, but can happen spontaneously, for no apparent reason. Other symptoms include periods of night time wakefulness accompanied by hot flashes, increased heart rate and an unpleasantly intense feeling of alertness or arousal, sleep paralysis and hallucinations just before falling asleep or upon waking and a characteristically unique sleep cycle during which they experience “REM” (rapid eye movement, or dream sleep) shortly after falling asleep. + + +Recent research studies have shown that people who suffer from narcolepsy have a decreased amount of a substance called “hypocretin” or “orexin”–a chemical responsible for activating arousal and regulating sleep–in their cerebral spinal fluid, the protective fluid that “bathes” the brain and spinal cord. This exciting discovery led to the first definitive diagnostic test for the disorder–a simple lumbar puncture with examination of the spinal fluid–and may eventually prove instrumental in finding a treatment or even a cure for the disease. + + +Idiopathic hypersomnia is a disorder that is very similar to narcolepsy. The primary symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness, and microsleep is a common occurrence. Like narcoleptics, people with hypersomnia may sleep for long periods at night and nap frequently throughout the day. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"An important distinction between the two, however, is that those with hypersomnia tend to awaken from these naps unrefreshed and disoriented, while narcoleptics typically will wake up feeling rested, if only for a few hours. + + +Idiopathic hypersomnia rarely causes cataplexy, sleep paralysis or hallucinations and most people with the disorder have a relatively normal REM sleep cycle. Most importantly people with hypersomnia do not have a decreased level of hypocretin in their cerebrospinal fluid. + + +An interesting, although rare, variation of hypersomnia is a condition known as Kliene-Levin syndrome, or “KLS.” Most common in teenaged males, it is characterized by excessive sleeping, sometimes up to 18 hours per day, and a severely altered mental state with irritability, impaired cognition, anxiety, and confusion during periods of wakefulness. About 75% of patients with KLS also experience an extreme increase in appetite, sometimes devouring enormous quantities of food at a single sitting, and approximately 50% engage in atypical sexual behavior, including promiscuity, inappropriately aggressive sexual advances and even sexual assault. Almost all sufferers will have no memory of these events after they occur. + + +Like idiopathic hypersomnia, KLS is a chronic disorder and many patients develop depression or other mood disorders due to the bizarre effects of the disease. Excessive eating often causes weight gain to the point of obesity, and episodes of extreme sleepiness from which the person cannot be aroused interfere with patient’s ability to work, attend school or engage in normal, age appropriate activities. When KLS is associated with hypersexual behavior, patients may suffer severe repercussions, including loss of social contacts, social stigmatization and –in cases where the sexual behavior is aggressive,-even arrest and incarceration. Fortunately, KLS is usually a self-limiting disease, lasting from 18 months to about four years. + + +Another common cause of excessive daytime sleepiness is sleep apnea, also called “obstructive sleep apnea” or “OSA.” OSA is much more common than either narcolepsy or hypersomnia, affecting an estimated 18 million Americans, both male and female. + + +OSA is caused by obstruction or compression of the normal air passages during sleep, usually by the soft palate, tonsils or, occasionally, the tongue. This results in shallow respiration, snoring and-when obstruction is severe- frequent pauses in breathing, sometimes up to 100 times every hour. These pauses are known as apnea or apneic episodes. They cause sleep disruption, frequent awakening and generally poor sleep quality, which results in daytime sleepiness. + + +While OSA can occur in healthy people of any age, it is most commonly associated with a number of other physical and/or physiologic conditions, especially- + + + + + +Another form of sleep apnea that is less common than OSA is “central apnea.” Central apnea is characterized by depression of the normal drive to breathe, which is a function of the central nervous system. Central apnea most often occurs as the result of medications that act on the central nervous system, particularly narcotics or opiates, barbiturates, benzodiazepines and alcohol; it can occur in persons who take these medicines even in the recommended dosage, especially if they are used in combination with other drugs. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," + +At first easily confused for a “conventional” sort, the “Casual chic” personality is someone who tends to dress appropriately for every occasion and always looks stylish and well-put together. The difference between this person and the conventional dresser, however, is that a “chic” dresser adds small but important personal touches to his or her wardrobe- an elegant piece of jewelry, a silk scarf or designer tie- that speak volumes about his desire to fit in without disappearing into the crowd. The Casual Chic person is confident, successful, and perceived as attractive by others. + +We all know at least one person who will wear nothing but “designer “clothing–everything from his undergarments to his overcoat must sport an easily recognized label from a well-known clothing designer. His or her hair is done only by the most expensive, high-end salon in town and she shops for everything from makeup to mouthwash in only the most exclusive stores. While this style usually gives one an air of affluence and success, it is all too often also a sign of a person who is insecure, uncertain about his personal identity, shallow and overly materialistic. + +Not unlike “Grunge” the “Goth” (short for “gothic”) look is generally worn by those who reject conventional society. Sported mostly by teens and “twenty-something’s,” the look is characterized by black clothing, black (usually dyed hair, heavy, dark makeup and jewelry that looks more threatening than fun or inviting. Those who are drawn to this look often have a number of body piercings and tattoos which they display by wearing as little clothing as possible. (Think Jesse James former fiancé’ Kat VonD) While some people who dress in “Goth” clothing see themselves as artistic and sensitive, for the most part their underlying personalities tend to be angry, immature, thrill- seeking, hostile towards authority and depressed. + +Strange as it seems, most people who dress in “athletic attire” like running suits, sweats and so-called “work-out wear” in public are not athletes, but simply people who want to be perceived as such. Those who wear athletic attire while engaged in athletic pursuits rarely want to be seen (or smelled) in public wearing the same clothes they wore while working out, for obvious reasons. Those who do wear these kinds of outfits in public are generally wearing them in order to identify themselves with a sub-culture that they find appealing but which they cannot join due to physical constraints or a simple lack of time or motivation. These people tend to be sedentary, insecure and envious of those with the ambition and drive to achieve athleticism in the real world. + +Of course, these descriptions are stereotypic representations of many different types of dressers; most of us wear a mixture of one or more of these style types on a regular basis and our personalities are a mix of those described as well. Every conventional dresser is not boring, nor is everyone who wears sweat pants to the grocery store a frustrated athlete. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," Never mind that they are running a race that they are doomed to lose‭; ‬after all,‭ ‬no human being yet has escaped their ultimate demise,‭ ‬or the slow desiccation that preceded it. The desire to remain-or at least to appear-‭ ‬youthful and healthy is an obsession that millions of Americans share and‭ ‬demonstrate by consuming in one way or another thousands of products and services dedicated to the concept of‭ ""‬health and wellness‭"" ‬every day. + +But how much,‭ ‬really,‭ ‬does the‭ ""‬health and wellness‭"" ‬fanaticism of the‭ ""‬New Millennium‭"" ‬have to do with the pursuit of actual wellness‭? ‬For that matter,‭ ‬how many of those who claim devotion to the principle–who buy‭ ""‬healthy‭"" ‬foods for themselves and their families,‭ ‬who work-out every day,‭ ‬who avoid known carcinogens like tobacco and excess UV light,‭ ‬take care of their teeth and get a physical and a flu shot every year–have ever taken stock of their own state of wellness or tried to discern what wellness means to them‭? ‬Is it enough to be physically healthy‭; ‬are good looks,‭ ‬vitality and a youthful glow all it takes to create a healthy human being‭? ‬I think most of us would agree that the answer to that question is‭ ""‬No.‭"" ‬But what,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬is health and what is wellness‭? ‬More importantly,‭ ‬what do they mean to you‭?‬ + +Before you set out on a journey,‭ ‬it is important to know where you are going‭; ‬how else will you know when you get there‭? ‬In much the same way,‭ ‬it is impractical to begin a journaling practice with the intention of moving towards a higher level of wellness unless you have some idea of where you are now,‭ ‬and where you are hoping to be at a given point in the future. These two questions are central to any undertaking. They speak to purpose,‭ ‬values,‭ ‬goals,‭ ‬and the plans that we make to achieve them,‭ ‬which are,‭ ‬in turn,‭ ‬the fabric with which we weave the change that we want to see-and achieve-in our lives and in our world. + +Over the next few weeks we will be talking about these questions in more detail,‭ ‬hoping to help you define what wellness means to you and how achieving greater wellness can add value,‭ ‬meaning and pleasure to your life. In the meantime,‭ ‬please take some time to consider what we talked about today and consider how you can apply it to your life. Write about your idea of wellness‭; ‬draw a picture of it,‭ ‬if you wish. Get creative and let yourself express how being the person you choose to be‭ ‬can impact your life today and in the future. Remember:‭ ‬making it real is the first step in making it happen. + + + +Let's face facts; Americans by and large are getting older. Since January 1, 2006, a baby boomer has turned 60 every seven seconds and this trend will continue for about the next 19 years. +",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"While considered quite difficult because of the enormous amount of mental discipline required to achieve its goal of pure enlightenment using mind control alone, Raja yoga is in some ways less demanding than the Hatha yoga with which most Westerners are familiar, because Raja yoga does not involve postures or a need for physical flexibility. The discipline involved in Raja yoga is entirely mental. + + +Much like the “mindfulness meditation” that is popular in western culture today, Raja yoga is based upon a form of meditation that requires the practitioner to empty his mind of all thoughts, sensations, and distractions by focusing on a single, static object, usually the breath. Practitioners of Raja yoga believe that once the mind is free of all distractions it is possible to achieve a state of bliss or tranquility called Brahman, described by some as “pure awareness reflected on the still surface of the mind.” + + +The second yoga path, which is the path best known to yoga practitioners in the western world, is Hatha Yoga, also called “The Physical Path.” Practitioners of Hatha yoga strive to attain the goal of mind-body-spirit balance and integration through the practice of yoga postures (asana,) breathing (pranayama,) body movements (mudra) and purity (shatkarma.) While Hatha yoga in its original form was primarily a spiritual discipline, most Western practitioners today focus on the physical postures and breathing as a means of achieving improved levels of physical and mental health and wellness. The movements of Hatha yoga are slow and gentle, with an emphasis on breathing “through” or “into” the various poses, thus opening up the body’s natural energy pathways, known as Chakras, and allowing life-giving energy to flow freely throughout the body. + + +A variety of Hatha yoga that is popular in Western circles today is Iyengar yoga, named for its creator, B.K.S. Iyengar, who founded the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India in January 1975. Iyengar yoga focuses heavily on yoga postures, especially on the achievement of the exact body alignment necessary to allow an optimal flow of energy through the Chakras. In order to attain the stringent poses required in the practice of Iyengar yoga practitioners use a number of “props” including belts, bands, wooden sticks and other similar devices to help them to achieve and hold the necessary positions. + + + + + +The third path of traditional path of yoga is Jnana Yoga–the Yoga of Wisdom. Jnana Yoga is considered to be the most difficult of the four main paths of yoga in that it focuses on the intellectual pursuit Brahman, which represents the integration of the inner self with the oneness of all life. Jnana yoga is based upon the mental techniques and disciplines known as the Four Pillars of Knowledge, which include: + + + + + +Because Jnana yoga is focused on the intellectual understanding of these difficult constructs, it is easy for unskilled practitioners to become distracted from the goal of this and all yoga paths– spiritual enlightenment. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,". Staying in the moment frees us from longing. Staying in the moment allows us to experience life's great losses without fear. + +For the next few days,‭ ‬make a mental note to stay in the moment. Whenever you feel yourself wandering into that place in your mind where painful memories linger,‭ ‬or remembering the happiness of the past with yearning for what is lost,‭ ‬pull yourself back to the present. If you find yourself in fear,‭ ‬wondering if the pain that you feel today will linger into tomorrow,‭ ‬come back to the moment. Sit with your present and watch it unfold���; ‬experience time as it moves from this moment to the next and then the next and watch your emotions shift. This moment to moment living is where healing takes place. + +Journaling exercise:‭ ‬As you work to focus your awareness in the present moment,‭ ‬pay attention to where your mind tries to take you instead. +Is it pulling you into the past,‭ ‬to places where old wounds still ache and old resentments linger‭? ‬ +Or is it drawing you into the unknowable future,‭ ‬conjuring up nightmares or daydreams that will never come to pass‭? ‬ +Whatever the answer-the force that is drawing you away from this moment is your subconscious pointing you towards the answer to your suffering. Don't ignore it. Stay present,‭ ‬and write about what it is telling you. Then use these insights to explore new ways to find healing in your life. + + + +As anyone who has taken a course in basic human behavior can attest, the field of psychology is replete with theories-many of them conflicting- about how and why people think, act, feel and relate to each other and their environment in the ways that they do.) While our cave dwelling ancestors began wearing clothing for purely utilitarian reasons, one need only take a short journey through history to uncover how quickly the human race began to view clothing and other accoutrements of style as a means of creating a unique identity, aligning oneself with a group or class, projecting social status, attracting the opposite sex or myriad other reflections of personal values, choices and status. Despite the amazing preponderance of readily available, rigorously collected, tantalizingly detailed data on the subject, even the most respected “experts” cannot explain with any degree of certainty how or why each of us develops the specific set of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual characteristics that –taken in their entirety–define who we are and how we express our “self-hood” to the rest of the world. + +Yet while modern psychology does not yet and may never have a complete and detailed explanation to our behavior, it is an accepted tenet in virtually every school of psychological thought that the physical aspect of how we present ourselves to the world is a clear and often remarkably forthright reflection of who we are (or who we want to be.",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"Nevertheless, it is a good idea to occasionally step back and look at ourselves as others see us; hopefully we can learn something from the process as well. + + + +Journaling about personal trauma and painful memories can be immensely healing.‭ ‬The physical act of writing is a form of release in itself‭; ‬putting a painful memory down on paper is akin to pulling it from the darkness and opening it up to the light.‭ ‬You can see the event and how it affected you more clearly,‭ ‬and–if you are using the process of journaling for its highest purpose–gain insight into how it is continuing to affect you in the here and now.‭ ‬It can be very enlightening to see the connection between some long‭ ""‬forgotten‭"" ‬event and the way you react to similar situations today.‭ + +But there is danger in re-opening old wounds.‭ ‬Memories that have been buried deep in your subconscious are hidden there with good reason.‭ ‬Perhaps you were too young to grasp their full meaning at the time they occurred,‭ ‬or you lacked the coping skills necessary to process them.‭ ‬Some events are so frightening or painful that your conscious mind simply denies that they happened at all.‭ ‬Although modern research methods have yet to catch up to the intricacies of how our minds work,‭ ‬one thing we know for certain is that the mind is as adept at defending itself as the body‭ ‬,‭ ‬with at least as many complex defenses in place to protect it from real or perceived threats to its integrity.‭ + +So how do you know if you are ready to open yourself up to the past‭? ‬Simplistic as it sounds,‭ ‬all you really need to do is to pay attention to what is going on in your life today.‭ + +Try asking yourself these questions‭– + +Do you feel as if your life is in a state of flux‭? +Are you confused about your motivations and uncertain of your goals‭? +Do you feel as if your important relationships are off course or unraveling‭? +Are you feeling disappointed in yourself or someone close to you‭? +Are you having trouble communicating‭? ‬Does it feel as if no one understands wqhat you are saying‭? +Have you been plagued by illness,‭ ‬self-doubt,‭ ‬unexplained sadness or unanswered questions‭? +Is your sleep restless and your appetite poor‭? + +If you answered‭ ""‬yes‭"" ‬to even a few of these,‭ ‬you can be certain that what you are feeling is the power of your‭ ""‬divine consciousness‭"" ‬striving to move you from a place of comfort and complacency towards new learning,‭ ‬growth and maturation.‭ ‬This divine part of your self is your true‭ ""‬inner healer.‭"" ‬It is the part of your being that ceaselessly propels you in the direction of‭ ""‬right‭"" ‬choices that fill you with a deep sense of purpose and belonging that marks true wellness.‭ + +So,‭ ‬listen to your life and what it is telling you.‭ ‬If you are feeling the call of your divine consciousness,‭ ‬follow it and begin your journey.‭",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," + + +Other causes of central apnea include neurologic disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gherigs disease or ALS) polio, or brain infections and brain tumors. Central apnea can also occur in healthy individualssleeping at very high altitudes. + + +A recently recognized cause of excessive daytime sleepiness is “Shift Work Sleep Disorder” a circadian rhythm disorder experienced by people whose work hours cause them to be awake during normal sleep times. Characterized by insomnia alternating with periods of excessive sleepiness, the disorder has long been common knowledge among people whose work schedules required them to stay up all night, such as doctors, nurses, police officers and firefighters. However, the recent inclusion of the disorder in the differential diagnoses of excessive daytime sleepiness is allowing sufferers to request and be assigned schedules to which they can more easily become acclimated. + + +Finally, there are a number of psychiatric and physiologic conditions that affect an individual’s overall energy level and may result in excessive daytime sleepiness. Some of these are common, such as depression, chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, migraine headache, and iron deficiency anemia, and some are less so, for instance hypothyroidism, kidney failure and restless leg syndrome. Excessive fatigue can also be a symptom of cancer, heart disease, chronic infections or stroke. It is important to remember that despite our hectic life-style and the frenetic pace of American life, being sleepy all the time is not normal or desirable, and can lead to other serious consequences and health issues. Therefore, anyone who experiences excessive daytime sleepiness for no apparent reason should see his or her physician as soon as possible. + + +It also would not hurt to sleep a bit more. A recent study by the National Sleep Foundation found that Americans get 20% less sleep than we did a century ago. That, unfortunately, is just not enough. + + + +‎ ‏Healing is the process of identifying,‭ ‬processing,‭ ‬accepting,‭ ‬and-finally-letting go of our suffering.‭ ‬Thus,‭ ‬as we search in our lives for healing and healing experiences,‭ ‬it is important that we look less for ways to end our suffering and more for the reasons behind the pain that we feel. + +We suffer because we want things to be other than what they are.‭ ‬It is impossible to live in the moment and suffer,‭ ‬because suffering is by nature a function of either attachment to what once was‭ (‬loss‭) ‬or desire for what we wish would be‭ (‬yearning.‭) ‬In the moment we can and do feel pain,‭ ‬discomfort,‭ ‬confusion,‭ ‬longing...so many other things that remind us that we are sentient,‭ ‬emotional beings.‭ ‬In the moment‭ ‬we may feel saddness at the loss of love,‭ ‬loss of health,‭ ‬loss of companionship,‭ ‬loss of dreams and the terrible,‭ ‬heart rending pain of grief.‭ ‬But it is only when we forget to stay in the present–only when we allow ourselves to forget the‭ ‬truth that‭ ""‬this too,‭ ‬shall pass‭"" – ‬and that tomorrow will bring solace do we become overwhelmed with the terrible longing for something else.‭",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," Introduce yourself and your children. Find out who is living alone and might need help in the event of a disaster-natural or otherwise. Check to see which households have young children or elderly persons living in them-anyone who might be vulnerable if they were suddenly alone for an extended period. Make it known that you are someone who can be counted on in a crisis,‭ ‬and others will almost certainly do the same for you. + + +It is absolutely true that we cannot count on our government to help us in an emergency. Just look at what happened to the people of New Orleans after Katrina‭; ‬that's‭ ‬our government's response to a real emergency. And all one need do to see how Congress and the Administration react to the man-made emergency of the budget deficit is to listen to the Republicans in the Senate talk about what they want to do to save money. In fact,‭ ‬there is no better example of what happens to a society when its central guiding principle is‭ ""‬every man for himself‭"" ‬than the self-serving avarice running amok in our nation's capital right now. +But we‭ ""‬the people‭"" ‬are not‭ ""‬the government‭""‬,‭ ‬not any more. Our government no more represents our interests than they represent the principles set forth in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. ‭""‬The government‭"" ‬today is a sad cabal of criminals,‭ ‬deviants,‭ ‬and celebrity wannabe's--Charlie Sheen in a three-piece suit. + +‎""‏We‭"" ‬are individuals‭; ‬human beings with free will and the capacity for compassion and empathy. I think we have come to the point in our evolution that we must begin to exercise these traits. The only‭ ‬real‭ ‬alternative is‭ ‬extinction. + + + + + +Yoga is a spiritual and philosophical discipline that is believed to have originated in ancient India in the 2nd century BC. First described by the scholar Pantanjali, traditional ancient yoga, known as Raja yoga, was a meditative practice with the goal of achieving total control over the influence of the external world and the physical realm (the body) on the mind. In one translation from the ancient Hindu, Swami Vivekananda describes this original form of yoga as ….”Restraining the mind-, Citta) from taking various forms (Vrittis)."" + + +Today, the practice of yoga has evolved into dozens of variants, all of which focus to varying degrees on the achievement of mental and physical harmony, tranquility and balance through meditation, controlled breathing and the practice physical postures, poses, or positions. Many of these variants are so closely related as to be virtually indistinguishable from each other to any but the most discerning practitioner. Nevertheless, four main “paths” of yoga practice, distinct from each other both in practice and philosophy, still exist. These are the aforementioned “Raja Yoga”, Hatha Yoga, Bhatki Yoga, and Jnana Yoga. + + +The first path of yoga, Raja yoga, is also referred to as “Royal yoga” because of its revered status among yoga practitioners, who are referred to in yoga parlance as called “yogis” (male) or yogini’s (female). ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," +Fifteen‭ ‬years ago I became suddenly and unexpectedly disabled by an illness I never knew existed. + + I was a nurse at the time. I had chosen my profession out of a deeply entrenched need for the safety and security I didn't have as a child. ‭""‬You'll always be able to find work‭; ‬people will always get sick.‭"" ‬was the mantra I heard over and over as I reached adolescence and beyond. So--‭ ‬even though my dream was to be a scientist or a journalist-preferably a little of both,‭ ‬I chose nursing. + +Nevertheless,‭ ‬there I was:‭ ‬46‭ ‬years old and single,‭ ‬no money in the bank to speak of and unable to work. To this day I am disabled,‭ ‬and after‭ ‬15‭ ‬years of living on Social Security Disability,‭ ‬I have literally nothing left that I can call‭ ""‬mine.‭"" ‬I get by,‭ ‬but every day is a struggle and an assault on my security,‭ ‬safety and self-esteem. Nothing in my life is certain anymore,‭ ‬yet,‭ ‬there is one thing that I know to be true. I could not have gotten by for all these years were it not for the help of my family and a few good friends,‭ ‬no matter how strong I was. And believe me,‭ ‬when real disaster strikes,‭ ‬you do not feel very strong at all. + +My point is that there will always be emergencies in life-big and small. There are no guarantees and no matter how well one prepares,‭ ‬some things are just too big to overcome on your own. + +I agree wholeheartedly that we in the U.S. need to stop putting all of our eggs in big government's‭ ""‬basket‭""; ‬Lord knows it is moldy‭ ‬and falling apart,‭ ‬anyway. Yet I would much rather see Americans learning to trust one another again‭–‬learning to help each other and to ask for help,‭ ‬rather‭ ‬than have each of us individually clambering out to the backyard to build fallout shelters. + +The Conservatives in the US talk about the‭ ""‬rugged individualism‭"" ‬that built this country‭; ‬but in truth,‭ ‬what kept our forefathers going in hard times wasn't rugged individualism,‭ ‬it was compassion,‭ ‬mutual respect and the sharing of resources. The pioneers who crossed the Rockies in wagon trains didn't make it to the coast by going it alone. + + +So,‭ ‬by all means,‭ ‬be prepared. I am. I have a disaster kit‭; ‬first‭ ‬aid supplies,‭ ‬water purifying tablets and plastic sheeting and duct tape for the windows in the event of a biological attack. I have several flashlights and all sorts of batteries,‭ ‬lots and lots of candles and waterproof matches and canned goods,‭ ‬too. If‭ ‬you have the land and the resources for a small farm and the ability to can or preserve your own food-do it. It's a great idea,‭ ‬as is a wood stove,‭ ‬as long as you do not live in an apartment. + +But while you are at it,‭ ‬get to know your neighbors.",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," +This simple fact has amazing and diverse implications for almost every facet of life in the United States and, for that matter, virtually all developed countries. (In China, for example, the number of people over age sixty is expected to reach 585 million by the year 2050.) Nowhere is this impact being felt more than in the area of health and wellness. + +Americans in record numbers are showing increased concern for their health and longevity. For many, this means a sudden and almost complete reversal of years of living an unhealthy or even dangerous life-style. Products for smoking cessation, weight loss, osteoporosis treatment and prevention and erectile dysfunction saturate the airwaves and print media. In fact, prime time television commercials today are almost exclusively devoted to advertising products that address the anxieties of the over-60 demographic. This is especially true of products that reduce cholesterol and improve heart and circulatory function. + +Heart disease, mostly in the form of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries, is the number one cause of premature death in the United States, and cholesterol is believed by most experts to be one of the major causes of the condition known as atherosclerosis. It is little wonder, then, that medications, dietary supplements, and numerous foods aimed at reducing cholesterol are the focus of so much media attention these days, or that these products are literally flying off the shelves of grocery and health food stores, pharmacies and on-line merchants. + +What is somewhat amazing is, however, is that, in their zeal to improve their chances at a long and healthy life, so many people have neglected to determine which of these products is most beneficial and which, if any, pose substantial risks. + +So, in the interest of enlightening a strangely naive, albeit somewhat terrified public, we have put together a basic review of ways to decrease cholesterol and improve your heart health. This is in no way a complete review of the research, nor is it meant to be a substitute for medical advice. + + +Cholesterol is essential to human biology. It is a component of all cell membranes, where it allows for the transportation of vital compounds from the blood and lymphatic system into the cells. It is also necessary for the manufacture of bile, steroid hormones by the adrenal glands and the sex hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. Cholesterol is also essential to Vitamin D synthesis. + +Cholesterol is produced by the liver and excreted into the intestines in the form of bile; about 50% of this cholesterol is later reabsorbed into the blood stream and returned through the blood to the liver. The liver also regulates the amount of circulating cholesterol by decreasing cholesterol production in response to an elevation in serum cholesterol due to the intake of a diet high in fat. + + +In addition to the cholesterol manufactured by the liver, the major source of cholesterol in the bloodstream is dietary cholesterol. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"Phytosterols, you may recall, are plant compounds that bind to cholesterol in the blood stream and carry it to the liver, where it is excreted in bile and other compounds. One of these supplements, “Vasacor” is a combination of natural ingredients that help your body naturally decrease the levels of LDL, while also promoting an increase in your HDL levels. This two-part approach to cholesterol management allows you achieve better results than diet and exercise alone. + +Finally, recent advances in the treatment of high cholesterol include adding medications known as ""statins"" to a regimen of natural cholesterol reduction therapies. “Statins,” which are scientifically termed “HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors,” also positively affect the balance of HDL and LDL and can increase the efficacy of a program of diet, exercise and nutritional supplements, thereby further lowering the risk of cardiac complications. + +Unfortunately, as is the case with most pharmaceutical compounds, statins are not without some risk of significant side effects and toxicities. The most serious of these is the breakdown of muscle tissue in the body. If extensive, this can lead to muscle weakness, fatigue and even kidney failure due to excess strain on the kidneys caused by the excretion of the by-products muscle cell breakdown. + +Hopefully, this review of cholesterol and cholesterol reduction therapy will prove helpful to those of you who are trying to develop a healthier life-style–preferably before you develop high cholesterol or heart disease. Although our country’s demographic is shifting to an older population, you are never too young to make yourself aware of the dangers of high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Beginning a lower-fat diet, high in fiber and plant sterols, starting a moderate exercise regimen and adding a natural dietary supplement such as Vasacor to your routine is a positive step towards better health for anyone at any age. + + +Excessive Daytime Sleepiness: for a medical diagnosis, it sounds relatively innocuous. After all, everyone has experienced the symptom at one time or another. Given the frenetic pace of life in modern society, exhaustion is almost a “badge of honor” for many of us–a hard won emblem of our success that we display with pride, not unlike our Smart phones and technologically efficient SUV’s. + +In truth, however, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness or “EDS” is a far cry from the innocent, relatively harmless affliction its name would have us believe; rather, it is a disabling condition that can turn a normal, active life into a constant battle against the overwhelming desire – and compelling, often irresistible need – to sleep. People who suffer from EDS frequently experience other signs of exhaustion, such as an overall decrease in physical energy, difficulty concentrating and marked changes in normal cognition. While EDS can be the result of a persistent sleep “deficit,” people who suffer from a EDS due to a medical condition usually require large amounts of sleep, sleep as much as possible, yet are still excessively sleepy during the day. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o," + +I'm feeling extraordinarily tired right now, and wondering why I decide, so often, to start a project when it is so late in the day. I suppose you could say it is because I'm a night-owl, although I believe that is probably an oversimplification of a more complex psychological rationale. + +It could be simply that I think more at night. I ruminate about the fact that I've spent another day doing very little that one might call productive. Certainly I have not done anything that would bring in any income; and eventually this translates itself into worry, which translates very nicely into that free-floating anxiety that ruins the calm, gentle relaxation that is required for sleep. So, not thinking about the fact of my incredible fatigue, or the lateness of the hour I start browsing through Amazon Turk for some little project to do that will make me a few dollars. The next thing you know I am awake until 3:00AM, writing something like this. And no matter how hard I may try, I cannot let it go until I am satisfied that it is good enough to submit. + +Or maybe it is about being a writer. In a way it is a writer's curse to need the night time. Only at night do the sounds of the street quiet down to the point where they don't interfere with the kind of concentration one needs to find just the right word, or just the right combination of words to make them work. It would be nice if that kind of quiet could be found during normal ""business hours"", but of course, the fact that they are ""normal business hours"" makes them busy, noisy and disturbing more or less by definition. + +I'm not sure. All I know for certain is that for as long as I can remember the night has been the time when I can finally stop my frantic busy-ness and allow myself to think. The darkness is like a blanket that protects me from the world, the silence a shield against the intrusions of life's frenzied activity. Not that I am a hermit, mind you, or a recluse. I love people and need to connect, to touch others throughout the day, although perhaps not quite as often as the next person. But I also need my solitude; it is like air and water and food to me. They nourish my body; solitude nourishes my soul. +When I was young-very young-my life was hard. It was loud, violent and frightening, so I grew up cherishing silence. In the middle of the night, when it was finally quiet, I would imagine a happier life, some place where I would feel safe and cared for and loved. Strange- I never realized before that my love affair with the night probably grew out of those times long ago. + +That's what I mean about the night. Sometimes, when you least expect it, the darkness will grant you insight or understanding that you might never have discovered during the bright light of day. Contrary to popular belief, it is often in the darkest times when we see things most clearly. + + +",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"Therefore, it is usually recommended that those who choose this path with the help and guidance of an experienced teacher, or Guru. + + +The fourth and last traditional yoga path, which is often practiced in combination with either Hatha or Raja yoga, is Bhakti or “Devotional Yoga”. Bhatki yoga focuses on the breath, chanting, and spiritual devotion (prayer) as a means of achieving the integration of mind-body-spirit that is central to all yoga practice. It is considered to be the easiest form of yoga to learn and practice, because it requires neither physical dexterity, mental discipline nor strength of will and intellect. + + + + + + + + +Bhatki yoga practitioners use 9 main “limbs” or spiritual practices, which are performed individually or together. Each of these practices is considered to have its own intrinsic and unique benefit; it is not necessary for one to practice all of the 9 limbs to gain from the experience. The nine limbs of Bhatki yoga are: + + + + + +While the practices of Bhatki yoga originated within the spiritual teachings of ancient Hinduism, specifically with reference to ancient deities and spiritual practices, Bhakti yoga practitioners today integrate these teachings with other religious beliefs, including Christianity. The benefits of Bhatki yoga, which, according to Swami Sivananda include …”joy, divine ecstasy, bliss, peace and knowledge” derive from the devotional practices themselves rather than the deities to which they are offered. The most popular form of Bhatki Yoga in the west today is “Kirtana” or simply “Kirtan” yoga. + + +Of course, a tradition such as yoga, with millions of devotees world-wide, cannot ever be completely catalogued or described. New variants of the original yoga forms will appear as long as yoga is practiced. Nevertheless, the fundamental basis of yoga culture and discipline will always be the original yoga paths described above. + + + + + +The word‭ ""‬wellness‭"" ‬has enjoyed a great deal of attention over the past‭ ‬10-20‭ ‬years.‭ ‬Arriving right alongside the concepts of‭ “‬Managed Care”and the holistic revolution the concept was touted by health care providers and insurers alike of maintaining‭ “‬wellness‭” ‬versus curing‭ “‬illness‭”‬ + as insurance companies and providers alike tried to shift the public perception of health care from one of At first it was a‭ ‬Health care providers The media,‭ ‬especially in the form of the catch-phrase‭ ""‬Health and Wellness,‭"" ‬a phrase so overused that it can almost be thought of as the mantra of the‭ ‬21st Century.‭ ‬It is a sign of the times‭; ‬the aging baby boomer generation has moved beyond the stage of life where job,‭ ‬career and family took greatest prominence into one where preservation and maintenance of the whole are their biggest concerns. + +All too aware that the culture they created is one that reveres youth and beauty as much as it does prosperity and power many‭ ‬60-something's are struggling to hold on to whatever they possess,‭ ‬be it youth,‭ ‬looks,‭ ‬vitality,‭ ‬money,‭ ‬prestige or,‭ ‬for that matter,‭ ‬hair.",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +o,"However, the amount of circulating cholesterol seems to be more closely related to the total intake of dietary fat than to the intake of cholesterol itself. In particular, diets high in animal fats seem to increase total cholesterol in humans. Major dietary sources of cholesterol include beef, pork, poultry, shrimp, egg yolks, milk and cheese. Polyunsaturated fats, also known as “Trans fats,” which are found most often in margarine and solid fats like “Crisco"" and lard, also greatly increase serum cholesterol. The United States recently banned Trans fats from all food sold in markets and restaurants. + +The amount of cholesterol in plant based food sources is very small. What's more, certain plants contain cholesterol-like compounds called phytosterols which are believed to lower serum cholesterol. Phytosterols can be found in flax seeds, flax seed oil and peanuts. + + + +Although cholesterol occurs in a number of forms, there are two major types of cholesterol found in the human body. These are commonly referred to as ""good"" cholesterol and ""bad"" cholesterol. (Although some research indicates that the distinction is not that clear cut.) + +The direct measurement of cholesterol is not possible because cholesterol itself is not is not soluble in blood; rather it is carried through the bloodstream on compounds called ""lipoproteins."" Thus, the blood test for good cholesterol, known as ""HDL,"" actually measures a substance called ""high density lipoprotein."" It is referred to as ""good"" cholesterol because HDL is capable of removing cholesterol molecules from the circulating blood. Similarly, bad cholesterol, or ""LDL"" is measured as ""low density lipoprotein."" These are the particles that are believed to be responsible for the development of atherosclerosis. According to the latest research, it is the ratio of these two substances that is the best predictor for heart disease. Higher concentrations of LDL and lower concentrations of HDL are strongly associated with atherosclerosis and an increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke and peripheral vascular disease. + + + +Because of the potentially devastating effects on the health of people all over the globe, a great deal of research aimed at finding ways in which to decrease cholesterol, particularly in those at greatest risk for a cardiovascular event is currently underway. Unfortunately, some of the most important factors in an individual’s total cholesterol are genetically determined. However, diet, exercise, dietary supplements and medications called ""statins"" are all somewhat effective in reducing total cholesterol and/or changing the ratio of good and bad cholesterol in some individuals. + +A generally healthy diet–one low in animal fat and high in fiber, whole grains and food sources that are known to lower cholesterol and promote cardiovascular health is the first line of defense against abnormal cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis. Both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber may lower cholesterol by altering the amount of fat absorbed by the intestines. Some high-fiber foods include: + + +Another important means of lowering cholesterol is through the use of dietary supplements that contain substances to prevent the absorption of fats in the intestines and/or the aforementioned phytosterols. ",60,English,female,BS,Retired RN,"N,N,N,N,N" +dd,"He says that‭ “[‬a]mong the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit‭ [‬by Daisy‭] ‬again,‭ ‬pointlessly,‭” ‬which symbolically depicts that although perhaps Daisy tried to revive her marriage with Tom,‭ ‬it was a lost cause from the beginning‭ (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬15‭)‬. + +However,‭ ‬what they did have in common was greed. Nick puts it perfectly when he says: + +This passage refers directly to the way that Tom and Daisy effectively killed Gatsby through both their action and inaction. Tom directed Wilson to kill Gatsby,‭ ‬and Daisy did nothing to stop him. Daisy could have saved Gatsby’s life by simply admitting that it was she who killed Myrtle,‭ ‬but she refuses to make such a serious personal sacrifice for Gatsby,‭ ‬even though he was willing to do the same for her. Neither of them shows any remorse for this,‭ ‬moreover. Tom believes that his actions were fully justified,‭ ‬and Daisy disappears just before Gatsby’s death,‭ ‬never to return in the novel. Tom and Daisy are social climbers—their only real goal in life is to reach this distorted ideal of the American dream. In that respect,‭ ‬they succeed,‭ ‬but they ultimately do not find the happiness they sought out. + +‎ ‏F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the American dream is understandable when taken in the context of the decade he wrote it in. Fitzgerald wrote‭ ‬The Great Gatsby right in the middle of the roaring‭ ‬20‭’‬s,‭ ‬a decade characterized primarily by excessive self-indulgence and superficiality. For the American people,‭ ‬World War I‭ “‬was a shock,‭ ‬but it was a‭ ‬liberating shock which left most of the energy and imaginative brilliance undamaged‭” (‬Hoffman‭ ‬110‭)‬. As a result,‭ ‬Americans felt invincible,‭ ‬and it showed in the way the society began to develop. Reckless spending became the norm,‭ ‬and eventually led to the great depression at the end of the decade,‭ “‬a financial crisis,‭ ‬which proved subsequently also to have been a moral crisis‭” (‬Hoffman‭ ‬112‭)‬. + + Nick’s choice of the financial sector as an area to pursue a career shows the moral costs of upward mobility in a way that is different from the previous examples of Tom and Daisy.‎ ‏Nick says that he‭ “‬came back restless‭” ‬from the war,‭ ‬which was part of his rationale for moving out east‭ (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬3‭)‬. Nick goes on to say that he chose to go into the bond business because‭ “[‬e]veryone‭ [‬he‭] ‬knew was in the bond business‭” (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬3‭)‬. A person who works with bonds is likely to earn more than say,‭ ‬a farmer,‭ ‬which was a profession of choice for much of the time leading up to the‭ ‬1900‭’‬s. The life of a farmer was desirable at the time because it gave the worker a connection with the land he owned—a connection with the country he lived in. The focus during the‭ ‬1920‭’‬s was not on the country,‭ ‬however. It was almost entirely on the self.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," That was confusing,‭ ‬because it seems as though the best for the kids would be the best decision overall. The needs of her kids seem to come to the forefront of what is most important to her,‭ ‬so the idea that what she considers the best course of action may not be the best for them bitterly ironic. + +‎ ‏All in all,‭ ‬Mrs. S is accepting of her mortality. Due to her history of illness and loss,‭ ‬and with the help of a new close friend,‭ ‬she has been able to work past whatever emotions she had when she first found out about her malignancies,‭ ‬and start thinking about what will become of her two sons that she will leave behind when she dies. +‎ ‏Poets use many different devices to get the point of their poem across. Some prefer tools such as metaphor or simile,‭ ‬while others are subtler,‭ ‬hinting at the meaning of their poems through rhyme scheme and meter. For instance,‭ ‬I have written poems where I purposely throw the meter off in order to hint at some kind of chaos in the poem. Every poet accomplishes storytelling in his or her own way. Analyzing the poetry of Dorothy Parker,‭ ‬Theodore Roethke,‭ ‬and Allen Ginsberg shows how poets use different means to present the prosaic meaning of their poem. + + Dorothy Parker contrasts the subject matter of suicide with the qualities of a children’s poem or limerick in her poem‎ “‏Résumé.‭” ‬The rhyme scheme and meter make the poem appear very melodic,‭ ‬which makes it seem almost childish. The poem itself is short and simple,‭ ‬which fits the theme of the poem. It advises not the reader not to kill themselves,‭ ‬which is a simple message,‭ ‬so rather than complicating that,‭ ‬Parker decided to use just as simple means to express it. Parker also uses irony to get her point across by listing the downsides to killing one’s self by different means without mentioning that these also all involve ending one’s life. It’s a dark touch of humor that get’s Parker’s point across in a different way. There is also no mention of the fact that even though a river may be damp,‭ ‬for instance,‭ ‬the one drowning in it won’t notice because they will be dead,‭ ‬which is yet another humorous,‭ ‬albeit dark,‭ ‬ironic statement. + +‎ ‏Theodore Roethke lets the prose meaning of‭ “‬My Papa’s Waltz‭” ‬come through very clearly by simply telling the story,‭ ‬making use of rhyme and regular meter. The meter and rhyme are particularly important because they make the poem appear more like a song,‭ ‬specifically more like a waltz. Although calling the way his father acts when he is drunk a waltz is irony alone,‭ ‬creating the entire structure of the poem around that idea serves to perpetuate that irony and make it a more grand statement. Also,‭ ‬it allows the reader to realize that perhaps the way the father acts when he is drunk isn’t necessarily a bad thing.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," James Truslow Adams,‭ ‬in‭ ‬The Epic of America,‭ ‬defined the American dream as‭ “‬that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man,‭ ‬with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement‭” (‬415‭)‬. However,‭ ‬arguably the most important aspect of true happiness is overlooked in the way it is perceived by most people. The typical image of the American dream includes a spouse,‭ ‬children,‭ ‬a big house and a nice car. People rarely consider the importance of true fulfillment,‭ ‬which comes not from material possessions,‭ ‬but from within. By chasing the poorly perceived American dream,‭ ‬many people found themselves wealthy,‭ ‬but ultimately unhappy. F. Scott Fitzgerald directly addresses this issue in his novel‭ ‬The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses his characters,‭ ‬specifically Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan,‭ ‬to highlight the dehumanizing nature of upward mobility and the American dream,‭ ‬a major theme of the work. Neither Gatsby nor Daisy ever fully realize their dreams,‭ ‬despite their financial and social successes. Fitzgerald’s societal statement is well grounded,‭ ‬given the decade he wrote his book in,‭ ‬and serves as a warning,‭ ‬both to his and future generations. + + Jay Gatsby starts off as the mysteriously wealthy neighbor of Nick Carraway,‎ ‏well known for throwing lavish parties,‭ ‬but as the plot develops,‭ ‬Nick begins to realize that Jay is actually miserable. His wealth is not enough to make him happy‭; ‬all he wants is his first and only love back. Nick points this out when he says:‭ ‬ + +While Gatsby was stationed in Louisville,‭ ‬Kentucky—just‭ “‬a penniless young man without a past,‭”—‬he fell in love with Daisy‭ (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬149‭)‬. However,‭ ‬when he left the states to fight in the war,‭ ‬Daisy married Tom Buchanan,‭ ‬despite her promise to wait for him to return so they could be wed. This blow left Gatsby heartbroken. + +Because Daisy left him for a man with more money than he,‭ ‬Gatsby figured that if he were to become wealthy as well,‭ ‬it would solve all of his problems and send Daisy back into his arms. Losing Daisy was a serious blow to Gatsby’s self-esteem,‭ ‬so his pursuit of Daisy is also to some extent a quest to retrieve that pride. He convinces himself that money and social status is all he needs,‭ ‬and he‭ “‬fails to see that the Buchanans,‭ ‬representative of a class with its origins and ways of life nourished by wealth,‭ ‬are sordid and spiritually barren‭” (‬Stavola‭ ‬131‭)‬. Fitzgerald makes Gatsby’s dream perfectly clear:‭ ‬ + + + +The word‭ “‬free‭” ‬is used intentionally,‭ ‬in order to imply that Daisy feels restrained in her marriage,‭ ‬kept from being with the man she loves. This shows the extent of Gatsby’s capacity as a dreamer,‭ ‬as well as his subsequent disillusionment. He believes that Daisy only loved Tom‭ “‬just for a minute,‭ ‬when they were first married—and loved‭ [‬him‭] ‬more even then‭” (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬152‭)‬.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," This helped their overall appeal,‭ ‬because they would draw less typical metal listeners in with songs such as‭ “‬Shoot Me Again,‭” ‬and as a result they would listen to the rest of the album,‭ ‬and grow to understand the musical brilliance of heavier songs like‭ “‬St. Anger.‭” ‬Bands with goals like Metallica’s are the reason that the metal grew in popularity,‭ ‬leaving the door open for a new generation. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬221-224‭)‬ + +Building up from the foundation that the first two generations laid,‭ ‬the third generation of heavy metal chose to venture out into more theatricality. Also,‭ ‬the movement moved towards the commercial in a big way. Bands such as Iron Maiden chose their theatrical elements in a way that reflected the Romantic Era in literature. During that period,‭ ‬books such as Dracula were made popular,‭ ‬and then again in the late‭ ‬1970‭’‬s there grew,‭ ‬within the metal genre at least,‭ ‬an interest in monsters and gothic drama. In addition,‭ ‬groups started to experiment with other forms of showmanship,‭ ‬such as costumes and makeup. This led to the groups known as the hair bands,‭ ‬the members of which are known for their over-produced hair. + +Kiss is the paradigm of showmanship,‭ ‬commercialism,‭ ‬and theatricality of heavy metal bands. The New Yorkers decided that they were going to take their performances to the next level:‭ ‬they designed personal makeup that would be worn to each show. The leather-clad foursome also created an entire empire of merchandise,‭ ‬ranging from Kiss action figures to Kiss comic books,‭ ‬to anything else that they could fit their name on. They gained success through being businessmen rather than being the greatest musicians. It is well known that Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is not one whose skills are worth even mentioning,‭ ‬but his stage presence made up for his musical shortcomings. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬183-186‭)‬ + +Another band whose theatricality was truly over the top was Iron Maiden. They even went as far as having a giant monster,‭ ‬named Eddie,‭ ‬run around on stage during their shows,‭ ‬vomiting fake blood on the audience,‭ ‬among other grotesque acts. Despite his rather abhorrent practices,‭ ‬Eddie became a major metal icon,‭ ‬and was even named the‭ ‬#4‭ ‬top music icon of all time by‭ ‬Kerrang‭!‬ magazine. Eddie gained Maiden a lot more fans that they would have gotten with just their music,‭ ‬which just goes to show what an integral part theatricality was to later generations of heavy metal. After this generation,‭ ‬there was a massive fragmentation in the metal movement,‭ ‬and bands starting emerging from all over,‭ ‬creating all different types of synthesis with other genres to create their own genres. ‭(‬Beebee‭)‬ + +Many groups have created some form of musical fusion with another genres. For instance,‭ ‬Nightwish,‭ ‬a Finnish band,‭ ‬has infused classical and operatic elements into their metal lineup,‭ ‬creating the romantic fantasy world that is their music. They create an atmosphere that is impossible to not completely immerse yourself in as you listen. +",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," At first glance the father may seem abusive,‭ ‬but it could also be seen as the father just playing with his son,‭ ‬but due to the fact that he’s intoxicated is just being a little sloppy. + +Allen Ginsberg’s writing is often composed of a great deal of social commentary‭; ‬he made his poetry a means of giving his insight and opinion on the world and country he lived in. At the same time,‭ ‬his poetry can also be very thick and hard to grasp at first read,‭ ‬and generally takes several focused read-throughs to fully understand. For instance,‭ ‬his poem‭ “‬A Supermarket in California‭” ‬does not appear to be much more than a possibly drug-fueled trip to the supermarket,‭ ‬combined with visions of a long dead poet. After more detailed analysis,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬it appears to be a social commentary much like the work it was published alongside,‭ “‬Howl.‭” ‬The poem is a commentary on the consumerism of a post-World War II America. The tone in first stanza is very fanciful‭; ‬Ginsberg accomplishes this tone with his liberal use of the exclamation point. He juxtaposes the whimsical tone with somewhat commonplace imagery when he says‭ “‬What peaches and what penumbras‭! ‬Whole families shopping at night‭! ‬Aisles full of husbands‭! ‬Wives in the avocados,‭ ‬babies in the tomatoes‭!” (‬Sound and Sense‭) ‬Ginsberg uses tone to get his statement about errant consumerism in a post-war America across. + +Poets usually have a specific idea in mind when they sit down to put pen to paper. How they decide to get their idea to the reader is a judgment call,‭ ‬and each poet takes their own route to telling their story to their audience,‭ ‬which is why poetry has evolved so far from what most would consider traditional poetry. Dorothy Parker,‭ ‬Theodore Roethke,‭ ‬and Allen Ginsberg all have very different styles,‭ ‬and thus utilize different methods of getting their point across. Additionally,‭ ‬they have different intended audiences‭; ‬a poet’s style varies greatly with who they anticipate will be reading it. Ginsberg’s‭ “‬A Supermarket in California‭” ‬is very dense,‭ ‬and meant for a more learned audience whereas Parker’s poem‭ “‬Résumé‭” ‬is very simple,‭ ‬and meant to be read without over-analysis. Although each poet finds a different way to get their meaning across,‭ ‬it is still the meaning that takes precedence over the means. + +‎ ‏A writer will often leave subtle hints in his or her stories or books that somehow relate to the greater theme,‭ ‬or sometimes are for their own amusement. James Joyce,‭ ‬for instance,‭ ‬liked to place sexual innuendos in some of his stories. Nathaniel Hawthorne too leaves some pieces lying around his story,‭ ‬and leaves it up to the reader to put it together. He left several reincarnations of the letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬in his novel‭ ‬The Scarlet Letter in order to portray its importance beyond the storyline of Hester Prynne.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," + +However,‭ ‬Daisy is clear about the fact that although she once loved Gatsby,‭ ‬she loves Tom now,‭ ‬and the other characters are equally conscious of this fact. Nick is clearly aware of it,‭ ‬saying‭ “‬Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault,‭ ‬but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion‭” (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬95‭)‬. Nick understands that the problem stems not from Daisy’s feelings per se,‭ ‬but from the way Gatsby has blown the situation out of proportion in his head. Nick points out this delusion when he says Gatsby‭ “‬wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say:‭ ‘‬I never loved you‭’” (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬100‭)‬. He sees Daisy as a Rapunzel-like character:‭ ‬locked away in a tower,‭ ‬waiting for the gallant knight to come save her. + + Wheeler Winston Dixon argues Gatsby’s view that he can‎ “‏repeat the past‭” ‬reflects Fitzgerald’s interest in film,‭ ‬relating Gatsby’s delusion to the way‭ “‬one can reconstruct the past through film staging‭” (‬Fitzgerald‭ ‬110,‭ ‬Dixon‭ ‬22‭)‬. Fitzgerald lived in a time where film was a very new creation,‭ ‬and through Gatsby he is saying that film distorts the way we see the world and the reality in which we live,‭ ‬perhaps to the point of hopeless delusion. It is important to note that Fitzgerald appreciated the film medium greatly‭; ‬Dixon says‭ “‬Gatsby’s sense of visual imagery is drenched with metaphoric and iconic connections to motion picture technique‭” (‬21‭)‬. As fond of film as Fitzgerald is,‭ ‬he still warns against its overuse. The same way the American dream can be a great thing if taken in the right context,‭ ‬so must the perception of film. As with any kind of entertainment,‭ ‬when fiction begins to take over reality,‭ ‬the disillusionment that results can be monstrous. Gatsby allows his personal reality to take over,‭ ‬and he lives in his fantasy for too long. He only allows the truth to set in and realizes that the battle for Daisy’s heart has been fruitless when it is too late‭; ‬he dies hours later. At this point in time,‭ ‬Daisy has already left him behind,‭ ‬emotionally and physically. + +‎ ‏Daisy once loved Gatsby the way he loves her,‭ ‬and when he went to fight in the war,‭ ‬she promised she would wait for him. However,‭ ‬she becomes overwhelmed by the impatience of waiting: + +Tom and Daisy’s relationship soon becomes loveless,‭ ‬however. This is because Daisy married him almost out of convenience,‭ ‬rather than bona fide affection. Although she believed that Tom would be the right choice for her—his money and social standing made him an obvious candidate for an upward mobility-minded woman like Daisy—she soon realizes that he is not all he seemed. He has an affair,‭ ‬and loses interest in her as well as their relationship. Several times in his description,‭ ‬Nick highlights the futility of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. This comes through most clearly when Nick describes a moment at the dinner table the first time he encounters the Buchanans.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," +‎ ‏Mrs. S seemed able to accept her death remarkably fast. She said that she always thought she’d be a wreck of depression,‭ ‬but that she realized it was just something that she had to accept and move on from. She told her family,‭ ‬and that was that. It seems as though she moved through the stages all at once. However,‭ ‬it is probably her history with illness in the past that has given her this outlook on death. Because she’s always lived with at least one health risk at all times,‭ ‬she has grown used to the idea that she could die any time. Because of that,‭ ‬she was able to gradually pass through the stages of dying in her own time,‭ ‬rather than in the time that a specific disease allotted for her,‭ ‬so now that she knows she is going to die,‭ ‬she doesn’t need to worry about coping. + + She did,‎ ‏however,‭ ‬speak of the difficulty of coping with the death of her first and only daughter of tuberculosis. She said that she lived for the child,‭ ‬and wasn’t sure that she’d ever be able to accept her death. This was definitely a major contributing factor when it came time for her to cope with her own mortality,‭ ‬because she had already had a major experience with the death of someone so close to her—in a way,‭ ‬part of her. She said that she was scared of not getting over it,‭ ‬but she did grow to accept it,‭ ‬and that made her understand that she was going to die someday too,‭ ‬whether or not it was conscious. + +‎ ‏The same way that Morrie found solace in the company and love of others,‭ ‬Mrs. S finds it in the relationship she has made with her neighbor in the last year and a half or so,‭ ‬and it seems the neighbor does too. The neighbor makes herself available,‭ ‬helping out with housework,‭ ‬watching the kids,‭ ‬even bathing Mrs. S before she was admitted to the hospital. This kind of support was exactly what Mrs. S needed,‭ ‬because it showed her that maybe the lives of her kids could go on without her,‭ ‬and she could begin to detach from the feeling that she needed to stay for them,‭ ‬and live through anything. The neighbor also gives Mrs. S someone to talk to when she needs it,‭ ‬and she even said that the neighbor was a big part of her faith life,‭ ‬and motivated her to keep her faith strong. + + She mentions that her illness has brought her closer to God,‎ ‏which was a surprising thought. It seems as though someone in her position would probably be angry with God,‭ ‬because of all the hardship they’ve been forced to endure,‭ ‬seemingly for no reason. Then she talks about her husband,‭ ‬and how he would take care of the kids when she died,‭ ‬but that she thinks that that is for the best,‭ ‬but not necessarily the best for the kids.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," Other bands,‭ ‬such as Dr. Acula,‭ ‬have taken elements from techno and injected them into their music. However though,‭ ‬these groups still stay true to the dark,‭ ‬visceral,‭ ‬expressive qualities of metal. Dr. Acula even remains true to the gothic elements,‭ ‬taking the name Dracula and changing it only slightly to pay clever homage to the work. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬250-252‭)‬ + +In conclusion,‭ ‬heavy metal is by far the most diverse and expressive of all popular music genres. It is diverse in that it has the flexibility to merge and create musical synthesis with other genres,‭ ‬giving it the capacity to be appealing to a wider audience,‭ ‬and it is expressive in the way that it allowed artists to explore the darker side of the emotional spectrum. One can see the evolution that has occurred within the movement throughout the years,‭ ‬starting with the first generation bands such as Black Sabbath,‭ ‬leading all the way up to Nightwish and Dr. Acula. Though each genre within popular music has some diversity and room for expression,‭ ‬they contain neither the capacity nor the actual amount of either. Heavy metal has seen a tremendous metamorphosis within the last‭ ‬50‭ ‬years or so,‭ ‬and it’s apparent that the movement is headed in a direction that’s impossible to track‭; ‬we will just have to wait and see what the future holds for it. +‎ ‏Mrs. S is a clear example of how some people almost ignore the fact that they are dying because they have some kind of obligation that remains in this life. In this case,‭ ‬Mrs. S has children that she needs to take care of,‭ ‬and is estranged from her husband,‭ ‬so she think that she needs to be there for them,‭ ‬and makes them the priority rather than worrying about her own illness. This is not necessarily denial,‭ ‬but seems to be an unhealthy way of managing a disease,‭ ‬because it causes the patient to not realize the gravity of their situation until it is too late. + + Mrs.‎ ‏S made poor decisions from the start,‭ ‬though. She decided not to go to the doctor when she found the lump,‭ ‬and kept putting it off,‭ ‬trying to convince herself that it was just a pimple,‭ ‬or something minor to that effect. She used her boys as an excuse to stay home and not go to the doctor,‭ ‬when really she should have gone and gotten it checked out from the get-go. + + On a side-note,‎ ‏it seems that Kubler-Ross sometimes takes advantage of the emotional weaknesses of some of her patients,‭ ‬or tries to make them upset for the purposes of the interview. In the conversation with Mrs. S,‭ ‬Kubler-Ross asks her how she took it,‭ ‬especially because of the fact that she had postponed seeing the doctor. This seems merely to be a way to get Mrs. S more upset. It seemed to be an obvious enough question,‭ ‬one that you could ask anyone and get the same response from. It was unnecessary and,‭ ‬unprofessional. +",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," Nathaniel Hawthorne does this in‭ ‬The Scarlet Letter‭ ‬through his many reincarnations of the letter‭ “‬A,‭” ‬specifically at the very beginning of the story,‭ ‬in Pearl’s name,‭ ‬and in Arthur Dimmesdale’s name. He begins the novel with the letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬to symbolize the story starting with adultery,‭ ‬and he juxtaposes that with Arthur Dimmesdale’s name,‭ ‬because the letter‭ “‬a‭” ‬is actually the end for Arthur,‭ ‬even though it is the first letter of his name. The‭ “‬a‭” ‬of adultery lies in the center of Pearl’s name,‭ ‬as well as her very being,‭ ‬and that is solidified with her conformability around the scarlet letter that Hester is forced to wear. Had Hawthorne thrown these ideas in the reader’s face,‭ ‬it would have,‭ ‬in the end,‭ ‬weakened the message that the letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬has more significance within the story separate from Hester Prynne’s letter. + +‎ ‏Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said:‭ “‬In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer‭” (‬Picard‭)‬. In this‭ ‬quote,‭ ‬Longfellow is directly referring to manipulation,‭ ‬which can be a useful tool for those who wield it properly. Those who are being manipulated,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬are utterly unaware of any such influence,‭ ‬which can lead to them ending up in less-than-ideal situations. Shakespeare explores the idea of manipulation of people in the play‭ ‬Hamlet,‭ ‬specifically with several of the smaller characters. He shows that manipulation can follow many different paths,‭ ‬but that they all lead to the same end. Examining the ways that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,‭ ‬Ophelia,‭ ‬and Gertrude are manipulated until their deaths shows the vast power of manipulation at work,‭ ‬and just how far it can drive people. + + Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are pawns by choice,‎ ‏with the hope to someday win enough favor to gain power. They are uncomfortable with the King’s plan to spy on Hamlet,‭ ‬but they go along with it because their thirst for power drives them to do so. They proceed to spy on the‭ “‬too much changed‭” ‬Hamlet,‭ ‬which brings them back and forth between him and Claudius‭ (‬II.ii.36‭)‬. Claudius appears to be in complete control,‭ ‬because he is controlling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s every move. Hamlet,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬is biding his time,‭ ‬as his suspicion grows. Ultimately,‭ ‬he learns of Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s betrayal when he reads the letter that they are sending along with him to England,‭ ‬and rather cleverly decides to write a new letter,‭ ‬stating that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the ones to be killed. This order is executed,‭ ‬and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fall victim to their own lack of knowledge. Because they acted as pawns and hardly as their own masters,‭ ‬they ended up being killed at the hands of the man whose death they were expediting. Shakespeare is,‭ ‬through their death,‭ ‬showing that their death is a direct result of their existence as a pawn,‭ ‬a mere tool in a plan larger than them. + +‎ ‏Another character who became an instrument of a plan they did not concoct is Ophelia.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," Eventually they reached a point where they were completely pioneering a new plain of music that had previously gone undiscovered. Though some say that Black Sabbath lost their thunder after Ozzy Osbourne went solo,‭ ‬they are still among the forefathers of heavy metal and can still be considered the pioneers of the genre. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬35-38,‭ ‬Sharpe‭ ‬245‭)‬ + + Another metal pioneer was London-based Motörhead,‎ ‏led by frontman and bassist Lemmy Kilmister. They got together in‭ ‬1975,‭ ‬and took Lemmy’s love of blues and twisted it so that they could get an entirely new sound out of it. They are considered to be the founders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal‭ (‬NWOBHM for short‭)‬. They are also a heavy influence to the thrash metal genre,‭ ‬with tracks such as‭ “‬Overkill‭” ‬and‭ “‬Bomber.‭” ‬Motörhead found their sound by taking what was already on the table and changing it up until they had discovered something entirely different,‭ ‬and that is why they are known as a group that really helped start the metal movement. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬239-242‭)‬ + + After seeing the effect that the first generation had on the world,‎ ‏another wave of artists decided to follow suit and gravitated towards the metal movement. Artists such as Slayer and Metallica became what can now be referred to as the second generation of heavy metal. After seeing the tremendous success heavy metal was having in the UK,‭ ‬American bands decided to try and feed off the popularity and changed their styles up in order to give them a more metal sound. Also in this generation,‭ ��we see bands that started off with metal,‭ ‬using that as their way into the music world rather than taking another genre,‭ ‬like blues,‭ ‬and‭ “‬heavy-ing‭” ‬it up. + +The name‭ “‬Slayer‭” ‬has become a name synonymous with thrash metal,‭ ‬because even from their first album,‭ ‬they were fast,‭ ‬crude,‭ ‬and heavy. They were often criticized for the content of their songs‭; ‬some of them had to do with Nazism,‭ ‬and they didn’t stop putting them out just because of their critics,‭ ‬which caused a new slew of remarks. Of course,‭ ‬it didn’t help that their fan club’s name is‭ “‬Slaytanic Wehrmacht,‭” ‬and that their logo was emblazoned on an iron eagle,‭ ‬but they rose above criticism and let their music speak for itself. Slayer wasn’t afraid to venture towards the dark side,‭ ‬and they didn’t mind disapproval. ‭(‬Berelian‭ ‬331-334‭)‬ + + Metallica,‎ ‏the San Franciscan metal empire,‭ ‬didn’t receive as much criticism concerning to their work. They were determined to get people to‭ “‬bang that head that doesn’t bang‭” (‬Hetflield‭)‬. They wanted to make metal appeal to a wider variety of people,‭ ‬and although they had some of the heaviest songs produced by one of the original metal bands,‭ ‬they still had mainstream-rock-sounding songs.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," Examining the very beginning of the story,‭ ‬Pearl’s name,‭ ‬and Arthur’s name shows that the letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬has a great deal of significance to the story beyond the life of Hester Prynne. + +‎ ‏The fact that the book begins with the letter‭ “‬a‭” ‬is Hawthorne’s way of saying that the whole reason that the story begins is because of the letter‭ “‬a.‭” ‬Were it not for the adultery that causes Hester Prynne to bear the scarlet letter for the rest of her days,‭ ‬the story would not exist,‭ ‬and so the entire tale,‭ ‬begins with the letter‭ “‬a.‭” ‬The placement of the letter‭ “‬a‭” ‬is important in Pearl’s name,‭ ‬similar to the way it is in the beginning of the book. + +‎ ‏Pearl is the daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale,‭ ‬and is the result of their act of adultery. This act of adultery is what causes Hester to bear the scarlet letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬on her clothing at all times,‭ ‬and is what she is known for. The reincarnation of the letter‭ “‬A‭” ‬within Pearl is the‭ “‬a‭” ‬in her name. The‭ “‬a‭” ‬is at the very center of her name,‭ ‬the same way it is in the very center of her,‭ ‬the essence of her very being. This center becomes less and less potent as the story unfolds,‭ ‬and the people stop seeing the‭ “‬A‭” ‬as such a bad thing,‭ ‬but at the beginning of the story,‭ ‬during the beginning of Pearl’s life,‭ ‬she is looked down upon as the Devil’s daughter,‭ ‬and other slanderous names. Pearl’s interaction with the scarlet letter shows her relationship with it,‭ ‬and her comfort around it point to the fact that on some level,‭ ‬it resides within her.‭ ‬The relationship between the placement of the letter and the meaning of that placement is a bit different with Arthur Dimmesdale. + +‎ ‏Arthur Dimmesdale’s name starts with the letter‭ “‬A,‭” ‬and that is ironic,‭ ‬because his life ends as a result of the letter‭ “‬a.‭” ‬He was a party in the adultery that Hester was convicted of,‭ ‬and as a result,‭ ‬bore a similar,‭ ‬physical sign of his guilt,‭ ‬even though his was kept in secret. Eventually,‭ ‬he decides to show to the entire town that he has this sign of guilt on his chest,‭ ‬and dies shortly after. Were it not for the act of adultery,‭ ‬he would not have felt the guilt that gave him the physical mark on his chest that he would die after revealing to the town. So were it not for the letter‭ “‬a,‭” ‬he would not have died. + +‎ ‏American essayist Logan Pearsall Smith once said,‭ “[‬w]hat I like in a good author is not what he says,‭ ‬but what he whispers‭” (‬Guillemets‭)‬. This quote relates to the idea that an author does not necessarily need to say things up front,‭ ‬they can get the same message across,‭ ‬perhaps even more strongly,‭ ‬if they say it in a non-explicit manner,‭ ‬leaving it up to the reader to find it for themselves.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," She was completely head-over-heels in love with Hamlet,‭ ‬but was pulled away from him by Polonius,‭ ‬among others. From this point on she becomes a pawn of yet another scheme against Hamlet. Polonius uses her to find out if Hamlet is mad as a result of his love for her or not. He decides that she will talk to him while he hides,‭ ‬listening in on the whole interaction. The fact that he finds himself in a place to make a decision like this for her shows just how much control he can exert over her. However,‭ ‬the power he has over her is different from the power Claudius had over Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The power Polonius had over Ophelia was a parental control,‭ ‬and its potency was rather evident in that it led to her death. Polonius told Ophelia to distance herself from Hamlet,‭ ‬and subsequently their relationship fell apart. Her eventual suicide was a side effect of this,‭ ‬and were it not for Polonius,‭ ‬probably would not have happened. However,‭ ‬this is not the only parental relationship that was influenced by one side of the relationship being more dominant. + +‎ ‏Gertrude is a character very much torn between two parties. She is of course loyal to her son,‭ ‬but she also owes some allegiance to her new husband,‭ ‬her brother-in-law Claudius. Hamlet tells Gertrude that she needs to remain loyal to him,‭ ‬and not to tell people that his‭ “‬madness‭” ‬was a mere act. He makes her feel guilty,‭ ‬telling her not to lay‭ “‬that flattering unction to‭ [‬her‭] ‬soul/That your trespass but my madness speaks‭” (‬III.iv.146-7‭)‬. He tries to pull her away from Claudius,‭ ‬but at the same time,‭ ‬her need for stability calls her back towards him. She chooses to trust him,‭ ‬and to keep an eye on Hamlet. This trust ultimately becomes her downfall,‭ ‬and she finds herself getting hit in the proverbial crossfire during the swordfight. She drinks the wine that was poisoned for Hamlet by Claudius,‭ ‬because she trusted that he wouldn’t do anything to harm them. So,‭ ‬as a result of getting caught between the two battling family members,‭ ‬she is the first to pay the price of death. +‎ ‏Manipulation is without a doubt one of the largest overlying themes in Hamlet,‭ ‬and several characters meet their maker as a result of it. They either allow themselves to fall to influence,‭ ‬or find themselves at the hands of a slightly misaligned familial relationship. In either case,‭ ‬the result is the same,‭ ‬and Shakespeare makes sure that his reader takes note of it. Ultimately,‭ ‬Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,‭ ‬Ophelia,‭ ‬and Gertrude all die at the hands of their own lack of control,‭ ‬and make themselves icons for how powerful the art of manipulation can be. +‎ ‏American culture has many facets,‭ ‬but none so famed and revered as the American dream. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence,‭ ‬people have traveled to the United States in search of a better life,‭ ‬because that has always been the promise here.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," +‎ ‏The classification of Popular Music has grown over the past‭ ‬100‭ ‬years to include so many genres that it is difficult to definitively list them all. Complicating matters,‭ ‬most if not all genres—rap,‭ ‬rock,‭ ‬country,‭ ‬jazz,‭ ‬folk,‭ ‬just to name a few—have spawned multiple sub and sub-sub genres within their domain. Arguably the sub-genre of Heavy Metal rock has become one of the most diverse and expressive genres of all popular music in the past‭ ‬40‭ ‬years. It is expressive because it displays a wide range of emotions,‭ ‬although they tend to lean toward the darker side of the spectrum. It is diverse in that quite soon after the beginnings of the genre,‭ ‬people started to realize that it had real flexibility and started to take advantage of it to create their own sub-genre,‭ ‬which then was followed by sub-sub-genres,‭ ‬and the chain continues until today. + +Today we have reached a point in the heavy metal movement where there are so many niches of groups that it is hard to determine what exactly heavy metal is. It has grown to incorporate so many themes from other genres,‭ ‬but like everything else,‭ ‬it spawned from somewhere. In order to properly understand the metal music that exists everywhere today,‭ ‬one must first understand what the metal movement is,‭ ‬and why it’s a movement rather than just a genre. + +‎ ‏Metal is,‭ ‬in many ways,‭ ‬a movement defined by darkness. Metal can be considered a‭ “‬music of more‭”—‬more bass,‭ ‬more volume,‭ ‬more violence,‭ ‬more theatricality. Less primitivism,‭ ‬more chops‭; ‬people in metal bands really know how to play their instrument,‭ ‬and it comes through in the music. Metal is also—although it may not come as a surprise—a movement that is heavily drug induced. There was a psychedelic drug boom in the mid-70‭’‬s that led to people getting crazier,‭ ‬leading to them to make crazy,‭ ‬other-worldly records,‭ ‬using the drugs as a scapegoat for their creation. It possesses many dark,‭ ‬visceral qualities,‭ ‬which was very new to the music scene because a large amount of popular music had qualities that weren’t true to the darker side of the emotional spectrum. Also,‭ ‬later generations of metal have taken some of their influence from the dark,‭ ‬visceral qualities that were so present in the Romantic Era. Lyrics such as the following express the darkness that is such a staple of the movement:‭ (‬Byrne‭)‬ + + + +These lyrics from Helter Skelter display the darker side of the Beatles. It exhibits an up and down,‭ ‬supposedly that of drugs. This song is considered by some to be one of the first Heavy Metal songs. It was a response to a Rolling Stones song that was also on the heavier,‭ ‬darker side. The Beatles wanted to prove that they could be just as heavy as the Stones,‭ ‬so they put that song on‭ ‬The White Album.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +dd," Songs like this made people realize the entire range of emotions that could be expressed by music and led to the beginnings of metal through bands such as Black Sabbath and Mötorhead. + +Although the metal movement started in the UK,‭ ‬it spread to the US very quickly and had a major impact there. One could say that metal had a metamorphosis in the US and that’s where it took its fullest form. Eventually,‭ ‬metal will reach a place in the US where there are bands such as Dr. Acula,‭ ‬who take beats and other influences from techno,‭ ‬and bring it into a metal atmosphere to create a musical amalgam of sorts. As previously stated,‭ ‬the movement did start in the UK though,‭ ‬and it’s past in the UK is an integral part of it’s presence in modern culture. + +The metal movement can be broken up into‭ “‬generations‭” ‬of sorts. The first generation would be the founders,‭ ‬bands such as Black Sabbath and Motörhead. They were the ones to take the blues and turn it into something entirely different. Then there is the second generation of heavy metal,‭ ‬which is when metal finally came to the US and started to grow. The third generation of heavy metal consists primarily of the‭ “‬hair bands,‭” ‬and that led to what we currently are in. What we have now is a massive collection of groups,‭ ‬each within their own‭ “‬splinter genre.‭” ‬There are so many other influences now coming to artists,‭ ‬that although they are still a metal group,‭ ‬they have to be given their own genre. + +Of all heavy metal bands,‭ ‬Black Sabbath and Mötorhead are considered to be the founders of the movement. They were among the first groups to realize the potential that metal had,‭ ‬and to dedicate their entire group to the movement,‭ ‬rather than groups such as The Beatles with only a few heavy songs. Also,‭ ‬they were the first to attain a serious level of fame,‭ ‬or infamy at least. + +Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham,‭ ‬UK in‭ ‬1969. With contemporaries such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple,‭ ‬the foursome laid down some of the heaviest,‭ ‬doom-iest riffs ever recorded,‭ ‬influencing an uncountable number of upcoming artists and providing several of metal’s‭ “‬splinter‭” ‬genres with inspiration. Among the genres to find a great deal of influence from Black Sabbath is the genre of Doom Metal,‭ ‬a genre that focuses more on the power of a chord rather than the speed of it,‭ ‬providing a counterpart to thrash and speed metal. Sabbath took most of its influence from heavy blues,‭ ‬a movement that they were a part of before they started changing their sound up,‭ ‬and turning their riffs from heavy to truly scary. They were originally known as‭ “‬Polka Tolk,‭” ‬then‭ “‬Earth,‭” ‬but eventually they changed their name to‭ “‬Black Sabbath,‭” ‬taken from a Boris Karloff horror movie. Between that and bassist Geezer Butler’s interest in the occult,‭ ‬they started to grow towards the darker side of the music spectrum.",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"This sort of passive monitoring of your reputation should be in everyone’s online reputation management toolbox. +According to Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, the reason that Facebook smears can be so damaging to an online reputation is that Facebook ranks highly in search engines. This can be leveraged into a positive reputation as well, though. By creating your own account on social networking sites, you can ensure that your own profile gets a higher Google search engine ranking, moving the smears off the first page of Google. +You should also sign up your own name as a domain name, ensuring that you have that address before your angry ex can register it. Domain names rank highly in search results. +Google also allows you to create a profile for yourself which will show up when users search for your name. This service, at google.com/profiles, can link up your positive reputation sources like your photo albums, social networks, and blogs. +Even if you make all the right choices, some things will be beyond your control. You can’t control what your ex posts on his or her blog about you. + +With our patented online privacy protection software, we can alert you whenever your name appears on any of your ex’s social networking pages or blogs, allowing you to start doing online reputation management early. + +Identity theft occurs anytime someone uses personally identifying information to open fraudulent accounts or commit crimes. As many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Most victims know the person who stole their identity, after all, who else would know your mother’s maiden name, city of birth, date of birth, and address? +The fact is that it’s impossible for you to keep all of your information completely private. When you go to a doctor, your insurance card and driver’s license are photocopied and placed in your file and are available to anyone who opens your folder. At a restaurant, your credit card is taken away while you wait, trusted to the restaurant’s wait staff. +Even if you can’t eliminate identity theft, you can get instant fraud notifications any time your identity is used without your knowledge. +Prevent identity theft with MyID +MyID provides instant fraud notifications any time your identity is used to open a new account. Our patented “Is This You?” Verification service notifies you via text or e-mail any time a new credit card, bank account, or bill is taken out in your name. We sort through millions of incoming reports every day from credit card companies, utilities, and banks, filtering for patterns that might correspond to identity theft. The minute your identity is stolen, you can report it to the FTC, disable the accounts in question, and catch the identity thief. Most of the damage of identity theft is done over time. An identity thief might open an account this week, another account in a month, and then subscribe to a cell phone plan three months from now. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Whether or not the FBI is having trouble catching criminals who conduct their illicit business over the Internet, the Internet Wiretapping laws need a complete overhaul to ensure privacy protection, not an expansion, which will further limit personal information privacy. + +A new survey reports that the average American is worried about personal information privacy. For good reason, too – newly declassified files detail massive FBI efforts at data-mining. +Carl Caldwell, the president of Right-to-Know, released the following statement: “FBI files can begin with records as simple as bankruptcy, Veteran Administration activities to income tax difficulties and passport and visa problems. More than 200 classifications like these are given to the files the FBI considers confidential, secret or top secret. An individual’s attempts to retrieve this information are often thwarted by the complexity of the system itself.” Caldwell continues, “As the government gains access to more and more aspects of a private citizen’s life in the name of preventing terrorism, more ordinary people will unknowingly become targets of investigation, and more files will be gathered on the innocent.” +The FBI databases contain tens of thousands of records from car-rental companies, hotels, and national department stores. Such a system can correlate data from different sources to automatically identify terrorists. The system was used to locate a suspected Al Qaeda operative who was hiding in Houston. It also discovered that members of a Pakistani terrorist group were working in Philadelphia as taxi drivers. And, when the United States government lost track of terror suspects during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the system was able to track down and find them across the entire southern half of the United States. +Many, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believe that this kind of data-mining is the first step toward an Orwellian control over the population. The EFF cites a National Research Council paper that concluded “data mining is a dangerous and ineffective way to identify potential terrorists, which will inevitably generate false positives that subject innocent citizens to invasive scrutiny by their government.” The EFF is a non-profit with a stated goal to protect online privacy. +The FBI hopes to add more sources of information to their database, including airline manifests from the Department of Homeland Security, the Postal Service’s change of address database, the national Social Security number database, and 24 other unidentified databases whose names were redacted in the released report. +Whether or not sacrificing personal information privacy is worth it to catch terrorists is up to the reader to decide. Readers can take immediate steps to protect online privacy and prevent government efforts to scour social networking sites for your personal details. +MyID and Personal Information Privacy +With MyID monitoring your personal information privacy, you can be sure that none of your personal details will leak out across the Internet. MyID can help configure settings to maximize privacy on social networks and stop online ad tracking. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"The stated goal of the Waldorf Method is to produce individuals able to create meaning in their own lives. +The Waldorf educational system was created nearly a hundred years ago by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and scientist. Steiner was familiar with a philosophy known as anthroposophy, the idea that children who consciously cultivate independent thinking will be more ready to handle the important natural and spiritual questions with which philosophers and scientists are concerned. The Waldorf education was devised to be responsive to the needs of childhood, including allowing children to set their own pace and use their imagination and creativity. +The Waldorf method encourages a broad curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to explore new topics and allow themselves to be guided by the exploration of the students. This type of teaching encourages learning for the sake of learning, instead of for the sake of passing an exam or scoring well on grading rubrics. There are no grades given in a Waldorf elementary school. +There are several other differences between the Waldorf Method and other traditional teaching methodologies. First, academic education is de-emphasized. In fact, the types of education which are routinely cut from public school budgets are often the crux of a Waldorf education. These include education in art, music, and foreign languages. Children are encouraged to learn to play musical instruments, knit, crochet, and draw. Additionally, the Waldorf Method uses no textbooks until sixth grade. Instead, elementary school children keep a journal where they record their experiences and what they have learned. +Is it really a good idea to forgo academic education, like reading, until the second grade? Waldorf educators believe so. Instead of teaching children to read when they are five or six years old, instead, teachers tell fairy tells and read stories to children. This encourages oral mastery before reading education begins. In the Waldorf curriculum, writing is taught before reading. The alphabet is explored as a way to communicate with others through pictures. This allows writing to evolve out of the art and doodles of children, instead of from their ability to read and reproduce written content. +Waldorf schools are safe and nurturing environments where children can enjoy their childhood and be protected from harmful influences of the broader society. Instead of being run by administrators concerned with economic or political motives, Waldorf schools are primarily run democratically by the teachers. Waldorf schools consistently produce strong, independent thinkers, and for this reason, the Waldorf educational model is still used in schools around the world. +Social and Emotional Learning has emerged as a field thanks to a new understanding of science, nature, child development, and biology, based on the subjective goals of increasing the potential for success and happiness. Social and emotional learning increase a child’s emotional intelligence quotient, known colloquially as people-smarts, providing children with an opportunity to excel at more than just academics. Teachers and parents must intentionally teach literacy and academic skills, and according to social and emotional learning theorists, they should be just as intentional about providing instruction in social and emotional skills. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," +We are not aware of these stages while we sleep. When we wake, we often do not remember our dreams. We rely on machines like the electroencephalograph (EEG) to offer scientists clues about the stages of sleep. + +Prior to the Internet, financial accounts were kept at a local branch. Identification like a driver’s license was required for large transactions, and your identity was protected by being recognized by the people you regularly did business with. In the Digital Age, your financial accounts are usually accessible from anywhere with nothing more than a username and password, leading to a significant amount of financial identity theft. The goal of this article is to illustrate what steps banks have taken to protect finances from fraud and show how you can take full advantage of these security features in order to protect against identity theft. +There are several ways hackers can compromise your financial passwords. The oldest is a keylogger. Keyloggers are typically viruses (they can also be USB devices, but this requires that the hacker has access to your physical computer) that monitor the keys you press and the names of the windows you have open. Sophisticated keyloggers will send the keys you press back to a hacker or phisher when the window matches a major bank’s login page. If a hacker can track the keys you press, they can easily discern what your username and password is and log into your bank remotely. The first breakthrough in protecting against identity theft was simple. Instead of allowing users to enter their password with their keyboards, require them to use a mouse to click the letters on the screen. Many modern security systems still use this method to fool keyloggers. +Modern keylogger-defeating security screens more often feature a secret image that you select when you open the account. Even if a keylogger detects your password, there is no way for them to detect the image you click, thus protecting finances from fraud. +The most secure type of authentication is using an RSA authenticator. In addition to requiring your username and password to log in, the financial account will also require an RSA token, usually a string of six numbers, which changes every few seconds. Banks can send you this RSA token on an RSA authenticator, a device about the size of a keychain. Since the string of numbers changes regularly, only the person holding the RSA authenticator has access to the account, thus protecting finances from fraud. +The security of your financial accounts usually relates to the number of hoops a hacker needs to jump through in order to access them. The most secure requires the hacker to have stolen your RSA authenticator. Less secure methods of authentication require you to disclose a secret image. The least secure additional authentication measure is simply sending an access password to your e-mail account. This can be compromised by a hacker that also has access to your e-mail. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," Parents looking for direct instruction materials and programs should look into the Hooked on Phonics series and other related products. +Critics argue that direct instruction is nothing but canned teaching with little room for the personalization of lesson plans. To these critics, schools that require direct instruction are handcuffing their best teachers and providing a crutch to their worst ones. This argument fails to address the fact that good teachers will be successful with any lesson plans, including direct instruction. +The effectiveness of direct instruction is supported by substantial research, but there are some recent longitudinal studies which raise doubts about its effectiveness. In 2006, a three-year study of teaching and learning showed that flexible methods of instruction like Montessori and Waldorf were more effective than direct instruction. Still, it is one of the few scientifically verifiable ways to improve a school’s educational curriculum. This has resulted in widespread support of the system and its worldwide adoption in public schools. +The most salient example of this widespread support is Project Follow Through, the most expensive federally-funded educational program ever. It was intended to continue the education of preschoolers exiting Head Start programs. The program was funded from 1968 until 1995, when funding was stopped due to data revealing that there was little or no benefit from the program. However, Project Follow Through did offer the first ever clearly documented empirical proof that the Direct Instruction model was the most effective method of teaching reading, arithmetic, language, spelling, and positive self-image. Direct instruction was the only method out of twenty-two forms of instruction that consistently produced positive results. +Direction instruction is, by far, the most widely used method of teaching. Recent studies cast doubts about whether it is the best way to teach, but it is empirically proven to be able to consistently raise the average test scores of a school. This has resulted in the success of the teaching method and its widespread use in the classroom. +The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by a psychologist based on testing done regarding the effectiveness of IQ Tests. His research showed that IQ tests are a poor indicator of future success in life. Since IQ testing is primarily concerned with vocabulary, spatial relationships, pattern recognition, and other cognitive tasks, researchers hypothesized on what a complete model of intelligence testing might look like. +According to the theory, there are eight types of intelligences. Each type is partially or completely independent of each other. For instance, though it stands to reason that a highly capable musical performer is likely to have a higher than average IQ, researchers hypothesize that this is not a foregone conclusion. +The following table illustrates the different types of intelligences described in the original research. +A major criticism of the theory is that it has never been empirically tested. Some critics argue it is not falsifiable. What do you think? Is there a way to test a person on all eight types of intelligence? ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"The connectionist model states that a piece of knowledge is represented merely by a pattern of neuronal activation rather than by meaning. There is not yet a universally accepted knowledge organization model, because each has strengths and weaknesses. +Once stored, memories eventually must be retrieved from storage. Remembering past events is not like watching a recorded video. It is, rather, a process of reconstructing what may have happened based on the details the brain chose to store and was able to recall. Recall is triggered by a retrieval cue, an environmental stimulus that prompts the brain to retrieve the memory. Evidence shows that the better the retrieval cue, the higher the chance of recalling the memory. It is important to note that the retrieval cue can also make a person reconstruct a memory improperly. Memory distortions can be produced in various ways, including varying the wording of a question. For example, merely asking someone whether a red car had left the scene of a hit-and-run can make the person recall having seen a red car during later questioning, even if there was never a red car. +Information processing in the brain is the topic of a large, ongoing body of research. Although some people are fascinated by the brain on its own merits, a growing number are looking to psychology in order to better their own study skills and cognitive performance. +Modern brain research is being done in a variety of fields. Experimental psychologists at research universities are developing theories about the social and cognitive aspects of the brain and proving these by running tests on college freshmen. Neuroscientists use imaging techniques along with visual or auditory stimuli to measure and record changes within the brain. Cognitive science is an emerging discipline that was formed to integrate brain researchers in different fields. Princeton describes it as “the field of science concerned with cognition; including parts of cognitive psychology and linguistics and computer science and cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind.” +Experimental psychologists typically conduct research, develop theories, publish articles, and sometimes teach. Typically, they research topics like attention, learning, memory, thinking, sensation, and perception. They use the scientific method to conduct experiments. +Experimental psychologists set up an experiment to answer a question. For instance, asking the question “what is your favorite color?” can help an experimental psychologist determine what percent of people like the color red, which can lead to inferences about how the brain handles preferences. The experimenter would pass out surveys to a large number of people, as many as he can, to get a good sample of responses. Next, the survey responses are processed and turned into raw data. Finally, the experimenter selects a statistical equation to tell him different things about the data, like whether or not his hypothesis is true! +Brain research in neurobiology laboratories consists of imaging techniques like x-rays, PET scans, MRIs, fMRIs and, in some cases, particularly in animals, angiography. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," +Monitoring Your Financial Accounts with MyID Identity Theft Solution +MyID can monitor your financial accounts for financial identity theft and notify you if it believes you have been compromised. Protect against identity theft with instant fraud notifications. + +It’s painful but true: most identity thieves are people that you know – neighbors, friends, relatives, or co-workers. According to a survey by Javelin Research, as many as half of identity thefts can be attributed to someone that the victim knew. These are some potential identity thieves that you may know. +Unemployed with rich lifestyles. Identity thieves often give themselves away by living out of their means, given their resources and credit. If you know how much money someone makes, but their lifestyle doesn’t correlate with that, it might be a warning sign. +People without any impulse control. Whether they are addicts or just simply impatient, these are spenders who wants what they want, and they want it now. These thieves think they deserve more than they have. They could be young, even teenagers, who have a history of stealing credit cards. +Addicts. Impaired judgment and a desperate need of money make addicts one of the prime perpetrators of identity theft. These might be drug addicts, compulsive gamblers, or alcoholics. +Nosy friends. You caught her rifling through your files. If she found last year’s tax returns, she already has everything she needs to commit identity theft. +The Ex. An ex holding a grudge can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. He knows enough to open accounts in your name, and he has the motive to hurt you. If you’ve just broken up, you’ll want to take extra care in checking your financial statements to ensure that he or she didn’t make away with one of your credit cards. + +MyID Identity Theft Protection +MyID Identity Theft Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection software provides identity theft alerts any time your identity is used to open a new account. Instant fraud notifications like the “Is This You?” identity verification ensures that you’ll never be caught unaware by an identity thief. + +Identity thieves use a number of different ways to steal an individual’s personal information, and many of them use the internet to get this information. With technology advancing at the speed it is, it is crucial to know how to protect your financial information online. +Do not put personal information in e-mails. Sending an email message is not the same as sending something through certified mail. In fact, email is one of the main resources that identity thieves use to steal personal information. Do not send any of your personal information through email, even if you know the person you are sending it to. There are ways that identity thieves can “intercept” these messages, and they can then use the information from the email to take over your identity. It is also important to never respond to any email requesting personal information from someone you do not know. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Of the 101 apps reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, 45 did not even have a published privacy policy. +Many of these apps simply do not allow users to opt-out of phone tracking. +The most widely shared piece of personal information on the Internet is the phone’s unique identifier number. This number cannot be changed, deleted, or modified, and it is forever attached to a single phone’s usage history. The number-one recipient of this unique identifier number is Google as part of their advertisement targeting service. In essence, Google’s advertising department has a history of your cell phone usage; including download history, what games you play, and how long you play them for. +Additionally, not all third-parties are the same. While information sent to Pandora’s sponsors may be aggregated and not linked to a phone’s unique identifier (whether this is the case is not apparent), can you be sure that an independent game developer is protecting online privacy beyond his own monetary interests? For games with millions of installs, like Angry Birds, companies pay big bucks for collated and organized user identifying data, and though Apple and Google have both encouraged app developers to maintain user privacy through privacy policies, opt-out procedures, opt-in tracking, and collecting data anonymously, apps are not required to have any of these features to be included in either marketplace. In essence, your privacy on the Internet is protected only by the scruples of the app developer themselves. + +LinkedIn is a social networking site for employees and employers. It functions as a Web resume, allowing employers to recommend employees for work they have done in the past, and allowing employees to find new work from the thousands of posted available jobs. In the job market, “putting yourself out there” is often seen as a good thing. If potential employers acting in a business capacity were the only people who could see your resume, it would be fine to post your contact information on LinkedIn, and, on LinkedIn, you can protect your privacy through the use of the LinkedIn social network privacy settings. +The Accounts & Settings section of LinkedIn allows you to choose how your information is displayed. By clicking on the Public Profile link on LinkedIn, you can change privacy settings that control what information is displayed on your profile to users who are not connected to you in any way on LinkedIn. It is best to make your public profile visible to everyone but only show your name, industry, location, number of recommendations, and headline. This will make it possible for people who are looking specifically for you to identify you and send you a connection request and will also limit the amount of information harvesting that can be done by people you do not know. Of course, if you want, you can also make yourself impossible to find by anyone you have not directly initiated a connection with by making your public profile visible to no one. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"For nearly a hundred years, IQ was the standard by which we measured the relative intelligence of people. A paradigm shift occurred when studies in the 1980s by Howard Gardner showed that EQ is a better predictor of success than IQ. The responsible handling of emotions leads to fewer incidences of acting out and bad behavior and lowers incidences of violence, depression, and low motivation. It creates better perception of emotion in faces and pictures, including in one’s own image. When children don’t have these skills, they often exhibit challenging or confrontational behavior or become quiet and withdrawn. +Educators have a duty to teach students to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts peacefully, and be responsible for their actions. Effective teaching of emotional intelligence requires, first and foremost, good teacher and parent role models. By creating an environment of emotional acceptance and encouraging children to work through their emotions in a positive way, children will learn that certain behaviors are allowed and others are not. It’s also important to look for teachable moments in your everyday life. For example, if a child hits another child, discipline must be accompanied by teaching, for example, telling children that hitting is not okay and to get an adult if they need help resolving a dispute. However, there are two reasons this is not the most effective way to teach social behavior. First, the incident has already occurred, and both children are upset and will not be receptive to learning. Second, the child might find the teacher’s attention reinforcing and hit children just to get the teacher’s attention again. Instead, social skills should be taught like any other part of the curriculum, with lessons as part of the daily schedule. +Parents, how can you help your children improve their emotional intelligence? According to specialists, emotional learning starts at home at an early age. By being attentive to your young child’s emotional needs, you can find opportunities to teach emotional learning in your day-to-day life. An easy way to begin is by discussing moods and asking questions like “What makes you angry?” It’s important to teach children that emotions are normal, but that they should be able to regulate them. +Educators, want some tips on providing social and emotional education to your students? There are several emotional education programs for teachers, including “The Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program”. Integrating these programs into the daily curriculum and lesson plans will help your students understand how to behave with their peers. Your students will realize that you value their emotional maturity as much as their academic success. You should encourage your students to keep a journal about their feelings. Self-awareness and self-reflection is a large part of emotional maturity. Students can be taught strategies to remain calm and in a positive mood. +Teaching children how to handle their emotions is an important part of learning. Good parents and teachers have a duty to provide instruction in dealing with emotions constructively. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," +A similar theory that has enjoyed much more success holds that there are likely at least two types of intelligence, primarily IQ, the intelligence quotient, and EQ, the emotional-intelligence quotient. Many believe that EQ matters more than IQ in terms of potential business or personal success. +Additionally, there are a number of critiques of IQ tests that apply regardless of which type of intelligence it measures. First, IQ tests are highly subjective in their scoring between cohorts. The tests must be continuously changed to stay relevant. For instance, an early IQ test asked eight-year-olds, “What is Mars?” If you answered “The fourth planet from the sun,” you would be wrong, as the correct answer was, “The largest candy maker in the world.” The Mars Bar was a common snack food for children, but astronomy was not a common topic of instruction in schools. Additionally, sharing a demographic with the person who wrote the test questions leads to inflated scores, and this has been demonstrated to inflate the scores of white males. +While it leads to interesting research if it is true, there may never be a test that accurately measures different or multiple intelligences. Still, one must recognize that some people who score poorly on IQ tests are profoundly good at other activities. If anything, this shows why it is important to be critical of IQ testing. +Food for thought: Do you know someone with a high level of intelligence in something untraditional? For example, how would you rate the intelligence of a star quarterback? What about someone like Einstein, who did not learn to speak until he was eight or nine years old? Edgar Allen Poe, one of America’s finest writers, was profoundly asocial and was afflicted with manic depression. The theory of multiple intelligences supports the idea that these men were profoundly intelligent, even if they did not score highly on traditional IQ tests. +Everyone learns differently. According to psychologists and education specialists, there are three prevalent learning styles. If you want to discover what types of learner you (or your students) are, ask yourself, if you wanted to paint a room, how much paint do you need? +Visual learners like to see charts, diagrams, overhead transparencies, handouts, videos, worksheets, and examples. They work best when they can see the facial expressions and body language of the teacher. Oftentimes, visual learners prefer to sit near the front of the class where they can avoid visual distractions. Usually, visual learners will take very detailed notes. Asking visual learners to picture a concept in their head is a useful way to communicate information to them. To address the painting problem, visual learners would conduct research online or by reading the backs of paint cans. If there is a problem, visual learners might take measurements and make charts or diagrams of the room. +Auditory learners learn primarily through verbal lectures and classroom discussion. Often, they will encourage discussion and ask open-ended questions. Auditory learners benefit less from reading textbooks. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"What is a dream? The most accessible definition is that it is simply a series of images, sounds, and emotions that are experienced during sleep. What causes dreaming? When the body enters REM sleep, it begins to send signals to different parts of the brain. These signals go through parts of the brain associated with memory and emotions. Though no one knows where dreams originate or what the purpose of dreaming is, many scientists hypothesize that it is the result of the highly active, yet random, neuronal firings. These scientists would speculate that dreams are your brain trying to make sense of random emotions and memories. For example, being fearful because you dream that you are lost in the woods might simply be the brain stimulating the fear center at the same time that it stimulates the memory of trees or forests. +Do we dream in color? About 60% of people report that they “always” dream in color. 32% of people report that they sometimes dream in color and only 7.7% of people report that they never dream in color. That means over 92% of people report that they dream in color. Since no one can, at the time of this writing, read your dreams, all of this information is self-reported by survey. +People all over the world tend to dream of the same things. In a scientific analysis of over 1,000 dreams, researchers found that most dreams are based on emotions (primarily anxiety), sexual themes (about ten percent of dreams in adolescents and about eight percent in adults), and personal experiences from the last day or week. Over 65% of people report that they have recurring dreams. +We spend about 3,000 hours per year sleeping. Sleep has a number of benefits, and a healthy night of it is always a cherished prize. Though we are asleep, our bodies are hard at work repairing themselves. To help you stay asleep, your brain becomes less receptive to outside light or sound stimuli, but if you look inside the brain, you will find the brain itself is quite active (Paraphrased from a Washington University professor). +People with sleeping problems often visit doctors certified by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). These technicians monitor the brain’s activity during sleep by attaching electrodes to the scalp. A machine, called an electroencephalograph (EEG), records the brain activity during sleep. Other tests monitor eye activity and can provide additional information about REM sleep. +There are five stages of sleep. Stages one through four range from light sleep to deep sleep, and stage five is REM sleep. REM is one of the lightest stages of sleep. REM sleep occurs about every two hours throughout the night. During REM, the brain stops stimulating the brain’s motor cortex. This prevents dreams from causing potentially dangerous movements of the body. Directly after REM, the body descends into a deep sleep. Eventually, sleep will lighten and REM will occur again. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Identity thieves will even send emails claiming to be from a company that needs you personal information for financial purposes. Remember that no reputable company or business would ever contact you through email asking for this type of information. +Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software. This is one of the most important things you can do to keep identity thieves from accessing personal information that is stored on your computer. Identity thieves use viruses and spyware to gain access to the passwords, files, and browsing history on your computer. By doing this, identity thieves can learn about your personal information, such as account numbers, PINs, and passwords, and then use the information to gain access to your bank accounts and credit cards. It is even possible for some identity thieves to gain enough information from your computer to open new, fraudulent accounts without your knowledge. By using anti-virus and anti-spyware software, you can keep identity thieves from accessing any of your private documents that are stored on your computer. +Choose secure passwords. Online banking accounts and credit card accounts are very common, and it is important to choose secure passwords for these types of accounts. Choose passwords that have uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. It is also good to have a different password for each of your financial accounts. This way, if an identity thief does gain access to one account, they will not be able to use the other one. It is good to keep a hand-written list of your online passwords so that you will not forget them. Put this list somewhere safe in your home where no one else will have access to it but you. Never store a list of passwords on your computer or anywhere online because if an identity thief gained access to the files stored on your computer, they would then have access to every single account that is listed in the file containing your passwords. + +Cookies are small bits of information that sites store on your computer to track the places you have been on the Web. They help sites create advertisements targeted for a customer, which ad network tracking specialists say increase the effectiveness of the advertisements. Have you ever noticed an Internet advertisement that was a product you had just searched for? The reason the advertisers knew your preferences was because of ad tracking. +Want to see how private you are on the Internet? Visit Panopticlick, at https://panopticlick.eff.org/, and see just how much information your browser reveals to the Web sites you visit. Each and every computer has a browser fingerprint based on one or more points of identifying information, from the exact version of the browser that you use, to the fonts you have installed, to the resolution of your screen. Web sites use these details to enhance your browsing experience, but if a Web site stores this information about you, it can be effective at tracking where individuals go on a site. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"The Montessori method was created in the early 20th century by Maria Montessori, an Italian educator and physician. The philosophical tenet behind the Montessori method is that children each have their own internal guidance for self-directed development. The teacher acts as a guide, watching over the classroom to remove obstacles from learning but not participating as a direct instructor. Lessons given by the teacher often involve how to use or play with the various instructional toys in the classroom. +According to Dr. Montessori, each child develops through several stages, each unique and requiring a slightly different teaching strategy. The first occurs between birth and age six. This stage represents the time when infants, toddlers, and children acquire language and begin to experience the world for the first time. It includes the development of the ego, where the child begins to first differentiate between self and other. The second stage occurs between the ages of six and twelve, during which children begin to develop the capacity for independent thought and abstract reasoning. This stage is marked by the desire to interact socially and emotionally with others. The last stage in development is adolescence. +Instead of instructing with rote lectures, handouts, worksheets, and lesson plans, a Montessori teacher will offer guidance, but the child is ultimately responsible for his or her own individual learning. The classroom will often contain several stations, each containing toys which allow children to explore and learn. For example, a common station in a Montessori classroom will have a bucket of Lego blocks and several pictures of simple objects like an apple or a house, which the children can build if they want. Other stations might have books, crayons, a xylophone, or other engaging activities. The whole idea behind the Montessori classroom is allowing children to learn through playing. +Another interesting uniqueness to Montessori classrooms is age grouping. Typically, in Western schools, children are separated by ages and grade levels, interacting primarily with children their own age. A Montessori classroom will often be a mixed-age class, for example, containing all children between the ages of three and six. This is important because children are always at different stages in their development, and younger children can learn by watching older children play. This process is known as scaffolding and was formulated by Lev Vygotsky as a method of social learning. +A Montessori classroom is different from a typical classroom in a number of important ways. These changes encourage children to develop independently into well-rounded individuals. By allowing children to play, instead of sit and listen to lectures, the classroom allows children develop the motivation to learn and explore. Though it’s not the traditional way to teach a class, the Montessori method offers empirically-supported advantages to children above and beyond normal development and learning. +The Waldorf method of teaching is a unique educational strategy which aims to create well-rounded students through a broad curriculum, including academics, art and music education, physical education, and emotional and social education. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"High levels of education in certain areas of China and Russia plus a national broadband system and a government which may not support, but at least condones, computer crime against foreign nationals also lead to the majority of real threats originating from these areas. +Most hackers are young, under thirty. The reasons for this are uncertain, but it is known that their respective governments recruit the best and brightest hackers as part of their military. Hackers who own botnets, malware worms that infest many computers at once and allow the hackers to control them remotely, are usually in business for themselves, selling their services to the highest bidder. Services rendered by these botnet operators most commonly include money laundering and denial of service attacks. Other hackers are simply guns-for-hire, paid between $1,000 and $5,000 to compromise a specific computer. +Hackers are often genius-level students who are creative and enjoy puzzles or challenges. Infiltrating a computer system often requires the hacker to practice on similar machines for many hours. In many cases, the hacker will read through the actual programming code that the machine uses until something sticks out as wrong. This is usually due to a programmer error, but these are often overlooked when many individual programmers work on a single piece of code. More novice hackers read the latest security reports from Microsoft and simply attack unpatched computers before the computers have a chance to install the updates. These programs are often distributed among the hacker community as ways to break into certain systems. Many of these programs are freely available on the Internet today for any novice interested in getting started as a hacker. +Some hackers do not attack the computer systems at all, preferring to manipulate the human behind the system instead. These hackers, known as social engineers, are usually behind most of the phishing and pharming scams on the Internet. +Hackers come in two varieties, called black hat and white hat. The black hat hackers are the criminal element, doing things that are illegal or immoral in order to make money or simply for vandalism. White hat hackers are often individuals hacking for the fun or the challenge with no intention to harm any of the computers they compromise. It’s proper etiquette in the white hat community to send instructions on how to patch the hole to the administrator of a compromised system via an email from his own account. +Since hackers fight on their own turf, most individuals stand little or no chance against them without relying on the security consultants who release the updates to their operating system, browser, and anti-virus software. Many white-hat hackers end up working as security consultants for organizations such as these. + +The “Do Not Track” bill introduced in the House of Representatives would ban advertisers from tracking the behavior of users who opt-out of ad tracking for marketing purposes. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"They may not take many notes. Auditory learners follow oral directions better than written ones. They prefer listening to the radio rather than reading a newspaper. They often hum, whistle, or sing to themselves. They are usually very articulate and enjoy debates. They like telling jokes and stories. They make verbal analogies to demonstrate points. They work well with mnemonics. To address the painting problem, auditory learners would call a friend who knows how to paint and ask for instructions or advice. They will listen carefully and follow the instructions to the best of their ability. If there are any problems, they will discuss the problems and solutions with an expert. +Tactile learners enjoy a hands-on approach, participating in experiments and actively exploring the world around them. Many tactile learners have trouble sitting still and participating in a classroom lecture. A tell-tale sign of a tactile learner is drawing or doodling during class. Tactile learners often work skillfully with their hands to make or repair things. They often prefer to stand while working. They may use their hands more than the average person to communicate what they want to say. They are good at finding their way around, even in an unfamiliar place. They excel at jigsaw puzzles. They touch or hug others as a sign of friendship. To address the painting problem, tactile learners would go and buy a can of paint and just jump in. When they run out of paint, they simply go and buy more. Eventually, they will learn through experience how much paint is needed to paint a room. +Since information is conveyed in different ways, a student’s learning style will affect the things they learn. If something is written down but not discussed in class, or if sufficient examples are not provided, there may be gaps in the knowledge of students. Recognizing the differences in learning styles can ensure that teachers always convey important information by all three methods: saying it, writing it, and showing examples. +If learning is the process by which we incorporate ideas and information into our memories, then learning theory aims to describe the nature of the process and offer insight into how teaching can be improved. There are several modern co-existing theories on how we learn, each offering answers to one of several questions – what, when, why, and how. +To answer the question of “what” we learn, we know there are four types of information acquisition: transmission, acquisition, accretion, and emergence. Transmission is the transfer of knowledge from one person to another by demonstration, guidance, or direct instruction. It’s the traditional way that we envision teaching, but it really only accounts for a small amount of what we learn in our lifetimes. Acquisition is conscious research, guided by the learner. This includes exploration, experimentation, and curiosity. Accretion is a gradual, sometimes subliminal, acquisition of knowledge. This is the primary source for learning about language, habits, culture, and social rules, and it accounts for most of the things that we know. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Avoiding being tracked by cookies, while still maintaining Web usability, is the Holy Grail for Web users. There are a few steps you can take to make sure you avoid ad tracking. First, download a modern browser like Firefox. Internet Explorer is notoriously bad at keeping your computer secure and untrackable. Install the Firefox Add-on Flashblock. Flashblock stops Adobe’s Flash application from storing cookies that enable you to be tracked anywhere on the Web. Install the Firefox Add-on NoScript. This unique whitelist-based script blocking approach prevents the use of JavaScript security vulnerabilities, both known and unknown. +Next, you should do some deep cleaning with tracking cookie removal. +To Remove Tracking Cookies in Internet Explorer, Open Internet Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Network and Internet, and then clicking Internet Options. Click the General tab, and then, under Browsing history, click Delete. Under Cookies, click Delete cookies, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete them. Click Close, and then click OK. +To Remove Tracking Cookies in Firefox, click on the Tools menu and select Clear Recent History. Set the time range to Everything. Click the arrow next to Details and select Cookies from the list. Make sure that items you do not wish to delete are unchecked and click Clear Now. +To Remove Tracking Cookies in Google Chrome, click on the wrench icon on the browser toolbar. Select Options, then the Under the Hood tab. Click Content Settings, then Cookies. To delete all cookies, select Remove All. + +Smart-phone users collect apps, especially the free ones. But, as the adage goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Smart phone apps collect data about you as you use them, and many deliver this data not only to the apps owner but to third parties as well. +An investigative report by the Wall Street Journal [1] found that iPhone and Android apps routinely track and send data like your contacts, age, gender, location, phone ID, phone number and usage habits to anonymous parties, angering many users concerned with the privacy on the internet. +According to the report, the big offenders are not the kind of underbelly-scale applications you might expect. Angry Birds and Pandora are two of the biggest offenders. Even apps one might suppose were mindful of concerns about personal information on the Internet, like the CBS News app, routinely send location and identification details to undisclosed third parties. The best-in-breed of these apps include Facebook, YouTube, and ESPN ScoreCenter, which transmit no data to third parties and only send limited data to their parent company. +The privacy settings of some apps, like the bi and gay social networking app Grindr, is appalling. Grindr sends age, gender, location, and identification information to various third parties for marketing purposes. Are Grindr users even aware of this breach of personal privacy? It’s unlikely that many read the privacy policy before signing up. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," +The MyID Theft Risk Score gives you actionable insight into the risk of you becoming a victim of identity theft. Your ID Theft Risk Score is a quick and easy way to gain insight into whether your personal information is at risk of misuse. +Your ID Theft Risk Score uses patented technology to identify suspicious or unusual access to your identity. Our statistical formulas use hundreds of variables that affect your unique, individual risk of identity theft. The result is a number between 0 and 999 that quickly assesses whether or not you are at risk for identity fraud. +Built from the ground up, our identity theft monitoring engine has grown to include over 700 billion aggregated identity attributes and one billion consumer transactions. The service receives over 45 million reports per day from leading financial institutions, retailers, wireless providers, credit card issuers, auto and mortgage lenders, and other issuers of credit. +Building on this robust database of information, events and patterns surrounding your personal information privacy can lead to an increase or decrease in your ID Theft Risk Score. +To check your ID Theft Risk Score, you are required to submit a Social Security number, Name, Address, Home Phone number, and Date of Birth. Additional details such as a Cell Phone number, E-mail address, and IP address can improve precision and add further insight into your risk level. +Individuals with high identity theft risk should take immediate and aggressive steps to protect personal information. These steps include reviewing credit card statements and bank account activity, requesting a free credit report, or requesting a credit freeze or fraud alert with a credit bureau. +Identity Theft Protection your ID Theft Risk Score with MyID + +Track how your ID Theft Risk Score changes on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis with MyID identity theft monitoring. MyID Monitoring sends monthly reports with your current risk score, last month’s risk score, a report of circumstances that increased or decreased your risk score for the month, and the ability to access your risk scores for the previous 36 months. + +The end of a relationship can be a high-strung time. With soapboxes like Facebook and personal blogs, a vengeful ex often has the motivation and opportunity to irrevocably damage your reputation. These days, first impressions are made online. According to author Michael Fertik, “The first ten Google results on a search of your name are now your resume.” Online reputation management can be difficult, but not impossible. Here are some simple steps for protecting your personal reputation online. +First, be sure to secure your accounts from unauthorized access. If your ex had any of your passwords, be sure to change them immediately (and don’t give them away next time – your e-mail is none of their business). +You should also set up Google News alerts for your own name, so that you know when you pop up in blogs and news stories. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Briefly, the other options you have to further limit what people see about you include disabling Connections Browse, which keeps your connections private, Profile Views, which limits what information people who you have browsed can see, opting out of the Service Provider Directory and the LinkedIn Partner Advertising directory. These settings will limit the number of eyes on your profile but will not limit your ability to use your LinkedIn profile as a resume. +You can also use this page to control the unsolicited e-mail you receive by modifying the settings on the Receiving Messages settings page as well as the InMails page. +MyID Can Protect Your Privacy Settings and Alert You If They Change +The MyID suite of privacy applications can protect your privacy as it monitors dozens of social network privacy settings. MyID can change privacy settings to a more secure setting and help you understand what information is private and public. Protect personal information with the MyID identity theft monitoring solution. + +If you’d like to make your whole blog private, head to Settings and then Privacy and check the radio button for I would like my blog to be visible only to users I choose. Click Save Changes, and then you can start to add users by their Wordpress username. + +The Word Press Blog Visibility settings have three options which will allow you to set the level of privacy of your blog. The default setting allows everyone, including search engines, to access your blog. The second, more limited, setting blocks search engines from crawling your blog, requiring users to type in your URL directly. Depending on how much personal information you post on your blog, you can choose to change privacy settings to a high level in order to protect your privacy. +If you’d like to make a particular post private so that only you or a bunch of people you choose can see it, all you need to do is head to the post editor and click on Visibility in the Publish pane. You can choose to make the post either password protected, in which case you’ll need to supply a password, or private, which means only that you or other blog contributors will be able to see it. Click OK and that will be made effective immediately. +By changing privacy settings of your WordPress blog, you can protect your privacy and be sure that only approved users read your content. +Maximize Privacy on Social Networks with MyID +Any time you post private information to WordPress, MyID will find it and alert you, allowing you to remove it before any search engine has a chance to archive it, maximizing your privacy on social networks. + +Without resorting to Hollywood stereotypes about hackers, let’s take a look at the demographics, psychology, and goals of your average online computer hacker. +The vast majority of hackers are from China or Russia. These nations serve as a breeding ground for criminals of every kind, not just computer criminals. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"The possibility that Internet users will be able to hide what they do from the ubiquitous ad tracking is a big win for consumers concerned with Internet privacy. +Lawmakers have heralded the bill as a companion to the “Do Not Call” registry that was introduced in 2003. The registry prevented telemarketers from calling consumers who chose to opt-out from telemarketing calls. The “Do Not Track” bill would similarly force advertisers to respect the privacy of users who do not want their online activity to be subject to ad network tracking for marketing purposes. +According to Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), the bill’s sponsor, “Consumers have a right to determine what if any of their information is shared with big corporations, and the federal government must have the authority and tools to enforce reasonable protections.” +The “Do Not Track” bill would give the FTC eighteen months to come up with a set of enforceable privacy protection regulations for online ad network tracking. Some, like Ryan Calo, director of Stanford Law School���s Consumer Privacy Project, believe the bill does not go far enough. For one, he said, the bill only applied to those who chose to opt-out from ad network tracking. It does not affect those who do not know that they can or do not know how. This objection is partially overruled as the newest edition of the Firefox browser makes prevalent a “Do Not Track Me” option said to be the response to this and other similar bills. +FBI Wants to Expand Internet Wiretapping +The FBI, in an effort to keep up with the changing landscape of the Internet, is calling for a push to expand its capabilities in intercepting online evidence. Citing advances in “webmail, social networking sites, and peer-to-peer services,” the FBI’s general counsel, Valerie Caproni, addressed Congress to discuss the increasing difficulty in tracing electronic communication in ongoing cases. According to Ms. Caproni, “In the ever-changing world of modern communications technologies, however, the FBI and other government agencies are facing a potentially widening gap between our legal authority to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to actually intercept those communications. As the gap between authority and capability widens, the government is increasingly unable to collect valuable evidence in cases ranging from child exploitation and pornography to organized crime and drug trafficking to terrorism and espionage.” +The FBI argues that the current limitations on their wiretapping are antiquated. Many statutes have not been updated since the early nineties. Some of the statutes allow the FBI to read e-mail stored on a local server that is more than six months old. These laws date back to a time when users fetched their mail from a single computer almost daily, so e-mail that had been on a server for six months was considered abandoned. In the age of webmail, users keep most of their emails forever. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp," +The human brain is a complicated, creative information-processing system. As technology advanced from primitive to modern, the metaphors used to describe the brain also advanced. Initially, it was compared to a wax tablet, then to a sheet of papyrus, then to a book, and most recently, to a computer. As you learn about the brain, keep in mind that the usefulness of these metaphors is limited and can lead to erroneous conclusions. +Information processing starts with input from the sensory organs, which transform physical stimuli such as touch, heat, sound waves, or photons of light into electrochemical signals. The sensory information is repeatedly transformed by the algorithms of the brain in both bottom-up and top-down processing. For example, when looking at a picture of a black box on a white background, bottom-up processing puts together very simple information such as color, orientation, and where the borders of the object are – where the color changes significantly over a short space – to decide that you are seeing a box. Top-down processing uses the decisions made at some steps of the bottom-up process to speed up your recognition of the box. Top-down processing in this example might help you identify the object as a black box rather than a box-shaped hole in the white background. +Once information is processed to a degree, an attention filter decides how important the signal is and which cognitive processes it should be made available to. For example, although your brain processes every blade of grass when you look down at your shoes, a healthy attention filter prevents you from noticing them individually. In contrast, you might pick out your name, even when spoken in a noisy room. There are many stages of processing, and the results of processing are modulated by attention repeatedly. +In order for the brain to process information, it must first be stored. There are multiple types of memory, including sensory, working, and long-term. First, information is encoded. There are types of encoding specific to each type of sensory stimuli. For example, verbal input can be encoded structurally, referring to what the printed word looks like, phonemically, referring to what the word sounds like, or semantically, referring to what the word means. Once information is stored, it must be maintained. Some animal studies suggest that working memory, which stores information for roughly 20 seconds, is maintained by an electrical signal looping through a particular series of neurons for a short period of time. Information in long-term memory is hypothesized to be maintained in the structure of certain types of proteins. +There are numerous models of how the knowledge is organized in the brain, some based on the way human subjects retrieve memories, others based on computer science, and others based on neurophysiology. The semantic network model states that there are nodes representing concepts, and that the nodes are linked based on their relatedness. For example, in a semantic network, “chair” might be linked to “table,” which can be linked to “wooden,�� and so forth. ",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Brain research is usually not conducted on people; the majority of the research is done in laboratories on mice. The mouse brain is very similar to our brain, only much smaller! X-ray technology, like a CT scan, can show the structure of the brain. PET scans, or positron emission tomography, detect gases that have been marked with radioactive material during the experiment. The radioactive signatures allow the PET scan to detect the presence of the inhaled gas in the brain or organs. MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. It is a non-invasive brain scan that shows the structure of the brain, like an x-ray in high definition. MRI machines cost millions of dollars. Finally, the fMRI scan, or functional MRI, allows researchers to detect changes to the blood flow in the brain, allowing a very accurate view of the brain and neural activation. Neurobiologists use these techniques to research how different stimuli, like light, sound, or pictures, affect the brain. +Psychotherapy also attempts to understand the human brain. Psychotherapy is a strong component of many therapeutic approaches to treating problems including PTSD, substance addiction, and eating disorders. +Scientists these days recognize that a number of different fields are involved with brain research. This realization has led to the emergence of cognitive science, a discipline that aims to connect researchers from many different disciplines, including psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, learning, linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. Cognitive science students typically do coursework in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and computers, providing a broad, interdisciplinary education. +Direct instruction is a theory of education which posits that the most effective way to teach is by explicit, guided instructions. This method of teaching directly contrasts other styles of teaching, which might be more passive or encourage exploration. It is a very common teaching strategy, relying on strict lesson plans and lectures with little or no room for variation. Direct instruction does not include activities like discussion, recitation, seminars, workshops, case studies, or internships. +Though direct instruction is probably the oldest form of teaching, it came into a more modern light when a program was created by a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the mid-1980s as a way to address the problems of inner-city Baltimore schools. In this program, which focused on reading instruction, ninety minutes each day were dedicated to pre-ordained lesson plans and worksheets. The plan primarily featured scripted instruction and specific activities in which children engaged for defined periods of time. The program’s goal was to teach every child in the class to read at the same level. +Today, most K-12 education uses a modernized version of the original program. Previously known as DISTAR, an acronym for “Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading,” and created by SRA/McGraw-Hill, modern programs offer standard lesson plans for Reading and Arithmetic based on grade level. Teacher resources like DISTAR materials can be found under the republished names “Reading Mastery,” “Language for Learning,” and “Arithmetic I/II.”",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +pp,"Emergence results from internal reflection. It is the construction of new ideas or theories based on a synthesis of existing knowledge, and it is the primary source of originality. +Piaget’s theory of cognitive development answers the question of “when” we learn. According to Piaget, children develop according to stages. The rate of development depends on the fulfillment of intellectual and emotional milestones, each stage building on the successful completion of previous stages. The specifics of Piaget’s theory have been improved by further research, but Piaget’s stage-oriented view of development remains the most prominent theory of when learning occurs. +Why do we learn? Many people have never asked this question. Lev Vygotsky’s theory of Social Cognition offers interesting insight into the reasons behind learning. According to Vygotsky, learning occurs primarily because of cultural influence. The social cognition learning model posits that children learn because culture teaches them both what to think and how to think. +How we learn has been a widely studied and, at times, a hotly debated topic. The earliest modern model of learning is B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist theory. Behaviorism is the theory that positive and negative reinforcement influences and controls learning. According to Skinner, negative reinforcement, also known as punishment, will discourage behavior, while positive reinforcement, like praise, will encourage it. Animal studies strongly support the behaviorist model. Animals learn very quickly to avoid the button or lever that delivers a shock while pressing the button that delivers the food. Many psychologists dispute behaviorism’s ability to tell the whole story. After all, human beings respond to more than just rewards and punishments. Many cognitive scientists have dismissed behaviorism because of its perceived inability to explain the intricate methods of learning and cognition in which the human brain engages. Additionally, it fails to explain how the social environment affects learning. The idea that behavior can be explained without referencing sociocultural influences is a tenet of behaviorism, leading to a theory that most scientists dismiss as too narrow. A person’s behavior depends on more than just the rewards and punishments that they have experienced throughout their life. Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, dismissed behaviorism for its inability to explain language acquisition in children. Language seems to be learned without being explicitly taught. +All of these theories can co-exist because they attempt to explain different methods or types of learning. Each answers a different question, and together, they provide a broad understanding of the brain and learning. +The Montessori method of teaching is a modern educational movement that encourages teachers to view children and classroom education differently than the common teacher-student relationship. Instead of focusing on academic education, the Montessori method focuses on respecting and encouraging each child’s individual differences, providing a nurturing environment to teach social interaction and emotional skills. The Montessori method is most often applied at the pre-school level due to its focus on early child development. +",25,English,male,BA,Copywriter,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +kk," Again, ""I liked this"" is fine. + + +More fondly known as ""constructive criticism,"" negative reviews are just as important as positive ones, even if they do sometimes smart on the receiving end. If you have just read a story which was good but you feel was marred by some aspect or another --- perhaps something was not canonical, perhaps the author spelled a character's name wrong --- you should not feel intimidated about pointing this out to the author. + +To leave an effective critique, you must keep some things in mind. First, you are not superior to the author, and the author is not superior to you. You are peers and equals, perhaps not friends but certainly companions along the road of fandom. Using a review to further a grudge, call names, or make yourself feel important is impolite and counterproductive. As a rule, stick to language you would feel comfortable relating to your mother. (Dr. Merlin is aware her relationship with her own mother is perhaps a poor example for this case, but rest assured Merlin's medications are being adjusted as we speak.) Find something positive to say about the story at the beginning and end of your critique, even if you are merely complimenting the author's spelling. Also, and this cannot be stressed enough, if you are nitpicking a detail, make sure you are right before you critique; few things are as embarrassing as pointing out that the author is misspelling a character's name, only to discover you've been doing so all along. Fact check yourself, and you will come across as a reliable source of information. Be truthful, be specific, and again, be polite. + +Constructive criticism is often best handled via private email rather than public messageboard. You can engage in a dialogue with the writer and perhaps the concerns you had will be explained as intentional on the part of the author rather than errors, at which point the discussion becomes a matter of what is and isn't effective storytelling. As an example, years ago I received a critique on a story that used an obscure character from canon in order to show what was going on in the lead character's mind. The reviewer suggested that no one would know who the character was, which made it less effective. This was useful to know for character choice in future stories, but it was also not as relevant for the story in question as the intended audience was a small subset of the fandom who were very familiar with the character. This discussion was vital for us to understand each other's position. + +Critiques on small details (spelling, eye color, canon trivia) that can be easily changed, especially right after publication, are blessings on an author's house. Critiques on large details (pacing, characterization, plot structure) are lessons for future stories, and are also blessings. Critiques on small details for older stories, especially those more than a few years old, are perhaps not worth your time in pointing out. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," In terms of a critique, following with ""and I'm sorry to say this story did not move me from my dislike"" can be useful but should only be employed when you honestly believe the author could benefit in some fashion from the comment. (If you believe the author could benefit from no longer enjoying the pairing in question, you should perhaps seek the remedial course in ""Fandom: We All Like Different Things and That's Okay."") +A review consisting entirely of how much you hate the source material on which the story is based, again unless it is followed by praise of the author's ability to make you enjoy it. This is poor manners and it begs your ability to read a story header. The Internet is opt-in; no one forces you to read anything here. +Calling the author names or otherwise engaging in flaming her/him based on your prior interactions with her/him. While none of us are perfect, your reviews should be focused on the work, not the person. If you cannot separate the two long enough to comment, don't comment. (I've encountered this several times in my fannish history, and so I've learned not to read works by those whom I dislike too much to review without bias.) +Telling the author how you would have written or ended the story, unless it is to point out a problem with the story's structure. (For example, a sword-and-sorcery epic that ends abruptly when the hero pulls out a pistol and shoots the villain.) If you feel strongly that the story should have gone in a different direction, there's always room for more fanfic. Just be sure to ask permission of the original author before you write an alternate ending to her or his 'fic. Better still, write your own story from scratch and really show us how it's done. +Telling the author what her or his next story should be, in great detail. Saying ""I liked this and would like to see more in the same vein"" is very different from saying ""You need to write the prequel where this and this and this happened, and then they met this character."" One is polite and begs to be pointed to your previous work without imposing; the other is demanding and a touch childish. A middle ground would be to contact the author privately stating that her/his work was inspiring and has given you ideas, which you would like to share, perhaps even as a co-writing opportunity, or with permission, and off-shoot fanfic universe. +A review that is entirely about your own stories and ideas instead of a comment on the story you've just read. If you would like to discuss your story ideas with the author, that's fine. Simply say so when you review, and give her/him the opportunity to say, ""Of course I'd love to hear your ideas,"" or ""I'm sorry, I barely have time to keep up with my own ideas right now, but perhaps we can discuss it later.""",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," Now in the interests of all fairness, Dr. Merlin does know authors for whom a review of ""I liked this"" would in fact be unwelcome. However, Dr. Merlin has been assured these authors are seeking the proper dosages of their respective medications and will be feeling better soon. + +Reviews are polite, and as everyone knows, manners are the lubrication of society. Someone has just spent time entertaining you, and as you cannot applaud, sending a note is the next best thing and will probably make someone's day, regardless of the brevity. Also, it is in one's self-interest to leave feedback for authors writing one's preferred fandom/pairing/etc., as this encourages more stories to be written and posted, and everyone is happy. + + +When sending out a new story to the world, the fanfiction writer's dream is to receive a basketful of glowing reviews. Who wouldn't want to hear that one is a genius in loving emails from complete strangers? (If you just held up your hand and said ""ME!"" then I humbly suggest you refrain from posting fanfic online.) But how does one do it? + +That bastion of democracy http://www.fanfiction.net is by far the largest fanfiction archive on the planet, and lucky for you, dear reader, FF.net makes it very simple to leave a review. Simply point and click at the bottom of the story you have just finished reading, and you don't even have to log into your account. Many large fanfiction sites include review features in order to make it easy on you to drop a note to the authors. Some older fanfiction archives lack this functionality, alas, and so if you are going to leave feedback, you will need to use the author's email address, if given, and the older the story, the less likely that email address will be current. (I've gone through a number of email addresses, but I've had what I now use as my main contact address since 1996.) Going the extra mile to leave a review is always appreciated, but if your author makes it too difficult, the best you can do is sigh and perhaps recommend the story to your friends instead. + +But should you be able to contact the author, what ought you say? Is a simple ""I liked this"" enough? + +It is. Let no one tell you otherwise. You have told the author that you enjoyed her or his work and thus thanked her/him for sharing the story. If you'd like something slightly more elaborate, I submit the following examples, to be used as desired: + +These and other permutations on the same idea --- that you liked the story --- take very little thought-process or effort, and can send an author over the moon. Dr. Merlin has often read stories which reduced her brain to piles of gibbering glee, and has found these responses to be useful while she recovers. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," +Ah, exposition. That place in your story where you stretch your little writer's wings and take flight, astounding one and all with your magnetic, nay magical prose. Or the part where your readers fall asleep and/or hit the ""Back"" button while cursing your name. Dr. Merlin has been known to shout at her monitor when she finds herself in the middle of Too Much Information, and not even in the fun way. + +Exposition is not your friend. + +My gentle readers already know the basic writing tip, ""Show, don't tell,"" but Dr. Merlin still stumbles into long passages of text where nothing happens, or worse, too much. Exposition is the little devil sitting on your shoulder that says to get the history out of the way to get to the good parts (not to be confused with the devil sitting on the other shoulder urging the author to tell her audience every single detail of the childhoods of each character). + +Exposition means telling the audience what happened, typically in simple prose. In film, the exposition happens when one character tells another a core-dump of information ala ""The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."" In fiction, the author's doing the telling. + +An example is in order. As you are reading a story, you are told that the heroine met her beloved at such a place and time, that they were married in a gala fashion, and that her husband was murdered in front of her eyes. You would not expect this entire sequence to take two pages, during which time both he and she only get two lines of dialogue each. You would expect the author to spend some time on the husband's character, evidencing by his speech and manner how deeply he loves his wife, and you would equally expect the heroine to show through big and small ways how much his presence in her life changed and enriched her (especially if the story were to tell you flat out later that this was the case). A proper introduction to the husband's character would allow you to become emotionally involved with his fate and would give you insight into the heroine's character: what she saw in him, how deep their bond was, clues about her thoughts and beliefs and dreams as reflected through the prism of his eyes, and so on. You would mourn his death with her, and so grow more connected to the heroine herself. + +In short, you would expect meat on the simple bone of the storyline: ""They met, they married, he died."" + +As a writer, you need to provide that meat. (*looks at metaphor, sighs, plunges onward*) Sometimes it is tempting to rush past certain things. Perhaps you're introducing a new character and you know he used to be in the Air Force, and he's the night manager of a gas station now, and he was married twice, no kids, likes to go fishing on the weekends, secretly dreams of owning the gas station someday and had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," This is all well and good. These are excellent things to know about a character you've created, and I applaud the effort. However, if you tell your readers all of this in two paragraphs as you introduce him, and then promptly kill him off less than a page later (or send him off-camera for the entire rest of the story because he's not actually part of the story) then you're going to lose your audience. + +Descriptions are always important in your writing. Descriptions set places in mind and give faces to characters and bring moments to life. Do not, however, get too bogged down in trying to describe every last detail of a scene that you forget what's going on, or worse, that your reader does. Taking a moment to reflect on the history of a particular piece of art is fine, especially when it was created by someone dear to your character and thus showing more detail of the character's interpersonal relationships. Taking more time to go additionally into its historical and aesthetic value may even be acceptable, including religious iconography related to the piece and references to Renaissance-era painters with similar themes. Doing all this while the character is in the middle of a climactic swordfight is alas not advised. Everyone will be surprised by the sudden epee to the heart, especially your easily-distractible character. + +Related: you are not Victor Hugo. Do not spend two hundred pages of your fanfiction giving us the historical background of Franciscan friars and their presence during fifteenth century England, simply because Harry stopped to look at the painting of the Fat Friar for a moment and then went on his way for the rest of your eight hundred page story. Or do, but I won't be reading. No one cares how smart you are. You don't need to show off. + +None of this is to say you shouldn't explore or experiment. You can tell a story entirely in third person past tense without a single line of dialogue or direct action. You can go on long tangents; one of the joys of reading is learning something new and unexpected while being entertained. That last word's the kicker. + +Your reader has clicked open your story because s/he wants to be entertained. S/he wants a quick (or longer --- Dr. Merlin likes well-written epics as much as the next fan) hit of the same stuff s/he sees in the canon. Maybe that's the interplay of two particular characters, even divorced from the canon setting (perhaps an SGA John/Rodney AU set in a NASCAR venue, for example). Maybe it's the witty banter like in Buffyverse or Aaron Sorkin's shows. Maybe your readers are madly in love with any character named Hermione, regardless of how she's written, be it rocket scientist or valley girl. You're there for the same reason, and you're not just writing to satiate your audience but to scratch your own itch. +",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," Critiques on large details on older stories can be useful; use your best judgment and remember that the author may have forgotten this story entirely or may already look back on the story with embarrassment. + +Checking the publication date is key in all cases of leaving reviews, but especially in those leaving constructive critiques. For example, if the dialogue and interests of a particular character seem strange, a quick check of the publication date may show that the story was written before the character even appeared in canon and was speculation based on a casting spoiler. The feedback you leave can then alter from: ""This character is completely OOC,"" to ""I see that canon didn't end up supporting your speculation,"" with or without a discussion on whether or not the story still stands on its own merits after having been jossed. (v. 1. Fanfiction term coined in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fandom regarding fanfics whose plots were rendered AU by later canon developments, usually those written by showrunner Joss Whedon.) + +Brief negative reviews can be helpful, if only for the information that a story didn't work. Some helpful phrases: + + +The in-depth review list presented earlier is just as useful for a negative review as a positive one, although if you find multiple problems with a story, you may wish to focus on one or two particular aspects at a time, and give the author a chance to work piecemeal on improving her or his work. If you have the time, offering to beta read future stories may help this process, although that may be more effort than you wish to expend. + +Do not be afraid to leave negative reviews. Do understand that authors will not always respond graciously to them. If an author does respond in anger to you, ensure you haven't committed a faux pas in your review such as getting the details wrong yourself or submitting a not-review (see below), then decide if you wish to continue correspondence with the author. Unless you are good friends with the author, you probably should not advise the adjustment of medication, but rest assured it will probably happen in good time. + +While all feedback is in and of itself a good thing, there are certain things you should try to avoid in a review. These are not comments on the story itself but bring in outside factors that are not necessarily related to the story's quality and could be perceived as needlessly inflammatory or even downright rude. The following is a handy if incomplete list: + +A review that consists entirely of relating how much you hate the primary pairing in the story unless it is followed by the words ""but I really liked how you handled them here."" Taking a review space to tell the author how much you hate their favorite 'ship is not constructive, and it is poor manners. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," We're science fiction and fantasy fans, and our media nowadays tends to be made by geeky guys who grew up watching Star Trek and Doctor Who, and all of whom secretly want their own lightsabers. Some of them are really, really good at creating, writing, and developing female characters. Some aren't. In general, when they write female characters as actual people, given actual development and interests and goals and opinions and lives, we say, ""Frak, yeah, she's awesome!"" And still, the writers are mostly guys, and while the guys are peripherally aware of rape and battery and pay disparity and the Mommy Wars and all the other things that inform the day-to-day lives of women, they don't have to live them and they don't have to think about them unless they want to. While they may even have been personally touched by sexual violence, they haven't, for example, spent years talking with friends about what happened when they were drunk or drugged or otherwise coerced into sex, and they can, but usually don't, bring that background onto the page and into the characters. Traumatic, life-changing experiences become jokes, and the ages-old ""Well, she deserved it for wearing that outfit / being out alone at night / believing him"" is at best addressed in a metaphor with vampires but more typically doesn't even make the cut in character motivatons except in shoehorned revelatory backstories about childhood abuse. There isn't the understanding that fear of rape is present, in whatever small doses and buried under however much denial, in every woman's daily life from the day she's old enough to know what it is. It informs clothing choices and activities and dating partners, and while those writers capture the form of it, very few grok that the fear extends towards the male heroes too. So we see a fantasy world that resembles ours, but with off-kilter differences, and sometimes that's a good thing – Dr. Merlin watches cartoons preferentially because sometimes a Y-7 safety zone is the best thing to maintaining one's sanity – and sometimes it's a reminder that, to half the population, we are often as exotic and incomprehensible as Moon maidens. + +That doesn't mean men can't write female characters. That doesn't mean men shouldn't write female characters. It means that any given male writer is, from time to time, going to screw up writing about women, that he's going to get called on it, especially from female fans who have seen these same damned problems before, and that he's going to have to decide whether to get defensive or fix the problem for next time. It means he's going to have to stand back and see the world from the point of view of someone raised female in a culture that celebrates masculinity and denigrates things associated with femininity (while fetishizing particular body parts, as if those are not part of the whole). ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," If the character is canonical but disliked, or if the character is original to your story, you need to do more work to make the audience care about the outcome. + +Don't do it by laundry list. + +Spend the time, spend the effort. Show the character in his/her natural habitat. Don't be afraid to show the character having a good time, instead of constantly wallowing in misery; trying to evoke pity is not a good way to get the audience on the character's side anyway. Show the interactions between characters instead of telling the readers about the relationship. Show the aftereffects of traumatic (and other) events by how the character acts later, show how s/he relates to people now and how that might be different from the way the other characters expect, and then let the character talk about it, instead of front-loading your story with summarized drama. Let the character be funny or quirky or stolid or smarmy or quick or giving or all of the above, and let us see her/him doing it. Don't tell us what the character is like, show us examples in your story so we think the same thing. Don't tell us what happened, let us walk along that road too. Let us experience the emotions the characters do instead of just hearing about them, let us revel in their victories and weep in their losses, and let us miss those characters long after we've finished the story. + +And that's all I have to say about that. + +In the ebb and flow of interaction with our favorite fannish source material, fans inevitably run into spaces in the canon where there are hard and fast answers, only clues. Things that happen between episodes or books. Off-screen antics implied but never actually stated. Even actions and words that make it to the final print but can be interpreted in multiple ways. + +If it happens on the series or on the page, it's canon. If it happens on the screen or the page and is later retconned (retroactive continuity, or ""we changed our minds later so it really happened this way"") then it's annoying and convoluted canon, and can be ignored or not at your own discretion. + +If the show's headrunner, or the episode's writer, or the book's author says, ""This is what I intended for this to say,"" it's authorial intent. Authorial intent is not canon. No, really. When J.K. Rowling announced after the publication of ""Deathly Hallows"" that Dumbledore was gay, that did not make it canon. That made it authorial intent, subject to be accepted or not by the fans of the series. Why is this? Because authors change their damned minds. Because networks hand down edicts. Because actors get pregnant or arrested on DUIs or die. *moment of silence for John Spencer* Because cancellation threats mean wrapping up storylines faster than originally intended. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," (Babylon 5 and Farscape fans are familiar with ""We had to finish out the epic story HOW fast?"" syndrome.) Because some storylines fizzle and others appear that work better. Because two characters intended to pair up at the beginning have more chemistry with different characters instead. Because the audience complains. Because the audience isn't the one desired. Because the head writer got (or lost) religion. Because the publishing company wants to turn the trilogy into a twelve-book deal and the original plot barely covered two books with padding. Because the showrunner thought one thing and didn't relay it to the rest of the writing staff, who went in completely another direction, and when the showrunner states in interviews, ""Obviously, ABC,"" the audience who tuned in to the actual series are all united in their confusion of, ""But, but, did you not notice XYZ?"" Because the producers become angry at the actors or the audience or the show itself, or they get bored with the book series, or because they get hit by a car and add the experience into their epic fantasy series. (Stephen King, I'm looking at you.) + +Ideas change, and what the author says one day may not be what's in the final print tomorrow, and may be a whole different story next week. That goes for what the actors say, too. Even when they're on stage at a con saying, ""Oh, I totally meant LMNOP when I moved my eyes like that."" Later scripts might declare that the character was in fact replaced by an evil android during that scene. You never know. + +Authorial intent can become fanon. + +When two or more fans agree that someone happened which wasn't shown, or that something which was shown happened for a particular reason that isn't flat-out stated in the canon, this is fanon. Fanon is a shared fannish reality of a source material. Sometimes the fanon is closely related to the source. For example, most ""fade to black"" scenes in a television show are intended to imply that the characters in question then went on to have sex, and in general, the fans of that show agree with one another (and the producers) that sex did in fact take place immediately after the cutaway. However, if no sex was shown, and the characters in question did not mention it again, it is also possible fanon to assert that in fact they broke apart from their kiss, exchanged passionate handshakes, and then played Parcheesi for the rest of the unspecified time. (Doctor Merlin suggests this is not the interpretation most suited to later character interactions in most cases, but remains possible.) + +Multiple fanons exist. One group of fans will swear that when these two characters are in a room together, their interactions are stilted and difficult because they hate each other. Another group of fans will declare it Gospel truth that the difficulty is because the characters want to shag like bunnies. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," You may feel free to point him or her to this essay if you so desire, but reviewers who leave not-reviews are probably not ready to hear why they are a bad idea. However, their own medication is probably also under review. + +Say ""thank you."" Always say ""thank you."" (""Thanks"" is also acceptable.) + + +My thanks now go out to you, gentle reader, for following me through this essay. I hope it has been enlightening, or at least amusing. May you always find good stories to read, and good people to read your stories. + +It's been a few months, so it must be time again for the meta to revolve around to racism, cultural appropriation, and other jolly topics that keep us chatting. While the most recent flux of conversation has been surrounding a certain famous author's mea culpa, and a less famous author's ""you're interrogating my text from the wrong perspective,"" this latest iteration has been brewing at least since the announcement of the (all-White) casting for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. (Peaceful protest planned for this Saturday in Philadelphia for all interested.) http://aang-aint-white.livejournal.com/1820.html + +Short form: cultural appropriation is STILL not cool. + +What does that mean? Well, in its simplest form, cultural appropriation means looking at another culture (even one that's ostensibly a subculture of your own) as an uninvolved spectator, mining it for nifty and shiny things you particularly enjoy, then presenting these in your work as a way of being ""deep,"" ""relevant"" and/or ""meaningful"" without taking the time to understand the nuances of the culture or the meanings these things already had within that culture. It's a teenaged Caucasian American girl wearing a red dot on her forehead as a fashion statement. It's casting David Carradine as a Shaolin monk. It's distilling thousands of years of history and culture and love and hate and humanity into a tiny Noble Savage mold and pouring out plastic NDNz for the White hero to learn from about living off the land before he Gets the Girl and Saves the Day. + +It sucks, really. + +And it doesn't mean that people from one culture (or gender, or lifestyle, or orientation, or anything else) can't or shouldn't write people from another. They should. We should. But it means extra work. It means learning those nuances, even the painful ones. It means having to look at the world around you without the comfortable glasses you get to wear when you're in the majority (or just in charge) that filter out the really crappy things about where we are. + +We will start with the example of gender. Now, most creators and writers for our shows and books and movies are male. Note that I'm not saying that's a bad thing, simply a fact. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," Worse, it means having to examine his place in that world, and what he's done, or passively allowed to happen, because it's easier to maintain that status quo than get branded an extremist, or worse, a pussy. (Word choice intentional. It's a common insult, used to call someone weak, using a slang term for an uniquely female body part. This is what I mean. Just so we're clear.) + +Okay. With me so far? + +Writing a culture you do not share, be it Japanese culture, Chinese culture, Inuit culture, American Black culture, any of the myriad of African cultures, NDN culture, anything, is like male showrunners writing female characters. No one is saying don’t do it. People are saying do it right, do it respectfully, and admit it and fix it when you flub those two. Even when it's metaphorical. I am by far not the only fan sick of the only CoC on a given SF series being the semi-primitive alien who speaks in stilted English, who is the brute muscle on the team, and whose character development ends up tracking closely one of a very small handful of well-traveled stereotyped paths. Also, setting your series in a location where one would typically expect to see a reasonably heavy concentration of non-White faces, and yet casting all the stars and guest spots the same pale shade, is not magically made better by putting in vampires and demons and then saying people aren't interpreting your metaphor properly. This also applies to blue, green, and purple aliens. + +This means doing your homework. This means researching, and not just with books describing a sterile past. This means getting out of your comfort zone and talking to people. Then talking to more people. It means not making your one Black (or trans, or Irish, or what have you) friend responsible for your education, nor for becoming your single source for the One True *insert life here* Experience. Being human means having a plethora of experiences, and no one person can or should have to speak for everyone in their group. But do try to listen, and do pay attention when told ""UR DOIN IT WRONG,"" even if you disagree, and do learn from your mistakes. + +It's important. Yes, even when it's ""just fanfic"" and not, say, the plot arc of a successful television or book series. The latter is contributing to the culture at large, and can make people think new things, or can reinforce stereotypes and old opinions for a whole new generation to absorb. The former doesn't travel nearly as far, but it's much more personal. That story you write over the weekend, the one about that show you like, it'll go live sometime next week, assuming your beta gets back to you soon. It will be read by all sorts of people. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," A third group of fans will claim it's all because the actors in question were hungover at the time and off their game, and it's only the dialogue in the scene that matters. A fourth group may see the dialogue as being a carefully-constructed set of mutual lies, based on the obvious truth that both characters were being mind-controlled at the time by aliens. Fanon is fun. Also headache-inducing, especially when confronting a True Believer on any particular piece of said fanon. + +Your fanon is your fanon. My fanon is my fanon. And that's okay. Parts of your fanon may be jossed by later canon. Parts of my fanon may be jossed by later canon. It happens. Blaise Zabini is not a Caucasian girl. Terry McGinnis is not Bruce Wayne's clone. And so on. Accept the new canon, go AU, pretend nothing exists past a certain point in the canon (a personal favorite tactic of mine), whatever gets you through your day. Just remember that other fans are doing the same thing in their own ways, accepting or dismissing the new canon as needed for their own sanities. Going into their sandboxes to kick up a storm and whiz on their toys because their fanon is not your fanon is counterproductive and rude, and will only lead to wankstorms. + +Fanon that is accepted by the majority of the fandom is still fanon. If your fandom's fanon claims that members of Species X mate for life, good for you. Unless it's in the canon, that's still fanon, no matter how widely-accepted the fanon might be. If your fandom's fanon says a minor character has a particular name, until and unless the name makes it into canon (such as Nyota Uhura and Hikaru Sulu, both of whom were not officially given first names until the movies, and the former not until this year), that character's name is fanonical. Figwit the Elf, so named by LotR fans who watched the Council of Elrond and said, ""Frodo Is Great … Who Is That?"" is unnamed in canon and may be one of Elrond's sons, or one of his attendants, but whom the producers started referring to as Figwit http://www.figwitlives.net/dvdcom.txt because of the fanon funny. + +So if your fanon isn't canon, what does that mean? Nothing, really. We're fans. We're used to creating our own realities within the canon realities. Most slash is fanon. Much het is fanon. All of fanfic is based on or creates new fanon. We can argue about it, but since we're all stuck with the same canon (whether we want to acknowledge it or not) there's not much point in flaming someone for not playing along with your particular version of fanon. Go play somewhere else, set up your own sandbox, and hang out with other fans who think Dumbledore and McGonagal were truly and deeply in love and that Tonks was just a rebound for Remus after Sirius died. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," It's your fanon, enjoy it with your friends. Don't demand that everyone else adhere to it, and don't try bullying them into changing their fanon to suit yours, and we'll all get along just fine. + +Anyway, who knows? Maybe the writers will change their minds again, and decide the fanon is cool enough to use. (see Figwit … Actually, keep looking at Figwit. Figwit's pretty.) Maybe they'll see the swell of fan support for this 'ship that's out of left field and throw in a mention. Or maybe they'll get huffy about our interpreting the canon from the wrong perspective, kill off the characters in question in retribution for our not spending the proper amount of time worshipping the text and 'shipping the couples they intended us to 'ship. It's hard to tell sometimes what's going to make producers cranky, what's going to flatter them, and what they're going to slip in just for giggles that screws up the canon for the REST OF TIME, and what the directors will have the actors do when they deliver the lines, and what the actors will do in the background while they're goofing off because they're bored or hungover or massively pregnant and hiding behind shrubbery. + +Canon's canon. Authorial intent is malleable. Fanon is fun. Enjoy them, work with them, accept that not everyone agrees with authors or fanon, and know that canon can be looked at with many different viewpoints. Play nice. + +Ah, fanfiction! That light in our otherwise dreary, colorless lives. Or maybe that's just me. Regardless, if you clicked on this article, gentle reader, you are probably already well-versed in what fanfiction is. If not, this essay is perhaps not for you. + +So you have just read the most wonderful, heart-pounding, well-crafted piece of fanfiction it has ever been your pleasure to open, and you'd like to leave a review. But where do you start? Is a simple ""I loved this, please write more"" sufficient? What if you didn't find the story perfect, and you'd like to say so? And what if you are the fanfiction writer, opening a new review and wondering how to respond? + +Dr. Merlin can help. Dr. Merlin has been there. Read on. + + +Dr. Merlin recently conducted an informal poll regarding the top reasons readers do not leave reviews on stories. Dr. Merlin, being an incurable egomaniac who rather likes referring to herself in the third person, wondered why her gentle readers, who just spent over an hour reading her latest work, would then not take a moment or two to respond. + +Aside from enabling her to receive a few extra reviews on the story in question, the poll also yielded some interesting responses. A popular reply was that her readers felt they had nothing further to add, and had no critiques to make; leaving any comment along the lines of ""I liked this"" would seem trite. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," (Friendly addendum: telling an author her or his work melted your brain into a puddle of gibbering glee is also a wonderful review.) + +Some readers are more gifted with review and response than this, and they are to be saluted. One will never have a more valuable review than one that goes through the tale point by point, remarking what does and doesn't work, and using metaphor and simile to compare one's story to the greatest works of fiction. These reviews are rare. Do not feel bad if you never leave one or receive one; that would be like feeling sad because your review of the latest ""Pirates of the Caribbean"" installment was less detailed than Ebert's. ""I loved it!"" is just as valid a review as a two-page essay on one's use of lunar imagery. It's also easier to read. Do not decline to leave a review simply because you are not in the mood to give in-depth feedback, and please do not think you will come across as a lesser reviewer because of it. Your feedback is desired and appreciated regardless. + +If you are in the mood to give a story the fine-toothed comb approach but don't know where to begin, here are some starting points: + +How well the author captured the ""voices"" of the characters. That is, could you hear the characters speaking those lines? +How well the author structured the story. Did the story have a traditional structure? (Rising action to a climax, and then a quick fall and an ending.) Was the story non-traditional? (Ex: Time sequence intentionally out of order, a mood piece rather than a plot-driven story.) Did this work for you, or did it leave you uncomfortable and wondering what the author was trying to do? +How well the author handled the subject matter. Was the piece humorous or serious, and did the author maintain a good tone for that subject? If the story was longer, did the author strike a good balance between lighter and angstier sequences? +How well the author managed to achieve her/his goal. If the work was AU, did the author make the AU believable for the duration of the story? If the work was supposed to adhere closely to canon, did the author manage to hit the right pieces of canon and slide the story into continuity? Did the plot make sense? +How well the author handled other pieces of the story. Were there original characters introduced, and if so, did they come across as useful additions to the story? Did the author overuse or underuse any particular technique? +Does the story feel complete? There is a difference between a great story begging for a sequel and a story that is unfinished. + +I should stress that this list is neither complete nor compulsory. It is merely a suggestions list for anyone who'd like a jumping-off place to spread their critiquing wings. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," + +Please do not let these notes intimidate you, gentle reader, nor should you take them as hard and fast rules. They are merely pieces of information I have collected in my travels around the Web, and I present them to assist you, not to chain you in any fashion. Not-reviews are frustrating to writers, because they are not useful. They do not tell an author if the story worked, if the idea was sound, if the characters were on point and all the notes well-played. They bring the reviewer's dislikes and biases to the forefront rather than the story, and should be kept private. + +Now we flip to the other side of the bright reviewing penny: hearing the chime in your inbox of a new review. Is it a glowing testimonial to your wit? Is it incomprehensible squealing? The eagerness and anticipation can eat you alive until the moment you click. + +And now your dilemma: how do you respond? + +Once again, Dr. Merlin has the answer. The proper response to a positive review is ""Thank you."" You may feel free to add to it, respond to reader questions, comment further on some aspect the reader brought up, but remember to be polite! Your reviewer has taken time from her or his day to thank you for your work, and every reader is important. Give thanks. + +Should the review include in-depth analysis of your story, the proper response is to do a little jig and then respond in kind with even greater thanks. + +If the review is negative, the proper response is still ""Thank you."" Reread that last sentence! Negative reviews are just as valuable as positive reviews, if not more so. Negative reviews tell you what didn't work in the story, be it intentional or otherwise, and this is what you need to know for next time. If something was intentional, you may wish to indicate this, but do so politely. Thank your reviewer for the time it took to write such a useful piece of feedback. Keep your mental critiques of the reviewer to yourself, especially when you were the one who screwed up. Fix what you can, save the rest for your next story, and move on. If the reviewer suggests you find a good beta reader, take the advice to heart, and if the reviewer offers to be that beta, thank your lucky stars because you have just found someone who loves your work enough to reread it half a dozen times per story and is bright enough to find your mistakes before you release your ideas to the world. (Caveat: Be sure to review other work by this same person before you accept, as it is best to know up front how strong your beta's writing skills are and how closely their view of the characters are to your own.) + +The proper response to a not-review is to smack your head on your desk, type ""Thank you,"" and then wonder at the intelligence of people with web access. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," +Entertain yourself. + +As you delve into the five-page summary of the last twelve years of your character's life, ask yourself: is this interesting? Be honest. Do you like reading summaries? Or do you prefer to meet characters as people, watch them grow, let them breathe, listen to them talk and walk along the path with them awhile? Give your readers the same chance to know your characters the way you do. You don't need the brand of their breakfast cereals, but one wistful flashback to a perfect (or less so) day will do much more to give your readers a feel for the character than reeling off his/her resume and favorite pastimes. + +The converse of this is the question, ""Is this important?"" It might be important to you, it might be important to the character, but as much as it's good that you know the details, does it add anything to the story? Sometimes the answer is going to be no, and you need to hold back. Don't tell the reader what the minor character had for breakfast the other day, not unless it's relevant. Bring forward details to define the character and fix him/her in your reader's minds: maybe a single physical feature, or a particular talent, even one lost dream. Reveal the rest with dialogue, not necessarily having the character tell someone else everything, but instead in the words s/he chooses to use, the things s/he changes the subject about, and so on. + +Flashbacks are optional. Dr. Merlin believes the pensieve from the Potter books was a fantastic way of working in flashbacks for a series told almost exclusively from a youngster's point of view; they would have been bizarrely shoehorned in otherwise. Sometimes a flashback is a writer's best friend. Flashbacks allow a writer to show a scene rather than merely describe it secondhand. + +On the other hand, a well-written stretch of dialogue as a character is relating a story to someone else can give important information, not necessarily about the story itself, but about the character speaking: what s/he thinks is important in the tale, who features most prominently (and how this reflects back on the speaker's personal interest in the story being told), and what s/he leaves out due to the audience. It's a fine line to walk. If you find yourself using the speaker as an exposition-dump, stop. Back up. Try again. Rewrites never killed anyone. + +At every point, ask yourself how the story you're telling is going to affect your readers. Do your readers know the characters in question well enough to care about what happens to them? In general, if the character is from canon, the answer is probably ""Yes."" Much of your legwork has been done for you then, and you can focus on how the events of the story affect the character, assured that your audience is already buckled in for the ride. ",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +kk," Some of them will be from backgrounds different from yours, and believe it or not, they're NOT going through the fanfic archives with a mind towards complaining about how authors screw up female/queer/poly/Black/Asian/Vulcan/etc/etc characters. They're us, and we're all here to read the 'fic and meta the shows and have our squee. When we write it wrong, when we stick the characters we don't have as much in common with into roles that don't fit them, when we let poor canon choices dictate our own poor uses of characters, when we use our own experiences of being outsiders from the ""acceptable"" mainstream (and we're all geeks here – ain't none of us who hasn't felt like the kid from Mars from time to time) as an excuse rather than a means of empathizing with our characters, well, then we fail our friends and we fail ourselves. We fall into the trap of taking the easier, lazier path, and we teach ourselves nothing by our own prose except new synonyms for sexual organs. It matters because when we fall to the default, when we exclude and minimize and play to norms we tell everyone, whether we intend to or not, that anyone outside of those norms does not matter, does not count as much, is not as important. You don't want to be that fan, young fanthing. + +When we take things from other cultures without making the effort to understand what those sparklies (and sometimes those horrors – again see the Krystallnacht wank) mean to the people who owned them before us, we tell those people, those fellow fans, that their experience isn't as important as ours. That we, as tourists on a fanficcing holiday, get exactly what it's like to live every day in, for another example, a society that was established based on the imprisonment, slavery, rape and near-annihilation of one's family. That we get to tell this story, not to bring it into the light, but to use it as a backdrop for something else, and pretend our work is more relevant this way. That it doesn't matter anyway, because we're just having fun and people who complain are just being spoilsports. (I am establishing a new law: Anyone who has ever had a heated argument on any board or community about who Batman could defeat [with adequate time to prepare] who then uses the phrase ""It's just a show/comic/book/movie"" to shut down complaints about racism, misogyny or homophobia in the source immediately loses their humanity roll and also gets a boot up the ass for good measure.) + +This is hard. It's easy to throw up one's hands in frustration and say one will never write women/minorities/gays/Vulcans again. Given our chosen genre, that is in fact sadly very easy to accomplish. (Except for the Vulcans. Those guys are EVERYWHERE, omg.)",37,English,female,Masters degree,chemist,"N,N,N,N,N" +uu,"She has systematically imagined the beast to be each of those around her, all representing a part of society she fears or dislikes. Now, she must put herself in the place of the beast; she has used her stories to ""postpone the moment when [she] must ask is it [her] own snarl [she] hears in the undergrowth?"" (50). Her imaginings have kept this at bay, but she can't bring herself to leave out the possibility, not even to protect herself. Magda is afraid of herself being the beast because she is apart from the rest of society; she can't see anything here ""in the heart of the country where space radiates out from [her] to all four corners of the earth,"" that is capable of stopping her, there is nothing aside from herself and her stories that could prevent her from going mad. Magda can't use these stories indefinitely because they are composed from the language that stifles her, thus at the end of the novel she attempts, using broken Spanish, to create her own language. This too is unsuccessful; she can't bring her understanding and definition of herself beyond the words themselves and the 'end' or 'finality' she desires. + + +The film The Lives of Others shows life in the GDR under the surveillance of the secret Stasi force. Gerd Wiesler, the main character in the movie, is a loyal, highly trained Stasi operative and he is assigned to monitor Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend Christa-Marie Sieland. Dreyman is heavily involved in the theatre scene, as a playwright, and his life is full of art in many forms. In the social and political climate the movie portrays people usually assumed that they were being observed constantly. In the words of J. Hoberman, for those in the GDR, ""[in] a perverse sense, surveillance was a form of entertainment: life lived under continuous observation was theater."" This twisting of art and reality is shown in film, Wiesler's reality is twisted and changed through the influence of art and constant surveillance. + The presentation of surveillance in the film slowly flips around Wiesler's worldview. Surveillance has a superficial similarity to a play, with an ""actor"" and an ""audience."" The audience's very presence compels those on stage to act, and in true theatre the audience would gain something, whether an emotional catharsis or a new awareness, from the play. Those under surveillance are also heavily pressured to act, but not to impart something—to hide it. The parody of a play shown in the film has a negative impact on society, restraining cultural and emotional development. The GDR's government used this purposefully to help maintain loyalty and control over the people. It controlled the content of 'real' theatre and constructed an unimaginably extensive surveillance network. Wiesler himself starts out as a part of this network; loyal to the GDR, he firmly believes in the ideological aspect of the party. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"She only begins to recover, and this is not shown in the novel but merely implied, when Paul D helps her understand her own importance. He explains to her that ""You your best thing, Sethe. You are"" (273). Sethe had previously placed all of her own worth on what she had created, her children, and while it was good for her to recognize their worth, and her achievements in raising them, she could not recognize her worth as just herself. Her preoccupation with the past had taken over her present and removed her future entirely, as long as she focused on anything other than her own being she could not plan or live out a future. When her perception changes readers of the novel have hope for the rest of her life, where she may recover and finally overcome her traumatic past. The end of the novel reinforces the idea that preoccupation with powerful past memories is dangerous, concluding that ""remembering seemed unwise"" (274). + + +The human mind is shaped and restricted by language itself, one's language imposes certain ideas and concepts and it is nearly impossible to escape from these imbedded models. In J. M. Coetzee's novel In the Heart of the Country the use of language is central to the identity of the main character, Magda. Magda attempts to break the patriarchal system in South Africa, and essentially the core of Afrikaner society, through her attempts to alter her language, and the dreams and stories she creates with that language for herself to inhabit. However, her success in escaping the system in place around her is debatable; Magda succeeds in separating herself from history by isolating herself in the eternal present, and thus from language as well in Coetzee's view, but she fails to do anything to remove or weaken the overarching system. + Sections 94 through 96 follow Magda's visit to the old schoolhouse on the farm, now their servant's residence. She imagines how the schoolhouse was when in use, and how her father might have attended, or perhaps that she herself attended it. This leads her to muse about possible siblings and relatives for her, in particular one boy named Arthur, whom she will mention again. Magda admits the inconsistencies in her ""fairy-tale"" and confesses a strong desire to return to ""[her] own room"" (Coetzee 48). In the first line of section 94 Magda begins by isolating herself in the present, ""I close the door."" This beginning both traps her in her room, and in the in the present (as the verb ""I close"" is used in present perfect tense), by trapping herself in the present Magda also confines herself to the ""endless middle"" of her ongoing story. While she wants nothing more than for her life, her 'story,' to have, ""a beginning, a middle, and an end, not the yawning middle without end,"" she can only escape the patriarchal system around her, imbedded and interwoven into the language as it is, by isolating herself from the past, the future, and from reality itself (42-43). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"The castle plays an important role in establishing the Isabella, double to Matilda, flees Manfred by running down in to the castles cavernous, catacomb-like, dungeons. It is of note that when Theodore is telling Manfred what happened when he helped Isabella escape he phrases it in such a way that it seems as though she was running from the castle itself, rather than Manfred. He explains to Manfred: + +The scene of Isabella making her way through the darkened tunnels (the candles have all conveniently gone out) has little success in evoking fright (much less terror or horror) in a contemporary audience, but it is one of the few scenes in the novel that succeed in being suspenseful, even through the rushed and chaotic lens the story is told through, this effect is most likely why it has become one of the most iconic images of the classic Gothic novel. The castle also, in its physical manifestations, mirrors the happenings around it, most prominently at the climactic scene of the novel, when it is revealed that Theodore is the true heir: + +The walls of the castle do not merely crumble, they are ""thrown down with a mighty force,"" giving a greater presence to the castle than a mere building. The castle itself acts as the revealer of Alfonso (or, more accurately, his suit of armor that the castle has housed for years), who has quite literally ""grown too large"" to remain within the castle. The castle's size and its near personified demeanor (part of the atmosphere of gloom and foreboding Walpole attempts to create) give it a lasting position at the center of most (if not, when counting metaphorical 'castles,' all) subsequent Gothic stories and novels. The Castle itself is very firmly a part of the ancient gothic that Walpole uses to justify the excess and indirectly show his dissatisfaction with the present and longing for the romanticized past. The castle, being part of the ancient, is thus powerful and influential in the course of the story, representing the dark subconscious mind (the catacombs), the powerful terror that the Gothic author hopes to evoke, and the supposed strength of the ""old"" aspects of society. It is a part of the contradictory nature of the literary Gothic that the castle has remained so iconic; the castle itself has only become more ancient. + One of the aspects of the Gothic novel said to be from the ""modern,"" the style of the text, is not wholly of the ""new."" While the novel format had allowed a very different type of story, Walpole's style in and of itself is directly related to the theatrical. Plays were performed long before the concept of the novel came into play and the overly theatrical style, almost a signature of Gothic, is rooted firmly in the past. Walpole himself admits, when pretending to have translated The Castle of Otranto that the author's ""talents … were evidently proper for … the theatre"" (7). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"She loves her children more than anything else in her life, she views them as something of herself and experiences and intensely personal and strong love for them that others who had been slaves would have found to dangerous or risky. Her worst memory is based on her love for her children, when Schoolteacher's nephews attack Sethe she obsesses most about the fact that they ""took [her] milk"" (pg#); this is so terrible for Sethe because her milk was a real, physical reminder of how important she was (and still is) for her children, it was, literally, their life. Sethe's experiences in the past continued to haunt her throughout the novel, and even materialized in the form of the ""crawling already?"" daughter she murdered, now a (approximately) 21 year old woman with a child's or infant's mind. + As Sethe tries to ""disremember"" her past she, inadvertently, gives it much more power over her. Sethe's belief in rememory, and in the reality of past memories causes her to be uncomfortable with the concept of ""forgetting,"" she instead uses ""disremember"" and attempts to suppress or ignore her past. Her immersion in past experiences, wrongs, and even joys makes her more vulnerable when the memory of Beloved comes back as an apparently real person. Beloved is starved for attention and meaning in her non-life, she seems to remember either her people's past, or her time in death (or both, as Morrison is purposely abstract when dealing with Beloved). Sethe now finds that speaking of her past with Beloved is cathartic and comforting for her, she enjoys having an innocent listener who will neither judge nor abandon her, and feels more in control of her life when she tells stories from it to Beloved. However, as Beloved is not real she can never be satisfied, she will take as much as Sethe can give and more; Beloved ""never got enough of anything…the more she took, the more Sethe began to talk…"" (240-41). The other characters in the novel caution, directly and indirectly, Sethe and the reader against the perceived mistakes that Sethe is making. Ella illustrates warnings against both or Sethe's most prominent ""mistakes."" She believes that it is too dangerous for Sethe to love her children to the extent that she does because of the fragility of family connections at the time, she cautions Sethe ""Don't love nothing"". Ella also sees the preoccupation with the past as damaging; she ""didn't like the idea of past errors taking possession of the present"" (256). Sethe cannot see her love for her children as a weakness, and doesn't understand why her suppression of and obsession with the past is damaging to her present and future. However, when Beloved begins to seem much more threatening and Sethe becomes ill her daughter goes to the town for help. + Even after Beloved's defeat Sethe does not return to her former strength, she has lost her determination, believing that ""[her] best thing"" is now permanently tarnished, and no longer connected to her. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"However as Wiesler becomes more involved in his surveillance mission he begins to realize that Dreyman may not, as he as been told, be an enemy. His perceptions begin to shift and he begins making decisions not supported by the party or its ideology. + One of the decisions he makes is to steal Brecht's Memory of Marie from Dreyman. Brecht strongly believed in art as a social impetus, a driving force behind the emotional and social growth and development of individuals and cultures. He thought that the relationship of the actor or work of art to society was very important, as that was the connection that would produce effect—art and reality were inextricably linked in his philosophy. This exchange of information is twisted in the film when Wiesler steals the book from Dreyman, creating an unwilling, unknowing, and forced exchange of ideas. However the exchange between the observed (Dreyman) and observer (Wiesler) still created a positive (as opposed to limiting) effect, Wiesler is now less loyal to the regime and more convinced that Dreyman should not be under surveillance. Brecht, when he directed his plays, wished his actors to be detached from, not emotionally involved with, their characters. The actors should, in essence, attempt to be observers. The surveillance operatives have become, in the GDR, perfectly detached observers. They should limit, in a direct and pointed way, society's development and individuals' emotional expression. It is almost perverse that this limiting mechanism should become one of the sources of Wiesler's change. + The other major influence for Wiesler is art; this is seen most prominently in Sonata for a Good Man and its effect on Wiesler's perception of reality. The sonata has metaphorical significance, typically containing a solo, it thus mimics the emotional transformation, or perhaps awakening, of Gerd Wiesler through its different emotionally representative movements, Dreyman plays the Sonata for a Good Man after Jerska's suicide and Wiesler listens in. Wiesler becomes very emotional, to the point of crying and further understands Dreyman as a fellow human being not an abstract enemy. Wiesler's greater understanding of emotion and additional knowledge of the motives of the Stasi for monitoring Dreyman allow him to realize that he doesn't agree with those motives, and in turn the surveillance of Dreyman. + ""Good"" and ""Bad,"" ""Friend"" and ""Enemy"" have all been distorted for Wiesler by the end of the film. By observing ""The Lives of Others"" Wiesler has changed his entire reality around. He struggles with the decision to outwardly help Dreyman and Christa-Marie, initially more comfortable assisting them anonymously and in private. His decision to help by removing the signature typewriter from the apartment leads to his former colleagues and 'friends' (from the movie's presentation it is doubtful that he had any true friends in the Stasi organization) becoming his enemies. + Through the influence of Surveillance and Art the roles of everyone in Wiesler's life have been reversed. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"He is no longer an elite Stasi operative; Dreyman is an unknowing ally rather than an unknown enemy; his former colleagues and allies are now his enemies; and the GDR in essence no longer even exists. Surveillance causes art and reality to mimic each other, not exactly, but in this distinctive distorted fashion. Art opens up Wiesler's emotions, while surveillance distorts and changes his realty. + +Death and fear are present in different permutations throughout the novel The Plague by Albert Camus. The people of Oran come to fear the plague; many of them come to be intimately familiar with death in its myriad forms. One of the most unique characters in the novel, Cottard, seems to react very differently from the other characters in this atmosphere. He is not afraid of catching the plague, and seems to enjoy the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that develops through the novel. This response attempts to explore the reasons behind Cottard’s reactions. + Cottard, instead of reacting with fear, is, instead, relieved when the plague comes to Oran. In the book he has previously remarked on his fear of law enforcement, and his apparent difficulty meeting and keeping friends. His actions, however, are not entirely isolationist; he does seem to desire human contact. Cottard attempts to tell Grand, likely the least threatening personality in the novel, about his fear of being arrested. This shows that he is attempting to reach out to others, though his fear prevents him from making any bold attempts. He wishes to become a part of society, but does not feel any obligation to help society, for example he does not think it is his responsibility to fight the plague, he enjoys the new atmosphere and does not want to help speed its passing. +Cottard’s fear of arrest is nearly always present and the addition of the town’s fear of the plague comforts him; they are all like him now, suspicious and alone but desiring at all costs not to be so, but unwilling to jeopardize their safety for the luxury. The plague affects everyone in the city, every person now treats every other like a threat; Cottard is no longer emotionally isolated but, rather, connected to the townspeople. His comfort comes from the use of suspicion, no longer is someone suspected of illegal activity, but of carrying the plague, and as everyone is instantly guilty, punishment no longer carries any true threat. The concept of the plague, to Cottard, is abstract enough that he can take comfort in it. He believes, or wishes to believe, that one cannot suffer from two grievous ailments at once, and thus concludes that he is essentially immune to the plague as he views his “secret grief” as an aliment. He experiences irrational fear when it seems as though the plague were to come to an end, for this eventuality would end his companionship, his connection to the people would be severed if they returned to their everyday lives without the constant presence of fear. +",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," + And so, the only reasons Dr. Rieux could glean for Cottard's peculiarities were pieced together from half mentions in conversation and small statements about their surroundings. These fragments, combined with Cottard's reticence on nearly all personal matters, would not have been conductive to any sort of profound discovery on why he acted as he did, and, indeed, the doctor gained very little in the way of concrete conclusions during these evening sabbaticals. The true problem, however, likely lay in the search for a profound discovery, very few of the population have any truly profound secrets, though those that do are no more likely to be found than not on such unexceptional circumstances as an evening stroll. + Those conclusions that Dr. Rieux was able to draw were based more on what the man avoided than what he spoke about. Cottard avoided [something], and quite routinely skipped the proper areas of the town (if any section could still sustain that description). He seemed quite comfortable in his newfound friends, the smugglers, mistrust of everyone and everything, perhaps because they resembled a sort of distorted mirror, reflecting his own mistrust. Cottard avoided the exceptional, though not as rule. He preferred the almost mindless fear of the common people, perhaps because its manifestations in this group where less threatening than any extreme. This fear was perhaps best described as menacing background noise. It was merely a new part of life, by no means a pleasant or welcome addition, be it had become an expected one. This undercurrent of tension present was likely very similar to Cottard’s own fear. The comfort he found here, however, nearly served to isolate him again, were it not for the supreme powers of denial the general public possessed his genuine good spirits might never have been mistaken for false cheer. + By the time it became much too cold for evening strolls Dr. Rieux had only a few clues, he was, perhaps, less certain of Cottard’s reasons and past than he had been previously. He was no further to answers than he had been before he had begun to speak with Cottard, he knew only what he had know before; what Cottard had told him when they had first become acquainted. Cottard’s “secret grief” seemed as if it would remain so forever. Rieux had no intimation on how this grief could have driven Cottard to attempt suicide. What had connected this oppressive grief with specialized and omnipresent fear? Certainly Cottard’s actions pointed toward a great fear in his past, but had this fear become so overwhelming as to twist itself to grief, or had the grief been so unbearable it gave rise to an incredible fear of the circumstances that spawned it? Rieux had only suppositions, and Cottard seemed entirely too perceptive to have simply snapped. The source of his grief must have been too intensely personal, perhaps stemming from some perceived fault of his own, for him to express, even merely adequately, to any other. +",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," + + + The traditional ""Gothic Novel"" is, in substance and in name an ""oxymoron for 'Old-New,'"" as Ian Watt describes it in The Rise of the Gothic Novel. The Gothic mode has been disparaged, praised, accused of having no real depth, and lauded for the 'terrible sublime' aspect it seemed to evoke (Burke). The original ""Gothic Novel,"" Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, used the ideas of both ""the ancient and the modern"" romances to create the proto-Gothic genre, and to create a new method of literary expression. Walpole uses ""old"" theatrical elements and 'new' mimicry of nature in 'modern' novels to present what he terms ""A Gothic Story"" (Walpole 4). The Gothic genre uses many throwbacks to medieval gothic theatre, architecture, and traditions. Even at the time of the publication of The Castle of Otranto, the word ""gothic"" had been used to describe many different peoples, styles, and time periods. It was perceived as archaic or unsophisticated in the face of ""modern"" societal and literary ""advancements."" The combination of the more theatrical ""Gothic"" and the new format of the novel (allowing the reader a more personal view of the psychology of the characters) is what allows Gothic to remain for such a long time, and become at once obsolete and new to a reader much displaced in time from the original writing. + One of the most prominent gothic ideas present in Gothic novels is the concept of Chivalry. The medieval idea of chivalry, the process of training a proper knight, is both retained and transmuted in the original Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Chivalry is especially important to Gothic writers because of what it represented—the classic knight, brave, honorable, competent—and the supposed or perceived lack of that ideal those writers (particularly Walpole) saw in society. Through the use of the chivalric concepts and manners the ""gothic past"" become idealized and romanticized (hinting at the future evolution of Gothic to Romantic) and is used to attempt to improve the present. Walpole was, when he wrote The Castle of Otranto, in the midst of a politically troubled time, and was despairing over the possible future. He, immersed in politics and (debatably) unfair accusations, may have began to think, even if not explicitly, that the supposed morality and innate ""goodness"" in people present in the gothic era had been somehow lost in those individuals that made up the 'present' society. In his writing this concept is clearly seen in several characters, one being the character Frederic. The reader can see before meeting Frederic that he embodies many chivalric traits, he is described as: + +The description of him includes a great many traditionally chivalric images; Frederic is, foremost, a prince, he has suffered, been suitably affected by tragedy that he leaves, and is currently supposed to have been killed by infidels. The figure of the ""gallant and courteous Knight"" is, of course exaggerated, bringing the soon to be Gothic trope of excess into play (66). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"Both Shakespeare and Walpole sought to mimic medieval mannerisms, and in order to help justify his own work Walpole points to Shakespeare as a precedent, stating directly, ""[that] great master of nature, Shakespeare, was the model [he] copied"" (10). The similarities between The Castle of Otranto and Hamlet are of particular note; both works include a vengeful ghost of a murdered king or lord, the elements of the supernatural are presented in both pieces. Matilida's 'tragic' death at the hand of her father mirrors both Gerturde's death and Hamlet's. The ending of The Castle of Otranto is, of course, the removal of the undeserving ruler, and the restoration of the rightful heir. The work is not in the least a perfect mirror, however, as Walpole has melded the newer romantic styles with the ancient. Walpole also remarks in his first preface, ""[the] rules of the drama are almost observed throughout the piece"" (6). The theatrical either stems from or results from Walpole's references to Shakespeare. The traditional practices of the theatre appear in Walpole's text, especially attempts to use the Aristotelian idea of 'the three unities' in action, place, and time (117). The adherence to the 'unity of action' is given in the incredibly close text; there are no breaks when separate characters speak: + +Walpole omits proper line breaks and puts all of the dialogue in an almost stream of consciousness style, as if one were hearing people speak frantically, rather than attempting to read dialogue in a novel. Walpole uses dashes, and rather more often than normal, exclamations. The sense of urgency in the novel is heightened by the cramped text and the characters exaggerated excitability. Each action of a character seem to lead directly to the action of another, even is such actions do not follow logically they follow immediately. Walpole follows the 'unity of place' by using the restricting setting of the castle, and occasionally the grounds outside. This would have been useful in a play, as one (at the time) would have been very limited by the creation of sets, however the true novel suffers no such limitation—the number of settings are restricted only by the imagination of the author. This artificial reconstruction of the components of a play leads to the final aspect of unity, that of time. An idea play, following these principles, would have been restricted to preferably only the length of time it took to perform it, ironically, it would occur in 'real time' (117). The close dialogue and the lack of breaks in the text artificially heighten the sense of time in The Castle of Otranto, individual paragraphs can stretch on for more than a page, even if characters speak or change the topic of discussion. The real time frame of the novel is quite short, clearly it was impossible to limit the action in the book to a single day, but the events remain unnaturally rushed, occurring over the space of as little as a few days. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"The interplay between ""new' and ""old"" ideas, methods, and forms in Gothic literature gave it the intrinsic contradictory nature it retains today. The definition of ""Gothic"" can never seemed to be agreed upon, the story within a Gothic novel still seems to lost track of itself occasionally, the conflict between the emotional effect of terror, and the desire for a logical explanation (science and reason gradually began to replace the supernatural as the driving force behind the horrific) all remain. Neither the ancient nor the modern can be removed from the Gothic without sacrificing something essential to the genre. + + + Memories, in novels, often show how a character's personality, emotions, or thoughts change through their life. Memories, in literature, usually show important, or dramatic, events in a character's life, while allowing the reader to be removed from that very drama and focus instead on the characters present. Memories, in the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison are a much more tangible part of the book. In her novel, memories take on a life of their own, and the main character, Sethe, spends much of the present attempting to ""beat back the past,"" and escape from her memories. Seth also believes in rememory, that the past can come to life in the present, that one could become trapped there, that the past is alive. This past is something she wants to be able to move away from and forget. Sethe's avoidance of the past, and concept of memory as tangible thing, cause her present to become hollow, and prevent her from thinking of the future. Only when the past has been dealt with (with the help of Paul D and Denver) can she truly live in the present and look toward the future, though the terrible experiences in her past prevent her from being completely whole. + Sethe has had many experiences in her past that have shaped her personality and her present life. Morrison shows these experiences through both Sethe's memory and through the stories that Seth and Denver tell to Beloved when she comes to their home. Seth believes that memory is a living thing, that powerful memories leave behind something very real, something that others can step into and become trapped within. This belief, and the frightening content of her past, have both hurt and fragmented her personality and strengthened her. Sethe's strength comes from her belief in herself, she has realized that she can cause or direct actions and those actions can greatly affect others, even the white people, who she sees as a constant threat to her life and family. Sethe is plagued by the guilt of killing her ""crawling already?"" daughter, while proud of having succeeded at her escape attempt while the others failed and haunted by her memories of the attack on her. The paradox of having saved her children, only to lose on at her own hand later, and with the impetus of the same threat (Schoolteacher), haunts Sethe. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"It seems quite improbable for anything remotely similar to have occurred in true gothic ages, having such a number of chivalric characteristics in one remarkably ordinary and eventually ineffective character is not a realistic interpretation. Theodore is a second very prominently chivalrous character in the novel, he is revealed at the end of the novel to be the true heir, though a reader should have noticed previously that he was given a rather exceptional character for a peasant boy. Upon first meeting him it is apparent that his temperament is quite different from the false ruler, Manfred. Theodore reacts as follows to being accosted by Manfred: + +In the character of Theodore we see that the traits of the chivalric knight are not something that has been, or apparently needs to be, taught. Theodore has never been educated about formal chivalry, instead it is an intrinsic part of him, something ingrained in his character—supposedly due to his birthright. This interesting twist is reminiscent of Walpole's state of mind at the time he wrote The Castle of Otranto, his belief that the innate chivalry in individuals had through one or more of the many ""progressive"" mechanisms, been removed. By including a character that shows these traits without being taught, he wishes to bring back this element, in order to prevent the future from being as bleak as he (at the time) thought it could be. + The concept of the present being morally lacking, and the past being the idyllic paradise of good-will and morality continues on in the present and is one of the many aspects of Gothic that allowed it to remain current and become, at the same time, partially unreachable by the present audience. The contradictions do not end at the conflict between ""old"" and ""new"" however. A new layer of convolution is added when one considers the work that utilizes these chivalric concepts, a Gothic novel—the supposed first Gothic novel—a genre that is famous for demonic imagery, perversions, supernatural horrors and dark, gloomy settings, is using the image of the proverbial 'knight in shinning armor.' The apparent disconnect, a symbol for goodness in a supposedly morally corrupt or indecent genre gives the ultimate futility of that symbol both in reality—there are no more traditional knights—and in the fiction, through the failure of any of the knight-like characters to do more than make it out alive and sane. The presence of a prominent foil for the knight figures, in Manfred himself, is also paradoxical; the book contradicts itself by having the central character be the near antithesis to one of the only positive or hopeful aspects of the novel. Manfred engages in inexplicable behaviors and has near to none of the characteristics of the classic, chivalrous, knight. He is not the rightful heir to the ""castle and lordship"" of Otranto, Theodore, in fact, is revealed to be the true heir (17). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," The scene is very detached from the remainder of the narrative as the reader experiences what the two men would have—a break from the ""reality"" of the plague. The moment is also a very personal one for the two friends and it is likely only one of them could write it accurately (255-7). The vocabulary and tone of the scene however, are most similar to Dr. Rieux's speech, Tarrou is often more philosophical or, alternately, methodical, in his approach to recording events. The similarities between Tarrou's beliefs and those of the narrator strongly suggest to the reader the possibility of him being the narrator, however, differences between the two men begin to weaken this possibility. + Tarrou is initially an outsider to Oran, trapped there by the onset of the plague and isolated with the rest of the town. This could help give him the objectivity needed to write a chronicle of such a personal and emotional period of time. It could also allow him to more easily communicate the sense of isolation he and the others feel; the accuracy of this sense of isolation and entrapment is essential to the nature of the narrative—both as an allegory and as a story. However, in his writings Tarrou is almost too objective to be meaningful, he focuses on obscure everyday events and minutia. Additionally, the narrator is, rather often, not actually objective at all. + Tarrou's opinions, although they also seem to parallel the narrator's, are not always in agreement with the narrator. The narrator's nonobjective dislike of Oran is apparent in the first few paragraphs; it is an ""ugly"" and ""smug"" town where ""everyone is bored"" (Camus 3-4). Tarrou, while he also mentions the commercial nature of the town, finds a sort of ""paradoxical satisfaction at the discovery of a town so intrinsically ugly"" (24). The narrator and Tarrou use similar word choice (""ugly""), and comment on the same theme, but they arrive at opposite conclusions. Tarrou also writes on how ""not to waste one's time,"" the narrator has implied that this is one of the chief faults of the people. Another connection is drawn between the narrator and Tarrou, but it too is blurred and nearly broken; Tarrou's conclusion is approaching absurd, he believes that if one is aware of the passing of time one won't waste it, thus one should spend a lot of time engaged in repetitive, frustrating routines. + A final difference between Tarrou and the narrator is the style and method they use when chronicling the events of the plague. Tarrou is formally logical, keeping his interpretation from the reader and showing the ""Query…"" and the ""Answer"" for each of his investigations. However, Tarrou's idea of a ""full and accurate picture of the life of our fellow citizens during that summer"" is not the involved narration Dr.Rieux chooses to use, but ""a longish description of a day in the plague stricken town"" (119). +",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," + +The three parts of the human psyche work together to make decisions and create solutions for problems. First, the id is present from birth and desires what seems most appealing at the moment, with no thought as to the reality of the situation. The second part of the personality, the ego has its base in reality and understands the consequences of being impulsive or selfish. The final part, the superego, is the person’s morality. If these parts are not in balance, a person will not be able to deal with every day decisions. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden Caulfield, is not able to adequately deal with his responsibilities and his view of the world around him. Holden is controlled by the immature impulses of his id, his ego is almost nonexistent, and the moral sense of his superego is skewed. + +Holden’s id is the strongest of the three parts; it influences almost all of his decisions and is his basis for judging others. Holden’s id is the most developed part of his psyche because he does not want to grow up. Holden wants to remain a child and not be compelled to deal with the responsibilities of adult life. The id’s impulsive and immature nature combined with its desire for immediate gratification affects his ability to adapt to society and mature. Holden’s id overcomes his ego when he has to make nearly any decision. In the beginning of the book Holden decides to leave Pencey before break starts and wait in New York alone. His id does not recognize the consequences of this and causes him to believe the students who stay at Pencey are the ones who are not thinking. As Holden leaves in the middle of the night he even shouts at them “sleep tight, ya morons”(Salinger 52), just before falling down the stairs. He makes impulsive and dangerous decisions such as this throughout the novel. + +For example, later in the book he decided to walk forty-one blocks back to his hotel. Holden's reasoning is that “all of a sudden, you have to walk”(88), his id does not take into account dangers of walking along the streets of New York alone at night, only his desire to walk. Also, Holden cannot handle going to a show with Sally Hayes. When he is angry and frustrated he becomes incoherent and loses control of his actions. He also tries to explain to Sally why he wants to run away. Sally does not understand his reasons or even why he is telling her this. Holden’s other attempts to create connections with people, or explain himself to them, are usually unsuccessful. These attempts are also not consciously made, they are impulsive and directed toward people whom he hardly knows, or does not know at all. Toward the end of the novel Holden talks to his sister, Phoebe, but she can only reassure him. Phoebe is too young to offer solutions to his problems; she only attempts to convince Holden to be responsible. + + +",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"Magda isolates herself from both society and history, sacrificing her story with a ""beginning, a middle, and an end"" for some form of rebellion (she does not search for truth, but for an ""end"" to her struggle) against the society she lives in. Following her isolation in her room Magda reveals her fabrication of Arthur, an imaginary companion (whether brother or lover is unclear). + Arthur is one the many stories Magda creates in her narrative, she uses these stories as possible pasts, presents, and futures for herself, in place the story of her life she creates these fragments of not-quite-rebellion. Magda uses her stories and imaginations as her lifeline, they separate her from reality, while keeping her among the living (or the vaguely conscious). Her ""uncomprehending space"" is, to her, ""irreducible,"" it is the ""consolation that keeps [her] from closing [her] eyes, folding [her] arms, and rocking [herself] forever into vacancy."" Her perception of others as misusing words, and her enormous investment in their meaning to her, do not allow her to move past anything but force her to remain in isolation. For Magda it is only the stories she creates and the language she knows that create her identity and allow her to, in some ways, subvert the system that she despises. The inconsistencies in her narrative are merely the various possibilities she sees and the expression of the ""babble of words within [her] that fabricate and refabricate [her] as something else, something else"" (48-49). + Coetzee has Magda end this section with a short sentence that is seemingly, at first glance, unrelated to the previous discussion. However, Coetzee's belief that culture, and the ideas and structures of that culture, are inherently imbedded in its language connects her conclusion to the remainder of her discourse. Magda ends this piece and transitions on to the next with her wish, ""Would that I had never learned to read."" She can read and write in the language born of a society she cannot tolerate with fluency and elegance, Magda wants to disable the foundation of this society, not become trapped and limited in the language. Notably, she hasn't displayed such prowess in spoken language, and there is little dialogue in the novel; perhaps she merely doesn’t wish to express herself in spoken words as she does in written, likely because of the imposed limits on societal interaction guiding public expression, and the necessity of participating in the system this would bring about. + Magda's anger at the patriarchal society has centered and materialized in her father, she begins the following section with ""the beast"" (49). She feels as though this beast ""stalks [her] through the afternoon…[she can] hear his velvet pad, smell his fetid breath."" (49). Magda perceives her current adversary as a monster, one that is intelligent and focused on her, one that is a part of the society around her, and is thus represented by her father and impervious to her use of its language, to ""[her] prattle"" (49). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"She can ""smell his fetid breath,"" just as she can see how the society around her is rotting from the inside out. Magda recognizes her plight here, if she ""[goes] on running [she] will only perish more ignominiously."" Her attempt to escape the society surrounding her will only result in her own isolation and the loss of what dignity she has when her ""neck is broken, if it is a merciful beast, or until [her] bowels are clawed out, if it is not."" (49). Society is an ideological enemy for Magda, and thus one she cannot fight directly against. To create a conquerable enemy Magda pictures her father in place of the ""beast"" or monster from her imaginings. Her supposed triumph comes from succeeding, once in dream and once, presumably, in reality, in killing her father. Her personification of society does not limit itself to her father, as the patriarchal aspect of her society is not the only one she cannot tolerate. + Magda is also uncomfortable enduring the use of slavery in South African society, she finds it easy to order the slaves around, and cannot succeed in breaking the language barrier between them. Thus, she also wonders if Hendrik is ""the beast, the insulted husband, the serf trodden under his master's boot, rising to roar for vengeance"" (49). Magda's picture of Hendrik is contradictory, she feels as though he is ""[looming]"" around the farm, but she imagines him ""playing his mouthorgan in the shade of a tree"" (49). She sees Hendrik as both a threat and a possible ally; if she could overcome the language barrier between them then she would be able to communicate her own dissatisfaction with the system. Magda cannot do this, and thus is afraid of Hendrik, and the system he represents. + Magda herself is uncomfortable with sexuality, she doesn’t understand her own and sees, or imagines, that of others to be gluttonous, or even threatening. She feels it is the fault of the society she lives in that she is limited this way; that this society is stifling and exploitive. Magda moves on to wonder if Anna is ""the beast, the woman, subtle, lascivious, insatiable?"" Her apparent powerlessness to stop, block or overcome any of them causes Magda imagine their 'victory,' how her father rules the house with Anna, while ""Hendrik tipples…and the work of generations falls to ruins."" (49). Her vision here ends with Hendrik and Anna conspiring against her father, and at its close a strange festival, with ""the old master [sitting] like an idiot on the stoop smiling and nodding, president of the festival."" (49-50). Magda's fear of sexuality in other women and herself leads to a fear of herself, she comes to the conclusion that the only one left to imagine as the beast is herself. + In the very first line of the next section Magda wonders, ""Who is the beast among us?"" (50). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu,"Manfred's worst action is, perhaps, his desire to marry the fiancé of his dead son, the double figure for his daughter. His fate at the end of the novel is just as bizarre as his prior behavior. The reader is constantly reassured that Manfred is usually quite rational, but is never given any evidence of this; even his actions at the close of the novel do not quite follow logically—Manfred becomes a monk in a convent. The combination of the ineffectuality of both the ""good"" and ""bad"" figures results in a tone closer to the absurd than the terrifying. + Possibly the most recognizable Gothic trait is the presence of a (physical or psychological) castle. The architecture of the gothic era, as Walpole understood it, was previously disparaged as a primitive distortion of roman architecture, he himself had become quite enamoured with the style and sought extensively to recreate it in his own home. The castle takes on such a presence that it becomes in essence a character in its own right. The castle is used, in a basic literary sense, as an aspect of the oppressive, preternatural atmosphere and as a tool in creating the terror that propels the plot forward. It usually serves to entrap the ""victim"" character and thus provide tension and act as an austere authority present in a novel whose villains and victims are even less stable than the castle's conveniently crumbling foundations. This state of decay also parallels Walpole's general opinion on the state of the world at the time he was writing The Castle of Otranto. The castle succeeded in taking on almost a life of its own in the novel, becoming almost a protagonist in its own right. The castle itself foils Manfred's plots, is the deciding factor in the mysterious medieval prophecy, as only the castle could determine if someone was ""too large to inhabit it"" (17). In a comical, for today's audience, twist the phrase ""grown too large"" is taken quite literally in the story, a giant suit of armor appears in snapshots at many points in the novel, first the outsized helmet falling (in the castle) onto Conrad, then the glimpse of the leg and the giant sword carried by a hundred soldiers. On just the third page of the novel's text a helmet “an hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers” crushes Conrad, Manfred's only son (19). The use of the armor as an antagonist provides yet another counter to the heroic image of the 'chivalrous knight'. The connection to the almost sentient presence of the castle (and other inanimate objects, most notably the coughing painting and the mysterious suit of armor) and the superstition of the medieval past is clear, and Walpole adapts it to his new genre through the use of the novel format, and the psychoanalysis it allows the writer to engage in (which he studiously avoids fleshing out). ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," + The attempt to bring in the more natural or realistic modern novel is not entirely successful in Walpole's work, though this ""failure"" is usually determined by viewing The Castle of Otranto as the definitive founding text of Gothic literature. The novel is, to modern-day audiences, and likely was (to an extent) to past audiences, confusing and difficult to follow, and not successful in evoking any true fear in the reader, though it can be considered 'sublime' through its use of the elements of obscurity. The format of the novel allowed the reader to see, and the writer to explore, the psychology of their characters, the reasons why a character might perform a certain action or hold a certain belief were available to be examined, created, or changed. The Castle of Otranto is limited in its development of its character's psyches, it doesn’t fully explore the motivations of its characters, possibly resulting from or causing the rather convoluted plotline of the novel. The idea of putting the reader in the mind of a character, however, was taken and expanded on by subsequent Gothic novelists, most controversially, perhaps, in Mathew Lewis's The Monk. In this novel the reader follows the corruption of Ambrosio, a respected monk in Italy. The novel was deemed blasphemous and the audiences of the time were quite horrified by actions and thoughts of the character. The ability of the writer to put the reader into the mind of a character opened the possibility of exploring the minds of insane and violent characters; many authors joining the Gothic genre followed this path. Indeed the concept was adopted and arguably master by the most famous of the romantics, Edgar Allen Poe, connecting the ""modern"" aspects through time to another literary movement. The ideas present in The Castle of Otranto were clearly built on and developed in later works, prominently those of Ann Radcliffe and Mathew Lewis, though the elements are clear in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, a Gothic novel published in 1938, and in the writings of the Romantics (who seemingly evolved from the Gothic). The 'new' or modern novel format allowed the Gothic to continue to be, in part, accessible to later audiences and writers. The explanation or examination of the psychology behind the otherwise inexplicable actions of the characters allows modern audiences to understand at least a part of the original intention. The entirety of the original effect The Castle of Otranto may have had on its readers is lost, as one cannot ever recreate the exact state of mind of the time, but certain elements and tools have become instilled in the present—preserving them as ""new"" forever. The ""old"" aspects of the Gothic have remained as icons and, rather often, clichés, in present times. Almost any audience would recognize the ominous Gothic castle, and the gloomy, restrictive, and depressing effect it has on the setting. The idea that chivalry has fallen from society is constantly reinvented and presented in different works, each generation seem to view the next as morally hopeless. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," + + In The Plague Albert Camus chooses to keep the narrator's identity secret from the reader until the end of the chronicle. The narrator is allowed to relate to the reader, and include the reader more personally in the events by using ""we"" rather than ""I"" or ""me"" to tell the story. The secrecy of the narrator's identity causes the reader to examine, even if unconsciously, each character they meet, in an attempt to puzzle out the identity of the narrator. Two characters stand out from the rest, Jean Tarrou and Dr. Bernard Rieux. Tarrou is intelligent enough to have written the narrative and his moral views are similar to the narrator's. His journal entries show that he pays attention to detail and he certainly has the skill to present all of the information in the narrative. Both characters are present in several very in-depth scenes in the novel, reveling things that other characters would have had great difficulty discovering. However, through all the similarities he shares with the narrator, Tarrou also reveals many differences. He is almost obsessively focused on small details, and often expresses opinions in contradiction to the narrator's. It is possible, but not particularly probable, that Tarrou could still be the narrator at the end of the work, so the possibility is removed at the end of the novel with Tarrou's death. Dr. Rieux is the only remaining possibility for the role of narrator, and he confirms this—finally revealing himself to the reader. + Tarrou shows many similarities to Dr. Rieux, the true narrator of The Plague. For example, he believes firmly that an individual should attempt to fight against ""the plague"", or any antagonist put in its place, simply because that individual believes that it is the right thing to do. He agrees with Dr. Rieux, who also believes that those who helped and volunteered should not be considered heroes, as if they were somehow more than ordinary people. Both men see goodness as the basic state of people, that it in and of itself is not an extraordinary phenomenon. One of the only differences in their philosophies is Tarrou's ability to see a positive aspect to tragedy—he believes that it can cause people to ""rise above themselves""—while Dr. Rieux believes that the inherent goodness of the people prevents this. Also, his occupation as a doctor intimately acquaints him with suffering, and he believes there cannot be any good in it. + Tarrou is often physically present at major scenes in the narrative; the only other character so involved is Dr. Rieux. Both characters experienced the major events of the story, and several of their private discussions are included in the narrative. Tarrou ""interviews"" Dr. Rieux at one point, this scene is very detailed, and it is very plausible that one of the two participants would have been able to write it into a chronicle (123-120). One of the most distinct scenes in the novel is when Tarrou and Dr.Rieux ""for friendship's sake"" go to swim in the harbor (255). +",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +uu," Cottard is normally quite perceptive of other’s motivations and actions; however, during some time in the past he seems to have lost confidence in himself. His lack of confidence in his own skills at reading people had made him fearful of them. He believes he can no longer tell true friend from false, and combined with his fear of arrest, concludes that everyone should be feared as a police informant. Thus when the plague is present he becomes very social. He is safe in this new atmosphere solely because everyone else has become vulnerable. + + + + Following the incident at the theatre Cottard seemed to have taken to evening walks around the town. He did not appear to have been overly disturbed by recent events, and his enjoyment of the entire situation had not diminished in the slightest. The fear the townspeople felt had become something quite commonplace by then, and the slight, almost meaningless differences between one hour and the next, between one day and the next, between one week and the next had neatly obliterated the sensation of the passage of time. Only their own repetitive and, more often than not, bromidic thoughts remained with the everyday people; and their own simplicity, their inability to understand the plight of others so similar to their own, isolated and connected them at once, solely by rendering most communication meaningless. + Cottard seemed inherently comfortable in this atmosphere. It had been clear to Dr. Rieux that Cottard was quite used to the presence of fear, and that seeing it become so commonplace for others was immeasurably comforting for Cottard. Dr. Rieux, and indeed all those engaged in the arduous task of dealing with the ephemeral enemy of the plague, felt none of the comfort that Cottard experienced, only a profound resignation. For this reason, Rieux had found walking with Cottard on these new outings, during those few stolen moments of leisure he was able to hold on to, was both relaxing and unsettling for him. He enjoyed the vicarious sensation of comfort and belonging that Cottard seem so desperate to embrace, but became intensely curious as to the reason for Cottard's comfort when all others found only despair and shallow hope. + Any information the doctor would have come by in ordinary conversation was decidedly lacking in the discussions he had with Cottard on the occasions they wandered through the town together. The past seemed to be almost nonexistent for the other man, the only thing he appeared to consciously notice was that the past had been more difficult than the present, and, as such, was best left alone. The future was nebulous and dangerous to contemplate, thinking of the future involved predictions and estimations and it appeared as though Cottard had long ago lost his faith in his own divinatory skills. He associated them with apparently disastrous consequences. This was likely rather a severe misjudgment on his part. His observations on others showed a surprising insight, though they now lacked any real risk and did not concern anything too far-reaching. ",23,English,female,B.A. in Biology,Lab Tech,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +t,"The purpose of this paper is to begin that journey by reflecting upon my past, present and prospective roles as a leader, as well as my observations of leadership, in a variety of settings. + I was born in August of 1968 and spent the first ten years of my life on a small goat farm in a very rural part of eastern Ohio. My parents and two brothers and I lived close to the land and worked hard. Although my father also worked a regular full-time day job at an airport, farming was clearly such an important part of my parents’ being that they maintained this extra workload for well over a decade. Both of my parents come from south-central Pennsylvania dairy farming families. Those years on the farm impressed upon me ideas and values that would not become a conscious part of my identity for some years: The dignity of work and physical labor, the importance of working with nature and the land as a good steward, being in close relationship to the ecological systems upon which all life depends, fulfilling individual responsibilities to maintain a system, and seeing the connections of our family to other families in the wider rural community as we bartered with one another for various goods and services. My brother Jim is five years older than me, but Joe is only 20 months older, so he and I spent most of our time together. We were very imaginative in our play, spending copious amounts of time outdoors pretending to be superheroes. We both collected superhero comic books, and often drew our own as well. + The first major turning point in my life journey came at the age of ten, when my family moved to Pennsylvania. My father had obtained a position with the Federal Aviation Administration, maintaining the radar site that keeps track of planes between Cleveland and New York City. At that time Clearfield, located slightly west of the middle of the state, was a town with a population of approximately ten thousand. The setting was no longer rural isolation as we lived just outside the borough, and the farm was reduced to a robust garden that occupied a small portion of our two acres. I believe that this change in location forced the values instilled during the farm years, unconscious to begin with, to an even deeper level of dormancy throughout my adolescence. It is only at this point in my life that I become aware of class differences. I was entering the fifth grade at the Third Ward Elementary School, and because there were two distinct fifth grade classes, I was given some sort of reading test to determine in which class I would be placed. I recall feeling that I had been placed in the “lower” class. I wasn’t sure at the time what this really meant academically, but it seemed to me that my class was made up of children from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, while the other class seemed better off, both academically and socio-economically. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"I did not dwell upon this, but was definitely aware of it. When I went on to the Middle School in sixth grade, there was a “pod” system. The brightest children were in 6A1, then 6A2, 6A3, and 6A4. I was in 6B1, and the pods continued all the way down to 6D4. Once again I felt like I was not placed in the pod that most suited what I felt were my own abilities. During the summer between sixth and seventh grades, I was called into school to take a battery of intelligence tests. When seventh grade began, I was placed in 7A1, and was also enrolled into the gifted program. I immediately felt more at home, but I also remained aware of what seemed to be a clear link between academic ability/achievement and socio-economic status. In high school, the class distinctions seemed to intensify even further. There were the students enrolled in the college prep and advanced college prep curricula who were mostly middle and upper class – the jocks and the preppies. The largest majority of the 1,700 students were in the general and vocational curricula. They were often referred to as “scruffs” or “rednecks” and came from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. “White trash” would be the more recent term. Then there was a very small group, literally a handful, who were not interested in being part of either groupl that was my brother Joe and I, and about half a dozen of our closest friends. We were what one would call “new wave” back in the 1980s. We dressed differently and listened to different music. We were mostly tolerated by the jocks and preppies, but were clearly despised by the scruffs and rednecks. They went out of their way to abuse us both physically and emotionally. It left a deep impression upon me. I was often infuriated by how we were treated, just because we dared to be different. With distance, the fury mellowed into sympathy for so many facing truly bleak futures in a small run-down mining town in rural Pennsylvania. + I enrolled in undergraduate studies at Eastern University in 1986 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree with three majors: Economics, Political Science, and Spanish. My original motivation for that particular mix is difficult to recall now, but I think I may have had visions of myself as an international business tycoon. Early on in my studies, however, came the next turning point. In a general biology course required of all students, I discovered I had a passion and deep concern for environmental issues. During one class, the professor spoke about how inefficient it was to eat meat, explaining that something like ninety percent of the energy in sunlight is lost when it is cycled through plants to animals and only then to humans. He also talked about the resources used for the production of a pound of beef, which I recall included 2,500 gallons of water and 16 pounds of grain. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"I arranged to meet him in the lobby of the hotel where he was staying. As I waited there, I was not surprisingly somewhat anxious about event details and meeting such a significant leader. When he entered the room, I immediately felt a sense of calm wash over me. The Dalai Lama literally radiates peace and calm in a very palpable way. It was profound and deeply satisfying. The event went very well, with hundreds of people from all walks of life and religious faiths from around the world coming together to share our common concerns for the planet. + The other event was an evening Concert for the Earth in which we managed to get some very well-known musicians to participate, namely John Denver and Olivia Newton John. There was also a fantastic didgeridoo player, as well as new age musician Paul Winter on soprano saxophone. The event was an incredible success, with more than 5,000 people in attendance. The gathering was used to highlight the coming together of a wide diversity of people, including the religious community, to grapple with issues of environment and development, as well as to just celebrate! + The Social Summit was less of a star-studded event than the Earth Summit, and we did not coordinate any particular events. The impact on me came from where I stayed. I arranged to live with a woman in Christiania, an intentional community in the heart of Copenhagen founded by squatters in 1973, making it one of the longest-lived experiments in communal living the world has seen in recent history. There were times when the government tried to clear them out, but were never able to do so. Lene, the woman with whom I stayed while in Copenhagen, lived in a home adapted within what was essentially one of the old fortification walls around the original city. Christiania had become known as a place to buy drugs, and has never been able to shake the resulting damaged reputation. There are communal gardens, frequent communal meals, and so on, but everyone has their own self-built house. This, I think, is the key to their success. They share a lot, but they never made the mistake of over-sharing that has led to the demise of many other intentional communities. They seem to have hit upon a balanced harmony between the individual and the community, between private and public, that works well. + The impact of these experiences on my life have been several-fold: The importance of thinking globally was not something I had really considered before, but was much easier knowing that I was part of worldwide movement; again and again I came to appreciate and see the need for affecting not just individual beliefs and behaviors, but those of institutions, including religious institutions; and meeting and spending time with people like the Dalai Lama, then-Senator Al Gore, and other leaders impressed upon me the need for reflective and excellent leadership to inspire and motivate people around the world. +",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"The committee was created as one of four workgroups of a strategic planning process during 2003, and was the only initiative from that effort which remained active, becoming an ongoing campus committee. The chair of the committee has been in that role from its beginning. In July 2008, the chair was also appointed to the new position of Assistant to the President for Sustainability and Social Justice, and sits on the President’s Cabinet, which is additionally comprised of the President, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Finance and Administration, and the Assistant to the President for Community and Governmental Affairs. The President’s Cabinet is one of the key decision making bodies of the institution. Membership of the SSJC to date has primarily been employee volunteers who have an interest in sustainability as well as any number of interested students, two of whom serve the committee in paid Federal Work Study positions. Of the employees who currently attend meetings on a regular basis, several have been with the committee since the beginning, while others are more recent additions. The students, naturally, turn over frequently (at least every two years, and often more frequently than that, such as every semester). Attendance at the SSJC's monthly meetings currently ranges from 6 to 10 people. + My overarching purpose in pursuing the PhD in Leadership and Change is to reframe myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. I care deeply about the state of the world in which my wife and I are raising our daughter, as well as what will be inherited by all future generations. I firmly believe that the concept of sustainability, with its focus on the intersection of environmental, social, and economic issues, is the best framework to help address the challenges facing the global community. I have been employed by ANE in a variety of positions since 1996. In the Fall of 2008, I became a member of the SSJC, although my level of engagement to date would best be described as a keenly interested observer rather than a fully active participant. It is my hope that the research presented here will be useful not only to the SSJC at Antioch New England, but to anyone in higher education working to make their campus more sustainable. The study was phenomenological as far as it involved understanding social phenomena from the actors' own perspectives, describing the world as experienced by the subjects, and with the assumption that the important reality is what people perceive it to be. It was also collaborative in that adjustments to the research design were made in consultation with the committee that was studied. +Using a meaning condensation methodology, helpers and hinderers identified in the interviews are presented below, along with quotes from the transcriptions that support each. The bold text of each item in the bulleted list represented the condensed meaning of the item from the original transcripts of the interviews. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"I became a vegetarian and realized that I wanted to play a significant role in solving the environmental crisis. This became the lens through which I viewed all of my studies. As I explored economics, I realized that it was by and large the embodiment of distinctly un-environmental thinking. The underlying theories all seemed skewed towards very anthropocentric notions of self-interest that did not take into account the wellbeing of the natural systems upon which all life depends. + Studying Political Science did not give me confidence that solutions would be coming from that quarter, given that the vast machinery of corporate-based special interest money that drives so much political action and/or inaction was too often focused on thwarting environmental regulation than encouraging it. I was convinced that the environmental crisis was at its root a spiritual crisis – the result of alienation from the oneness that permeates the universe. The alienation is a cleavage that results when we fail to recognize our connectedness within ourselves, to each other, nature, and the Creator. + Upon graduating from Eastern University, I moved to Washington, DC and spent five years working for the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology, whose mission was to get the churches more involved in the environmental movement. It seemed to me that helping people play a positive role in the environmental movement from within a context of commitment to their religious faith could be a powerful venue for environmental advocacy. I saw this work as essentially educating church-going people to the religious importance of ecologically sensitive living. It was deeply satisfying, and yielded moderately positive results. Perhaps more importantly, it offered me the chance to learn much about sustainability through attending such important events as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit, in Brazil in 1992, the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1993, and the United Nations World Summit on Social Development, known as the Social Summit, in Copenhagen in 1995. The Earth Summit was an amazing event. We had a booth in the non-governmental organization exhibit area called the Global Forum, which gave me the opportunity to interact with religious and non-religious people from around the world who shared our concern about the ever-growing negative impact on the environment of human activities. Our motto was Caring for Creation, which had surprising appeal to both religious and non-religious communities. Even avowed atheists could easily see that helping religious communities play a positive role in the environmental movement could have a deep and broad impact on millions of people of faith. + We helped to organize two special events during the Earth Summit that felt very important. The first was a sunrise ceremony and prayer service at which the Dalai Lama, who attended the Earth Summit, agreed to make a short speech. This required me to deliver event information into the hands of the Dalai Lama himself. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"All of these problems can be addressed through the concept of sustainability, which was popularized in the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) report entitled Our Common Future. It stated ""Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."" + Broadly understood, sustainability emphasizes the interdependence of environmental, social and economic issues. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) defines sustainability in an inclusive way, encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations. + Higher education has been called upon to lead the way on sustainability, as was the case in a gathering of twenty-two presidents, rectors, and vice chancellors of universities from all over the world that took place at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France during October 1990. Their report stated, ""Universities educate most of the people who develop and manage society's institutions. For this reason, universities bear profound responsibilities to increase the awareness, knowledge, technologies, and tools to create an environmentally sustainable future.” The conference ended with the creation of the Talloires Declaration, calling for the incorporation of sustainability into higher education which has since been signed by more than 350 higher education presidents and chancellors in more than 40 countries. Then came the Halifax Declaration in 1991, the Swansea Declaration in 1993, the CRE-Copernicus Charter in 1994, the Thessaloniki Declaration in 1997, and the Ubunto Declaration in 2002. Each of these important documents highlights the unique role that universities must play in advancing sustainability throughout the global community. These declarations serve as a call to action, and are useful in providing guiding principles, but it has been noted that they offer little in the way of direction for implementation, and are not necessarily an indicator of a campus being sustainable. + Although some progress has been made, there is also a growing consensus that higher education has fallen far short of the responsibility it bears in furthering sustainability. As David Newport, director of the environmental center at the University of Colorado at Boulder puts it, ""There are, what, 4,500 colleges in the United States, and how many are really doing something? Less than 100 or 200? It hasn't really been integrated into the lexicon of higher education.” Harvard University's Leith Sharp calls for recognizing the difference between project success and institution transformation, noting that there just aren’t many examples of systemic transformation towards sustainability on campuses. + The purpose of this case study is to explore what is helping and what is hindering sustainability in higher education by exploring one institution's activities and comparing emergent themes to those found in the literature. Antioch University New England (ANE), a private graduate school serving approximately 1,000 students at its campus in Keene, New Hampshire, created a Sustainability and Social Justice Committee (SSJC) to advance sustainability initiatives throughout the institution. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"The methods Individualized Learning Agreement became another opportunity to explore in-depth the method that my intuition was telling me was the right choice for my dissertation research: Q-Method or Q-Methodology. This method’s fit to my epistemological outlook and the question I want to study became very clear and strong. Having a mentor who is considered the leading scholar on the method helped immensely as well. Dr. Steven Brown’s willingness to engage the mentoring relationship and be available to answer questions and explore ideas and clarify procedures will make the use of the method in my dissertation study as smooth as it can be. +Envisioning compelling research questions worthy of a dissertation is another of my goals. The first question that has been on my mind from the outset of beginning my doctoral studies is this: Given that higher education bears a critical responsibility in facilitating society’s transition to greater sustainability, why is it widely perceived to be falling short of that responsibility? For higher education to be effective in this role, it must itself become more sustainable, which in turn requires profound change within institutions of higher education. Is it that change is just hard in any organization? Is it that change is particularly difficult in the higher education context? Is it that change related to sustainability is harder than other kinds of change? As I explored the literature on sustainability in higher education, I became increasingly frustrated that no one seemed to be talking to sustainability personnel – the directors, officers, managers, and coordinators who are the ones now charged with advancing sustainability on more and more campuses across the country and around the world. There were plenty of faculty writing about their classroom victories in teaching sustainability to students, and many authors writing about the merits and success stories of this or that project implemented on their campus, but next to nothing has been written about the lived experience of this new crop of professionals trying to pull it all together and move it forward. And so I have arrived at this question: What are the factors identified by sustainability personnel that affect progress towards sustainability at institutions of higher education? +The Case Study Analysis offered an opportunity to explore this question at my home institution by interviewing the chief sustainability officer at Antioch University New England (AUNE), as well as a student who was a key participant in many of the activities during her studies. As part of the project I developed a kind of diagnostic tool that could be used to assess some of the organizational processes at play, not unlike a force field analysis. This served to reinforce something I learned about myself during my master’s studies – I am a good diagnostician. This has also been evidenced in one of my pursuits outside of work and school – the theatre. I have discovered that perhaps my most important theatrical talent is in casting a show. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"That process, although largely intuitive for me, in its essence is a process of diagnosing who is the best fit for each role in the play among those auditioning. This is a set of skills that will serve me well in my future career in sustainability in higher education because an important piece of that work involves diagnosing the organizational situation regarding progress towards sustainability. My intuition was telling me that AUNE had many of the right elements in place to excel in advancing sustainability: a point person (chief sustainability staff person) who understands both the academic and administrative sides of the campus because they work in both or have experience in both; the support of a standing committee; direct reporting to the top level leaders of the institution; a stated institutional commitment to sustainability; strong support for sustainability from top level leaders; sustainability staffing with leadership and change skills; and a variety of other characteristics. The interviews I conducted for the Case Study Analysis served to confirm all of these and more. + The Nature of Leadership Essay offered me the space to really test my ability to assimilate a large amount of information in the form of leadership theories and re-package it into the beginnings of a model that might apply especially well to sustainability in higher education. I developed a tool to evaluate leadership theories based on five continua or polarities: Nature/nurture, leader/follower, situatedness/noncontextuality, descriptive/prescriptive, and task/relationship. The tool helps to uncover theories or aspects of theories that have fallen prey to what I call the disassociative fallacy of dualism wherein the outer poles are separated from the continuum that connects them, leaving a distorted view comprised of only one or the other of the isolated extremes. The best leadership theories will recognize the need to reach a point of harmonic balance on these continua, albeit contingent to the situation at hand. The model I developed from this line of thinking flows directly from my own ideas about the ontology of relationships, wherein one considers four nested spheres of relationship to oneself (psychology), other people (sociology), the rest of nature (ecology), and the Great Mystery (theology). Using that same notion of nested spheres, I developed the BRIL model – Balanced, Reflective, Intelligent Leadership. It consists of four nested spheres of intelligence and practice that need to be developed: self-intelligence/development at the core, surrounded by relational intelligence/practice, then contextual intelligence/sensitivity, and finally reflective intelligence/practice. It was a very rewarding exercise to develop my own approach to leadership theory/practice by reviving some ideas I began to develop more than fifteen years ago. How it might relate specifically to sustainability in higher education is something I look forward to exploring in the next phase of my career. + + My overarching purpose in pursuing the PhD in Leadership and Change is to reframe myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"It is not easy, however, for an institution of our size, to secure such donations, although we did not try. We did, however, specifically decide to keep all of our motivating schemes positive, so there were no DIS-incentives such as parking fees to discourage driving. That might also become an option in future iterations of the program. +In examining the data we collected, it has become clear to me that the biggest gains in CO2 reductions will be realized by focusing on those making the longest commutes. The vast majority of people who really engaged in the project were the ones who live relatively close to campus to begin with, making biking and walking a real alternative for them, but which saves very little in CO2 emissions because of their proximity to campus. We have many students, and even some employees, who commute 1-3 hours to get to campus (which is possible because of our innovative delivery model whereby most students and many faculty only need to come to campus at most 1-2 days each week). We could have done a lot more outreach and match-making among those who are commuting from the furthest distances. +Another big challenge to the project was the transition from the FirstClass email system to Gmail. In FirstClass, I had the ability (and privileges) to post the ACT Update to a particular conference called AUNE Announcements. This was ideal for ACT communications because upon opening up FirstClass, the ACT Update would appear in a pop-up window, thereby greatly increasing the odds that participants would read about the project and submit their commuter logs. Gmail did not offer any such functionality, and this does explain why the number of logs submitted for the month of April was so small – just two! What we perhaps should have taken the time to do (except that we were all so busy at the time) was to create a Gmail mailing list of all ACT registrants so that we could have individually emailed all of them the ACT Update and commuter log reminders. However, we were all floundering as we tried to learn the new system. +In addition, an oversight in our data collection instrument needs to be pointed out. Although we asked each registrant to select a primary affiliation (student, full-time faculty, part-time faculty, full-time administrator/staff, and part-time administrator/staff), we did not have the students affiliate with an academic department. This would have been useful in terms of determining whether targeted outreach strategies were needed for specific academic departments. We look forward to correcting for this in future iterations of the project. +On the more positive side, I can say with confidence that carpooling really does build social capital. If you can just get people over that initial resistance to carpooling, they inevitably find that the conversations and social connections with ride-mates really do outweigh the costs of losing a little flexibility and independence. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"During the first year of the program, I set several goals for myself that have remained with me throughout my time in the program: +Exposure to and familiarity with the literature on sustainability in higher education is one goal on which I continue to make very methodical progress. It has been a highlight of the journey, and I still have quite a ways to go. I desire to be very thorough on this goal. When I have completed my dissertation, I want to be able to say that I have left no stone unturned in my quest to uncover all that has been written about sustainability in higher education. Because the field is relatively new, the literature is somewhat limited, but this allows for the possibility of a very thorough review. To date I have read all 289 articles published in the one peer-reviewed scholarly journal for the field – The International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. The references in these articles have so far yielded another 93 articles from other academic journals. What remains to be accomplished in this goal, and which will appear in chapter 2 of the dissertation, is the addition of 30-35 books and reports, and the 11 doctoral dissertations that have been written on the topic. Early findings in this goal show that the scholarship of sustainability in higher education has engaged in only limited rigorous research studies, and is particularly lacking in quantitative research that helps explain or predict progress towards sustainability at institutions of higher education. There is an over-reliance on case study methodology, and these studies are particularly lacking in documentation of methods and theoretical frameworks. The literature is weighted too heavily towards the environmental component of sustainability, often to the exclusion of the social and economic aspects important to a holistic approach. Finally, the most glaring gap in the scholarship is the absence of research focused on what can be learned from the experience of a whole new crop of professionals that has sprung up in recent years – the sustainability officers, directors, managers and coordinators who are now charged with the responsibility of advancing sustainability in higher education. My own research will especially be focused on this lattermost gap in the scholarship. +Explore and utilize research methods with which I am unfamiliar or uncomfortable +The Case Study Analysis was especially helpful for this goal as I chose to do in-depth interviews of sustainability practitioners. They were largely unstructured and open, but I found I had a good ability to ask good follow-up questions that furthered the interview and yielded rich data. I had never conducted interviews for research and I found it to be a rewarding experience. I plan to incorporate this method as one component of my dissertation research. My own prior research experience had been the creation of various kinds of largely quantitative survey instruments mostly for the purpose of program evaluation and assessing client satisfaction with area non-profit agencies, although technically the instruments were mixed because they always collected some qualitative comments to enhance the quantitative findings. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"Those identified from the interview with the Chair and those identified from the interview with the Student are labeled as such. + + +I entered the Antioch University PhD in Leadership and Change program with the singular purpose of reframing myself as a leader of change in the field of sustainability in higher education. Each day brings me closer to the completion of my doctoral journey and serves to affirm and strengthen both my choice of doctoral program and my chosen field of study. On the cusp of entering the dissertation phase, I pause to reflect upon my journey through the program to date as a learner, leader, and scholar. +In the first learning achievement of the program, I spent some time evaluating various definitions of leadership in order to choose one that would resonate with my own work. The one that seems right for me is one that was offered up by Dick Couto during the very first residency of the program: Taking initiative on behalf of shared values. It has since become something of a mantra for me: A way to focus my energies on what is important, a lens through which I can recognize what is based solely on self-interest and what is based on shared values (and when, thankfully, they sometimes overlap), and a standard to which I can hold myself and others accountable. I find it simple, elegant, and effective. It also serves as a reminder that when I feel more like a good manager than a leader, in the end they are the same thing. To the extent that I have taken initiative on behalf of shared values, I have been a leader. +My personal experience over the years in several different organizations, however, is that some never bother to collaboratively define the shared values to begin with. In other instances, the organization may have clearly defined shared values, but any given unit within the organization may or may not actively embody those values. +It was in this first essay that I also laid out what I knew about myself that seemed relevant to the journey from several self-assessments engaged during my master’s studies, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Kolb Learning Style Inventory, Emotional Competence Inventory, Strength Deployment Inventory, and Pace Palette. These all continue to be accurate and help me to understand and relate to others with very different approaches and perspectives. I am one who needs time to process, think things through, and analyze. I must remain aware that to others this can appear to be non-engagement or even callousness. I can synthesize vast quantities of information into concise logical forms. I like long-term planning and goal setting. I see illogical and inefficient systems and want to comprehensively address them. I am very curious and like to learn. All of these qualities, as well as an awareness of their potential downsides, have served me well in both my academic life and my work life. +",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t," +Referring back to Figure 17, there was a precipitous drop in commuter log submissions in the third month of the project. That was a bit disheartening, and it is hard to say why that might have happened. With the onset of winter at a New England campus, there is clearly a drop in people commuting either by bicycle or by foot, which may account for some portion of the decline. December also marks the end of the fall semester when everyone is very busy finishing schoolwork, processing grades, and so forth. Filling out the commuter log might just have slipped off the radar screen for many folks. In addition, December brings the onset of the busy holiday season and the resulting month-long break for students and faculty, during which time many do not even need to come to campus at all. Classes then resume for the spring semester in late January, perhaps also a clue to the low number of logs for that month. But none of that really explains the low number of submissions for February. One might also conjecture that any project of this type is going to have an initial burst of energy and excitement at the outset, which might then naturally decline. In an effort to combat this trend, we created the Carpool Challenge Week, a special blitz campaign in March to try and reinvigorate the initiative, which did result in an increase in log submissions for that month. Thus, one of the challenges we experienced was how to maintain project momentum in the face of both a natural decrease in engagement, but also specifically the problem of holiday and semester breaks experienced in higher education. +Another challenge for this project (or any alternative commuting project) is the simple fact that people enjoy the freedom, independence, and flexibility of driving their cars. This is deeply embedded in our culture. Therefore, it is essential to provide incentives for engaging in alternative modes of commuting. We gave out a lot prizes in the form of gift certificates to local restaurants, coffee shops, massage therapists, the local independent bookstore, and even some larger national chain stores. It would have been interesting to see, however, how some even larger prizes might have affected participation – such as giving away a nice bicycle, hybrid car, or electric car. This could have also helped to combat that dip in engagement the project experienced. The nature of the prizes didn’t really change during the course of the project. If the prizes, however, were to increase in value over the course of the project, that might have helped. The gift cards seemed to be more than adequate at the outset of the project, but if we had announced in December the addition of a couple of bicycles, and then in January the addition of a hybrid or electric car, one can only think that participating and engagement would have increased instead of decreasing. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +t,"For evidence of this, see some of the quotes in the ACT Update, numbers 13-16, found in Appendix 1. + Reviewing the entries I made in a critical reflection journal during the project, I am left with the feeling that although there were many instances in which I took initiative on behalf of shared values (particularly those of the Transportation Team), it simply was not enough to make the project as successful as we were all hoping it would be. The project achieved impressive results in terms of the percentage of the AUNE community that enrolled, which was particularly important in terms of collecting baseline data, but really only achieved very modest results in changing commuting behaviors and reducing CO2 emissions from student and employee commuting. The instances in which I took initiative – designing the project’s graphics, creating the survey instruments, soliciting prizes, designing and writing the ACT Update e-newsletters, etc. were all very important in terms of laying a solid foundation for the first year of the project, but there were other elements that perhaps would have had greater impact on the project’s success, such as figuring out how to use those who indicated a willingness to volunteer in a way that would have encouraged other registrants to engage in alternative commuting and submit their commuter logs. So I am left wondering if perhaps I was not as strategic about where I applied my initiative-taking. If I look at how I have taken initiative in other aspects of my work life and theatre life (my main leisure pursuit outside of work), the initiative I most often take is that of behind-the-scenes logistic, nuts-and-bolts, the administrative work that builds a foundation upon which other activities can build. But then I am left without time and energy to take initiative on some higher-level work that would have had a different kind of impact, and perhaps more of an impact on the project’s final results. There were really just five of us involved in the project. For me, being a full-time student and a full-time employee meant I was engaging the project on top of all that. The other three students all had part-time jobs, and were engaging the project as part of their federal work-study positions with limited hours. The project simply needed more staff and more advance planning. Still, in terms of the change literature that recommends early victories, the first year of the project with its successes, however modest, did achieve at least that much. + + + As one college president recently put it, “By the end of this century, we will live either in a world that is sustainable, peaceful and just, or in a world that is unstable, violent and insecure.” Environmental degradation, poverty, the ever-widening gap separating the rich from the poor, racism, discrimination, a host of other social ills, and the continued use of violence for political ends continue to be persistent problems throughout the global community. ",43,English,male,"Master's degree, working on PhD",Freelance writing and nonprofit administration,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," + Recourses are the elements in which a company can use to help profit the company. Foozy inc. resources are catharsis production to relieve stress. Lego’s resources are toys children enjoy playing with. In order to maintain both of these resources there will be two fold productions. A specific team that has mastered integration of both of the resources together. Any resources that will are not able to integrate will have to be cut in order to cut out cost and raise profit. + Management is the key success driving factor to a successful MNE and FDI. Management would have to be open minded to broad understanding of culture and society. Because each of the firms is in very different communities a diverse company profile will have to be implemented. There should be at least two or more representatives from each of the international production companies to speak for that region. + Management will have to be as diverse and open minded as we expect for customer basis to me. + Hubris is having over-confidence in one’s capabilities (source three). Hubris is not an element of Foozy inc. Foozy is glad to say we learn from our mistakes. Foozy inc. is a humble company to allow people to come to use for their health and wellness needs in any manner. Foozy inc. is a family operated business; therefore we instill family values, morals, and ethics in everything that we do. + The success of the acquisition will come from the growth rate of the company. Allowing the customer to feel better and knowing that Foozy inc. is apart of making the world a better place is rewarding. We have conferences where people come from all around the world to share and empower other Foozy inc. customers the beauty of living a stress free life. + +Foozy Inc. is a multinational enterprise (MNE). Foozy a firm that engages in foreign direct investment (FDI) with the country of South Africa. Foozy was founded by Thekema an international business consulted who attracts customers with fun and exciting products that they just cannot get out of their head. Foozy is fun and exciting for the whole family and a product you can use and play with all day without getting bored. Foozy is a hand held device that is oozy and makes you feel good by holding it your hands and playing with it. The customer can squeeze foozy, stretch, pull it, tear it, throw it across the room and it will keep its composition and fun shape and texture. + + Total industry sales over the past five years have been $250,000,000.00. Anticipated growth in the industry budgeted to be minimal of 5% growth rate. Foozy has a total of two 4 firms in the past three years; United States firm, South Africa firm, China firm, UK firm. The innovation in the industry is the durability of the foozy. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," + Transportation is the fifth step in the supply chain process. Transportation deals with the smooth delivery of goods to one location to the next. There are five means of transportation. The following are the five means of transportation: air, rail, water, truck, and pipeline. Air transportation is the fastest and most expensive mean of transportation. The advantages of air transportation are that it is fast and reliable; the disadvantage of air transportation is that companies are only able to transport smaller packages. Rail transportation involves trains and railroads. Rail transportation is a lot slower than air transportation but the advantage of rail transportation is that it is easier to transport large bulk items. Water transportation is slow and not flexible. Water transportation is not flexible because it can only go in locations that have a water source. Water transportation is the cheapest form of transportation. An advantage of water transportation is that you can ship bulk items. Truck transportation involves road transportation by trucks, cars, and eight-teen wheeler tractors. Truck transportation is the most flexible out of all the forms of transportation. The disadvantages that truck transportation has are that it is not cheap and it does not allow bulk carrying. The final form of transportation is pipeline. Pipeline is very cheap but is very limited in what it can transport. The advantage of pipeline transportation is that it is very fast. Management would have to consider which of these forms of transportation is the best way to get products from the production plant and warehouse into the store and ready for customers to purchase. + Globalization has allowed businesses and people to interact from all around the globe. Globalization has been successful due to the major influences of the supply chain management. Without supply chain management it would be extremely difficult for America to do business with partners in Japan and China. The creation of the container has allowed businesses to ship raw goods and products around the globe in a well organized and simplified method. In today’s supply chain process, because of the container it is easy to transport products from water to rail, from rail to plan, and from plan to trucks. + Information is the sixth step in the supply chain management. Information consists of relying information from one end of the process to the other. Management uses internet and other high technology programs to link together information. + Supply chain management is created to provide quality and satisfactory products to customers. When companies are able to produce, supply, and transport products in a timely manner to customers they are more successful. The key steps in the supply chain method are production, supply, inventory, location, transportation, and information. Each step has an important role in the success of the supply chain process. + +Beth Bed and Beyond an international retail company that sells quality products for the bath, bedding, and kitchen wares. The company mission objective is to be a customer’s first choice for products and services in the categories offered, in the markets in which the company operates. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"Tamara used her leadership skills to inspire the office staff to interact better with residence and made Gables 820 West a more welcoming home feeling when residence enter the leasing office. Power is defined as a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes. Tamara exemplified power by being able to maintain a good balance in what is standard which is the policy and still being able to relate to associates and residence. + Ethical dilemma is defined as situations in which individuals are required to define right and wrong conduct. I asked Tamara to describe and ethical dilemma which she had encountered. Her response is as followed: +A policy that any leasing professional are not allowed to leave any application, because the leasing associate doesn’t have locks on drawers, and every time any employee steps away from the computer they have to lock the computer. They was a potential residence who was not credit worthy he came into the office set at the desk, were there were open files and a associate walked away from the desk and used a social security number from the open file to put on his own application. +Intuitive thinking model- just put the pieces of the puzzle together. The potential residence was not allowed to move in and the leasing associate had to be coached. +There is a residence who is an independent artist, the artist manager pays the rent etc, where the artist manager was asking for information in regards to the artist, but Tamara was not suppose to release any information due to the confidentially agreement on the lease, +Rational decision making model. All though at first it seemed innocent to discuss the rent with the artist manager, had to break down the rules of the lease and cannot release any information if the residence is not present. Alternatives are to be added to the lease or every time you call make sure the residence is present. +Pierre the manager from Chick-Fil-A and Tamara both use intuitive thinking model and make and attempt to use the rational decision making model when possible. + Gables and Chick-Fil-A both value diversity. Chick-Fil-A values diversity by hiring a lot of Spanish speaking people and having language communicators to be able to communicate with non-Spanish speaking employees. I asked Tamara does her organization Gables value diversity. She responded; yes, diversity inclusion training is inside of the Gables University. 16 different locations, and are strategically placed to be put in place where people make money, and the community can have diversity in price point and location. + A recent decision made by Tamara that effected the entire organization was when Gables 820 West just started doing blue moon leases what is online leases, started in December, benefit’s the entire organization, because it aims with the green efforts, blue moon cuts down on paper, and it makes it much more convenience for new residence because they are only in the office for 10 min instead of 45 min wait time.",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," + Supply chain management is the stream of processes of moving goods from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer. The term supply chain management was invented in 1982 by Keith Oliver, a consultant. Keith Oliver described the overall process of planning, implementing, and controlling what goes on at the supply chain in order to satisfy customers’ needs in a quick, efficient manner. There are six key elements to a supply chain: production, supply, inventory, location, transportation, and information. Managers of business use these six key elements to provide the best customer service to customers. + Production is the first step in the supply chain process. Production is the foundation for the entire supply chain process. The production stage will outline the when, why, where, and how everything will be produced. Managers need to know what customers want. In order for managers to know what customers want, managers can look at the market. The market is the biggest indicator to decide what the customer demands are. Once Managers have analyzed the market and understand customer’s demand they are ready to decide what products should be produced, and how many of those products should be produced. After the management has decided what is produced and how many, they are ready to decide where the products should be produced and at which plant will be best for volume and quality of good, keeping in mind the customer demand and satisfaction must be met. After the location for production of the products has been decided, the next step is managers’ focus on scheduling workloads, and maintenance of equipment. Production is a very important step in the supply chain process. Every detail is vital throughout the whole process. If every detail is not planned accordingly, it could cost the company a lot of time and money in the long run. For example, I use to work at Wal-Mart and Target retail stores. Both companies have a design, booklet, and process for every entity of the business. There is a designed layout of how an employee’s uniform should look to receiving shipment from trucks. Having outlined processes allow a company to work smoothly without confusion of direction and expectations. + The second key element in the supply chain management is supply. Supply is defined as the strategic decisions that should be made to determine the core capabilities of a facility and outsourcing partnerships should grow from these decisions. A company may have many different divisions of production for a single product. All division consists of different equipment, workers, and specialties. The manager must decide which division is a best fit for the different processes of the product. Management may also decide to outsource the work to other companies. The core reason a manager would outsource the work to companies is to create velocity. Velocity is the ability to provide quality and flexibility while at the same time reducing costs or maintaining low cost levels. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," Outsourcing is good when the base facility cannot produce the products effectively. The overall objective is to provide the best value of quality in products for the customer whether the production is done within the company or outsourced. For example, Wal-Mart does a lot of outsourcing to cut down on cost. They make a lot of products, as well as allow companies to come into their store and place out-sourced items on their shelves. Wal-Mart has been able to make billions of dollars by using the velocity approach and maintaining high quality products at lower cost. + Inventory is the third key element in the supply chain process. Management needs to know how much product they have on-hand at all times. There should be a well-balanced amount of inventory to fulfill customer satisfaction and not too much inventory to cost waste of products. Inventory allows the product to have high quality which will gain great customer service. Control levels are put into place to determine correct levels of supplies at order and reorder points. These levels are critical to the day to day operation of organizations. For example Target has a computerized system that allows management and employees to know exactly how much and any product is in the store at any given time. Once an item is purchased the computer will automatically reduce the number of product on the computer. This type of system is helpful when management needs to place new orders. Also, Wal-Mart has a system designed to allow their out-source affiliates know immediately when new products are needed in the store by using technology to count each product. Inventory is major part of the supply chain process and allows management to understand the direction the company should move in next. Procurement is the basis of inventory. Procurement is the buying of raw materials and supplies. Procurements help to define the price, quality, and manage risks. Companies manage risk by hedging. Hedging allows a certain price to be stated for a product incase of fluctuation of the price market. Inventory can be warehoused or distributed. Warehouses hold products that will not be placed in the store or used until a later time. Distribution of inventory is the act of transferring products from one location to another; for example, from the warehouse to the store or plant. + Location is the fourth step in the supply chain process. Location is determined by the market demands and customer satisfaction. Management has to decide where plants, stores, and distribution will be located. The goal of the location is to be centered around the market in which the company nerves. For example a store should be in close proximity of their target customers; in doing so, makes the store or plant easy accessible. For example, Wal-Mart has many stores around the world. They have locations available that are easy accessible to the distributors and employees. Decisions concerning location should also take into consideration tax and tariff issues, especially in inter-state and worldwide distribution. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"The company’s strategy is to achieve this objective through excellent customer service, and extensive breadth and depth of assortment, everyday low prices, and introduction of new merchandising offerings, supported by the continuous development and improvement of our infrastructure. (Company website) This mission statement delivers a strong well worded statement that covers the overall activities of the company. This mission statement covers competition and goals, but does not include how to compete with prices and customer service. They should expound those factors to allow a complete mission statement that is clear to all parties. +The vision statement is as stated: We deliver our commitment to being a positive economic force, a responsible citizen in the communities we serve, and a mindful steward of resources we consume. As with everything we do, we focus on our areas in need of improvement, and we are never satisfied. As such, while we are proud of our accomplishments in these areas, we will continue to strive for improvement. (Company website).This statement divers a clear and precise vision of the companies over all never ending vision. It gives a clear direction and allows room for continued growth. The core values of Bed Bath & Beyond: Growth, diversity, mutual respect, economic responsibility and community (company website). The core values are well rounded and diverse that supports the mission and vision statements that customers and stakeholders can respect. +The strategic group consists of stores that compete with Bed Bath and Beyond. These stores compete against each other on low costs. Target corp., Wal-Mart, Macys Inc. are all stores who drive customers with sales and low prices. There are a lot of similar stores like Bed Bath and Beyond but differ because their focus is not low-price. These stores are as followed: Pier 1 Imports, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Mohawk Industries, Tempur-pedic intle, Leggett & Platt, Interface, HB Fuller, Jo-Ann Stores, Helen of Troy, + Target, Wal-Mart, Macy are the main strategic due to the fact that target and Wal-Mart are competing on price with Bed Bath & Beyond Macy is included in the strategic grouped because they have similar items as Bed Bath & Beyond but still are not considered high end as other competitors. + The five forces are the external factors that drive the industry. Customers have a high purchasing power because this industry is a low-cost dealer. Suppliers power is low, with approximately 5,500 suppliers at BB&B primarily from domestic sources and balances from overseas, and the largest supplier accounting for approximately 5% this reduces the company’s dependence on a single supplier while increasing its bargaining power. Threat of new entrants power is medium to high. High because it is not hard for established companies to get into the industry. For example, Kroger has already started selling furniture and cooking goods, many stores are beginning to diversify their markets to make their shop a one stop shop. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"Gables has work teams. Tamara explained the work teams at Gables. Office staff- three people community manager, assistant manager, a leasing professional. Community manager pays the bills for the property and negotiates contracts, over sees the over production of the property. Resolve any issues on site before they escalate to corporate. Assistant community manager handles all residence accounts, all past due collections and responsible for generating other revenues on property, (the book keeper). The leasing associates- to greet and tour prospects into the community and turn them into the residence. + The Storming stage of team development is the third stage in group development, characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness. Gables has many different procedures to help through the storming stage of team development. +Gables Residence is required to conduct a meeting every Wednesday to help the organization stay on the same page. Whatever issues that are going on, on the property, it updates everyone on the current issues. From management down to grounds men. +The regional managers are always readily available via e-mail or phone, +SOP- standard operating procedures rather it is dealing with residence or employees to use as a reference. + Chick-Fil-A has a different approach to the storming stage; they select their managers based of qualifications. They have pray time in the mornings to help the staff get through any problems they might have. + A work group is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs. Gables has no work groups because everything that everyone does is for the greater good of the organization. + Tamara Horne is the assistant manager that operates the property at 820 West Gables. For a year and eight months she has been the assistant manager. For three years and seven months she has been with Gables Residential. Tamara’s job description is to resolve resident issues, and everything the manager does in her absence, and outside marketing; also, tour potential residence who visits the property. + Charismatic leadership theory is defined as a leadership theory that states that followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviors. Tamara has the ability to make anyone that she interacts with day better. She motivates them by inspiring them to have better day. She leads her associates to be the best that they can be by leading to by example and showing them right from wrong. Transformational leaders are leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interest and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on followers. Tamara is a transformational leader as well. For example, I have resided at Gables 820 West before Tamara transferred to the property. After Tamara transferred to the property she was able to change the whole vibe and mood of the office. She transcended the office staff to be bit more friendly and acceptable to the residence. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"They take on the think local act local by joint venture with “Home & More” in Mexico and has allowed BB&B to have a presence in Mexico with 50% equity holder of the company. It is tailored to the Mexico culture but contains the same product future of the international BB&B. It is good to go international to expand the markets and diversify the profit. I would like to see the company expand into more regions. BB&B wants to it safe by joint venturing with local companies. + In conclusion, Bed Bath and Beyond is doing very well. I would invest in the company. BB&B has positioned itself for a lot of growth and potential. + + + + Oranizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organziation’s effectiveness. I will compare two organizations on the three levels focused in organizational behevaior. The two organizations that will be compared are Chick-Fil-A and Gables Residential. Chick-Fil- A is a fast food restraurant. Chick-Fil-A was started in 1967 and is family owned business started by Mr. Truett Cathy. Cureently Chick-Fil-A has 1,500 locations in 39 states and in Washington, DC. Their mission statement states “be Americas best quick service restaurant”, and holds annual sales over $3.5 billion dollars. A team of students and I were able to interview Mr. Pierre Toussiant in regards to organizational behavior within Chick-Fil- A. + I chose Gables Residential as an organization to interview to compare to the chick-Fil-A interview we did earlier in the semester. I chose Gables Residential because I wanted to choose an organization that had personal experience with on a daily basis that has impacted my life. I have been a resident at a Gables Residential property for three years. This interview was an excellent opportunity to better understand the organization. I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Tamara Horne. Tamara is the assistant property manager at Gables 820 West residence, on West Marietta Street, in Atlanta, Georgia. I chose to interview Tamara because I work closely with her on a daily basis, and I knew she would have a lot of insight on the organizational behavior of Gables Residential. Tamara gladly accepted my offer to interview her and was an amazing help to understanding Gables’ organizational behavior. Gables’ mission statement is “Taking Care of the Way People Live”. Gables succeeds their mission statement by being pro-active in the lives of the community within their location. For example, Gables host a complimentary breakfast every Saturday in order for residence to interact with their neighbored and the staff of apartment complex. Gables core values are extraordinary quality and service for their residence; unparalleled employment experiences for associates; utmost integrity and value for our shareholders and customers; an enduring contributions to their local community. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"The foozy is innovated to be able to be thrown across a room, stretched, poked, slapped, torn apart all while keeping the composure of the oozy material texture that is long lasting and relaxing to the customer. Foozy inc. competitors are toy makers. Even though the foozy is not just a toy but is for all ages because it is a natural catharsis. The more you the customer slams, throws, kicks, and slaps the foozy it relieves the stress and allows the customer to feel relaxed and calm. Therefore making the foozy fun for all ages. The main competitor for Foozy inc. is Lego and Mattel. Lego has a 31% consumer sales growth (source one); Foozy Inc predicts a 50% sales growth due the new foreign markets in the South African region. We expect sales to increase 50% because of all the stress that is in the country of South Africa due to poverty and high AIDs rate, the foozy will be catharsis to help the citizens of the country relax. The foozy is affordable and even there can be one per a household. + The competitors are strong because they have been around a lot longer than Foozy. Foozy is new and innovated will gain a competitive advantage over Lego and Mattel. Foozy can compete efficiently in the industry because there will be a high profit margin because the product is inexpensive and low-cost to manufacture. Lego and Mattel is both toy manufactures, in contrast Foozy is a fun toy with broaden functions that a wider range of customers can relate to. + Foozy Inc. will manufacture all of the products in factor. Each of the four regions will have a separate factory to cut out shipping fees and cost. Factories will hire integrants of the land who will be willing to work for cheaper wages and fair cost gain. The factory will consist of an assembly line that puts the parts together, and a second assembly line to check for defects. Raw materials are the oozy center of the foozy. The oozy center is made up of silicone that will not burst. Other raw materials consist of the lumps that the customer feels to help grip the foozy that will allow it to not fall out of the customers hands. + The marketing will be displayed in public attractions like public transportation, magazines and television. The price will be $10.00 USD to make it affordable. This price is low enough to allow everyone to get one but high enough to cover all the cost to make. Foozy projects to make 100,000,000 semi-annually which will revenue $1 billion dollars. Foozy inc. Will host monthly product testing cycles to see how customers are coping and liking the product. The investors will be investment banks that will hold stock in trade of capital to build the company. + Publicly operated family business headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia US. The director is Thekema Berry + High risk factor, but having faith in the product will allow the organization to do the best to maintain profit. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," There are Spanish communities, college centered communities. Online allows for more connivance when signing the lease. Also helps national leasing as well. Tamara used the rational decision making model to make this decision. She saw a need for faster and better quality leasing. She weighted her alternatives to keep things the way they currently were or upgrade their systems to allow the organization to be more effective. + One area that I discussed was work groups. Gables Residential does not have any work groups. Some processes may be able to get done without having a collective synergy with the whole property. Within a work group individuals can work on projects alone but still make the property goals. This will help improve the individual efforts as well as group efforts and the overall organization level. + + + Foozy inc. is a foreign direct investment. Foozy has plants in United States, South Africa, China, and in the UK. Foozy is a production manufacture of health wellness activity who is concerned with betterment of mankind and all of humanity. Legos is an international toy manufacture company who makes toys for kids. Legos has been around for many years since 1932. (Source one) Legos and Foozy are focused on the growth rate potential of toy and health and wellness industry. Two fast paced growing companies can come together to overtake the industry. Legos and Foozy are headquartered in the United States and do business internationally through MNE. + 70% of mergers and acquisitions do fail. For example, Air Tran and Value Jet acquisitioned in the late 1990 have and now Air Tran has been acquired by Southwest Airline (source two). 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail because one company dominated the culture of the business instead of allowing a synergy to operate the company. If each company will continue to do what they do best and allow the partnering company to do what they do best, then together it will create a strong synergy that will make the two companies together unstoppable. Considering two companies still compete with each other for promotes and sales there are no synergy and both companies tend to lose. + Foozy and Legos will not have and issue with failure. Foozy will handle the health and wellness of production and let Legos do what they do best and handle the marketing and distribution of the products. Together Foozy inc. and Legos will dominate the industry by creating synergy and beating out competitors. + Lego is a toy manufacture. Foozy is a health and wellness manufacture. Issues that will rise between Lego and Foozy inc. are whether the merger/acquisition should focus more on toys or health and wellness. There is a simple formula that will solve institutional issues that will help each company. We together will make toys and products that well better the health and the wellness. This is a win-win approach because Lego gets to manufacture toys and Foozy gets to help humanity by making them feel better by incorporating the two together. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"The power is considered medium because it takes capital to produce the supplier base and the brand that is already established with well known companies. Power of substitute is medium to low. Medium because many people do not concern their living establishment with lavish décor and home goods. For example, fancy fixings and kitchen wares. The power of substitutes is also considered low because BB&B is more so for middle class economic level, who do not take time to decorate the home and is less likely to be concerned with home goods. Established rivals power is high. BB&B has to compete with Wal-Mart who does equal price matching products and has the volume advantage, and Target has a brand that is attractive to customers. Whereas Macys has loyal shoppers. + Bed Bath & Beyond is centered around discount customers who look for a cheaper price. Also need-based customer who is looking for particular items that may not be accessible in other stores. Lastly, a wandering customer who want a sense of experience and or community. + The strategic position is needs-based position because they are focusing on the needs of home goods and services. Specifically in the area of bath, kitchens, and home goods. + The industry driving forces are economy, health and wellness, and go green. The economy is a big industry driving force because when the economy is up people tend to spend more of their income on home décor. Also when the economy is down people flock to stores that focus on economic pricing like BB&B to save and discount on home needs. This positioning in the industry allows BB&B to cover a wider range of customers. They offer the variety of products that people want when the economy is up and yet offer economic pricing when people are forced to cut back spending but still need daily home necessities. + Bed Bath & Beyond paired up with healthywomen,org in effort to promote healthy lifestyles for women and families. This allows BB&B to be concerned not only with products of households but the well being of those house holds offering products that are geared toward living a healthy balanced life. + Going green is industry driving force. BB&B offers alternative products, products that are sustainable and materials with energy saving properties in a number of categories such as cleaning, utility, bedding, bath, and window. + Key success factors are enternal factors that force the company. Size is a key success factor for BB&B. BB&B is unique because the average store size is 45,000 square feet. A big store to hold products that allow a layout that allows the customer to through and see everything. + Variety is a key success factor. Bed Bath and Beyond offers 80,000 different products which makes it a convenient one stop shop for all of the shoppers home needs. Price is another key success factor. Everday low prices gives a competitive advantage over other retailers to maintain the higher quality products at lower economic pricing. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"Accessinility is a success key factor by opening up more stores and having online ordering which allows customers to acess the company better. + These key success factors are good but need to more diverse to give a higher competitive advantage. These success factors are easily imitated which will leave the industry with low profit margins. + The balance scorecard’s core beliefs are growth, diversity, mutual respect, economic responsibility, and community. The financial profit margin and raising it higher than competitors, will be a weight of success for BB&B. The internal business processes are expansion of stores and raising profit margins. Customers weight of success is great customer service value, diversity from employees to relate to customers, and community involvement. Learning and growth weight will come from the company responsibility report and feedback form. + The financial ratios are compared with the centered strategic industry. Which is Wal-Mart, Target, and Macy. The profit margin is twice as high as the industry; BB&B is very profitable to have such high margins. BB&B at 9.04% and the industry at 9.87% The return on assets are twice as high as the industry. BB&B at 14.66% and the industry at 6.66%. The market book value is larger than the industry as well at 3.06% and the industry at 2.37%. Overall Bed bath and beyond according to the financial ratio is doing better than the industry even though BB&B revenue is not as high as the industry. + Bed Bath & Beyond’s balanced score card should more deceive. It should be to the point across the board on the direction and vision. Their balanced score-card is not strong enough to lead the vision and mission of the company. + The competitive strategy is a overall low cost provider strategy. BB&B seeks everyone to shop at their store. Highlighting the economic value of shopping at BB&B and low prices. The higher quality of products at lower prices than competitors. This strategy is not the best for BB&B because it is easily copied and shoppers can go anywhere for low price substitutes. I would recommend becoming a best cost provider in order to maintain low but yet making shoppers want to come to BB&B verses Wal-mart and Target. + Bed Bath & Beyond has had three acquisitions and subsidiaries. On March 5, 2002 Harmon store Inc, a retailer of health and beauty products. Again on June 19, 2003 Christmas Tree Shops Inc, a retailer giftware and household products. Finally March 22, 2007, buy buy Baby- retailer of infant and toddler merchandize. + This was a great move to acquire these three diverse companies to help diversify BB&B product portfolio. Also whenever one market segment may be lacking another market segment can thrive. + Bed Bath and Beyond is an international company with stores located in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr," They both are motivated by helping the community and getting involved. +In the article “An unhappy Anniversary for the Financial Crisis” by Allan Sloan from the Washington Post, the brokers are very sad about the results of the market crisis and they have no motivation. They could use goal- setting theory like Gables does to set a goal and stay on track instead only focusing on the negative. The Stock Market did lose a lot of money, but if brokers would have been motivated to change earlier at first glance of the market crashing it could have been prevented. (Work cited source 1) +Emotional Intelligence is the ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information. Empathy is having the ability to understand what a person is going through and being able to put yourself in his or her shoes. I asked Tamara does she consider empathy and emotional intelligence for leaders in the organization. She responded: +Yes I do, even though in the workplace you are suppose to leave your emotions behind but a good manager should have EI, especially when dealing with a diverse community with a wide range of demographics. +On the residence side- there are so many situations that is thrown at the managers from the residence on a day to day basis that having the ability to relate to the issues the residence + +Feel felt found - the herd theory: when someone comes in with a situation, to show we understand others for example- residence comes in and says I am pissed we don’t have a grill at the pool. The manager says I understand because I love to grill but due to fire safety and compliance reasons, we strategically located the grill with the set up of the property. The theory allows management to display our sincerity and ability to relate to the situation at hand and of course to the residence feelings. + +On the associates side- it’s so vital for the manager to have the ability of emotional intelligence on our property specifically. Just like residence associates have problems too. For example, one of the associates had a mother ho had two strokes, and then her mother passed away. Managers must have the ability to still motivate them to come to work and give their all despite what they are going through. The better the manager is able to deal with it, will help the associate and help the production of the company. + +Having this ability of EI also works well in situations that allow managers to pull out or help bring out emotions with people. For example, if an associate is having a problem by taking them out to lunch and take them by the hand and talk with them. That will be comforting, because everyone reacts to emotions differently. That will make associates realize they are special. + A work team is a group whos individual effort result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +rr,"Gables’ vision is to be the industry leader for innovation, adaptability and entrepreneurship in providing high quality living experiences in premier apartment communities that are created from a culture committed to producing products and services that appeal to the evolving demographic in high growth markets of the United States. Gables has been developing and managing apartment communities for over twenty-five years. Gables is national company and is located in, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, South Florida, Southern Claifornia, and metroplotian Washington, D.C. + Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. I asked Tamara how employees are motivated at Gables. She responded with the following: +We are motivated by good benefit packages. (I.e. health, discounts (internal- associate discounts on rent, external- discounts on theme parks, movies, hotels etc.) + +They are given a very enticing bonus structure. Giving extra perks on top of regular bonus, for example new leases and renews, (pick five apartments and whoever leases that apartment will get an extra hundred dollars.) a gift tree where if you lease you can pick a gift off the tree, gifts include restaurant vouchers, + +Award winning learning and development titled Gables University. Structured really well, and can take classes and earn college credit. + +Corporate invents that host award ceremonies that relate to performances throughout the year. Where they will read letters from residence titled taking care award. The ceremony is called the spot light award. There is an award for every level of the organization, for example, IT community manager, house keeping awards. + +Corporate functions like Christmas parties, and pot-luck dinners throughout the year. Motivated by taking the time out to treat them and it is paid for along with gifts. + +There is a Gables day- where the whole company including corporate office and go out into the community and help give back. Which is May 18th, and they allow associates to pick the event. There are a total of 360 people. +Employees at Gables are motivated many different ways. Gables believe in the Theory Y if Douglas McGregor’s theory of motivation. Theory Y states the assumption that employees like to work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction. Gables allows employees to work independently with residence. They trust their employees work efforts and reward them with gifts and special functions. Another theory is goal-setting theory. Goal setting theory states a theory that says that specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performances. Gables sets goals for the employees to lease a certain amount of apartments every month. This allows employees to have feedback on obtaining a goal because they can measure their performance. For example, if the employee needs to lease five apartments this month, and they have only leased two; the employee can be motivated to lease the other three because they get leasing bonus and rewards. +Chick-Fil-A and Gables are similar in the way they motivate their employees. ",25,English,female,Bacholers,temp agency,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," Any non-compliance with any provisions in the ordinance can result in penalties not less than $100 or more than $1000 a day. It is the duty of the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses to ensure compliance with all certificates of appropriateness. + +The Historic Landmarks Act also works together the Metro Government’s property maintenance code with regards to owners neglecting their property. Louisville’s building code was enacted pursuant to KRS 82.705 which states that “a local government may, by ordinance, enact a nuisance code and impose penalties for violation of the nuisance code.” The Metro Government’s building code states that its provisions are “not mandatory for existing buildings or structures designated…as historic buildings when such buildings are judged by the Code Official to be safe and in the interest in the public interest of health, safety and welfare.” The Code Official is designated as the authority responsible for enforcing the provisions of the building code and vested with the power to make all required inspections, to enter structures at reasonable times to inspect them, and to issue citations, notices or orders regarding non-compliance with the code. The Code Official also has the power to determine that a structure is unsafe, and unfit for human occupancy or use, and after reaching this finding to condemn the property. An unsafe premise is defined as a structure that is “found to be dangerous to life, health, property, or the safety of the public or its occupants…[because it] is so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, structurally unsafe, or of such faulty construction or unstable foundation that partial or complete collapse is possible.” The Code Official is also given the power to order the owner of the unsafe premises to either make the necessary repairs or to demolish the structure, and if the owner fails to comply with the order then the Code Official will raze the structure, the costs of which to be charged against the owner with non-payment resulting in a lien against the property. + +These two codes intersect and diverge in a number of ways that have consequences for historic preservation in Louisville. First, it is clear that the Historic Preservation Commission is given the power to designate, and oversee any requested construction or demolition of a landmark structure or property in a historic district, but their power is stripped when the Code Official deems a property unsafe, and the Commission is given no power to prevent obvious neglect before it is too late. The Department of Codes and Inspections has a little more power to correct code violations, but again their power is limited to issuing citations for code violations, and the department might not even know that a building is deteriorating until it is too late. Intertwining with the statutory issues behind demolition by neglect, are of course the economic and political issues. Many developers see the administrative hoops required for construction on a historic property as an expensive burden that hinders their plans for development. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," + + + Under California law, could a customer that was injured after slipping and falling on an applesauce spill in a grocery store be awarded punitive damages by showing the store manager acted with malice because he was informed twice of the spill and failed to have it cleaned for a half-hour because he was eating dinner? + A judge is not likely to summarily dismiss Jennifer Palmer’s punitive damage claim. To state a claim that an award of punitive damages is justified a plaintiff must present evidence that the defendant’s actions were committed with a willful and conscious disregard for the probable harm that would result from the conduct, as well as showing that the conduct was despicable. Palmer will be able to argue that Martin should have known the probable harm of not cleaning a spill because multiple D&D customers were injured from slipping in the months prior to Palmer’s accident; and despite this knowledge he still failed to have the spill cleaned. Palmer’s argument that Martin’s actions were despicable are less persuasive, but are still reasonable given the facts that six slip-and-fall incidents had occurred in 2009 and Martin still failed to take appropriate actions to maintain the safety of his store + On October 13, 2009 at 5:00 pm, Rich Wayne an employee of D&D Markets informed his manager, Paul Martin that there was an applesauce spill in an aisle. Martin told Wayne that he was on dinner break and “didn’t have time to deal with customer complaints.” At 5: 15 pm, another employee, Mary J. Haddigan also notified Mr. Martin of the spill, and Martin responded the same way. At 5:30 pm on the thirteenth, the plaintiff, Jennifer Palmer slipped and fell on the spill and sustained a serious back injury. Prior to Palmer’s accident five different slip-and-fall incidents had been reported at D&D’s in the year 2009. Palmer is now suing D&D for compensatory and punitive damages related to her injury, and we are examining whether to file a motion for partial summary against the punitive damage claim. + In California, a plaintiff can recover punitive damages for a breach of an obligation not arising out of a contract if the defendant acted with “oppression, fraud or malice.” Cal. Civ. Code, § 3294(a) (Lexis 2010). The statute defines malice as conduct that intended to cause harm, or absent intent, the conduct must be “despicable” and committed with “a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.” id. at § (c)(1). Courts have characterized conduct as malicious when committed with a conscious disregard of the plaintiff’s rights when the defendant “was aware of the probable dangerous consequences of his conduct, and that he willfully and deliberately failed to avoid those consequences.” Taylor v. Super. Ct. of Los Angeles Co., 598 P. 2d 853, 856 (Cal. 1979). ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss,"The court comes to this conclusion based on the reasoning that there was no evidence that Westbrook was “aware that the rumored relationship between Berry and Laura was sexual or destructive…or that Berry lied when confronted with the rumor about Laura.” Id. at 911. If the plaintiff cannot prove that the defendant had knowledge of the harmful consequences of the action, then their case for punitives fails on its face. + An example of a case where the court found the defendant did have the prerequisite knowledge of harmful consequences, is the slip-and-fall case Nolin v. National Convenience Stores. In this case the plaintiff, Iris Nolin sued National Convenience Stores, because the defendants failed to fix a defective gas nozzle, which for five months would overflow with gas and leak onto the ground. Nolin, at 284. The manager was aware of the conditions because two customers had already slipped on the gasoline prior to Nolin’s accident, and multiple employees had requested maintenance work on the nozzle. Id. at 284-285. The court discussed the intent underlying the manager’s lack of action to repair the dangerous conditions by stating, “conduct classified only as unintentional carelessness, while it may constitute negligence or even gross negligence, will not support an award of punitive damages.” Id. at 285-286. The court stated that the difference between negligent conduct, and unintentional malicious conduct is that malicious conduct involves “intention to perform an act that the actor knows, or should know, will very probably cause harm.” Id. at 286. The court found that the plaintiff presented ample evidence to support the punitive damage award, because the defendant was aware of the dangerous situation, and their failure to rectify this situation “showed a complete lack of concern regarding the harmful potential—the probability and likelihood of injury.” Id. at 288. + These cases establish that absent an express intent to cause harm, the conduct in question must be more than negligent, but show that the defendant acted despite knowing the probable harm of his conduct. In our case, the manager did not intend to harm Jennifer Palmer by failing to have the applesauce cleaned up, so Palmer has the burden of proving that Paul Martin’s actions were more than negligent. To do this she must show that he knew of the potential and likely dangerousness of the situation and intentionally ignored them. Palmer will have a strong case, considering that five slip-and-fall incidents had occurred at D&D’s in the nine months prior to Palmer’s accident. This evidence is similar to the facts in Nolin, where multiple falls had occurred on the premises. It is a reasonable argument that Martin should have known of the potential harmful consequences of the spill and taken immediate action to remedy the situation. + To further clarify what conduct can be considered as “conscious disregard” we must examine the language of the statute that states that the conduct must be a “willful” disregard of the “rights or safety of others.” Cal. Civ. Code §(c)(1). +",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss,"Lackner suffered severe bruising and broke her leg and ankle as a result of the collision. Id. at 868-869. Lackner sued North and filed for punitive damages based on the argument that North was skiing recklessly because he was racing his teammates. Id. at 881. The Court disagreed and held that while North displayed a conscious disregard for the other skiers on the mountain by skiing recklessly, that his actions were not despicable. Id. at 884. The court’s reasoning that North’s actions were not despicable was based on the evidence that he did not intentionally hit Lackner, in fact he tried to avoid hitting her, but lost control in his attempt and was unable to stop the collision. Id. at 883. The court states that North’s attempt to avoid hitting Lackner was “entirely inconsistent with evil or criminal intent,” an element needed to prove the conduct was despicable. Id. at 884. + A case where the defendant was found to have acted despicably is, Angie M. v. The Super. Crt. of San Diego Co, 44 Cal. Rptr. 2d 197 (1995). The plaintiff, Angie, brought suit against her former doctor Robert Hiemstra, for illegal seduction of a minor, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The appellate court overruled the trial court’s demurrer of Angie’s punitive damage claim, because they held the facts of the case warranted sending the punitive damage claim to a jury. The court states that Hiemstra used his position of authority over Angie and his knowledge of her vulnerabilities to manipulate her into a sexual relationship, and his conduct showed “willful and conscious disregard.” Id. at 204. The court held that Angie alleged enough facts to show Hiemstra’s actions were “outrageous,” as well as recognizing that his conduct violated multiple criminal statutes, which showed that Hiemstra’s actions could be conceived to be despicable by a jury. Id. + These cases show that a plaintiff must present evidence that the defendant’s conduct was committed with an evil intent, or was so outside of societies norms that an ordinary person would be disgusted. In the present case, Martin did not act with an “evil or criminal intent,” instead the evidence seems to suggest that Martin’s intent was to finish his dinner before addressing customer issues. In comparing the facts of the D&D case to Lackner, Martin could argue that he was planning on cleaning up the spill after he finished eating, and therefore he did not act despicably. However, if you compare the facts to the American Airlines case, the plaintiff could argue that Martin’s actions were despicable because he was holding his interests above the safety of the customers in his failure to have the spill cleaned. Again, the plaintiff’s argument is made stronger when considered in the context of how many customers had injured themselves from slipping in the store in the months leading up to Palmer’s fall. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," Those two amendments would be the most crucial in preventing lack of maintenance by homeowners, but as a last resort for extreme circumstances, the preservation Commission or the Department of Inspections should be given the power to seek judicial enforcement against any homeowner found to be demolishing their home through neglect. If these amendments were passed by the Metro Counsel, then the Preservation Commission and the Department of Inspections would have a lot more power to take preemptive action against demolition by neglect. Of course we could not rely on the government alone to prevent this problem, much of what underlines the issue is economic difficulties and public perception that Preservation groups only seek to hinder development. For this problem to be fully confronted, the government along with Preservation groups should work together to make funds available for homeowners who are legitimately having difficulty in maintaining the integrity of their historical property. This system of government enforcement with outside organizations working with and providing resources for the average homeowner, and penalizing those who are purposefully trying to circumvent the law, will not only avoid costly and embarrassing court battles, but will better ensure that the cultural and historical properties that define Louisville will be preserved for future generations of citizens. + + + I dissent from the majority’s holding that a rational-basis review of Congress’ decision to regulate a “class of activities” that includes local, non-commercial behavior is proper, as long as the regulation is part of a “general regulatory statute [that] bears a substantial relation to commerce,” while also refusing to hear as-applied challenges that would “excise individual applications of a concededly valid statutory scheme,” which effectively abolishes any meaningful limitations on Congress’ power to regulate under the Commerce Clause. Instead, I would have held the CSA unconstitutional as applied to respondent Monson who cultivated and consumed medical marijuana which never entered the stream of commerce, is not a regulation that is rationally related to Congress’ Commerce Clause power, while remanding the question of the constitutionality of regulating Raich’s medical marijuana use, in accordance with the stricter scrutiny test described in this opinion. + +The respondents have argued that application of the CSA to their “intrastate, noncommercial cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal medical purposes as recommended by a patient's physician pursuant to valid California state law” is an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause. I agree with Justice Scalia in his concurrence, that a necessary and proper clause analysis is necessary because the respondents are challenging the authority of Congress’ implied power to regulate this class of activities, but disagree with his conclusion that regulations of respondent’s activities were “appropriate means of achieving the legitimate end of eradicating Schedule I substances from interstate commerce.” + +In conducting the necessary and proper clause analysis, I think it is necessary to differentiate between the respondents, since Raich obtained her marijuana from a third-party, while Monson’s production and consumption was entirely personal. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," + +Demolition by neglect has proven to be a real issue that needs to be addressed in Louisville, and fortunately there are many examples of prominent cities that have taken proactive legislative action to address the issue. The District of Columbia is one example of a city that was also plagued by demolition by neglect and where the regulatory agencies responsible for historic preservation had no power to stop deterioration before it was too late. However, the District passed several key amendments to local ordinances, the first of which was to its Historic Preservation Act, which placed an affirmative duty on property owners to prevent structures on their property from decaying, and authorizing the mayor to prevent such neglect. Additionally the city passed an amendment to its building codes, which required the city to consult with the Historic Preservation Board on any of its decisions to demolition a historic property. Based on these amendments, D.C. now has methods of enforcing the statutes preventing demolition by neglect: first is administrative enforcement where the City can impose civil or criminal fines for violations of the statutes, or the city can seek judicial enforcement through a court order. New York City also has a similar system for enforcing their demolition by neglect laws, first the city will send two warning letters to the homeowner, and if the homeowner does not comply then they must attend an administrative hearing to explain any “mitigating circumstances.” Both New York and D.C. have been reluctant to rely on judicial enforcement to enforce their demolition by neglect laws, because “officials from both cities strongly believe that selective judicial enforcement increase the legitimacy of the ordinance and prevents community backlash against broader historic efforts.” The additional issue raised by using judicial enforcement is that it would be difficult for any court to set a rule for what demolition by neglect requires judicial action. Despite judicial enforcement of these statutes being potentially arbitrary and time consuming, and therefore an ineffective method of preventing neglect, the threat of its use is still an important weapon that the government must have. + +Based on the experiences in cities like D.C. and New York, it seems like the best solution to addressing demolition by neglect in Louisville is to follow in their footsteps. The Historic Landmark and Preservation Commission should be amended to give the Commission the power to hear allegations of neglect, and the ability to impose fines and penalties on any homeowners who are not taking properly maintaining their historic properties. Additionally, the loophole in the Building Code that does not allow the Preservation Commission to have a say in emergency demolition orders should be abolished, and there should be a coordination effort between the Department of Inspections on how best to proceed to preserve a historic home in situations where the structure has decayed enough to be a threat to the public safety. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," The ordinance also provides that no other department or agency of the Metro Government can issue any permit relating to the alteration to a landmark or structure within a historic district unless a certificate of appropriateness is obtained from the Commission. The ordinance specifically provides that in regards to demolition, an owner must submit an application for demolition that contains “information establishing that the property cannot be put to a reasonable beneficial use without the approval of the proposed work or if income-producing property, information establishing that the applicant cannot obtain a reasonable return from the property without the approval of the proposed work.” After an owner submits an application, the staff will either classify the application as needing staff review or Committee review. If it is decided that a Committee review is need, the application will first be viewed by the staff who will make a written determination if the exterior alterations are in compliance with the guidelines, and the recommendation will be forwarded to the Committee. When the Committee meets to consider the application, it will be a public hearing, where the applicant can submit any relevant information needed for the review of the application, and any interested parties will have an opportunity to testify. Then the Committee will make a decision “based upon a written find of fact,” where the Committee will either approve the application, deny the application, approve it with conditions, or defer the decision for further consideration. After the decision is made the applicant may appeal the decision to the Commission, who will then schedule a meeting to consider the appeal, however a decision by the Commission will only be overturned “upon the written finding that the staff or Committee was clearly erroneous as to a material finding of fact related to whether the proposed exterior alterations complied with the guidelines.” + +Additionally, if an application for demolition or new construction is denied by the Committee, the applicant may request an “economic hardship exemption” from compliance from a guideline “which constituted the basis of the denial of the application,” with the Commission. The Commission will then hold another public hearing, where the applicant can supplement the record to show that they qualify for the exemption, or the Commission might require the applicant submit findings from a person determined to be an expert in “real estate and development who are knowledgeable in real estate economics…[and] in the economic of renovation, redevelopment and rehabilitation.” The Commission will only grant an economic hardship exemption if the applicant proves shows through a preponderance of the evidence that: 1) for an non-income producing structure the property cannot “be put to any reasonable beneficial use,” or 2)for an income-producing structure that the applicant “cannot obtain any reasonable return from the property… without the approval of the application.” If the Commission decides to deny the request for an exemption, this decision is final, which may be appealed by any “injured or aggrieved” party to the Jefferson Circuit Court within 30 days of the Commission’s final action.",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," One of the most serious challenges facing the Historic Preservation movement today is demolition of historic properties from long-term neglect, otherwise known as “demolition by neglect.” This neglect is usually intentional by the property owner, in an effort to evade local preservation ordinances. And because most city’s historic preservation codes to do not have any provisions that impose an affirmative duty on a property owner to maintain their property, many owners succeed in letting their property deteriorate past the point of repair. The city of Louisville is not immune to this phenomenon, as is evidenced by the legal battles between developer Todd Blue over the Whiskey Row development or the conflict with Genny’s Diner owner, Frank Farris. These examples illustrate the catastrophic economic, political and cultural implications demolition by neglect has on the community and the preservation movement. By examining these examples, and exploring how other cities have attempted to address the issue of demolition by neglect through statutory and judicial means, the city of Louisville might be able to avoid further loss of historic properties. + + The city of Louisville has several local ordinances that affect the issue of demolition by neglect. The first is the Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission established under Metro Ordinance §32.250. The ordinance states that historic preservation of “neighborhoods, areas, places structures and improvements” is a “public necessity” that is “required in the interest of the health, prosperity, safety, welfare, and economic well-being of the people.” The purpose of the statute is to “effect and accomplish the preservation, protection, perpetuation, and use of historic landmarks, landmark sites, prehistoric or historic archeological sites...”, to “safeguard the Metro Government’s history and heritage,” to “stabilize and improve property values,” to “foster civic pride in the value of notable accomplishments of the past,” to “assure that new construction and renovation or alteration to existing structures…will be compatible with the historic, visual and aesthetic character of such historic district,” to “strengthen the economy of the Metro Government,” and to “maintain a secure and safe environment in such districts.” To accomplish these the goals the ordinance also lists all of the designated Historic Preservation Districts that have been established by other ordinances, and states that “no person shall make any exterior alteration to any structure or property designated a local landmark or to any property or structure located within a district without obtaining a certificate of appropriateness.” It is this part of the code that most property owners are trying to avoid when they neglect their properties, especially if they know the Commission will be unfriendly to their plans for construction or demolition. + +The ordinance also established the Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission, which is to consist of 13 members, ten of which are to be appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Metro Council. The commission is granted the power to classify all applications for exterior alterations, review applications to issue certificates of appropriateness, provide assistance to applicants, coordinate review with the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses or any other Metro Department, and provide assistance with respect to appeals of the commissions decisions. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," However, the District Court dismissed Metro’s Motion to Dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, because none of the Department’s responses to Iron Quarter’s requests were final decisions that were appealable. Following this agreement, the Preservation Community was outraged at the circumvention of the law, and several groups, including the owner of the property adjacent to the one sought to be demolished filed a motion to intervene in the Iron Quarter’s lawsuit against the city, which the judge granted. After the preservation groups were allowed to intervene in the lawsuit, the city, investors and Todd Blue managed to negotiate a new settlement that would not involve demolishing the entire historic block. The settlement provides that an investment group headed by Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown would purchase 5 of the 7 buildings for $4.85 million dollars, and the city promised to provide the group a $1.5 million dollar grant to help stabilize and preserve the buildings. However, the two easternmost building of Whiskey Row were determined to be too deteriorated to preserve, and Blue plans on demolishing the buildings and to put a temporary parking lot in their place. Another concession that Blue received that was not an “official” part of the settlement agreement, was permission to tear down a different historic building, known as the “Elmo” building on Main Street. + +Both of these cases resulted in protracted legal disputes, cost taxpayers and the homeowner’s large sums of money, and neither resulted in total victory or defeat for any of the parties involved. The problems faced in both of these cases highlight many of the nuances behind the issue of demolition by neglect. The first, is the often times arbitrary enforcement and settlement of these development issues by the Metro Government, which makes it difficult for developers to access risks when purchasing a historic property, and leads to a public perception of the unfairness of the whole process. In both case studies, the developers were blatantly disregarding the law by letting their properties fall into disrepair, but Faris was ordered to give his property away, even though he fully complied with the permit process requesting a demolition, and lost his business as a result of his legal troubles. In contrast Blue received almost $5 million dollars for his properties, despite not complying with proper demolition procedure, and he got approval to demolish another historic building, and received no jail time for breaking the law. The differences between the criminal and procedural outcomes of these two cases, seems to highlight how much money and political clout can affect, and even circumvent the law regarding historic preservation. This only serves to not only undermine the legitimacy of the government and its ability to enforce the law, but it also undermines the Preservation movement as a whole. In either of these situations, preservationists can easily be painted as the “bad guys” as either an obstructionist force determined to preserve an unimportant building at the expenses of a legitimate small business owner, or as a government entity devoid of any meaningful power to stop property owners from destroying historically important structures. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," The defendant could use the facts of the Allied-Signal case, to suggest that the past slip-and-fall incidents in the store would not show that Martin had clear knowledge of the potential harmful consequences of the applesauce spill, considering that prior incidences involved different types of foods that caused the fall. However, this argument is likely to be unconvincing to a judge who would probably see this factual variation as immaterial. + Even if the plaintiff can prove that the defendant acted with conscious disregard an award for punitive damages cannot be given unless the plaintiff also shows that the conduct was “despicable.” Conduct is defined as despicable if it is so “vile,” “base,” or “wretched,” that it would be “despised by ordinary people.” Mock, 5 Cal. Rptr. 2d 594 at 609. The case, American Airlines, Inc. v. Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, 117 Cal. Rptr. 2d 685 (2002), is an example of a case where the plaintiff could prove that the defendant acted with conscious disregard but was not able to present evidence that the conduct met the despicable conduct standard. In this case, the airline had retained attorney Gregory Long and his law firm to represent the airline regarding the purchase of plane from the company “MDC”. Id. at 688-689. When American Airlines experienced problems with the plane they again asked Long to represent them in suing MDC for breach of contract. Id. Three years later a different company (ADO) sued MDC in a matter unrelated to the American Airlines litigation, and ADO asked Long to be a federal rule 30(b)(6) witness for them in discovery. Long agreed to be this witness, despite American Airlines objections. Id. at 691-693. In October 1996, American Airlines sued Long and the law firm for breach of fiduciary duty and professional negligence, and requested punitive relief. Id. at 694. The court held that while Long’s conduct was “improper,” and “a violation of the State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct,” and could fairly be seen to have consciously disregarded the plaintiff’s rights, it did not meet the despicable conduct standard. Id. at 712. The Court reaches this conclusion based on the reasoning that Long refused to answer any questions regarding American Airlines during the deposition. The Court reasons that while Long’s agreement to be a witness was “self-serving” his refusal to compromise any confidential information of Americans showed that “he held American’s interests above those of ADO.” Id. at 710. Based on this reasoning the court upheld the trial court’s grant of summary adjudication of the punitive damage claim. Id. at 712. + Another example of a case where the plaintiff failed to prove that the defendant’s actions were despicable is, Lackner v. North, 37 Cal. Rptr. 3d 863 (2006). In this case, the plaintiff Teri Lackner was talking to her husband at the base of a ski run, in a deserted rest area, when high school ski-team member, Cassidy North collided into Lackner after racing down the run at full speed. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss,"The government has justified the regulation of Monson’s personal production and consumption using a “supply and demand” theory that such personal use can affect the market price of marijuana in the aggregate. I do not understand how the majority can logically distinguish this “supply and demand theory” as any less attenuated than the “cost of crime” or “national productivity” arguments that were rejected in Lopez, when the practical affect of accepting this test is abandonment of the idea that there is an “outer limit” on Congress’ Commerce Clause power, if it can regulate the production and possession of a commodity that has never entered, nor ever will enter interstate commerce. In addition, this interpretation does not comport with the idea that regulation of the “exclusively internal commerce of a State“ represents what Congress cannot regulate, since it was expressly not enumerated. Accordingly, I would hold that federal regulation of Monson’s personal use and production of medical marijuana in compliance with state law is prohibited by the Constitution, since it represents an attempt to regulate a completely intra-state, non-commercial activity that has no meaningful affect on interstate commerce. + + Respondent Raich, however, received her marijuana from a third-party, and therefore engaged in commercial activity, so regulation of her conduct cannot be disposed of on grounds that the casual links between the enumerated power and the regulation are too attenuated. Instead, this case presents the more difficult issue of how the Court should balance the “distribution of power [that is] fundamental to our federalist system of government,” when the Commerce Clause challenge involves the competing judicial values of giving deference to the legislative decisions of Congress, with the state’s function of “serv[ing] as a laboratory; [to] try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” + +In an attempt to balance these considerations, I would have held that in situations, like the one presented by the facts of Raich’s case, where Congress is attempting to regulate a local activity, pursuant to a broad regulatory scheme, with no prima facie connection to interstate commerce, and the federal regulation conflicts with a state law that falls within the traditional scope of its general police power, then the determination of Congress’ authority to enact the regulation should not be given the deference of a rational basis review. Instead, it should give rise to a rebuttable presumption that the regulation is not rationally related to the power of regulating interstate commerce. This presumption could be refuted by the factors already established in Morrison and Lopez, by showing express congressional findings concerning the substantial effects of the regulated activity on interstate commerce, as well as indicating an express jurisdictional element that narrowly limits the application of the statute. However, if the statute represented an attempt by Congress to further a compelling national interest, and the government could show that the underlying purpose of the statute would be significantly undermined without the ability to regulate the local activity free from state regulation, then the constitutionality of the statute could be upheld, even without congressional findings or jurisdictional limits. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," This language was added into the statute in 1987, which shows the legislature’s intent that punitive damages should only be awarded against defendant’s who intended their actions, even if they did not intend their consequences. In the case, Hoch v. Allied-Signal, 29 Cal. Rptr. 2d 615 (1994), the plaintiffs sued a seatbelt manufacturer for a wrongful death claim arguing that the defective seatbelt design caused the death of the decedent. The plaintiffs presented evidence that Allied-Signal never tested the seatbelt latch for “inertial unlatching” which they argued is what caused the decedent’s seatbelt to come unlatched. Id. at 617. They also presented evidence that over 20 years prior to Hoch’s rollover accident, Ford and the manufacturer released a “position paper” that stated they planned to redesign the seat-belt due to their fear of “inertial seat belt separation.” Id. at 618. Despite this evidence the court ruled that the evidence did not clearly show that Allied-Signal “was aware a probable danger existed that type one buckles would unlatch under the conditions of an actual automobile accident.” Id. at 621. Without this knowledge, it was not possible that Allied-Signal “willfully” disregarded the rights of the plaintiffs. + A case where the defendant was found to have acted willfully is, Spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apts., 90 Cal. Rptr. 3d 453 (2009). In this case, the plaintiff Lori Spinks was promised housing as a part of an employment agreement she reached with her employer. However, after Spinks suffered an industrial accident she was terminated from her position, and the employer asked the landlord to forcefully evict Spinks by changing the locks on her apartment. Id. at 463. Based o Equity’s actions, Spinks sued claiming twelve causes of action, including a request for punitive damages. Id. The court overturned the trial courts summary judgment on the punitive damage claim, holding that the plaintiff presented enough evidence to state a claim that Equity acted maliciously. The court reasoned that not only did Equity “willfully” take steps to remove the plaintiff from her apartment; they did so despite “concerns about the legality of the acts and about their effects on [the] plaintiff’s welfare.” Id. at 494. + These cases determine that the plaintiff in the D&D litigation will have to present evidence that Mr. Martin acted willfully in ignoring the applesauce spill. The facts of the case state that Martin was informed on two separate occasions of the spill, and both times failed to have the spill cleaned. This prior knowledge is similar to Spinks, where the landlord knew the law regarding forceful eviction of tenants and still illegally changed the locks on Spinks’ apartment. Also, considering that Martin not only failed to have the spill cleaned, but did so with the knowledge that multiple customers had slipped in the past, presents a strong case for the plaintiff that Martin willfully disregarded the potential harmful consequences of not cleaning up the applesauce. +",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss,"Despicable conduct has further been defined in the BAJI as, “conduct which is so vile, base, contemptible, miserable, wretched or loathsome that it would be looked down upon and despised by ordinary decent people.” Mock v. Michigan Millers, 5 Cal. Rptr. 2d 594, 609 (1992). Each of these elements will be analyzed below. + In the punitive damage statute the California legislature recognized two types of conduct that can be characterized as malicious: conduct done with the intent to harm, or conduct that was not committed with the intent to harm, but is so “unreasonable and dangerous” that the defendant should have known that the resulting harm was “highly probable.” This sort of conduct is known as “conscious disregard.” Nolin v. National Convenience Stores Inc, 157 Cal. Rptr. 32, 36 (1979). In another case that defined conscious disregard, Taylor v. Superior Court, the plaintiff Cameron Taylor suffered severe injuries after being hit by a drunk driver, the defendant Clair Stille. Taylor, 890 at 892. In Taylor, the court is faced with the issue of whether the act of drunk driving meets the “malicious” conduct requirement. The court decides that the line between gross negligence and malicious conduct had been crossed, because the defendant had knowledge of the safety hazards of driving while intoxicated, but still choose to drive anyways. Id. at 896. It was reasoned that a person who chooses to drink to the point of intoxication, knowing that later they will be operating an inherently dangerous vehicle, is exhibiting “a conscious disregard of the safety of others,” and the awarding of punitive damages is appropriate. Id. at 897 +To establish that the defendant acted while ignoring the rights of the plaintiff, evidence must be presented that shows the defendant was aware of the “dangerous consequences” of an action and failed to avoid them. College Hosp., Inc. v. Super. Ct. of Orange Co., 882 P.2d 894, 911 (Cal. 1994). In College Hospital, the plaintiff, Laura Crowell was a patient receiving outpatient treatment for agoraphobia and panic disorders. Id. at 901. Shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Mrs. Crowell began an extramarital affair with a hospital employee named Robert Berry who was not involved in her treatment. After the relationship ended, Mrs. Crowell “suffered a ‘breakdown’” and was transferred to another hospital. Based on these events the plaintiff sued the hospital based on a “breach of a duty to provide competent therapeutic care.” Id. The plaintiff sought punitive damages against the hospital based on the argument that Berry’s supervisor, Mr. Westbrook acted maliciously because he knew of the affair and did nothing to stop it. However, the evidence concerning Mr. Westbrook’s knowledge stated that he only heard “third-hand” about the relationship, and after hearing this rumor he confronted Berry who denied the allegations. Id. at 910-911. Considering this evidence, the court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim that Westbrook acted maliciously. ",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss,"Sometimes these owners even have community support for demolishing an historic building, because some people do not see the value in preserving an old (and now dilapidated) house. On the other side of the spectrum are the community citizens who are enraged by their inability to proactively save a property they deem as being important to the history and culture of the community. + +To demonstrate how these issues are all intertwined, two case studies will be presented demonstrating the various procedural avenues and outcomes that can result when preservationists, the property owner and the city come into conflict over deciding the future of a neglected historic property. The first is the conflict with Genny’s Diner owner Frank Faris, who in 2001 purchased an old Victorian home that was adjacent to his restaurant for $100,000 with the intent of demolishing the house to expand parking for his diner. The house was allegedly in a dilapidated condition when Faris purchased the property, and then after his further neglect and two fires the condition of the house worsened considerably. Then two years after he purchased the property, the Clifton neighborhood was designated a Historic District. Because of the properties location he was required to apply for a permit to demolish the building, which he did in 2004, but the Landmarks Commission denied his application. Because of Faris’ inability to demolish the property as planned, and the amount of money it would require to repair the building to make it fit for habitation or commercial use, Faris sat on the property and let it continue to deteriorate. Because of his neglect, Faris incurred over $75,000 in building code violations for his failure to repair the house. He tried to sell the house, and then he tried to negotiate a property swap with the city but none of these efforts panned out, and eventually a judge ordered Faris to sell or give away the house. When he failed to abide by the order, he was sentenced to a year of home incarceration. Eventually, Faris sold the house and the diner to Tim and Roy Koons-McGee who bought the property to put a comfy cow ice-cream shop in the Victorian home. The new owners then applied to Landmarks Commission for permission to demolish the diner, and the Commission approved the demolition and refurbishment plans, and now the house has been restored, but Genny’s Diner, a Louisville staple for 27 years was lost. + +The next case study of demolition by neglect in Louisville, is still pending in the courts and undergoing negotiations between developer Todd Blue and his properties on 101-133 W. Main Street otherwise known as “Whiskey Row.” Whiskey Row is a block of attached buildings with cast-iron facades that was built between 1850-1905 and “was the thriving center of Louisville’s whiskey economy.”",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +ss," Louisville’s Whiskey Row is second only to New York in being the largest assemblage of cast-iron architecture in the country, as well as many of the buildings being designed by such “celebrated architects such as Henry Whitestone (Galt House), John Andrewartha (City Hall), and D. X. Murphy (Churchill Downs).” In 2007, Developer Todd Blue bought the properties for $4.3 million dollars with the intention of developing the block into a mixed-used commercial and office facility called “The Iron Quarter” where he would maintain the facades of the original structure but demolish the rest of the building. However, shortly after purchasing the property, the economy rapidly declined, making Blue’s original plan unfeasible, and the properties have sat vacant since 2007. Eventually, the non-profit group Downtown Development Corporation noticed the rapid deterioration of the properties and issued a report that recognized the buildings were at risk for collapsing and suggesting repairs. Acting upon this report, the Department of Codes and Enforcement wrote Todd Blue, ordering him to stabilize the property, and stating that failure to comply would result in legal action pursuant to Chapter 156 of the Property Maintenance Code. In response to the letter, the Iron Quarter LLC hired their own structural engineer to examine the property, and his determination was that the properties could potentially collapse and were a threat to public safety. Using this information, the Iron Quarter applied to the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses requesting an “emergency order of demolition” pursuant to Metro Ordinance §156.806. The Department denied their request for an emergency order, stating that their prior letter, that established timelines for repairs was enough to safeguard the public, and that the buildings were not imminent threat, but that the Iron Quarter could still request a regular demolition order pursuant to §156.807. Following the Department’s decision, the Iron Quarter had several more engineers and fire experts inspect the building, all of which concluded that the buildings were unsafe and at “risk of collapse.” Following these reports, on June 28th, 2010 the Iron Quarter filed suit in Jefferson County Circuit Court, and three days later the Historic Landmarks and Preservation District designated Whiskey Row as a historic landmark, a designation that would require Todd Blue and the Iron Quarter to go get permission from the Preservation Commission for any non-emergency demolition permits. However, the Iron Quarter only continued to request for an emergency demolition order, to which Metro’s only response has been that Iron Quarter pursue the standard wrecking permit process. + +Shortly following the judge’s decision not to dismiss the case, the Mayor, Greg Fischer and Todd Blue reached a settlement agreement where Fischer agreed to ask the Metro Council for $450,000 for a “feasibility study” on saving the facades, in exchange for granting the emergency demolition order, and allowing Blue to put a parking lot on the property, if the city and Blue did not reach an agreement on the facades in 90 days.",22,english,female,bachelors degree,student,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," + San Diego County is very agriculturally productive, thanks to a mild, sunny climate. Common crops include: tomatoes, citrus, leafy greens, squash, broccoli, herbs, tree fruits like peaches and lemons, berries, honey, and peppers. There is a substantial market for organic community supported agriculture food in the San Diego area, with many local organizations having lengthy waiting lists. Organic eggs and milk are also popular. Many organic farms also provide tours of their agricultural operations as well as access for hiking, birdwatching, and other recreational activities. This is the type of operation that would allow the landowner to gain the benefits of government programs while improving habitat, thus allowing recreational use and creating an opportunity for farm tours and other programs for making money or for educational purposes. + In addition to filling a potentially lucrative niche market, the benefits of organic farming often include greater biodiversity in plants and wildlife in the area thanks to a lack of chemicals in the soil and water. However, organic farming has greater costs than conventional farming in some ways. It requires more intensive labor and management to remove pests and weeds and fertilize the soil without chemicals, and losses are often greater than with conventional methods, while a small organic farm also lacks the efficiency of scale of large operations. Practices not related to organic farming but beneficial to wildlife may also incur greater labor costs, including planting cover crops, strategic grazing rotation, invasive species removal, and active management of plant growth to provide specific conditions such as edge habitat or patches of open ground. Thus, there are many reasons why the landowner in this example might seek financial help or expertise in maximizing both profits and habitat quality. +The land chosen for this scenario is a parcel adjacent to the town of Potrero, in unincorporated San Diego County, California. It is 160 acres of chaparral, nonnative Mediterranean grassland, and oak woodland next to to the Cleveland National Forest. It lies in the East County Southern Foothills ecoregion of the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Plan. The plan is still being reviewed, but presently considers over a hundred species of plants and animals. Many are endangered, such as the Stephens' kangaroo rat, the mountain yellow-legged frog, several species of butterfly, and the California gnatcatcher; others are declining and may soon be listed, such as burrowing owls. + This area was inhabited by Native Americans for untold centuries and was then settled by cattle ranchers and cordwood sellers in the late 1800's. This piece of land was part of an original homestead patent and so was probably used for grazing and/or wood production for many of the intervening decades. + chose a piece of property from a real estate website and researched available government programs to see what options a small farmer might realistically have for mitigating costs and preserving wildlife-friendly operations. As a model of what somebody farming this land might attempt to achieve, I located an organic farm in the same area. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," + One of the costs which may be shared under both programs is the cost of technical assistance, which includes “conservation planning and design, layout, installation, and checkout of approved conservation practices”. The government provides a registry of technical service providers (TechReg), which includes local prices for the provision of assistance with approved conservation practices. In San Diego County, the price of technical assistance with cover crops on 50 acres would be $750. No more than $50,000 may be received from any Natural Resources Conservation Service program (or combination programs) in one year. + Obtaining an easement through the California Farmland Conservancy Program would allow the landowner to ensure that the property would be used for agriculture in the future, and not be subject to ordinary development pressures. The program also provides two types of grants: for acquisition, and planning/policy and land improvement. + Owners of land eligible under the Williamson Act may enter into a contract with the county which restricts the land to agricultural or open space uses. The land will then be valued for property tax purposes at only 65% of its value, or assessed only on the basis of the income produced from the land. + The following is an analysis of how each of these programs might apply to the Potrero farmland, and what applying for each program would entail. + Unfortunately, this land would not be eligible for the Conservation Stewardship Program, since it was not planted for 4 of 6 years before 2008. If the land had been farmed during that time and the operator was in compliance with certain conservation provisions, it would be a potential candidate, as long as the land was not already enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, as the two are mutually exclusive. + As with the Conservation Stewardship Program, the land is not eligible for the Conservation Reserve Program because it was not farmed for four of the six years between 2002 and 2007. Even if this were not the case, the land may not fit the severe erodibility criterion; the Web Soil Survey rates the two most common soil types on this property as having a “Moderate” erosion hazard. + To benefit from the Organic Program, the landowner must have gross income from farming of at least $5000 annually and must qualify as an organic farmer. There are several agencies which may certify a producer as organic in the state of California, but they all adhere to USDA standards. There are specific guidelines which organic farmers must follow. For example, when controlling pests, the farmer must first try managing to prevent pests, then mechanical controls, then nonsynthetic biological or mineral materials, and if none of those work, synthetic substances from an approved list may be applied. + If the farmer is certified, the California Department of Food and Agriculture's California Organic Program may pay 75%, up to $750, for the cost of registration. In this model, the farm is bringing in about $42,000 yearly. The registration fee for that income range is $100. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"The non-native plants make the remaining habitat less attractive for animals in many ways including impeding mobility (horned lizard, kangaroo rat), decreasing insect species diversity (California gnatcatcher), and also deprive native forbs of sunlight. + The constituency who is interested in this issue mostly consists of people who value coastal sage scrub for its biodiversity and quality of life aspects (recreational opportunities or open space). Although coastal sage scrub was historically often used as grazing land, the remaining fragments are so small and threatened by development that this use seems unlikely. However, people who live in the suburbs that are being built out into the scrub could unknowingly benefit from a healthier ecosystem, if theories about annual grasses increasing the intensity of wildfires are shown to be correct. The worldwide conservation community also has an interest in this habitat since it's part of the California Floristic Province and a ""biodiversity hotspot"". + The remaining pieces of sage scrub are being eroded around the edges as roads, trails, and other development make it easier for non-native seeds to spread and establish themselves. It is a relatively gradual process and a variety of approaches are being tried to stave off further habitat conversion and also to restore degraded areas. I believe that one tool which could make a difference is controlled grazing. + Grazing sheep has been tried for decreasing non-native species with limited success in coastal sage scrub. I would like to investigate whether certain exotic species might be good alternatives to sheep based on their known behavior and diet selection in the wild. My idea is that if specific annual grasses (ripgut, bromes, and rye grass, but I'm looking into others too) could be grazed soon before they are dropping their seeds (or if animals would selectively eat their seeds) then there would be that many fewer seeds spreading further into the sage scrub. The annual grasses in question are R-selected as far as I can tell, which from what I read means that grazing is probably not a good strategy for eradicating them; furthermore some of them have seed banks in the soil. So my goal would be containing their spread rather than eliminating them from the area. The reason I am hopeful that the animals would target the undesirable plants is because most of the natives (sages, deerweed, yerba santa, coyote bush, monkeyflower) are not very palatable to grazing animals (according to the Forest Service's website and USDA publications). The grazing species I am researching as potential candidates include rhebok, oribi, addax, steenbok, and goral. + The location in question has a large portion of fenced-in land that is undeveloped. About 900 acres of this is coastal sage scrub, some relatively undegraded. My plan would be to fence off sections of this land where it interfaces with private land and roads (where invasive seeds are most likely to be spread) and put groups of different species in each area to graze. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"This particular farm charges $25.00 weekly for a box. However, other farms in the county charge $30.00 or $36.75 weekly for a similar amount of food. Thus, the amount a farmer could make from an organic farm varies widely according to price charged, number of subscribers, size of operation, etc. As a conservative example, this model farm has thirty subscribers at $30.00 weekly, and so would bring in $3600 monthly income. +I found many programs for helping landowners, and chose six of the most relevant ones (plus sub-programs) for further investigation. + Under the Conservation Stewardship Program, a farmer may receive payments from USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service for using certain practices that conserve soil and water. Rather than helping farmers fix current problems, it directly rewards them for ongoing use of sustainable methods and keeping their land in good condition. + The Conservation Reserve program, administered by the Farm Bureau, pays landowners rental payments and cost-share assistance for planting resource-conserving crops. The soil must have an average Erodibility Index of eight or higher, or be part of a rare or declining habitat. + The Environmental Quality Incentive Program is one of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service programs. It provides cost-sharing in every county in California for a wide variety of conservation practices. Stated goals include helping farmers who are transitioning to organic agriculture (or boosting pollinator populations, increasing biodiversity including soil-borne organisms, enhancing water quality, controlling invasive species or dozens of other resource-enhancing possibilities). Among the listed practices which might be of interest to the hypothetical Potrero farmer are Brush Management, Conservation Cover, Cover Crop, Irrigation Water Management, and Nutrient and Pest Management. + As part of a sub-program, National Organic Program-certified farmers can receive up to $20,000 a year to help implement an approved organic system plan. This program is administered in California through the California Department of Food and Agriculture's California Organic Program. Landowners who qualify may receive up to 75% of the cost they incurred in becoming certified organic (not to exceed $750) from this cost-share program. + The Environmental Quality Incentive Program also has a Wildlife Habitat Initiative which provides cost-sharing for a similar list of conservation practices. A points system is used to determine eligibility. One factor is the status of the species which will benefit from the conservation practices (listed species will be weighted more heavily). + The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program is a cost-sharing program which applies to essential animal and plant habitat, including critical habitat designated under federal and state law. It focuses specifically on wildlife habitat improvement and less on agricultural practices. If the landowner develops a program for developing fish and wildlife habitat program that is long-term (15 years or longer), the program may pay up to 90% of the costs. Practices which may allow for cost-sharing include land restoration, planting wildlife-friendly cover vegetation and hedges, and structures to benefit wildlife, as well as consultation about managing land use to benefit wildlife. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," + + Like other former Soviet states, Turkmenistan is suffering from desertification as a result of excessive agrochemical application and inappropriate irrigation, as well as overgrazing. Most of the arable land is devoted to cotton production, another legacy of the Soviets. + + Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country with a widely variable climate and great vegetational diversity. There are a number of grassland types arranged along steep elevational and moisture gradients. In the 1980's much of the grassland was heavily overgrazed due to Soviet demands for more livestock products, particularly sheep's wool. When production systems broke down after the collapse of the USSR, pastures were degraded through both overgrazing and undergrazing due to concentrations of large numbers of animals year-round instead of the transhumance traditionally practiced there. As of 2007, Kyrgyzstan's government estimated that up to a third of the country's pastures were seriously degraded. Localized projects promoting more sustainable traditional grazing practices have been successful in some places at restoring rangeland conditions. + + Tajikistan is slightly smaller than Wisconsin (143,000 sq km) and is very mountainous. In general the climate is subtropical and semiarid with some desert areas although, as in Kyrgyzstan, the mountains cause dramatic local variation. The high mountain desert and high mountain meadow-steppe ecosystems are very productive. Most of the land at lower elevations is developed or given over to agriculture. As usual, the agricultural policies of the Soviets, as well as the chaos after they left, have led to increased soil salinity, water distribution problems, and chemical pollution. + + Transhumance has traditionally been practiced at higher elevations, with primary livestock being yaks, cattle, and goats. Unlike in Kyrgyzstan, livestock production has increased and rotational grazing has decreased since the fall of the USSR, as pasturelands are privatized. It remains to be seen whether a sustainable system will be arrived at without being imposed and subsidized by Moscow. + + Much of Afghanistan's population has always been made up of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists, who practice transhumance between the steppe and summer mountain pastures. Most livestock are sheep and goats with some cattle. The northern part of the country has a productive grass steppe with very few shrubs. Major species include Bromus, Poa, and Festuca species. However, long term heavy grazing has led to grassland being replaced by less palatable sagebrush communities in some places. Aside from the steppe, most of the flat land in Afghanistan is covered with xeric woodlands and desert. + + + +Controlled grazing by non-native herbivores in California coastal sage scrub may help reduce the spread of invasive annual grasses near the interface of wild and urban land, relative to ungrazed land. + Historically, coastal sage scrub in Southern CA is dominated by shrubs and forbs such as California buckwheat, black sage, white sage, California sagebrush, and deerweed. The vast majority of this habitat has been lost to development and what remains has largely been converted to Mediterranean grassland, mostly consisting of annual grasses (wild oats, multiple bromes, ryegrass). ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"Amendments to the easement law which went into effect in January of 2011 states that “the nonagricultural qualities that will be protected by the easement are inherent to the easement property”, meaning that non-agricultural qualities such as open space character may also be taken into account. If the landowner donates the easement, tax benefits may ensue, but probably will not if the owner accepts payment for the easement (from the government or a trust). + The value of the easement would be calculated by determining the difference between the fair market value and the restricted value of the property. This would depend on factors such as how vulnerable the property currently is to being developed. In 2004-2006, the latest years for which data is available, San Diego County lost nearly 6500 acres of farmland to urbanization. Across Southern California, most newly urbanized land consisted of single-family homes located at the periphery of existing cities. Potrero, 44 miles east from central San Diego and adjoining Cleveland National Forest, is a prime example of a community that well-off people from the city like to move to for its “rural charm, city close” qualities. The appraisal guidelines, when determining how vulnerable a property is to being developed, takes into account “the likelihood of...subdivision, based upon recent comparable actions that have been taken by the relevant local government jurisdiction”. An example of what may happen to Potrero may be found about 22 miles away, where a golf course subdivision was built in 1991 in a similarly small, formerly agricultural community (Jamul). According to two local real estate websites, average house prices in Jamul are over $400,000, and that is down from a high of over $700,000 at the height of the real estate bubble! + Based on this information and the likelihood that other semi-rural towns near San Diego will someday follow Jamul's path into subdivision status, it would seem worthwhile for the owner of the Potrero farm to consider having it appraised for the easement program. There could be a substantial profit at the time of the sale, or significant tax benefits if the landowner chose to donate all or part of the property to the easement holder. + The land is not immediately eligible for the Williamson Act, due to not being farmland that is considered prime, unique, or of local or statewide importance. However, it is very close to a small area of important farmland which is already part of a county agricultural preserve. Every two years the maps are updated with the input of entities including environmental groups, water districts, and the Farm Bureau. If the landowner contacted the mapping group and made a convincing case, parties interested in maintaining open and agricultural space might endorse changing the designation of this piece of property to locally important farmland, which would open the path to applying for the Williamson Act's tax benefits. +",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," Excessive rangeland vegetation (especially annuals) degrades the habitat through shading and resulting litter accumulation, as well as dense vegetation inhibiting the lizards' mobility and disrupting their camouflage. Human caused habitat loss, primarily from conversion of rangeland to agricultural use, collecting for pets, and pesticide use to control fire ants are major reasons for the disappearance of Texas horned lizards throughout the Southwest. + + + Central Asia is a mix of steppe, mountains, and deserts. Once it also included tallgrass prairie but, as in the United States, it was plowed under long ago. The region contains vast expanses of shrubland and grassland. The rangelands of Central Asia include these former Soviet countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. There are a number of different definitions for this region depending on who is discussing it. For this presentation Afghanistan is included although that is not always the case. + + There are many factors the five former USSR countries have in common. Agriculture was greatly increased in many places during the 1950's as Russia collectivized farms and pastures and demanded that certain crops be produced, especially cotton. This resulted in water being diverted for irrigation; heavy chemical use; and pasture degradation due to overgrazing. All of these factors have contributed to widespread desertification in the area as soil became too salty to support grazing or crops. Things have changed since the breakup of the Soviet Union but many environmental problems remain. + + The separate countries are a convenient way of dividing up the area for description purposes, but most ecosystem characteristics obviously don't follow national boundaries. They can all be thought of as different aspects of the same large region commonly called the Turanian ecoregion. Many species occur in most or all of the Central Asian countries. Artemisia species are particularly ubiquitous. + + There is a wide variety of soil type and parent matter in Central Asia. However, soils occur in patterns that are common across national boundaries. Gypsisols, light-colored soils with high gypsum content are common. The most widely distributed soil type in the Turanian bioregion is sierozem, a grayish-brown sandy-loam to loam textured soil. Large parts of Central Asia are also made up of sandy desert soil. The particularly fertile areas such as the northern Kazakh plains show chernozem type soil, or black earth. + + Kazakhstan covers 2,700,000 sq km, almost four times the size of Texas. One third of the country is covered by the Kazakh Steppe, the world's largest dry steppe region. The rest of the country is largely desert and mountains. High atmospheric pressure in this area results in hot, dry summers and cold winters with little snow. Most of the 250-300 mm of precipitation each year occurs during the spring. + + The Kazakh Steppe varies from a completely flat plain to gently rolling hills. There are many closed basins with salt accumulation from temporary lakes. Deep depressions may also contain meadows and patches of forest. The vegetation is adapted to drought, fire, and grazing. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," In recent years, more and more people have become interested in preventing extinction of plants and animals and maintaining the health of the environment, both for reasons of personal interest and because ecosystems provide many valuable services to humans (providing oxygen and fresh water, clean air, etc.). There are many threats to wildlife which an understanding of vegetation distribution can help to mitigate. For example, when setting aside habitat for a particular species of animal, knowing what vegetation types are required is critical. Protecting a large tract of sagebrush won't necessarily benefit game birds unless it is interspersed with shrubland or woodland to provide seasonal cover and food, which vary by species. Understanding how an area may be expected to respond to grazing can improve management; the southern mixed prairie vegetation type is adapted to grazing, but long-term heavy grazing is likely to alter the balance of short and tall grasses, which in turn affects the quality of habitat for any species of wildlife that requires tall grass for cover. + Additionally, the susceptibility of an ecosystem to invasive species is partly determined by vegetation type, which in turn is largely determined by climate. If there is going to be development in an area that includes both Ponderosa pine and shortgrass steppe, disturbance could be concentrated in the more invasive-resistant grassland. Similarly, fire suppression activities could be increased in ecosystems like sagebrush steppe which become more vulnerable to invasive grasses when fire return interval is too short, while decreasing fire suppression in Great Basin sage to help prevent its conversion to pinon-juniper woodland. A greater understanding of vegetation type and climate helps land managers to maximize benefits to native wildlife and target habitat protection to the most critical areas. + There are few certainties about the climate change associated with increased global temperature, but one thing is for sure: any change in climate will impact vegetation type and distribution. We currently have a fairly good idea of what to expect in terms of precipitation and temperature in crop-growing areas, but that will change. As the human population increases, ever more food needs to be produced. It is thought that the global population will top 8 billion by 2030, and as standards of living improve throughout the world and people consume more food (especially meat), food production will need to keep up. However, most of the arable land in the world has already been cultivated. What remains is marginal for crops, or is currently covered by rainforest, and most countries are now attempting to limit the destruction of their forest resources. Therefore, food production needs to become more efficient so greater yields can be gotten from the same amount of land, or even less land, as a growing population takes up more living space. But with climate change, land that is productive may become too arid or too warm for the crops currently grown there. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"A 2003 capture study in southeastern Colorado found that lizards were active at air temperatures of 21 to 42oC (average 30oC) with the greatest number captured between 29 to 31oC. The study also found that the dominant cover types were grasses (46%) and bare ground (43%). The remaining cover came from litter (5%), forbs (5%), and shrubs (1%). Buffalo grass and blue grama were the dominant grasses at every site with sandsage, yucca, and cactus being the dominant shrubs. + + The diet of the Texas horned lizard consists primarily (85% or more) of harvester ants supplemented with other insects. Lizards can consume up to 200 ants per day. During the hotter months, they generally eat in the morning, after the sun has brought up their temperature, and in the evening after sundown. The 2003 study mentioned above found that during the cooler temperatures in April, May, and September, the lizards were active during the day. Since harvester ants require seeds for food, they tend to make their mounds in high seed producing areas. Thus, Texas horned lizards are often found in open patches of less dense vegetation adjacent to the ants mounds. Invasive red fire ants and Argentine ants are major causes of harvester ant decline in other parts of the Southwest and efforts to control their spread have so far not been very effective. Availability of water may be a limiting factor for one or both of these species, so not introducing external water sources such as irrigation would be a sensible management decision to benefit the harvester ant population. + + According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, there are 25 ecological sites occurring in Baca County, Colorado. While the ecological site descriptions don't specifically list Texas horned lizard, 13 are mentioned as supporting short-horned lizards (Phrynosoma douglasi). These are loamy, loamy slopes, clayey, siltstone plains, shallow siltstone, gravel breaks, shale breaks, salt flat, sandy salt flat, salt meadow, Plains swale, saline overflow, and overflow. Plant communities of interest within these ecological sites are generally flat-lying blue grama and buffalograss sod or bare ground communities which can contain cactus or low, sparse brush. Average air temperatures in Baca County are also appropriate for Texas horned lizard habitat, with suitable temperatures occurring in June, July, August, and early September. + + In addition to meeting the needs of harvester ants by having areas with relatively high density of grasses and therefore the seed the ants need, the area has a wide variety of vegetation. The vegetation types found in Baca County, from farm ground to blue grama / buffalo grass and continuous bare ground, are good for meeting the needs of Texas horned toads themselves, who require light vegetation to move around near these ant populations and areas that are bare to help them with their temperature regulation through thermal regulation. + + A mixture of mid to early late seral stages would be appropriate to support harvester ants and thus Texas horned lizards. The 46/43 split between blue grama/buffalograss sod and bare ground indicate long term continuous grazing. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"This would require some other preparations like handraising or otherwise habituating the animals to people so they wouldn't be totally stressed out by being moved in and out of the enclosures. Handraising them would also allow them to be fed the target grass species from a young age to hopefully influence their food choices later. The reason I think this is a realistic experiment is because it could be framed as a pro-conservation move by the landowner, and it could also potentially be a grant-funded postdoc type of project. It would not be something that I would think is a good idea for wider use but since this property contains up to .4% of all remaining coastal sage scrub habitat, a positive impact on that area alone would not be inconsiderable. + +The first stop is at a Mediterranean grassland. Nearly all of the native Southern California grassland which was dominated by perennials has been replaced with invasive annual grasses. The elevation is around 300 feet above sea level and the climate is Mediterranean or semi-arid warm steppe in the Koppen classification. Temperatures are mild and the weather is mostly sunny year round. An average of 300 mm of precipitation falls each year mostly between December and March. Plants here are drought-adapted since most of the year has very little rain. They also tend to be somewhat adapted to fire of varying frequencies. +This is Mission Trails Regional Park. There are two large sections of grassland in the park, mostly surrounded by sage scrub and chaparral communities. Park literature attributes the non-native grasslands to past overgrazing. Once the native ecosystem is disturbed and annual grasses gain a foothold they provide fuel for more frequent and faster-moving fires and then quickly grow in the burned areas depriving the newly sprouting shrubs of sunlight and water. The area that makes up Mission Trails Park is known to have been settled by the Spanish in the 1760's so there has been plenty of opportunity for the introduction of European grasses and disruption of native plant communities. + Visible in the background are hills covered with sage scrub and chaparral; sycamore and oak trees are visible in middle ground where the San Diego River provides a corridor of riparian habitat. +Here is where the non-native grasslands transition to sage scrub and chaparral communities. The altitude increases on these hills to about 650 feet. It appears that the grassland gives way to native shrubs more and more as the altitude increases. I don't know why this would be but some factors that I thought might contribute to this phenomenon are: grass seeds are less likely to be dispersed uphill than downhill; cattle and human disturbance may have been concentrated at the lower altitudes because it they were easier to access and closer to the river. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," +Additionally looking at the grassland area on the USDA Web Soil Survey website it appears that much of the area is made up of Diablo-Olivenhain complex (clay and cobbly loam) with 9 to 30 percent slope; the adjacent hillsides are largely fine sandy loam with 30 to 70 percent slope. In this picture the oval on the left encircles an area of sage and chaparral above the grassland which is largely contained in the oval on the right. The broad difference in soils can be seen. Both soils have good drainage. I don't know exactly how the soil type might affect the vegetation in this instance but the grassland may also be in the flood plain of the San Diego River which I would think might affect the mineral composition of the soil. + The photo on the left shows the Mission Trails Park grassland shortly after a fire in 2003 from a very similar perspective to my recent picture on the right. This was the most recent major disruption in the area and it affected both grassland and shrubland in the park. Much of the chaparral vegetation is fire-adapted and some like Ceaonothus actually requires heat for the seed to germinate. According to the park website all areas have recovered well from the fire. + Historical records indicate that aside from fire human disturbances have been frequent in the area. The native Kumeyaay people lived in villages along the river and would burn underbrush in the oak woodland to stimulate growth and attract deer. Later the Spanish built a dam across the river here. There was also a World War II-era training camp north of the river which later became a bombing range. Because the higher elevations are more rugged and inaccessible it seems probable that more human activity was concentrated around the river and the grassland area but I can't know that for sure. If this is a fact then it would make sense that more frequent disturbances would have introduced more foreign grass seeds and provided more opportunity for them to establish themselves. +As mentioned above the grassland occurs in an area with significantly less slope than the sage scrub and chaparral at slightly higher elevations. + + Although most people don't think about it very often, vegetation and the factors that influence its distribution affect almost every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat to the wood that builds our houses and the paper we write on. In the future climate change, biofuels, and the dietary demands of a growing population will make these effects even more obvious. Creating more experts in this field is in Colorado's interest to help keep our state and nation competitive and successful in a changing world. + I will examine two major areas in which knowledge of global vegetation types and distribution would benefit us: conservation of wildlife, and dealing with climate change. +",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"Characteristic plant species include Stipa, Artemisia, and Festuca species. Native animals include many species of rodents (voles, mice, lemmings) wolves, foxes, polecats, and the critically endangered saiga antelope. Bodies of water in the steppe are important migratory stops for birds. Some of the rare bird species who depend on this ecosystem are the Pallas' fish-eagle and the MacQueen's bustard. + + Kazakhstan's grasslands were largely plowed for agriculture or heavily altered by overgrazing in the 1950's under the Soviets. As in other parts of the world, most of what remains (17%-36%) is mostly on hill slopes or soil that is too sandy or salty for crop production. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, livestock production actually decreased in the Kazakh Steppe, and a 2003 report found that most rangeland was in good and improving condition. + Uzbekistan is approximately the size of California at 447,000 sq km. Three-quarters is covered by sandy desert, semi-arid grassland, and shrubland. Around 80% of the country is mostly flat while the east becomes mountainous. There are more than five thousand species of vascular plants in Uzbekistan. The desert is divided into three types which vary greatly in amount of salt in the soil: gypsum, sandy, and saline. + + Uzbekistan has severe environmental problems. The Aral Sea, which lies largely in Uzbekistan, is an extreme example of the consequences of environmental mismanagement. It once covered 68,000 sq km and supported a thriving fishing industry. In the 1960's the Soviets diverted the two major rivers feeding the Aral Sea as part of a project to make Uzbekistan a major cotton producer. It is now divided into three small lakes which take up 10% of its original area, and like most water in the area is badly polluted with agricultural chemicals. This has devastated the local economy and made the area's climate drier and more extreme. As the water disappears, it exposes the salty lakebed which is blown into the air, causing massive salt and dust storms. Many tons of salt are carried up to hundreds of miles away every year. In fact, some scientists believe the destruction of the Aral Sea has directly caused a 5% increase in particulate matter in Earth's atmosphere. + + The salty soil, laden with toxic chemicals from agriculture and weapons testing, settles in the surrounding area, increasing salinity and contributing to desertification, as well as causing serious health problems in the local people. Kazakhstan has built dams and attempted to increase water flow to the northern part of the Aral Sea with some success. However, the southern part in poorer Uzbekistan has yet to benefit from these efforts. + +Turkmenistan is slightly larger than Uzbekistan at 488,000 sq km.It has a continental climate and is as much as 90% covered by subtropical sandy desert and shrubland, with hot, dry summers and mild dry winters. Most precipitation falls between January and May. Mammals include goitered gazelle, honey badger, and sand cat (Felis marmorata). ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m," However, upon further investigation, it appears that San Diego County has placed a moratorium on new Williamson Act contracts due to not receiving as much money as expected from the state to compensate for the decrease in property taxes. + Landowners in rural San Diego County have many options to use their property for income while also creating and maintaining wildlife habitat and open space. One good option is organic farming, which also opens up opportunities for tours, birdwatching, and other recreational activities. There are a variety of governmental programs which are available to help landowners become organic farmers. + Of the programs I found on the internet, two would be ruled out from the start because the land was not farmed in the early 2000's. The land is not currently eligible for the Williamson Act either, although if it were approved for inclusion in a nearby agricultural preserve, it could become eligible; however, San Diego County has placed a moratorium on Williamson Act initiations, so this option is also out. + Eligibility would be most likely for the two Natural Resource Conservation Service-administered programs. If approved, these programs could provide a substantial portion of the funds, as well as technical assistance, for establishing an organic farm, especially since the landowner is a “beginning farmer”. + Potentially the most lucrative program, a conservation easement through the California Farmland Conservancy, would require an expensive appraisal, and the land must meet certain criteria for being in danger of being developed. Based on prices and development patterns in the surrounding communities, the landowner might successfully apply for an easement at some point in the future, especially after the housing market improves. + As described above, applying for these programs requires extensive form-filling and documentation. Aside from the approximately $3500 for easement appraisal, financial costs for the application process are mostly reimbursable, but the time and energy are not. A landowner would need to be patient enough to wade through mountains of paperwork, and have enough scheduling flexibility for multiple trips to the local Natural Resource Conservation Service office and extensive planning with agency personnel. If approved for any of the programs, he or she would also give up a fair amount of autonomy in making land management decisions. There would also be ongoing monitoring which would require more time and coordination with the agencies involved. + However, for a landowner whose goals are already largely in line with those of these government programs (conservation of agricultural land, water, habitat, and open space), it could be well worth the time and effort to get financial help with instituting and maintaining sustainable practices. An inexperienced farmer in particular could also gain from the technical expertise of TechReg providers. As one might expect for government programs, there are significant benefits available for somebody with the patience to learn how the system works, keep lots of detailed records, and jump through various bureaucratic hoops. + + Texas horned lizards prefer dry, flat areas with sparse vegetation. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +m,"The farmer must then keep abreast of changes to the program, and can obtain information about regulations and compliance, using the Plan Handbook which is downloadable for free from the USDA's website. +As described in the Introduction, many of the species likely to be living in the Potrero area fall into the Wildlife Initiative Program's categories of interest, increasing the likelihood of the landowner receiving financial assistance. This property would also have a good chance of qualifying for parts of the Wildlife Habitat Incentive program because of the large number of species of concern in the area. + Both programs are administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Because the landowner in this scenario is a beginning farmer (someone who has either never operated a farm or ranch, or has not operated one for ten consecutive years), such programs may pay a higher percentage of the costs associated with implementing conservation measures. To apply for both of these programs, the landowner must: establish farm records with the USDA; obtain a tax ID number for the business; demonstrate eligibility for Beginning Farmer status; and complete a Conservation Program Application. + To qualify for the Organic Program, the farmer must also contact one of a list of approved certifiers such as California Certified Organic Farmers and prepare an Organic System Plan. This website has a minimum of 17 sections which must be filled out to create a plan which include detailed descriptions of the farmer's crops, rotation practice, pest management, monitoring plans, and everything else which would affect the farm's organic status. Once the plan is approved by the certifying agency, the landowner may apply to be certified organic, which would cost approximately $575 ($275 for the application fee plus $300 for a farm with organic production value between $20,000 and $50,000 yearly). This could be reimbursed by filling out the Federal Organic Cost Share Application. + Once the farm has been certified organic, the Organic Initiative part of the application may be filled out. This includes basic eligibility questions as well as two pages of questions about the specific benefits of the landowner's plans, which are ranked on a points system. A similar (but much longer) application needs to be filled out for the Wildlife Initiative program. + An individual landowner may not apply for grants from the California Farmland Conservancy Program, but may apply for an agricultural easement. The first step in this process would be to get the land appraised. According to the appraisal guidelines, this is an unusually challenging and detailed form of appraisal. Researching several local land appraisal services yielded a range of $500-$3500. For a property of this size, $3500 is probably closer to the actual cost. After obtaining an appraisal, the landowner would submit an application for the government or a local land trust to purchase an easement on the property. From then on, it could only be used for practices that do not damage the land or its agricultural potential, such as by degrading the soil or promoting erosion. ",33,English,female,Bachelor's,Lab tech,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"The church performed Santeria rituals, including those involving animal sacrifice, and the city enacted health codes to stop the practice, as a guise for outlawing the church outright. In Hialeah, the city’s intent was clear: the ordinances were found to pertain specifically to the ritualistic practices of the church. + + +Further, espousal of one’s faith should not meet with prosecution. If a religion wishes to proselytize its beliefs and claim a protected practice, it may do so without state interference. This concept, in concert with the legalization of plural marriage, would assist in moving groups such as the FLDS into further dialogue and contact with society at large. + + +The Old Order Amish are a separatist group, prevalent in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. The Amish stress their simplicity and religion above all else, and actively avoid contact with the outside world, to the point of not taking electricity from a power grid, and allowing their church to police their population. Amish people will cooperate on a limited basis with law enforcement, but prefer to mete out their own punishments via church practices wherever possible. They also prefer using home remedies, but will avail themselves of modern hospitals and doctors when necessary, relying upon mutual aid funds and churches in order to pay the hospital bills. + + +The primary case as relates to the First Amendment involving the Amish is Wisconsin v. Yoder. In that case, the Amish were granted an exemption from compulsory public education due to their lifestyle and religious practices. + + +In the FLDS, plural marriage is encouraged, and men are to marry at least three wives in order to guarantee their place in heaven. In its polygamy practice, the FLDS also adheres to what it calls the Law of Placing, wherein a young woman of marriageable age is assigned a husband by revelation from God to the leader of the fundamentalist group, who is regarded as a prophet. The definition of “marriageable” according to the church is unknown, but anecdotal evidence and personal testimony from former members as well as investigative journalists suggest the onset of puberty and obvious signs of physical maturity and the ability to bear children as indicative of “marriageable age.” Illegal weddings involving girls of fourteen and fifteen are claimed to have been commonplace. + + +Balancing the needs of religious practice in both of these separatist groups with the needs of the state and society as a whole requires encouragement of a more consistent and open relationship. In order to legitimately accommodate arranged or plural marriage within the FLDS, its members must first agree to submit to state laws, and in order to foster that relationship, the state must prove itself trustworthy. If plural marriage were allowed, the FLDS might potentially agree to register all births, deaths and vital statistics with the proper authorities, acquiesce to legally registered nuptial contracts for each marriage, enforce limitations on parental consent and child age at the time of marriage in accordance with state sanction, and forbid marriage under the age of parental consent. +",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"If a negotiation is suffering due to a stereotype, especially one regarding an attribute as immutable as gender or race, then the target of the stereotype needs to be strong enough to remove themselves from the negotiation, rather than forging ahead at all cost. + + +Up to the late twentieth century, surrogacy without physical sexual contact (and presumably, its residual emotional effect on a marriage or relationship) was thought impossible. For the last thirty to forty years, the use of assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization, intrauterine insemination, and gamete donation has opened up a world of fertility to couples who would have otherwise remained barren or dependent upon traditional adoption procedures in order to become parents. These technologies are especially controversial when used in conjunction with a surrogate, or gestational carrier. A multitude of legal issues are raised when a couple asks a third party to conceive, carry, and bear a child on their behalf. In fact, potential parents often find themselves beyond the legal pale in most states if they determine that they wish to use a surrogate to achieve parenthood. + + + This paper will address the legal status and rights of both traditional and gestational surrogates, specifically with regard to their contractual rights. In the United States, there are a number of conflicting attitudes, statutes, and other factors which contribute to a surrogate’s status at any given time and in any given place in the country. Society in general seems to be more accepting of surrogacy in general, however lawmakers have been slow and inconsistent in codifying or regulating surrogacy as a practice consistent with legitimate family building. From traditional moral ideals to the idea of bodily integrity, a number of issues arise in this particular policy debate. Discussion over a surrogate’s rights is often left behind, favoring the rights of both the intended parents and the children resultant from the arrangement. + + + American lawmakers must strive to clear up the gray areas that arise at the crossroads that is assisted reproductive technology law. Societal beliefs notwithstanding, basic legal issues such as contract theory, application of family codes, and the right to privacy of a surrogate are left in the hands of our current jurisprudence, the basis of which generally fails to consider the construction of a legally recognized family as anything other than a married heterosexual couple who produces mutual biological children. This paper will focus on the origins of the so-called moral limitations of surrogacy, as well as a surrogate’s right to contract and be compensated for services. It also looks at a very recent and public case study involving a famous couple and their choice of surrogacy. The conclusion will offer the beginnings of a solution to the tenuous legal ground upon which surrogacy in the United States currently stands. + + + Surrogacy is not currently federally codified. Because of this, the legal status of a surrogate varies from state to state. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," From their story, it seems that Sarai (later called Sarah) and Abraham were willing to do whatever it took to have children, including the use of Hagar, Sarai’s maid, as a traditional surrogate. In other words, surrogacy is nothing new. + + +One of the newer trends in surrogacy legislation is using vital records to track the use of surrogacy and other methods of assisted reproductive technology. A recent bill in the Missouri state legislature seeks to require the name of both the biological parents and any donor parents to be shown on the child’s birth certificate. This bill preserves the legal right of a donor to be free of a legal relationship with a child born as a result of the donation unless legally contracted. However, adult children of a sperm or egg donation made prior to January 1, 2010, can request the identifying information of his or her donor parent, and the idea is that the system would work similarly to an adopted child attempting to find their biological parents. Children born as a result of a sperm or egg donation made after January 1, 2010, can receive a copy of his or her original birth certificate indicating his or her donor’s identifying and medical history information from the State Registrar and the donation facility used in their conception. + + + The arguments raised in favor of such legislation include availability of genetic lineage and allowing citizens to discover their birth or genetic parents, much as adoptees now do under adoption statutes. The reasons why adoptees wish to locate their biological parents are numerous. However, many egg and sperm donors do not wish to have contact, nor do they wish to have any rights or relationship with children resulting from their donations. They choose to donate either for altruistic or financial reasons, but have enough separation from the conception process itself to disconnect from the idea of a child born of their genetic material. + + + A better and more private alternative would be to allow donation agencies to release anonymous health histories and family backgrounds to those seeking genetic information. The “right to know” should rest with the gamete donor, and not with any resultant child. It stands to reason that people are far less likely to donate eggs and/or sperm if they know the donation will not be anonymous, or if at some point a child may come looking for them. Donors are already anonymous; it would simply be a matter of matching a donor code number to the correct recipient. + + + There exists a potential legal problem with identifying multiple sets of parents on a birth certificate. While the spirit of the law is recognized, if a birth certificate reflects “intended parents,” and “biological parents,” the use of reproductive technology is immediately implied. While it does not specifically state that the child has any different legal status than any other child (i.e., a child who was not conceived via reproductive technology), the difference is implied, and may be enough to establish a discrimination claim. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," +Culture plays a significant role in any negotiation. Culture can be defined as much by what it is not as what it actually is and what it signifies. Culture is not homogenous, nor is it a specific thing. It is also not singular or uniform. Statements such as “all Russians are stubborn” or “all Japanese are accommodating,” are inherently broad and overly simplistic. While the understanding of a culture’s generalizations are appropriate, it is much more productive to a negotiator to understand the significance of a culture to the matter at hand, and how that culture’s attitude can and will affect the table talks. When one approaches a foreign culture, one experiences it in a way that is relatable to his own culture, and comparisons necessarily arise. + +Attempting to understand a foreign culture or mindset can involve anything from studying its history to realizing its prejudices. Rather than judging or attempting to change a culture, one must simply accept it for what it is, and work within its boundaries, especially within the scope of negotiation, and most especially if one comes to the table with a weaker bargaining position. Likewise, if a negotiator finds himself on “away” territory, a respect for traditions and beliefs can only help in getting over any cultural barriers and move the negotiation forward. + +It is important to note that culture does not necessarily limit itself to a national/international dichotomy. Most companies within a given nation establish their own corporate culture. For instance, a corporate culture might emphasize long hours in the office or a more relaxed schedule. Evidence of a corporate culture can be seen in employee dress codes, in communication style (direct v. indirect communication, delegation of duties), and hiring practices. Some companies encourage philanthropy at any level from employees, others restrict it to “company approved” charities or fundraisers. One need only look at the differences in American corporate culture from company to company (and indeed, intra-company diversity exists even from region to region, urban to suburban environments included) to appreciate the diversity of thought that can reside within a particular societal culture. Certain cultures are not nearly as stratified as American culture, and may appear more uniform to an outsider, but a similar exterior is simply a sign to dig deeper. + +Values are even more important to understand, because they provide the why of a culture. If saving face or communal harmony are valued within a culture, it is certain that a negotiator will not publicly shame his company or his superior in order to succeed at the negotiation table. Likewise, a negotiator from a culture which gives greater weight to a hard-driven bargain will not necessarily be driven to settle at the earliest opportunity. Taking these generalities into consideration is important before one gets to the negotiating table. However, a negotiator is well-served to learn something about his opponent on a personal level in order to make the negotiation effective. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"Cultures produce atypical personalities without exception, and woe to the negotiator who does not anticipate both potential situations. It is indeed a fine line to walk in terms of sussing out your opponent’s tactics, but gaining appreciation for an individual’s values within the scope of his culture (both national and potentially corporate) which will allow a foreign negotiator the latitude and the means to strike an advantageous bargain. + +Certainly, some cultures value timeliness more than others, and “timeliness” as a concept is subjectively defined. An American negotiator may see no reason why a bargain couldn’t be struck start-to-finish in one day, where his European counterpart might require no less than three meetings before a deal is finalized. Where the American might find the timeline aggravating, the European would see it as normal, perhaps even a bit rushed. More ritualistic cultures can require an extensive amount of socialization before business is even discussed. It is to the advantage of the foreigner to cooperate with a ritual than to rebel against it; if a culture demands a six hour dinner-and-drink outing where absolutely no business is discussed until an authority figure give the go-ahead, a negotiator best prepare himself by studying menus and determining which dish and wine are most appropriate to order. + +Even when one negotiates on home territory, concessions to culture can and should occur. It would not be out of place for an American negotiator to welcome a Japanese counterpart with a bow as well as a handshake, even when in America. Likewise, if an Italian businessperson is accustomed to a long social meal prior to conducting business, perhaps a good concession might be a long business lunch, or a meeting the evening before over a business dinner. When a foreigner comes to the table, they should also be educated and aware of customs. Most importantly, one should understand exactly how forgiving a culture is or is not when dealing outside one’s home turf, and attempts should be appreciated as opposed to reviled or criticized. + +With regard to gender and race, it is often best to set aside perceived stereotypes in a negotiation process. It is often the targets of stereotype who reflect it and respond to it, and are therefore most affected by it. In business, law and negotiation, those to whom a stereotype is applied often overcompensate in order to defeat the stereotype. For example, if a common belief is that a woman will very often give more away at the table in order to preserve a long-term account or relationship, she may very well approach the table with aggression in order to get the deal done. + +The best one can do as a negotiator when dealing with perceived stereotypes are to not call attention to them in your opponent, and to attempt to cope with them if you are a target by recalling highlights and achievements which have nothing to do with the stereotype itself. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," + +However, by removing a surrogate’s right to be compensated, she is in fact, exploited. Women are socialized in Western civilization to be inherently altruistic, placing the needs of others before their own. When confronted with the potential to be a surrogate for a family member, a woman may feel greater obligation to agree, or feel greater guilt when denying the request. In other words, women who feel familial pressure to, quite literally, deliver a child, can be subjugated and will likely experience feelings of regret or dismay at having to surrender a child at the behest of the family. The expectation is also heightened within non-Western people groups, and is specifically pronounced within the South Asian culture. It may not seem important to understand the particulars of a South Asian family group, but when cultures and families and ethnic groups relocate to the Western world, they do not simply abandon all of their traditions and norms. In fact, knowing that these attitudes exist even within South Asian families in Western countries is important in identifying women at risk of this type of exploitation. + + + Even in commercial surrogacy, the emphasis is often placed upon the desire to assist an infertile couple achieve parenthood, rather than using the idea of money as a motivating factor. Any surrogacy is altruistic; compensation simply enables the woman to be an active and considered partner in the contract. + + + In extra familial surrogacy, an economic case is often raised against the practice. Words like “supply and demand” and “market” and “saleable” and “product” are thrown about in an effort to commodify the practice of surrogacy. Altruism is thrown out the proverbial window, and opponents force participants to justify compensating a woman for what they call “reproductive prostitution.” However, an important distinction can be made between prostitution and surrogacy: the prostitute sells sex; the surrogate mother sells reproduction. The prostitute’s product is pleasure, which is fleeting and intangible. The surrogate’s product is motherhood, which is also intangible. However, motherhood relies upon the presence of a child, which is absolutely more concrete. By allowing reasonable compensation for any and all types of surrogate arrangements, the surrogate is empowered and may feel somewhat justified beyond her own altruism. + + + While it is impossible to completely explain the need for surrogacy beyond maternal instinct or cultural indoctrination, its implications and its consequences, it is interesting to note that history has referenced the practice as far back as the Old Testament. The story of Sarai and Abraham is thousands of years old, and yet it resonates deeply in twenty-first century America. This particular couple’s faith in each other and in God was tested when prophesy revealed to Abraham years before by God, seemed doomed to failure. They were both elderly and had borne no children of their own, despite God’s promise to Abraham that he should “look toward the heavens and count the stars” to measure his promised descendants. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," + +Yesterday morning I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by a Mack truck. Even though I’d slept about 7 hours, I felt like I hadn’t had any sleep at all. The morning was easy - I got Jedi Girl off to school and then Jedi Baby and I hung out on the couch watching Dora The Explorer. (I must admit, I dozed a little. But just a little. Responsible Mom takes precedence over Whiny Tired Chick when the kiddos are present.) + +Went to put La Bebeh upstairs for her nap, and noticed a strange sharp pain in my right side. I figured it might be just a stitch - I’d been crunched up all weird on the couch, hadn’t eaten anything, so I got the baby to bed and then got some ice water for myself. + +OUCH. + +Clue #1 that Something Was Wrong: water isn’t supposed to HURT. + +So then I did what all good Netizens do: I consulted Dr. Google. + +Dr. Google and his partner, WebMD told me that I probably had indigestion or gastro-esophageal reflux, or with the onset of certain other symptoms, possibly appendicitis or a kidney stone or gall bladder disease. I hadn’t eaten anything since dinner, so I didn’t figure indigestion was the problem. Reflux was out, because I am a veteran of reflux (thank you pregnancy) and this was nothing I’d ever felt before. + +Kidney stone? Maybe - but the referral pain is usually in the shoulders and back, and I didn’t have pain in those sites. Gall bladder? Well, you kinda need a gall bladder to have a gall bladder problem, and I have been sans gall bladder since late 2003. + +Meanwhile, the pain continues to build and I’m starting to freak out just a little. I sent an IM to my husband. He has a work meeting but encourages me to call the triage nurse and see if they want me to come in. I get an appointment, and fortunately, my superhero sister in law is able to leave work for 15 minutes to drive me over to the clinic. Hubby meets me and Jedi Baby there, doc takes one look and feel at me, and sends me straight to the ER. + +They give me pain meds and a CAT scan, confirm that my appendix is on the fast track for a death sentence, and let me call my husband. By 8:15pm last night, I’m in the OR and being sent to the land of Nod so that the (very cute, seriously East-Coast-Canadian accented) surgeon can perform swift justice on my appy. + +After a couple hours in recovery, I get wheeled into a post-op room, which is where I currently sit. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to go home today - I’m meeting all the criteria for release and fairly stunning my nurses with my progress. I’m going to take a walk around the unit and hopefully my doc will give me the go-ahead. He might have me stay here and have lunch so I know I can tolerate solid food, but I doubt that’ll be a problem. + + + +",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," + +Still problematic within this construct is the Law of Placing. In a severely patriarchal hierarchy such as the FLDS, a minor girl might not be able to express a right of refusal to marry if her father or the elders or prophet within the church decides she is to enter into an arranged marriage. Expansion of the ongoing dialogue between the church group and social services organizations, including private as well as state-run agencies, would help to address this concern. If a girl is made aware of her rights and has access to a crisis hotline, Child Protective Services, or the court system, she can be afforded the same rights as any other girl of her age in her state. Likewise, if access to health care is provided, counseling as to legal rights, family planning options, and sexual self-care can drastically improve her quality of life. This also positively affects her mental health by promoting a positive self-image and allowing her to project a positive frame of mind for her family and ultimately, her children. + + +The next step in the redefinition of marriage must be the method and process by which the change occurs. There is enough law present in the country to guarantee the right to marry or the right not to marry under the Constitutional right to privacy, and citizens have the right to contract amongst themselves in order to make their own personal law. Fundamentally, the process of a legally recognized union could potentially remain unchanged. The state could even provide a model or generic nuptial agreement to be modified and signed by those desiring to be united. The contract could then be filed with a county clerk or registrar upon completion. Replacing marriage per se with contracted unions provides an elastic, yet proven method of creating families and encouraging stable partnerships which retain the social status and benefits of that which we currently term “marriage”. + + +The common rules of contractual obligation would apply: in order to enter into a legal nuptial contract, one must be able to provide consideration in the form of a commitment; one must be of legal capacity or have parental permission based upon the guidelines of the law, an offer freely made and an acceptance freely given. This would allow two or more parties to arrange their own rules. A contract could be indefinite; it could set forth a time frame for the union, at which time a renewal contract could be signed and amendments or changes made. + + +In the case of a plural marriage, the contract between two spouses could allow for a certain number of additional spouses, or a waiting period before allowing an additional marriage to take place. It could also specify age of any additional spouses, and specify remedies in the case of breach. The state could also regulate the minimum age for a contracted individual, much the same as marriage licenses are currently granted with parental permission to minors who have reached a state-sanctioned age (usually no younger than 16). ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," + + + It also seems that surrogacy is embraced by a growing portion of society. There are open discussion fora on the Internet for both surrogates and those who are researching the process. There are also children’s books on the subject, including Hope and Will Have a Baby and The Kangaroo Pouch. These books can be used by both children within a family who will receive children from a surrogate, as well as for biological children of a surrogate, in order to understand why the baby that is growing in their mother’s womb is not coming home to the family after it is born. + + +Although their situation is public due to their occupations as actors and their notoriety as celebrities, the case of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick seems to be typical of a couple who uses a surrogate: for one reason or another, she is unable to conceive, or perhaps her eggs or his sperm were deemed unusable by their fertility specialist or physician. They chose to engage a surrogate’s services in order to add to their family. + + + An interesting point in this case is the jurisdiction in question. Parker and Broderick are residents of New York, where contracts for surrogacy are held as “void, unenforceable and contrary to public policy” and if discovered, can carry fines of up to $500 for the parties to the contract and up to $10,000 for any agency arranging the surrogacy for profit. The surrogate’s residency is unknown, as are the particular circumstances of the surrogacy arrangement. As Parker and Broderick are both well-known actors, and appear to have considerable net worth, it would seem they would have the wherewithal to absorb a fine of $500. While $10,000 is a comparatively large sum for an agency to pay, Parker and Broderick may have decided to take the risk of the fine, as the amount it may not be as dear to them as it might be to a typical American middle-class couple. The New York law also prohibits civil or criminal penalty for parties to an uncompensated surrogacy contract. It is entirely possible that the couple contracted with an uncompensated surrogate. + + + It is also possible that the surrogate is in another state, or that the contract was executed in a more surrogate-friendly jurisdiction in order to avoid the potential penalties listed above. Depending upon the situation, the surrogate may be able to be compensated, and the intended parents may even have a pre-birth order for the birth certificate when the twins are born. The outcome of this case is yet to be seen; at the time of this writing, the twin girls carried by the Parker-Broderick surrogate are expected sometime in the summer of 2009. + + +There is no clear-cut solution to the issue of surrogacy in America. Proponents of surrogacy say there is no objectification of a woman because she is using her body in a way that is considered natural, and that the decision to become pregnant via surrogacy is not one that can be made without the assent of the surrogate. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"California in particular has had significant influence on the rights of homosexuals in general, and specifically became the latest state to recognize the individual rights, respect and dignity of homosexuals, and to afford protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. + + + Plural marriage was also seen as deviant, and is still illegal and its practitioners vilified. In nineteenth century America, Mormon polygamy was defamed in public. In Reynolds v. United States, the Supreme Court termed polygamy “odious among the northern and western nations of Europe.” Reynolds codified the extension of the U.S.’s ban on polygamy to Utah, effectively requiring its Mormon founders to give up their polygamous practices, despite the fact that they considered the practice ordained by God and necessary for salvation and entry into heaven. Modern courts continue to maintain the illegality of plural marriage. + + +The perpetuation of the mythical, natural American two-parent, nuclear family has functioned to exclude the problems and concerns of nontraditional (often labeled deviant) families from political and public consideration. However, with the normalization of cohabitation, the decreasing stigma of single motherhood and non-marital sexual expression, the increasing acceptance of homosexuality and single-sex couples and the advent of assisted reproductive technology, the historic purposes of confining marriage to “one man, one woman” no longer reasonably apply in modern American society. Indeed, the expansion of the definition of “marriage” and “family” seems long overdue. There is no substantive legal reason beyond satisfying the cry of the vox populi, especially given the definition and expansion of our Constitutional right to privacy in the late twentieth century, why these practices should continue to be stigmatized, banned and outlawed. + + +It is notable that the federal courts in America have, with very limited exception, declined jurisdiction over domestic relations issues. Full faith and credit would seemingly provide protection for various states’ practices, however, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows states to ignore civil unions for homosexual couples legally united or married in another state. The federal government may also disregard unions recognized in individual states under DOMA. The implications of the right to marry are extremely complex, involving a variety of often-interrelated rights. + + +Civil unions serve the same purpose as marriage licenses: recognizing a union of two people and giving legitimacy to their status as a couple. Therefore, the argument comes down to semantics and politics. If a civil union does the exact same thing as a marriage license in the eyes of the state, then all couples, regardless of sexual preference should be recognized in the same way. + + +It seems that the Sherbert v. Vernor and Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah courts determined a test for preventing legislative interference with religious practice, despite the precedent set in Reynolds whereby a moral argument was made in order to justify religious discrimination and outlaw Mormon polygamy. + + +In Hialeah, a group of Cuban refugees formed a church to practice the Santeria religion. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"Further, social stigma against surrogacy has eroded, so the time is ripe for codifying that which is already happening. If the goal of the state is to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its citizens, its protection should not be second-guessed in this arena. + + + Since it is the service of pregnancy that is being marketed, and not the baby which results, the claim of “baby-selling” is moot. So too is the claim of surrogacy as “reproductive prostitution.” The American Bar Association has authored and is currently lobbying model surrogacy legislation which includes the provisions put forth in the Illinois GCA, currently considered the gold standard for surrogacy legislation in America. + + + Further, the federal government should look into agency regulation of surrogacy and its practices. Couples and surrogates often cross state lines for more favorable jurisdictions. Keeping in mind that the service of the surrogate as gestational carrier is what is being bargained for and exchanged, and not the baby itself, it seems that there is an element of interstate commerce, and thus a federal interest. If Congress is disinterested in passing federal code which mirrors state laws like the Illinois GCA, it should consider giving oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services. A good start might be a task force to discover current practices and what is considered “the norm” within the realm of gestational surrogacy. + + + There is also an international component for the federal government to consider. Since it is proven that international couples can (and do) employ American surrogates, it seems that both the Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as the Department of Homeland Security should have some purview. + + + Finally, although positive legislation effectively equals state sanction, it does not specifically encourage the practice of gestational surrogacy. It merely sheds light on a very gray area, where medicine, morals and law intersect, and children are created. + + +The American family construct is ripe for redefinition. Legally, a family is the natural extension of a marriage, which was most eloquently defined by Justice William O. Douglas in Griswold v. Connecticut as “an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects.” + + +For the first time in our nation’s history, social attitudes and scientific technology offer a legitimate departure from the traditional definition of marriage, as well as the opportunity to expand rights and redefine family in a diverse and meaningful way. The proliferation of reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and egg/sperm donation, as well as the increasing social acceptance of adoption and surrogate pregnancy, ensures that Justice Douglas’s own words in Skinner v. Oklahoma that “marriage and procreation are fundamental to the . . . survival of the race” are no longer valid in our modern society. + + +To fully grant every American citizen the right to unite, the right not to unite, and the right to divide with regard to personal relationships and marriage, there are three issues which must be closely examined and proposed in a way that is fair and satisfying both socially and legally. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"Since family codes now actively work toward offering a level playing field for all children regardless of their parents’ marital status, and apply a “best interest” standard when making decisions for all children, it seems incongruous to apply a different standard to something as important as a vital record. + + + Further, the use of vital records for statistics and official data collection is valid; however the same ends can be accomplished via an anonymous survey given at the time the birth record itself is submitted. A separate survey could collect information regarding method of conception, parental age and marital status, use of a surrogate, and use of gamete donors. Pre-birth orders filed during a surrogate pregnancy would ensure that the surrogate’s right to remain anonymous is fulfilled, and that the intended parents are the only parents listed on a birth certificate. + + + The larger question that looms over this particular legislative question is, of course, why does this information matter to the state? The state’s government is charged with protecting the health, safety and welfare of the public. It is certainly interesting to follow the advances of technology and in the state’s interest to gauge the vox populi in determining the demand for its police powers. However, once a child is born, it shouldn’t be the state’s concern how that child arrived, nor should the state attempt to separate the child from his peers, even on a birth certificate. A child is a child, regardless of circumstance, and each deserves equal rights, protection and dignity from the state. + + +The story of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s relationship and marriage is about twenty years old, including their courtship, but the celebrity couple recently made headlines when they released the above announcement. Their reason for using a surrogate for this pregnancy is unknown as of the time of this writing. However, reason suggests that a number of factors played into their decision to use a surrogate. Like Sarai in the Bible, Ms. Parker is getting older. She is currently 44 years old, which is considered advanced maternal age. She was also over 35 at the time of her first pregnancy. The method of conception for their first son was kept private, although Ms. Parker did conceive and give birth to that child at approximately age 38. + + + Stories like Ms. Parker’s are becoming increasingly more common in the United States. A generation of girls raised by feminist working mothers and grandmothers in the 1970’s and 1980’s watched those female role models become financially independent. As a result, many of those girls chose to delay marriage and children in favor of securing a career and financial security. Advances in reproductive technology and fertility treatments in the last thirty years or so meant that women could become mothers on their own timelines. Motherhood and career became a balancing act rather than a finite choice, neither requiring the total sacrifice of the other for survival. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y,"In doing so, citizens are empowered with a clear understanding of their rights and government is removed from any unnecessary intrusion into the private lives of the citizenry. By normalizing that which is now seen, at least by some, as deviant or strange, we can allow for greater freedom, understanding, diversity and dialogue within America. + + +This proposition also has a specific impact on so-called “separatist” groups, which choose to segregate themselves from greater society, mostly for religiously motivated reasons. Here, two groups are used as examples: Old Order Amish (“Amish”), and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“FLDS”). It seems logical that if the reason to separate is removed, greater understanding of these groups’ cultures can be gained, and an open dialogue between the sect and society at large can occur. + + +Although their marriage practices specifically are not outside the defined norm of American society at large, the Amish fought for exemptions from the law in order to practice their religion, maintained contact with mainstream society and preserved their unique culture since their arrival in the U.S., dating back to the late eighteenth century. They are an example of a separatist group which has coexisted peacefully with mainstream society for nearly as long as the United States has been sovereign. + + +The FLDS is relatively new separatist group; formed specifically in order to continue the practice of plural marriage against the interference of the state after Mormon leaders renounced it in favor of statehood for Utah. The FLDS’s complete separation is extensive; the vast majority of marriages occur without marriage licenses or contract of any kind, state-issued birth certificates are not filed with any regularity, and the right to personal property is all but absent as the church’s fund owns all lands and seizes most earnings from its members. + + +In order to explore this expansion and its societal implications, three issues must be discussed. The first issue is the reasoning behind “one man – one woman” jurisprudence. The second issue is the government’s role in regulating religious practices. The final issue involves spiritual practice regarding marriage in the United States and the intermingling of state and church in that particular social practice. An exploration of replacing state-sanctioned marriage with individual contracts between persons desiring a formal acknowledgment of their status and the consequences of implementing such a system will also be presented, specifically with regard to the implications on the FLDS in particular. + + +Since the founding of the nation, marriage has played both a central role in the American political imagination and the political economy of the United States. Its roots and origins can be traced both in sacred text and historic account. It is Christian tradition which placed homosexual relationships squarely in the realm of the taboo, and which still pervades the moral arguments against recognition of same-sex unions and gay marriage in modern America. The last decade has seen major inroads in the crusade to extend the fundamental right to marry to homosexual couples. ",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +y," If a surrogate is lucky, her jurisdiction has comprehensive legislation which covers her rights and responsibilities, as well as those of the intended parents, such as Illinois or Texas. For example, the Illinois Gestational Carrier Act states specifically what is and what is not allowed, and the circumstances under which a surrogacy may be contracted and carried out. It also states who may become a surrogate, how a parent-child relationship can be established, and what remedies are available to the parties in case of noncompliance. Likewise, the Texas state statute defines and codifies many of the same issues surrounding surrogacy. + + + Whether a surrogacy contract is enforceable or recognized in a state seems to turn mostly on that state’s definition of “family.” For instance, Nevada allows “two people whose marriage is valid under Nevada law” to enter into a surrogacy agreement. Since Nevada’s state constitution reserves marriage to heterosexual couples, the surrogacy statute effectively discriminates against homosexual couples. It is also discriminatory on its face against unmarried persons. However, the statute says nothing about the marital status of the surrogate. It does not demand that she be unmarried. If it did, the state could be criticized as promoting pregnancy (in whatever form) out of wedlock. It also does not demand that she be married, for then the state could be accused of tearing a potential family apart, i.e., removing a child from the parents who cared for it in gestation and may have rights to it despite the presence of a contract. Therefore, a double standard seems to be apparent, as being an unmarried intended parent in the eyes of the law (in some states) precludes one from contracting for a surrogacy. + + +The debate over surrogates’ rights within legislation also turns on compensation. The issue of compensation within a surrogacy contract is hotly debated. States such as Washington allow surrogacy, but only if the surrogate is not paid for her time or effort beyond actual expenses incurred. Arizona, Michigan and the District of Columbia have gone so far as to criminalize the practice of surrogacy outright. + + + “Altruistic” surrogacy is defined as unpaid, noncommercial surrogacy, where the surrogate receives no compensation above and beyond reasonable expenses. In this situation, a surrogate is presumed to be acting of her own free will to help a loved one. Many jurisdictions that choose to legislate surrogacy remain silent on so-called “altruistic” surrogacy while specifically banning paid surrogacy. It is a policy rationale that allowing a surrogate to be paid for her service somehow violates the woman’s body as sanctum and her womb as sanctum sanctorum and instead cheapens and commodifies her unique capability to carry and bear children. Some conservative lobbyists insist that surrogacy can only be viewed one of two ways: first, that if it is the service for sale, the surrogate is committing “reproductive prostitution” by selling her body in exchange for money, and second, that the resultant child is viewed as an item for sale, which is expressly forbidden in every state. +",34,English,female,JD/Law degree,Attorney,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," I have always been a sort of a “daddy’s girl”. He would take me on motorcycle trips and let me go with him and my brother on racing events. I used to rollerblade in the shop showroom with my best friend when I was young. Looking back I can’t believe that he allowed me to do that! How that must have affected his business, I don’t know. + My mother has always been very loyal and tender-hearted. In my life I have always seen her working at the shop for my father. She manages the parts department, and without her it would fall apart. She is amazing. She also has such a heart for others. When I was young she was the Missionettes coordinator. Other girls called her mom as well because she was so personable and loving to the other girls that may not have had such a loving home. When I was twelve years old, she took me on a trip to Japan. It was a ‘sister cities’ program and I could see then how much she loved different cultures and peoples. I had that same love in me. I started discovering that love in my teen years. Again at fourteen, my mother took me on a mission’s trip to the Philippines. On that trip I had my first experience with serving others through laymen’s work. I passed out toothpaste and stickers to the kids in the dental clinic. I also cleaned the dental tools. It was during that time that I fell in love with the Philippines and fell in love with the idea of serving overseas. I can honestly say that it was the influence of my mother that nurtured my desire to be a missionary. + My high school years were a time of dedication and growth. Being highly involved in my youth grouped directly shaped me as a ministry driven person. I learned that being actively involved in church was more important than any social scene that high school could provide. I learned that seeking the will of God would direct my steps for the rest of my life. I was nurtured in the fact that even though I was young God could use me in ministering to others through preaching, teaching, and drama. During those times I really only had one goal; to return to the Philippines to be a missionary. Along with that goal came another; to find “the one”. Although some secular people might not know what I am speaking of, I am sure that every Christian knows exactly what I mean. + I know that it is common for teenage girls to have dreams of marriage and finding the perfect man, but I think in the Christian culture of America it is so hard pressed to wait, wait, and WAIT, for the right “one” that some girls get easily distracted. It was good for me that I was taught not to date, but along with that came something that I think mentors did not intend to happen. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," Its focus is clearly to evangelize to those who are not saved and in peril and suffering. It is the testimony of one girl who experienced everything hellish a young teenager could but then was converted to Christ through a Teen Challenge ministry. The article has a strong appeal to women who are being abused, on drugs, or has had the loss of a child, and they keep Christian terms very broad and simple. They only used the name Jesus once (when she explained her complete conversion within the article). Throughout the article only God is used to define the Lord. + The focus of persuasion and communication is on role-tending. By readers imagining they are experiencing same trials as Trish, the main character, they will reflect upon their own lives and see it was such peril (that is, if they somewhat are experiencing the same trials). The goal of the article is clearly to have salvations come from the message. This is confirmed by an adjacent advertisement detailing the steps to accept Christ and a number to call after doing so. + The message of Christ is kept general and simple so that all denominations and all peoples can accept what is presented. There is a slight plug for the ministry of Teen Challenge but it is within the context of her testimony so I do not believe it to be intentional on the part of the Assemblies of God. + This article was unlike any other because it clearly had a slant. Even though I do not know the title, the article is obviously concerning the issue of whether or not America was founded on Christian Principles. The author does little to state the other side of opinion. He instead interviews one Christian worker who gives tours in Boston. The style of the article is in an interview form and somewhat of an adventure; the author takes readers along with him on a journey that tours founding themes of faith in American history. Again this style of communication is more like role-tending than anything else. Readers will cognitively imagine that they are on the tour as well and therefore get emotionally involved in the opinions expressed in the article. + In the middle of the article there is a platform on the issue of prayer not being allowed in schools anymore. The man interviewed states statistics that are meant to support evidence as to why teenagers are so rebellious and in peril since the time that prayer was taken out of the school system. There is also a platform from the man interviewed that schools do not teach the true history behind the events surrounding the Revolutionary War. In the concluding remarks of the interview both the author and the man interviewed call on Christians to conform to one ideal that they must be unified in being involved in political agendas. Noonan mentioned God seven times, Jesus three times, and an A.G. department one time. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," The account of the flood might have split, like a fork in the road, down two separate paths: the first path is of peganistic cultures who serve more than one deity, and the second path was the monotheistic culture since the time of Abraham. +The flood story in Gilgamesh and the biblical account of Noah and the flood are similar because they might have possibly of come from one or similar cultural sources. But as God separated Abraham, the line of Hebrews began oral traditions that changed to reflect the Hebrew Almighty God. When Moses took an account of the flood not only did he have a monotheistic view, but also we have to consider the fact that he was inspired by God himself. Although these two accounts of the great flood might be literarily similar, they vastly differ in the fact that one account lies within a book that is alive and inspired by God and the other is, well, a very fascinating historical document. + + + The purpose of this research is to study Pentecostal language and how it is passed from generation to generation. The source of text (artifact) is both from an interview with an established Assemblies of God Pastor as well as through the study of the Pentecostal Evangel in the past forty years. This research will use Kenneth Burke’s guilt-redemption-cycle as a means to analyze the language that is found in each text. +Kenneth Burke, a college professor who never actually graduated college himself, died in 1993 after years of brilliant work in communication theory. Dramatism is a term created by Burke to represent his theory of rhetoric and communication. In dramatism, life is a drama and the world is a stage. Three of Burke’s most famous methods of theory are: identification, the dramatic pentad, and the guilt-redemption cycle. These methods help to explain and describe the theory of dramatism. + Identification is described as the common ground that exists between the speaker and the audience. It is a new theory of rhetoric and is solely concerned with the speakers own ability to communicate with the audience. In fact, Burke would go so far as to say that identification should replace persuasion. A way that Burke uses to describe identification is by comparing it with the religious concept of consubstantiation. Burke said, “The effective communicator can show consubstantiality by giving signs in language and delivery that his or her properties are the same as theirs” (330). In essence, when we connect with each other we see each other as “talking sense.” + One of Burke’s greatest theories, the Dramatic Pentad, is a five-fold method of how to see the underlying motivation of the speaker. Through five categories of act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose one can analyze a speaker and discover their intended, or said motivation of what he/she says. Burke’s last theory called the guilt-redemption cycle, and the selected theory of this research, is said to be the root of all rhetoric. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," Because of my natural ability to adapt easy, I surmise that I interact with peoples of other cultures very well. And also I do not interact well with people of my own culture. I might interact well with missionaries and travelers; but with most mid-western peoples who are through and through ‘red, white, and blue’ I have a harder time interacting with them. I think it is because we do not understand on another. They do not understand me or my ways and thinking as a “bicultural chameleon” and I do not understand them as a one unified culture, innocent of other cultures, persons. I know that I still need to work on how to properly treat and interact with pure American peoples. + I could have filled this paper with commonly speaking of my objective culture and how the surface layer of my iceberg molds who I am. I could give specific examples of how I dress, what some of my ideologies are, or how I socially greet or interact with others. But I think this is all to be taken lightly. For I have no one objective culture. I am now made of two, and therefore my interaction is always shifting and changing. As I grow and change in life I hope that in any area that I am in, I will adapt and overcome to the best of my ability so that I can always remain a chameleon. The idea of me being a chameleon is important because chameleons change colors according to their environment; they blend in. If I were a chameleon I would blend in and only Christ would show through. Shouldn’t that be the goal of every believer? +I have now found my answer to the question that I have always found annoying! The question is this, “If you were an animal, what would it be and why?” I have never in all my life been able to answer that question until just now. How amazing! I would be a chameleon, a constant change in order to blend into any environment, transparent and unseen so that what you see through me is Christ, the culture that I am living in, and my life as it should be. I leave you now, my reader, with a thought that I find significant. It is from one of my required textbooks this semester entitled Producing and Directing Drama for the Church by Robert M. Rucker: + + Man creates from what already exists, he “rearranges”. Culture too rearranges and it is molded and shaped from what we have experienced and learned. There isn’t anything that is new; it is simply reformed into something else that appears to be new. Though the author uses this diagram in speaking about drama, I think it is just as important when speaking of culture. We are creative beings. We shift and change as we learn of other cultures, styles, and people groups. Our culture affects others and vice versa. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," He often goes off on tangents and then will abrasively recover from them- all the while using improper grammar. At the conclusion of the article he states, “Back to where we began. Isolation. Its pain and its hurt [sic]” (7). He tries to conclude with the theme of isolation but it doesn’t really fit the true and intended form of his article. What is communicated to the reader is that the leper story in the gospels relates to an incorrect theology of prayer and if one does not straighten out his prayer ‘know-how’ he will then be bound by isolation. + For the purpose of my Pentecostal language study, I did a word count of how many times an author states the following words: God, Jesus/Christ, Holy Spirit, Assemblies of God, Pentecostal or Pentecostalism, or an A.G. institution, department, or event. It was interesting to see that he mentioned God eleven times, Jesus fifteen times, Holy Spirit zero times, Assemblies of God zero times, Pentecostalism zero times, and he mentioned an Assemblies of God institution one time (for the purpose of establishing authors credibility). + Of all the 1987 articles I researched, this article is the only one to be authored by a woman. Sandra Clopine is a secretary of the Women’s Ministries Department. Like the article before, her topic is broad so that she can discuss whatever topic she wishes too. She obviously had a platform in talking about the department she works for and the purpose of the article was almost to promote the department’s ministries. She speaks broadly about the proper way to live a Christian life-style and then transitions to an example of how this is properly lived out by the Benevolence Department. This is a reinforcing theme to promote the lifestyle that Assemblies of God members should follow. + She also fit into her article a social issue about Christians not caring for the needs of others. She related this directly to the proper way to live a Christian life-style. Her article was a ‘how-to’ guide as well and it is the first time that I saw slang used. Instead of saying properly, “thank you” she states, “thanks” (22). It is interesting to on the adjacent page there is an advertisement for the Benevolence Department. Its purpose is to offer a free prize for those who decide to subscribe to their magazine. Clopine didn’t seem trained in the style of journalism and it is clear that the target for her article is to speak about the good deeds of her department rather than her title. She mentioned God twelve times, Jesus/Christ eight times, Holy Spirit zero times, Assemblies of God zero times, Pentecostalism zero times, and mentioned an A.G. department, institution, or event four times. + I was surprised to see that I had pulled two articles from the same author, Dresselhaus. He is also the author of the first article mentioned, “The Pain of Isolation”. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," This mission is carried out through publishing inspirational features that focus on contemporary issues, biblical instruction and devotional guides, Christian news, and conversation pieces with Christian believers. More than 17, 000 individuals have reported making commitments to Jesus since 1997 through reading the Evangel.” + It is interesting to note that in their mission they use such a broad term as “inspirational features”. Their target audience must be held for believers and non-believers alike. Also, it is interesting to see that in the very end of their mission statement they defend their ministry by reporting how many have converted to Christ since 1997. Their defensive must have been for the purpose to establish their credibility and change of target audience to more of an evangelism base. This can be seen throughout all of the articles listed below. + The writing style since 1987 has improved drastically. The authors, including Lee, have more of a focused introduction and are consistent in their topics throughout their column. I didn’t see any one author who had a particular angle or personal opinion slant and I didn’t see grammatical or punctual errors. + In Lee’s article, I did see the concept of reinforcing what the Assemblies of God believe. He made sure to note a brief history of missionaries and the foundational purpose of missionaries within the Assemblies of God. His target audience was clearly aimed at gathering those to receive the calling into missions. He mainly did this through role-tending. He mentioned a national missions convention where hundreds of teenagers gave their hearts and lives for the call, this would cause the audience to think in their minds what they would have done had they been at the convention as well. He then concludes and calls people to answer the call into missions. The article also has a small thread to establish the credibility of the need for Assemblies of God churches overseas and the importance of a world-wide church plant ministry. + Lee mentioned God six times, Jesus one time, the Assemblies of God twice, Pentecostalism zero times, and an Assemblies of God institution or department three times. + I pulled this cover page because it was fascinating in the way it looked so much like a sports magazine. Of course I don’t expect anything else when the purpose of this edition is to cover events and people surrounding the Superbowl. The entire week’s edition is dedicated to testimonies of Christian athletes and how they serve God in a secular sports environment. The language is male focused and is therefore more aggressive in nature. There are photo spreads that could rival the best of sports magazines and the color is amazing. The focus of this edition seems to be for sports fans to choose TPE over any other sports magazine. Perhaps this edition was meant to be evangelistic in form, trying to reach secular sports fans. + This article is exactly the type of inspirational message that they mention in their mission statement. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," +In twenty years time, TPE has changed dramatically. In fact, it has changed so dramatically that its very purpose in production and mission has changed. Their current mission statement is: + It is interesting to note that in their mission they use such a broad term as “inspirational features”. Their target audience is held for believers and non-believers alike. Also, it is interesting to see that in the very end of their mission statement they defend their ministry by reporting how many have converted to Christ since 1997. Their purpose is to establish their credibility and give evidence that their change of focused audience is successful. + The writing language of TPE improved drastically since its 1987 counterpart. The articles are more focused and authors no longer shift main points within the story. +Instead of finding instances of purging, what came to surface was a technique of persuasion call role-tending. Almost every article studied used the method of role-tending to persuade the reader of a certain belief or ethical issue. In common terms, role-tending is the process by which a participant imagines that they are in the situation they are entertained by. This can be done through a narration, a testimony, or even a report of a significant event. + Another fluent theme throughout 2007’s issues was the aesthetics. TPE simply was more attractive than any other past version of the magazine. It uses pictures and bold colors in order to be contemporary. The January 28 Super bowl edition is dedicated to testimonies of Christian athletes and how they serve God in a secular sports environment. The language is male focused and is therefore more aggressive in nature. The focus of this edition is for secular sports fans to choose TPE over any other sports magazine. + Other articles studied featured broad inspirational messages and most articles rarely used the name of Jesus. This lead the research to another aspect of study in Pentecostal Language: a specific word count of times when Pentecostal terms are used. + In 1987’s edition of the Pentecostal Evangel, of the articles studied, authors use the name: God forty-one times, Jesus fifteen times, Holy Spirit one time, Assemblies of God three times, Assemblies of God Department or Institution six times, and used the term Pentecostal or Pentecostalism zero times. 2007’s Today’s Pentecostal Evangel uses the name: God twenty-three times, Jesus twenty-one times, Holy Spirit one time, Assemblies of God two times, Assemblies of God Department or Institution nine times, and used the term Pentecostal or Pentecostalism zero times. + +The results of the word count survey prove the theory that Pentecostal language has diminished in the past twenty to thirty years. It is alarming that in a Pentecostal magazine, of the articles studied, not once did authors use the name Pentecostal and only used the name of the Holy Spirit twice. +",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," I have become molded and shaped so rapidly these past few years it’s hard to place it. I am married to a Filipino. Because of this I do not consider myself as a “missionary” because living in the Philippines is not my mission; it is my home. I started my acculturation when I was fourteen on a mission’s trip as stated above, again in 2002 on a college mission’s trip, an eight month stay as an intern in 2003, and indefinitely when I moved to the Philippines in 2004. +I consider myself set apart from other American missionaries that move to the Philippines because their acculturation is different than mine. Because I am married into the culture my acculturation is deep and unwavering. I live with another culture everyday and I allow the undergrowth of my “iceberg” to forever adapt and change so that I can live and maintain peacefully in this culture. My husband does the same for me. Acculturated is defined as, “when a person moves out of the culture in which he or she was enculturated and learns (becomes “at home” in) another culture.” It is also the same meaning as biculture. +Some missionaries might have an acculturation table that might look like this: + But my acculturation table would look something like this: +Because the new culture of which I married into stays with me no matter where I am my culture of origin and my new culture have also been married together and they cannot be removed or faded over time. I will forever be a mixture of American and Filipino culture; and I love it! + According to the subtitle above you, the reader, would expect me to talk about American people and how I interact with them. But that is not what I meant by ‘My Own People.” My ‘people’ are now both American and Filipinos and therefore my interaction with both often merge and mix. When I am in the Philippines I adapt as much as I can; transforming as deeply as possible while maintaining who I am as God made me. When I am in the United States I also must adapt as much as possible to make the transition of social interaction as smooth as it can be. But I might not treat Americans as fairly because while staying here I don’t want to lose my identity with Philippines culture. + When I interact with people of other cultures I also try and understand and adapt to their culture as much as possible. I guess I am a bit of a chameleon. I can remember in 2003 when I stayed in Baguio, I lived with a Korean though I was living in the Philippines. Some of my best friends were from Myanmar and so my interaction at that time was very mixed. I was American taking on the cultures of three at a time; though I must say that in the end the Korean culture stayed with me the most. +",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," +How are you, my reader, affecting those around you according to your culture? How is your country affecting other cultures? If we, the Christian subculture of America do not learn how to shift and change with the tide of culture we are in a dangerous place of loosing our effectiveness on society. I hope that you, like me, are willing to constantly be reformed and shaped into a being that can be transparent so that nothing can distract your message of who you are and what you believe in. + + + + + + Mark A. Noll must have been very deliberate in his choosing of the word scandal. When I was reading the text, and he would mention the scandal of the evangelical mind is this or that, I would stop and read the definition of scandal within the sentence. It is such a powerful statement. The evangelical mind of the nation disgraces itself. Wow. + Honestly, I had trouble connecting with Noll for a while. I understood his platform, but his passion at times seemed overwhelming. Perhaps that is because I quite possibly could be one evangelical whose mind is not fully used. It’s too easy to live day to day in monotony and not put to use our God given philosophical talents. As I read through the text I highlighted statements, or portion, of the text that stood out to me (for good or negative reasons) and I would like to talk over a few of them. + Let us start from the beginning. On page seven Noll is closing his portion of subject on what he means by the “life of the mind”: +I consider Noll to be an extremely heavy thinker. Within such a short paragraph he can convey so much that a normal reader might not understand. And I do acknowledge the fact that this book is at a master degree program level, but even beyond that I still think of Noll as a very deep person. I had to chew on this paragraph for a while. I still am. Is it really ‘acute’ in Christian society today that we do not think much on government, economy, the meaning of the past, artistic creation, and so forth? I am not sure. + I do agree with him that we fail to think upon “circumstances attending our perception of the world outside ourselves.” (Noll, 7) There is so much bulk in that one phrase. It is completely true and I do agree. I would like to expand beyond that and say specifically that if evangelicals do not get their heads straight about culture and the world around them they are going to lose the battle for the United States. In fact, I would say that we are deeply losing now and only hanging on by a thread. That is why the term “bubble” and “inside the four walls” are so popular. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," It is true that Muslims are a very devout people; they are devout to their religion and to their cause. But the lie behind their cause is that Muhammad himself took people by force. And for anyone to believe that Islam is not a hostile religion is foolish. They truly believe in Jihad, and people, America especially, should not be naive of this fact. + + + + + + Right now as I’m writing this paper, I am listening to a song called It’s a Wonderful World. It is a great song to sway to, relax to, and appreciate life. The fact that I enjoy this song is a testimony of how my worldview has shaped me. I enjoy this song because long ago I was taught that Christmas music is important. I was taught that appreciating what is musically beautiful is good. And I was taught that the ‘classics’ should never be forsaken. + Take a journey with me and imagine that you, the reader, are in my childhood memories. I am in the living room, young, maybe only early teens and my parents and I are dancing in the living room. What songs? Only the classics! The ‘classics’ are any classic rock song that is worthy. Also, during Christmas the classics may be songs that have become tradition to our family (such as Mariah Carey Christmas) to classics that were “classics” before I was born. As the songs play my father turns to both my brother and I and asks, “Who is it?” “Who is the Artist?” And we would think and think as though it were a competition. Still today anywhere there may be a classic rock song playing my father is sure to quiz me on who is the artist. And I love it. It is a constant tradition that has stayed with my family. + As with any child, my parents have largely shaped who I am today and what I believe in. I always joke that I was born in the Assemblies of God, an A.G. baby. But it is true, I don’t remember the time when I was saved; I was raised in church and church for me is as a second family. Without the influence of my parents or how they raised me I do not know how I would identify myself religiously. They taught me young about God, about morals, about what we, our family, believe in. + My father is a very strong man. From the time he was a young adult he has been raising our family. He started his business with his ‘bare hands’ and he has been a leader since the time before I was born. I grew up watching my father lead others in a business of retail (motorcycles, ATV’s, Watercraft, Parts and Service). I watched as the community knew him; he was on TV commercials and well known at racing events. I knew from a time when I was very young that my father was a very respectable man. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," +A couple of pages later Noll remarks about a platform made by other researchers that says, “evangelicals—bereft of self-criticism, intellectual subtlety, or an awareness of complexity—are blown about by every wind of apocalyptic speculation and enslaved to the cruder spirits of populist science.” (Noll, 14) Yes! Yes ten times over! I am so tired of hearing, “we might not make it to next year, and surely the Lord is coming this year. This is the year.” I know that is bad to say, but it is nonetheless how I feel. This is very personal and I do not want this to be made public, but, at my church I feel that the leaders and other members are too concerned with predicting when the Lord is going to come again. +I just want to say to them, “do you not remember in the Bible how it says no one will no the hour or the day?” It truly eats at me when my pastor will give a sermon and salvation alter call based on the fact that if that person sitting in the audience does not come they might die and go to hell today or the Lord might come back tomorrow. Of course those statements are true but it is as though he were threatening and manipulating the very lives and souls of the unbeliever. Now then, I know that he means well, but in persuasion we call this manipulation or persuasion by fear. Many people in my church truly feel that we have only a couple of years left, maybe so. But is it right to use language in such a way as to scare the unbeliever? Or is it right to encourage other believers in the same thinking patterns? I think not. +Moving on and skipping ahead there is a portion of material that I am not sure I understand: +Is this really true? If it is Christian colleges around the world are in serious danger. I honestly cannot even conceive in my mind comments for this passage from the text. I don’t know what to think. But I do know what I feel; I feel fear. Fear for every student who is under me and for my friends who are currently in a mess and do not know how to properly interact with society and the world. Is this true of our professors at CBC? I am so perplexed with this because it boggles my mind that professors who are at doctorate level might not know the relationship between God and the world. + Another thing that blows my mind is when Noll called the cross a ‘scandal’. On page twenty-five he speaks of the scandal of the cross as a light and a hope. It is something to embrace. But I would like to ask Noll, why call the cross a scandal? Jesus dying on the cross for our sins was “an action or circumstance that cause[d] disgrace or offends public morality.”",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," “Burke was convinced that the ultimate motivation of all public speaking is to purge ourselves of an ever-present, all-inclusive sense of guilt [sic]” (332). + It is Sunday night at a small, rural, Assemblies of God church. The Holy Spirit is moving and for the length of the entire service the congregants have been at the alter. The pastor allows time to persist, even though the hour has run past 7:30 p.m. Some elders in the church have gotten a hold of the microphone and have prophesied about various aspects of the church. In each prophesy, all congregants are called to a more serious walk with Christ. + Clearwater Assembly (name changed) is not an uncommon church in the Midwest. Rural towns usually have at least one church that is predominately traditional in terms of church practice. The pastor, Jack Shepherd (name changed), has been at this church for approximately four years. Pastor Jack and his wife have been in the ministry for over thirty years and have experienced numerous times where they are called to a church for the purposes of helping it to heal. Clearwater Assembly is certainly one of those churches. + In an interview with Pastor Jack and his wife Kathy (name changed), they both shared their views on how Pentecostal language, or, Pentecostalism is changing in the new generation today. Pastor Jack first expressed that the new generation does not feel the urgency to be filled with the Holy Spirit along with the evidence of speaking in tongues. He acknowledged that some are trying to change the sentence structure of one of the statements of faiths concerning the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues. He believes to change the sentence from stating “the initial physical evidence…” to; “an initial physical evidence” is wrong and unbiblical. Pastor also expounded on the fact that the new generation is loosing its sensitivity to the move of the Holy Spirit and the new generation no longer has a spiritual discernment as did Pentecostal generations in the past. + The interview then shifted focus into discussing Assemblies of God publications such as Today’s Pentecostal Evangel. Pastor Jack states that he doesn’t read TPE anymore due to the fact that most articles are too seeker-friendly. He then states that in sectional meetings with other ministers of the Assemblies of God the topic of Gospel Publishing House material is frequent. Ministers today discuss their dislike for the lack of bible based teachings in GPH material and usually offer to set aside GPH material for other more bible based resources. + Today’s Pentecostal Evangel is the most promising artifact for analysis concerning Pentecostal language through generations. By analyzing random articles within magazines from January through April 1967, 1987, and 2007, this research discovered numerous findings concerning Pentecostal language and its path through generations. +The structure of PE in 1987 was more styled for readers who would be interested in “how-to” guides and sermon style articles. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," What?! Honestly, what?! I can’t understand it when read by its meaning (scandal). The cross was a disgrace against public morality? In the sense that Jesus’ own people turned against him and hung him, tortured him, maybe so. But it was in fact that exact action that saved humankind; it is the point that Jesus was the sacrifice. + Throughout the next few sections of the book Noll talked so much about the history of evangelicals and the church it made me sick. It was so hard to get through and I felt like I was in a fight with the text. “Push, push, and push through the words to get to the good part” I would tell myself. Honestly, I had a hard time with this book. It was a heavy language style for me. One portion of the history I did enjoy reading about was the Puritans. I had no idea that they were so intellectual. I thought, from what I knew, about history, that they were overzealous and killed those who should not have been killed. The fact that they tried to maintain a balance between “spirit and philosophy” (Noll, 41) says something of their culture of the time. I also learned that when the church and state first had separated, some states still kept prayer in meetings, tested state office on religious subject, and gave tax to support ministers (Noll, 64). That is amazing. +Although I understood some things still yet other things I had to let go because I couldn’t grasp it. And that is difficult for me to admit. I consider myself smart, but when faced with the challenge of reading Noll I find myself inadequate. But maybe that is exactly what Noll wants out of his readings. After finishing the book perhaps Noll wants his readers to take a look at themselves and say, “hey, you, yes you, are you really using your mind? Are you really as intellectual and smart as you think you are?” And then they will ponder and find that they are extremely not what they thought they were. And then that is when Christ can come in and say, “Yes, now then, let us work on your intellect. Now that you know, it is me who enriches even your mind. Give me your mind.” I think that is Noll’s platform, “Evangelicals! Give Christ your mind!” + + + + I was vaguely familiar with Gilgamesh from the time I studied it in high school. I remember at that time we had an assignment: to act out a portion of the story with a group assigned in class. I remember that my group chose to focus on how Enkidu became civilized, specifically, how the harlot civilized him. We were just kids then, and now as I re-read the story instead I find it fascinating that there is a piece of literature that so closely resembles the biblical account of Noah and the flood, and yet Gilgamesh was written in a time before this biblical account. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," Many of the articles are lengthier than its 2007 counterpart and there are less pictures and advertisements in the 1987 edition as well. Numerous authors failed to have a focused article. They often strayed on tangents of topics concerning whatever platform they were passionate about. One such author, R.L. Dresselhaus, used scripture to introduce and conclude his topic but the bulk of his articles were concerning whatever opinion or platform he wished. He, like others, did not have a focused target audience and switched between speaking to already converted peoples and unconverted peoples. He often used reinforcing language to persuade readers of his own brand of theology. Dresselhaus was not alone in this language style; numerous other authors of 1987’s Pentecostal Language used reinforcing language to persuade others of Assemblies of God beliefs, or, of their own personal opinions. +Robert Cunningham, who was the editor of PE for over thirty years, wrote a piece about the mind. His basic theory is that evangelicals are to give their entire minds to Christ. The title of his article, “’ I Surrender All That I Think’ Beware of the brainwash [sic]” (4) suggests that the article is about being intellectual. In reality the article is more about being anti-intellectual than anything else. One of the main rewarding features of studying his article is that he shows a language pattern that matches Burke’s guilt-redemption cycle. During the 1980s many scandals surfaced concerning the morality and ethics of Assemblies of God ministers. He states, “That is why [concerning data stored in brains of believers] unscrupulous men resort to brainwashing. They want to replace people’s beliefs with their own; and they will go to any length, using cruel methods if necessary, to do this” (4). This is an indirect statement concerning the televangelists and other ministers of that day who were unethical. In short, Cunningham was attempting to purge ministers of the Assemblies of God of the guilt surrounding moral failure. +Another author in the April 26 issue of PE showed the same purging style. Lowell Landstrom wrote the article, “Contemporary vs. Traditional Gospel Music” (8). He writes of the danger rock and roll music imparts on evangelicals. The true intent, however, of his article is defending his own belief in allowing up-beat music. He states this very plainly throughout his text but then he makes a statement that marks his own guilt-redemption cycle, “We should beware of songs presented in the flesh rather than in the Spirit. It is possible a sincere Christian can perform music that is carnal and harmful just as a sincere minister can inadvertently tell a story that is…suggestive. This is why Paul the apostle said, ‘For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret’ (Ephesians 5:12) [parenthesis not researchers] For this reason, I do not endorse heavy metal Christian music” (9). In truth Lundstrom is purging himself of an ever present sense of guilt in using contemporary music. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," My generation of girls became so fixed with waiting that we identified ourselves with finding the right man. + Starting my years at Central Bible College was wonderful. Why CBC? Well, I was taught that if I were to be a missionary I should consider a Bible College instead of a secular college. That thinking is a direct influence of my youth pastor. I was always active in dramas in my church. I was always told that I am a very good actress. So what other major would I choose? Actually, I considered a major in missions but after winning a scholarship for drama I decided that I should have a drama major to go along with it. And I am so thankful for my decision I had made at that naive time. + When I started my freshman year I must admit that education was not on the forefront of my mind. And I know that you, the reader, can guess what was. That’s right! Finding the ONE! I was directly influenced that at CBC you are supposed to find your life mate. He is out there somewhere, just ‘wait’ and it will happen. Well, crush after crush and it did NOT happen. I never dated at CBC. And because of this I was taught to think that maybe God wanted me to be single. Well, if my man didn’t show up by then, we ladies should consider the fact that maybe God wants us not to get distracted by getting married. And so the second phase of my relationship pursuing began; bitterness and worry! + I would pray and pray, “God if you want me to be single, than I am willing” I said as I still peeked out the corner of my eye at the crushes I had. It took me a while to learn that desiring to get married was good and fine as long as it did not consume all of me. Which it did until God weaned it from me. It took a very bad relationship for me to give up my ‘chasing’ after what God was supposed to bless me with. It took growth and time and maturity. + Surrounding all of this I was also pursing how I would do ministry in the Philippines. Drama was always on the forefront of my mind and so I started to desire to use Drama in the mission field. My culture has taught me that I should nurture educationally what talents I have or what field in which I would like to work in. Thank God I didn’t follow the American theme: “We live to Work!” Instead, I follow my subcultures (the American Church) theme: “We live to serve!” And so in order to serve the best that I can I want to learn all that I can about drama ministry and how I can use that effectively to reach others for Christ. + I have now been married for almost two years and I have grown and changed so much. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," My goal is to discuss and come to a theory of why the Story of the Flood found in Gilgamesh similarly compares to the Biblical Noah account. + The Noah account of the flood can be found in Genesis 6:9-9:28 of the Old Testament. Herbert Wolf, author of An Introduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch, writes, “The first section [chapters 1-11] deals quickly with the origin of the universe and the creation of man, tracing the fall of Adam and the rapid growth of sin. Following a detailed account of devastation brought by the flood, Moses [said to be author of Genesis] shows how the descendants of Noah’s three sons repopulated the world.” (pg. 80) I asked myself, “how can two pieces of literature be so different and yet so similar?” They are similar in the fact that they both make an account of a human God, or gods, wanting to destroy mankind by sending a flood. And they both make an account of how one man builds a boat and rescues creatures and kin in order to survive the flood. They are also similar in the way that Noah and Utnapishtim exit the boat. + Noah’s account is about God needing to destroy the wickedness that has overcome mankind, seeing Noah’s faith and fervor, God spares him by instructing Noah to build an ark, or, a boat and put on it 2 of every kind of animal. In this way Noah, the animals, and Noah’s kin are spared. I first observed that although the two different literary works have a different purpose, their stories are very similar in nature. But there is a problem, Gilgamesh is said to have been written circa 2000 B.C. and the biblical account of Noah, or for that matter, the book of Genesis wasn’t written until circa 1446-1406 B.C. In Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps & Charts it states that Moses would have used, “older written sources and oral traditions…wisdom of the Egyptians…all available records, manuscripts, and oral narratives” (pg. 4) in order to write the book of Genesis. +So how could two literary works, written 600 years apart be so similar? I believe the answer lies in oral tradition. The flood is known to have happened at some time before the Patriarch period of the Old Testament, circa 2090 B.C. (Nelson, 1). So, if it is true that Gilgamesh is dated at 2000 B.C. that means for those 90 years the story was most likely passed around by word of mouth. Also, until Moses wrote down the accounts of Genesis the account of Noah was most likely passed by word of mouth. Is it possible that the two are similar because the oral traditions followed two separate lines? +The ‘lines’ I am speaking of are generational and cultural. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," + Almost four years ago I took a course in Islam at CBC. One of the main topics of heated discussion in the class was whether or not Islam is a hostile religion. I believe that the question is even more relevant today than ever before. Looking back on the events since 9/11 I have personally observed mass media go from a hostile view of Islam and extremists to an extreme from of tolerance for Islam in America. I don’t think in 2001 we could have ever had a presidential candidate with the name Borac Obama, who has an obvious Muslim background in his family. + The Biography of the Prophet is intriguing to me because according to what I know of the history of Muhammad, the biography contradicts the personality of Muhammad. From what I know and learned in the past, I thought that Muhammad forced converts to Islam. He would conquer and take over tribes and then force them to take on the Islam religion. But according to the biography, Muhammad was written as a sort of Martyr, who was misunderstood and even humbled himself to others. After which one by one people came to see the ‘truth’ in his teaching and sought him out. + Also, there are some uncanny similarities between the ministries of Jesus and the ‘miracles’ of Muhammad. The most obvious is when he took mutton and milk and multiplied it so that there was more than enough for forty men. It is this style of writing that makes me believe the writers wanted Muhammad to be perceived as the humble prophet, who needed not to prove anything, but simply lived in truth and miracles. This sort of fallacy is the worst because it downplays the miracle and life of Jesus Christ. To me, it is like they are stealing and trying to take credit for the life and personhood of Jesus through Muhammad. + There are also a lot of stories in the biography that make it seem like part of their agenda is to provide proof of ‘witness’ or of how people ‘on their own’ converted to Islam. But the problem is that a lot of the stories are at least from a third party perspective. That is in the story the author illustrates that he heard from so-and-so who heard from so-and-so etc. I didn’t like this much because although their idea was that it provided proof of the truth of the stories, I thought it diminished the stories and made it seem all that more suspicious. + I think the thing that bothers me most about this work is that they try and exalt and lift up Muhammad as a godly man who was humble, endearing, wise, and gentle. But history contradicts the idea that Muhammad was a gentle and humble man, and I can’t help but think if Muslims today know the true history behind Muhammad’s rise to power. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh,"Although this research did find two specific instances where Burke’s guilt-redemption cycle applied to the text, the theory itself may not be the best choice in further study concerning Pentecostal language in Today’s Pentecostal Evangel. Perhaps a more appropriate theory would be social movement or a more specific word count study. There needs to be further development in finding the appropriate theory to apply to the text. The researcher in charge of this study is confident that she will continue to investigate the artifact presented. + + + + For my final project, I chose to explore the successes and weaknesses of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel. I have been researching this text now for nearly three weeks and I have observed interesting changes in the structure of the magazine since 1987. I also have been doing a study of the Pentecostal language passed down over three generations and thought it would be interesting to include some of my research findings in this paper. What follows below is a detailed account of random selections pulled from the 1987 Pentecostal Evangel, from January to April, and also for Today’s Pentecostal Evangel of 2007 (both findings in printed version only). + +The structure of the PE in 1987 was more styled for readers who would be interested in “how-to” guides and sermon style articles. Many of the articles are lengthier than its 2007 counterpart and there are less pictures and advertisements in the 1987 edition as well. In order to get a well balanced analysis of 1987s edition, I have pulled a random selection of articles from January to April. + + The first thing I noticed was that his writing style, at first, was more in a storytelling form. He used heavy narration to talk about scripture. Dresselhaus used a soft and long transition into his main topic, and his introduction didn’t connect all that well with his main topic. He did, however, relate well socially and culturally to the people of his day by empathizing with such characters as divorced women and widows. He is not consistent in his targeted audience because he harshly shifts his focus from speaking to the believer to the non-believer. + His introduction topic was concerning the miracle of the leper in the gospels. He then related it to: if a person feels isolated there are steps he/she could take to be free of that. He is very clear in his step-by-step guide and his writing style is clearly a how-to guide in dealing with isolation. He loosely transitions to talking about prayer and the common “erroneous assumptions” concerning the belief in prayer. This is when his article turns more into a sermon than anything else and it seems this was the true reason why he wanted to write the article. He had a platform he wanted to discuss and used a social issue (some believers feeling isolated) to get there. + He uses a reinforcing message to very plainly state what should be the correct theology concerning prayer. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," But this is not his only angle. He then transitions very abruptly into a defensive style of writing concerning his own personal use of up-beat music. +So while he condemns rock and roll he defends his use of up-beat music and all in the name of God. This is also a form of the guilt-redemption cycle Kenneth Burke theorizes about because in his article he clearly has a platform to defend his integrity and motive for using up-beat music in the ministry (he is a musician). In one paragraph he states, “It is possible a sincere Christian can perform music that is carnal and harmful just as a sincere minister can inadvertently tell a story that is…suggestive.” He concludes that because Paul says that it is a shame to speak about things that are done in secret is the reason why he does not endorse heavy metal music. He shifts loosely throughout his article between preaching to believers to defending his own use of up-beat music. I was not able to conduct a word count on this article. + At least the Pentecostal Evangel at this time is uniform in its style writing. Every author that I researched had a how-to-guide mingled in their platform, all except for the last author. They were successful in the fact that they discussed issues that must have been relevant to believers at that time and for the most part they stayed true to their target audience of already converted peoples. Whenever they did discuss a how-to-guide system of conquering problems at least the advice, for the most part, was biblically based. They had a clever use of pictures and advertisements that they did not have in years past and they seemed to have wanted to lift up the integrity of the Assemblies of God ministers and ministries. + It is sad to mention that Pentecostal Evangel had more weakness than successes. Firstly, their authors were not trained very well in keeping the focus of their articles tight. The authors didn’t seem to be monitored on how much opinion is spoken throughout their column and at times it felt like the institution was defending itself and lifting itself up more than it was purposed to help believers. Also, the Pentecostal Evangel allowed for writers to discuss their own opinions to social and culture changes in society and loosely base biblical off of their opinion. The PE had no disclaimer whatsoever that the views and opinions of the authors. This is a mistake twenty years later they were sure to remedy. + + In the twenty years of time, TPE has changed dramatically. In fact, it has changed so dramatically that its very purpose in production and mission has changed. Online they post the mission statement, “As the official weekly magazine of the Assemblies of God, Today’s Pentecostal Evangel fulfills the threefold mission of the church: To propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ; To give emphasis to Pentecostal distinctives [sic], including the baptism in the Holy Spirit and its desired effects in the lives of believers; To strengthen believers. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +hh," His writing style remains the same; he used a biblical passage to go into a platform that is loosely related. He used the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead to talk about fear of dying. This time Dresselhaus is more bold in his ‘how-to’ style of writing and clearly states that if a person were to follow his steps they could be freed from a fear of dying. +The concluding remarks of his article states, “Do this, and victory will be yours” (13)! He has more grammatical and punctual errors in the article than the last but he is more tied to scripture. He is clearer in giving biblical instruction in his advice than his previous article. It is still loosely based on scripture and the scripture seems to only provide for an introduction and a conclusion. He mentioned God six times, Jesus twenty-seven times, and the Holy Spirit one time. + From the title a person could assume that the article will be about intellectualism and the rights steps to using the mind. But actually the heart of the article, in its essence, turns out to be a platform for anti-intellectualism and the giving completely of ones mind to Christ. It gives no platform whatsoever for the responsibility of using the mind intellectually. This article, like all the others, is also a form for a how-to-guide. There is also a hint of Kenneth Burke’s guilt-redemption cycle revealed in the author’s words. He talks about men who brainwash people and how these men will go to any length necessary. There was no real reason to say this other than to warn his readers. I conclude that he is purging himself and possibly the A.G. of the immorality and moral failures that lurked on Assemblies of God ministers in the 1980s due to controversies that had been national coverage. + Cunningham also makes the mistake of conveying the idea that a person’s cognitive and emotional level is the same. This actually speaks against what is supposed to be the essence of the article. I also noticed that his article was the first to mention the new form of technology of that time, computers. His style of writing is the same as the others in the fact that he has a soft introduction in the beginning but then harshly transitions to his personal platform, or chosen topic. He mentioned God twelve times, Jesus ten times, and the Assemblies of God twice. + This article is my favorite, not because I like it so much but because it truly shows what happens when a minister preaches purely his opinions. Landstrom was clear to point out his angle for the article in the first paragraph, “Christians, who prefer traditional gospel music…are lined up, bayonets raised, ready to defend righteousness” (8). It is interesting that he associates traditional gospel music with righteousness. He goes on to discuss the specific topic of rock and roll music and then form very strong opinions that are loosely tied to scripture. ",28,English,female,Bachelor of Arts,Housewife,"N,N,N,N,N" +h," Any improvements to a country's health information system, while expensive up-front, will make provider monitoring much easier later on. It is recommended that Namibia set up a national health information system before implementing a pay for performance model. + In addition, the desired outcomes and targets must be decided upon, which is much easier said than done. For an illness like HIV/AIDS, number cured obviously cannot be a monitored outcome. Patients in ongoing treatment, however, and cases of HIV detected certainly can. One measure that Namibia may want to consider is number of new HIV cases detected and put on ongoing therapy, in order to ensure that the adverse selection mentioned above. In many ways, incentivizing numbers of clients rather than percentages may be a good idea to ensure comprehensive care for HIV-positive citizens. + One final recommendation for Namibia when implementing a pay for performance model, ensure that supplies are available on the anticipated level needed before introducing a bonus model. As HIV testing will likely increase, and ARVs will logically be used more as a result, stock needs to be adequate to meet increased demand. Another related recommendation is to do implement the new bonus system as fast as possible. If testing or new cases are incentivized, there is a chance that providers will hold off on HIV testing until the new system is installed and they can be paid more for providing the same service. + Provided Namibia prepare properly and set appropriate targets, pay for performance can be a critical tool in stopping the AIDS epidemic in their country. As outlined in this paper, however, when setting targets it is of the utmost importance that benchmarks be analyzed for potential consequences, including unintended effects to the provision of and quality of care. It is also important that the country ensure that its health system is both financially and technologically prepared for the additional anticipated stress to its country's healthcare infrastructure. + + + + In cases of civil war or armed conflict, the question of how to strengthen health systems is a complicated one, as government resources and attentions are often focused on other, more immediate problems. However, the importance of providing basic medical services to all citizens cannot be understated. Individually displaced people (IDPs) have very specific medical needs due to their circumstances. Infectious diseases often run wild among IDP communities, and mental health is an ongoing issue that often goes overlooked. Some of the various issues in IDP and conflict situations are issues of access, doctor migration out of country, and financing. + While conflict often causes NGOs and bilateral agencies to intervene, this adds yet another level of coordination to the puzzle. In this paper, various armed conflicts around the world will be discussed, highlighting particular health system needs and basic health-systems failings. In addition, some common considerations, such as the common use of mobile health clinics and the provision of mental health care, are also discussed. Finally, the special case of Nepal deserves attention. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," In addition, According to N Hakamies, “Although material and human resources are significant constraints on agencies, the main challenge is to tackle ideological, managerial and policy barriers, and those related to donor influence.” Finding funding for family planning services continues to prove difficult for NGOs, and as a result they often do not exist or cannot meet the need levels of their constituencies. + Reproductive Health funding problems underscore a larger issue with a reliance on NGO services, as can often be seen in IDP situations. The ability to provide services is often reliant on funding from outside sources and its continuation is based not on the needs of those being served, but on what they can find funding to provide. Often an organization's decision to cease operations in a country has more to do with a lack of financial support than the successful completion of their programming. + There are certainly other issues with over reliance on NGO services, such as the fact that their services often don't solve the underlying infrastructure issues that will reemerge once the NGO presence is reduced. Many NGOs do not remain in-country for the post-conflict period. In effect, services are provided and once the initial emergency is over, the NGOs are gone and those still displaced must find a health provider somewhere else. This affects a country's capacity to rebuild post-conflict as well as their ability to provide services while the rebuilding effort is underway. + Another issue is the added levels of coordination that occur when working with multiple aid groups to ensure healthcare service coverage. NGO involvement in IDP aid is a fact of life, however. The critical point is that the Ministry of Health must coordinate among those organizations. + + + Much of the focus on healthcare provision during emergency and conflict situations revolves around the use of Mobile Health Units (MHUs). Mobile Health Units are, at their most basic, mobile service units that usually provide specific forms of both preventative and curative care. They are generally expensive, however, and the fact that they only provide services intermittently tends to affect when they are appropriate for use. According to Stephane du Mortier and Rudi Coninx, “In situations of armed conflict, the range of PHC services that can be provided is severely restricted. This means that, in any given situation, it is essential to select the priority services among the spectrum of PHC services”. MHUs are limited in the number of services they can provide and the frequency at which they are available to any one community. These considerations must be kept in mind when formulating a plan as to how to use MHUs in any conflict or emergency setting. + Du Mortier and Coninx describe their use of MHUs with the International Committee of the Red Cross during the conflict in Columbia in 2005. In this case, the rebel forces refused to allow access to the Ministry of Health in the country to citizens in areas they held. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," There are many ways in which a scheme can often become a financial disaster. Firstly, when rural insurance is developed, the risk pools the insurance organize from are often smaller, leading to a decreased risk pool. This puts the insurance organization at an immediate disadvantage, as the ability to pay out for all care needed is decreased when the risk pool is smaller. In addition, these sorts of systems, when not developed properly, may allow people to move in and out of the system with relative ease, meaning a person can pay for coverage when they need it (say when a woman becomes pregnant) and stop participating when they are in relatively good health. In other words, these people will only be adding stress to an already small risk pool, further hurting the financial viability of the organization. This problem can be fixed, usually through a waiting period during which the person is paying into the pool but not able to utilize services, but these sorts of decisions should be made before a rural insurance scheme is implemented. + Another contributor to the failing of so many of these sorts of schemes is the administrative stress of developing such schemes. For smaller schemes like these sorts of rural insurance organizations, administrative costs are high, owing to the reduced funding pool, and the high administrative needs. For instance, most administrators must negotiate rates with providers, set premiums and collect premiums from members, and coordinate recruitment into the scheme. As a result, administrative costs and fees often further hamper the organization's viability. In addition, the premium fees are often set on the basis of how much the members can pay rather than on the costs of provision of care. This means that the administrators must develop a package of services that are covered and decide what is excluded. These sorts of issues mean that administration of these insurance schemes really need qualified, experienced administrators that are often lacking in these rural areas. A poorly-run scheme with staff that is not up to the task likely will eat up potential funds with administrative fees. + A third likely reason for the failing of so many rural insurance schemes is the lack of government support that would help such a setup to thrive. Generally, donor-funded schemes will need to become independent at some point after insurance scheme has been established and the initial donor has pulled out. Due to the various high costs and issues described above, many schemes will likely find themselves unable to pay for all utilized services at some point after this. If the government has also been a stakeholder in the development process, they might be able to subsidize the insurance scheme or provide some funding to keep the organization running. If not, in many cases, the insurance scheme may find itself unable to continue running. + Having looked at some of the reasons for the high failure rate of these rural insurance schemes, what can be done when developing the scheme make it more likely to succeed? ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," Other frequent interventions to halt the spread of communicable diseases include vector control, sanitation and waste disposal, and the provision of safe food, in the hopes that those services will ease the spread of disease. + + + In armed conflicts that interrupt infrastructure and displace citizens, the first goal of health systems strengthening should concern provision of health care. The concern of provision poses a number of logistical issues, namely access to services and security issues for supplies. As Spiegel states + + Not only are IDPs often settled in places with marginal access to begin with, but their presence causes undue pressure on services established for the communities that already existed, complicating access for everyone in the region. In addition, conflict almost always causes some disruption of healthcare services as a tactical ploy in the fighting. As an example, the WHO found that after violence erupted following the 2007 elections in Kenya, “30% of the health facilities are not functioning. This disruption in the health system is affecting routine health care delivery and emergency care services. Already there are reports of patients on Anti-Retroviral Therapy for HIV and Tuberculosis treatment being unable to access their drugs.” These sorts of shortages are quite common in conflict-affected zones, due to the increased logistical frustrations of avoiding fighting or insurgents who might steal supplies. In these sorts of logistically difficult situations, not only are basic services not accessible, but access to care is virtually impossible. Diseases that are easily treatable, such as malaria and tuberculosis, can run rampant due to insufficient resources to deal with outbreaks as well as having many people in a small area together.. + As a case study of the issues relating to inadequate access to clinics and services one can look at 2007 Kenya. Extended violence broke out after the elections that year. During this conflict, the three biggest causes of morbidity and mortality were all easily treatable: acute respiratory disease, malaria, and diarrhea. In addition to a prevalence of preventable deaths, the decline of the healthcare infrastructure during conflict leads to long-term demographic health issues for countries like Kenya. As Dr. Jeff Wilkinson said at the time of the outbreak of violence, “With the unrest, the Kenyan people cannot get access to the preventive tools, such as bed nets to guard against malaria, or condoms to guard against sexually transmitted diseases. Moreover, if they get sick, they cannot make it to clinics for treatments. Since tuberculosis and HIV require long-term treatment, lack of access is a huge obstacle to controlling the diseases.” In these sorts of situations, many steps the country might have taken forward can be done away with simply due to the lack of adequate supplies. + In terms of supply security and logistics, conflict affects vaccine and drug supplies in multiple ways. Some logistical issues include the targeting of NGOs and other suppliers due to their perceived government and UN ties, disruption of supply routes by armed forces, raids and attacks, and problems transporting supplies due to terrain. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," That being said, there are some pitfalls of the pay for performance model that should be considered in the implementation phase of an HIV/AIDS-based bonus model in Namibia in order to be successful. + Firstly, it is important that the performance measures that are rewarded are 1) based on research done on current levels of treatment/access and 2) targeted at increasing quality and care. If targets are not set based on current levels of services provided, there is a chance that levels will be set too low and will not affect services provided. This was seen when the UK established a pay for performance model in the 80s. Not only did most doctors earn nearly the limit for bonuses offered (well over $100,000), but studies showed that the services provided were comparable to US rates, which did not have a bonus model. In other words, the performance measures were set too low and were too easy to meet to have any real effect on care. In addition, setting out-come based and quality-based targets must be the focus. One concern with setting a target such as total number of HIV tests administered means that providers have incentives to test people already tested recently (within the last three months, say) or people who have no risk. There is some incentive to abuse the system for providers, in other words. + Another problem with a pay for performance model is the risk that it might cause some adverse selection. If there are performance measures for the percentage of HIV-positive patients on ARVs, for instance, there would be an incentive for providers not to take on new HIV-positive clients to ensure they are still meeting these sorts of ratio benchmarks. It is important to keep in mind these sorts of unintended consequences of pay for performance implementation. + A third and final issue with the pay for performance model is the fact that it will increase administrative costs. Rather than paying providers on a salaried basis, the setting of performance targets means there will need to be follow-up to ensure services provided are not inflated and there is a new built in payment system that requires more staff. While this shouldn't discourage a country from implementing a pay for performance model, it must be considered early on, as healthcare spending will likely increase. Ensuring that the benefits outweigh the expected cost increases is of the utmost importance. + In establishing a pay for performance model, it is important that Namibia first ensure they have reliable data as to the current inefficiencies in their HIV/AIDS monitoring and treatment system, otherwise they risk setting performance targets that are too easy to meet, much like the UK did. A thorough study of how frequently HIV testing and treatment is done must be performed before targets can be realistically set. + The need for quality data is also an ongoing concern, as services provided will need to continue to be monitored once a bonus structure is put in place. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," In addition, the only aid group they allowed to enter the region was the ICRC. For these reasons, it was clear that they needed the mobility the MHUs afforded them to ensure basic services were offered to as many citizens in the occupied areas as possible. + The point above is reiterated multiple times in Du Mortier and Coninx's article: the reason why MHUs were deemed acceptable in this case is because they were used as the only option. Du Mortier and Coninx stress in their document that MHUs should not be used to substitute Ministry of Health programming, but to supplement those services only in exceptional situations where access is restricted, as a last resort, if you will. They identify very specific targets that MHUs can be used to accomplish. + +Substitution: As described in the example above, where federal health programming is unable to reach citizens and IDPs, MHUs can be viewed as a temporary stopgap measure. In this case, the organization is acting as a replacement of services for leaders. +Support: In these cases, MHUs are used as a supplemental clinic to help officials meet their goals. This generally entails the establishment of common objectives between the government and the NGO which can realistically be supplemented in part by the use of MHUs. +Mobilization: In these cases, services are provided without the direct input of government officials. Support is developed among third parties that can exert pressure on government officials to take over and provide services. + +It is important to note that regardless of the underlying targets, MHUs must not be viewed as permanent solutions, due to the limitations in numbers of services provided and high operating costs. In other words, MHUs are not viable stand-alone units that should be viewed as a part of the country's health infrastructure. MHUS are specifically to be used when there is no other option, and retired once the situation has stabilized. + There are many other considerations which are important to be aware of when deciding how and when to use MHUs. Du Mortier and Coninx highlight a few of these. + +MHUs are often more successful for vertical programming. More specifically, MHUs are extremely good at screening and vaccinating for serious conditions that are slow to develop. Treatment for patients in the acute stage is not a recommended primary strategy for MHUs, largely due to the fact that they are only intermittently available for any population to access. Obviously, MHUs will deal with acute illnesses in many cases, but this is not their strength and should not be viewed as a primary acute care tool in the planning stage. This focus on preventative care is an important takeaway, and its usefulness in preventing communicable disease through screenings and vaccinations is a clear asset of this model. To this point, Du Mortier and Coninx make the following caveat: + +As indicated by the mention of triage above, staff in MHUs must be highly trained. In addition, access to a nearby clinic for referral is critical. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," + + +Equity in healthcare refers to the even distribution of access and services across a given group. Inequality and inequity are not necessarily the same thing. If inequality, among say the rich and the poor are due to financial or time constraints (i.e. the poor cannot afford certain services) it can be said that it that is an inequity. However, if there is an inequality due to consumer preferences (for example, increased utilization by the poor because they need healthcare services more), this is an inequality that does not indicate inequity. As can be noted in the above example, inequality may not always be in favor of the rich. In fact, as Rawl's notes, inequality should only be allowed in raising the status of the poor. + In discussing equity, it is important to note that there are two aspects that need to be analyzed: vertical equity and horizontal equity. Vertical equity is the distribution of services across income levels . In other words, do the richest citizens have the same level of access compared to the poorest? When looking at health systems which rely on out-of-pocket spending, equity is usually affected, with co-payments and premiums affecting access by the poorest citizens more so than the richest. Another example of vertical equity concerns healthcare financing. Financing the system via income taxes, say, is considered a vertically equitable financing mechanism, as the amount contributed is directly proportionate to a citizen's income. Sales taxes, on the other hand, would be a larger burden on the poor than the rich, and as such is not vertically equitable. + Horizontal equity refers to the distribution of services across different regions of an area, usually a country. Of particular interest here is access in urban areas vs. access in rural areas. Generally, healthcare is more easily accessible to those in urban areas, where one usually finds more healthcare providers. There are knobs by which governments can effect horizontal equity, namely through financing options, providing more money to rural providers to incentivize serving communities that traditionally have less access. Governments can also facilitate community-based health insurance schemes to help those in marginal areas increase access. CBHIs, however, may not always be vertically equitable, as the poorest are still often unable to pay premiums for service. + Governments should keep equity in mind when discussion health systems solutions. In fact, one might say it is the basis of the liberal approach to healthcare. As a rule, egalitarian liberalism is primarily concerned with equal access. There are a number of “control knobs” available to governments to affect equality, namely financing (how funds are collected for services, out of pocket vs. tax-collection), payment (how providers are paid for services provided), and regulation (establishing a basic package of services, for example). + Equity's relationship with efficiency is an important aspect for governments to consider as well. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," Before discussing the relationship between equity and efficiency, it is important to discern between the three types of efficiency: +Technical efficiency is maximizing outputs based on a given level of resources by ensuring the proper mix of resources (vaccines, equipment, drugs, and so on). +Economic efficiency consists of producing a level of effective services at the lowest cost possible. +Allocative efficiency consists of “doing the right things.” In other words, devoting resources to the most critical services and doing so in a cost-effective way. + These concepts can seem at times to be in direct opposition to the idea of equity. A good example of this tension between equity and efficiency can be seen in Oregon in the 1990s when their Medicaid system decided to prioritize health interventions based on their DALYs and what services were most cost efficient. This ground-breaking system was based on the idea of allocative efficiency. It wasn't long until a child diagnosed with leukemia was denied care because the services weren't viewed as cost-effective in Medicaid's new system. The uproar over denial of care for cancer treatments eventually led to Oregon abandoning the system altogether. + That being said, efficiency and equity are not in direct opposition, per se. One of the most attractive elements of efficiency is that it should in theory free up funding that can be devoted to providing services for the poor. “Doing more with less,” in theory at least, should mean there is more for those who rely on subsidized or free services. + In addition, efficiency does stress preventative care, as vaccinations and prevention are much more efficient options than treatment of disease. This falls in line with equality issues, as long as who to vaccinate does not become an issue, but is viewed as an allocative efficiency issue (IE coverage for all) rather than a technical efficiency issue, which may value vaccinating those close to a clinic, but devalue the cost of reaching those in hard-to-reach communities. + Equity should be one of the most fundamental considerations in all health systems strengthening efforts, and should be the aim of any system. While there may not be any perfectly equitable system, it is clear that those systems that run largely on out-of-pocket payments (as in most developing countries) or private insurance-based systems like the US (where insurance providers often participate in adverse selection to decrease their risk) largely are not equitable. While health systems that provide universal coverage are generally more equitable, there are still other considerations, such as how funds are raised, the distribution of healthcare providers across the country, and so on. + + + The reason for the mixed success of many donor-funded rural insurance schemes is complicated. In theory, providing a risk-pooling scheme for areas where nothing existed before seems rather straightforward. In practice, however, these communities often have certain issues developing viable, sustainable health insurance schemes. + The primary reason many of the rural insurance schemes have failed in the past is due to insufficient funding. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," Was this situation an aberration, or can health status continue to improve event during armed conflict within a country? Devkota and Teijlingen think that the lessons learned by analyzing Nepal's approach towards health systems during civil war can indeed be applied elsewhere, and for good reason. At the end of the day, the primary takeaway message is that of coordination, a common theme even in the most stable of countries when discussing health systems. Coordination among the Ministry of Health and community offices, passing off duties when appropriate. Coordination between the Ministry of Health and international agents, such as the UN or NGOs. However, the conflict in Nepal had its own set of rules that likely don't exist in other areas. + In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, NGO workers are regularly held hostage or killed due to their perceived western ties. In many conflicts aid organizations are often viewed as a target. In Nepal, the NGOs tended to keep a low profile which might have helped in this case. Of course, the bigger issue is involvement by both sides of the conflict. The idea that both sides will choose not to interfere with healthcare provision is simply unrealistic in many areas of the world. While utilizing the existing healthcare infrastructure as Nepal was able to do would be ideal, in genocides, such as in Rwanda or the Sudan, expecting both sides of the conflict to make efforts not to impede healthcare access is unrealistic. + In addition, Nepal's situation was unlike many countries dealing with internal conflict and IDPs. The effect of the continued growth of the national GDP cannot be understated, as the relationship between increased GDP and increased health indicators (such as the MDGs Nepal is on track to meet) is quite close. While internal conflict would certainly mitigate some of the expected improvements due to GDP, those increases, as well as the infrastructure investments, likely played an important role in helping health status continue to improve through the ten year war. + There are some takeaways from Nepal and the other literature reviewed that can be applied to all conflict situations, however. Firstly, increasing preventative care is of clear importance, as was also seen in the discussion of using MHUs in IDP situations. Vaccinations and screenings can do much to stop the spread of infectious diseases before a full-fledged outbreak of malaria occurs. In addition to preparation and disease monitoring, flexibility in these sorts of volatile, unpredictable situations is a clear priority. + The sorts of special considerations in Afghanistan and the Sudan should not be viewed as insurmountable obstacles. In an ideal world (more Nepal than some of the other cases) conflict would not affect citizens' access to healthcare and qualified health workers. However, as seen, there are real consequences that can be expected when internal conflict erupts (geographic and financial barriers and the brain drain). The international community has certainly worked hard at establishing frameworks for working in these sorts of situations, but there is still work to be done in developing plans to mitigate the long-term effects of some of these issues. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," In addition, service-specific strategies mean healthcare professionals can be trained or separately for multiple different vertical programs, reducing the time available to treat patients. As can be seen vertical programs cause redundancies that often lead to a decrease in health sector efficiency. + Health system responses, on the other hand, have the benefit of strengthening the framework by addressing underlying issues affecting access, quality, and efficiency across the healthcare system. When these sorts of root problems are addressed, improvements can be seen in all aspects of health services delivery, rather than one specific, focused area. This approach has limitations as well, primarily fact that goals are much less focused and require much more coordination among stakeholders. In addition, the lack of clear, direct goals lead to discouragement among actors. These difficulties, though, are not surmountable, and the long-term strengthening benefits of health-systems wide approaches make this preferable to programmatic interventions. + In defining next steps in improving neonatal and maternal healthcare in Indonesia, one must discuss the ability of the government to make changes that will improve services and service utilization. Of particular concern is the fact that the current system is largely decentralized and underfunded, with the vast majority of Indonesian citizens lacking insurance, almost 74%. Healthcare funding is largely done on the community level, with federal funding being doled out and the implementation and management of those funds left on the community level. It has been shown that many of the poorer districts have seen their healthcare grants increase, but have not had the ability to increase services due to the infrastructure. + In addition, the majority of the payment mechanisms in Indonesia are fee-for-service, with some capitated payments thrown in. There are no incentives for providing services towards the MDG goals. As a result, the recommendation for Indonesian health systems strengthening are two-fold: An increased federal investment in a social insurance scheme and the development of a pay for performance bonus system for certain services offered. + Developing a social insurance mandate has occurred somewhat for federal employees, with the employees and employers paying a percentage of the premium. Continuing to develop a system with a wider reach, much like Thailand developed, should help solve a number of the access issues. In addition, expanding federal insurance coverage for the poor should help ensure a more equitable distribution of care. In addition, ensuring that social insurance is available for all employed citizens (with an additional federal or federally subsidized program for the unemployed and indigent) ensures that there is accountability, rather than throwing more money at district governments than they know what to do with. + In addition, the development of a “bonus” system for providing antenatal and postnatal care should provide an incentive for doctors to continue care for both mother and child. Perhaps offering bonuses for meeting certain thresholds, such as number of births attended or mean number of visits with children under five years. This practice can also be extended to other health sector performance issues. +",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," Nepal was embroiled in a bloody civil war from 1996 until 2006. Surprisingly, however, they are still on track to meet 16 of the 19 Millennium Development Goals by 2015. While they are unlikely to meet the reproductive health targets, some of the goals Nepal is on track to meet include under-five and maternal mortality targets and disease-specific goals (halting the spread of HIV and malaria). The question is, how was Nepal able to meet these targets even when dealing with civil conflict and internally displaced people? + Devotka and van Teijlingen identify multiple reasons why Nepal was successful even during such trying times. Some of the relevant items with regard to maintaining and strengthening health systems include: + +Neither side purposely disrupted health systems during the conflict. Though the conflict led to a decrease in service utilization, due to access problems, the rebels overall looked favorably on health services and made no efforts to deny access to citizens during the fighting. +The rebels made an effort to ensure health clinics in their area were still sufficiently staffed and supplied. Most clinics in rebel-held areas were sufficiently staffed and had supplies. While many of the clinics were operated without trained health professionals, they still received regular training and supplies. +Key actors increased coordination in response to the conflict, while maintaining a low profile. Regular meetings continued between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and community officials. In addition, the international organizations that responded by providing services kept a low profile. The one issue identified here, however, is the lack of clarity coming from the country level to all actors. While provisions were made for free care to poor citizens, criteria as to who qualified was not laid out to clinics. Similarly, communication between the MOH and international organizations was not identified as a strength of the program. +Public health and more traditional service providers also increased their efforts during the conflict. In addition, community clinics were handed over to the communities to manage, as the federal government did not have adequate resources to manage them during the conflict. Programming for the elderly and indigent was increased, and many traditional female “attendants” saw their role increased. +GDP in the country continued to rise during the extended conflict, and infrastructure improvements likely also contributed. These factors likely helped the country stay on track for the MDGs. The infrastructure improvements (roads and electricity) likely improved access for many citizens. + + There are clear lessons for developing a health systems strengthening approach in other conflict situations here. Namely, commitment from both sides of the conflict to not disrupting the health provision infrastructure in the country is key. Ensuring clinics still run and funds are in place can help to minimize the effects of access and migration. In addition, the government must be able to hand off some of the management to provincial or community levels, especially in rebel-held zones where they have limited access. + + + So what are the takeaways from the Nepal case study? ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," This support often is vertical and often doesn't take the full IDP situation into account. In fact, over 50% of African countries did not mention their IDPs in their HIV National Strategic Plans and Global Fund proposals indicating a lack of awareness of the need to build capacity for this portion of the population within their borders. This goes largely back to the issue of location. IDPs are often in inaccessible areas where governments don't have health programs and don't have the funds to initiate them. In addition, countries have a basic responsibility to care for refugees, based on the 1951 refugee convention but no such mandate exists for IDPs. As an anecdotal example, the WHO cited one of the failings with the Kenya emergency response in 2007 to be that the emergency response plan was only 28% funded. + In response to some of these issues, the World Bank has issued grants for a number of projects that include micro-financing for healthcare services in IDP situations. Generally these grants pay to rehabilitate the physical structures, often in conjunction with schools and other buildings that offer similar services. However, these sorts of grants generally are post-conflict. Effective financing mechanisms during conflict to ensure access for the most vulnerable is largely done through grants and donations to NGOs or UN services where the country's health infrastructure is insufficient. + + + In many conflict zones, NGOs “pick up the slack” in providing healthcare services to citizens and IDPs. This is reliant on government cooperation and funding, whether via grants or private funding. In these frequent situations, coordination between agencies is of the utmost importance, as is earning the trust and commitment of country leadership. When collaboration with the government does not exist, NGOs can find it impossible to work. In March 2009, in response to President Omar Al-Bashir's indictment by the International Criminal Court, 13 major aid organizations were kicked out of the country, including Medecines Sans Frontiers, OXFAM, CARE, Save The Children, and the IRC. This expulsion left 1.5 million people without access to healthcare, according to the UN. Most of these organizations were never allowed back into the Sudan, leaving much smaller NGOs to take over programming for health and education services, which they were not equipped for. Similarly, in 2009 Ethiopia suspended the operations of around 40 NGOs, (mostly smaller organizations) for operations “outside of their mandate”. While these sorts of situations occur infrequently, it does point to one of the real issues with the reliance on NGOs in conflict situations. If the government does not support their mission, they can be kicked out, leaving vulnerable populations without access to basic health care. + One area that is of particular concern is that of providing reproductive health in IDP and refugee situations. Due to the ever-changing US government stance on the “Mexico City Policy,” also known as the “Global Gag Rule,” which is the refusal to fund organizations involved in any sort of abortion programming, reproductive health can be a difficult area for many NGOs reliant on USAID funding to work in. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," What is so intriguing about is the fact that during a ten year conflict within the country from 1996-2006, there was improvement in 16 of 19 Millennium Development Goals at the same time. This goes against traditional thinking, that during conflict health indicators will regress. Are there lessons that can be taken away for future conflict interventions? + + + + The international response to the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s was, in the words of Dr. Paul Spiegel, “disastrous” . The UN had very little presence in the country for the majority of the conflict, largely due to US reticence to intervene. In 2000, the UN accepted responsibility for not doing enough to prevent the 1994 genocide. In response, and to ensure an appropriate response in the future, the international community developed the Sphere minimum standards for healthcare in emergency situations. Some of these standards, as found in the 2011 update of The Sphere Project's manual are: + +Health Service Delivery – People have equal access to effective, safe and quality health services that are standardized and follow accepted protocols and guidelines. +Human Resources - Health services are provided by trained and competent health work- forces who have an adequate mix of knowledge and skills to meet the health needs of the population. +Prioritizing Health Services - People have access to health services that are prioritized to address the main causes of excess mortality and morbidity. +Communicable Disease Prevention - People have access to information and services that are designed to prevent the communicable diseases that contribute most significantly to excess morbidity and mortality. (Malaria and Dengue fever are of particular interest here) +Outbreak Detection and Response - Outbreaks are prepared for, detected, investigated and controlled in a timely and effective manner. + + As of 2005, the number of IDPs in the world was estimated to be 25 million, with another 120 million adversely affected by conflict though not officially displaced. In the last 15 years, access to healthcare has improved in conflict situations, but there is still a long way to go. 4 of the 5 countries with the highest under 5 mortality rate are conflict affected (Sierra Leone, Angola, Afghanistan, and Liberia). Just as concerning are the apparent disparities between populations affected differently by the same conflict. Healthcare services to internally displaced people has not improved to the same level as services for refugees. There are a number of reasons for this. IDPs generally don't have a “hub” similar to a refugee camp, for example, that would facilitate healthcare service provision. In addition, Spiegel points to the “poor access to services and the absence of mandate and funding for one agency to assume decisive responsibility for non-refugee populations” as a complicating issue . In other words, the lack of an international mandate to serve IDPs, like the one that exists for people deemed worthy of “refugee” status, complicates issues. Complicating the situation even further, providing care often proves to be costly and difficult for many reasons, some of which are further discussed below. +",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," Firstly, when developing a plan, it is important for the donors and those implementing the project to look to success stories to see what can be learned. There are plenty of cases of successful projects, perhaps most notably the development of community-based health insurance into the national healthcare financing plan in Rwanda. + The Rwanda example also illustrates the importance of involving the government, both at a country-wide level and the community level, at an early stage and getting commitment from them before implementation of any rural insurance scheme. With government backing, one might be able to get additional funding, or at least a “safety net” that may be willing to help the insurance organization should it experience funding problems in the future. + Thirdly, it is important that the rural insurance scheme be developed to provide at the very least a basic set of services that can be paid for. In other words, the insurance scheme will need to ensure from the start that catastrophic costs are not going to cause the entire scheme to fold. As undesirable as it may be, that may mean that services will need to be excluded from coverage (for example, paying for outpatient services at clinics but not paying for hospital services). Related to this is the consideration mentioned earlier about a waiting period before services can be utilized. Another benefit of such a setup would be additional revenue from people unable to use funds yet, helping the insurance scheme stay afloat. + Rural health insurance can work, and there are certainly examples of that. The important part is that before implementation an experienced staff is put together to develop a financially stable, realistic system. Restriction of services, waiting periods, and whether or not to subsidize premiums for the poor to expand equity are all issues that need to be considered and planned for in developing any new insurance scheme. + + + +Pay for performance is being utilized by more health systems these days for good reason. In many ways, this payment structure, when used in an intelligent manner, can increase health outcomes and increase health access. When performance incentives are set up to measure outcomes, say the percentage of HIV-positive patients put on anti-retroviral therapy, increased health status should be a clear outcome. This also adds to efficiency, as performance targets can be set to reward providers who provide low-cost, high effectiveness treatments and interventions. Preventative care and screening, say HIV testing during regular checkups, can also add to efficiency, as HIV testing and screening has been shown to be a cost-effective intervention by the CDC. In addition, for performance-based measures, physicians often have incentives to provide certain services to as much of the population as possible. Incentivizing the number of clients upon which HIV tests are performed for example, leads to increasing access for patients to HIV screening, and should result in physicians offering these services to patients they would not have offered this service to otherwise. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," As IDP camps tend to be located in remote, marginal areas, there typically is no easy supply route to avoid stock outs. In Iraq in 2006, for example, only about 30% of clinics reported an adequate supply of essential drugs. + + + A second major issue, and one that has long-term post-conflict implications, is of doctor migration out of the country, also known as the “Brain Drain”. While the “Brain Drain” traditionally occurs due to a lesser-developed country not being able to offer competitive compensation to in-country doctors, conflict can have the same effect. In fact, physician migration has occurred time and time again during unrest in a country. Over half of Cuba's doctors left during the revolution. Zimbabwe lost over two thirds of their physicians in the 1990s. Even in Iraq today, it is estimated that over half of the doctors have left the country, many for Jordan. It should be noted that the doctor loss was most severe in Baghdad, likely due to the intensity of the conflict there. In 2006 alone, 28% of specialists left Baghdad. Other areas of Iraq saw numerous Baghdad doctors relocate to their areas rather than leave the country entirely. Nevertheless, the proportion of doctors who migrated in Iraq is startling. In addition, around 75% of the doctors who have left are expected not to return to Iraq after the conflict is over. In Iraq, the reasons for doctor migration vary, including about 13% who stated they left due to threats of kidnapping or murder. + Complicating the “Brain Drain” problem even further is the traditional issue of physician compensation. Even for providers who don't suffer from threats of violence against them, in a place like Iraq today they cannot afford to hold on to the existing doctors. As stated by Agron Ferati in the Brookings Institute's 2009 panel, “Monitoring Health Services among Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons,” “Why should I remain in Baghdad as a surgeon, when I can go in Dubai and earn $5,000 salary, while in Baghdad I risk my own life, my family’s lives, for $600 or $700?” This problem only surface in Iraq after the war. This issue is not constrained to only doctors, either. In 2006 it was found that only about 30% of all healthcare staff positions were filled. + In a place like Iraq, the “Brain Drain” is a very real issue that threatens long-term health systems stability. Increasing the number of doctors trained in their medical schools is one way to counteract the problem, but in the shorter term, doctor shortage will further contribute to the access issues already facing the country. While everyone in Iraq, even IDPs, have access to healthcare, the quality is sure to suffer, particularly in Baghdad. + + + Another important aspect of health systems in conflict situations is the question of where the financial resources will originate from. Government support in extended conflicts typically wanes, increasing reliance on NGO and bilateral agency funding for health-sector funding. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," + The rate of neonatal and infant mortality in Indonesia remained rather static for the last ten years. While the country is on track to meet many of the Millennium Development Goals, such as the water and sanitation targets, the rates of improvement for child and maternal health are woefully short of the improvements needed to meet their target goals by 2015. The multiple reasons for these shortcomings will be discussed below, and point to a need to strengthen the health system rather than focus on programmatic interventions. + Indonesia has made improvements in the number of births with a skilled health worker attending, with 72% of births now meeting this target. That being said, this category still includes traditional workers, such as midwives, who cannot provide medical interventions should the pregnancy be complicated (hence the large percentage of maternal deaths caused by hemorrhage). In other words, the improvements made in this particular indicator are somewhat misleading and there is still much work to be done. In addition, there has been a decline in the percentage of diarrheal cases in children under five years treated by a health professional. While data on postnatal care is incomplete, it is clear that this area is also of concern, with low rates across the country. + Cesarian-section rates are still lower than should be expected, around 4%. The c-section rates additionally point to another concerning issue. While the rate of c-section is 7% in urban settings, it is only 2% in rural. This points to the problem of equity of coverage across the country. Clearly access to healthcare services is focused around urban areas. Another issue of access concerns vertical equity. There is a 27% gap in service utilization between the poorest and richest quintiles. Clearly the poor are finding it much more difficult to access healthcare services, likely due to out of pocket costs. + In discussing next steps towards improving neonatal and maternal care indicators, the most basic question is how to most effectively address the lack of service. Specifically, should Indonesia develop program-specific approaches or strengthen the overall health system without focusing on pre and post-pregnancy care for the mother and child. There is no question that programmatic approaches to solve the problems outlined above are attractive. Not only do “vertical approaches” that target one sector of improvements have much more targeted, manageable objectives, they also generally generate faster results. There are some drawbacks to keep in mind, however. One major drawback is that investing heavily in programming for one particular area of the health sector often means that funding for other areas suffers and human resources will flock towards working in that area that has more resources (the effect of international funding to HIV/AIDS and its effect on the family planning sector is one example). In addition, running multiple parallel programs for one area results in duplication of services that are also uncoordinated between programs. This leads to an increase in forms and paperwork for supplies and funding. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," As stated by Du Mortier and Coninx: + + Du Mortier and Coninx go on to say that in their experience, patients will likely refuse transport to a clinic due to fears about where they are going and their ability to return to their families, but the option to receive further treatment is important for the clinic to be viewed as a legitimate healthcare option. +Du Mortier and Coninx are also very careful to state that MHUs should not be viewed as an evaluation tool. MHUs do not provide assessments as to the state of health in an area, but are a treatment intervention ONLY. + + As evidenced by Mortier and Coninx, MHUs are useful tools for providing some basic preventative and (barring any other options) acute health care when access is otherwise unavailable. It is important to reiterate that MHUs should be viewed as a last resort in providing medical services during conflict, not as a first option, which may often be the case when planning for interventions in conflict situations, due to their perceived flexibility. + + + The importance of providing mental health care, and screening for IDPs suffering from emotional issues is important for many reasons, one of which is the high rate of prevalence. In one study on survivors of the Kosovo conflict, it was found that of participants in one study: + +While it may seem obvious, survivors of conflict situations often have very specific mental health needs. Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) has integrated mental healthcare into their emergency response module. Community level workers are “trained to identify and refer cases of mental disorders and epilepsy to the MSF mobile health clinics where the mental health team provided proper diagnosis and treatment.”. In Mueller's study, referrals to MSF in the Mindanao region of the Philippines were tracked, with 96% of those treated for emotional distress reporting a traumatic event, ( 54% home evacuation, 26% conflict, 5% destruction of property). The patients were tracked throughout brief psychotherapy sessions, and the results showed a marked improvement (via their scores on a self-reporting questionnaire). + What are the implications of this study? Not only is the provision of mental healthcare during conflict situations feasible, but it is proven to be effective. The WHO has recommended incorporating mental health as one of the screening services offered by MHU, with referrals to trained mental health professionals as seen fit. It seems that adding mental health screening to MHU tasks has been shown in programming to be an effective tool for the future. Clearly, immediate conflict response focuses on morbidity and mortality, and rightly so. The international community, however, has correctly identified mental health as an important and under-appreciated aspect of conflict response and is taking steps to ensure those aspects are addressed moving forward. + + In light of the many issues that make health service provision so difficult in IDP settings, it is useful to identify successes amid the confusion. In Understanding effects of armed conflict on health outcomes: the case of Nepal, Bhimsen Devkota and Edward R van Teijlingen find one such case. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +h," + + Between 2000 and 2006 there were 30 communicable disease outbreaks in 14 different conflict-affected countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ebola, Marburg, monkeypox, cholera, plague) and the Sudan (meningitis, relapsing fever, hepatitis E, ebola, cholera). The most common diseases in the Sudan include pneumonia, measles, and malaria. The WHO document, “Communicable Disease Risk Assessment: Protocol For Humanitarian Emergencies” explains why communicable diseases are such a huge issue for both refugee populations and IDPs . + +The reasons for this increased risk is mostly straight-forward. Lack of adequate drinking water and sanitation leads to an increased incidence of water-borne diseases. Malaria is of particular concern. According to the WHO, malaria is endemic in over 80% of the areas currently experiencing humanitarian emergencies. Overcrowding facilitates transmission of measles, acute respiratory infections, and meningococcal diseases. Decreased nutrition makes it much more likely that displaced people will become sick after exposure. The high number of vulnerable populations (i.e. children, women and elderly) in IDP settings. Complicating the issue even further, IDP populations usually are not sufficiently vaccinated to prevent epidemics. + Some of the threats posed by communicable diseases in IDP settings according to the WHO include: + +Increased incidence of endemic disease – Increased morbidity and mortality from diseases like HIV/AIDS. +Increased risk of epidemics – With over 65% of outbreaks of international importance originating in conflict settings. +Increased duration of epidemics – Due to delays in detection, poor access to healthcare and drugs. +Rapid emergence of drug resistance – Due to disruption of treatment and poor compliance and the use of outdated or inappropriate drugs regimens. +Emerging diseases (Marburg & Ebola) and eradication projects (Guinea Worm & polio) both pose their own threats. + + Recognizing the ongoing issue of infectious disease, the international community has stressed the importance of preventing disease transmission among IDP communities. The WHO has developed a three-step framework to identify communicable disease risk in conflict and disaster situations. + +Event Description – Characterizing the nature of the event and the characteristics of those displaced can help to determine the risk of communicable disease outbreak among the population. +Threat/Vulnerability Assessment – Here, an in-depth assessment of the host, the agent, and the environment is carried out to analyze what attributes (for example, vaccination prevalence, recent epidemics, or access to safe water) might increase the risk of an epidemic among the displaced. +Risk Assessment – Likelihood and magnitude of disease outbreaks are calculated and interventions are prioritized based on cost, availability of supplies, and so on. + +Even with this framework in place, however, the recent Cholera epidemic in Haiti shows that there is still work to be done in preventing disease outbreaks in IDP communities. Part of the issue is the lack of availability of sufficient funding and access, both of which will be discussed further. In recent years, prevention of the spread of infectious diseases has become a priority in IDP healthcare, as so many of the deaths in IDP camps are preventable. ",31,English,male,pursuing a Master's of Public Health,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ff," The pianist represents the woman who is stronger than Edna, able to “soar above…tradition and prejudice.” Indeed, about Riesz, Arobin says, “I’ve heard she’s partially demented.” Edna replies, “She seems to me wonderfully sane” (106). Edna finally decides that she will never be happy in a life role that “feed[s] upon opinion” (117). In the end, “[t]here was no one thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near her…” (138) She realizes that even her infatuation with the local playboy would be temporary. This is her epiphany that there is no identity accessible to her, and reconcilable to her, once awake. In This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, Tobias Wolff recounts a critical period of his youth during which he seeks an identity and therefore, like Edna, he struggles to find his place in the world. While Edna becomes convinced that there is no place for her in this world, Toby ultimately realizes that the only place he might assume an identity which is true to his self is in the army, apart from his mother and apart from the man she allows to stifle him. The novel itself barely goes that far – a failed prep school attempt marks the end of this story – but as it is an autobiographical text we should not ignore the author’s life as a larger, relevant context. Even in isolation the text reveals that the stepfather had to be transcended in order for the boy to even attempt an identity. The crucial difference between the two stories is that Edna’s husband is ineffective in hindering her search, while Toby’s stepfather Dwight is able to deliberately interfere with the boy’s inner growth. To illustrate exactly how Wolff reveals that Dwight denied him any identity of his own is not my purpose here, but it is pertinent that getting away from the stepfather was a vital step in the boy’s finding his place in the world. The stories both reveal a resolution which almost declares, “To thine own self be true!” Edna resolves her personal existential conflict by swimming forever into the ocean, a fate that satisfies her on a self-derived level, and Toby only ever feels truly himself in the role of a soldier with a gun (maybe he gets it from his mother, who is a gun expert), thus his resolution is more than freeing himself from Dwight or from the powerlessness of childhood, and it is more than becoming an illusion that is viewed as praiseworthy, such as a prep-school student; it is to become a subject of the U.S. military. Biographically speaking, we are able to see that in maturity he continues to self-actualize into roles which fit into society. His thwarted aspiration to participate in the prestigious academic world becomes fulfilled later on with his position at Stanford University, and his undeveloped childhood interest in writing is fulfilled by the success of his novels. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," Therefore, she gets no support from her husband in her endeavor to deviate from social norms. Finally, the narrator connects Edna’s awakening to her act of inhabiting a separate house: + The narrator previously makes an overt reference to the “law of society” (29), for something as trivial as how to wear one’s hair. Imagine, then the extent of such “law.” Edna creates for herself the experience of a subsidized woman living alone in her community. She is aware that she loses status socially, but this only teaches her that social loss gives her inner peace. She realizes that abandoning responsibility makes her feel alive. For the first time in her life, she views existence as something that can be glimpsed from beyond the notions of others, and recognizes her whole reality as merely a construct of convention. She is awake because she no longer derives purpose from “opinion,” and thus she becomes an anomaly—someone finding fulfillment in social failure. How, then, can she transcend her social reality? What identity might bring her peace of mind? Her friend Riesz seems to know more than the reader, as she demonstrates with an astute prediction about Edna’s ability to assume a similarly openly defiant role. Edna’s attitude about work is a major clue about her state of mind. She is not working to have an identity in society or to increase her social status, as she could in an endeavor to successfully rebel against the dominant view of women. Instead she is “devoid of ambition…[S]triving not toward accomplishment, she drew satisfaction from the work in itself” (96). Overall, we are to take the message that the only way Edna is willing to live is completely in her own reality. + The title of Wolff’s book is a kind of pun which deliberately calls attention to a magazine for boy scouts called “Boy’s Life.” While the literal meaning of the title clearly designates the novel as the memoir of a boy, the reference to the magazine both in the title and as an element of the story is a representation of identity, one that surrounds the first socially esteemed group Toby is inspired to join. Devotion to participating in and deriving character from the scout activities and all the ethical principles taught by the organization appears to the boy to be the first station in society both prestigious and realistically accessible. The magazine is targeted for the scouts, the parents, the activity leaders, and anyone else interested. It presents a discourse of ideas and values which extend far beyond scouting practice, permeating each aspect of life, from personal to global. We understand that the advertisements and images are psychologically geared to both influence readers and address their mentality. Even the manual given to the scouts, “Handbook for Boys,” integrates ideology into its system for achievement and advancement. Toby is drawn to more than the uniform he might physically and mentally wear; he is enticed by all the scout notions of character and strength that become an identity. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," She’d rather flagrantly flout convention and make no shrewd plans or excuses for herself. The narrator presents us with the result of an awakening that combines awareness with rebellion. We are told that Edna is “casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world” (79). And how deeply does Edna’s rejection of group standards run? When the subject of children comes up between Adelle and her, the two are completely unable to communicate. We learn that at the root of Edna’s unease is a feeling so alien to Adelle, who feels alive when participating in the societal model of normality, that they could not “understand each other” or speak “the same language” (69). Edna confesses her true nature, saying that even for her own children she won’t put herself second. In fact, it is this very declaration of hers that comes into her mind when she decides to end her life. Her transgression from the expectations of others is not merely a rebellion for the sake of rebellion, it stems from the very heart of her inner nature. In her abandonment of her own children, she reveals a disposition opposed to the most basic expectation about female instinct. Regarding her connections with others, she sees relationships as shackles and obstacles to freedom. Her conflict is deeper than a rejection of standards – it is a personal suffocation. All of the evidence to this effect is summed up when the narrator shares Edna’s mind with us after a visit with Riesz. Edna “resolved never again to belong to another than herself” (103). + Although Chopin illustrates that her main character is naturally predisposed to reach a social conflict, the author also makes it clear that at the time of the story, the awakening described by the title of the novel is an event in and of itself. Edna reveals the metaphor in the novel’s title, telling Robert, “It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream” (132). That summer she begins to look upon her own body “as if it were something she saw for the first time” (58). The other characters serve as representations which pronounce differences in Edna’s mentality and at the same time offer potential roles in society that she might emulate, as she approaches the critical epiphany that must inevitably resolve her conflict. We become convinced that her being awake reveals to her a denial of self which can not be ignored, but it cannot be tolerated, either. + Edna recalls the seeds of her awakening in her youth. She then reveals that her desire to flee convention has matured along with her, by sustaining Chopin’s symbolism; a unity between the ocean Edna tests in adulthood and “the stretch of green” of the “big field” she runs through in childhood: “…I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided” (38).",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," In fact, the figure we call “Jesus” actually had a name during his own life that was pronounced “Yeshua.” Even the changing of his name became established and passed on. + Much of the conflict within Christianity in the following centuries centered around the authority of the church institution and the pope, and the religion ultimately fragmented, opening the doors for further additions of beliefs. In 1054 C.E., “The Great Schism” formally split Western and Eastern European Christendom into Catholicism in the West and Eastern Orthodox in the East. In the 1500s, Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII led Protestant movements which split away from Catholicism. The Protestant movement divided into many factions, with Calvinist groups coming to the United States (Although Catholicism reached America first). Entirely new denominations were formed in America in the 1800s. Finally, in the United States the Christian belief system was added onto again. John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren Puritan group introduced Millenial Dispensationalist thinking and rapture theology, which became viewed as truth by some of the new American denominations. The New Testament book Revelation, written in 96 C.E. by John of Patmos, was a symbolic message to the believers in those times for spiritually facing Roman oppression. Rapture theology ignored the writer’s intent in this apocalyptic literature, lifting it out of context to support a new belief system about a coming end of the world when certain people will be selected to be transported to a heavenly realm, leaving the rest behind for war and violence, followed by a millennium of peace. The historical contexts of writings in the books of Isaiah and Daniel are also disregarded for the use of these texts in supporting the theology. Many American congregations today teach in depth these beliefs. Chapter 13 in the gospel of Mark and Chapter 24 in the gospel of Matthew seem to support rapture theology, but that would be a strictly literal reading. The future Christian trend, for groups who do not do so yet, will be to move more and more toward acceptance that Jesus’ method of teaching was utterly dominated by parables, metaphor, and generally a creative sense of illustrating his points. We were not meant to remove our eyeballs and cut off our hands as he says a couple of times in Matthew: Should Christians be dismembering themselves around the world? Obviously, no. Even if it seems futile trying to interpret his words, they were nonetheless not literal much of the time. + Contextual consideration also reveals that there is no definitive evidence for Jesus’ having taught that people have souls to be literally either sent to heaven or condemned to hell. During the times of Jesus’ life, Greek thought posed an eternal soul which lives apart from the body, and the Persian Zoroastrian religion introduced the notions of both heaven and hell. “It was Paul and his successors who developed the idea of a literal hell as the destiny of the unrighteous…” (Laughlin 166). ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," This seems to verify the symbolism in Edna’s acts of visiting resorts, and the tropical oceanic environment of the Gulf Coast seems to be the catalyst of her awakening. She figuratively likens herself to a bound vessel freed to “drift” the ocean (56). (I assume the narrator is relating Edna’s metaphor). + Adelle is a character who demonstrates society’s expectations for Edna. Unlike Riesz, Adelle represents the Edna that could be should she be able to embrace convention. The narrator echoes Mr. Pontellier’s feeling that Edna is “not a mother-woman” (29). We assume this pre-dates her awakening. “They were women who idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and…one of them was the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm…Her name was Adelle Ratignolle” (29). The narrator makes a point to differentiate her from Riesz in physical appearance. While Riesz is “homely” (84), Ratignolle has “spun-gold hair,” eyes “like…sapphires,” and lips like “cherries.” Her “beauty” is “flaming” (29). She is consumed by domestic pursuits, as “she sewed away on the little night-drawers or fashioned a bodice or a bib” (29). Chopin connects womanly self-esteem and popularity to the mother and wife role dictated by culture, by creating a difference between the supposedly undesirable pianist and the domestic “fair lady of our dreams” (29). Meanwhile, Edna does not see the point in spending her time “making…night garments” (30). + Adelle’s marriage, as well as Edna’s reaction to witnessing it, is an important revelation about the ideal vision of a woman who would ultimately find happiness and purpose as a wife. Chopin’s description of the Ratignolles during Edna’s visit states: “If ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union” (78). With a perfect dinner and Adelle’s support of her husband’s every word, a sharp contrast to Edna’s own marriage is pronounced by the narrator. We are told that Edna is repulsed by this scene, and the idea of living such a life. In fact, she is disgusted by traditional wife and mother constructions of duty and identity. By the time we see the Ratignolles, it has become clear that Edna will not be able to find peace in a domestic future. Edna’s marriage is an attempt to “take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality” (40). + There is a hint, in the husband’s constructed assessment of the wife’s mental state, of the consequences of individuality. The group ideology defines existence for its subjects, the group is patriarchal, and someone who questions the role defined for them may be punished if they stay among the group. If she were willing to leverage sex as a negotiating tool with him, she might assume the identity of someone who manipulates the powers-that-be for personal freedom. But she doesn’t seem willing to prostitute herself. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," The figure we now call Jesus gathered a following of Jews, who would later call themselves followers of “The Way.” From 30 – 50 C.E., the twenty years following the execution of Jesus by the Romans for sedition, there formed a new sect within the synagogue of Jews, the Nazarenes. The Nazarenes accepted non-Jews into their group, grew in numbers, and around 100 C.E. in the city of Antioch, Syria, they for the first time no longer identified themselves as a Jewish group, but instead were Christians. + A belief system originating with Jesus was not simply preserved and carried forward through time. Instead, new belief systems were created and attached to Christianity. We have reports in the four gospels of things Jesus said and things he did. While contradictions may be found between these texts and while their historical accuracy may be debated, we might still posit an original Christianity with the reported words and actions of Jesus, which built upon a Judaic foundation. After the lifetime of Jesus, Paul introduced a new interpretation of ultimate truth, not espoused by Jesus himself. Paul, instead of exploring Jesus’ actions or teachings, embarked on his own way of thinking, which was written down by him or in his name and included with the later written gospels for canonization as The New Testament. Paul’s assertions about Jesus’ identity, the purpose of his death and its implications for humankind, achieved the authoritative status of scripture. “Jesus’ focal reign of God theme and the parables and miracles that symbolized it simply disappear in the teachings of Paul” (Laughlin 121). Even the gospels, and especially the book of John, couch the narratives within the beliefs of the authors. St. Augustine of Hippo, (354-430 C.E.) building on Paul’s ideas, composed theological formulations about the inescapable sinful state of humankind and the non-existence of righteous intent. These beliefs were permanently incorporated into Western Christianity and were not Hebrew scripture or Jesus’ message. We might look back through history at just this early stage of the religion and wonder if it is more accurate to see that first was Jesus’ message, then came Paul’s religion, then came the gospel authors’ views, and then came Augustine’s religion. We might go as far as to say that “Paulism” and “Augustinism” are still alive today, are still widely believed to be simply “Christianity,” (except regarding the Eastern Orthodox tradition) and are still not the actual teachings of Jesus or the scripture he pointed to. This is not an absolute distinction—a few selections from Paul’s writings will certainly be congruous with the themes of Jesus’ words--but a large part is not the original message at all. This all becomes particularly clear if we focus more on the synoptic gospels, as the book of John is so different than the other three. Today’s Christian doctrine takes for granted many additions of ideas that have survived until now. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," Paul also laid the groundwork for a doctrine further developed and spread by John Calvin in the sixteenth century: Predestination. This thinking also survives widely today, and holds that everyone is born with no choice about where they are headed in an afterlife—that the elect have been selected for heaven and others have been designated for hell. In contrast, Jesus’ message in the synoptic gospels was about a kingdom of heaven accessible to all, which is the bringing about of a reality on Earth. The divergence from his teaching in early Christianity that was developed through the ages created redemption for a next life instead, an eternal one. + Jesus taught about how we should approach life concerning our time on Earth. After Paul, Augustine, Calvin and Darby, much of Christianity taught that we are incapable of being righteous, that the death of Jesus was the cure for this, that some are condemned no matter what, that the quality of an afterlife would reflect our worth, and even that the world is coming to an end any time now. The great reversal coming in the future of Christianity will be a great reduction from these doctrines. New pillars of belief will dominate the religion, formed of only those themes that can be extrapolated from Jesus’ words. What had been central to Catholics and Protestants will be seen as outgrown—a part of Christian history, much in the same way African-American slavery is no longer accepted in the United States. Christians will “shift their attention from Jesus’ death to his life and teachings, from the assertion that ‘Christ died for our sins’ to the view that ‘Jesus lived and taught so as to guide us to a godly life’” (Laughlin 197-198). + Many Christians today talk about sin in a way that alludes to unethical or immoral conduct or decisions, so that popular ideas may already take liberties in thought, but traditional indoctrination is what will be altered in the future. Paul, who never met Jesus, wrote that sin entered the world through Adam and became the condition of all humanity for all time. Augustine further developed Paul’s platform, coined the term “Original Sin,” and insisted that the only choice people can make is to do one kind of evil or another. Paul had explained that good works by people are useless as well. This doctrine was challenged at various times through the ages (such as by Pelagius) but still endured as the accepted truth. In the future, however, these ideas will finally be let go. How is that possible if they are contained in the Bible? It is not so far-fetched. There are today many viewpoints expressed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament which are not promoted and which are sometimes downright ignored. For example, Jesus himself makes statements in at least both Mark and Luke that seem to assert that being financially prosperous is a serious barrier to being righteous. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," The separation between Edna and her husband and therein between Edna and popular convention as well, is represented by her moving into her own house, but the most symbolic act of her rejection of the status quo occurs after dinner one night. Edna throws her wedding ring to the floor and earnestly tries to crush it underfoot. As she is unable to, we might take the point that she is not strong enough to abandon her marriage or convention, for that matter. In fact, she puts the undamaged ring back onto her finger. The doctor’s character seems to parallel the husband’s in denying the validity of female individualism. He, after hearing about Edna from the husband’s point of view, offers his patriarchal analysis for the causes of deviant female behavior. “[W]ith a smile,” insinuating ridicule, he theorizes that she might be “associating” with “a circle of pseudo-intellectual women – super-spiritual superior beings…” It might even be a genetically inherited defect. Finally, the doctor’s solution is to have “her stay among her own people.” She would hopefully behave and think as “her own people” do (Chopin 88). The doctor concludes that if all else fails, one must consider the nature of women as mood-based persons. Double standards are characteristic of patriarchy. Only men were permitted to lust for lust’s sake. When Edna allows Arobin to have her, she compounds her failure at motherhood with a failure at womanhood, in the eyes of the society that conditioned her. The character of Robert serves to illustrate, as he ultimately abandons her, that she is not able to find any life partner to join with her in a union which flouts convention. Regarding her inner sense of identity, we are privy to Edna’s reaction to a woman even more “unfamiliar” than Riesz. Edna “looked at [Mariequita’s] feet, and noticed the sand and slime between her brown toes” (55). This image nicely conveys the view of the girl as savage and wild. Because Edna’s response to the girl’s “broad and coarse” sandal-clad feet is that she “liked it all” (55), we gain insight into her burgeoning psychic transformation. The girl also becomes an example of female nakedness and connection to the earth, which we are learning at this point in the story, must excite and intrigue Edna. She becomes obsessed one night with a taboo book that is passed around a group of her peers. The extent of their novelty with the item is to discuss it with each other, but Edna sneaks it away to her room where she secretly uses it, making sure nobody can discover what she’s doing. Overall, her island visit makes her feel ”as if she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her fast, whose chains had been loosening – had snapped the night before…leaving her free” (56). ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," There are a great many examples throughout the Bible, but the bottom line is that Christianity has never had a problem with downplaying ideas even though they exist in scripture. In fact, the books called Maccabees are a part of Catholic bibles but don’t exist in Protestant ones. Also, the book Song of Songs is a part of the Bible, but it is definitely not championed in Christian teaching. The great reduction of future Christianity might go as far as to circulate and use abridged New Testaments. There is already a popular printing that has everything Jesus said in red letters with everything else in black letters. And, many of us have been handed small pocket New Testaments that come with the books of Psalms and Proverbs—but where did the rest of the Old Testament go? Receiving one of these Bibles is like being taught that the only necessary parts of the Old Testament are Psalms and Proverbs. It will be conceivable to find, in the future, usage of a New Testament that has been reduced to only the four gospels and selected excerpts from the other books. + In the future, Christianity will show a desire to purge the contradictions between much of established teaching, and Jesus’ teachings. This movement will also seek to eliminate contradictions between theologies created in history and added into Christianity from simply Jesus’ own belief system. Even though this great reduction in beliefs will include the decentralization of Jesus’ body dying as crucial to humanity, as he himself never taught principles surrounding that event, there is one important aspect of Jesus that will not be touched in the future. His nature, whether only divine, only human, or both divine and human, will be left to the individual believer. Even the Council of Chalcedon (451 C.E.) that made official his nature as 100 % divine and 100 % human left some minds something to struggle with. There are no definitive declarations by Jesus himself establishing who or what he was. He may very well have been confessing to be divine, but then again he may never have confessed it. In the synoptic gospels he is elusive about it. Arguments can be made regarding some of his statements in the book of John, but even he himself explained (such as in Mark) that he spoke frequently in symbolic, not literal terms, so that we can’t ascribe definitive literal meaning to those statements. The various parables are a classic example of his method of speaking figuratively. + In fact, a metaphorical understanding of Jesus’ words throughout the gospels will be part of the approach that future Christianity will use in promoting the original doctrine above the Paul-Augustine model and above the additions of Calvin, Darby and others. It is an awareness that Jesus’ new message, as well as his interpretation of the Judaic tradition of his own lifetime, is a separate religion from what developed in Christianity later, that will finally compel Christians of the future to return to the source. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," Both works of literature contain representations of identity that the protagonists explore, respectively, through conflict. + Mademoiselle Riesz represents a working rejection of convention, a portrait of the Edna that could be should she defy the role of devoted mother and wife which is expected of her. Part of this defiance would be non-compliance with the whims of men. As Edna begins to awaken, she fancies the notion that she is “becoming an artist” (Chopin 86). This draws her to Riesz, who doubts Edna’s fortitude for such a life, prophetically pointing out that “…to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul…the soul that dares and defies” (86). Riesz refers in large part to a far more patriarchal culture, which we know prevailed historically in the place and period of Edna’s world. Have you ever wondered about the origin of the commonly used expression “rule of thumb”? During the period of this story, English law, a contributor to the culture of early America, held that a husband was permitted to beat his wife for any reason with a rod no wider than his thumb. Furthermore, such “reasons” might have been as trivial as dinner being ten minutes late on the table. Careers were reserved for men, while women were expected to stay home raising children and tending house. Even those women wealthy enough to hire servants to perform these duties, such as Edna, were nonetheless expected to center their activities around their house, husbands and children. If nothing else, wives were expected to grant sex on demand and exist more as the husband’s legal property than an independent force. In fact, Edna’s husband, feeling a loss of control, defines Edna’s non-compliance as an illness, such as Arobin’s assessment of “demented” (106), thus seeking the services of a doctor. Her husband tells the doctor, “She lets housekeeping go to the dickens.” He further complains that he is being denied sex. He is troubled by her “tramping about by herself” (88). It seems Chopin reveals much about the expectations of others through the voice of Edna’s husband – so much so, that I wonder whether his character might allegorically represent the establishment and its view of marriage. He reacts poorly when Edna admits she has been going out of the house with no particular explanation each time. Instead of voicing some concern about her having extramarital relations, however, his alarm revolves around convention; “people don’t do such things” (73). A healthy spousal desire might be to feel assured of a partner’s fidelity, or even of a partner’s well-being, but he consistently exhibits a motivation to preserve an illusion. He makes it clear that his entire reaction to Edna’s getting her own house is focused on creating an acceptable excuse for their community. He “begged her to consider first, foremost, and above all else, what people would say” (116). He never seems to care for Edna’s motivations. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," It is fair to mention that Eastern Orthodox Christianity did break away from Catholicism and therefore Protestantism as well, as early as 1054 C.E., officially. One of the dividing issues was Eastern Christianity’s emphasis on personal deification in contrast to Western Christianity’s emphasis on atonement and salvation. This was an early step in the direction the Christianity of our future will take, and so, in some ways the Eastern Orthodox tradition will be similar to it, but it will still be too mystically oriented to catch on in the mainstream. Regarding Western orthodoxy, the goal of life espoused by Jesus wasn’t to make it into a rewarding heaven or a punishing hell in an afterlife, but to be righteous so that this world would become heaven, demonstrative of God’s will for us. The message wasn’t that we are unavoidably sinners at birth, or that some humans had been pre-selected for damnation, or anything John Nelson Darby claimed. Instead, Jesus taught that we do in fact have the ability to question ourselves, to attempt to improve ourselves, and to find salvation in this lifetime, building a kingdom of God on this Earth for this age. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared, “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8, New International Version). In this speech, alluding to exceptional character, Jesus similarly advised, “Be perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus’ statements are directly contradicted by Paul, Augustine, and Calvin who explained that no person is “pure in heart” and there is nothing one can do towards being “perfect.” Jesus used metaphor to teach that we do actively purge ourselves of, or at least avoid, sin. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away…And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29-30). When he said “…great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:12) he wasn’t talking about an afterlife. He was figuratively teaching that embracing God’s will causes God to look upon one favorably in this life. Jesus stated, “He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). + Between Paul and Augustine, acts of righteousness are either ineffective or not possible for humans at all. How can this be, if Jesus in his Sermon spoke metaphorically about a “lamp” when “it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men…” (Matthew 5:15-16)? Furthermore, Jesus stated, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness…” (Matthew 5:10). The namesake of this religion seemed to urge us to see ourselves as coming into the world with the potential to exist within God’s will for us or to not, depending on our willingness. Jesus placed no limitation on humanity, no automatic cursedness. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," He did say that to become righteous could be difficult (such as for the rich), and that some would not succeed at it, but not that it is completely out of our hands. + Undoubtedly, there were already Christians in history, just as there are some considered “liberal” today, who argued for and currently contend for a shift away from the doctrines that came after Jesus, readings of scripture that are stubbornly literal, and interpretations of scripture which ignore historical context. The future doesn’t hold a removal of faith, devotion, or awe for Christianity. Critical scrutiny and empiricism won’t replace the Christ of faith for believers. Religion won’t be taken out of religion. Rather, the material in the four gospels and the Hebrew scripture to which it may point will be seen as incongruous with long-standing dogma, and will be exclusively utilized to perpetuate the faith, on a widespread and unprecedented scale. The dissemination of ideas won’t be traceable to anything other than Jesus, a Christ of faith, or texts he would have upheld, and there will be a consistent diligence about the possible need to glean meaning from symbolism. Some will always believe that God came to us in the form of a human, and others will always believe that a human came to inform us about God, but Christians of the future won’t be interested in dividing over this. Instead, they will be interested in uniting in the quest to interpret and to embody his words. Is the great reduction in Christian beliefs coming in future eras too simplistic? Jesus said, “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). + + + + “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.’” In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna’s sad destiny is foretold by these symbolic words (Chopin 106). Unable to accept the traditional role expected of her, she ultimately commits suicide. Edna’s awakening is her coming to awareness of the possibilities beyond the illusions of society and culture. “Above all, there was understanding. She felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to look upon and comprehend the significance of life” (106). Chopin makes it clear, however, that Edna has been since childhood predisposed for such a conflict, long before her awakening. But at the time of the story, this conflict reaches maturity. The people in her life seem to reveal, through the author’s rich symbolic tapestry, societal constructions of identity, pointing both to convention and that which flouts convention. Mademoiselle Riesz, for example, feels Edna’s back to see if her “wings” are “strong” (106). ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," + The teachings of Jesus and the beliefs he held during his lifetime were immediately left behind in the development of Christian thought that moved forward after his life. If we look at this history in broad strokes, we see a trend of Christianity straying farther and farther from its origin. It seems that today’s world shows an ever-growing awareness and an unprecedented progressive tendency. While traditional people remain and will resist any kind of thinking beyond what was taught to them, this portion of the population may not be prominent enough to influence the whole. Among Christians, a historical awareness will grow immensely in future years. A yearning will spread, to distinguish the doctrines that were added into Christianity over time from the actual intent of the religion’s namesake. It may take decades or even centuries, but the outcome will be inevitable: There will be a great reversal in the trend of Christian history. There will be a progression back to its original form. A movement will grow in numbers that will remove layers of doctrine, one after the other, just as if the clock started moving backward, until nothing is left except a conception of what Jesus introduced to humanity on behalf of God, before any other thinkers made such claims. When this trend sweeps through the United States and Europe, influencing masses in its wake to worship as if we were living at the time of Jesus, following only his ideas, the church as an institution will remain strong to lead the way. However, because the theological clock will have moved backward, the extreme proliferation of diversity in Christendom will reverse into more and more uniformity of belief and practice. Between regions, between denominations, between divisions of every kind, we will see instead of differences, increasing similarities. Human history is filled with great reversions. Just one example is how Christians were at one time persecuted, shunned and killed by the Roman Empire. But later that empire became a Christian institution. Our country has gone from African-American slavery to African-American leadership. The great reversion coming in our future will play itself out in the arena of the Christian religion, undoing history in search of the source, and undoing diversity in the process. It is crucial to note that part of what will make this process possible will be a method of reading Jesus’ words as metaphorical, and not as literal statements. So what is it that happened since Jesus’ lifetime? + If we look far enough back into history, we find only Judaism, the theological beginning for the Christian religion. Monotheism, the perception of a divinely revealed religion, and the authority of the Hebrew scriptures, were all at the core of the religion by the time the Romans assumed control of Jerusalem in 63 B.C.E. The Jewish population did not share one spirit. They divided into Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots and a majority of common people. ",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +ff," He readily buys into the state of mind that scouts are physical go-getters, men who can survive in any element. These are people who master life, and are esteemed by others (this means girls, too). The manual equates scout attitude with prosperity, specifically American-style prosperity. Although much of adolescence is universally understood by readers of he novel, I am inclined to make all of these conclusions because of Wolff’s portrayal of Toby the boy. “I liked reading all these advertisements” (Wolff 103). The most important thing to Toby about a Boy Scout identity is not, however, what he gleans from the literature, it is the uniform and its potential for donning badges. “I liked being a Scout…[m]y uniform…made me feel like a soldier” (102). He admits that his entire focus is how to get badges, and they could almost put any explanation behind the system as far as he is concerned. He is aware that society’s eyes immediately translate a uniform into identity for the wearer. He is further aware of which visuals confer which type of status. He certainly needs to escape Dwight, however, in order to realistically become himself or any one for that matter. Dwight undermines his attempt to be well outfitted for the Scouts. In two other cases as well, a uniform represents an identity Toby desires, and in both other cases Dwight also undermines Toby’s ability to join a group. Toby could care less about the appearance of dress shoes in a gymnasium, but Dwight’s deliberate effort to deny the boy adequate footwear for the basketball team destroys his ability to play the game. He has talent. He could have been the next basketball star and have enjoyed exactly the kind of social position he sought. When he works brilliantly to assume another social position, ivy-league prep-school student, Dwight throws away crucial documents for the process, and attempts to psychologically manipulate the boy. Once again, the uniform is the nucleus of the identity, as Wolff represents to the reader by recounting testimony of Toby’s ally, the college scout, and by revealing a glimpse of superficial, elitist behavior at the school. He is unable to hold on to his school uniform (the expensive wardrobe) because he is unable to complete school at that time. But we know he was finally granted a uniform in the U.S. military. He finally got his gun as well, which is another item that carries associations about role. More importantly, getting his own gun despite Dwight’s interference, as he does even in the novel, is being true to himself while illustrating his need to flee his stepfather for the purposes of self-actualization. From the novel’s beginning, we see that Toby sought identity in the notion of assuming the name “Jack.” Jack has a commanding, masculine sound to the American ear. +",41,English,male,Bachelor Arts,Tutor,"N,N,N,N,N" +tt,"When Pentecostalism struck the movement came in two waves: Pentecostalism and Neo-Pentecostalism (New Pentecostalism). Each had its own leaders and founders to establish it as a new movement. + Wesley wrote A Plain Account of Christian Perfection and it is eleven observances on the doctrine of second definite work of Grace, which was the founding doctrine of the Pentecostal movement. + Wesley never addressed this as the infilling of the Holy Spirit and fire. One of his colleagues Charles Finney was the first to equate the Holy Spirit with the Second Definite work of grace. Charles was a former Presbyterian and the first professional evangelist in America. + So now that there was talk of the Holy Spirit and such things this set the stage. Around this time was the tragedy of the Irish potato famine, and many people were migrating to the United States. Many people were waiting expecting the next great move of God, they wanted something. + It is debated where speaking in tongues sprang up at. Some think that it came up in Topeka, Kansas when Agnes Ozman, under the tutelage of Charles Parham. Others equate the beginning of the movement with its outbreak on 312 Azusa street in California. + It is recorded that Agnes Ozman started speaking Chinese and was unable to speak English for three days. Soon after revivals sprang out as the message of Charles Parham was spread by William Seymour. Eventually the movement made its way to California where it was made famous by the Azusa Street revival. + Others believe that the movement began at Azusa Street. William Joseph Seymour was the man who headed up the movement at Azusa Street. Some of the on lookers describe the movement as beautiful and were astounded that there was no color line in the congregations. + Seymour was a black Baptist preacher who joined the holiness movement when he attended Parham’s seminar and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He then began to travel spreading the message of the second definite work. Seymour had left an impression with Mrs. + After the outbreak in Azusa everyone began spreading the gift of the Holy Spirit. Most of the movement is not recorded past this just because people would show up at small churches and tell them about the gift. The people would say that the individual bringing the gift was almost glowing, and that he seemed too happy to be there. The theology of the movement was mainly based on four things: healing, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, tongues, and the Second coming of Christ. Most of the movement remained underground until certain figures came to the forefront with a “new” Pentecostalism. This movement sprang up at about the time of the Great Depression. “By 1940 the camp meetings were focused on the moment of miracle.” The main icons of the Neo-Pentecostal movement were William Branham, Oral Roberts, and Gordon Lindsay. This newer Pentecostalism had a stronger emphasis on Miraculous manifestations. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"She is the only character with the insight to see the future and the ability to change it. The south could only be saved if it were to accept both African Americans and women. Dilsey is the unification of the south, African Americans, and women. Dilsey is the only choice for a savior in the novel. + Dilsey is the only future that exists for the south. Neither Quentin, Jason nor Benjy can cope with the changes that are happening: In the case of Jason he ignores the fact that everything is changing; Benjy cannot comprehend future or change; Quentin goes so far to reject the changes that are happening he ends his life. + Time for Faulkner functions in two ways, the first way in which it functions is the manner in which the narrator perceives time. The mental stability of the narrator is crucial in this function of time. As the characters lose touch with reality they display this more with their lack of the concept of time. Benjy pretty much lives in a different reality but with Quentin we get to see the actual digression of his character. As he falls deeper and deeper into despair, grasping for any possible reality but the one he is living, time begins swirling around him like a whirlpool that he cannot escape. Each of these aliments skews the way in which each of the brothers views time past, time present, and prevents them from seeing time future. + Dilsey is the only answer, the only way to bring everyone out of despair. She is the suffering servant, the one consistent good in the novel. She is the only character that can see what time it is. Dilsey can see through her past, through her present situation, and embrace the future that is coming. Dilsey views time correctly and communicates the best out of all of the narratives. As a result of that service, Dilsey says the one thing that summarizes the reason that she is a redemptive character. She survives because she can see both the past and the future while she lives in the present. She is not bound by the same time that the Compson brothers captive. + + Poe is one of the most famous American authors. His work, however, was not appreciated in his time like it is now. His composition technique with short stories still affects the way in which stories are written today. Currently our most popular form of storytelling is cinema. If Poe were alive today his forward thinking and interest in scientific advancement would almost assure that he would be involved in cinema. Cinema may not be perfect yet but it is the next transformation in how stories are told. Through cinema all of the tales of the past and present have and will be reborn, for better or worse. +The interesting thing about cinema is that even though it is the new wave, it has taken on many of the characteristics of the past. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt," + Dream-land is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s self-proclaimed better poems. In “Dream-Land” Poe uses the term “Thulé” in lines 6 and 56 which Mabbott traces back to Virgil. Virgil used the term in reference to an island north of Britain which the Greeks considered the edge of the known world. It is certain that Virgil did use the term however there is a more current source to which some credit must be given. Poe was very interested in German authors. +This quote is important because it shows Poe’s familiarity with Gothe’s writing. Karl J. Arndt, in his book Poe’s Politian and Goethe’s Mignon, comments on the similarity of their two poems drawing the conclusion that Poe was imitating Goethe. + Oxford Companion to English Literature says of Gothe was a celebrated writer of the poetic drama Faust which was published in two parts the first in 1808 and the second in the year of Gothe’s death 1832. Within the poetic verse of Faust’s second part lies a short poem titled “The King of Thulé”. The poem is about a king whose wife dies after she gives him the gift of a goblet. After his wife passes he begins drinking heavily and crying from the memory of his dead queen. He then decides it is his time to die and gives his possessions to his children save for the goblet. He then walks to a cliff, throws the goblet into the ocean, closes his eyes, and dies. The demeanor of the King of Thule and the description of the king in Dream-Land are very similar, maybe a dark doppelganger of Poe’s loss and crutch of drinking. Faust was also composed into a romantic drama by H P Grattan in 1842, which was less than one year prior to Poe’s use of the term Thule in “The Pit and the Pendulum”. + Poe references Thule twice in his collected writings. Once Poe references “ultma Thule” in The Pit and the Pendulum but he uses this phrase in “Dream-Land” twice, as book ends for the poem. “The King of Thule” and “Dream-Land” can be read as companion pieces. In “Dream-Land” the speaker says. He then describes the landscape of Thule and how it is dark, lonely, he is haunted by dead friends, and he sees a shaded world without color. All of these scenes would be read into “The King of Thule” by Gothe as he has just lost his wife, he is lonely, and he has lost his will to rule or even live. The entire poem is a description as though the speaker has stepped into Goethe’s poem. + Gothe was a significant author who Poe would have known if for no other reason then his respect for Tennyson. Poe had this to say when asked if he admired Tennyson. Aside from the connection to Tennyson Poe would have been exposed to Gothe’s work in the many reproductions that were taking place after the original publication. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"The effect of Faulkner’s form is that of a Rubik’s Cube, there are many different sides of the novel that line up based upon how you manipulate the story. Time and Memory are the two central pieces that drive every other theme in the story. + The best way to dissect the methodology of the form is to separate the opposites and watch how the novel clashes with itself. Benjy, as I have already stated, has a perspective of innocence. He is a camera lens, recording and playing back the world as he views a fragmented reality. Jason is the polarizing opposite of Benjy. Jason has no disability other than his mind numbing need for power and control. He cripples himself with his attitude toward life. Benjy cannot see a future, he is unalterably locked within the present while continually cycling through the past. + While Benjy is innocent and has no ill will toward anyone, those exact characteristics summarize Jason’s existence. Jason tries to manipulate everyone for his benefit; even Caddy’s wedding was a way for Jason to “get ahead”. When Caddy’s marriage falls through he blames her for all of his hardship and when he can no longer punish her he punishes her daughter. Jason is the beloved son of Caroline Compson. This actually is one of the causes of his downfall because Jason becomes as self-absorbed as Mrs. Compson herself. + Benjy cannot help himself, he is tragically handicapped and other than Caddy no one even tries to understand him. There are two form in which people communicate with Benjy, either to make fun of him or to calm him down when crying. Only Caddy attempts to go farther than simply trying to satisfy their own comfort. Caddy actually attempts to communicate with Benjy and appease him on some level. While Benjy cannot change his innocent Jason chooses to be ignorant. Jason chooses to blame everyone else for his problems rather than taking some responsibility for himself. Jason’s perspective is isolated within the past as well. While Benjy relives each of his memories as though they were current Jason tries to appear as innocent as Benjy. Jason believes that he embodies the greatness of the Compson name and his downfalls are a result of the lesser people surrounding him. + The effects of thought processes of these two men drastically influence their perception of time. Benjy flows between past and present as a result of his condition. Jason attempts to use his past to explain his lack of success. Benjy’s ideal future would be to renew the bonds of his childhood while Jason’s would be to free himself of those bonds. The best description of the pity that we should have for Benjy and the same pity that Jason desires is communicated well by Maria Tataryn. + The other two characters that contrast each other well are that of Dilsey and Quentin. Dilsey and Quentin are two characters separated by hope. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt," + Poe was exposed to the works of Gothe and the similarity between Goethe’s “The King of Thule” and Poe’s “Dream-Land” should not be over looked. “The King of Thule” provides a wonderful back drop to “Dream-Land”. + + Many of us have seen World War II films; some of us were alive to experience it. The bravery and fearless resolve to carry out commands makes each and every soldier a legend: Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Hart’s War, Wind Talkers, Thin Red Line. Each movie has its own magnanimous hero and diabolical villain. Many times in my life have I played the part of the war hero, reenacting in my mind each graceful move: ducking fire, crawling through trenches, yelling for cover, carrying my comrades out of harm’s way when they were “hit”; I would mimic them precisely. I never lost, never even came close. I never knew who I was fighting; all I knew was that they were just the bad guys. No names, no families, no jobs, just bad guys. Who cares about the enemy? One must kill or be killed, an eye for an eye, hurt them before they hurt you. I am not an anti-war activist, and you are probably wondering when I am going to start speaking of church history. General history has much to do with Church history. How they have intertwined has shown how the church grows and forms. For instance, the Church has always thrived in the face of persecution. The Church has had its own world wars and lives were destroyed all the same. Many times we accept our heritage with all the nobility of the Queen of England, but we all have our black sheep. I do not say that the Pentecostal movement was a mistake, neither do I say that it is inerrant. I do say that you should not call yourself Pentecostal without knowing both the bad and good of what that means. Now our journey through the past begins, for if history truly repeats itself, you may see your future. + The movement has a birth that, for all intensive purposes, I wish only to trace back to its separation from the Roman Catholic Church. So now, let us say that it all began with Martin Luther. The church for many years had become a political playground, people with titles were marrying into the church for property and taxes, and the church would accept this for the authority it gave them. I have neither the time nor the ability to explain in its entirety why the Church completely rejected Martin Luther, even though he was trying to suck the poison from the body. Is it not funny that the ones we hurt the most are the ones that love us the most? So the Church excommunicated Martin Luther after he nailed his 95 thesis to the Church door. Martin Luther decided to debate the Church councils; however, this came to no avail. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"Martin Luther eventually decided to separate from the church in the early 1600’s and start his own sect of religion. It is not my place to decide if he did the right thing based on his circumstances, but I cannot say that I would have done differently. What I can and must say is that this was the beginning of the innumerable church splits and congregational divides. It is only in the Church’s best interest that Martin Luther acted and as that it will be interpreted. I do feel that individuals have taken this desperate act far too lightly; they have left no room for reconciliation. The theological ramifications of the church divide were exponential. Luther’s main conflicts with the Church were + This would prove to be the mould for anybody and everybody who would have a conflict within a church. Today we have over a thousand denominations. This issue, as you will find out later, is one of the main things that Pentecostals would fight against. Some of the main denominations that were progressively formed were: Eastern Orthodox, Anti-Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Congregational, American Baptist, Methodist, Campbellite, Mormon, Seven-Day Adventist, Christian Science, Apostolic, Church of Christ, and Assemblies of God. These churches were formed over many years but not necessarily through great pain and suffering. These churches, in several cases, did not confront their church at all they simply left. The difference between Martin Luther and everyone else is that Martin did not want to leave his church, he struggled hard to resolve the conflicts yet the church would not budge. Knowing full well, with much biblical conformation and through Christian relationships, that he was correct the church forced his hand. Many of these new denominations are sparked by anything from a “new revelation” of what God is doing, to God revisiting the earth in some form to describe his “new” plan. As if God would come down and say, “Oh, sorry about that one guys. How about a plan B?” Can one denomination say that they are positive that God is working through their denomination, or more specifically their church? Each denomination seems to have its own extreme theology. Not one denomination I have studied so far has had totally sound doctrine. Can’t we just say that we are Christians and take the good with the bad? Just say, “So you believe in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, I believe in the manifestation of dancing.” The only things you need worry over are the things that deny God his characteristics, if God is God then let us interact with him any way we can. + Now let us progress to the Pentecostal movement. After Luther‘s decision to separate from the church everyone wanted to separate from their churches as well. As time progressed and denominations split eventually we arrived at Methodism. John Wesley was one of the great theologians of this movement and established the early foundations of the Pentecostal movement. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"He invested so much of himself within the ideology that it was easier for him to take his own life than to progress past the idea. + The individual flow of time is an important note on each of the characters understanding of life. However Faulkner added another element of time to the story that changes and develops the story further. The titles of each section are dates which, aside from Quentin’s section, line up chronologically leading to Easter Sunday. Faulkner uses this form to drive home the ideas within each of the sections. Each of the days has significance to the progression of the alternate narrative. +Jason’s date is Good Friday. Accordingly it is the section which displays the most manipulation and malice. This is the day in which Jesus would have been crucified, the day that the people cried to Pilot for blood. This imagery is perfect for Jason who wants to control everything and blame everyone else for his problems. The highest achievement for Jason is money because it gives him power and control. + It is Jason that embodies the darkest elements in the Compson family. This fits completely with the Easter motif for it was man’s darkest hour when they crucified Christ. Jason follows after his mother in that he is completely self-centered. He can only think of what people owe him and how much they hold him back. I cannot imagine a better character to embody the day of Christ’s death than Jason Compson, completely selfish and completely unaware. +It is Quentin who dies in this story, representing the symbolic southern man. Christ died to save the world but Quentin died because he could not save the south. Quentin could not save the image of the south in which he was born and he would not live without it. Christ gave his life to save and redeem mankind and Quentin took his life because he had neither faith nor hope in his family’s future. Christ died to give hope but Quentin died out of despair. +Benjy’s location in the march toward Easter is quite fitting. Benjy is the representation of the present impotent south. He is stuck in the cycle of the present and the past but he has no future. He continues living but he has no future, just a mixture of the present and the past. + Contained within the character of Benjy Compson is the understanding that the south, as it was, could not continue. Benjy’s narrative transitions, chronologically, into Dilsey’s. Dilsey is the representation of Easter and the resurrection. The difference in her narrative from the others is immediately recognizable. Dilsey is both black and a woman which are two things that southern mentality did not value highly. It is the combination of both of those things that set her up to be the savior of the Compson family name. +It was only through Dilsey that the south could be reborn. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"Poe, for one, is so commonly replicated in television shows that it is almost not worth mentioning. In his article His affect on cinema is one of the most interesting things to note. Entire movies have been constructed from themes and characters that he created. Some of the better movies have adapted ideas and characters from several of Poe’s works and combined them into single cinematic performances. + The movie Identity, directed by James Mangold and written by Michael Cooney, mimics several of the themes from many of Poe’s collective works. Recognition of Poe’s influence is not an indictment of Cooney but an endowment to Poe. When looking at the collective movie it may be hard to see just how much Poe influenced the story, but as we examine how Poe developed the themes it will be clearer to see how Cooney echoed them. Looking closely, Cooney replicated five major themes repeatedly within the script of Identity: dumb cops, wrongly suspected man, psychological instability, crime in a locked room, and the flash back finish. + Poe originally developed the theme of the dumb cops starting with his short story “The Purloined Letter”. In the short story the detective Dupin is approached by the police to solve a case for them. He solves the case and seems to do so with little effort while the police had exhausted their abilities with no effect. Cooney follows suit in the movie by making the police officer seem like a bumbling idiot: he looses the prisoner, contaminates the crime scene, and unsuccessfully flirts with the beautiful woman. Cooney imitates, almost perfectly, the stupid cop theme in the movie until we find out that he is not a cop, then his persona changes completely. + The wrongly suspected man is another of Poe’s more famous themes. He developed this theme in “Murders in the Rue Morgue” where Adolphe Le Bon, a friend of the main character, is wrongly accused of the grisly murders of two women. The friendship is what drove the main character, Dupin, to search out the answers and eventually solve the crime. Cooney adapts this theme to cinema by getting the audience to believe one of the characters guilty until the character is killed by the real murderer. Cooney adopted the theme that Poe originated to add suspense to his movie. + Psychological aspects were always important to Poe. He was very interested in phrenology. He was very interested to see how the human mind works and who we are as people. Poe was also interested in physiognomy, or the study of who a person is based upon their appearance although he recanted his belief in phrenology later in life. Cooney is also into the psychological aspects of humanity, as shown in his movie. Almost the entire movie takes place inside the mind of a person with multiple personalities, 10 to be exact. Some of the personalities within his mind are nice, well adjusted, members of society; the others are mean, self-serving, and often murderously hostile. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"They taught of the moment of miracle, financial healings, faith as a power, spiritual warfare, anti-intellectual, and involved with new revelations (which could not necessarily be proven). Branham was viewed to be the prophet of the Neo-Pentecostal generation. At the same time however he prophesied some things such as: By 1977 all denominations would be devoured by the World Council of Churches under the control of the Roman Catholics, and that the Rapture would occur followed by worldwide destruction. Another of his revelations was that he was Elijah, the end-time messenger of the last days. With this revelation he demanded that people leave their churches and pledge loyalty to him. + Looking at where my denomination has come from and what it is now has changed a lot of who I am. I do not think that being critical of it can advance my present state, but seeking to understand their choices can make my choices and actions easier. Just embracing it can do nothing good for anyone. Please do not think that what I am doing is out of hate; I only wish to examine the foundation of the house I was raised in. + At one time I was very troubled about prophecy, and I wanted to know how legitimate it was. It seemed like one of the easier things to manipulate, so it would be easy to control people when they thought that you could influence their destiny. I could not get inside the head of a prophet; nor did I believe that God would give me a straight forward answer. I decided that I should be the prophet and see how willing people were to listen to what I had to speak into their lives. + After doing this I proceeded to individuals that I was close to within the church and had them read my poem. After they had read it I would ask them to interpret the poem back to me, tell me in logical terms what it meant. They would always tell me something vague like darkness and light were fighting, so I knew that they were fighting with something. (Because when you interpret something formless you, in most cases, make it in your own image) So I would restate what they told me in vague terms and they would tell me specifics of their troubles. Everyone was so willing to receive that they did not care to recognize who or what was being given. All I provided them with was a psychological analysis with a practical solution and all of a sudden I am a great worker of God. Another example comes from a man named Dr. Mesmer. He believed that a man’s mind and body could be healed if their magnetic forces were realigned. + People genuinely believe false things all the time. My friend once told me a story of when they were visiting a church that was having a revival. It was a decent service not necessarily memorable until he gave an alter call. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"This text was written during the reign of the grandson of Owain son of Urien or also known as Owain Gwynedd. This would be the reason for the glorification of Owain over Arthur. This is the reason that Owain would be able to defeat Arthur, the great warrior king, in a game of strategy. It was not an insult to Arthur so much as recognition of the great lineage of Llywelyn. It would have been appropriate to use the historic figures of the legends to attach some honor to your name; just as Nennius did by saying that Britain was settled by Trojans who survived the wrath of Achilles. This was done throughout literary history. When someone who was relatively unknown wrote something special and wanted to invoke the authority of those who had written before him, they would simply add their name to his history. + The end of the story seems to give some strong implications that the story is a satire as well. The story was oral tradition handed down from generation to generation but the end of the book says otherwise. The end of the story should give a moral or exiting remark on the hero but it is only a note on the colors and clothes of the people in the story. It is not a commentary on the cynical nature of King Arthur. The Dream of Rhonabwy is a satire of the wars that the Welsh fought. + + + William Faulkner, in The Sound and the Fury, manipulates time in a way that has never been done before. He takes the collective conscious of each character and smashes it together in the present. Each of the four characters have unique connections between remembered time as it is influenced by their mental and emotional state. +Faulkner examines the mental state of the declining south and the effects of this decline on the perception of time. By examining the influence of time and memory in each of the characters the reader understand the meaning of time articulated by Faulkner. Benjy, Quentin, Jason and Dilsey each bring a new perspective as Faulkner plays with the ideas of time, memory and decline of the south. + Faulkner wrote each of these sections to be interpreted together. Each of the narrative styles and perspectives adds a new insight to the story and the interpretation of the waning nobility of the south. Each character is wrapped up in the emotions of their outlook on the situations involving their family. In the same manner each of these characters are enamored with the flow of time. Their emotional state deeply impacts their understanding of time and the manner in which they live their lives. + Benjy is the first narrator that we engage. He is mentally handicapped so the image he provides is one unadulterated by the intentions of someone with a hidden agenda such as Quentin and Jason. The way in which Benjy experiences time and memory sets the tone for the rest of the novel. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"Most critics hold to the time somewhere around early 1200s because of the naming of Owain and some of the other characters. This dating of the text would make The Dream of Rhonabwy the latest addition to be included in the finalized Mabanogion. This dating of the text would also put The Dream of Rhonabwy in the time when the Welsh were struggling to stay free of the English rule. +The historical Madawc was a Welsh prince who became a traitor when he allied with Henry II of England. His father Maredudd fought King Henry I each time Henry tried to invade Wales. Maredudd almost killed him when an arrow glanced off Henry I’s breastplate. Madawc allied with Henry II to invade Wales in 1158. These battles that Madawc and Henry II fought, historically, were against the same Owain from The Dream of Rhonabwy. These battles are what made Owain famous. Owain was recognized as one of the greatest rulers of the Welsh people, along with Arthur. + Once the dream begins the tale becomes more abstract and the action is harder to follow. Rhonabwy is met by a knight who claims to be Iddawc the son of Mynyo or better known as Iddawc the agitator. This character admits to being the person who inspired the battle of Caamlan in which Arthur was killed. The reader is expected to trust the person who could not be trusted to carry King Arthur’s message to Mordred. The reader is to follow Rhonabwy in submitting to a guide who admits that he is not trust worthy. King Arthur trusted Iddawc to carry a message for him and Arthur ended up dieing for his misjudgment. Iddawc then offers to lead Rhonabwy to the other heroes in the story, which seems like a bad decision. Rhonabwy seems to have no problem with this and just follows Iddawc around for the rest of the dream sequence. It seems odd that the author would choose a liar to communicate a large portion of his story, unless it is a satire of the Arthurian Age. +The descriptions of each knight that approaches begin with describing his hair, both color and style, then moves on to the color of his clothes and his horse. The Celts of this time would give special attention to the sword. The weapon of their nobility would have surely been the description along with the stature of the knight. Instead of giving a common greeting of physical prowess this author greets each of his characters by commenting of their fabulous sense of style. +The warriors were described by their clothes and scarves and the armies were given detailed descriptions by their banners. The author went so far as to brag about the brilliance of the soldier’s uniforms. For the eight pages of the text there is little action taking place, so much as description after description of the warrior’s hair and clothes. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"In all the description of the warriors there is no description of their armor, only the clothes and scarves. + Rhonabwy and his guide get to Baddon hill, the site of Arthur’s most famous battle. Arthur is sitting aside Bedwini the Bishop, who witnessed Arthur pull the sword from the stone. The only problem with them being on Baddon Hill is the presence of Iddawc the Agitator. Iddawc did not become the Agitator until the battle of Caamlan in which Arthur died. His presence in this story at the same time as Arthur is odd in itself. The only meaning of this can be satire; purposeful misguidance that the audience would have all noticed. +Owain and a couple other men are sitting with Arthur when Arthur asks Owain to play a game of chess with him. The name of the game was actually called gwyddbwyll. There is no record of what this game actually is, there is only speculation from different tales that include the game. Neither Owain or Arthur describe the game other than it being like chess. In this game the King piece is in the middle surrounded by four lesser kings and 12 ravens surround these five pieces. If this were the game that Arthur and Owain were playing then this would explain the naming of Owain’s troops, which were called ravens in the brandubh game. The game that they were playing on the board was being fought out on the battle field. There seems to be a commentary here on the nature of war. The generals get to sit back and play games with their soldiers while the soldiers are actually risking life and limb for the king. +While most of the story has been humorous or ironic this part is a rather serious commentary on war. War is just playing games with human life. The knights and the ravens were the soldiers of Owain and Arthur that were nothing more than pieces in a game. The lives of the men were just to be used by the generals. This portion of the text paints a dark picture of war. +Understanding that both Arthur and Owain were struggling for their men, that they both wanted to win, would explain the seeming negligence for their troops. They were not ignoring them while they were playing the game. The battle that was going on was their game; Arthur’s princes against Owain’s ravens. Arthur lost the game; he smashed all his remaining pieces save the rest of his men. +The explanation for the critical treatment of Arthur is not found simply within the text. Arthur is treated satirized because he is the previous “great king” of the Welsh. The legend must pale in comparison to the one being honored. +Llywelyn the Great was the next great leader of Wales and the grandson of Owain. Llywelyn’s rule was from the early 1200’s to 1240 when he died. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"The clues are properly spread throughout the story but the reader may not pick up on all of the meaning until the detective reveals all. Dupin gives a reveal in each of the detective tales but there is a moment of revelation in almost every Poe story. Cooney echo’s this theme in the movie; however, he adds more than one revelation to the movie to lead the viewers astray. The first revelation allows the viewer to think that they understand but in reality it is quite misleading. The second revelation is the big twist that explains the story in full. The biggest variance is for Cooney from Poe is the use of a pseudo revelation. + Death of a beautiful woman is probably one of Poe’s most recognizable characteristics. In almost every work that Poe has ever constructed there is a beautiful woman and who will likely die a horrible death. In “Berenice” she is buried alive, dug up, and then all of her teeth are pulled. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” Roderick Usher’s sister is sealed in her coffin before she is actually dead and claws her way out just to die of fatigue. “The Raven” is about the speaker’s love that has died and her absence is haunting him. Poe uses the theme of the death of a beautiful woman over and over again in poetry and story. In Identity one of the personalities sacrifices himself to save the beautiful woman. It seems that Cooney had another variance from Poe until the final revelation. After she is saved it seems as though all is well until the real killer shows up and kills her. Her death was tragic because the viewer is led to believe that she escaped to start a new life, but that life is quickly taken from her. + Cooney regurgitates themes from Poe throughout most of the screenplay. In fact were you to remove the elements which Poe originated then you would not have much of a movie at all. Poe virtually wrote this screenplay for Cooney. The themes were put together in a unique way but they were still taken from the same place. The criticism that has been published on Identity gives the credit of inspiration to many cinematic pieces which also owe some gratitude to Poe. Hitchcock is easily recognizable as someone who repeated Poe’s themes. Friday the 13th is a reference to the gory nature of some of the killings which Poe did as well. Ten Little Indians is a movie based on a novel by Agatha Christie where ten people are invited to an isolated place and killed one by one. The idea of Identity being a replication of Ten Little Indians falls short when the plot develops past ten people in an isolated place. While Ten Little Indians may be the framework for Identity, it is still teeming with allusions to Poe’s dark tales. + +",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"Quentin loses all hope in the future and in turn drives himself to the point of suicide. Dilsey, in stark contrast, is characterized by the Christian values of faith, hope and love. Her section takes place on Sunday and is charged with Christian images and the idea of forgiveness and rebirth. Quentin’s section was a downward spiral into the despair of his ever collapsing mind. Adamson draws the contrast of Quentin to Dilsey with their assessment of time. + Dilsey is the only character in the story that has a healthy grasp on the future. Quentin understands the future but cannot come to terms with it; he is helplessly stuck in the past. Dilsey is willing to redefine roles, willing to forgive, willing to move on into the future. Quentin cannot give up what once was for the possibility of what may be. He is stuck in this code of honor from which he cannot release himself or his sister Caddy. This role reversal is the major cause of the downward spiral that leads to Quentin’s death. Miller goes on to say, Quentin cannot change and it is that simple thing that separates him from Dilsey. + The way that Quentin and Dilsey view time differs as greatly as their perspectives on the future. Quentin views time as something that he must escape. He cannot cope with the inevitability. This fact is shown in the images that both Dilsey and Quentin see when they look at a clock. Time is something that Quentin cannot escape and he cannot forget. His sister Caddy has defied the moral code of the south, destroyed the family, and is the symbol of a social change. +Quentin begins to see time everywhere. The social change that he fears with the progression of time is even using Quentin himself, without his consent. He attempts to both control and stop time by smashing his watch. However, Quentin has failed to stop time; he has failed to prevent the digression of his family name, of the south. +Dilsey, as an African American woman, is the embodiment of change in the south. Dilsey is the amendment to the code of the south. Quentin cannot bring himself to see that this movement is not the death of the south but its rebirth. Caddy and Dilsey are not causing the collapse; the illegitimate moral codes of the south did that. Caddy and Dilsey only hope that there is for a future. + Time moves through Dilsey’s section of the story in the most coherent manner of the entire novel; there is a much better understanding of past and present. The flow of time is smooth in this unlike it has been in any other part of the book. There is a resolution introduced through forgiveness and unification that is communicated quite vividly through the message of Reverend Shegog. + This resoluteness from Quentin is the tragedy. He cannot adapt, grow, or function apart from his fixed image of the traditional south. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"Each of these characters play their part of Cooney’s interpretation of the human psychological makeup. +Cooney takes the idea of a psychological detective story from Poe’s work “The Mystery of Marie Roget”. +Similarly in Cooney’s movie there is very little happening in the real world, all of the action is taking place inside the mind of the convicted killer Malcolm Rivers. In the movie some characters black out and then find themselves in places where they don’t recognize. The theme of crimes committed without knowledge started with Poe in his story “Berenice”. The main character buries his cousin, then blacks out to wake and find that she was not dead until he dug her up and forcefully took her teeth. “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat” also explore the psychological instability of a killer. In “The Tell Tale Heart” the narrator says that he loves the man but cannot stand his “evil eye”. It is as if he has split himself into two persons, one who loves the old man and the other who hates the old man’s eye. The fragmented person that Poe writes about in the “The Tell Tale Heart” is echoed by the fragmented personalities that are seen in the movie Identity. + The theme of a crime in a locked room, or impossible crime, comes from Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” where a mother and her daughter are murdered in a room that was locked from the inside. Poe uses this theme to make his stories more cryptic. Instantly the reader is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle. They are then given clues so they can attempt to solve the crime before detective in the story. Cooney’s adaptation of this theme is more interesting then the others. He takes more liberty from Poe then he did on most of the other themes. +Cooney has two impossible crimes set up in the story. The characters are trapped in a motel in the middle of the desert. They cannot escape on any roads and when they try to run away they end up back at the motel. Secondly, as each person dies they find room keys in descending order from 10, even when the person seemingly dies from an accident. Both of these devices are revealed as mechanisms in the mind of the schizophrenic Malcolm Rivers. They are crimes within a locked room and the locked room is Malcolm’s mind. In this theme Cooney takes Poe’s theme further than Poe took it because of advancements in the field of psychology with the ability to recognize and sometimes treat mental illness. Poe did, however, recognize mental illness as a possible cause of such behavior in the story “The Tell Tale Heart”. In the story the narrator begins by telling the reader that he is not crazy, that his sickness has actually made him stronger. + Another of Poe’s tools was to reveal the clues that helped solve the case. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +tt,"In this alter call he began praying/prophesying over everyone, and as he progressed in the prayer line he found himself standing in front of a larger black lady. He stops for a moment puts his quarter folded hanky over his mouth and looks intently into her eyes. As he spoke to her this lady broke down and began to cry, and the words he spoke were, “Miss, at night, when you sleep, two demons come into your room, and they fondle your breasts. Their names are incubus and succubus.” I am so glad that the Demonic powers have taken up breast fondling as a hobby. You know I always wondered what demons did with their free time, now I know. + Please do not look on this history with anything but sober judgment. I do not ask for your ridicule I do not ask for your praise, I ask for you to know yourself. Your history has made you who you are, but you determine your future. + + + The Dream of Rhonabwy is barely recognizable part of the Arthurian legend. It is a text that is often disregarded because critics cannot agree on how to interpret the story. Arthur is characterized unlike anything else in the body of work we have on Arthur. In most of the texts that we have that reference Arthur he is acknowledged as a great military leader. King Arthur is recognized as the greatest knight in the history of Chivalry. Lancelot, Gawain, and Kay are all great and recognizable knights but they are all referred to as King Arthur’s knights or the Knights of the Round Table. If Arthur is such a well respected knight king then why would the author characterize the great British/Welsh emperor in such an unkind manner? It is because the author is drawing a satirical picture of Arthur. + The Dream of Rhonabwy, as it has been interpreted, has some difficult language. It is not easy to understand exactly what the author is trying to say unless you examine it closely. In a district of Wales called Powys, lived two brothers whose father was one of the princes of Wales. Their father died and the oldest child, Madawc, took command of the district and the youngest child was jealous. The younger child Iorwerth, of whom we have no historical records, decides to raid England, pillaging the land and gaining political standing. The older brother does not want the younger to make the English angry so he sends out 300 men to find his brother. Rhonabwy is one of the men that are sent out to find and stop Iorwerth. Rhonabwy and his men stay in a rundown house and Rhonabwy sleeps on a yellow calfskin which induces visions; the dream begins. + The part of the story before the dream begins is historically accurate, save for Iorwerth. Both Madwac his father Maredudd are historical figures. These people are the chief reasons critics debate what year The Dream of Rhonabwy was written. ",28,English,male,Post Grad,Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," + +From this point, I can use a fake Facebook profile I’ve created to add her (A few friendly tips: browse Mafia Wars and Farmville groups, you’ll find hundreds of people advertising themselves for friends in an attempt to gain more ‘neighbors’ or ‘mobsters’, and at first glance, anybody will think you simply have 400 legitimate friends. Another piece of advice is to browse her friends list, especially her comment wall, and find people with a lot of Facebook friends. Try to narrow it down to people who give off the vibe that they add almost everybody who sends a request, and it’s exponentially more likely that she’s going to add someone with seventeen mutual friends. Another good genre of people to target are her family members, so search her friends list with people for her last name), and then use that Facebook friendship to mine more information from her, including her email, IM account names, address, and personal phone numbers. This is the simplest way to access information hidden behind profile privacy settings, and is a practically idiot-proof technique. + +So, now that we’ve acquired a lot of useful details about our new friend, how do we put it all to good use? The first step will be to gain access to their email. Try to log in to their email address with one of the common passwords used, like ‘password’ for example. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it actually will! Now, you can try every word in the dictionary, but that’s not a very efficient way to go about wrecking lives. You’re about to make the password-reset function your friend. Armed with the information you need, you’re an unstoppable force of Internature. + +Please enter your birthday. Check.
Please enter your area code. Check
What is your favorite sports team? A-ha! + +This is when we go back to her Facebook page and hope everything matches up. Scour status updates, comments, groups, fan pages, photos, and try to find it. On one of the photos you might see her wearing a sports-logo emblazoned sweater, or a status update about a sporting event outcome she was (un)happy with. This part is more organic and requires intuition, perseverance, and a good eye for spotting clues. + +So, now you’re in. What next? Your first step will be a search for the phrase “password”, hopefully there are account verifications that send the username and password in plain text format. Most people stupidly use the same password for every account, excepting when numbers may be required, which usually just means there’s a ‘1’ at the end. Myspace accounts are the best for this, because instead of sending a password reset email with a link to change it, they send an email with the password right there inside of it. If you had to reset the password to the email in order to gain access, it’s usually a smart move to then change the email password to whatever the Myspace password is. +",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," This only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes, portraying Americans as overweight slobs who live and die on their sofa-beds, their only physical activity being a button press to change channels. This is a baseless lie. Of course exceptions exist, but the unified image of an entire nation of people into a simple lump describable in two words or less is more harmful than television could ever hope to be in its darkest days. Failing to see shades of grey in ideas and beliefs is a stain upon humanity’s nature, and as common as it may be, terrible things have and will continue to come from it. Moral ambiguity is there, it just takes a reflection on the situation and a level of critical thinking that may, unfortunately, be beyond the scope of some peoples’ will to see. + +*The reason I use “books” here instead of “reading” as a medium is because the person I quote never said explicitly that watching TV is bad for you, although they implied its conclusion. My argument would remain largely unchanged if they had. I chose focus on television as a broadcast device and creative outlet. + +Every so often I look at the condition of the world and I suspect that the most widespread problem we have is the ever-growing sentiment of anti-intellectualism that infiltrates every aspect of our society. This rampant disease is never so prevalent as it has been with the recent generation of teenagers, and having grown up surrounded neck-deep in the filth of Gen-X, I can safely say my belief is that most, if not all, of the issues faced by humans aged 12-20 stem not only from cultural influences, peer pressure, or a desire to be accepted by their friends; they suffer from an incurable BRAIN DISEASE known as “Teenager-ism”. + + +Teenagers pride themselves on this disease, reveling in their ignorance and glorifying themselves on their uncommonly high levels of Stupidity. They go beyond what the average person would consider a healthy level of moronic stupor. Now, over the years I’ve upheld a single conviction, steadfast through all the doubters and disbelievers I’d encountered, and until today it’s been purely speculation. This conviction is that being a teenager is an inoperable affliction, treatable only by the passing of time or the arrival of death. + +Certainly, I am not the first person to ever hold this hypothesis. + +It appears we’ve spent countless lifetimes ignoring the warning signs, failing to prepare for war against a foe with the capacity to end our lives simply by ending their own. No, I don’t mean suicide-bombing Al Qaeda terrorists or Japanese kamikaze pilots; I mean Teenagers, an enemy whose primary goal is the degradation of our society into something hardly discernable from the future seen in the film Idiocracy; a world where the finest literature is found scrawled on the inside walls of bathroom stalls. +",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"They continue to become less and less a tool of democracy to govern and appease the people than they develop into a lobbying tool used to pad the pockets of big-business leaders. They also begin to heavily influence media and news outlets, which forces those institutions who wish to stay in business to ignore scandalous stories or those that negatively portray those in power. + +With the youth in revolt and angry at the elders for being out of touch, inhumane, racist towards minorities, or any other (valid) concern, the younger generation begins boycotting school, the number of teenagers becoming involved in gangs rises and also takes place at younger and younger ages, and Elvis Presley shakes his hips on national television. The government, in response, passes the B.R. Act of 2010, which takes one eight-grade public school class each year and sends them to a deserted island. Each student is randomly assigned a weapon, and let loose to roam the island unsupervised. The students are given three days to kill their classmates or they themselves will be killed. At the end of the three days, the survivor is taken home and allowed to live. This act is passed with the intent of using negative reinforcement on the general child/teenage populous to make them begin acting appropriately. The citizens are promised that, if gang violence lowers significantly and truancy levels lower similarly, the act will be revoked. +The world that we live in today is filled with uncertainty. We don’t know how much food will cost tomorrow; we don’t know how expensive our gas prices will be or how much the cost of crude oil will rise; due to global warming we don’t even know what the temperature will reach; and most importantly, we don’t know whether or not Miley Cyrus will finally issue an apology to the public for her risqué cover photo that she posed for in Vanity Fair. We also don’t know what’s going through the minds of our elected officials. The Clintons campaigned on a platform of healthcare reform, Alberto Gonzales promised us justice, Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig forgot to mention that in his off time he liked to solicit sex from young boys in public bathroom stalls, and George Bush swore on a bible to maintain sanity. All lies. Since the 1980s we’ve been in a state of manufactured democracy, going back and forth from George Bush to Bill Clinton to George Bush again and nearly back to a Clinton (fingers crossed for an Obama election), with only the illusion of democracy keeping the public complacent. The blueprints are nearly complete, and the pieces set in place for a fascist state to overthrow our country. And us, here, on a local basis? We wouldn’t even take the time to look up from our People Magazine and our American Idol to notice, let alone take a stand. +",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"The shadow-journalists hired by the government’s PR department were led on a three-hour staged tour through the premises of three prison camps, including Camp Delta, Camp V, and Camp X-Ray. The result of these guided tours: a bevy of positive spin within the mainstream media outlets, and major television broadcasts that might as well have been written by Donald Rumsfeld. + +Now that we’ve shown why government powers would become corrupt, let’s examine several of the hows that they could implement to achieve their goals. With a well of pop-culture trivia knowledge so deep that it would make the Mariana Trench blush, I’ve been able to imagine several possible scenarios, and the tactics that would be used to achieve them. + +In true V for Vendetta fashion, powerful government officials with ties to pharmaceutical companies could create a disease, and then control the manufacturing and distribution of the antidote. With the entire country- possibly even the world- buying their products, the stockholders in that company would become immensely wealthy almost overnight. We’ll call this concept the ‘Lego Rule’, as its factors are practically interchangeable with a never-ending exchange of different components. All that it takes is to switch the pharmaceutical companies with oil companies, and have the government nationalize the country’s oil refineries. In many ways the idea of nationalization has already snagged its filthy claws into our society’s rug. For example, as a product of the climate of fear that overtook the populous after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the government has taken advantage of our willingness to sacrifice liberty for safety and instilled the TSA as sole power over our nation’s airplane safety regulations. + +This scenario is probably the most likely of all of them to actually happen. In fact, it already has. One only needs to take a quick glance at Vice President Dick Cheney’s ties to Halliburton, and Halliburton’s ties to the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, to realize that something fishy is going on. + +With the population showing record-high levels of political dissent, the bigwigs in their spacesuits at the White House cut budgetary spending on education and dedicate an overwhelming majority of the national budget on ‘defense contracts’ (see: Halliburton) and military spending. With its citizens showing a decreased level of interest in pursuing higher education and college degrees, those who do are labeled as ‘elitists’ and ostracized in regular society. Being labeled as an intellectual becomes as derogatory a term as ‘racist’ is in today’s current society. The social stigma attached to it affects ones personal standing amongst civilized people as severely as being an atheist affects your chances of being elected president of the United States. As concern over, and attention paid, to the availability of public data fades, the government pushes for a tiered internet model, hoping to limit the availability of information to regular citizens and deterring those who may express concern against their suspicious practices. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"I will take my future into my own hands and shape it according to my own high standards, never again feeling like a slave to the claustrophobic, monotonous nightmare of high school. + +“It’s pretty hard to live when someone steals your identity and cleans out your bank account.” + +If I so desired, I could ruin your life. It’s not even difficult, either. If you provide me with an active internet connection and thirty minutes, there’s almost nothing that I can’t find. Technology is invasive, silently leaking its cold, metallic syrup into the cracks of our lives while we remain blissfully unaware of the consequences. + +First thing’s first: Choose your mark. This target of electronic molestation, ideally, maintains a regular online presence on at least one social network. If this isn’t the case, though, don’t worry. It will take a little bit more time and utilization of more advanced techniques, but invading their sacred privacy is still relatively simple. A good first start is to remember that any Google search result page contains a treasure-trove of information, as long you know how to navigate its (often obtuse) pathways. + +Now that you’ve acquired a potential victim, it’s time to do your homework. Do they have a Facebook page? A Myspace page? Twitter? Photobucket? Youtube? What forums do they post on? A quick Google search for their name will reveal a lot, but probably not everything. If all that you know is their name, locate them on Facebook and Myspace. Scan their pages for any information. Facebook has strict privacy options, so it’s possible that you’ll be unable to glean any immediately useful information, but remember that all information is valuable if you know how to use it properly. + +Let’s examine some of the information available via a standard non-friend Facebook profile. By clicking on a random person’s profile, I can see her birth date, hometown, groups that she’s a member of, all of her photos and any photo that she’s been tagged in by friends, her entire friends list, and her comment wall. All of this is useful, but the greatest information mine, by far, is the comment wall. From there, I can follow conversations and status updates to access (hopefully) everything I need. On the comment wall I find someone’s cell phone number with a message “Call me and we’ll hang out again!” I make a note of it, as well as the commenter’s profile, and continue on. + +From here we have a decent amount of information. Doing a few more Google searches reveals the school that she graduated from, as well as the year. I cross-reference other names in her class with her Facebook friends list and come up with fifteen concurrent matches. A few minutes spent investigating their Facebook pages reveals four more cell phone numbers (Don’t these people know it’s dangerous to post personal information publicly like this? Sheesh!). +",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," +The standard misconception of equating a typical high school experience with post-schooling success is an exercise in flawed logic. When a student feels unmotivated by the offered curriculum, it should be the duty of his counselor to help him seek new avenues of expression and education. This is not merely a hypothetical situation; I feel constrained and disappointed by the education afforded to me at Ukiah High School. Budget cuts have forced teachers and faculty out of jobs, extinguishing morale throughout our campus. The first subjects killed were art and music, followed by closing the library. The library, a cornerstone of education, crushed under the heel of oppressive budgetary constraints. High school is quickly becoming a failed institution, its welcome long overstayed. Any subject not deemed “important” by advocates of worldwide neo-Con consumerist brainwashing is murdered in cold blood, its corpse shoved into a rolled-up carpet and tossed into the Russian river. It’s this greed and pretentiousness that pressures children forced through the tunnel of standardized education into growing up and becoming retail parasites, accountants, the walking dead. This is not my destiny. + +Surrounded by the disenfranchised youth I wander, losing my sanity in the ever-thickening crowds of angry teenagers. Amidst hundreds of hostile strangers, an increasingly high gang population, racist cowboys and hostile, insecure jocks eager to prove to their twirpy girlfriends that picking on somebody is tantamount to proving their manhood in a Roman gladiatorial ring, I stand alone. The library is no longer open, a former sanctum of the intelligentsia, a pillar of free-thought and monument to our right of openly distributed information, is hardly recognizable after merciless dismemberment by fascists seeking to control the flow of information. We, as high school students, are taught by so-called community leaders that questioning authority is unpatriotic, that learning anything not governed by a school board is off-limits. I scream unto the darkness, I shed my own blood as armor, I fashion a sword from my own bone and use it to fight this evil propaganda. + +Scan through your high school yearbook and randomly select a handful of your peers. How many of them led successful, personally fulfilling lives? Compare your selections to the following list I’ve assembled: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers. The members of this group excelled in their respective fields of study by following their passions to the fullest extent possible. In order to do this, they were home-schooled. Of course, the education system back then wasn’t as sophisticated or complex as it is now, which is why Independent Study is the best possible option. I will reap the benefits of a high school education at my own accelerated pace, while still challenging myself by using my time to its fullest extent, still under the supervision and guidance of a teacher. I will be attending several college classes, learning valuable life skills, strengthening my education, my creativity, and my individuality. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," It begins the moment that complacency takes over and it becomes unreasonable to be emotionally, mentally, or physically invested in the world that exists beyond the mall doors. + +Step 1: Exterminate every single living teenager in the world (for maximum efficiency, substitute the word ‘world’ with ‘universe’).
Step 2: Put a stop to female fertility, ending the problem of babies (thus in turn also ending the problem of Teenagers).
Step 3: Clone intelligent, healthy adults, thereby continuing the human race ad infinitum at our evolutionary peak and putting an end to the most dangerous threat in mankind’s history. + +Granted, I am not (technically) a doctor, so my understanding of the cloning process is limited to what I’ve read on imascientist.com. But in layman’s terms, in order to clone someone all that you need is a Genetic Replicator, a Willing Test Subject, and a little dash of Imagination. + +Once in a while, everything in the world changes at once. This is one of those times. + +I hate writing. I don’t mean writing as in the verb form of ‘to write,’ or the specific act of putting words to paper (or to screen, as it is these days). I mean the science that it’s become, the colour-by-numbers formula that we’re told, both by teachers and critics, is necessary to create a worthwhile composition. Well, I’m not buying it. I consistently hear, day in and day out, that structureis necessary; that there’s a specific framework to follow in order to have an acceptably paced story; that I need to follow these rules and take these steps in order to succeed; and that disobeying the guidelines can (and will) only result in catastrophe. + + +Your main character must be sympathetic. If they’re not “nice”, pile on some undeserved misfortune. + +The character’s desire must be clear, compelling, and urgent.

Not to seem rude, and I realize that someone actually paid a ‘professional writer’ a truckload of money for this advice, but I find these utterly stupid, invalid suggestions. + +In the stories that I enjoy most, the characters’ motivations are rarely, if ever at all, explained in perfect, pristine detail throughout. I find it leagues more interesting and engaging when the characters’ actions or motivations are morally ambiguous, and while it might (might being the operative word, since it isn’t a requirement even) seem like there’s a quintessential cookie-cutter Good Guy and Evil Guy, their agendas are both shrouded in shades of grey. This sort of mindset goes against everything that the writer of these storybook-protocols stands for. + +While we're reading and critiquing other peoples’ manuscripts in the Creative Writing class that I’m taking (taught by author Jody Gehrman), a recurring theme that I notice being brought up by class members is ‘explanation’. The theory that I’ve established is this: simple-minded people need every aspect of a story interpreted for them, each nook and cranny explored and dissected and given clear reason. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"I have been able to scientifically establish that they are so shallow and ignorant that they honestly cannot handle the responsibility of taking any meaning out of a story that isn’t neatly handed to them on a silver platter. Ambiguity, obscurity, irony, innuendo; these are devices used by clever and intelligent writers in acute, imaginative ways, and I strongly feel that they shouldn’t be understated by some shmuck with a pencil and notebook who thinks he’s Hemmingway. We don’t need each side-character mentioned in the story to have an unseen influence on the nerdy kid getting picked on by a bully; we don’t need each individual that enters the bathroom to personally know and be familiar with the woman hiding her well-meaning boyfriend in the stall; we don’t need hidden motivations for the consoling gentleman at a funeral (though I stand by the fact that my idea of a Quantum Leap-esque twist at the end where it turns out that he’s her father from an alternate timeline coming back to redeem himself (in his own eyes, that is) would at least be entertaining); and we don’t need to know how the dead man arguing with Saint Peter over what constitutes Good-Enough-For-Heaven behavior became injured. These are not the points of the story! + + Antagonist’s commitment and ability to stop our hero must be equal to protagonist’s commitment and ability to get what they want. + +Stakes must be life or death – or so high that they might as well be.

Obviously the writer of these Essential Guidelines for Proper Storytelling has never watched an episode of Seinfeld. + +What I take away from these story-construction schematics isn’t that this direction is the correct one. In fact, what I extract from it constitutes the polar opposite: that no matter what I write, no matter what the subject or topic or story it is that I’m penning, I am obligated by the Gods of Language to avoid these pillars of cliché storytelling like a balloon avoids a needle. What do you get when you follow an already established, standard textbook formula? Everybody Loves Raymond. What do you get when you tread new ground, when you grasp unwaveringly and hold securely onto the essence of your individuality, the style that defines who you are, what you represent, and what makes you you? The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, A Tale Of Two Sisters, The Catcher In The Rye. Three wildly different examples of narrative with one simple trait binding them all together: the creators of each embraced their unique personality, they each held steadfast to their vision regardless of what was considered “essential” to clever storytelling, and every single one was a successful and groundbreaking work of art. + +I admit it; I’m a selfish writer, and I write selfish stories. The pace is dictated by me, and if I want an irrelevant tangent here, I’ll put an irrelevant tangent here. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," +According to the nation’s top scientists (as seen on PBS’ Pulitzer Prize winning ‘Inside the Teenage Brain’), the teenage state is nothing more than another stage of child development. While a child is in the womb, he or she undergoes substantial changes of brain development at an incredibly rapid pace. This phenomenon is recreated a bit over a decade later during puberty. During this stage of their life, they display several common symptoms: + + An inability to comprehend causation or consequences for his or her actions,
 Unhealthy sleeping habits,
 A sudden interest in wearing backward hats or cargo shorts, and
 Loss of ability to formulate coherent thoughts. This symptom is often paired with repetitious usage of the words ‘dude’, ‘bro’, and ‘sweet’. + +However, with proper treatment, these symptoms can be avoided. I realize this does not seem possible; it did not seem possible to me, either. But this is the crux of my genius. The secret lies in attacking the virus before it infects the brain, before the frontal cortex succumbs to the Evil Will of the Teenage Years. I call my treatment the ‘Use It or Lose It’ technique. Its magic lies in programming the child while in the early stages of brain development into a set routine, forming a schedule consisting of a daily regiment of brainteasers, math problems, hand-eye coordination tests, and a healthy dose of naptime. If we don’t enforce this type of regiment upon them, the behavior exhibited by teenagers today will continue, placing every person alive in extreme, immediate danger, and this is a problem. It is not a problem in the way that global warming is a problem, nor is it a problem in the way throat cancer is a problem. It is a problem in the way that the fact we may eventually one day go to war against the machines (as portrayed in I, Robot or the Terminator trilogy) is a problem. So long as we set the teenagers onto this strict, linear pathway through life, we can let out our held breath and ease back into our seats, comfortable in the fact that our worries are no longer based on whether or not our future generations are going to screw things up worse than we already have. + +The largest hurdle faced by the ‘Use It or Lose It’ technique is encountering a child unwilling to follow orders, a ‘free spirited’ pre-teen whose primary concern in life isn’t the Greater Good, but yo-yo tricks and hair gel. And that, I think, is where a simple brain disease ends and Armageddon begins. + +I have no idea where you, my loyal reader, happen to stand on the issue of human cloning, and over the course of this paper I’ve avoided the topic in order to (a) help you understand the dilemma at hand, and to (b) present the least complicated treatment before I unveil the only solution that can assuredly end the infestation of Teenagers upon our precious soil.",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"After a major exposure by media outlets of these classified operations, the government spearheaded a bill that would allow ‘retroactive immunity’ of any private corporations, specifically Verizon and AT&T in this case, that complied or aided the government in illegal activities. This bill was proposed as necessary for our safety, well-being, and privacy; a move so blockheaded that I’m surprised the writers of the speeches that the telecom PR drones were giving didn’t explode in a giant fireball of Irony. + +Obviously though, governments aren’t the only culprits. Those responsible for breaching upon our rights as citizens and manipulating information for their own gain come in more flavors than Baskin Robbins ice cream. Corporate fraud has no better figurehead than Enron Corporation, a former American energy corporation based in Houston, Texas. The corporation used offshore entities, with full anonymity, to hide the extent of their annual monetary losses from investors and create the illusion of profitability. Paperwork was smudged and trades were insided, resulting in the executives, as well as those working closely with them, to come out of the entire fiasco able to use hundred-dollar bills as toilet paper, while the stockholders’ investments and the actual business worth plummeted toward the ground faster than George Bush’s approval ratings (zing!). + +If all (or any) of this makes you think, “Hey, what does Enron have to do with me?” or, “If I have nothing to hide, why should I be so concerned with my privacy anyway?”, you’re in for a treat. President George Bush signed the Patriot Act into law as a response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in September of 2001. The U.S.A. Patriot Act, which is actually an acronym that stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by ProvidingAppropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act”, in a nutshell: + +What this basically means is that while you’re at work or school (or anywhere, really) the government can allow an official to enter your home, search and confiscate anything you own, access your library or financial records without your consent, sift through your telephone or internet records, and search your personal information. All of this without a court order, all of this without notice, all of this without cause or reason for suspicion, and all of this without explanation afterward. The 4th amendment of the constitution, a guard against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been rendered obsolete by now. + +The Pentagon, within as recently as the past few weeks, was also exposed as manipulating the media in order to brighten its own image over reports of prisoner mistreatment and generally inhuman conditions at its now infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The government enlisted CNN military analysts, former U.S. military officials, and hired journalists to spin a web of positive propaganda for them in order to combat Amnesty International’s scathing report about Gitmo, which called the center “the gulag of our times” and detailed years of extreme abuses that had taken place there. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"Since this time it’s been widely accepted worldwide that nothing positive has stemmed from these atrocities, barring a one single exception: the critically acclaimed major motion picture Swing Kids, a charming story of a rebellious group of German teenagers in the 1940s who fight off the pressure to become Hitler Youth by evoking the power and spirit of swing dancing. + +When a government terrorizes its own people, who benefits? The government itself does not. In fact, it suffers. With an unhappy citizenry and a climate of control looming over the heads of every man, woman and child within its borders, the only safe refuge becomes their minds. And when this begins, when thought-crime becomes the only crime committable, a revolution is soon to follow. For the government and government organizations in charge of a country, this spells bad news. So, for whom does the advantage lie? The answer is simple: for the people in charge of the government. The people who desire constant and perpetual money, influence, and power are those who benefit from corruption. + +A common tactic used to secure themselves as the Never-Ending Leaders of their Frightened Herds of Beaten and Abused People is the nationalization of certain requisite influential and important markets, usually including pharmaceutical companies, oil reserves, real-estate, farmland, and, more recently, internet and telecommunication services. The previous example, the Burmese protests, happened due to backlash from the Burmese people over the government removing fuel subsidies, which caused the price of diesel and petrol to suddenly rise, in some cases as much as 100%. + +Why would a government employ such tactics and practices? It’s usually done by a rogue few in order to allow, through the use of bribery, monetary/business influence, resource control, or force, those who are in power to stay in power indefinitely. + +These ideals are not exclusive to foreign countries, however. The United States of America has had its share of near-fascism moments, the most famous and far-reaching of which being the Watergate scandal. In 1972, President Nixon and his staff used their influence, power, and resources to cover a massive array of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. More recently, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) was exposed to be participating in massive illegal warrantless wiretapping practices, for the purposes of detecting and battling international terrorist threats, specifically those of the al-Qaeda regime, as well as allying itself with such powerful private-sector businesses as AT&T to create a large-scale data-mining operation. AT&T provided the NSA with its customers’ phone and internet records, an act of privacy invasion so appalling that it makes what happened next seem absolutely par-for-the-course. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"Chances are, they’re the same, so the victim will be none the wiser. + +Once you’re in, let your imagination run wild. Usernames, passwords, personal emails, bank accounts, PayPal accounts, eBay accounts, Netflix accounts, subscription websites, social networks, all of their digital content is available at your fingertips. You are an E-God, reigning with a binary fist over their Digital Domain. + +And from this point, the world wide web is at your beck and call, effortlessly manipulated by even your most spontaneous whim. You’ve become a digital gangster, and your ‘hood’ is controlled via Ethernet. Living in this modern age affords levels of luxury unattainable in previous generations. An LCD screen, glowing ominously in a pitch black room hundreds or thousands of miles away, navigated by a treacherous Internet-captain, could ruin your credit score, leaving you homeless and poor, kicked out the door, jobless and more, divorced, too, I’m sure.  You put on your best drawers and go hold up a convenience store, get tackled to the floor, and escape with no dignity left to implore. You should have chosen a jewelry store. Or chosen different passwords for secure accounts, because then maybe you wouldn’t be lying on the floor groping in the dark for discarded apple cores. + +The concept of television, to many, is a strange and frightening thing. It conjures images of a Dark Plan to destroy the public’s free will, a tool of enslaving mindless drones for their Capitalist Army, a blemish on the smooth, pearl-white face of Creativity. The fat, greedy television moguls are locked in a constant war against Free Will as a concept and utilization of the wise and aware against their master trickery, with television their greatest weapon. The TV is America’s Little Boy and Personal Freedom is Hiroshima. + +This train of thought is absolutely absurd; and those who perpetuate these lies are the harbinger of exactly what they claim to fear and fight. The exact phrase that sparked this retaliation was, “TV ruins kid’s [sic] creativity and makes people lazy.” The belief that being against television is a moral high ground that actively minded people are privy to is an ideal built on lies, and a contradiction of itself. + +Television is a medium used for transmitting and receiving information (as is the Internet, and that would be another- longer- controversy altogether). I will accept the opinion that a portion of TV programming is pointless and inane (although the belief that it’s part of a larger conspiracy is brainless), but there’s a lot that isn’t. Asserting that a medium is responsible for how it may be sometimes utilized is preposterous to me; it’s like saying, “I’ll read anything, all books are good.” This is striking the same chord, a blanket statement either damning or praising, based on a conviction that part of one thing represents the whole of another. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l," +Hitler is alive in Burma, the sign says. + +Ellen Page, star of Juno, stands alone on a street corner with a piece of cardboard held above her head, the unsettling message scribbled with Sharpie onto her sign. Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a Southeastern Asian country ruled by a tyrannical militant junta who came into power in 1962 through the act of a coup d’état. In 2007 a number of street protests occurred, the first public protests in a decade. Led by a large number of Burmese monks, these protests earned the name “The Saffron Revolution”, christened after the color of the robes that the monks wore. After the first few initial uprisings the public at large began taking an interest in the protests, and while at first the Burmese government begrudgingly allowed the monks to engage in peaceful gatherings, soon the violence escalated into what some considered an all-out war between the monks and the military junta, with the military actively invading and ransacking monasteries around the country. Foreign journalists were rounded up and imprisoned on sight, with a Japanese photojournalist named Kenji Nagai killed on September 27th, 2007, simply for being present at a street protest. While the official death toll rests at 13 killed, Colonel Hla Win, who defected from the army some days prior to the official report, is quoted as having said, “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.” + +This is nothing new. While these are some of the most recent examples of atrocities taking place in our world, a government’s desire to quash dissent and maintain complete rule over its citizenry has been around for as long as civilization itself. Early Roman emperors declared themselves chosen by the gods to have complete executive ruling over every aspect of their society. Japanese emperors are believed to actually be gods, sent to our world to lead their people to prosperity through the invention of Motorola cell phones and hara-kiri, and our current president, George W. Bush, has weekly conference calls with Ted Haggard, the leader of Stupid People Worldwide, a subsidiary group of the Republic Party. + +Some of the most well known examples of these actions are such incidents as the 1989 June 4th protest at Tiananmen Square, where intellectuals, labor activists, and students all gathered to protest the authoritarian rule of the government. The death toll in that particular instance ranges wildly, with official reports from the Chinese government stating 200-300 dead to reports let out by the Chinese Red Cross, declaring between 2,000-3,000 dead.  Another is the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, where Hutu militia groups, aided by the Rwandan government, began a systematic killing of all Tutsis, as well as political moderates, irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. Hitler’s ‘Third Reich’, a period spanning several years and several countries where anyone of Jewish background was rounded up and killed, is another extreme example. ",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +l,"There’s a lot of crappy books available, but that doesn’t mean it’s socially responsible to demonize the entire catalog of published literature.* If we go out on a limb to accept that the entire concept of television is directly correlated to its programming, it still doesn’t represent a damnable offense to personal growth. + +The response I received when offering this thought was, “So what you’re saying is that when parents use TV as a babysitter instead of letting children play, it does nothing at all to ruin their creativity or their ability to think for themselves? They learn to just listen to what’s told to them instead of figure things out.” + +I started, of course, by pointing out that their issue lies with poor parenting, not television watching. Placing blame on the instrument is like blaming knives for stabbing, or electric guitars for bad music. The deeper issue is rooted in their assumption that watching television as a child is responsible for social ills. I find zero evidence in the axiom that TV causes mental impotence, not even a personal anecdote. Growing up, I watched a lot of television shows, and Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of my weekends. I continued to watch television throughout my teen years, and on through high school and into my adult life. From what I can tell, this routine hasn’t affected me negatively in even any imaginable way, and I’d argue that it’s actually influenced me to develop more creative tendencies than I would have otherwise. I write stories and screenplays, DM for my Dungeons and Dragons games, make movies, and even draw (poorly). Those are widely regarded as creative endeavors, and presuming that they’re singularly confined to people who “fight the power” and rally against television viewing is pretentious, and disregards the portion of people who are functional without limiting their media intake. + +Presented with this, a reply I got back was, “Possibly… but I think you’ll agree with me when I say that TV has gotten to a point where shows are so mass produced that many have little value at all to them. The only point has become to allow Americans to sit on their ass and veg.” + +There are a lot of things wrong in that statement. First let’s start with the issue at hand, and that is the alleged worthlessness of TV. To begin we should separate the concepts of TV and TV shows, because even if TV shows reach toward the lowest common denominator, it’s ludicrous to conclude that TV as an avenue of expression is without value. Many television shows are smart, deal with mature situations, raise questions and present moral dilemmas that are both clever and intellectually stimulating; just as some books or movies are. Disregarding them, or (even further) denying their existence, is remarkably ignorant. + +An even larger fallacy of logic is the blind certainty in an abstract, faceless “lazy American.”",23,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," I wrote down so many of the things in my life that were so difficult to say in that journal; it gave me an outlet for my emotions, rendering my thoughts into words. My interpersonal communication improved as I gained the ability to use metacognitive techniques to improve my work ethic and persevere. + +What is so special about PACE is that the entire environment of the school is so uniquely focused on its students. You can’t be just another face in the crowd at PACE—you know everyone’s name, and having a familiar, inviting environment to go to every day is something that I cherished as a teen. For some girls, including myself, it was or is the only stable thing they have in their life. PACE teaches girls to be self-reliant and independent women that are the creators of their destiny. They really help the girls with positive reinforcement, their tireless optimism, and are wonderful role models for girls that may not have many people in their lives that they can look up to. The staff are so down-to-earth, and take great measures to be easily accessible and nonjudgmental. PACE is also unique in that they host practical, educational speakers that address critical topics that are relevant to the students. + +The counselors and staff encouraged me to make and set goals. Inspiring young women to plan for the future, to make goals and progress towards reaching them, PACE sets itself apart from every other school. The reward systems they have integrate real-world skills and knowledge that is important for young women to be familiar with—the counselors assist girls in preparing for the work force by helping them apply for college, learning how to make a resume, and preparing them to be a productive member of society after they leave PACE Center. Without their nurturing encouragement and the atmosphere that enabled me to work hard to reach my goals I don’t know how I would have turned out. PACE saved me from becoming another statistic, protected me from myself when I faltered, and acted as the catalyst for the betterment of my life. I am so grateful to have been blessed with their support while I was a student, and continual concern and care for me even after I left PACE Center. + +Before PACE, my future looked bleak. I was destined to become my mother. With the tools that I gained at PACE, I forged a future for myself: I could dream again. It took me time to come to terms and gain the responsibility on my own, of course. Without having PACE as a stepping stone between high school and life I would not have made it to college. Though I left PACE eight years ago, it has always been there for me. I remember calling Mr. Michael to ask him questions about how to apply for the University of Florida, and that was just two years ago. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," + + From the time we are children most of us are told that there is something out there that is bigger than we are, bigger than we can comprehend. Some of us are sent to Sunday school to learn about it, while others go to Temple, or search within themselves for the answers. Many of us readily accept the religions that have been passed down to us by our parents. However, some of us reject them wholeheartedly, denying that there can be nothing beyond knowing in our own personal egocentric universe. We may adopt one value structure only to later change our minds and value another in its place. Whatever path we choose, we journey to define a part of ourselves through our own unique perspectives of spirituality. We search for a light in the dark to lead us out of the shadows and into the sun. + +“A cardinal,” my father said when I asked him what his favorite type of bird was. We sat on the front porch of our house, listening to the rain pound on the tin roof overhead while we smoked our cigarettes together. The gutters brought the rain down, drowning the plants along the edge of the porch. He looked out into the rain, the sort of stare that seems half searching, half remembering. He had grown thinner over the past few months, and his clothes hung listlessly from his body. His hair had lessened, sparser than I remembered it, too. He stared out into the rain still, avoiding eye contact. I felt alone, afraid, and unable to talk to my father about how much I would miss him because talking about it would only make it more real for both of us. I hugged him, sat back down, moved my chair a little closer to his, and joined him in gazing out into the falling rain of the June twilight. + + My father passed away in December that year, five days after my twenty-second birthday. The chemo and radiation had not eased my father’s suffering, but kept him alive a few more months past the doctors’ projections; what the value was when he merely suffered longer I could not define. What kind of God would do this, I thought to myself. Alone in the night, I said no prayers. If God existed, I thought, he had stopped listening to me long ago. + + I had not wanted to watch him pass from this life into another one. So I had not. I could not watch the life that created me while it ended. I wanted to remember my father by how he lived and not how he died. Besides, I knew my father better than they did, better than his family did, and knew Dad would not wish for his only child to be a spectator at his death. I curled up in a ball in my bed for three days and waited for the news. + + No one even called me. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," Also, sexism against women was not as severe as racism against the Native American and Black population, nor was it met with such a violent protest as many Blacks suffered. + I believe that women have prospered more so than African and Native Americans, and that Native Americans have also prospered the least. I feel that there is a direct correlation between time spent in the education system, or decades spent in an equal educational system, to how far each minority has come in their achievements. Women were first granted the right to higher education, and many social activists came forth for women’s rights that started the domino effect of more women in social activism roles (such as Willard’s perpetual influence). Likewise, African Americans were next given better opportunities for education, as the desegregation of Black Americans happened at about the time that Native American boarding schools were just ending. Native Americans had to take time to recover from their injustices, and as their numbers had dwindled from millions to hundreds of thousands, they did not make up the same percentage of the population as the Black community did, hence their plight received less attention. + The fact that Black education grew towards equality more quickly, and that Native American education was stunted by the damage the boarding schools had on their populace (like alcohol and drug abuse from the trauma they had suffered) meant that Native Americans have still prospered less than African Americans have to this day. In time, and through continued activism and equitable actions, hopefully America will become a place where White men, women, Native Americans, African Americans, and all people from divergent backgrounds will truly be able to take advantage of equal opportunity in education by overcoming the remaining obstacles lost time has caused. + + +I attended PACE ten years ago. I came to PACE because I was having difficulty concentrating on my work in public schools. My home life was overwhelming. My mother is an alcoholic who has not held a job since before I was born. I can remember coming home from school as a child and opening up the refrigerator to find it full of beer, a sign that the child support checks had come. She often dumped my younger sister, Rachel, and me off at our grandmother’s house for days on end to be fed and watched while she drank. My elderly grandmother cared for us instead of my mother. When my grandmother passed away in my sixth grade year, I was devastated. I felt like I’d lost my parent. My support system instantly collapsed. My mother ran amuck with the inheritance money, delving further into alcohol and other drugs. When the money ran out, the electricity and telephone were shut off for weeks before she conned another boyfriend of hers to pay our bills. I had been blessed with good influences in my life, like my late father who lived in Newberry and also my aunt and uncle in Ohio, but my mother manipulated me into ignoring and turning away from them in order to conceal the severity of her addiction and neglect. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," He does not feel entirely powerless, as he accepts the challenges that face him and realizes that he will be able to overcome these obstacles with the help of his son and niece, should he need to rely on others. +All in all, Mr. D.W. seems to face his life with dignity, grace, and perseverance mixed in with a randy attitude and rebellious, witty humor. I am very happy that I had the opportunity and time to sit down and enjoy the company of my patient, and to learn more about someone who has led such an interesting life. I really connected with D.W. and felt that we communicated very well. I hope that our talk helped D.W. to reflect upon his positive attitude, great stories, and ability to continue to lead a promising life. + + + In the documentary we learned how the defamation of a people or a culture can be harrowing to their progress in society. Through mental demoralization and stifled equality the Black populace suffered left a long-lasting impact on the welfare of these people decades after the unfair treatment was remedied. We learned that the progress Black Americans made was not luck; it was calculated and thought out, planned for throughout a long period of time. The actions they took to stand up for themselves and take a stand for their rights were not by just Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but by many individuals united for a cause they believed in. Additionally, we’ve learned that it is important to work with already established groups and institutions in an effort to further advance your activist efforts. It is important to not get discouraged if things don’t automatically change. Rather it is something that could take a long time and dedicated persistence. In order to accomplish radical change within a society we must understand it takes planning and patience in order to achieve the results sought. + Moreover, in our present-day local society it is clear that the issues of homelessness has become a serious problem. Homelessness is a looming problem in Gainesville, especially in downtown Gainesville. St. Francis House only has so many beds, and gaining residency there is highly competitive and nearly impossible for the many applicants, as only thirty-five homeless individuals can have residency there at a given time. Currently, this situation is getting so bad that you can’t walk through downtown Gainesville without seeing someone that appears to be homeless or in abject poverty. In order to help these people as well as keep our streets safe it is essential that we create a place for them to go. + The action for need is great. Our homeless population in Gainesville has fluctuated between 1,000 to 2,000 people for years. If we were able to help even half of them then that could make a significant impact of the lives of hundreds of people. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," + +In public school, I felt as if I were a complete outcast, alone and unable to reach out to anyone around me; others made fun of me because I was poor, because I didn’t dress right, because I was different from them. I became cynical towards the world, and found myself completely apathetic toward schoolwork, having friends, and making goals for myself. I began to drink and smoke cigarettes at the age of thirteen, turning to alcohol as my mother before me, as I believed it was my only option to ameliorate the hopelessness of my dire situation. Even though I had been a bright, gifted student in elementary school, as my grades slipped I lost confidence in myself. When I went to PACE, at first I was skeptical; I couldn’t see how the school could help me, but instead worried I would become even more of a social pariah. + +However, after a few months at PACE my natural outgoing self reappeared. I was able to confide in Mr. Michael, my counselor, about what was troubling me at home and my feelings. He always received my conversations in a positive, supportive manner, listening to what I said. For the first time I could remember, I actually had a voice. As we talked more and more, he helped me work through some of my problems and issues. I credit him as one of the biggest influences of my renewed interest in myself and in my schooling. I also grew more comfortable talking with my teachers. One teacher, Ms. Courtney, had such a funny and off-beat personality and was well-liked by many students. Ms. Courtney was a positive role model, and she showed me that I could be an individual, unique person and still be likable. The entire staff at PACE seeks to make compassion one of their utmost concerns; you just do not get that kind of an environment anywhere else. After a while I truly began to think of some of my teachers and mentors as extended family in a way; they cared about my triumphs, believed in my dreams, and gave me unconditional love and acceptance. They gave me what I didn’t have at home: someone to look up to. + +Concentrating on my schoolwork was again possible because I didn’t feel like I was in a hostile environment as I had experienced in public school. I even made friends at PACE with a few of the girls. I found some like-minded individuals that did not judge me, but instead accepted me for who I was. I believe that the PACE environment helps to foster a feeling of sisterhood between young women, a feeling of belonging. + +PACE tries to incorporate a sense of togetherness into their daily activities; for example, Spirited Girls, a class that PACE offered which resembled a life management skills class, gave you a journal to write down your thoughts and feelings in and the opportunity to share your entry with the rest of the class or teacher if you chose to do so. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," + +I remember the night Marta was admitted to the rehabilitation facility. She came in screaming like tires on pavement. She yelled that she didn’t belong, that they had her by mistake, and that she needed to go home. The nurses put her into my room, haphazardly heaving her onto the bed adjacent to my own despite her flailing protest. She convulsed on the pale green mattress, throwing her fists like battering rams against it. She wouldn’t stop shrieking. + +I wondered why she would be acting this way. My question was answered when I later overheard the doctors discussing her condition. Apparently, she’d been at a party shortly before arriving at the rehabilitation facility. + +“It’s drugs,” the doctors said. + +I couldn’t sleep. The moment Marta would quiet long enough for me to think she had fallen asleep the shrill cries would begin again. At one point, she rose silently from her bed and began looking around the room as though she was a sleuth and the room was a puzzle. She quietly went into the bathroom connected to the corner of our room. + +“How do I get to the other side?” she said, repeating the words like a mantra, with a gradually increasing volume until she was shouting it loudly enough for the nurses down the hall to come in and end her tantrum. + +“Here, these will help you, honey,” the nurse said to Marta, handing her a little cup of pills. Marta shortly passed out for the night. + +For the next week, Marta walked around like an invalid; her eyes gazed blankly at whatever they fell upon. Her whole appearance was a mess, from her purplish dyed hair chopped in a myriad of lengths to her slack jaw expressions. The first few days, she didn’t speak except in gibberish. When she finally regained the ability of spoken English, she spoke in riddles. + +“Jess, they hate me and keep me here to haunt me,” she said to me of the doctors. “They’re just faceless, featureless white zombies in white coats whose white teeth chatter white lies. You can see it in their silver smile, Jess, can’t you?” At one point, she told me the doctor’s eyes were scalpels trying to dissect her. + +“I know, Marta,” I said, trying to calm her. She shook in fear. “But they’re here to help you, okay? I am too.” + +Her eyes were no longer hollow and bottomless but icy and vindictive. They softened only when her father came to visit her on family visitation days. He would smile in her company. But when he turned to leave, I could see tears well up in his deep blue eyes. + +I was in here because I’d gotten in a fight with my parents over drinking out of their liquor cabinet. My parents thought it would teach me a lesson, I suppose. But Marta was here for an entirely different reason. She told me one morning at breakfast that they wanted to send her to a long-term residential facility. + + +",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," + +Snow White is another classic Disney princess that undergoes the same defeating stereotypes assigned to women in children’s films. When her wicked stepmother finds out that the mirror on the wall proclaims the young princess, Snow White, to be fairer than she, the stepmother sends Snow White into the woods with a hunter to be murdered. The hunter takes pity on Snow White, and allows her to go free. To convince the evil queen that he has carried out his mission he brings back the heart of an animal to appease the wicked queen. + When Snow White stumbles upon a little cottage she makes herself at home there, and eventually falls asleep. However, when the inhabitants come home they find her, and are alarmed until they realize she can cook and clean. So they take her in, half out of pity and half out of wanting a housekeeper. Snow White now has found her purpose in life: housework. This perpetuates the stereotype of a woman’s purpose as a household workhorse. + Snow White’s wicked stepmother finds out she is still alive because her enchanted mirror reveals Snow White is still the fairest in the land. The evil queen goes out in disguise and feeds her a poisoned apple, causing her to go into a comatose state. Snow White has become Eve, punished for her sins of being lead astray and eating the apple, the forbidden fruit. What can cure this sin, and make right this trespass that the girl’s curiosity has sentenced her to? Of course, a kiss from her true love. + Snow White’s good looks land her an admirer, a prince, and none other than Prince Charming, of course. After seasons pass and Snow White sits in her glass coffin the prince comes along and, believing her dead, kisses her. This kiss from the prince awakens her, and they all live happily ever after. +The princess Snow White, then, can only be saved from her curiosity’s repercussions by a man. She is helpless until the prince comes to unknowingly save her, just as she was helpless and homeless until the dwarves decided to take her in. The mother figure, like most every mentioned mother figure in Disney princess tales, is malevolent, cruel, and jealous of the daughter so much that she does everything in her power to make her life miserable or bring her to destruction. So, by contrast, the only good woman is a naïve one, one that needs saving, as the ones that don’t need saving have the power and are usually up to no good and not as attractive as their congenial, young counterparts. + In short, Snow White depends on men (the hunter, the dwarves, the prince) to save her, is a good person because she is fair and does housework, and is antagonized by a woman in power (because women who have power often seek to abuse it) until her prince can come to her rescue because she is incapable of saving herself. + + +",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," The news came from my mother, who had received a call from an aunt. I doubled over when I heard it. The news may have been ten months coming but it was still something too difficult to truly feel. No one sent a letter of condolence, except for my gay Uncle Frank, whom everyone in my father’s religiously fundamental family believed needed medication in order to overcome his homosexuality. Burdened with pain and grief, I failed to understand why his entire family, of five dozen strong, had decided to excommunicate me. His family should have been my family, too. I could not understand what made them treat me so poorly. There was no funeral for him, or if there was I had not been invited. + + Months passed slowly. I had little memory of when winter had turned into spring, but before I came to full consciousness summer had arrived. July had come, his birth month. On his birthday, I found strength to pull myself out of bed and wander to the back porch deck, fumbling with a lighter in the dark to light my cigarette. The dawn began to break through the night, the sky becoming a dark gray as it transitioned slowly to lighter hues to finally give way to light blue. I stood for an hour or more, contemplating the plants and trees, the birds and their songs, the dew on the wooden hand railing at my waist, the shades of the changing sky. “Happy birthday, Daddy. I miss you.” I whispered as I looked skyward. + + I flicked my cigarette butt into the grass and turned to go inside, but a small noise made me pause. I turned around to find a cardinal perched on the railing where my hands had been moments before. A brilliant red cardinal stared at me with half realizing, half knowing eyes. Though only about six feet from me he did not appear scared, but inquisitive, cocking his head to the side, then to the other, seeming to nod to some silent conversation between us. I moved to light another cigarette, and the undeterred cardinal continued to quietly observe me. We locked eyes for quite some time, feeling comfort in the company of each other, feeling unafraid of each other. At some point, I noticed my forgotten cigarette had become an ember burning into the filter. Discarding it, I turned back. The bird had gone. + + It was morning now, the sun evidenced, as streams of light reached through the treetops. No longer did the dark hang overhead. I didn’t feel like I was on the porch in the rain anymore, searching for answers to questions in the night. No longer did I believe myself alone. It had been a long night, I thought, and it had taken me even longer to wake up. I finally accepted there had to be something bigger than me out there, even if I didn’t quite know how to define it. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," Many people who are homeless can sustain themselves thanks to charities that give free meals and food stamps, but often they lack the infrastructure to assist them in changing their position. Our interview with Eric, a man who was once homeless in Gainesville, made us aware that the homeless cannot get jobs unless they have a place to shower, sleep, and people to assist them in finding work, as some of them may have criminal records that make it harder for them to find employment. By also offering these people counseling and medical services we help to ease their mental stress level so that they feel more inclined to make choices that benefit themselves we help to remedy the issue of homelessness instead of merely helping the homeless to subsist without a way out of their predicament. + Therefore, we aim to work with one another as well as other institutions in an effort to establish a homeless shelter in the area of downtown Gainesville near the abandoned AGH hospital. Currently efforts are being made to develop the vacant lot into a commercial property. Instead, we propose that to alleviate some of the weight of the homeless plight that turning the lot into a homeless shelter would be beneficial for the community. This is an ideal location for recovering homeless to live because it is near many local businesses and has consistent bus routes for transportation. + We believe that we can be successful in executing our plan if we appeal to churches and other institutions of goodwill nature, downtown business owners, and the city council. Also, asking the University of Florida to make a contribution would be possible, as it would make the University of Florida look like a concerned institution within the community. If anything, UF could possibly allow internships at the medical facility within the proposed old AGH shelter. Downtown business owners are likely to be our allies in this cause because they experience the increasing numbers of homeless people on a daily basis. Additionally, churches are likely to support our proposal because the reasoning behind it stems purely from wanting to do good for people and our society. As far as the city council, we will need to approach them with this idea in order to put this plan into effect as they have a say over land and property issues. + Contacting these organizations in person would be the best way to get our point across. We hope that by showing dedication others will be inspired to unite for the cause. A public service announcement on the local Gainesville public service channel may help to spread the word, along with contacting the Alligator newspaper to speak to someone about doing an article on our proposed action, or attending a city council meeting where we can voice our opinions and ideas. + Getting the backing of just a few of the aforementioned parties would help us greatly because we would be able to develop our idea further. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," The numbers of women going to institutions of higher learning were still pretty small, but by the end of the nineteenth century women’s literacy matched if not outnumbered the literacy rates of their White male counterparts. Around the turn of the twentieth century, women began attending higher institutions of learning that would prepare them to be a part of the ever-expanding job market that was growing in the United States. + African Americans also had to face their own trials and tribulations to be able to have an education equal to that of their White male (or female) counterparts. It seemed that just as women were making so much progress for their educational opportunities that the fight for Black education had just begun. The ways that Black Americans were taught before slavery ended were basically through stories passed from generation to generation. In the Northern United States, free schools started by the Manumission Society allowed some Blacks educational opportunities. + In the nineteenth century, Black leaders such as W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington asserted differing points on Black education, but both said that progress for African Americans would be gained through education. During Reconstruction, for the first time in a long time Blacks in America were allowed to be literate. Sadly, it seems that their instruction was more geared toward industrial education, as much of their schooling had to be palatable to the White community that did not wish the African American community to be able to rise above them. The schools that Black students attended received only a small fraction of what comparative White children were allotted for a school budget. Segregation from the White students meant that Blacks also had to attend schools meant for Blacks and other minorities. Rights that they had been given were also regressed upon; when the North withdrew armed support for Reconstruction efforts in the South, most Black Americans also had their freedom withdrawn due to racist viewpoints and violent acts against Blacks that wished to exercise their newly bestowed rights. In the North, however, a small percentage of Blacks were privy to better conditions, especially during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. + Native Americans were dehumanized, stripped of their individuality, and taught to adhere to Christianity and Puritan morals during the onset of their “White” education, beginning in the seventeenth century and even as late as the twenty-first century. The first education Native Americans received was through missionary trips by European settlers and the invention of “prayer towns”, which were small communities where Native Americans were taken to learn about Christianity and to slowly adopt the new, White way of life. These communities were segregated from White communities, but often near them. When America’s populace began to grow, Native Americans were forced from their land and pushed further and further west in order to make room for White Americans to settle. This disadvantaged position may have also led to the biases that caused the Native Americans to suffer third-rate treatment during that time and afterward. +",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," The first Native American boarding school prototype was actually in a prison in St. Augustine run by a man named Pratt. Pratt believed that he could take Native American prisoners and teach them to be more cultured, at least to White, Anglo-Saxon standards. This new schooling form would come to replace the Native American way of schooling that was traditionally learning from your elders within your tribe through experience and the passing down of the Native American culture from generation to generation. However, these new schools created a huge barrier between Native American generations, as the newer generations sometimes forgot their native tongue, and could no longer communicate with their elder racial peers. The process of the Native American boarding school was to strip the “native” out of the Native American, in effect taking away his culture and replacing it with the acceptable “White” culture. This happened as a slow process, that only amassed severity through time, and led up until as late as the 1960s. By taking the “native” out of the “Native American”, Pratt and others like him believed that they could change the so-called “hostile” nature of the indigenous people. + Some of the similarities these groups shared was their need to not threaten the place of the White male’s patriarchal society by becoming overly educated. In order to do so, Blacks and women had to slowly gain educational opportunities step by step, little by little, and make it appear to the White male leaders that it would be advantageous for the male leaders to allow the schooling of the minorities. This was often argued for because through training the minorities could be of assistance and value to the White male’s societal vision by being either workers, mothers, or by filling new job positions. + More similarities announce themselves under the repression that all the minority groups faced at the onset of their educational opportunities: women, Native Americans, and African Americans all started being educated with less equality and equitable goals than that of their White male counterparts. The education for these minority groups had to strive over time to equal the opportunities and financial support that was much more easily granted to the White male group. + Some differences are that though women were not as highly literate as men in the eighteenth century, at least it was not illegal for women to be literate as it was for Blacks until after the Civil War ended. This disparity caused the African American to have to play catch up in order to get to the same stance educationally once opportunities presented themselves for the advancement of African Americans through education. Also, whereas women were taught with White males in the same classes (at least in the lower educational grades) Blacks were not to be taught along with White students, and Blacks and Native Americans faced segregation of education that women did not have to contend with on such an extreme level. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," Because money was tight, D.W. had a rough childhood but said that good family values were an important thing that his mother focused on. +When asked about how his step-father and he got along, D.W. gave a long, stern look that said everything, and asked, “Does that answer your question?” His brother and he had a long-standing “Civil War”, as D.W. put it, which equated to a non-stop sibling rivalry. D.W. told me a story about how he always did so well in school, and his brother, being a few years younger, attempted to copy one of his papers from a few years ago as the younger brother was assigned the same assignment by the brother’s teacher. Unfortunately for the brother, D.W.’s assignment had been kept as an example that she handed out to the class on what a good essay looked like, and his brother got caught. +D.W. expressed that when he turned 18 he really wanted to get out of his hometown and do something with his life, so shortly after his birthday he joined the United States Air Force. Within in a very short while, D.W. was fighting the Vietnam War to protect the freedoms of his country. In Vietnam, he worked as a sniper. He said that he really enjoyed the work, and that it was an exhilarating experience. However, he came down with a terrible case of pneumonia at one point, because he had to sleep outside underneath only a tarp to shield him from the harsh environmental conditions of the hostile land. After getting pneumonia, he decided it would be better if he would live in town. He rented a room for $15.00 a week with a mama-san, which contained a warm bed and “a girl to keep it warmer”, as D.W. stated. +He fought in Vietnam for 3 years, reenlisting 3 times, until one day he had in his sights General Giap and another high ranking Vietnamese official, and was told that if he took the shot he would spend the rest of his days in military prison. He decided that if that was how the war was going to be fought, that brave men would continue to die though there could be a quicker ending to the war, that he would have no part in this travesty. When his time came to reenlist, D.W. declined and came home to America. +In what he described as one of his most favorite and memorable experiences, he stashed approximately sixty guns and a huge assortment of ammunition and other war accessories in several trunks of his possession with false bottoms to conceal his smuggled goods. Once D.W. got back to the states he sold the guns and weaponry. With the money he earned from the sales D.W. bought himself a brand new Indian Motorcycle and a brand new Harley Davidson Motorcycle. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," We may have to wait and be patient, but we hope that as people become more aware of the situation that they feel more compelled to join the effort. + + + While White males attributed to much of the educated class during the colonization and into the beginning of the nineteenth century, during the nineteenth century marked changes in the education of White females began to take place. Because of increased opportunities for women education became something that was not just directed at the White male populace. Over time, African Americans and Native Americans faced scrutinizes and triumphs in their opportunities for an education, also. Each different minority group made failed attempts and also splendid triumphs in their fight to ascertain rights to an equal educational experience. Throughout American history, each group has attained a different outcome, shared similarities, had differences in their own unique struggle. + Women traditionally were not as literate as men in the eighteenth century. In the liberal environment after the Revolution, women were more so given the opportunity not only to teach dame schools, but female children could attend dame schools just as little boys could. Still, more men were literate than women. Women were mostly excluded from traditional education before the nineteenth century, especially institutions of higher learning. Women were gradually enrolling in common schools in higher numbers, but it still seemed that the quality of their education paled in comparison to that of their White male counterparts. + During the beginning of the nineteenth century, though, a representative of women’s education emerged. Emma Willard founded an academy for girls that would become responsible for giving us some of the brightest female minds of the time that went on to become social activists, business leaders, and academy founders or teachers. Emma Willard also wrote an essay on female education, and how it was important for women to receive training in order to make positive contributions to society and in order to rear their children best. By doing so under the premise of training women to be good mothers and wives, women were allowed to gain intellectual muscle in a way that would make men worried about them upsetting the patriarchal order of society. + After her example, many other women began to start schools for women, a domino effect that would lead eventually to a broadening of educational opportunity for women throughout the United States. Horace Mann supported giving roles of teaching to women, which then led to more women attending higher institutions of learning in order to prepare for being educators, something that would have never led to higher education for women in the eighteenth-century. At first, though, the opportunity was more so taken advantage of by women from upper-class families, as lower socioeconomic class women did not always have the opportunity to go to school or continue with their schooling as much women from wealthier backgrounds. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," I don’t know what it was called, but underneath the wound was what appeared to be new, fresh skin. It was the weirdest thing; I was so intrigued by this discovery. Anyway, we cut the new sponge to fit the wound and placed it on top of the wound. Then the doctor placed the special VAC film over the top of the wound and hooked it up to suction, packing the sponge securely into the wound in this method. After that the lift team came in and assisted the patient into a weird contraption of bed/lift equipment/chair, and put it into the chair position for the patient to sit in. + +At 10:00, we hooked up a PCA on Mr. S.C. filled with Dilaudid and had a good conversation about Oktoberfest. Afterwards, his girlfriend showed up and told me all about how he fell out of the tree. After a little while, Mr. S.C. needed to have a bowel movement and did not want to go in the bed. This is when I realized how difficult it would be to move the patient with three lines attached and running, an arterial line attached, and continuous pulse oximetry. It required three people to do it when normally I could have handled a non-ICU patient by myself. After that, it was pretty much business as usual. The nurse gave meds and I observed her routine closely, which consisted of a lot of charting and medication administration. During this time, the nurse and I discussed her definition of the role of a critical care nurse. She described it as “flying by the seat of your pants” and “getting the work done”. She said that she loved being an ICU nurse because of how exciting it is to her and how there is never a dull moment. + +The nurse and I also discussed the death of a girl she had had as a patient the week before. She was only eighteen and had been involved in a motor vehicle accident. One legal and ethical issue concerning the patient was the decision of the family to remove the young woman from life support and donate her organs. This decision was a heavy one, one that was not taken lightly and one that has permanent repercussions on the family, the nurses involved, and the patient. The nurse told me that sometimes it isn’t always clear what the right decision is, that emotions sometimes can cloud your feelings, but that you have to check your emotions for the betterment of the patient and the patient’s family in order to assist them to the best of your ability. + Today I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. D.W., who was born in Jacksonville, Florida in the year 1948. Mr. D.W. is a white male, who grew up with his mother, a step-father, and his younger brother. His parents were working class citizens who labored very hard in order to provide for their family. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," Though I could not put it into words, I felt a peace that I had longed for envelop me. The light is sometimes much harder to see in the dark when looking with your eyes closed, but mine were open now. I understood then what I should have known all along: if I could not see him he could still see me. + + + My day began at my arrival to 4 West, not sure as to what it was I was supposed to do. I was sent to the lounge by a nurse, and waited to attend a nurse’s meeting. Lana was the nurse I was assigned to, and together she and I went to report. The off-going nurse reported to Lana about the two patients that Lana had been assigned. The off-going nurse gave the most detailed report I had ever heard in my time as a nursing student. I learned an interesting fact, which was that azithromycin, is actually required before endoscopy and not due to its antibacterial properties but for other numerous reasons. + + At 7:45, we assessed the first patient, Mr. M.A. He had a massive abdominal wound on his right side spanning his upper and lower quadrants. A VAC was hooked up to the wound to assist with healing, along with 3 JP drains that were hooked up to drain sero-sanguineous fluids. We emptied those, which contained about 40ml of fluid, and then we performed a thorough head-to-toe assessment. Three lines were running: one was IV insulin (I had never seen it ran at a basal rate), one was Fentanyl, and one was normal saline. + +Afterward, we went on to the next patient, Mr. S.C. The patient was 67 years old, and had suffered a heart attack which then caused him to fall eighteen feet out of a tree house. (c) pathophys We did a thorough head-to-toe assessment of Mr. S.C.: he had a long wound on the right side of his back, which spanned about twelve or thirteen inches. However, his main problem was an interior bleed which was at the current time did not have a known cause, but was suspected to be in his upper GI. Some stressors that my client had from being in the critical care environment were lack of privacy, lack of sleep, and he had not eaten anything by mouth in four weeks. + +At 9:00 Mr. M.A. was scheduled to have a wound change. I got to assist with the wound change. The doctor set up his sterile field and began to cut away the old dressing. This was my first experience with the wound VAC. While I had seen it hooked up in lab, I had never seen it actually used, which was quite different from in lab! The doctor removed the black sponge and white sponge from the wound itself and I assisted with opening new, sterile sponges. The wound was beefy red. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ii," The rest of the money was spent on “Wine, women, and song,” said D.W. He did mention that he was sad he’d wasted a vast majority of the large sum of money he made, but said he didn’t fully regret blowing the cash as he had a great time doing it. +After he left the military, D.W. held a multitude of different jobs, some of which included: roofing, farming, trucking, and landscaping. Around the age of 40, after bouncing from job to job, and after losing his license permanently due to his excessive DUIs, D.W. decided he wanted to go to college. He eventually graduated with a 4.0 GPA and received a Bachelor’s degree in divinity. He worked with his local Southern Baptist church running a Sunday school program and helping out the church as a jack of all trades. He said that he found the work to be very rewarding, and happily embraced his new way of life. During this time he was raising his son, who now lives across from him and his niece lives on the other side of him. So, he said “I’ve got a bunch of people real close to help me out now that I’m getting older.” +I do not believe that Mr. D.W. exhibits the qualifications for the nursing diagnosis of diversional activity deficiency. Because some of the key symptoms, such as hostility, crying, lack of interest in eating, and being withdrawn, are not symptoms D.W. exhibits it is highly unlikely that he has diversional activity deficiency. When asked about activities he enjoys doing at home, he stated that he lives out in the woods and likes to go out by the lake and fish or watch birds. He does state that the wheelchair my hamper this, but says that his niece and son will be able to assist him. +Mr. D.W. does not have many visible symptoms of hopelessness, either. Even though Mr. D.W. has a “do-not-resuscitate” order it is not due to his deteriorating physiological condition. He states that he has lived a full life and is happy that he has gotten to live this long in the state of health that he has. He also is very excited about and looking forward to accomplishing his physical therapy goals in the future, which shows that he is hopeful concerning his recovery and has a positive life attitude. +Powerlessness is not something that D.W. is struggling with, as he believes he can accomplish his physical therapy tasks and overcome the hurdles that he must go through in order to be healthy and maintain a good life. Two signs of powerlessness that D.W. does not display are frustration over inability to accomplish previous tasks and actions and hesitation to express inner feelings. In fact, Mr. D.W. is a very open, honest person who enjoys sharing his feelings, memories, and thoughts. ",24,English,female,Bachelors Degree,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +r,"“‘And do you, Mariam jan, accept this man as your husband?’ Mariam stayed quiet. Throats were cleared….’Yes,’ she said shakily.” Even though Mariam is scared and does not want to marry Rasheed, she finds it in her to say yes when asked, pulling her strength from inside. +“‘Well, then, as of tomorrow morning I expect you to start behaving like a wife. Fahmidi? Is that understood?’ Mariam’s teeth began to chatter. ‘I need an answer.’ ‘Yes.’” While Mariam is still scared of everything and hasn’t gotten used to her new life, she still agrees to keep going. Rasheed is being impatient with her but she still decides to start acting how she’s expected to. +“That night, as most nights, Laila set the dinner table for two only. Mammy said she wasn’t hungry. On those nights that she was she made a point of taking a plate up to her room before Babi even came home. She was usually asleep or laying awake in bed by the time Laila and Babi sat down to eat.” Laila has, in essence, been raised without a mother. At this point she’s learned how to care for herself and be the female figure of the house. Knowing that your own mother in particular doesn’t care about you is a very heart wrenching thing, but Laila does perfectly fine regardless. + + “She turned to Jalil again. ‘Tell them. Tell them you won’t let them do this.’ ‘Actually, your father has already given Rasheed his answer,’ Afsoon said. ‘Rasheed is here, in Herat; he has come all the way from Abul. The nikka will be here tomorrow morning and then there is a bus leaving for Kabul at noon.’” Jalil giving Mariam away without her consent or well being in mind is an incredibly evil idea to American society because here, no one can make anyone marry anyone else. Rasheed turning out to be a horrible man just adds to the injustice of Jalil’s decision. + “Mariam began shivering. His hand crept lower still, lower, his fingernails catching in the cotton of her blouse. ‘I can’t,’ she croaked…His hand was on her right breast now, squeezing it hard through the blouse, and she could hear him breathing deeply through the nose.” Though Rasheed and Mariam are married, this is still rape. Mariam is terrified of Rasheed, but he doesn’t care and he keeps going until he’s satisfied. Rape is a hellish thing as it steals lives from people. That’s why this is so evil. + “Mariam struggled against him, mumbling, but he kept pushing the pebbles in, his upper lip curled in a sneer. ‘Now chew,’ he said. Through the mouthful of grit and pebbles, Mariam mumbled a plea. Tears were leaking out of the corners of her eyes. ‘CHEW!’ he bellowed…Mariam chewed. Something in the back of her mouth cracked. ‘Good,’ Rasheed said. His cheeks were quivering. ‘Now you know what your rice tastes like. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"Now you know what you’ve given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else.’” This act of utter abuse is almost horrifying. Being forced to eat rocks off of the definitely unsanitary road and then breaking teeth from the hardness of the rocks is amazingly cruel and certainly an evil act, if not worse than evil. + “Then Laila struck the wall. Crashed to the ground. On her face and arms, a shower of dirt and pebbles and glass. The last thing she was aware of was seeing something thud to the ground nearby. A bloody chunk of something. On it, the tip of a red bridge poking through thick fog.” This is from Laila’s house and family being blown up. I chose it to show that the war going on in Afghanistan at the time, where the two sides where ruthlessly blowing everyone up, was a horribly evil thing. So many lives of loved ones like this were lost for absolutely nothing. + + “Mariam sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her back and neck were sore. ‘I’m going to wait for him.’” This quote shows loyalty as well as strength. Mariam sits outside Jalil’s house all night, waiting for him because she wants to live with him. She’s loyal and devoted to showing it. + “The next morning, Mullah Faizullah came to visit her. When she saw her friend at the door, his white beard and his amiable, toothless smile, Mariam felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes again.” Mullah Faizullah is a constant in Mariam’s life. He’s been there and he’s stayed there since she was born. By supporting her, he shows his loyalty and devotion. + “‘You go, then. Take your daughter and run away. Send me a postcard. But peace is coming, and I, for one, am going to wait for it.’” Mariam’s mother shows loyalty and devotion to her sons by refusing to leave Afghanistan, even when the fighting gets horrendous. + “‘It’s my father I can’t leave,’ Laila said. ‘I’m all he has left. His heart couldn’t take it either.’” When Laila denies the biggest desire her heart has ever had so that her father could be happier, she shows an amazing amount of loyalty and devotion. + + “‘You’re a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I’ve endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami.’” Because Jalil didn’t marry Nana, Mariam has been dubbed a fatherless child. Her life is filled with this discrimination, as she is scorned for it by the people that know. + “‘Actually, your father has already given Rasheed his answer,’” When Jalil gives Mariam away without her consent, it shows how women, and especially women who aren’t 18 yet, are thoroughly discriminated against. They don’t really have the right to even choose their own husband. + “Mariam began shivering. His hand crept lower still, lower, his fingernails catching in the cotton of her blouse. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"At this point in time, girls were allowed to choose their own husbands rather than have parents assign them. By her finding love, it shows extreme hope because she’ll be able to have a really happy life. + + +Plasmids, enzymes, and gel electrophoresis were all things used in this project. The purpose was to use all of the knowledge I have learned in a biotech class to identify an unknown plasmid which was named “antimony”. It was important that I could identify the plasmid so that I could prove that I know what I’m doing in a laboratory and so that I can also demonstrate that I know how to identify a plasmid. A plasmid is a circular piece of DNA that comes from bacteria. It can transport and copy itself. Scientists like to use them to take a desirable trait from one bacterium and put it in another. Restriction enzymes cut the plasmid in certain locations which can be very useful to scientists. Forensic scientists can use restriction enzymes to identify a killer by comparing DNA sizes and other scientists can see where DNA fragments are positioned. Gel electrophoresis separates DNA based on the size of it or the number of base pairs. DNA is put in wells in an agarose gel which has been placed in an electrode chamber with the wells on the negative end of the chamber. Since DNA is negative, when the chamber is turned on the DNA moves toward the positive side of the gel. To do so, it has to move through small pores in the gel and the smaller sizes move fastest, so the DNA ends up separated based on size. I used restriction enzymes to cut the plasmid and then used gel electrophoresis to separate the DNA. I then compared the results with predicted results of all 4 potential plasmids to discover which was mine. + The first thing done to begin was to decide how many digests were to be run. It was decided that 4 digests would take place. The first would be no digest at all, the second would use BglI (made by NEB), the third would use HindIII (also made by NEB) and the fourth would be a mixture of both BglI and HindIII. Using micropipettes, 11.5 µL of antimony, which was at 0.2 µg/ 11.5 µg concentration (this was given to me by my instructor), and 1.5 µL of NEBuffer 2 (obtained from NEB) were added to 4 appropriately labeled PCR tubes. In the tubes labeled BglI and B+H, 1 µL of BglI was transferred into each. HindIII was added to the B+H tube as well and was also placed in the HindIII tube. After that, dH2O was added to each tube to bring up their levels to exactly 15 µg. In the fourth tube, labeled C, only the DNA, NEBuffer2 and dH2O were added because this one was the control tube. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r," + The mother and daughter cried, but when the daughter’s tears fell on her father, the woods turned green and plants sprung up everywhere. Then vines appeared and hovered over the father. They sprinkled a sparkling powder on him, and he took in a short breath, awakening from his death! + + But instead of being happy, he cried out in pain, “No! The evil fairy has killed you both as well!” He began to sob, but the daughter stopped him wither her first spoken words. “Father, Mother and I are not dead. I’ve saved you. You, Mother, and I are all alive.” The mother and father looked at their child with large eyes, and then let out a cry of surprise. They took her in their arms and held her. + + “I think we should call my new creation a forest.” Her parents looked around the surroundings that were once dead but were now teaming with life. + + “That seems suitable. Therefore, your name shall be Forest as well,” her mother told her. + + The leaves rustled with approval and Forest giggled. “They’re happy,” she explained. The leaves rustled again. “What? But I cannot leave my parents!” she cried out. They rustled again and Forest replied, “I guess I must then. I agree to go as long as I may have visitors and I may show myself when I wish.” Then she turned to her parents and explained. “They have asked me to stay with them as I am their creator and I have agreed. But you may visit anytime you wish.” + + At first Forest’s parents objected, but then they agreed after some persuading. They said goodbye and as Forest’s parents were leaving, the vines picked her up and lifted her to the tops of the trees. They placed a beautiful crown woven out of twigs and leaves to symbolize that she was the princess of the forest. + + She continued to grow up, becoming more and more beautiful by day. Her parents visited daily too, noting every difference on their little girl. People wandered into the forest and got lost or just needed to be talked with and Forest would help them. + + One day she found a handsome young man crying. She called out to him, “Sir, pray tell why you are so miserable.” His crying stopped and he looked up hopeful, but then, obviously disappointed, put his head in his hands. + + “Fair sounding maiden, I am in such a sad state for my parents wish me to be wed. I have only seen princesses with beauty, yet none of them have a personality. I will only marry such a girl as to posses her own spirit, but my parents wish a different fate for me. They went on a search and found a princess. They ordered me to wed her the next day. But alas, they had found the worst of them all – Princess Centara. A decision was thrust upon me, and so I decided to run away. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r," + I approach a corner in the hallway as the door to a classroom in front of me opens and a girl steps out. She is wearing a form fitting black shirt with comfortable yet tight dark jeans and black tennis shoes, showing off her great figure amazingly. Her long, dark brown hair is very obviously natural and trails behind her gracefully. Her eyes are deep and brown. I feel the dark hole in my soul suddenly fill as I see her look at me with a disapproving scowl and a cocked eyebrow; she has the look of perfection. I have never seen her before. Her slender, pink lips move as she says, “Cute,” and walks past me. I stare after her, one word coming to my lips in an almost whisper: “Beautiful…” + + + +Once, long ago, there was a beautiful newborn baby girl. Everyone who looked at her knew what she was destined for – marriage to a handsome prince, and a maturation into an amazingly beautiful queen, Her mother and father loved her as much as any parents possibly could, and they took great care of her, Regardless of this, they could not decide on a name for her, so they called their daughter their little darling. + + As she grew, she never learned to talk. Her parents never worried though, for they knew this should not be a problem. Their sweet daughter continued to grow with no other problems. + + But one day when she was four, her parents allowed her to play in their backyard unattended. She wandered off into the dead woods beyond the backyard. The woods were a thing of fear for there were no good things in the woods, and many evil beings lived there. + + Her parents came out only moments after she had wandered off to look for their little darling, only to discover that she was gone. They immediately ran into the woods to find her. + + When they saw her they gasped for an evil fairy was about to cast a spell on her. They knew better to interfere though, as the consequences were great. The girl’s parents stayed quiet and waiting while the fairy chanted: + + + + And with that she let out a loud and horribly evil cackle, and pointed her wand at the little girl. Yet, her father could not stand to have a spell cast on his little girl. He jumped in front of his daughter just before the best was cast while yelling, “NO!!!” + + The fairy was startled and the spell changed. The father’s attempt to shield his daughter was good, but he did not cover her completely, and the spell him them both. It did not seem to affect the daughter, but the father began to spasm and then died. + + The mother and daughter were overtaken with sadness, but the fairy was enraged. “Ha!” she yelled, “now you shall all suffer!’ Then she vanished in a puff of coal black smoke. +",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"When I joined him, I shut the door quietly behind me and walked to the white plastic railing at the end of the balcony. We stood in silence for a bit and I took in the scene. The moon was shining brilliantly, as if the sun was within feet of its surface. Each star wished to boast their sparkles and twinkled with an energy not often found most days. A few stray clouds floated across the sky, so slowly that it could be debated whether they truly moved or not. I looked at his face, illuminated by the sky’s light, and saw that he was watching me. We began to talk – about anything and about everything as we usually do. Yet, this time the conversation led to dating. My memory eludes me as to what brought on my words, but I finally exclaimed, “And you couldn’t possibly like me. I mean, that would be crazy!” + He looked at me with an expression that conveyed disbelief, and the laugh he has when annoyed with someone escaped his throat. It took me a moment to respond before I choked out with a voice that almost cracked, “You do?!” He did the laugh again, bobbed his head, and said, “Yeah…!” as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Blood ran to my cheeks as I took in this newfound knowledge. He liked me. He, who I once thought I would never even want to be with, liked me. I considered my feelings for him. For the past few days I had been in a debate whether to like him or not. My thoughts turned to wondering, “Could I really like him back?” and my heart answered almost immediately, “Yes.” + When I went to school the next morning, the previous night was all that I could think about. I asked my friends about him, revealing the knowledge I had so recently learned. They all acted the same way that he had, like they had known it as long as they had known that the sun lived outside of the earth. It made me laugh to think that it could be so obvious, and yet I was still trying to decide whether it was true or not. + After school I went to his house. We sat on the couch in his bed room and talked. Something came over me, caused me to behave in ways that could hint that I may be drunk. I was completely not myself, and flirted more than verbally as I normally did but also physically. I didn’t even know that I knew how to flirt physically. Within an hour we were cuddling, and I could feel his heart beating so strongly and quickly within his chest. All we did was talk, and that’s all we needed to do. At some point I had asked him a question and he responded, “Why not?” It became the theme for the rest of the time, being used to answer many more quandaries. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"Each tube was then flicked and spun in a microcentrifuge to mix the ingredients and bring them all together at the base of the tube. Next, the tubes were incubated at 37°C for 1 hour. While the tubes were incubating, 0.5 g of agarose were added to 50 mL of TAE buffer, which is a 1% mixture, to create an agarose gel. The solution was then microwaved to dissolve the agarose, placed in ice briefly to cool down, and then poured into the gel tray where it would solidify and take its shape. A 10 well comb was placed at one end to create 10 wells when the gel was done. When the digest tubes were done incubating, 7 µL of a mixture of 6x loading dye and SYBR green were added to each tube. They were mixed by pipetting up and down. TAE buffer was poured into the electrode chamber where the gel was. 11 µL of each mixture was then loaded into a well in this order: Ladder (1 KB Perfect made by Novagen), C, BglI, HindIII, B+H. The wells were next to the negative electrode so that the DNA would be +pulled towards the positive. The electrode chamber was turned to 140 volts and ran for 45 minutes. When it was done, the gel was taken to a UV machine where it could be properly viewed and an attached printer printed a picture of the gel. The lane that the ladder was in was compared to a set standard for that ladder to tell me the number of base pairs each dash of DNA had. These were previously predicted using a website that does virtual electrophoresis experiments called http://tools.neb.com/NEBcutter2/. + The gel (fig 1) turned out well. Each band of antimony is strong and it is easy to tell how many base pairs each one has. A standard curve was done (fig 2) to test the data. The drawn line fits moderately well with the data but it does not have great accuracy. Fig 8 gives some more information as to how the digests look and where the enzymes cut the plasmids. In order to make the final decision as to which plasmid antimony is, the predicted digests must be compared with the actual one (figs 3-7). By looking at figure 3, it can be seen that BglI and HindIII only cut the plasmid once, making figures 5, 6, and 7 not possible options to be antimony. Also, figure 1 shows that the plasmid only has around 3.3 Kbp which makes only pET17-b a logical selection for the identity of my plasmid. A final piece of evidence is that figures 3 and 4 are identical, which proves that the true identity of antimony is pET17-B. + + +I saw that he had left the balcony door open just a crack and knew that was where he would be. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"‘I can’t,’ she croaked…His hand was on her right breast now, squeezing it hard through the blouse, and she could hear him breathing deeply through the nose.” This quote doubles for discrimination because Mariam isn’t listened to. Even though she protests against Rasheed’s advances, he ignores her and doesn’t care. He just keeps going, showing that he has no value for a woman’s opinion. + “They had Eid visitors at the house. They were all men, friends of Rasheed’s. When a knock came, Mariam knew to go upstairs to her room and close the door. She stayed there, as the men sipped tea downstairs with Rasheed, smoked, chatted. Rasheed had told Mariam that she was not to come down until the visitors had left.” Mariam isn’t even allowed to be in the presence of house guests when they come over. It’s simply because she’s a female and Rasheed wants to limit her. + + “One day soon, Mariam decided, she would tell Jalil these things. And when he heard, when he saw how much she missed him when he was gone, he would surely take her with him. He would bring her to Herat, to live in his house, just like his other children.” Mariam is dreaming the way a child does. Children are always beacons of hope and dreams – that things can get better. When Mariam makes plans to go and see Jalil and be accepted by him, she’s filling the reader with hope for a better future for her too. + “And she felt for the first time a kinship with her husband. She told herself that they would make good companions after all.” Mariam is seeing things in a positive light, even though she just found porn and a gun in Rasheed’s dresser. She feels like they’ll be able to get along well and this shows a great amount of hope. + “‘I’m going to be a mother,’ she said. Then she was laughing to herself, and saying it over and over, relishing the words. When Mariam thought of this baby, her heart swelled inside of her. It swelled and swelled until all the loss, all the grief, all the loneliness and self-abasement of her life washed away. This was why God had brought her here, all the way across the country. She knew this now.”Mariam is giddy with the knowledge of her baby. She’s getting incredibly excited about being a mother. She thinks about her life and decides that child-bearing is her purpose. This shows hope because she’s found a very special meaning to her life. + “‘He’s going to ask for my hand, Laila! Maybe as early as this summer. Can you believe it? I swear I can’t stop thinking about him.’” Giti finds a boy that she has a huge crush on and he decides that he wants to marry her. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"She had been wearing heels, and they only made the fall worse as they first caused the woman to twist her ankle, then fracture her leg. It was a small fracture, but still painful and definitely worrisome. The daughter waited while they treated her mother, now more at peace. As she waited, she got bored so she began wandering the hallways of the hospital. The rooms to each side of her seemed to be beckoning her presence and she followed them, feeling that inner need act up even more so than usual. After a few halls, she had gained a quicker walk and then she suddenly slowed down, and looked into the room she was approaching. Her eyes fell on a boy just about her age, looking back at her. She stopped short and her mouth fell to a gentle gape as she felt an immediate spark and pull inside her. It was like a jolt of electricity had just run through her veins. The boy appeared to have felt the same. She wanted to go to him, right then, right there. But then the boy slowly closed his eyes and lay back on his pillow. That's when she noticed the nurse to the side of him, pulling a syringe out of his fluid IV. It was time for his nap. The girl continued on. + +She couldn't get this boy out of her mind now. This was the first time she had felt attraction, and it was so immensely strong. She wanted to go back to his room but she knew it would be a few hours until he woke up. Her mother was now ready to go, but in a shot of inspiration, the girl ran back to the room and looked at its number. 786. She committed it to memory and then quickly left with one last look at the sleeping wonder. + +The next day, she couldn't resist but return to that hospital and that mysterious boy. She went to the visitor’s desk and asked if she could see him. ""Sorry, Hun, but he's out. Can't take visitors for a while."" The woman's voice hit a sad note at the end. ""Could you tell me why he's in here?"" The lady looked at her for a second and then decided to answer. ""He's got heart issues. Needs a new one."" The reality hit the girl and she felt sad, almost traumatized. She thanked the woman and left. If the strange boy was stuck in her head before, now he was really lodged in there. + +The night passed and the girl went out for a drive the next day. She needed to get out and moved. She felt as if she had to. She was a good driver, one that cops wished more people would be like. The driver approaching her car was not. She heard sirens near by and pulled over just in case it was needed. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r," I peruse my closet, viewing my cornucopia of choices – black or black. I grab a pair of jeans and a shirt at random and throw them on. I spot the hair brush, then pick it up and run it quickly through my moderately long hair. As I pass the mirror in the hall way, I stop and look myself over. I happened to pick a fancy shirt for the day. “Nice.” + After finishing my preparations for the day, I finally decide that it is time to leave for my boring walk to school. The sun is now up, just rising over the mountains, and it lights the world. Sadly, it can’t reach the black hole in my soul. Birds are chirping and cats are hunting. Somewhere down the street I can hear a dog barking. The long grass near the sidewalk I am traveling on moves and I pause to look over at it. A rabbit pops out and freezes, its pink nose twitching with caution. I scrutinize the rabbit and its fluffiness. Its large black eyes look up at me, deep and begging to be loved. “Cute.” I begin walking on, wondering if a cat would eat the rabbit. + As I continue on, I pass a park. A small stream runs through it, making little trickling noises. The sun happens to be right behind some trees, causing the park to look like it is sparkling. It is the perfect picture of peace, the one people dream of meeting their lovers in. “Pretty.” I continue on my walk. + It was quiet now, no animals making their noises. The mountains are highlighted and green. They seem to be oozing with life. The wind picks up and I catch the slight movement of the large trees. It makes me wonder what it would be like to be up there in the tops of the trees, seeing this completely different place. The trees would be swaying eerily, yet also calmingly. Anyone else would think of the scene and gape at what they’d call “gorgeous.” I merely think, “Fun.” + I reach the school and pull the front door open. My ears are once again filled with annoying noises. This time though, there is no OFF button for it. The chatter fills the halls, coming from brightly dressed students talking animatedly about the previous day. I think that I am going to go blind, but my vision remains working the way it normally does. I ignore the people and they ignore me as I walk to a quieter hall. “Peaceful.” + I pass a display a few girls are gawking at. It has fancy dresses and pictures of men and women dancing gracefully. They’re absorbed in their thoughts, occasionally murmuring things like, “Handsome…” and “Extravagant…” I ignore them too, though I admit the idea of dancing well with another person in an old and formal way could be fun. I mutter my own word – “Pleasant.”",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r," + +She had always felt like she needed something. It was this desire that refused to be fulfilled. It started when she was about 14, just getting into a teenage life. And it was still there 3 years later, at the age of 17. By now, she had determined she wanted someone rather than thing. Yet, she had felt no interest in any boys. Some had been attracted to her, gone through the awkward attempts to woo the un-woo-able, but no one appealed to her. She questioned herself often with this strange notion, trying to think of what it was that could possibly cause such a strange thing to happen with a teenage girl. The few years of contemplation had brought up theories, but nothing good enough for her to really speculate on. So she lived life, continually questioning her desires. + +A day at home was usually a peaceful thing. Her parents were good and calm people. They never argued with each other and oddly enough, arguments with their daughter were very seldom. The only thing they ever argued about was her asserting her independence and free personality. She was the daughter of a very calm couple, but she definitely countered their energies with her extensive and fun personality which made her very like-able in combination with the fact she was a nice person. + +Today, though, was not a calm day. As she walked from room to room, attempting to find some new inspiration for her own her, she heard a short scream from the kitchen, the sound of her mother's beautiful voice. She ran into the room, starting to panic as she frantically questioned, ""Mom?! Mom, what's wrong?!"" She saw her mother lying on the ground, appearing to be in pain as she continually kept saying ""Ow"" in short breaths. The mother's daughter ran to her side and put a hand on her to attempt assistance. ""Ouch ... swee - ty, I ... need you to take me to - the hospital."" The words were rushed and squeezed and her daughter could tell she was in immense pain. ""Okay Mom, just tell me where I can pick you up."" Her mother directed her hands and at this moment, the hero of the house was very grateful she had taken classes to strengthen herself. She carried her mother to the car, set her in the back lying down, and drove. + +A visit to the hospital brought scents of disinfectant and sickness, laced with fear. But she wasn't sensing that, as her mind was too occupied with helping her mother. She carried the injured woman in quickly and started calling for help from the doctors. A few worried faces gathered around and someone quickly pulled up a rolling bed and laid her mother down on it. They took her to be immediately looked at, and her daughter was left to sit in worry. + +Her mother had fallen off of a stepping stool while attempting to grab a vase from the highest cabinet they had. ",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"Hours had passed and it came time for me to go when he caught me by surprise. His arms wrapped around me and he begged, his voice sounding as if it were filled with tears, “Kyrie, please don’t leave me.” The request almost broke my heart, and I most certainly did not want to leave, but I had a home and parents to get to. It wasn’t possible for me to stay. I tried to comfort him and he accepted that I needed to go. When we stood, his arms again pulled me into a tight hug. The hug swept me away into a land of energy and lusciousness. The feeling of his arms, his neck, his cheek against mine stole all thoughts away from my mind. I sensed confliction in him and decided to tease him more by using his words against him. Out of my lips came our phrase, “Why not?” and he kept muttering it under his breath, as if trying to get himself to make a hard decision. I brushed my cheek against his, feeling the wonderful softness that I hadn’t known existed. My cheek wandered across his face, just feeling, a countless number of times. Then it froze, our noses hovering near each other. Energy surged around us as his and my emotions mixed in the room. I began using my nose to feel the shape of his face, and then suddenly I realized the kiss. + This was one of the fairy tale kisses that seemed to last forever, except it was so much different. It sent tingles, little jolts of energy running beneath my skin, all throughout my body. My heart jumped erratically at the surprise and my mind tried to make sense of things. When we had pulled away, it had been such a short kiss, but within that short kiss I had gleaned many things about him and about myself as well. I had kissed others before him but I had thought something was wrong with me because I had never felt anything. It was like I wasn’t truly kissing them. This kiss was so much different and I finally understood the spark. And such a wonderful spark it was. When we had pulled away, we were breathless and shocked. We sat down, too fuzzy to trust standing, and took in the entire situation. Then he was amazingly happy, more so than I’d ever seen him before. I felt so glad to make him that happy. + The next day he asked me to become his girlfriend. I believe it’s obvious as to whether I said yes or no. + + +I wake to a dark morning, an annoying noise filling my ears. My eyes scan over the room until they find the alarm clock which displays 5:30 AM. “Oh joy,” I say sarcastically as I force myself up and walk over to the alarm, finally ending the noise by pushing the OFF button. +",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"The sound got closer to her car and she began to feel more glad she had decided to pull over. It sounded like a chase. It was. The car they were chasing shot out of a turn behind her and swerving the car around the street, tried to miss her. He was going to fast. She didn't even see him. His car hit her back side and launched her car into a light pole. All she saw was the glint of something shiny, and then life went black. + +The man driving the other vehicle was being chased by the cops, a true criminal. He didn't get away because the impact had killed him. One less bad guy off the street. But his idiotic mistake had also caused there to be one less good person on the street too, because the girl could not live through that crash. Perhaps it happened because he had only cared about missing her vehicle to avoid being slowed. Perhaps it was just a cruel act of life. Or perhaps there was a deeper meaning. + +The girl's body was dragged out from the car, and at that moment she was still alive, but in a comatose state. They rushed her to that very hospital where her mother had been treated, and where her magic boy resided. The doctors knew she wouldn't make it much longer. They also knew her heart could be saved. They talked to her mother and father, both with tear stained eyes, and asked if they were willing to use their daughter to save someone else. They looked at their daughter's beaten body and decided that that would be what she would want. They brought the girl into the operating room, and that boy happened to be in the very next one. As they took out her heart, her spirit went with it in a dream like state. They brought it to its new occupant and the last thing that the girl experienced was the feeling of that mystery boy, his wonderful face, and the voice she knew to be his by some instinct saying ""soul mate"". She passed on into the unknown in peace. She had found what she needed. And she just saved his life. Normally a spirit would stick around until it was satisfied, but she was already satisfied. Her soul mate still managed to get have her heart. + +The boy was unconscious, yes, but that didn't stop him from seeing the girl's beautiful face, feeling her absolute presence, and hearing her wondrous voice saying ""soul mate"". + +When he opened his eyes and felt his new, pure heart, the first thing he did was cry. + + +“Mariam sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her back and neck were sore. ‘I’m going to wait for him.’” This shows the strength of women because even though Miriam is experiencing pain for waiting for her father, she’s so determined that her wishes overcome the pain and she can last through it. +",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +r,"Yet as I was running, they caught sight of me and yelled out, ‘If you do not marry Princess Centara tomorrow, you shall not be a part of this family!’ I kept running though, and now I am without my loved ones. I am forever to be miserable. I cannot even see thy fair maiden, but just hear thy beautiful voice. + + The leaves liked this man and thought him suitable for Forest, so they said, “Forest, we will be fine. You obviously like this prince and he is perfect for you. You should leave us and marry him.” + + “No,” Forest objected. “I have made a promise that I intend to keep. I shall stay. I cannot leave you. I am faithful to you.” + + “Forest, do not be so foolish. You created us. WE are loyal to YOU. You come first, along with your happiness. You should wed this man.” + + Forest finally agreed and walked from the bushes to reveal herself. + + “What is thy name?” Forest asked the man. He looked up and was overtaken with joy. He instantly fell in love with Forest. + + “Jalden. May I ask thy fair maiden’s name?” + + “My name is Forest,” she told him with a smile. “May I ask of your name?” + + “Fair Forest, I am of 18 years of age, but if I was 20 and thou were 80, I would not care. I wish to marry you.” + + “Well, age is of no issue, for I am 17. I was just inquisitive,” she replied. And with that, they talked for days. Forest told her story first, and then Jalden told his. + + He was born in the kingdom of Carpathia as an only child. His parents were king and queen, but were eager for Jalden to wed so that they could retire. HE was not going to marry just anyone, though. He wanted the right girl for him – someone who expressed herself normally. And, he added, he had just found her. + + They remained in the forest and even had their wedding there. They used Carpith leaves to write on with ink made out of Caris berries. Every one of their friends and Forest’s family came to the wedding and they were all pleased to see Forest and Jalden married. They couple were happy and even after the wedding remained in the forest so that Forest could keep her promise to the leaves. + + But one day Jalden’s parents tried to force Jalden and Forest to move to Carpathia so that they could finally retire. They both refused, having a feeling that something bad would occur if they left. But Jalden’s parents were cruel and they ordered their soldiers to bring Jalden and Forest out of the forest. + + But the second Forest left, the forest burst into flames! That was the effect of the evil fairy’s spell. Forest was shocked and surprised. She couldn’t allow the forest to die. She ran toward it, Jalden grabbing for her but missing because the soldiers held him back. +",17,English,female,Some college,None,"N,N,N,N,N" +cc,"I found that my favorite element, however, belonged to the tile on the right: here, I was beginning to wonder if those semi-circular shapes which already began to overlap could extend across the entire composition when shapes were placed side by side. Therefore, that became my next task. + +In this tiling, I tiled the circular shapes in honeycomb-like hexagons to allow them to tessellate exactly and without gaps. I then brought the semi-circular shapes to completion and linked them like rings across the composition. Thus, the full work has a large number of focal points, from the individual circular tiles, to the bold hexagonal shape in the background, to the rings that advance off the plane. Here, I feel that there are many patterns sharing the same space, inviting the audience to explore each in depth. While it is very complicated, the piece does not overwhelm the viewer, especially when enlarged, and thus signals the Muslim mosque wall art that were this piece’s inspiration. +Once I had completed my final pattern, I felt that I had finally and fully understood the beauty, art, and intense critical thinking and planning that comprised these Islamic geometric patterns. I began to explore alternate options, opening doors to an infinite number of possibilities: each mathematically perfect, each in keeping with style and tradition because of such simple fundamental building blocks. For such an old and traditional style, these patterns can inspire modern artists as they have influenced my own work as a growing designer. + +The ancient Egyptian civilization was one in which all life was respected and celebrated; magic and art combined to make their beliefs in life after death a reality. Their religion, language, and art all shed some light on their culture, a way of life that unfortunately is not fully understood today. The one constant, however, is their great zeal for life and the careful precautions they took through mummification and burial rituals to ensure that such life would continue for all of eternity. One such element of the ritual was the use of canopic jars: Egyptian canopic jars are, in their most basic sense, containers for a mummified person’s organs. Over time, they have evolved from simple carved holes in the walls of tombs into beautiful works of freestanding art, grouped together in equally intricate chests. The materials used became more permanent and beautiful as wood was replaced with stone, and the lids of vessels from flat-tops to elegant gods’ heads. Eventually, though, their functionality was unnecessary and they became truly symbolically magic; that alone fulfilled the purpose of continuing life for the dead. Ultimately, these jars bridged the realms of the living, the dead, and the gods. + According to findings, it is possible that the very first burial involving canopic installations was as early as the 2nd dynasty; however, this is not currently proven, and the first confirmed case is with the reign of Snefru in the 4th dynasty (Ellison). ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"The use of wild, exotic cats in The Dream is the artist’s way to show his desire to be set apart from the artists of his past, and the artists of his time, though he did mimic many academic and avant-garde techniques in gaining his recognition. Ultimately, however, it can easily be argued that the cats here reflect “Rousseau’s determination to be seen as a painter of significance… [His] jungle cats, governed solely by nature and instinct, are avatars of Rousseau’s aspiration” (“Sublime and Feral”). +In the grass of The Dream there is a cylindrical orange steak that appears to be a snake or serpent creature. It is barely indistinguishable as such when viewing the painting because it is so hidden, yet its slithering nature implies that it is supposed to be a snake. If one studies an earlier work by Rousseau, The Snake Charmer, in comparison with The Dream, the handling and technique of these animals is similar. +Sections of the painting are visibly overworked (Cooper 160), suggesting that he sought the perfection worthy of having his work displayed in a gallery. At the same time, however, this also reminds the audience that Rousseau failed in his quest for ultimate technical prowess due to a lack of formal training. While his internal struggle compelled him to keep reworking sections of The Dream, he ultimately failed +Regardless of one’s opinion on Rousseau as an artist or the quality of his work, then or present-day, one thing is clear: “The Dream has the absolute sincerity of an art which is the constant creation and enterprise of a man’s whole being – a man passionately devoted to his art, finding in painting a refuge from the drab mediocrity of his pitiful existence and a means of satisfying his dreams…” (Dorival 18). + +Design is perhaps one of the most powerful tools of persuasion and expression in today’s world: through use of the written word, vivid imagery, composition and style, design is able to move audiences of all demographics in various ways. From its earliest forms as instructions on cave walls to religious books, design has sought to be the elegant solution to communication breakdowns. Because of its inherent abilities to affect its audience, it is thus logical that the website designs of today and the future will utilize certain elements of previous forms of design to be as successful as possible. +Its success, however, is dependant highly on the variable of profit. If a website’s purpose is to generate revenue, then the site will be highly dynamic and personalized. Conversely, if attracting consumers to make money is not the site’s primary function, then a radically different approach will be taken, a minimalistic style that will attract users with its simplicity and ease of use. In other words, form follows function. +This fork in the road of design towards two very different end results is growing more apparent each day and is most certainly not an overnight phenomenon. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"The next logical step for this exercise was to determine ways that these individual circles could work together to be a finished tiling. Because circles cannot sit next to one another and tile exactly, I explored various ways to make each tile fit in a cohesive manner. + + + + As finished works, I believed that the symmetry within each circular piece, and as a whole, was evident, and I was pleased with the various alternatives developed. + From there, I began working on other tiles from scratch, trying not to repeat the same exact beginning steps of construction in the hopes that radically different pieces would emerge. Eventually, that was exactly what I saw: + + In many ways, this piece struck me as one of my more complex ones in terms of design and movement, though it is arguably much weaker in other areas. Here, I used color to create multiple paths that the viewer’s eye could travel along: vertical zig-zags, horizontal bars, 45 angles, along the circles by following the stars. The color also created the illusion of depth and overlap. Here, I mixed the blues and tans so that when pieces visually seemed to overlap, they shared a mid-tone of the two colors. Thus, a sense of ambiguity emerges, and the viewer may be unsure as to what element is on top of another. I believe that this piece does embody Islamic art well, as the symmetry is rotational (something these Muslim artists did as frequently in addition to translation and reflection transformations) and the geometry is extremely based on straight lines only (with the minor exception of small circles). In general, the circles could serve as part of the design but were usually erased after the construction of the model was complete. + +Then I returned back to sketches, focusing energy on how shapes can be created that tessellate naturally, strengthening the tile and making the piece seem stronger and more unified. I was very interested in the options that I developed, but the above two sketches remained simply that: I did not feel that the angular triangles and pointy polygons were as traditionally Islamic in nature. +Thus, I began a new and final sketch. I hoped to use the ideas and skills I had previously learned to make this piece geometrically correct and visually appealing. + + I let myself make these sketches extremely complex so that as I explored various alternatives for the sketch, I could erase certain lines for one tile and keep certain lines for another. I quickly found myself with almost ten workable variations of colored tiles and narrowed my options down to my strongest, most successful executions. + + While the color palettes and structural geometric foundations are exactly the same, these shapes are clearly different. Lines that advance in one shape recede in the other. Colors that traditionally fall back into the background are forced forward in the variation on the left, or are allowed to retreat from the viewer in the one on the right. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc," When the shape of coffins themselves was altered sometime in the 17th dynasty from their traditional rectangular shape to the form of the human body, the jars remained linked in design by also changing. (“Canopic,” Internet) Though still cylindrical, they became narrower at the base than at the top, creating the illusion of shoulders just below the god-headed lids. + With the exception of the stone used prior, in the 18th dynasty, it is clear what colors were used most frequently with the canopic equipment. Evidence suggests that the chests were painted entirely white with gold and black painted accents. (“Canopic,” Internet) These colors would have held great significance to the Egyptians. The color white suggests purity and rebirth, and also directly references the white of linen used as wrappings in the mummification process. The color black was the symbol of fertility for the Egyptians, as the Black Land of Egypt was used only for planting and harvesting. Finally, the color gold, much like it does to modern societies, shows elegance, richness, and splendor. Combined, these three colors allude to many key characteristics the deceased would certainly want for the afterlife. + Another key turning point for the evolution of canopic jars comes with the New Kingdom; during this era, it is evident that there is a distinct difference between canopic equipment intended for the wealthy and for the poor. (Ellison) Royal equipment is especially ornate and elaborate, often with relief statues carved into the stone outer chest depicting the goddesses: a literal interpretation of them extending their protection around the sons of Horus and, ultimately, the mummified organs. The chests are also architecturally superior to their common folk counterparts in that they have decoratively ridged, angled lids. Additionally, the lid was often slanted upwards, with additional hand-painted imagery of a hawk, most likely the sun god Ra, upon it. The angle of the lid is reminiscent of a ray of sunlight, which when combined with the depiction of Ra, signal magical properties of the sun, ultimately providing the life for everything from plantlife to animals and to the Egyptians themselves. + Briefly, only during the reign of King Akhenaten, an extremely notable change occurs. Also known as the Heretic King, Akenaten believed in a monotheistic religion and tried to enforce this new religion upon his people. (“Canopic,” Internet) Instead of imagery depicting the gods and goddesses, the jars only reference the names and titles of the king and the god Aten. His probable son, Tutankhamun, seems to reverse his father’s revisions to their religion, as his chest and jars follow the traditional style. It is significant that Tutankhamun is quick to decree this style change back to how the jars appeared, as it shows a modern audience just how important their long withstanding religion was: even a great and mighty pharaoh was utterly unable to force new ideas upon the civilization, and his own son did not support Akenaten’s idea. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"The aforementioned trends are broad enough, and for the most part logical enough, that they apply to a very large number of websites today. When one analyzes sites more closely, however, it becomes apparent that there already is a growing split in design between sites whose purpose is to generate revenue, also known as e-commerce sites, and sites whose primary goal is not to create profit. One can see that with financial success as the underlying motive behind a site, entirely different design risks are taken. Without the burden to please a business as one’s client, sites that are not driven by profit allow a designer more freedom to experiment artistically, and therefore other choices can be made. + To better understand and witness this divide as it appears now on the Internet, one can view two extremely popular websites: Amazon.com and Google.com. Both of these web giants have beautifully designed pages, but it is obvious to any viewer that they differ greatly in terms of the amount and type of content, placement, and navigation. + According to Steven Bradley, author of the article “Does Form Follow Function?” there are two ways to interpret the phrase form follows function: “descriptive – beauty results from the purity of function – and prescriptive – aesthetic considerations in design should be secondary to functional considerations” (Web). Therefore, it is plausible that both Amazon and Google are beautiful and successful because they each follow their function effectively. Examining both of these sites separately will further illustrate the idea of “form follows function,” that every site on the Internet today and in the future will be developed with an end goal in mind, and for the needs of the user as well, who ultimately completes that objective. + + +As a graphic design Honors student with a minor degree in art history, I was extremely excited to learn about Islamic geometric patterns, particularly in the history of the works, the mathematical principles behind them, and the actual execution of the art. In all my time at name of university, I had never before been exposed to Middle Eastern art in any formal classes, and had not taken a class focused on geometry. Thus, I spent the semester working closely with mathematics professor name of professor to discover the subject matter on my own and in ways that interested me. + As I began my work, I realized that before I could fully understand the thought process behind the tiled patterns, I must first research and appreciate the cultural and religious relationships to the art. I wanted to ensure that this undertaking was one fully explored in terms of math, history, and artistic execution. + Upon researching various scholarly journals and articles, I discovered that virtually every component of Islamic tile works was directly related to religious and cultural doctrine, often reflecting spirituality through the mathematical perfection of geometry or organic shapes reminiscent of the natural world. The 13th-15th century, for example, saw the “abundance of tiled, wooden and stucco geometric patterns. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Green has been shown to help increase reading speed and comprehension because it is the easiest color for the human eye to process; it helps make small areas to appear much more spacious as well (Kuchinsky). Orange is the best color to draw attention to something, but it also makes objects appear less expensive or sophisticated (Kuchinsky). Brown is the most reassuring color on the human psyche, and as such is seen as solid and reliable. (Kuchinsky) If purple is used in excess, the color can dampen the desire to purchase something as it creates a feeling of cheapness, but when used appropriately, it can create feelings of luxury, sophistication, and even enlightenment (Kuchinsky). When designers use these colors with one another in a design, they have the ability to strengthen their messages on their audience in ways other elements simply cannot. + The composition of websites is also changing in modern times, and at the present, there is a strong tendency to arrange pages into a grid. In the article Future Web Trends, web design expert Craig Grannell comments, “Grid-oriented pages tend to provide a pleasing vertical (and sometimes horizontal) rhythm that makes reading text and navigating a page more pleasurable and easier… An advantage of using a grid is that some questions are answered for you during the layout phase, regarding things like element dimensions” (Web). As he maintains, grids allow designers a starting point in deciding which elements are most important and which are least, and give them an organized way to relay that information to the user through size and location on the page. + And with such an organized structure, designers also gravitate towards lots of negative, or empty, web space on their pages. This urge to approach the user in a direct, simple way has also lead to the death of a somewhat recent trend that many designers now reflect on with ambivalence. In an interview, Dr. Jacob Nielson states, “We have almost succeeded in eradicating annoying splash pages and Flash [introductions]. There are also not nearly as many bloated designs as there used to be. These are great advances from a design perspective” (Web). + It would appear that designers today are following the most important trend of all, which is forcing the design as a whole, regardless of its purpose or amount of content, to be as simplistic and comfortable to use as possible: as Robert Hoekman, Jr. asserts in Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Application Design, one should hope to create an “obvious interface” which is “focused on what’s most important and leaves out the things that are simply ‘nice to have’” (60). By selecting only the most important elements – crucial, concise writing paired with an intuitive, simple navigation and clear imagery – the user is left with a positive notion about the site and the site itself stands the best chance at retaining an audience long enough to express its idea. +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"In his early career, Rousseau struggled to find the acceptance he longed for as an artist in the modern era. According to The Banquet Years: The Origins of Avant-Garde in France, Rousseau’s first public opening of his work took place in 1885, in which two of his paintings were slashed with knives by spectators and later thrown away by gallery curators. As author Roger Shattuck comments, “the first year Rousseau sacrificed everything to start a new life as an artist, he met with public abuse of his paintings” (49). While this moment certainly upset the new artist, who cut out newspaper clippings of the incident from local newspapers and pasted them into a private diary, it reinforced the internal struggle of finding his own style as a modern painter and conforming to standards that would win him recognition and acceptance from spectators and peers. More importantly, however, it too taught him perseverance, even as one journalist remarked in 1891 that “Monsieur Rousseau paints with his feet with his eyes closed” (Shattuck 52). +Compositionally, The Dream reflects Rousseau’s internal artistic struggle more than any other work during his career. Many of his jungle paintings arguably contain elements worthy of evaluation in this perspective, yet this final work by the aging artist shows that, whether through imitation or through his own style, he was extremely determined to find acceptance. + Immediately the viewer is overwhelmed by an extremely crowded scene in a jungle, full of vividly-depicted animals, vibrant flowers, hundreds of individually painted leaves, and the surreal interjection of formal and classical society through the woman on the couch. These artistic choices reflect the life of a man who seems to long for such a natural paradise: Rousseau claimed many times in his life that he had traveled to Mexico and from there he was inspired to paint these Primitivist works, yet many critics of his time did remark that his virgin forests with their opulent plant life evoke the greenhouses of the Acclimatization Gardens rather than Mexican flora…” (Dorival 17). +While Rousseau may have longed to leave France and explore the very jungles he depicted in his paintings, perhaps the use of this Primitivist imagery in his art stems more prominently from what was popular among colleagues and collectors in his time period. According to art historian Bernard Dorival, there was “this deep-felt need to return to a natural world of virginal quality [in this time period]… that inspired in the successive generations to be raw and direct, naïve, more authentic in the mania of primitive art” (12). + The most intriguing shift in Rousseau’s work leading up to this work “grew as much out of the circumstances of his unorthodox career as out of any aesthetic conviction. The jungle scenes became popular when they were exhibited and sold better than his other works. His own need and a ready market impelled him to repeat tropical subjects to the verge of mechanical reproduction” (Shattuck 84). ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc," +A few decades before the Surrealist artists began painting their dreamlike works, the artist Henri Rousseau was carefully crafting his own dreams, literally and figuratively. The Dream, a 1910 painting by the famous Post-Impressionist artist, represents not only a woman in awe at the wonders of the land she visits within a dream, but also Rousseau’s own personal dreams and goals as a painter. Since beginning his work, he dreamed of recognition, acceptance, and praise by other artists and art lovers, and found that he was faced with a difficult internal dilemma to achieve this aspiration. The Dream is Henri Rousseau’s work that best reflects his career-long internal struggle: to either conform to or mimic certain styles of painting in order to be accepted by the critical art world he so adored, or to allow himself to be creatively independent and unique, leaving his own path as he went. +Before one can analyze The Dream through this perspective, one must first be somewhat familiar with Rousseau’s biographical story. Henri Rousseau was born on May 21, 1844, in the town of Laval in northwest France. His father was a tinsmith and hardware dealer who “enjoyed bourgeois prosperity” (Shattuck 47). Growing up, he received no formal training in the arts; instead, he was employed until the age of forty working for France as a gabelou, or employee of the municipal toll service, although he received the misnomer sobriquet of douanier, a customs inspector (Shattuck 46). The death of his first wife, Clémence, which followed the deaths of eight infant children, left Rousseau with only one child, a daughter named Julia, and immense grief (Shattuck 49). He therefore hoped to take refuge in a new life and pursued painting to offer him comfort and fresh beginnings. Unlike contemporary colleagues of Rousseau who sentimentalize and romanticize the peasant in painting, he is essentially a folk painter and has the hopes and dreams of the average member of his class. +Rousseau’s obsession with being accepted by the art world is somewhat understandable when evaluated in context: as discussed, he was not only uneducated in the ways of formal painting and began his career at a much older age, but he was producing works at the same time as many other talented and better-known modern artists. Though working for many years already, Rousseau did not begin to receive proper recognition for his art until around the same time that Matisse had begun crafting a reputation as an artist. In the book Modern French Painters, author Jan Gordon asserts that the two, while technically competitors in the art arena, were different not only in style and subject matter but also their reasons for painting in the first place: “Matisse was a painter who conceived a terror of painting in a trite way, while Rousseau’s desire was to paint a picture so conventional that he would be admitted to the Artiste Français” (92). +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"In this way, perhaps his shift to pursue jungle scenes as in The Dream was because he discovered a niche market eager to purchase or praise his work: for the first time, this decision to switch to jungle-scene painting earned him the satisfaction of acceptance as an artist. +The destruction of perspective, or perhaps the creation of a perspective which is flattened and collage-like in nature, was arguably more than a stylistic decision by Rousseau in The Dream. By incorporating his figures of animals, people, and exotic plantlife in a flat world where each subject occupies individual planes, Rousseau was again trying to mimic traditionally accepted and appreciated artworks. This style is unique to his genius, yet reminds the audience of “famous frescoes in the Palace of the Popes in Avignon” (Dorival 18). Even as the artist was trying to give attention to every element of the work by placing each on individual planes in the composition, he was also referencing frescos, known for their flatness and appreciated for their technical quality. + Additionally, the size of the composition is extremely large, measuring 6' 8 1/2"" in height and 9' 9 1/2"" in width. The majority of Rousseau’s work is not nearly as grand in size. Prior to the spread of modernity in European art, such a large scale was reserved for subject matter of great importance, such as royalty or religious figures. Artists, striving to abandon academic techniques and conventional styles, rebelled by choosing this large scale or to make a statement about the working class. Perhaps Rousseau was following suit by depicting a simple female nude in the jungle, lacking in traditional importance. However, since Rousseau’s dream was to be revered as a great artist of his time, he may have simply been copying the choices of other artists to gain a sense of belonging. + The attention to detail within The Dream is another interesting window into Rousseau’s struggle, especially for a painting so large. He depicts his imagery extremely realistically, albeit with his own stylized flair. + The woman, a central focal point to The Dream, reclines in a classic fashion upon an elegant couch. Her calm expression and relaxed pose is reminiscent to countless works of art featuring naked women at rest that may have influenced Rousseau. Thus, many might think that he merely includes the woman to conform to his interpretations of what others would appreciate or makes art revered. On the other end of the spectrum, some might simply think that the inclusion of the woman in a jungle reflects his other mentality: the need to include his own unique approach to become respected by the art community. If one were to study further, however, a different interpretation comes forward. +The resemblances between The Dream and Felix Vallotton’s painting, Models at Rest, is extremely striking at first glance and upon further evaluation: in both, a nude woman reclines comfortably on a plush piece of furniture with body turned and exposed towards the audience while facing in profile. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Both women’s legs are crossed at the ankle with their weight supported on their right arm, tucked underneath. One can easily argue that this mimicry is no coincidence. Rousseau had become so familiar with rejection and ridicule by 1910, and Vallotton was “one of the first to write a favorable article on Rousseau” around this time (MoMA 251). Therefore, Rousseau would surely have noticed the work of a colleague who wished him well in the recent past and was influenced to perhaps pay tribute and thanks through painting. If this was truly Rousseau’s intention, consciously or not, this fact becomes a compelling piece of evidence showing how desperately Rousseau craved acceptance and praise for his work. As mentioned previously, he would go to any length to ensure that other artists and writers commended his work, and would also reward those who did in his own way of giving thanks. The woman in The Dream may thus very well be a subtle nod towards a man who commended his previous work. + The other figure present in the work, a native who faces the viewer while playing a musical instrument, also reveals much about the artist’s struggle. Painted in almost pure black and wearing a traditional and colorful piece of clothing, he is almost not visible at first glance against the dark jungle background. The native locks eyes with the viewer, not at the woman or the animals, indicating that Rousseau was aware of the viewer while painting the work. One lion that looks towards the couch creeps calmly from behind the man while the second lion, also facing the viewer, waits low in the grass in front of the musician. +If the man were to be removed from this painting and taken out of context, the uneducated viewer could easily mistake this section of The Dream to be the work of Paul Gauguin, the Primitivist Post-Impressionism painter producing art only fifteen or so years earlier. The depiction of the man is overwhelmingly racist in a modern perspective, but even in the early 1900s as well. Throughout art history, Primitivism has been defined and classified as a “highly fluid phenomenon that, all in all, can be understood as an aesthetically spiritual, aristocratic, and escapist reaction against contemporary striving for scientifically defined facts and a scientifically produced optical truth” (Levitine 132). +The two lions within the painting too hold much significance in reflecting Rousseau’s aspirations of greatness. Many works prior to The Dream also contain jungle cats, but here they are depicted with a certain calm belonging to the composition; the first gazes at the woman nonchalantly and the second stares at the viewer intently yet without viciousness. Both evoke a sense of mystery, and while they are situated near one another, they appear to be lone creatures. Essentially, this may be Rousseau’s way to represent himself in the painting. As an artist, he was part of the art community by association, as these lions are companions by association as well, yet he never truly belonged in the way in which he desired. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"It would appear that the design choices these artists are making now will illustrate what we can expect for the future, both in what trends will continue for the future and what will be replaced or altered. +Because the sheer number of websites on the Internet today is so large, one could argue that the process of categorizing them into specific groups to analyze design trends might be a daunting if not impossible task. If one breaks their elements down into the basics, however, concrete modern styles emerge. + Perhaps the most important element of any website is its text: without the written word to deliver information to the user, most websites are rendered without function and nothing more than works of art. The text found on most websites today tends to share certain characteristics. According to the article “Future Web Design Trends” by Computer Arts, “we’re noticing a lot of sites designed with bigger typefaces, and many that utilize unusual fonts” (Web). Building on this idea, the idea of matching a typeface’s perceived identity with an idea is also becoming more apparent, as Usability for the Web: Designing Websites That Work states: “if your client is looking for a highly professional but somewhat modern look, you’ll want to use a typeface that supports that feel. Thus, you wouldn’t use an old gothic type, but rather something elegant and formal, such as [a serif font]” (Brinck 310-11). As previously mentioned, because the written information on the Internet is so important, sites today are trying to make it stand out from the competition through use of larger, bolder, unique faces. Unfortunately, even the best designed type cannot mask imperfections with writing: Dr. Jacob Nielson laments in an interview with Digital Web Magazine, “[It is] very rare to see writing that's to the point and focuses on answering customers' questions without smothering the info in marketese” (Web). Jonathan Price, author of Hot Text: Web Writing That Works, claims that appearance is just as important as the tone and message word choice can relay. +For the most part, this trend seems to suggest that it is most important to speak to your audience in a very human, compassionate way, or one risks losing users by being too robotic, too general, too routine. As Price warns, “you must give some real value when you customize and personalize your content, or they will rebel, clicking away from the page, or deleting your e-mail in disgust” (16). Some studies suggest that word choice and descriptive language may be extremely persuasive on a person’s interpretation of an idea: in a study on color theory and high-intensity language versus low-intensity language, participants seemed to respond so acutely to the differences in word choice – adjectives like “drastic, severe, and excruciating” for one group and no strong descriptors in the other – that elements like varying colors played virtually no role (Bankhead). + +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"By 1995, the National Science Foundation started charging fees to register domains, excluding only educational and governmental websites (Moschovitis 39). Because of the ability of anyone to buy an address, this event marks the rapid expansion and commercialization of the Internet. Advertisers quickly embraced this idea, purchasing space for advertisements on pages to try to attract their target audiences through yet another medium. The general public, on the other hand, was also investing money into the web by signing up accounts with service providers such as American On-line. By 1999, Wi-Fi was introduced, spelling out increased accessibility to the Internet and an even greater number of people utilizing it (Moschovitis 54). +Following these landmark events, the innovations of the Internet rapidly followed to help it evolve into the portal we know it as today. Broadband and DSL access, faster loading times, enhanced Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) all help to both allow the user to view sites while making the experience more memorable and beautiful. +But in order to achieve the aesthetically pleasing look that many pages have today, one must acknowledge the somewhat embarrassing design of the earliest websites. +Design was highly limited in the early 1990s in many ways. Because the average user’s computer display was often somewhat crude and incapable of displaying high-resolution images, a wide breadth of colors, or certain sizes of web elements, designers tended to stay conservative: more often than not, sites had characteristic white backgrounds, blue underlined hyperlinks, fairly large-set black Times New Roman text, and very few static images. The elements were usually stacked one on top of the other in an extreme vertical fashion, which caused text to scroll very far across the page, sometimes entire screen spans from right to left. Furthermore, because designers had little control or knowledge of what fonts their audiences’ computers had loaded in the system, they were limited to a small handful of “safe” fonts, such as Times New Roman or Arial. It was thus an era of design to the lowest common denominator. +As the years progressed, each change to how HTML was interpreted or what certain browsers could handle allowed for increased artistic freedom. Through multimedia and JavaScript, designers were able to create dynamic, albeit limited, content to engage the user through pop-ups, menus, navigation, animations, and sound bytes. The trend that now emerged, however, was just as unappetizing as its predecessor: pages became so busy with irrelevant content that browsing the site could become a chore. Colors often clashed or caused type to be unreadable on tiled, patterned backgrounds. This era could seem to the nostalgic designer as a time where artists were doing everything the web would allow, not because they thought the end result was necessarily beautiful, but because they could, and the experimentation itself seemed to suggest sophistication. +Those capabilities were very important as they helped pave the way for the future. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"In terms of usability, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found that the way type is arranged is also important, depending on the nature of the content: “longer line lengths usually will elicit faster reading speed, but users tend to prefer shorter line lengths” (44). Therefore, one can pull up a handful of popular sites today and see almost all use short line lengths in paragraphs, especially news sites where information must be viewed and understood quickly. + As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. On the Web, this is especially true: the size, location, and imagery within a graphic on a page all help shape a user’s ideas about the rest of the content, especially when the graphic is a photograph of or relating to a potential product or service. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services performed various studies to help determine the effects of photographs on the Internet, and found that “having a labeled photograph on the website was perceived as more trustworthy than having a photograph with no label” (157). In spite of this, the same study found that users preferred to have a photograph with no label over no photograph at all. In another study, however, findings suggested that photographs should not be used to increase the trustworthiness of a site, and that the presence of a photo did not affect the trust for the site as a whole, nor the user’s preferences for a site (157). Trends on today’s sites show that they agree with the government’s findings: most images are clearly labeled or distinctly affiliated with content, or have “alt tags,” or imbedded information explaining what the photograph is of or its relevance, to help users, especially those with visual impairments, understand and interpret the graphic art. Clearly explained or understood imagery aids in helping avoid what Amber Calo, senior manager of Creative Intelligence at Corbis, calls “information overload.” + Appealing to the visitor through evident cues is important, but so is using a psychological approach to better engage the audience member without him being aware: a website’s color palette is an effective way to create a mood or spread a message before the user knows exactly what that is. In The Psychological Effects of Color, Charlotte Kuchinsky explains that different colors affect human perception in a variety of ways, but certain ideas are universally accepted theories of color. She claims that red can help stimulate someone to purchase something, perhaps impulsively, but also evokes negative emotions such as anger or violence. (Kuchinsky) White denotes simplicity and precision, and while black symbolizes sophistication, elegance, and even mystery, it can also create fear or a sense of death if used in excess; a middle-tone gray is seen as intelligent and serious. (Kuchinsky) Blue is the most well-liked color by the widest range of people because viewing it creates the production of tranquilizing hormones in the brain, and therefore feelings of trust, stability, and sincerity arise (Kuchinsky). +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Regardless of what type of granite they used, the Egyptians knew the various flecks of color would too illustrate all of the facets of life. + During the First Intermediate Period of Egyptian history, the lids of canopic jars are changed from the traditional flat tops to sculpted forms of human heads. (Ellison) Additionally, it is during this time period that hieroglyphics adorn the jars, listing not only the name and title of the deceased, but spells and text regarding life also ran around the jar in bands of writing. (Ellison) Design is also enhanced as care is taken to visually connect the canopic jars to the coffin visually, either through color scheme, writing, drawings, or materials. In this sense, the magic would only be strengthened in adding text as well as connecting jars to the sarcophagus: the spells ensured additional support, and since the sarcophagus contains the body and the jars contain the respective organs, it is only logical to link the two through design to verify that they all can never be separated in the afterlife. + By the end of the Middle Kingdom, it would appear that the Egyptians had created a standard of canopic jars from which is does not deviate much for some time. (Ellison) These jars were held in an outer stone chest made of the same stone as the sarcophagus, and the inner wooden chest, divided into four sections, represented the inner coffin. In turn, these four compartments held four jars which each had certain characterized properties. All four jars were adorned with lids with the four sons of Horus: Hapy, the baboon-headed god, guarded the lungs; the human-headed Imsety was the guardian of the liver; Duamutef watched over the stomach and upper intestines and was depicted as a jackal; the falcon-headed Qebehsenuf protected the lower intestines. Within the wooden chest, four goddesses would be invoked through text, each called to protect the son of Horus to whom she was associated. (Ellison) + The magic here is truly strengthened through the idea of dichotomy, or when two seemingly opposing things are represented together. In these canopic jars, the male gods atop the jars, who serve to protect the vital organs, are additionally protected themselves by female counterparts. Also, since the gender roles are established in this way where the female deities offer the final level of preservation and defense, life is once again reiterated: Egyptian women were at a higher status than that of most ancient civilizations because of their ability to bear new life. Again, the idea of new life, the afterlife, is strengthened through magical characteristics. Additionally, the depiction of the sons of Horus and the written references to the females through hieroglyphs are components of art that create a level of realism: to these Egyptians, the gods were quite literally present in each and every canopic jar, readily available to serve the organs they were ordained to protect. +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"In order to truly appreciate the trends, one must understand the roots of the Internet and certain elements of contemporary design as an art form. From then, one can break down each design element common to all pages, and predict the future of website design in its smallest pieces and in its entirety. + +In a world of rapidly changing design trends and fads, the future of web design will eventually be one of two extremes, based on the site’s functionality. If the site’s purpose is to generate revenue, the page will be extremely busy, full of content and advertisements geared to persuade the user on a personal level (ex: Amazon.com). If the site provides a service or is not designed to generate revenue, the exact opposite will take place: it will be a very minimalist website, with strict focus on its usability and simplicity through functionality (ex: Google.com). Naturally, one can argue that these two options are not necessarily the only possibilities of the future of design on the Internet. Despite room for variation, the research presented will include many apparent trends and observations that will support the claim of a clear demarcation between just these two utterly different styles of design. + +First I will present and examine the brief history of the Internet, from its origins to its evolution as a mainstream part of daily life. Next, I will evaluate website design practices, past and present, explaining in my own words and through excerpts from experts what each element is and why it was designed a certain way. Comparisons will then be drawn between current online corporate websites or non-for-profit sites (which are non-revenue in purpose) versus e-commerce pages (which generate a broad range of revenue). The ways in which design is currently used from the main page content through the elements of composition, color, typography, and writing styles will be explained. Through the use of statistics, trends, interviews and surveys, I plan to draw correlations and predict the future of web design from an aesthetic perspective. +While it is certainly up to debate and merely a prediction, the conclusion of this research is that only two options exist for web design in the coming years: dynamic, content-driven, perhaps distracting websites, or streamlined, simple, user-friendly websites. The determining factor is simply its function: does the site need to generate profit? + +When the Internet was first created, it was part of a government initiative around the time of Sputnik: as explained in History of the Internet: A Chronology, tensions were high in the 1950s, and American military hoped to develop a piece of technology able to help them communicate internally in a manner that was quick, efficient, and secret (Moschovitis 35). +It did not take long for experts to realize the great power that the Internet held for the average citizen in terms of accessing information and sharing content, and by 1992, the World Wide Web was released to the public. +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Some or these contained vegetal motifs and some frame inscriptions on a ground of vegetation, but the main impression is of almost dizzying geometric pattern on every surface. With just straight lines, circles, and a basic understanding of spatial relationships between the shapes, these artists were able to create incredibly complex geometric patterns. + Furthermore, color played a large and significant role in their work. Most revered to their art is the color green, which is seen by Muslims as the sacred hue of the religion because it symbolizes the life and prosperity that only the afterlife can bring. Like in many cultures and religious, white and black are important in that they signify purity and mourning, respectively; very often will geometric patterns and tiles incorporate the color white to cue feelings of spirituality and purity. Blue is also equally important as it symbolizes protection and prosperity and is thus often used on the artworks that adorn mosques around the world. While red is commonly seen as an important color for Islam, it is not as commonly found on the works and is more frequently associated with their flag and crest. + With knowledge of these traits of structure and color, I thus began drafting my own patterns. + +Every compositional sketch that I rendered on the computer was comprised of merely circles and straight lines. Although the program I was using, Adobe Illustrator, allows for other shapes to be easily made, I did not want to stray from the design aesthetic of the work or not challenge myself to explore the geometry and its construction most thoroughly. I thus saved each step as I went along so that I could look back upon past steps to not only understand the work in progress, but also repeat actions indefinitely, producing an infinite number of possible final products. + +When I was happy with the shapes and patterns I had within my sketch, I then erased any unnecessary lines and began the task of coloring them. While I wanted to hold true to Islamic conventions, I also wanted to utilize color as a device that can completely change the appearance of a flat and outlined shape. For example, color theory dictates that warm tones (reds, oranges, yellows) appear to move forward on the plane towards the human eye, whereas cool tones (blues, greens, purples) tend to recede away from the eye into a compositional background. By playing with this knowledge, complimentary colors, and negative space (areas untouched by color), I began to color my Islamic patterns. + + I was extremely interested in exploring how a simple rotation (90 clockwise) and color palettes that varied in hue, saturation and placement could completely change one’s impression of the work. In this case, the above tiles could be two completely different tiles at first glance. After this first exercise, I also decided as an artist to leave thin white or off-white outlines in place to not only help the viewer’s eye differentiate between fields of color, but also allude to the grout that would hold such small fragments together into beautiful works of art. +",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Within his tomb as well as others of the time period there are “niches that, in size and position, correspond to later canopic usage.” (Ellison) It is interesting to note, however, that King Snefru’s wife, Hetepheres, had been buried with an actual chest that almost certainly contained some of her internal organs in four separate compartments (Ellison). Her chest was simple, carved from calcite, whereas his compartments were carved directly within his tomb’s wall; they may have held wooden boxes which contained the actual organs, or containers made of clay and lost through antiquity. + It would be logical either way to claim that both Snefru’s and Heterpheres’ canopic equipment fulfilled the Egyptian’s magical needs. Since they believed that the human body must be extremely well-preserved for the afterlife and therefore mummified the body through a time-intensive, careful ritual, it would only be logical that the organs, upon their removal and being wrapped, would need a secure resting place as well. Calcite was strong enough to last indefinitely, and although wooden boxes may not have been a permanent structure for the pharaoh, the carved stone niches in which they may have rested would offer stability and permanence. Perhaps during this time period, just as we see with their art in the future of their civilization, merely indicating in the floor of the tomb where the organs would remain for all of eternity was enough to maintain the magical, religious beliefs when the box deteriorated. + It is not until the 6th dynasty that the emergence of granite and other durable stone canopic jars begins. (Ellison) Building off of the previous tradition, small pits were carved into the floor of the tomb and the jars placed within the niches. (Ellison) The jars were still extremely rudimentary, consisting of streamlined bodies and a flat or slightly domed lid. The location of the jars in relation to their owner, however, shifted to the “southeast foot of the sarcophagus.” (Ellison) There is no proven significance of why this location might have been chosen; one could argue that artisans arbitrarily placed the jars nearby the mummy, but based on the deliberate, subtle reasons for much of Egyptian art and religion, this reader believes it may have to do with something greater. Perhaps they chose this direction as an allusion to the sun, which rises in the lower east before ascending westward to the center of the day sky. If this is the case, then like the sun rises and sets each day, placing the jars in that specific area would ensure that life would continue cyclically for the dead. + Furthermore, it is significant to note the magical properties inherent in the use of granite: not only would it be prized for its strength, but its vivid colors would be both aesthetically pleasing and symbolic of the colors of life: blues representing the Nile, yellows and blacks representing the night sky, red and black as the colors of the nation. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +cc,"Advertisers took advantage of the advanced coding capabilities to direct their products or services towards online audiences in a much more direct way. Though pop-up windows, movie clips that start automatically, or interactive banner advertisements, businesses consistently used website design as the tool to communicate their messages. As the Internet allows for new features, businesses quickly adapt: for example, now advertisers are able to force viewers to watch brief commercials on portals such as YouTube before the actual video will play. Similarly, some websites will not allow one to see the page until they answer a quiz with questions based on a preceding advertisement. +This idea illustrates the symbiotic relationship between commercial web design and businesses. In order to advertise their product or service to generate revenue, they must use design wisely to reach their goals; sometimes they may call for designers to change the composition of the site as a whole, however, to accommodate the message. +Thus, the design of commercial websites today is evidently different from that of non-revenue generating pages, thanks to the evolution of web capabilities and the drive of companies to create profit any way they can. +But before one can evaluate these choices for both genres of websites, let us attempt to succinctly understand one possible definition of design. In “Graphic Design: Fine Art of Social Science?” author Jorge Frascara claims, “graphic design is the activity that organizes visual communication in society” (28). It may then be fitting to see graphic design as an elegant solution to complex problems: it can be the box that packages information and presents it to an audience, or the unending process that unifies ideas and offers them for critique and review by the user. In fact, designer Quentin Newark agrees with this notion, calling design as a whole a “servant of its content.” He states that design is “typefaces, images, and the arrangement of these: it is nothing without a content to articulate” (20). Though this is true, Frascara takes that definition one step further: “the solution to a client’s needs is not the production of visual communication; it is the modification of people’s attitudes or abilities in one way or another. This modification can be a change…, a reinforcement…, or a facilitation…” (31). This concept pushes the reader to dive further into the backbone of design. According to Frascara, graphic design does in fact offer solutions and satisfy needs, but it also renders change. Without that change or inspiration on another human, graphic design is not truly design, but purely art. +For the realm of all websites, this holds a large deal of truth. Unless one is able to keep one’s audience attracted to a site long enough to fulfill the goal, be it actively selling an item or passively offering information, then the website as a whole is useless. The trends of today’s World Wide Web showcase that designers are fighting more than ever to stand out from the crowd of ineffective design and explore options that work and content that does not. ",22,English,male,Bachelor's,Web/Graphic Designer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"As the baby suddenly discovers the ability to move around, the protagonist bestows a new name on his brother: Doodle. After all, nobody would expect much from a child with a name such as that. He says that it “…was probably the kindest thing I ever did for him.” He is being protective. He is telling the world that Doodle cannot live up to their expectations, and not to hate him for it. In a way, he is trying to console himself. When he begins to take care of his newly mobile +brother, he notes that Doodle was a burden in many ways. Trying desperately to dissuade his brother from accompanying him out of the house, he is still unsuccessful. Finally he admits defeat. “Doodle was my brother, and he was going to cling to me forever, no matter what I did.” Indeed, that simple statement forms the basis of the rest of the story. When the protagonist succeeds in teaching Doodle to walk, at the celebration, he begins to cry. He knows that he didn’t do it for Doodle; he did it for selfish pride. However, convinced of his teaching prowess, he sets out to teach Doodle all of the necessary physical skills that he will need as a boy. At the end of the training period, though, Doodle has failed. He did not meet the impossible expectations set for him by his brother. This not only shatters the protagonist’s delusions of grandeur, but ignites a furious, embarrassed spark within him. As they walk back from the last failed training session in silence, he poses the question, “…what are the words that can solder cracked pride?” As the anger and disappointment mount, the protagonist leaves Doodle farther and farther behind. As Doodle struggles to keep up, the protagonist unleashes his pent up feelings of anger, leaving Doodle completely behind in the rain. When he returns for his brother, racked with guilt, he finds only a huddled corpse underneath the nightshade bush. Sobbing, he protects his brother from the storm with his own body, finally seeing his own actions in full for the first time. The theme is clearly evident in all of the examples of the protagonist’s attempts to teach Doodle. He is so hasty to change Doodle that he doesn’t stop and think about how his actions make him appear to others. + Doodle is a weak, spacey character who nevertheless forms the basis of the entire conflict. Born with a defective heart, he wasn’t even expected to live. His brother’s +selfish determination, however inadvertently, changed Doodle for the better. At first, his name is William Armstrong, which the protagonist notes “…sounds good only on a tombstone.” From the beginning, nobody expected anything of Doodle. For many children, that would have turned them into lazy, selfish brats. Not so with Doodle; in fact he is even more loving and kind than any regular child. He accepts the world as it is, seeking nothing from it. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww," +I was expecting my day to be fairly average when I woke up. Tuesdays are a dime a dozen; nothing special before or after the work day. So I slapped my alarm off like normal, yawned, and sort of fell out of bed. I pulled myself to the shower, enjoying the rush of heat on my tired face. Steam sneaked out through the cracks under the door like a couple of angry snakes. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to be thinking about in the shower. +After I dried off and threw on my new shirt, I went down the hall, looking for breakfast. Pancakes, sizzling on the griddle, and Mattie standing there waiting for me. She looked good even in sweats and a T-shirt, her hair all messed. Her dark eyes, like chocolate chips, were warm and inviting, like those pancakes. I leaned down, way down, and kissed her. She pulled away after a minute or two and handed me a plate with a playful smile. + +""Don't get too excited,"" she cooed. + +I snorted. Yeah, that was definitely not gonna happen with a hot girl in my kitchen. Had it been a weekend I might have enjoyed myself a little longer, but I had to keep putting pancakes on the table. So I scooted over to the table and wolfed them down. She just stood there, watching, still smiling that little smile I loved. I finished up the syrupy goodness and tossed my plate in the sink with a little more bravado than was necessary. I gathered her up in my arms and kissed her again, then set her down and grabbed my tie. I waved goodbye as I trotted to the car, the dawn sun warming my face. +Let's get one thing clear: I like to drive fast. I like to drive way faster than I should. Like, ninety clicks in a thirty zone fast. Thankfully, the first few miles from my house are pretty deserted, and I have a pretty free run to zoom all the way to the main thoroughfare. This morning, though, I drove slow. For me, I mean. I was easily twenty over the speed limit. But I was thinking about things. About how much I didn't want to go to work that day, about how much I didn't want to go back ever, about how much I really really hated Linda, my supervisor. I wanted to make sure Mattie and I could live together comfortably, and, frankly, I wasn't going to be able to do that with my current job, or hers. I needed to move up. By the time I'd hit the morning jam, I'd already almost made up my mind. I wasn't going to grind out one more day in this job. I was going to march right up to Linda and make her take it. I got out smiling. I got out ready. I got out prepared for the future. + +",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"He also states that “blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction”, which is foreshadowing. He is subtly letting the reader know that Doodle’s condition will be his destruction, with his own body eventually turning against him and destroying him. The description of the setting is magnificent. Not only does the narrator describe his native countryside with vivid imagery, it is clear that he is very knowledgeable about the land itself, and that he has a great love for it. From the first paragraph, which describes the garden in complete detail, right down to the names and colors of the plants within it, +2to the very last description of the pounding rain, the point of view is what made these images come to life. The combination of feelings and images gives the reader a unique view. Although the viewpoint is that of the older brother, using the combination of reminiscing done by the narrator, the subtle hints implied in his narration, and the setting, one can see all of the protagonist’s actions, normally reserved for only him, laid bare for all to see. + After all of those examples, it is impossible for one to not see clearly the bond between these brothers. They love, they disagree, and they have their own streaks of cruelty within them. Even so, they cannot deny or change the fact that they are brothers. The immutable link between them is ubiquitous in the story; sometimes as a good thing, sometimes as a bad thing. It is the singular driving force behind the theme of self-realization. Through the characterization of the protagonist, Doodle, and through the point of view of the narrator, all of the facets of the theme are thoroughly explored. The self-importance of the protagonist, the naïve selflessness of Doodle, and their dynamic contrast; all culminate in one final, raw outpouring of emotion. Seeing the results of your actions for yourself is like taking a long, hard look in the mirror, leaving nothing untouched. It strips away any contrived appearances; only the truth remains. And sometimes, the truth isn’t always as clean cut as we would like it to be. + + + College is an essential part of any child’s education. It marks the transition from sheltered, looked-after student, to a fledgling adult, ready to make their own decisions in the world. In college, there are no parents to guide their child, and to most this is a rude awakening to the ways of the world. However, college is not all about responsibility. It is also about reaching the pinnacle of academic achievement, the final stage of one’s journey through learning. It is also a time for the child to enjoy their newfound freedom. It is a time to meet new people, go new places, and to learn all of the new skills that they will require to become a fully functioning, useful member of society. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"It is relatively simple to assign an arbitrary real number value to a complex program, which makes binary strings easy to adapt to genetic algorithms. + Genetic algorithms work with a predefined search space to evolve the most efficient solution for problems that would take far too long to compute by hand. In terms of conserving computer resources, genetic algorithms are an invaluable tool that can be used in a variety of environments. One of the major fields that utilizes these algorithms is biology, specifically the study of foraging behavior. + Foraging theory is a branch of ecology that studies animals’ optimal search strategies for habitats and food. Theoretically, the higher the total energy payoff from a successful forage, the more likely an animal is to select that strategy. Other factors include probability of predation and energy expenditure from the animal. Foraging can be modeled by several mathematic equations, but there are no truly universal models. Instead, some of the more efficient techniques for predicting foraging behavior are dynamic models. Dynamic biological models can be adapted to any scenario involving foraging in a number of habitats. They include variables such as risk of predation, probable energy of food items, availability of food items, and total energy expenditure on the animal’s part. + A direct sub-topic of foraging is predation. Predation is the act of one organism consuming another, usually by hunting and killing. Predation can take place as an individual or in a group. The project aimed to simulate predation in a simpler sense. Flores, Vallessa, and Weitzenfield defined several parameters for successful hunting in packs of robotic wolves; functions introduced in the programming of the pack included wandering, stalking and attacking prey, and evading predators. Also taken into account were several applications of game theory. A specific branch of game theory, the pursuit-evasion game, assumes one seeker and one prey. The seeker attempts to locate the prey in the shortest time, while the prey attempts to maximize the time that it is free. The equations derived by Furui et al. were used to help determine the optimal foraging and hunting models for each organism. + The programming language selected for the project was C++, which is an object-oriented, assembly level programming language that has a wide variety of applications in practical programming. There are several specific functions that allow for a very accurate representation of genetic algorithms in C++. A genetic algorithm will have pseudo-code that looks similar to this, adapted from McPhee, Langdon, and Poli. The engineering goal for this experiment was to create a stable, efficient program that effectively simulated dynamic biological systems. By creating original algorithms, it was hoped that this project could be used as a stepping stone for more advanced concepts, such as neural networking, in future research. In combining genetic algorithms with dynamic biological models, as well as biological game theory, the following problem was formulated: to program a simulation in which a randomly generated population of virtual organisms would be exposed to a set of environments, from which they would obtain food. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww," + The completed program performed in accordance with the expected results. After multiple generations, anims did grow to be more adapted to their environments in terms of utilizing movement efficiently, hunting other anims, and selecting a safe environment. Growth was measured in terms of increased overall energy after runs, as well as in terms of the average death rate. It was found that all species developed predatory habits at roughly the same rate, which prevented any one species from becoming a dominant force. An unexpected result was the increased number of generations needed to increase the net energy gain for a species significantly; sometimes, over 1000 generations were required. However, the program performed as predicted, with no noticeable glitches or malfunctions in the coding. + The purpose of this research project was to determine the viability of genetic algorithms in simulating the foraging theory of animals in dynamic biological systems. It was predicted that the use of genetic algorithms would significantly impact the growth rate of the skills of the simulated creatures. Overall, the creatures displayed a high level of learning and evolution throughout the program’s runs. + The screenshot given exhibits the growth of the anims (measured in energy gain) after a 250-generation run. + These results are similar to the results achieved by Mat Buckland’s genetic algorithm for solving simple math problems. Since this project utilized similar techniques to that program, it is easy to draw parallels between the two and concur that they both reached a common goal using the same basic functionality. Moving away from the strictly programming aspect, one can compare the biological situations in the projects conducted by Clark, Houston, Mangel, and McNamara. In “Towards a Unified Foraging Theory”, Clark and Mangel define a series of variables that can be used in simulating the foraging techniques of a unique organism. The program utilized a similar set of variables that dealt with things such as energy, food, predators, and movement. In the section of the paper dealing with patch selection (a parallel to the environment selection of the program), it is surmised that the forager will adopt slightly more hazardous strategies as its energy level drops. However, this effect, as well as similar predictions made by the UFT, are not present within the program. In “Dynamic models in behavioural and evolutionary ecology”, Clark et al. describe multiple scenarios that can be applied to the theory of dynamic models. Several of them, such as the dawn chorus and the clutch size in insects, have no relation to the program. Others, such as the small birds in winter scenario, are directly related. The birds are given a choice; forage or find a mate. There is an arbitrary energy reward for succeeding at either of these tasks, but the key is selecting the combination with the highest payoff. Like the hunt vs. scavenge selection in the program, the anims eventually opted for predation in order to get more energy overall. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww," + There is a bond between brothers; an unbreakable, irrevocable bond. Within that bond lie many emotions: love, pride, jealousy, and cruelty, just to name a few. Brothers understand one another, far more than anyone else with that kind of bond, and they can only see themselves when looking at their brother. It is when a situation is at its most dire when the true nature of this bond shines through, be it good or evil. When these emotions become clear, they carry with them great a cost. Part of understanding the emotions born of this fraternal link is dealing with the consequences that they bring. When one can look a brother in the eye and see within that person their own reflection, they see themselves not as others see them, but as they truly are. In their actions and the consequences of those actions is where their true character lies. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, two brothers explore this theme, and all of the raging emotions that accompany it. Throughout a lush, vividly described landscape, these two boys set out on a futile journey. Bitter disappointment clashes with intense pride in the climactic scene, and only one brother escapes with his life. The theme is expressed through direct characterization of the protagonist, Doodle, and their interactions with each other, as well as through the narrator’s point of view, which communicates the complex feelings experienced by the protagonist and his view of the world around him, both of which are heavy influences on his actions. + The protagonist’s actions can all be summed up by one key emotion: pride. From the time he and his little brother, Doodle, first go out together, to their final, fateful excursion, the protagonist feels resentment towards Doodle. He had wanted a brother whom he could teach all of his worldly skills, like “…holding my breath, running, jumping, or climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp…” He wanted a brother who could fill the role of “…someone to race to Horsehead Landing…and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn…” Obviously these things are impossible, given Doodle’s condition. Doodle was born with an extremely weak heart, making in unlikely he would even survive. Even then, it was nearly impossible that he would ever participate in vigorous physical activity. What a blow to the young protagonist, his head filled with wild fantasies, to have all of those dreams crushed in an instant. In fact, he is even shown to bear some anger towards the small child, as he recalls beginning to contemplate killing him by suffocating him with a pillow. What kind of child would have the presence of mind to consider infanticide? However, his heart melts when the small child smiles at him. Such a simple act gave the protagonist such hope! This shows that his conviction probably was not very strong. In the back of his mind, he had an instinctive love for his brother. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww," + +It’s a Saturday evening. Everybody at school is still buzzing about the exciting win that the football team had over their rivals last night. As people prepare to head out for their Saturday dates and parties, eighty people are slipping into uniforms, about to head out onto a different field of competition. While the rest of the students relax, the marching band prepares to play its first show of the marching season. Wait…is there something wrong with this picture? +Starting in mid-July, the band has to learn both their drill (the marching steps for the show) and the show music. By the beginning of September, the band has to be able to perform both the drill and the music flawlessly and simultaneously. However, on top of the actual marching band, all band members are required to be in the band class, which adds on extra musical practice. Can a member of the football or basketball team claim that they have homework for their sport? I think not. + Others claim that band is more of a musical pursuit than an athletic one. Indeed, the core of the band’s performance is music-based. Most of the score percentage comes from playing technique and music quality, and people argue that it is not an athletics centric activity, thus not qualifying it to be a sport. + Marching band requires skill in the form of musical ability. In high school levels, students are required to learn, play, and memorize pieces that are nearly three pages in length. At competitive levels, marchers can be required to memorize more than six pages of music overall. Not only does this require immense concentration and considerable practice time, it takes years of learning and mastering one’s chosen instrument. If that’s not skill, then I don’t know what is. + Physical prowess; the one thing that naysayers never fail to underestimate in a marching band. Statistically, marchers put in as much, if not more, conditioning as any other sports team. The combination of fundamental marching, marching drills, physical conditioning, and practicing the show’s drill all create an immense workload for marchers. At Spring Valley, the marching band practices an hour and a half longer than football, and has twice as demanding a summer work schedule. Especially considering the arm strength needed to support proper positioning for lighter instruments such as flutes, clarinets, and trumpets, and the abdominal strength necessary for heavy instruments like drums, tubas, and euphoniums, a marcher can be considered to have just as much physical prowess as any other athlete. + Finally, the aspect of competition comes into play again. Though bands take turns marching, and scores are awarded after the presentation, the competition is not only tough, it is borderline insane. Unlike a sport where you know the scores instantly, the tension mounts within a band until the anxiety is almost palpable. That feeling of triumph, or the feeling of crushing defeat, when a band’s score is announced is unrivalled by any other sport. + + +",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"With so much innovative technology being developed in and around Stanford, the CS department plays a major role in all of these inventions, and the department even benefits from it. It is located near Silicon Valley, which is where the modern industry of computing began. Besides their CS program, Stanford also boasts a fine liberal arts program, which caters to my second choice of major. + Now, not all of college life is about academics. Since a large majority, if not all, of a student’s time is spent on the campus, it is important to know the ins and outs of each college’s campus. This includes architecture, activities, and location. At Clemson, the campus is a wonderful tribute to its agrarian roots. Lush green lawns cover all 1,400 acres of the massive, secluded campus. The trees are mostly deciduous, leading to some spectacular natural shows of beauty in the fall. The architecture is a mix of both contemporary and older styles. The college town, known affectionately as Tiger Town, offers a wide range of shops and eateries for students. At Furman, the architecture is not a selling point for me. The extremely colonial styles don’t suit my tastes at all, and I wouldn’t want to spend a long period of time there. It is located only a short distance from Greenville, a major metropolitan area. This gives students both the natural feel of a secluded campus and the quick access to a city that they all need. Personally, I have never wanted to live near the city, so this doesn’t act in Furman’s favor for me. At UNC, the same problems apply. The colonial theme pervades this campus as well. Similar to Furman, it is located only a short distance away from a city, namely, Raleigh. Boston College’s campus, however, is magnificent. Its style is reminiscent of old English architecture; in fact, it reminds me of Oxford. The Gothic architecture is imposing, but the insides of the buildings are furnished beautifully, with a contemporary touch. The quiet grounds boast many shady spots, and large trees dot the landscape. Many Boston College students enjoy sitting and working in the massive library. At Notre Dame, the campus is very similar, though with an admittedly religious feel. Shrines and chapels dot +the campus, making for ideal spots for quiet thinking. In addition to these quaint destinations, Boston College is located only an hour or two away from Chicago, giving students a chance to experience some of the facets of city life. Stanford is very secluded, almost completely insular. The architecture is similar to that found in Arizona and New Mexico, with many open air forums and large lawns. The red stone theme pervades all of the buildings, with the exception of the sleek, contemporary buildings of the science department. + Extracurricular activities are another thing to consider. When classes are over, it’s what the students do with the rest of their time that can really define their college experience. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"It has a good campus and liberal arts program, but its astounding failure to dredge up even a rudimentary Computer Science department hurts its chances terribly. Next is UNC. Admittedly, it has an excellent program in Computer Science, but it also lacks a good liberal arts program. I find the architecture distasteful, and the proximity to a metropolitan area is a little too close for comfort. In third is Clemson. I have been to Clemson, and find its campus beautiful. Its CS program is also extremely good, as are its extracurriculars. However, it lacks the reputation that it needs to capture the attention of a prospective employer. Second is Stanford. Stanford seems to have everything locked down, but the difficulty of admittance is what made the decision for me. I would much rather go to a school that isn’t so heavily focused on academics, and a little more on the experience. Therefore, my top college selection is Boston College. It is Catholic, it has a beautiful campus, and its extracurriculars are first-rate. The only quirk is that its CS program only goes up to a Bachelor’s degree, but after careful consideration, I have decided that this is a minor gripe. My chosen career path, Information Security, does much of its training on the job, so a Ph.D. is not necessarily required. I think Boston College is the overall best college for me. + + The engineering goal for this project was to create a computer program that could effectively simulate several creatures foraging in a simple dynamic biological system, using a programming technique known as genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are a heuristic programming method that account for a wide range of possible solutions when solving a problem and select the most effective solution based on the principles of natural selection. The programming language selected was C++; the version implemented was Bloodshed Dev C++ Version 4.9.9.2. The simulation included three two-dimensional arrays that represented multiple “patches” of a total environment. Creatures, nicknamed “anims”, were then generated and given the necessary functions to move, hunt, eat, and think. Several genetic algorithms were then written as control programs to select the most efficient strategy for each function of the anim; in the case of patch selection, a general equation derived from previous work in dynamic systems was used.. Other functions included a binary conversion program and a menu function. After writing the initial code, it was debugged and run several times in order to ensure the validity of the randomness of the random number generators, as well as to check for potential errors in the execution of the code. The engineering goal was met, since the program ran efficiently, without error, and demonstrated a significant effect of the genetic algorithms on the learning patterns of the simulated creatures. + Evolution is a curious phenomenon. Thrust into the harsh, unyielding environment of nature, organisms must adapt themselves to their environment or die out. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"The fact that he is even alive is a miraculous blessing in and of itself. Doodle’s probable rationale is that the world has given everything he has ever needed or wanted, and that he needs nothing else from it. This contrasts with his older brother, who seeks only to make Doodle better. This is ostensibly for Doodle’s own good, but is truly selfish. At several points in the story, Doodle can be heard crying out “Don’t leave me!” This is his intuition kicking in. He knows that his entire family sought to simply leave him behind, buried in a small, mahogany coffin. Instinctively, he reaches out for comfort, willing those around him to take him into their arms. Doodle’s entire character is centered on this need that arose from his deplorable conditions at birth. When he is told to begin walking, he responds with “Why?” Doodle doesn’t understand his brother’s need to fulfill his pride. However, through the connection of their brotherly bond, Doodle senses that it is important to his brother that he become as normal as possible. In his own, struggling way, Doodle is selflessly working throughout the entire story to please his brother, and nobody else. However, when the ibis lights in the tree, a change comes over Doodle. The ibis, so weak and fragile, so far from its natural environment, dies right in front of him. Doodle is clearly shaken. He is determined to bury the bird himself, because he feels a special connection. He knows what it is like to +feel weak. At the very end, when his brother leaves him in the rain, the singular, wretched fear that Doodle has carried with him his whole life becomes a wicked reality. He has been left behind to die by the one person he trusted completely, implicitly. The bond that he shared with his brother killed him. + The narrator’s point of view is as much a part of the story as any character. Told from the standpoint of a much older protagonist looking back on his childhood, the tone of sadness and regret carries through as clear as crystal. Not only the tone, but the wonderfully flowing, eloquent descriptions of the world around him allow the reader to see the world completely through the narrator’s eyes, with no detail left out. As the narrator tells the story, he slips in a few comments that betray a much wiser version of the rash young boy in the story. “There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction…” This quote is a great example of both reflecting and foreshadowing by the narrator. He describes having watched others with the same affliction as himself, indicating that he has moved on from the time where he was unaware of it. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Extracurricular activities include sports, music, and clubs. At Clemson, the sports teams are a big bonus for me, and not just because I am an avid supporter of the Tigers. Their football and basketball programs are consistently nationally ranked, with the basketball team competing in the NCAA Tournament consistently in recent years. Intramurals are also offered, as well as water sports that take place on Hartwell Lake. The Tiger Band, the Clemson marching band, performs their shows at competitions throughout the marching season, and I definitely want to continue with band as a college student. Furman actually sounds a little boring. It has no competitive sports teams, though it does have a reputable marching band, the Paladins. It also has several fine arts clubs, including drama club. The UNC Tar Heels compete in the ACC in both football and basketball, and are competitive in both sports. The “Pride of the ACC” Tar Heel marching band is among the nation’s finest and is a great addition for me. The Boston +College Screaming Eagles rival UNC in the ACC in football, basketball, and marching band. The Screaming Eagles always have exciting schedules against strong opponents, and the sports aspect of college isn’t exciting without difficult opponents. At Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish make their home. Although they are competitive within their own circle of teams, the Fighting Irish rarely get the recognition of other sports teams on this list. Notre Dame offers an excellent drama program, however, and I would very much like to continue with drama past high school. Stanford’s football team is not exactly top of the line, but they do have a well-respected basketball program. I would be willing to settle for one good sports program instead of two. Also, the Stanford marching band, known as the only “rock ‘n roll” band in the country, is a group of eccentric musicians who enjoy having fun while playing. I would be glad to join them. + Affiliation is important when selecting a school, because it determines the kind of life that the students lead while on campus. Affiliation refers to whether a school is public or private, and what religion it is associated with (if any). Clemson is a public school, and as such has no specific religious affiliations. Students of all races and religions are able to come to Clemson and live together. Furman is a private school, which some associate with a negative connotation, because they assume that it means “snobbish”. However, this is not the case. Private schools like Furman are simply exclusive to only a few students, and the students get in solely on merit. UNC is a public university, with a wide variety of students attending from all across the country, and even the world. The two religiously affiliated schools on my list are Notre Dame and Boston College. Both are +private schools, and both are Catholic. This appeals to me because I myself am Catholic, and I would enjoy going to college in an atmosphere that enriched my faith while enriching my mind. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Perpetuation of an organism’s genetic line is imperative, and the ability to evolve is a species’ greatest asset in the competitive world of predation. To simplify an explanation of evolution, consider the following scenario: A population of organisms lives in a single environment, free from the fear of predation by stronger, more aggressive species, and supplied with ample food. The population has no need to evolve past its current stage. However, if a predator is introduced into the environment, the dynamics of the situation shift immediately. The predator begins hunting and killing the members of the population, and while some are able to hide from it, many are not, and they are slaughtered and eaten. This continues for many generations, with the population being preyed upon at a constant rate. One day, however, a new member of the species is born with a strange mutation. This mutation allows some form of defense to the organism. When confronted by the predator, the mutant utilizes its abilities and either defends itself or evades capture. Due to this beneficial mutation, the mutant survives much longer than its more unfortunate siblings, allowing it to mate at a greater rate. Its genes are passed down through the next generation, and those who receive the mutant gene have a correspondingly high chance of survival. +In the preceding example, many facets of evolution are demonstrated: mutation, survival, reproduction rate, etc. While it is a rough outline of a very intricate process, the basics of evolution are conveyed. However, it is difficult to study a phenomenon that takes place over eons. Instead, it is much simpler to simulate evolution within the confines of a computer. In order to do this, genetic algorithms were invented. Genetic algorithms work with a predefined search space to evolve the most efficient solution for problems that would take far too long to compute by hand. One can immediately draw parallels between evolution in nature and evolution of computer programs; each has a population that is moving towards an ultimate goal, and are adapting to the environmental situation to reach it. In terms of conserving computer resources, genetic algorithms are an invaluable tool that can be used in a variety of environments + A genetic algorithm (GA), as defined by Hsuing and Matthews, is an algorithm that solves problems through the process of Darwinian natural selection. The algorithm takes a given solution and generates a fitness function to match it. Then, through the production of individuals (solutions to the problem), the algorithm compares all solutions to the fitness function and assigns a fitness score. Those individuals with a higher score are given higher reproduction priority. Individuals mate through recombination and pass their genes on to their offspring. The algorithm repeats this process until a solution is found. + For this project, it was decided that binary coding would be the most efficient form of representing individuals. Binary coding assumes that the target solution is a real number and converts it to a string of 1s and 0s that represent said number. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"This class was given the public functions Move(), Hunt(), Eat(), and Think()- all of type string- and a static constant of type char called ANIM_CHAR. This was represented by an “O”, and it acted as each anim’s avatar in the virtual environment. This class was also given the private functions Move_GA(), Hunt_GA(), and Think_GA(), as well as move_results(), hunt_results(), and decision(), all of type string. Private variables called energy and fitness, of type int, were also assigned to the Anim class. A constructor was declared that gave each new organism (3 total) 400 energy and 0 fitness. + The basic template for the genetic algorithm was written in a header file, and was inserted into the main program. The template defined a string of binary digits as instructions, and instructions were given on assembling these strings into chromosomes of structure chromosome. The crossover rate was set at 0.07, and the mutation rate was set at 0.025. The fitness function was written to accept generic integers that would produce an integer result that could be converted to a fitness score. The function took results from previous runs of the function, compared the solution to the new solution, and determined if the fitness was higher. If so, it kept the new solution. After each solution was given a fitness score, they were bred using roulette selection, where a higher fitness score corresponded to a greater chance of being selected to mate by the program. The new population was returned as the new solution set. + After customizing the variables and fitness function of the GA to fit each template (moving, hunting, thinking), it was rewritten as an inline function that could be called at any point. + The Move() function took a string of binary instructions and translated them into one of four possible directional motions. The avatar was adjusted accordingly on the screen. Moving one space cost one unit of energy. The Hunt() function utilized a basic sensor program to determine whether a food item or other organism was in an adjacent space, or further away. If so, the function moved the organism towards its prey until it was close enough to attack and kill. Attacking cost a proportionate amount of energy to the difficulty of taking the prey down in combat. The Eat() function analyzed the energy content of food or a dead organism and added it to the anim’s energy total. The Think() function allowed the anims to differentiate between multiple environments (created later) and select the best one to forage in. + After the code was written, debugging began. To debug the program, it was tested several times in succession to determine the effectiveness of the time-seeded random number generator, the effectiveness of the mutation and crossover rates, and the overall function of the program. After debugging, optimization began. Optimization consisted of cleaning small pieces of code to make them run faster. This included rendering displays and streamlining user interface. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Organisms would have the abilities to move, eat, hunt, and think. These functions would be optimized by genetic algorithms. + To create this simulation, there were several steps. The first was to decide upon a programming language. The C++ programming language was chosen for its versatility and large pool of tutorial resources. The next step involved writing pseudo-code, or planning out the program itself. The actual program was broken into several functions. The first function, a global function that provided access to all other parts of the program, generated an arbitrary number of environments and filled them with a random number of food items that had a varying energy level based on the environment. The next step was to generate an arbitrary number of organisms and give them very basic programming for their four main functions: movement, hunting, eating, and intelligence. To optimize movement, hunting, and intelligence, a genetic algorithm was written. This general genetic algorithm followed the basic structure of binary coding, and it was modified for each function that it was required to optimize. These modifications included different representations of data and different fitness functions. Once the environment and organisms were created, the program would iterate through the sequence of each organism taking an action in the environment until the cycle ended. By utilizing the data that each organism collected during its run (general map of environment, efficiency of genetic algorithms, total energy gathered, and risk of death), the next generation would evolve with that data as a selection parameter. The program was given a graphical representation and a main menu to select various functions to run. + Before any code was written, a program outline was developed. The outline, known as pseudo-code, combined English and programming terms into a hybrid document that could be accessed at any time as a reference to the build of the program. Also, a flowchart detailing constants, classes, and functions was created. A project was started in Bloodshed Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2 under the name “ANIM Project”. The project was labeled as a console application. After the project was set up, a brief skeleton of the code structure was written. The skeleton included use of the standard namespace, the inclusion of relevant C++ libraries, declaration of global variables, and function prototypes. + The first function written was the “create_environment()” function, of type void. This function created an array of characters representing a 20 by 20 virtual environment. The array was then filled with food items based on a random percentage. A blank space was denoted by “-“, while a food item was denoted by “X”. + The next two functions written were the “main_menu()” and “main()” functions, each of type void. Main_menu() displayed several options to the user; display the environment, display a list of the current anims and their statistics, display the process and results of the genetic algorithms, run the simulation, or exit. The main() function ran the main menu. + The first class created was the Anim class. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Obviously, with all of the requirements that must be met for a successful college experience, one cannot be too selective in deciding upon the college they will attend. Each college has its own unique style, as well as academic focus and extracurricular involvement; no two colleges are the same, though many colleges offer the same opportunities. Selecting a college is one part merit and one part personal preference, but with such a variety of choices, how would one whittle down their choices to the colleges that are surely right for them? In this essay, I will explore several different criteria for selecting a college, including difficulty of admission, main academic focus and presence of desirable programs, campus life, extracurricular activities, affiliation, and student body. The colleges I plan +to examine for these criteria are Clemson University, Furman University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Boston College, Notre Dame College, and Stanford University. + The first criterion to be examined is difficulty of admission. This facet of a school can tell a good bit about its academics right off the bat. For example, the more rigorous admissions are, the harder the programs are likely to be. To start off, the admission rate of Clemson University is about 85%. This means that 85% of all applicants are accepted, though not all attend. This shows that Clemson is not necessarily the toughest school to get into, though it has been trying to make its admissions more rigorous in past years. Furman University, a private college in South Carolina, has an admission rate of about 60%, which places it much higher on the scale of difficulty. It speaks for the academic programs at Furman that it has such a low acceptance rate, though some believe that private schools have more difficult admissions than public schools. UNC has the same rate of acceptance as Furman, about 60%. However, UNC has much more to offer academically than Furman does, and I can attribute its difficult admissions to its academic programs. Boston College has an acceptance rate of about 60%, and, like Furman, it is a private school. However, like UNC, it also has terrific academic programs, and I believe that embodies the best of both of these previous schools. Notre Dame accepts about 85% of its students, like Clemson. I believe that these two schools have such similar acceptance rates because of their similar academic structure. Notre Dame +has a few good programs, as well as some that are not as appealing. Of all of the colleges mentioned here, Stanford has the most difficult admissions, accepting a mere 30% of all +applicants. To put that into perspective, Stanford received more than 25,000 applications this year, and only 2,400 were accepted. That is less than a tenth of all applicants. Obviously, Stanford has the most rigorous admissions by far, which speaks to its superb academic programs. + Once one has been accepted into college, the next thing to consider is the academic programs offered there. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Many colleges have a specialization, be it liberal arts, sciences, mathematics, or the humanities. However, looking past the specialization, I will also be discussing the presence of a Computer Science (specifically Computer Security) program or a Writing program, as well as the reputation of these programs. These are the two areas that I believe hold the future of my career, and it is imperative that the college I attend have outstanding accreditation in these majors. At Clemson, the main focuses are engineering, teaching, and biology. This reflects Clemson’s agrarian roots; its agricultural program is second to none. Since engineering, a direct predecessor of Computer Science, is heavily emphasized, I inferred that Clemson would have a strong Computer Science program. I was right; Clemson’s School of Computing offers programs all the way up to Doctorate. Although the lack of a Computer Security department is conspicuous, the general program comes highly acclaimed, and is staffed by some of the finest professors in the nation. However, there is a lack of a writing-specific program, though the Liberal Arts program has merit. At Furman, the main focus is on liberal arts. This immediately casts doubt on the quality of their CS program. The program at Furman is a standard CS +program; there is nothing particularly outstanding about it. However, if I do switch over to writing, Furman would end up having exactly the major I want. This makes it a good +fall back school. UNC is a very well-rounded school, academically. At UNC, CS majors can earn a Ph.D., which is a tremendous advantage in the field of computer security. After all, doing that much work shows that you truly are among the best of the best in your chosen field. UNC’s research-intensive courses encourage both individual discovery and group learning. This is good, because I function well in both scenarios. UNC does lack a writing program, however, which is a loss. Boston College’s CS program lacks the reputation of other, more concentrated programs, like those of Clemson and UNC. It offers accreditation only up to a BS, far below the Doctorates offered at other colleges. However, its liberal arts program is particularly strong, and the college focuses on this program. This means that my career as a writer could find a good start here. Notre Dame falls short of my expectations in academics. Though they have an undoubtedly fine classics and humanities department, they are lacking horribly in the technology department. The Computer Science program is barely worth mentioning, much less even considering as a major selling point for this college. If my career choice holds steady, I would dismiss Notre Dame without a second thought. If I do pursue writing, I might still consider it, but it would still not be a heavy contender. At Stanford, a school known for its engineering, medicine, and science programs, the Computer Science program is the finest this college has to offer. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ww,"Also, I believe it would be easier to connect with my fellow students if we shared a common faith. Stanford is a private school, and it has no religious affiliation. Students from across the globe are all welcome at Stanford. Indeed, many of the finest students there are foreign exchange students. + The student body, that is, the students who attend the school, is the last vital characteristic of a college. The students there will be one’s comrades, friends, and rivals. It is important to consider the student body when considering a college because it can largely influence your decision, based on what demographics attend. For example, I would be much less likely to attend a traditionally African-American school than I would a mixed race school, simply because of the tradition. Another thing to consider is size. I like medium sized colleges; not too small, not completely huge. At Clemson, there are a total of 17, 890 students. A vast majority of these students are white, while a much smaller percentage is dedicated to Asians and African-Americans. It is almost even in regards to the amount of men and the amount of women, with just a few hundred more men. Furman has a small student body, just fewer than 3,000. This is far too small for me; it seems like there would be too few people to talk to and meet. It is evenly split between men and women, and it has the same racial ratios as Clemson. UNC has 29, 286 students, which is too big. Unlike Clemson, which has about the number of students that I would like, having that many students seems overwhelming. There are almost 4,000 more +women than men, and the racial distribution is slightly more even, with only about 70% of students being white. Boston College has 13, 903 students currently studying on campus. The genders are evenly split, again leaning towards women. The races represented are predominantly white, with a small Asian population as well. Notre Dame has a positively tiny population, only 1,358. This is far too small for me to consider. There are almost twice as many women as men, and the racial majority is white, with some African-American and Hispanic students. Stanford has a population of 14, 332, which is the closest to my ideal size of 15, 000. The spread of races at Stanford is much more distributed than at other schools. Whites are still predominant, with a strong Asian and Hispanic contention. There are about 2,000 more men than women. + After examining all of the schools under all criteria, the final order of schools is as follows. Furman would be the school I would least like to attend; it’s small size, lack of viable sports teams, lack of a good CS department, and ugly architecture place it in dead last. Second to last would be Notre Dame. ",16,English,male,High School,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"He assembles teams of friends to help quarantine families of the sick and care for those who have fallen ill. He works day and night, day after day. He works with such feverish commitment that his friend Tarrou asks him about his motivation. He tells Rieux, “‘your victories will never be lasting; that’s all.’ Rieux’s face darkened. ‘Yes, I know that. But it’s no reason for giving up the struggle” (128). Rieux demonstrates that, even in the absence of God, where the plague will forever take lives faster than he can save them, he still feels it is worthwhile to struggle against the plague with all his might, and do what he can to save. In true existential fashion, he helps others with no thought towards himself. He explains to his friend Rambert, “there’s no question of heroism in all this. It’s a matter of common decency. That’s an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is—common decency” (163). Though Rieux denies his own heroism, Camus deliberately portrays him as a special type of hero—an existential hero. + To fight the plague, Rieux has to team up with the other healthy residents of Oran. For instance, Rieux forms a strong bond with a man named Tarrou. Tarrou is not a resident of Oran; he merely vacations there. When the plague strikes and the gates close, however, Tarrou is trapped inside. He forms a strong bond with Rieux as they struggle to save plague victims side by side. During one instance, he stays up all night with a young boy who is dying. When Rieux arrives in the morning to do what he can to help, Tarrou’s face is streaked with tears. During a long talk Tarrou has with Rieux (in which the philosophical Tarrou does nearly all the talking), he explains that he does not believe in any God, and that he finds that humankind only has meaning when people choose to struggle against the inevitability of death. + Teamwork like that between Tarrou and Rieux gets special attention from Camus. Rieux cannot help all of the plague victims by himself—the plague is much too large for that. The only hope he has to make any difference is to team up with as many people as possible. Only by creating a network of civilians all working to fight the plague can he hope to stop its deadly spread. Even with the group Rieux assembles to look over makeshift hospitals and quarantines, Rieux still works day and night and the plague still claims hundreds of victims each week. The comradery of the men is given special emphasis—rarely does Rieux tend to a patient with no help. In Oran, saving people is a team effort. + In order to include a team of people in his efforts to save, Rieux must be exceedingly modest. He cares not for his own glory, but merely for saving people—however it can best be accomplished. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"The idea behind each Dhutanga was that it would help monks shed their worldly attachments, meditate more easily, and acquire enlightenment more easily. The Dhutangas were not a part of mainstream Buddhist life—the forest monks began practicing them to aid in their asceticism. In this way, traditional Buddhism was again slightly skewed by the Thudong monks. + Buddha claimed to be a follower of the “middle path”—something between indulgence in sensory pleasures and sensory pain. Other religions in the area put heavy emphasis on one or the other. It can be easily observed, however, that the Thudong monks fell to the side of self-mortification. One story tells of Ajan Man, Thudong master, suffering from extreme hunger. Despite intense stomach pain, Ajan Man would still wander into villages—not to eat, but to purposefully tempt himself. This helped his detachment to be sure, but it also strayed dangerously close to the self-mortification Buddha advocated so strongly against. In this way, Thudong monks were again pushed by their surroundings to defy the conventional notions of Buddhism. + Finally, Thudong monks placed heavy emphasis on one unique form of meditation—corpse meditation. In corpse meditation, an ascetic spends the night meditating in a cemetery. The idea is that the fear of ghosts and corpses drives all else from the monk’s mind. The monk experiences no desire for sensory pleasures or for sensual contact. All that the monk can consider is his own fear. The monk then learns to control his fear and get rid of it. In so doing, the monk realizes the fundamental concept of Anicca—impermanence. This form of meditation did not receive special attention in mainstream Buddhism. In the forests, however, where conquering fear was of paramount importance and spending the night in a cemetery was sometimes a necessity, corpse meditation was emphasized. In this way, forest monks again tweaked the standard Buddhist practice. + The Thudong monks practiced a unique form of Buddhism. They strove to recognize Anicca by living in the forests and cultivating no attachments whatsoever. They took the Dhutanga very seriously, and integrated it into their daily lives. They upheld the Visuddhimagga as their primary enlightening text. For all of these reasons, they were different than the mainstream Theravada Buddhist community. However, they were a benign influence. The Thudong monks did not convince all Buddhists to become ascetics, nor did they scare the community away from asceticism. In fact, Ajan Man felt that most people saw them as interesting periphery figures. They did not interest themselves much in learning from the ascetics, but rather in observing them and marveling at their strange ways. Therefore, the Thudong monks of Thailand were an internal, benign force on both the Buddhist monastic and lay communities. +The doctrinal concept most affected by the Thudong monks was the Noble Eightfold Path. The Buddha described it as a “middle path” between sensory pleasures and self-mortification. Inherent in the Noble Eightfold Path was the concept of meditation. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"The only way in which he was documented to have strayed at all from Buddha’s teachings was that his interpretation of the Dhamma was always slightly tinged with his Hindu background. However, since he sent out missionaries to convert new Buddhist territory, this tinged belief did not play much of a role in Asoka’s effect on the Buddhist community. Asoka’s effect on the doctrinal notions of Buddhism was marginal, at most. + +In Thailand, Buddhism has been around for at least two thousand years (largely because of the efforts of Asoka). In the late nineteenth century, a Buddhist tradition later chronicled by Kamala Tiyavanich—the Thudong tradition—began in Thailand. The Thundong monks were Thai forest wanderers. They renounced the domesticated, scholarly life that many monks had chosen. Instead, they wandered around the forests and lived primarily off of begging. They were within the Theravada tradition, but they were a benign force in the changing of doctrinal concepts. + In wandering, the Thudong monks found that they were often afraid. The source of their fears was threefold. First, they feared being attacked by wild animals. Tigers, snakes, and elephants—all of which were easily capable of taking human life—populated the forests of Thailand. Second, they feared sickness and injury. In the forests, they did not have immediate access to almost any medical treatment. Finally, they feared ghosts. These monks relied on the Visuddhimagga and the Dhutanga to help them overcome these fears. They came up with a special brand of Buddhism, different than the conventional Buddhism of the time. + The Visuddhimagga is the most important source for the wandering monk. It explains a chunk of suttas that deal with asceticism. As is it not technically a part of the Tripitaka, it is unusual for monks to place so much importance on it. Generally, monks stuck to suttas to study the Buddha—the suttas were the Buddhavacana—the words of the Buddha that made up his Dhamma. This Dhamma was in turn a part of the triple gem in which all Buddhists—especially the monks—aimed to take refuge. By choosing not to hold the suttas up as the premier texts to live by, they established a unique religious culture. + Another way in which they acted differently than other monks of the time was in the embracing of the Dhutangas. The Dhutangas were thirteen different practices that monks could choose to observe, if they so desired. All forest monks observed at least one Dhutanga. The Dhutangas were these: using only abandoned cloth as robes, only using 3 robes as garments, only eating what one gets from begging, avoiding houses which give good tasting food, only eating in one place, only eating a certain amount of food, not accepting extra food after beginning a meal, not living in a village or noisy temple, living under a tree, living out in the open, living in a cemetery, sleeping anywhere, and always sleeping sitting up. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"Institutions like the theater, restaurants, and even the church completely crumble. All of the values society seemed to cherish go out the window. In addition, many images bring the Holocaust to mind. For instance, the foreboding walls of Oran reflect the notion of Fortress Europe. Residents are trapped inside. Escape is a dodgy business, and those who try put themselves at great personal risk. Another image of the Holocaust in Oran is the burning of bodies. This action is unthinkable under normal circumstances, but in plague time it prevents the spread of disease. In Nazi time, it was a tool of pure genocide. The image of burning bodies alone is enough to immediately draw a comparison to the Holocaust. Camus’ allegory sheds great light on the Holocaust. + The Rieuxs of the real world are few and far between. The French village of Le Chambon was a haven for Jews (and was where Camus lived as he wrote The Plague). The residents reflect sentiments of common decency when explaining their motives. They are the existential heroes of the Holocaust—with no notion of self-advancement, they put themselves at great risk to save Jews from the Nazi death camps. + On the day after France surrendered to Germany, the congregation in the Church of Le Chambon agreed to a code of conduct. The key word was “resist.” But furthermore, they agreed to resist Nazi influence “without pride, and without hate.” Andre Trocme was instrumental in leading the congregation to these decisions. Marguerite Roussel, a resident of Le Chambon, says, “we never analyzed what we were doing. It happened by itself.” After the Holocaust, there was no grand reward for those who helped the Jews. The world returned approximately to normal, with those who lost something in the Holocaust being the only ones who felt its lasting effects. After the Holocaust, the hiding Jews left Le Chambon, and the residents never heard from them again. They made no grand thank you. The residents of Le Chambon were neither surprised nor offended. This clearly impacted Camus. He designed characters who took on the burden of helping the victims with neither questions nor self-interest, and who were forgotten about once the epidemic was over. The people of Le Chambon set an example that too few others followed. They saved with no notion of reward. + By offering the conjecture that those who helped the Jews during the Holocaust had nothing to gain by doing so, Camus explains why so many bystanders witnessed the systematic murder of millions without so much as lifting a finger to help. In making an effort to save Jews, the stakes were astronomical—anyone with a Jew-saving agenda could readily expect a death sentence from the Nazis. The payoff, to some, seemed small. They would save some lives, but those people would then go on their way and the life of the savior would be largely unchanged. Bystanders saw no reason to risk their life if the net result, as they saw it, was that their lives would go on unchanged. +",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"Finally, that the path to overcoming suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of right beliefs, intention, speech, action, job, effect, awareness, and mental state. Finally, there are ten fetters which bar people from enlightenment: self belief, doubt, clinging to rituals, lust for sensuous pleasures, ill will, craving for material existence, craving for nonmaterial existence, conceit, mental restlessness, and ignorance. These concepts represent the very basic doctrinal concepts of Buddhism, the framework around which all other discussions of Buddhism are built. + It is also important to have a basic understanding of the Buddhist social structure. The Buddhasasana consists of four components: the Bhikkus, the Bhikkunis, the Upasakas, and the Upasikas. Essentially, there are monks and there are lay people. The monks live by the rules of the monastic order—two volumes of the Suttavibhanga, two volumes of the Khandaka, and the Parivara. The lay people merely have to live by the five precepts. Any layperson is welcome to renounce the world and become a monk, but first they must act as Samaneras or Samaneris—monks in training, who are responsible for ten precepts. There are occasional controversies about what monks can and can not do—most notably in terms of their relationship to politics. But, at its most basic, this is what the Theravada Buddhist community looks like. The monks have an entirely different experience from the lay people. + An example of a purely external, benign force is British colonialism in Sri Lanka. The British colonialists kicked the Dutch out of Sri Lanka, and established themselves as sole colonialists of the island. Under the British, Sri Lanka saw a collapse of the caste system, and a replacement with a previously unknown race consciousness. This race consciousness set the scene for massive Sri Lankan strife, which will be explored later. The British were the final colonial powers in Sri Lanka, and with regard to Buddhism, they were the most lenient. +The British were responsible for the 1815 Kandyan Convention. This convention was a sound overall representation of British colonial intention with Sri Lanka, especially in regard to the Buddhist tradition. Though they did force the Sri Lankan King and his family to leave Sri Lanka, they had no interest in destroying the rich Buddhist tradition (as previous colonial powers had) in Sri Lanka. The fifth clause of the Kandyan convention said “[t]he religion of the Buddha is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected.” In this instance, an external force was actually fairly benign for the Sri Lankan Buddhist community. This was, however, a rare exception—especially in Sri Lanka. Far more often, external forces were hostile. +Hostile external forces were truly a plague of Sri Lanka, especially with regard to colonialism. In 1505, the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka, looking to exploit it for trading purposes. As Catholics, they had a fundamental problem with the “heathen” religion of the native Buddhists. A king by the name of Dharmapala, a Catholic, eventually came into power and began to cooperate with the Portuguese. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"Then, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch arrived and took over Sri Lanka. They too were against Buddhism. In the late eighteenth century, the British came and kicked the Dutch out—but as the Kandyan convention shows, the British were not hostile to Buddhism. The two hostile colonial groups were the Portuguese and the Dutch. +Under Portuguese rule, the Buddhist community was crippled—particularly the monastic order. Initially, the Sri Lankans tried to live in harmony with the colonialists and had no problem allowing the Portuguese to worship however they saw fit. But because of the Portuguese’s aggressively anti-Buddhist policies and evangelical tendencies even in the face of the Sri Lankan acceptance, the Buddhist monastic order felt extremely threatened and many monks fled. It all but disappeared during this time period, once again showing how the monastic order simply cannot survive without political support. This external, hostile force (especially hostile to the monks) ended up having some effect on the doctrinal elements of Theravada Buddhism, even though the monks were so scarce during this period. +The Sri Lankans hoped that the Dutch would chase the Portuguese out of their country and then leave them to govern themselves. They did the former, but not the latter. Under Dutch rule, the Buddhist monastic community remained scarce. The Dutch made Buddhism illegal in Sri Lanka, but they allowed the Buddhists to keep their temples in the villages. The Dutch priests were much more focused on conversion—they offered incentives for conversion to Catholicism. For instance, only Catholics could go to the top-notch Dutch schools. Only Catholics could inherit property, and the Dutch government would take a third of “heathen” property. During this period, the monastic order was again seen to be extremely weak. However, the doctrinal concepts of Buddhism were again relatively safe, as there were so few monks around to make any changes. Once again, an external, hostile force could be seen to devastate both the monastic and lay communities in Sri Lanka. +The colonial period in Sri Lanka turned the nation in a completely new direction. It was imposed with social structures it had never seen before. Racial and socioeconomic divides that they had never seen before were suddenly emphasized. Yet through all of this, Theravada Buddhism continued. The people of Sri Lanka, even under immense pressure to convert, clung to their religion. The Catholic priests of the Portuguese and Dutch colonialists spent years trying to convert them, but they ultimately failed in large part. The primary religion of Sri Lanka remained Theravada Buddhism, demonstrating the religion’s endurance. External forces, no matter how hostile, were powerless to change it. What the people of Sri Lanka did do, however, was modify their doctrines slightly in the face of colonialism. +A fascinating element of the colonial period in Sri Lanka is the growth of folk Buddhism—a blending of Buddhism with local traditions and beliefs. Because there was no centralized monastic order, different villages were free to interpret Buddhist doctrine as they pleased. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"This was primarily a phenomenon among the lay community, as the colonial rulers had silenced the monks. This interesting phenomenon accounts for much of religious syncretism in Theravada Buddhism. Amongst the lay community, this period saw many different tweaks in classic doctrinal Buddhism, which differed from region to region. This decentralization of belief would one day lead to major problems in Sri Lanka. But, thanks to the colonialists and the collapse of the monastic order, basic doctrinal changes of Theravada Buddhism were made in the lay community of Sri Lanka. + +Around the turn of the fourth century BCE, the Mauryan dynasty produced its third emperor in India. He was the son of Bindusara, and was called Asoka. He, like his predecessors, had a predilection for conquest. Though he managed to greatly increase the reach of the Indian empire, he did it at great cost to the lives of Indians. Each conflict was fearsome and bloody, despite their general success. It was one of these battles, the Kalinga campaign, that was so devastatingly gruesome that it caused Asoka to completely and drastically change his lifestyle. + Upon seeing the carnage of the wars he had instigated, Asoka suddenly renounced warfare of all kinds, and converted to Buddhism. He then launched yet another campaign—but this time a nonviolent one. He wanted a “moral, spiritual and social renewal within his empire.” This included a revision of governmental agencies like the judicial system and public works. More importantly, however, Asoka made it a mission to spread Buddhism. Missionaries were sent throughout India to convert citizens—but they also travelled to new territories such as Sri Lanka and much of Southeastern Asia. In so doing they converted a great number of people. +It was Asoka who called for the third council. This council was of great importance for Theravada Buddhism. During this council, varying sects were analyzed—to determine which sects were “heretical.” It was this council that officially accepted a school of teaching that it referred as Theravada. This council also was highly important because it caused Asoka’s son to travel to Sri Lanka with the Tripitaka. The Sri Lankans have, of course, made Theravada Buddhism their official religion since that time. Without Asoka and the third council, Buddhism would not have found its way into the hands of the Sri Lankans. +Asoka was raised a Hindu—outside of the Buddhist community entirely. He began as an external but converted to an internal member of Buddhist society. He was, in any event, a benign force. He was one of the most important forces in all of Buddhism’s long history, but he did not do much to change it. He merely spread it—he allowed people who would otherwise have had no access to the Dhamma to practice Buddhism. Though Asoka could be interpreted as either an external or an internal force for Theravada Buddhism, what is clear is that he was a benign force. +Asoka had a surprisingly marginal effect on the doctrinal aspect of Buddhism. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q," + + Sometime in the fifth or sixth century BCE, a prince who would one day be called Buddha was born. Over the course of his life, he renounced the world and became enlightened, and his teachings led to the formation of Buddhism—the most orthodox sect of which is known as Theravada Buddhism. The religion is around twenty five hundred years old; it looks different today than it did when Buddha was alive. This can be seen all over, for instance in the Theravada nation of Sri Lanka, where the annual water-cutting ceremony is observed. Monks and laymen alike participate in this ceremony, and it holds some religious significance, despite Buddha never teaching about any festivity of the sort. These differences run all the way from the superficial traditions to the soteriological core of the religion. The Theravada Buddhist community, both from the monastic perspective and from the lay perspective, has had to change its doctrinal principles over time. This can be attributed to forces both external and internal, both hostile and benign. + There are a number of qualifying terms this discussion will make frequent use of. There is the concept of internal versus external. Here, an internal force is defined as a force borne of members of the Buddhasasana, regardless of monastic status. An external force is any force from non-Buddhists. A hostile force is any force that damages or intends to damage the Buddhist community—a force borne of a negative perception of Buddhism. A benign force is a force that does not wish to harm or help the Buddhist community—though it may end up doing one or the other as a byproduct. These terms will come up repeatedly throughout this discussion. + First, it is important to investigate the basics of the religion—the doctrines that lie at the core of Theravada Buddhism. Buddhists seek refuge in the triple gem of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. The Dhamma is essentially comprised of the Tripitaka—the three baskets—of Buddhist text. The Sutta Pitaka contains all the Suttas, the Vinaya Pitaka contains the disciplinary rules, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka contains the metaphysical components of Buddhism. The metaphysical notions consist of things like Anatta—no soul, Dukkha—inherent suffering in life, and Anicca—impermanence of everything. Only by recognizing these concepts can one end Sansara, the cycle of death and rebirth, which happens continuously. Along with Sansara will end lobha—desire, dosa—hatred, and moha—delusion, when one becomes enlightened. In the Vinaya Pitaka, rules for life are set forth. For laymen, there are five precepts (I shall not kill, I shall not lie, I shall not steal, I shall not misbehave sexually, and I shall not take intoxicating substances). For monks, there are many more disciplinary rules to be followed. The most fundamental doctrinal notion in Buddhism is the notion of the four noble truths. First, Dukkha; the truth that life is suffering. Second, that attachment causes suffering. Third, that suffering can be overcome. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"He never wonders if people will consider him a hero—he never even considers himself to be a hero. He narrates his own story, but does so anonymously, to stress the fact that he is not bragging. He recruits a team to help him, rather than try to take on the whole plague himself—a foolish act which could obviously end only in failure. Without this modesty, Rieux could not have gathered a team, and could not have been so effective in fighting the plague. +Camus also demonstrates the existentialist qualities he perceives in the world around him by emphasizing the circular nature of the events in the novel. At the outset, he establishes Oran as an average town, with nothing at all extraordinary. He explains, “all that was to be conveyed was the banality of the town’s appearance and of life in it” (5). He then describes the gradual devolutionary spiral the town enters into, step by step. First, diseased rats die in the streets and cause general disquiet. As the plague spreads to people, “[t]he local press, so lavish of news about the rats, now had nothing to say. For rats died in the street; men in their homes. And the newspapers are concerned only with the street” (35). But soon, the weekly death rate becomes too high for people to ignore. As one family after another is escorted off to the quarantine and people die by the hundreds, the town erupts into anarchy. People are routinely shot on the streets and bodies are burned, “authorities… declare martial law and enforce the regulations deriving from it. Two looters were shot” (171). As the plague ends, however, the town gradually returns to normal. The narrator finishes his explanation of those whose lives were ruined by the plague by asking, “[b]ut who gave a thought to these lonely mourners?” (296). One of Rieux’s patients responds to the news that there is going to be a monument erected for the victims of the plague by saying, “I could have sworn it! And there’ll be speeches… I can almost hear them saying: ‘Our dear departed…’ And then they they’ll (sic) go off and have a good snack” (307). By emphasizing that the town is not changed by the epidemic, Camus shows the futility of Rieux’s efforts. Despite all the work Rieux dedicates to plague victims, he is not recognized as a hero, nor does the world even work particularly hard to remember the plague he fought so hard against. + Camus intends for his novel to be an allegory for the Holocaust. His novel captures the collapse of society and devolution encouraged by the Nazis. It brings to mind a time in which life is cheap and society is pervaded by a general, formless terror—a terror of some unspeakably wicked force, which has the power to strike and kill anyone at any instant. There is a general sense that no one is safe. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"Though Brook Farm was founded on educational tenets, Hawthorne was overwhelmed by the workload, and his vicious invectives against the community did not convey the objective conditions at Brook Farm, but rather the extreme negative side of Brook Farm—which Hawthorne needed to see before he could allow himself to leave. + By June, Hawthorne’s optimism was completely gone. He wrote, “[t]hat abominable gold-mine! Thank God, we anticipate getting rid of its treasures in the course of two or three days! Of all hateful places that is the worst”. The summer apparently took a toll on Hawthorne, and he did not write again until August 12th. That day, he expressed that, “[e]ven my Custom House experience was not such a thralldom and weariness; my head and heart were free. Oh, labor is the curse of the world”. This hyperbole was written by Hawthorne for Hawthorne—he did not intend for his journals to be published or released to the public. In this way, Hawthorne tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing by leaving. By taking an extreme stance, he justified his decision in his own mind. +At that point, Hawthorne just wanted to leave the community. He initially hoped that he and his companion could live there together. Because leaving the community meant giving up this potential future and a considerable sum of money, Hawthorne had to convince himself that he could absolutely never live there. He wrote of the “one other week that I shall remain a slave”, again using hyperbole to express the sheer horribleness of Brook Farm. He expressed his hopefulness for a living in “little books as I mean to write”. On Brook Farm, he often felt that his labor had left him too exhausted to write, or that he simply did not have enough time. He used his journal to establish that he simply could not live his life happily on Brook Farm. + Over the course of his stay at Brook Farm, Hawthorne changed dramatically. He wrote initially of his determination and excitement to become a laborer. A month later, he skipped work to read. By June, he complained of spending long days toiling in the fields as if it were the worst fate anyone could ever be forced to endure. He preferred more scholarly pursuits—even the dreadfully boring Custom House was preferable to Hawthorne. His shift to the negative conveys his need to convince himself that, despite the time, energy, and money he had invested in Brook Farm, he had to leave. He wrote of Brook Farm in such negative terms because he had to justify leaving. + Brook Farm put a priority on education. Instead of focusing on that, however, Hawthorne wrote about the labor. His journal reflects a frustration with having to constantly work, and a wish that there was more time to read and write. The very fact that Hawthorne kept a journal reflects his desire to write, not work. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"They changed the doctrinal philosophy of Buddhism—as a result of Dharmapala. +Vidyalankara did not change the doctrinal fundamentals of Buddhism, but they did go against some of what the Buddha taught. The Buddha taught that monks should have no involvement with politics. This subject has recently been a topic of extreme controversy, but the Vidyalankara monks certainly made their standpoint very clear. They deliberately involved themselves in politics—in fact they often made it their lives work. Though they did not change any doctrinal concept, they did shape how Sri Lankans currently interpret the word of Buddha. +But Dharmapala’s greatest impact on Sri Lanka was arguably his contribution to the ethnolinguistic polarization of the country. Sri Lanka had two prevailing cultures—the Sinhala culture and the Tamil culture. For thousands of years they coexisted, but Dharmapala was the first to highlight their differences. He vocally supported the Sinhala people over the Tamils. Because of his influence, a hegemonic pattern developed in Sri Lanka. The Sinhala people had complete control over the government, and used it against the Tamils. For instance, in a 1956 election, Sinhala was made the official language of Sri Lanka. This tension, established initially by Dharmapala, led to massive conflict between the two groups. +H.M. Gunaratne documented his experience in this massive conflict in his memoir Life Means Not to Kill. As a boy, he is enrolled in a nearby monastery but shortly realizes that the monastic life is not for him. He prefers the life of a scholar, and even spends some time at an American college. Gunaratne develops strong socialist and Marxist sentiments, and becomes minimally involved with the JVP—the group in opposition to the government. Government officials take him to a prison where he is savagely beaten and deprived of food, in an attempt to get him to reveal information about his supposed JVP connections. The insight his account provides to this discussion is in his title. +During these racial conflicts, the first precept was lost by the laypeople of a Theravada Buddhist country. Anyone who calls him or herself a Buddhist must agree to refrain from killing, but in these troubled times in Sri Lanka, assassinations were regularly made on a political basis. This doctrinal shift is as important as any in the history of Theravada Buddhism. Even the ruthless Emperor Asoka, who was responsible for the death of thousands and commanded numerous bloody wars, converted to Buddhism and immediately venerated the first precept. Yet in Sri Lanka, during the Sinhala-Tamil conflicts, the first precept was less emphasized. Other precepts were violated casually by Buddhist laypeople—for instance, Gunaratne misbehaved sexually and enjoyed intoxicating liquor. But this conflict represented a tremendous shift in the lay perspective of doctrinal Buddhism—the First Precept could be broken on a national scale, just as casually as any of the others. +Dharmapala was an obvious internal force on Theravada Buddhism, but it is arguable whether he was hostile or benign. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q," At the very end of the novel, Rieux finds himself being drawn into a crowd of jubilant citizens, celebrating the defeat of the plague. He distances himself from the crowd and in so doing, he observes that it is only those who depended on love to get through the plague who celebrate. He considers their desires to be “limited” but thinks it is right that they should “enter, if only now and then, into their reward” (301). He resolves at this point to make a record of his experiences during the plague. He explains that, while it is impossible to be a saint, people, “in the never ending fight against terror,” must always “strive their utmost to be healers” (308). Finally, Rieux makes the observation that the people celebrating must not know anything of the nature of plague. The plague “never dies or disappears for good,” but has the ability to “lie dormant” and undetected for years (308). Therefore, the world is at constant risk of another plague epidemic, and defeating it once is not a lasting victory but a temporary one. Therefore, Rieux sees no reason for celebration. The people celebrating in the streets are the bystanders of tomorrow—those who will be unprepared for another coming of the plague. Rieux instead greets the end of the plague with a weary satisfaction, making sure to never let himself slip into complacency—as the plague could strike again without warning. +In studying the Holocaust from a psychological perspective, the bystander is an incredibly difficult person to understand—but Camus uses The Plague to suggest that their motivation sprung from simple self-interest. It is simple to understand why someone would not risk their life for a reason they could not see or understand. Camus suggests that the only type of hero that could exist during the Holocaust was the existential hero—someone who did not care about personal reward. According to Camus, the bystanders were prevented from being saviors by their solipsism. + + + + + Nathaniel Hawthorne joined the Brook Farm community in 1841, the year of its founding, and kept a journal of his experiences there. From April 13th, 1841 through September 3rd of the same year, he documented his daily experiences on Brook Farm. Hawthorne left the community after a short five months. He was initially excited about the labor component of his stay there, and wrote, “I shall make an excellent husbandman,--I feel the original Adam reviving within me”. Over time, his excitement was worn down. By May, he skipped work to read—“I intend to keep myself on the sick-list this one day longer, more especially as I wish to read Carlyle on Heroes”. By June, his outlook had made a one-hundred-eighty-degree shift, and he wrote of Brook Farm with loathing disdain. He used extremes and hyperboles to justify his departure from the community. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"The Thudong monks clearly were closer to self-mortification than indulgence in sensuous pleasures, and therefore not following exactly the middle path. They practiced corpse meditation and always followed some number of the Dhutangas, further demonstrating their tendency towards self-mortification. This certainly came into effect for Theravada ascetics and wandering monks, but the mainstream Buddhist community did not feel the effect of these tweaks in the Buddha’s teachings. + A Sri Lankan Buddhist named Anagarika Dharmapala (not the same as the King under Portuguese colonial rule) had incalculable effect on the Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition. Dharmapala was widely respected for claiming the site where Buddha gained his enlightenment for Buddhist nations. It was Dharmapala who pressed into Sri Lankans the idea of “Protestant Buddhism” around the turn of the twentieth century. This concept had both a monastic and social leg to it—he wanted the laypeople to be more like Protestant laypeople and the monks to be more like Protestant priests. During Dharmapala’s time, the government was seen to become increasingly Buddhist but also increasingly English-speaking. As a result, politicians drifted out of touch with their electorate, and needed Buddhist monks to act as go-betweens. Dharmapala also made it his political work to get rid of the colonialists in Sri Lanka. He achieved a great deal of success in all his works and was considered a hero of Theravada Buddhism. +It is difficult to overstate the impact of Dharmapala on Sri Lankan Buddhist culture. In the wake of Dharmapala’s work, two monastic colleges were founded near Colombo—Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara. The two colleges were a representation of the binaries contained within Dharmapala’s teachings. He loved and hated the Protestants. In so doing, he established a tension between nationalism and internationalism—in Protestant Buddhism it was difficult to say which was more important. These two monastic colleges are yet another binary. Vidyodaya was focused on social issues. They worked primarily on rural development. Politics were not their primary focus. Vidyalankara was focused on political issues. They worked to develop the country politically—and their prevailing sympathies lay with Socialism. Social issues were not their primary focus. These two colleges both had an impact on doctrinal Buddhism for the monastic order. +From a doctrinal standpoint, Vidyodaya completely changed the notion of dana, almsgiving, for monks. Vidyodaya monks began doing charity work in rural Buddhist communities. This, of course, had no basis in the Dhamma and the monks were pressed for a reason why. What they cited was the classic concept of dana. They had to change it slightly to let it apply to them, however. In the traditional doctrinal sense, dana is a concept intended for the laypeople. It suggests that Buddhist laypeople should give alms to those who have renounced the world, as part of their commitment to Buddhism. Dana, as Buddha preached it, did not have anything to do with monks giving back to their community. But that is just what the monks did. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"His intentions for the Theravada Buddhist community (or at least the Sinhala component of it) were certainly good, but the effects his philosophy brought about devastated the small island nation. In any event, it is difficult to find a figure in Theravada Buddhism, short of Buddha himself, who had a greater impact on how doctrines were interpreted in Sri Lanka. As a result of Dharmapala, the concepts like dana and doctrines like the first precept were drastically changed. Upon viewing the carnage of the Sri Lankan Sinhala-Tamil conflicts, it is difficult to say Dharmapala was benign. But, upon viewing his vision for Buddhism, it is also difficult to say he was hostile. What is not difficult to determine is his tremendous impact on Sri Lankan Buddhism in both the monastic and lay communities. +A hundred years after the life of Buddha, the Second Council was held. At this council, several minor disciplinary rules were clarified. For instance, it was a cause of controversy if monks should be able to accept gold and silver as alms. Several doctrinal concepts also arose at this council. There was a group of monks who argued that there was a way to become even more enlightened than an Arhat. They claimed that a person could achieve actual Buddhahood. This major doctrinal question was deliberated over by a council of elders. It was eventually determined that the concept of achieving Buddhahood was not in the Buddha’s teachings, and that it was blasphemous against the religion. The monks, however, could not accept this and formed the now-popular Mahayana tradition. The Second Council was an internal, benign force that ended up fracturing the Buddhist community in two. It served to clean up the doctrine, however. Because of the Second Council, it became set in stone that the highest possible level of enlightenment one can obtain in the Theravada tradition is that of Arhat. +This discussion has observed three external forces: British colonialism (especially the Kandyan convention), Portuguese colonialism, and Dutch colonialism in Sri Lanka. One force—Asoka—was difficult to categorize. There were also three internal forces: the Thudong monks, Dharmapala, and the Second Council. Of these seven forces, four were benign: British colonialism, the Thudong monks, the Second Council, and Asoka. Two were hostile: Portuguese and Dutch colonialism in Sri Lanka. One force—Dharmapala—was difficult to categorize. Some forces had a stronger effect on the monastic community than the lay community, while others affected the lay community much more drastically. Not all of these forces caused a doctrinal change in Buddhist tradition. These were only a handful of the forces that shaped modern-day Theravada Buddhism—countless other forces contributed to the formation of modern-day Buddhist soteriology. +This discussion has also looked at a few doctrines affected by these forces, such as the Noble Eightfold Path and the Five Precepts. It appears from the examples that internal forces more easily change doctrinal Buddhism, as external forces both benign and hostile did not cause drastic change in doctrinal Buddhism. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +q,"In addition, benign and hostile forces were equally likely to invoke change in doctrinal concepts. Finally, external forces tended to affect both the lay and monastic community fairly drastically, while internal forces had no clear tendency towards either the lay or monastic communities. +Theravada Buddhism is not immune to the laws that govern all religions. As thousands of years go by, and the world around it changes, it shifts and adjusts. These changes can be attributed in some degree to internal and external forces that naturally cause the doctrines of the religion to shift. Theravada Buddhism, despite being the more orthodox and rigid Buddhist tradition, has shown itself to be a dynamic, changing religion. It has adapted to situations by modifying its doctrines as necessary and in so doing, shown its endurance. Buddhism has lasted for over twenty-five centuries, and is likely to continue on for thousands of years to come, because of the ability of its followers to adapt and interpret doctrine. The Buddha said, “Even well-decked royal chariots wear away;/And the body too falls into decay./But the dhamma of good ones goes not to decay,/For the good speak [of it] with the good.” These words apply to the entire Theravada tradition—it endures. + + + + +In the wake of the Holocaust, French Existentialist Albert Camus published a novel that, on the surface, had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Plague was, however, an allegory for the genocide that the world was suffering through. The narrator tells the story of Rieux (and turns out to be Rieux). When the plague strikes the small North African French village of Oran, Rieux—the doctor—finds himself faced with countless difficult decisions to make; the first decision is the closing of Oran’s gates and its isolation from the rest of the world. In Rieux’s desperate struggle to save as many people as possible, Camus reveals an insight about the Holocaust. Camus portrays Rieux as a quintessential existential hero, and in so doing he suggests that the submission of Europe to Nazi rule can be explained by a general focus on self-interest. + Camus explains the world in terms of one simple truth: people die. As a corollary to this truth, Camus explains that the decisions people make on a day-to-day basis are trivial and meaningless. In fact, all free will is meaningless, as the net result of any decision, in the very very long term, is death. In light of this sole truth, Camus describes existential heroes as men or women who understand that the choices they make are meaningless, and choose to help others nonetheless. They help others, even knowing that they will not be rewarded for their heroic actions. These existential heroes can be found in nearly all of Camus’ work. + Dr. Rieux is a prime example of an existential hero. When the plague strikes Oran, he devotes his life to saving as many people as possible. ",19,English,male,Some College,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"As we see it happened again in 2000; and it didn't just occur twice. The election of 1876 between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, is one of the most debated and controversial elections to have ever taken place. As the day came to an end, Samuel J. Tilden held the popular vote at 4,300,590 almost 300,000 more than Rutherford B. Hayes. With the electoral vote at 184 to 165 in favor of Tilden, it all seemed to be in the bag for Tilden; but we know better by now, things did not go as planned. + + Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina held 20 electoral votes which had not been given to either candidate as of yet (with one vote in Oregon being declared illegal.) Both parties rallied for those votes, and both claimed that it was clear that their nominee was the victor. + + Legal proceedings began and votes began to be discounted for things such as improper ballot labeling, and threats towards voters. In the end, all 20 of the disputed votes were given to Hayes, bringing his electoral college vote win to 185 over Tilden's 184. Cries of corruption were heard far and wide, but it was not just sound the of tears that was disrupting things. Shots were fired into Hayes' home as he sat down to eat dinner, and threats on his life were far from rare. + + The final results ended with President Rutherford B. Hayes being awarded the presidency which he took control of on March 4th, 1877. A common belief as to why the election turned out as it did, was an informal deal known as the Compromise of 1877. In the unwritten compromise, Rutherford B Hayes was awarded the necessary electoral votes in exchanged for promising to end the the reconstruction put in place after the Civil War; including the removal of federal troops. At that point the only troops which were still in place were Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida – the three disputed states. Florida sold itself too quickly, as the troops were removed by President Ulysses S. Grant before Hayes even took the Presidency. So we are left to wonder, what was truly gained? + + Just a few short years later, we saw even more challenge against the electoral college system. Incumbent President Grover Cleveland was running for his second term against Benjamin Harrison. Harrison's grandfather, William Henry Harrison had once held the nations highest tittle as the 9th President of the United States, but died soon into his term. + + Grover Cleveland ran a tough campaign, and it showed in the results as he dominated the southern states and taking a victory as far north as Connecticut (270towin). Winning the popular vote 5,540,309 to Benjamin Harrison's 5,439,853 the incumbent President became the newest victim of the electoral college system. While Cleveland held the popular vote, the northern states which Harrison carried, carried most of the electoral votes as well; causing an electoral vote loss for Cleveland at 168 to 233. +",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"Within each party there is an elected President and the Bundestag has the responsibility to elect a Federal Chancellor of Germany (a position currently held by Angela Merkel, the first female Chancellor of Germany.) A chancellor can be recalled by the parliament if they feel that he or she is not doing a proper job, this has only occurred successfully once, in 1982 when Helmut Schmidt was ousted and replaced immediately by Helmut Kohl. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The Federal Chancellor is in control of the direction that the government goes. It is his or her job to guide the ministers (which they choose) and tell them of their responsibilities, as well as the platform of government responsibility. Germany based this system off of the British Prime Minister, with one exception with their multi-party system of power and disfavor towards the “First past the post” system of England. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The Bundestag also is in charge of passing amendments, laws and other forms of legislation, mostly those which have been proposed by the Federal government. They do so by discussing the bills and reading them to their full extent rather than arguing and debating. As well as discussing the bills, it discusses the work of the federal government, and keeps its actions within the knowledge of the common people in an open and honest fashion. (Hartmann, 2011) + +Germany also has a Federal President who represents the country and deals with other heads of state. It is his or her job to appoint certain members such as judges, and sign certain acts into legal law. While the President lacks the right to veto, he or she can dissolve parliament in rare cases. Overall, it is his or her duty to ensure that the Parliament follows the Basic Law. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The second chamber of the German government is the Bundesrat which is involved in around half of all legal procedures by representing the 16 states of Germany. Votes are given to the states on a population basis (between 3 and 6 votes depending on size.) The Bundesrat's main job is to approve any laws which repeal and replace laws which are considered central federal laws, or such a legislation that would require higher amounts of administrative costs. (Hartmann, 2011) + +Finally, Germany's final wing of their government is the Federal Constitutional Court which serves a similar process to the U.S Supreme Court by repealing any legislative act which it deems unconstitutional, or against the Basic Law. This system of checks and balances is similar to that used in The United States and is important to stop complete control from being gained. (Hartmann, 2011) +Berlin is the current capital of Germany, and the location of the Bundesrat and the Bundestag. The Capital of West Germany during the split was Bonn, a city located on the river Rhine in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The main choice of this was to keep it in a smaller city to insure that one day the capital would be relocated to a reunified Berlin. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"Though his iron-fist rule was the source of his downfall, when he was assassinated not by Roman forces but by Germanic. Still, he gave a voice to the people which showed that they could stand shield-to-shield with the Roman forces and have a chance at victory. As the Visigoths, came down towards the borderlands after fleeing form the Huns, they found the conditions which the Romans enforced to be unacceptable. Under the leadership of Alaric I the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes sacked Rome, the jewel of the Western Roman Empire, in 410. + +The Visigoths held their rightfully gained power, but there was a new power quickly growing between the Rhine and Meuse rivers, the Franks. The Franks had themselves a large amount of territory by 481 when Clovis I united the kingdoms. Centered around the modern day city of Aachen, Germany; The Empire would soon grow to become one of the strongest in all of Europe. + +Grandson of Merovech (the Empire's semi-legendary founder and namesake), Clovis I was hidden beneath a clandestine fog of mystery and the supernatural. It was said that he, and other Merovingian leaders had the ability to cure the sick with their hands, to tame wild animals and other powers. (Sewell, 2006) While we can look at this now in modern times and understand how silly such a claim is, Clovis was able to do something much more unbelievable: unite the Gauls. With a victory at The Battle of Soissons in 486, Clovis conquered the last Roman territory in Gaul and executed its Magister militum Syagrius. (The History Files, 2011) Followed by his victory at the Battle of Vouille, where he killed king Alaric II and pushed the Visigoths south of the Pyrenees. (Medieval Times History, 2011) Clovis' reign importantly involved converting his troops to Roman-Catholicism which he converted to himself to appease his wife. He claimed that during a battle against the Alemanni he invoked the name of Jesus Christ for aid. (Ozment, 2005 pg. 37) Clovis united the Frankish kingdoms, defeated the Thuringians, the Alemanni, the Alsace and the Arian Goths all to gain considerable land mass in present day Germany and Europe. + +Charlemagne would continue the Frankish reign, under the Carolingian Dynasty where he extended their land holds to the highest points. The extent of the Frankish Empire can be seen below in blue. (Sewell, 2006) + + +From this point, things move forward with great losses and regains. Beginning with the grandchildren of Charlemagne who fought over control of the land when their father died. After the Treaty of Verdun ended their civil war, the once grand empire was split into three. This would start to define the border between what would later become France and Germany. (Koeller, 1999) + +Taking the pieces left, Otto I was crowned King of Germany in 962 in what was considered to be the unofficial start of the Holy Roman Empire. (Velde, 2008) The Empire never took to the grandeur it could have. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"Due to its smaller size, it was jokingly known as Bundesdorf during that period, which literally meant “Federal Village.” (Time Magazine, 1964) + +The core areas of the country would be the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen as well as Bavaria for its unique foods, dress (such as the Lederhosen and Dirndl), interesting dialects, music, and culture which attracts millions to its area, and to events such as Oktoberfest. + +The German language itself is an art-form, and quite well established within the world. Germanic languages form the basis of English itself and it doesn't take long for one to notice the similarities between the two languages if you study them both. The most widely used and proper form of German is called Hochdeutsch, or “High German” though once you travel outside of the major cities, you'll start to encounter several different forms. Estimates vary, but it is believed that between 50 and 250 different dialects of the German language exist. (About.com, 2011) + +Part of this reason is the fact that Germany was not united until the 1870's, and thus the border cultures tended to take in similarities to their neighbors, and their neighbors took in parts of German. Such as The Elsace-Lorraine region of France where one can find a dialect known as Elsässich. (About.com, 2011) Everything from greetings “Hallo”, “Grüß Gott!”, “Moin!” change depending on which part of Germany you are in. + +As stated in (About.com, 2011), there are 6 dialect families. They include Friesich, or Frisian which is spoken in small areas around the North Sea coastal region and is the smallest of them all. Niederdeutsch, also known as Plattdeutsch is low-German, and is named after the low lands of the area (Nieder is the same basis for the name of the The Netherlands, or Niederlande in German.) + +Next we have Mitteldeutsch (Middle German) through the middle of the country, with the Fränkisch dialect within its borders, that follows the Main river. Alemannisch in Switzerland and the Bavarian-Austrian dialect. + +This can cause some minor problems, though this is mainly a problem for tourists or inexperienced German as a second language, speakers. Germans usually have little problem understanding a German from another dialect other than a few key words which may cause confusion (similar to jelly/jam/jello, or college/high school/university confusions that we see in American vs British English.) Though a certain Austrian had no trouble speaking publicly to the masses of Germany, and they understood him just fine. + +Adolf Hitler attempted to turn Germany into a nation-state. Though historically and currently, Germany has been a conglomerate of different tribes, races, religions, and people. After World War II, there was a great urge to get people to immigrate to Germany, and that they did! Especially from the country of Turkey. + + +",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," + +The oldest areas and regions are known as Stem Duchies, Stammesherzogtümer. These included Saxony in the north. With Bullungers, Lusatia, Meissen, Merseburg and Thuringia to its east. To the west were Lower Lorraine which is in modern day Netherlands, and Upper Lorraine which is part of Belgium now. In the center stood Franconia, and Bohemia with Swabia and Bavaria to the south which would later make up modern day Germany. (Ross, 2011) + +During the first unification, Germany combined the four kingdoms including: Prussia who had the capital of Berlin; Bayern with the capital of München; Sachsen with its capital Dresden; and Württemberg with Stuttgart. With the Grand Duchies of Baden, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mercklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach also included. + +The main losses since then was much of Prussia. Prussia at the time of unification reached straight through Poland, and Lithuania followed all the way to Russia in the east and even part of Belgium in the west. Through WWI and WWII Prussia lost its land until it was abolished in 1947. + +During World War II, Germany gained land but it was not recognized. It was what happened afterward that is the most important in terms of geography. After victory in Europe, Germany was split into four occupation zones. These zones defined what would later become two separate Germany's. On May 23rd of 1949, The Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, was formed. On October 7th of the same year East Germany, the German Democratic Republic formed. The two countries became almost polar-opposites of each other. With different political styles, and different life styles they went down different paths. Still, on November 9th of 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened and by October of 1990 reunification talks began, and once again Germany was whole. (Germanplaces.com, 2011) + + + + +Germans modern states were reformed during the allied occupation, with the addition of 9 new states. This was mostly due to bringing together various smaller states and including parts of Prussia which officially ended in 1947. Since then, Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Württemberg-Baden combined to form Baden-Württemberg. In 1957 Saarland became part of Germany again from under France control. The current states with the capitals in parenthesis are Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart), Bayern (München), Brandenburg (Potsdam), Hessen (Wiesbaden), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Schwerin), Niedersachsen (Hannover), Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), Rheinland-Pfalz (Mainz), Saarland (Saarbrücken), Sachsen (Dresden), Sachsen-Anhalt (Magdeburg), Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel), and Thüringen (Erfurt.) And the current city states are Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen. (Germany Insider, 2011) + +Germany itself is mainly a compact state, and slightly fragmented in the north. Germany has several rivers, including the Rhine in the west and its tributary Main flows through Frankfurt. In the north the rivers Ems, Wesser and Elbe flow out into the North Sea. The last significant river of Germany is the Danube which flows through Bavaria. The north border of Germany includes the North Sea and the Baltic Sea which are connected via the Kiel Canal.(MapsOfWorld.com, 2009) +",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"In October of 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the shocking statement that multiculturalism in Germany had “utterly failed.” and that there should be immediate action to stop the flow of Turkish immigrants entering the country. The Chancellor claimed that these groups could not happily work together for the betterment of the country. (Guardian, 2010) + +One of the main issues in Germany is their birth rate, the lowest in all of Europe. Germany includes great government support for those who wish to have kids, including incredible support for the mother and father with time off from work to raise the kid (and guaranteed jobs when they return.) so it is no surprise that immigrants are needed in the country. Still Chancellor Merkel is no stranger to her fight against immigrants. In 2007 she made it so that all immigrants must be able to speak, and write German before they could be considered citizens. Though these laws do not count for those who are coming from North America, something which has been seen as xenophobic. (Cisneros, 2007) + +In East Germany in 1953, a conflict known as the Uprising in East Germany took place. Only a few months after the death of Joseph Stalin, a huge workers rights uprising began to the great surprise of the leaders of East Germany, and the Soviet Union. Within the factories the workers were met with unimaginable quotas and they took the streets on June 17th to protest these in hopes of reform. Within days the protesters showed up in over 400 locations within East Germany and took on political protesters as well. They took the force of the protest to speak out against not only labor reform but free elections and an end to the communism. The Red Army was issued with tanks and a license to open fire onto protesters and the revolt was ultimately crushed. (Domber, 2001) + +East Germany went on to aid the Soviets in the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Germany then gave aid against Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War in 1999 and participated in the War on Terror by giving troops to the cause in Afghanistan in 2001. (History Guy) + +While Germany has remained fairly free of terrorist attacks, one major event took place on April 5th, 1986 when a bomb was placed by suspected Libyan terrorists by order of Mu'ammar Qadhafi. The bomb exploded inside a Discotheque frequented by American soldiers in West Berlin, causing the deaths of three, and the injuries of over 200 others. (Oettinger, 2011) + +Germany has enjoyed a rich history, very few countries can give praise to heroes born in 18 BC, for a battle which stopped a Roman invasion and give thanks to it at a memorial built in the 1840s and still call him a national hero despite there not being a country to begin with until the 1870s. While it took so long for Germany to unite, and then reunite, I believe Germany is here to stay. + +Certainly there are major differences between different parts of Germany. +",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"The Empire went up and down through the ages, and gradually began to lose large amounts of land as new Empires started to gain power. + +In 1870 Germany saw the threats of these other nations growing around them. With the French on their border, the English looking down on them, the Russians making a name for themselves and Austria out for blood, it came down to uniting or being taken apart piece-by-piece. Otto von Bismarck realized the importance of having a Prussian dominated Germany. In 1871 his dream was realized as a unified Germany became an official state for the first time. (Ozment, 2005 pg 212) +Germany has since gone through major changes but currently holds an important place in the European world. When Greece began to experience growing financial instability, Germany approved a controversial bill which gave Greece 110 billion euros in loans over the next three years. (Washington Times, 2010) + +Germany is greatly involved in world politics as a whole. It is a member of NATO, The United Nations, as well as the Council of Europe. It is involved with the G8 – which it hosted 5 times – and the G20 summits. + +Germany recently made monumental steps against nuclear energy. Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed that “[Germany has] the chance to become the first industrialized nation to switch over to the electricity of the future” by disabling all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. (Bundesregierung, 2011) + +The main exports of Germany are metals, and automobiles. With more than 1.3 trillion dollars in exports this past year (a 16.77% increase since last year, and nearly a trillion dollars more than in 2003) the German export market continues to increasingly grow despite foreign markets struggling. (IndexMundi, 2010) +In order to discuss the size and shape of Germany, one has to decide what you consider Germany. Throughout this essay I've discussed the history and prehistory of Germany and how much it has changed. Therefore I find it vital to begin there again in terms of the geography. Germania as a whole covered a vast area. It generally signified the regions which were unconquered by the Romans. From the Rhine river to the North and Baltic seas and far into modern day Russia, the region was something grand. However, size does not always count. Despite it being such a large region, it was not one united group, or nation but various small, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes often at war with each other. + +As the Frankish Empire began to grow out of the area between the Rhine and Meuse rivers, it quickly began to expand. In 481 it held Austrasia, a region which currently consists of Aachen, Köln, parts of France and The Netherlands. Clovis I went on to conquer what is now France but was part of the Frankish Empire at that point. After Clovis came the conquests of Burgundy, and Gascony in the 530's. Charlemagne brought it to the greatest extent as he brought in Bavaria, Italy, and Upper Saxony to the empire. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"Though we have to look a bit of a distance back in history to see it, but us historians knew that this was far from the first time this had occurred. + + As we gaze back in history, we come across one of the most controversial elections that makes the Gore and Bush dispute look like a minor hassle. The year was 1824, and unlike the two-nominee melee that we experienced in 2000, this was a five man race. Dwindling down to four towards the end with John C. Calhoun dropping out to accept the vice presidential position, the remaining four were in heated battle. John Quincy Adams, son of the second president; Andrew Jackson, the hero of The Battle of New Orleans; William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury during James Madison and James Monroe's terms; and Henry Clay, The Speaker of the House of Representatives, all wanted the position of leader of the country. The Democratic-Republican party shared a common name but their Jeffersonian ideals, or lack there of, as described in (American Experiment, 2006) caused five distinct factions to form (p. 382). + + From even the 4th and 3rd place, we see the same occurrence of the Bush and Gore issue. In 4th place with 37 electoral votes, and 47,531 popular votes was Speaker Henry Clay. The ill William H. Crawford crawled slightly ahead of him with 41 electoral votes but only 40,856 of the popular vote (270towin). The top two contenders left were John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and if you know your history, you know that Jackson did not become President until 1829. + + Therefore it must be assumed that John Quincy Adams won the election in popular and electoral votes. However, that is simply not the case, neither of those are true. The election of 1824 ended with a landslide victory for Andrew Jackson with 153,544 votes and 99 electoral votes. With 84 electoral votes and 44,804 votes behind Jackson, John Quincy Adams was clearly not the victor. However, there was a problem, no one had won the majority (270towin). + + Therefore it came upon the house to decide who would take the position of the Presidency of the United States of America. Henry Clay, was confident that Adams would nominate him to position of Secretary of State and thus supported and rallied for support for Adams. Jackson, outraged, protested of the corruption with fellow southerner Calhoun who called the alliance of Clay and Adams “The most dangerous stab, which the liberty of this country has yet received” (The American Experiment, 2006). + + In the end, President John Adams was inaugurated on March 4th, 1825 after having been thoroughly defeated in the eyes of the public. Andrew Jackson did however, go on to have a great victory over John Quincy Adams in 1828, where he finally rightfully gained the Presidency after Adams served just one term. + + The problem was spotted, it had yet to occur on such a scale before, surely it was fixed afterward? ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," + Grover Cleveland would regain his Presidency in 1892. Following in the steps of Andrew Jackson who defeated Quincy Adams twice, but only won the Presidency from him once; Grover Cleveland went on again to win the popular vote against Benjamin Harrison. This time, however, Cleveland also carried far more states and won the electoral vote as well taking taking the vital states of New York, Illinois and California as well as the lake states which he lacked in 1888. + + One would think that after the tie that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr found themselves in the year 1800, the 12th amendment (which outlines the procedures of President and Vice Presidential election) would have done a lot more to prevent any sort of confusion or debate ever again. You would think that after 1824 they would have tried again, or even 1876, or again in 1888. As we look back at the election of 2000, is it not time to finally say that we should be the ones who step up and make a change? History repeats itself, if nothing more has been gained from this, at least take that in. The year 2000 will not be the last time this happens. Again people will look back and say “Why was nothing done about this the first time, or the fourth time?” + + Why let a system take our vote and twist and mold it to fit their desires? Why should each vote not count? Looking even to the events of 1836 where Martin Van Buren was successful in his bid for the Presidency. However, there was a problem with his Vice President, Richard Johnson, namely that he did not get the same amount of electoral votes that Van Buren did. It came down to the 12th amendment to settle and in the end Johnson did secure the vice presidency. + + And why not let them decide who should win? They do not even care if the candidate is alive or dead. Needless to say, the General of the United States Army during the Civil War was not a very liked President in the south. As the election of 1872 came around, there was a strong desire to take down Ulysses S. Grant in favor of someone who would be a supporter of the south. While he once backed Grant, Horace Greeley soon became the man for the challenge. + + Shortly after the election, Mary Cheney Greeley wife of Greeley passed away. Horace Greeley quickly spiraled into madness and died before the electoral votes could be cast. The Democrats spread their votes that Greeley would have won, around to many others – namely Thomas A. Hendricks – but it was not enough to defeat Grant. + + Despite Horace Greeley being downgraded to deceased, there was still an attempt to give him three electoral votes. A posthumous honour of a great man? Or just an attempt to once again show how much they hated Grant, that they'd rather have a dead man than him as President. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"While the Berlin Wall is nothing more than a memorial, the political systems set up on either side of it have stuck strongly into the hearts of many. While ignoring the problems with the Stasi , many yearn for the days of a Soviet run Germany. (Barkin, 2009) The costs of living, the rights to work, the benefits granted to the citizens and much more are nothing in comparison to the current system set in place in a reunified Germany. + +Therefore I believe that each state, including the perforated Brandenburg, will be able to adopt more socialist based systems, while still staying united with Germany as a whole. Allowing these regions to best fit to the wants and needs of its people will allow for a happier Germany while keeping the country united under one flag. + +With the states of Germany firmly cemented in their places, so too shall the borders be. While Germany may not have much protection from invasion, there is no longer a reason to fear such a thing. It is amazing to think that in 50 years the world has changed so greatly in the way that views such actions. I could never imagine ever opening up a newspaper to read that a country has invaded Germany. In fact, that entire region of Europe is fairly stable and working together. The only invasions you see these days are when the Swiss forget where their borders are and invade Liechtenstein by mistake. (BBC, 2007) + +In the end, Germany is here to stay. To enjoy the sights from the coast of the North Sea, to the peaks in the Alps. To be able to head to München for Oktoberfest or to Köln for Karneval, there will always be a reason to celebrate being German. A people proud of their culture, despite it being a blend of many. A country with a powerful language, including its hundreds of dialects. A place with a long history, despite being a fairly new country. And a place like no other, a place where millions can claim heritage to. So many people in this world can say that they are proud to be German, can you? + + + + The World Wars were meant to end warfare forever. Never again would we as a planet fear that everything we have worked so hard for could be destroyed. The Cold War showed us that that there was never going to be an end to war, and our own creations may just be the end of us and all life on Earth. + + As the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to midnight, both the United States and the Soviet Union began to strengthen their stockpiles and strategically position their warheads. On October 14th of 1962 a U-2 plane flying for the United States Air Force was able to acquire photographic proof of missile bases being constructed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. Along with the United States' missiles in Turkey, both sides now had the ability to strike a devastating and destructive blow to the capitals of their respective countries. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," + +Other key geographic places in Germany include der Schwarzwald, a wooded mountain region in Baden-Württemberg and the various peaks as well as the protective power of the alps in the upper German area that makes up the southern border. Though from the early days when Julius showed that he could bridge the Rhine quickly, most of Germany has been exposed (and occasionally surrounded) by threats. + +Germany is a federal, parliamentary-democratic, republic and it is the second attempt at a democracy in Germany. The first attempt was the period before Nazi Germany known as The Weimar Republic. The flaws within the original system allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power and slowly but surely assume total control. So it was vital to ensure that such a thing did not happen again when the new Federal Republic of Germany began in Western Germany in 1949. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The constitution of Germany was written then, and called “The Basic Law” While it promoted things like reunification, it also took great steps into the deserved liberties of the German people, especially human dignity. The first section states that “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority” It also granted freedoms of press, media, protection of the family and other basic rights. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The Basic Law states that Germany is a constitutional, federal and welfare state and that its leaders are overseen by judicial law. Germany grants ruling powers to the states as well as the central power. Adding to this, it also became a state which provides welfare for its people who need it, including the unemployed, the disabled and those whom are too ill or old to care for themselves. (Hartmann, 2011) + +Germany promotes its political parties, and even reimburses them for monetary costs which they account for during their election campaigns (the first of now many countries to do so.) However, again to keep groups from rising in authoritarian power such as the Nazis did, all political parties must accept and promote democracy. It is within the rights of the Federal Government of Germany to revoke a parties ability to participate in the government if they feel that the party no longer holds its commitment to democracy. Though this has rarely had to happen and the system has mainly remained a five party system since reunification in 1990. This includes the Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union, the Social Democratic Party, Free Democratic Party, The Green Party, and the Left Party. With this system it makes it very difficult for one party to assume control. It is so rare that it has only happened once in 56 years. (Hartmann, 2011) + +The Bundestag is the parliament of Germany and the federal representation of the people; it is housed inside of the Reichstag building in Berlin. There are 598 seats in total, half of which are party seats and the other half are held by people who are elected into the position. +",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," +The Germany of today is considered a strong force, a united country with its own blend of culture from within the shadows of the alps in München, all the way to Baltic sea city of Kiel. The same culture can be felt from Köln on the river Rhine, through the centre of Germany to the Saxon city of Dresden located on the Elbe. With such a unique culture, it shouldn't be surprising that Germany as we now know it comes from several different sources, and tribes. + +Germania is the ancestral land of the Germans. The origins of the name are highly disputed among scholars and historians. Tacitus claimed that the name came from a Germanic Tribe known then as Tungrians, and that they had previously been known as Germans before they crossed the Rhine and battled the Gaulish forces (Tacitus, 98.) Julius Caesar first used the word “Germanus” in his commentary on the Gallic Wars where he put down the Gauls and battled with Germanic tribes which crossed the Rhine often under mischievous premisses. He took this word from The Gauls themselves, and used it to distinguish between those which he had conquered (The Gauls) and those which he had not. While the origin is uncertain, some believe it referred to a neighbor in the Gaulish language. In the first chapter, of his first book on these wars, Julius Caesar notes: “Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they (The Gauls) are continually waging war.....They contend with the Germans in almost daily battles.” (Julius Caesar, 50-40 BC) Others claim the meaning comes from the spear that they used in warfare, known as a ger (O.E.D, 2010), or perhaps from the Old Irish word garim meaning “to shout”, which indicated the Germans were loud, or noisy. (Names of Germany) + + The early Roman historian Tacitus recorded in his AD 98 writing “De Origine et situ Germanorum”, which told of the origins of the Germans, that “I should regard (The Germans) as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For, in former times it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive.......Who would leave Asia, or Africa, for Italy for Germany, with its wild country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and aspect, unless indeed it were his home?(SIC)” (Tacitus, 98) + +And who would leave Rome for Germania? Certainly not the Romans, not yet at least. They would send out their conquests into the lands of Germania for goods, and lead the occasional land campaign but in the end they mostly returned back home to their sprawling empire. So as the Germanic tribes began appearing in the middle of the first century, they lived on the borders of the Roman Empire and traded their goods taken from the land, and their skills by serving within the ranks of the Roman army, (Ozment, 2005 pg. 17.)",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," The Romans did not see them as a threat, a mistake made too often in their history, and let them be. + +Ozment (2005, pg 18) goes on to describe how a Germanic tribe known as the Cimbri, crossed into Roman territory – modern day Austria – in 113 BC in search for food and land to live on. A Roman army confronted the tribe and a battle broke out in Noricum. Once the dust had settled, the Cimbri stood victorious, marking the first time in history that a Germanic tribe defeated a Roman army. Joined by the Teutones, the Cimbri drove the Roman army, which was sent to defeat them just four years later, back into Gaul. The continued to gain strength, and numbers and defeated two more Roman armies before finally being defeated. This not only marked one of the greatest military loses by a nomadic tribe to the Roman army, but also a period of unity between Germanic tribes. + +Though as Caesar noticed immediately, the inhabitants of Germania lusted for battle. Be it the Romans in their way in Noricum, or the Gauls taking the fertile land past the Rhine, the tribes were always ready to fight. This would be a great hindrance to complete unity in these early days, as they were not against also fighting each other. Tacitus noticed this trend as well, he wrote that the Germanic tribes would rather win something by battle and blood, than by wasting their sweat by doing manual labor. + +The Romans used this against the tribes, allowing them to destroy themselves with their own centrifugal forces. Still, some saw the possibility of assimilation. The belief was, that if tribal leaders could become civilized Romans, then they could change the barbaric lifestyle that the others live by. The children of major figures in Germania were offered invites to grow up in Rome, and were occasionally simply kidnapped (Ozment, 2005 pg. 20.) They would be raised as free men in the Roman Empire, where they would have land, receive an education and live as the Romans do. While some would chose to live there for the rest of their lives, others returned to their native lands as pro-Roman, Germanic tribesmen. + +This system occasionally backfired on the Romans. With tensions growing between the extremes of pro-Roman and near rebellion between the Romans and the Cherusci tribe, it was no surprise that the son of the chieftain: Arminius was sent to be raised in Rome. Arminius rose in rank in the Roman army, and took command of the German contingent in A.D 4. His service was greatly respected within the Roman world, however just 5 years later he would be leading his own warriors against the Romans who were hoping to expand into Germania. Arminius used guerrilla war tactics including ambushes in the thick Teutoberg forest as what (Ozment, 2005) claimed was an early use of the German blitzkrieg tactics. + +Arminius became a hero to all the Germans, and united great numbers of tribes into one force. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj,"People in Kiel might think that some customs of München are strange, but they are not opposed to heading down to Bavaria, strapping on some lederhosen and enjoying the festivities every September. This is what makes Germany special. It still has its “tribal” roots which were planted in the ancient days, and now respected by all. + +They battled with Julius Caesar, they battled against Julius Caesar and the same with Rome. They raided the Gauls, they fought enemies from the east and they slew their own too. From the days of Tacitus who noticed this warrior spirit, Germany was no stranger to fighting, but today they are fighting for the pride of Germany. + +Though I often hear people say that they are afraid to be proud of Germany, because people forget that Germany actually existed before 1933. Today Germany is only remembered by many foreigners as “The place where Nazis come from.” When searching for printed resources for this essay I found only one out of 20+ books which did not deal with Hitler's Germany, and that is a shame. The atrocities committed under the Nazi regime shall – rightfully so – never be forgotten. Still, one most remember the struggle that the Germans themselves went through. To consider every German alive then, and every German around now and believe they supported such acts, is ignorant, and intolerable. + +That too shall bring the German people together. Not only can they stand at the Herrmansdenkmal and give thanks to Arminus, they can also visit the Altes Schloss in Stuttgart and give thanks to Claus von Stauffenberg and the others who were assassinated for their attempts to kill Adolf Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government during Operation Walküre. + +The people of Germany are learning to live together, despite the views of Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is within their nature to adapt, and to progress. The rise in immigrants in Germany will allow the country to further share their strong culture with others, and to bring in new cultures which they too can enjoy. Still, Germans must avoid the thinking patterns which Merkel shares. A return to such xenophobia will do nothing good for the country and will only take them backward. + +Financially, I believe Germany will eventually return to the Deutschmark. The foreign market is a force which they can not allow to drag them down, not with their prosperity in such rough times. The Euro will not be completely abolished, and would still be accepted within German borders for ease of travel, but it shall return officially to the Mark. While I understand why Germany is bailing out countries such as Greece, I believe this could become problematic if they become the country which people seek a hand-out from. Germany must invest within its own country before it attempts to put out the never-ending fires of others. + +At a state and federal level, I do believe Germany will – and shall – begin to see individual states gaining more power. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +jj," + + The purpose of this historiographical report is to take a look at the affects of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Operation Mongoose and other attempted coups by the United States to discover their impact on Cuba. It will look at how it positively affected the Caribbean island country and how it has negatively affected it. The essay will use these sources to discover if there are any lasting impacts even still today on the Cuban people. + + This report will also find sources which speak about the impact from the Soviet Union's part in these events. The author will discover sources discussing impacts from a soviet point of view and a Cuban point of view to see what – if any – positives or negatives came from the spreading of the iron curtain to the Caribbean. + + This essay's purpose is justified because it seeks to look at the affects of Cuba while traditionally more of the spotlight is shined on the superpowers of the United States and the U.S.S.R while seeing Cuba as merely a pawn, or location for the events. It will be able to look at how Cuba has become what it is today and how these events impacted the country, including the rise of Fidel Castro and if the events truly helped him gain power. + + By viewing these secondary sources on this topic, the author of this report can find a large amount of accounts of the events which fall on all sides of the spectrum in order to avoid a biased report. + + + + + The biggest mistake any citizen of the United States of America can make is that we actually have a vote that counts. You can not avoid the phrase “Every vote counts!” that is spewed out of mouths every Presidential election. “Yes we can!” Should be “Yes we probably can, you have your say, but nothing is guaranteed!” According to (American Government, 2009) Thomas Jefferson called it “The most dangerous blot on our Constitution” (p. 141). Even more, it is a threat to the rights of citizens, and the things that the revolutionary soldiers fought against. That thing is the electoral college. + + The election of 2000 is still very clear in the minds of adults and children old enough to remember it. The confusion, the court battles and the constant recounts. (The American President, 2007) states the final tally of votes as “Bush: 50,460,110; Gore: 51,003,926” With a victory margin of 543,816 votes (just short of the population of Wyoming.) I am proud to say congratulations to President Albert Arnold Gore! However, that is not the direction that history took; a sad reminder of our flawed system. + + While Albert Gore held the popular vote by a sizable margin, it was the electoral vote which gave George W. Bush the victory with a total of 271 electoral votes over Gore's 266. The average citizen was shocked, and those who voted for Albert Gore felt cheated out of their rightfully earned victory. ",23,English,male,Associates,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll," + + In 2007, the United States of America fell into a crushing financial crisis. Unemployment increased, the housing market crashed, and many of America’s largest and most important corportations were left in ruin. This recession persists today, so we must ask the question: how did this crisis occur, and how can we stop it? In short, the financial crisis was created by selfish and naïve political decision-making that pressured banks and firms into issuing sub-prime loans into an already immature and unsufficient financial infrastructure. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC) were pressured to underwite and repackage these mortgages into CDO’s and CDS’. When borrowers defaulted on these loans, the banks were short on capital reserve and transferred this chaos onto the repacked mortgages that they had sold, and on to the rest of the economy. + The financial crisis had its roots in 1999 of the Clinton era, as the President was aiming for a second term in office. He sought to extend his presidential tenure by augmenting his popularity. To accomplish this the Clinton administration relaxed lending restrictions, which helped to set the grim stage for the sub-prime crisis seven years later. Steven Holmes of the New York Times reported in 1999, “Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.” Holmes would go on to correctly foresee the consequences of these actions: “But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980s.” As detailed in the introduction, and as Holmes foresaw, ill-advised lending would certainly lead to the meltdown of the economy. + Many factors combined to throw the economy into tailspin, one of which was the new and complex structure of mortgages. Adjustable-rate mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations (CDO’s) were all used extensively in the years leading up to the crisis, and only served to intertwine more sectors of the economy into the housing market. This led to U.S. households, and financial markets in general, to overleverage themselves in the housing market, leaving them extremely vulnerable to even small changes in price. + Indeed, the housing bubble burst, and the financial institutions that had bought these mortgage-backed securities were spited. The top five U.S. investment banks all together reported $4.1 trillion dollars of mortgage debts in 2007, which accounted for about 30% of the USA’s GDP. In the end, Bear Sterns and Merrill Lynch were sold exceptionally cheap, Lehman Brothers was dismantled, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were forced to become commercial banks subjected to intense regulation. Fannie and Freddie were $5 trillion in mortgage debt, and were placed under government control in September 2008. +",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"I’m not saying you, the reader, is a serial poster, but everybody knows or has seen somebody who posts and/‌or comments on the Internet. And yeah, it can get annoying. But Collier’s spotlight on these people shows how our interest with the Internet can be taken to the extreme. This is not only a satire, but also a warning call. +In Satire we briefly covered Aristotle’s appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. In addition to satirizing former baseball player Barry Bonds’ battle with the law, this is an example of pathos. How could it not be when the case is titled “USA v. Steroid-Using Liar Barry Bonds.” On another level, though cases are never actually titled with such bias, people are generally slanted on that level towards players who have used performance-enhancing drugs. The article is a satire in that it pronounces so clearly what most of us are thinking about steroid users, but generally do not say so emphatically. +“Dodgeball” is a tremendous comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. It is the tale of a man (Vaughn) who creates a dodgeball team to compete in a competition, so that he can raise enough money to keep his gym open. Stiller’s character operates a rival gym, one that is the opposite of Vaughn’s “average joe” establishment. His gym, Globo Gym, centers on transforming the weak and ugly into “perfection” through unhealthy and intense exercise, dieting, and even surgery. Though this may seem appalling, as the linked video demonstrates, many gyms are taking close to that approach now. Globo Gym is certainly satirical, but like much of satire, it is also a warning to gyms like itself that actually exist. +Ernestine is a character created by Lily Tomlin. Tomlin, a famous and great actress in her own right, used Ernestine in many shows and sketches. The character has a great influence on much of character-driven sketch comedy today. This is because Tomlin would act as Ernestine- even at events and interviews! This immersion in character was unique at the time, and has paved the way for modern comedians like Stephen Colbert to successfully wear their persona in public. +Charlie Sheen’s antics have been well-documented lately. Since Sheen’s characters in movies and on TV are often crazy like himself, one could make the case that he is pulling an Ernestine and simply acting out his life through his roles. The satire here, though, is simply that that is not the case. Sheen is clearly going through a strange place in his life, and listening to his interviews is like listening to a top comedy sketch. +A remake of Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” was released in 2010. This continues the theme of remakes astray from the predecessor’s mark. Though this version is more of a modern retelling, it is almost a satire how hilariously bad it is. Well, then again, I’m not sure they were looking to wow the critics. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"In the case of the Pacific, even if the disaster was not predicted by the tools we think can effectively foresee the future, precautions still could have been taken in case a disaster were to hit. Taleb describes moving people away from the coasts, and modifying house and building structure to be better able to weather the effects of an earthquake or tsunami. Taleb is right in his thinking. We need to take a general approach to events rather than an overly specific one, and have the capability to foresee black swan events, but at the same time, we must also use the predictive tools we have to make further adjustments if we actually foresee a black swan. It is most effective for us to consistently prepare ourselves in case a black swan event occurs, but we must also try to see them coming to gain specific and valuable insight. + The recent disaster in Japan has taken over the news and our hearts. But if black swan theory was incorporated, could the consequences have been lessened? Most certainly. The earthquake affords us the opportunity to witness a black swan event in present time. The earthquake was a surprise, it was high impact, and people tried to rationalize its unexpectedness in hindsight. But the earthquake was not expected. Japan had not had an earthquake of that magnitude in hundreds of years. So what should they have done? They should have prepared for and kept in mind the possibility of a black swan event occurring, just as what should have done in the Pacific. But Taleb focuses mainly on the idea of preparing for a black swan event, and dissuades predicting it. But a mix of preparation and prediction can be the most effective method. Preparatory methods should have been taken in Japan, as Taleb would advise, but prediction is still an important tactic. Looking for a disaster can give a country, like Japan, further insight on how to prepare for a specific event. Though overall preparation can shield countries from damage, specific analysis has significant value. The barbell theory is indicative of this, as it lets one manage their business specifically, while still leaving space open for preparation for black swan events. +Another thing we can learn from reading Black Swan is being well prepared for unexpected errors and different ways to prepare for those, such as using a barbell strategy for investing. The Barbell strategy says that because of uncertainty and possible prediction errors when investing you should be “hyperconservative” and “hyperagrresive”. This means that you need to invest most of your money in safe, stable, and reliable investments and then invest a little bit of your money in higher risk investments. The advantages of using an investing strategy like this is that it minimizes any exposure you would have to a negative black swan event. As Taleb states if you put “85-90 percent in extremely safe instruments, like Treasury bills—as safe a class of instruments as you can manage to find on this planet. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"Said a dying Ponzi, “""Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over."" + How can we prevent another Ponzi scheme? These types of schemes are hard to spot until they are over and innocent people have been swindled, but there are always financial irregularities. A financier’s rise may be too fast or the numbers may not add up. But one of the most indefatigable problems is the widespread corruption, and inability to say no. This was evidenced in the Enron case, as numerous executives from firms such as Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs let blatant dishonesty occur. vWho bore the brunt of the damage? It was the honest workers, such as the oil lineman see in the movie “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” directed by Alex Gibney and based on the watershed reporting by Bethany McLean. + Whether the issue is Enron or Madoff, or any other bubble or fraud, the culture of American business must be changed if we all want to survive, Says Alex Brigham, executive director of the Ethisphere Institute, “many companies paid lip-service to corporate ethics and compliance, maintaining such departments but sidelining them in major decisions.” Brigham has started the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance, “inviting corporations to commit themselves to a set of ethical standards and pledge to follow ‘the letter and spirit’ of the law to curb illegal behavior.” PepsiCo, Wal-Mart Stores, Dell, General Electric and United Airlines have already signed up, but it will require a greater importance of ethics, and its enforcers, across the board to actually make the significant change that our company so desperately needs. Bubbles are only blown to be popped, and fraud only exists to be foiled. We are doing ourselves no good by carrying on this pattern of corruption within business, finance, and corporate culture. As the former president and general Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Only Americans can hurt America.” + + + What if you were in high school, going through the daily grind of schoolwork and social life, getting ready to take the SAT’s and apply to college- and your high school shut down. This would be a black swan event in your life. Nassim Taleb is the author of “The Black Swan,” a book that covers such phenomena on both a micro (as detailed above) and macro level. A black swan event must meet three main criteria: the event is a surprise, it has a high impact, and the event is retrospectively rationalized as a natural occurrence, even though it is not. Taleb argues that we need to do a better job of preparing for these events; he says that 9/11 and the Pacific disaster in 2005 are results of a lack of foresight for black swan events. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"As the company moves its assets over to an oil-based approach, it will need to monitor its holdings cautiously and alertly. +A move to oil is prudent- If SD can successfully navigate the murky waters of the Middle East. Though gas is rising, its overproduction limits its value, making oil the more potentially successful play. SD is wise to sell non-core assets in both oil and gas, as they will need CAPEX flexibility to handle unexpected developments. As Canacoord writes, there is much to look out for: “Global crude oil prices are affected by overall supply and demand, political developments worldwide, pricing decisions and production quotas of OPEC and the volatile trading patterns in the commodity futures markets. + + + + +Woody Allen is one of the most famous comics- perhaps ever. Though he is becoming less well-known with newer generations, his movies are still relevant like “Scoop” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” His older material is barely known to our generation, though it may be the best of his stuff. The link provided contains some of Allen’s best skits, such as “The Moose,” which we covered in class. Dan did a great job of performing the bit, and even gave a great attempt to replicate Allen’s Brooklyn accent. A Brooklyn accent may be the most satirical part of this citation. A Brooklyn accent is constantly emulated these days in comedy and movies, but rarely ever done well. The accent seems so easy to do but there is something distinctly “Brooklyn” about it. On the surface it may seem sort of cliqued, but in reality very few can master the Brooklyn accent (that is unless you grew up there.) +The Onion is a great resource for relevant and funny satire. The linked video tells of a man giving up his dream of owning a chain of bars and grills, effectively killing the American dream with him being the last believer. The clip is funny and entertaining, but more importantly, it is a satire on the real American dream. The American dream is changing and is no longer what our parents and grandparents were working for. With the advent of the Internet, and different trends in American culture, people are not looking to modestly support their children though creating a little business anymore. People are looking to get rich quick, and move quickly in this fast-moving American culture. +As a fantasy baseball player myself, I understand the agony that the linked article describes. Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball, and fantasy baseball at that, but it can get tedious to continually check your fantasy baseball roster. There are 162 games in a year, 30 teams, and 25 players per team. So yeah, it can get a little bit hectic. The man in the article claims that he is tired of researching rosters, and is done for good, but he will most likely hop on the bandwagon again next year. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"I also wonder how good of a fit Jack Black was for Swift material. +Short films before movies are very common these days. One of the best I have seen is a Goofy short, “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.” The short entails Goofy hilariously trying to hook up loads of complicated DVD players, audio systems, and TV hardware, to watch the “big game” on his new gigantic TV. In addition to being a very fun film within itself, it is also a satire on our consumer culture of bigger, bigger, bigger. +There is a sketch comedy group on YouTube called Good Neighbor, and they do great stuff their their channel named, aptly enough, GoodNeighborStuff. YouTube has become such a portal for all kinds of media satirical or not, but comedy channels have flourished on the platform. Good Neighbor has a skit titled “lakers.” All of their titles are equally concise. The video shows a faux reporter interviewing Los Angeles Lakers fans as awkwardly as possible. It gets pretty awkward. It could be a satire on the poor and/‌or awkward news reporting that we sometimes see, but it is also just plain funny. +The site linked above is the website for the Musclemania Natural Bodybuilding Championships. I cite this source, because the images on the page could be a satire on America’s fascination with working out and getting “huge,” but this is all for real. It is their personal choice to work out in such a fashion, and at least they’re doing it naturally as the title of the website details, but I still find it very interesting to watch these men and women. +Most people may not know, but Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. And one in her 50’s at that. Nancy Cartwright is the voice of Bart, as well as many other cartoon characters in shows such as “Rugrats.” People may expect Bart to be a boy, but it often takes a woman to perform the the truly high voice of a prepubescent cartoon character. +The website linked above is simply to the Pokémon website. Pokémon is still pretty popular, though it’s popularity waned a bit in the mid to late 2000’s before picking back up again. It is the most successful video game franchise outside of the Mario series. Outside of Pokémon there have been many imitators and similar games, such as “Digimon” and “Yugi-Oh!.” It is satirical how kids’ attentions move from one game to the next, though Pokémon has endured for the long run. + “Glee” is a popular show, based on the successful models of enterprises like “High School Musical,” but it is not without its critics. The cited article tells of Slash dismissing the “Glee” producers’ request for him to appear on the show. After Slash said no, the producers came back with remarks dissing Slash. The Foo Fighters, Bryan Adams, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers also rejected “Glee,” and “Glee” again came back dissing these artists. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"The overall damage on the economy in the most recent crisis projects to be worse, as it has become much more intertwined due to the proliferation of mortgage-backed securities, and became much more financially unsafe due to a greater degree of overall deregulation. +As our government and our economy puts policies in places and devotes great effort to the crisis, will these actions even help? In short, though some will not, these regulatory policies are having and will have a substantially positive effect on our economy. The housing bubble is popped, and so is the lenders’ confidence in giving out money to potential house owners. Quite simply, the banks do not have the liquidity to resume, or rather start, sound business practices, but programs such as TARP and actions such as increasing FDIC insurance and insuring money market accounts are working to recoup losses and to make the economy a must safer place for loans and mortgages. These programs are slowly but surely bringing us back to financial stability, but to maintain this stability we must tighten up lending regulation.our moral sense. Our country was much too highly leveraged in the housing market; Because of this, we were not able to house ourselves. + Within an economy, there are always booms and recessions, but when a crisis is created solely from incomplete ideas and incorrupt business practices, the crisis can be prevented. The programs in place now look like they may prevent a future recession and/or crisis, though the game is still very early. The government, the banks and the large corporations must continue to build up capital, practice proper and fair business fundamentals, and overall, to instill confidence in the American people to the point where we feel confident in taking out a loan and the banks feel confident us- but have to work for the credibility. We will need to take credit. + The programs instituted to stop the financial crisis are slowly but surely bringing us back to financial stability, but to maintain this stability we must tighten up lending regulation. More importantly, we must tighten up our moral sense. Regulation has an important place, but we cannot prevent another collapse until we all give ourselves a gut check. We need to check ourselves, before we wreck ourselves. + + +If the desired end result is for SandRidge to have a higher value stock over the next three years, then the oil market is the right direction to move into. SD has made the decision to move from exclusive involvement in the natural gas market to a virtual 50/50 split between oil and natural gas. Though the market for oil certainly appears to be a steadily growing investment, jumping to $94 from $81 just this past day, there are several precautions that need to be taken in order to make this transition as successful as possible. Conflicts in the Middle East have always driven price/supply of oil as the prices often fluctuate quite frequently. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"Management not only needs to be well adept to spot the right chance to get involved in the oil market, but also must be flexible to deal with any problems that may arise in the near future. Tom Ward(CEO) had an impressive track record during his time with Chesapeake Energy, but that is a company only focused in the natural gas market and the oil market is a completely different animal. The company needs to hire experts concerning their shift into the oil market so they can construct a business model for short and long-term success. We recommend that SD should sell some of its non-core assets and use that generated revenue to invest in oil as the company’s key growth area. +The biggest problem with SD currently is the debt they have incurred over the past year. The company is having some cash flow issues and because of their shift into the oil market they have purchased Forest Oil and Arena Resources. They currently have a debt of around 3.00B. The belief is that oil prices will continue to rally and therefore the cash flow will strengthen. As Sandridge (SD) diversifies their assets, obtaining more oil plays, they must refine their operations on both sides to make sure they are getting the most out of their assets. With EBITDA currently trailing CAPEX, it is essential that SD carefully plays out their oily transition. As Deutsche Bank specifies, planned transactions include the selling of non-core oil assets in the Permian Basin, as well as plans to sell inessential plays on the Mississippian properties. +Sandridge has been aggressively switching into the oil market. SunTrust summarily describes that the company “should derive over 80% of production/revenue this year from oil versus over 75% from natural gas in 2008.” Why is SandRidge switching over? Oil trades at a significantly higher price on the market than oil, and through internal research, does not project as much success as oil could provide for them. And after underperforming in recent years, it is time for SD to improve their standing. Over the next two years oil prices are predicted to steadily increase from $92 to $99 from February 2011 to December 2012. This bodes well for equity investments in SD and should help to shrink the current operating margin of -31.31%. +Though SandRidge derives their oil from American sources, the oil market is predicated on the Middle East. As such, recent turmoil there has created volatility and an uncomfortable feeling within the market. Take for example, the uprising in Libya, a significant country in the oil trade at 5% of OPEC and 2% of global production. +February 22nd, 2011 was a particularly chaotic day for Libya, and the unrest is reflected in a significant drop in SD’s stock on that very day. Though the stock has since risen to normal levels, the volatility of the Middle Eastern oil market cannot be discounted in its direct relationship to SD. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"That’s the case for most fantasy baseballers: they usually all return spurred on by the agony of defeat. At the start of the season everbody is rejuvenated by the offseason and excited to win, but first place goes to the teams that don’t lose focus and continue their analysis and work throughout the entire season. But trust me, that’s hard. +Recently the company Downy put comedian Mike Birbiglia in a a Macy’s window for a week with sheets cleaned by Downy softener. This was done both to show the effectiveness of their product and to market it on a larger scale. It was a cool demonstration, but companies have pulled even larger stunts to market their products. Though the clip is relatively tame, it shows that companies are willing to go to great lengths to market their products- and make money. +There’s probably not a student in our satire class who didn’t throw in Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” but I still think it’s important to look at. Although Black is not a bad singer, the music video is infamously ill-directed. People went crazy (in a bad way), on the grounds that the song was poorly written and the video depicted 13 year-old kids driving a car, which I’m guessing is not allowed in any state in the USA. Yes, “Friday” was bad, but it is satirical how people slam Rebecca Black while most popular music today is, not very creatively, about women and partying. If you ask me, the lyrics in such songs, are not much better than Black’s. It’s not really hard to think of the simple lyrics put out today by most artists.Some of them do not even make sense. Take this example from Jay-Z: “Thirty-eight revolve like the sun round the Earth.” Sorry Jay, other way around. And 13 year-olds driving may be unrealistic, but how many people can only compare their lives to the clubbing and partying that is the focus of most music videos today. Looking through that lens, “Friday” may not be that relatively bad as it may seem. + +Remakes and retellings of classic movies, shows, and stories abound these days. A few examples include “Transformers,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” Some of these are good, and some are not, but it is interesting to see how many abound. The example cited here is “Clueless,” the coming-of-age Alicia Silverstone film which also doubles as a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” The film is good, compared to most retellings. The real satire here might lie in the characters’ exaggerated Beverly Hills fashion and verbiage, which contrasts well with Austen’s British. +McSweeney’s is a satirical web site run by the author Dave Eggers. The post cited here shows histories of comments for serial posters that article author Kevin Collier has sought out. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"It is ironic how the show handled the situation, instead of dealing respectfully with the revered artists who they were dealing with (who are on a much higher pedestal than Glee.) +Gucci Mane is a rapper who has had some trouble with the law, and is notable for having tattoos on a large percentage of his body. In January of this year, he got a new tattoo- on his cheek, of an ice cream cone with lightning bolts, and with “brr” written on it. Sometimes the best satires are true events, and this exemplifies that thinking. Though some parts of the rap game are filled with violence and stupidity, Gucci Mane’s tattoo takes it to a new level. +A year or two ago, the Shamwow commercial was an Internet viral video, highlighted by the crazy antics of its host, Vince. The video is a satire on infomercials in itself, but now, it also shows how viral videos can fade as quickly as they popped up. Most people do not remember the Shamwow commercial, and in 10 years, will anybody? The Internet lets things gain popularity more quickly, but it also takes away their importance. + + + How do people define themselves? People today align themselves among many different groups and societies- are we more part of one than other? This rings especially true for Jonathan Swift, and is represented well in Swift’s landmark novel, Gulliver’s Travels. Gulliver’s Travels details the experiences of explorer Lemuel Gulliver as he travels to strange and distant lands, while both he and the reader uncover the fundamental truths of human nature that Swift blends in. The author himself was part of two countries, employed a litany of professions from assistant to, of course, satitirs and was an active part of every one. Swift’s experiences within England and its change in political power, as well as the human tendencies in the countries that he inhabited, Ireland and England, are directly represented in Gulliver’s Travels, and serve to explain how we define ourselves as part of groups and societies. + Swift composed his novel out of honest reflection of his own ideals. It is nothing but the representation of his own experiences. With Lemuel Gulliver as his figurehead, Swift explains his reasoning: + +Within the context of the book, Gulliver is saying that his accounts were factual, and should not be criticized or remarked against due to the vailidity of their nature. Within the context of Swift’s writing, and this novel in particular, the quote is especially relevant. Why, one may ask, how Swift’s writing is satire and would not undergo criticism. The answer is, at least from the author’s point of view, he is writing nothing but the truth. Satire is at once astray from the facts, and together with them. Gulliver’s Travels is a frank and sincere representation of the groups and types of people present in Swift’s era. + When George I took the throne in 1714, the Tories were dethroned, counting Swift among them. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"In essence, the ideals of one group people were traded for another’s. The same phenomenon is exhibited in Gulliver’s Travels. From the Lilliputians to the Houyhnhnms to the Yahoos, each group holds their own practices. Take for example, this practice from the diminuitive Lilliputians: + +It is commonplace to observe groups with certain tendencies, but Swift highlights the differences between them, as was done in the real era that he lived in. + One of the main contrasts in Gulliver’s Travels is the difference between the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms. The Yahoos are described below: + +Strange creatures? No, they are people. Swift is showing human beings at their base form. The Houyhnhnms, are wise, kind, and benevolent horses. Their society does not even have words corresponding to lying and other things of foul nature. Gulliver feels significantly more at home with the horses traditionally under human rule, than with his own species. Writes Gulliver: “My horses understand me tolerably well; I converser with them a t least four hours every day. They are strangers to bridle or saddle, they live in great amity with me, and friendship to each other.” (Part 4, Ch. 11) Why does Gulliver identify with the horses over the humans? The Yahoo’s exemplify all of the base traits of human nature- or at least these traits are amplified in the presence of the physically and mentally beautiful horses. This draws a parallel to Swift’s life in England and Ireland. Not only did Swift experience a separation of politcal powers, between his Tories and the opposing Whigs, but his era was also filled with class division. In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver is eventually able to live among the Houyhnhms. According to writer Irvin Ehrenpreis, Swift displayed similar characteristics: “He had a Houyhnhmn’s contempt for any fine-spun probing of social issue.” Ehrenpreis went on to detail Swift’s view of freedom and identity pertaining to groups of people, of which this esay is a focus: + +As Ehrenpreis would indicate, the lines between freedom and otherwhise continually become blurred in Swift’s novel, from Gulliver’s capture by the Lilliputians, to the Lilliputians’ own battles with Blefuscu. + Jonathan Swift passed away on October 19, 1745. Swift composed a Latin epitaph for himself before he passed. Below is the William Yeats’ loose translation: + +Swift states that he served “human liberty” and he did nothing but that. Through is satire of people and their actions he is able to give hos critique of what has gone wrong within their society, as well as discern the characteristics of different types of people and groups as he he does in Gulliver’s Travels. Jonathan Swift shows how different groups condense and create, and how the characteristics of these groups derive from both human nature and the Ireland and England of the era that he lived in. + + I consider myself a moral person. One capable of making honest and ethical decisions that both reflect well on myself and create benefit for others. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll,"It hurts, then, when a person or organization that I love, or obsess over, is damaged by an ethical crisis. The New York Mets, my favorite team (and hopefully future employer) were burned badly by Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. It is no denying that Madoff was wrong, and though he did not actually “make off” and is in jail for life, the Mets are on their financial deathbed. The Amazin��s were not the only victims, though. How was Madoff able to convince so many people into giving so much money to his Ponzi scheme, and what were the ethical implications of those who assisted him? + Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born in New York City on April 29, 1938 to Ralph and Sylvia Madoff. He attended Hofstra College, and quickly went to on to start his own firm as a stockbroker; his father Ralph was a stockbroker himself. Madoff was well-known figure on Wall Street, who seemed to be on the path to financial fame and fortune. But he turned to be less figure than figurehead. On March 12, 2009 Madoff pleaded guilty to leading the Ponzi scheme, and on June 29, 2009 he was sentenced to the maximum 150 years in federal prison. The United States Attorney Southern District of New York detailed the charges: + + +Making Madoff’s story more unpalatable than before is the fact that he was a man of patronage. For example, Deborah Coltin was the leader of an $8 million dollar foundation with supported Jewish programs along the coast of Massachusetts. The money funding these programs: washed away with the harsh truth of Madoff’s illegitimate activities. Summarize Binyamin Appelbaum, David S. Hilzenrath, and Amit R. Paley of the Washington Post: “It may be the largest fraud in the history of Wall Street, authorities said. Madoff is charged with stealing as much as $50 billion, in part to cover a pattern of massive losses, even as he cultivated a reputation as a financial mastermind and prominent philanthropist.” + It is clear, simply though inferring what I have written that Bernie Madoff committed an act of financial heresy. But some readers may be asking: what, exactly, is a Ponzi scheme? It is actually quite simple; much simpler to the financial jargon and troubling promises that Madoff made to his clients. Merriam-Webster defines a Ponzi scheme as “an investment swindle in which some early investors are paid off with money put up by later ones in order to encourage more and bigger risks.” It’s not too hard to envision how one can be consumed by such a scheme. Bernie Madoff certainly was. He had money, more than enough to live lavishly. But it was apparent that it soon became game for the “stockbroker.” One in which he thought he would never get caught. The original schemer, Charles Ponzi, maintained his innocence almost until his deathbed, when he admitted he had cheated his clients. Business ethics were not an issue for Madoff or Ponzi; they didn’t matter. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +ll," The crisis might have never been induced if the financial markets had not been deregulated. Deregulation let financial corporations relax their lending standards, which as detailed in this paper, led to the subprime housing crisis and the failure of the economy and its financial infrastructure. Political decisions over the last thirty years have continually loosened restrictions. 20 years before Clinton, in 1980, Jimmy Carter introduced policies that removed many restrictions on the financial practices and lending practices of banking, while in 1982, Ronald Reagan helped to pass a law creating adjustable-rate mortgages. The market would soon sour in the Savings and Loan Crisis of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, just after homeowners flooded the real estate market due to the president’s ill-fated policies, just as Clinton and US politics in general did in respect to the most recent crisis. + To put an end to the financial crisis, many policies and programs have been adopted. One of these actions stand out as the largest and most influential: TARP. So, what method should be used to determine their relative effectiveness? Here, the guidelines are quite simple: if a program has shown a direct improvement on America’s financial situation, or has set the ground for future growth, then it can be classified as a success. + The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was created in October 2008, with an original mission to help lift failing and important American corportations through buying back bad loans. This proved to be too cumbersome, and TARP’s focus then shifted to buying equity and assets in these corportations. ThouThe operation exceeded predictions of failure and an expected taxpayer cost of $356 billion, and now projects to have a taxt cost of only $30 billion. In retrospect, TARP has proven to be very important in economic recovery, through greatly helping to prevent the important firms, and the important financial infrastructure, to collapse, while at the same time putting less of a strain on taxpayers- the people- than originally predicted. + As the economy attempts to recover under the guidelines of the actions and plans that have been put in place, one must ask wonder if the results would have been different under a better plan. Specifically, would debt reduction be more effective than economic stimulus? No, it would not, as the economic stimulus in place creates mechanisms that recoup the money lost as best as possible, and for the most part, put it to work in the parts of our economy they need it. We are in this crisis because our economy and politics were immoral; to rescue ourselves from it, we need to work hard to work off our debt to set the precedent for a hospitable financial environment. + The S&L crisis bears core similarities to the one we are currently experiencing. In both crises, “savings and loan associations” did not reserve enough capital to survive in the case of a recession, and failed when the unexpected actually occurred. ",18,English,male,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"Socrates then asks which man would be happier, a man who lives immorally with no negative consequences, or a man who lives justly with no positive consequences. The two conclude that the former would be happier, and that it is the perception of morality, not morality itself that ought to be desired. + However, I contend that such a lifestyle would be unrewarding and unfulfilling. The aforementioned hypothetical scenario includes the unjust man bringing offerings to the gods, to win their favor. The basic argument here is that all morality is in fact selfishness in disguise, and that if morality pleases the gods, then we need only to appear moral, thus escaping any eternal ramifications of immorality. But this argument is indefensible, for such a presumption ignores the very factor by which the presumed gods know of a man’s morality in the first place: omniscience. It is most commonly suggested that morality is not limited only to actions, but encompasses thoughts as well. Let us assume then that the god in question judges all moral actions, including one’s thoughts (as is taught by most major religions: Islam- Surat at-Taghabun, 64:4, Christianity- 1 John 3:20). Such a god would be aware of any selfishness motivating apparent morality, thereby exposing it as in fact immoral. + The argument made by Socrates does not necessitate the gods being unaware, only restricted in their ability to punish. I contend that the desire to please a creator in such a situation is the only sincere motivation behind morality. Selflessness towards others always brings with it a reward, even if only warm fuzzies. But just as I chose my father’s desires over my own in enrolling for school, moral men choose a path of morality out of honor to a creator, rather than with selfish expectations. All major religions suggest that such sincere morality is rewarded with eternal gain that outweighs any of the inconveniences of a moral life. And because it is impossible to have a purely moral action with selfish intentions, it is impossible for reward to ever be the motivation for true morality. + + +I enrolled in college to please my father. I was 18, I had a legitimate desk job, a girlfriend, and I was renting a decent house. I was content. But I knew that if I did not go to school, my father would feel like he had failed as a parent, as a man. So I chose to do that which I was not obligated or naturally compelled to do, in order to honor the man who had given me life. This tendency toward pleasing my dad, not for gain, but out of gratitude, is a principle that has been overlooked in the conversation regarding morality. But I will demonstrate that this principle, already similarly seen in nature, is true morality’s sole motivator. + It should be noted that it is difficult to defend the concept of a non-subjective, consistent moral standard without acknowledging some higher power, presumably a creator, who put such a standard in place. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"But on the points of disagreement between the latter and the Atomists, history, logic, and science have proven the victor. Atoms have been proven, as has their motion, as well as much of Democritus’ original concepts regarding them. Even the dispute of the void has been settled by Isaac Newton, and later Albert Einstein, who both validate the claim in their own way. (Russell) +However, what is astonishing about the Atomists’ ideas is not their content itself, but rather the means through which they discovered it. Their only laboratories were their minds. Their most important contribution is not proving what humans are made of, but rather what they are capable of. + + It is asked from time to time what the most significant contributions to human history have been. Some would say the light bulb, some the wheel. The answers would of course be quite diverse. But often overlooked is a practice that can bring more significance to a man’s life than any technological advancement. It is easy to ignore the simple reality that the root of all growth, all knowledge, is the asking of questions. And while there have been many great minds, many wise philosophers and poets, one man above all others taught us the art of asking. His contribution was no small one, and the sacrifice that ultimately inspired the way most of us examine the world around us was this man’s very life. + In 399 B.C., there lived a man named Socrates. Hailing from Athens, Greece, Socrates was a stonemason by trade. But Socrates is of course not known for his masonry. He did more thinking than actual work, and that thinking got him into a bit of trouble. Socrates’ thoughts drove him to ask questions, questions that often led to the humiliation of those at whom they were directed. This habit of inquiry ignited the fierce disapproval of some very powerful people, and it was at the hands of these influential few that Socrates was brought to trial and subsequently executed. + In order to gain an understanding of the circumstances that led to the trial of this significant historical figure, one must begin not by analyzing only the charges brought against him, but the entire pursuit of knowledge that led to these conflicts. For Socrates, it all began with a message from God. Socrates had a friend named Chaerephon. Chaerephon went to the oracle of the god Delphi, and asked whether there was any man wiser than Socrates. The oracle said no, that there was no man wiser. When Socrates heard of this news, he was not exuberant, as most might be. He was instead baffled. “What can the god mean?” he asked himself. This profound experience was a spark that began for Socrates a life-long quest. Socrates assumed that this revelation must be a riddle of some kind, as he found no wisdom within himself. So he determined that he had to resolve the mystery, and sought to find someone wiser than he was. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s," The human mind is faulty and unstable. This is not to suggest that nothing can be reasonably assumed. Obviously, our minds and our senses are all that we have to interpret the world around us. But it would be quite arrogant to assume that just because we can personally observe or think something, that it is necessarily a part of reality. The only thing that I can know with absolute certainty is that I exist. My ability to think the thoughts that I am currently articulating is the only irrefutable evidence I have. I must concede that even the reader of this paper may very well exist only in my own imagination. This would certainly explain his cartoon-like features. + +John Stuart Mill is an idiot. “Why,” one might ask, “would you assert such a bold accusation against a man who has so heavily influenced the thought of others in a positive way, a man who has brought happiness to so many who have studied his work?” The answer is that I have recognized a reality that Mr. Mill has not: the value of happiness is but a vapor when compared to the value of truth. +Let us consider for a moment a man named John. John is not a bad guy. He is close to no one, but he is a hard worker and an honest man. The only abnormality within John is the fact that he is crazy. He has, as my mother would say, a screw loose. Consequently, John is prone to occasional fits of rage in which he feels particularly inclined toward homicide. In these times, nothing short of quenching his thirst for blood brings John any happiness. Then one day John has the good fortune of meeting Frank, who we shall condense for the sake of brevity to being a grumpy, lonely man who periodically throws soup cans at his neighbor’s kids. Upon their first encounter, it occurs to John that until he has eaten Frank’s brain, his own cannot be at rest. To follow John Mill’s concept of morality would suggest that there is no decision more moral, no action more pure, than John painlessly murdering Frank and eating the contents of his skull like a Cup-O-Noodles. Let’s examine the line of reasoning here. The moral decision is the decision that brings the most happiness into the world. John is a good dude, pays his taxes, and throws an average of zero soup cans at children per day. Frank is mean, and his soup can average is much higher (not to mention his can to kid ratio). Between the soup-free kids and John’s own satisfaction, the world will be a happier place with Frank out of the way. And while Mr. Mill would probably find some exception (as he seems fond of doing) if he were present at the time, to do so would be a direct contradiction of his concept that “the balance of traceable consequences” determines the morality of a decision. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s," This task led Socrates to a particular style of interrogation. Whenever Socrates found a man thought to be wise, he would ask him a series of questions. He would often flatter the person with whom he was talking by insisting that if anyone knows the answer to these questions, it must be him. He would then proceed to unravel whatever position this unsuspecting sap held as truth. Almost without exception, Socrates would leave these interactions having made an enemy, and having come no closer to his pursuit of one wiser than himself. It is hard to say whether Socrates was truly humble in his belief that he knew nothing, as there is a humorous tone of sarcasm that seems present in these examinations. But regardless, it is clear that he was never satisfied. He found the only redemptive point in these interactions to be his own self-awareness, concluding in one instance, “Well, although I do not suppose either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is, for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows; I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him.” + Such was the life of Socrates. Around he went, day after day, asking questions for which he rarely found answers. He gained a reputation for his tactics. Some regarded him as wise; others hated him. But because any other man’s claim to wisdom was an affront to the words spoken by the oracle, Socrates felt it was his duty to prove that any who claimed wisdom in fact possessed none. One such man was Meletus. + Meletus was one of three men who brought charges against Socrates. He represented the poets. Throughout the trial, Socrates used his unique brand of logic and questioning to systematically disprove every claim brought against him. He concluded by saying of Meletus, “[He] is reckless and impudent, and he has written this indictment in a spirit of mere wantonness and youthful bravado.” Meletus was accompanied in his indictments by Anytus, who represented the craftsmen and politicians, and Lycon, who represented the rhetoricians. Together, these three men were symbolic of the people whom Socrates had offended and humiliated: powerful, arrogant, foolish, and pissed. + Of course, Socrates’ arguments were not enough to save his life. In his attempts to win over the court, he refused to use the customary style of debate: emotionally groveling and wailing. Instead, he stated quite plainly, “I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.” It is this noble, virtuous approach to life that set Socrates apart, and inspired many who would follow. By illustrating the value of truth above the value of life, Socrates set a bold precedent. His honest death kept true to his beliefs more than a dishonest life would have. In his death, he taught us how to live. And in the conclusion of the trial that would end his life, he remained adherent to his own profound words: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"To Plato’s idea, Aristotle essentially asks what would happen if we got rid of all the horses. He is questioning the basic element of forms, which is their existence regardless of the objects that emulate them. + Aristotle suggests that Forms are not the basis for objects, but are rather the consequence of objects. The Form of a horse, then, would cease to exist the moment the last horse died. Additionally, the form of the horse never existed until the first perceivable horse did. This notion seems to view forms as much more theoretical than Plato’s incarnation of the concept. Aristotle looked to the Earth, not the heavens, for truth. Let us use a bronze statue of Apollo as an example of Aristotle’s thinking. He would say that the bronze, by itself, has no form. It is only when molded into the shape of Apollo that it takes on the form of Apollo. This room for change is an element unique to his Form theory. + Essential then to understanding Aristotle’s own view regarding the existence of objects is a comprehension of his views on change. Aristotle suggested that all change stems from four basic causes: material, formal, efficient, and final. Material cause addresses the matter or stuff of which an object is composed. Formal cause is the arrangement of that matter, the definition or form of a thing. Efficient cause is the main source of change, such as an elephant sitting on a peanut, changing it into peanut butter. The final cause is the end goal or purpose of an object. This is the broadest and most holistic change. This concept, though complex, is significant, because change occurs every time an object comes into being. This theory then is a valid refutation of elements central to Platonic Form theory. + While these two men may have had some disagreements regarding the topic of Forms, each of their contributions on the subject were significant. While Plato’s concepts may seem laughable to us now, his thoughts were a great stride in philosophy, and moved human thought in a positive direction. Even Aristotle’s views on the subject may be bizarre to us. Many misconceptions were in fact present in Aristotle’s philosophies in general. But even in acknowledging the errors present in Aristotle’s work, Bertand Russell notes that “errors make it difficult to do historical justice to Aristotle, until one remembers how large of an advance he made upon all of his predecessors.” + +Immanuel Kant doesn’t think I should kill myself. Neither does John Stuart Mill. Don’t get me wrong; I certainly don’t disagree with the guys. But they have some interesting reasons for why I shouldn’t call it quits. I, for instance, don’t want to kill myself out of purely selfish reasons. I just got a new set of DVDs in the mail from Netflix, and I’ve got a date tomorrow night with a hot red head named Wendy. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"We’re having Baconators. My particular brand of ethics in relation to this subject falls under the category of Egoism, as it’s really not in my personal best interest to be dead. +It has been suggested by some, however, that basing morality exclusively on one’s personal best interest is selfish. So in the spirit of open discussion, let us consider two prominent schools of thought regarding morality: deontology and Utilitarianism. For the sake of a fair comparison, we will examine how each ethical theory would view the subject of suicide. + Deontology is an ethical approach that maintains that morality is guided by unchanging principles that cannot be broken in any circumstance without stepping outside of morality. This approach is sometimes referred to as a non-consequentialist view because deontological ethics do not take into consideration the outcome of an action. They would say that the motive of an action is moral or immoral in and of itself. To better understand the deontological approach to morality, let us examine the work of one of its most significant contributors, Immanuel Kant. + Kant has been a helpful addition to the conversation on ethics because of his willingness to lay out specific parameters for what makes an act moral or immoral. +First, ask what action is being considered. Second, form a generalization of the essence of that action. Third, ask if the generalized version of the action could be a universal moral law without contradicting itself. And finally, if the generalized action can become moral law without contradicting itself, ask what the consequences of such a moral law would be. (Kant) + Let us now apply these principles to the subject of suicide. We will use, as a theoretical example, celebrity Paris Hilton. Paris is feeling depressed after realizing how terrible everything she has ever done is, and recognizing that the odds are not in her favor that she will accomplish any good for the world, she is now considering jumping off of a bridge. The generalization of this principle would say that everyone who is feeling depressed about their lives kills themselves. When we ask if this principle can be applied universally, the answer is no. To do so would be a contradiction. Depression and sadness are often the greatest motivators for self-improvement. It is human nature to desire happiness, so sadness is used to motivate a change that would presumably lead to happiness. It would be logically impossible then for this progression to also universally lead to suicide. + In short, because it wouldn’t work for us to all go around killing ourselves every time we get bummed, deontology dictates that there is an inherent moral law that it is never moral for anyone to kill themselves under any circumstances. + Utilitarianism takes a different approach to the subject entirely. Utilitarian ethics, unlike deontology, claim that the morality of an action is determined solely by its consequences. Philosophers like John Stuart Mill would suggest that whatever action produces the greatest amount of total happiness is the moral decision. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"Fortunately for us all, Immanuel Kant is not an idiot. Kant, if present for the debate surrounding the aforementioned scenario, would no doubt point out that if every person who found joy in murder killed every person who made the world a worse place and had no one who cared for them, our would be less than ideal. It is through this appeal to universally applicable reason that the true understanding of morality is attained. +If an action cannot be generalized and applied to all similar situations, it is immoral. Happiness is fleeting. Happiness is not concrete. Two plus two will always equal four. What is moral will always be moral, regardless of context. Kant’s position needs no more defense than gravity; it is inherent. Isaac Newton does not get credit for causing objects to fall to the Earth. He merely recognized the truth that already existed. More precisely, Pythagoras is not remembered as an inventor, but as a discoverer. The only truth worth knowing is that which exists beyond ourselves. + + +I enrolled in college to please my father. I was 18, I had a legitimate desk job, a girlfriend, and I was renting a decent house. I was content. But I knew that if I did not go to school, my father would feel like he had failed as a parent, as a man. So I chose to do that which I was not obligated or naturally compelled to do, in order to honor the man who had given me life. This tendency toward pleasing my dad, not for gain, but out of gratitude, is a principle that has been overlooked in the conversation regarding morality. But I will demonstrate that this principle, already similarly seen in nature, is true morality’s sole motivator. + It should be noted that it is difficult to defend the concept of a non-subjective, consistent moral standard without acknowledging some higher power, presumably a creator, who put such a standard in place. For the sake of brevity, we will assume the existence of such a god or gods, since such an assumption was presupposed by the majority of the philosophers that we have studied so far in this course. To make such a presupposition is not a leap in the logic of the subject at hand, since we are not discussing what morality is, but rather why one ought to be moral, a question that is irrelevant, or at least trivial, if morality is subjective. + In A. J. Ayer’s “Emotivism Affirmed,” he asserts that “ethical judgments have no validity,” a concept that he spends the majority of the passage defending and explaining. But much more importantly, he concludes with the statement: “One of the chief causes of moral behavior is fear, both conscious and unconscious, of a god’s displeasure, and fear of the enmity of society.” In this statement, Ayer echoes the conclusion of a story Socrates told Glaucon of a magic ring that made it’s finder, Gyges, invisible at will, allowing him to do all sorts of unjust things for his own gain, with no repercussions. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"For the sake of brevity, we will assume the existence of such a god or gods, since such an assumption was presupposed by the majority of the philosophers that we have studied so far in this course. To make such a presupposition is not a leap in the logic of the subject at hand, since we are not discussing what morality is, but rather why one ought to be moral, a question that is irrelevant, or at least trivial, if morality is subjective. + In A. J. Ayer’s “Emotivism Affirmed,” he asserts that “ethical judgments have no validity,” a concept that he spends the majority of the passage defending and explaining. But much more importantly, he concludes with the statement: “One of the chief causes of moral behavior is fear, both conscious and unconscious, of a god’s displeasure, and fear of the enmity of society.” In this statement, Ayer echoes the conclusion of a story Socrates told Glaucon of a magic ring that made it’s finder, Gyges, invisible at will, allowing him to do all sorts of unjust things for his own gain, with no repercussions. Socrates then asks which man would be happier, a man who lives immorally with no negative consequences, or a man who lives justly with no positive consequences. The two conclude that the former would be happier, and that it is the perception of morality, not morality itself that ought to be desired. + However, I contend that such a lifestyle would be unrewarding and unfulfilling. The aforementioned hypothetical scenario includes the unjust man bringing offerings to the gods, to win their favor. The basic argument here is that all morality is in fact selfishness in disguise, and that if morality pleases the gods, then we need only to appear moral, thus escaping any eternal ramifications of immorality. But this argument is indefensible, for such a presumption ignores the very factor by which the presumed gods know of a man’s morality in the first place: omniscience. It is most commonly suggested that morality is not limited only to actions, but encompasses thoughts as well. Let us assume then that the god in question judges all moral actions, including one’s thoughts (as is taught by most major religions: Islam- Surat at-Taghabun, 64:4, Christianity- 1 John 3:20). Such a god would be aware of any selfishness motivating apparent morality, thereby exposing it as in fact immoral. + The argument made by Socrates does not necessitate the gods being unaware, only restricted in their ability to punish. I contend that the desire to please a creator in such a situation is the only sincere motivation behind morality. Selflessness towards others always brings with it a reward, even if only warm fuzzies. But just as I chose my father’s desires over my own in enrolling for school, moral men choose a path of morality out of honor to a creator, rather than with selfish expectations. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s," The most notable rebuttal that Heraclitus gave to such arguments was his famous quote: “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” (Patrick) This analogy is perhaps the clearest way to articulate his idea. + Plato was not alone in his criticism of fire and flux. Parmenides, another prominent Greek philosopher, was emphatic about the principle of non-contradiction, a concept that simply states that contradictory statements cannot be simultaneously true. (Cohen) He concluded that Heraclitus was wrong, and objected that change leads to unknowability. He suggested an alternative theory regarding the composition of all things, sometimes referred to as “the One.” + This concept rejects the notion of plurality of objects. Parmenides believed that the One of which all else was comprised is eternal, changeless, and homogenous. According to his writings, our senses deceive us, and we must only perceive change in objects, because an actual change in composition cannot exist. +As you can see, the Atomists did not walk into a quiet room of people waiting to hear their revolutionary (or at the time, farfetched-sounding) idea. So if Democritus’ ideas about atoms were to hold up against the arguments of Heraclitus and Parmenides, he had some explaining to do. Let us look then at the primary problems that the aforementioned concepts would present for the Atomists, as well an Atomist response to them. +Heraclitus suggested that everything is made of fire, and is constantly changing. On one point, Democritus would agree. The Atomist hypothesis included the idea that atoms are constantly moving, which accounts for the flux portion of the fire and flux theory. There is, however, no agreement between the two parties regarding fire. Heraclitus’ concept of fire being the root of all things begs the question, from what is fire made? An Atomist would respond, of course, that all things, including fire, are comprised of the same basic structures. And while you may not be able to step into the same river twice, your foot will still in fact be wet. +On the unchangeable structure of atoms, Parmenides might agree with the Atomists (despite an obvious discrepancy in semantics). The biggest dispute between Parmenides and the Atomists would be the notion of void. Parmenides rejected the idea of movement on the premise that for there to be movement there necessarily must be a void, but a void is nothing, and a nothing cannot exist because of the principle of non-contradiction. Historically, the Atomists mostly disregarded this argument, based on the simple reality that movement can be observed. (Russell) But in theory, one could certainly argue in defense of the atomistic concept that a void is not necessarily nothing, and that it is instead a material (perhaps too comprised of atoms) that is between the visible, and that just like wind, the inability to perceive it does not inherently negate its existence. +There are certainly some valid ideas represented in the theories of both Heraclitus and Parmenides. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"All major religions suggest that such sincere morality is rewarded with eternal gain that outweighs any of the inconveniences of a moral life. And because it is impossible to have a purely moral action with selfish intentions, it is impossible for reward to ever be the motivation for true morality. + + + Poet Christopher Marlow advised us all to “Live and die in Aristotle's works.” Some would suggest that we already do. Rarely does any one man so dramatically shape the future of our entire race as Aristotle did. Philosopher Bryan Magee said of him, ""it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did."" Just as noteworthy in philosophical history, however, was his predecessor, teacher, and friend, Plato. The work of these two men account for a great deal of our modern concepts of logic and truth. Yet there was at least one point on which they had a considerable amount of disagreement: a concept known as Forms. + According to Plato, who originated the general theory of Forms, Forms are the pure conceptual version of every perceivable object or quality. For example, every tree that we see is merely a tree. Each of them is an imperfect replica of the tree, or the Form from which all other trees are derived. The Forms are intangible, exist outside of space and time, and are perfect. They are the very essence of their prospective objects, what gives an object its identity and definition. Now that a basic understanding of Forms has been established, let us examine Plato’s beliefs specifically. + Plato believed that Forms existed in an abstract state, and that they are the only things that actually exist within reality. He categorizes reality into two main categories: the sensible world and the intelligible realm. The sensible world is the world that we experience, the things that our senses can inform us of. It is home to particular objects, rather than Forms, and is within time and space. It is imperfect, which is why there are so many visible differences between objects of the same variety. Because of the constant change that occurs, any information gained within it can merely be opinion, not actual knowledge. Contrastingly, the intelligible realm is home to the Forms. It exists outside of space and time, and is perfect and unchanging. Men who exist within the sensible world cannot experience the intelligible realm, but they can know of it, and Plato believed such knowledge to be true wisdom. + Plato maintained that Forms are the primary substance from which all other things are derived. They are the roots of everything that we can perceive, and are in fact what enables anything that exists in the sensible world to do so. By his line of reasoning, the Form of a horse is what enables any particular horse to exist. + Herein lies the most significant point of disagreement between Plato and his student, Aristotle. Aristotle throws a wrench in the gears of Plato’s theory by doing what philosophers do best, asking one simple question. ",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s," Both of these arguments are flawed with such perfect equality that it is impossible to determine if one is superior. Aquinas’ argument successfully proves that there is a missing piece of information, but fails to prove what it is with enough specificity. Anselm’s faith argument is enough for belief in God only if the logical need for God has been established. But the arguments alone are equally insufficient. Both arguments are insightful, but virtually unrelated, and consequently incomparable. Which is more necessary for a bicycle to exist, the frame or the wheels? + + + In 1923, a French Psychiatrist identified a disorder known as Capgras’ Syndrome. People who fall victim to this rare affliction suddenly, and for no apparent reason, become convinced that their loved ones have been replaced by imposters. One case cites a woman shooting her spouse because she was so certain that he was a stranger wearing her husband’s clothes. She noted that he looked quite similar to her husband, but that this could be attributed to the brilliance of whoever had successfully made the swap. The problem is attributed to a fairly complex issue in the mind’s visual receptors. There have been hundreds of cases of Capgras’ syndrome since it was first identified, and it has presumably occurred for thousands of years prior as well. This phenomenon, though rare, is quite troubling, not only for those afflicted with it, but for all who consider its existence. The fact that there is now always a chance, however slight it may be, that what we are observing may not be reality forces us to concede that there is nothing that any of us can be certain of, aside from our own existence. + Since the fathers of philosophy started asking questions, mankind has been forced to answer by examining almost everything that we accept to be truth. The existence of God, the origin and purpose of life, what everything is made of – these basic questions examine admittedly quite significant matters. But the basis for any answer that can be given to any question that can be asked will be rooted either in observation or in thought. The understanding of undisputed physical principles such as gravity is based upon human senses, which, as demonstrated through Capgras’ syndrome cannot be cited as a perfectly reliable system. Other concepts, such as love, hate, and guilt, understood as emotions, are in fact rooted in neurological activity. For a person whose brain is underdeveloped in the frontal cortex, guilt may never occur. And finally, let us consider theoretical concepts such as math and geometry. Dyscalculia, known as a “math disability,” is a condition in which the portion of the brain that processes math, either as a result of underdevelopment or injury, does not interpret mathematic concepts the way that the rest of us do. People who suffer from this disorder can perform mathematic functions, but the logic in their brains confidently forms different conclusions than the average person’s would. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"The most significant name in the conversation regarding ancient atomic theory is that of Democritus. Born in approximately 460 B.C., Democritus is primarily regarded as a natural philosopher. While he was highly esteemed, Democritus may not have been particularly well liked in his time. English writer E. Brewer records that he is known as The Laughing Philosopher, for his reputation of endlessly mocking human folly. More significantly, his concepts were seen by some as radical, and Bertrand Russell wrote that one of his most well known contemporaries, Plato, suggested that all of Democritus’ books ought to be burned. But as is the case with much of radical thought, history is the most honest judge of truth, and it is history that has remembered Democritus as the father of modern science. +For the sake of clarity, let us briefly summarize Democritus’ atomic theory: +Everything is made up of atoms, which are the smallest tangible unit. These atoms cannot be divided, and they are indestructible. The atoms themselves are constantly moving, and are infinite in number, as well as in variety. The specific kinds of atoms vary in their size and shape. Atoms are separated by empty space, or a void. Atoms can join with one another, forming larger objects. And finally, the more atoms that are clustered together, the heavier that cluster will be. (Russell) + It bears noting that Democritus was not alone in his formation of this hypothesis, and that he was a student of Leucippus, who is often credited with being the first to suggest the concept of atoms. Later, Epicurus also helped in further developing these ideas. But it is Democritus who is remembered as the most significant contributor to the cause. (Russell) + The Atomists had a tough case to make. They were certainly not the first ones to ask what everything was made of, and the consequential range of ideas had already been hotly disputed. Before Democritus, Heraclitus and Parmenides each proposed their own unique answer to this question. To properly understand the Atomists’ defense of their ideas we must first take a moment to examine the context in which this debate took place. + Heraclitus is not regarded as the nicest of men. He was abusively critical of every other philosopher, painting himself in an almost comedic light. For example, he publically stated that Pythagoras lacked understanding, and that Homer deserved to be beaten! (Bakalis) One might conclude then, that his primary contribution to philosophy is suiting. Heraclitus stated (and defended with certainty) that everything is made of fire. Bertrand Russell summarized his idea this way: “Heraclitus considered fire as the most fundamental element. He believed fire gave rise to the other elements and thus to all things.” + The most relevant aspect of Heraclitus’ argument is that everything is constantly changing. This “fire and flux” theory proved troublesome for many of his contemporaries. Plato, for instance, asked in response, “How can that be a real thing which is never in the same state?” (Cratylus) +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s,"He would clarify that greater value is placed on Eudemonistic happiness, happiness rooted in virtue and wisdom. (Mill) + Utilitarianism would say that Paris Hilton killing herself is morally wrong, not because of her motives, but because of the consequences of the act. Think of Paris’ family and her loyal fans! Woe to the tragedy that they would experience not having their favorite role model to look up to! Who would take care of that stupid dog that for some reason lives in her purse?! Then there are the people who would have to fish her carcass out of whatever unfortunate body of water broke her fall… inconvenience all around. So despite how much better Paris herself might feel, if her death would bring more pain to the world than it would joy, it is immoral. + Most of us are not suicidal. But the principles outlined in these two moral theories are probably incorporated in some ways into most people’s personal moral codes. To some degree, each of these approaches contains elements that seem to be intuitive to human nature. It is not necessary for us to accept either holistically. Perhaps there is something to be learned from both. But regardless of whether or not there is any value in the application of these concepts, there is an almost irrefutable gain in the act of examining them. + + +In 1965, one of human kind’s greatest philosophers did what many great minds before him had done. He posed a question. To a captive audience, Bill Cosby simply asked, “Why is there air?” Now, we will ignore for a moment that our beloved, sweater-clad genius answered by suggesting that there is air so that we can fill up basketballs, because he demonstrates an important aspect of human nature. When people are given an opportunity to sit and think, they will almost always ask at some point: “What is everything made of?” +Modern mankind answers this question through a method only recently made possible. We now possess technologies through which everything on our planet can be broken down to its smallest form and examined with astounding clarity. We know, as a result of this technology, that everything is comprised of irreducible, indestructible materials known as atoms. Our children are now taught with certainty that atoms are the building blocks of everything that they see, and that even they themselves are comprised of these tiny units. This concept, while easy to comprehend when simplified, is by nature actually quite complex. It has taken years of research and careful examination for the scientific community to develop its understanding of what we now accept as truth about atoms. This comes as no surprise, as it is hard to imagine that such microscopic, intricate particles could ever be understood. But what is hard to imagine, what truly baffles the mind, is that the basic concept of atoms, known as Atomism, was being discussed by some philosophers earlier than 400 B.C. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +s," + “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The preceding quotation is seen first in Psalm 14 of the Christian Bible, and is found at the beginning of St. Anselm’s argument regarding the existence of God. This belief seems to also be held by the other author whom we will be discussing, Thomas Aquinas. Because each of their arguments is in defense of the same concept, and our challenge is to determine who’s is the better of the two, we must, for sake of brevity, begin with the presumption that they are both correct in their belief in the existence of God, specifically the God of the Bible. To allow for a God-type figure that may not resemble the one in whom our two authors believe would not permit us to appropriately compare their two arguments, as they are essentially in defense of one specific concept of God. That being said, I would suggest that while each of them brings up valid points, neither truly provides a holistic basis for belief in God. + To illustrate this point, we will first examine the basic argument of St. Anselm. Anselm’s passage reflects a path of gaining understanding through faith, looking within one’s self to find proof of God. He explains that because God exists within our understanding, we cannot effectively conceive his nonexistence. While this concept, when spelled out in his terminology, is a bit tedious and at times unclear, the basic gist of it is that the proof for God lies within one’s own mind. St. Anselm is suggesting to us that we needn’t go beyond the confines of our own soul to find truth about God, but that the existence of this being is found to be true simply by examining that which we inherently know to be true within our own minds. Foreign evidence is presumably unnecessary. This concept of accepting that for which there is not an irrefutable body of empirical evidence is often referred to within Christian texts as faith. + This idea is very different from that held by St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas instead suggests that the existence of God can be proven entirely through reason and empirical evidence, with no need for faith of any kind. Such an idea would be beneficial in evangelism, an important element of Christianity, because it would enable the recruiting of new converts without any dependency upon their willingness to accept something that cannot be proven. They could instead be persuaded by logic alone. St. Thomas elaborates on five different logical arguments supporting the existence of God: change, causation, contingency, degrees of excellence, and harmony. In each he essentially demonstrates that the proof of God lies in the logical necessity for God. If you are told that that you are missing one puzzle piece, and assemble the rest of the puzzle, logic dictates that you can know of the features and the existence of the missing piece without having to see it. +",21,English,male,College,Musician,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," Preserving,‭ ‬at least part,‭ ‬of their culture as well,‭ ‬is just very interesting. + +‎ ‏Of the types of Ildefonso pottery. Personally I strongly prefer the black pots. They're just so beautiful and mysterious. These black pots have a black or bluish black base color,‭ ‬and greyish colored designs. Though I've never seen one of these pieces in person‭ (‬they're extremely expensive‭)‬,‭ ‬from what I can tell of photographs,‭ ‬these pots are very uniform for hand building. The coloring and designs is also quite perfect. After all,‭ ‬the black pots are what the entire Martinez family is known for. Although,‭ ‬I cannot deny the beauty in any of the pots‭; ‬black,‭ ‬red,‭ ‬polychromatic. They are all very beautiful. However,‭ ‬I simply prefer the black pots. + +‎ ‏The process of making the black pottery is quite interesting. Some might even think it's a bit gross,‭ ‬but growing up with ranching grandparents,‭ ‬it doesn't bother me at all. They cover the pit and pottery in dung during the firing process. Maria and her husband Julian actually helped to develop this method of firing in New Mexico. As for the beautiful coloring effects,‭ ‬this is achived by a variety of colored slips and burnishing,‭ ‬not only in the black pots,‭ ‬but also in the red and polychromatic pots as well. The Martinez family,‭ ‬including Adam and Santana has caried on this tradition after Maria's death. + +‎ ‏ In conclusion,‎ ‏though I do prefer certain pots over others,‭ ‬I am a huge fan of Adam and Santana's work,‭ ‬and actually,‭ ‬the entire Martinez family's work in general. I chose to do this report on the team or Adam and Santana Martinez‭ ‬,‭ ‬their black pottery to be more specific,‭ ‬for two reasons really. The first being that I have always highly admired Native American art works. I've always found something incredibly deep about it. The second reason is because the unique and stunny beauty of these pots is what peaked my interest in ceramics in the first place. If it were not for pots like this,‭ ‬I might never have taken any ceramics course,‭ ‬and I certainly would not have found the joy in working with clay that I have found. It is my hope that the Martinez family continues to pass down this craft and these traditions so that further generation can enjoy these beautiful and inique pots,‭ ‬as I and many other's have. + +‎ ‏There has been a lot of talk in the United States regarding gay marriage. Both arguments for and against the subject have gained momentum. It is no secret to those who know me,‭ ‬that I am‭ ‬100%‭ ‬for gay marriage,‭ ‬and gay rights in general,‭ ‬so I'd be lying if I said that this paper doesn't hold any personal meaning to me. One argument against gay marriage,‭ ‬that has struck me the deepest,‭ ‬and I believe is the most worthy of studying.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," This is essentially the Witness concept of heaven. Those who live their lives by Jehovah's will,‭ ‬and who live their lives to please him,‭ ‬will inherit the Earth. +‎ ‏Unlike the common Christian idea in the holy trinity,‭ ‬or god the father,‭ ‬son,‭ ‬and holy ghost,‭ ‬as equals,‭ ‬the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania‭ ‬points out that Witnesses believe that Christ,‭ ‬the son,‭ ‬to be inferior to the father,‭ ‬and also that the Christ was Jehovah's first creation. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania‭ ‬also asserts that Witnesses cannot take blood into their bodies. This includes blood transfusions,‭ ‬which are rejected by the Jehovah's Witnesses community,‭ ‬even when necessary to safe one's life. Red blood cells,‭ ‬while blood cells,‭ ‬platelets,‭ ‬and plasma are all rejected. + As was explained,‎ ‏in the particular service I attended actually,‭ ‬Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate most holidays including:‭ ‬Christmas,‭ ‬Halloween,‭ ‬Easter,‭ ‬Mother's day,‭ ‬Birthdays,‭ ‬and many more. This is because most of these traditions are based in Pagan rituals,‭ ‬which the Witnesses believe to be improper for a Christian to celebrate. +‎ ‏As I arrived at the Kingdom Hall for a meeting‭ (‬what they call their services‭) ‬I was very nervous. I didn't really have any idea what to expect. I was really afraid of offending someone,‭ ‬or doing the wrong thing. But as I entered,‭ ‬I realized how friendly everyone was. So I walked in. The Kingdom Hall didn't really look anything like a normal church‭; ‬their were benches like a church,‭ ‬and a podium,‭ ‬but otherwise,‭ ‬it really just looked like a room. A well decorated room,‭ ‬but still just a room. The atmosphere before the meeting commenced was very social. Everyone was talking to each other I met a woman named Jan who introduced herself to me,‭ ‬made an effort to find out a bit about me,‭ ‬and actually helped me through the meeting,‭ ‬with things that I didn't have a clue about. She even set me up with the right texts. I hadn't had the right bible. The King James Version,‭ ‬that's all I've had since I was a kid. And I also needed other texts to follow along with. +‎ ‏As the meeting began,‭ ‬I realized that this experience was going to be very different from the typical church service. There was no pastor or priest,‭ ‬or any equivalent. The meeting was lead by just a few‭ “‬senior‭” ‬members of the congregation. The congregation wasn't exceptionally large,‭ ‬but I wouldn't call it a small congregation,‭ ‬maybe‭ ‬20-25‭ ‬people. The‭ “‬size‭” ‬of the congregation is relative to the size of the building as well. Unlike the typical huge church,‭ ‬the Kingdom Hall wasn't all that big. The meeting began with a hymn. Then there was a section of bible study. +",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," Some believe that a monetary value can be put on it. Some believe that it is a person’s experiences that give their life value. There are also those who believe that the value of life should be bases off of happiness verses despair. However,‭ ‬I don’t believe that these things necessarily determine the value of life. Of coarse these idea’s have some influence on the value of life,‭ ‬but self acceptance is the most important factor in the value of life. + So what does self acceptance mean‎? ‏I believe that it means to accept the way that you are,‭ ‬to just be yourself,‭ ‬and to never apologize for truly being yourself. The reason that self acceptance is the most important factor in determining the worth of a life is because it is the only way to be truly happy. If a person can be happy with who they are,‭ ‬then the opinion of others has less meaning‭; ‬criticisms are not as effective. This leads to a since of contentment that I do not believe anyone can feel complete without. I know these things from experience. It took me a long time to accept who I am‭; ‬I had literally struggled with my sexual orientation for years,‭ ‬only recently accepting the situation for what it is. Looking back I can definitely say that people’s negative opinions of me do not affect me as much has they used to. I can also say that in accepting myself I,‭ ‬now,‭ ‬feel something that I had not in so long,‭ ‬a sense of happiness and contentment in knowing who I am. +‎ ‏In‭ “‬What Is A Life Worth,‭” ‬an excerpt from the New York Times,‭ ‬a monetary value is put on the lives of those lost in the September‭ ‬11th attacks. The families of the deceased are given a certain amount of money based upon the calculated worth of the individual lost and how much assistance the family would need to maintain their lifestyle. However,‭ ‬this is the completely wrong approach to determining the value of a life. This is because the life of one person could mean more than just financial support to someone. As one woman put it,‭ “‬I just can’t accept the fact that the Federal Government is saying that my husband and brother are worth nothing.‭” ‬People make an emotional impact on one another‭; ‬for all we know that woman’s husband or brother may have inspired her to go to college or make a significant change in her life. If that was the case,‭ ‬the two would not necessarily have had any monetary value to her,‭ ‬but they certainly would have made an impact on her life. + A person’s experiences do give their life value.‎ ‏In an excerpt from‭ ‬It’s Not About the Bike:‭ ‬My Journey Back to Life,‭ ‬Lance Armstrong describes his battle with cancer:‭ “‬My illness was humbling and starkly revealing and it forced me to survey my life with an unforgiving eye.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," I don't need any study,‭ ‬or expert to tell me that without a good,‭ ‬structural basis for learning English,‭ ‬that these kids will not benefit from immersion or a duel language system. I know it from my experience. + +‎ ‏I truly believe that this sort of approach would help thousands of students who's first language is not English. But I have to ask myself,‭ ‬why isn't this already being done‭? ‬I highly doubt that I'm the first person to ever come up with this kind of solution. The answer here is quite clear. Xenophobia and the hatred‭ (‬or perhaps fear‭?) ‬of Mexican immigrants,‭ ‬is the root of the problem. I can't get through one day without my own father saying something negative about people who's first language is Spanish. Several times at work I've witnessed undo anger and hostility towards my coworker who is from Mexico,‭ ‬despite the fact that he speaks near perfect English,‭ ‬just with an accent,‭ ‬and is,‭ ‬in fact,‭ ‬in the country legally. A huge problem,‭ ‬that is only exacerbated by people like Newt Gingrich‭ (‬former Speaker of the House circa‭ ‬1995‭) ‬making statements like this:‭ “'‬Allowing bilingualism to continue to grow is very dangerous,‭'”‬Gingrich said after addressing a technology and business forum at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. ‭“‬We should insist on English as a common language. . . . That's what binds us together.‭” ‬The thing is,‭ ‬that idea couldn't be further from the truth. Why do people like this,‭ ‬in true xenophobic fashion,‭ ‬separate those who's first language is English,‭ ‬and those who's first language is something else,‭ ‬as if we aren't all part of the same country. Early on in our history,‭ ‬this country has been the definition of a cultural melding pot. Spanish speakers are hardly the first to face this prejudice‭; ‬the Irish,‭ ‬the Chinese,‭ ‬and many more all faced cultural backlash and discrimination. What makes me sad though,‭ ‬is with all of the efforts and leaps we've made in civil rights today,‭ ‬that this sort of thing is still going on. We are truly discriminating at the cultural and lingual‭ (‬but really are the two not deeply connected‭?) ‬level. Yes,‭ ‬illegal immigration is a huge problem. However,‭ ‬I think what many fail to consider,‭ ‬is that Spanish is not unique to illegals‭; ‬legal immigrants sometimes speak it too. Yes they may know English‭ (‬they have to if they're legal‭)‬,‭ ‬but that doesn't mean English is the dominant language spoken at home. And certainly doesn't mean that English would dominate at home printed material. Last,‭ ‬but certainly not least,‭ ‬I think a lot of people fail to realize that anyone born in the country is a citizen,‭ ‬even if their parents are not‭ (‬or perhaps they just don't like this fact,‭ ‬and do not want to comply with it‭)‬. None the less,‭ ‬we should be taking care of the primary education needs of our citizens‭; ‬federal law dictates that we do. +",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn,"‎ ‏So yes,‭ ‬I have come up with what I believe to be an excellent way for Spanish speaking students to both flourish in the American class room,‭ ‬and learn English. I think that combining many of the ideas like immersion,‭ ‬ESL classes,‭ ‬and the dual language system really is the best way we can do this. However,‭ ‬it's not that simple. Anti-Spanish and anti-illegal immigration backlash makes turning ideal to reality very difficult. How can we implement policy that many Americans will strongly reject‭? ‬As with exploring any controversial issue,‭ ‬we are left with more questions than answers. One proposed solution has lead to the necessity of solving another problem. No doubt a social problem that needs rectifying. So will these sorts of programs ever become reality‭? ‬I am hopeful,‭ ‬but I know it will take time. + +‎ ‏To begin with,‭ ‬my own religious background began as a child,‭ ‬when I entered school. Before school I do not remember any sort of religious ceremonies or traditions,‭ ‬that my family upheld. Of course,‭ ‬we observed holidays like Christmas,‭ ‬and other holidays that most American families celebrate. But I really don't remember any sort of religion in particular. My religious experiences began as I entered preschool. The school which I attended,‭ ‬Mount Calvary Lutheran School,‭ ‬was very close to my home,‭ ‬and I ended up going there. However,‭ ‬not really being of any particular faith,‭ ‬I don't think,‭ ‬I've always found it odd that my parents decided then,‭ ‬that I should learn about Christianity and be raised in that faith. Much less Lutheran,‭ ‬which I know is not the denomination of most of my family. + To give a bit of perspective,‎ ‏my paternal grandmother,‭ ‬Carol,‭ ‬is Catholic‭ (‬though she currently attends a nondenominational church‭)‬,‭ ‬and my paternal great grandmother,‭ ‬Vivian‭ (‬and my great step-grandfather Aaron‭)‬,‭ ‬was baptist,‭ ‬if I remember correctly. According to my grandmother,‭ ‬she was very unhappy in the Baptist faith,‭ ‬fell away in her early twenties,‭ ‬and after a bit of soul searching‭ (‬and wild days‭) ‬found Catholicism. She is actually quite open about her spiritual beliefs and encourages questioning them. She has offered me a very unique perspective on religion throughout my life. I think,‭ ‬in part at least,‭ ‬she is the reason that I try to keep an open mind to religious experiences and be respectful to all faiths. I don't really know about the religious affiliations of my mother's family,‭ ‬except that they're some sort of Christians. +‎ ‏In my mid teens,‭ ‬I fell away from the Lutheran faith. I found myself to have a major problem with what the religion‭ (‬and I'm going to say Christianity in general,‭ ‬because it's more or less pretty true across the board‭) ‬taught regarding sexual behavior,‭ ‬and homosexuality more specifically. I found myself feeling so strongly that this particular attraction is not wrong. Ironically,‭ ‬it was my previous belief in Jesus's teachings of peace and love that brought me to this conclusion.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," I just cannot believe that any god would condemn love,‭ ‬yet encourage some of the more violent teaching of the Bible....stoning,‭ ‬violent‭ “‬missions,‭” ‬and crusifiction come to mind. After that realization,‭ ‬I considered myself to be an Atheist,‭ ‬though I have since studied Buddhism,‭ ‬and strongly considered adopting the faith,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬there are just some things concerning the religion that I am not sold on. Particularly the precept‭ (‬a guideline a Buddhist is encouraged to live his/her live by‭) ‬suggesting that one should abstain from any sort of intoxicating substance. I personally don't think responsible use of alcohol and stimulants like caffeine are wrong,‭ ‬or to be avoided. I also struggle with the Buddhist concept of reincarnation. I wouldn't way I even kind of believe that. However,‭ ‬I haven't ridden Buddhism off completely,‭ ‬but for now,‭ ‬I remain an Atheist. +‎ ‏My perspective and views on religion aren't really all that negative. I am unsure whether religion itself has had a positive impact on my life,‭ ‬but the opportunity to question and explore my beliefs has certainly led me to be a more free thinking,‭ ‬analytical individual. I definitely try to keep an open mind. I don't like to make assumptions on anyone's faith until I actually get to know what it's all about. I also am very against telling people of different beliefs than me,‭ ‬that they are wrong. I know and accept that I just don't know when it comes to religion. For all I know I could be very wrong. I try to use that perspective to be respectful of other people's religious beliefs. However,‭ ‬that can definitely be a challenge,‭ ‬especially when confronted to religions very different than my own. For example,‭ ‬I very much struggle to take Scientology seriously. I'd love to learn more about the religion,‭ ‬however that information isn't exactly readily available to the public. That's certainly not the only faith I'm wary of. Certain sects of Christianity even I find very odd,‭ ‬for example,‭ ‬Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are two Christian denominations that I man not have exactly accepted with arm wide open in the past. Which is why,‭ ‬I chose to do this report on one of those denominations‭; ‬Jehovah's Witnesses. Granted,‭ ‬it's a denomination of Christianity,‭ ‬but one that is very different in practice to the denominations which I am experienced with. + According to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania‎ (‏2000‎) ‏Jehovah's Witnesses are a denomination of Christianity which believes in the basic Christian creation,‭ ‬and the one almighty god,‭ ‬who created the universe. This god they call Jehovah. Also,‭ ‬according to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania‭ “‬Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the earth will remain forever and that all people,‭ ‬living and dead,‭ ‬who will fit in with Jehovah's purpose for a beautified,‭ ‬inhabited earth may live on it forever.‭”‬ +",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," Most of the controversy surrounding gay marriage,‭ ‬is the fallacy that allowing homosexuals to marry would destroy the sanctity of marriage,‭ ‬and eventually cause the complete break down of our society. I intend to present both sides of the argument,‭ ‬and prove that such beliefs are unfounded. + +‎ ‏One cannot even fathom the conflict over gay marriage,‭ ‬without looking at the religious aspect behind the issue. It is no secret that most Christians and Muslims believe that homosexuality is a deadly sin. ‭“‬For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women:‭ ‬ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.‭” ‬ “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman,‭ ‬both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death‭; ‬their blood will be on their own heads.‭” ‬Granted,‭ ‬with all of the translations that these books have undergone,‭ ‬to become what we read today,‭ ‬there's no doubt that some religious verses and entire texts themselves may be open to interpretation,‭ ‬via what can become lost in translation,‭ ‬or mistranslated all together. However,‭ ‬with the majority of the country being either Muslim,‭ ‬or Christian,‭ ‬there is no doubt that many religious citizens have taken these texts to heart. Why is this relevant to the topic‭? ‬Well,‭ ‬with the majority of the population being one of these faiths,‭ ‬the religious connotation definitely factors into what the majority of Americans,‭ ‬and American families defines as marriage. + + According to dominant religious ideals in this country,‎ ‏gay marriage isn't even valid. So it makes sense that a large population disapproves. In fact,‭ ‬I'd go as far as to say,‭ ‬that gay marriage is a threat to their definition of family. However,‭ ‬is this a compelling enough argument to flat out decide that gay marriage is a threat to the American family as a whole‭? ‬Absolutely not. The great thing about this country is that it's so culturally diverse,‭ ‬and allowed to be‭! ‬This country's founders were smart enough to separate Church and State so that certain religious ideals couldn't control ever culture,‭ ‬and every individual. Therefore there is a religious aspect to many marriages,‭ ‬but there doesn't have to be. In fact,‭ ‬marriage in the United States is nothing more than a contract with the state. A family isn't just what Christians and Muslims define it as,‭ ‬there is a much broader spectrum of cultural diversity‭; ‬if one were to ask ten different people what their definitions of a family is,‭ ‬one may get ten completely different answers. By allowing dominant religions to declare gay marriage as a threat to the American family,‭ ‬their definition of family anyway,‭ ‬we're completely overlooking not only a huge population that doesn't think like that,‭ ‬but the idea of religious freedom itself. +‎ ‏Next is the idea that gay marriage would bring selfishness to society,‭ ‬and therefore the institution of marriage itself. +",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," Think of it this way,‭ ‬unemployment is a huge problem in California,‭ ‬this idea would create new jobs. Surely there is an abundance of bilingual people living in California‭; ‬I know at least five personally. Really,‭ ‬something like this would benefit the whole community too. + Then there is the idea of mainstream immersion,‎ ‏that is,‭ ‬English being the dominant language in the classroom,‭ ‬and that the Spanish speaking children will pick it up. Such programs are a perfectly horrible idea by themselves,‭ ‬as they pave the way for many children to fall through the cracks. ‭“‬ELLs in English-only programs often fall behind academically. Many ELLs who are assessed using traditional methods are referred for special education. Such children often become school drop-outs.‭” ‬But combining the idea,‭ ‬with the dual language system,‭ ‬I think is a pretty decent way to go. ‭“‬Studies have shown that children who receive several years of instruction in their native language learn English faster and have higher overall academic achievement levels that those who do not.‭” ‬You may be asking yourselves,‭ ‬how could we possibly facilitate both,‭ ‬aren't they opposites‭? ‬More or less,‭ ‬yes they are opposites,‭ ‬but both can be implemented,‭ ‬if we consider age appropriateness. What I am suggesting,‭ ‬is the dual language approach all of the time for younger students,‭ ‬and the majority of the time for older students in which schedules lessons to be taught only in English. This will allow first language Spanish students access to clarification when they don't understand,‭ ‬the majority of the time,‭ ‬with lessons meant to challenge them,‭ ‬and keep them from using the duel language program as a crutch. Sort of how we go about teaching second languages in the college setting. At first,‭ ‬a lot of the dialog and instruction is in English,‭ ‬but as the students improve,‭ ‬more and more of the second language is used for dialog and instruction. As the children get older and older,‭ ‬and progress through the grades,‭ ‬we can cut down on the duel language approach. For most students,‭ ‬by high school,‭ ‬ideally they would be learning in an English dominant environment. + Another necessity,‎ ‏I believe,‭ ‬is the existence of ESL classes available to students. If the foundation for correct English learning isn't there,‭ ‬neither immersion nor a dual language system will do much good. I can say this because I have studied both French and Spanish. I can tell you,‭ ‬that when I am in an environment where a language is completely foreign to me,‭ ‬I don't pick up on anything. I simply stew in confusions. For example,‭ ‬foreign films. Any film I try to watch,‭ ‬without subtitles that is not in French or Spanish,‭ ‬I don't pick up any of the language,‭ ‬none. But films that are in French or Spanish,‭ ‬not only do I pick up some of the language‭ (‬and sometimes I can follow what is going on without subtitals‭)‬,‭ ‬I find myself eager to try and decode what is being said,‭ ‬and what is happening.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn,"‎ ‏A couple years ago,‭ ‬I worked in an after school program tutoring Elementary age students. I did my best to help them in whatever subject they were struggling in,‭ ‬but my strengths were in English and reading. I was recruited by one of the instructors to help a little boy named Adrian‭ (‬I believe he was in third or fourth grade‭)‬,‭ ‬who was having a lot of trouble reading. It dawned on me,‭ ‬that something was wrong‭; ‬he was having the most peculiar problems. Some letters he understood how to pronounce perfectly,‭ ‬others,‭ ‬not even close,‭ ‬it was the strangest thing. You know,‭ ‬he was of Latino decent,‭ ‬that I was sure,‭ ‬but the boy spoke perfect English. We struggled from there,‭ ‬until the day I met his mother. I was helping to babysitting‭ (‬for lack of a better term‭) ‬a few straggles while the rest of the after school group was on a field trip when his mother walked in. His mother didn't speak a word of English,‭ ‬only Spanish. With my very bad knowledge of Spanish‭ (‬I was only just learning‭)‬,‭ ‬we managed to communicate. But it was then that it hit me like a sack of bricks:‭ ‬Adrian could read fine,‭ ‬he just didn't know the English alphabet very well. I don't know if that revelation ever helped him much,‭ ‬but I do hope that he's doing better now. +‎ ‏I tell that story,‭ ‬to address the problem of the language barrier in schools,‭ ‬especially here in California. I also tell it to prove that it's not always as obvious as we'd think. Even for a child who speaks perfect English,‭ ‬reading it can still be a huge obstetrical. I think everyone can agree that this problem exists,‭ ‬so what do we do‭? ‬In Adrian's case,‭ ‬the solution was fairly simple:‭ ‬tutoring in English reading,‭ ‬particularly the alphabet and pronunciations. But for the many children who barely speak English,‭ ‬the solution is much more complex. There is no one answer. The dual language system,‭ ‬mainstream immersion,‭ ‬private tutors,‭ ‬ESL classes,‭ ‬not one of these things,‭ ‬by itself,‭ ‬will fix this problem. The key lies in combining all of the above‭!‬ + First of all,‎ ‏the dual language system is a great idea. Not just for children who's first language is Spanish,‭ ‬but for all children. ‭“‬Children in two-way bilingual education programs have been found to outperform their peers academically.‭” ‬A lot of fear surrounds this idea,‭ ‬that it's a waste of resources,‭ ‬and that the majority of children in schools will reap no benefit. But that's false. If we were to apply these sorts of programs in the classroom as the rule,‭ ‬rather than the exception,‭ ‬all children would benefit from it. How do we go about this though‭? ‬Do we require all teachers to be bilingual‭? ‬No. That would be unreasonable and slightly unrealistic. However,‭ ‬I do think that there is no reason we can't have special Aids,‭ ‬tutors,‭ ‬whatever you want to call them,‭ ‬who are bilingual.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn,"“This narrow focus of the‭ [‬homosexual‭] ‬couple dominates even the campaign of legal recognition of gay marriage....They demand these‭ “‬benefits‭” ‬and other‭ “‬rights,‭” ‬the legal side effects that accrue to marriage that rarely on the table when a man and woman decide to wed.‭” ‬There is no doubt,‭ ‬that in most cases this is absolutely true. I've never seen or heard of a heterosexual couple consider marriage simply for legal benefits. However,‭ ‬here is something that this idea neglects to acknowledge:‭ ‬it's not all about the legal benefits. + + Heterosexuals may not think twice about the legal benefits of marriage because it's a given for them.‎ ‏But for homosexual couples,‭ ‬in places that they can't marry,‭ ‬it's not a given,‭ ‬at least not entirely. If homosexual couples automatically received these things with some sort of union,‭ ‬I really don't think that they'd think about the legal aspect any more than any heterosexual couple. Just to clear things up,‭ ‬I would also like to add that a civil union or domestic partnership does not necessarily grant all the same rights as marriage. It can include hospital rights,‭ ‬tax right,‭ ‬things of that nature. However two important rights that are missing or lacking exist. First of all the issue of children. If one partner were to die,‭ ‬or the partners were to split up,‭ ‬though they may have a legal agreement,‭ ‬if the two are not legally married,‭ ‬it is much easier to contest guardianship and things of that nature. The second issue is that of inheritance. If one,‭ ‬or two married partners is to die,‭ ‬the state grants the surviving partner what is willed to them,‭ ‬tax free. This is not a liberty granted to anyone in any civil union or domestic partnership. It is only a marriage right. This can translate into one partner losing their house,‭ ‬because that partner can't afford to pay the taxes due after the partner owning the house dies. + + Another theory as to why gay marriage is a threat to the American family is that gay marriage opens up the door to polygamy.‎ ‏In an article written by Bernadette Malone,‭ ‬she insists that the push for legalizing gay marriage will‭ “‬put society on a‭ '‬slippery slope‭' ‬down which it will tumble until there is nothing left of the institution of marriage.‭” ‬Here is the problem with that idea. Though it sounds good on paper,‭ ‬and has in fact convinced a great many people,‭ “‬slippery slope‭” ‬is also known as the‭ “‬slippery slope fallacy.‭” ‬That is,‭ ‬by the laws of logic,‭ ‬a completely invalid though process,‭ ‬that if one thing happens,‭ ‬it will trigger a chain reaction to more and more horrible events. It is a fallacy because it is not supported by deductive or inductive reasoning,‭ ‬rather it's based on fear. +‎ ‏One issue that I take very seriously,‭ ‬that argues against gay marriage,‭ ‬is the possible effects on children. The basic concept here is that marriage is for children,‭ ‬to help them develop,‭ ‬and to model how they are supposed to behave in a family. +",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," “Marriage is the fundamental,‭ ‬cross-cultural institution for bridging the male-female divide so that children have loving,‭ ‬committed mothers and father.‭” ‬This is a problem,‭ ‬yes,‭ ‬and yes,‭ ‬it is probably in a child's best interest to have both a mother,‭ ‬and a father who love each other and are in a committed relationship. However I cannot overlook the fact,‭ ‬that there is absolutely nothing that a homosexual family could do,‭ ‬that is not done every day by a heterosexual family,‭ ‬be it an absentee father or mother,‭ ‬a divorce,‭ ‬a single parent. + + If being a‎ “‏family unit‭” ‬without two parents of different genders a damaging enough to a child,‭ ‬to justify denying a couple the right to marry,‭ ‬why isn't being a single parent grounds for being an unfit parent‭? ‬Why is divorce legal‭? ‬After all,‭ ‬may will argue that marriage is only for raising children in the best environment possible,‭ ‬why is breaking up that union legal when children are involved‭? ‬Why is it not a crime to be an absentee parent‭? ‬Last,‭ ‬under the issue of children,‭ ‬that perhaps has more to do with gay adoption that marriage,‭ ‬but I find it appropriate none the less,‭ ‬as the two are undeniably intertwined:‭ ‬are two same sex parents worse than no parents at all‭? ‬Some would say no. ‭“‬More than‭ ‬20‭ ‬studies have been done on about‭ ‬300‭ ‬children of lesbians and gay men....The results are quite clear:‭ ‬Children of lesbian or gay parents turn out just fine on every conceivable measure of emotional and social development....‭”‬ + + So where does this lead us‎? ‏No doubt,‭ ‬many of the arguments supporting the idea that gay marriage is a threat to the American family,‭ ‬and society itself are flawed‭; ‬using logical fallacies,‭ ‬outdated thinking,‭ ‬religious tyranny,‭ ‬and emotional propaganda,‭ ‬that as it turns out isn't necessarily true depending on who you ask. Does this prove,‭ ‬without a doubt,‭ ‬that gay marriage is not a threat to the American family and society‭? ‬Personally,‭ ‬I'm absolutely convinced,‭ ‬but from an objective,‭ ‬academic standpoint,‭ ‬no,‭ ‬absolutely not. I've brought to light some of the strongest arguments and issues surrounding the controversy,‭ ‬but in reality,‭ ‬there are thousands of issues,‭ ‬more than one could cover in a lifetime. And beyond that,‭ ‬there are so many more possible problems and issues that we haven't even thought of yet. Gay marriage,‭ ‬no matter how deeply studies,‭ ‬will always leave one with more questions than answers. But of this I am absolutely certain. Fear,‭ ‬without any sort of solid proof,‭ ‬is no good justification to deny someone a civil right. We will never know,‭ ‬not even without a doubt,‭ ‬but even reasonably so,‭ ‬what the consequences of gay marriage will be. We won't until we legalize it,‭ ‬in the entire United States. + +‎ ‏How should the value of life be determined‭? ‬This is an age old question and many people have come up with many answers to it.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," For example,‭ ‬where we came from. The Jehovah's Witnesses faith follows the basic creation story that most Christian denominations follow. The faith also explains what happens after one dies. As science doesn't really have any answers to that particular question,‭ ‬other than we cease to be‭ “‬living‭” ‬being. And that can be rather scary,‭ ‬not knowing what may happen to our consciousness. This faith,‭ ‬believing in an afterlife,‭ ‬helps alleviate that fear. This sort of alleviation of fear is and important basic need of the Witness community. Accordingly,‭ ‬people of this faith try to influence their outcome in the afterlife,‭ ‬by pleasing their god,‭ ‬Jehovah,‭ ‬and living their lives according to their religion. The bible study classes are an important part of that,‭ ‬as they teach the Witnesses how it is that Jehovah wants them to live their lives. + +‎ ‏For example,‭ ‬Witnesses partake in spreading the word,‭ ‬in most aspects of their lives,‭ ‬but particularly by taking their message door to door on Saturdays. This is really a group effort,‭ ‬and an activity planned by,‭ ‬and executed through the Kingdom Hall,‭ ‬it's not an individual undertaking. It's definitely a church activity. By doing this,‭ ‬not only do Witnesses believe that they are pleasing their god and doing his will,‭ ‬but also‭ “‬saving‭” ‬or bringing their message to other people‭; ‬this is perceived as Jehovah's will. + +‎ ‏Even the seemingly odd traditions‭ (‬as perceived by other Christians and those of most non-Christian faiths‭) ‬are meant to please their god,‭ ‬and effect the outcome of their afterlife. Refraining from receiving blood donations,‭ ‬for example,‭ ‬is based on the scriptures. And refraining from celebrating most holidays,‭ ‬also relates to this because as the Witnesses perceive these holidays,‭ ‬they are based in pagan traditions‭ (‬which,‭ ‬for the most part is actually true‭)‬,‭ ‬and celebrating them is actually unChristian,‭ ‬and displeasing to Jehovah. + + +‎ ‏Adam Martinez‭ (~‬1903‭ ‬-‭ ‬2000‭) ‬and Santana Martinez‭ (‬1909‭ – ‬2002‭) ‬were a husband and wife team in the art of pottery. Adam was the oldest son of the infamous Maria Martinez and Santana came from another famous San Ildefonso family‭; ‬she learned the craft from her grandmother. The two were married in‭ ‬1926‭ ‬and lived very near Maria and the rest of her family. Both Adam and Santana learned this art from their families,‭ ‬and Maria Martinez in particular. Their style greatly reflects that. Like Maria,‭ ‬Adam's and Santana's pottery reflects the beautiful black pottery that Maria became famous for. +‎ ‏While Adam and Santana's work may not have carried on the community spirit of Native American pot making,‭ ‬the two still mixed,‭ ‬decorated,‭ ‬and fired their pottery in the old way,‭ ‬without the help of modern technology,‭ ‬premixed clays,‭ ‬glazes,‭ ‬and electric/gas kilns. The two actually fired their pots in a shed behind their house. I think this is actually pretty awesome,‭ ‬that‭ ‬they were able to accomplish such beautiful work,‭ ‬without the aid of all this modern technology we have.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +nn," We did this out of a book specifically designed to do so,‭ ‬it was complete with questions and bible chapters to reference The most unusual part,‭ ‬that is what was so different from what I'd experienced with other Christian services,‭ ‬is that this was interactive. A member of the church actually went around to congregation and members actually answered the question. It was really more like a class setting,‭ ‬then a church service. + +‎ ‏Next we has a part of the the meeting that seemed almost like a training course to be honest. A training course in how to‭ “‬preach‭” ‬or‭ “‬spread the word.‭” ‬Or even,‭ ‬I'd say,‭ ‬how to talk to other people about their religious beliefs,‭ ‬what they entail,‭ ‬and why certain things aren't observed. During that segment,‭ ‬members of the congregation actually got up on stage and did these exercises that were preassigned and rehearsed. After performing them,‭ ‬a member of the congregation which is more or less leading the meeting,‭ ‬critiques the rehearsing. Next we had another hymn. Then announcements and a few readings from a flier-like hand out. + + After the meeting,‎ ‏Jan gave me a tour of Kingdom Hall,‭ ‬pointing out all of the little details. For example,‭ ‬she explained to me that instead of a collection plate circulating,‭ ‬donation boxes are on the wall exiting the church. She also explained that the Kingdom Hall has‭ ‬services for the def,‭ ‬and for Spanish speaking individuals. introduced me to pretty much all of the congregation,‭ ‬all of which were very friendly and welcoming. Yes they did know I was attending as part of a class assignment,‭ ‬and still they were definitely very welcoming. To dispel a common myth,‭ ‬these people weren't overly pushy at all. They didn't push to try and convert me or anything. They were very respectful. I mean to be fair we were in a house of religion,‭ ‬some discussing of religion is to be expected,‭ ‬but there was no pushiness. That actually really surprised me,‭ ‬I'll admit I did expect them to try and convert me,‭ ‬or something along those lines. But to get back on track,‭ ‬after the meeting ended,‭ ‬I actually stuck around for a while and met most of the congregation,‭ ‬having conversations with many of them. They really are very nice people. + +‎ ‏One of the major aspects of this religion‭ (‬as with most‭) ‬is to alleviate anxiety. This is demonstrated in the common theme of pleasing their god,‭ ‬Jehovah. This was further expressed with some of the congregation members I spoke to who expressed their concern with possible end-times like events,‭ ‬she also expressed that she'd put her faith in Jehovah to take care of everything. In this case,‭ ‬the Jehovah's Witnesses religion alleviates fear about declining environmental conditions and all of the increasing negativity in the world. Their faith is how they cope with it,‭ ‬and live without being in constant fear. + +‎ ‏This faith also answers questions that science cannot.",22,English,female,Some college,food service,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +bb,"CC is sure that he recognizes her from a social function meanwhile Fran embraces him and thanks him for his help. It turned out Fran’s cousin “Toddy” was Todd Oldham and she turned a possible disaster into a raging success. +The show was a hit for seven years until it ended in 1999. The series ended with Maxwell and Fran marrying and eventually giving birth to twins. CC and Niles realize that they have always been in love and also marry after she finds out she is pregnant with Niles child. The family moves to California because Maxwell will be producing a television show based on one of his plays. Fran cannot bear to leave her family and convinces Maxwell to take her parents and grandmother with them. The series ends with the two elder children (Maggie and Brighton) flying off to live in Paris. Fran in a series of flashbacks reminisces how her life was transformed in the New York home while they are packing to leave. +This program just like “I Love Lucy” has become more popular in reruns, than it was in the original run. It is estimated just like “Lucy” at any given time is being aired on some television station in the world. “The Nanny” however has been taken one step further because it also one of the most “re-made” shows in the world. There are at least 8 different countries that have their own version of “The Nanny”. The Russian version proved to be so popular that original writers were commissioned to write additional scripts. The show has Spanish and Italian version and many more. “The Nanny” seems to cross all cultural barriers as did “I Love Lucy.” +The most striking similarity of course is that all the characters especially the male and female leads love each other. This love drives both Lucy and Fran too many extremes and “The Nanny” often directly points out these parallels. Drescher and the cast did many parodies of “I Love Lucy” during the run. If you are familiar with both programs you will see Drescher mimics Ball right down to her mannerisms and facial expressions. The stories may seem different but many parallels will be drawn if you watch. Both Fran and Lucy are some of the funniest women television has ever produced. If you have never watched “The Nanny” you don’t know what you are missing. If you take the time and watch both programs you will see the homage Drescher pays to Ball in each episode of “The Nanny.” Take a chance and I am sure you will agree both women are very funny and deserve much credit for their contribution to television comedy. + + +I have nothing but the utmost respect and praise for Mr. Gene Bateman of Chauncey, Ohio and his views on illegally downloading music and its obvious connection to terrorism. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," + Arbuckle’s reputation soared in Hollywood. He began to make unheard-of amounts of money for his work. Eventually he signed a contract for a million dollars a year; this was a major success in the early 1920’s. It seemed Arbuckle could turn his comedy into gold; his movies were loved by almost everyone and he was in great demand. Arbuckle’s successes seemed to hide secret pain; he did not like to be called “Fatty” and insisted that his proper name be used by all who worked with him. He would allow “Fatty” to be placed on the film credits and Theater Marquee’s but he wanted to be addressed in person as Roscoe. He self-medicated his pain with alcohol as he was widely known as a heavy drinker. In 1916 he became afflicted with a boil/carbuncle on his left leg. This infection was so bad that his leg was nearly amputated, Arbuckle managed to lose some 80 pounds and kept the leg; however became addicted to the morphine/heroin that had been used to treat the pain. + Arbuckle, made many great films during his career; he acted in and directed and produced over sixty films. He was also a mentor to many other film stars of the era; namely Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Bob Hope. Chaplin worked with Arbuckle at the Mack Sennett Studios in the Keystone Cops films. Buster Keaton came to work with Arbuckle in 1917 in the film short “The Butcher Boy.” Arbuckle’s work can been seen today in the work of many comedian’s and even characters such as Peter Griffin; the animated creation of Seth Macfarlane. Arbuckle made the “Fat Guy” funny. He was such a contradiction to the stereotypes of overweight people. Arbuckle was not a dumb, lazy, clumsy oaf as might have been perceived; he was an intelligent, agile talented man. He could evoke laughter by giving the viewer just a preview of what was about to begin. + In September of 1921 Arbuckle had been badly burned on his buttocks during a film stunt, and decided to take a much needed vacation. He and two friends Lowell Sherman and Fred Fischbach decide to make a trip to San Francisco for a short vacation. The trio checked into the St. Francis Hotel; they rented a total of three rooms, the third room was to be used as a party room. They invited several women to the suite in order to relax and enjoy the time they were to spend in San Francisco. One of the Women who attended the party was Virginia Rappe. She was a thirty-year-old aspiring actress. Rappe’s character was very questionable, she was known to have had several abortions (then illegal) and also heavily used alcohol (also illegal at the time). Sometime during the trio’s stay at the hotel Rappe was found seriously ill in Arbuckle’s room. She was initially examined by a hotel doctor. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," + The second new cast that I recorded was an early morning version of Fox 28 News for Saturday Morning. The lead story was about Juvon Williams, 19 an Active-Duty Solider (US Army) who had shot and killed his girlfriend. He had taken her dead body to another location; and continued to elude the police. The police eventually caught up with him on Hamilton Road in Columbus. He led police on a chase and eventually they stopped him with an intentional crash, he came out of the car firing and the police shot and killed him. Several minutes was devoted to the story, I do not believe the race was mentioned of the victim or the dead solider. +The next story was about a Marion Middle School teacher who was busted for selling pot. Laura Sayler, 35 had been arrested for selling marijuana. She was selling the pot in other counties and the focus of the story was she was not selling to students and how that school districts graduation rate had recently risen. No mention of what charges (other than she was arrested for selling pot) were made. I would have focused more on her crime and not the graduation rates. If my child attended that school I would want to know that she was not coming back to teach or be near any children. +The next story was weather related and again about the coming storms this afternoon and evening and reassuring the viewers the weather would remain nice until then. They just like NBC 4 used this as a teaser; they mentioned a little and said they would be back with all the details about your day to keep you watching. +I realize they try to vary the news a little from station to station, but of course they all want to “scoop” one another. And in this area some days are busier than others. I think we do hear a variety of news and information and each stations point-of-view. However, they have to report what the people want to hear. They can’t ignore a “big story” even if all the other stations are covering it. People are somewhat loyal to certain stations, but would switch stations if they weren’t getting all the news. In this day and age of electronic media we have many choices to get our news. If the stations are not staying competitive they will lose viewers, and ultimately advertisers dollars. + The text book mentions the beginnings of deception of the public by the coal mine owners and operators in the early 1900’s. Little or no concern was given to the truth as the bottom line was profit and sensational stories. A young public relations publicist Ivy Lee stepped in with new ideas how to improve public perception of the media. This has certainly gone a long way to improve the image of the news media and “yellow journalism” that prevailed in years past. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Arbuckle’s father William believed from birth that Roscoe was not his biological child. His father came to this conclusion simply because of the Roscoe’s weight. It has been estimated that Arbuckle’s birth weight was somewhere between fourteen and sixteen pounds. His father who was a staunch Democrat, named his son after a notorious philandering Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling. The elder Arbuckle treated his son harshly and abused him throughout his childhood. William also blamed the birth of Roscoe for Mollie’s untimely death. + Through his mother’s encouragement Arbuckle began working on the stage at age eight. Arbuckle was a talented singer and surprisingly agile. He continued to work locally until his mother’s death. When his mother died his father refused to support him, and Arbuckle began working odd jobs at a local hotel. Arbuckle liked to sing while he worked, and a guest at the hotel who was a professional singer recognized his talent. The singer invited Arbuckle to perform in a talent show. During this show Arbuckle’s singing, dancing and clowning around did not impress the audience. During the performances at the talent show “bad acts” were pulled off the stage with a shepherd’s crook. When Arbuckle saw the crook coming for him, he somersaulted into the orchestra pit; this move put the audience into a fit of laughter and Arbuckle ultimately won the talent show. Arbuckle was greatly influenced by Vaudeville and slap stick comedy; however some said he could have also been a great singer. Enrico Caruso had commented that he should “Give up the nonsense, and become the second greatest singer in the world.” + Around 1904 Arbuckle began singing for Sid Grauman at the Unique Theater in San Jose, California. He was called an illustrated singer as beautifully colored slides were projected behind him while he sang and thus illustrated the songs. He then joined the Pantages Theatre Group and he toured the West Coast of the United States. In 1906 was asked to join the Orpheum Theater in Portland, Oregon owned by Leon Errol. Arbuckle became the main attraction and the group took their show on tour. + In 1909 Arbuckle’s break into film and silent comedy came along. He began his film career with the Selig Polyscope Company when he appeared in “Ben's Kid”. Arbuckle continued to appear occasionally in Selig’s one-reelers until 1913 when he moved briefly to Mack Sennett’s Studio and became a star and producer-director in Sennett's Keystone Cops comedies. Although Arbuckle realized his weight added comedic value to his on-screen appearances he refused to be put in demeaning situations. He would not appear in scenes that would cheapen the film or make it appear that his weight was a problem. Mack Sennett was quoted as saying “Arbuckle skipped up the stairs as lightly as Fred Astaire""; and, ""without warning went into a feather light step, clapped his hands and did a backward somersault as graceful as a girl tumbler"". ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," Fran eventually begins to somewhat settle into the Sheffield home. She cares and loves (although she is constantly reminded she shouldn’t) for the children and Maxwell. It is obvious to the viewers that Fran and Maxwell are in love early on in the series. Both of them deny this for the most part in the beginning, later on Fran openly admits she loves him but realizes they could never be together. +Fran dates a new man in every week in the start of the series. The relationship always fails and Maxwell is always there to comfort her. Niles is acutely aware of the love they share and continually tries to push them together. CC on the other hand is continually trying to push them apart and get Fran fired. +In each episode much like “I Love Lucy” Fran is getting herself and often times Maxwell into some hilarious situation with her well-meaning intentions. In one episode Fran (much like Lucy) in her quest for her own fame, has gotten Maxwell to let her design all the costumes for one of his plays. Maxwell’s arch enemy Andrew Lloyd Webber (another running gag) will be in attendance of the play. Maxwell has for years been in competition with Webber in the world of Broadway. It is often brought to his attention he was offered plays such as “Cat’s” before Webber and turned it down. Only, for it to be picked up by Webber and turned into a major success. In this episode Maxwell had recently told Fran he loved her (and took it back) so to get her mind off this issue he is allowing her to design the costumes for a very important play. Everyone tells him he must be a blooming idiot for doing this. Fran has very tacky and outrageous taste in clothing and they are sure it will be a disaster. Fran reassures him everything will be alright. She has a cousin who is helping her with the job; by the name of Toddy. Maxwell is sure this will be a disaster as most of Fran’s relatives are more “whacked” out than she. On opening night of the play with Webber in attendance, Maxwell is sure of disaster and will not go in to watch the certain disastrous play. He instead stands in the lobby drinking Jack Daniels Whiskey and smoking a cigar. He decides to set off the smoke alarm with his cigar, thus causing everyone to flee the building but, it doesn’t work. Moments later the play ends and loud applause can be heard from behind the doors. The people began to come out raving about the costumes and how beautiful the set was. CC and Fran meet up with Maxwell (not realizing he didn’t watch the play) and are gloating on the success. At that moment designer Todd Oldham is walking out of theater and approaches the three. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," +In 1941 Ball met Desi Arnaz a Cuban-born bandleader and they were eventually married. Arnaz was six years Ball’s junior and in 1944 this caused them to file for divorce, however the marriage was reconciled and they remained married until 1960. In 1948 Ball was starring in regular radio program “My Favorite Husband” as “Liz Cugat” (Cooper). CBS asked her to develop this character in to a television program and a pilot was made; CBS was not impressed. Ball and Arnaz took the “I Love Lucy” concept on the road with a vaudeville act; with Lucy portraying a wife trying to get on Arnaz’s show and it became very popular. CBS picked up “I Love Lucy” and it became a hit. Ball and Arnaz had created Desilu and retained all rights and creative control over the program. Although the concept of re-run was unheard of at the time; “I Love Lucy” was the first program to ever be shown again and again and consequently is the highest earning television program of all time. +Francine Joy ""Fran"" Drescher (born September 30, 1957) is an American film and television actress, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, author, singer, talk show host, political lobbyist and health activist. Drescher was born in Flushing, Queens, New York to Morty and Sylvia Drescher. Drescher’s first major break was for the role of “Connie” in Saturday Night Fever. Drescher went on from there to star in American Hot Wax, The summer of Fear and in a rare dramatic role in Milos Foreman’s “Ragtime.” In 1978 she married her high school sweetheart Peter Marc Jacobson. +In the 1980’s Drescher mostly found herself in character roles the most notable was the role of Bobbi Fleckman in “This is Spinal Tap.” Her career floundered for several years. In 1993 Drescher and Jacobson created their own television series “The Nanny.” This is perhaps the role Drescher is best known for. Drescher portrayed a lower middle class Jewish woman from Flushing, Queens, New York who worked as a Nanny for a Broadway Producer Maxwell Sheffield. Large portions of the show were based on Drescher’s real life. Many of the characters had the same names as her own family members. Drescher was sure to let her audience also know that she drew inspiration from Lucille Ball (and the “I Love Lucy” show) as well as the Dick Van Dyke Show and many other classic television programs. +“I Love Lucy” Description and Premise +The “I Love Lucy” show was set in New York City and centers on the married life of Lucille “Lucy” Ricardo (nee`McGillicuddy) and Ricky Ricardo A.K.A Enrique Alberto. Ricky is a singer/bandleader and Lucy is his devoted wife. In the series Lucy is supposed to be a housewife and later mother however, she is anything but a housewife and mother in the series. Lucy does try however to be a devoted wife; she and Ricky share a small apartment in Manhattan. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Maxwell has contacted the nanny agency to send him another nanny so she can tend to the children, enter Fran Fine the new nanny. +Fran is mistaken for the new nanny when she rings the doorbell that day. She is there to sell cosmetics but Niles assumes she is the new nanny. Niles takes a liking to her right away. Fran tries to tell him she is not the nanny but the “Shades of the Orient” cosmetics girl. Niles ignores her and fetches Mr. Sheffield to interview and approve her. Quick on her feet Fran decides that perhaps she might try this “gig” as it is better than door-to-door cosmetic sales. She quickly scribbles out a resume with a tube of lipstick on a sheet of paper. Mr. Sheffield comes into the room and is very wary of Fran. Fran gives him her resume and he attempts to read it. Sheffield questions one of her references and says “I see you list the Queen Mother as one of your references?” To which Fran quickly replies “No, that is my mother in Queens.” Sheffield walks away in disgust. Niles then reminds him of his urgency to find another nanny for the weekend and Fran begs him to let her at least try the job. Sheffield gives in and says he will hire her but only for the weekend, and thus begins “The Nanny.” +Fran Fine is a woman from a lower middle class Jewish background. In the beginning this is a source of much of the comedy because Fran is not familiar with many of the customs and the lifestyles of the rich upper-class people that the Sheffield’s are. Niles the butler attempts to help her “fit” in with the Sheffield’s and the people that come in and out of their lives. Niles is Maxwell’s butler and has been his constant companion since childhood as Niles’ father was Maxwell’s father’s butler. Once Maxwell made the move to New York from London, Niles naturally stayed with him. Another one of the running gags is Niles is very nosy, and he is aware of everything going on in the household. He is constantly using the intercom to spy on Maxwell and eventually Fran. As the series progresses Niles and Fran become very good friends. Niles is in the end always looking out for the good of the family and never betrays them. +CC Babcock is Maxwell’s long-time assistant and one of the protagonists of the show. She is secretly in love with Maxwell and believes that her feelings are reciprocated due to her length of employment and working closely with Maxwell in his home. Maxwell is oblivious to this for the most part and only sees her as a business associate. She comes from a wealthy family and is well educated. She sees the new nanny as a buffoon and over-sexed tart and is in many ways jealous of her. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"This physician felt most of her problems stemmed from intoxication and he administered morphine to calm her. When Rappe did not seem to be recovering, she was hospitalized two days later. + Rappe after being hospitalized for only one day succumbed to peritonitis and passed away. The rumors flew around Hollywood and in the Media. Rappe was said to have had an abortion only a few days prior to the party at Arbuckle’s suite. She was also said to suffer from chronic cystitis that was exacerbated when she drank alcohol. Many theories abounded she was thought to have been crushed by Arbuckle’s weight during sexual intercourse; it was also thought that Arbuckle had used a Coca-Cola bottle or a champagne bottle as a sexual device and punctured her bladder. These rumors were never proven, and to the contrary it was said that Arbuckle was very concerned about her health and even applied ice to her stomach to try and relieve her pain. + Ultimately, Arbuckle went through and arrest and three trials concerning this tragedy. The first trial ended deadlocked 10-2 not guilty, after forty-four hours of deliberation. The second trial resulted in yet another deadlock 9-3 guilty, and another mistrial was called. Eventually, during the third trial Arbuckle was acquitted. Arbuckle although found innocent was not the same man and continued to suffer tragedies. His then wife Minta Durfee filed for divorce on grounds of desertion and won. He was practically banned from Hollywood due to the Virginia Rappe Case; it seemed that he would never work again in the film industry. + Buster Keaton attempted to help his old friend re-enter the filmmaking scene, but was not successful, Arbuckle further retreated into alcoholism at that time. Arbuckle used a pseudonym of William Goodrich (after his father) and did some minor work in Hollywood but had little success. Arbuckle tragically suffered a heart-attack and died in his sleep in 1933. +Arbuckle, inspired many people even after his death. The late Chris Farley was said to have drawn heavily on the work of Arbuckle. Arbuckle will continue to inspire comics with his genius as long as his legacy remains. Arbuckle is perhaps the original Funny Man of all Hollywood films and still provides entertainment to the world some seventy-eight years after his death. Roscoe Conkling “Fatty” Arbuckle will always be remembered as one of the greats. + + Pretty in Pink is a 1980’s teenage romantic comedy. It stars Mollie Ringwald as Andie Walsh; Jon Cryer as “Duckie” aka: Phillip Dale; Andrew McCarthy as Blane McDonough; Annie Potts as Iona; Harry Dean Stanton as Jack Walsh; James Spader as Steff McKee. The comedy is typical romantic comedy and contains most of the elements that Shakespeare used in his plays. Although this is set in the 1980’s all the events could have happened several hundred years ago. + The film’s set up shows us Andie Walsh (Ringwald) is a poor working class girl. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"She lives with her unemployed father who is severely depressed (Stanton) on the “wrong side of the tracks.” She manages despite this adversity to have fashionable clothes and even an older sports car. She works at a local record store with her boss and good friend/mother figure Iona (Annie Potts.) Her best friend is Duckie (Cryer) and he is madly in love with her. She doesn’t seem to notice or care about this. She is somewhat of an outcast at school because she does not come from a wealthy family; although, several of the “rich boys” have taken notice of her beauty. She is initially approached by Steff McKee (Spader), he is rather crude when he “asks her out” and is known to be very vain and fickle; Andie rebuffs his advances (which upsets him). Blane McDonough is also interested and it more of a gentleman and doesn’t flaunt his wealth/power as does Steff. + Andie doesn’t have a dress for the prom or a date in the beginning. She is encouraged by Iona to go to the prom even without a date. Iona gives her old prom dress and her father buys her a used prom dress; which in a Cinderella type move she creates a beautiful dress from the two old dresses. Meanwhile, she dates Blane and never quite fits in with his crowd; and Steff (due to his jealousy) constantly berates Blane for choosing to be with Andie. Duckie provides the comedic best friend role (although, he is also jealous of the relationship) to Andie. He would like nothing more than to be with her himself. Iona is the other comedic relief, she is a middle aged woman who has refused to grow up and dresses in outrageous clothes and hairstyles in order provide the audience with a laugh. + Fast forward to the end of the movie Duckie takes Andie to the prom (because of a misunderstanding between Andie and Blane) but, once they arrive Blane immediately finds himself more in love than ever with Andie. The movie ends with Andie and Blane reuniting and sharing a kiss; and Duckie finds a girl of his own. Everyone is happy; Andie and Blane ride off in Blane’s car. + Andie and Blane are the two central characters of the movie. The movie centers on “Andie’s” side of the story, she is the “poor girl” who has fallen for the seemingly unattainable “rich boy”. They are in love with each other despite their different back grounds. + Andie and Blane are the focus of the movie. There are several underlying plots but most of the movie centers on the couple getting together. + They have several obstacles to overcome. The biggest one is coming from two very different classes. Andie is poor working girl and Blane is a rich affluent boy. Neither seems to fit in with each other’s friends. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," + I watched two newscast’s from Columbus, Ohio. The first one that was “live” was NBC 4 this morning (August 13, 2011). The lead story was about a man in Ashley, Ohio who had stabbed his wife, it did not state her name however his name was Shad Hostettler. They showed his mug shot and he looked like pure evil. They devoted only about two minutes to this story as it was developing. The only details they provide he had stabbed her multiple times and had been arrested. I think they spent an appropriate amount of time on this story. + The second story was about an early morning shooting of Travis Buyers, 18. He was shot in the Sharon Woods area and had been critically injured; there had been no arrests made at the time or any suspects. The SWAT Team was investigating the crime. This story seemed to be short, and I believe that might have been due to the fact this was a “black” man or a black neighborhood. I noticed (and have for years) that minorities are glossed over when they are a victim of a crime. If say a “white” child or adult is kidnapped or missing or a victim of a crime the media goes nuts; but if a minority person it’s lucky if it is even mentioned. + The next story was about the gunshot hole that had been found in the Med-Flight helicopter. Details were given about where they thought the incident happened. It had been determined that it was a .22 caliber bullet from a rifle that had hit the helicopter. Crime-Stoppers are offering a five-thousand dollar reward for tips that lead to the arrest of the shooter. + The next story was concerning the rain and thunderstorms predicted for Saturday afternoon. They said the temperatures would remain in the mid to low eighties for the weekend. The length of time was a little short, but they wanted to use it as a “teaser” so that you would stay tuned. + They also ran with a story about a robbery of a Clime Road UDF in Columbus. They said it was dark-skinned black man who robbed the store he was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt. They said he was about six-foot tall and weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds. I thought they devoted an unusual about of time emphasizing he was black and how dark he was. + Another story was about a Rene Rodriguez who was a convicted Texas Drug-Kingpin. He had been convicted of conspiring to distribute marijuana in large amounts to Ohio from Texas. One curious thing I noted, was instead of saying he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison they said “300” months. I am not sure what the angle was there, whether they thought that sounded more harsh or what. They also mentioned he was a Hispanic man, I don’t believe that was really germane to the story. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"The apartment’s owners and landlords are Fred and Ethel Mertz former vaudeville performers. In addition to being Lucy and Ricky’s neighbors and landlords they happen to be their best friends. Although portrayed to be much older than Lucy and Ricky; Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz) was in reality only two years older than Lucille Ball. Fred was much older than all the characters by many years. +Each show began the same with Lucy and Ricky having some squabble or misunderstanding and Lucy always getting in some sort comedic trouble. Lucy seemed to always be looking for her own chance of stardom only to have those dreams quashed by Ricky or something else. In the second season Lucille Ball in real life gave birth to her first child Lucie Désirée Arnaz. On the “I Love Lucy” show Lucy and Ricky had a son to coincide with Lucille Ball’s real life pregnancy. During that time in television pregnancy was very taboo and the word “pregnancy” could not be used instead they used the word “expecting.” Lucille Ball was the first woman openly portrayed as pregnant on television. +Lucy seemed to be in some sort of trouble every week, it usually was connected her quest for stardom; or a least to please Ricky in some way. Lucy was not above using costumes or fibbing to get her way. In one episode “Ricky Asks for a Raise” Lucy pressures Ricky to ask his boss at the nightclub for a raise. He and Lucy practice asking Mr. Littlefield (Gale Gordon) for a raise. Ricky is reluctant to ask but Lucy keeps pressuring him. Littlefield and his wife come over for dinner, and Lucy sees Ricky’s chance to ask for the raise. After many false starts and much comedic stumbling, Lucy lies to Mr. Littlefield about other offers Ricky has supposedly had from other nightclubs. Littlefield tells him he cannot give him a raise and to take one of other the jobs. Suddenly, Ricky finds himself unemployed and Lucy takes matters into her own hands. +Lucy feeling guilty later the next day cooks up a plan to get Ricky’s job back at the nightclub with the help of Fred and Ethel. Lucy decides that if she and Ethel make 75 reservations (disguising their voices) that the club will be booked and when no one shows up to see the new act, Littlefield will offer Ricky his job back. Fred tells them they should take the plan a step further; and dress in various costumes and show up at the club, and once they are told Ricky Ricardo is not the featured act of the night to leave. Fred happens to know a quick-change-artist and borrows a chest of costumes. Lucy, Fred and Ethel change in the alley outside the club and enter the club. Each time they enter as a different group of people. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Most people in the US personally know a Wal-Mart employee, so you are taking money from the government and from your friends and family. A sane individual can clearly see that Bateman is right on target when he says that illegally download music will only serve to strengthen terrorism. +We also have to consider that the blood sucking media is looking for every opportunity they can to sensationalize terrorist activities. Do we only want to fuel this fire? When you don’t pay taxes on the music that you have in your possession you indirectly participate in this blood thirst for news. It seems American’s love to watch tragedies unfold on the TV and Internet. We also like to get our music for “free” by using sites like Frostwire to obtain illegal music. Where has our sense of duty to our country gone? Does it take a simple letter from a man from Chauncey, Ohio to point out what should be obvious to all Patriotic Citizens of our country? Illegal Downloading of music hurts everyone in America. +When thinking about terrorism we often think of Middle Eastern Countries but the fact is; we really need to look no further than to our neighbors to our north. Canada has long tried to insidiously to destroy America. They taunt us with free healthcare and socialized medicine, BC Bud, Canadian Whiskey and Beer. Those Crafty Canadians are always looking for a way to overtake America; they realize that if they can’t turn us into lazy, shiftless drunken pot heads they have to come up with new tactics. Bateman saw through their plans; he knows that we need border patrol on all borders of this great land. Instead of writing this man off, he should be praised. Bateman may have single handily saved this country from a great tragedy. +So, before you push that button and illegally download a song you want to hear, consider the consequences of your actions. Are you ready to kill a small child innocently riding on a school bus, because you want to hear the latest Lady Gaga song for free? I think that you will agree with Mr. Gene Bateman and say: “No, I don’t want to harm and kill children; because I want to save a few dollars?” Instead I will like any Good America hop in my gas guzzling SUV and head to the nearest Wal-Mart and purchase my music. It is my patriotic duty to my country and to my government. + + Roscoe Conkling ""Fatty"" Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was born in Smith Center, Kansas. Arbuckle was an American Silent Screen Actor, Director, Screenwriter and Comedian. Arbuckle was one of nine children born to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle. Mollie recognized her son’s talent early on and encouraged him to perform in local Vaudeville Theaters until her death twelve years later in 1899. + Arbuckle’s relatively short life was a mixture of success and sadness. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Bailes felt that the attack brought nothing but shame to OU’s Mascots past and present. Bailes said “This is an absolute embarrassment to me and many other Ohio Fans.” Bailes was a former mascot himself and commented how easy it was to become the mascot for OU. Bailes stated “I simply e-mailed the department and expressed interest […] they asked me a couple of questions but nowhere near the amount of screening I thought there should have been.” When reading Bailes letter it is clear he is creditable he was a former mascot and had experience in the position. When considering logos with regard to Bailes, his letter is well-written and logical. Bailes tells us his story and just how easy it was to become the mascot for OU with little or no checking on his character or credentials. The Pathos is clearly seen in the letter as Bailes tells us he had a “wonderful, once-in-lifetime experience” being the mascot for OU. Bailes tells his readers that he felt the act of attacking Brutus was extremely unprofessional and brought much shame upon Ohio University. + When examining the article written by Terry Smith concerning the incident he has a totally different take on the attack of Brutus by Rufus. Smith maintains that it was done in jest and said in the opening of his article “The Great Mascot Ambush became a grand diversion after a bad week for Athens County. About the worst week ever for natural disasters in our usually safe little corner of Ohio.” Smith felt that Hanning was not bringing shame upon the school rather he was sacrificing himself on the altar of Ohio State University. It is only a quirk in the rules of Football that Ohio State even plays a game against Ohio University ever few years. Ohio State is a much larger school with a huge budget and a talented football team, and Ohio University is certainly no match. The game is usually seen as an easy win for OSU and a certain defeat for OU and the Bobcats. The game is never taken seriously by either school or football fans; it is just a chance to show some school spirit. + One can decide for themselves where they stand on the issue, it can be seen as shame or pure comic relief. Both men have creditability and logically presented their side and both have great emotional ties to the issue at hand. As Smith said after all “You don’t see that everyday […]. Thanks for giving all of us beleaguered hometown Bobcats something to grin about.” Everyone can take a lesson from Smith’s statement don’t take life so seriously, there are many more serious tragedies in this world other than two mascots taking a tumble on the football field. At the end of the story all is well with both teams and some fans got a few moments of comic relief. So rather than focusing on the negative, take a deep breath and realize life goes on. +",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Andie is rejected by Blane’s friends due to her lack of social skills and inappropriate clothing choices; and ultimately they are jealous of her beauty and her unique style. Blane doesn’t fit in with Andie’s “crowd” mostly because Duckie is jealous of him and tries to continually foil him; and he doesn’t understand her friends in comparison to his own social circle. Andie on the other hand is ashamed of her home, car and her family and friends, so she tries to hide her “real life” from him. She realizes she doesn’t have the social graces and tact of his usual girlfriends. Additionally, Steff also is against the union of Andie and Blane because he really had wanted her for himself. They face this kind of opposition throughout the movie. The only two people who continually encourage Andie to pursue Blane are her father Jack and her friend Iona. They are the voice of reason when she becomes doubtful and unsure if they will “work” as a couple in the end. Duckie and Steff try to stifle the relationship because of their ulterior motives of wanting her for themselves. + The couples “Green world” seems to be when they are alone and not with either group of friends and outside of the school. We then seem them being more comfortable with each other and not constrained by the other characters. The biggest reflection of this is found in the ending of the movie when they are in the parking lot outside the prom. Once they got away from the crowd they were free to be themselves and everything came together. + We see the couple overcoming obstacles throughout the movie. Blane doesn’t listen to his friends concerning Andie; and Andie resists the advances of Steff and Duckie. Also they seem to mature and not care what each respective social group thinks of the relationship. We see the dress Andie made herself is so wonderful, and it empowers her. Similar to the “Cinderella” story the “rich girls” wonder where she got the dress and are envious; and the boys are awe struck by Andies presence in the beautiful dress. Blane and Steff are amazed she showed up to the prom. Steff says something about her (nasty) and Blane realizes at that moment Steff has been jealous the whole time. They finally overcome all obstacles, and they kiss. + Steff was definitely the alazon of the movie. He sees himself as above reproach and the “wisest” person of his group of friends. He had wealth and no parental supervision. He drank, partied spent his parents money and had many women. He wanted Andie but, to his surprise she didn’t want him. He couldn’t deal with this; he wasn’t used to rejection and not getting his way. There were many eirons in the movie but mostly Duckie and Iona. Duckie made a fool of himself trying to “scare off” Blane and Steff in the school hallway and in the club with just Blane. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," Bateman can see through the lies and rhetoric that our current legal system has fed to the media outlets; he realizes that the real reason musicians do not want us to illegally download music is to prevent terrorism. Only through his simplistic country boy wisdom can we see the real issue; that when people “steal” music they are directly supporting terrorism in this country. Yes, Mr. Bateman people are depriving our border patrols of much needed money by downloading music and not paying for it. Illegal downloading of music is directly connected to terrorism in the United States. +Critics of Bateman’s wisdom might say that illegally downloading music only hurts people in the recording industry. That by not paying for the song you downloaded, you are only hurting the already super wealthy record moguls and recording artists. Bateman’s opponents say that they are only sharing music, and it is no different that listening to it on the radio. When I download the greatest hits of the Bee-Gee’s I am hurting no one as most of them are already dead. They might as go as far as saying by downloading this music; I am keeping the memories alive of past musicians. +The reality is persons who steal music online are hurting this country. When you do not march into Wal-Mart and purchase your music like a Good American you can only expect bad things to happen. It’s a well-known fact that bands like Metallica have long fought against this illegal activity, because they know the true price of these actions. Metallica and its members are aware that when you steal a song, you are really digging a grave of a small child who will be the target of terrorists. Bateman clearly predicts in his letter the chain of events that will happen if this continues. Bateman is acutely aware of terrorist cells around the world that lay in wait for their chance to attack the United States and its citizens. Bateman is also fully aware of the followers of such terrorists who hope you will download the latest Justin Bieber song and cheat the government of much needed tax money. The government is deprived of money, the clerks at Wal-Mart lose jobs, record companies lose money and the border patrols can’t do their jobs because they lose funding from the government. Wal-Mart and its employees not only pay state taxes (to the state they work in); federal taxes are also paid. It is these federal taxes that help pay for our border patrols. Bateman’s assumption that if you illegally obtain your music, you are supporting terrorism is right on the money. +The recent 2010 US Census states that Wal-Mart employs 1% of the American Population. Billboard Music states that in 2009 that Wal-Mart was the number two retailer in music only slightly behind Apple (I-Tunes). When you download music you are actually hurting 1% of all Americans; in addition to supporting terrorism. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Iona kept people at an arm’s length with her ridiculous dress and hairstyles. Iona comically tried to fit in with the younger crowd by pretending to be interested in Duckie, to help Andie connect with Blane. When I look up the definition of the “Buffoon” both Duckie and Steff could have fit that role as well. Both were crude at times and the joke was on them a few times. Steff again fit into the role as a churl, he was rude, boorish and surly at times. He was the person most adamant person against the relationship. He tried to end it many times. + Toward the end of the move the momentum picks up when Andie decides to attend the prom with Duckie and wear her dress. She initially hopes to show the “richies” and ultimately Blane she can fit in with the crowd and go to the prom. Blane decides to also attend the prom with some reservations. When the couple’s eyes meet, the audience realizes they are going to be together now no matter what. + At the end of the movie they both put aside their hang-ups about their respective social classes; and decide to be together no matter what. They ignore the crowd, and are going to be together no matter what anyone says or thinks. + The ritual here is the prom. It is a ritual for most high schools, a large fancy affair where all the attendees wear formal attire and pretend to be royalty of sorts. A king and queen are elected and it is often the first formal affair a young person attends. And this movie Andie (the princess/queen) meets and joins with her (king/prince) Blane; they leave and kiss in the parking lot to seal the deal. After the prom they are a couple. + I think the lesson learned at the end of this movie was to be no matter your social class if you truly love someone, that love can conquer all obstacles. It was typical of John Hughes movies of this era. Ringwald starred in many of these movies. They continued well into the 1990’s. + + Rufus the Bobcat is the current Mascot for Ohio University and more recently the attacker of Brutus the Buckeye the Mascot of Ohio State University. During a football game played between the two schools on September 20, 2010 Rufus attacked Brutus on the football field. The reasons aren’t clear why Rufus (A.K.A. Brandon Hanning) decided to attack Brutus. Terry Smith editor of Athens News wrote in his article he felt it a grand diversion a much needed relief for the Athens, Ohio Citizens who were reeling from a recent tornado in the area. Shawn Bailes a former mascot himself commented with his letter to the editor that the incident brought calumny upon the heads of past Ohio University Mascots. + Bailes wrote his letter to the editor (Terry Smith) of the Athens News in response to the incident where Rufus attacked Brutus during a football game at the Ohio University Horseshoe. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb," We also learn in chapter 11 how advertising has shaped our media. On page 300 it discusses how The New York Sun was sold for only a penny even though it cost much more than that to produce it. Advertising money is used to offset the cost of providing people with news whether it is a newspaper or a television program. This is still true in the day of reading your news online. Look to the side and all around the page it is filled with advertisement’s for many products and services. The dates may have changed, but we still need advertiser to pay the bills. +I do notice WBNS 10 tends to cover more stories outside of Columbus, which in my opinion is a good thing. I have seen them many times covering stories here in Lancaster, whereas some of the other stations ignore “small town” news. I can’t recall recently seeing Fox, ABC or NBC in this particular area. So, choose your news wisely or go check them out online, you will get a better idea of all the facts. + + This report will cover the work of two comedians Lucille Ball and Fran Drescher and the similarities in their television programs. Initially both comedians’ biographies will be given along with a short list of some of their work outside of the series they starred in; and a biography of each of the characters they portrayed and then finally a comparison of The Nanny to the I Love Lucy show. +Lucille Ball Biography + Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms. Ball’s career spanned from 1929 to 1989. Ball was born in Jamestown, New York to Henry and Désirée (Dee-Dee) Ball. At age 3 her family moved to Montana and eventually to Michigan. After her father’s death she returned to Jamestown, New York. +After a teenage relationship with a gangster’s son, her mother had allowed her to attend John Murray Anderson’s School for dramatic Arts in New York City. Her mother felt this would give the relationship time to dissolve as she did not approve. Ball met Bette Davis while she was there and they became life-long friends. After only a few weeks Ball was dismissed from the school as she was told she had absolutely no talent or future in the performing arts. Ball was determined to prove the teachers wrong. In 1929 she landed work as a model using the name Dianne Belmont and her career began to thrive; unfortunately Ball was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis and her career was put on hold for two years. In 1932 she returned to her acting and worked in Broadway for a few years. Eventually she moved to Hollywood and began starring in B movies and was given the title “Queen of the B’s” a title previously held by Faye Wray. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"It seems although she has worked for Maxwell for many years and interacts with his children daily she can never remember their names this is another running gag of the series. She and Maxwell work in the Sheffield Mansion most days in Maxwell’s office. Maxwell’s office is always very busy with the family and help parading in and out with their day-to-day problems. +Fran’s parents are Morty and Sylvia Fine. Morty is never shown on camera until the last season and is portrayed by Steve Lawrence of “Steve and Edie” fame. Sylvia is an overweight Jewish mother from Queens. She is constantly eating (another running gag) and isn’t very well educated. While not a stupid woman, she occasionally gets in trouble because of her lack of education. She continually pushes Fran to marry and forces herself onto the Sheffield family and into many of their affairs. The children come to see her as a grandmother figure long before Maxwell and Fran become a couple. +Fran’s grandmother and Sylvia’s mother is a regular cast member. Her name is Yedda Rosenberg and she is portrayed by Ann Morgan Guilbert (Millie of the Dick Van Dyke Show). Yedda is a chain smoking elderly woman who lives in a retirement home within walking distance of the Sheffield’s home. She left Romania to come to America as a young woman, although she has no accent and speaks perfect English. In the beginning of the series she is portrayed as a widow who occasionally dates but toward the end of the series she marries her African American boyfriend “Sammy” (Ray Charles). Yedda is sometimes very forgetful but at other times very perceptive and wise. The Children love her and so does the rest of the cast. One oddity is however, sometimes when Yedda or Sylvia refer to themselves collectively as a group they will make statements like “We Fine Women” which doesn’t make since as Sylvia married a Fine and Yedda was her mother. +The other regulars in the cast are Maxwell’s Children: Margaret (Maggie), Brighton (“B”) and Gracie. Maggie in the beginning is portrayed as a very “plain” girl who is shy and unaware of her beauty. Brighton initially is portrayed as mean spirited selfish boy who picks on his sisters and his nannies. Gracie is a troubled little girl (in a comedic way) who is obsessed with her psychotherapy sessions. Fran eventually helps the children grow and become a happy normal family with her “Queen’s Logic” and love for them. Anytime someone has a problem in the Sheffield household Fran has a relative that went through a similar situation, yet another running gag of the show. Often the viewer is led to believe Fran is making up these wild tales but throughout the series her stories prove to be factual. +Though the storylines in “The Nanny” follow a similar “setup” as “I Love Lucy”, “The Nanny” is much racier and over-the-top than “Lucy.”",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +bb,"Each time they are asked if they have a reservation and of course they do, and each time they are seated they claim they are there to see Ricky Ricardo, and each time they leave in disgust when they find out he is not appearing. This causes Mr. Littlefield the clubs owner much frustration and leads to many impossible moments of comedy. The viewer of course sees that Littlefield and his assistant should realize they are all the same people but they do not. +The episode ends with Ricky getting offered his job back and his salary doubled. This leaves Ricky thinking he is very popular that Littlefield absolutely cannot do without him. Lucy asks Ricky at the end of the show if he intends to take his to take his job back. Ricky tells her “Of course not, If I am that popular I can write my own ticket anywhere in town.” The show fades out and we the audience are left to wonder Ricky’s fate. Part of the appeal of “I Love Lucy” is that Ricky never gives Lucy and real credit, when the audience clearly can see if not for her he would be lost. +“The Nanny” is very similar in the set up as “I Love Lucy.” The theme song of “The Nanny” gives the audience the premise of the series: Fran Fine was employed at a bridal shop by her fiancé Danny Imperali. Fran is a Jewish woman, probably in her 30’s, but one of the many running gags, is no one knows her true age not even the FBI. She lives with her parents in Flushing, Queens, New York in their apartment. Her mother is the stereotypical Jewish Mother continually pressuring her daughter to marry. Danny Imperali decides he wants another woman (Fran’s arch enemy) Heather Biblo (Pamela Anderson). Imperali fires Fran and breaks up with her, and she is absolutely devastated. Fran unemployed and heartbroken takes a job selling “Shades of the Orient” cosmetics (and obvious parody of Mary Kay Cosmetics). Fran begins trying to move her wares in some of the upper-class neighborhoods in New York, City and arrives at the door of Broadway Producer Maxwell Sheffield. +Maxwell Sheffield is a proper English Gentleman and a widower as well as being a Broadway Producer. He is very wealthy and lives in mansion with his three children and their butler Niles. CC Babcock is Maxwell’s life-long assistant whom secretly pines from him; Niles absolutely detests CC and is constantly taking jabs at her especially in the beginning of the series. With Maxwell’s wife being deceased he has relied on a series of “Nannies” to help him with the children. His son Brighton usually does something to force any nanny Maxwell hires to quit. Maxwell is at the end of his rope. He has an important party planned that weekend with potential financial backers for his next play. ",44,English,female,Bachelor's Degree,Social Work,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"One second it is sitting right in the water, the next it is gone and the water is +clear. If you had blinked you would have missed it. This is the last time, the 51 st time, that you will +watch this happen. You are in the 51st bathroom of the 51st little restaurant in two and a half weeks. +You walk up to the sink, drop the plastic baggie into the trash, and wash your hands. You look into +your eyes in the mirror. This being the 51 st and final bathroom, you cannot help but think back and +remember. It was July 10 when you’d checked into the hotel, 18 days ago. +You check in just like everyone else. It is the middle of the summer so every hotel has +enormously high volumes of guests. The receptionist frowns at some magazine out of your view. She +suddenly looks up and sees you standing in front of her desk. She is confused for a moment but blinks +a few times to adjust. Her long shiny eyelashes flash noticeably, and you give her an artificial smile to +match the one she gives you. You give her your room and reservation number. You watch exasperated +parents pick up plastic pieces while their son stands with a blank Mr. Potato Head while the receptionist +types away with her long red nails. You walk to the elevator with your bag slung over your right +shoulder, the weight digging into your shoulder unbeknownst to the other travelers. +That night you wake up at 2:30am. Sharp vibrations from your pocket awaken you quickly and +nearly silently. You don your uniform. It is completely different from any outfit you would wear to +work, all black, all plain, all loose enough fitting so that you can move easily. You grab your bag. The +heavy enclosed materials sounded dull thuds—everything is carefully covered to be silent. +You walk through your door to the balcony. The scents and sounds of the ocean affect you +more than you thought they would. The slight saltiness to the air, the faint rush of the ocean, somehow +calm you a bit. Then you begin. This hotel was specifically chosen for its close balconies. You take +one more look around to make sure there is no one out on the beach, no one awake to see you, and then +you carefully hop to the other side of the railing. The black railing sends a quick chill through your +hands. It feels sticky like skin after swimming in saltwater. You crouch down, grab the sharp concrete +with your hands, and drop noiselessly to the balcony below. You step up onto the railing, and carefully +sidle around the wall that divides adjacent balconies. Then you do it again, and again, and again, until +an alarm in your room wouldn’t even reach your ears. +The very first door you tried was left unlocked. No one bothers to lock doors when they’re on +vacation, especially the sliding door to the balcony. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"I would list ‘performance’ and ‘great engineering’ as the most important repetitions, +power and modernness as the most important strands, and lines/roundness and two halves +as the most important binaries. +I would say performance, modernness, and lines/roundness are the most important +details. All three of these contribute to the immediate feel of modernness and good +functionality of the advertisement. All three of these are related, the rounded, angled lines +contribute to a sense of modernness, as does the color scheme, the clean layout, and the +emphasis on the measurable performances of the vehicle. +For my cultural text I chose Arrested Development, specifically the 11th episode of the +1st season which is entitled Public Relations. The representative detail I chose was a fictional +school entitled The Milford Academy. +The most prominent detail was the credo “children should be neither seen nor heard.” +This mindset of the school has the implication that children should not participate in their own +educations, rather they should just be static observers. The fact that this is a comedic +element makes me think that most viewers will see this as an exaggeration of the reality of +many such ‘academies;’ that in reality the traditions and prescribed ways of teaching are more +important to some schools than the interaction with the students themselves. +Another detail was the repetition of the phrase “Milford man.” The repetition of this +phrase shows that there is a definite identity or model for what a graduate of the school +should be. This implies that the school has specific ideal identity for their graduates. The +repetition also has the implication that “Milford Man” is a sort of title: it is something to be +proud of that you graduated from that school. +The third detail I noticed was that the founder of the school ends up by himself at a +nursing home. Along with this observation was a statement by the new headmaster, his son, +that he is distancing himself from the traditions his father set. The distancing in principles +implies a somewhat estranged relationship. I found it interesting that despite being the +founder of a prestigious school, a man who accomplished a lot, he ended up at a nursing +home isolated from his son where the founder is admittedly unhappy. +Another detail I found interesting was a snippet where one of the characters says ‘The +graduates go on to do great things” and then there is a fast cut to one of the characters doing +nothing but remaining out of sight. The purpose of this cut was obviously to highlight the irony +of the statement, but if the school is meant to mock actual schools by exaggeration, this part +may be saying that graduates from these type of institutions do not always become +successful in the real world. +The fact that the son does not want to attend the Milford Academy also interested me. +What this shows me is that often these type of schools are not very enjoyable and possibly +that the families who typically enroll in these academies disregard their child’s happiness. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"The audience for this is expected to be knowledgeable +enough to recognize the references to our culture and smart enough to see that it is poking +fun at the standards instead of trying to comply with them. There is also a hidden message +that is very difficult to decipher, the a large part of the audience is supposed to be expected to +solve it, or at least enjoy the lexical games. + +Step 1, repetitions. The phrases “all-new GLK” is repeated twice, as well as “GLK” +being repeated an additional time. The word size is repeated twice, as is the phrase “great +engineering.” The word performance is also used twice. The photo of the car itself seems to +have only about 3 colors, a silver which varies in lightness, a white in the lights and the +brightest parts of the silver, and black in the tires and windshield and grill. The text portion is +only white and black, and the background is a gradient of gray which approximates the overall +color of the car. The background in the photo, although it is sky, is still silver as are the struts +of the bridge and the road. +Step 2, strands. There are a number of words and phrases associated with power, in a +very raw way: rugged, off-road, outrunning, powerful, torque, horsepower, V-6 engine, and +even ‘weightier competition’ and ‘twice its size’ somewhat. Another strand is words +associated with proof, such as tested, performance, capable, proof, performance, and +engineering as well as listing four quantitative features of the vehicle. Compact, sleek, and +fuel-efficient are all traits that are becoming more valuable in the modern world. The +emphasis of the newness of the design goes along with this strand. The color scheme of +black white and silver has a very metallic and futuristic feel, in a way. +A visual strand is angled well-defined lines. The car is at an angle, as is the bridge it is +on. The struts of the bridge form clear lines, as do many features of the car (the grill, lines +down the sides, the roof rack etc.). Even the Mercedes-Benz symbol is made up of angled +lines. Somewhat paradoxically, a less prominent strand is roundness and circles: the circle +around the symbol, the shapes of all the lights, and almost all the lines on the car come +together not in sharp point but in rounded edges. The word sleek goes along with this strand. +Step 3, binaries. The defined angled lines strand and the rounded strands are very +opposing. The white and black are binaries. The ad is almost divided into two sections; the +upper section with words and the lower section with a picture. These are quite different. +There is also a dichotomy between the modern components and the components more +related to power and toughness. In the photo the car is clearly distinguishable from its +background; it is very shiny and in crisp focus whereas the background is all a blur. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"Another example of red is that the reader’s main hint of Gatsby’s all-important death is the “thin red circle in the water” (162). +There is, of course, a second reading that adds to Gatsby trying to look new and significant, the first +effect. This comes from Gatsby’s clothes always being a “pink suit” (122), or his shirts being almost +red—“apple-green”, “coral”, “lavender”, and “faint orange” (92) but none is quite there, he is never +quite red—new and exciting. +F. Scott Fitzgerald actually uses colors in another significant way besides giving certain colors +meaning then using that meaning to apply subtle details about other subjects, usually characters. The +main purpose of the applying meaning to colors for later use is to show that Daisy is just some generic +object with her “white childhood” (19) and “white dresses” (115) that Gatsby dreams for and to bring +the focus on Gatsby, always on the “crimson carpet” (116). Fitzgerald also uses the meanings he set up +for white and red, plainness or being an ordinary person and newness or being extraordinary, in a few +passages that show readers the message of the novel. The first is as Nick, Gatsby and Tom are at Tom +and Daisy’s, in the back, and they look “over the rose-beds” over the extraordinary items or people, to +the “white wings of [a] boat” simply plain people, they focus on the plain instead of the extraordinary +or new and exciting (118). The other passage is at the end of the book, as Nick looks at Gatsby’s house +one more time, he sees on the “white steps” and “obscene word, scrawled...with a piece of brick” +(180). This second passage seems to suggest that on the “white steps” the everyday world, “brick” +(red) items that are supposed to be new and exciting can be bad and ruin life; readers see this especially +when Nick feels the urge to erase it (180). These two passages together with the symbolic meanings +Fitzgerald earlier assigned them seem to suggest that one should just be an everyday person, not try to +be something new and extraordinary, this meaning is also supported by the mainly red character, the +only person trying to be extraordinary, ending up dead with nothing, a “poor son-of-a-bitch” (175). + +One of the most interesting topics regarding the play Othello by William Shakespeare is the way +in which Othello completely falls from his high ranking and respected position so rapidly. The main +debate is whether the fall is the result of Iago’s plotting, or a flaw in Othello’s character, namely his +passion. If one examines the play, they will see the reason that furthers the plot resulting in Othello’s +downfall varies throughout the play. In the beginning of Othello, the only cause of the plot eventually +leading to Othello’s downfall is Iago; about halfway through, a combination of Iago and Othello’s +passion furthers the plot; but in the last part of the play Othello’s passion is the only reason for +Othello’s downfall. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g," + + + Comparison of The Story of Master Hŏ with contemporary views on Korean education highlights the Westernization of traditional Confucian values. + Common knowledge views on Korean education are that Koreans push very hard toward measurable goals. In the 1960's Korean education level was on par with Afghanistan. Now, Korea is in the top tier of education, with 97% of its students have completed upper secondary education. Even compared to the previous generation Korea has been able to jump from having near lowest university participation to being ranked third in university participation. In terms of measurable achievements, Korea has done very well for itself in the education domain recently. + Korean education success has been attained through concentrated hard work. Korea has 220 school days compared to an average of 180 in the USA. Korean school days usually run from 8:00 in the morning until around 4:00 or 4:30, with most students then returning for private study sessions or tutoring until night when they go to bed. Asian countries like Korea and China are perceived to have parents that can be very demanding and push their children to work very hard to attain a quantifiable degree of excellence in prescribed areas like school and music. This view of asian parents was either established or confirmed in the public eye with the release and discussion of the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. + In contrast to this is Master Hŏ. At the start of the story, Master Hŏ simply wants to continue his studies like he had promised himself. His studies in this story have no real practical application, as his wife points out: “Day and night, all you do is read! … You can't work, you can't sell!” (86). Only by the physical necessity of survival is Master Hŏ convinced to leave his studies behind, if only temporarily. To start off his plan Master Hŏ needs a loan, which he secures by basically being a good person. The rich man who loans him the money says that he did so because he was clear, direct, confident, and he “is someone who disdains material possessions, but possesses a strong inner drive.” (87). Once Master Hŏ converts robbers to productive and married farmers on an isolated island, and then helps random people. Master Hŏ even throws out a large amount of the money he earned before repaying what he borrowed with generous interest. In the end of the story Master Hŏ makes recommendations to a military official and upon their rejection moves away without a trace. Master Hŏ displays a desire to learn for just the sake of his own self-improvement, and rejects positions and titles given by the world. + The values expressed in The story of Master Hŏ contradict those of modern Korean education. Master Hŏ would frown upon putting so much focus on attaining measurable successes, instead of focusing on improving the self while working just for survival. + +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"Worries originating from the last economic strategy, by Bush, and regarding the use of the +money could possibly be cumbersome. +All of these alternate wordings have about the same meaning as the original, just as before. +Most of the words I chose to replace ‘questions’ and ‘concerns’ have a slightly more emotional and +impassioned tone. The word in the first paraphrase could cause some issues because it is not expressly +clear that President Bush did not also create the new plan, but this small ambiguity is clarified in the +first sentence and also exists in the original sentence. I would say all the sentences are about as +descriptive except that all of the paraphrases again lack the term stimulus package, which is very +efficiently descriptive. + +The bottom of your hamburger is soggy with grease. The French Fries are already cold and +shriveled. You can’t take your eyes off a yellow stain on the maroon seat. The material clings to your +bare skin against it. It is a nuisance. You try to avoid contact but your hands continue to sink down +absentmindedly. The fans buzzing loudly above you are helpless against the overwhelming heat of the +summer. Your hands feel gross. You rise and sling your black bag over your shoulder. You head to the +bathroom, eyes focused on the golden man against the rich brown of the bathroom door. +You stand in front of the sink, washing your hands. The mirror is smudged and greasy—your +reflection is barely visible through it. The sliver faucet curls over the edge of the sink, dripping pink +globules into a ball of slime that looks on the verge of falling down to the drain. Cracks run through +the skiers cruising down a mountain on the yellowing wallpaper by the mirror. You stare into your face +in the mirror, carefully examining the tiny imperfections in your skin. Your eyes meet your eyes. What +a vacation it has been. You blink, carefully watching your eyes as well as you can. +Your bag still slung over your shoulder, you walk into one of the stalls, your feet sticking just a +little to the floor. You carefully open the Ziploc bag and dig your hand into the dark squishy matter +inside, squeezing it and letting dark red ooze through your fingers. The liquid drips from your hand to +the toilet. The walls of the stall around you feel somewhat like a cubicle. The only difference is the +odor. The smell is putrid. It is unclear whether the smell originates from the clump in your hand or +simply emanates from the dirty bathroom. +You dip the baggie in the toilet, rinsing the red remnants off to leave it clear. You drop the +clump into the toilet. You watch it slowly spread out in the water. You flush the toilet, watching the +mush circle around and around and finally disappear down the hole. The clump almost blinks at you. +You can’t quite explain it. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"Although in +the beginning Iago and his plotting are the only subjects furthering the plot, he is simply setting up a +trap, like a springboard, that is completely dependent on Othello’s flaws for being set off. Iago sets the +trap in the beginning, but in the middle section Othello’s passion works to set him up in that firing +Cassio was essential to the plot. The third section where Othello is the only cause is simply Othello’s +downfall after the spring is sprung, which could almost be pinpointed to Othello hearing about +handkerchief, the beginning of the end. Since the cause for Othello’s downfall is ultimately his +passion, Othello fits the Aristotelian Greek tragedy: Othello’s hamartia is his passion, and as he falls +and has his anagnorisis, the audience has their sense of catharsis watching Othello fall. +Passing and Great Gatsby +Passing and The Great Gatsby have many similarities and many differences. One example is +the location of the climactic scene. In Gatsby, Nick and his group of acquaintances, Gatsby, Daisy, +Tom, and Jordan go to the city and rent a hotel room to cool off in. In Passing, the climactic scene is at +a party at one of their friends houses, which is an apartment. It is cold outside. The scenes are similar +in that they both occur in a apartment type room with a group of friends, but it is hot in Gatsby and cold +in Passing, and in Passing it is a permanent residence. Theme is another example: both Passing and +Gatsby have themes of appearance versus reality or false appearances, themes of color and dark and +light, and they both have themes of class and people’s place in society. Each does have some themes of +its own, for example, there is an east-west theme in Gatsby and a theme of sight and blindness, and +there is a theme of race in Passing. The characters and how they relate is another example of these +novels being similar in some ways and different in some ways. Both the Gatsby/Clare characters die, +but in Gatsby another character does it, and in Passing Irene, the equivalent to Nick because we see +inside her thoughts, kills the Gatsby/Clare character. Gatsby and Clare are different in that Gatsby +plans everything and Clare never thinks ahead, but the inconsiderate, ridiculous and unthinking actions +he demands from Daisy are very like Clare. Both Nick and Irene are possibly homosexual, but overall +Nick is a flatter character with almost no personality that is not the same as Irene, who thinks about and +has opinions about everything. The knowable purposes are pretty similar: in Gatsby the theme is like +you cannot always get what you want, sometimes you should just stay like you are, in social class and +other objects you might desire or something bad might happen to you, while Passing’s theme is like if +you are going to try to lie and change class, you should be careful or something bad might happen to +you. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"The beginning section where Iago is the only subject furthering the plot that leads to Othello’s +downfall is from the beginning of the play until partway through Act 2, Scene 3. In the very beginning +Iago is clearly at least trying to do harm to Othello: he says that “In following him, I follow but myself” +(1. 1. 64) and that he wants to “Plague him with flies” (1. 1. 78) and that he wants to make Othello’s +“joy / ... / lose some color” (1. 1. 78-80). Iago first tries to break up Othello and his love, Desdemona, +by getting Roderigo to come with him to tell Brabantio that his daughter and Othello are “making the +beast with / two backs” which does not have any direct repercussions to the actual plot that ruins +Othello, but displays how clever and plotting Iago can be (1.1. 131). Iago displays this cleverness soon +again as Roderigo comes to him saying that he “will incontinently drown” himself (1. 3. 347), and soon +has Roderigo convinced to “sell all [his] land” (1. 3. 425). At this point, Othello is still in control of his +emotions: when Iago informs him that Brabantio is angry with him, Othello reasonably responds that +his “services ... / Shall out-tongue [Brabantio’s] complaints” and keeps calm (1. 2. 21-22). Iago gets +as far as forming his plan to “abuse Othello’s ear” (1.3. 438) with the lie that Cassio, who “hath a +person and a smooth dispose / To be suspected” (1. 3. 440-441), is “too familiar with [Othello’s] wife” +(1. 3. 439) and to even discredit Cassio by starting a fight between him and Roderigo before Othello’s +passion even has any effect. +The point in the play where Othello’s passion combines with Iago to further the plot to Othello’s +downfall begins in Act 2, Scene 3 when Othello enters and says “My blood begins my safer guides to +rule” till when Othello’s passion really takes over (2. 3. 219). A combination of Iago’s plotting and +Othello’s passion lead to Othello declaring that Cassio “nevermore be officer”: Iago caused Cassio to +get in that fight by instructing Roderigo to start a fight and by convincing Cassio to drink, and the fight +is what caused Othello to become overcome by anger and fire Cassio (265). Although starting a +drunken brawl like Cassio did is no doubt an offense that should be punished, an action should by no +means have cost Cassio his entire position. Iago soon uses Cassio’s desperation to get his “reputation +... / ... the immortal part” (2. 3. 281-282) of himself back and “Th’ inclining Desdemona” (2. 3. 360), +who is easy “to subdue / In any honest suit” (2. 3. 360-361), to make “the net / That shall enmesh them +all” (2. 3. 381-382) by getting Desdemona to plead to Othello for Cassio that he will “repair his +fortune” (2. 3. 374), and then telling Othello that “she repeals him for her body’s lust” (2. 3. 377). +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g," +Many authors use different ways to give their readers a certain feeling or attitude toward +important subjects. Some of these techniques are more effective than others. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses +many of these different techniques in his novel The Great Gatsby. Sometimes, Fitzgerald pairs an +adjective and a noun together that do not usually fit that way to give readers a certain aura around a +subject. Other times, he applies meaning to a symbol, and then uses it for this same purpose. +Fitzgerald uses this last technique with many colors, including gold, green, white/gray and red/pink. In +his novel The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald builds up meaning for colors, namely white/gray and +red/pink then later uses that meaning to give readers a certain reminder of a feeling around an +important object. +The meaning Fitzgerald builds up and uses for white/gray is uniformity, with white being a bit +nicer and higher class and gray being more older and faded. Fitzgerald sets up this meaning in the +beginning of the novel with constant uses of both. Daisy and Jordan are constantly “in white” (8)—in +fact, everyone is always wearing white: Nick wears “white flannels” (41) to Gatsby’s party, Tom wears +a “white shirt” (36) when he meets Myrtle, and Catherine is “powdered milky white” (30). In fact, the +only time people are not wearing white is when Nick is getting his impressions of Gatsby’s party: “the +halls... are gaudy with primary colors” (40). Fitzgerald further defines these two colors in coloring +many common, unimportant subjects these colors: as Nick goes to work, he goes “down the white +chasms of lower New York” (56), the names of people at Gatsby’s parties are now “gray names” (61) +on Nick’s timetable, Catherine’s apartment is “one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses”— +uniformity (28). He also describes plain or common people or places as white or gray: Jordan and +Daisy had a “white girlhood” (19) together, there are “gray cars” and “gray land” (23) in the valley of +ashes, the “Italian child” in the railroad is “gray” (26), and the dog-seller is “a gray old man” (27). +After Fitzgerald adds enough meaning to white/gray, he uses them to signify unimportance or +uniformity to certain subjects. This using colors to show readers something first starts with Daisy. +After a long time without any significant use of either of these colors, Fitzgerald comes out describing +Daisy as “dressed in white” in “a little white roadster”; readers begin to see Daisy as less of a character, +more like just a uniform addition, something that Gatsby wants and longs for (74). Fitzgerald uses +more of this technique around Daisy to give this impression of Daisy being a more uniform addition, +for example, there is a “gray haze of Daisy’s fur collar” (18), and she is again in a “white” (115) dress +before Tom and Gatsby’s encounter. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g," This +plot of course would not work Othello’s “soul” were not “so enfettered to her love”—if Othello was not +so passionate about having Desdemona (2. 3. 365). At this point Iago’s plot is relatively airtight, his +advice is “Probal to thinking” and there is not really anyone who can discover his plot until his wife +picks up the handkerchief Othello gave Desdemona. Because of Othello’s passion for Desdemona, this +plan works very well, Othello is “moved” (3. 3. 254) when Iago even hints of his suspicions, Othello is +later “eaten up with passion” (3. 3. 446) when Iago continues to hint of and plant images of Cassio and +Desdemona’s alleged affair. +Othello’s passion takes over when Iago hits a heartfelt subject: the handkerchief that was his +first gift to Desdemona. When Othello first hears of the handkerchief, he immediately commands his +“black vengeance” to “arise” (3. 3. 507) and this point is where Othello claims that his “bloody +thoughts ... / Shall ne’er look back” (3. 3. 518-519). At this point Othello does not even have proof +besides Iago saying so that Cassio has the handkerchief, and even if he did, Cassio’s possession of the +handkerchief would hardly be proof of an affair, but Othello is just so attached to Desdemona and the +handkerchief he gave her he jumps to his conclusion. As Iago brings forth more unproven accusations +that do not contain any supporting evidence, Othello begins to go mad—he cannot even talk in full +sentences: “Confess—handkerchief—O, / devil!” (4. 1. 50) and falls “into an epilepsy” (4. 1. 61). The +hardest evidence Othello ever gets of the alleged affair is when he watches Cassio display “the +handkerchief” as he laughs and talks about some unknown topic with Iago (4. 1. 192). This is hardly a +very good deception by Iago since Cassio and Iago will be discussing a completely different person +than Othello thinks, Iago even admits that Othello’s “jealously must construe / Poor Cassio’s smiles, +gestures, and light behaviors / Quite in the wrong” (4. 1. 118-120). Othello is so overtaken by his +passion, his anger at Desdemona because of what he thought she did with Cassio, when Emilia admits +she has “seen nothing ... / Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect” the statement barely even registers (4. +2. 1-2). Even when Desdemona herself admits that she is Othello’s “true and loyal wife” (4. 2. 41) and +that “Heaven doth truly know it” (4. 2. 47), Othello is still so angry he still believes she is “false as +hell” (4. 2. 48). Even after Othello kills his wife and discovers the whole horrible truth of how he was +deceived, the first conclusion he comes up with “loved not wisely” (5. 2. 404). +Ultimately, the fact that the cause is in the end Othello’s passion becomes evident. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"You can hear the door’s mechanism scratch ever so +lightly, but you are the only one. The room only has a single bed with a single occupant, a stranger +lying face-up on the bed with his eyes closed, just as you expected. You knew how the hotel was laid +out, which rooms were singles, from a few evenings of easy research. +Your hands in front, careful not to touch anything, your feet carefully planning each step, you +grab a stray pillow and inch closer to the stranger. You step over a still damp crumpled t-shirt. A +cartoon pirate on it scowls as he appears to yell something. You walk up to the edge of the bed, +minutely aware of each movement of you toes and heels, making everything silent. A CD sits on his +night table along with a book. A crack in the hard plastic runs through the word Buddha on the front of +the album, and the white cover of the book lies open to reveal more about Malcolm Gladwell. His face +is right below yours. His face is slightly tanned, but you can see speckles of discoloration, especially +directly beneath his eyes. He is young. The hairs on his precisely trimmed beard are still visibly thin. +You can feel traces of his warm breaths on your face. His breathing is erratic and strange. There is a +faint hoarseness to every breath that you cannot help but notice. You looked into his eyelids just for a +moment before you covered them with a pillow. He was awake immediately. You felt him struggle +beneath you but you knew he could not match your strength. You hear faint noises but whatever the +pillow doesn’t catch is only heard by you. You feel different muscles flex, pinned beneath your legs. It +is exhilarating. Each movement of his feeds your pleasure. He is powerless to stop you. +A few minutes later he lies in the same position as before, eyes closed, mouth slightly ajar, the +lips powdery white at the corners from dryness. You breathe in the air deeply, you can almost taste +sweetness in it. You had never felt so alive and real as you did in that moment. It was all fast. If you +had blinked you could have missed it. Everything can change in the instant of a blink. +You pull on the feet. They are bare, but cold now. You had been staring at the body for quite a +while. The feet are dangling, helpless, off the side of the bed. You bent and clutched his body, one +hand on the undersides of the knees, the other just below the shoulder blades. You can feel bones from +his spine sticking uncomfortably into you. He was a bony kid, probably just out of college. The Robin +Hood design on his t-shirt makes you even surer of his youth. +You reach the bathroom with the stranger in your arms. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"When Gatsby first is going to see Daisy again, he dresses in “a +white flannel suit” (84). Gatsby is trying to act like just a average, nonchalant guy, which ties into his +“strained counterfeit of perfect ease” (86) when Daisy arrives. Gatsby later wants to make more of an +impact on Daisy at his house: he “flip[s] a switch” which gives the impression that the “gray windows +disappeared” and “the house glowed full of light”: the ordinary looking house suddenly turns far from +ordinary (94). Finally, Gatsby’s father pulls at his “sparse gray beard” showing that Gatsby’s father, +Gatsby’s family is just common, low class people (167). +Fitzgerald sets up red/pink to mean a subject is newer, better, or special in some way. Fitzgerald +begins to set up red as meaning new or extraordinary in the very beginning of the book. The books +Nick buys that are like “new money from the mint” are “red and gold” (4), Tom and Daisy’s +“elaborate” house is “red-and-white” (6) and filled with “rosy-colored space” (7) and “wine-colored” +(8) rugs. Nick sees “new, red gas-pumps” (20) before he returns home. Red is at Gatsby’s high class +and exciting parties: in the “primary colors” (40) and a “red-haired young lady” (51). Red is in +Gatsby’s elaborate, exciting lies of his adventures: Gatsby claims he collected “jewels, chiefly rubies” +(65) with their “crimson-lighted depths” (67), as Gatsby finishes his lie Gatsby and Nick pass “red- +belted” ships (68). Red is the first color in exciting America’s “red, white, and blue banners” (74) and +it is the “Red Cross” (75) that Daisy, “by far the most popular of all the young girls” (74) participated +in. +As soon as Fitzgerald applied meaning to these colors, he began to use them to show readers +subtle things about important subjects. Gatsby’s house is full of red as we see from Fitzgerald’s +descriptions of “bedrooms swathed in rose” (91). Fitzgerald also puts red around Gatsby himself, for +example when Gatsby is standing “in the centre of the crimson carpet” (116) and later he is wearing a +“pink suit” (122) the day he and Tom have their encounter. + Fitzgerald furthers this second effect by the almost complete lack of red or pink +besides subjects related to Gatsby: the only other times are the “pink glow from Daisy’s room” (144) as +Gatsby is watching which could symbolize the room being the complete focus of Gatsby’s attention; +Gatsby’s last attempt to capture this lost dream, and when Gatsby, Nick and Tom look “over the rose- +beds” to the boat in the ocean which speaks to the overall message of the book through color symbols. These examples of +red surrounding Gatsby have two effects. The first is that Gatsby seems, or is at least trying to seem, +new and important and exciting, like red. The second effect is for readers—the use of red puts more of +a focus on Gatsby. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g," +For my cultural text, at least for this assignment, I chose a music video for a song entitled +Wrap by Headmess. +This song has a very specific audience. There are a few parts of the song that require +you to know certain references. We are expected to know Houdini, who he was and that he +was a magician. We must recognize ‘abracadabra’ as words associated with magic. There +are a few French phrases that we are expected to know: “oui,” “s’il vous plait,” and “toi et +moi.” We are also expected to understand references to King kong, Conan the Barbarian. +These are hardly very exclusive requirements; apart from some of the French, almost +everyone adequately understands these references. +Besides these clues, there are also a large number of more cultural references in the +words themselves. The meaning of phrases like ‘Knockin’ you out ‘til the break a dawn,” and +“work it, mama” has to be clear. Even the understanding of more crass phrases like “lip- +smackin’ tongue waggin’ action from the expert” or “the way I run ‘em up my flagpole” is +assumed. All that these require is basic knowledge of some of our pop culture’s terminology. +The abundance of these almost offensive type of lyrics implies that we are supposed to +recognize a reference to a certain type of song. This category of songs is marked by +bragging and self praise, especially when related to sex. In addition to recognizing the +cultural phrases, listeners must understand these as a reference to this type of song. +There are visual examples of this required cultural knowledge. The vocalist is clad in +sunglasses, a black beanie, a large black t-shirt, baggie pants, and various long necklaces. +The audience for this video is supposed to recognize this as prototypical hardcore rap getup. +His dress in other shots is comprised of a Hawaiian shirt with a floppy hat with the necklaces +and sunglasses again. This type of outfit has also been worn by rappers. Almost every shot +is a type of shot that is very typical in rap videos: a group of men looking down and leaning +over a camera, a man walking the street while gesturing emphatically, a car filled with women, +and visuals of the tires of a car that appears to be bouncing up and down. The images of a +man walking in a long trench-coat spinning a watch is a reference to a pimp-type character +that is assumed to be recognized +Besides the knowledge of these elements of rap videos, we are also supposed to +understand the nerdy character from the beginning and end of the video from his formal +dress, large glasses, and self-conscious mannerisms. +In most ways, the exhibitions of these aspects of current rap culture are somewhat +mocked: the tires on the car obviously do not actually go up and down with hydraulics and the +‘pool outfit’ looks especially goofy. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"Huxley's vision of the new world has some surprising similarities to our own world, +especially the fact that people are subconsciously forced into doing things. In the Brave New +World, people had things repeated to them while they slept to make them make certain +decisions without realizing it. In the world today, we are shown things through commercials +and advertisements so many times, till they come to us naturally. There are advertisements +everywhere, on the television, on the radio, by the roadside, +in movies, in magazines, basically everywhere. After hearing a message many times, even if +a person isn't paying attention to it, they can remember it if they just think a little bit. For +example, a couple of summers ago, there was a commercial for a legal team where an old +guy simply explained what they were and gave you the number. Later at a picnic, my step- +brother was able to remember the number in seconds when he found a pay phone even +though he never specifically paid attention to the commercial. This is +scarily similar to Brave New World, where if the situation fit, phrases from the sleep-talking +would simply roll off their tongues without giving it a thought. +One of the phrases often repeated to the children in their sleep is that old and torn +clothes are bad, and that if someone rips their clothes, they should buy new clothes instead of +mending them. Nowadays, if the average person tears their clothes, they don't even think of +fixing them, they simply throw them away. In the world of Brave New World, they may think of +fixing it at first, but because of the sleep-talk, they move away +from that idea. In the current world, most people don’t think of mending clothes because they +don't really know how anymore, and because everyone wants clothes that are ""in style,"" +anyway. People want new clothes all the time because the media keeps changing the way +that people are ""supposed to dress,"" so that people are constantly buying clothes. For +example, a while ago, in all the media like movies, everyone wore ties that were very wide, +which made everyone want wide ties. After everyone had wide ties, all the people in movies +started wearing narrow ties. +The sleep talking in Brave New World also was targeted to make you happily accept +the part in the caste system that they had been put in. Here in America now, we don't quite +have a defined caste system, but there are poor people, middle class/average people, and +very rich people. The very rich and famous are obviously happy with their position since they +have so much money, which is like in Brave New World how all the alphas were happy to be +alphas since they were better looking and smarter than everyone else. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"Throughout the episode, Michael, the main character jumps through hoops to try gain +his son’s acceptance to the academy. This reminded me of the American ideal of working +hard so that your children can enjoy certain privileges. +In one part where the old headmaster is believed to be dead, the caption on the news is +formatted so that the reading deadhead master is easily interpretable. To me this is simply an +exemplary detail, related to the school, of some of the clever humor Arrested Development +always contains. +In a photograph shown of the classroom, all the children’s heads are down on their +desks. From this angle, they all look the same, their individuality is not evident. From this +position, the children are also not in a place to contribute anything the class as well. +From the visuals we see of the school, the most prominent details were that the interior +was mostly dark wood and that the exterior was very plain and boxlike. It was the creator’s +intention to give their specific perception of the school as established and austere; it is +interesting to me that these elements are the quickest means to achieve this perception. +Original sentence: President Barack Obama, who arguably won a large chunk of political capital +in the 2008 election, is now looking to cash in as he urges Congress to pass a massive economic +stimulus package. President Barack Obama, who many say earned an abundance of credibility during +his election, now looks to take advantage as he attempts to implement his plan for sparking the +economy. President Barack Obama, who perhaps gained a surplus of sway in the political realm while +being elected, currently looks to capitalize in his enjoinment of Congress to enact his new solution for +the economy. President Obama, who possibly acquired a bundle of political love from his election, +desires to seize an opportunity to convince Congress to authorize his recommendations for the +economy. +For most of these paraphrases, the meaning changed very little if at all. All of them lost a slight +wordplay that the original text had with ‘capital’ and ‘cash’ and their relation to the economy. Most of +the new sentences do not contain the same united feel, the description of Obama does not seem to relate +to the active part of the sentence as well as in the original sentence. Although the sentences maintained +about the same level of descriptiveness, they each lost a certain amount of precision from lacking the +terms ‘political capital’ and ‘economic stimulus package’ since most people can clearly comprehend all +of the nuances of both of these terms. +But questions about how to spend the money and concerns about the last stimulus package under +former President Bush, may create a roadblock. Concerns on spending the money and doubts from the +last economic plan from former President Bush may cause issues. On the other hand, ambiguities on +the use of the money and anxieties from the previous plan from Bush’s presidency have the potential to +interfere. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"You carefully lay him down in the tub, +manipulating his lifeless limbs so as not to make a sound. You know your next step will take you well +into the morning. You carefully stride to the door, past bottles of Renu, and fasten the ‘do not disturb’ +sign on the dull metal handle. +On your way back to the stranger in the tub, you go to your bag and draw out your saw. You +drag the bag along with you, the fibers of the bag rubbing the rug the only noise in your ears. You give +the eyelids one last look before you begin with the saw. You remove all his clothes and place them +neatly, folded, in his suitcase with the rest of his clothes. You start with the toes by pulling the hungry +teeth of the saw across the flesh over and over. The skin tears open with the first stroke. The blood +seeps out like water from a crack in a dam. The red spills up higher and higher, faster and faster, +quickly coating the tub and the skin of their legs. It all looks somewhat surreal in yellowy glow of the +bathroom light. The bone is the hardest part, but you force your way through. You were initially +concerned with the volume of the crunching bone, but it is barely audible over the bathroom fan, +certainly no louder than a toilet flushing or a shower running. You continue from the feet all the way +up the legs, up the body, transforming the stranger into thick slices of meat. A deep scar runs from his +right hip to just above his belly button. You playfully trace the raised pink flesh with your saw, only +able to imagine what must have happened. The blood covers his whole remnants, the walls of the +bathtub, and then your arms past your elbows. You continue, slicing the organs with a contained +ferocity. An unknown purple organ spurts a pale yellow juice when you just graze it with the saw. You +think of when your mother used to slice red apples for pies, and the opaque juice would squirt out of +the dark skin. You smile as the bones of his ribcage quickly crumble, one after another, because of +your saw. You slice right through the center of his biceps. Muscles that the stranger must have worked +so hard to build up are now nothing more than mush. Soon all that is left is their head. You force the +saw to tear through the tough bone of his skull until finally you feel it slide through the soft brain. You +drag the saw across his closed eyelids. They too bow to the power of your saw. Unknown juices squirt +up onto your legs as you stand over them, but you don’t care. +You reach over and turn on the shower. You watch the thick red wash off your body, revealing +your skin once again. The body was in little pieces, just as you had planned. ",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +g,"There are 51 piles of little +pieces, exactly as you planned. The 51 piles are all roughly the same size. You divided them just like +you planned: one has the toes to the heel of one foot, one has his bellybutton and the cylinder of +innards all the way to his back, one has the carefully sliced collarbones. You reach from your bag and +grab the 51 Ziploc bags you packed. They are the bags the size up from sandwich bags. Your mom +used to use them to store cookies when you were younger. You take each slice from the stranger, plac +them carefully in the clear plastic, and seal them with precision. You hold each bag under the cleansing +beads of water, and dry them before neatly stacking them in your bag. +You sleep until the early afternoon. You leave his room in a change of clothes from your black +bag, walk out their door, and check out. +You are still looking into your eyes in the mirror. It is all done now. You have never felt so +satisfied. The 51st bathroom of the 51st random restaurant as you drove randomly up the coast, staying +in random hotels each night, eating three meals a day in random restaurants. It was just as your perfect +plan went. Everything was planned more than you had ever planned before, and everything went +according to plan. It is done now. Everything was perfect. This dirty, grimy bathroom is the final +stage for you two and a half week vacation. The 51 st baggie is empty and disposed of, everything is +gone, the stranger is gone. The 3rd baggie of the 3rd restaurant of the 17th day is done with. Your normal +life is there waiting for you to return to it. +Your eyes are barely visible through filthy grey streaks that coat the mirror. Shimmering pink +filth drips from the soap dispenser. The wallpaper distracts your eyes from your reflection. The cracks +that run through the yellowed surface make it hard to see the skiers. You squint your eyes at your eyes. +You blink at your eyes. You secure your black bag on your shoulder, push through the heavy door, and +return to your table. You try to enjoy your meal. This is, after all, the last day of your two and a half +weeks of vacation. + +Aldus Huxley, the writer of Brave New World, is a very pessimistic person. A reader +can easily tell from his bleak prediction of the future in Brave New World Huxley doesn't really +think the future will be much better than 1946, when he wrote a foreword looking back into his +ideas. The citizens of the world of Brave New World are grown in jars, brainwashed to have +certain principles, and guided to live their lives without motion. Many of the principles the +children are brainwashed to believe are pretty +similar to what we are almost brainwashed to believe in the world now. +",22,English,male,Some College,Student,"N,N,N,N,N" +b," + +The swamp at dusk. Calming from its stillness – the only thing moving at the swamp was time and not too fast either. The sun was lolling past the horizon and the idea that I should dip my foot into the water became transfixed in my mind. I’m pretty sure it was my idea, but there is a possibility that it came from somewhere else. + +Before that foot of mine could go in the water, I had to get the swamp’s edge. Something about dusk and alligator feeding jostled in my mind, but my friends and I had fed alligators earlier in the day on a swamp tour. Marshmallows. Dwayne, our tour guide, said alligators liked them and while it’s probably not the best thing to feed them the way in which these ancient hunters feasted on them indicated that Dwayne knew his alligators. + +Gazing over the swamp again. This time with a more discriminating eye – to get to the edge, one first had to pass this green, spiky grass that was growing up to about a foot and a half from the water’s edge. Beyond this section there was a strip of brown soil – kind of like the compacted mud of a river bed. + +“Get closer…. stick your foot into the water” ebbed into my mind again. I responded by walking through the spiky grass. As I got closer to the edge, the foot dipping decision seemed better and better. In my mind, it seemed that the pinnacle of success at the swamp clearly was to dip that foot into the water. + +Past the spiky grass, now to the compacted brown mud. My foot’s first step hit that brown patch and the ground didn’t meet up with my foot. In fact, before anything else could be done, my other foot’s hold on gravity slipped. A giant slurp of a noise hit my ears and the compelling thoughts that drove me to dip a foot into the water switched to that of “don’t lose the car keys,” and “those shoes of yours are long gone,” and “I don’t want swamp water on my face.” + +Clenching my left fist around those keys, I contorted my body and thwacked my arm onto the grass and pulled myself out of the swamp. I stood up. I looked down. Barefoot. Swamp muck oozing down my body and small little brown lily pads encircling my arms and waist. I looked over to the swamp again… brown algae floating back to cover my swamp entrance. + +Perhaps my friends had started to worry about me? Where did she go? What had happened? But as I started walking back to them, a few of them shot me quizzical glances. I saw an “aha” moment pass over a few faces and then the laughter began. I reminded them that actually I had the last laugh since they had to ride back with in the car with me and eau de swamp. + +Driving off, I took another look at that swamp. Maybe something else had the last laugh. + + + +",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Nurses are allowed to take notes of the symptoms that are manifested and also provide spiritual reassurance. Most Christian Science nurses work in Christian Science rest homes. There are approximately twenty-five rest homes in the United States. +(http://members.cox.net/mthelixg/‎ ‏and‭ ‬http://www.christianscience.bc.ca/wayside/) + +Barbara let me know that she had taken‭ “‬The Class‭” ‬and that she was able to heal,‭ ‬but that she chose not to practice. After completing the course,‭ ‬the new Practitioner usually starts to heal as a part-time activity. As these Practitioners become more proficient and experienced,‭ ‬their healing services become more sought after and once a Practitioner can earn their living entirely from Christian Science healing then the Practitioner‭ (‬or Christian Science Nurse‭) ‬can advertise their services in one of the publications of the Christian Science Church,‭ ‬The Christian Science Journal,‭ ‬which is published monthly. + +Also included in‭ ‬The Christian Science Journal as well as another monthly publication‭ ‬Christian Science Sentinel,‭ ‬are testimonials of cases that were healed. To be listed in the journal,‭ ‬the case needs to be corroborated by people who know you. No proof of medical tests prior or after the healing are used,‭ ‬this is because Practitioners and nurses are not permitted to label a patient’s disease,‭ ‬for fear of placing the wrong idea or the concept of disease into the mind of the patient. I also asked Barbara if there were any collections or efforts to categorize the healings that were done. Even if the members were afraid to classify an illness during the healing process,‭ ‬I was hoping that after the treatment was completed,‭ ‬if the notes of the Practitioners and Christian Science Nurses were included in the documentation. I was informed that no studies were undertaken at any point where any of the information I asked about was collected. Everything that existed was anecdotal and could be searched for through the Christian Science journals which went back to the‭ ‬1800‭’‬s and could be found at Reading Rooms as well as the Mother Church in Boston,‭ ‬Massachusetts. + +For the actual healing process,‎ ‏a Practitioner will read with the patient as well as pray for the patient. The Practitioner also encourages the patient to pray and read both the Bible and‭ ‬Science and Health on his or her own. I was also told that the Practitioners could detect the patients‭’ ‬thoughts and lead them on the correct path. A concern that I had was that of treating children with Christian Science. Barbara shared with me that according to their beliefs‭; ‬the mother had the most profound influence on the child. She said that mostly parents put disease and fear onto their child. As long as the parent‭ (‬especially the mother‭) ‬is not nervous about the illness,‭ ‬the child will heal. Children I was told are very open to understanding that disease is not real and that they generally are not afraid of disease.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Throughout life,‭ ‬we all encounter experiences and ideas that make us all question beliefs from our upbringing. For example,‭ ‬in Berton Roueché's book‭ ‬The Medical Detectives,‭ ‬there is an entire section on the placebo effect. The placebo effect that Berton Roueché discussed came from the medical literature where many times during clinical trials the placebo is as effective as the medication that is specifically designed for an ailment. + +The idea that pharmaceuticals might not be the full answer was further proven to me from shadowing a doctor at Mount Sinai of Queens hospital. Dr. Butts was working with a diabetic patient who had severe ulcerations of the skin,‭ ‬edema and possibly bone infection from not treating her condition. Dr. Butts told me that most of her problems could be treated with salt water,‭ ‬quitting smoking and taking a walk once a day while wearing shoes. And most importantly,‭ ‬she would never have gotten into that condition if she had done those simple steps. + +Over time,‭ ‬these claims and experiences made me want to investigate the role of using the patient’s mind and belief in a treatment to heal his or herself. The Christian Science Religion seemed to be a good starting point to me,‭ ‬because the religion had been in existence since the late‭ ‬1800‭’‬s and I assumed would have a rich library of examples of healing. I began to think that if it were true that it were possible to treat diseases not with drugs,‭ ‬but with changes in people’s thinking and approach to disease,‭ ‬it would alleviate a good deal of problems. And,‭ ‬in addition to solving these problems,‭ ‬this would be done at a relatively low cost with fewer side effects. I began to question then,‭ “‬Why doesn’t everyone treat disease at some level with this approach‭?”‬ + +As I began to research this topic,‭ ‬I began to encounter aspects that I had not expected. The records of the church were not scientifically documented and nor cataloged for research. There are various lawsuits against the Christian Science Church for child endangerment. Political issues were also discovered because of the federally funded Medicare/Medicaid system paying Christian Science practitioners for non-medical treatment of patients. In addition to these other concerns,‭ ‬there is a controversy with church doctrine in terms of using inappropriate marketing/false advertising to attract new members. + +The official name of the church is The First Church of Christ,‭ ‬Scientist. It was founded by Mary Baker Eddy,‭ ‬a woman who had been chronically ill since childhood,‭ ‬in Massachusetts in‭ ‬1879. In February‭ ‬1866,‭ ‬after having fallen and suffered internal injuries,‭ ‬her doctors classified her case as terminal. Feeling that she had been abandoned by the medical profession,‭ ‬she began reading her Bible and had a spiritual awakening and according to her own accounts,‭ ‬instantaneous healing. By‭ ‬1875,‭ ‬she had written her guide to healing via Christian principles and had it published under the name‭ ‬Science and Health.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Why do organisms evolve in the manner that they do‭? ‬Are there restrictions or constraints that influence the direction of evolutionary change‭? ‬Although in‭ ‬1917‭ ‬D’Arcy Thompson stated that‭ “‬Even now the zoologist has scarce begun to dream of defining in mathematical language even the simplest organic forms‭” ‬the same can be said today. More recently,‭ ‬mathematical modeling has been applied to general aspects of mollusk skeletogenesis through both ontogeny and phylogeny‭ (‬e.g.,‭ ‬Raup and Stanley,‭ ‬1981‭)‬. Our study is exploring how mathematical modeling of ontogenetic and phylogenetic change in Prunum,‭ ‬in combination with experimental studies,‭ ‬can be used to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the direction and magnitude of evolutionary-developmental change. We used X-radiographic images of Prunum species to delineate quantitative parameters that could in turn be used to model hypothetical and actual skeletal morphologies. These parameters were entered into the software program CerioShell‭ (‬Stone,‭ ‬1995‭)‬. We modeled hypothetical shell morphologies that could be used to interpret the boundaries of possible morphological change in Prunum. These results are being combined with experimental and descriptive studies in order to better understand macroevolutionary events in this clade. + +A shell can be thought of as a structure that is a tube that travels over time through‭ ‬360‭ ‬degrees of space. These revolutions or turns of a coiled shell are called whorls,‭ ‬which are considered to spiral around an imaginary central axis. This axis runs through the central column of the shell and is known as the columella. The speed at which the whorls enlarge can vary,‭ ‬and a continuous line separates each whorl and is referred to as a suture. In most shells,‭ ‬the largest whorl of a shell is the last whorl‭ (‬body whorl‭)‬. ‭ ‬The spire is considered to be all the whorls except the last. The apex is the tip of the spire and the opposite end is referred to as the base. The animal extends out of its shell through an opening called the aperture. + +Shells can be viewed in apical,‭ ‬basal,‭ ‬apertural and abapertural views. ‭(‬The‭ ""‬usual‭"" ‬orientation of a shell is an apertural view,‭ ‬with the aperture toward the viewer and with the apex pointing up.‭)‬ + +A method for counting whorls is seen below. First,‭ ‬the shell should be viewed from the apical view and then it should be determined where the first suture begins. A line can be then drawn dividing the shell into two parts. Whorls are counted from this line,‭ ‬and are estimated to a quarter of a whorl. + +A shell can be viewed as a series of apertures that travel through time and space as the animal accretes‭ (‬i.e. builds‭) ‬its shell. It is possible to trace the path of the aperture via coordinates of the center of each whorl’s aperture as well as the horizontal and vertical radius of the aperture. + +This trajectory can be graphically and mathematically represented. Once a mathematical formulation is made,‭ ‬it is then possible to vary parameters and modify the mollusk’s skeletogenesis. +",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Because of the diminutiveness of the scale,‭ ‬objects/molecules that are created at this level,‭ ‬have different properties than what most people expect to see at the more familiar large-scale level. Some of these properties relate to the fact that the sizes of the nano-particles are below the scattering limit of visible light. These features of the nano-particle relate to mechanical strength,‭ ‬scratch resistance,‭ ‬inflammability,‭ ‬reflection and absorbance of UV light. This can be significant in terms of using the nano-particle for fluorescence markers. + +Another characteristic relates to the fact that due to the small size of the particle,‭ ‬it will consequently have a large surface area. This is important because the increase of surface area can aid in the particle’s reactivity to reagents and catalysts. The importance of this can be found in the potential for drug and immunological studies. Other types of research in using nano-scale particles include,‭ ‬computing systems,‭ ‬carbon nano-tubes,‭ ‬read/write diamond data storage systems and miniature machines‭ (‬nanorobots.‭)‬ + +One region within nanotechnology that is of particular interest in this lab has been quantum dots.‎ ‏Quantum dots can be thought of as nano-sized devices that have free electrons. The quantum dot structure’s size and shape can be controlled so therefore the number of electrons that it can contain varies according to the researcher’s requirements. The quantum dot behaves similarly to that of an atom,‭ ‬mostly in terms of energy quantization. The important aspect of quantum dots is that these devices can be connected to electrodes‭ (‬unlike atoms‭) ‬and therefore be used to aid in the study of properties of these materials/devices. + +But specifically what is a quantum dot‎? ‏A quantum dot could be thought of a nano-sized piece of a semiconductor that displays quantum-like properties. What properties does a semiconductor add to the feature sets of a quantum dot‭? ‬A semiconductor is a material,‭ ‬which is neither totally insulating nor totally conductive at non-zero temperatures. The reason for this is due to its structure of a gap between its valence‭ (‬almost full band at non-zero temperatures‭) ‬and its conduction band‭ (‬almost empty‭)‬. If a photon has a higher energy than this gap between the valence and conduction bands‭ (‬band gap‭)‬,‭ ‬a charge carrier will be generated stemming from the transition of the electrons between the two bands. Photons can be passed through the bandgap and consequently emitted. This emission depends upon the arrangement of the atoms and of the peripheral electron energies. There are two types of semiconductors,‭ ‬n and p types. The two types depend upon what type of dopant‭ (‬chemical impurity‭) ‬has been added to the semiconductor. N-dopants introduce more electrons and p-dopants create electron vacancies,‭ ‬i.e. holes. + +Aspects of a quantum dot also encompass the field/theory of quantum mechanics. Quantum theory attempts to describe the behavior of particles‭ (‬matter and energy‭) ‬at a small scale.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Besides cofactors,‭ ‬enzymes have inhibitors that slow or completely prevent enzymatic activity. Inhibitors change the enzyme kinematics by altering the rate of interaction between the enzyme-substrate complex or through the conformational change of the enzyme to prevent activity. + +Enzymes are sensitive to the changes in the environment of the reaction. Changes in the pH or temperature can lower the effectiveness of the enzyme. The effectiveness of the enzyme is measured by how well a specific substrate can bind to its active site. By altering the pH or the temperature,‭ ‬the enzyme can denature. This denaturation is marked by a conformational change‭ (‬i.e. shape‭) ‬of the protein/active site and the substrate is no longer able to appropriately bind. + +The highly unique structure of enzymes creates a high level of substrate specificity. Furthermore‭; ‬the large numbers of enzymes create many opportunities for regulation. The diversity of enzymes also allows for group specific enzymes that act on a general group of substrates such as a particular bond or functional group. However,‭ ‬all enzymes follow a quantitative method of description called the Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Enzyme kinetics is the quantitative description of enzyme behavior. The Michaelis-Menten equation describes the relationship between velocity‭ (‬rate of production of product‭) ‬and the substrate concentration + +Through this relationship,‭ ‬the Michaelis constant‭ (‬Km‭) ‬and Vmax can be calculated graphically. Km is the point where velocity of the reaction is one-half the Vmax. The Vmax is the upper limit of the reaction. It is important to understand Km because it indirectly describes how‭ “‬effective‭” ‬the enzyme is in reaction. The smaller the Km value,‭ ‬the smaller the substrate concentration necessary to have an effective reaction.28‭ ‬If the Km value is large,‭ ‬a large concentration of substrate would be necessary to reach the same velocity as an enzyme with low Km. The Vmax is a useful tool in determining the likelihood of a reaction. In vivo,‭ ‬the Vmax is not an obtainable value,‭ ‬but this value can help determine the likely rate of reaction that is going to occur. + +Plotting the substrate against the velocity does not produce an accurate value for important unknowns such as Km and Vmax. In order to construct a curve that assists in the determination of these unknowns,‭ ‬a Lineweaver-Burk plot is used. This plot and equation takes the hyperbolic relationship of the Michaelis-Menten equation and transforms it into a linear function. + +The Lineweaver-Burk equation is a double-reciprocal plot with a y-intercept of‭ ‬1/Vmax and an x-intercept of‭ ‬-1/Km and the slope is Km/‭ ‬Vmax. The one weakness of the Lineweaver-Burk plot is that there is often a small amount of extrapolation necessary to determine the Km because that part of the curve extends to the negative region of the graph. + +The importance of enzymatic reactions is that many times these chemicals that are undergoing reactions are part of cell’s mechanism for relating messages. Cellular messages can either be sent as chemical or electrical signals.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"If however,‭ ‬the Exciton Bohr Radius is approximately the size of a particular quantum dot or even smaller,‭ ‬the exciton will not be able to travel throughout the crystal. This condition is considered quantum confinement,‭ ‬which relates to the fact that quantum dots by nature have discrete energy levels. + +This quantum functionality is determined by the quantum confinement,‎ ‏which in turn is dependent on the material’s size,‭ ‬not its composition. An analogy would be if one was to chip at a red stone and yet the flecks that broke off were blue. Observing this phenomena can be accomplished by regarding the confinement in different dimensions. Three dimensions and the phenomena is referred to as a quantum dot. Two dimensions and now the phenomena is called a quantum wire. Lastly,‭ ‬one dimension and the phenomena is a quantum well. To determine the quantum confinement,‭ ‬the Exciton Bohr Radius‭ ‬(aB‭) ‬is used. This measurement is compared to the diameter of the nanocrystal‭ (‬D‭)‬. + +In quantum dots,‎ ‏the optical properties are affected when the diameter of the nanocrystal is less than two times the Exciton Bohr Radius. In a CdSe system,‭ ‬if the dimensions of the nanocrystal are below the Exciton Bohr Radius‭ (‬approximately‭ ‬5‭ ‬to‭ ‬5.5‭ ‬nm‭) ‬the result will be a shift towards the blue spectrum‭ (‬i.e. higher energy.‭)‬ + +Earlier it was mentioned that by altering the size of the quantum dot,‎ ‏different properties for the particle could be obtained. This is due once again to the relationship between the diameter of the nanocrystal to its Exciton Bohr Radius. The next question to ask oneself is how to alter the size of this particle. This can be accomplished by the addition or the removal of electrons. + + +Dots can be connected via potential barriers to a source and drain contacts. If a barrier can be used that prevents the movement of electrons,‭ ‬the number of electrons on the dot‭ (‬N‭) ‬will be an integer. This number can and will change as electrons move‭ (‬tunnel‭) ‬towards and away from the dot. Another factor to consider at this point is the repulsion of the electrons,‭ ‬Coulomb repulsion. Because of this,‭ ‬a dot with N+1‭ ‬electrons will have a higher value of energy,‭ ‬which consequently will mean that to add additional electrons,‭ ‬more energy will be required. A Coulomb blockade can be created when no current can flow. This can be bypassed via a gate contact. + +The addition of an electron is referred to as the charging energy and is notated by‎ ‏e2/C. for an electron to tunnel,‭ ‬there cannot be any net energy difference. This means that the dot and electron can experience tunneling only when the dot’s size allows the charge to be neutral. This neutrality occurs when the dot has N and half an electron. However,‭ ‬since it is only possible for the value to be an integer,‭ ‬the net charge must be‭ ‬±e/2,‭ ‬depending on whether there are‭ ‬N or‭ ‬N+1‭ ‬electrons in the‭ ‬dot.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"One particular type of Duty-based Theory is Kantian Deontology,‭ ‬where a perfect duty is one that a person is required to carry out,‭ ‬an example of which is keeping a promise. ‭ ‬Keeping the promise may have a good or bad result,‭ ‬but according to Kantian Deontology the result of keeping the promise should not influence the decision to carry out the duty.‭ ‬This theory applies in the case of an institution that does not uphold its promise as stated in its mission statement. Duties are related to individuals. + +Another example that can be applied in the case of an organization breaching its mission statement is Rights Based Theory.‎ ‏Basically,‭ “‬a right is a morally or legally justified claim on someone else.‭” ‬When dealing with a situation from a Rights Based Theory,‭ ‬it is important to consider the rights of those within the context of the circumstances. In particular,‭ ‬an action can be judged as correct only if the individual’s rights are upheld. Clearly,‭ ‬Rights based Theory dictates that the institution make a correction out of commitment to upholding the rights of the students. + +‎‏Lastly,‭ ‬the‭ “‬being‭” ‬category of ethics relates to virtue.‭ ‬According to the presentation,‭ ‬Dr.‭ ‬Aultman states that virtue can include‭ “‬justice,‭ ‬benevolence,‭ ‬loyalty,‭ ‬friendliness and courage.‭”‬ In this case,‭ ‬one needs to concentrate on having the right motivation for action‭ (‬justice,‭ ‬benevolence,‭ ‬etc.‭) ‬and not adhering to rules at the expense of people. Also,‭ ‬virtues can be flexible and allow those following this‭ “‬being‭” ‬category to make assessments on each situation that one encounters. + +‎‏Most institutions have a mission statement,‭ ‬regardless if the organization is a university,‭ ‬business,‭ ‬or other entity. However,‭ ‬there are times when this mission statement is not followed‭ – ‬whether due to lack of man-power,‭ ‬will-power or circumstances preventing the organization from meeting its obligations. In the case that I would like to present,‭ ‬a university did not maintain its mission statement. + +As a child growing up,‭ ‬my mother worked as an administrator in a hospital in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. She would explain interesting cases to us at the dinner table,‭ ‬much to my father’s disgust. One case in particular that has stayed with me was that of a child who was diagnosed with appendicitis. A concern in this case was that the child’s family was Christian Science and therefore the child was not receiving what my mother deemed proper medical care. As children ourselves,‭ ‬we asked our mom about why parents would not give their child the care that was needed‭?‬ + +As a child myself,‭ ‬I believed without questioning what I was told and thought along the lines that my mother had taught us‭ – ‬that this family’s beliefs were jeopardizing their child’s life. I do not recall what the outcome of the case was,‭ ‬but the idea that Christian Science was dangerous and an unhealthy religion did stick. How could simple thought and praying fix a physical ailment‭? ‬The child needed surgery and quickly‭!‬",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"According to the theory,‭ ‬once nature is observed at a level that is small enough,‭ ‬matter and radiation can be thought of as discrete or discontinuous. Also,‭ ‬according to the theory,‭ ‬an object is permitted to exist at an allowed energy level only by absorbing or emitting the energy required to exist at an allowed level. + +Next to be investigated are how bandgap,‎ ‏conduction and valence bands,‭ ‬exciton,‭ ‬and Bohr radius holes relate to quantum dots. A bandgap in a quantum dot has the same basic function as that of a semiconductor. It separates the valence from the conduction bands. The main difference is that in a quantum dot crystal,‭ ‬the size of the bandgap can be altered,‭ ‬whereas in a traditional semiconductor,‭ ‬the bandgap is fixed,‭ ‬due to continuous energy states‭ (‬i.e. at a large scale,‭ ‬the semiconductor does not behave in regards to quantum mechanics‭)‬. ‭ ‬The bandgap can be altered by changing the size of the quantum dot and therefore produce a range of energies. + +‏In a quantum dot,‭ ‬the conduction band can be thought of as a band that possesses energy levels above the value of the bandgap. Due to the nature of a bandgap,‭ ‬its distance will be greater than that of the distances between energy levels. This distance provides a barrier to electrons and therefore not many electrons can jump from the valence band. However,‭ ‬electrons can cross the bandgap if the electron is able to absorb energy in the form of radiation greater or equal to the bandgap energy. As electrons drop back to the valence band,‭ ‬the radiation emitted,‭ ‬and what is identified as a qualifying feature of a quantum dot. + +The valence band contains electrons with the lowest energy as well as electrons that are just below the threshold of the lower values of the bandgap.‎ ‏In nature,‭ ‬electrons occupy energry states with the lowest energy values,‭ ‬so this band’s energy levels are generally complete. + +When there is an absence of an electron in the valence band,‎ ‏it is referred to as a‭ ‘‬hole‭’‬. Convention treats holes with a positive charge,‭ ‬since they‭ “‬appear‭” ‬after the electron,‭ ‬which is negatively charged jumps across the bandgap to the conduction band. The next concept is that of exciton,‭ ‬which by definition is both the electron and the hole that is created as the electron crosses the bandgap. The separation between the electron and the hole also has a name and is called Exciton Bohr Radius. This can vary between different substances and because of it,‭ ‬is an average distance. The importance of the Exciton Bohr Radius is that it is used to differentiate between whether a crystal is a quantum dot or a semiconductor. If the Exciton Bohr Radius is small compared to the crystal in question,‭ ‬the exciton can easily move throughout the crystal,‭ ‬and this crystal would be considered that of a bulk semiconductor‭ (‬i.e. large‭)‬.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Once parameters are varied,‭ ‬different forms can be produced. These forms can either mimic pre-existing or model hypothetical possibilities. These hypothetical possibilities or morphospaces lead us to the question of why these forms are not present in the fossil record. Therefore these models can be the foundation of the study of the actual mechanism of evolution and the analysis of organic form. + +One method for developing a model of shells is to create a formula to represent its trajectory of aperture movement. In this study,‭ ‬we estimated the shape of the aperture to be an ellipse. Coordinates of this ellipse were taken‭ (‬center,‭ ‬horizontal and vertical radial distance.‭) ‬This data was collected and used in add-on software packages to Mathematica. + +CerioShell‭ (‬author:‭ ‬J. Stone‭) ‬is an add-on to Mathematica‭ ‬5.2. An‭ ‬intermediate software package,‭ ‬Mappoint‭ (‬author:‭ ‬G. Beck‭) ‬bridges the two programs. Mappoint uses both classical Euclidean and modern differential geometry to develop mathematical functions for graphing. The utilization of these graphing functions to develop shell surfaces,‭ ‬whorl coiling and patterns of accretion/formation is the focus of CerioShell. All products run in a Microsoft Windows environment. + +PreDraw3D uses arrays based off the coordinates supplied by the user to render two-dimensional shapes‭ (‬i.e. polygon or circle‭) ‬for each aperture. Using iterations,‭ ‬these shapes are repeated so that a representation of the shell can be made‭ (‬i.e. a series of apertures represented by the‭ ‬2D line drawing‭)‬. Angles between these coordinates are calculated and then the sin and cosine of these angles are taken to be used to alter the rotational angle of how the aperture will turn through space as it travels the aperture trajectory. + +CerioShell uses the above function for example in its GastropodShellRotate function. This is the function that provides the appropriate angle for the rotation around the columella. In the beginning of the code,‭ ‬it is possible to see which functions the GSR.M file are calling and which will subsequently be available to this function during its session. + +Viewing the accretion of the shell as a series of apertures moving through time is one manner of how to look at growth patterns. Another approach is to view the shell from the apical side and analyze the curve of the spiral. Below is a picture that shows this curve on the shell. A juvenile was chosen due to the fact that the origin is clearly visible,‭ ‬during later stages of growth‭; ‬this feature is not easily seen. + +For working with spirals,‭ ‬the beginning or origin of the spiral is assigned to be the polar coordinates of‭ ‬0,‭ ‬0. As the spiral extends and rotates through space,‭ ‬it can be thought of in two forms. An equiangular or logarithmic spiral is one where the point along the line/curve travels exponentially from the origin. If there is uniform traveling of the point from the origin,‭ ‬it is considered to be an Archimedean spiral.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Consequently the charging energy is then‭ (‬±e/2‭)‬2/C,‭ ‬for either case. This effect can be seen in metal and semiconductor‭ ‬dots. In the latter,‭ ‬the‭ ‬quantum-mechanical energy levels of the electrons are also important,‭ ‬as their wavelength is comparable to the size of the‭ ‬dot. + +Note:‭ ‬The term tunneling should not be confused with a particle actually traveling through a substance. It is a term that references the quantum mechanical concept of the statistical likelihood of the particle existing in a particular location. If one uses the analogy of a quantum dot being a box,‭ “‬Over enough measurements,‭ ‬that means that eventually an electron will be found outside of the box. We say that the electron has‭ ""‬tunneled‭"" ‬out of the box,‭ ‬but it never really existed inside the box. It only had a probability that it could be inside the box,‭ ‬and this particular electron,‭ ‬when measured,‭ ‬was one of the few that were outside the box.‭”‬ + +Nanotechnology and quantum dots can have significant applications outside the physical sciences. In biology,‭ ‬the uses can be varied,‭ ‬reactivity of enzymes,‭ ‬flow of ions in channels,‭ ‬aiding in immunity,‭ ‬imaging and detection developments with tags and DNA,‭ ‬as well as working with the electron transport chain in photosynthesis. To fully understand the role this development has,‭ ‬it is important to understand some biological functions. + +An enzyme is an organic molecule that facilitates biochemical reactions,‭ ‬i.e. a catalyst. A‭ ‬catalyst cannot make a thermodynamically unfavorable reaction proceed. Rather,‭ ‬it can only speed up a reaction that is already thermodynamically favorable. Such a reaction in the absence of a catalyst would proceed,‭ ‬even without the catalyst,‭ ‬although perhaps too slowly to be observed or of use in a given context. + +Catalysts accelerate the chemical reaction by providing a lower energy pathway between the reactants and the products. This usually involves the formation of an intermediate,‭ ‬which cannot be formed without the catalyst. The formation of this intermediate and subsequent reaction generally has a much lower activation energy barrier than is required for the direct reaction of reactants to products. + +Enzymes share three properties that are common to all catalysts,‭ ‬whether the catalyst be organic or inorganic. First,‭ ‬the rate of reaction is increased through the lowering of the activation energy requirement. Therefore,‭ ‬the reaction is thermodynamically feasible without thermal activation. Second,‭ ‬catalysts form a transient complex with the substrate that assists in the reaction process. Lastly,‭ ‬catalysts affect the rate of reaction but do not alter the position of the equilibrium constant‭ (‬Keq‭)‬. + +Typically,‭ ‬most enzymes are proteins that contain an active site within the polypeptide. The active site is usually a collection of amino acids that form a specific three-dimensional structure where a specific substrate can bind. The access or availability of the active site is altered through the conformational‭ (‬shape‭) ‬changes of the enzyme. Some enzymes have cofactors that increase or decrease the affinity of the enzyme to the substrate. Some cofactors can directly effect the conformation of the enzyme.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"My question dealt with the fact that it takes a certain amount of time for a bone that has a fracture to heal. I stated that the body needs a specific amount of time to transfer calcium from locations in the body to the fracture. I also mentioned that the cells that build up the various tissues found within the bone have to grow and divide and repeat this process until the fracture was knitted. I was concerned because this took time and that it was an actual physical process‭ – ‬there are no shortcuts. Also,‭ ‬I did not understand how a broken bone could be considered not real. Barbara assured me that fractures could heal‭ “‬instantaneously‭” ‬and that the body was not limited by time or resources since God was perfect and that matter was not real. + +I wanted to know how the healing process worked. Within the Church there are two types of healers. One is called a Practitioner and the other type is referred to as a Christian Science Nurse. A Practitioner begins by becoming a member of the Christian Science Church. A member does all the regular things,‭ ‬attends weekly Sunday services and on Wednesday nights twice a month,‭ ‬there are testimonials where members speak about their experiences with healing. Once the member feels that he or she is ready to become a Practitioner,‭ ‬they take a two week-long course. This course is referred to as‭ “‬The Class.‭” ‬Once‭ “‬The Class‭” ‬is completed,‭ ‬the member is now a Practitioner and can begin to heal. The Practitioner uses the‭ ‬700‭ ‬page‭ ‬Science and Health text as well as Bible verses to discuss with people how to let God‭ (‬aka‭ “‬Mind‭” ‬or‭ “‬Spirit‭”) ‬to be reflected accurately in their bodies. These Practitioners set their own fees and can provide services either in person or via the phone. This treatment is called‭ “‬Christian Science treatment.‭” ‬Within‭ “‬The Class‭”‬,‭ ‬the students do not learn about diseases or how to classify symptoms. The students spend their time analyzing texts,‭ ‬understanding how to explain health concerns from a religious standpoint and praying. ‭“‬To the Christian Science healer,‭ ‬sickness is a dream from which the patient needs to be awakened. Disease should not appear real to the physician,‭ ‬since it is demonstrable that the way to cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him.‭” (‬Science and Health p. 417‭)‬ + +Christian Science Nurses,‭ ‬do not go through training at all,‭ ‬and are merely members who help with physical concerns during the‭ “‬Christian Science treatment.‭” ‬Barbara let me know that many nurses have taken‭ “‬The Class‭” ‬but they prefer to help other members in this path instead. All treatment that is provided by Christian Science Nurses is nonmedical in nature and includes care such as help with feeding,‭ ‬bathing,‭ ‬assistance with moving‭ (‬i.e. from bed to chair‭)‬. Simple medical tasks such as blood pressure measuring,‭ ‬temperature taking,‭ ‬or applying cold/hot compresses are not included in their duties,‭ ‬and are expressly not permitted both by the church and by law.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"CHILD,‭ ‬is an advocacy group that is headed by Rita Swan,‭ ‬a former Christian Scientist,‭ ‬whose son died due to Christian Science treatment for meningitis. The original Medicare law was overturned in August of‭ ‬1996,‭ ‬and Attorney General Janet Reno removed Justice Department lawyers from defending the case because she did not think Medicare should pay for nonmedical services. + +In the spring of‭ ‬1997,‭ ‬Senator E.‭ ‬Kennedy‭ (‬D-Mass‭) ‬and Senator Orrin Hatch‭ (‬R-Utah‭) ‬worked together for an amendment to the Balanced Budget Act of‭ ‬1997‭ ‬that allowed Medicare to pay for‭ “‬religious nonmedical health care institutions.‭” (‬RNHCI‭) ‬Also included in this amendment,‭ ‬all references to Christian Science were removed,‭ ‬so the law could apply to other religious groups as well. CHILD as well as civil libertarians and medical groups have filed briefs opposing the payments as well as a suit in the‭ ‬8th U.S.‭ ‬Circuit Court of Appeals in Minneapolis. ‭ ‬In‭ ‬2000,‭ ‬the‭ ‬8th U.S.‭ ‬Circuit Court ruled that the Medicare and Medicaid payments are legal and in April‭ ‬2001,‭ ‬the U.S.‭ ‬Supreme Court turned down the appeal without comment,‭ ‬therefore allowing the‭ ‬2000‭ ‬ruling to stand. + +Virginia S.‭ ‬Harris,‭ ‬spokesperson for the Christian Science Church,‭ ‬has addressed this issue in written statements:‭ ""‬Christian Science nursing facilities offer a loving and supportive atmosphere to patients requiring physical nursing care,‭ ‬who wish to experience transformation and healing. These facilities provide a great service to society.‭"" ‬Attorneys for the church stress that Christian Scientists have paid into the Medicare system and that federal funds pay for the physical care of the patients. + +One attorney for the church,‭ ‬Michael W.‭ ‬McConnell,‭ ‬who also is a constitutional law professor at the University of Utah and not a Christian Scientist,‭ ‬has stated:‭ ""‬It's awfully difficult to say in the context of Medicare or Medicaid that the federal government is endorsing Christian Science‭… ‬It's hard to see how anyone is made better off by denying them nursing care,‭ ‬given that they aren't going to be accepting medicine anyway.‭ ‬It's an act of ideologically motivated cruelty.‭ ‬If the court were to strike it down,‭ ‬it would be a rather extraordinary blow to religious accommodation in this country.‭""‬ + +An administrator of a Christian Science facility,‭ ‬Lynn House,‭ ‬Lois E.‭ ‬Herr stated:‭ ""‬Our patients have paid into Medicare for years,‭ ‬and they should have some benefit from it.‭” ‬At this facility,‭ ‬Medicare in‭ ‬1999‭ ‬paid‭ ‬$300-a-day for each Medicare patient and this constituted half of the facility’s yearly revenue. Lastly,‭ ‬a concern with federal funding of these facilities is that these church facilities are exempt from governmental hospital and nursing home regulations.‭ ‬ + +In addition to the federally funded Medicare and Medicaid concerns the Christian Science Church has been involved with,‭ ‬lawsuits targeting the church with child endangerment have also been filed. + +The Supreme Court clearly recognized the distinct personhood and moral standing of children when it stated,‭ ‬in‭ ‬Prince v.‭ ‬Massachusetts:‭ “‬Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Practitioners many times get phone calls from hysterical parents,‭ ‬and that the first goal of the Practitioner is to calm the parent by quoting verses from various sources and then asking the parents to read certain scriptures to the child and then sing a hymn over the child. She then gave me an example of a child listening and observing a mother singing a hymn or reading calmly from the Bible and that that made the child feel better and not feel sick. + +I also inquired about the use of certain drugs‭ – ‬nicotine,‭ ‬caffeine,‭ ‬and alcohol. The official stance of the church is that members should not use any‭ “‬mood changers.‭” ‬Drugs are not permitted,‭ ‬even socially acceptable ones. However,‭ ‬there are approximately‭ ‬2000‭ ‬branch churches worldwide,‭ ‬and it is the standard practice of these branch churches not to ask its members if he or she uses caffeine or nicotine. Barbara then told me that the church allowed its members to take some medicine or to decline medicine‭ – ‬depending upon their choice. However,‭ ‬later I found out that according to practice,‭ ‬if a Practitioner finds out that a patient is using medicine or seeking medical care,‭ ‬they are required to stop treating the patient. Barbara mentioned a term in Christian Science called‭ “‬scrupulosity‭” ‬that referred to members being judgmental to other members who do not follow the religion totally and do take some medicine. + +At this point,‭ ‬Barbara did something that reminded me of something that some patients did at various hospitals where I have volunteered. At the three hospitals where I have volunteered,‭ ‬I got chances to speak with the patients. Many times during the interview with these patients,‭ ‬they would turn their heads,‭ ‬motion me in closer to them and tell me that they were not following their doctors‭’ ‬orders‭ – ‬some did not take their medication that was prescribed to them or that they also went to herbalists that gave the patients Spanish herbs and teas to take. I always reminded the patients that they should let their doctors know what they were doing,‭ ‬so the doctors could better help them. What Barbara did was turn to me and tell me that she did see a medical doctor. It was for‭ “‬cosmetic‭” ‬reasons‭ – ‬she got botox shot treatments around her lips for wrinkles. She also told me of a personal healing anecdote. One time when she got her botox shots,‭ ‬the area around her mouth where she had gotten shots had turned black and blue. She went to a reading room and within an hour or so,‭ ‬half the bruises were gone. ‭ ‬She then introduced me to another member and told me that this woman did not see any medical doctors or dentists,‭ ‬which I completely believed,‭ ‬especially since she did not have front teeth. Also,‭ ‬at one point,‭ ‬Barbara went into her bag to give me a business card and I could see a prescription bottle as well. + +I also asked about Christian Science’s role and its relationship to the government.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"To judge whether a spiral is an equiangular spiral,‭ ‬certain measurements are made and then these values are placed into the established formulas. Following this,‭ ‬a model can be made using the data and if an equiangular model is produced,‭ ‬then it is valid. From what is known of the organism and its growth,‭ ‬the growth and consequent spiral is that of equiangular. + +Using Mathematica,‭ ‬it is possible to get the plot coordinates of an image. The image was copied into a Mathematica notebook and the using the‭ “‬Get Coordinates‭” ‬feature,‭ ‬a series of polar coordinates were taken from the line. This process is manual and requires the use of the left mouse button and the‭ “‬Control‭” ‬keyboard button. Once these points were plotted,‭ ‬using Mathematica,‭ ‬these values were taken from the program’s memory and‭ “‬copied as‭” ‬MATHML formatted data. Once in this format,‭ ‬the points were‭ “‬pasted as‭” ‬into a notebook as formatted text. + +Once the points were in the notebook,‭ ‬the following steps were taken to prepare the data so that the curve could be re-constructed,‭ ‬and its formula,‭ ‬coefficients and least squares of the line be generated. + +Cerioshell may be used to quantitatively model patterns of ontogenesis and cladogenesis in‭ ‬Prunum. + +Our modeling is being used to determine possible constraints or limiting features have influenced the constructional morphology of‭ ‬Prunum‭ (‬i.e. functional/adaptational,‭ ‬fabricational/morphogenetic,‭ ‬and/or historical/phylogenetic‭)‬. + +When reviewing the pattern of frequency distribution,‭ ‬often it appears as if the distribution changed positions within the theoretical morphospace from geological period to period. However,‭ ‬it appears that when extinctions occur,‭ ‬and new organisms evolve,‭ ‬there is simply a repeating of the same morphologic themes in terms of proportions. Why is this? + +Is it possible to take a shell and its mathematical function that represents it,‭ ‬modify certain parameters‭ (‬i.e. translation‭ – ‬the abapical migration,‭ ‬offset‭ & ‬its effect on radial migration,‭ ‬and the changes in horizontal and vertical dimensions of the aperture,‭ ‬and model shells of different species‭?‬ + +How accurately do mathematical models represent the actual ontogenetic processes that generate patterns of skeletogenesis‭?‬ + +From the time that Richard Feynman gave a talk on December‭ ‬29th‭ ‬1959‭ ‬at the annual meeting of the‭ ‬American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology‭ (‬Caltech‭)‬ – There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,‭ ‬people have been fascinated by Feynman’s‭ “‬problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale.‭”‬ + +Currently,‎ ‏this small-scale manipulation is referred to as nanotechnology. According to the definition provided by NASA,‭ “‬Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials,‭ ‬devices and systems through control of matter on the nanometer length scale‭ (‬1-100‭ ‬nanometers‭)‬,‭ ‬and exploitation of novel phenomena and properties‭ (‬physical,‭ ‬chemical,‭ ‬biological,‭ ‬mechanical,‭ ‬electrical...‭) ‬at that length scale.‭” ‬ + +To put this concept into perspective,‎ ‏it is important to note that a human blood cell measures approximately‭ ‬2,000‭ ‬nm,‭ ‬well beyond the realm of nanotechnology.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"In the membrane of the cell,‭ ‬there are cell surface receptors that respond to such chemical events. + +Cell surface receptors transfer an external signal through the cell’s membrane to an internal target. These surface receptors are proteins that are integral to the membrane. These integral membrane proteins have two domains,‭ ‬one being an alpha-helical region,‭ ‬which crosses the membrane and the other,‭ ‬is a region found in the cytoplasm. This cytoplasmic region‭ (‬or domain‭) ‬is what generates the internal signal after an external binding event has occurred.An interesting note about alpha-helices is that they are the most common form of secondary structure. Approximately‭ ‬31%‭ ‬of all residues in proteins contribute to this structure. Most likely these alpha helices are common due to the fact that their structure leads to stability. And lastly,‭ ‬alpha helices are amphipathic,‭ ‬meaning that the molecule contains both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. Since cell signaling is vitally important,‭ ‬it only makes sense that these amphipathic molecules would be found in cell membranes,‭ ‬where a distinction between hydrophilic and hydrophobic is necessary. + +A mission statement of an organization is used to state the core driving principle that should guide the development of new ideas and services provided. According to James Donnelly,‭ ‬the author of‭ ‬The Fundamentals of Management,‭ “‬the customers or clients of an organization are critical in determining its mission.‭” ‬Additionally,‭ ‬it was stated that‭ “‬the same necessity exists for both nonprofit and governmental organizations. That necessity is to state the mission in terms of serving a particular group of clients or customers and‭ ‬/or meeting a particular class of need.‭” ‬An underlying implication of a mission statement is that those who interact with the organization owning the mission statement have an understanding of what expectations can be met. This also is an indication of a mutual relationship,‭ ‬the entity is expected to provide a service at a certain level and those participating or using the service have an obligation to follow the rules or established agreed-upon practices. However,‭ ‬there are times when an organization does not follow its mission statement and those interacting with the organization need to determine how to best resolve this conflict. + +‏If an organization breaches its mission statement,‭ ‬one can look at this from different ethical theories. ‭ ‬The ethical theories can be divided into two main categories,‭ ‬that of‭ “‬Doing‭” ‬and‭ “‬Being‭”‬. Within the‭ “‬doing‭” ‬theories,‭ ‬one can find Duty-based and Rights Based. In terms of‭ “‬Being‭”‬,‭ ‬Virtue-based Theory will be addressed. +For example,‭ ‬in the Duty-based Theory,‭ ‬whether an action is good or bad is not judged by the results of that action. Additionally,‭ ‬those using Duty-based Theory are not required to perform an action based on foreseeable results of that action‭ ‬nor are they forced to maintain or take a specific viewpoint. In fact,‭ ‬one does not have to take into consideration whether an action is moral or not.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Throughout the time she was writing the text,‭ ‬she was healing sickness and teaching others how to heal through her method. Originally,‭ ‬she wanted healers to stay within their own Christian denominations and heal sickness with her method. But,‭ ‬she discovered that her ideas and healing methods were modified too radically by others and she felt that it was important to consolidate into one group and by‭ ‬1879‭ ‬she founded this church and a teaching college that was chartered in the State of Massachusetts. One interesting note,‭ ‬there is no established clergy,‭ ‬but rather members who take turns presenting and overseeing events. + +The Christian Science Church is well known for their reading rooms. These rooms are open to the public and house scriptural references,‭ ‬Christian Science Journals and magazines as well as Bibles and other study materials. One Saturday,‭ ‬I met with Barbara H. at the Christian Science Reading Room at‭ ‬10‭ ‬West‭ ‬68th Street in Manhattan. The interior had two levels,‭ ‬the street level being where the church was located and the lower level housing the reading room. Immediately it reminded me of all churches‭ – ‬dark lighting,‭ ‬the smell of old books,‭ ‬wood and brass fixtures,‭ ‬and religious pastoral scene prints and sayings in frames on the walls. For some reason,‭ ‬I had envisioned it in my mind as more modern and less like the Lutheran Church I had gone to in Ohio in my youth. + +Barbara asked me questions at first and when she found out I was studying science at school,‭ ‬she asked me if I had seen the movie‭ “‬What the Bleep do we Know.‭” ‬She also brought up how in Physics,‭ ‬especially in Quantum Physics,‭ ‬scientists are beginning to question what matter is and the scientist’s role when dealing with this concept. We began to discuss what matter was in terms of Christian Science practice. + +According to Christian Science,‭ ‬matter is not real. The only thing that is real is God. God is also referred to as‭ “‬Mind‭” ‬or‭ “‬Spirit.‭” ‬Matter therefore is a reflection. What matter is a reflection of is,‭ ‬is God. Since God is perfect,‭ ‬this reflection,‭ ‬which is matter,‭ ‬has to be perfect. If matter is not perfect,‭ ‬it is a human’s mind‭ (‬not to be confused with‭ “‬Mind‭” ‬which is God,‭) ‬which is incorrectly perceiving this reflection. To be healed of disease,‭ ‬first a person must believe that matter is not real and therefore diseases do not exist. In a sense,‭ ‬they are a figment of a person’s imagination. ‭“‬Maintain the facts of Christian Science,‭ ‬-‭ ‬that Spirit is God,‭ ‬and therefore cannot be sick‭; ‬that what is termed matter cannot be sick‭; ‬that all causation is Mind,‭ ‬acting through spiritual law.‭” (‬Science and Health p. 417‭)‬ + +Since some diseases could be viewed as psychosomatic or a chemical imbalance,‭ ‬I wanted a question about an ailment that would be one or the other. I asked Barbara about broken bones.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +b,"Barbara informed me that there are Christian Science Chaplains in the Armed Services and that they perform non-denominational services. Also,‭ ‬during World War II,‭ ‬the federal government had wanted to know if Christian Scientists were healthier. The federal government was going to look at records of the enlisted men and conduct a study‭ (‬though I was told that the study never materialized.‭) ‬Lastly,‭ ‬I asked her if she was familiar with Medicare and Medicaid paying for Christian Science Practitioners,‭ ‬unfortunately,‭ ‬she was unaware of this. + +Barbara left me with two more anecdotal examples. Both of which were members in the West‭ ‬68th Street church. One was an Alzheimer’s patient,‭ ‬who prior to Christian Science treatment,‭ ‬had been under a medical doctor’s care,‭ ‬which included drugs,‭ ‬doctor’s visits and group therapy. I was told that after Christian Science treatment,‭ ‬the Alzheimer’s patient was healed and did not require medication or group therapy. She was not able to tell me the length of the Christian Science treatment,‭ ‬nor how often the patient had seen the Practitioner. The other example was that of a woman who had fallen and broken her arm. This woman used a combination of medical healing‭ (‬bone was set and she received stitches‭) ‬as well as Christian Science treatment. Though,‭ ‬this woman did not have instantaneous healing. As I was leaving,‭ ‬the last thought she imparted to me was that Christian Science was a‭ “‬thinking religion.‭”‬ + +To be frank,‭ ‬I was disappointed with what I had learned and experienced that day. I had wanted to find out that there had been studies of the healing. That these studies of healings had incorporated scientific research techniques and were documented cases with both anecdotal as well as hard physical evidence. I was further distraught by the fact that I had encountered a Christian Scientist who sought out medical treatment for a non-life threatening issue,‭ ‬that of wrinkles. I also had wanted to prove that people had more control over the course of their physical ailments than I had believed most of my life. And lastly,‭ ‬wanted proof against my initial findings in regards to the lawsuits brought against the church for child endangerment,‭ ‬the political controversy with Medicare payments as well as the schism within the church about how it was handling its public image through its expensive and controversial marketing campaign. + +From‭ ‬1992-1999,‭ ‬Medicare has paid approximately‭ ‬$50‭ ‬million in claims to Christian Science facilities. ‭ ‬Since‭ ‬1965,‭ ‬when Medicare began,‭ ‬Christian Science facilities have been receiving government funding. In fact,‭ ‬in‭ ‬1998,‭ ‬Medicare coverage for‭ ‬851‭ ‬patients at‭ ‬22‭ ‬Christian Science facilities totaled‭ ‬$8‭ ‬million‭ – ‬only covering the cost of Christian Science treatment and Christian Science Nurses. + +Beginning in‭ ‬1996,‭ ‬a federal lawsuit was filed by CHILD‭ (‬Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty‭) ‬against using Medicare to pay for Christian Science treatments,‭ ‬especially since the law gave the Christian Science Church the right to decide if the treatment facility should be given funding.",40,English,female,Masters,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"This frank statement, delivered with a remorseful tone, gives greater credit to Vonnegut’s argument that war is dark and destructive. Furthermore, the medium of science fiction allows the superposition of Billy and Vonnegut to be addressed metaphorically; Cox posits, “Like Vonnegut, Billy is taken prisoner by the Germans and witnesses the Dresden firebombing. Billy’s response, however, is not to write a novel but to become ‘unstuck in time.’” Billy being “unstuck in time” is the science-fiction equivalent of real-life Vonnegut replaying his memories into a novel. The audience is left to ponder—has war ravaged Vonnegut’s memory, leaving it as schizophrenic as Billy’s? +Finally, the more contentious aspects of Slaughterhouse-Five should be addressed. Many interpretations of the novel attribute numerous hidden meanings to the Tralfamadorian peoples and their ability to “see” into time. Vonnegut uses these hidden meanings to indict organized religion, which he views as continually perpetrating and abusing the philosophy of fatalism. One can view the Tralfamadorian “gospel” as an extended metaphor for Christianity. Specifically, in rejecting Tralfamadorianism, Vonnegut rejects the idea of an all-knowing, omnipotent Creator. He proposes that the idea of such a Creator causes people to accept violence, much as Billy accepts warfare as inevitable based on the advice of his Tralfamadorian captors. One obvious manner in which Vonnegut portrays the Tralfamadorians as gods is in his description of them as omniscient: “I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains”. The likeness presented is reminiscent of the image of God as an all-knowing Creator who foreordains the fate of humanity. Through the errors of the Tralfamadorians, Vonnegut essentially claims that this human image of God is abused in order to justify crimes as inevitable: “If Tralfamadorianism is a ‘new lie,’ it recalls an ‘old lie’—God... For Vonnegut, man’s belief in an all-powerful Creator, involved in human history, has resulted in two great evils: the acceptance of war as God’s will; the assumption that we carry out God’s will and that God is certainly on our side, which justifies all atrocities”. Vonnegut expounds on the belief that modern-day organized religion, especially Christianity, creates apathy like Tralfamadorianism does. He contends that humankind’s depiction of God as a fortune-teller often serves as a crutch for those who are unwilling to exercise their own free will. It is important to note that Vonnegut does not criticize God, merely the depiction of God co-opted by fatalists. +Throughout the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut presents his skepticism at the misguided idea that humankind is guided strictly by fate to commit violence unto one another. He asserts this belief through his subtitle, unique writing style, thematic conflict, hidden meanings, and inclusion of himself as a character. Slowly, through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim, the reader is able to take a glimpse through the eyes of Vonnegut himself and personally see how war ravages the soul. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"At first glance, the title Slaughterhouse-Five might seem to be the best harbinger of the events to come; however, the direction of the novel is better foreshadowed by Vonnegut’s subtitle and the self-descriptive text that follows. The subtitle and self-description are arguably more important the title itself, for they epitomize Vonnegut’s sarcastic, disdainful tone towards war. Printed on the novel’s title page, beneath the title itself, is the prominent heading, “The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death,” after the supposed historical event where children were sent to fight for Christendom, only to find themselves enslaved. In Chapter One of the novel, Vonnegut-as-character realizes after a meeting with a friend that this is what he must name his book; the friend’s wife believes that war is not something to be glorified, for it is ultimately “fought by babies,” referring to the young age of many enlistees. Vonnegut replies, “...there won’t be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne... I tell you what... I’ll call it ‘The Children’s Crusade’”. The subtitle, therefore, serves as Vonnegut’s confession to the reader, his admission that he is fulfilling a promise to present war as it is—unadulterated by Hollywood or historians. In addition, “[the subtitle] shows how language falsifies war: ‘The Children’s Crusade’ transforms brutality into sentimental heroism, calculation into innocence”. In this manner, Vonnegut refutes the idea that war is fought by heroes in a “crusade”; warfare damages the most innocent members of society, “children.” Thus, the reader understands that Vonnegut’s book will be no ordinary war story. +Continuing down the title page, Vonnegut has included a short self-description of sorts to the novel; the introduction on the title page foreshadows Vonnegut’s approach to telling the story, again clarifying that the novel was written from his real-life experiences. The text reads, in part, “A fourth generation German-American... who, as an American infantry scout... witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden... This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore”. The text serves as advance warning to the reader that the story must be taken not as the unordered events presented, but as a conglomerate whole. Schatt claims that “[this] description might very well be the best one of a work that abandons the novel’s conventional linear plot for a Gestalt approach that asks readers to observe a series of seemingly unrelated episodes and then to share Vonnegut’s view of both war and death.” Thus, the title page text invites readers to understand how Vonnegut disdains war; he is simply asking the audience to bear with him through a confusing journey that, he promises, will lead to a great truth. +As one flips past the title page and attempts even a cursory reading of the novel, Vonnegut’s strange style of delivery becomes apparent. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n," +In looking through the Library of Congress’s library of early Edison films, I decided to view all of the trick films, of which there were fifteen from 1895 to 1901. These films generally take advantage of creative editing to produce illusions. My film study generally focused on describing the poetics for the majority of trick films and examining the evolutionary outlier characteristics present in a few of the later films. Largely, the trick film at the turn of the century is set-bound, composed within a frontal proscenium, features no camera movement, uses long and medium shots, and adheres to the strict one shot = one film methodology. However, there are some films at the beginning of the twentieth century that dare to break these guidelines by introducing aspects such as multiple shots. +One of the most noticeable aspects that the trick films share in common is their filming in an interior set within the frame of a frontal proscenium. The camera does not move from its proscenium position to follow figures or objects. This composition was very common in early films, and drew its root from the theatre and, for trick films, vaudeville and magic acts. One of the limitations inherent in the use of the stage is that figures in trick films generally only move side-to-side, and do not walk towards or away from the camera. Take, for example, the action in the film Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel (1900). The actors enter from the right side and move back and forth along the horizontal axis. Even as they go out of the frame, the camera does not follow them. +The frontal proscenium style of composition also means that shots tend to be long shots and, more rarely, medium shots. Close-up shots are never used in any of the trick films from the Edison catalog. This borrows from the theatre and vaudeville tradition, where the audience would see the entire performance at any given time, framed by the borders of the stage. As in most early films, the actors do not move from the middle ground towards the camera, so close-ups never occur. +Generally, most early trick films follow the pattern that one conceptual shot equals a film. This limits the length of most trick films to about a minute or less, depending on the frames per second used. It also limits the dramatic or narrative usage of the trick films; most of them focus on short vaudeville-style tricks, such as magic, disappearing, and switching acts with little story. Note, however, that in a trick film, one conceptual shot in the viewer’s eyes does not actually equal one physical shot. A single “shot” may actually be several joined together to produce the illusion of apparition or disappearing. Look carefully at The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895), one of the earlier trick films. A more thorough inspection reveals the moment where the physical shot with Mary’s severed “head” begins, even though the whole film is conceptually one shot to the viewer. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"The island, an empty incubator for a capitalist “experiment,” compels Crusoe to act in his self-interest, and he chooses to further himself through work, bringing himself closer to God. Ian Watt argues that the parameters of the island force Crusoe into a condition devoid of enticements to covet wealth: “On Crusoe’s island, unremitting toil is obligatory; there, and only there, it is instinct with both moral value and calculable personal reward”. When man is left to fend for himself, he tends to work towards his own salvation, typifying the positive aspects of capitalism on the soul. Defoe posits that autonomous capitalism forces Crusoe to metamorphose from a slothful sinner to a religious man guided by a work ethic of self-interest. +While Crusoe initially loathes the money, he ultimately reverses his stance, hypocritically deciding to purloin the coins as if they compelled him to do so. He remarks in a hesitant aside, “However, upon Second Thoughts, I took it away”. A figurative exegesis of the passage with “drug” as a “substance with intoxicating, stimulant, or narcotic effects” exposes that Crusoe has succumbed to a fetish for money. Money has enslaved him, and idolatry compels him to rationalize his change of heart in capitalist terms. Since the money would have exchange value if Crusoe returned to England, he decides that it would behoove him to abscond with it. In mere seconds, the capitalist Crusoe has made opposing decisions, each justified by economic utility. This time, capitalism transfigures Crusoe into a ruthless economic man, whose addiction to money epitomizes what Watt describes as “the shameless and pervasive impact of the cash nexus upon the character and personal relationships of the archetypal economic man”. No longer is capitalism heroic. According to Watt, Crusoe’s transformation “supplied the antidote to the myth” of Crusoe as a triumph of capitalism. Economic reasoning causes Crusoe to claim the worthless gold in the name of self-interest, even though tools would have been more useful. Capitalism lures Crusoe into becoming an irreligious mercenary who abstains from work in order to chase an ethic of greed. +Crusoe’s parallel constitution as both an acquisitive bourgeois and a tireless laborer embodies the paradoxical nature of capitalism. Traditional Christians, of course, preached that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven. Crusoe, who hails from a middle-class lineage, epitomizes the capitalistic rat race, one where people see wealth as not the outcome of a well-lived life but the way to experience life itself. When he is free from the exile of the island, he does not work earnestly for his wealth but instead craves riches for their own sake. Defoe acknowledges this damning reality of capitalism, yet he does not oppose it as an institution, for he was assuredly a capitalist himself. He and other Protestants saw wealth as the product of great diligence and faith, a notion that Max Weber appropriated to claim that Protestantism birthed capitalism. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"As the Serenity Prayer quoted in the novel says, “God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, courage to change what I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference”. As a soldier in the fire-bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut saw first-hand the barbarism that warfare can perpetrate on innocent people. His purpose in writing the novel was to inform people that, although they are powerless to affect the past, they must wield the wisdom and courage to make changes to the future, the elimination of warfare being chief among those improvements to society. Slaughterhouse-Five made people think when it was published during the Vietnam War, and it remains a powerful reminder in today’s troubled times. + +When I hear the words, “Give me Liberty, or give me Death,” I no longer think of the American Revolution. My thoughts snap to the Arab Spring, a succession of Middle Eastern revolutionary events that have erupted within the last year. Like many Americans, I had an unfavorable initial reaction to the revolts in Egypt, Libya, and other nations. I saw these mutinies as nothing more than the rag-tag struggles that had plagued the Arab world for decades, and I believed that they would soon fade into the ether, returning to the unenviable status quo. I could not fathom that these Arab “Tea Parties” could lead to the overthrow of entrenched, immovable tyrannies. +I believe that we can draw an apt comparison between our reaction to the Arab peoples’ struggles and the world’s response to early American struggles. Our nonchalance to the events in the Middle East is not different from the indifference many Europeans showed towards the founding of the United States. Imagine that we are sitting at afternoon tea in a late-eighteenth century European household. We have heard of the insurrections occurring in the American colonies, yet we cast them aside as nothing more than the commotion of disgruntled colonists. We would never conceive that the revolts abroad would someday change the fundamental constitution of France, Britain, Spain, and dozens of other European neighbors. Our American response to the Arab Spring is a facsimile of eighteenth-century Europeans’ reaction to the American Revolution. Like many, I saw the revolutions in Egypt as faraway things that would never directly affect me. I even made the erroneous connection between the people fighting in the name of freedom and those waging violence in the name of terror. The people behind these revolutions are the modern-day equivalents of Paul Revere and Betsy Ross. They are ordinary people who chose to stand up for liberty when nobody else would. +The more I learned about the Arab Spring, the more I realized that American Founding Fathers such as Washington and Jefferson would have recognized elements of their own struggle recast in the fire of the Egyptian, Tunisian, and Libyan uprisings. If they saw government soldiers marching down the streets in guns, they would recognize British redcoats with muskets. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"Mill argues that virtuous actions are those that have utility. However, how does society determine utility? In a heterogeneous society such as the United States, it may be difficult to determine one course of action that would increase the happiness of society more than another choice. For example, assume that the nation is equally divided over capital punishment. If we execute a criminal, half of the nation would have increased happiness while the other half would consider this act to be “generally injurious” to society. How do we choose between two sides whose utility values are approximately equal to the public happiness? +Mill’s theory of utilitarianism is very similar to Aristotle’s theory, which also claims that the ultimate end of human beings is to seek happiness, or utility, and that moral acts should contribute to happiness, not pain. After all, do we not institute rules and laws in order to make people happy? For example, paying your taxes does not make you immediately gratified, but we still pay taxes because we know that the effects of taxation will make us happy. Thus, it is an ethical thing to pay one’s taxes. On the other hand, utilitarianism is sharply contrasted by Kantian ethics, which argues that the intentions are more important that the consequences. Is not a man who dies attempting to save a drowning child acting more righteously than a man who saves the same child only for a reward? In my opinion, it would be the former, but Mill’s utilitarianism says the latter. + +Throughout Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, contradictions abound in the portrayal of capitalism. Crusoe’s mercantile business summons the wrath of God and the seas, whereas his industrious labor on the island transforms him from incompetent to spiritual. Money evokes considerable controversy, with Crusoe vaguely describing it as a “drug,” simultaneously a useless commodity and an addictive narcotic. The ambiguity of “drug” in the novel characterizes Crusoe as an individual torn between disdaining money and idolizing it, and this depiction reveals how capitalism remains a respectable means to salvation despite its propensity to breed bourgeois avarice. +When Crusoe first encounters the gold and silver in the shipwreck, he exclaims with disdain: “O Drug! Said I aloud, what art thou good for?” In a literal sense, “drug” signifies a “commodity which is no longer in demand, and so has lost its commercial value or has become unsaleable”. Crusoe behaves as a rational capitalist actor by questioning the money’s actual worth in the absence of demand. In this situation, Crusoe articulates that he would rather take the physical capital of tools over the useless money: “Thou art not worth to me, no not the taking off of the Ground; one of those Knives is worth all this Heap”. He abhors the money as an abomination, commanding it to “go to the bottom as a Creature whose Life is not worth saving”. In forsaking the “drug” for the tools, Crusoe carries both the ascetic Protestant ethic and the belief that the love of money spawns evil. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n," +However, later trick films begin to abandon the “one-shot” principle. In Congress of Nations (1900), there are two distinct conceptual shots of the same scene; the viewer can tell that they are two separate shots because they are separated by a noticeable dissolve. In the first shot, the magician conjures up nationals of several different countries; this dissolves into the second shot, wherein the magician is gone, replaced by a tableau of characters. Likewise, in the later film The Martyred Presidents (1901), there are two separate scenes (shots) separated by a dissolve. It also begins to signify a break from the cinematic tradition of old towards the newer dramatic format. The film, which was released after the assassination of President William McKinley, does tell a sort of story; the first scene (shot) shows a series of pictures of murdered Presidents, and the second shows McKinley’s murderer kneeling at “the throne of Justice” in a sort of repentance for his sin. In this film, a technologically innovative matte effect is also used, where the main shot of the woman looking at the frame overlays a second shot that contains the images of the Presidents. +Edison’s trick films shared many characteristics with earlier trick films by George Méliès and Alice Guy-Blaché, who he liberally borrowed from. Just like Méliès’s early trick films, Edison’s are short and filmed from the perspective of a center-front-row theatergoer. However, Edison’s later trick films begin to copy innovations made by Méliès, such as longer-form multiple-shot and multiple-scene films that become less about surprising illusions and more about narratives. + +In this reading from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he makes several claims regarding the nature of virtue. In Book I, he first claims that all human actions are undertaken to fulfill one basic, intrinsic desire: that of happiness. Secondly, he contends that to be happy, a human person must live a fulfilled life, a good life. Thirdly, he states that the good human life is one that is rational and, therefore, virtuous. In Book II, Aristotle derives his definition of virtue. There are two main parts to his definition of virtue; he contends that virtue is attained not only through knowledge (as Socrates did), but also through habitual action. He also claims that virtue is a means between excess and defect (similar to Confucius). An example of this mean would be courage; an excess of it may be termed rashness and a defect of it may be called cowardice. Finally, he points out that some traits are purely vices and do not have a mean; for example, there is no right degree with which somebody should be a murderer. +One of this passage’s key quotations is: “It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts the that the just man is produced and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would have even a prospect of becoming good.”",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n," + +You see, that day wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I didn't want to see my goddamn brother, because I knew that he was gonna ask for some goddamn money again. Jeez. I was already hungover, and somebody was coming to ruin my day. Of course it'd be my luck. So I invited him in, just 'cause I'm a nice kind of guy, and we sat down in the living room. +""How've you been?"" he asked, almost like a phony robot who'd been programmed to ask. +""Fine,"" I replied, rubbing my eyelids. My eyes sure didn't want to stay open, that's for sure. +Anyways, he asked, ""I need fifty dollars."" More like demanded, but he's my brother, so what can you do? I reached into my wallet, pulled out three twenties, and stuffed them in his hands. ""Here. Have a great life."" +He soon left, almost in a hurry as he had come in, and I went back to the kitchen to finish my damn breakfast cereal. I stared down at the bowl, full of pinkish milk and soggy, floating bits of pink cereal. I stared at the box of cereal sitting in the cabinet. Man, those people who take the pictures for cereal boxes are real liars. What kind of phony people give you a perfect picture of nice, round cereal, only to give you crappy misshapen bits that you can't even eat? +So after that, I decided that I might as well get dressed, 'cause I had to go to school that day. I mean, I didn't really have to, 'cause the professor wouldn't have checked anyways, but I thought I might as well go to classes that day anyways. Man, did I dread going to classes, though. having to sit next to all those phonies in a crowded hall while they ask their damn stupid questions. Why can't everybody just shut up and listen instead of asking these damn obvious questions. Who knows. The point is, I went back to my bedroom, quickly threw on a shirt and a garish pink tie, and ran out the door, slamming it behind me. +I sat at the bus stop, staring out at the empty, barren landscape. Man, it gave me the creeps. I shivered as the wind blew 'cross my face, and I pulled out a pack of cigarettes from my coat pocket. I took one out, lit it with a pocket lighter, and brought it to my mouth. I could tell the woman sitting next to me was just staring down at me, condescending, as if to tell me to put the cigarette out. I paid her no attention. People should just mind their own business anyways. +The bus finally pulled up, and the awkward silence of having to wait with a stranger subsided. As she sat down in the front of the bus, I made my way back, sitting the hell away from everybody else. + +",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"Although Vonnegut presents this theory of time to the reader, he does not endorse it; the concept is only presented in order to prove their absurdity and to offer a rebuttal. In addition to providing discussion fodder, “[the] Tralfamadorian sections of the novel may also serve another function since they provide a form of comic relief from the unbearable tension that builds as Billy approaches the day of the actual fire-bombing”. The Tralfamadorians’ unusual, comedic nature casts doubt on their viewpoint of time; readers question whether they actually exist, or are figments of Billy’s imagination. +Vonnegut’s central theme, that a meaningful life is characterized by free will, is further realized through Billy Pilgrim’s apathy and unresponsiveness; Billy’s lack of action throughout the novel shows that a belief in fatalism leads to a miserable existence devoid of meaning. One of Vonnegut’s dry descriptions presents one of the best glimpses into Billy’s attitude of inaction: “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present and the future”. The matter-of-fact tone seems to convey the hopelessness and absurdity of a person without free will, a person who is forever stuck in the fires of Dresden. The bleakness of the description brings awareness to Vonnegut’s argument that what Billy experiences is not life, for life requires constant changes, decisions, and adaptations. Vanderwerken expounds on this idea by arguing, “In short, Billy lacks the ‘wisdom’ to see that Dresden is of the past and cannot be changed, but that the bombing of North Vietnam lies in the present and can be changed. However, to protest the bombing requires moral ‘courage,’ a quality obviated by his Tralfamadorian education.” By attacking Billy’s character, Vonnegut advances the idea that, although the past is permanent, the future is not. Even though Billy’s war experiences cannot be undone, he, along with the rest of humanity, has the power to ensure that the Earth does not become consumed in wars (such as the Vietnam War). +Looking beyond the superficial existence of Slaughterhouse-Five as a work of pure fiction, it is readily apparent that the novel also serves as a quasi-memoir for Vonnegut himself. To fully understand the novel, a thorough examination of Vonnegut-as-character must be attempted. Much as the character Billy invents Tralfamadore in order to hide his pain, Vonnegut uses the novel Slaughterhouse-Five to shield himself from his own suffering. In effect, Billy Pilgrim is the proxy of Vonnegut, the author, himself. Through Vonnegut’s psychological separation of himself via a proxy, the reader is made to understand that the savage events the author has seen are, still to this day, mentally traumatizing. Although the main story is told through the character of Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut acknowledges, “All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty true”. Vonnegut tacitly acknowledges that the horrors that Billy Pilgrim sees are the same atrocities that Vonnegut has witnessed. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"For the most part, Crusoe’s island serves as a temptationless model of the Weberian ethic, where Crusoe exemplifies how capitalism allows men to work towards their individual prosperity and spiritual salvation. However, society is not a perfect Weberian construct, and Defoe’s world beyond the island acknowledges how capitalism does not always follow Weber’s path to salvation. Nevertheless, Defoe supports capitalism as a system that encourages industry, even as he disdains the mindless acquisition of wealth. Crusoe’s character illustrates how capitalism, like any path to salvation, can be twisted into a justification for the sins of the wicked. +Defoe asserts through Crusoe’s dichotomous nature that capitalism fosters the Protestant work ethic despite the fallible nature of humanity. The inconsistencies of men such as Crusoe cause them to exalt money while reviling it as a “drug” and to climb to Heaven while falling the other way. Defoe views capitalism not as the cure-all Weber prescribes but as the worst economic system except for all others that have been tried. + +Kurt Vonnegut, having witnessed the firebombing of Dresden when he was an infantry scout in the Second World War, wrote Slaughterhouse-Five as a testament to the horrors and incomprehensibility of war. Although the story is based on Vonnegut’s experiences, it is told with layers of abstraction, through the eyes of a young, naïve soldier named Billy Pilgrim. Through Vonnegut’s dark humor, the reader is presented with Billy Pilgrim’s view of the war, inevitable and unstoppable, while simultaneously asked to consider the alternative viewpoint, that war can be ended through the courage of human beings. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut argues against the weak Billy Pilgrim’s mantra of determinism in order to posit the ideal that humanity can create for itself a future without war. +The context of Slaughterhouse-Five can be traced back to Vonnegut’s service in World War II and his chilling experiences on the front lines of warfare. At times, events in the novel seem not very far removed from the reality of history. For instance, a direct comparison can be drawn between Billy’s imprisonment by the Germans and Vonnegut’s term as an American prisoner of war in an underground factory, the eponymous “Slaughterhouse-Five.” During his imprisonment at Dresden, Vonnegut witnessed the Allied forces’ bombing of the city, which wiped out perhaps more people than the atomic bomb did in Hiroshima. The fire-bombing of Dresden, the “Florence of the Elbe,” made Vonnegut question whether the atrocities of war could ever be justified. It would take him two decades before he could muster the strength to recount the tragedy of Dresden in a novel. At the time that Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five, another war was raging—the Vietnam War. Thus, the novel is also targeted to Americans who idly stood by as young Americans left for Vietnam, never to come back home. It serves as a reminder to Americans that they have the power to prevent history from repeating itself. +",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n," + +Our ancestors from a century ago would, without a doubt, call the food we eat today “Frankenfood.” Processed food may conjure images of frozen-and-reheated McDonald’s grease, but human tinkering is evident even in the origin of our food: the seed. For decades, agricultural technology companies have worked to perfect the lowly seed into a marvel of human invention. The most widely known of these companies is Monsanto, who produce the familiar “Roundup” weed killer and accompanying “Roundup Ready” soybean seeds engineered to resist Roundup herbicide. Genetically modified (GM) plant products, such as those from Monsanto, have helped increase crop yields, preparing the world to feed the massive population boom of the twenty-first century. +By tweaking certain genes in plant seeds, scientists can produce crops that withstand many harsh conditions, creating crops that can survive a hard winter or a rainless Austin summer. In these infantile seeds lies the power to eradicate hunger in many impoverished parts of the world that do not have access to large-scale, Texas-sized agriculture. In places such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the arid climate is not advantageous to many nutritious crops, such as wheat. The proliferation of engineered seeds would allow farmers to become more self-sustained, producing enough food for their families and not having to wonder if the climate will destroy their source of income for the year. +In the grasp of human technology, we have the power and intelligence to selectively breed plants more quickly than any other generation before us. Whereas farmers a century ago would have to breed manually for desired traits, a process that could take months or years, we can simply harness the power of the genome in order to create seed products with the desired, improved traits. For example, we would not have to wait around for a certain plant, such as melons, to develop a seedless mutation. We could simply engineer the melon's genome to produce seeds that give rise to seedless melons. This can also be used to solve problems that have plagued farms for millennia, such as disease. By selectively tweaking plants' genomes, we can introduce favorable mutations that make crops more resistant to diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. +One of the trends repeated throughout history is that settled agriculture breeds society and civilization. The difficulty of agriculture in Africa has resulted in the underdevelopment of many countries as compared to Europe and the Americas, where the tropical to temperate climate is ideal for growing many different crops. By innovating in the field of agricultural technology, companies like Monsanto have the ability to level the playing field in the world and provide for a coming generation that will demand more from the Earth than ever. “Frankenfood” isn’t a dirty word. It is simply the product of human ingenuity. We should not decry these products because they are ""unnatural."" The fact is, people have been producing ""unnatural"" plants and food for centuries. + +",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n," This quotation relates to Aristotle’s idea that a person must not only have knowledge of good and evil; he must express it in his actions to be virtuous. In addition, a simple virtuous act does not make a man virtuous; it is through repeated, habitual action that a man learns virtue. +One of the questions I have regarding Aristotle’s concept of virtue is whether his definition can be extended to creatures that are not human. (This was also discussed in Plato’s Laches, where Socrates generally believes that virtue cannot extend to animals.) His argument seems to imply that habitual action must be rational action in order to form virtue. From this, it follows that animals that we normally ascribe virtues to, such as lions, cannot possess virtues such as courage because they are incapable of carrying out rational thought, which Aristotle claims is the unique function of humans. +There are numerous examples from life that support Aristotle’s claim. The function of an orator is to speak. No man is born with oratory skills; he must learn them through practice—not just speaking anything, but by speaking the right things. Similarly, artists must practice not just splashing paint on a canvas, but giving the paint order and composition. If the function of a man, then, is to be rational, a good man will learn to reason well—what we call virtue. However, there is one objection: do not some functions arise intrinsically and irrationally and not from reason? The dancer may be predisposed to have better grace and skill from the genetic structure of his feet and his body. Likewise, is there not a part of virtue that is intrinsic to us, that is unlearned? A mother may be virtuous when she instinctually protects her child without rational thought—it is innate. +In this excerpt from John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism, he argues that ethically correct actions are those that have the greatest utility, that is, moral actions are those that cause the greatest pleasure and the least pain. When looking at an action’s utility, we must look at its consequences on all those involved—namely, society as a whole. However, this does not mean that we must go through the stringent moral calculus of determining an action’s utility to society; Mill argues that secondary principles, such as “do not murder” are paths to utility. Neither should we discount the action’s effect on individual happiness; the happiness of the many individuals leads to the happiness of society as a whole. +A key quotation from this passage is: “…actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” Thus, the consequences of the actions are most important (in contrast to Kantian ethics, where the intent of the action determines if it is virtuous). Mill argues that the pursuit of pleasure is not a hedonistic ideal, but a noble one, for human pleasures, such as intellectual activity, are of a greater quality than animal pleasures. +",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"Throughout the novel, Vonnegut approaches the topic of war in an unorthodox fashion, using ominous stylistic elements in order to bring about a dark, humorous tone. The language advances Vonnegut’s personal claim that war is cruel, not heroic as historians often present it. The first major example of Vonnegut’s dark style is presented in Slaughterhouse-Five’s repetitions of odd, incongruous statements, which allow the author to moralize and depict how humanity has become desensitized to war. An oft-repeated refrain, “So it goes,” ritually trails every scene of death. In one harrowing example, the phrase signals Billy’s own death: “In the next moment, Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes”. The unpretentious diction and simple syntax cause a somber tone, as if the narrator were sighing; the straightforward response to a sorrowful event jars with the expectations of the audience. In fact, phrases such as this are intended to “[keep] the reader steadily aware that the text is the highly subjective product of a troubled mind at work behind it”. Thus, the repetition of the statement allows Vonnegut to remind the reader that the novel is not merely a silly story, but his own somber tale of morals. +A second example of Vonnegut’s ominous style lies in his usage of the onomatopoetic “poo-tee-weet” to otherwise fill a silence; the sound of a bird’s call brings attention to Vonnegut’s opinion that the only response to warfare is to be speechless. Paradoxically, it is the inclusion of a sound that brings attention to the silence. The novel is ended simply, darkly: “There was nothing going on out there... Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, ‘Poo-tee-weet?’” In this case, the sustained silence contributes to a somber tone. Raymond Olderman argues in Beyond the Wasteland, “Poo-tee-weet represents a ‘cosmic cool,’ a way of viewing life with the distance necessary to cope with the horrors that both Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater [another Vonnegut character] experience”. Again, the stylistic device makes the novel personal to Vonnegut; the sound “poo-tee-weet” represents his own internal silence at the horrors he has seen. +Delving deeper into the novel, a thematic analysis begins to unfold. Vonnegut presents the general theme that a life without free will is not worth living. The treatment of thematic conflict between this concept of free will and the opposing notion of fatalism, or the idea that destiny is predetermined, causes the reader to question whether the world is as Billy Pilgrim presents it. This thematic conflict is initially addressed through alien creatures called Tralfamadorians, who introduce to Billy the disputed concept of time being nonlinear and permanent. According to the Tralfamadorians, “...we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber... Only on Earth is there any talk of free will”. The idea that time is “amber” is presented as a direct, incompatible contrast to Vonnegut’s central theme. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"If they saw ordinary people blogging about their crusade through social media, our Founding Fathers would identify rabble-rousing pamphleteers such as Thomas Paine. In ideology, we cannot differentiate these modern revolutions from the American campaign for independence two hundred years ago. We should not glorify our own roots in red, white, and blue while reproaching these world citizens for a struggle equal in fervor and patriotism. The Arab peoples are battling real tyrants, such as Hosni Mubarak, who continue the tradition of dictators such as George III. Their actions began small, much as American colonists began their protest through boycotts and the Boston Tea Party. Nevertheless, the actions of a million Davids will coalesce to defeat any Goliath. +The world knows what happened in the aftermath of the American War of Independence, and, as the old adage contends, history repeats itself. Britain found themselves on the losing side of history, forsaking their claim to millions of acres of fertile American land. Only after the War of 1812 did relations fully heal between her and her former colonies. History also warns us that these uprisings will not contain themselves. Although many believed that the American nation would crumble, it endured, endowing the world with novel democratic principles that still shape our governments today. A similar situation exists in the Arab Spring, where their new political systems may affect future societies across the globe, including ours. We must not dismiss these revolutions as one-off acts. Just as our forefathers’ daring actions sparked the French proletariat into overthrowing the bourgeois, the success of our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters may one day catalyze the liberation of people as diverse as the Chinese and the Burmese. +I only hope that the millions of other Americans who shared my thoughts have an opportunity to learn more about the heroic plight of their brothers and sisters in the Middle East. The uprisings and insurrections may be a world away, but they intimately affect every human being on the face of the Earth. Just because these people have a different skin color and a different religion does not mean they are not the twentieth-century equivalents of George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. In time, people will remember them as patriots, cloaked in red, white, black, green, and a host of other colors. + +By any stretch of the imagination, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights does not depict the traditional “happy ending.” But looking at the characters, they have reconciled themselves amiably at the end of the novel. Although the final pages are marred by Heathcliff’s untimely demise, it does resolve many of the real conflicts facing Brontë’s characters: their archaic, unshakeable Victorian class conflict, their relentless campaigns of vengeance, and their atrophied ability to love. According to Weldon, the ability of the characters to better themselves, even in death, is the true happy ending. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +n,"Both spiritual reassessment and moral reconciliation are evident in Brontë’s resolution to Wuthering Heights through Heathcliff’s realization that his vengeance was in error, his eventual peaceful burial next to his beloved Cathy and her husband, and the newfound love between Hareton and young Catherine. +Throughout the latter part of the novel, Heathcliff leads a life that has only one purpose: to revenge himself upon those who have slighted him. It is not until the end of the novel that he finally witnesses the decay that surrounds him and realizes that his inability to forgive has hurt not only those he loved—his revenge has also hurt himself. In the events approaching his death, Heathcliff becomes wracked with guilt, finding that “when I look for [Hareton’s] father in his face, I see [Cathy] every day more”. This sudden onslaught of guilt demonstrates that Heathcliff is beginning to doubt his actions, to feel a small bit of remorse. Heathcliff realizes that he has spent his life in vain, not treasuring Cathy’s existence and love, but turning her world into “a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her”. This spiritual reassessment of his life is fundamental to the novel in that it allows Heathcliff to resolve his internal conflict. The only way that Heathcliff can move past the wrongs in his life is to forgive his enemies and, most importantly, forgive himself. Brontë’s ending where Heathcliff falls into delirium is not sorrowful; it is an indicator that Heathcliff is still a man worthy of sympathy and not a brutish fiend. +As Heathcliff loses his mind and eventually dies, he is buried next to Cathy and ascends to Heaven to be with her. Although his end is tragic and his burial scandalous, it is pivotal that he dies; death is the only way in which he can truly reconcile himself with Cathy. His being with Cathy would give his “soul bliss,” but it would also unfortunately “[kill his] body”. Ultimately, it is only in Heathcliff’s death that he can truly be happy and Catherine’s ghost can truly be appeased. In death, class no longer divides the two, nor does Heathcliff’s agenda of retribution. They are perfect angels in God’s eyes and are able to love each other once again. In death, Heathcliff is also reconciled with his former enemy Edgar Linton. The burial of the two in the same cemetery as equals is symbolic because it represents the dissolution of the arbitrary social classes that they were born into. +Heathcliff’s derangement and death also indirectly benefits Hareton and young Catherine because it enables them to finally develop a meaningful relationship. Their relationship in the novel contrasts against the failed relationships in the first half of the novel, providing a glimmer of hope against the disastrous love of Heathcliff and Cathy. ",18,English,male,some college,student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"There was no evidence that the students had the opportunity to choose their own reading materials or subject matter during the examiner’s observation. The classroom did not have a library of books, but there were boxes of Spanish-language magazines in a variety of topics, such as People en Español, AutoMundo (Car World), and the now-defunct SI (Sports Illustrated) Latino. These magazines are geared toward advanced readers and native speakers and many include jargon that could be considered difficult even to a seasoned learner of the Spanish language. . + +The BRI was administered to find Manolo’s independent, instructional, and frustration reading and comprehension levels using graded word lists, oral reading and comprehension exercises, and listening comprehension exercises. The BRI was administered over the course of 3 consecutive Wednesdays in the first period of the day for about 20 minutes each. After Manolo was seated at the table, the examiner briefly explained the different portions of the BRI and what was expected of Manolo. + +The Graded Word Lists were the first portions of the BRI to be administered, and produced the following results: + +This portion of the BRI allows the examiner to assess Manolo’s word recognition skills and the strategies he employs when he encounters a word he does not immediately recognize. This portion of the test allowed the examiner to determine Manolo’s independent, instructional, and frustration levels in terms of word recognition. The graded word lists revealed that Manolo’s independent level for word recognition is sixth grade level, although he did not achieve 100 percent until tested on the fourth grade level. The word lists for grade levels seven, eight, and nine were all in high- to mid-level instructional. The examiner administered the test starting one grade level above his current grade and worked backward, so Manolo met frustration at the eleventh and tenth grade word lists. + +Manolo attempted to pronounce each word on the lists quickly and the examiner had to ask him to slow down. In between words, Manolo would look up from the list and look in the direction of his classmates as they were doing work. He often substituted more common words with similar spellings for the more unusual words on the lists or used Spanish pronunciation and emphasis. In Spanish, the second to last syllable in a word always receives emphasis unless there is an accent mark, which denotes the accented syllable. Each Spanish vowel has a single sound that is always made with no exceptions, with diphthongs created when two vowels are next to each other. Manolo would improperly emphasize the second to last syllable in many of the incorrectly pronounced words or substitute Spanish vowel sounds for English vowels, especially the vowel u, which is pronounced as an “ooh”. For example, he pronounced obituary as o-bi-TOO-airy, saturate as sah-TOO-rate, slur as sloor (rhyming with “floor”), and chauffeur as chow-FAY-oor. (Capitalized syllables denote emphasis). ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"He appeared very impatient with the assessment, and the examiner is still not entirely sure if he gave his best efforts, either out boredom and the desire to “get it over with” or out of suspicion or worry based on his immigration status (The examiner would like to note at this juncture that she has been accused many times of being an INS agent, including twice in one of Mrs. S.’s other classes.) Unfortunately, Manolo’s mindset cannot be remedied by anyone other than Manolo himself, and even then only when he is ready. + +The following recommendations are based on the results of the BRI and are intended to help Manolo meet his reading potential. + + + +Choice: In order help change Manolo’s mindset about reading and school, when it is appropriate Manolo will be allowed to read on topics that are of interest to him. Mrs. F. has agreed to give him more leeway in Biology class to research topics that may be of interest to him. + + + +Reading Guides: Manolo will be provided with reading guides during reading assignments, particularly during challenging textbook readings. At first these will explicitly ask for details and specific information from the text and to use background information to enrich the content. As Manolo’s reading improves, the guides will be altered to be less specific until he does not need them at all. + + + +Additional Testing: Due to indications of inability to multi-focus, Manolo may benefit from additional testing to see if there is any underlying learning or sensory issues. + + + +Maintain a Personal Dictionary: With the support of his teachers, Manolo will create and regularly add to a personal dictionary of English terms he encounters during classroom and reading assignments that he does not know. He will record the term, a definition, and the use of the term in a sentence. Mr. F., who has Manolo for study hall, has agreed to allow Manolo computer access to online dictionaries and thesauruses to help him find proper pronunciation and similar words. This will allow Manolo to build his vocabulary, practice using words in a sentence, and connect the spelling to the proper pronunciation. This way, when Manolo sees these terms in the future he will be able to recognize them and be able to apply the correct meaning. To be used in conjunction with Vocabulary Memory Improvement (below). + + + +Vocabulary Memory Improvement: The attached lesson plan outlines an introductory lesson plan to help improve Manolo’s memory in a less stressful way. + + + +After following the above recommendations for several weeks, Manolo should be reassessed with the Graded Word Lists and Oral Reading Comprehension portions of the Basic Reading Inventory. The steps taken to help Manolo progress in both word recognition and comprehension should result in improved performance on these test components. This extra practice should continue and be modified as needed in order to continue Manolo’s progress toward his reading potential. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"While he did not elaborate on most answers, his answers were, for the most part, sufficiently correct to earn at least a half point. He still did very well with questions regarding topic, evaluation, and inferences, and his responses to factual questions improved; but he still did poorly with vocabulary questions, which implies his struggles with vocabulary and unfamiliar and uncommon English words may be impeding his comprehension. Removing the necessity for him to “choose” between correctly reading the words and retaining the information allowed him to concentrate solely on the information, which proved beneficial. + + During this section of the assessment, Manolo’s body language was much different than it had been previously. While he still did not look the examiner in the eye, he turned his seat towards her and sat back in a more relaxed manner. He did not look up at his classmates, nor did he tap his hand and foot as he had in other sections of the assessment. He was more likely to take his time to think instead of quickly insisting he did not know the answer. + +The BRI Assessment revealed some confusing data on Manolo. On the whole, he is frustrated or on the threshold of frustration at grade level (tenth grade) and a grade lower (ninth grade). He is instructional at seventh grade level in most sections of the assessment, even accounting for the strange data presented. This BRI assessment definitively placed Manolo’s independent reading level at sixth grade level. + +The results of the BRI revealed that Manolo has the potential to perform at grade level (tenth grade) with appropriate support. + +Manolo is very strong in listening comprehension and gathering information from discussions; this could be why he has a high B average in his English class, which is a discussion-based class. This could also possibly indicate Manolo is an auditory learner, which, in the examiner’s past research, proves common in many populations of Hispanic immigrants to the United States. + +Additionally, Manolo has several weaknesses that need to be addressed so he can reach his reading potential. He has a tendency to fall back on the pronunciation and emphasis patterns of his native language, especially with vowel sounds in unfamiliar words. He also substituted long, unusual words with shorter, more common words, most of which were two syllables; consequently, the passages made much less sense and made it more difficult to work with context clues. His inability to focus on both proper word recognition and oral reading comprehension simultaneously could be indicative of a deeper issue, such as a learning disability. + +Manolo has difficulty with passages that mention numbers or contain numerals, and had a difficult time remembering information in those segments of the passages; this could be connected to his failing grade in Statistics. + +One final potential barrier to Manolo’s progress is his mindset, resigning himself to a life of manual labor without the benefits of a college education. This mindset potentially renders all school learning unnecessary and frustrating. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," + + +Como Agua Para Chocolate is the original Spanish title for the 1989 book (and subsequent 1992 film) “Like Water for Chocolate” by Mexican author Laura Esquivel. I chose this book to reexamine because it (and the film) was used in my third-year Spanish class in high school. It was the first time I really remember feeling confident that I could read in Spanish, and the first time I was able to watch a film in Spanish without panicking about needing to read subtitles. + + The book begins each chapter with a receta, a recipe. They seem like serious recipes at first, but they segue into stories in the life of Josefita (Tita) de la Garza. Tita is the youngest of three daughters of Mama Elena on a ranch near the U.S. / Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution. Tita’s fate as the youngest daughter, according to family tradition, is to never marry and take care of her mother until the mother dies (Tita’s father dies when she is a child, and bears almost nothing on the plot). + +Tita is raised in the kitchen as an apprentice to the cook, Nacha, where she becomes a phenomenal cook with a very deep, personal connection to food, to the point where her emotions become imbued in every dish she makes (the novel falls into the Magic Realism genre, where the supernatural is treated as commonplace). Tita is in love with ranch hand Pedro, who returns her affections. When Mama Elena refuses to consent to their marriage because of the aforementioned tradition, Pedro marries Tita’s eldest sister, Rosaura, to be closer to Tita. The recipes explore what happens with the ups and downs of that relationship and the food Tita produces because of it: tears in the batter of the wedding cake cause everyone at Rosaura and Pedro’s wedding to become very ill, and the sadness kills Nacha; a lusty dish of quail in a sauce of petals from roses given to Tita by Pedro cause middle sister Gertrudis to literally start a fire with lust and run off into the arms of a passing revolutionary soldier, etc. Pedro and Tita become even closer, arranging secret meetings under the context of him seeking to feed Roberto, his son with Rosaura, because Rosaura cannot breastfeed. Mama Elena suspects the relationship between Tita and Pedro, and insists that Rosaura take her husband and son and move to San Antonio. Roberto dies very shortly thereafter, but Rosaura manages to have another child before being rendered sterile: a daughter named Esperanza. + +Tita takes Roberto’s death very hard, and, following an argument with Mama Elena, she secludes herself in the chicken coop (or, more properly translated, a dovecote). Doctor John Brown is called to institutionalize Tita, but decides to take her to his home and care for her there with his son, Alex. They become very close, almost as family, but Tita forever loves Pedro. Dr. Brown understands this, and lets Tita go. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"Many students, especially if they are younger, have an innate desire to know where things come from, why things are the way they are; This may be a ploy to get the teacher off track, but it begs a very interesting question- how much should the past of a language be explored with people seeking to learn it today? English classes are taught with an air of “it’s this way because that’s the way it is.” English-speaking children won’t argue with that because it’s the language they were brought up with; even if they don’t understand why something sounds incorrect, they know it is wrong. Is this even what Hallam means by that phrase at all? + + The article also goes on to explore why foreign language teachers in particular need to be aware of the way they act and treat the students and the subject matter, especially now that foreign language education is becoming mandatory at almost all school levels. The students need to feel safe about trying something new and different, especially if they did not have a choice in the matter, and if the teacher is enthusiastic about the subject matter, the students will follow suit. This is a very logical point, especially in an environment like a foreign language classroom where there are many mistakes to be made and the teacher needs to continue to encourage children who may desire to give up, even to the point where a mediocre student could be inspired to greatness and achieve fluency. + + The final major point of the article explores how a teacher becomes a “favorite” teacher. The research was conducted by collecting over 5,000 stories of favorite teachers and analyzing what the teachers all had in common. While the results are still being analyzed, the number one answer appears to be that the teachers cared about their students and believed in them. This was followed by the teacher’s ability to make learning fun and meaningful and teacher’s knowledge of content area. The article finishes by stating that the best teachers use their short time in front of students to make changes in the students’ lives that last well beyond the classroom, creating lifelong learners and helping the students achieve their personal best. This is also a fair point, something that many young teachers aspire to- the opportunity to change a life for the better, even if they never know about it. The goal of a teacher is not only to shove material at a student, but to instill in them the desire and courage to learn new and different things. + + In all, though the article is only 4 pages long (one of which is a full-page photo), it presents some very interesting, if cliché, points about how a teacher’s behavior, especially in a foreign language setting, where mistakes are the norm, can affect the student. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," + +The process to acquire a foreign language has five fairly basic, defined steps to it, although the exact defining lines between them vary from person to person and become slightly more blurry depending on the age when the learning commences. The first step is called preproduction, called the silent period. In learning a native language, this is the point where words have little or no real connection to their meaning- children utters “Mama”,” receives positive reinforcement, and repeats themselves to the parents’ delight. The child may not realize that “Mama” is a specific person, or that there are other people who also respond to “Mama”, or that there are variations such as “Mom”, “Mommy”, or “Mother”. They may have a vocabulary of about 500 words and may parrot back what is said to them, but the vocabulary is not really functional or able to produce verbalization of thoughts. At this point, high reliance on repetition and visuals is helpful in order to ingrain the vocabulary into their mind. + + Eventually, the language learner will be able to solidly connect an idea or a concept to a verbalization. This is step 2, early production. This is when a child specifically says, “Mom!” to get their mother’s attention, and can say simple, one- or two-word phrases, such as “Doggie silly!”, understanding that a dog balanced on its hind legs in a tutu is, indeed, silly. Or, they may use “Doggie silly!” to express a need to go to the bathroom, understanding those words can go together, but not necessarily connecting them to the correct point of reference because their vocabulary is only about 1000 words. At this point, the best strategies are to continue with the repetition and visuals, but step it up a bit in terms of asking them to respond to questions with a yes or no, or present an either/or scenario, accepting the short answer without much push for an explanation. For school-aged language learners. the introduction of short, simple reading can help improve their vocabulary and help them understand, write, and structure sentences beyond a few words. + + The next step in the process is speech emergence. This is when the child can string together short sentences that mean exactly what they want them to mean, but may not be grammatically perfect, like “I go to bathroom?” as opposed to “May I go to the bathroom?”. They begin short, simple conversations, such as being able to introduce themselves and polite pleasantries, and begin to understand readings with pictures. At this point they can match words to pictures but also start to be able to define words, explaining in a little more detail, perhaps, what a bathroom is and what is usually contained therein. Teaching techniques at this time rely on assisting the students with their pronunciation through speaking dialogues as well as building vocabulary with flashcards, journals, and readings. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"One final reading difficulty that presented was a tendency to substitute unusual or uncommon words for more common or easier ones: bistro for boisterous, deseed for deceased, bridge for brigade, Uranus for uranium, etc. + +While Manolo attempted to pronounce each word, he fidgeted profusely, rhythmically tapping his left hand and left foot in a synchronized manner that may have suggested impatience. He spoke very quickly, did not make eye contact with the examiner, and would look up at his classmates in between words and lists, again suggesting impatience. + +The next portion of the BRI was the Oral Reading Comprehension component. Manolo was asked to read a series of written entries aloud and then answer ten comprehension questions based on the readings. This portion revealed two different sets of data- word recognition and comprehension. The results of this portion of the BRI are as follows: + +This portion of the BRI allowed the examiner to assess Manolo’s word recognition skills when he was reading words in context and his reading comprehension and retention skills. This section allows the student to see words in context and use context clues to identify words if necessary. This portion of the assessment records the number of significant miscues Manolo made while reading passages aloud. The examiner considered word substitutions, omissions, or mispronunciations that altered the meaning of the sentence or passage as significant. The examiner had Manolo read two eighth grade level passages, one expository (Form A) and one a longer narrative piece (Form LN). The examiner found the results somewhat peculiar: Manolo read the Form A passage with only 2 significant miscues (one a word substitution and one mispronunciation- dropped syllable) at independent/instructional level, but when it came time to answer the reading comprehension questions, he could only answer 50% of them, signifying frustration level. The other 50% of the time he stated he did not know the answer and would not even guess. Student stated that he had forgotten there would be questions and wanted to try another passage so he could answer more questions correctly. When given Form LN, Manolo was able to answer 15% more questions (for 65%, Instructional/Frustration) at the price of additional significant miscues. Two passages at the ninth grade level were given, Form LN showing frustration in both word recognition and comprehension. Form LE showed instructional/ frustration threshold in word recognition while showing solid frustration in oral comprehension. This peculiar data led to the administering of grade 7, Form A which showed an independent/instructional threshold in word recognition and instructional/frustration threshold in comprehension. Finally, two short passages from the sixth grade level, forms A and B, were used to attempt to find Manolo’s independent reading level. Again, when attempting to concentrate on pronouncing the words properly, he was not as well prepared to answer comprehension questions and vice versa; however, an independent threshold was reached in both sets of data. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," + + Intermediate fluency is the next stage in the process, wherein the students have an active vocabulary of at least 6000 words and can create more complex, multi-verb or multi-tense sentences, such as “I need to go to the bathroom because I cut my finger.” They will still have many errors, but have an easier time understanding the errors they have made as they work toward correcting them. They can move to more complicated literature, but may still be translating their work into their native language and back to ensure understanding. + + The final stage is advanced fluency, what most people think of when they are told somebody is fluent in a language. This could take between four and ten years of study, when one can have near-native conversational and comprehension ability and vocabulary recall. At this point the best thing to offer the students is continued practice; this is the point where most ELL students are exited from the program and completely mainstreamed. + + The process of learning a new language, be it English, Spanish, or Sanskrit, sounds simple on paper, but the actual process can take many years to get the basics and a lifetime of practice to maintain it. However, hopefully, as the world becomes more compact with all the ways to communicate with the world at large, more people will be willing to put in the effort to make themselves more marketable on a global level by achieving fluency in at least one language other than the language of their parents. + + + +In the Hallam article, the role of the teacher in the process of learning a foreign language is reviewed. The focus is on the disposition of the teacher, and the most important factors are: effective teachers believe themselves to be effective; they believe all students can learn, that it’s just a matter of how to reach them; they have a “broad frame of reference and see the larger purpose behind their teaching,” meaning they are not only teaching their content area, they are teaching the children how to learn; and they look at what is called “the people element”. + +The people element is not very clearly defined, but seems to be relating all teaching back to the human species, both the students learning and the other people they may encounter in their life’s journey. While these are good points that can be applied to any teacher, the lack of definition for many of the terms is bothersome; how can a teacher hope to measure up to such cloudy standards? A foreign language teacher especially must consider a large number of people: the people who created the language, the people who currently use the language on a regular basis (including dialects), and the people who are learning it as a second language. But who are the more important people in that equation, the ones that need more concentration. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"The data makes it very difficult to pin down exactly where the thresholds for independent, instructional, and frustration are, as, depending on his focus that particular passage, his efforts would improve one side only to sacrifice the other. + +Much like the word list portion, Manolo tried to read the passages quickly and had to be asked to slow down. He followed the text with his finger as well as his eyes. As Manolo read, he would frequently substitute more common words for ones he did not know (random for radium, e-mail for enamel, etc.), which were significant mistakes. He did not make any more attempts at Spanish pronunciation, but did still use penultimate syllable stressing on unfamiliar words. + +After Manolo read the passages, the examiner asked him questions about the passages. The types of questions included topic, facts, inferences, evaluation, and vocabulary. Again, the peculiar nature of the data and signs of frustration in the student make it very difficult to find the independent, instructional, and frustration levels for the reasons discussed above. During questioning, Manolo still refused to make eye contact with the examiner, focusing instead on his classmates straight ahead. He did not turn his head toward the examiner once while questions were being asked. He also resumed foot and hand tapping during this juncture. Manolo did not attempt to answer questions he did not know or was unsure of, simply stating “I don’t know” and moving on. Manolo did very well with questions involving topic, evaluation, and inferences, but generally stumbled with questions regarding vocabulary and facts, especially if the facts contained numerical figures. + +The final portion of the BRI was used to assess Manolo’s listening comprehension level to discover his independent, instructional, and frustration levels. The results of this assessment reveal Manolo’s potential for growth in reading achievement. For this portion, the examiner read a passage out loud to Manolo, and then asked him ten comprehension questions based on what he heard. The questions were in the same format as those used in the Oral Reading Comprehension portion of the assessment. The results were: + +Based on the somewhat confusing results of the Oral Reading Comprehension portion of the assessment, the examiner began with an eighth grade passage. Manolo had two incorrect answers, which established him at independent/ instructional level. The examiner had no other ninth grade passages to give, so skipped forward to the tenth grade passage. Here the examiner awarded Manolo some half-points for portions of a correct answer. On the tenth grade passage, Manolo was instructional/frustration level. The eleventh grade passage was squarely frustration level. Having found the frustration level (and assuming ninth grade would be instructional level), the examiner sought his Independent level using seventh and sixth grade passages. Manolo’s independent level was at sixth grade, with seventh and eighth grade both coming in at independent/instructional. + +Manolo’s response to listening comprehension questions was much better than his response to the oral comprehension. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," The other native speaker in the class reacted to the perceived insult, stating loudly she was from Columbia and punctuating the remark with a Spanish curse word while Manolo looked down at his desk. After the bell rang, Mrs. S. made a comment to the examiner with a similar observation. + +Mrs. S. was able to provide some basic information about Manolo’s academic background. She was only able to access his high school records, and he is progressing through high school at the expected rate. He has never had IEP accommodations, nor has he ever received assistance from the ESL /ELL program. According to school records, he has regular attendance to both school and Mrs. S’s Spanish II class. At the time of observation and test administration, Manolo had a mid-B average in Spanish, English, and Biology, but was failing Statistics and Art. Delaware State Testing Program data was not available. + +The examiner was able to observe Manolo in his Spanish II class several times. The school goes by block scheduling, with students having the same 5 classes every day in the same order, so Manolo’s class was always the first observed (first block). Manolo’s Spanish II class is an inclusion class with seventeen students. He is one of fifteen regular education students in the class. He is one of two native Spanish-speakers in the class. + +The classroom setting is devoted to Spanish topics. Mrs. S. has decorated it with maps, flags, cultural artifacts, and vocabulary words relevant to the current learning units of her four classes- College Prep Spanish II, Honors Spanish II, College Prep Spanish III, and College Prep Spanish IV/V. Each class has its own whiteboard with assignments and its own section of a Word Wall. Mrs. S. offered several different learning activities in the class that would engage them in the different aspects of both language arts and foreign language learning- reading, writing, speaking, thinking, and listening. Manolo and his classmates were frequently asked to complete in-class projects that required them to write multiple grammatically correct sentences in Spanish and illustrate them. These projects would then be presented to the class orally, where they would be graded based on pronunciation and proper grammatical structure. When introducing new vocabulary, Mrs. S. would model the pronunciation and usage of the word in a sentence using words and phrases with which the students were already familiar; they would then take turns reading a script in their text and watch a dramatization of it on a DVD featuring native speakers. At the end of the period, the students would play a review game such as charades or Piccionario (Pictionary), depending on the subject matter of the vocabulary. The examiner observed Manolo spent most of the class periods with his head down on his closed book, although he would answer Mrs. S. when spoken to directly and would actively participate in competitive games on a team with his classmates. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"The teacher must be aware of their output as well, making sure to speak clearly and enunciate into the microphone. + +CAPD has risen to prominence since it was first isolated as a disorder in the 1950s; there are many groups continuing to do research to determine how to best assist persons diagnosed with the disorder. Current and future teachers must make sure to stay up to date on the advances made and be mindful of students who enter their classrooms that need such accommodations. + + + +Manolo (not his real name) is a 17 year old sophomore at Christiana High School in Newark, Delaware. Two of Manolo’s teachers Ms. F. (College Prep Biology) and Mrs. S. (College Prep Spanish II) referred him as a participant in a Basic Reading Inventory because they wanted to know more about Manolo’s strengths and weaknesses as a non-native English speaker in reading and comprehension. + +A limited case history was obtained from Ms. F. and Mrs. S., which the examiner supplemented with an interview with the student. School records indicate Manolo lives with his parents; it is unknown if he has siblings. It is known that he immigrated to the United States from Mexico prior to entry to Christiana High School, however when he came and his immigration status are unknown. Both teachers find him generally polite, but Ms. F. states he can be a bit standoffish and highly disorganized, and prefers to talk to another native Spanish speaker in Biology class. He has no plans for college, and has given the two teachers two different career aspirations- he has told Mrs. F. he wants to work in HVAC, while Mrs. S. stated he wanted to work on cars. Both teachers stated they know very little about his personal life. During the interview, the examiner asked Manolo about school and his reading habits. Manolo reports that he likes to read magazines about cars and sports, but does not find the books and work assigned in school interesting. He stated he could not remember the name of the book he was currently reading in English class (To Kill A Mockingbird), or the names of anything he had read earlier in the year or last year, even when prompted. He answered questions succinctly and did not volunteer extra information. He did not make eye contact with the interviewer, and during test administration, he kept pausing and looking up at his classmates, who were working on an in-class project. After the interview, Manolo rejoined the class to play a team game in which he was pitted against the other native Spanish speaker in the class. When a third student erroneously stated both Manolo and the other student were from Puerto Rico, Manolo did not correct him. In the examiner’s previous work, a strong sense of national pride has been observed in Hispanic immigrants for their mother countries (called “orgullo” in Spanish); this can stem from things as trivial as pride in their countries’ fútbol (soccer) teams to larger, still-unresolved political and social disputes. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," + + Some of the behavioral characteristics that can be considered “red flags” for a patient are “difficulty understanding spoken language in competing messages, noisy backgrounds, or in reverberant environments; misunderstanding messages; inconsistent or inappropriate responding; frequent requests for repetitions, saying “what” and “huh” frequently; taking longer to respond in oral communication situations; difficulty paying attention; being easily distracted; difficulty following complex auditory directions or commands; difficulty localizing sound; difficulty learning songs or nursery rhymes; poor musical and singing skills; and associated reading, spelling, and learning problems” (Ferre). However, every person’s brain functions differently, so the individuality of the case must be taken into consideration. + + A regular classroom teacher who may have to teach mainstreamed students diagnosed with CAPD should first familiarize themselves with the records of the student in question and be aware of what equipment may be needed or what changes they may have to make to their teaching style. The most common way to deal with a CAPD diagnosis is through auditory training, which may include, but is not limited to “procedures targeting intensity, frequency, and duration discrimination; phoneme discrimination and phoneme-to-grapheme skills; temporal gap discrimination; temporal ordering or sequencing; pattern recognition; localization/lateralization; and recognition of auditory information presented within a background of noise or competition” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). The teacher must be made aware of the student’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and a benchmark system may be put into place to chart the student’s growth in terms of measurable outcomes. + +Classrooms can be modified to reduce excess noise and echo, including removal or covering of unnecessary reflective surfaces (covering an unused chalkboard with a decorative tapestry, putting an area rug on linoleum tile), or with acoustic dividers (like plants) put into place to minimize sound vacuum. The student should be put in acoustically preferential seating toward the center of the room, away from distractions like the heater and the doorway but within view of the board. The teacher should also endeavor to use written direction as much as possible, and have multi-step instructions clearly listed either on the board or on an individualized worksheet. + +In addition to classroom arrangements, the student may also have accommodations to be allowed to wear a personal FM receiver in class. A personal FM receiver is a variation of a personal radio, which can be worn as a body pack or a headset, with the frequency being the teacher’s voice coming from a microphone the teacher wears, either on their shirt or as a headset. This allows the other noise to be cancelled out of the room and the student can tune in to the teacher’s voice, effectively an audio trainer. However, while “[t]he benefits of personal FM and sound-field technologies for the general population and individuals at risk for listening and learning are well documented, but little data has been published documenting the efficacy of personal FM as a management strategy for students with CAPD” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w,"After a while, both Mama Elena and Rosaura die, leading to a night of passion for the true lovers... but all does not end well, as Pedro dies happily making love to Tita; Tita is tormented by the ghost of her mother, and, feeling nothing but loneliness, she begins to eat matches and candles. Pedro’s memory sparks a flame within her that consumes Tita, Pedro, and the entire ranch, leaving ashes. The story is revealed to be told by Esperanza, who is getting ready to marry Alex. She also states that in the ashes of the ranch, Tita’s cookbook was found, from whence come all the recipes mentioned. + + I was introduced to this book and the film when I was 16, in an all-girl, private Catholic school. At that age, all of us in the class (ranging from me, the youngest, to age 19) wanted anything we could get away with in terms of sexuality and male nudity. I can see why, to a parent, that might be problematic, especially in today’s political climate. While the book makes mostly fleeting mentions, the corresponding film is R-rated for sexuality and full frontal nudity, both male and female. However, it was presented to us more as an introduction to the genre of Magic Realism, a gateway to more complicated works like Cien Años de Soledad (“100 Years of Solitude”), than anything from which we should adopt lifestyle choices. + +While I would not be able to personally use these resources at this time (teaching middle school), I highly recommend them for other teachers teaching high school or college students. One of my college professors once told her Teaching Foreign Languages class (which I was unfortunately not a part of) that the number two rule of being a successful teacher (after “Work to develop your ‘teacher handwriting’) was “Talk about sex every now and then. Your students WILL pay attention.” The book is fairly easy to read, with fairly simple verb tenses and sentence structure, and can easily be incorporated into different types of lessons: we had it incorporated into a review of food words, but it could also be used for a unit on the Mexican Revolution of in literary genres classes, especially for Magic Realism and Bildungsroman. The teacher will have to ensure that the students are mature enough, as a whole, to handle what is being presented to them, but the book and the film are incredibly enriching looks at modern Mexican writing and filmmaking. + + + +The process of learning a foreign language is becoming more and more important as America and other countries are becoming increasingly diverse. In America, many schools now offer ELL (English Language Learning) courses of study for children of recent immigrants. The process of learning a language is important to help both children learning English from another language or older English-speakers learning a foreign language for the first time. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +w," + + +This paper covers three areas of Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). First, a brief definition of the disorder is provided. Next, diagnosis is explained, with common characteristics, or “red flags”. Finally, the paper concludes with ways that a teacher in a mainstreamed classroom environment can assist a student with CAPD. + + Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), or Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) “refers to the efficiency and effectiveness by which the central nervous system (CNS) utilizes auditory information. Narrowly defined, (C)AP refers to the perceptual processing of auditory information in the CNS and the neurobiologic activity that underlies that processing and gives rise to electrophysiologic auditory potentials” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005), meaning it is a disorder wherein the central nervous system (i.e. the brain) cannot properly process things that are heard. People with CAPD can hear normally, and are therefore not considered “hearing impaired”; rather, the area of the brain that translates what we hear, separating words or differentiating conversation from background noise does not function as it typically should. + + The earliest mention of the disorder that became CAPD is from the mid-1950s, called “auditory imperception” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005) when researchers were evaluating children with communicative disorders. The Italian research team of Bocca, Calearo, and Cassinari began developing tests for these children in 1954; in 1961, Kimura “introduced dichotic testing and formulated a model to explain the physiology of the CANS underlying dichotic perception” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). A national conference was held in 1977 that stimulated research on children with CAPD. + + CAPD manifests itself in multiple ways: the person suffering may not be able to localize or hear sound in space; may have difficulty discriminating between two or more “acoustic events” (sound occurrences); may not be able to recognize sound patterns; may not be able to differentiate changes in speech (like detecting sarcasm based on change of voice); one sound may be blocked by a subsequent sound; may not have the ability to synthesize sound clues (that is, interpret in a meaningful way that they can then act upon); and may not be able to determine the sequence in which auditory information is presented (Ferre). + + In order to diagnose CAPD, the patient must be screened with “systematic observation of listening behavior and/or performance on tests of auditory function”, which may be conducted by “audiologists, SLPs, psychologists, and others using a variety of measures that evaluate auditory-related skills” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). This may include questionnaires and surveys, observation of auditory behaviors, including how the patient responds to certain stimuli. There is, at this time, no one tool or test that is used consistently to a high rate of diagnostic success, and there is no known cause for the disorder. Many tests used present the patient with multiple, simultaneous auditory stimuli and then ask for them to differentiate certain items, like a series of words or numbers. More advanced tests include recording acoustic signals within the ear and measuring the responses to the signals. ",25,English,female,Some Graduate School,Unemployed Spanish Teacher,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"He calls this the ‘problem-posing’ method, which ‘accepts neither a well-behaved present nor a pre-determined future’ and ‘roots itself in the dynamic present.’ (pg 327) ‘Problem-solving’ here describes what the human experience already is - a constant re-interpretation of society and the actions that shape its nature. Based on the context of his work, Friere may be suggesting that the ability to intervene, to take action and be revolutionary is the real nature of the educational system he proposes. Here, banking itself is an extension of a government’s absolute authority and defying its edicts is the only way to be human. If banking, the depositing of ‘ultimatums’ by the system into the individual’s mind, is accepted then they are forever doomed to unreality. +Or are they? +It seems almost ludicrous to suggest that, without breaking from the structure of banking towards formal integration of problem-solving, one is nothing more than an object. Merely existing - even observing (as dreaded as the action may seem through Freire’s eyes) - anywhere leads to a heightened sense of awareness. This awareness of both oneself and others is apparent in the ‘developed’ individual, who uses a variety of sources, from personal memories to second-hand information, to form beliefs and opinions on all sorts of subjects. Even when one is idling about, whether they be staring at a television screen or watching passersby in the park, their mind is absorbing what is around them. Through cooperation of the conscious and subconscious, all that information obtained is processed into coherent thought; the ability to do so is what ‘humanity’ is all about. Thus it seems an impossibility not to be, in some way, ‘human.’ +In the modern day, the youth are displaying a remarkable attraction towards revolution despite (and perhaps because of) the education that is given to them. Social media and an increased wealth of knowledge are the underlying factors of this desire for change. Behind the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution, the first of many major Middle Eastern protests in recent years, was was an increasing frustration with the continued poverty and poor living standard despite advances in literacy and education among the youth. Though technically spurred on by a merchant’s self-immolation, it ws largely organized by students and those in the under-25 section of the population over Facebook. As one activist participating in the Cairo protests that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak posted on Twitter, ""We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world."" (Howard) The use of such sites has allowed millions of those directly involved to plan mass demonstrations, with nearly incomprehensible turnouts. But the usage of said media is not limited to the coups of the Arab Spring; dissatisfaction with the economic status quo has inspired an ongoing protest in New York City known as ‘Occupy Wall Street.’",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," “As in the case of most‭ ’‬simple‭’ ‬plans,‭ ‬the situation soon became quite complicated(McDonald,‭ ‬p‭ ‬2‭)‬.‭” ‬However,‭ ‬their scheme was far‭ ‬from a solution and as the nation would soon find out,‭ ‬the beginning of an even larger problem. +‎ ‏ Another one of the underlying causes of this‎ ‏situation can be seen in the mass sales of land in the western United States. As discussed earlier,‭ ‬the federal government hoped to sell its vast territories of unclaimed land. For just‭ ‬$1.25‭ ‬per acre at a minimum of‭ ‬40‭ ‬acres of land,‭ ‬they put over‭ ‬1‭ ‬million square miles of undeveloped land so that their financial troubles could be assuaged(McDonald‭)‬. Many citizens jumped at this opportunity to‭ ‬claim wealth and fortune,‭ ‬to form farms and industries. Speculators were the first to purchase the largest tracts of land at this price before reselling their territory to settlers at higher prices. When settlers could not afford to these prices,‭ ‬They simply borrowed money from the banks that originally had funded the federal government’s war‭; ‬these state-chartered banks in turn would ask the Bank of United States(which by the end of the war had been reinstated‭) ‬to pledge these mortgages as collateral for loans. ‭“‬In practicality,‭ ‬the Bank of the United States was loaning the speculators‭' ‬purchase money back to the banks that the speculators themselves owned.‭” ‬This system was a delicate balance‭; ‬should the settlers fall behind on obligations to those that sold land to them,‭ ‬which they did as prices on crops declined in‭ ‬1819‭(‬Rothbard‭) ‬,‭ ‬a domino effect would take place. Since their money would be insufficient,‭ ‬the speculator’s banks‭’ ‬payment to the United States government would also be insufficient. Americans who had been using these state banks,‭ ‬with the deflation of crop prices,‭ ‬rushed to withdraw their funds‭; ‬the state banks were already strained with pressure from the Bank of the United States,‭ ‬so with this additional factor to the situation they were unable to provide the funds. With many unable to withdraw their own funds,‭ ‬mass panic ensued over the loss of their own funds and the reduction in the circulation of money as a result of bank failures. The Panic was on its way to full swing as the American‭ ‬financial system began to collapse. + With the failure of the bank funds,‎ ‏one by one the entire nation‭’ ‬s economy began to collapse. Although there were laws that required all monetary sources to be backed in gold,‭ ‬private banks tended to simply issue their own banknotes without following these requirements since they were not regulated. This fraudulent method led to further problems economically. Depositors found that their assets were rendered worthless by the failing banks that could not obtain the funds from the banknotes. Since no one could accept notes from banks no longer functioning‭ ‬,‭ ‬the amount of circulating money dropped rapidly. Businesses could not acquire their materials or pay their workers‭’ ‬wages,‭ ‬so widespread unemployment and trade deficits became a serious issue.",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"On the other hand, this may simply be a sign that his obsession with the idea of suicide has grown. +Mortality is addressed in a number of ways in Hamlet. The play revolves around death, with nearly all relevant characters dead by the end; uncertainty dominates each in different ways. At the beginning, the reader and characters themselves question the circumstances surrounding the late monarch’s death. The mere fact that he is no longer alive sets the stage for the other events of the play, famously prompting Hamlet’s question - ‘To be or not to be?’ The protagonist’s consideration of suicide is the prime example of mortality’s relation to the theme of uncertainty. He is at a crossroads, debating to himself as to which path to take - one to spare himself from the sufferings of the living world or the other to continue on to prevent descent into hell. Hamlet’s hesitancy is witnessed in other portions of the play as well, procrastinating on avenging his father through multiple scenes. The fates of Ophelia and Polonius, too, were surrounded by uncertainty. Polonius’ death was, to the general public, a source of doubt. Without a clear explanation, Laertes for example, believed Claudius to be responsible. Ophelia, meanwhile, succumbs first ot grief and second to madness. It is believed by other characters that Polonius’ death was at the root of her misery, but her strained relationship with Hamlet could have been as much a factor. Furthermore, while the priest at her funeral suggests that she committed suicide, she drowned when a willow tree branch broke and dropped her into the river; thus the possibility remains that Ophelia did not intend to die that day. The role of death in Shakespeare’s play certainly helped to shape the strength of uncertainty. +Innuendo and suggestions of incestuous desire between multiple characters also leave the reader in a place of doubt. In Act III, Hamlet mocks Ophelia using suggestive commentary, effectively distancing himself from her. This could imply that their relationship may have been sexual (or the courting of Ophelia not so honorable), especially since she was in a state of inward mental confusion, with both father and brother giving her advice on such matters earlier on in the play. Some have suggested also that Laerte’s dive into her grave and proclamations of love went beyond the platonic. Queen Gertrude herself brings up more questions than answers when analyzed as well. The motivations for her marriage to Claudius so soon after her first husband’s death are never fully explained. It is unclear whether she truly loved either or was taking action to ensure her place in the royal court. Hamlet’s fixation on his mother brings up suspicions as to the nature of their relationship, whether that passion is of an incestuous nature, as well as if it is one-sided or not. The usage of moral ambiguity to form the connections between characters makes for a work rife with unanswered questions. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," Private bank corruption ultimately drove the nation’s economy to the brink of destruction. + Speculator greed and corruption was merely a subdivision behind the United States‎’ ‏financial dilemma‭; ‬the common man was just as guilty. Although the common man of course did not have control over the majority of the finances as did speculators,‭ ‬a large portion of settlers abused their credibility when purchasing land and,‭ ‬by improperly managing their financial decisions,‭ ‬added to the force pushing‭ ‬America towards the Panic of‭ ‬1819. These Americans spent lavishly under the presumption that they could afford to do so‭; ‬when their profits were not enough to push them out of debt when it came time for tax collection,‭ ‬these citizens rushed to borrow and withdraw money‭()‬. Their debt caught up to them and no party could step in to help‭; ‬state banks could do nothing to help because their funds were insufficient without the money the common man owed to begin with,‭ ‬while the federal government‘s bank,‭ ‬having only been re-chartered two years ago,‭ ‬got its money from the speculator‘s pay-offs which were also quickly declining. A vicious cycle of financial troubles was launched upon the nation as a result of these groups‭’ ‬troubles. +‎ ‏America’s financial crisis in‭ ‬1819‭ ‬can be attributed to the nation’s‭ ‬faulty economic cycle at the time,‭ ‬yet it is their misunderstanding of another cycle that may have been the largest problem. The United States economy is based around a capitalistic,‭ “‬supply-and-demand‭” ‬mindset. Most economic scholars will agree that one of the factors leading up to the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬were of the U.S.‭’ ‬inexperience with the nature of the system,‭ ‬where boom-bust cycles are bound to occur. Declines in prices in the market were meant to be normal occurrences following periods of inflation,‭ ‬yet when crop prices declined in‭ ‬1818,‭ ‬citizens panicked and tried to recover as much of their money as possible. Of course,‭ ‬the private banks could not provide sufficient amounts‭ ‬This‭ ‬inexperience was just one step in the ultimate crisis,‭ ‬but a crucial point as their irrational panic was the basis of the dilemma. +‎ ‏In the same way that the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬was in part caused by troubles with the federal government,‭ ‬the financial problems of America today are partially due to federal troubles. One possibility regarding the current situation may stem from the Community‭ ‬Reinvestment Act of the late‭ ‬20th century. It was passed to help banks‭ ‬meet the needs of borrowers,‭ ‬but many economists argue that this act encouraged banks to make unsafe loans,‭ ‬including the main problem‭ ‬-‭ ‬subprime mortgages. Another situation arising from federal actions‭ ‬-‭ ‬or lack thereof‭ ‬-‭ ‬comes in part from its regulation policies. The CRA does not necessarily review all loans that it supposedly regulates,‭ ‬and with its riskier loans the chance for economic trouble greatly increases. Furthermore,‭ ‬the government seemed to do little in regulating institutions handing out many of these risky loans,‭ ‬including those not regulated by the CRA‭; ‬the federal government failed to assuage the growing problems with debt.",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"Most of my involvement at [Company Name] revolved around creating promotional sets for potential and current customers of the company. I researched products on the private ASI member company base under various criteria, sorting and consolidating them into smaller sets based on target consumer groups (i.e. political organizations, corporate events, etc). I then wrote letters advertising said promotional packages for each individual consumer group. My writing was not limited to those e-mails; I also created customer surveys for possible changes in location and further letter blasts regarding changes in company operation. As far as my graphic design activity goes, I primarily assisted in edits to existing graphic works in CorelDraw and FlexiStarter, software used in the process of screen-printing logos and designs. I also was involved for a short time in ‘weeding’ the logos from the screen print pages during busy periods. + In so far as accomplishing my project goals, I personally believe that I accomplished them, although not all aspects were covered as thoroughly as expected. Among the skills I learned were operation and usage of screenprinting software and machinery and methodology for certain business practices. Another aspect of learning came from witnessing first-hand the work that goes on behind-the-scenes in creating custom apparel and other products such as engraved plaques. Most of the work done for graphics consists of editing existing logos or text, and I had hoped to see more of the design aspect; generally, my work was based on knowledge I already had or concepts that I could catch up on through previous use of technology. It is understandable that pure creation of logos is not something typical of the business, however. I also did not see much with social media integration since [Name], the graphics artist responsible for that aspect, stopped working on-site fairly early in the experience. As I am already fairly knowledgeable in that regard (usage of Facebook, Twitter, etc.), it was not a big issue. In the field of communication I felt I exceeded my expectations, having never before typed thorough business or advertisement letters at such a professional level nor had much experience interacting with customers aside from some work as a lifeguard. I also did learn a lot about the processes of screen-printing and embroidery, and about the effort put in from the moment a client places an order through to the moment it is ready to ship. Creating the promotional packages for [Company name] was also very educational, having set the criteria for item selection almost entirely independently. All in all, the mentorship was a rewarding experience. + As with any endeavor, one needs to try to maintain a positive and motivated character to succeed. My work renewed my desire to learn and furthermore showed me that I had a great deal of self-discipline. Most of my time at the mentorship was independent of the [Company Name] staff, and minimal supervision was given. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"Plain-clothes police officers, not even an hour later, had effectively dispersed the group with the threat of violence. Activists re-appeared several times on other dates, scaling down their actions to ‘strolling’ rather than marching, but were again and again made the objects of physical violence. As time wore on, fewer protestors appeared. This may be due, of course, to the lack of efficient communication available. The word ‘Jasmine’ has been banned from all lines of communication, and even selling of the flowers in the marketplace is impossible. When asked, many Chinese citizens in even urban areas are completely unaware of the revolutionary attempts. Those that are must choose their words carefully as well, as overstepping the ‘neutral opinion’ territory outlined by the government could land them in a cell along with foreign reporters. With widespread ignorance and/or fear regarding discussing the matter, the Chinese Jasmine Revolution seems less powerful than the governmental opposition it faces. It seems those in favor of democracy for the PRC face a long uphill struggle if they are to accomplish anything close to the results of the Arab Spring. +The very nature of society suggests that no method of education can prevent reality from its students. However, it can be a real struggle to present reality to a portion of these people. Whether the teacher is one found in a classroom or behind a podium, whether banking or problem-solving is chosen, whether the fight is won with words or weapons - none of these things are singularly the determinants of ‘humanity.’ It is up to each person to use what has been given to them to form a unique individual experience - their own version of reality. + + After going over the process involved in writing my essay, it seems as if my strengths could also be my weaknesses. When I wrote my first draft, I wanted to provide arguments for and against the banking concept with the most complex (and still comprehensible) writing structure I could. Personally, I feel that my writing ability itself is strong, but sometimes I might be too fixated on making sure that the structure is exactly the way I want rather than directing my ideas towards new content. It was honestly a bit disappointing for me personally to find that the level of writing skill was not to be ignored, persay, but generally unimportant compared to the content of the paper. +Initially, I thought that what I had written was reasonably high level thinking, but I later realized I needed to do something more. My drafted essays talked mainly about the merits and faults of banking education, and I had been able to incorporate elements that could be considered working both with and against the grain before the rubric was even revealed. Based on the feedback I received from my peers, I tried to elaborate more on the ideas that were already present. However, I had not expanded much beyond education and learning styles in my revision. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," +Aldous Huxley criticizes the upcoming threat of both technology and the capitalistic structure by which it is reinforced through the creation of a dystopia in the novel Brave New World. Its people value community above the individual, and are conditioned from the very beginning to pursue immediate happiness above all else. The citizens are revealed to be pawns in a larger game, confined to one ideology as dictated by the World Controller. By examining the work under the lenses of Marxist theism, one notices the underlying suspicions of the author in regards to the development of aforementioned systems. Frequent terminology in Marxism, such as homogeny and reification, among others, reinforce the idea that Huxley’s novel is a commentary on the faults in the emerging economy from his time on. +Capitalism is satirized through the use of the Marxist thesis known as false consciousness. Essentially, the common citizenry is prevented from knowing true relations to other classes in economic terms, as they are primarily interested in their own gain. It is said to be the result of ideological control of the proletariat and common laborers, something quite obvious by the conditioning of the people in Brave New World. The common classes, Delta, Gamma, etc., have no true will of their own; through hypnopædia the drive to consume, to spend, to indulge is strengthened above all else. This is manipulated, as previously stated, by the World Controller. Hegemony, essentially the idea that groups of social classes are dominated by a separate group of individuals in totality, is obviously used in this case. The lower classes are entirely unaware of the manipulation, quite literally ‘[buying] into an ideology that supports that structure’ (i.e. capitalism & consumerism). ’ Upper classes are born with the ability to be aware of it but do nothing ; few Alphas or Betas beyond characters like Bernard do much more than likewise accept their place. In fact, the interactions of the social classes, as will be discussed in greater length, are significant indications of the perceived oppression of capitalism. +Relationships between disparate individuals does not exist in Brave New World. The novel seemingly refuses to distinguish the characters - they are, even among major characters, lacking depth. Perhaps Huxley is suggesting that the rise of technology and capitalism together deprive man of their free will and expression. Love does not exist, nor do the extremes of any one emotion; rather, interactions are kept superficial, portrayed distinctly through the males remarks about women primarily about their physical appearance (i.e. pneumatic quality), and the females’ unashamed comments about their encounters, so to speak. Furthermore, each societal class’ complacency with their status in the hierarchy indicate the socioeconomic effect of capitalism. Their absolute obedience of their part in the community is an indication of Marxist thought on the proletariat, who are falsely ensured of their own superiority over all else so long as they continue to consume, to obey, to stay in line with the rest of their peers. +",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," The government’s actions was,‭ ‬in part,‭ ‬responsible for the economic failures of today. +‎ ‏Another similarity between both financial crises lies in loaner’s avarice. Speculators in current times,‭ ‬much like those of the Panic of‭ ‬1819,‭ ‬sought to take advantage of the market by selling land based loosely on credit and with the assistance of loans. These people sought to take advantage of the common man‭ ‬regardless of the likelihood of foreclosure because they could then obtain whatever funds their borrowers could not pay off. Because of the massive amounts of haphazard loans being handed out,‭ ‬foreclosures and debt reached alarming levels and,‭ ‬just as in the past,‭ ‬caused a widespread panic and pushed America’s economy over the edge. The corruption of speculators,‭ ‬like in the Panic of‭ ‬1819,‭ ‬are a vital factor in destroying financial stability in the United States. +‎ ‏Despite many warnings held in history’s stories,‭ ‬common American citizens sought to‭ “‬live beyond their means‭” ‬and thereby triggered much of the failure of today’s economy. Like in the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬those who could not immediately afford to buy land or those who purchased land that their income could not sustain tended to borrow money from banks. These same people then proceeded to spend lavishly on all sorts of products,‭ ‬accumulating expenses. When prices again fell due to the boom-bust cycle,‭ ‬many found themselves borrowing more and more money. Soon enough,‭ ‬they wound themselves up in another vicious cycle of financial troubles identical to that of the Panic. Once again Americans had tried and failed to find and easy way to surpass their economic stance at the expense of an entire nation. +‎ ‏Financial failures induced in the United States have similar underlying causes. Federal actions were just one cause behind them. The inability of loaners/banks and the common citizen to control their greed,‭ ‬as well as misunderstandings of the inner workings of the economic system,‭ ‬were also detrimental to America’s economy. Both the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬and the current crisis afflicting this nation can be attributed to similar actions. + + + Going into the senior mentorship program, I wanted to experience more of the creative end of business careers. While the school certainly is thorough in reinforcing the ideas of an engineering world, it lacks a curriculum with much depth in the arts. Thus, I decided I would pursue a mentorship experience that would allow me to explore my interests in graphic design and art while also gaining knowledge of the aspects of business such as networking and communication. Over the course of the spring semester, I worked with the staff at [company name] to attempt to accomplish these goals. In retrospect, I was able to gain a lot of valuable experience that fed my interest in graphic design further. + My project goals included improving in the following areas: web/graphic design, communication and business, and social media integration. Another aspect of my work during the mentorship experience was data entry, which primarily meant editing customer files in the database. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," +Despite an American education that can be seen as the new age of banking with ‘teaching for the test’ methodology, activists of all ages (but again, largely consisting of the young population) have come to their own conclusion about the real state of affairs in the United States today. Protesters demands fit under the umbrella of change: change in the policies for corporations, corruption prosecution, job market, businesses’ influence on the White House, etc. But these largely peaceful demonstrations have spurred a violent wave of police brutality, perhaps our own version of what Freire seemed to have suggested - a suppression of reality. +The army protects a country’s people from other countries’, the police force protects people from themselves. But what we have found is that those people who are meant to protect citizens from one another are in fact protecting and serving themselves. In the Egyptian revolution, the divide between the military and police was obvious; the people spat upon the name of the latter, who threw tear gas into non-violent crowds, while lauded the former, their own people, who eventually assumed leadership after Mubarak’s resignation. Here in the U.S., opinions of said forces are not nearly as unified, but the distinction in roles is nevertheless clear. The following excerpt comes from an article in the Boston Review written by Jeanne Mansfield. + + +as evidenced by the quote, the police force here did not follow the laws of their own occupation. Even where there was no one to defend from another in the crowd, they took it upon themselves to act with violence anyway - and those who were responsible were those who had something to lose. The ‘white-shirts,’ as Mansfield called them, are in fact sergeants, the kind of officer one usually finds supervising office headquarters. They are meant to delegate yet, somehow, the common officers are the ones who stand idle while their superiors are running about; surely this oddity cannot be ignored. Considering the goals of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, it is not a far-fetched conclusion that the alleged influence of corporations on politicians has perhaps spread to the public servants. But people have not allowed themselves to be ‘clubbed into dank submission,’ (Bukowski) neither literally nor figuratively. As evidenced by reports not only from official news sources but also media such as Facebook and Tumblr, support for the movement has continued to increase. Much like the Arab Spring, regions all across the United States have begun their own protests with similar goals, showing that, even with the increasingly banking-oriented structure in place today, people will always have the will to be freely human. + + Stemming from the ongoing Arab Spring is a movement that threatens the stability of the Communist Party – at least in their eyes. Following the Tunisian revolution known as the Jasmine Revolution, named after the country’s national flower, Chinese pro-democratic groups have taken to the streets in protest against the absolute authority that dominates the nation’s government. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"Thus one can figure out the agricultural lifestyle of the Chinese during the time period the character was in use, and when the plough became obsolete; once the ox-drawn plough was introduced, li came to mean power instead, and a different li, which includes the character for ox, replaced it. +Hessler chooses those living outside mainland China for a variety of reasons. One is fairly obvious; a diverse range of voices may prove useful in developing an accurate depiction of the country. It creates a personal side to Chinese history and also shows the perspectives of people as the nation underwent major changes. In his writing, Hessler depicts the conflict between modernization and traditional aspects of the culture: how Chen Mengjia, an oracle bone scholar, struggled against the Cultural Revolution when a transition from traditional characters to purely pinyin/alphabetic writing was attempted; how the minority groups such as the Uighurs are politically marginalized; how. + + + +‎ ‏The causes behind the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬can also be attributed to the financial crisis of today’s economy. The government’s various decisions preceding the Panic may‭ ‬be‭ ‬a cause of the modern-day situation Americans were excited by financial opportunities and sought to take advantage of the economy. However,‭ ‬this enthusiasm in an economic system most did not fully understand would soon prove detrimental to the entire matiom. Just as their inexperience in the system itself caused a large-scale crisis,‭ ‬the people of today’s society‭ ‬did not properly prepare themselves for the consequences of their financial choices. .Financial crises in America seem to be instigated by similar occurrences. + The Panic of‎ ‏1819‎ ‏was a‭ ‬massive economic crisis‭ ‬-‭ ‬the first one America experienced primarily due to its own‭ ‬nation’s troubles. One of the theories behind the cause of the Panic of‭ ‬1819‭ ‬lies with the banking situations created by the government. Robert W. McDonald‭ ‬suggests that because the Bank of the United States was not re-chartered as was due,‭ ‬the federal government’s source of revenue was disrupted. When‭ ‬James Madison vetoed the bill in‭ ‬1811‭ ‬to re-charter the bank as part of his opposition to Federalist ideals,‭ ‬he made the bank’s funds become redistributed into private and state banks. As a result,‭ ‬the federal government could not directly access most of its funds. With the onset of the War of‭ ‬1812,‭ ‬America found that they could not finance the war‭; ‬the state banks were now in charge of selling the bonds,‭ ‬and only after these were sold could funds be sent to pay for federal debt. At the end of the war,‭ ‬the federal government faced a daunting task to recover and pay back the money it had used to finance the war. With tariff and excise taxes only generating a small bit of revenue as foreign trade only recently revived,‭ ‬the American government resorted to the sale of land,‭ ‬a simple plan they hoped would solve the problem.",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," +Shakespeare has masterfully utilized the theme of uncertainty. He has created for his characters a sense of ambiguity, leaving those reading his works to sort out for themselves the motivations and nature of said characters. The element of sanity vs. insanity, the concept of mortality, and the potential immorality of the relationships between many have contributed greatly to the major theme of uncertainty. From Hamlet’s own mental state to his relationship to his mother, both the reader and the characters themselves are left with unanswered questions. It is undeniable that, throughout Hamlet, it is uncertainty that dominates. + + + Countless sources of history recount the perceived inferiority of women in traditional Chinese society. Ancient texts recount the role of an ‘ideal’ woman as one who is subservient to her husband and to males in general. She must willingly do what is expected of her as a wife and mother; she must willingly accept blame for any changes in the family dynamic; she must never play the roles designated for men. Literature from various periods, including during the Song dynasty, reflect on the necessity of female inferiority and in this regard are deplorable. Even the language itself reinforces sexism, with the character for woman an adapted form of one kneeling in obedience. Their place in society is largely driven by the Confucian virtue of filial piety, which had a major influence on Chinese culture and outlines the moral responsibilities each individual in a family must follow. As with most that are concerned with ethical matters, many of the concepts presented are both reasonable and commendable. However, when put into practice, said principles ultimately serve more to foster a sense of supremacy among men and strengthen patriarchal dominance than to promote family unity. + In Jian Zang’s Woman and the Transmission of Confucian Culture in Song China, the tale of one man lending his wife to another is recounted. One is ‘tragically’ without an heir, and so, dutifully, his friend offers to allow the sharing of his wife, who already bore him a son. Afterwards, the woman is passed back and forth between the families. Her objectification in the story parallels the reality of a female’s position in Chinese society – women are favored only in respect to their ability to produce a male (to carry on the family name). Prospective husbands needed to pay a ‘bride price’ to the natal family; the true exchange was not permission for marriage, but for the rights to control every aspect of her life. She needed to show respect to her husband and never try to interfere and perform her obligation of providing him with a son. If child after child turned out to be daughters, the family was willing to go so far as commit infanticide to reduce the economic burden. + +Sima Qian refers to the Xiongnu as barbarians and it is clear through some of his descriptions that the Chinese considered themselves superior to these people and others like them through the frequent use of the word ‘barbarians.;",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"Retaliation and preventative measures through censorship and police brutality, perhaps on a scale greater than the protestors’ actions themselves, have limited the growth of the movement. In analyzing the characteristics of the modern uprisings upon which this second Jasmine Revolution was inspired and comparing them to that of the circumstances behind China’s current status, one may find that the situation is could veer in an entirely different direction. + + Based primarily on recent events in the Middle East, the modern revolution seems to be following a few important trends. One of these is that the protest groups seem to be composed largely of young and mostly educated. This is important because higher rates of literacy are observed in these countries without much governmental reform. As such, combined with disparity between the economic classes and general discontent as to the standard living conditions, much unrest has brewed. Pro-democratic efforts has caused civil war to break out, but generally speaking, the protestors’ are guilty only of civil disobedience until police brutality becomes a factor. It is also notable that, in several cases, there is a division of loyalty in which the army sides more often with the people than its domestic forces counterpart. Social media, however, is possibly the most important characteristic. Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed the activists to spread the word and coordinate events for massive turnouts. Muslim officials’ knowledge regarding these ‘Westernized’ media seems to be limited. China’s, on the other hand, may very well have too strong a grasp of social media for successful communication to occur. + + Understanding on the Asian nation's current situation involves knowledge of its current sociopolitical system. In the past, under Mao Zhedong, China followed a 'Marxist revolution,' adopting a communistic model for government. Although the nation has become more liberal with socialistic reforms in response to globalization, it is still primarily a communist nation. It justifies its various actions using sinocentrism, an extreme form of Chinese nationalism. All critical opinion, not necessarily (but normally) directed at the Chinese government, is 'neutralized' through censorship. Blanket bans on major websites, including Wikipedia, Facebook, and Google, have been issued from time to time. Even text messages are filtered. Naturally, this has not gone unnoticed; foreign reporters from around the world have flocked to cover the issues surrounding Chinese censorship, and have paid the price for their curiosity. Lawyers, news reporters, artists, activists - all sorts of individuals have gone missing or placed in captivity by even attempting to bring up deemed sensitive by the government. As a result, protests historically generated limited success in stimulating change by comparison to those of the Middle East. + +The Jasmine Revolution in China, named after its inspiration in Tunisia, began February 20, 2011, and is technically an ongoing effort to remove the CPC from power. Protestors gathered at well-known locations (i.e. McDonalds gathering in Beijing) in various cities in response to a call to action issued online. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"Reification, or distortion of innocent concepts into, simultaneously, the grotesque and concrete, is portrayed in the novel by the use of soma. It represents the human desire for happiness, packaged in the form of a little pill. Soma causes a sense of complacency to overtake the consumer, relieving them of both physical and emotional pain. It reflects the dangers Huxley felt could compound from the use of technology, early death and false resolution among them. Huxley’s apparent disgust with the use of technology to ease all human burden makes reification an obvious component of his work, as any and all problems in the way of the characters is relieved by soma, while the ‘free-thinking’characters ridicule its usage. Maintenance of constant happiness is almost like a religion to them, but it is a different concept that they hold in a higher regard. In a sort of reverse reification, Ford and his assembly-line cars have become like deities. It is a bastardization of the concept of faith, to worship cold metal and unfeeling, and is another instance of their society’s discouragement of extreme emotion. According to the rulers, such things would ‘upset them too much’ -throwing them off the balance from their expensive daily sport, from golf to centrifugal bumblepuppy. Economy and productivity have taken the place of humanity. + Aldous Huxley’s novel may be a cautionary tale against a disturbing trend modern society is steering towards, or simply an attack on the social hierarchy founded by capitalism. In either case, it is undeniable that certain elements characteristic of the Marxist ideology exist within the layers of his writing, a suggestion that the socioeconomic conditions under the emergence of technology will bring certain turmoil. + +The banking system of education confines its pupils from the very start, sealing away their individuality into uniform boxes. Within each box houses all the knowledge and potential that they can ever expect to realize. At least, that’s what Friere seems to believe. + +How can something inherently human possibly become an automaton? The banking system is characterized as an oppressive system in which those who are being taught are in fact being primed for dehumanization. He seems to declare that, by allowing the method to persist, society is developing a world of ‘unreality’. Among the travesties of banking is the idea that a teacher must ease their students into society, must ‘adapt them to the world...[so that] she or he is a better “fit” for the world.’ But even cliches echo the truth: learning does not stop in the classroom. We are not created nor shaped solely by school instructors; for better or worse, we are all influenced by those around us and our personal experiences. So long as we refuse to be defined by the limitations of ‘banking’, we can never be one-dimensional. + + Friere seems to assert that to truly become human a person must constantly question the world around them rather than simply absorbing what is told to them. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u,"In the final paper, I chose to talk about the currently ongoing protests in New York City, adding in information I already knew about the Arab Spring, since the underlying message of Freire’s work dealt with ‘revolution.’ It was somewhat of a struggle to do so not because I had no knowledge whatsoever of either topic, but because it was hard to determine where I absolutely needed to cite information, especially since the most poignant of updates regarding Occupy Wall Street are in fact from sources generally not considered reputable. As for the topic of the Middle Eastern revolution, I felt it would be too obvious a topic choice if I had talked about those protests alone, but I also didn’t want to disclude it entirely as it had been of special interest to me. The criteria for the essay forced me to look beyond education in terms of the classroom experience, but it also gave me an opportunity to talk about current issues that actually are relevant to me. Merely being able to explore such topics may have strengthened my writing. + +Uncertainty encompasses Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, at times driving forth the plot and at others delaying the progress of action. It is not completely accurate to say that other thematic elements of Hamlet are of lesser importance, for they all can be traced back to the central idea. Rather, other major themes, such as sanity vs. insanity and mortality, are contributors to the weight of uncertainty. The protagonist’s supposedly feigned insanity, among others, leaves the reader in a gray area as to his true state of mind, while his contemplation of death has left Hamlet himself in a place of indecision. Morally questionable relationships between various characters also serve as evidence of the theme of uncertainty’s pervasiveness throughout the play. Indeed, it is a combination of elements that make the world of Hamlet and the realm of indecision essentially one and the same. +When Hamlet’s sanity is questioned, who is in the right? All save his closest companions – and the readers themselves – are told he is sane, the rest of his world led on by his act of madness. The ghostly illusions and his actions have lead many to doubt his clarity of mind. Shakespeare has left both reader and character in a state of doubt. Some characters in the play seem to reveal their own suspicions, remarking that his words, though surely odd, are not that of an outright madman. This would imply that Hamlet is indeed faking his descent into insanity. Similarly, both Claudius and Gertrude are unable to pinpoint the reason for his erratic behavior, perhaps a hint at that it is all merely an act. However, his encounters with the ghost in the form of his father may indicate just the opposite. His willingness to follow the specter, despite Horatio’s warning that Satan may be misleading him, suggests that Hamlet may be mentally impaired. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +u," In part of the text that is cited in Ebrey’s work The World Beyond China, he states that the Xiongnu people despise the old and weak and favor the young and strong, giving the best food to the latter and the worst to the former. This is highly contradictory with China’s idea of filial piety, which puts family and elders above all else. Similarly, the tone in which Sima Qian describes some of their military tactics hints at a sense of disdain for their principles. He states that ‘concern for propriety or duty does not inhibit the pursuit of advantage,’ which would certainly be unwanted in a nation that heavily enforced the citizen body’s obligation to serve the state. +The Forbidden City was built in such a manner that it would mimic their concept of the kingdom as in direct communication with Heaven. The emperors considered themselves like gods; thus the original design included 9999 rooms as compared to a god’s 10000 rooms. The yellow color on the roof tiles also reflected this belief, as yellow, an earthly color, was considered a representation of the center of everything. The city also reflected the sheer grandeur of the imperial authority. The large and imposing  Meridian gate that at the time towered over all else in Beijing is mentioned early on in Barme’s work; its position in the true north/south had the ‘power to impress and to even intimidate emissaries.’ this, along with the large mote meant to defend the city, served to impose. The order and design of the city was so meticulous that it seems to imply a government should be run efficiently and in line with morality, promoting peace and harmony (the reality  of course was that corruption existed throughout the history of Chinese empires). The court buildings were organized in groups of three, an auspicious number, and the Meridian gate also had this number of arches. The Tiannamen Gate had five arches, which was also a lucky number. Nine, symbolizing longevity, was the number of auspicious creatures featured on the rooftops of buildings. Animals such as cranes were also there to symbolize longevity. +Chinese writing’s early characters were much like hieroglyphs in that they were depictions of their definitions. For example, the early character for ri, or sun, was essentially a circle, while the original character for woman depicted a person kneeling. Combinations of basic characters, radicals, formed other words that were related to the radical. For example, combining tree characters gives the word for forest. This is particularly relevant in understanding Chinese belief that the nation is at the center of the world, as the name Zhong Guo is literally ‘Middle Kingdom.’ The way the ancient writing looked also gives insight into the life of the ancient Chinese. Li, a radical meaning power, was synonymous with the plough in ancient writing and the curve in its form also resembles the object. ",18,English,female,Some college,Student,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm," + Many a great thinker has postulated an intimate connection between ethics and aesthetics, between truth and beauty. I believe that at a fundamental level there is a reason for this. As John Keats says in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty- That is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” Much of what we know in life is learned via education or experience. However, we seem to appreciate ethics and aesthetics, as Keats implies, without being taught in these expected ways. Both ethics and aesthetics are an attempt to describe rather then prescribe. Our studies of morality and beauty are, for the most part, attempts to explain why a piece of art or literature is beautiful, or why an action is moral, rather than a set of rules for judging, or creating, good art or moral behavior. + More to the point, criticism of art or morals is never able to fully capture the essence of what is good or what is beautiful. A conversation about the worth of da Vinci's Mona Lisa, for example, may center around concepts like foreground, background, contrast, or cultural context, but in the end, these do not describe why it is good art. Rather, when one is asked about a favorite work of art or literature it is common to hear a phrase similar to, “There's just something about it” preceding a more complex or critical explanation. I believe that both art and morals can never be completely reduced to a description of their qualities. As Flannery O'Connor says, “A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way . . . you tell a story because a statement would be inadequate.” No matter how completely we describe the properties of a work of literature, there is something transcendent which is still left. I believe that ethics has this same property. As Wittgenstein says, “It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed. / Ethics is transcendental. / . I suggest that it is this “something”, this je ne sais quoi, which is art and morality's most powerful attribute, and that this transcendental nature of both ethics and aesthetics provides a connection point between them. + I believe that morality and art are so closely related because we experience both of them most powerfully at a noumenally, to use a Kantian term. They impact us at a level that can be experienced, but not fully explained. This link is even stronger when it comes to the art of literature. As McKean says, “What most distinguishes literature from the other arts, what is, in truth, unique about the art, is its moral quality. It may be that moral standards are inappropriate to other arts, music, for instance, but they seem to be as relevant to literature as they are to life itself. Living necessarily involves values. . . . Literature is important to us precisely because of the values we find there” . +",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"They were unwilling to accept blacks as part of the Other toward whom they had responsibility, as Levinas says. An unwillingness to view the individuality and Otherness of others, and a refusal of our responsibility toward them, is a primary effect of prejudice and racism. The journey toward acceptance that Huck takes is meant to invoke a parallel journey for the reader. At the beginning of the novel Huck sees all slaves as the same; he describes Widow Douglas and Miss Watson for pages, and then gives only one sentence to their slaves, saying, “By-and-by they fetched the niggers and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed” . + As time goes on, Huck comes to learn of Jim's individuality, and comes to know him as a person, and as a friend. Throughout the novel we are shown that Jim is truly the most noble of the characters. He is kind and selfless, despite being treated as inferior. As the novel progresses, Huck discovers Jim's Otherness, and learns that Jim is more than just a nigger, more than what he has been taught that he is. The conflict between society's teachings and Huck's new-found love for Jim as a person, as Other, comes to a head when Jim is captured by a local farmer in order to claim a reward. Huck writes a letter to Miss Watson, Jim's owner, turning Jim in, and is about to send it, when he begins to have second thoughts . Twain describes Huck's feelings in one of the most moving passages in literature. He says: + I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now.  But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell.  And went on thinking.  And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time:  in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing.  I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the ONLY one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm," The author's willingness to subordinate both plot and protagonist is made evident a few chapters later. The protagonist has undergone the electroshock therapy, which is supposed to “produce the result of a preforontal lobotomy without the negative effects of the knife . . . the result is as complete a change of personality as you'll find . . . He'll experience no major conflict of motives, and what is even better, society will suffer no traumata on his account” . + It is certainly possible that part of the reason that Invisible Man was so powerful in effecting political and cultural change is because of Ellison's focus on message rather than on his protagonist. However, this also reduces the power of the novel as great literature. By viewing the work through the lens of Levinas we are able to see that one reason that Ellison's focus on message is detrimental to the literariness of the novel is because it does not respect the Otherness of his characters. + The third philosophy that I want to view literature through is Heidegger's concept of language and truth. He claims that truth is that which uncovers, that which connects us to more of the world. He says that everything has an infinite relation with everything else, and that it is the pathways between things that give meaning . In other words, language helps to create the way that we view the world, and the way that things connect to one another for us. + I believe that all good literature is good, at least in part, because it uncovers a part of ourself, or humanity, or a way of thinking, that we had been previously unable to see. It makes new connections between things. In this case, I think that looking first at an example that fails will increase the contrast between the good and bad, and will show more distinctly how the principle applies to literature. + Although there are an unfortunate number of texts that would fit the bill for a failure in this category, I have chosen to focus on the particularly painful Mutant Message Down Under, by Marlo Morgan. Morgan takes the interesting subject of her time with an aborigine tribe in Western Australia, and turns it into a long fable instead of a work of art. She has fascinating and meaningful experiences with these people, but insists on telling the reader the connections that should be made. For example, when she first meets the tribe she thinks that she is going for some sort of awards ceremony, but instead they make her take off all of her clothes, jewelry, etc., and they throw it all into a fire. Instead of allowing the reader to judge for himself the importance and meaning of this experience, Morgan ends the chapter by saying: + Only in retrospect would I understand the symbolism being played out as I removed my valuable and what I considered very necessary jewelry. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"Instead of making Christ all God, Dostoevsky emphasizes both His perfection and His humanness. The only explicit action that Christ takes during his time with the Inquisitor is at the end of the Inquisitor's very long diatribe against him. “He saw the Prisoner had listened intently all the time, looking gently in his face and evidently not wishing to reply. The old man longed for Him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But He suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless aged lips. That was all His answer” . There is no walking on water, no raising the dead, no thunderbolts and lightning. Christ's action itself is very human, but the ability to remain compassionate after such verbal abuse is truly divine. Dostoevsky's ability to impart humanity to characters which are meant to be the very embodiment of good and evil is part of the great power of the work. + Another aspect of Kant's philosophy of treating humanity as an ends is a willingness to discuss and examine the issues that are important to humanity. I believe that this principle is closely tied to Keats's “negative capability”. In order to create great literature an author must be willing to respect the doubt and confusion and lack of clear answers that is an integral part of what it means to be human. Again, Dostoevsky proves to be a master. This short passage deals, and deals deeply, with faith and doubt, justice and mercy, love and expectations, forgiveness, compassion, and belief and action. The conversation between Alyosha and Ivan toward the end of the passage is so powerful because it is so human. All of us have been Ivan - doubting, tired of searching for elusive Truth, and we have all been Alyosha, having our faith confronted with the harsher realities of the world. The attitudes and emotions they have when dealing with these big issues are complex and confusing and utterly human. Dostoevsky gives no pat answers, but this is why we are able to understand and identify with his characters. By recognizing that it is the humanity that is so much of the genius, and by reading through the lens of Kant, we better appreciate the respect that Dostoevsky has for his characters, and by extension, for us as readers. In addition, we are able to recognize a new beauty in the work, by seeing how the very humanity of his characters connect us to the ethereal and eternal concepts of good and evil. + Alternatively, I believe that Kant's philosophy can also be used to show why some bad literature is bad. With an advance apology to those who may enjoy the works that I criticize, I will begin with Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Her characters are painfully manipulative. Manipulative to each other, but even more dastardly, manipulative toward the reader. Ironically, Rand uses Kant's very terms in her preface, claiming, “This is the motive and purpose of my writing: the projection of an ideal man. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"Because of political instability and infighting, there is little chance of any native language becoming an official or even de facto replacement for English in most of these countries. Many of these languages are oral, or have only recently adopted a written form. The long literary history of English and other European languages allows for shades of meaning that are simply not possible in many of these languages. In addition, English is the source of economic and social mobility, as well as the access point to world literature and education. With so few native speakers of many indigenous languages, the only way to expose the cultural and political issues that a writer cares about to a larger audience is through the use of a non-indigenous language. + Conversely, English is seen by many authors as the language of the oppressor, and of unwelcome Westernization. At a more basic level, English is not a local language, and therefore authors view it as unable to convey local cultural meanings as effectively. As Szeman points out in Zones of Instability, the complexities of postmodernity make the emergence of a national literature even more tricky. He says, ""What makes the creation of a national culture an especially difficult and ambiguous task in these regions is in part the number of discourses with which these writers have to contend and work through: anti-imperialist and imperialist discourses; the discourses of nativism and Western philosophy; modernist discourses promising progress and development . . . and discourses concerning the role and political efficacy of literature, which of necessity must deal with imperialism, modernism, and nationalism all at once."" + Post-colonial authors deal with these pressures in different ways. Some, like Senghor, embrace European languages and modes of thought as useful tools for examining local culture, and for bringing local issues to a worldwide forum. Others are much more reluctant to use English or other European languages for their works. One of the most extreme in this camp is the Kenyan writer wa Thiong'o. began his career writing in English, but has become more and more adamant in his opposition to English as a medium for post-colonial repression. He now writes his books originally in Gikuyu, and only later translates them into English. + Even in English, however, constantly reminds the reader that his books are not Western, but are African. He accomplishes this through a few different means. I will use his novel Devil on the Cross as a case study for the techniques that he employs. Most obviously, deals with post-colonial issues and struggles as the foundation for his narrative, but I will examine how he uses not only narrative, but literary techniques to reinforce his localist agenda and to make his novel more African and less Western. + First, Africanizes the English that he uses. As Kasanga and Kalume discuss, uses African syntax, African idioms, African word formation styles, and African lexical items to make his novel feel foreign to the native English speaker. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm," Hopefully, showing the interrelatedness between moral philosophy and literature shows that the two disciplines are deeply linked, in ways that cannot be fully explicated or understood. It is time that we accept the fact that morality and aesthetics are inextricably and inescapably connected, and that any judgment of literature is a moral judgment. In order to understand one or the other we must try to study and understand both. + + Modern technology has created a new era in the history of language. Means of travel, and especially means of communication, fashioned a world that is truly interconnected. Due to the economic and military dominance of America as the world's only superpower, English has become the language of this globalization. Although the era of Imperialism has come to a close, the sun still never sets on speakers of the English language. As Paul Jay suggests, this globalization of English is having dramatic implications on the study of English literature, and the force of these globalizing factors will only increase. He claims that literature should no longer be studied from a nationalist perspective, but can only be understood from the context of a local culture (inter)acting with(in) a global culture. The study of British literature, from this perspective, must be the study of global literature, and the study of how all English language literatures and cultures affect one another. It is on this theoretical perspective that this paper will be based, believing that an overview of the current cultural status of English language literatures is a vital background to truly understanding British literature. + Before exploring the effect of global culture on specific literature and literatures, it is important to examine some of the factors that make contemporary English so unique, and its impact so difficult to understand. + Perhaps the most unique aspect of English is just how widespread it is. Not only is English the de facto language of the Internet, international business, and diplomacy, but there are large populations of native English speakers on every continent in the world. Never has any language had the sort of global diffusion, not to mention international power and prestige, that English currently has. One effect of this dominance is a dramatic increase in the number of English learners. By some estimates, there are currently between 750 million and one billion people learning English at some level. That means that there are currently far more people learning English than there are native speakers of the language, with many learners presumably being taught by other non-native speakers. This makes English a very vibrant and diverse language, with much variation in lexicon, semantics, and even syntax as it is affected in different ways by different cultures that it comes in contact with. + These attributes of contemporary English are unique in the history of language, and there will certainly be some monumental changes in the language as more and more non-European speakers learn it. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"For example, he uses the term a knot in my heart to refer to having a serious problem. This is a role outside traditional English semantics for that idiom, but never explains what it means. Even when does tell the reader what a term means, he is somewhat condescending and alienating, as his footnote describing the semantic range of heart. He says, ""It must be remembered that in Gikuyu the word 'heart' means many things: soul, spirit, conscience, mind, inner man, essence and so on."" Even though heart has a very similar semantic range to standard English, he intentionally localizes the novel again, and reminds Western readers that they are reading an African work. + At times, also makes his subversion of English more explicit. He chooses to italicize non-Gikuyu words that appear in the original Gikuyu novel. In most English novels that use non-English words, it is these non-English words that are italicized. In Devil on the Cross, however, italicizes not only French and Swahili borrowings, but even English words that appeared in English in the original work. Thus he continually reminds us that this novel is a translation, even an unnatural translation. + Even more explicitly, dedicates his novel ""To all Kenyans struggling against the neo-colonial stage of imperialism."" His painful irony is that in order to communicate his message to the outside world, must communicate in the medium of the oppressors. However, instead of bowing to English conventions, he chooses to treat the language of the oppressor as a tool to be manipulated for his local, Kenyan, aims. As author, the manipulated thus becomes the manipulator. + Reed Dasenbrock sums up the position of and like-minded authors, saying ""This African critical position insists therefore on African literature's being African first and universal only second, if at all."" seems to have translated his work into English not to make it intelligible to the Western world, but to show the Western world that there are cultural boundaries that even a common language cannot overcome. + The third type of literature is that which comes from the new English learners in non-native English countries. As the English-speaking population continues to grow in these cultures, this type of literature is becoming increasingly common. It generally finds its expression when an author from a non-native culture immigrates to a native English culture, like Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, or when the child of immigrants grows up in an English-speaking culture, but writes about the culture and experiences of her non-English background, like Maxine Hong Kingston. These non-colonial authors generally do not have the same sort of conflicting feelings toward English as post-colonial cultures. They have chosen to learn English voluntarily, and generally see it as a means of social and economic mobility more than as a tool of oppression. Where intentionally makes his novel unintelligible to the English reader, these authors are eager to use English in order to introduce their culture to the Western world. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"Because fewer members of their cultural community speak English, there is less pressure to be local in English language literary production. In addition, the post-colonial guilt of Britain and America have caused a dramatic increase in cultural awareness and the desire to understand and come in contact with other cultures, and English language novels provide a way for them to come in contact with different societies. + As my case study for this type of novel, I will be using The Kite Runner, by Kholed Hosseini. Hosseini introduces Afghan ideas and vocabulary into his novel, but he is careful to contextualize them. One way of doing this is by giving a translation of new words in the text itself. For example, his character Hassan declines to move into Amir's house because ""it was a matter of ihtiram, a matter of respect"" and a story about Amir's father ""would have been dismissed as laaf, that Afghan tendency to exaggerate."" Another technique is to put the Afghan words in context, so that the reader can guess at the meaning of the word, without explicitly defining them. For example, in a very different dedication from that in Devil on the Cross, Hosseni dedicates his novel ""to Haris and Farah, both the noor of my eyes, and to the children of Afghanistan. Although we don't know the exact meaning of noor, which is princess, we can guess that to be the noor of someone's eyes means that you are very important to them. As another evidence of Hosseini's desire for intelligibility, where italicizes words foreign to his culture, Hosseini italicizes words that come from his culture, and are foreign to the English reader. + In addition to local terms, when Hosseini introduces cultural concepts that are foreign to the Western reader he is also liberal in his explanations. For example, he spends three pages describing the Afghani tradition of kite flying and kite running. Throughout the book, Hosseini introduces and explains other elements of Afghani history and culture. These explanations are only necessary because he is consciously writing for a Western audience. + At times these non-colonial authors may use terms that confuse or disorient the reader, in a process that Reed Dasenbrock calls ""culturally coded defamiliarization"". Dasenbrock says that the reader is defamiliarized when a writer uses a term that natives to the writer's culture would understand without difficulty, but that non-natives do not immediately understand. He gives the example of the term ""ghost"" in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. She attaches the non-standard semantic meaning of ""foreigner"" to the term, as well as the traditional definition. As readers grasp this new meaning of ""ghost"" they are able to see Chinese culture in a new way, and ""learn a good deal about Chinese perception of us."" Dasenbrock says, + Writers can therefore choose to make moments of their work more difficult to understand, less immediately intelligible, because they know that the reader will work for their meaning. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"The portrayal of a moral ideal, as my ultimate literary goal, as an end in itself—to which any didactic, intellectual or philosophical values contained in a novel are only the means. . . . Let me stress this: my purpose is not the philosophical enlightenment of my readers” . + Rand's characters are used as means to promote her own ends. Rand does her best to make the reader respect and appreciate Roark, because she knows that accepting him is to accept her philosophy. In fact, Howard Roark is not a man, he is a philosophy embodied . In short, she uses his humanity as a means to make us emotionally accept her philosophy. In opposition to her hero, Roark, Rand creates Ellsworth Toohey. He is less intelligent, less talented, and physically weaker than Roark. If that were not enough, Toohey is a master manipulator, and we are repeatedly shown how he uses others for his own ends. It is easy for the reader to choose which side he is on – whichever is opposed to a man like Toohey, which also happens to be Roark's side. In truth, Toohey's character is a masterful diversion. By making Toohey's manipulation explicit Rand hides the fact that she is being manipulative herself. Instead of real interactions, Rand sets up caricatures of people in order to emotionally connect us with her personal philosophy. By using Kant's ethical philosophy we are able to see what Rand is trying to do, and why this manipulation works. Instead of respecting humanity as an ends in itself, she is using it as a means. + Another important moral philosophy is Levinas's concept of our moral obligation to respect the alterity, the Otherness, of those around us. He says the Other, whoever they may be, is, “someone for whom I am answerable” . In fact, it is only in respecting the Other that we truly become part of the human family. This idea is explicitly understood and explained in a literary context by Flannery O'Connor, who says, “a story is a dramatic event that involves a person because he is a person, and a particular person—that is, because he shares in the general human condition and in some specific human situation. A story always involves, in a dramatic way, the mystery of personality.” We may be tempted to use these principles to judge how characters treat the Otherness of one another within a text, but I believe that we can more ably judge the literary value of a text by examining how the Otherness of the characters is treated by the author. + One text which deals powerfully with Otherness is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Finn was first published in 1884, some twenty years after the American Civil War. Twain seems to have realized that the Emancipation Proclamation may have granted blacks freedom from slavery, but that equality and respect have not accompanied that freedom. In 1884 most Americans still viewed blacks as different and inferior. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"I was yet to learn that time for these people had absolutely nothing to do with the clock hours on the gold- and-diamond watch now donated to the earth forever. + Much later I would understand that the releasing of attachment to objects and certain beliefs was already indelibly written as a very necessary step in my human progress toward being.” + Nearly every chapter ends with a similar retelling of what moral the author learned, and by extension, what the reader should learn. Another chapter ends by saying, “It is truly amazing that after fifty thousand years they [the Aborigine tribe] have destroyed no forests, polluted no water, endangered no species, caused no contamination, and all the while they have received abundant food and shelter. They have laughed a lot and cried very little. They live long, productive, healthy lives and leave spiritually confident” . + This insistence on making explicit the moral lessons, the connections between literature and life, has two negative effects on the reader. First, because every conclusion is prepackaged and delivered, the reader is discouraged from trying to uncover other truths or lessons. They become overshadowed by those which are spelled out in the novel. Second, we are more likely to question and reject even the lessons that are presented. When we are allowed to make our own connections we make them in ways that are meaningful to us, and we make them in many directions at once, often without even realizing it. This makes our personal conclusions much more powerful and motivating. Works like Morgan's, however, do not resonate with us aesthetically because they never become ours. The author's refusal to allow the reader to make his own Heideggerian uncoverings and connections hurts the aesthetic value of the work. + Alternatively, great literature teaches us page after page, but teaches us at a much deeper and more personal level. The master at this, as at so many things, is William Shakespeare. The reader of Shakespeare is forced to think grand thoughts and examine grand issues, but he is never led toward Shakespeare's personal conclusions. In this way the reader can make multiple connections, and multiple uncoverings, in different directions. Although any of Shakespeare's works could be chosen as an example, I will briefly examine a few passages from the classic King Lear. In the first scene of the first act, Shakespeare brings to the reader's attention the issues of filial and paternal obligations, the Catholic doctrine toward bastards, the effects of sexual promiscuity, the power of language, the conflict between duty and compassion, and the nature of love, among others. + In the first lines of the play Shakespeare is already questioning, probing, and causing us to think about our beliefs. The Earls of Kent and Gloucester are speaking, and Kent quickly learns that Gloucester's son, Edmund, is illegitimate. Upon learning this, Kent says, “I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so / proper” . +",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm," Later in this same scene King Lear is choosing how to divide his kingdom before he dies. He asks his three daughters “which of you shall we say doth love us most?” . The king subsequently takes away Cordelia's portion and gives it to her older sisters. In these few lines Shakespeare again causes the reader to question and to make connections. We learn of the power of language to persuade and influence the beliefs of others, but this concept is quickly undermined by Kent's plea with Lear to think about the actions of each of the daughters instead of simply what they said. This leads the reader to question whether love should be judged by the actions or the words directed toward a beloved. We might then ask ourselves whether, as Cordelia seems to be claiming, actions motivated by duty can be a sufficient basis for real love from child to parent. We are also led to wonder about the higher duty of those who love us – whether they should support us in our decisions or attempt to dissuade us from our bad decisions, as Kent does with the king. + The magic of the text is that each of these issues are interwoven and seamlessly connected one to another. Amazingly, the play never explicitly asks any of these questions, and certainly does not hand out any of the answers. Instead, the reader can make the connections on his own, and is free to connect the story to his own life and experiences in the way that is most meaningful, without being told where the puzzle pieces should fit. It is this malleability of good literature, its ability to touch and to uncover the world to us at an individual level, which describes much of its power. Shakespeare provides these nodes, these points of connection, throughout his work, and seeing his work as an act of uncovering and making connections helps us to understand yet one more facet of why it is so moving. As with the other philosophies, Heidegger helps us to view beauty in a new and puissant way. + As readers and as people who must make decisions, we must have a way to judge what we read and what we do. I believe that the modern world has stolen from us an important tool in making these judgments. Many 18th century thinkers saw themselves as just that – as thinkers, willing to examine the issues of life with all available tools. Since then, the capitalistic structure of the modern university has helped to cause us to understand learning to be more compartmentalized. Students and professors consider themselves as English majors or Political Science professors instead of as thinkers, as connoisseurs of knowledge in general. I believe that reestablishing the links between disciplines can help to remedy this problem, and will yield important discoveries and breakthroughs. I have attempted to show how one such link, namely between moral philosophy and literary analysis, can help us to see the beauty and power of good literature in new and exciting ways. +",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"Instead of focusing on the future of our language, I will instead discuss the effect that the present social and demographic situation has on various types of English writers. + The first type of literature that I will focus on is the traditional English language literatures, primarily British literature. These literatures have an established canon, and a sort of literary confidence. We would expect that they would be the least affected by the changes of globalization. Because of their economic and cultural power, the syntax and lexicon of American and British English is the standard to which new English learners aspire. There are, however, some pressures for even these writers to adapt to a more global English. Because there are so many non-native speakers, there is a huge market for literature that uses a smaller lexicon, in order to be more accessible to English learners. + There are also other non-market forces affecting literary production in these established cultures. British literature in particular is at an interesting point in its history. Post-colonialism is also post-empire, and Britain has gone from the empire where the sun never sets to a small island where it often feels like the sun never rises. English literature is the last bastion of English Imperialism - Britain may no longer be the economic or military superpower, but it still sees itself as the cultural center of the English-speaking world. The fact that this attitude is accepted is evidenced somewhat in the cultural prestige of the Booker Prize. Perhaps the most prestigious English language literature award, Booker Prize winners must be British or Commonwealth writers. The implied message is that the best literature is still coming out of England, or is at least a product of British society. + McEwan's Atonement is one example of the continued British fascination with Empire. McEwan sets his novel at the beginning of World War II, just as the Empire was beginning its decline. Cecilia and Robbie, the heroine and hero, are all that is good about Britain. They are bright and capable and upright. The new post-colonial world, however, no longer has a need for the old England, and it is only in the post-colonial imagination of Briony as Britain that they live on, and that they are important. Other authors, like Kazuo Ishiguru in The Remains of the Day, also focus on this period of history. It does not seem coincidental that so much of contemporary British literature expresses this longing for past glory, albeit through the lens of the post-national postmodernist. + The second type of novelist is the post-colonial writer. Although technically America, Canada, and Australia are all post-colonial cultures, for the scope of this paper I will be focusing on countries recently granted independence from Great Britain, primarily North African countries. In these countries there are strong pressures both toward and away from English literary production. In most North African countries there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages spoken, and English has become a lingua franca, enabling disparate tribes to communicate. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm," Because of this relationship between literature and ethics, I believe that the disciplines can be profitably intermingled, and that each can be enriched by viewing it through the lens of the other. Although I believe that this intermingling can be beneficial in both directions, this paper will focus on how the greatness of a work of literature can be better understood by viewing it through the lens of the study of morality. In particular, I will examine various works of art from the perspective of three schools of moral philosophy. As a disclaimer, I am no expert in philosophy, and my interpretations of each of the moral philosophies presented is a basic one. However, I believe that my understanding is deep enough for my intentions: namely, to show that the principle of mingling the two disciplines can be useful in fostering a greater understanding of both. + The first philosophy that I will use is Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative to always treat humanity as an end. Kant attempted to rationalize morality, giving rules and maxims for determining whether an action is moral. In his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals Kant explains the categorical imperative of treating humanity as an end, saying “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means” . My position is that viewing a work of literature from the framework of this philosophy can help us to put one more face on why it is either good literature or bad literature. One specific way in which we can use Kant's categorical imperative is to examine the way that an author treats the humanity of his characters. Many a bad author uses his characters as a means of leading the reader to a predetermined philosophical position. All great literature allows its characters their liberty, and allows them to be themselves. + One example of this is Dostoevsky's “The Grand Inquisitor”. Although Dostoevsky is teaching, and explicitly teaching, he does not allow his personal aims to overshadow the humanity of his characters. The Inquisitor, Ivan, and even Christ, contribute toward Dostoevsky's ends, but they do so of their own accord, retaining their individuality and humanity; they are not used simply as means. For example, Dostoevsky's Inquisitor is evil, but he is not a caricature of evil. The remarkable thing about the Inquisitor is the depth of his humanity. He is directly opposing Jesus Christ, in person, telling him things like, “Tomorrow I shall condemn Thee and burn Thee at the stake as the worst of heretics,” and , “Be angry. I don't want Thy love, for I love Thee not” . Dostoevsky masterfully creates a character whose very evilness is motivated by love. He not only does not treat the Inquisitor's humanity as a means, but rather helps to uncover and draw attention to it. + This respect for humanity also works in the other direction. ",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +mm,"  But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. + It was a close place.  I took it up, and held it in my hand.  I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it.  I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: + ""All right, then, I'll GO to hell""—and tore it up. + I believe that one of the reasons that this passage is so moving is because it is about accepting the Other, and our responsibility toward the Other. Huck really believes that he is choosing between heaven and Jim, and still chooses Jim. Even against the pressures of society, Huck realizes that he is morally responsible for ensuring Jim's “irrevocable and inalienable” rights as a human being . Interestingly, by showing Jim's Otherness, his individuality, Twain also shows us his Sameness – namely, that he is the of the same type, the same species, the same kind, as Huck, and as the reader. Ironically, we recognize us in him because Twain shows us that Jim is unique, that he is not us, and more importantly, that he is not just a black man. Again, by viewing the work through a moral philosophy we are able to see a new beauty, or at least to better understand the beauty which we saw before. + Simply dealing with Otherness is not enough, however, to make a work great. Again, with a brief apology for the necessity of pointing out flaws in works that may be better appreciated by others, I believe that Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is not as great a work of literature as it could be because it violates Levinas's moral philosophy. Ellison focuses so much on creating a character who is the quintessential twentieth-century black American that his protagonist is robbed of his individuality, of his Otherness. In fact, Ellison goes so far in his attempt to make his character representative of his invisible race that he never even gives him a name. He is intentionally made to be interchangeable and without a real personality. This lack of a name is representative of how the Otherness of the protagonist is subjugated, over and over, to the aims of the author. + Ellison has the protagonist go through an almost unbelievable series of events in order to bring him into situations where Ellison can get to the issues or symbolism that he wants to. For example, at one point in the story the protagonist gets a job at a paint factory, where they make white paint on the back of black labor. In case we miss the symbolism, Ellison has the protagonist remember the jingle for the company: “If you're white, you're right” . And all of this within twenty pages! Ellison, quite simply, uses his protagonist and his plot as a tool to allow him write about the topics that he wants to address, with little regard for the individuality of his characters. +",29,English,male,BA,Localization Consultant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +f," Hoover responded that it was, and requested authorization to wiretap King not only at the locations suggested by Kennedy but “at any future address to which he may move,” though Kennedy reversed his request and denied authorization at the time. By October, Kennedy reconsidered yet again, signing another request for authorization from Hoover, this time specifically limited to King’s office in New York. Days later, he extended the authorization to King’s home, though he requested that the wiretaps “be evaluated at the end of 30 days in light of the results secured so that continuance of these surveillances could be determined at that time.” The end of this temporary approval coincided with John F. Kennedy’s assassination. This possibly accounts for Robert Kennedy’s failure to ask for the evaluation, though Hoover to maintained technical surveillance on King until Kennedy’s successor, Nicholas Katzenbach, learned of the program and shut it down in 1965. In this way, Hoover successfully acquired the authority to wiretap King, along with the loophole regarding King’s future addresses. With creative interpretation, the Hoover and the FBI would use Kennedy’s provisional authorization as the precondition for additional wiretaps at “future addresses” such as hotel rooms. + Throughout this period of increased activity by the FBI regarding King, Hoover sought a more complete picture of the relationship between civil rights and communism as well to define the Bureau’s approach to handling the growing movement. In this vein, he directed William Sullivan, one of his subordinates, to prepare a report on this issue in which Sullivan found no substantial evidence suggesting that the Communist Party possessed any significant influence over civil rights leadership as of August 1963. Hoover, however, saw the circumstance differently, writing “this memo reminds me vividly of those I received when Castro took over Cuba… Time alone proved you wrong. ” This prompted a new memo from Sullivan, in which he altered his position on the matter essentially arguing that even though the evidence does not support the conclusion that African Americans are under Communist influence, drastically increasing FBI efforts might reveal the truth that they are. Sullivan went on to note, “in the light of King’s powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands head and shoulders over all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negroes. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security. + Hoover, however, would not accept such a cursory change of opinion even when Sullivan was only attempting to validate the director’s view, writing, “No I can’t understand how you can so agilely switch your thinking… I don’t intend to waste time and money until you can make up your minds on what the situation really is.” +",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," Two years later, in November of 1964, Hoover held a rare press conference in which he called King “the most notorious liar in the country,” creating a public relations debacle. In fact, he had also called King “’one of the lowest characters in the country’” and “gave an affirmative response” to a question regarding the rumored links between King and communism. This led to a meeting between Hoover and King in early December at King’s request, where publicly they appeared to resolve their differences and emerge in a tenuous state of cooperation. While King emerged feeling as though he was simply talked at, Hoover’s subordinates actively sought to meet with other African American leaders to discuss replacing King. The news article discussing the meeting notes that Johnson had waived the mandatory retirement age of 70 that Hoover was soon approaching. Hoover had been in power for decades with no plans of retiring, and even though Johnson had waived the rule Hoover saw his position as the weakest in years, perhaps helping to explain his willingness to make public amends with his foremost enemy at the time. + While the public’s knowledge of the activities of Hoover and King in 1964 and 1965 was limited to this and other minor comments in the press, this was the year when Hoover switched tactics and tried to destroy King personally instead of only through linking him to communism. The wiretapping revealed little about King’s ties with communists, but did record King’s sexual promiscuity in detail. In a January 1964 memo, Hoover ordered surveillance in Milwaukee although his agents believed visible police presence would dissuade King from engaging in sexual activity, reasoning, “I don’t share the conjecture. King is a ‘tom cat’ with obsessive degenerate sexual urges.” Hoover believed that evidence of King’s immoral behavior would discredit him, ending the threat. Threats and blackmail related to an individuals private behavior, particularly when it came to immorality or, worse yet, homosexuality, was both an often-used and effective tool for Hoover. One oft-cited rumor surrounding Hoover was that he himself might be homosexual, the evidence for this being his unusual relationship with his number two at the FBI, Clyde Tolson. However, none of his usual news sources were interested in using the information, and it did not have the desired effect on other civil rights leaders or public figures. + The culmination of the personal attacks, while most likely not directly involving Hoover though there was little in the FBI he was unaware of, was a particularly ominous package sent by the FBI, under Sullivan’s orders, to King in November 1964. Opened on January 5th, 1965, by King’s wife Coretta, the package contained a spliced-together highlight reel of King’s sexual escapades caught by FBI microphones as well as a letter. In what can only be described as blackmail, the FBI’s letter threatens, “King, look into your heart. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes… You are no clergyman and you know it. I repeat you are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that… King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days… You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” The New York Times reported on the same day that King received this package that the day before, King had announced a need for a break due to exhaustion. Thus, it is fair to say that King’s mental state was already suffering at this time, a fact corroborated by FBI wiretaps. King, for his part, correctly suspected that the FBI was behind the package, and grew highly distraught. The exact role that Hoover might have played in this situation is unclear, but it is evidence of the extent to which his subordinates followed his logic and standard tactics. The letter reads as though Hoover had wrote it himself, as it refers over and over to King’s immorality and asserts that he was a fraud, two views that Hoover expressed time and again. Hoover also shared intelligence regarding King’s sexual activities with many people, including Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. While not the damning information that would destroy King’s capacity to work with either one, Kennedy and Johnson both were affected by it. Kennedy saw it in a more personal way, as King had been taped making a joke about John Kennedy shortly after the assassination and Robert disapproved of the sexual activity, and Johnson in terms of the hypocrisy, though he distinctly enjoyed the reports. With evidence in hand but no one willing to either leak the information or publish it in the press, Katzenbach’s action to revoke the wiretaps on King met with little resistance by Hoover and the FBI slowed their investigation of King, though physical surveillance remained in place. This transition was greatly aided by the FBI’s development of a valuable informant in the SCLC, revealed by historian David Garrow as Jim Harrison. + The last phase of heavy FBI investigation of King revolved around King’s opposition to the war in Vietnam and his Poor People’s Campaign. King’s famous Riverside Church speech on April 4, 1967, led the FBI to resume intensive surveillance. An FBI report on the speech noted that King’s positions “parallel the propaganda line which the Communist Party, USA, has been projecting regarding the war in Vietnam.” Days later, the FBI considered warning Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller that King was under communist influence, as “Martin Luther King has clearly become a puppet in the hands of Levison and Wachtel… His recent vicious condemnation of the United States in a public speech shows how much of a communist puppet he has become and illustrates the danger he represents in the hands of the scheming communists.”",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"Ivie Anderson follows with the melody in lyrics before ending the song with scat singing mirroring Nanton’s introductory solo, incorporating a similar elegant downward glissando to launch into the chorus for a final time. Slightly earlier, in Ring Dem Bells, a lively, solo-driven piece, Ellington uses scat singing in a call and response pattern with a saxophone. The idea of voice as instrument played a significant role in Ellington’s work, as did the idea of attaining a vocal quality through instruments. +Nanton, as a master of the “growl and plunger” techniques, is an example of someone who allowed Ellington to cater to the strengths of his band members. Because of Nanton’s particular abilities, Ellington featured him when a piece required a rough and “earthy” sound. Long tenures by stylistically unique players such as Nanton, Johnny Hodges, and “Cootie” Williams, to name some of his main soloists, aided Ellington in crafting his sound. By carefully crafting music with the styles and sounds of each band member in mind, Ellington was able to experiment with tone with great success. +Pieces such as Mood Indigo, Daybreak Express, Dusk, Harlem Air Shaft, and Happy Go Lucky Local demonstrate, in varying ways, Ellington’s ability to create focused and evocative themes, or tone poems. To do so, Ellington manipulates the traditional roles and sounds of instruments in order to capture specific moods through careful orchestration and innovative thinking. In Mood Indigo, for instance, Ellington uses a small ensemble for a subdued and contemplative piece. Ellington’s genius lies in the orchestration; the clarinet, trumpet, and trombone create chords in a non-traditional fashion, so that a muted trumpet is the highest tone, a muted trombone the middle, and a clarinet the lowest. The result is a distinctive sound that seems to lend the piece an almost spiritual nature. Ten years later in Dusk, a similar reflection on mood and tone, Ellington employs low reeds to back a higher muted cornet. Recorded with eight more players than Mood Indigo, Dusk is more developed and allows Ellington to explore more fully the inversions of tone that create the elegant and subdued sound of the piece. +While Mood Indigo and Dusk display Ellington’s abilities to write intricate and innovative slower pieces, evoking romance and warmth, Daybreak Express, Harlem Air Shaft, and Happy Go Lucky Local are lively pieces that demonstrate the fullness of his vision for the big band era. Daybreak Express uses the idea of a train accelerating to full speed as the framework for a tightly orchestrated piece. Ellington’s compositional skills dominate the entirety of the recording, layering sections to capture the speed and power of a train and featuring an intricate soli by the reed section. +The success of Daybreak Express lies in the cohesion of the group’s sound, a quality of Ellington’s larger orchestras that is evident in Harlem Air Shaft and Happy Go Lucky Local. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"One example of this was his investigation of the civil rights movement, specifically Martin Luther King, Jr. Beginning in the early 1960s and in full force at the time of King’s assassination, Hoover and the FBI conducted surveillance and intelligence operations, frequently crossing the line to harassment, with the goal of discrediting King as the leader of the civil rights movement as well as limiting the progress of the cause. While modern scholars agree that Hoover’s power was immense and that he created an FBI answerable only to himself, the extent to which the investigation of King was an obsessive, personal fixation of Hoover’s or a larger, more structural product of society remains a subject of historical debate. + FBI interest in Martin Luther King, Jr., began as a result of his relationship with Stanley Levison, whom the FBI considered linked to the Communist Party, and the possibility that Communists were influencing King’s decisions and actions. In a memo dated May 22, 1961, King’s brief biography and his possible connections with communism bear two notations by Hoover. In response to the statement that the FBI has not actually investigated King, Hoover asked “Why not?,” and requested more information regarding a speech King gave at an alleged “Communist Party training school seminar.” This beginning, where the FBI sought increased information about a possible Communist, illustrates the lens through which Hoover saw the world. It also legitimizes the initial steps taken by the FBI, as investigating the Communist threat was a core responsibility of the agency and supported by a population living in a Cold War mentality. Upon the discovery of the relationship between King and Levison in 1962, Hoover concluded that King was guilty of association. Levison had been on the FBI’s radar for a decade as a involved with the Communist Party in the early 1950s, and Hoover promptly informed Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General and Hoover’s immediate superior. As surveillance of Levison increased exponentially, with wiretaps and physical intelligence being employed, so did the information on King and Levison. As Hoover kept the Robert and John Kennedy informed on the situation, the President and Attorney General grew concerned with the implications of either the allegations being true or creating controversy, impeding their civil rights agenda and other political maneuvers. This culminated in 1963 with President Kennedy telling King bluntly to get rid of Levison and another suspected Communist, to which Levison and King acquiesced, at least in terms of direct communication, in order to maintain the alliance with the White House. In the background, however, Hoover pushed hard to obtain approval to expand his investigation. + The instigation of this effort, however, came from Robert Kennedy. In July of 1963 Kennedy asked the FBI to determine whether placing “technical surveillance” on King was feasible at his home and office at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," It was Daviess firm belief that Wilkinson “[has] been, for years, a pensioner of Spain, and [has] held secret intelligence with that power; and you [Wilkinson] were engaged in Burr’s conspiracy and deserted him.” These insights by Daviess are particularly important, as in truth Jefferson’s embrace of Wilkinson as an informant and witness skewed the facts and ultimately affected the course of the trial. The sudden change in Jefferson’s attitude toward the situation is difficult to explain, as he went from inaction to extreme effort in dealing with Burr. As Jefferson postured against Spain, perhaps he was willing to allow Burr latitude in threatening to invade Mexico, but as the situation changed to where war was no longer seen as inevitable and public opinion turned against Burr, he found a way to satiate his “hunger for evidence of something loathsome to believe of Burr.” Regardless of the specific cause of Jefferson’s interest, as the trial in Richmond began, he was heavily invested in seeing a guilty verdict. +One of the most highly publicized and significant aspects of the trial was the presiding judge, Chief Justice John Marshall. As head of the judicial branch and a stalwart Federalist, he had a record of high profile showdowns with Thomas Jefferson. One of the first of these was the case Marbury v. Madison, regarding the last-minute appointments of justices by John Adams. Jefferson refused to recognize Marbury’s commission because he believed that there was a technical and procedural blunder in delivering it, aside from his political bias against the appointment. Marshall ruled against Madison, effectively against Jefferson, in upholding the commission. His decision set one of the foundations of United States law, in that “a law repugnant to the Constitution is void, and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.” The ruling was a blow to Jefferson, as Marshall limited his power and strengthened the role of the judiciary. In addition to this and other court rulings, Marshall and Jefferson were known to be enemies politically and, one could say, personally. Marshall was unhappy and angry to have the duty of administering the oath of office to Jefferson for his first term, because Jefferson was someone he thought could ruin the country. This occurred after the presidential election of 1800, when Jefferson and Burr had tied under the electoral college system. Despite pleas from Hamilton, Marshall refused to endorse Jefferson because of their bitter differences regardless of his ambivalent feelings towards Burr. Following all of this was Marshall’s work, The Life of George Washington. “The single greatest source of personal antagonism between the two statesmen,” Jefferson felt that it was a skewed Federalist history and a propaganda tool, and devoted a significant amount of time refuting the series. With these and other sources of tension in their past, the trial of Aaron Burr would prove to be a politicized, personal, and high-stakes event in the careers of both, with understandably significant effects on how the executive and judicial branches defined their powers and responsibilities. +",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"It has greatly advanced the concept of law enforcement by introducing scientific methods and professional disciplines.” However, the FBI’s investigation of Martin Luther King, Jr., is surprising and shocking in the extent that it was about personal destruction. The authors of a 1977 Department of Justice task force report shift much of the blame for this on Hoover, stating that the investigation should have been shut down in 1963. There do appear to be three major parts of the investigation: the initial probe into Levison and King’s relationship with communism, a marked shift in focus to King’s personal life, and a movement back to King’s ideology. Defenders of the FBI can cite legitimacy in the Bureau taking an interest in King in the first and last phases, for it was ostensibly the job of the FBI to identify domestic threats particularly in dealing with Communism. In addition, both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations knew that Hoover possessed a great deal of information on just about everyone, particularly King. Robert Kennedy approved the first wiretaps on King, and Johnson enjoyed frequent updates on King’s sexual escapades. Hoover, while he had a great deal of autonomy and power, did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, the institutions surrounding him failed to limit him in any significant way, tacitly condoning his status as unchallenged national policeman. The conduct of the FBI reflected the leadership of Hoover, but it was a larger societal force of generational and racial conflict that led to Hoover’s actions regarding King. Perhaps above all the role of the FBI was to suppress extremists of any kind, though it was Hoover and other members of the establishment that wrongly labeled King as one. + + + Common historiography surrounding the creation of the United States focuses on the triumphs of the founding fathers, the small group of leaders at the top of the political hierarchy. These men are now venerated and celebrated, to the point where they are national icons thought of with few faults. Lost in this is the bitterness of the politics of the years and those following, when extreme tests of the principles of the new nation became clouded with personal vendettas and disputes. One such example is in the conspiracy and trial for treason in 1807 of Aaron Burr, a man who nearly was president and had served as vice-president. Substantiated facts about what precisely Burr planned or hoped to accomplish in personal land and power acquisition, or even the division of the United States as his enemies thought, are obscure, but the result was a highly publicized and politicized trial that pitted Burr against the sitting president, Thomas Jefferson. In the center of the chaos was John Marshall, a Federalist Chief Justice who had a history of tensions with Jefferson. Presiding over the trial, Marshall had to face issues central to how the new nation would define itself, such as the definition of treason, separation of powers between executive and judicial branches, and the danger of presidential tyranny. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," +Duke Ellington’s legacy in jazz derives in large part from his longevity and, by extension, his creative abilities to shape his orchestra. Ellington’s presence on the piano is subtle in many of the compositions selected for this assignment, but as a composer Ellington excelled at creating rich and complex pieces that showcased the individual abilities of band members. Ellington crafted the framework in which a soloist could freely improvise, in addition to writing tightly orchestrated pieces and phrases that called on the particular style of band members to highlight musical ideas. In doing this, he also emphasized the tone of the orchestra more generally, creating coherent and original sounds to fit each piece. Ellington’s mastery of the individual players’ sound, as well as how they fit together in a growing ensemble, enabled him to write some of the most innovative and brilliant pieces in jazz history. +The Grove Music dictionary, in discussing Ellington’s sound and innovation, mentions Creole Love Call in reference to using voice “as a jazz instrument” throughout his career. This is an early example of Ellington’s use of voice to add texture and color without the hindrance of lyrics. Creole Love Call also demonstrates Ellington’s ability to compliment the style of his soloists, something that is evident throughout his career. This slow, deliberate twelve bar blues piece contains six choruses, as follows: +Chorus 1: Call and response between voice and reeds, where the voice begins smooth and melodic, then transitions to a rougher sound towards the end. +Chorus 2: Muted trumpet solo that elaborates on the basic melody and emphasizes several extended blue notes. +Chorus 3: Sweeping clarinet solo in a high register, backed by a subtle syncopated piano phrase. +Chorus 4: Full band echoes the first chorus with a call and response by the brass and reed sections. +Chorus 5: The climactic chorus of the piece, as the reeds now begin the call and response in a high register, backed by syncopated stop time from the brass and rhythm sections. +Chorus 6: A return to the structure of the first chorus, with call and response between voice and reeds. In this chorus the voice takes on the sound of the “growl” technique, soloing as an instrument. +Tag: Brief tag featuring a vocal run and a dissonant novelty ending by a trombone. +Ellington’s use of voice to add a dimension of tone color to this piece is one example of a stylistic trait that permeates his work. +In Hot and Bothered, recorded a year later, Ellington combines his skill at tight orchestration with his ear for tone color. A call and response phrase between “Bubber” Miley on muted trumpet and Baby Cox’s scat singing uses the vocal elements of Miley’s playing and instrumental aspects of Cox’s voice to create a rich and complementary sound. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) extends these ideas, as Ellington uses Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton, a mainstay in Ellington’s orchestra, to great effect in introducing the melody on muted trombone. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," This speech, in fact, was King’s famous “I Have A Dream” address during the March on Washington, an event to which some historians attribute Hoover’s fixation with King and desire to personally destroy the movement that seemed to be growing every day.” Thus, in September, Sullivan attempted yet again to satisfactorily delineate the threat of communism in relation to the civil rights movement. In essence, Sullivan states again that the lack of proof does not mean innocence and that King was a subject of extreme interest to the FBI. This memo illuminates the influence of Hoover on the attitudes and decisions of his subordinates as Sullivan addressed the errors of his original findings: + As we know, facts by themselves are not too meaningful, as they are somewhat like stones tossed in a heap as contrasted to the same stones put in the form of a sound edifice. It is obvious to us now that we did not put the proper interpretation upon the facts which we gave the Director… May I repeat that our failure to measure up to what the Director expected of us in the area of communist- Negro relations is a subject of very deep concern to us in the Domestic Intelligence Division. We are disturbed by this and ought to be. I want him to know that we will do everything that is humanly possible to develop all facts nationwide relative to the communist penetration and influence over Negro leaders and their organizations. +Hoover accepted Sullivan’s position this time, as well as his recommendation to prepare and distribute the FBI’s interpretation of the matter to government officials, but not before making his only note on the memo next to Sullivan’s statement that Communists had not yet obtained control over the movement, “Certainly this is not true with respect to King.” In October, as the FBI sought authorization for wiretaps from Robert Kennedy, Hoover commented on another memo, stating “We must do our duty” to possible resistance from the Attorney General, as well as “I am glad that you recognize at last that there exists such influence.“ This entire episode illustrates the influence of the Director on FBI policy and personnel, as well as into the rationale of the FBI regarding the communist threat. It is apparent that King and civil rights had become the foremost arena in which Hoover would wage war, in his mind, yet again with communism. Hoover’s standard of evidence was simply what he thought, and his subordinates feared him enough to adapt their thinking to conform to his. + In addition to the perceived threat of King in terms of his links to communism and subversion, there was a personal quality to their animosity. In November of 1962, King had loudly criticized the FBI, stating that the presence of racism in the Bureau and its agents created an ineffective and discriminatory environment when it came to enforcing civil rights legislation and protecting African Americans. +",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"At Burr’s defense was Henry Clay, in addition to the skills of Burr himself, and though Daviess “was quite an attorney… he had his hands full with Clay... Daviess had no chance at all.” The grand jury found Burr innocent, and Daviess took the decision personally, writing with some sarcasm that “ A great majority of that jury, were honest simple men… but the active instruments of that address, made it, no doubt, wholly with a personal view, to bury alive a man, who should stir a question that brought to the peoples mind the old Spanish business; and thwarted our good saviour, mr. Burr, in his patriotic endeavors to give a wider spread to republicanism.” These early proceedings against Burr demonstrate the difficulty Daviess had in proving his firm belief that Burr intended treasonous action, as well as provide a window into the nearing trial that held the interest of the nation and particularly obsessed Jefferson. + As one of Daviess’s purposes in writing his pamphlet was his frustration with Jefferson, Daviess saw immense irresponsibility in how Jefferson responded to the entire situation, from dealing with Daviess himself to waiting for Wilkinson to betray Burr before acting with any sense of urgency. Wilkinson, named by Daviess as working for Spain, had indeed taken an oath to Spain and was in their employ as a spy. However, in Jefferson’s message to Congress on January 22, 1807, he offers his own interpretation of the events and actions of Burr, based heavily on information provided by Wilkinson himself. In the message, Jefferson pointedly claims that through information gathered, “neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed beyond question… the prime mover… was Aaron Burr.” He used a letter from Wilkinson to distill his interpretation of the conspiracy, resulting in the claim that “one [object] was the severance of the Union of these States by the Alleghany mountains,” the basis of the act of treason that Jefferson would pursue tirelessly. In addition, Jefferson took Wilkinson at his word so much that he put him in charge of dealing with Burr’s actions and wrote him repeatedly with words of encouragement, saying, “You have doubtless seen a good deal of malicious insinuation in the papers against you. This… begot suspicion and distrust in those unacquainted with the line of your conduct. We, who knew it have not failed to strengthen the public confidence in you… be assured that you will be cordially supported in the line of your duties.” + Daviess vehemently objected to this twisting of the truth as he saw it, as Wilkinson and Burr had been working together. In his pamphlet, Daviess attacks Jefferson for waiting until the conspiracy “had been completely crippled by Wilkinson’s defection [before a] great deal of zeal and orders were exhibited,” as well as Jefferson’s willingness to “order, or to sanction or ratify such outrages as Wilkinson has committed… a prostration of that part of the constitution most intimately connected with the citizen’s liberty.”",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," It also focused on the fact that the indictment concerned an assembly of men on Blannerhassett’s Island as the overt act, and the testimony provided by the prosecution did not clearly demonstrate that it was a military force, or coherently show that it was organized, let alone by Burr who was in Kentucky at the time. + On August 31, Marshall issued his decision, what came to be a landmark in constitutional law and in defining treason for the United States. With little precedent other than a related case that Marshall ruled on shortly before the trial of Burr, he relied upon historical interpretations of treason, the principals of increased protection against state persecution, and the Constitution, which he held as the supreme doctrine in answering these issues. With respect to his previous decision on treason, US v. Bollman and Swartwout, Marshall had to justify the logic that led to the conclusion that “those who do not bear arms may yet be guilty of treason,” through a slight departure from that stance as well as differentiating between the specifics of the cases. Marshall then struck a direct blow to the prosecution, ruling that the indictment “can be supported only by testimony which proves the accused to have been actually or constructively present when the assemblage took place on Blannerhassett’s Island,” before continuing “it is further the opinion of the court that there is no testimony whatever which tends to prove that the accused was actually or constructively present when that assemblage did take place. Indeed the contrary is most apparent.” The exact definition of an overt act, to Marshall, had to be a display of force for which Burr was responsible, in addition to evidence to this fact by two witnesses as stated in the Constitution. In this light, the prosecution had nothing further to offer due to their case being contingent on the idea of conspiracy and Burr’s intent to cause an uprising, instead of his actively taking part in the supposed overt act of levying war. + September 1st, then, the jury convened and issued their verdict, specifically referring to the course of the trial, stating “We of the jury say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under this indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We therefore find him not guilty.” This result meant defeat for Jefferson in what he desired most, though the trial dragged on for weeks afterwards on lesser charges. Burr, however, had beaten the most serious charges, and would eventually be committed for violating the Neutrality Act but allowed to post bail to face charges in Ohio. Burr instead went north, later heading to Europe to escape his notoriety. Jefferson’s response to the outcome of the trial was predictable: outrage and anger, mostly at Marshall. In a letter to Wilkinson, he called the events “equivalent to a proclamation of impunity to every traitorous combination which may be formed to destroy the Union; and they preserve a head for all such combinations as may be formed within, and a centre for all the intrigues & machinations which foreign governments may nourish to disturb us. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"In a letter to Hay before Marshall issued his opinion and the subpoena, Jefferson responded to the request by Burr with his belief that “reserving the necessary right of the President of the U S to decide, independently of all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public interests permit to be communicated, & to whom, I assure you of my readiness under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish on all occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require.” After hearing of the subpoena, Jefferson exploded, arguing “the leading principal of our Constitution is the independence of the Legislature, executive and judiciary of each other… but would the executive be independent of the judiciary, if he were subject to the commands of the latter, & to imprisonment for disobedience…?” In a draft, Jefferson is even more explicit in his anger towards Marshall for having the nerve to “convert [the] Trial into a contest between the judiciary & Exve Authorities… and take the first step to bring it on.” In all of these letters, Jefferson conceded that he would and had sent the information, but would never subject himself, as President, to appear in person. This confrontation, akin to the more substantial Marbury v. Madison decision, is one of the foundational episodes that determined how the judicial and executive branches would interact and exert their respective authority. Marshall did not press Jefferson to attend, but asserted a measure of the judicial branch’s authority in requiring evidence to be turned over to the court, whereas Jefferson clearly defined the limitations of direct oversight between co-equal branches. + Following the indictment of Burr, the case moved to the true trial and opened in early August. After the opening statements and several rounds of testimony, on August 21st, the defense made a motion to suppress the evidence given by the prosecution on the grounds that it constituted constructive treason, not treason as defined by the constitution. Edmund Randolph, an attorney for Burr, stated four questions regarding the line of reasoning taken by the prosecution: +First. Whether there can be treason in levying war without the employment of force. Secondly. Whether, under the constitution… a person, who it is admitted would be an accessory in felony, can be considered as a principal in treason in levying war. Thirdly. Whether, under the form of this indictment, charging colonel Burr with having done the act personally, any evidence of a derivative or accessorial agency can be admitted. Fourthly. And if such evidence of a derivative or accessorial treason were to be admitted, under this indictment, whether the real principal ought not to be first convicted. + +This argument called upon the specific definition of treason as written in the U.S. Constitution, which states “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," In addition, Johnson was particularly hostile towards King’s opposition to Vietnam, feeling betrayed after his efforts on civil rights legislation. Considering King’s opposition to the war a symptom of a larger idea of subversion, the FBI considered King’s Poor People’s campaign in a similar light. In an unsuccessful request for wiretap authorization to Attorney General Ramsey Clark on April 2, 1968, Hoover indicated that Clark had denied a similar request in January regarding King’s plans for the massive demonstration in Washington D.C. However, “in view of the recent developments in Memphis, Tennessee, where King led a march that ended in a riot, it is reasonable to assume the same thing could happen later this month when King brings his ‘Poor People’s March’ to Washington, D.C.” Hoover attributes the decision to continue plans for the demonstration to Levison, “his principle advisor and long-time secret Communist Party member.” The growing militancy of the civil rights movement concerned the FBI, and King’s evolving philosophy was interpreted as a precursor to revolutionary activity. King saw Vietnam, rioting, and materialism as evidence that America was in a highly tumultuous situation, and that the political reaction might be a shift away from the progress of the civil rights movement. After the riot in Memphis, King was extremely depressed and uncertain of his leadership powers. An FBI wiretap on March 29, 1968, just days before his assassination and informing Hoover’s memo to Clark days later, reveals King afraid that public criticism of the violence would translate into a broad assessment that King’s powers of persuasion and success through nonviolence had failed, confiding to Levison, “I think our Washington campaign is doomed.” Taken together, King’s efforts regarding Vietnam and the Poor People’s campaign combined to reactivate the FBI’s interest in his activities. Hoover feared that the communists had finally achieved control over King in his opposition to war, and opposition to government policy had long been a catalyst for FBI investigation. The Poor People’s Campaign, then, contained strains of radical thought, insofar as King saw large, concerted action as necessary to altering the power dynamics within society and the economy in order to bring economic and social justice to African Americans and other disadvantaged citizens. Hoover appeared to have mostly dropped his efforts at personally destroying King, focusing instead on gathering information about his developing political ideology and how his activities might disrupt society. While certainly not excusing Hoover’s actions, the FBI was adhering closer to its purpose than in years past. + It is difficult to speak of the FBI during Hoover’s reign as director without characterizing the Bureau as an extension of Hoover. One contemporary news article called him “an authentic American folk hero,” noting, “The FBI, which has been built in Mr. Hoover’s own image, is generally acknowledged to be the finest police and investigative force in the world. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"Harlem Air Shaft, Ellington’s attempt at capturing the variety of life, sounds, smells, and energy of Harlem, leans on the contributions of three signature pillars of Ellington’s band, Barney Bigard on clarinet, Nanton on trombone, and Williams on trumpet. The piece’s “jubilant, spirited, carefree” quality, as Ted Gioia terms it, stems from Ellington’s careful orchestration, as he uses the fifteen-member band to create differing and intertwining lines of melody and harmony. In addition, Gioia specifically mentions the three instances in which the melody slows and the rhythm section drops out, only for the band to come back in full swing, as “masterpiece[s] in deferred gratification.” Harlem Air Shaft also demonstrates Ellington’s ability to incorporate the freedom and improvisational sounds and foundations of early jazz with big band and swing. +Happy Go Lucky Local is another tone poem, evoking the resigned feeling of taking a local train that plods along to every stop, but with the swing, attitude, and force that a seventeen-player band and eight-member brass section provide. The piece is heavily derived from the blues, featuring a dizzying array of extended blue notes in solos as well as stunning, unearthly sounds from several instruments. Ellington’s experimental side is on full display in Happy Go Lucky Local, maximizing the potential of each instrument and player to create unusual and unique textures and tones. + Ellington’s incorporation of blues elements into his music spans his career, though his ability to innovate with structure is most notable in Jack the Bear. Upon listening, one can discern full choruses of the twelve bar blues, but intermixed with different structures and styles. Gioia goes into depth about the particular structure Ellington created for the song, but suffice it to say that Ellington’s capacity for complexity and brilliance in modifying styles, composing for a big band, and creating unique tone qualities is vast. Like almost everything else about Ellington, his ability to innovate with regard to structure crossed categories such as the size of the band. An example of this is The Clothed Woman, performed by a much smaller ensemble of six. Here, in a six-person ensemble, Ellington’s piano playing takes the forefront, as he uses “ hints of atonality mixed in with elements of stride and blues.” Ellington’s stylistic trait of molding different aspects of different styles into cohesive pieces was one source of his endless creativity as a composer. As his legacy suggests, Ellington was a gifted, prolific, and charismatic composer, bandleader, and pianist who earned his place as one of the most important figures in jazz. + + + J. Edgar Hoover successfully amassed an unprecedented level of power within American government and society throughout his five decades as director of the FBI. The release of FBI documents and increased public scrutiny of his years at the FBI that resulted from his death in 1972 led to the discovery that Hoover had extensively abused his position. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f," + Conditions in the United States at the turn of the 19th century afforded mobile, enterprising men like Burr ample opportunities to further their own power and sense of agency. After serving as vice-president and notoriously killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Burr saw the possibility of remaking himself in the loosely settled western United States. As the United States sought expansion to the West, it encountered Spanish power controlling the space it desired. This area caught Burr’s attention, particularly an idea “proposed by General Wilkinson, commander of the Army of the United States- the conquest of the Spanish colonies, particularly Mexico, based on a war with Spain, then impending.” Looking to capitalize on this opportunity, and finding in it prospects of increased fame, fortune, and power, Burr headed west. + In this endeavor, however, Burr’s true intent is a matter of contention. The United States District Attorney in Kentucky, a man by the name of Joseph Daviess, was one of the first people to see an ulterior motive for Burr’s expedition. Daviess, in a pamphlet written in May of 1807, sought to explain his role in bringing this issue to light, and also to excoriate President Jefferson for his handling of the situation. Daviess writes that as of late 1805, he “had satisfactory information that several of our citizens were pensioners of Spain… that a revolutionary scheme in the West had been projected… with great secrecy, under the superintendence of Mr. Burr and General Wilkinson.” In light of what he thought to be a dangerous scheme developing, he wrote a letter to President Jefferson in January of 1806 to warn him. In the letter, he names Wilkinson specifically as being in Spanish employment, and indicates, “A separation of the union in favour of Spain, is the object finally.” Clarifying in the pamphlet, he states that the plot had four sides, one for Spain, one for “enterprising adventurers,” a side for the “multitude,” and a side for Burr. Daviess, in his diligence, continued to write to President Jefferson and his top aides as his investigation revealed more aspects of the plot, but received little reply and nothing in the way of concern or instructions from the President. + Taking matters into his own hands, Daviess pursued Burr to the best of his ability. In Burr’s correspondence, he reacts to Daviess’s efforts to obtain “a warrant to apprehend me for treasonable practice, or on some suspicion thereof. The charge is not well-defined… but the substance is ‘a design to attack the Spanish dominions, and thereby endanger the peace of the United States.’” He continues in a later letter, “It is impossible for a man to make any calculations of his time, when he is liable to be detained by public prosecutions- You have doubtless heard of the ridiculous proceedings against me in this State by Messrs. Davies & Co.” After failing first due to the absence of a witness, Daviess tried a second time to indict Burr, to no avail. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"The trial of Burr for treason occurred in Richmond, Virginia, a “sleepy little town [that] became the cynosure of all eyes.” The courtroom could not hold the crowds, forcing Marshall to move the trial to the House of Delegates, a larger space, and among those in town were Andrew Jackson, a young Washington Irving as a journalist, and Winfield Scott. The first opinion issued by Marshall concerned precisely with what charge or charges should Burr be held accountable and detained before a grand jury heard the case for indictment. One aspect of this was a potentially damaging letter produced through Wilkinson, but was not the original copy. Though Marshall stipulated that the evidence needed to commit Burr did not have to be as stringent as that which might produce an indictment or conviction, he discussed at length the problems surrounding the authenticity and accuracy of the letter before committing Burr for violation of the Neutrality Act, or “setting on foot and providing the means for an expedition against the territories of a nation at peace with the U.S.,” but not for treason. +This small victory for Burr was compounded by a statement by Marshall that seemed directed at Jefferson in particular, that “the hand of malignity may [not] grasp any individual against whom its hate may be directed, or whom it may capriciously seize, charge him with some secret crime, and put him on the proof of his innocence.” This, though forcefully worded, elicits Marshall’s underlying principal that the prosecution, particularly Jefferson, was running roughshod over individual rights and acting counter to the spirit and text of law. It also marks the beginning of Marshall’s consistent judgments that the charges must be proven in the context of the law, not merely in public perception. After striking this blow against Jefferson, Marshall committed what might be seen as an ethical blunder. Invited to a dinner by John Wickham, a lawyer on Burr’s counsel, Marshall arrived, stayed, and dined although Aaron Burr himself was also in attendance. The press discovered this and publicized it, and the trial that “was already political…became hopelessly so. Everything Marshall did from now on would be under a cloud.” Though still before a grand jury even indicted Burr, passions on all sides were roused. +A letter from Burr to his daughter, Theodosia, describes both the general atmosphere as well as one early point of contention in the trial, the makeup and prejudice of the grand jury: +The grand jury is composed of twenty democrats and four federalists. Among the former is W.C. Nicholas, my vindictive and avowed enemy- the most so that could be found in this state (Virginia). The most indefatigable industry is used by the agents of government, and they have money at command without stint. If I were possessed of the same means, I could not only foil the prosecutors, but render them ridiculous and infamous. The democratic papers teem with abuse against me and my counsel, and even against the chief justice. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +f,"Nothing is left undone or unsaid which can tend to prejudice the public mind, and produce a conviction without evidence… They [the attacks] are practiced against me… not only with impunity, but with applause; and the authors and abettors suppose, with reason, that they are acquiring favour with the administration. + +This letter serves to highlight the bitter public battle occurring, with those supporting Jefferson campaigning to discredit not only Burr, but Marshall as well. Jefferson at this point was committing the resources of the presidency to secure public opinion and a conviction. The mention of Nicholas as a highly prejudiced juror reflects the proceedings of the trial itself, when Burr challenged the objectivity both Nicholas and another man, William Giles. This resulted in Marshall brokering a compromise, stipulating that those who had publicly stated an opinion regarding Burr’s guilt could not serve. Although everyone had heard about and presumably had some opinion to Burr’s guilt or innocence, Marshall attempted to preserve some sanctity in the process due to the extreme nature of the case, that of treason. + Jefferson’s fixation with the trial went beyond shaping public opinion, but also to shaping the prosecution itself. George Hay, the lead prosecutor of the case, received no less than fourteen letters from Jefferson from late May through early September in 1807, the most heated months of the summer-long trial. Jefferson was direct in his letters, providing specific instructions on strategy, what he expected from Hay, and information that could help convict Burr. In one such letter he expressed his past frustration with Marshall, stating, “ I [Jefferson] have long wished for a proper occasion to have the gratuitous opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, & denounced as not law; & I think the present a fortunate one, because it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad… [if] you could take occasion to express the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were given extrajudicially & against law.” Jefferson continues, imploring Hay that even “if this opinion should not be your own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the executive.” In other words, Jefferson wished not only to make the trial about Burr and his presumed guilt, but also a referendum on Marshall and their past confrontations. + Meanwhile, Marshall again issued a decision antagonizing Jefferson, in response to a request by Burr for a subpoena to Jefferson regarding a letter used by Jefferson in addressing Congress and proclaiming Burr’s guilt. Marshall, after lengthy debate by both sides, issued the subpoena and justified it through the right of the accused to have access to documents and testimony that are relevant to his defense. Again, Marshall stood by his belief in providing as fair a trial as possible, even when the issue at hand is requiring action by the chief executive. Jefferson, for his part, vociferously objected to this action. ",24,English,male,B.A.,Teacher,"N,N,N,N,N" +vv,"The fact that the spaniel instinctively slinks away means the following two things: first, he doesn’t like Dunsey; and second, the dog expects an argument to ensue whenever the two brothers are in a room together. +When one first reads the phrase “Godfrey’s face parted with some of its gloom…” one would expect the phrase to continue on to say that Godfrey’s face parted into a smile. Instead, the reader is surprised when they find out that Godfrey’s face actually parts into a frown. This is because one would expect grown siblings to get along with each other by this point in their lives. The fact that two siblings hate each other says there is something wrong with the family situation. In short, the sentence fools the reader into expecting the sentence to end a certain way, and it does not. +The initial description of Dunsey paints him as an arrogant, irreverent malcontent. The phrase “heavy-looking” implies a dark quality in the character: heavy, as in burdened with faults or sins; heavy as in overweight; or heavy, as in carrying a dark secret. Although Eliot clearly portrays Dunsey as a malcontent, she still makes him seem a little mysterious by not letting the reader in to Dunsey’s full potential as a villain. After all, Dunstan is described as a deviant, but the reader is never keyed into the exact crimes that Dunstan has committed. +Eliot also makes the character Dunsey seem mysterious by not telling us the motivations behind his tendency towards deviance. Was he born that way? Was he influenced by his father or brother? Was it caused by the death of his mother? Or had he just decided early in life that the lazy way is best? From the passage, one might ascertain that Dunsey realized early on that he already had what everyone else works for all their lives (money and a good reputation), so he had no real reason to have a work ethic. The way he addresses his brother implies a certain resignedness Can be reworded?a certain resignation to his fate:“I was obliged to come when you sent for me.” The first part of his utterance: “You’re my elders and betters…” implies that all his life, Dunsey was expected to be the mild younger brother who defers respectfully to everyone else. In a way, Dunsey does live up to this—he calls his brother “Master,” after all, but with a humorous twist. He comes when Godfrey summons him, but he makes sure to deliberately do so right after he has gotten drunk. On the surface Dunstan appears to be obedient, but he is also being subtly disobedient at the same time. Dunsey says, “I’ll do what you want, but only in my time and on my terms.” In a way, this is the worst form of disobedience. It is passive rebellion disguised as semi-obedience. In this way, Dunsey is almost controlling his older brother. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"The interpretation of the Adam and Eve story during that time period also effectively stifled any early attempts at a women’s rights movement, because it decried women as being the cause of sin in the world. + + + + + It is evident from Bassanio’s speech in Act 3 Scene 2 that Law and religion are two professions easily tainted by silver and gold: gold, both in the literal and the metaphorical sense. In religion, golden symbols can be mistook for idols, and also religious people often wear articles made of or adorned with silver and gold. Also, lawyers often speak with a gilded tongue, and can be bribed to sway one way or the other. Bassanio’s two examples reveal his reasoning by illustrating his impressions of the silver and gold caskets. Bassanio realizes that just as lawyers and priests can be lead astray by money, so are Portia’s suitors being deceived by the silver and gold caskets. Bassanio deduces that since it is human nature to be attracted by bright, shiny things, the gold and silver caskets must be traps for greedy or non-intelligent suitors. + The fact that this speech follows Shylock’s money hungry tirade in 3.1 reinforces the idea that men are easily swayed by outwardly attractive things. In 3.1, Antonio is feared to have lost some money to the wiles of a tumultuous sea, while Shylock bemoans the money he has lost because he daughter Jessica ran away. In both of these cases, the men’s fates are being controlled by the amount of money they have. Antonio’s fate is doom if it turns out that he has really lost all his fortunes in the sea; likewise, Shylock’s reputation is doom if his daughter never returns, and spends up all the money she stole. Antonio had fooled himself into believing that his money would see him through and allow him to pay off his loan to Shylock. Shylock fooled himself into believing that his docile, beautiful daughter would not disgrace his family by running off. + Lorenzo’s speech in 3.5.37 reinforces the idea of gilded words that Bassanio refers to in his speech in 3.2 (“…what plea so tainted an corrupt/But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,/Obscures the show of evil…”). Interestingly enough, both Lorenzo’s and Bassanio’s speeches reinforce different aspects of Shylock’s speech that might seem questionable to the reader. The first aspect, as expressed by Bassanio’s speech in 3.2, is the easy way in which men are led astray for the sake of money (“…The seeming truth which cunning times put on/To entrap the wisest…”) While saying his speech, Shylock tries to pretend like he cares about his daughter. But at times it seems like he misses his gold more than his daughter, especially evidenced by the fact that he uses the word “ducat” five times during the course of his speech, and uses the word “daughter” only four times. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"He runs away from school, engages in underage drinking, and even hires a prostitute—all as a means of rebellion, as an attempt to escape from the societal constraints that seem to weigh down on him like an invisible force. In this way, Holden is an antihero: a bewildered, deluded teenager who at times acts in a rather unheroic manner. At his core, the boy is a good person, but one whose flight from society eventually ends with his being put in a mental institution. The question the novel seems to be asking is: who is more crazy, the boy, or the society in which he lives? + Although Holden’s actions are somewhat minor compared to the rife delinquency of Astrid in White Oleander (she engages in drinking; drug use; and promiscuity, on one occasion prostituting herself in exchange for drugs), his actions would have been considered scandalous during the 1940’s, the time period during which the book was written. Holden Caulfield is comparable to the protagonist played by James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause—a loner who acts out of place because he is unable to make sense of the world around him. At first glance one would consider such characters to be spoiled, naughty children. However, on a closer look, one realizes that what these children are searching for is justice, in a world where justice is not always doled out to whomever justly deserves it. In a sense, the sole purpose of a hero is the search for justice, a search which has far more literary ramifications than a search for morality. For although morality defines justice, there can be no true morality without true justice. In other words, just as an ambiguous world is necessary for the existence of an antihero, so is a clear moral code necessary for the existence of justice. + A book in which an antihero faces a similar dilemma—at least in a metaphorical sense--is Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The main character is Yossarian, a military man who is scared of flying for psychological reasons, and as a result has major issues with being sent on flying missions during World War II. Colonel Cathcart’s insistence on increased flying missions for the soldiers threatens to send Yossarian over the edge, much like Holden went crazy as a result of too many societal pressures. Both characters end up running away in order to escape their problems, and both appear to be the only sane people in an otherwise insane world. Whereas Yossarian is mostly fighting against government/military bureaucracy, Holden is mostly rebelling against his parents and teachers. Yossarian’s struggle is undoubtedly on a larger scale, but in the end both characters can be seen as antiheroes trying to make sense of a morally ambiguous world. (Potts, 84) +In writing The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen revealed his innate ability to understand not only what things people do, but why they do them at all. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv," +The play Twelfth Night seems to say that although disguise is in fact useful in perpetrating long bouts of deception, in the end a person must reject that newly formed guise, or else risk losing themselves forever in the process. A big problem with ending a deception, however, is that one may find themselves alienated in the process. Therefore, in the end, one must decide between one’s own self preservation, or the preservation of relationships with those around them. For although some will respond neutrally to discovering that they’ve been tricked, still others will not take the deception so lightly, and will be likely be offended by the whole charade. +The topic of deception in gender role reversal is especially problematic, because it brings up many side issues, perhaps the most important one being, why? Why does the subject feel the need to shirk their own identity and take up a disguise in the form of the opposite gender? In Viola’s case, it is obviously a form of self protection.: “I’ll bring you to a captain in this town/ Where lie my maiden weeds, by whose gentle help/ I was preserved to serve this noble count…” (5.1.247-249) +Having newly arrived in a foreign land, Viola feels it necessary to pretend to be a man to protect herself from would be attackers. Viola’s plan works, but it also alienates her from the women around her, cutting her off from an important support system. To make matters worse, she is apparently so convincing at appearing to be a man that Olivia confuses her with Sebastian, and in effect falls in love with her. “Whither, my lord? Cesario, husband, stay.” (5.1.138) On top of that, she also has to deal with suppressed romantic desires between her and Orsino: “Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times/ Thou never shouldst love woman like to me.” (5.1. 260-261) +Although this may be a somewhat progressive attitude, to the modern reader, Twelfth Night may be seen as an illustration of how deception may help facilitate the unveiling of suppressed emotions, especially in the cases of Olivia and Orsino. Certain passages seem to hint that the aforesaid characters may have unexpressed subconscious desires that the appearance of Viola/Cesario forces them to deal with. For instance, is Olivia attracted to Cesario because Cesario appears to be a man, or does Olivia really secretly harbor feelings for women? One would argue that this is probably not the case, because Shakespeare’s character Olivia seems more likely to be parodying those people of his time period who judge others only upon their looks. +This is evidenced by the ease with which Olivia switches her romantic ardors from Cesario to Sebastian, and begins to regard Cesario/Viola as family rather than a love interest: “A sister, you are she.” (5.1.315) +",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"Shylock’s impassioned speech is in anger against the Christians around him who have treated hun differently because of his religious preferences. Shylock argues that he has as much feelings as any Christian does, so he should be treated on the same level. Likewise, he believes that justice and revenge should not be doled out based on someone’s religious background. (“If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?” 3.1.57-58) + The basic theme of the two speeches can be found in line 55 of Shylock’s speech: “And if you/ Wrong us shall we not revenge?” In other words, Shylock and Emilia both think that people in their respective demographic groups have a right to act how they please, in order to take revenge on those that oppress them. This sentiment is echoed in line 98 of Emilia’s speech: “And have we not affections, /Desire for sport, and frailty, as men have?” Emilia believes it is Desdemona’s right to cheat on Othello if he cheats on her first; and Shylock thinks it is his right to exact revenge on the Christians who treated him unfairly because he is of a different religion. + Shylock’s words find a fitting place in Emilia’s mouth because during this time period Jews often found as much oppression from Christians as women found from men. Men believed that women were inferior because they were “the weaker sex,” having less physical and moral strength. If a man cheated, it would be blamed on the woman--if on anyone--because supposedly the woman was not fulfilling her husband’s needs. If a woman cheated, she was still blamed, because her cheating was attributed to her weaker moral nature. + In a similar light, Jews were oppressed because Christians saw themselves as superior to anyone with a different religion. Since Christians thought the only way to heaven was through their own faith, then naturally they saw anyone from another religion as morally weaker. Therefore, in legal and business matters, a Christian would see it as his moral duty to persecute anyone deemed morally inferior. The helplessness of both women and Jews in these matters was exacerbated by the fact that the ruling class of the time period consisted primarily of Christian men. Since Jews and women were in the minority, then they had a hard time maintaining their rights in general. +Furthermore, since the Bible was seen as the book of ultimate moral authority during this time period, both women and Jews were out of luck. The first book of the Bible blames women right away for the evils of the world, based on the story of Adam and Eve. And the New Testament undermines the tenets of the Jewish religion by admonishing every good Christian to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This basic difference between Christianity and Judaism was enough to cause great inequalities for Jewish people living in predominantly Christian areas. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv," +As for Sebastian’s reaction versus Olivia’s reaction, it would seem obvious that from the beginning of the section of lines, Olivia would be staring quite fixedly at Sebastian, until he finally speaks his line at 204, “You throw a strange regard upon me…” This implies that Olivia, caught up in the knowledge that her twin brother stands before her, has been staring at him nervously, wondering how to approach him on the topic. Conversely, in this scene Sebastian would be more distracted by the sight of the injured Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, and so might only bestow a passing glance on his sister, not quite realizing her identity. He would only begin to wonder when he sees Olivia staring at him intently. Then, as Olivia and Sebastian converse, each of them would trade looks filled with astonishment and joy, as their conversation reveals them to be related to one another. Also, with each line, Olivia would become less like the male servant Cesario, and more like the girl Olivia, whose guise she had concealed in an attempt to protect herself. Throughout this conversation, the two characters’ attentions would be fixed entirely upon each other, until Orsino breaks in at line 257. + + Throughout Silas Marner, George Eliot makes great use of imagery and color to paint a vivid picture of the emotional states of the characters involved in each scene. Eliot uses carefully chosen words when describing the background setting, and these words seem to enhance the mood felt by the characters. Also, the colors and shadings in the background seem to effect the emotional layers of the characters. +In paragraph one, the description of evening is well in alignment with Godfrey’s mood. When one thinks of gloom and depression, grey is a color that comes to mind. Words like “dimly,” “flung,” “half-choked,” and “destitute” also reflect Godfrey’s state of mind. The fact that Godfrey is standing and waiting reflects the amount of indecision he feels in his life. Godfrey is the kind of person that has a hard time making up his mind; this fact is summed up in the image of him standing there: “He seemed to be waiting and listening for some one's approach…” On a metaphorical level, it appears that Godfrey is standing there waiting (living life passively) in order for someone to step in and save him, or at least to provide a catalyst for change in his life. +The contrast of the items strewn in the room says that although the Cass family has much material wealth, it is lacking in love, which is symbolized by the half-choked fire: +“The fading grey light fell dimly on the walls decorated with guns, whips, and foxes' brushes, on coats and hats flung on the chairs, on tankards sending forth a scent of flat ale, and on a half-choked fire, with pipes propped up in the chimney-corners: signs of a domestic life destitute of any hallowing charm, with which the look of gloomy vexation on Godfrey's blond face was in sad accordance.”",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"At the end of the novel, the author shocks readers by having Ingrid acquitted of her crimes. After all, in a morally fair world, it would only seem right that Ingrid would remain in jail, and Astrid would go on to live a happy life free of her mother. But the author seems to argue that this is not always the case. In fact, Ingrid is not the only supposed antagonist in the novel who seemingly escapes justice. Many of the people Astrid meets in her foster homes—from pedophiles to racists to neglectful husbands—seemingly escape justice, while all the woes of the world seem to befall Astrid at the drop of a hat. Heller’s character Yossarian from Catch-22 aptly sums up the hypocrisy and lack of justice in the world presented to a typical antihero: + “How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls?” (Heller 414). + Throughout the novel White Oleander there seems to be an underlying cynicism, a certain bitterness, a resignedness to one’s fate that is summarized in the following dialogue between Astrid and her friend Paul Trout: +“ ‘Do you ever want to go home?’ I asked Paul. +He brushed an ash from my face. ‘It’s the century of the displaced person,’ he said. ‘You can never go home.’ ” +The dialogue between Astrid and Paul explains some of the motivating forces behind the actions of many antiheroes: a feeling of loneliness and of being displaced. In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver feels extremely out of place upon returning to England, because he had learned to view the world differently during his travels. He also feels misunderstood by his fellow humans, who do not seem interested in the wisdom he tries to impart upon them from his travels. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden feels perennially misunderstood by those around him. Astrid in White Oleander does not feel so much misunderstood as betrayed; although a misunderstanding between two people could be seen as a betrayal in and of itself. In a way, the mentality of an antihero is similar to that of a teenager who is just learning about how the world really works. If one considers “home” to be that place/state of mind in which one feels that everything will be okay (e.g. childhood) then in that respect, one can never go home, once one has discovered that in life, things do not always work out. +com: +“It also seems to me that in a particularly disillusioned age, with hardly a semblance of hope that our critical apparatus can make even a minor dent in the machinery of the technocracy and the consumer state, we're left with the death of certain kinds of hope or idealism, and also the death of religion as a sufficient provider of meaning.",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"Another bit of unusual imagery is that, although the hall in which Godfrey stands is full of material wealth (various hunting paraphernalia, clothing strewn about, containers of ale), there is no mention of any family photos in the room. In a sense, the “large, empty entrance hall” in which Godfrey stands represents the general lack of emotional warmth in the Cass household. +The fire can also symbolize Godfrey’s detestation of his current wife—the half-choked fire being the lack of passion in their relationship. After all, Godfrey cannot love his wife Molly very much, if he secretly marries her and then promptly forgets about her. It is true that his wife is a drug addict, but he should at least feel pity for her, and this emotion is never expressed by him throughout the entire novel. Whatever affection he and his wife formerly had for each other is as dim as the small flame in the fireplace. +The fire also represents Godfrey’s half-concealed, intense anger towards his brother, which flickers through quietly against the gloom of his current state of mind. “The scent of flat ale” adds to the general feeling of stagnation in the hall, and in the house in general. All the different objects—the fire, the ale, and the description of hunting gear—put more weight on the idea that the house is pervaded with a “domestic life destitute of any hallowing charm.” +As far as colors go, they describe Godfrey’s mood precisely. The first paragraph implies that a grey dimness clings to everything, much like the fact the Godfrey’s mood is constantly tinged with gloom. The flickering of orange fire can be interpreted as parallel to the brief flare of anger that Godfrey feels as his brother enters the hall. The fact that Godfrey stands with his back to the fire means that he barely knows how to deal with his anger, or is barely even aware of it. If one sees color as representing the mood of the household in general, then one might determine that there is no love (represented by bright colors) in the family; only gloom and anger (represented by dim colors.) + As Dunstan enters the room in the second paragraph, he gives off contrasting signals: a heavy step, and a cheerful whistle. A heavy step implies reluctance, over-confidence, or drunkenness. A whistle implies a certain nonchalance, or an attempt on the character’s part to appear nonchalant, even if he does not really feel that way. Although Dunstan is trying to appear fearless, his heavy steps betray him. Heavy steps can also be interpreted to represent a certain guilt or reluctance on the part of the person involved in such actions. Therefore, the words conveyed in the paragraph seem to imply a certain arrogance and reluctance on the part of Dunstan. +The imagery implicit in the scene with the spaniel slinking under the chair instantly alerts the reader to the mood of the situation: any peace loving person would rather be anywhere else than in the same room as these two brothers. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv," The word antihero has actually been around since 1714, but the use of an antihero as the main character of fiction has become more widespread only in recent years. (Merriam-Webster Online) +One might say that moral ambiguity plays a key role in the development of the antihero. In essence, there can be no antihero unless there is first a world of unclear morals in which the antihero stumbles about. The antihero is defined by the way in which he interacts with the world around him—traditionally an interaction that is unusual at best. In the essay entitled “Animal Rationis Capax,” Kathleen Williams seeks to explain how one of the main purposes of Gulliver's Travels is to sum up ""the nature of man and...his proper behavior in a difficult world.""(Bloom 37) Gulliver remains a hero throughout most of the book, but becomes an indisputable antihero when he returns from his travels in foreign lands. Having learned from a species of intelligent talking horses that the way humans do things is largely uncivilized, Gulliver returns to the world of men to find that he sees everything he knew in a much different light. Suddenly he is a moral compass of sorts to his fellow men, being the only one of them who is aware of the superior way of living that was taught to him by the horse people. +Perhaps one of the great antiheroes of literature is Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. In this novel J.D. Salinger is not so much concerned with morals, but with whether or not one should believe in these morals. As a review by Virgilia Peterson in A Catcher Casebook puts it, Holden is at heart a good kid, but is also very much a believable character, with inherent character flaws. (Marsden 3) In the foreword of A Catcher Casebook, Holden is called the “epitome of the real American.” (Marsden foreword) Unlike all the adults and children around him who walk around in a conformist state—seemingly anesthetized to the way things are—Holden is honest with himself, and admits that a lot of things that happen in the world today do not make very much sense to him: +“The cause of …[Holden’s] alienation is placed at the doors of schools, churches, business houses, government bureaus. They are charged with thwarting human aspirations, frustrating conscience, outraging sensitivity…The young man is full of love and courage, innocent and good, a wise sheep forced into lone wolf’s clothing. He pierces the shams and deceits and vulgarity of a phony society which botches things so terribly that at last Holden has no escape except a mental institution.” (Marsden, 35) +Holden looks authority in the eye and spits right in its face. He senses that something is very wrong with how the world works today, yet feels helpless to do anything about it. Unable to articulate himself in a responsible manner, he turns to delinquency as a means of self expression. +",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"Jonathan Franzen seems to aptly sum up some of the basic sentiments of the antihero in the following passage from an interview conducted by Dave Weich of Powells...” (Powells.com Interviews – Jonathan Franzen) +The antihero is, in essence, the modern era’s response to the breakdown of conservatism, conformity, and religious hierarchy. As more authors continue to seek to portray reality in their works of fiction, they will gradually turn towards a more harsh, non-religious bent on reality, in the hopes of making their writings seem truly authentic. Whereas earlier works such as Gulliver’s Travels dealt with a moral man in an immoral world, The Corrections deals with confused people (sometimes) striving to be moral in an ambiguous world. (All in the Family: Franzen Almost Lives Up to His Own Standards) Such, then, is the struggle of the modern antihero: to realize that the world is crazy, while at the same time keeping from going crazy himself. + +In Act 5, Scene 1 of Twelfth Night, the climax of the play is revealed. At this point, all the major characters in the play meet in one spot, in order to unravel the main complexities of the play, once and for all. Not only are Sebastian and Viola’s true identites revealed, but also all the desires of the other interrelated characters are revealed. Olivia finally realizes that Cesario, who she had been in love with, is a woman. Orsino discovers that the serving boy whom he had strong feelings for was, in fact, a woman. +Amidst this flurry of switched identities and revealed desires, there is often room for feelings of confusion, especially on the part of the audience members. At the point where Sebastian and Viola finally reunite, there has already been so much diverse information given to the audience that one needs a brief pause to soak it all in. Hence, when Viola stops and carefully goes over several familial details with her twin brother, it is partly to provide extra information to the audience members, in case they have neglected to pick up certain details during the course of the play. Also, this slow reunion gives Viola a chance to gradually resume her role as Sebastian’s twin sister. Carefully going over the details of their shared, tragic childhood allows Viola to remember her place as a woman in a well-to-do family. +While Sebastian has long been unacquainted with Viola, in a way Viola has also been unacquainted with herself for a long while as well. Switching gender and identity has forced Viola to take on a role entirely different from the traditional female sibling of a wealthy household. Also, the slow way in which Sebastian and Viola unite gives less central characters such as Olivia, Orsino, and Antonio time to absorb the shock of what is being revealed to them. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"In the words of author Janet Fitch, “Art distills meaning from experience, which is often hard to do in reality.” (Author Interview: Janet Fitch) In other words, it is the job of the author to interpret the motives behind people’s actions, and this Franzen does with a sterling accuracy. Such accuracy is necessary in a work portraying an antihero, because in order to objectively portray the strengths and flaws of a character, the author needs to be brutally honest in describing the character. +The Corrections is essentially a book about the flaws of modern society; its characters are representative of American society today, in all its flaws and virtues. In this sense, all of the characters in the novel can be seen as antiheroes; specifically Chip Lambert, the main character, is the best example of a classic antihero. Chip goes throughout life with the best of intentions, yet somehow always ends up with the short end of the stick. For instance, Chip writes a script which he thinks is brilliant, and ends up actually getting it noticed by a script reader named Eden. Eden strings him along until one day he accidentally finds out that she had no intention of ever reading the script, and had in fact given the script to her daughter to use as drawing paper. +Unlike Holden Caulfield and Yossarian, Chip Lambert does not go crazy upon realizing that the world itself is crazy. He tries to make the best of things, and ends up managing to somehow survive it all. However, there are some defining moments in his dialogues with his sister Denise in which he echoes some of the sentiments expressed by Holden Caulfield: +“ ‘I’m saying the structure of the entire culture is flawed,’ Chip said. ‘I’m saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as ‘diseased’…The very definition of mental ‘health’ is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy, you’re buying into buying. And I’m saying that I personally am losing the battle with a commercialized, medicalized, totalitarian modernity right this instant.’ ” (Franzen 31) +Reviewer Katie French characterizes The Corrections as a blend of social satire and remarkable characters. The way in which the book is written allows one to see inside the minds of each character, and as a result, all of the character’s flaws are left gaping out in the open. Take, for example, this passage from the book, in which Chip’s brother Gary Lambert—a normally conservative guy--gets very drunk and tries to justify it to himself: +“He needed to sleep well tonight for at least six hours. He upended the vodka bottle over a shaker of ice and brazenly let it glug and glug, because he, a veep at Centrust, had nothing to be ashamed of in relaxing after a hard day’s work…he now made a second [martini]…and officially considered it his first…In plain view of his entire family he made a third (officially: a second) martini and drank it down.",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv," To accomplish this, he planned to drink two vodka martinis and hit the sack before ten.” (Franzen 229) +In Janet Fitch’s novel White Oleander, the protagonist Astrid exemplifies the struggle of the antihero in that she is constantly at the mercy of a brutal, uncaring world. Fitch’s work does not so much stress the need to be moral, but the need to keep one's sanity and dignity intact in the face of a worldly onslaught of oppression and strife. In itself this novel contains a far more pessimistic viewpoint than many earlier works. Hope lies not so much in Astrid’s attention to morality, but in her will to survive. Although the people around the main character Astrid are at times morally reprehensible, the author does not seek to judge the characters, she merely observes and comments on their actions: +“I believe a quality that serves us well in the real world is the ability to embrace the various emotional tones of experience. And to insist that reality reflects some ideal, I think, is a dangerous point of view. This is the basis of some of the philosophical arguments of mother and daughter [Astrid and Ingrid]: do you impose a view on the world, or do you look at the world and see what is there.” (Author Interview: Janet Fitch) +The preceding quote from the author helps illustrate what is presumably the intention of most modern writers in deciding to use an antihero as a protagonist. In a post 9/11 society where nothing seems certain, it would hardly be realistic to write about perfect people doing perfect things, let alone expect anyone to read such works. In an interview Janet Fitch mentioned that fiction “…reminds us that we are here to understand and care about the human condition, to become more human.” (Author Interview: Janet Fitch) Arguably, then, the antihero would be the ideal vehicle with which an author could express his or her views on the human condition and life in general. Everyone knows that humans are inherently flawed; therefore, the antihero is an ideal representation of the everyman, being inherently flawed as well. +At times the reader strongly feels like he or she can identify with the character of Astrid. A well-meaning girl with a kind heart, she tries to do the right thing, yet situations constantly seem to come up that work against her—much as with Chip Lambert. Although most people have not lived through such a harrowing foster care experience, at times all people can surely identify with the emotions that Astrid goes through, and her struggles to decipher what is right and wrong in the world around her: + Some more evidence for moral ambiguity in the novel is the resolution of Ingrid’s murder trial. Throughout the novel as she waits in jail, Ingrid gradually develops of following of literate people who see her as a victim, even though she obviously murdered her boyfriend. ",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv," The same can also be said for Orsino, who quickly switches from seeing Cesario as a friend, to seeing Viola as his love interest: ”…And since you called me master for so long,/ Here is my hand. You shall from this time be/ Your master’s mistress.” (5.1. 312-315) +Although in the end it is revealed that Orsino is actually in love with a woman, the fact of the matter is that he was attracted to Viola while she appeared to be a man. And the following line hints at even more potentially disturbing evidence: +“…Cesario, come--/For so you shall be while you are a man;/ But when in other habits you are seen,/ Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.” (5.1.372-375) +In the above passage, Orsino does seem to say that he prefers Cesario as a woman. However, there almost seems to be a tone of regret in his voice, as if he will miss having Cesario at his side as a daily male companion. +Above all, deception is best seen as a means of protecting the most personal self, at a time when a person feels particularly vulnerable. Disguise is utilized by not only Viola, but by other characters in an emotional sense. Orsino must hide his feelings for Cesario until he discovers that she is a woman, because for him to profess affections for a man during this time period would have been looked upon as socially unacceptable. Twelfth Night seems to say that the most essential use for deception and disguise is as a means of self preservation. + + When Emilia says her speech in the presence of Desdemona on page 2160, it is because she suspects that Desdemona has done something wrong, based on Othello’s actions in the previous act. Emilia understands that her mistress is not the type to participate in infidelity, but she can’t help but wonder at the reason behind Othello’s anger at Desdemona, and his reasoning behind calling her a whore (“Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,/ Made to write ‘whore’ upon?” 4.2.74.) +It seems that regardless of Desdemona’s actual actions, Emilia is defensive of her mistress, and of the female gender in general. Emilia recognizes the apparent double standard concerning infidelity in marriage, and she argues that it is unfair for the woman to receive more of the blame than the man in such matters (“But I do think it is their husband’s faults/ If wives do fall.” 4.3.84-85) The maid argues that women are just as passionate as men, and should be given certain moral freedoms, especially if their husbands cheat on them. (“Then let them use us well, else let them know/ The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.” 4.3.100-101) + Emilia’s speech is similar to Shylock’s speech on p.1116 in that both speeches talk about an oppressed group of people getting revenge on those that oppress them. +",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +vv,"Shakespeare seems to be hinting that Shylock cares more about money than family; but being a good playwright, he does not say this outright, and instead puts the opinion in the mouth of his character Bassanio. + The second point, which is reinforced in Lorenzo’s speech, is Shylock’s ability to manipulate people through words (“…How every fool can play upon the word!”) In Shylock’s tirade-like speech in 3.1, he uses many superfluous words to hammer home the point that he feels he is being mistreated on the grounds of his culture and religion. At 3.1.46-49, instead of merely saying that Antonio disgraced him, Shylock gives the reader exact details on how Antonio has made his life miserable (“…He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned/ my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated/ mine enemies…”). Shylock does this to lend his speech dramatic effect, in the hopes of gathering sympathy for himself. Shakespeare again does not outrightly condemn this character trait of Shylock’s, but instead uses Lorenzo’s speech and the subsequent characters’ dialogue in 3.5 to illustrate how easy it is for any man to manipulate words to his own liking. Thus in an indirect way, Shakespeare uses the speeches of Shylock, Bassanio, and Lorenzo to comment on human nature. + +The phrase “fiction,” by nature, covers a wide range of sub-genres in modern literature, from drama to mystery to fantasy epic. However, there is one uniting force behind all forms of fiction writing. One might say that without this element, a work of fiction would be impossible. That element is the hero, the character whose actions lead the narrative along, and through whose eyes we often see much of the action contained in a work of fiction. It is the struggle of a hero—whether against the world or himself—that leaves readers captivated, and causes them to continue reading to the end of a work. +As society has evolved, the literary device of the hero has essentially been replaced by the antihero, a protagonist of ambiguous moral standing who is merely trying to make his way in a similarly morally ambiguous world. As Christianity has started to release its grasp on Western cultures, the conventions of the traditional hero have fallen away, leaving many members of society today in such a state that they can more easily identify with the latter than the former. +The term antihero has been defined as referring to “a protagonist notably lacking in heroic qualities.” (Merriam-Webster Online) In more specific terms, an antihero is “…a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. [A character who] may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. Often what antiheroes learn, if they learn anything at all, is that the world isolates them in an existence devoid of God and absolute values.”",28,English,female,bachelor's degree,administrative assistant,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +aa,"Reasonable limits are needed to be set because hunters, sport shooters, and homeowners can own their weapons without going overboard with unneeded guns intended to kill as many people as possible as efficiently as possible. Reform has been put into place with gun registration for each weapon and owner, such as motor vehicle registration and driver's licenses (Ballaro). Background checks, waiting periods, regulation of secondary market sales, child-safety laws, concealment laws, assault weapon laws, and bans on small and lightweight guns are all needed to make the United States safer (Lee). + + The Second Amendment explicitly guarantees American civilians the right to bear arms, but many gun laws would take away rights granted by the Constitution (Bowman). Stricter Laws don't prevent gun violence, and sometimes they even spawn it. If all guns were made illegal or there was a drastic cutback in gun ownership, it would make it much easier for criminals to commit crime. They would become less scared of running into another person with a gun, and they would be able to get away much easier because they would still carry weapons unlike the general public (Lee). Those against gun control counter that National Guard soldiers do not keep their weapons inside their homes, and in case of emergency they would be too slow to help. Also the National Guard would not be able to help citizens needing emergency personal defense (Bowman). + + School violence is a social, mental health, political, and educational issue and has little to do with guns and gun control laws. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that school violence peaked in 1993 and has actually decreased in the following years. In 2006 the American Psychological Association determined ""get-tough"" policies have done very little to nothing to make schools safer, but in fact increased negative behavior and dropout rates. Educators differ on the effectiveness of D.A.R.E., zero tolerance policies, mandatory school uniforms, metal detectors, and armed guards. They are much more supportive of increased funding for school mental staff, anti-bulling curriculums, stronger school-parent programs, and safe school initiatives instead of inflexible, one-size-fits-all solutions proposed by the government (Driscoll). + + There have been many reports of harsh punishments for accidental breaking of zero tolerance policies. Little kids have been expelled for innocently playing with paper guns or using plastic knives packed in lunches. Teens have been expelled for accidentally leaving a knife in a car or saying ""threatening"" things to other students and teachers that would be considered normal vocalizations of anger. Privacy issues have also come up. The Virginia Tech shooter wrote about violence, but it would be wrong to inspect everything students write and to take any hint of violence as a threat. Also normal speech might be perceived or over-exaggerated as a threat. Also violence and gun use has been prevalent in cultural media since Wild West films to the provocative song lyrics, video games, and other media of today. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"The Second Amendment reads, ""A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"" (Bowman). The Second Amendment was originally ratified on the thought of the danger of national security being threatened (Bowman). The United States were just being formed and had just come out of a great war to gain their freedom. The American Army was essentially comprised of many small militias. These were volunteer groups of citizen-soldiers who were mostly untrained farmers and town citizens. The right to assemble a militia and own firearms provided the new country an army. When the Founding Fathers granted the undeniable right to firearms the only gun known was the flintlock, which was very inaccurate and not nearly as deadly as the guns today. Two hundred years later guns are much cheaper to manufacture, easy to use, highly accurate, and incredibly lethal (Bowman). + + The writers of the Constitution were thinking of foreign invaders when they ratified the Second Amendment, but they were also thinking of internal conflict. The Constitution prohibits the government from suppressing its citizens mainly with the Second Amendment. If the government could prohibit personal firearms, they could demand cooperation through force and threats. The Founding Fathers did not want the great country they had just created to turn into a tyranny like the monarchy of England that they came from (Bowman). In 1871 two Union officers founded the National Rifle Association in order to protect their personal right to firearms. To this day it is one of the biggest and most powerful non-government organizations that stands to protect firearm rights, hunting rights, promote shooting as a sport, educate firearm safety (Lee). + + Ever since the ratification of the Second Amendment politicians and citizens have been lobbying to cut down on personal gun ownership. There have been many laws and regulations enacted to help stop gun-related violence and death in the United States. In the 1930s during Prohibition the National Firearms Act and the Federal Firearms Act were introduced in reaction to violence by organized crime. These Acts banned machine guns, put a tax on gun sales, and regulated certain types of sales and shipment of weapons. In 1968 the Gun Control Act was put into place banning mail order gun sales after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was created in 1972 in order to issue gun licenses, inspect dealers, and enforce laws. In 1994 the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act initiated a mandatory five-day waiting period and background check on all unlicensed individuals trying to purchase a firearm (Lee). + + Gun Control is ""any action taken by federal, state, or local government to regulate the sale, purchase or use of guns by individual citizens""(Lee). Some say that the heart of the gun controversy is not gun control, but gun culture (Bowman). ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"These reductions in crime seem to correspond with a number of gun control laws that were implemented during this time, including the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. +The correlation is not valid, however, because the statistics have become compounded with many other factors. Improved law enforcement, more severe sentences for criminals, better policing methods, and a stronger economy all contributed to the lower crime rates. A prime example of this compounding effect was shown in Chicago in the 1980's and 90's. A ban was placed on the sale and possession of handguns in Chicago in 1982, but high homicide rates persisted until police practices were changed in the late 1990's. This real-life scenario illustrates how increased gun control laws do not always mean less crime, and that the correlation witnessed during the 1990's is not true statistical causation. +Few gun control supporters recognize the fallacy in the popularly held belief that guns always produce violence, while gun control always reduces it. But gun ownership by law-abiding citizens also deters criminals. Guns permit people to defend themselves, their property, and their families. Criminals are disinclined to commit crimes against citizens who may likely be armed. Professor John Lott and graduate student David Mustard of the University of Chicago examined violent crime rates in cities across the country based on reports from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, and found lower rates of violent crime in states with fewer restrictions on concealed weapons. John Velleco defends personal gun ownership as the ""most effective means of self-defense available"" because of a gun's level of intimidation and power when compared to being unarmed or being armed with a knife. Paul Bucher illustrates this point, ""If the person you're fighting has a gun and all you have is your fists, you lose."" + Guns are used thousands of times more often for self-defense than to commit crime. The number of successful cases of guns being used for self-defense has been measured from a low 650,000 to a high 2.5 million using police records from around the country. This number far exceeds the cases of guns being used for crimes, and provides evidence that guns are a positive tool for self-defense. It would be best if all law-abiding citizens would own guns and know how to use them safely and responsibly. An America full of gun carrying citizens would drastically drive down crime rates simply because criminals would be too scared to come into contact with armed civilians. Also the few ""moment of anger"" shootings produced from escalated arguments would be far overshadowed by the number of people saved each year by the reduction in criminal shootings. The risk would not be worth the return, as every time a criminal would attempt to commit crime, they would have to face the high risk of being shot (Velleco). + Gun laws do not accomplish their purpose; in fact, they do the opposite. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"He is showing how easy it would be for our government and leaders to mislead us and reduce our rights by not even giving us a choice in the matter at hand. During the time that Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 people were starting to become more lax and comfortable with what their leaders chose to do because they thought that they could not change anything anyway. They would rather sit back and not worry about the problems of the world, but instead let someone else deal with it and make the hard choices. Bradbury is urging Americans to snap out of this mindset and try to deal with problems themselves by voting and voicing their ideas so that their rights would not be taken away. +At the time that Bradbury published his book, radio and television were starting to gain large audiences. He wanted to warn that some of the content on radio and television was okay, but that everything on the air was not. He could see that the broadcasters were simply airing programs that were entertaining and had no real intrinsic value. He knew that one should not believe everything heard or seen as truth, but investigate it further. He foresaw how television could take hold of people and make them slaves to entertainment. He saw how people would pay fortunes and even go into debt just to watch television. In the story Mildred said, ""It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars"". He could see how, in the American culture, everyone wants the new, biggest, and greatest things because we feel entitled. Bradbury wrote to a very consumerism society where when someone wanted something they would simply go out and buy it. + + + + Will stricter gun control laws prevent the 20-25,000 murders in the United States each year? (Harwood). The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 preserving the right for all citizens to own and operate firearms, but ever since that time people have been fighting both for and against gun control laws (Lee). Some say that gun control laws infringe on their Constitutional rights to own weapons. Others say that the purchase and use of firearms needs to be strictly regulated to help prevent and reduce violent crimes and murder. Both sides of the gun control debate have relevant points, but it will be up to the citizens of the United States to make the right decisions to balance Constitutional rights with the safety and well being of the country. + + Since the formation of the United States of America, people have used firearms for hunting, survival, and to expand land ownership. When the country was first being settled every man knew how to shoot (Lee). ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa," + +Imperialism played a significant role in shaping American foreign policy. America used significant power many times when dealing with other countries during the 19th and 20th centuries. America never admitted that it was taking colonies and spreading out into an imperial force, but it did show several signs of being imperialistic. America's early uses of force and its imperialistic nature set a precedent for how it would deal with other countries and ""colonies"" in the future. + By the late 19th century when America was shaping its foreign policy, America had fulfilled Manifest Destiny. America was not ""land hungry"" as Document B shows. America had already colonized all the land west to Pacifica Ocean and had more land and resources than it knew what to do with. The government was literally giving away free land to people who would live and work on it. America was acting in an imperialistic manner because it was trying to control the Western Hemisphere as stated in Monroe Doctrine. America had long said that the Americas were closed to colonization from European countries, and America had, in a sense, adopted the Americas and felt responsible for their well being. + America felt like the patriarch of the Americas and acted like it. America felt like it was their duty to look after the welfare of the countries around America. As Document A displays, America felt that it was important, even God's plan, for America to ""uplift and civilize…and educate"" the Filipinos. America saw the horrors that Spain had committed against the Filipinos, and so America took it upon herself to fix things and make the people civilized in order that one day they might act like a respectable culture and govern themselves. Document G says that America denounced what the Spanish were doing to the Filipinos, but against our early plans, America turned it's Filipino friends into enemies when it committed just as many atrocities against them as the Spanish had. America basically started a war because it thought that it was important to set up the country's government because the natives were too simple and savage to manage on their own. + America always has its eyes first on its wallet. America took many islands such as Hawaii, Midway, and Guam into our ""care"" because we needed places to refuel ships crossing the Pacific. America also created exclusive trading deals with Hawaii that proved to be very lucrative. One of the biggest reasons for forming ""colonies"" and keeping peace abroad was to keep trade revenue up. America had begun to manufacture more products than it could sell nationally so it had to trade internationally to continue making profits and keep up with competition. Teddy Roosevelt sent the ""Great White Fleet"" to Japan to open up their ports to international trade, so that we could sell our products to a new market. We turned Japan from a small country that stayed entirely to themselves, into a world power that was influential in WWI and even more in WWII. + + +",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa," + +Montag had rarely seen that many house lights. 'Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It's like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time-did I tell you?-for being a pedestrian. Oh, we're most peculiar.' 'But what do you talk about?' She laughed at this. 'Good night!' She started up her walk. Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. 'Are you happy?' she said. 'Am I what?' he cried. But she was gone-running in the moonlight. Her front door shut gently."" This passage gives great background information about Montag and his society and begins the chain reaction of his rebellion. + This passage was put in the beginning of the story in order to involve the reader's mind about Montag's rebellion and the problems surrounding his society from the very beginning. The reader finds out many weird issues with the society that may shock them such as: the lack of talking, billboards are two-hundred feet long because the cars race by at high speeds, pedestrians are rare, people do not ever stop to experience nature, and books are burned because they are illegal. Bradbury wants to show how strange the culture is, and how a ""normal"" person (Clarisse) is seen as the strange one. He wants the reader to understand and see first hand how deranged the society is so that they will see why Montag rebels, and so that the reader is on his side and wants him to succeed and see the society changed back to better, more human society. He uses logos and pathos to show the reader the horrors of the society. The logos and pathos come from reading about how horrible the society is, and how unhappy and sad all of the people are. His purpose in writing Fahrenheit 451 is to show Americans and other readers how bad society could become if they did not change the current direction that they were headed as a whole. This comes because the readers knew about the advancements in technology and thinking were greatly changing life as they knew it. + Bradbury succeeds by writing in a way that makes one support the views and characters that he wants you to support. He writes about Clarisse so that the reader will trust her and be able to connect with her in a special way because she is one of the only people in the book that are like people in our culture today.He also makes the reader have compassion for the society as a whole because they have been lied to their entire lives, and also to have compassion on the firemen because they have all been lied to about their jobs and role in society. Bradbury ends Clarisse's talk with Montag with her asking him if he was happy which greatly affects the reader emotionally because happiness is such an important part of our lives and culture. + +",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"The United States of America runs well because of the system of checks and balances in the government. The Second Amendment provides civilians with an important ""check"" to the power of the government. The right to bear arms stands as an important part of freedom and liberty, because it gives people a way to fight tyranny both at home and from abroad. When laws are passed regulating gun ownership, it is only the first piece in a progression of violations of freedoms. A prime example of the power of personal gun ownership to fight tyranny can be seen in Poland and other European countries during the beginning of World War II. One main reason that these countries were taken over so easily was because of the lack of personal gun ownership by their citizens. And after moving into an area, the Nazis would confiscate any stray firearms owned by civilians and strictly forbid personal gun ownership, making the civilians utterly powerless to defend themselves when the Nazis began to commit atrocities. The NRA supports the power and importance of the Second Amendment when it claims that ""the Second Amendment remains the first right among equals, because it is the one we turn to when all else fails"". +Public opinion favors the Second Amendment's protection of gun ownership, as a U.S. News and World Report poll found that seventy five percent of Americans felt that gun ownership is a right protected by the Constitution. The Supreme Court also supports the Second Amendment as evinced by the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment gave individuals the right to bear arms, finding a controversial D.C. law that banned handgun ownership unconstitutional. Then in the 2010 case of McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court ruled that all state and local governments must also follow the Second Amendment as outlined by the 2008 case. This shows that even the most powerful group in the United States government-the group charged with the sole responsibility of judging the constitutionality of the nation's laws-agrees that the Second Amendment adamantly protects American citizens' right to own guns, and that this vital Constitutional freedom must never be threatened. +Just as the Constitution functions to protect citizens' freedoms and liberties, gun control laws are designed to prevent people from abusing guns and harming others. If gun control legislation stopped criminals from committing crimes and murders, and left legal gun owners alone, there would be no argument. Congress passes gun control laws because they are believed to reduce violence and save lives. Statistics from several large cities, including New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and others, show a reduction in the number of gun-related crimes during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 1993 more than 582,000 murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults involving guns took place, but in 2003 that number dropped to 348,000. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"There are three main aspects of the gun control controversy: sociological, ethical, and legal. The sociological aspect is the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness that gun control laws have on reducing violent crimes. The ethical aspect is the protection of the United States citizens and protecting them from crime. The legal issues revolve mainly around the Second Amendment and how it is interpreted, and the laws and regulations associated with it (Lee). + + Gun control activists blame the wide use and availability of lethal weapons for the United States’ high murder and crime rates. There are over 30,000 deaths resulting from gunfire every year. More than half are murders, a little less than half are suicides and the rest are fatal accidents. Several hundred of these victims are children (Ballaro). Gunfire deaths from 1980 to 1997 equaled close to four hundred thousand. That is more than the casualties from WWI and WWII combined, and would equal the death toll of nearly eight Vietnams (Harwood). The United States has some of the highest gun-related violence rates in the developed world. This is due to the number of guns Americans own, the availability of extremely powerful and lethal guns, and the lack of comprehensive, uniform laws. If gun control laws limited the availability of guns, it would lower homicide rates. Just as the now regular use of bicycle helmets has greatly reduced the amount of head trauma injuries (Ballaro). + + One of the biggest reasons for the United States’ shockingly high gun-related violence rates is the sheer amount of firearms owned. One in three homes has guns. The total amount of arms in the United States is close to two hundred and forty million (Ballaro). American citizens own between fifty and seventy million handguns. Handguns escalate disputes into fatal incidents because they are easy to conceal and transport (Harwood). Supporters of gun control state that the formation of the National Guard over a hundred years ago nullified any need for militias, and the all-out legality of guns should be questioned (Bowman). + + The police force in the United States is in danger from the large arsenal of weapons and the overwhelming lack of gun control legislation. In 1997 the Los Angeles police were authorized to carry assault rifles after a shootout with gunmen armed with AK-47s. In September of 2007 the Miami police chief John Timoney made the same decision. He said the decision was undesirable, but mandatory due to fact that the criminals his men faced wielded extremely high caliber weapons. In the previous year fifteen of the seventy-nine gun related homicides involved assault weapons (Ballaro). Criminologist Franklin Zimring and Gordon Hawkins of the University of California conducted a large-scale study on gun related violence and homicide in the United States compared to other countries. They discovered that the United States have similar crime rates as other developed countries, but much higher homicide rates (Harwood). The gun violence seemed to correlate to the stringency of gun control laws of each of the countries. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"He sees that the great armies and navies that England is amassing have no other purpose but to attack the colonies. He tries to show that they must prepare now for the imminent attack so at least they can be prepared and not caught off guard. +He is not only speaking to the men attending the Virginia convention in 1775, but also all the men living in the colonies. He knows that persuading the convention is very important to be able to prepare for war, but he also knows that it is even more important to convince the normal men that they should go to war. Although Henry does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that it the common man who will do the actual fighting, and he has to have their full support to fight a war with England. He is speaking to a convention and a republic that has been tormented by taxes and laws without any representation. He knows that many of the people in the colonies would want to be free from the tyranny or even the rule of England altogether. He uses this to form his speech in a way that creates emotion and positive platform for a call to arms. I wholeheartedly endorse what Patrick Henry calls ""An appeal to arms"" because without it there would have been no revolution, and we would not be living in The United States of America today. +Henry uses very creative diction and syntax in his speech. He uses words like disrespectful, slavery, struggle, and violence in his description of English rule in the colonies before the war. He uses such words to bring about feelings that life was already like a painful war just living under the power of the British of anger. Henry wanted the men to realize how oppressive the English were, and he wanted them to stand up and fight. He uses many short sentences and hyphens to add emphasis and show importance. Several times he uses several quick questions to deliver description and thought provoking ideas. He uses figures of speech and juxtapositions to add flavor to his speech. Throughout the speech, but especially in the last sentence he makes you almost want to rise out of your seat on the spot and go fight for freedom, liberty, and justice. + + + + I was sneaking our family’s archaic VCR into my bedroom, tip toeing to keep the hardwood floor silent. I had borrowed some small screwdrivers from my dad’s workshop, and was now crawling past my parents’ bedroom as if I was James Bond, trying to keep my presence unknown as I transported my treasure to my room. I meticulously took the VCR apart piece by piece for hours, and I was startled as my mom found me surrounded by hundreds of small electrical components, screws, and plastic bits. This was the first moment that I discovered the pleasure of engineering. +",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"Guns can also successfully stop shootings in progress, as Assistant Principal Joel Myrick did in Pearl, Mississippi, in 1997. Few media outlets reported the use of a gun to stop 16 year old Luke Woodham, but Myrick in fact retrieved a handgun from his car and returned to the school where he subdued Woodham before he could cause any more damage (Eisen). +Schools are also partially to blame for school shootings due to inattentiveness and incompetence in relation to possible warning signs. A student in Santee, California, told several adults and students that he was going to shoot up the school, and no one acted on that information until it was too late (Kopel). The same is true of the Virginia Tech shooter. Seung-Hui Cho had a background of mental disorder and often talked and wrote about shooting up the campus, but was never suspected to actually act on his threats. Gun control activists blame the gun and call for more gun regulations when school shootings are brought up, but unstable students, not guns, are to blame for school violence. +Americans should always fight for their Constitutional freedoms as the government tries to take them away, so that the great nation of America may never fall to tyrannical rule and further oppression. Public safety should never be seen as more important than basic personal freedoms. Public safety remains, of course, an important goal, but it should never be put so high up on a pedestal that it overshadows and replaces all other freedoms. How far would public safety go if freedom of speech and religion were taken away? Gun ownership should always be protected because of its importance in insuring that all Americans may continue to enjoy all basic freedoms without the threat of tyranny and oppression. + + + + There is a very complex rhetorical triangle in relation to Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury is writing to a society that is growing ever more complex. This society has recently acquired the capacity to create very large problems. With the invention of new technology and news ways of looking at the world, the American society was like a ticking time bomb. Bradbury was trying to show the average American the possible negative consequences that might arise if the country continued down the road that it was on. Most Americans did not have a clue of any danger that might be in the future, so they continued to live their lives happy and dumb to the truth. +Bradbury did not write Fahrenheit 451 as a view of what would come, but as a warning of what could come. He wanted to open people's eyes, and make sure that they never gave up any of their rights in order to have more fun and entertainment. Bradbury explains by writing, ""If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war"". ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa," The workers could never get out of the cycle because many of them were foreigners and could not speak English let alone get a job somewhere else. To make the point even more, they had no way of moving or the time to look for a different job because their pay was so low that they had just enough money left over each week to eat. I agree with Jurgis' decision to run away because of the great despair he saw all around him in Packingtown, but I believe he should have given more thought to the people he was leaving behind and the immense burden he was putting on them. + +Millions of people die from cancer, disease, and car wrecks each year. These horrible tragedies deserve attention, but murders are often seen with a higher level of emotion. Accidental and unpreventable deaths are always sad, but do not seem as vicious and stinging as murder and violent crime. Maybe the horror of murder is based on the atrocious idea of one human taking the life of another or the pain of forever having to wrestle with the question of ""why?"" All deaths that are not a result of natural causes should be addressed, but violent crime and murder deserve a greater amount of attention. America needs to figure out how it can combat the nearly 350,000 murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults involving guns each year . Every American wants a safe community to raise a family and live a happy, peaceful life. No one wants to see violence and murder in the streets. Gun crime remains an important issue that must be dealt with in order to maintain unity and safety in our society. + Guns are an important part of American culture. Everyone owned guns during the formation of the country, and men used privately owned weapons to protect their families and countrymen. During the 1930s gun control became a controversial issue as the government began to pass gun control laws. Throughout the years, gun control laws have become more rigid, and groups, both in support of and against gun control, have become more adamant in their stances. Critics contend that gun control laws infringe on the Constitutional right to own guns, while supporters claim that firearms must be strictly regulated in order to reduce gun related violence. Whatever the solution, America must find a way to balance personal freedoms with public safety. + One of the most persuasive pieces of evidence against gun control rests in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This Amendment is part of the Constitution, the first and foremost authority of American government and the source that the Supreme Court uses to evaluate laws and court cases. Due to the Second Amendment's overriding power, any legislation prohibiting gun ownership conflicts with the plans of the Founding Fathers and is a direct ""threat to freedom"". +",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa," + I believe that The Jungle shows how human beings deep down inside are naturally greedy and self-centered. They only want to look out for themselves and make their lives as good as possible, but never look out for anyone lower then themselves. The Jungle shows this in many ways. The main obvious area is the owners and managers of the great factories. All they want to do is make their companies and factories as big and great as they can be. They do not care about anyone or anything that gets in their way or anything that gets hurt because of their advancements. According to Upton Sinclair's work, ""The line of the buildings stood clear-cut and black against the sky; here and there out of the mass rose the great chimneys, with the river of smoke streaming away to the end of the world"". Sinclair is trying to paint a picture of the great damage that this pollution is creating. He shows that the owners have no regard for any person or animal that might get hurt. They do not care about the great plumes of smoke billowing out of the factories or the animal feces and urine runoff from the thousands of pens around Packingtown. +The owners and managers also did not care about their employees working to make them rich. They would do anything to make or save an extra buck, ""So from the top to bottom the place is simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there is no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there is no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar"". They force their employees to work awful hours and then without even a day's notice they might layoff multitudes of people at a time without any compensation or help finding a job. During the era The Jungle is set in there were not many, if any, laws or regulations protecting the workers safety or well being. This allowed the managers and owners to run wild, forcing their employees to speed up progress and work in terrible conditions. Although the book never says it directly, the people who lived and worked themselves to death in Packingtown were simply expected to deal with the horrible conditions both while working in the factories and living around them. There were no agencies or organizations set up to provide information or help to the workingman. There were unions that were formed, but these often did more harm than help as they made money off of the poor workers. The workers were so badly treated and had no way of escaping the system of Packingtown that they were described as slaves, ""Here is a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers; under such circumstances, immorality is exactly as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it is under the system of chattel slavery.""",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"More often, they hinder legal gun owners while doing nothing to stop criminals from illegally owning guns. Criminals are unaffected by gun control laws because they are already trained to break the law, so they simply acquire guns illegally. Gun control laws do, however, affect legal gun owners, making gun ownership for hunting, sport shooting, collecting, and of course self-defense, inconvenient, expensive, and time-intensive. Those who oppose gun ownership can never differentiate between legal and illegal guns or between authorized gun owners and crazed killers. This leaves legal gun owners defenseless to criminals because they are extremely under armed (Update). +Certain weapons unfairly labeled as illegal “assault weapons” have also received an excessive amount of regulation because they have been deemed too dangerous for civilian ownership. Assault weapons that had previously been illegal under The Federal Assault Weapons Act of 1994 do not pose serious threats to public safety. The Act was allowed to expire under a ""sunset"" provision in 2004, but response is needed to keep it from being reenacted (Assault). Assault weapons are too large to conceal, thus being very undesirable to criminals. Law-abiding gun owners purchase ""assault weapons"" because they are useful in sport and target shooting and hunting. Gun control activists and supportive politicians made the assault weapon laws very stringent, including many moderate weapons with very little threat to public safety, making many popular hunting and sport rifles illegal. Another important piece of the assault weapon regulations is the large-capacity clip ban. Magazines that hold over ten rounds of ammunition were banned under the assault weapon law. Larger clips are in fact very important to legal gun owners because of self-defense needs. Police officers and military personnel carry magazines that hold more than ten rounds for protection reasons, showing that law-abiding citizens should be able to receive the same amount of protection from their weapons (Assault). +Military reserve and National Guard troops need guns in order to train while they are not fighting overseas. Reservists and other non-active soldiers often train as civilians with weapons such as the AR-15, similar to the M-16 active-duty weapon, that had previously been illegal for personal ownership under the assault weapons ban (Assault). Soldiers need to be able to practice with guns that are as close as possible to the actual guns that they will be fighting with, in order for them to stay battle-ready, so that they can successfully protect the country. +Gun control activists are also misconstrued when they cite school shootings as reason for more gun control laws. They believe that with tighter gun regulations, school children will be safer, and not fall victim to tragedies such as those at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Columbine in 1999. The gun is usually blamed for school shootings, but, in fact, it is far more common that media and student's emotional and social situations are more to blame for school violence than guns, which could easily be replaced with homemade bombs or knives as the weapon of choice. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"Both England and Japan have some of the tightest gun control laws as well as some of the lowest gun related homicide rates (Ballaro). The United State's homicide rates are twenty times greater than England and Wales, ten times greater than France and Germany, and only exceeded by a few Latin American countries (Harwood). + + Proponents of gun control laws also cite school shootings as point for the need of more and tougher gun control legislation. In 1966 twenty-five year old ex-Marine and college student Charles Whitman fired a sawed-off shotgun from a tower on the University of Texas campus killing fourteen and wounding thirty-one. In 1999 seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed twelve classmates and a teacher and wounded two dozen others at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. After the Columbine shooting President Bill Clinton set up a task force to study school violence. Congress tightened restrictions on purchases at gun shows (where the students purchased the weapons used). Many schools installed metal detectors and security cameras, hired armed guards, and initiated zero-tolerance policies (Driscoll). A thirty-two year old man killed and wounded over a dozen girls in an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006 (Ballaro). In September of that year a fifty-three year old man killed a female student at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado after he took several other students hostage and sexually assaulted them (Driscoll). + + In April of 2007 the worst school shooting in United States history occurred at Virginia Tech. A troubled college student named Hui Cho killed thirty-three people and wounded over a dozen others (Bowman). Today work is being done to prevent people with a history of mental illness to buy guns because Hui Cho was allowed to purchase a Glock handgun even though he had voluntarily stayed at a mental heath facility (Ballaro). In 2008 a mass shooting occurred at the Northern Illinois University where seven people including the gunmen were killed. Seventeen others were wounded. In the 2005 to 2006 school year the National Center for Educational Statistics reported twenty-one homicides of children under the age of eighteen and 136,500 other violent crimes on school campuses (Driscoll). Of the fourteen worst school shootings in world history in the past century, one half have occurred in the United States (Ballaro). Several laws have been enacted to help to reduce gun violence among youth and at schools including the Youth Handgun Safety Act and the Gun-Free School Act, which mandates a minimum one-year expulsion for possessing a firearm of other weapon on school property (Driscoll). + + Much of the gun control reform that has been enacted has become ineffective. In 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was created banning various types of assault weapons, but was allowed to lapse in 2004 (Lee). High-powered weapons create a public safety crisis. Gun crime declined because of the assault weapon ban from the 1990's to early 2000's. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa," Although I never got the VCR back together properly, and I did not know the term “engineering,” I knew that I had a passion. Whenever I got the chance to take apart an old piece of equipment, now with my parents’ permission so I would not face punishment again, I would sit in intense concentration for hours unscrewing pieces and keeping meticulous order of where everything came from. I started to get to a point where not only could I put the devices back together, but sometimes I could actually fix them back to working order. I was overjoyed when I could find something that my dad had thrown away and be able to bring it back to him fixed. He supported and encouraged me immensely, helping me to continue to explore this “engineering.” + my grandfather would explain as I sat on his lap for hours. After telling my grandfather of the great inspiration I received from his engineering stories from NASA, he advised me that I must always do my best in school and earn good grades in order to find an exemplary engineering job. He always made sure to tell me that I did not have to follow in his footsteps of aeronautical engineering, but that I should pursue whatever career that interested me the most. + I intend to go into a career in mechanical engineering. I hope to improve automotive safety through my advances in safety research. I know that I would like to pursue a career in automotive safety because last year I followed a researcher as he developed new seat belts. I was very fascinated by the processes that the researcher employed to create new designs. As his pencil first touched the blueprint and he began the design process, I drew in a breath as I saw the innovations transpiring on the page. He furiously drew out his ingenious new seat belt design that mimics the full safety benefits of a five-point safety harness, while maintaining the comfort and ease-of-use of a traditional three-point seat belt found in most consumer automobiles. While doing some of the ""basic"" number crunching on paper, he entered the data from his blueprints into the computer that rendered a full computer model in mere minutes. The design was not completed until after I left, but if put into mainstream production, I will be able to see the carbon fiber enhanced substrate restraint system that I helped develop, in whatever small ways, make millions of cars safer worldwide. + + When I saw how many lives I could save and how many families I could keep intact, I knew that I had to become an automotive safety designer. A college student is heading home from his shift at the local pizza parlor, and his car is suddenly and violently struck from the side as he attempts to cross an intersection. The young boy was just hit by a drunk driver, and both cars are crushed into unrecognizable heaps. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +aa,"The FBI has shown that even after every precaution taken to stop gun-related school violence knives are used more than three times more than guns in school incidents. Even if, theoretically, the gun control laws worked to stop all gun-related violence, there would still be over three-quarters of the violence seen in schools today (Driscoll). + + In a 1999 case, District Judge Sam R.Cumming ruled that the Second Amendment protected the right to own and carry a firearm even to an individual under a restraining order. In 2008 the United States Supreme Court found in the case of the District of Columbia vs. Heller that the Second Amendment to protect the right to bear arms. It struck down DC legislation including the law that mandated firearms kept in homes must be fully disassembled or be fitted with a trigger lock. Legislation has risen on the subject of ""stand your ground"" bills. Citizens have been given the right to defend themselves with deadly force (Lee). + + The gun control controversy is a very heated debate. Every American citizen should know the facts so that they can make an educated decision on the stance they support, so that they can be as safe as possible. Both sides of the argument have valid points and are quite persuasive. There are many people who support gun control citing violent crimes, horrific murders, and school shootings as reason enough to implement more stringent regulations. Others are fiercely against gun control and argue that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to firearms, guns are needed for self defense, current laws often do more harm than good, and sport shooters and hunters would be greatly impeded by new inflexible laws. Will the United States make the proper decisions on the gun control debate in order to protect its citizens? + + + + +This speech by Patrick Henry is a great call to arms. Even now, over two hundred years later, this speech still brings forth emotion to stand up and fight. Patrick Henry was a great orator of his time and even today would be seen as one of the great speakers. He speaks in a way that includes many different literary styles, techniques, and methods of persuasion. +Henry's purpose in presenting this speech was to show how inevitable a war with England was, and how now was the time to fight. He saw that the colonies were not gaining any ground asking and petitioning Great Britain to alleviate the laws and taxes that the colonists were opposed to because of the great pain that it brought on them. He shows that it was time to fight by saying, ""Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other,"" Henry is insisting that there is no question of if there is going to be a war, but when there will be a war. ",24,English,male,High School,construction worker,"N,N,N,N,N" +z,"I chose to approach Senator Feinstein with my legislation because as our elected representative she has a vested interest in the health and well-being of the citizens of California, and a responsibility to her constituency to protect our lives and ensure the safety of our highways. Because Ms. Feinstein helps legislate the state with the largest number of licensed drivers in the nation, I feel she is uniquely qualified to push this legislation through. +A variety of lobbying groups and governmental agencies would be viable candidates for providing support in Washington for my legislation. The more likely sources I would approach (many of which have already been cited above) would include: + +The cost of implementing this legislation, other than the cost involved in the actual passage of the bill itself, would be relatively minor. No additional programs would need to be created, and no tax dollars would need to be acquired for implementation. In reality, the legislation would be highly cost-effective in long-term application. The cost of teen morbidity and mortality behind the wheel goes beyond the dire emotional toll brought to bear on America’s families. Another cost that could be circumvented is the nearly exorbitant cost of insuring underage drivers. Even when discounts for good grades apply, the cost of insuring teen drivers is high, and given the accident statistics stated above, it is no wonder. +If Americans truly believe that our children are our future, it is my opinion that we are morally obliged to protect our teens from the overt dangers of driving and ensure that our children make it through adolescence and into responsible adulthood. + + + + +The history of the earthen house, in particular the cob house, is a long one. But it is a history with marked gaps in evolution. This paper explores that evolution and considers the relatively recent upsurge in interest about natural building techniques such as cob. Part I introduces two specific cob structures, one in California and one in Oregon. Part II zooms in for a close-up view of cob: How is cob made? Just how can you design a house made of mud? Part III takes a look back at the architectural history of cob; who knew mud could be so durable! Finally, Part IV explores the evolutionary leap in cob design; I will look at ways in which cob design and other “simplified” building methods combine sustainable housing design with the desire for a simplified lifestyle. + + + +Finding a cob house or building to “interact with” in the Bay Area was something of a challenge, and I was forced to go a bit farther afield. I found two specific cob projects to focus on. One is a unique backyard cob gazebo, complete with fireplace and freeform cob sculpture, designed and hand-built by Sacramento-area schoolteacher Dana Jenks; the other is “Heart House,” a cob cottage built by landscape architect Ianto Evans and therapist Linda Smiley in Oregon, a current-day cob enthusiast’s Mecca. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z,"Without education and with little-to-no social safety net to fall back on, a person will view circumstances of lack in a very different way than one who has educational and marketplace advantages—not to mention the advantage of ethnic privilege, another issue often ignored within the VS movement. This difference in perspective is often seriously misunderstood or glossed over by VSers. In her scholarly exploration of the VS movement, Mary Grigsby put it this way: +This perception of all things being equal and that “starting from zero” is a matter of choice common to everyone, ignores genuine perceptual differences caused by institutional poverty. Although VSers often say that they recognize the difference between voluntary and involuntary simplicity, Grigsby’s interviews of VSers seem to indicate otherwise. +Surviving and coping on the lower levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy creates psychological and sociological impediments to moving up toward the higher levels of self-actualization. Ironically, most VSers have moved far up the hierarchical ladder by the time they choose to begin downsizing. +As stated previously, broad definitions of the simplicity movement lend themselves to broad interpretation of how to pursue its tenets. At the web site quoted above, one may purchase calendars, bumper stickers, flags, note and post cards, posters, tee-shirts, books, CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes, all billed as “tools for simple living.” The ambiguity of the simplicity rules is paying off for some; simplicity has become big business. +In 2000, a new magazine hit the stands. Each month Real Simple sports a peaceful color scheme—typically a lot of white and pale blue—and features cover shots of items like plain wooden tables or cupboards, simple bowls, perhaps a single flower or piece of fruit. Time, Inc. owns Real Simple, and refers to it as “a leader in the category of women’s lifestyle publications.” It further promises “useful strategies, coupled with a clean, inspiring design. . . .”. The implication here is that the illusion of simplicity is tantamount to actual simplicity. So successful has the magazine become, there is now a television program by the same name, being broadcast on, of all places, public television. At the PBS Real Simple web site in October 2007, the photo is of a gift wrapped in plain white cloth, tied with string, and ornamented with what appears to be a camellia leaf. Under the heading “Episode 26” is a bullet list that includes the title, “Shopping Splurges.” Apparently, the cognoscenti watching PBS (undoubtedly a VS demographic) can buy things in order to keep it simple. Real Simple merchandise, such as organizers and notebooks, are available for purchase at that consumers’ paradise, Target. +Keying in “voluntary simplicity” at Amazon.com provides a book browser with nearly 900 book titles from which to choose. If these books are any indication, it is imperative that one simplify business, housecleaning, and home schooling. Simplicity is framed within the context of Buddhism, Christianity, and Zen. There is Quaker simplicity, Shaker simplicity, and Epicurean simplicity. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," The evolution in cob will be toward the pursuit of making cob available to as many people as are interested in and in need of cheap, sustainable, and personally fulfilling housing alternatives. In an era when people are more and more disempowered to act with agency in designing their lives, designing and building with cob may be a way back to something elemental in the human heart. + + + The concept of simplicity has insinuated itself to the point of ubiquity in 21st century American culture. The Voluntary Simplicity movement is a precursive factor in this phenomenon, particularly as it constructs a standard of behavior by which individuals might ameliorate the overwork, indebtedness, and bourgeois guilt inherent with conspicuous consumption. The precepts of the Voluntary Simplicity (VS) movement tend to be fluid, leaving the definition of simplicity open to broad individual interpretation. I will examine different ways that these wide-ranging definitions leave VS vulnerable to co-opting by popular culture, diluting its message of transcendence over materialism. The rhetoric of VS—and several parallel movements—is one in which temporal decrease is equated with intangible gain. I will explore the pseudo-religious nature of VS that can lead to extremism, just as sometimes happens with other forms of utopian or religious beliefs. +Current western culture, particularly in the United States, is a culture of consumption. As 20th century Americans moved steadily away from an agrarian lifestyle, acquisition of material goods became synonymous with progress and forward momentum. The American ideals of the “self-made man” and “pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps” fed the industrial and technological revolutions. The American Dream, in other words, has generally equated more “stuff” with greater happiness and an improved social status. + In the 1980s, Reagan-era economics and attitudes elevated material acquisition to a new level. On the heels of the so-called “decade of greed,” the 1990s heralded the information age, catapulting the nation and the world onto the Information Superhighway. The VS movement, still comparatively small in numbers, found a growth niche, primarily among disenchanted, middle-class baby-boomers, and ideologically displaced environmental and back-to-the-land enthusiasts. +Bob Corbett, a professor of philosophy for 36 years at Webster University, is fairly representative of the VS demographic. Bob and his wife began making conscious lifestyle choices aimed at simplifying family life during the 1960s. In an era when most American families were caught up in the mainstream conventions of the time—namely following the ideals of progress and modernity—the Corbett family chose to forego two American staples: a television set and an automobile. As the parents of seven children, the Corbetts decided that television contributed to a vision of “normal life” that they found skewed, and from which they chose to shield their children. +Typically, the VS movement provides a means of grappling with the frustration of the overwork-overspend cycle. In fact, VSers contend that the trap of spending ever more time working for wages in order to fund consumption, is at the root of many societal ills—environmental chaos, poverty, and spiritual malaise. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z,"One may embrace radical simplicity, extreme simplicity, and fearless simplicity. +One final nod to buying big in order to live small, is the “Tumbleweed Tiny House,” the brainchild of architect and designer Jay Shafer. Each exquisite little dwelling is like a playhouse for grownups; they have eco-groovy names like the “Concord” and the “Sebastarosa,” and can be trailered from place to place. Shafer lives full-time in his own 100-square foot Tumbleweed House. Ranging from 40-100 square feet, these exquisitely designed domiciles are built directly onto a trailer base, so are completely portable. One can either purchase plans for about $1,000, or order the house custom built and shipped. The cost to build your own (not including the cost of plans or labor) is $9,000 to $19,000. Ready-made is significantly more: $22,000 for 40-square feet, to $43,000 for 100-square feet. Although the little homes are hitting it big in the popular marketplace, it will not be those trying to eke their way up from the subsistence level of Maslow’s Hierarchy that will be buying a Tumbleweed House. +Ruth Mullin of the Oregonian said of Tumbleweed Houses: “Exquisite craftsmanship and an ecological imperative to live lightly in less space.” In her review, Mullin made the leap from just-a-really-hip-idea to a concept that is central to VS: “reduction-morality.” +The Voluntary Simplicity movement embraces several specific sub-cultures, complete with unique vocabulary, and rituals of behavior that identify one as an insider. Complex connections exist between groups and between standards of behavior within groups. These intertwined subsets typically incorporate the rhetoric of reduction-morality, that is, living righteously by subtracting some element from everyday life. Subcategories within the reduction-morality lifestyle might be thought of as eco-morality (reducing consumption of non-sustainable goods and services, eschewing consumption of animals and animal byproducts), econo-morality (frugality movements, buying local, support of non-corporate business), and religio-morality (vows of poverty, renunciation of worldly goods). +In an online blog entitled “Small Revolutions: Voluntary Simplicity in Devon,” a young man identified only as Rob attempts to fulfill a number of reduction-morality requirement while he shops. A basic principle of voluntary simplicity requires him to weigh any purchase with deliberation. By VS standards, it is generally better not to spend at all; if Rob makes a purchase, there should be specific and conscious thought behind it. He sees a pig-bristle shave brush. He justifies the expense (more than nine euros) by making the point that a) it will last a lifetime and b) he will be able to give up shaving foam. He makes a connection with econo-morality—he is buying locally. He makes a connection with eco-morality—not using aerosol cans anymore, and foiling advertising and consumerism. And he connects with religio-morality, writing at some length about the importance of rituals (shaving, in this case) and how small daily rituals root us to time and place. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin became VS gurus with their seminal work, Your Money or Your Life. Many VSers refer to this state of being stuck on the consumer hamster wheel as “wage slavery.” This is not just radical rhetoric of East or West Coast liberals. +There is a certain level of discomfort among VSers with this more extreme end of the simplicity continuum. The vast majority of VSers express an interest, not in eliminating work, but being free to choose work that is fulfilling and personally meaningful, whether financially remunerative or voluntary in nature—an idea compatible with the Buddhist ideal of right livelihood. +Simplicity literature frequently lays out specific steps for downsizing, providing a framework for reaching the ultimate VS goals, typified as financial independence, reduced environmental impact, and the perception of spending one’s time and money wisely and conscientiously. On paper it sounds like a noble aspiration. But, as with all human endeavors, VS is fraught with complications and conundrums. +The population of the Voluntary Simplicity movement self-identifies largely as white, highly educated, middle class, and, more often than not, heterosexual. It is the upwardly mobile person for whom the question of downsizing becomes an issue. VSers have, according to their own socio-economic identification, reached a point in life that allows them to be concerned with matters beyond issues of survival and the desire to “better” oneself by acquiring material possessions that one equates with status in the dominant culture. +It is not uncommon that individuals and couples take on the mantle of VS after reaching a place of material security and/or income level that allows them to shift their assets into investments before downsizing, thus allowing them certain freedoms and financial security not available to those whose educational and monetary underpinnings are thin or nonexistent. +In Abraham Maslow’s notion of human psychological development, individuals move through a series of conceptual levels, beginning from the most basic physical needs such as food, sleep, water, oxygen, and so forth. When these basic needs are met, the theory states, the individual is then—and only then—able to move to the next level of development. There is a significant relevance in Maslow’s Hierarchy as it applies to the concepts of Voluntary Simplicity. +When a person is functioning on a hand-to-mouth basis, never having lived above poverty or subsistence level, an entirely different set of motivations surrounds her choices concerning acquisition and consumption. At the first and second levels of the hierarchy, one is striving to meet the most basic hungers of the body, and then gather about oneself a sense of physical safety and security. Acquisitions that represent gross consumption to a VSer—say, a big-screen TV or an expensive designer handbag—could, to a subsistence-oriented person, symbolize the ability to move into the realm of “the haves.” It is easy to extrapolate one’s own sensibilities about consumption onto another, without having tried to survive solely on the lower rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," +Teenagers are dying behind the wheel. Several factors come together to create this deadly vector of statistics for the youngest American drivers. The National Institutes of Health explain that one facet of the problem is that the teen brain is literally not ready for the hazards of driving. Simple inexperience also lies at the heart of the problem. This inexperience not only causes more fatal accidents, but also a higher rate of vehicle rollover, speeding, and driving off the road. +Teens also fare far worse when they travel with their peers—which anyone with an iota of sense knows they do on a regular basis. The Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center conducted a study that showed the following correlation: between the age of the passenger and the number of traffic accidents occurring. + California and other states have attempted to increase the safety of teen drivers by requiring temporary provisional licenses that limit the hours that teens may drive and prohibit other minors as passengers. + But provisional driver’s licenses are, in my opinion, stopgap measures. The real issue is that—as a group—the youngest drivers are, by all statistical markers, simply not able to adequately handle the risks and responsibilities. Psychologist Marvin Zuckerman believes even 18 is too young for a regular driver’s license. USA Today reports that Zuckerman has performed research suggesting a common desire among those under the age of 19-20 to take risks for the sheer thrill of the sensation. It makes sense then, to delay driving at least until the tendency to thrill-seek has begun to level out. If we continue to issue driver’s licenses to young teens, we will not only continue to see deadly accidents happening, but the death toll is likely to reach staggering proportions in the next few years. By 2010, the Baby-Boomer’s babies will be eligible to drive and millions of new teen drivers will ready to hit the road. +Legislation dealing with this issue would be reasonably straightforward. Schools could continue to provide driver’s education classes to begin the learning process for future drivers, but no one under the age of 18 could operate a motor vehicle. A provisional permit could still be issued prior to granting a full driver’s license, and a certain number of practical driver’s training hours would still be required as well. The specific number of hours required could be based on the number of hours already required by the majority of states (in California, for example, that number is currently 6 hours of behind-the-wheel training and 50 hours of practice with an adult.) Because the deadly statistics for teen drivers come from a cross-section of all states, uniform, national legislation on this issue would be a reasonable—and I believe effective—means of protecting teens across the nation. +The legislation I suggest is by no means a novel idea. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z,"Cob, in this case, has nothing to do with the skeleton of an ear of corn. Cob is an old English term for mud buildings constructed without standard structural underpinning (Elizabeth 25). Cob is also the name of the loaves of mud used during construction. + +The basic composition of cob is clay, sand, straw, and water. Cobbers typically begin with whatever soil is at hand, and amend the components to obtain the highest quality cob possible. Below is a simple soil test that can be performed at the building site. Referred to as a “shake test,” this is a method for roughly determining how much clay and sand is available in site soil. The shake test is not a foolproof determination, but is useful in garnering site information. Clay and/or sand may be brought in from off-site, but this begins to increase building costs. + +Once a site is selected and prepared, the fun begins. New school cob is typically mixed under human power, usually by foot. Called “cob dancing,” the muddy mix is stomped out on a tarp. As the cob is combined, more elements are added—straw, water, etc.—in order to create the desired consistency and balance of elements. + +That balance can be determined by making test bricks and allowing them to dry thoroughly. Bricks deficient in sand or long straw will be in danger of cracking or breaking under pressure. The perfect mix is also determined in part by building conditions. For instance, in warm, dry conditions, a wetter cob can be mixed. In cooler, damper weather, a somewhat drier cob will prove easier to work with and will dry faster. + +Regular cob is mixed on the tarp and then shaped into loaves, as this illustration from The Hand-Sculpted House demonstrates (Evans 182). These loaves, or cobs, are carried to the building in progress and incorporated. + +“Gaab-Cob” is a system named for Cob Cottage Company colleague Dana Gaab. Gaab invented this wetter cob in 1994. It is loaded onto walls in large armfuls or by fork. In the photograph below, Ianto Evans of Cob Cottage Company is working with Gaab Cob. + + + + +The cob designer and architect is limited by imagination and little else. Because of this free-flowing process, cob design might almost be thought of as a form of “anti-architecture.” In addition to the unique windows, arches, benches, shelves, and freeform sculpture possible, the house can incorporate recycling efforts in an amazing fashion. Figure 10 below shows how. The various objects that would normally end up in a landfill become an integral—if invisible—part of the finished cob structure! Because cob has such efficient thermal mass, it is ideal for passive solar construction. Heavy cob construction with thick walls can average about 70 degrees without any other source of heat or cooling. + +The fine details and specifics of cob building are far beyond the scope of this project, but I hope it is clear from even a brief introduction that cob building offers a level of flexibility in design that supersedes traditional architecture. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," + Americans have long been enamored with the image of the simple self-sufficient aesthete, whether it is Thoreau growing beans on the back forty in Concord or Jeremiah Johnson going into the Rocky Mountains to wrestle grizzly bears. In recent years, PBS has created several versions of a reality-style television miniseries, based on the fantasy of “escaping” into the perceived simplicity of the past. Three of these shows, Frontier House, Colonial House, and Texas Ranch House, garnered tens of thousands of applications from would-be participants (www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse). The actual reality was that living in primitive 17th and 19th century conditions was no Thoreauvian tiptoe through the tulips. 21st century participants invariably found the experience grueling, dangerous, and dirty. +There is a common saying in the Voluntary Simplicity movement: How much is enough? People can theoretically follow their reduction-morality to the nth degree, and diminish consumption until they are living in naked in caves, eating roots and berries. Perhaps one should also ask, how far is too far? +In 1996, Jon Krakauer wrote an account of Chris McCandless, a 24-year-old man, who, four years prior, walked into the Alaskan tundra with not much more than the clothes on his back. Wildly devoted to the concepts of self-sufficiency extreme simplicity, McCandless’s particular reduction-morality (heavily influenced by Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Jack London) ended with the tragic consequence that the young man starved to death. Again—and this is a terrible irony considering how he died—Chris McCandless was attempting to reduce his circumstances from a position of relatively comfortable upper-middle-class socio-economic means. +The desire to create meaning in the complex lives we build for ourselves is a uniquely human enterprise, and the concept of simplicity has come into and gone out of favor with Americans time and again over the course of centuries. The Puritans, Shakers, and Amish all set up religious precepts that shunned the complex trappings of secular life in order to embrace spiritual purity. Thomas Jefferson held forth the ideal of the gentleman farmer, an agrarian gentry that would be a perfect American type. The late 19th century brought a flourishing of American utopian experiments in which numbers of people endeavored to live together under a set of simple ideals (Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his The American Notebooks, describes in a particularly winsome fashion, working up the courage to milk a cow. During the 1960s, tens of thousands sought to simply life by getting “back to the land,” following eco-gurus like Scott and Helen Nearing, authors of the wildly popular Living the Good Life. +Humans always appear to throw themselves toward extremes to try and achieve physical and psychic balance. It seems that when we travel too far from the truth of who we are—animals that have developed the capacity for abstract thought—we find it necessary to reduce our circumstances and slide back down Maslow’s ladder, just far enough so that it feels like we are once more in familiar territory. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z,"All materials are completely non-toxic, sound for the environment, and harmless to cob builders and cob dwellers. + +The first permanent human settlements were constructed of unbaked earth, some 10,000 years ago. Earth construction is ubiquitous around the globe. At some point during the Middle Ages, the first cob houses began to be built in Britain. In the county of Devon, many hundreds of cob houses, are still standing and inhabited. + +When Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley began researching the possibility of building with earth in the mid-1980s, they made a trip to Ianto’s native Wales. Although they had been thoroughly discouraged from trying to build with earth in the damp and rainy climate of the Pacific Northwest, Ianto and Linda saw ample evidence that cob houses, properly constructed, could weather the wet climate beautifully. They decided to go home to Oregon and try using cob for themselves. One problem they had, however, was the fact that English cob had literally become a dead art. No new cob construction had taken place in England after World War I, and cob crafters with firsthand experience had not passed that knowledge on before they died. + +Undaunted, Ianto and Linda pressed on with their vision. Over the latter part of the twentieth century, cob building took on a whole new life, drawing many hundreds of people. Cob building has seen a resurgence around the world. In this way, cob building has not so much evolved as it has revived. The evolution of cob has happened almost entirely during the past 20 years. + +With concerns about climate change and the stresses put on natural resources due to overpopulation and misuse, cob’s most significant evolution is that it joins a growing number of progressive alternative housing design concepts that champion sustainability and eschew over-consumption. +People are drawn to design with cob for a variety of reasons, but a few of those reasons seem predominant: + +It can be done relatively cheaply (Ianto and Linda built Heart House for $500 in materials.) + +It is a non-toxic construction method. + +People who are typically excluded from the realm of home construction (i.e., women, children, the elderly, the disabled). + +Cob design and building fits well the desire to downscale, simplify, and find sustainable ways of living on the planet. + +Cob building is by no means the only way to go for sustainability or downsizing, but it may be the most practical way for the greatest number of people of varying construction abilities and economic means. Next, we briefly explore two other alternative housing design options. + +Especially designed for simplicity and downsized consumption is the “Tumbleweed Tiny House.” The brainchild of architect and designer Jay Shafer, each exquisite little dwelling is like a playhouse for grownups. They have eco-groovy names like the “Concord” and the “Sebastarosa,” and can be trailered from place to place. Shafer lives full-time in his own 100-square foot Tumbleweed House. +",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z,"In spite of all the reduction-morality justifications this young man finds for making his purchase, he also mentions that the shaving brush “looks retro.” Simplicity aesthetics has its own appeal; it looks simple, and the buyer is able to flesh out the virtues of his choice accordingly. By making this purchase, Rob acquires not just a nine-euro shaving brush, but also a sense of integrity from having made a moral decision. There are of course, even simpler alternatives than the shave brush, though Rob does not explore these in the context of his shopping trip. What about just lathering on the soap with bare hands? Or, simpler still, why not forego shaving altogether? When my grandfather was in his eighties, he sat down and calculated how much time he spent each day parting his hair. He then calculated the amount of time that hair-parting was cutting into his life. Apparantly, this was a significant enough time expenditure that, from that day until he died several years later, he combed his hair straight back from his face—no part. There is always another backward step one can take in reduction-morality. +The web of underlying credos spliced into the tapestry of the VS movement is extensive. Because a major tenet of VS is the desire to reduce personal impact on the environment, there is a solid connection with other reduction-morality movements. Natural food movements employ reduction-morality by stepping backward from the perceived evils of the typical American diet—fast food, GMO, pesticide-laden, animal-cruelty-endorsing omnivory—to organic, locally-raised, cruelty-free vegetarianism. Another step backward, and one will embrace veganism, followed in turn by a raw foods diet. Pursued to the extreme, natural food reduction-morality comes to the Jains, a religious sect that is not simply vegetarian, but only eats plant products—whether fruits, vegetables, or grains—that have ripened to the point of falling off the plant, in order to maintain the sanctity of the life of the plant (Jainism Simplified). On an interesting side parallel, those practicing the precepts of Jainism usually come from upper-caste Indian families, which affords individuals the ability to pursue a set of beliefs that are on the higher, or transcendent, levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy—similar to the hierarchical status of the average VSer. +American Puritanism was a response to perceived religious excess; VS is a response to perceived material excess. As with any movement that perceives itself as holding the answers to life’s most pressing questions, VS sometimes has a decidedly fundamentalist bent. +The call to cut back on material entanglements is common to a myriad of spiritual practices and utopian communities: the Amish, the Quakers, and the Shakers all embrace simplicity as a central tenet of their belief structures. Not surprisingly, when one is in a position to qualify the fine points of faith, one is on the upper levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," +Ranging from 40-100 square feet, these exquisitely designed domiciles are built directly onto a trailer base, so are completely portable. One can either purchase plans for about $1,000, or order the house custom built and shipped. The cost to build your own (not including the cost of plans or labor) is $9,000 to $19,000. Ready-made is significantly more: $22,000 for 40-square feet, to $43,000 for 100-square feet (Shafer). Although the little homes are hitting it big in the popular marketplace, they are priced out of range for many people who would like to downsize, simplify, or just create a small place of their own. + +For full-blown self-sustaining design, consider the Earthship. Designed by architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, New Mexico. Earthships are similar to cob houses, in that they are earth-based construction, in this case, rammed-earth. Thermal density is obtained in an Earthship by pounding soil into old tires. The tires are stacked and usually covered with adobe or cob. Like modern cob houses, Earthships often incorporate bottles and aluminum cans for decorative and structural purposes. Figure 13 below shows the ends of cans showing through the cob and plaster walls. The understructure of rammed-earth tires shows through near the front entrance. This Earthship, like many, is built up against a natural hill for increased thermal mass. + +Earthships, ideally, are completely self-sustaining, using passive solar energy, water catchment, gray-water reclamation, indoor food production, and black water composting. There is an element of the experimental to an Earthship, which seems to be the intention of creator Michael Reynolds. + +Cob building combines the best of many elements of the Earthship and the Tiny Tumbleweed House. Like the Tumbleweed, building can be done on a scale that utilizes space efficiently with the intention of reducing one’s impact on the environment. However, a cob house can be built for a fraction of the cost of a Tiny Tumbleweed House. A cob house can employ the same sustainable, environmentally friendly design ideas as Earthships. But unlike the Earthship, cob buildings have a long history of effectively sheltering human beings with a relatively simple investment of time and money. Perhaps most importantly, the pace and nature of cob building allows for an interaction with the earth and with other people that is, according to those who do it, unparalleled by other forms of housing or construction. + +When people design and build their home with their own hands, something special happens. I believe cob design will continue to evolve, but on a different scale than is pursued in the Raymond Loewy world of “never leave well enough alone.” The changes will not be in the realm of bigger, better, faster. Cob design is personal, and therefore cannot be fully outsourced or usurped by contractors or other “professionals.” It is done almost exclusively by hand, and therefore will never be mass produced. ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," + +After attending a cob-building workshop in Oregon, Dana Jenks came home to Sacramento with a vision for building something of her own. She was going through a particularly stressful time in her personal life, and she found that the solitary, hands-on nature of cob building to be healing. One aspect of cob design that many find appealing is flexible creativity on the fly. Dana incorporated design elements as she went along, working a little at a time over the course of a year. + +Although Dana had some help from family and neighbors, she did most of the building by herself. She and her neighbors had taken down fences for repair, and this allowed for unexpected interaction during the careful process of building and design. + + +Linda Smiley and Ianto Evans are two of the most well known names in the burgeoning world of modern cob design, both in North America and elsewhere. In many ways, they are pioneers for modern cob, as there was virtually no one building with cob at the end of the twentieth century. Their company, Cob Cottage, grew from their own experiences building with cob in the Pacific Northwest, in the early 1990s. Because they could find no one with direct cob-building experience, their experiments in cob design began with observation of old cob buildings in Great Britain, then evolved as they designed their first cob home, a hybrid cob/wood cabin structure (Elizabeth 122). Some years later, they designed and built an all-cob house, 120 sq. ft. With its curved living spaces, the cottage took on a modified heart shape—thus the name. Ianto explains: “Although our house became heart-shaped, the floorplan was not based on the concept of ‘heart’….The design grew, like lilies on a pond, in response to the activities we needed to have enclosed” (Evans 87). +Most of the windows are built on the south side of the Heart House to promote passive solar heating. Ianto and Linda kept their cottage to 120 sq. ft. in order to fall outside their county’s building permit requirement. Heart House has plenty of amenities, however. + +Heart House is a great example of the versatility of cob as a design medium. Note the way the shelf above the alcove is an extension of the curved wall. Plaster made with lime is painted over the cob surface, creating a durable finish with a soft effect in the room. The heart shaped window is another design element especially suited to cob. + +Dana Jenks’s cob gazebo and the Heart House of Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley are design projects on a humble, human scale. The human body and the needs of the particular bodies that will inhabit the structures are the primary standards for these designs. Just how one goes about making a home from such humble stuff as clay, sand, water and straw is the next part of our adventure into cob design. + +What’s in a name? ",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y" +z," Perhaps this will always be the simple certainty of our lives on earth. + + + +It is deeply ingrained in audiences of comedy, up to and including the present day, to watch for a satisfying moment of ‘happily ever after’ in literature, theater, film, and fairy tales. Thus, one classic and expected element of a Shakespearean comedy is a marriage in the final act. A Midsummer Night’s Dream justly meets this expectation by serving up—near, though not at the final act—multiple marriages. On the way to their connubial terminus, however, the females of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are coerced and manipulated with threats of personal violence. This paper investigates Shakespeare’s use of male-on-female violence in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I will examine the ways violence against women is employed as a source of humor and a means of jovially bending women to the will of men, thereby bringing them—willingly or unwillingly—toward a supposed better end. Shakespeare sets up this underpinning of gender violence in his opening scene. +The first act begins with Theseus remarking on his upcoming wedding. He is filled with happy anticipation as would be expected of any willing bridegroom, and he bemoans the slow drag of time prior to the wedding. It is clear that Theseus is prepared for a celebration. One assumes that the wedding of such a nobleman would necessarily be cause for celebration, for “pomp.” It seems incongruous that Theseus should mention funerals in the same breath as his marriage. Why does he need to make such a pointed distinction between rousing “merriments” and the need to “turn melancholy forth”? If we back up and consider Hippolyta’s response to Theseus’s ardent opening salvo, we have an indication. +Hippolyta expresses none of Theseus’s sense of revelry about the impending marriage. She does not in these lines indicate any feeling of joyous anticipation, referring to the wedding ceremony only as “our solemnities.” Whereas Theseus is anxious about how slowly time will drag until they wed, Hippolyta foresees the time flying by, to arrive too soon, one might suppose. She likens the moon—often a symbol of the female life force and power because of its connection to the menses—to a drawn bow, the weapon of choice associated with the legendary Amazon warriors. Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, remains, it appears, in a state of resistance to Theseus’s domination; her only weapon against him now, however, is symbolic, an unreachable “silver bow.” She certainly has good reason to resist him. After dismissing Philostrate, Theseus is blunt. +The double-entendre in sword is clear in this passage, and Theseus seems to believe that he has created a mated passion in Hippolyta through rape. His certainty that the wedding will be a “triumph” indicates that he is wholly confident that overpowering Hippolyta is tantamount to taming her. Her compliance, while not strictly necessary to Theseus’s celebration, is fully expected by him. +",54,English,female,Master's degree,Writer,"Y,Y,Y,Y,Y"