Analysis Of Into The Wild By John Krakauer - 769 Words

Unhappy with his life and the path that it is on, Chris McCandless decides it is time to stray from the societal path in a pretty life changing way. Not even a month out of college he donates his life savings, sold his apartment, and packed his remaining possessions to live on the road, travelling across the United States. The young 24 year old man was found dead in the wilderness of Alaska in September of 1992 after his long journey. Into The Wild, written by John Krakauer, is the story of a man’s journey soley based on pursuing a life of non conformity. There are many who believe that McCandless was crazy for what he did and that it was his ignorance that killed him. Throughout the whole book he shuts many people out and just be†¦show more content†¦81) McCunn was a bit older that McCandless, at 35 years old, but from the look at it they both had similar impulsive like qualities, and were frequently compared to one another. Then, we also see another comparison with another man and McCandless later on in the book. This man, Everett Ruess quotes: â€Å"I have some good friends here, but no one really understands why I am here or what I do. I don’t know of anyone, though, who would have more than a partial understanding; I have gone too far alone. I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly.† (pg. 91) â€Å"No one really understands why I am here or what I do† is something that could relate to teens today, and maybe what McCandless thought was during his trip. 5 years later Chris sounds â€Å"eerily like Ruess† when he declares â€Å"I’ve decided that I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freesome and simple beauty of it is just Khatewoda 3 too good to pass up.† (pg. 92) By reading what he has to say, it shows us that Chris just wanted to get away from the social norms and live his life the way he wanted too. But, by doing that he strayed away from any source of connection with other people, because that’s what he thought would make him happy. In reality, â€Å"happiness [is] only real when shared.† (pg. 189) During his journey in Alaska he noted this, but didn’t quite understand it himself it seems like. Chris McCandless legacy is thatShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Into The Wild By John Krakauer1015 Words   |  5 Pagesbreath of the wild for the brave few is enough to free the spirit from the bonds of society. One such freed spirit, author John Krakauer, wrote in his work Into the Wild about the accounts of men quite like himself. John Krakauer, in contrast to the adventurous men he writes about, is a survivor of his own ventures. Throughout his writing, he parallels the nature of a select few zealous adventurers with his own nature as well as the nature of his primary focus, Christopher McCandless. Krakauer draws connectionsRead MoreAnalysis Of Into The Wild By John Krakauer1309 Words   |  6 PagesIn the book Into the Wild written by John Krakauer, Chris McCandless plans to abandon his life and live off the land, traveling from South Dakota all the way to Las Vegas and many other remote locations in the U.S. There was something inside of Chris that drew him into the wilderness. In May of 1990, Chris took off, abandoning everything and everyone and set off into the wild, where he had big plans for his next two years. In the summer of 1992, Chris McCandless turned up dead in Alaska. A seriesRead MoreInto The Wild By John Krakauer1735 Words   |  7 PagesInto the Wild Analysis John Krakauer’s depiction of the tragic life of Chris McCandless in the award winning novel â€Å"Into the Wild† creates different schools of thought that brew a perfect storm for debate. Krakauer’s polarizing style is what makes it so special, because no two people will feel the same way as they experience the journey of McCandless. One of the highly discussed topics of the novel relates to the idea that Chris’ journey of self-discovery in his quest for â€Å"ultimate freedom† is inherentlyRead MoreInto the Wild Journal (English 4 Erwc)5236 Words   |  21 PagesHector Hernandez Mrs. Phillips 3 May 2012 English 4 ERWC/SDAIE â€Å"Into the Wild† â€Å"Krakauer, John. Into the Wild. Double Day: New York, 1996.† â€Å"1. Getting Ready to Read† Answer the 3 Questions†¦Half Page each â€Å"2. Introducing Key Concepts† Story 1 | Story 2 | Story 3 | My view | Her view | My view | Her view | My view | His view | Spoiled | Heart Broken | Educated | Amused | Obsessed | Hurt | Brat | Sad | Helpful | Interested | Mysterious | Sad | Greedy | Depressed | Wasteful | Amused | NotRead MoreI Have A Burden Lifted Off Of Me873 Words   |  4 Pagesand what doesn’t. My favorite paper from this year was my expository which I choose to do on the Into the Wild by John Krakauer. This book was fantastic and I enjoyed every minute of that book, it would have been nice and even more fun if we wrote about the content of the book instead of the style of Krakauer and his writings but that is beside the point. I did enjoy actually studying Krakauer and his way of writing, looking into his other books and seeing how he changed certain things to tell theRead MoreSummary Of The Book Into The Wild 1766 Words   |  8 PagesBrief Summary and â€Å"Arrangement† of the Book: †¢ Into the Wild is the story of Chris McCandless’ journey across America and eventually his death in Fairbanks, Alaska. Krakauer weaves the story of McCandless with accounts of other survivalists that are similar to McCandless along with his own experiences. †¢ There are 18 chapters along with and epilogue. Each chapter is characterized by a certain place that Chris or another person visited and are not in chronological order. †¢ Chapter 1: Chris meetsRead MoreEssay on Mountains More Dangerous than Everest1156 Words   |  5 Pagesmountains. Sherpas can function high altitudes, which makes them valuable when they carry climbers bags to the camps for them. Jon Krakauer, a climber of Everest during the 1996 disaster, mentioned that he had to chop ice for three hours without help to use for a dozen gallons of water and some of his teammate would shout for more (157). It was at this point that John Krakauer realized how much the Sherpas did for expeditions. Everest also has a limit on the amount of people per expedition so that overcrowdingRead MoreAn Analysis Of Jon Krakauer s Into The Wild2135 Words   |  9 Pages In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless (man) tried to exist as one with nature but finds through his journeys that nature is a force that will test men relentlessly, especially men who are unprepared. Nature is one of the world’s greatest marvels. McCandless understood that and c hose nature over civilization. He believed civilization was a plague and there was only one way to cure that plague. That was to become one with nature . The background information of this essay will explore the needRead MoreProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 PagesLeadership Chapter 2 Organization Strategy and Project Selection 1.4 Projects and programs (.2) 1.4.1 Managing the portfolio 1.4.3 Strategy and projects 2.3 Stakeholders and review boards 12.1 RFP’s and vendor selection (.3.4.5) 11.2.2.6 SWAT analysis 6.5.2.7 Schedule compression 9.4.2.5 Leadership skills G.1 Project leadership 10.1 Stakeholder management Chapter 11 Teams Chapter 3 Organization: Structure and Culture 2.4.1 Organization cultures [G.7] 2.4.2 Organization structure

Efficacy Of The Intervention Post Partum Depression

Efficacy of the intervention Post partum depression can begin two weeks to couple months after delivery for a woman. It is also referred to as â€Å"the baby blues,† a feeling of stress, sadness, anxiety, loneness, and tiredness following the child’s birth (American Psychological Association [APA], 2016). As critical as it could be for the mother, post partum depression has long term consequences on the development of the child. It does not only impact the mother in providing care for the newborn, it also has numerous impacts on the families, and the larger community. APA (2016) suggested that up to 1 in 7 women experiences postpartum depression and that it can affect any woman, regardless of their marital status, first-time mothers or mothers with one or more children, easy or problem pregnancies, income, age, race or ethnicity, culture or education. Its impact may affect both the child development, and the mother interaction in respect to the child development. The whole family system is affected with perinatal loss. Many children experience unresolved grief which can be seen later on in adulthood. According to the article â€Å"siblings in families bereaved as a result of perinatal loss suffer in two ways: they mourn the loss of their expected sibling and they mourn the loss of the parents as they knew prior to the loss†. The loss of a child can be so overwhelming that parents forget about their child’s grief. This type of grief is known as the incipient grief; grief that is notShow MoreRelatedHealth Promotion Strategies Used By Nurses As Guidance For Assessment And Alleviation Of Risk Factor For Diseases Essay1471 Words   |  6 Pagescare makes the women more vulnerable to depression(Fahey Shenessa,2013) .The maternal health nurses provides effective strategies to cope with depression with the goal of achieving optimal health . Nurses help women through teaching how to effectively mobilize social support, gaining self-efficacy, positive coping skills and setting realistic goals and expectation to treat depression during post-partum (Kuosemanen Kumpuniemi,2010). As we know that depression leads to all other complications suchRead MoreEffects Of Depression On High Income Countries1555 Words   |  7 PagesDepression, in general, affects more than 340 million people around the world and is reported to be the highest cause of disability in high-income countries (Demissie). 15% to 85% of mothers can experience postpartum â€Å"blues† with postpartum depression rates between 11.7% and 20.4% in the United States alone (Ersek). This depression can occur at anytime from post-delivery up to one year (Ersek). Giving birth comes with a wide variety of changes including physical, emotion and social. There are veryRead MoreHome Based Interventions For Post Partum Depression2004 Words   |  9 PagesAssignment 3: Home based interventions for post partum depression Our citation for the systematic review is APA . The researchers in this review are looking at home based interventions for post partum depression because of the numerous in home programs that are now established for mothers for prenatal care or before they give birth (Leis, Mendelson, Tandon, Perry, 2009). Post partum depression is a form of depression new mothers can be affected by after giving birth; this makes them less likelyRead MoreCommunity Intervention Plan For Childrens Mental Health1399 Words   |  6 PagesCommunity Intervention Plan Mother’s mental health plays a key role on effective parenting and social engagement (Hartas, 2014, p. 18). Implementing a community assessment allows for observations, issues to be brought forward and interventions to take place (Stamler Yiu, 2008, pg. 216). Public health nurses need to continually observe communities, reflect on observations and implement strategies to improve the health conditions within the allotted community. Specifically, in the Hillside-QuadraRead MoreBook Exercises 11 And 161449 Words   |  6 Pagesyour answer. The findings from this study cannot be generalized to Black women since the sample size is so low in the experimental group and there are no Black women in the control group. Black women might have different self- care interventions to manage post- partum fatigue than white women. 9. If there were 32 subjects in the experimental group and 36 subjects in the control group, why is the income data only reported for 30 subjects in the experimental group and 34 subjects in the control groupRead MorePostnatal Depression ( Pnd ) Essay1295 Words   |  6 PagesPostnatal depression (PND) is an isolating and debilitating mental health disorder that effects an estimated 13-15% of new mothers within one year post-delivery (CDC, 2008; Gaynes et al., 2005). PND can be experienced as a vast array of symptoms such as anhedonia, excessive crying, mixed anxious mood, sleep disturbance, and even suicidality (Kantrowitz-Gordon, 2013). Further, mothers with PND typically report difficulty bonding with their infant and a reduced ability to express love and warmth (LetourneauRead MoreThe Body And Emotions Of Pregnant Women Essay1760 Words   |  8 Pagespractice of yoga is valuable in the lives of many people worldwide. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word meaning â€Å"un ion† (Sharma Branscum, 2015). This practice supports many dimensions of psychological well-being, including stress, anxiety, depression, other psychopathologies and everyday health challenges. Yoga has many meanings and definitions, but it most commonly refers to a practice which includes breath control, simple meditation and the use of specific body postures. Traditionally theRead MoreMaternity Care Of Women With Mental Health Issues1500 Words   |  6 Pagesmaternal mental health concerns. Through pregnancy and the transition into parenthood, either individually or simultaneously, factors include low mood, depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress, tokophobia, eating disorders, substance misuse, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with the compounded risk of post-partum psychosis in the weeks following childbirth including women with no history of psychiatric issues (NICE, 2014; Raynor and Oates, 2014). Feelings ofRead MoreSmoking Cessation Of Pregnancy : Review Of Current Strategies9414 Words   |  38 Pagesarticles. A multimodal approach is necessary to increase chances of smoking cessation during pregnancy, this encompasses pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures. The most effective non-pharmacological measures comprise of psychosocial interventions in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational strategies. In the case of pharmacological approaches, Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) has been the most widely researched with studies showing mixed results in relation to the safetyRead MoreComplex Patients Case 2 : Si Dysfunction And Lbp5175 Words   |  21 PagesComplex Patients Case 2 – SI Dysfunction and LBP Further Research David Bellisario, Konrad Koczwara, Erin Lee, Crystal Liang, Mary Richardson, Dimitri Simeakis and Andy Wayda Postpartum Depression Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common and serious illness that affects 14% of women post childbirth.1 PPD is thought to evolve from neuroendocrine changes, such as pregnancy stress and personality predisposition.2 Women with PPD are likely to report symptoms that affect their physical functionality

Cuba Essay Example For Students

Cuba Essay The weeks that have elapsed since that fatal event ofFebruary 15th have been making history in a mannerhighly creditable to the American government and toour citizenship. Captain Sigsbee, the commander of theMaine, had promptly telegraphed his desire thatjudgment should be suspended until investigation hadbeen made. The investigation was started at once, and75 million Americans have accordingly suspendedjudgment in the face of a great provocation. For itmust be remembered that to suppose the destruction ofthe Maine an ordinary accident and not due to anyexternal agency or hostile intent was, under all thecircumstances, to set completely at defiance the lawof probabilities. It is not true that battleships are in the habit ofblowing themselves up. When all the environing factswere taken into consideration, it was just about asprobable that the Maine had been blown up by someaccident where no hostile motive was involved, as thatthe reported assassination of President Barrios ofGuatemala , a few days previously, had really been asuicide. . . . It has been known perfectly well that Spanish hatredmight at any time manifest itself by attempts upon thelife of the American representative at Havana, ConsulGeneral Fitzhugh Lee. This danger was felt especiallyat the time of the Havana riots in January, and itseems to have had something to do with the sending ofthe Maine to Havana Harbor. The Spaniards themselves,however, looked upon the sending of the Maine as afurther aggravation of the long series of their justgrievances against the United States. They regardedthe presence of the Maine at Havana as a menace toSpanish sovereignty in the island and as anencouragement to the insurgents. A powerful Americanfleet lay at Key West and the Dry Tortugas, with steamup ready to follow the Maine to the harbor of Havanaat a few hours notice. All this was intensely hatefulto the Spaniards, and particularly to the Armyofficers at Havana who had sympathized with GeneralWeylers policy and who justly regarded GeneralWeylers recall to Spain as due to the demand ofPresident McKinley. The American pretense that theMaine was making a visit of courtesy seemed to theseSpaniards a further example of Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy. That this intense bitterness against the presence ofthe Maine was felt among the military and officialclass in Havana was perfectly well known to CaptainSigsbee, his staff, and all his crew; and they werenot unaware of the rumors and threats that means wouldbe found to destroy the American ship. It was,furthermore, very generally supposed that the Spanishpreparation for the defense of Havana had includedmines and torpedoes in the harbor. At the time whenthe Maine went to Havana, it was a notorious fact thatthe relations between the Spain and the United Stateswere so strained that that war was regarded asinevitable. If war had actually been declared whilethe Maine was at Havana, it is not likely that theSpanish would have permitted the ships departurewithou t an effort to do her harm. The Spanish harbor is now and it has been for a goodwhile past under military control; and the Americanwarship, believed by the Spanish authorities to be atHavana with only half-cloaked hostile designs, wasobliged to accept the anchorage that was assigned bythose very authorities. In view of the strainedsituation and of the Spanish feeling that nomagnanimity is due on Spains part toward the UnitedStates, it is not in the least difficult to believethat the harbor authorities would have anchored theMaine at a spot where, in case of the outbreak of war, thesubmarine harbor defenses might be effectively be usedagainst so formidable an enemy. To understand the situation completely, it must not beforgotten that the Spanish government at first madeobjection against the Maines intended visit to Havanaand, in consenting, merely yielded to a necessity thatwas forced upon it. All Spaniards regarded the sendingof the Maine to Havana as really a treacherous act onthe part of the United States, and most of them wouldhave deemed it merely a safe and precautionary measureto anchor her in the vicinity of a submarine mine. Doubtless these suggestions will be read by more thanone person who will receive them with entireskepticism. But such readers will not have beenfamiliar with what has been going on in the matter ofthe Cuban rebellion, or else they will be lacking inmemories of good carrying power. The great majority of the intelligent people of theUnited States could not, from the first, avoidperceiving that what we may call the self-destructiontheory was extremely improbable; while what we mayterm the assassination theory was in keeping with allthe circumstances. Nevertheless, although theprobability of guilt was so overwhelming, the Americanpeople saw the fairness and the necessity ofsuspending judgment until proof had been substitutedfor mere probability. And there was in no part of thecountry any disposition to take snap judgment or toact precipitately. No other such spectacle of nationalforbearance has been witnessed in our times. Unquestionably, the whole community has been intenselyeager for n ews; and it is perhaps true that certainnewspapers, which have devoted themselves for a monthor more to criticizing the sensational press, might aswell have been occupied in a more energetic effort tosupply their readers with information. The fact isthat the so-called war extras, which for many dayswere issued from certain newspaper offices at the rateof a dozen or more a day, have not seemed tocommunicate their hysteria to any considerable numberof the American people, East or West, North or South,so far as our observation goes. The situation has simply been one of a very absorbingand profound interest, while the suspense has beenvery trying to the nerves. The possibility that ourcountry might soon be engaged in war with a foreignpower has been a preoccupying thought not to bedismissed for a single hour. The whole country hasknown that a fateful investigation was in progress inHavana Harbor; that coast-defense work was beingpushed all along our seaboard; that in all theshipyards, p ublic and private, government work wasbeing prosecuted with double or quadruple forces ofmen, working by night as well as by day; thatammunition factories, iron and steel plants, and everyother establishment capable of furnishing any kind ofmilitary or naval supplies were receiving orders fromthe government and were working to the full extent oftheir capacity; that plans were being made for fittingout merchant ships as auxiliary cruisers; that ournaval representatives were negotiating abroad foradditional warships; that new regiments ofartillerymen were being enlisted for the big guns onthe seaboard; that naval recruits were being musteredin to man newly commissioned ships; that the railroadswere preparing by order of the War Department to bringthe little United States Army from western andnorthern posts to convenient southern centers; andthat while we were making these preparations Spain onher part was trying to raise money to buy ships and tosecure allies. All these matters, and m any othersrelated to them, have within these past weeks made animmense opportunity for testing the news gatheringresources of the American press. . . . When, therefore, on March 8, the House ofRepresentatives unanimously voted to place $50 millionat the unqualified disposal of President McKinley asan emergency fund for the national defense thisaction being followed by an equally unanimous vote ofthe Senate the next day it was naturally taken forgranted all over the country that the situation wasbelieved by the President to be extremely critical. Cyber Bullying : Danger And Need EssayThe continued delay of the Board of Inquiry whichhad been oscillating between Havana and Key West,conducting its proceedings in secret and maintainingabsolute reticence had naturally served to confirmthe belief that its report would show foul play; andit appeared that the President was basing his greatpreparations of war, in part at least, upon hisadvance knowledge of the evidence secured by thecommission. The unanimity of Congress in support ofthe President created an excellent impression abroad. Fifty million is a very large sum to place in thehands of one man. It might have been supposed that there would have beenmembers in both houses who would have insisted uponthe appropriation of this money for specific purposes. That not a single man was found to make objectionshowed a very great capacity for united action in atime of emergency. It also showed, of course, howgreat is the confidence that Congress and the Americanpeople repose in the honor, wisdom, and public spiritof their Presidents. At the time of the Venezuelaincident, Congress in similar manner, came unanimouslyto the support of President Cleveland. In that case,however, there was not the remotest possibility ofwar; and the episode was merely a diplomatic one inwhich it was deemed important to show that ourgovernment could rely absolutely upon the wholesupport of the people. The South on all such recentoccasions has been foremost in expressions ofpatriotism. The vote of $50 million, although an extraordinarymeasure justified only by the imminent danger of war,was clearly an act that no peace-loving man couldreasonably criticize; for preparation is often themeans by which conflict is avoided. A larger Navy wasin any case greatly desirable for our country, withits long seaboard on the Atlantic and the Pacific andits vast commerce; while the better fortification ofour principal ports was an urgent necessity. Since thepreparations that have been made so hurriedly duringthe past few weeks have been of a defensive nature,and since they have been carried out upon lines whichhad been duly considered in advance, they will havepermanent value, and there will have been involved avery small percentage of waste. If Congress had beenwise enough in the past three or four years to laydown more warships in our own yards, it would not havebeen necessary to contribute millions to foreignshipbuilders. No part of the $50 million will be squandered by theadministration; but it is to be regretted that thisemergency fund had not been already expended duringthe five preceding years by more liberalappropriations for coast defense and navalconstruction. The great shipyards of the UnitedStates, both public and private, are now at the pointwher e, with a sufficient amount of regular work to do,they would speedily be able to compete on equal termswith the best shipbuilding plants of Europe. Iron andsteel supplies are now much cheaper in the UnitedStates than anywhere else, and it is only therelatively small amount of shipbuilding that has beendemanded by our government that has made it moreexpensive to build a war vessel here than else where. In a time of real emergency, however, the resources ofthe United States would prove themselves great enoughto supply our own people and the whole world besides. The quickness and inventiveness of American mechanics,engineers, and manufacturers have no parallel inEurope. On a years notice the United States mightundertake to cope evenhanded with either the Dual orthe Triple Alliance although we have now only thenucleus of an army and the beginning of a navy, whilethe European powers have made war preparation theirprincipal business for a whole generation. It is to besuspected that one reason why the American people havebought the newspapers so eagerly during the past weeksis to be found in the satisfaction they have taken inlearning how a strictly peaceful nation like ourscould if necessary reverse the process of beatingswords into plowshares. It is true, for example, that we have built only a fewtorpedo boats and only a few vessels of the type knownas destroyers; but we have discovered that about ahundred very rich Americans had been amusingthemselves within the past few years by building orbuying splendid oceangoing, steel-built steam yacht sof high speed and stanch qualities, capable of beingquickly transformed into naval dispatch boats orarmored and fitted with torpedo tubes. Probably not asingle private Spanish citizen could turn over to hisgovernment such a vessel as the magnificent Goeletyacht, the Mayflower, which was secured by our NavyDepartment on March 16; not to mention scores of otherprivate steam yachts of great size and strength thatwealthy American citizens are ready to offer ifneeded. It is the prevailing opinion nowadays, it is true,that nothing is to be relied upon in naval war buthuge battleships, which take from two to three or fouryears to build. But if a great war were forced upon ussuddenly, it is altogether probable that Americaningenuity would devise something wholly new in the wayof a marine engine of war, just as American ingenuityimprovised the first modern ironclads. We have alreadyin our Navy a dynamite cruiser, the Vesuvius, which inactual warfare might prove more dangerous than a halfdoz en of the greatest battleships of the Europeannavies. There has just been completed, moreover, andoffered to our government, a submarine boat, theHolland, which seems to be capable of moving rapidlyfor several miles so completely submerged as to offerno target for an enemy; and it may well be that thetorpedoes discharged from an insignificant littlevessel capable of swimming below the surface like afish might prove as fatal to the battleships of anenemy as the alleged mine in the harbor of Havana wasfatal to our battleship the Maine. Nowadays, warfare is largely a matter of science andinvention; and since a country where the arts of peaceflourish and prosper is most favorable to the generaladvance of science and invention, we stumble upon theparadox that the successful pursuit of peace is afterall the best preparation for war. Another way to putit is to say that modern warfare has become a matterof machinery, and that the most highly developedmechanical and industrial nation will by virtue ofsuch development be most formidable in war. This is a situation that the Spaniards in general areevidently quite unable to comprehend. Their ideas arealtogether medieval. They believe themselves to be ahighly chivalrous and militant people, and that thepeople of the United States are really in great terrorof Spanish prowess. They think that Spain could makeas easy work of invading the United States as Japanmade of invading China. Their point of view isaltogether theatrical and unrelated to modern facts. A country like ours, capable of supplying the wholeworld with electrical motors, mining machinery,locomotive engines, steel rails, and the structuralmaterial for modern steel bridges and skyscrapers,not to mention bicycles and sewing machines, isequally capable of building, arming, and operating anunlimited number of ships of every type, and ofemploying every conceivable mechanical device forpurposes of national defense. In the long run,therefore, even if our preliminary pr eparations hadbeen of the scantiest character, we should be able togive a good account of ourselves in warfare. . . . Quite regardless of the responsibilities for the Maineincident, it is apparently true that the greatmajority of the American people are hoping thatPresident McKinley will promptly utilize the occasionto secure the complete pacification and independenceof Cuba. There are a few people in the United States we should not like to believe that more than 100 couldbe found out of a population of 75 million whobelieve that the United States ought to join handswith Spain in forcing the Cuban insurgents to lay downtheir arms and to accept Spanish sovereignty as apermanent condition under the promise of practicalhome rule. It needs no argument, of course, toconvince the American people that such a proposalreaches the lowest depths of infamy. It is much worsethan the proposition made by a few people in Europelast year that the victorious Turks should have thecountenance and supp ort of the great nations of Europein making Greece a part of the Turkish empire. For theTurks had fairly conquered the Greeks; and if Europehad kept hands off, Greece would have been reducedvery quickly to the position of an Ottoman province. But in Cuba it is otherwise. The insurgents, with nooutside help, have held their own for more than threeyears, and Spain is unable to conquer them. The peopleof the United States do not intend to help Spain holdCuba. On the contrary, they are now ready, in one wayor in another, to help the Cubans drive Spain out ofthe Western Hemisphere. If the occasion goes past andwe allow this Cuban struggle to run on indefinitely,the American people will have lost several degrees ofself-respect and will certainly not have gainedanything in the opinion of mankind.

Pres. John Adams Essays - Adams Family, , Term Papers

Pres. John Adams John Adams is important to the study of American history because he was the second president of the United States, he served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and then helped persuade the Second Continental Congress to adopt the declaration. He is one of the great figures in American history because before the American Revolution he joined with other patriots in resisting British rule. So, when the revolution began, Adams was among the first to propose American independence. John Adams was born and raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, on the farmland his great-grandfather had cleared 100 years earlier. He entered Harvard College when he was sixteen years old and after graduating in 1755, he continued to study law. In 1758 Adams began to practice law in Braintree. In 1764 Adams married Abigail Smith, and they had five children. One of them, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth president of the United States. The marriage lasted 54 years, until the death of Abigail Adams in 1818. Adams spent the early part of his career practicing law in Braintree and developing his interest in government. He became well known throughout the colonies. When in Boston he was elected to the Massauchetts legislature while helping acquit the British troops in the Boston massacre. He only served in the legislature for a few months. In May 1775, Adams set out for Philadelphia and the opening of the Second Continental Congress, the American Revolution had begun with the battles at Lexington and Concord. Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other New England delegates arrived in Philadelphia ready to fight back against Britain. They wanted the colonies to get ready for war and to set up a confederation of independent colonies. Many delegates hesitated and Adams became very impatient. After two weeks, when nothing had been accomplished, Adams could hold back no longer. He addressed Congress and told them that before talking of peace with Britain, Congress should adopt a program to set up an independent government in each colony. It should use the New England militiamen, who were then blockading the British in Boston, as the basis for a Continental Army, and should name a commander-in-chief who would be responsible to Congress. Finally, Adams said, Britain should be told of these steps. Then, if the war continued, the colonies should seek alliances and support in France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Only one of Adams's proposals was adopted. A Continental Army was authorized, and Colonel George Washington of Virginia was named commanding general. Adams had recommended Washington not only because he had military training, but also because he was from the South. Adams felt that, to form a national army, the South as well as the North should be represented in it. Therefore the New England troops had to have a Southern commander. In 1776 another of Adams' proposals was enacted. On May 6, he and his allies in Congress presented a resolution that all the colonies should form independent governments. The resolution, which to Adams was the most important of his proposals, was passed on May 15. In June 1776 Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, moved that Congress declare ?that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.? The resolution was referred to a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and John Adams. Jefferson wrote the declaration and Adams was spokesman for it when it was presented to Congress. There was a great debate before the final vote. There were many unwilling delegates who still hoped for reconciliation with Britain, but Adams won most of them over. On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In 1796, Adams was elected president and was inaugurated at Federal Hall, Philadelphia, on March 4, 1797. Philadelphia was then the nation's capital. President Adams was immediately confronted with a number of issues. The most urgent was a threat of war with France. For four years the United States had remained neutral in the struggle between France and Britain. Britain was seizing ships that traded with France including American ships. The United States negotiated Jay's Treaty of 1794, which stopped Britain by giving trade concessions but started

Learning About Starfish

Learning About Starfish Starfish are fascinating creatures. With their   bumpy, five-armed bodies, its easy to see how they got their  name, but did you know that starfish arent really fish at all? Scientists dont call these ocean-dwelling  creatures starfish. They call them sea stars because they arent fish. They dont have gills, scales, or backbones like fish do. Instead, starfish are invertebrate  marine organisms tbhat  are part of the family known as  echinoderms. One feature that all echinoderms have in common is that their body parts are arranged symmetrically around a center point. For starfish, those body  parts are their arms. Each arm has suckers that help starfish, who dont swim, move along and capture prey. Most of the 2,000 species of starfish have the five arms that inspired their name, but some have as many as 40 arms! Starfish can regrow an arm if they lose one. Thats because their vital organs are located in their arms. In fact, as long as an arm has part of the starfishs central disc, it can regenerate an entire starfish. At the end of each of a starfishs five to forty arms is  an eye that helps them locate food. Starfish eat things like clams, snails, and small fish. Their stomachs are located on the underside of their central body part. Did you know that a starfishs stomach can come out of its body to envelop its prey? Another striking fact about starfish is that they dont have brains or blood! Instead of blood, they have a water vascular system that helps them breathe, move, and expel waste. Instead of a brain, they have a complex system of light - and temperature-sensitive nerves. Starfish  live only in saltwater habitats but are found in all Earths oceans. They vary in sized based on the species but are usually between 4 and 11 inches in diameter and can weigh up to 11 pounds. The lifespan of a starfish also varies by species, but many live up to 35 years. They can be found in a variety of colors such as brown, red, purple, yellow, or pink. If you are fortunate enough to find a starfish in a  tide pool or the ocean, you can safely pick it  up. Just be very careful not to harm the starfish and make sure to return it to its home. Learning About Starfish To learn more about sea stars, try some of these excellent books: Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd is a Lets-Read-and-Find-Out About story about starfish  and how they live in the deep blue sea. One Shining Starfish by Lori Flying Fish is a colorful counting book featuring starfish and other ocean-dwelling creatures.   Star of the Sea: A Day in the Life of a Starfish by  Janet Halfmann is a beautifully-illustrated book that weaves facts about starfish into a delightfully captivating tale. Seashells, Crabs and Sea Stars: Take-Along Guide by Christiane Kump Tibbitts introduces a variety of marine life, including starfish. It includes tips for identifying several marine-dwelling creatures and features fun activities to try. Spiny Sea Star: A Tale of Seeing Stars by Suzanne Tate provides easily-accessible facts about starfish with adorable illustrations. Sea Star Wishes: Poems from the Coast by Eric Ode is a collection of  ocean-themed poems, including those about starfish. Memorize a starfish poem or two as you study sea stars. Resources and Activities for Learning About Starfish Spend some time researching and learning about starfish using your library, the Internet, or local resources. Try some of these ideas: Learn more about how starfish see with the eyes at the end of each of their arms.Research starfish anatomy. Learn how they eat, breathe, and move.Visit an aquarium or a fish store to see live starfish up close.If you live near a beach, look for starfish in the tide pools.Make a diorama featuring starfish, their habitat, and their prey.Create an ABC book about starfish.Do some research to find out what creatures other than starfish are members of the  echinoderm family.Learn about the dangers,  such as predators and pollution, that starfish face. Starfish, or sea stars, are enchanting creatures who play an important role in their environment. Have fun learning more about them! Updated by Kris Bales

Prejudice is a Toxic Type of Thinking essays

Prejudice is a Toxic Type of Thinking essays What is the extent of prejudice? How far will it go until the entire world realizes that it is wrong? Prejudice continues to infect and destroy the dreams and minds of many people. A human being is not born with prejudice. Prejudice is taught to children at an early age to make certain that their fathers beliefs continue. By the time a child reaches adulthood, he or she might have the same hatred of their fathers. Prejudice has gone through many extremities. In a book called Black Boy, a black woman is thrown out of a clothing store beaten and bloody for not paying her tab. In the movie American History X a boy is taught at an early age to hate anyone who isnt a white protestant. Stereotypes are used today to discriminate against others. A restaurant owner with stereotypical views charged a black man a 50% tip without his consent. When the owner was confronted by the customer the owner replied saying black men dont tip well. Without discrimination, putdowns, stereotyping , and name calling, this world would be a better place. Instead we have prejudice. Prejudice is wicked and evil. Prejudice is a spurious occurrence that continues to confine those who deserve more, and infects the world with its hatred. Prejudice promotes violence and anger towards others who are different. Richard Wrights Black Boy writes, They got out and half dragged and half kicked the woman into the store. White people passed and looked on without expression. A white policeman watched from the corner twirling his nightstick but he made no move to help. Throughout the early 1900s people tolerated much more hate than they do now. The reason the lady in the quote was beaten was because she had not paid her bill. What is really distasteful is that people walked by without noticing the woman simply because she was black. Even a policeman observed this incident and didn ...

Software Development Life Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Software Development Life Cycle - Essay Example SDLC involves a process that involves phases that some scholars divide into five while some others divide it into seven. The most common elements of SDLC include the system requirement study, which some scholars divide into system investigation and system analysis; designing; development, which some scholars indicate as programming; testing and maintenance. However, some scholars include the element of evolution of the software as a different stage from maintenance. The requirement study element involves the situation in which the organization that needs the software analyzes the needs that it has to perform certain activities efficiently, different from what they had initially. The stage of the SDLC involve the owner organization assessing its capability to use the software it is about to develop by assessing whether it has the financial ability and the software or hardware necessary to utilize the product they intend to make (Peters, 2008). The SDLC element of design involves the p roduction of a blueprint of what the client demanded and which meet the initial product description. This stage of development of software produces a prototype that the developer can work on to increase the qualities and the other aspects. The stage of development or programming is the one at which the developer names conventions in the prototype codes it so that it can be able to meet the requirement of their clients. The element of testing is the stage at which the developer carries out a process of testing the software he or she made, which acts as a verification of the working of the application as the client demanded (Peters, 2008). The stage of maintenance is one in which after the client has approved the software and has started using it, he goes on to determine the parts of the software that may need changes. The process of evolution is where the organization implements changes to the original software because of changes in the policies that existed during the designing time (Peters, 2008). The SDLC requires the involvement of the different specialists who include the Chief Information Officer of the organization who plans and makes budgetary allocation to the project of developing software. The Contracting Officer is the person who administers or terminates a contract as a representative of the organization and Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative who manages the technical aspects of the contract assists him or her. The SDLC requires the Information Technology Investment Board that manages and controls the capital planning and investment in the things related to information in the organization. The Information Systems Security Program Manager is an important role player in the SDLC project because he or she introduces an appropriate, structured methodology to help determine, assess and reduce the cases of information insecurity in the software that is made (Langer, 2012). Information System Security Officer is the individual in the or ganization that plays the role of ensuring the security of information transmitted through the software on the long term. The Program Manager is the individual who oversees all the project of acquisition of the software and ensures that, in its life cycle, it fulfills the requirements that it was designed to

City National Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

City National - Research Proposal Example By means of its banking offices in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, the Company is able to offer credit, deposit, investment advisory as well as insurance products and services to its customers. City Holding Company is the parent company of City National Bank of West Virginia. The company in line with this also works with City Insurance Professionals, an insurance agency that provides a full array of insurance products and services. Assessing the position of company necessitates the discussion as well as examination of the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats. In this light we take into consideration that the strengths and weaknesses of the firm would be based on the conditions of the firm internally while the firm’s opportunities and threats would be based on the placement of the firm in its external environment as well as the dealings it is engaged with. One of the key opportunities that are evident for the firm is that when it comes to answering to local demand, the retail division of the firm was the first in their markets to establish and launch an innovative checking selection for individuals who happened to have their past challenges when it comes to running their accounts. Bounce Back Checking is for individuals who have been rejected and taken the opportunity to open a checking account. This particular option is intended for those individuals who are seeking to a fresh start. The company assists these individuals by providing them the necessary guidelines when it comes to learning responsible banking practices together with the aim of moving them to a traditional checking account. Apart from this, the company was also able to generate its own opportunity when it instigated the Community Hero Checking. This particular program honors current and retired military personnel, firefighters, police officers, medical professionals and teachers by offering them special account

Time Travel Essay Example for Free

Time Travel Essay The urge to hug a departed loved one again or prevent atrocities are among the compelling reasons that keep the notion of time travel alive in the minds of many. While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible. There are a handful of scenarios that theorists have suggested for how one might travel to the past, said Brian Greene, author of the bestseller, â€Å"The Elegant Universe† and a physicist at Columbia University. â€Å"And almost all of them, if you look at them closely, brush up right at the edge of physics as we understand it. Most of us think that almost all of them can be ruled out. † The fourth dimension In physics, time is described as a dimension much like length, width, and height. When you travel from your house to the grocery store, you’re traveling through a direction in space, making headway in all the spatial dimensions—length, width and height. But you’re also traveling forward in time, the fourth dimension. â€Å"Space and time are tangled together in a sort of a four-dimensional fabric called space-time,† said Charles Liu, an astrophysicist with the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and co-author of the book â€Å"One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos. † Space-time, Liu explains, can be thought of as a piece of spandex with four dimensions. â€Å"When something that has mass—you and I, an object, a planet, or any star—sits in that piece of four-dimensional spandex, it causes it to create a dimple,† he said. â€Å"That dimple is a manifestation of space-time bending to accommodate this mass. † The bending of space-time causes objects to move on a curved path and that curvature of space is what we know as gravity. Mathematically one can go backwards or forwards in the three spatial dimensions. But time doesn’t share this multi-directional freedom. â€Å"In this four-dimensional space-time, you’re only able to move forward in time,† Liu told LiveScience. * Video: Can You Time Travel? Tunneling to the past A handful of proposals exist for time travel. The most developed of these approaches involves a wormhole—a hypothetical tunnel connecting two regions of space-time. The regions bridged could be two completely different universes or two parts of one universe. Matter can travel through either mouth of the wormhole to reach a destination on the other side. â€Å"Wormholes are the future, wormholes are the past,† said Michio Kaku, author of â€Å"Hyperspace† and â€Å"Parallel Worlds† and a physicist at the City University of New York. â€Å"But we have to be very careful. The gasoline necessary to energize a time machine is far beyond anything that we can assemble with today’s technology. † To punch a hole into the fabric of space-time, Kaku explained, would require the energy of a star or negative energy, an exotic entity with an energy of less than nothing. Greene, an expert on string theory—which views matter in a minimum of 10 dimensions and tries to bridge the gap between particle physics and natures fundamental forces, questioned this scenario. â€Å"Many people who study the subject doubt that that approach has any chance of working,† Greene said in an interview . â€Å"But the basic idea if you’re very, very optimistic is that if you fiddle with the wormhole openings, you can make it not only a shortcut from a point in space to another point in space, but a shortcut from one moment in time to another moment in time. † Cosmic strings Another popular theory for potential time travelers involves something called cosmic strings—narrow tubes of energy stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These skinny regions, leftover from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them. Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends, said J. Richard Gott, author of â€Å"Time Travel in Einsteins Universe† and an astrophysicist at Princeton University. â€Å"So they are either like spaghetti or SpaghettiO’s. † The approach of two such strings parallel to each other, said Gott, will bend space-time so vigorously and in such a particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory. â€Å"This is a project that a super civilization might attempt,† Gott told LiveScience. â€Å"It’s far beyond what we can do. We’re a civilization that’s not even controlling the energy resources of our planet. † Impossible, for now Mathematically, you can certainly say something is traveling to the past, Liu said. â€Å"But it is not possible for you and me to travel backward in time,† he said. | However, some scientists believe that traveling to the past is, in fact, theoretically possible, though impractical. Maybe if there were a theory of everything, one could solve all of Einstein’s equations through a wormhole, and see whether time travel is really possible, Kaku said. â€Å"But that would require a technology far more advanced than anything we can muster, he said. Don’t expect any young inventor to announce tomorrow in a press release that he or she has invented a time machine in their basement. † For now, the only definitive part of travel in the fourth dimension is that we’re stepping further into the future with each passing moment. So for those hoping to see Earth a million years from now, scientists have good news. â€Å"If you want to know what the Earth is like one million years from now, I’ll tell you how to do that,† said Greene, a consultant for â€Å"Deja Vu,† a recent movie that dealt with time travel. â€Å"Build a spaceship. Go near the speed of light for a length of time—that I could calculate. Come back to Earth, and when you step out of your ship you will have aged perhaps one year while the Earth would have aged one million years. You would have traveled to Earth’s future. † Source 2 Time Slips / Time Travel 0digg 1 comment A time slip is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time through supernatural (rather than technological) means. As with all paranormal phenomena, the objective reality of such experiences is disputed. One of the best-known, and earliest, examples of a time slip was reported by two English women, Charlotte Anne Moberly (16 September 1846 – 7 May 1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, who believed they slipped back in time in the gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles from the summer of 1901 to the period of the French Revolution. On August 10, 1901 Moberly and Jourdain were visiting the Palace of Versailles. They decided to go in search of the Petit Trianon. While walking through the grounds they both were impressed by a feeling of oppressive gloom. They claimed to have encountered, and interacted with, a number of people in old fashioned attire whom they later assumed to have been members of the court of Marie Antoinette and to have seen a figure that may have been Marie Antoinette herself on the day in 1792 when she learned that the mob had stormed the Tuileries Palace. Source 3, 4, 5 . http://www. youtube. com/watch? feature=player_embeddedv=FdWXMD4rOGQ#! http://www. youtube. com/watch? feature=player_embeddedv=rqQV_UzVQks http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=X02WMNoHSm8 Source 6 The Big Question: Is time travel possible, and is there any chance that it will ever take place? By Steve Connor, Science Editor Friday 08 February 2008 Why are we asking this now? Two Russian mathematicians have suggested that the giant atom-smasher being built at the European centre for nuclear research, Cern, near Geneva, could create the conditions where it might be possible to travel backwards or forwards in time. In essence, Irina Arefeva and Igor Volovich believe that the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, which is due to be switched on this year for the first time, might create tiny wormholes in space which could allow some form of limited time travel. If true, this would mark the first time in human history that a time machine has been created. If travelling back in time is possible at all, it should in theory be only possible to travel back to the point when the first time machine was created and so this would mean that time travellers from the future would be able to visit us. As an article in this weeks New Scientist suggests, this year – 2008 – could become year zero for time travel. Is this really a serious proposition? The New Scientist article points out that there are many practical problems and theoretical paradoxes to time travel. Nevertheless, the slim possibility remains that we will see visitors from the future in the next year, says the magazine says, rather provocatively. It has to be said that few scientists accept the idea that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will create the conditions thought to be necessary for time travel. The LHC is designed to probe the mysterious forces that exist at the level of sub-atomic particles, and as such will answer many important questions, such as the true nature of gravity. It is not designed as a time machine. In any case, if the LHC became a time machine by accident, the device would exist only at the sub-atomic level so we are not talking about a machine like Dr Whos Tardis, which is able to carry people forwards and backwards from the future. What do the experts say about the idea of time travel? The theoretical possibility is widely debated, but everyone agrees that the practical problems are so immense that it is, in all likelihood, never going to happen. Brian Cox, a Cern researcher at the University of Manchester, points out that even if the laws of physics do not prohibit time travel, that doesnt mean to say its going to happen, certainly in terms of travelling back in time. Saying that the laws of physics as we know them permit travel into the past is the same as saying that, to paraphrase Bertrand Russell, they permit a teapot to be in orbit around Venus, Dr Cox says. Its possible, but not likely. Time travel into the future is absolutely possible, in fact time passes at a different rate in orbit than it does on the ground, and this has to be taken into consideration in order for satellite navigation systems to work. But time travel into the past, although technically allowed in Einsteins theory, will in the opinion of most physicists be ruled out when, and if, we develop a better understanding of the fundamental laws of physics – and thats what the LHC is all about. Why is the possibility of time travel even considered? It comes down to the general theory of relativity devised by Albert Einstein in 1905. It is the best theory we have so far on the nature of space and time and it was Einstein who first formulated the mathematical equations that related both time and space in the form of an entity called space-time. Those equations and the theory itself do not prohibit the idea of time travel, although there have been many attempts since Einstein to prove that travelling back in time is impossible. Is there anything to support the theory? Lots of science fiction writers have had fun with time travel, going back to H. G. Wells, whose book The Time Machine was published in 1895 – 10 years before Einsteins general theory of relativity. Interestingly, it was another attempt at science fiction that revived the modern interest in time travel. When Carl Sagan, the American astronomer, was writing his 1986 novel Contact, he wanted a semi-plausible way of getting round the problem of not being able to travel faster than the speed of light – which would break a fundamental rule of physics. He needed his characters to travel through vast distances in space, so he asked his cosmologist friend Kip Thorne to come up with a possible way of doing it without travelling faster than light. Thorne suggested that by manipulating black holes it might be possible to create a wormhole through space-time that would allow someone to travel from one part of the Universe to another in an instant. He later realised that this could also in theory be used to travel back in time. It was just a theory of course, and no one has come close to solving the practical problem of manipulating black holes and creating wormholes, but the idea seemed to be sound. It spawned a lot of subsequent interest in wormholes and time travel, hence the latest idea by the two Russian mathematicians. Apart from the practicalities, whats to stop time travel? The biggest theoretical problem is known as the time-travel paradox. If someone travels back in time and does something to prevent their own existence, then how can time travel be possible? The classic example is the time traveller who kills his grandfather before his own father is conceived. Cosmologists, renowned for their imaginative ingenuity, have come up with a way round this paradox. They have suggested that there is not one universe but many – so many that every possible outcome of any event actually takes place. In this multiple universe, or multiverse model, a woman who goes back in time to murder her own granny can get way with it because in the universe next door the granny lives to have the daughter who becomes the murderers mother. Where does this leave the time machine in Geneva? The science writer and physicist John Gribbin, who explains these things better than most, points to a saying in physics: anything that is not forbidden is compulsory. So they expect time machines to exist. The snag is that the kind of accidental time tunnel that could be produced by the LHC in Geneva would be a tiny wormhole far smaller than an atom, so nothing would be able to go through it. So there wont be any visitors from the future turning up in Geneva just yet. Id take it all with a pinch of salt, but it certainly isnt completely crazy. So, not completely crazy, just a bit crazy. So will we one day be able to travel into the future? Yes * There is nothing in the laws of physics to prohibit it, and events in Geneva are pointing the way and could be a first step * In physics, so the saying goes, if nothing is prohibited, it must happen at some point * All we need to do is to work out how to manipulate black holes and wormholes, and away we go No * The practical problems with time travel are too immense to solve, and even if you could, who would want to? * You might travel back in time and kill one of your grandparents by accident. Then where would you be? * If time travel is possible, why are we still waiting to welcome our first visitors from the future? Source 7 Time Travelers By Stephen Wagner, About. com Guide Where and to what date would you go if you could travel through time? Its a question people have long enjoyed contemplating the possibilities are so fraught with wonder and excitement. Would you watch the pyramids of Egypt being build? Join the spectacle of a gladiatorial battle at the Roman Coliseum? Catch a glimpse of real dinosaurs? Or would you prefer to see what the future holds for humankind? Such fantasies have fueled the success of such stories as H. G. Welles The Time Machine, the Back to the Future movies, favorite episodes of Star Trek and countless science fiction novels. And although some scientists think that it might be at least theoretically possible to travel through time, no one (as far as we know) has devised a sure-fire way to make it happen. But thats not to say that people havent reported traveling through time. There are many fascinating anecdotes from those who say they seem to have quite unexpectedly visited if only briefly another time and, sometimes, another place. These events, often called time slippages, seem to occur randomly and spontaneously. Those who experience these events are often bewildered and confused by what they see and hear, and afterward are at a complete loss to explain them. Here are some interesting cases that will keep you wondering: FLIGHT INTO THE FUTURE In 1935, Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard of the British Royal Air Force had a harrowing experience in his Hawker Hart biplane. Goddard was a Wing Commander at the time and while on a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to his home base in Andover, England, he decided to fly over an abandoned airfield at Drem, not far from Edinburgh. The useless airfield was overgrown with foliage, the hangars were falling apart and cows grazed where planes were once parked. Goddard then continued his flight to Andover, but encountered a bizarre storm. In the high winds of the storms strange brown-yellow clouds, he lost control of his plane, which began to spiral toward the ground. Narrowly averting a crash, Goddard found that his plane was heading back toward Drem. As he approached the old airfield, the storm suddenly vanished and Goddards plane was now flying in brilliant sunshine. This time, as he flew over the Drem airfield, it looked completely different. The hangars looked like new. There were four airplanes on the ground: three were familiar biplanes, but painted in an unfamiliar yellow; the fourth was a monoplane, which the RAF had none of in 1935. The mechanics were dressed in blue overalls, which Goddard thought odd since all RAF mechanics dressed in brown overalls. Strange, too, that none of the mechanics seemed to notice him fly over. Leaving the area, he again encountered the storm, but managed to make his way back to Andover. It wasnt until 1939 that that the RAF began to paint their planes yellow, enlisted a monoplane of the type that Goddard saw, and the mechanics uniforms were switched to blue. Had Goddard somehow flown four years into the future, then returned to his own time? CAUGHT IN A TEMPORAL VORTEX Dr. Raul Rios Centeno, a medical doctor and an investigator of the paranormal, recounted to author Scott Corrales a story told to him by one of his patients, a 30-year-old woman, who came to him with a serious case of hemiplegia the total paralysis of one side of her body. I was at a campground in the vicinity of Markahuasi, she told him. Markahuasi is the famous stone forest located about 35 miles east of Lima, Peru. I went out exploring late at night with some friends. Oddly enough, we heard the strains of music and noticed a small torch-lit stone cabin. I was able to see people dancing inside, but upon getting closer I felt a sudden sensation of cold which I paid little attention to, and I stuck my head through an open door. It was then that I saw the occupants were clad in 17th century fashion. I tried to enter the room, but one of my girlfriends pulled me out. It was at that moment that half of the womans body became paralyzed. Was it because the womans friend pulled her out of the stone cabin when she was half entered into it? Was half her body caught in some temporal vortex or dimensional doorway? Dr. Centeno reported that an EEG was able to show that the left hemisphere of the brain did not show signs of normal functioning, as well as an abnormal amount of electric waves. (See Dimensions Beyond Our Own for more details on this story. ) Source 8 How Time Travel Works by Kevin Bonsor and Robert Lamb Stuff You Should Know From millennium-skipping Victorians to phone booth-hopping teenagers, the term time travel often summons our most fantastic visions of what it means to move through the fourth dimension. But of course you dont need a time machine or a fancy wormhole to jaunt through the years. As youve probably noticed, were all constantly engaged in the act of time travel. At its most basic level, time is the rate of change in the universe and like it or not, we are constantly undergoing change. We age, the planets move around the sun, and things fall apart. We measure the passage of time in seconds, minutes, hours and years, but this doesnt mean time flows at a constant rate. Just as the water in a river rushes or slows depending on the size of the channel, time flows at different rates in different places. In other words, time is relative. But what causes this fluctuation along our one-way trek from the cradle to the grave? It all comes down to the relationship between time and space. Human beings frolic about in the three spatial dimensions of length, width and depth. Time joins the party as that most crucial fourth dimension. Time cant exist without space, and space cant exist without time. The two exist as one: the space-time continuum. Any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time. In this article, well look at the real-life, everyday methods of time travel in our universe, as well as some of the more far-fetched methods of dancing through the fourth dimension. Source 9 Is Time Travel Possible? Analysis by Robert Lamb Thu Apr 22, 2010 06:14 PM ET Its not glamorous, but its time travel. (Michael Dunning/Photographers Choice/Getty Images) From summer blockbusters to sensational science headlines, modern culture is constantly inundated with tales of time travel. But when you boil down the physics involved, is it possible to travel through time? To answer this question, I tracked down theoretical physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, author of How to Build a Time Machine. SLIDE SHOW: What are the favored time travel methods as used in science fiction? We are all time travelers The short answer is that time travel into the future is not only possible, its been done, and weve known about it for over a century, says Davies. The reason that the public doesn’t seem to know about it is because the amount of time travel involved is so pitifully small that it doesnt make for a Doctor Who style adventure. A phenomenon called time dilation is the key here. Time passes more slowly the closer you approach the speed of light an unbreakable cosmic speed limit. As such, the hands of a clock in a speeding train would move more slowly than those in a stationary clock. The difference would not be humanly noticeable, but when the train pulled back into the station, the two clocks would be off by billionths of a second. If such a train could attain 99. 999 percent light speed, only 1 year would pass onboard for every 223 years back at the train station. But speed isnt the only factor that affects time. On a much smaller scale, mass also influences time. Time slows down the closer you are to the center of a massive object. Time runs a little bit faster in space than it does down on Earth, Davies says. It runs a little faster on the roof than it does in the basement, and thats a measurable effect. A clock aboard an orbiting satellite experiences time dilation due to both the speed of its orbit and its greater distance from the center of Earths gravity. Both gravity and speed can give you a means of jumping ahead, Davies says. So in principle, if you had enough money, you could get to the year 3000 in as short a time as you like one year, one month, whatever it takes. It is only a question of money and engineering. Forward, not back? Time travel into the future is an established and fundamental aspect of Albert Einsteins theory of relativity. Scientists have tested and retested this in both experimental and practical settings. But what about time travel in the opposite direction? Going back in to the past is a whole different kettle of fish. Davies says. Theres nothing in Einsteins theory, which is the best theory that we have about the nature of time, which precludes it. Theres nothing in even his general theory of relativity, published in 1915, which precludes travel back into the past, but many scientists are deeply uneasy about it because of all the well-known paradoxes that it unleashes. For instance, imagine going back in time and killing your own mother. Then shed never give birth to you, and just how would you have been able to travel back in time to commit matricide in the first place? Wormholes as spacetime shortcuts Davies surmises that, given our current understanding of the nature of time and physics, time travel into the past simply isnt possible. But the universe is full of mysteries, and one of them the hypothetical wormhole might just permit such a journey. This is a little bit like a tunnel or shortcut between two distant points, Davies says, So for example, if I had a wormhole here in my hotel room and I jumped through it I wouldnt come out on Pennsylvania Avenue, Id maybe come out near the other side of the galaxy. Source 10 Scientists have theorized that such a shortcut through time and space could be turned into a time machine. If a worm hole could exist and could be traversable, then it would provide a means of going back in time, Davies says. So it all hinges on whether stable wormholes are a reality or if theres some aspect of physics not relativity, because theres nothing wrong from that point of view but some other aspect of physics might intercede and prevent the wormhole from forming. Thats an open question. World-famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has proposed that wormholes occurring at a quantum level could theoretically provide a foothold for time travel, but University of California at Santa Barbara physicist Andrew Cleland urges caution on that front. Im an experimentalist, and physics is ultimately an experimental science, Cleland says. Any predictions that are made based on mathematics or on philosophical or intellectual speculation have to pass the test of experiment, and I am certainly not aware of any experiment that demonstrated the possibility of traveling backward in time. Cause and effect Cleland also points out that the fundamental principle of causality stands in the way of travel into the past. The entire universe, as we understand it, is beholden to this rule. Something occurs first and the outcome of that occurrence happens afterward, Cleland says, and there has never to my knowledge been an experiment that came out different from that. I am not aware of any experimental tests of quantum mechanics that have shown any violation of causality, in spite of the fact that many experiments could reveal such a violation. Still, in the same way that time dilation isnt flashy enough to seem like time travel into the future, the public often overlooks a very common means of traveling into the past. In a sense, astronomers are always traveling backward in time, but it is in a way that most people are not so excited about, Cleland says. When we measure the cosmic microwave background, were looking back more than 10 billion years in time. Thats how long it took for the light to reach us. A number of questions about time travel remain unanswered. Will time tourists from the future ever show up to help us out? Well just have to wait and see. But if they come here using a wormhole time machine, well have to build one first. After all, you couldnt cross a bridge if only one side had been completed, right? Theoretically, it would take more than 100 years to create a 100-years time difference between the two ends of a wormhole, Davies says, so theres no way that our descendants could come back and tell us were wrong about this.

Cultural Chameleon :: Essays Papers

Cultural Chameleon For me, being late to school meant chasing down taxis at 7:15 am and hurriedly telling the driver, in broken Cantonese, to please hurry. A day of shopping meant searching the Hong Kong market streets for a pair of shoes larger than a size 7 and bargaining for thirty minutes with the shopkeeper to bring the price down to fewer than ten dollars. Lunch with a friend was being the only white girl in a small noodle house tainted by the smell of the ducks and chickens hanging in the window, my voice drowned out by music blaring through Cantonese speakers. Sometime in the five years I had lived in Hong Kong, between speaking a little Cantonese and knowing the downtown streets like the back of my hand, I was promoted from my status as a typical American blonde to a true Hong Kong kid. When I moved away the summer after my sophomore year in high school, I was leaving home and going somewhere completely foreign. Texas. I will always remember the first day of public school. My mom dropped me off at the front of the school, as kids sped by us in their huge SUV’s to viciously snag a parking space. Inside, I was met with a swarm of Abercrombie-clad blondes and brunettes in every hall and at every corner. My thoughts were drowned out by singing of the latest songs on the radio, gossip, and laughter. Seeing as these were people who spoke the same native language as me, who looked the same and sounded the same, you would think that I would finally feel at home and relieved. But I had never felt so foreign in my life. This American culture that my parents called their own, did not at all feel like something that was mine. I was confused by the fact that I felt more at home and at ease in a culture where I stuck out as blatantly different, than in one where I blended in completely. It was this challenge and these feelings that established me as what is commonly referred to as one of the world’s â€Å"Third Culture Kids.† In their book so titled, David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken describe in detail the concept of what it means to grow up in a culture other than that of your own native culture, and the challenges and emotions that are often met.

Comparing Quality With Quantity Of Education For Development Economics Essay

Education plays a major function in the part of economic development of any state. Education is considered to be really of import as it generates demand for high rates of labour ingestion and labour productiveness. It besides helps in deriving big economic returns through higher productiveness and incomes of the people. Education besides enhances accomplishments and cognition of the work force ( Woodward et al. , 2000 ; OECD, 1994 ; Bloom et al. , 2006 ) . The states with good developed instruction systems besides benefit by increasing the proportion of the working population and promote them to stay in the work force. A good instruction system in a state besides helps to keep competitory place in the planetary economic system and minimizes the impact of unemployment than states that have non invested in such preparation ( World Bank, 1990 ; Economic development indexs, 2007 ) . Education besides helps in accomplishing a higher criterion of life and enhances the accomplishments and cognition of people. It besides contributes and benefits the population from the scientific and technological progresss in the signifier of new merchandises and procedures which may in bend consequence in higher net incomes of people and lead to economic development ( Stevens and Weale, 2003 ) . However, it can non be denied that people need to better and update their accomplishments and cognition to vie in the progressively knowledge based economic system, as a consequence of which it becomes necessary for people to set about both qualitative and quantitative instruction and preparation ( Woodward et al. , 2000 ) . The quality and measure of instruction offered may change from state to state, but instruction is considered to be really of import as it is considered to be a major subscriber of economic growing. Even in Australia, instruction is one of the largest industries which contribute to about 6 per centum of GDP and the sum spent by the politicians and educational curates in Australia is based with the quality of end product. The authorities bursary on instruction during the 90 ‘s was about $ 17.6bn and the outgo made by persons and houses was about $ 4.7bn. Australia ‘s instruction system is besides considered to be of good quality criterion and besides attracts big pupils from different states. ( Becker and Lewis, 1993 ; Burke, 1992 cited in Marginson, 1993 ; Australian authorities, 2008 ) . However, there has been a batch of argument in the literature as to whether the quality of instruction is of import of the measure for a state ‘s economic development. ( Link and Ratledge, 1975 ; Marginson, 1993 ; Woodward et Al, 2000 ; Bloom et al. 2006 ) states that, it is of import for people to hold high quality of instruction as it encourages the population to achieve more instruction which will take to economic development of a state. This is because ; high quality of instruction helps people to develop more accomplishments and cognition and therefore, increases the productiveness of people which in bend has big impact on the net incomes and economic growing. The writers further provinces that, in order to acquire accurate estimations of returns from the quality of instruction, it is of import to mensurate quality which can be done by quantitative indexs i.e. graduation rates or achievement tonss of people. One of the states that illustrate the importance of quality of instruction is Singapore, where the per capita GDP grew at the rate of 6.7 per centum between 1970 ‘s and 1990 ‘s. The chief ground for the addition in the GDP was due to the alterations in the instruction policy. The authorities ‘s policy was focused on upgrading the quality of instruction and increasing the productiveness by bettering the accomplishments of people by using the school larning to existent universe jobs. This policy resulted in increased engagement of work force in the labour market with high cognition and accomplishments and therefore, the quality of instruction contributed into the economic system by bring forthing a cognition driven work force taking to the economic development of the state ( Kozma, 2005 ) . However, ( Cheng and Ghulam, 1997 ; Lee, 2005 ; Barro, 2001 ; Sianesi and Reenen, 2002 ; Dowrick, 2002 ) contradicts this and states that measure of instruction contributes to about 0.44 per centum growing in a state ‘s per capita GDP for every extra twelvemonth of schooling. Measure of instruction helps people attain more old ages of instruction and can gain higher rewards. Achieving more old ages of instruction is besides of import as higher degree of instruction is needed to run into the challenges of altering demands which are originating out of advanced cognition and engineerings. In developed states like Australia, more accents is being laid on the quality of instruction which leads to economic growing as at that place does non look to be much of a relationship between the degrees of instruction attained i.e. measure and economic growing. In such states more importance is given on the quality of instruction. This is because, people who do non possess plenty cognition and experience i.e. quality while go forthing or graduating from high schools and colleges find it hard to run into the demands of the labour market. These people may besides hold low productiveness and net incomes which may in bend have low impact on the economic development ( Pianalto, 2004 ; Bosworth and Collins, 2003 ; Arcaro, 1995 ; Marginson, 1993 and Barr, 2002 ) . However, ( Access Economics, 2005 ; World Bank, 1990 ) contradicts these positions and provinces that at that place seems to be a relationship between achieving higher degrees of instruction and economic growing. This is because, what a population learns may be different from what the employers may demand in the labor market. Achieving a low degree of instruction may besides gain really low returns to persons and to the economic system, while more old ages of instruction i.e. measure consequences in more skilled work force. Such skilled work force, in bend consequences in higher productiveness, higher engagement of people in the work force and higher employment in the state. The work force with more instruction brings a higher degree of accomplishment to the work topographic point. Hence, it increases the productiveness. It increases engagement of people as workers with higher accomplishments degrees are more likely to work. Hence, it increases engagement. Peoples who attain mote ins truction are more likely to be employable and bask lower unemployment rates. The writer further adds that people who do non achieve more degrees of instruction, they are likely to gain lower norm returns as compared to those people who have attained more degrees of instruction. For illustration in Australia, in 1999, people who did non complete twelvemonth 12 earned about 20 per centum less than those who completed. While people who attained university instruction earned about 40 per centum more than those who completed twelvemonth 12 and about earned 75 per centum more than the least educated. Education delivers high wage to Australians Beginning: OECD Net incomes of people by increased degree of instruction Average pay of those who finish school =100 ( Nam et al. , 1994 ; Temple, 2000 ; Muffels, 2008 ) further adds that, people with low old ages of instruction i.e. measure are more likely to acquire a impermanent occupation, peripheral occupation due to the deficiency in the accomplishments and cognition. This can ensue in lower productiveness and lower net incomes of persons. While people who attain high degrees of instruction are more likely to hold a positive consequence on labor market and acquire lasting occupations, nucleus occupations. This is because, though the procedure of instruction takes clip and involves chance cost, nevertheless, the result from the investing in the old ages of schooling can be considered to be certain in a sense that those persons who undertake who attain higher degrees of instruction will be skilled laborers in future which will increase productiveness and lead to economic growing. But ( the economic experts, 1992 ; Link and Ratledge, 1975 ) are of the position that, both quality and measure are of import for economic development as a big proportion of uneducated may ensue in unemployment and people who do non finish their schools do non hold important impact on their net incomes. The people who attain quality of instruction besides better the accomplishments of people and as there is a mismatch between the accomplishments offered by the people and the accomplishments needed by labor markets, there is a demand for people to achieve measure degrees of higher instruction. In order to increase the quality and measure of instruction it is besides of import to account that, who pays for instruction. ( Woodward et al. , 2000 ; Harrison, 1997 ) states that the authorities should bear the cost of instruction because if the authorities wages of instruction so it will better the quality and measure of instruction as more figure of people will be encouraged by the authorities to set about instruction. The sum of subsidy given by the authorities besides may impact the fees that persons pay for acquiring educated and therefore, will increase the demand for instruction. But if the authorities does non pay for instruction, it may impact the quality of instruction and besides may increase inequality in instruction. This is because ; if persons have to pay for instruction so they may see instruction as outgo and non as investing and hence, see a secondary issue which may raise poorness and unemployment in the state, which may restrict the economic growing of the state.

Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

December 11, 2012 Section 1: Who is the one to delineate fault for a miscommunication and misunderstanding between two cultures? In Anne Fadiman’s novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, she begins the novel as an attempt to allocate responsibility for the mistreatment and exacerbation of Lia Lee’s epilepsy. The tension between the Hmong and United States medical culture exemplified the strain in America between a foreign culture dependent on rituals and society’s norm. As the novel progress, Fadiman realizes that neither culture is truly at fault.Lia’s situation stemmed from a clash of cultural beliefs and practices that could have been solved by a respect and empathy of the significance of cross-cultural communication. Throughout the narrative, there were characters that were able to be culturally empathetic while some were unable to appreciate the cultural differences between the two entities and realize the necessity for cooperation and unders tanding. The Hmong have a saying that they repeat at the beginning of every story, â€Å"Hais cuaj txub kaum txub,† which means, â€Å"speak of all kinds of things† (Fadiman 13).These words depict the belief in the Hmong culture that the world is full of things that might not appear related but actually are. This concept relates to the Hmong’s history. Their development as a culture is tainted with inconsiderate counter cultures that restricted their freedom to practice their cultural rituals. This greatly influenced their ability to trust cultures that are not their own. Their general distrust in any culture different from their own can be mainly traced back to the Chinese and Indochinese portion of their saga.Basically, the Hmong have been chased out of any home they have ever had due to their unwillingness to take orders, their affliction to losing and the imperative detail that they would rather flee, fight, or die than surrender. This all boils down to the fact that they are not easily swayed by other culture’s customs. This ethnocentric attitude has greatly attributed to the Hmong culture’s general distrust and distaste for any culture but their own. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee, and much of the Hmong community were skeptical of trusting the â€Å"white people† in the medical profession and in the community.In fact, Lia’s case became the litmus test for Hmong community and turned out to be a deciding factor as to whether the Hmong community in Merced, California would trust the medical professionals when they found themselves at MCMC in a similar state as Lia. Despite this inherent distrust of any culture dissimilar to their own, the Lee’s were able to trust one CPA worker, Jeanine Hilt, who took the Lee’s case very personally. Jeanine made it her mission to fight the medical industry tyranny on behalf of the Hmong culture and became the only person to ask the Lees their opinion .Because of the language barrier, many medical professionals saw talking to the Lee’s as a lost cause to communicate with, which led the Lees to believe they were being taken advantage of. Jeanine was the only one who thought to ask how the Lees felt about how the doctors were treating Lia and their culture. Because of this openness to communication and genuine interest in their answers, she explained to the hospital how the Lees, and the Hmong culture, felt about Lia’s epilepsy and why they were running into to so many conflicts with the Hmong culture.Jeanine’s open approach allowed her to see what the barrier was between the Lees ad the medical profession. The Lee’s and the Hmong culture considered Lia an anointed one and her â€Å"illness† as a blessing rather than a weakness. In the Hmong culture, people born with epilepsy are believed to be the anointed ones and are destined to a life as a shaman. They call it â€Å"qaug dab peg,† or â €Å"the spirit catches you and you fall down. † People in the medical profession did not understand the concept of spirits and the importance of epilepsy for the Hmong. Jeanine was the only white person who adamantly fought for the rights of the Hmong.She was able to do this by the ability to effectively and cross culturally communicate. A similar problem occurred when the Lees refused to give their daughter her daily medicine regimen. Lia was taken away from her family and put into foster care. Jeanine fought to get Lia back to her family as her epileptic episodes became more frequent and dangerous. After she succeeded, it was Jeanine’s mission to educate the Lees, especially Foua, on the drug regimen and explain to her the importance of the drugs and to understand Nao Kao and Foua’s aversion to medicine.Hilt was the only person that took the time to listen to Foua and her concerns regarding the unnatural substances. And after Lia’s large grand mal seizu re, she was the only one who tackled the problem of how the Hmong family was treating Lia’s developmental delays. Jeanine’s key to success was always keeping the lines of communication open between herself and the Lees and therefore between the Lees and the MCMC. In order to cross culturally communicate, Jeanine focused on a caring approach that was â€Å"culturally empathetic† and used the Lees daughter, May, as her translator.She did this because having another unfamiliar person in the room, especially a translater, would make the Lees uncomfortable and less open to effective communication. Hilt also took the time to get to know the Lees. She knew the names of all their seven surviving children and most importantly never abandoned Lia or her family even in Nao Kao’s darkest moments. As part of the Hmong culture, they are naturally very violent and are not deterred by being outnumbered. Nao Kao threatened a translator that came and told the Child Protect ive Services were taking Lia away.Jeanine understood the aversion to having someone’s child taken away and made sure the threats Nao Kao made didn’t affect the courts decision to let Lia return. Jeanine’s empathy was deepened by two factors. She understood the burden of a chronic illness because she had asthma. She also admired the connection and closeness of the Hmong families. She was deeply connected to this family and to this child so she harassed the government and the hospital until the Lees got what they deserved. This included a pediatric hospital bed for Lia’s last days at home.This led the Lees to hold Jeanine in high esteem and allowed for a trust that was incredibly hard to earn from the Hmong culture. While Jeanine took the time to understand the Hmong culture, Nao Kao, Lia’s father, did little to reciprocate. He greatly appreciated her attempt at being understanding, however he never believed it was his responsibility to do the same. Even then, Foua was usually the most receptive to Jeanine’s triumphs. Historically Hmongs have become the pariahs of society.With this in mind, Nao Kao never really made the effort to be part of a society that he knew went against his beliefs and therefore was rejecting him. It is also prominent in Hmong culture, that the man is the strongest part of the family and the most emotionally disconnected. While the Hmong were fighting the Chinese, they even killed their wives and children so they wouldn’t be emotionally distracted. Nao Kao hyper masculine attitude led him and his wife to be passively obedient. In the book, Fadiman writes â€Å"It was typical or Hmong patients to appear passively obedient – thus protecting their own dignity by concealing their ignorance and their doctor’s dignity by acting deferential – and then, as soon as they left the hospital, to ignore everything to which they had supposedly assented† (Fadiman 68). This is no way to effectively communicate between two cultures. By Nao Kao affirming that he would give the medicine and not at least trying to explain that it is against his belief and/or he does not understand how to give the medicine, he falsely gives the impression to the doctors that Lia will be cared for at home.Not only does not communicate that he will not give the medicine, but he also doesn’t communicate that he has not given the medicine to Lia when the Lees continue to take her to the hospital seizure after seizure. While the Hmongs believed being epileptic was a sort of blessing, they also understood the repercussions and knew the disease was at least semi-dangerous. That is the reason the Lees continued to take Lia to MCMC over and over again, despite their hatred for the medical culture and the inability to effectively communicate. However Nao Kao Lee was most definitely stuck in his ways.Fadiman explains a observation by Francois Marie Savina as to his first impressions to the Hmong in 1924. Savina, a missionary, stated â€Å"ethnic durability can be attributed to six factors: religion; love of liberty; traditional costumes; refusal to marry outside their race; life in the cold, dry mountainous areas; and the toughening effects of war† (Fadiman 208). The Lee family did little the acculturate themselves into the United States culture and came here to merely escape prosecution. When the Lees came to America, their relatives had to show them how the country worked. They relied greatly on their children.After Seventeen years of living here they still speak only Hmong and practice only Hmong traditions. The Hmong culture is famously stuck in its ways and it was no different for Nao Kao. The mixture between his role in his culture as well as the culture itself lends itself to the inability to communicate between the Lee family and the MCMC medical staff. The first thing that would allow two cultures, such as the Hmong and the United States medical culture, to effectively communicate is knowing what their core values, core distinction, and some key elements to their culture in regards to value dimensions.The Hmong’s value dimensions tend to fall on one extreme, while America falls on the other side of the spectrum. For example, in the Identity value dimension, the Hmong are highly collectivist, which means their core value is group harmony and their core distinction is whether you’re in group/out group. However, the United States population is based on individualist side of the identity spectrum. This means they believe in individual freedom and the core distinction is whether its me/others (Hofstede Pederson Hofstede 94-97).This has a large impact in how two cultures interact with each other because while the United States will believe that the Hmong should do whatever it takes to protect themselves while the Hmong believe they should maintain the peace with the gods or else they will be punished which focusâ⠂¬â„¢ on group harmony. The virtue value dimension also has a strong effect on the differences between these cultures. The Hmong are considered extreme long-term orientation, which values the long-term benefits. The US medical culture is more oriented on today’s effects, otherwise known as extreme short-term orientation (Hofstede Pederson Hofstede 109-112).This shows why the Hmong are so superstitious because they are worried about the futures of their children and even their grandchildren. The medical industry is not superstitious and therefore believes in saving the life that needs saving now and not later. They do not discriminate on between now and later. A lot of lessons can be learned from how Jeanine was able to effectively communicate between the Hmong and US medical cultures. First of all, it is important to be open to new ways of communication between cultures and to not only find similarities, but also understand the differences between cultures.The Hmong culture a nd the Medical culture in the United States seem on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. In that brief period of Lia’s seizures being decreased and her seemingly getting better, the Lees understood that they had to give Lia her medicine regularly and the hospital understood why the Lees were hesitant about giving their child too many unnatural substances. When the two entities understood each other’s culture and cultural differences, Lia’s health improved and they were able to understand each other beyond the most basic level.This is called being culturally empathetic. Lia’s illness was a test for the two cultures. It was a situation that forced a broken system to recognize its faults and demonstrate how it needs to be fixed. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who worsened Lia’s illness because placing blame won’t help either culture understand each other. By the end of the text, as Fadiman is reflecting on the case, she writ es â€Å"I do not know if Lia would be able to walk and talk today had she been treated by Arthur Kleinman instead of by Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp.However, I have come to believe that her life was ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding† (Fadiman 262). The MCMC has learned multiple lessons from Lia’s epilepsy. They learned to be culturally conscious, they removed the organ donor box from the hospital waiver and posted details about Lia’s case so her illness won’t be mistreated ever again. The key to communicating effectively is to realize that a culture is different from yours and value their judgments just as much as you value your own.Jeanine was able to do it, hopefully Nao Kao will one day do it as well as every doctor in the medical profession, and especially the doctors that are in heavily populated minority areas. Bibliography 1. Fadiman, Anne. The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong chil d, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. 2. Hofstede, Gert Jan, Paul Pedersen, and Geert H. Hofstede. Exploring culture. Yarmouth, Me. : Intercultural Press, 2002 Section II: Throughout my life, I have always been a person who loved traveling.I will always love traveling and someday, I hope to have a job where traveling is a requirement. When I travel, I hoped to come as close to emersion as possible in the time span I’m there. I believe interacting with other cultures can seriously give you a whole new outlook on life and learning perspectives of different cultures and humans always fascinates me which is why, next year, I am planning to take a year off to work at a bed and breakfast in France. People from all over the globe come to bed and breakfasts, which will give e a lot of face time with a lot of different cultures and learn a little bit about everything. My housing and dining will be paid for while I meet people, make lifelong connections and put all the things I learned about in cross cultural communication to work. Cross Cultural Communication opened up my eyes to some pretty basic things that you just never really put names to. The best lesson I learned was on cultural empathy. The idea that you don’t only tolerate another culture, but you understand it at its most basic level is incredibly important in how you connect with other people.A lot of my best friends are actually international and live in other countries. One of my best friends ever lives in Greece and looking back on our friendship, I realize how I subconsciously underwent the process of cultural empathy by asking her about the different practices she went through and the different ways she understood American culture and society. Unfortunately, I did not do the same with my German ex-boyfriend who lived in Germany which probably could have saved a lot of grief on my end.Another lesson I found interesting in cro ss-cultural communication was reflexivity. Reflexivity is the ability and willingness of a researcher to acknowledge their bias. When I went to H Street, I realized my bias growing up in small town liberal suburbia. I realize my bias everyday when I meet people who grow up in different countries, parts of the country or even socio economic class. While interviewing Josh Parrish for my interview project, I saw how different our lives were and yet how similar we were.Reflexivity is not only important to acknowledge for reliable research, but for dependable relationships as well. Talking about white privilege really interested me throughout the course. Growing up as white, I kind of always resented the doors that automatically opened for me in some sense of the word. I can’t pinpoint why, but I like the challenge of overcoming adversity. In the School of Public Affairs Leadership Program, we talked about the idea of Privilege and Power and we watched an interesting TED talks tha t introduced the idea of â€Å"The Power of a Single Story. Acknowledging the different presets in society is important to society and to be able to communicate with each other. If I could change one thing about this class, it would definitely be about the reading. The readings were incredibly numerous and sometimes, I couldn’t finish everything, which led to a serious cycle of me falling incredibly behind. I would’ve loved for a way to cut down the readings, perhaps only read important excerpts or something because the workload was either really hard or very laid back.The lessons I learned in cross cultural communication feel less immense than other classes, but I already notice how I look around and see how these lessons are applicable in real life. I constantly look back at my history and realize how helpful these skills would have been months and even years ago. Being culturally empathetic is the most important lesson I could have learned and I feel was the overar ching theme to the whole course. I found it helpful to learn how to properly acculturate into a foreign culture and while I may not become a foreign diplomat because of this class, I definitely learned some important imformation. Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down December 11, 2012 Section 1: Who is the one to delineate fault for a miscommunication and misunderstanding between two cultures? In Anne Fadiman’s novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, she begins the novel as an attempt to allocate responsibility for the mistreatment and exacerbation of Lia Lee’s epilepsy. The tension between the Hmong and United States medical culture exemplified the strain in America between a foreign culture dependent on rituals and society’s norm. As the novel progress, Fadiman realizes that neither culture is truly at fault.Lia’s situation stemmed from a clash of cultural beliefs and practices that could have been solved by a respect and empathy of the significance of cross-cultural communication. Throughout the narrative, there were characters that were able to be culturally empathetic while some were unable to appreciate the cultural differences between the two entities and realize the necessity for cooperation and unders tanding. The Hmong have a saying that they repeat at the beginning of every story, â€Å"Hais cuaj txub kaum txub,† which means, â€Å"speak of all kinds of things† (Fadiman 13).These words depict the belief in the Hmong culture that the world is full of things that might not appear related but actually are. This concept relates to the Hmong’s history. Their development as a culture is tainted with inconsiderate counter cultures that restricted their freedom to practice their cultural rituals. This greatly influenced their ability to trust cultures that are not their own. Their general distrust in any culture different from their own can be mainly traced back to the Chinese and Indochinese portion of their saga.Basically, the Hmong have been chased out of any home they have ever had due to their unwillingness to take orders, their affliction to losing and the imperative detail that they would rather flee, fight, or die than surrender. This all boils down to the fact that they are not easily swayed by other culture’s customs. This ethnocentric attitude has greatly attributed to the Hmong culture’s general distrust and distaste for any culture but their own. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee, and much of the Hmong community were skeptical of trusting the â€Å"white people† in the medical profession and in the community.In fact, Lia’s case became the litmus test for Hmong community and turned out to be a deciding factor as to whether the Hmong community in Merced, California would trust the medical professionals when they found themselves at MCMC in a similar state as Lia. Despite this inherent distrust of any culture dissimilar to their own, the Lee’s were able to trust one CPA worker, Jeanine Hilt, who took the Lee’s case very personally. Jeanine made it her mission to fight the medical industry tyranny on behalf of the Hmong culture and became the only person to ask the Lees their opinion .Because of the language barrier, many medical professionals saw talking to the Lee’s as a lost cause to communicate with, which led the Lees to believe they were being taken advantage of. Jeanine was the only one who thought to ask how the Lees felt about how the doctors were treating Lia and their culture. Because of this openness to communication and genuine interest in their answers, she explained to the hospital how the Lees, and the Hmong culture, felt about Lia’s epilepsy and why they were running into to so many conflicts with the Hmong culture.Jeanine’s open approach allowed her to see what the barrier was between the Lees ad the medical profession. The Lee’s and the Hmong culture considered Lia an anointed one and her â€Å"illness† as a blessing rather than a weakness. In the Hmong culture, people born with epilepsy are believed to be the anointed ones and are destined to a life as a shaman. They call it â€Å"qaug dab peg,† or â €Å"the spirit catches you and you fall down. † People in the medical profession did not understand the concept of spirits and the importance of epilepsy for the Hmong. Jeanine was the only white person who adamantly fought for the rights of the Hmong.She was able to do this by the ability to effectively and cross culturally communicate. A similar problem occurred when the Lees refused to give their daughter her daily medicine regimen. Lia was taken away from her family and put into foster care. Jeanine fought to get Lia back to her family as her epileptic episodes became more frequent and dangerous. After she succeeded, it was Jeanine’s mission to educate the Lees, especially Foua, on the drug regimen and explain to her the importance of the drugs and to understand Nao Kao and Foua’s aversion to medicine.Hilt was the only person that took the time to listen to Foua and her concerns regarding the unnatural substances. And after Lia’s large grand mal seizu re, she was the only one who tackled the problem of how the Hmong family was treating Lia’s developmental delays. Jeanine’s key to success was always keeping the lines of communication open between herself and the Lees and therefore between the Lees and the MCMC. In order to cross culturally communicate, Jeanine focused on a caring approach that was â€Å"culturally empathetic† and used the Lees daughter, May, as her translator.She did this because having another unfamiliar person in the room, especially a translater, would make the Lees uncomfortable and less open to effective communication. Hilt also took the time to get to know the Lees. She knew the names of all their seven surviving children and most importantly never abandoned Lia or her family even in Nao Kao’s darkest moments. As part of the Hmong culture, they are naturally very violent and are not deterred by being outnumbered. Nao Kao threatened a translator that came and told the Child Protect ive Services were taking Lia away.Jeanine understood the aversion to having someone’s child taken away and made sure the threats Nao Kao made didn’t affect the courts decision to let Lia return. Jeanine’s empathy was deepened by two factors. She understood the burden of a chronic illness because she had asthma. She also admired the connection and closeness of the Hmong families. She was deeply connected to this family and to this child so she harassed the government and the hospital until the Lees got what they deserved. This included a pediatric hospital bed for Lia’s last days at home.This led the Lees to hold Jeanine in high esteem and allowed for a trust that was incredibly hard to earn from the Hmong culture. While Jeanine took the time to understand the Hmong culture, Nao Kao, Lia’s father, did little to reciprocate. He greatly appreciated her attempt at being understanding, however he never believed it was his responsibility to do the same. Even then, Foua was usually the most receptive to Jeanine’s triumphs. Historically Hmongs have become the pariahs of society.With this in mind, Nao Kao never really made the effort to be part of a society that he knew went against his beliefs and therefore was rejecting him. It is also prominent in Hmong culture, that the man is the strongest part of the family and the most emotionally disconnected. While the Hmong were fighting the Chinese, they even killed their wives and children so they wouldn’t be emotionally distracted. Nao Kao hyper masculine attitude led him and his wife to be passively obedient. In the book, Fadiman writes â€Å"It was typical or Hmong patients to appear passively obedient – thus protecting their own dignity by concealing their ignorance and their doctor’s dignity by acting deferential – and then, as soon as they left the hospital, to ignore everything to which they had supposedly assented† (Fadiman 68). This is no way to effectively communicate between two cultures. By Nao Kao affirming that he would give the medicine and not at least trying to explain that it is against his belief and/or he does not understand how to give the medicine, he falsely gives the impression to the doctors that Lia will be cared for at home.Not only does not communicate that he will not give the medicine, but he also doesn’t communicate that he has not given the medicine to Lia when the Lees continue to take her to the hospital seizure after seizure. While the Hmongs believed being epileptic was a sort of blessing, they also understood the repercussions and knew the disease was at least semi-dangerous. That is the reason the Lees continued to take Lia to MCMC over and over again, despite their hatred for the medical culture and the inability to effectively communicate. However Nao Kao Lee was most definitely stuck in his ways.Fadiman explains a observation by Francois Marie Savina as to his first impressions to the Hmong in 1924. Savina, a missionary, stated â€Å"ethnic durability can be attributed to six factors: religion; love of liberty; traditional costumes; refusal to marry outside their race; life in the cold, dry mountainous areas; and the toughening effects of war† (Fadiman 208). The Lee family did little the acculturate themselves into the United States culture and came here to merely escape prosecution. When the Lees came to America, their relatives had to show them how the country worked. They relied greatly on their children.After Seventeen years of living here they still speak only Hmong and practice only Hmong traditions. The Hmong culture is famously stuck in its ways and it was no different for Nao Kao. The mixture between his role in his culture as well as the culture itself lends itself to the inability to communicate between the Lee family and the MCMC medical staff. The first thing that would allow two cultures, such as the Hmong and the United States medical culture, to effectively communicate is knowing what their core values, core distinction, and some key elements to their culture in regards to value dimensions.The Hmong’s value dimensions tend to fall on one extreme, while America falls on the other side of the spectrum. For example, in the Identity value dimension, the Hmong are highly collectivist, which means their core value is group harmony and their core distinction is whether you’re in group/out group. However, the United States population is based on individualist side of the identity spectrum. This means they believe in individual freedom and the core distinction is whether its me/others (Hofstede Pederson Hofstede 94-97).This has a large impact in how two cultures interact with each other because while the United States will believe that the Hmong should do whatever it takes to protect themselves while the Hmong believe they should maintain the peace with the gods or else they will be punished which focusâ⠂¬â„¢ on group harmony. The virtue value dimension also has a strong effect on the differences between these cultures. The Hmong are considered extreme long-term orientation, which values the long-term benefits. The US medical culture is more oriented on today’s effects, otherwise known as extreme short-term orientation (Hofstede Pederson Hofstede 109-112).This shows why the Hmong are so superstitious because they are worried about the futures of their children and even their grandchildren. The medical industry is not superstitious and therefore believes in saving the life that needs saving now and not later. They do not discriminate on between now and later. A lot of lessons can be learned from how Jeanine was able to effectively communicate between the Hmong and US medical cultures. First of all, it is important to be open to new ways of communication between cultures and to not only find similarities, but also understand the differences between cultures.The Hmong culture a nd the Medical culture in the United States seem on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. In that brief period of Lia’s seizures being decreased and her seemingly getting better, the Lees understood that they had to give Lia her medicine regularly and the hospital understood why the Lees were hesitant about giving their child too many unnatural substances. When the two entities understood each other’s culture and cultural differences, Lia’s health improved and they were able to understand each other beyond the most basic level.This is called being culturally empathetic. Lia’s illness was a test for the two cultures. It was a situation that forced a broken system to recognize its faults and demonstrate how it needs to be fixed. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who worsened Lia’s illness because placing blame won’t help either culture understand each other. By the end of the text, as Fadiman is reflecting on the case, she writ es â€Å"I do not know if Lia would be able to walk and talk today had she been treated by Arthur Kleinman instead of by Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp.However, I have come to believe that her life was ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding† (Fadiman 262). The MCMC has learned multiple lessons from Lia’s epilepsy. They learned to be culturally conscious, they removed the organ donor box from the hospital waiver and posted details about Lia’s case so her illness won’t be mistreated ever again. The key to communicating effectively is to realize that a culture is different from yours and value their judgments just as much as you value your own.Jeanine was able to do it, hopefully Nao Kao will one day do it as well as every doctor in the medical profession, and especially the doctors that are in heavily populated minority areas. Bibliography 1. Fadiman, Anne. The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong chil d, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. 2. Hofstede, Gert Jan, Paul Pedersen, and Geert H. Hofstede. Exploring culture. Yarmouth, Me. : Intercultural Press, 2002 Section II: Throughout my life, I have always been a person who loved traveling.I will always love traveling and someday, I hope to have a job where traveling is a requirement. When I travel, I hoped to come as close to emersion as possible in the time span I’m there. I believe interacting with other cultures can seriously give you a whole new outlook on life and learning perspectives of different cultures and humans always fascinates me which is why, next year, I am planning to take a year off to work at a bed and breakfast in France. People from all over the globe come to bed and breakfasts, which will give e a lot of face time with a lot of different cultures and learn a little bit about everything. My housing and dining will be paid for while I meet people, make lifelong connections and put all the things I learned about in cross cultural communication to work. Cross Cultural Communication opened up my eyes to some pretty basic things that you just never really put names to. The best lesson I learned was on cultural empathy. The idea that you don’t only tolerate another culture, but you understand it at its most basic level is incredibly important in how you connect with other people.A lot of my best friends are actually international and live in other countries. One of my best friends ever lives in Greece and looking back on our friendship, I realize how I subconsciously underwent the process of cultural empathy by asking her about the different practices she went through and the different ways she understood American culture and society. Unfortunately, I did not do the same with my German ex-boyfriend who lived in Germany which probably could have saved a lot of grief on my end.Another lesson I found interesting in cro ss-cultural communication was reflexivity. Reflexivity is the ability and willingness of a researcher to acknowledge their bias. When I went to H Street, I realized my bias growing up in small town liberal suburbia. I realize my bias everyday when I meet people who grow up in different countries, parts of the country or even socio economic class. While interviewing Josh Parrish for my interview project, I saw how different our lives were and yet how similar we were.Reflexivity is not only important to acknowledge for reliable research, but for dependable relationships as well. Talking about white privilege really interested me throughout the course. Growing up as white, I kind of always resented the doors that automatically opened for me in some sense of the word. I can’t pinpoint why, but I like the challenge of overcoming adversity. In the School of Public Affairs Leadership Program, we talked about the idea of Privilege and Power and we watched an interesting TED talks tha t introduced the idea of â€Å"The Power of a Single Story. Acknowledging the different presets in society is important to society and to be able to communicate with each other. If I could change one thing about this class, it would definitely be about the reading. The readings were incredibly numerous and sometimes, I couldn’t finish everything, which led to a serious cycle of me falling incredibly behind. I would’ve loved for a way to cut down the readings, perhaps only read important excerpts or something because the workload was either really hard or very laid back.The lessons I learned in cross cultural communication feel less immense than other classes, but I already notice how I look around and see how these lessons are applicable in real life. I constantly look back at my history and realize how helpful these skills would have been months and even years ago. Being culturally empathetic is the most important lesson I could have learned and I feel was the overar ching theme to the whole course. I found it helpful to learn how to properly acculturate into a foreign culture and while I may not become a foreign diplomat because of this class, I definitely learned some important imformation.