BI POLAR DISORDER Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

BI POLAR DISORDER - Research Paper Example Bipolar disorder (Kessler, Berglund, Demler , Jin, Merikangas and Walters, 2005) usually develops in the late teens or in the stage of a person's early adult years, whereby at least half of the entire cases start prior to age 25. In addition, this illness is common, in fact, approximately three percent (3%) or 10 million adults (affecting both men and women) in the US population have bipolar disorder (The National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2008). Categories of Bipolar Disorder The National Institute for Health (2009) characterized Bipolar Disorder into four basic types : First is the Bipolar I Disorder, which is mainly defined by episodes of manic or mixed episodes and last at least seven days; in severe cases, the person needs immediate hospital care; Second, the Bipolar II Disorder which is defined by episodes of pattern of depressive shifting back and forth jointly with hypomanic episodes, however, no full-blown Bipolar disorder 3 manic or of mixed episodes; Third is the Bipolar Disorder which is â€Å"Not Otherwise Specified† (BP-NOS), diagnosed if a person's illness has symptoms that do not match with diagnostic criteria (whetherr bipolar I or II); Fourth is the Cyclothymic Disorder, or Cyclothymia, manifested by a mild form of bipolar disorder. In this type of condition, patients exhibit cyclothymia (episodes of hypomania) that shift back and forth together with mild depression around two years. Signs and Symptoms of Illness There is no absolute cause of bipolar disorder, however, most scientists believe that this illness is likely caused by multiple factors, which interact with each other in order to produce a chemical imbalance and affecting some parts of the brain. Most experts also say, Bipolar disorder usually runs in families; and studies suggest that there must be a genetic component to the disorder. Moreover, the first episode is usually trigger by a stressful event, such as difficult relationship or financial problems,unexpected loss, ch ronic illness, or any major change in life. Therefore, an individual’s coping strategies of handling stress may play essential role in the development of symptoms (The National Institute for Health, 2009). In some instances, drug abuse can trigger the disorder. Living in a stressful life situations also may lead to sleep loss or changes in one’s schedule can also contribute to the onset as well as, recurrence of depression and mania (The National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2008). According to New York State Office of Mental Health (2008), the periods of highs and lows are known as episodes of mania and depression. The Signs and symptoms of manic episode include: Restlessness, increased energy, excessively â€Å"high,† overly good, euphoric mood, little sleep needed, extreme irritability, racing thoughts and talking very fast, Bipolar disorder 4 inability to concentrate, distractibility, poor judgment, unrealistic beliefs in one’s abilities, increased sex ual drive, spending sprees, intrusive, provocative or aggressive behavior, lasting period of behavior usually different from usual, denial that anything is wrong and abuse of drugs, particularly alcohol, cocaine, and sleeping medications.

How Thomas Hardy portrays women in his stories Essay Example for Free

How Thomas Hardy portrays women in his stories Essay The three stories all have very social, historical and cultural impacts on the women of the time. The Withered Arm, is about a womans, struggle to cure her withered arm and the jealousy felt by Rhoda who had been used by the farmer in the past and had born his child. Gertrudes fear of loosing her husband and her superstition make her carry out actions that result in her death. The next story, The Distracted Preacher, is about an independent woman called Lizzy and the choice she has to make. She is involved in smuggling and the head of the gang but is offered a different life by Minister Stockdale, who asks her to marry him and leave. She decides to stay but gets caught and suffers for some years till he returns and offers again to marry him, this time she accepts but only because of circumstances. The third story, The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion, is about a shy, naive middle class woman called Phyllis and her fight between her conscience, her fathers desire and her true love. She chooses her conscience and in the end loses everything. The Withered Arm has two main female roles: Rhoda Brooks and Gertrude Lodge. They both have very different backgrounds; Rhoda is the poor working class woman while Gertrude is the pretty upper middle class women. Rhoda has to work for her son and herself just to eat; she has no husband and so is an outcast from society and has to keep herself to herself. Because of this she has no male role model for her son. Rhoda is a thin, fading women of thirty, which emphasises how hard she works and how tiring her life is. In comparison Gertrude is the typical married middle class woman, with lots of time on her hands. She is youthful and pretty, soft and evanescent, which is why Farmer Lodge married her. Rhoda has a very wicked side, which shows itself when Gertrude arrives in town. She becomes jealous and wants to know all about the well-awaited new wife. She becomes obsessed with her and makes her son find out about Gertrude and follow her, Then do you go to Holmstoke church to-morrow: shes sure to be there. This jealousy links in with the superstition of that time when Rhodas dream about Gertrude having a withered arm comes true. At that time everyone believed each village had its own witch. The witch could curse victims and make limbs wither or in extreme cases fall off. From this we can see how worried Rhoda would have been, believing she was a witch, that I exercise malignant power against my own will? This illustrates that Rhoda feel sympathetic for Gertrude and responsible for her arm. She fears what she might do to her and what may happen if she is a witch. Even though she has this evil side, you see that she does contain some sympathetic qualities. For example Rhoda recognises the gruesome fascination which leads her to find Gertrude but she is unwilling to tell her where to find Conjuror Trendle for fear that she will lose Gertrudes friendship. Hardy shows Rhodas point of view throughout the story so you feel sympathetic especially when we find the dead boy is her son. She is very independent and strong so in the end wants nothing to do with Farmer Lodge and the fling therefore refuses his sympathy vote and doesnt accept his money. Gertrude starts by being very kind and loving, she gives Rhodas son some shoes and befriends Rhoda and creates a close relationship with her. Rhoda appears concerned; particularly about Gertrudes imagined rejection by her husband. Her personality changes for the worst when her arm becomes withered. Gertrude relies on Rhoda for a concerned understanding of the growing separation between herself and her husband, who knows the disfigurement is there. The choice of the word disfigurement reveals his attitude to appearances. Social attitudes demanded that middle class women were beautiful and attractive. She turns vain and selfish, obsessed by her arm and the need to find a cure, Her determination received a fillip. She finds a treatable cure for the arm after trying so many. Shes now determined to try this one even though it involves such indignity. This is all too much for Gertrude when she finds out who the boy is in reality Rhodas son. She isnt so vain and determined, she is actually very shocked and started to feel sympathy for the victim and in end the superstition and shock kills her. In the Distracted Preacher the main female role is Lizzy Newbury a middle class, strong-minded, character who, was none the less independent. This emphasises how Lizzy is able to lead her village in successful smuggling. Shes an attractive, local girl who can take on an immense job for a women in those times but Lizzy does it as well as any man could. Lizzy is a widower and looks after her mother, as well as the customers of her Lodge, where Mr Stockdale goes to stay. She values her job and sees nothing wrong with smuggling, If a king who is nothing to us sends his people to steal out property, we have the right to steal it back. This illustrates how Lizzy doesnt care whether people think her smuggling is wrong she has reason to do it and she lives off the money and the adventure. The smuggling is tradition: My father did it, and so did my grandfather, and almost everybody in Nether-Moynton lives by it, and life would be so dull if it wasnt for that, that I should not care to live at all. This shows that Lizzy is no ordinary woman she sticks with what she wants and doesnt look up to men as a higher being besides shes a decisive woman and gets her way. She needs to carry on even though her romance with Stockdale gets in the way because he doesnt agree with it, so Lizzy uses vigorous but absurd arguments to justify her actions. To begin with Lizzy doesnt want to go away with Stockdale and marrying him, It is too much to ask. My whole life ha been passed in this way. She needs to stay in Nether-Moynton where the adventure is and not do what normal females do. Later we see Lizzys resolve deteriorates; she needs Stockdale because the money earnt from smuggling runs out. After all her talk about needing smuggling and it being fine to do it, she says it wrong, I own that we were wrong, said she. But I have suffered for it: I am very poor now, Lizzy wants Stockdale now she is poor and worthless and Stockdale offers to take her away from her poverty. Lizzy gives in and takes this offer, then settles down to the married life she once hated the thought of living because of its lack of adventure and predictability. This ending is problematic as Lizzy changed her attitudes totally. This ending was also added for the readers. The story was published each week in a magazine. Hardy wrote the ending to please the audience and give them an ending most women would of taken. There is an alternative ending to this story that isnt so problematic. This is that Lizzy would have married Owlett a member of the smuggling gang and immigrated to America. The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion has one main female role, that of Phyllis Grove an attractive middle class young lady. She is very quiet, keeps herself to herself and just likes to blend into society. She was a woman who lived her whole life without going further than the nearest market. The only family she has is her father so she has no female role model to guide her through life, this has made her very inexperienced in relationships, though it is probable that she lost her heart to Matthaus before she is herself aware. She never realised she was in love with Matthaus; she had never felt love before so never knew what this feeling was. She values her fathers opinion greatly and her father doesnt like whats going on between Matthaus and herself. He considers the soldiers merely foreign fellows who flatter young girls with unmeaning attentions. Phyllis finds Matthaus refined and well-educated. He is loving towards her, concerned about her loneliness, he does not put too much pressure on her to escape and marry him. She becomes very conscience stricken between the two men; will she go with her fathers choice (Humphrey) or her romance Matthaus? She decided the best thing to do was to conform to society and her father and marry Humphrey, She would stay at home, and marry him, and suffer. This shows that she is doing this for her father it wouldnt be love but she could live with it for her families and the moneys sake. Later we see that Phyllis has a problem as Humphrey wants to marry another woman, Belle, and Matthaus and a friend gets shot for desertion. Poor Phyllis has now been torn from fighting between two men to being alone again. We see Phylliss life if effected by this, while she lived she used to keep their mounds neat, meaning Matthaus grave. This shows Phylliss love for Matthaus still carried on when he died and this tragedy deeply affected her. In the three stories I have read the four female characters all have similarities and differences. Gertrude is similar to all three characters. She is similar to Rhoda because they both believe in superstition and worry about what is happening to them due to it. Through the story we feel sympathy for them: for Gertrude with her withered arm and death and Rhoda for being a single parent and so an outcast and for when she sees Gertrude with her arm on her dead sons neck. The sympathy vote changes throughout the story between Rhoda and Gertrude. Gertrude is like Lizzy because they are both attractive, strong-minded women. Gertrude is different to Lizzy aswell as like her because Gertrude conforms to mens expectations but Lizzy is independent and only relies on Stockdale at the end. Phyllis is probably most like Gertrude as they are both very traditional women characters for their times. They are weak women who become victims of men and the social influences of their time. Phyllis becomes a heart broken girl due to her fianci messing her around and her actual love being shot. Gertrude becomes obsessed and vain because her husband is disgusted by the fault with her arm and starts to love her less for it. Phyllis has a rich fianci and Gertrude has a rich husband. Lizzy is similar to Rhoda too because they are both strong-willed, independent women that can cope by themselves without men by their sides. This means Lizzy and Rhoda are both very different to Phyllis because she is timid and shy, she can be manipulated easily unlike Lizzy and Rhoda who manipulate other people. Phylliss character is very dependent as she does as she is told, conforming to societys expectations. If things had gone to plan then her life would be totally taken care of without her lifting a finger, when we know Lizzy chose to be independent and Rhoda had to be independent to look after her family. In my view, I admire Lizzy because she is very outgoing and a leader, which shows women to be able to lead men in this world and she can still be attractive and feminine. She seems to put men in their places by refusing Stockdales offer of marriage instead of being a stereotypical woman of that time married, at home cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. She speaks her mind when she wants to stay because smuggling gives her adventure and when she tells Stockdale there nothing wrong with smuggling. This is why I like the alternative ending that Hardy mentions in his footnote when she goes to America because she doesnt need the sympathy for being poor she stays strong and independent. Even though at the end I felt sorry for Rhoda because of her son, I was never fond of her character. She seemed evil throughout the story as if she had other secrets not yet revealed. Her character was very sneaky, holding things back from Gertrude when she was untruthful. I think Rhoda is to blame for all Gertrudes problems: she placed the curse and took Gertrude to Conjuror Trendle and she paid the price of that horrendous sight. This all made me very sympathetic towards Gertrude and I know how if feels to be superficially stereotyped. She never did anything to Rhoda and died as a consequence to Rhodas jealousy. I also sympathise with Phyllis because men ruined her life, her life was ruined by the societys strict rules at that time to do the right thing and marry for position and money, and the shooting for desertion of her true love. Men have a great impact on women and can make our lives fun, yet some men make our lives more misery than fun. In my opinion Hardy portrays women with respect, he makes them strong and independent, manly in a sense. In the early 1800s women all had their places in the world, which was in the home. Hardy brought these women out of their world and into the beginning of our not so sexist England today. Men and Society had the main impact on women of this era; I believe this is why Hardys stories were loved in this age. Women could read them and think that they had a greater role in this era and they were more intelligent than men thought. I also believe men should have read these books to see how independent and important women are to this world. It was very important for women of this era to get their thoughts and strengths across to the world, so they could begin to live as equals to men.

Essay --

You do know that milk comes from cows, goats, and other mammals. Though do you ever wonder what it goes through, before you buy it at a supermarket. Milk is used in so many ways. What it contains will amaze you. People have figured out how to contain it so it last much longer. The real amazing thing about any word you say like milk people think they know everything about it there is to know, but they have no clue. There is a history behind every word we use today, people don't look close enough. Since the 1800’s milk has been redefined. During the 1800’s people went on with their daily lives drinking milk believing they knew where it came from. Farmers believed that if you named your cows instead of giving them numbers they would produce much better. People got their milk from a farmer that owned cows. They would bring the cow door to door asking the customer if they wanted to buy it. If these people wanted milk they would come outside with a bucket or bottle to fill it up. Since the farmer had to milk from the side , cause they thought it was safer. They kept the cow clean and well taken care of , the people watched the farmer milk it. The farmers thought if the customers saw a ugly, dragging looking cow they would not buy the milk, cause the customer thought the milk would taste bad. Though in the city this was mostly impossible for the farmer. There was a middle man who would go around the city with a cart to sell milk to people. what the farmer and the customer did not know is that these peopl e were greedy. They sold the milk to the customer for a higher price for a profit. Middle men would also put half of the milk with half water. Though people actually knew where they got their milk from, th... ...teurizing milk, people invent a box. That would allow you to keep it out in the opening and you did not have to be refrigerated. Up until the world war 2 milk was pasteurized, and it was good milk people loved and enjoyed. All lot of farmers believed that this wasn't right to do and it was unfair. So like some farmers kenneth Peak of Claracok Dairy in California would refuse to have their milk pasteurized. Though others new that if they didn't put a stop to raw milk it would harm people and their kids. Straus decided since some people could not afford pasteurized milk he would set up stations. The end of the century came pretty quick and by then he had 12 stations set up N.Y. to pasteurize milk. At the time people used to let water flow by tanks of milk just to keep it cold. Around 1985 people tested pasteurizing but it failed and 5,770 people paid for it.

Bad Coffee :: essays research papers

It was a cold and damp morning, the moisture stuck to skin like flies to fly paper. The loud â€Å"thud thud thud† of the helicopters had awaken me from my trance, after two and half hours of sleep. I had risen just in time for a fresh cup of coffee when all of the sudden a chopper touched down just outside the barracks kicking up all the debris and dirt it could find. The night before had been a hellish one, the mortar blasts and screams of my fellow soldiers had kept me awake nearly all night. And how, my coffee had been ruined by the damn helicopter. I was in the worst place on Earth, Saigon, in 1968. Definitely the wrong place at the wrong time. My orders were simple, so I thought. Meet up with a group of Green Berets just outside of enemy lines, and go north to a small village controlled by American troops, we would get more information soon after we had arrived. That was it, just like king of the hill when I was kid. I met up with my partners in a joint called the Lucky Money, a real run down place, the air filled with stale smoke and the scent of plastic palm trees. Let’s just say the Lucky Money had seen better days. Hell just four months ago Bob Hope had occupied that vacant stage. The atmosphere was filled with tension. At the drop of a pin the whole environment could erupt into total chaos, half the time shoot outs would start in the street just from punks tossing rocks around. The guys I met up with were worn down, not one of them had a good night’s rest in at least a month, you could see it in their eyes. All they wanted was a ride home, and they were going to do anything and everything in their power to get home. The leader of the group, Colonel Jake Denton, had been here two damn years. He didn’t have much to say except he missed his kids. The other three were all from Texas, but none of them knew each other until the army put them together. The mousy looking kid was from Dallas, and he always had a cigarette hanging from his lip, a sure sign of the stress that was building inside him, his name was Jon Weinhard.

Little Children Movie Review Essay

â€Å"You couldn’t change the past. But the future could be a different story. And it had to start somewhere. † This final statement sums up the message of the Little Children, a film opus of Todd Fiend, that talks not merely about a love affair of two married persons, but the story of struggle and redemption of common folk living in an upper-middle class suburban Boston. This notwithstanding, the film also shows a stereotypical, albeit real depiction of the contradictions in such a neighborhood – the soccer moms, the disempowered husbands, better called ‘house-bands’, and the bored housewives in terrible need of an ego boost. The film review shall mainly quote dialogue from the film, in order to showcase fully the power of this story about suburban Northeastern America. Sarah Pierce is a successful academic and campus figure, but has since lost all glory upon her marriage to Richard, and subsequent birth to Lucy, a self-assured little girl who refuses to do everything Sarah requests. She currently suffers from an absolute absence of love in her relationship with Brad, shattered further with her catching Richard in a fit of masturbation, while wearing her panties around his head. Moreover, she eternally despises the pretentious moms she sees in Lucy’s playground all the time. The lines with sarcasm are clearly suggestive of her clear disdain for the mothers, to wit – Mary Ann: He should just be castrated. Just snip, quick and easy. Sarah Pierce: [sarcastically] You know what else you should do? Nail his penis above the entrance to the elementary school. That’d really teach him a lesson. This initial situation of Sarah inextricably creates the objective conditions for the future love affair with Brad, because one cannot reasonably expect, despite promises made at the consummation of marriage that she can eternally be faithful in the wake of the loveless situation that she is in. Her disempowerment as an intellectual by becoming a fulltime housewife living in a sea of pretentious women around her also gives further ammunition, albeit personal isolation from her community-at-large, for the blossoming of a new yet forbidden relationship with Brad. The other player in this love affair is Brad Adamson, a ‘house-band’ whose career is at a standstill – he failed the bar exams twice, and his wife is a successful documentary filmmaker, named Kathy. In such as situation, he feels absolutely helpless, in view of the fact that it is his wife that serves as the breadwinner of the family, and his main task for every given day would be to accompany their child Aaron during his playtime. Without an actual career to speak of, and a similarly successful past as Sarah, it is without a doubt a situation which would create the necessary conditions for his decision to enter into an affair with Sarah – them hopeless beings supposedly full of potential, now finally united. The proverbial meet-cute of film may be the scandalous yet affirming prank they pulled against the pretentious mothers in the playground, when Sarah and Brad hugged each other, to the absolute disdain of the mothers. The prank unleashed their long-kept longings of spontaneity and passion, long gone in the running of their marriages and only to be found again in each other’s embrace. Sarah, as the formerly empowered intellectual, possesses almost the same ridicule at Richard as what she has against the pretentious mothers, to wit – Brad Adamson: You have a nice place here. Sarah Pierce: You think? Yeah, Richard does pretty well for himself. Brad Adamson: Oh, yeah? What’s he do? Sarah Pierce: He lies. They shall soon engage in passionate love-making during a fierce rainstorm, but only after Brad realizes that their feelings for each other are mutual, as shown by a picture kept by Sarah in her study. Nonetheless, the couple in the affair approach their forbidden relationship, with great fervor, but a bit unsure, with even a tinge of guilt and remorse, particularly on the part of Brad, to wit – Brad Adamson: Do you feel bad about this? Sarah Pierce: No, I don’t. Brad Adamson: I do. I feel really bad. The other characters in the movie are as interesting as the two main love-struck protagonists. Ronnie McGorvey is an indecent exposure offender, having served prison time and has since moved back into the neighborhood with his mother. Ronnie seems to have been unreformed in his perverted ways, when he masturbates yet again during a date set by his mother, ruining the date, and destroying all hopes of him ever finding love. His return, nonetheless, is met with great protest by Larry, Brad’s teammate in touch football, and a disgraced police officer. His protests turn violent at times, not content with the mere handing out of flyers and posters about Ronnie, but also vandalizing his house, and almost assaulting Ronnie and his mother. Their seemingly grown-men, good vs. evil conflict reaches a terrible turn when a drunken Larry goes to Ronnie’s house with a megaphone, waking the entire neighborhood and shaming fully Ronnie and his mother. As his mother tries to stop Larry from further his drunken actions, he pushes her to the ground, triggering a heart attack which would soon take her life. Nonetheless, before entering death’s door, she writes a note to Ronnie with a chest-pounding plea – â€Å"Please be good boy. † This triggers Ronnie to go on a fit of rage for losing his mother, ending in castrating himself, in pursuit of his mother’s request at death. Larry would soon realize how grave his mistake was and looks for Ronnie, and bring him to the hospital for medical attention. The stories of Ronnie and Larry ironically show the awkward sense of justice and reason disgraced persons in the community pursue to redeem themselves to their loved ones and to the community. Ronnie, in the most dramatic expression of remorse and love to his dead mother, has cut of his testicles – the physical object of his sexual perversion, in order to unrealistically undo the hurt feelings of his mother created by his former acts. But despite the spectacle of it all, the drama attended by it, there is no point in doing such. The mother is dead, and the date has been left crying. On the other hand, Larry, the disgraced police officer, puts the law into his own hands by maligning Ronnie’s person and by engaging into overt acts of harassment and violence in pursuit of this. The objective is clear, that despite his failure as an officer of the law, he himself continues to be an upright man, rejecting sexual depredation and moral turpitude in the person of Ronnie. He does his brand of redemption to a serious fault, notwithstanding through aimless grandstanding, by lumping together Ronnie’s person to that of his mother, by vandalizing her property and pushing her to the ground in pursuit of his shame campaign. By doing such, he fails in the end, because the object of vigilante-ism is not the person whose life was lost, but some innocent person whose continued life could have influenced Ronnie towards full redemption from his sins, without need of castration, nor the spectacle of it. Meanwhile, the affair between Brad and Sarah becomes all the more serious, to the point that Kathy herself now witnesses the truth of the affair through the tacit sexual tensions between the two during a dinner. They have even agreed to run away together, as when two young star-crossed lovers would leave their unyielding parents in pursuit of their hasty, yet seemingly ‘true’ love. In pursuit of this, Sarah even declares the situation to Mary Ann, to wit – Mary Ann: Oh that’s nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist? Sarah Pierce: No, no, no. It’s not the cheating. It’s the hunger – the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness. The two were prepared to leave their loveless homes, their young children and their real spouses to perfect the ‘love’ long lost, and which now they have found through one another. This feeling of seemingly ‘great love’ is expected, but appears clearly as one that is fleeting, one that is artificial, one that was created by the sordid personal experiences of their lives, where the affair’s function was a mere outlet of a love that is merely not sought, but never absent, in their own homes. Such is how their love is that in the film’s climax, at the supposed point of no return by meeting on the night they agreed upon to run away for love, the family and the past they have left pull them back, not through force, but by circumstances that put everything back into its proper perspective. Sarah’s Lucy gets lost, and a panicked mother searches for her relentlessly in the playground where she left her, only to soon find her along under a street light. It is on this moment, that the bubble of ‘love’ in the affair is completely pierced, that the idea of the absence of love is merely in her mind, nothing more, and Lucy is the personification of that love, that has never been absent, but as stated above, a love merely unsought. Brad himself experiences a similar piercing of the ‘love bubble’, in the exact moment towards their scheduled departure for love. Brad, the confident but now disempowered lawyer-to-be, has failed to leave his goodbye letter to Kathy when he met a serious accident while trying some skateboard tricks. No clue has been given as to why he failed to leave the note to Kathy, but what can be surmised is that he probably felt the same as Sarah had, the inability, at the final instance, to create the actual physical wedge between his past and his supposed future with Sarah. This unstated inability to leave is further buttressed by Kathy’s rush to the hospital to meet Brad at the emergency room doors, showing that despite acting as the breadwinner of the family, she is not without love for her husband, and that, as in Sarah’s case, Brad’s idea of a loveless home is again, a love merely unsought, waning and almost at the point of death, yes, but present with the ability to be roused to life again. In all these, the film shows who the real Little Children are in this story of suburban America – it is the adults who allow their feelings to get in the way of principled contemplation of relationships and love.

Free Essays on Boy Gets Girl

Boy Gets Girl is a very interesting play for not only about what could go wrong on a blind date, but also because it shows how people can perceive others. The story all when Linda a friend of Theresa’s decided to set her up on a blind date with a guy whom she hardly knew. Theresa does not seem much like a person who wants to date a lot in the story but decides to try it and see how it goes. Tony the blind date seemed very polite in the beginning polite and really interested in getting to know Theresa. However, there was a certain edge to Tony that Theresa did not seem to notice on the first date. After the first date with Tony, Theresa received flowers from him at her office the next day. She also ended up having a second date with Tony. The second date did not seem to go so well. She didn’t feel like there was any connection with Tony and therefore she decided to tell him so that he could move on and date other people. Tony seemed to be fine with it but you could tell that he was a little let down by it. After the dates were off Tony decided to keep calling Theresa no matter how much she told him she did not want him to. He also popped up in her office unexpected. After a while, Tony continued to harass Theresa. Theresa started to blame her friend Linda who hooked the two of them up. Howard, Theresa’s boss did not think anything of the subject when he became aware of it. He just said that Tony was a â€Å"smuck† and went about his way. After a while Theresa started received threatening phone calls at home as well as work. She did not know how Tony had gotten her number because she had not given it to him. In the letters he was writing to Theresa, he was stating thing about raping her and killing her in different ways. Theresa then decided to get the police involved and file for a protection order to keep him from harassing her. She decided to stay at the home of Mercer who was a coworker. The reason was because s... Free Essays on Boy Gets Girl Free Essays on Boy Gets Girl Boy Gets Girl is a very interesting play for not only about what could go wrong on a blind date, but also because it shows how people can perceive others. The story all when Linda a friend of Theresa’s decided to set her up on a blind date with a guy whom she hardly knew. Theresa does not seem much like a person who wants to date a lot in the story but decides to try it and see how it goes. Tony the blind date seemed very polite in the beginning polite and really interested in getting to know Theresa. However, there was a certain edge to Tony that Theresa did not seem to notice on the first date. After the first date with Tony, Theresa received flowers from him at her office the next day. She also ended up having a second date with Tony. The second date did not seem to go so well. She didn’t feel like there was any connection with Tony and therefore she decided to tell him so that he could move on and date other people. Tony seemed to be fine with it but you could tell that he was a little let down by it. After the dates were off Tony decided to keep calling Theresa no matter how much she told him she did not want him to. He also popped up in her office unexpected. After a while, Tony continued to harass Theresa. Theresa started to blame her friend Linda who hooked the two of them up. Howard, Theresa’s boss did not think anything of the subject when he became aware of it. He just said that Tony was a â€Å"smuck† and went about his way. After a while Theresa started received threatening phone calls at home as well as work. She did not know how Tony had gotten her number because she had not given it to him. In the letters he was writing to Theresa, he was stating thing about raping her and killing her in different ways. Theresa then decided to get the police involved and file for a protection order to keep him from harassing her. She decided to stay at the home of Mercer who was a coworker. The reason was because s...

Jerusalem Israel essays

Jerusalem Israel essays Jerusalem is located in the heart of Israel and is divided into three sections: the Old City, New City (West Jerusalem), and East Jerusalem. In the center is the Old City which is split up into four main sections: Muslim Quarter, Jewish Quarter, Christian Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter. Also, the Old City is the site of many religious and historical Within Jewish Quarters, the main attraction is the Western (Wailing) Wall Wall"). It's dubbed the "Wailing Wall" because many Jews come to pray there, and their prayers sound like wailing. The Wall is the small remaining part of King Solomon's Temple. After the Jews were banished from Temple Mount, the Western Wall became the most sacred place of Judaism. There are two major sects of Jews in this part of the city. There is the Sephardic group, who come from Spain, Africa, and the Mediterranean, and there is the Ashkenazic group, who come from Northern Europe. Another section of the Old City is the Christian Quarter. The center of this part of the city is The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is believed that the Via Dolorosa, a street, was the site of the original Stations of the Cross. Furthermore, it is maintained that Jesus was originally buried at this site. The Church was rebuilt by Crusaders in 1099 CE, but it was originally built in the fourth century. The St. James Cathedral is the center of attention in the Armenian part. Many families who escaped the Armenian Holocaust in 1915 settled in the Old City. Many of the residents of this part of the Armenian Quarter practice the Greek Orthodox religion. The last section of the city is the Muslim Section. Atop the Temple Mount are the gold-domed Dome of the Rock (661 BCE) and the silver-domed al-Aqsa mosques. The Rock referred to in Dome of the Rock is Mt.Zion. This is where Abram went to sacrifice Isaac and Muhammed ascended to heaven. ...

Write a Description of the Duties and Responsibilities of Your Own Work Role Essays

Write a Description of the Duties and Responsibilities of Your Own Work Role Essays Write a Description of the Duties and Responsibilities of Your Own Work Role Essay Write a Description of the Duties and Responsibilities of Your Own Work Role Essay 1. Write a description of the duties and responsibilities of your own work role (Approx. 300 – 500 words) I consider my role at the school like being a character in a play. An actor has to do and say the things that their audience would expect them to do and say. Being a professional early years worker means doing and saying what is expected from all those involved. However, as Kath Bulman stated in her book â€Å"BTEC First Early Years†, professionalism involves the ability to balance different people’s expectations. As an early year’s worker I must make sure that the environment is safe for children to be in. As stated by Penny Tassoni (2002), I must make sure that children’s environments are safe by carrying out checks and by being generally observant. All children have a basic right to build a positive future and this includes emotional, physical and mental health. Good emotional well-being and mental health will enable the child to build positive relationships, cope with the ups and downs of life, realize their own potential and have the opportunity to develop emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Building a good relationship with children, parents, adults and colleagues is very important, as it helps in creating a welcoming and pleasant environment in the setting. It helps to develop trust among parents and carers. Furthermore a child’s welfare is paramount, thus working in partnership with parents and communicating with them, will help in the overall development of the children. According to Bruce and Meggitt (2006) respect and effective communication are two of the main responsibilities of a child carer. Effective communication provides a means in establishing contact, influencing others and a way to build relationships. It is my duty as a carer to ensure that the children are provided with enough time and a proper space where effective communication can take place. I should identify each individual’s preferences and needs, and strive to provide the appropriate support that aids the child to reach his/her full potential. As a professional working with children I should make sure that children experience interactions that make them feel valued, respected and capable. This can be reached by taking into account the different backgrounds, requirements and communication skills of individuals. Thus, develop ongoing consultation between all those involved and review regularly. Arnold J. (2005) came up with such a plan that identifies training and development needs, setting objectives, when tasks will be reviewed and how it will be known when objectives have been reached. Another vital duty is to respect the privacy of children and their parents and carers, while ensuring that they access high quality care and play opportunities in the setting. I should aim to ensure that all parents and carers can share their information in the confidence that it will only be used to enhance the welfare of their children. I am expected to tend to my duties with immense responsibility since I am â€Å"intimately involved with the child – giving the child a sense of belonging, of being loved and important. †(Kath Bulman, 2004). When children grow up in a caring setting, they grow to like who they are, to be confident and have self-esteem. References: Penny Tassoni (2002), CERTIFICATE CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION, Oxford, Heinmann Educational Publishers. Kath Bulman (2004), BTEC FIRST EARLY YEARS, Oxford, Heinmann Educational Publishers. Arnold, J. (2005) WORK PSYCHOLOGY, 4th edition. Essex: Pearson. Bruce, T and Meggitt, C, (2006) CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION 4th edition. London : Hodder Arnold. 2. Prepare an explanation of the expectations about your own work role as expressed in relevant standards. (Approx. 250 – 350 words) AS a child carer I am expected to keep in mind that childhood is a very important phase in life, not just because children represent the future, but also to â€Å"allow children to live in the present and to realize their full potential†. The National Standards stresses the importance of having â€Å"suitable persons†. When parents opt to trust carers with their children, the former must provide the best alternate care possible, ensuring their safety and well being. As a carer I should satisfy the recruitment criteria, being; age, experience, qualification and references. Any child care facility should provide appropriate carer to child ratios that enables children to receive individual attention from their key worker. The latter should provide them with opportunities for self-expression, to play individually and to interact with others. I am expected to ensure that the children are welcomed in an adequate space that ensures safety, hygiene and security. The service should be physically accessible, including toilets that are accessible to everyone using the centre. Any equipment used should be in compliance with good standards of safety and hygiene. Strict standards of hygiene should be practiced and encouraged to prevent and control the spread of infections. Moreover, I am expected to promote the benefits of a healthy diet and encourage parents to reinforce them. The facility should be managed by a qualified person who sets clear objectives, to both parents and staff, which should be reinforced by having a written manual containing all the policies and procedures of the centre. Furthermore, I am expected to provide diverse opportunities that cater for the children’s diverse needs, in order to promote their intellectual curiosity and development. I should design various activities; to promote inclusion and participation, respecting race, culture or religion of any child. I am expected to encourage children to take responsibility for their own behaviour and to show care and consideration towards others. I should consult the parents on a regular basis regarding the progress and development of the children. Finally, I am expected to be trained to recognize signs of suspected abuse and report these findings to my manager, who is then obliged to report to the authorities. Such issues should be dealt with extreme confidentiality. References: Ministry for the Family and Social Solidairity (July 2006). National Standards for Child Day Care facilities.

Critique the Financial Analysis and Research Paper

Critique the Financial Analysis and - Research Paper Example and 122 in Canada. The company employs over 361,000 associates in the United States (Yahoo, 2013). In the U.S. there are about 5,000 department stores with combined revenue of about $120 billion annually (Target, 2012). In the U.S. the discount department store industry is highly concentrated with the eight largest companies accounting for almost 100% of revenues. Wal-Mart and Target are leading the pack. In this industry the main factors driving demand are consumer spending related to economic outlook and population growth. In order to remain profitable in this highly competitive industry driven by ever lower margins companies depend on efficient supply chain management, high volumes, effective merchandising and competitive pricing in order to maintain profitability. Target is following an industry trend of adding and converting major markets stores into supercenters which combine traditional general merchandise with a fully stocked grocery store to help drive store traffic, since c ustomers spend more on groceries more than any other product category (Hoover’s First Research, 2013). 2) There are significant business challenges in this industry which dictate the success of its major players. The industry is characterized by its dependence on high volumes and extremely low operating margins. In order to keep prices low the industry has a heavy dependence on imports in most of their key merchandise categories. In general terms gross margin percentages for discount department stores can be 10-20% lower than traditional department stores. Although there is also growing recent and resistance from communities that perceives giant discounters as a major threat to their local economy and small business community. In terms of economic growth for the industry it is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 1% from 2013-2017 (Hoover’s First Research). We will analyze Target Corp. for its fiscal year ended 2/2/2013 and compare it with the industry averages in terms of overall financial performance, financial ratio analysis and investment potential. In order to gauge the company’s liquidity we will analyze the quick ratio as well as their debt to equity ratio and compare it with the industry. We will look at the inventory turnover ratio to gauge operational efficiency and inventory management compared with the industry. In order to measure management effectiveness, shareholders returns and profitability we will analyze the price/earnings ratio, return on equity, earnings per share and net profit margin versus industry averages (Yahoo). Target Industry Average Quick Ratio .54 .50 Debt to Equity Ratio 91.53 67.6 Inventory Turnover Ratio 6.4 4.4 P/E Ratio 17.24 15.8 Return on Equity 14.84% 11.3% Earnings per Share 3.74 5.2 Net Profit Margin 4.17% 2.7 4) As one of the most successful discount department stores, Target must be extremely efficient in their operations in order to remain profitable. Target has a slightly higher debt to eq uity ratio compared with industry average. The company is effectively managing its levels of financial leverage in order to increase shareholder benefits and maximize growth and stock performance. By analyzing the company's quick ratio it demonstrates that the company has maintained an above average level of liquidity to meet their short and long term liabilities as compared with

Tumour markers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tumour markers - Essay Example Therefore, it is important to understand that it is the quantity and not just the presence of these compounds that must be considered in assessing the clinical use of tumour markers. Tumour markers are usually proteins (structural proteins and enzymes), cell-surface carbohydrate antigens, cellular receptors, and genes, which are detected in tissue, urine, and blood samples. Markers can be specific for a certain type of cancer, while there are markers that are common for different cancer types. Some markers also show increased concentration in the tissues and body fluids even in the absence of cancers. Due to this, tumour markers by alone should not be used in to diagnose cancer. In an ideal situation, screening and early diagnosis of cancer are the major goals for using tumour markers. To be able to do this, a marker must be highly specific for a certain cancer. It must not come up with too many false positive results that could lead to unnecessary and expensive follow-up tests, not to mention the psychological effects that come with the possibility of having cancer. Markers levels should be elevated enough, and ideally can be used to screen asymptomatic individuals, meaning that they can be used to detect cancer early. However, because markers are present in low concentrations in the body, screening for asymptomatic individuals is only recommended for those who have a genetic predisposition towards getting cancer. Currently, only the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) has been recommended and approved for general screening of prostate cancer in men over 50. A positive screening result for PSA is still not an indication of cancer, and PSA screening should be d one in conjunction with a digital rectal examination of the prostate gland for diagnostic purposes. Markers are used to identify the local source of metastasized cancers, and could therefore aid in making a correct diagnosis. The recurrence of cancer can be checked by testing the levels of a

Systems and Operations Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Systems and Operations Management - Assignment Example After deciding to go into retirement, Lachlan Atokowa handed over the reins of the business to his eldest son Jonathan Atokowa, who, like his father, was very passionate about the business. Both of them shared the passion to try out the latest technology: Lachlan Atokowa decided to test Xerox 914, Jonathan Atokowa decided to added Commodore 64 and the IBM PC 5100 into the business’s product portfolio. Today, a business that started in a garage has escalated into complex network business processes. Too many parties are now associated with the business, bring along different set of variables into the business environment. Organizational Structure: The company has four different departments which are governing the operations of the business. These four departments are: Retail Operations, Purchasing and Supply chain, Marketing and Human Resource Management and last but not the least the Finance Departments. Each of these departments is headed by a company director who reports dire ctly to the chief executive officer. Under each director are his personnel which are responsible for the functioning of the department. The following table describes the titles which come under each function: Retail Operations Purchasing and Supply chain Marketing and Human Resource Management Finance Director Director Director Director Area Manager Category Manager HRM Manager Company Accountant - Import Manager Training Manager Management Accountant - Warehouse Manager Marketing campaign coordinator Financial Planning Manager - General Manager In-store promotion coordinator. Purchasing and Payment Manager All the company directors are very enthusiastic about the growth of the company. They work along with their individual teams very diligently to resolve problems that are arising in their departments. However, the organisation’s directors have been unable to develop a boding force between the departments. The biggest evidence of this fact is that each department is having i ts own management systems, which are not linked with other systems. It this age of globalisation, the importance which is placed on information sharing by experts is immense. According to the experts, this single aspect of doing business is so important that it can decide the fate of today’s firms. In a fast paced globalised world, information sharing with key stake holders is vital for organisational success and survival (Krajewski, Ritzman, & Malhorta, 2007). And in this case the organisational departments are failing to share vital operational information with one another. This, obviously, is leading to duplication of effort, greater cost, declining productivity, redundancy and frustration in the organisation (Schemenner, 1984). Employees have to do cumbersome paperwork every day, accurate forecasting has become impossible, inventory holding cost is being incurred, wrong inventory is being maintained and above all, customers are feeling dejected. Rather than adopting an or ganisational model which allows the company to become nimble and flexible, so that it can compete effectively in the market place, the company has taken a structure which has made it inflexible and less than competitive (Loader, 2006). Absence of an integrated organisation wide enterprise management system is creating havoc for the company. The company is not doing accurate forecasting of demand, it has failed to satisfy customers’ needs and most importantly, it is not operating efficiently and effectively.

Toxic Asset (Business Law) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Toxic Asset (Business Law) - Essay Example Toxic assets are also known as dead assets because they have been utilized in the past and they are of no more value at present. â€Å"Toxic assets had a value at some point in time† (Smith, 2010). Toxic assets do not have any present value whereas many people, who have such assets, believe that their toxic assets are still of the same value as they had in the past. However, the reality of the value of those toxic assets is quite different. Toxic assets often result in minimizing the liquidity of the organizations that possess such assets. It is because of the fact that toxic assets have no clear value and if the financial organizations such as banks acquire a large number of toxic assets assuming them to be of great value, minimal liquidity occurs because the value of the assets does not increase in reality, rather it just increases in the bankbooks. The banks find it very difficult to sell the assets in order to get the blocked money back in hands. Toxic assets are neither good for financial organizations nor for the economy of a country. They are worthless for the banking institutions as it becomes difficult for the banks to sell them to some other person at a reasonable price. Even if the financial sector of a country attempts to cope with toxic assets, the result is most likely to be the radical freefall of the country’s economy. Toxic asset is a form of Mortgage-Backed securities. Mortgage-Backed securities include loans that are given by a bank to a person to help the person build his own house. Banking institutions provide loan to the people, which is taken back from them along with interest on monthly basis. The repayment of loans to the banks is not an easy process for the people as the repayment is composed of high interest and the principal amount. When the people are not left with enough money to repay the loans to the banks due to increased sub-prime mortgage interest rates, the cycle stops and

Case analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Analysis - Case Study Example , they have not managed to make significant inroads into the rapidly expanding Indian economy which despite being Asian and sharing a common border with them practiced a different culture. In recognition of this scenario, Haier launched in India in 2004 and appointed Banerjee T. K., an Indian National as its president for the country’s operations. They adopted the three-in-one strategy that had been successfully adopted in other global markets like America and Europe. The first step of the strategy involved exportation with no fixed distributor. The second step introduced a centralized distributor. The third step saw the company set up a manufacturing plant in the country. Their market analysis determined that for Haier to break into the top three home appliances brands in India the company had to adopt a localization strategy and an aggressive marketing campaign. They adopted this measures but despite their efforts the company only managed a 7.7 percent turnover increase within India in the 5 years of Banerjee’s presidency. With respect to the situation and the fact that the Indian investment was not paying off Erick Braganza was appointed as president in 2009. The company’s human resource underwent an overhaul, operations streamlined and a new marketing strategy adopted. In response to this measures the company experienced a period of growth and increase in turnover, though the sustainability of this growth was questioned. Determining the sustainability of Haier’s growth in India necessitates a market and situational analysis. A situational analysis of Haier’s position in India shows that they; had a bad reputation as low quality electronics imitators whose only advantage was low product prices; cultural differences, most of India’s population residing in rural areas meant that there was a cultural clash between the Chinese owned company and rural Indian market; high Indian government imposed tariffs on foreign owned business establishments that

Toxic Asset (Business Law) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Toxic Asset (Business Law) - Essay Example Toxic assets are also known as dead assets because they have been utilized in the past and they are of no more value at present. â€Å"Toxic assets had a value at some point in time† (Smith, 2010). Toxic assets do not have any present value whereas many people, who have such assets, believe that their toxic assets are still of the same value as they had in the past. However, the reality of the value of those toxic assets is quite different. Toxic assets often result in minimizing the liquidity of the organizations that possess such assets. It is because of the fact that toxic assets have no clear value and if the financial organizations such as banks acquire a large number of toxic assets assuming them to be of great value, minimal liquidity occurs because the value of the assets does not increase in reality, rather it just increases in the bankbooks. The banks find it very difficult to sell the assets in order to get the blocked money back in hands. Toxic assets are neither good for financial organizations nor for the economy of a country. They are worthless for the banking institutions as it becomes difficult for the banks to sell them to some other person at a reasonable price. Even if the financial sector of a country attempts to cope with toxic assets, the result is most likely to be the radical freefall of the country’s economy. Toxic asset is a form of Mortgage-Backed securities. Mortgage-Backed securities include loans that are given by a bank to a person to help the person build his own house. Banking institutions provide loan to the people, which is taken back from them along with interest on monthly basis. The repayment of loans to the banks is not an easy process for the people as the repayment is composed of high interest and the principal amount. When the people are not left with enough money to repay the loans to the banks due to increased sub-prime mortgage interest rates, the cycle stops and

A Physician Is Immune from Liability When a Patients Actions Assignment

A Physician Is Immune from Liability When a Patients Actions Contribute as Much to His Own Harm as the Physicians - Assignment Example In cases of medical liability, informed refusal often arises in instances when patients claim that they were not fully made aware of the fact that by not following the doctors’ suggestions for either a screening regimen, appointments or taking their medication as ordered. Instead, they claim that doctors and nurses were not either clear or assertive (Martin et al, 2005). These patients seemingly agree to follow the doctor’s recommendations and then do not. Thereafter, these patients allege that the physician did not provide them with a full picture of the potential harm that could come to them from not following the recommendations put to them by the doctor (Lerner, 2014). The role of the physician in patient care is to actively determine what the most appropriate treatment for a patient is based on their medical problem determined by the physician’s knowledge, medical judgment as well as experience (Furrow et al, 2013). Thereafter, his job is to present these recommendations to the patient for their consideration and ideally to gain consent that they will follow through on the treatment plan. As a general rule, the patient is the one who makes the ultimate decision with regard to their medical care and therefore has the final word on whether or not to carry on with the treatment recommended (Hoffman, 2011). If the patient elects to follow the recommendations put forward by the physician, then essentially the only thing that the physician can do is to provide helpful advice and to follow up on the missed appointments. Non-compliance is an issue that is well known and in many instances inevitable (Hoffman, 2011).  

Of Mice and Men Essay Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men Essay Essay â€Å"The language of friendship is not in words, but in meanings† – Henry David Thoreau While reading the novel, Of Mice and Men, the reader gets a front row view into the relationship of the two main characters, Lennie and George. In every friendship, there are dysfunctional moments, ups and downs, genuine moments and never ending adventures. By definition, a friend is someone to talk to, do things with, be there for each other in time of need and be each other’s crying shoulder. Throughout this novel, Lennie and George display a friendship unlike any other. It is so dysfunctional and rare it makes the reader wonder why these two are friends. For example, the boss says â€Å"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy.† â€Å"I just like to know your interest.† In this quote found on page 25, the boss is trying to make sense of their friendship. Even though this quote highlights the rarity of George and Lennie’s bond, this causes the boss to suspect wrong- doing on George’s part. At the end of the novel, George ends up shooting Lennie. This perfectly displays the dysfunctional and rare qualities in their friendship. There are many ups and downs in Lennie and George’s friendship in addition to it being dysfunctional and rare. Lennie is mentally ill. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason behind his actions. For instance, without Lennie, George could â€Å"Go get a job an’ work an’ no trouble. No mess at all and at the end of the month I could take my fifty bucks into town and get whatever I want.† This shows Lennie and George’s Relationship being down. Even though Lennie is a huge burden, George ultimately chooses to not be without him. Even though it seems like George is being held down by Lennie, George stays with Lennie because they both want the migrant dream. â€Å"Someday – we’re gonna get the Jack together, have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and we’ll have a big vegetable patch.† Thus, these two cannot live without each other. Lennie and George have a genuine relationship too. George takes really good care of Lennie, almost like in a maternal way. George says, â€Å"Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much, you gonna be sick like you was last night.† This shows he cares about Lennie. In the beginning, Lennie assaults a lady by tearing the front side of her dress  off in their old town Weeds. George could’ve easily left Lennie to fend for himself but he realized that wasn’t the right thing to do. Lennie hears his dead aunt Clara telling him â€Å"When he got a piece of pie you always got half or more’n half.† â€Å"An’ if there was any ketchup, why he’d give it all to you.† As the novel progresses, Lennie’s past catches up with him and the authorities start looking for him. George knows that if it is caught, the officers would throw him in jail and he wouldn’t survive. So George shoots Lennie to basically put him out of his misery. Clearly, they have a genuine friendship. With every friendship, there are many adventures along the way. The novel starts off in a scenic woodsy area by a lake. Lennie and George run away together from their home town of Weed to run from the authorities and start a new life as migrant workers. When they’ve finally reached the barn, they meet new people and build relationships with them. The boss, Curley, Curley’s wife, Slim, Crooks, and Carlson. Lennie is always getting into trouble and George is always looking to get him out of it. Lennie kills a mouse, strangles Curley’s wife and also kills the dog. Although this book had many twist and turns, it was a heart- warming thriller that illustrated what life was like back in the 1930s. it surely wasn’t easy but having a dream meant a lot to the characters and made them strive to live their dream.

Contrasting Edmund Burke And Jean Jacque Rousseau Politics Essay

Contrasting Edmund Burke And Jean Jacque Rousseau Politics Essay Two of the most influential political philosophers of the 18th century were Edmund Burke and Jean-Jacque Rousseau. That is not to say that the two men shared the same philosophical views, however; in fact, it could be argued that they were on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, with Burke on the right and Rousseau to the left. A classic example that showed the differing opinions among the two was the French Revolution. Burke was not in favor of the revolution because he maintained that it would disrupt the traditions of France that hold the country together. Rousseau, on the other hand, was a hero of the revolution because he championed liberty and the idea that the people should be in control on how they should be governed. It is amazing to think that two philosophers, having very different perspectives on politics, can both be influential during the same time period. One of the core aspects of Jean-Jacque Rousseaus philosophy was what man was like in the state of nature. In the Second Discourse, Rousseau explained that people were equal and free going back tens of thousands of years because there was no real societal organization to speak of. Since life was centralized on hunting and gathering food, people were, for the most part, equal in terms of societal stature. People were relatively free because no one had to answer to a higher authority, with the family structure being the only exception. Since people were free and equal, they were innocent and individualistic in nature. There were no outside forces that had a corruptive effect on people and there was no reason for groups of people to band together to form a society. According to Rousseau, the development of reason and private property rights ruined equality and freedom because they lead to the few dominating the many. As populations started to grow, there was a greater need for more socie tal hierarchy due to the complex nature of communities, thus less freedom and more inequality. Even though society today believes that reason is a positive thing, Rousseau insisted that progress brought the worst out in people. Rousseau was not necessarily arguing in favor of going back to the time of early humans per se. He knew that society was a point of no return, so he had to be somewhat practical. What he was arguing was to return to the roots of equality and freedom as much as practically possible. The way to achieve that goal politically, Rousseau argued in the Social Contract for a political system that put most of the power in the hands of the people and not the elites. Rousseau was a contract theorist, which meant that he believed that government should only operate with the consent of the people that it is governing. What set him apart from the other contract theorists was that he coined the term general will. What Rousseau meant was that all men should sacrifice their own individual power in order to give way to what he called the general will. In other words, all men give up some of their freedom in order to what is best for the society as a whole. The thing that is not so clear is the mechanism in finding out what the general will is. For example, is it the compilation of the opinions of individuals or is it something that is even greater than public opinion, such as having to understand human nature? Being that there were conflicting issues that faced Rousseaus politic al philosophy, he kept on falling back on the idea of radical democracy. Since Rousseau was so distrustful of political institutions in general, he felt that people should always have a seat at the table when it came to determining policy. With that being said, it would seem that Rousseau was not in favor of having a republican form of government. Instead, as noted before, he was more in favor of a radical democracy. For this reason, he was a hero of the French Revolution. The revolutionaries read Rousseaus work and were inspired to take action against the monarchy, even though Rousseau was not even alive when the revolution started. Abiding by the slogan of Liberty, equality, and fraternity! during the duration of the revolution, the revolutionaries took the cue from Rousseaus political philosophy. The practicality question enters the conversation again, however, when talking about Rousseaus radical democracy. Is it even possible for a country to function properly with every citizen participating? At what point would moving towards a representative government be too far for Rousseau? It would be interesting to find out the answers of these questions from Rousseau himself because he was more of a practical thinker than some people give him credit for. Rousseaus political philosophy would seem to be paradoxical when you think about it, which is why the interpretation of his work is still being debating to this day. Edmund Burke is widely regarded as the founder of the modern conservative ideology. Although he did not believe in adhering to abstract principles when governing, his body of work clearly showed that he valued tradition and stability above all else. Similar to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, nature played a significant role for Burke when developing his political philosophy. Burke wrote that there are two natures. The first nature refers to: the idea that people love their families and that family provides a certain amount of stability and continuity, and that people are more comfortable with what is familiar to them. Burkes second nature refers to the acquired opinions that people accumulate throughout their lives, such as habits and customs. According to Burke, the second nature is what cements society because it provides the traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. As societies and times change, people should always hold on to the traditions that are passed down becau se they form the foundation of stability. Another plank in Burkes political philosophy is practicality. He did not believe that you can run a society based on abstract philosophy because it is not grounded in reality of the current situation. Rather, he was a pragmatist who looked at issues on their face value and tried to come up with solutions that fitted the time. That is not so say that he did not have any values, however. As noted before, he was a big believer in tradition and stability. Burke just argued that overarching philosophies cannot be applied the same in every circumstance because each circumstance has its own unique qualities. Burke is famous for his criticism of the French Revolution in Reflections on the Revolution in France. He was against the revolution because he believed that it would have destroyed Frances great traditions and that the theory and practicality behind the revolution were not sustainable. Burke did not agree with the revolutionists belief that government is created to protect the natural rights of individuals. Instead, he insisted that government was there as a stabilizing force so that people could live comfortably. Also, Burke believed that culture and tradition are more worthy in being protected than natural rights of individuals because they are much more long-lasting. Another problem that Burke had with the French Revolution was the idea that society can be formed from scratch. Burke asserted that societies cannot simply start over from scratch because he believed that leaders make prudent decisions based on the conditions that are in front of them. Installing a new political regime, in Burkes point of view, is not all that practical. With that being said, Burke was not a contract theorist because contract theory provides that a new society can be created by man. Rather, he saw society as an invisible link that connected generations to each other, carrying with it the established customs and institutions. These lasting institutions should be protected and respected due to the fact that they survived, thus showing their adaptability to changing times. It can certainly be argued that Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke had very different views when it came to their political philosophies. Rousseau was in favor of radical democracy and did not trust societal institutions, while Burke valued tradition and stability above everything else. However, there are commonalities that the two did share. One is that both of them believed that times change, so adhering to rigid ideologies was not the wisest thing to do. Rousseau admitted that early man practices were outdated, so he was not so stubborn to strictly stick to that belief system. He did believe that the themes of equality and freedom that was present during the days of early man were everlasting enough to still be applied to his present day. Burke also acknowledged that the world does not sit still. Even though he strongly believed that tradition and stability had to be protected, he knew that life moves on. The reason why he argued for the respect for traditions and institutions that have endured several generations is due to the fact that they showed their adaptability during changing times. Related to the two mens shared view of not sticking to a rigid ideology, Rousseau and Burke both had nuanced political philosophies; neither of their philosophies were black and white. Rousseaus philosophy was so nuanced that it could be considered contradicting, as noted before. In the Social Contract, he famously said, Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains. But later on in the same work he argued for the general will and that sometimes men must be forced to be free. One could make the case that he was a libertarian, while another could equally claim that he was a totalitarian. Burke was nuanced to a lesser extent than Rousseau, but nuanced nonetheless. He knew that holding on to the past can only go so far, which is why he asserted that while times does go on, it is still important to carry on the traditions and culture that were passed on by previous generations. An interesting thing to note about Burke is that he was in favor of the American Revolution. This goes to show that he was not against all revolutions, again showing his nuanced approach to politics. The reason why he supported the American Revolution is because the colonists were not creating a society from scratch. The colonists, descendants of England, were committed to English ideas and principles. The only difference was that they wanted to a free and independent nation. The French revolutionaries, on the other hand, were hell-bent on creating a whole new political paradigm. As far as my opinion is concerned, I think that both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke contributed significantly to the field of political philosophy. Even though they had different thoughts on how government should operate, both of them had valid points. I agree with Rousseau that people should have a say in the way that they should be governed because history has shown that democracies have been the most peaceful form of government and it seems to be the most fair system (at least so far). But I agree with Burke as far as remembering your societys history and culture because you would not be where you are in life if it wasnt for previous generations. I also concur with Burke that society should not change too quickly, as it might cause instability that might do more harm than good. It turns out that I am quite nuanced with my approach to political philosophy, just as Rousseau and Burke were.

Vanderbilt Admission :: essays research papers

â€Å"Matt, don’t you play in band?† There was a time in my life when I was afraid to admit it being in band. Maybe it was the lack of tackles and slap shots, or possibly I was embarrassed because the players were not as cool as football or hockey players. Then again, it might have been the strange combination of athletics, music, and academics that I carried through high school. What is it like playing varsity hockey, and playing flute and piccolo in the symphony band? I am used to this question by now. The answer is simple: it is like me. Both activities are enjoyable and come with different benefits. It was not helpful that my hockey teammates were less than supportive about my playing with the band. But, I do what I want for me and not for anyone else. This is a value that my mother instilled in me at a young age. I never really fit into any crowd in high school. So, I just hung out with everyone and came and went as I pleased. While it sounds easy, it can sometimes get a little interesting. Coming right from hockey to a band practice was always fun. Walking into the room 5 minutes with hair still dripping from the shower was common. Is it raining out there? Was the question my director would often ask me. Although there is one time I remember renouncing band and all of the things that I had done with the band. After a long talk with my mother I realized what was truly important to me: me. I am a musician, a student, and an athlete. If you lose one of the three it is no longer me. No matter how much I renounced the music, I could not deny the rush of playing my solo at concerts where everyone was concentrated on me.

competition :: essays research papers fc

Examine the concept of competition. Explain how it works in market economies. In what way is it a crucial part of the business environment? 1000 words In this essay I have analysed the different types of competition and market structures, and linked this to a current world example. I’ve discussed the neo-classical and dynamic approaches to competition and have studied Michael Porter’s Five Force model. Systemic and structural competitiveness has been mentioned, and market economies are examined including technical and allocative efficiency. I have assessed the relationship between competition and the business environment, and finally given personal views and come to an argued conclusion. Competition is the process by which two or more firms compete in the same market for a larger market share. This rivalry that exists is very beneficial to firms as is leads to increased efficiency and higher output at given cost levels. The amount of competition in a market is measured using concentration ratios (e.g. the five firm concentration ratio). There are two different types of competition which firms may undertake, price competition and non-price competition. In price competition, firms compete on the basis of price, for example by increasing the price of a good or service, the demand will either increase or decrease accordingly depending on its price elasticity of demand. In non-price competition firms compete in less risky forms of competition other than price, such as advertising and branding. Non-price competition exists in imperfect competition (usually oligopolies). Imperfect competition occurs in situations when there are a number of competing firms (with market power), but the market is without some or all features of perfect competition. The three types of imperfect competition are duopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition. Perfect competition on the other hand exists when a market has a large number of small firms, with no one firm influencing price (firms are price takers, not price makers). These firms all sell identical products, with perfect knowledge of the market, which has no barriers to entry. This represents one end of the competition spectrum (see Appendix 1). There are two main views to the concept of competition, the dynamic approach and the static approach (Neo-Classical approach). The first is based on the behaviour of firms and their constant interactions with market structure, which involves change and innovation. The second involves classifying market structure, and the type and amount of competition (mainly on number of firms within the market), to determine the firm’s behaviour.

Angels Demons Chapter 51-54

51 BBC reporter Gunther Glick stared at the cell phone in his hand for ten seconds before he finally hung up. Chinita Macri studied him from the back of the van. â€Å"What happened? Who was that?† Glick turned, feeling like a child who had just received a Christmas gift he feared was not really for him. â€Å"I just got a tip. Something's going on inside the Vatican.† â€Å"It's called conclave,† Chinita said. â€Å"Helluva tip.† â€Å"No, something else.† Something big. He wondered if the story the caller had just told him could possibly be true. Glick felt ashamed when he realized he was praying it was. â€Å"What if I told you four cardinals have been kidnapped and are going to be murdered at different churches tonight.† â€Å"I'd say you're being hazed by someone at the office with a sick sense of humor.† â€Å"What if I told you we were going to be given the exact location of the first murder?† â€Å"I'd want to know who the hell you just talked to.† â€Å"He didn't say.† â€Å"Perhaps because he's full of shit?† Glick had come to expect Macri's cynicism, but what she was forgetting was that liars and lunatics had been Glick's business for almost a decade at the British Tattler. This caller had been neither. This man had been coldly sane. Logical. I will call you just before eight, the man had said, and tell you where the first killing will occur. The images you record will make you famous. When Glick had demanded why the caller was giving him this information, the answer had been as icy as the man's Mideastern accent. The media is the right arm of anarchy. â€Å"He told me something else too,† Glick said. â€Å"What? That Elvis Presley was just elected Pope?† â€Å"Dial into the BBC database, will you?† Glick's adrenaline was pumping now. â€Å"I want to see what other stories we've run on these guys.† â€Å"What guys?† â€Å"Indulge me.† Macri sighed and pulled up the connection to the BBC database. â€Å"This'll take a minute.† Glick's mind was swimming. â€Å"The caller was very intent to know if I had a cameraman.† â€Å"Videographer.† â€Å"And if we could transmit live.† â€Å"One point five three seven megahertz. What is this about?† The database beeped. â€Å"Okay, we're in. Who is it you're looking for?† Glick gave her the keyword. Macri turned and stared. â€Å"I sure as hell hope you're kidding.† 52 The internal organization of Archival Vault 10 was not as intuitive as Langdon had hoped, and the Diagramma manuscript did not appear to be located with other similar Galilean publications. Without access to the computerized Biblion and a reference locator, Langdon and Vittoria were stuck. â€Å"You're sure Diagramma is in here?† Vittoria asked. â€Å"Positive. It's a confirmed listing in both the Uficcio della Propaganda delle Fede – â€Å" â€Å"Fine. As long as you're sure.† She headed left, while he went right. Langdon began his manual search. He needed every bit of self-restraint not to stop and read every treasure he passed. The collection was staggering. The Assayer†¦ The Starry Messenger†¦ The Sunspot Letters†¦ Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina†¦ Apologia pro Galileo†¦ On and on. It was Vittoria who finally struck gold near the back of the vault. Her throaty voice called out, â€Å"Diagramma della Verita!† Langdon dashed through the crimson haze to join her. â€Å"Where?† Vittoria pointed, and Langdon immediately realized why they had not found it earlier. The manuscript was in a folio bin, not on the shelves. Folio bins were a common means of storing unbound pages. The label on the front of the container left no doubt about the contents. Diagramma Della Verita Galileo Galilei, 1639 Langdon dropped to his knees, his heart pounding. â€Å"Diagramma.† He gave her a grin. â€Å"Nice work. Help me pull out this bin.† Vittoria knelt beside him, and they heaved. The metal tray on which the bin was sitting rolled toward them on castors, revealing the top of the container. â€Å"No lock?† Vittoria said, sounding surprised at the simple latch. â€Å"Never. Documents sometimes need to be evacuated quickly. Floods and fires.† â€Å"So open it.† Langdon didn't need any encouragement. With his academic life's dream right in front of him and the thinning air in the chamber, he was in no mood to dawdle. He unsnapped the latch and lifted the lid. Inside, flat on the floor of the bin, lay a black, duck-cloth pouch. The cloth's breathability was critical to the preservation of its contents. Reaching in with both hands and keeping the pouch horizontal, Langdon lifted it out of the bin. â€Å"I expected a treasure chest,† Vittoria said. â€Å"Looks more like a pillowcase.† â€Å"Follow me,† he said. Holding the bag before him like a sacred offering, Langdon walked to the center of the vault where he found the customary glass-topped archival exam table. Although the central location was intended to minimize in-vault travel of documents, researchers appreciated the privacy the surrounding stacks afforded. Career-making discoveries were uncovered in the top vaults of the world, and most academics did not like rivals peering through the glass as they worked. Langdon lay the pouch on the table and unbuttoned the opening. Vittoria stood by. Rummaging through a tray of archivist tools, Langdon found the felt-pad pincers archivists called finger cymbals – oversized tweezers with flattened disks on each arm. As his excitement mounted, Langdon feared at any moment he might awake back in Cambridge with a pile of test papers to grade. Inhaling deeply, he opened the bag. Fingers trembling in their cotton gloves, he reached in with his tongs. â€Å"Relax,† Vittoria said. â€Å"It's paper, not plutonium.† Langdon slid the tongs around the stack of documents inside and was careful to apply even pressure. Then, rather than pulling out the documents, he held them in place while he slid off the bag – an archivist's procedure for minimizing torque on the artifact. Not until the bag was removed and Langdon had turned on the exam darklight beneath the table did he begin breathing again. Vittoria looked like a specter now, lit from below by the lamp beneath the glass. â€Å"Small sheets,† she said, her voice reverent. Langdon nodded. The stack of folios before them looked like loose pages from a small paperback novel. Langdon could see that the top sheet was an ornate pen and ink cover sheet with the title, the date, and Galileo's name in his own hand. In that instant, Langdon forgot the cramped quarters, forgot his exhaustion, forgot the horrifying situation that had brought him here. He simply stared in wonder. Close encounters with history always left Langdon numbed with reverence†¦ like seeing the brushstrokes on the Mona Lisa. The muted, yellow papyrus left no doubt in Langdon's mind as to its age and authenticity, but excluding the inevitable fading, the document was in superb condition. Slight bleaching of the pigment. Minor sundering and cohesion of the papyrus. But all in all†¦ in damn fine condition. He studied the ornate hand etching of the cover, his vision blurring in the lack of humidity. Vittoria was silent. â€Å"Hand me a spatula, please.† Langdon motioned beside Vittoria to a tray filled with stainless-steel archival tools. She handed it to him. Langdon took the tool in his hand. It was a good one. He ran his fingers across the face to remove any static charge and then, ever so carefully, slid the blade beneath the cover. Then, lifting the spatula, he turned over the cover sheet. The first page was written in longhand, the tiny, stylized calligraphy almost impossible to read. Langdon immediately noticed that there were no diagrams or numbers on the page. It was an essay. â€Å"Heliocentricity,† Vittoria said, translating the heading on folio one. She scanned the text. â€Å"Looks like Galileo renouncing the geocentric model once and for all. Ancient Italian, though, so no promises on the translation.† â€Å"Forget it,† Langdon said. â€Å"We're looking for math. The pure language.† He used the spatula tool to flip the next page. Another essay. No math or diagrams. Langdon's hands began to sweat inside his gloves. â€Å"Movement of the Planets,† Vittoria said, translating the title. Langdon frowned. On any other day, he would have been fascinated to read it; incredibly NASA's current model of planetary orbits, observed through high-powered telescopes, was supposedly almost identical to Galileo's original predictions. â€Å"No math,† Vittoria said. â€Å"He's talking about retrograde motions and elliptical orbits or something.† Elliptical orbits. Langdon recalled that much of Galileo's legal trouble had begun when he described planetary motion as elliptical. The Vatican exalted the perfection of the circle and insisted heavenly motion must be only circular. Galileo's Illuminati, however, saw perfection in the ellipse as well, revering the mathematical duality of its twin foci. The Illuminati's ellipse was prominent even today in modern Masonic tracing boards and footing inlays. â€Å"Next,† Vittoria said. Langdon flipped. â€Å"Lunar phases and tidal motion,† she said. â€Å"No numbers. No diagrams.† Langdon flipped again. Nothing. He kept flipping through a dozen or so pages. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. â€Å"I thought this guy was a mathematician,† Vittoria said. â€Å"This is all text.† Langdon felt the air in his lungs beginning to thin. His hopes were thinning too. The pile was waning. â€Å"Nothing here,† Vittoria said. â€Å"No math. A few dates, a few standard figures, but nothing that looks like it could be a clue.† Langdon flipped over the last folio and sighed. It, too, was an essay. â€Å"Short book,† Vittoria said, frowning. Langdon nodded. â€Å"Merda, as we say in Rome.† Shit is right, Langdon thought. His reflection in the glass seemed mocking, like the image staring back at him this morning from his bay window. An aging ghost. â€Å"There's got to be something,† he said, the hoarse desperation in his voice surprising him. â€Å"The segno is here somewhere. I know it!† â€Å"Maybe you were wrong about DIII?† Langdon turned and stared at her. â€Å"Okay,† she agreed, â€Å"DIII makes perfect sense. But maybe the clue isn't mathematical?† â€Å"Lingua pura. What else would it be?† â€Å"Art?† â€Å"Except there are no diagrams or pictures in the book.† â€Å"All I know is that lingua pura refers to something other than Italian. Math just seems logical.† â€Å"I agree.† Langdon refused to accept defeat so quickly. â€Å"The numbers must be written longhand. The math must be in words rather than equations.† â€Å"It'll take some time to read all the pages.† â€Å"Time's something we don't have. We'll have to split the work.† Langdon flipped the stack back over to the beginning. â€Å"I know enough Italian to spot numbers.† Using his spatula, he cut the stack like a deck of cards and lay the first half-dozen pages in front of Vittoria. â€Å"It's in here somewhere. I'm sure.† Vittoria reached down and flipped her first page by hand. â€Å"Spatula!† Langdon said, grabbing her an extra tool from the tray. â€Å"Use the spatula.† â€Å"I'm wearing gloves,† she grumbled. â€Å"How much damage could I cause?† â€Å"Just use it.† Vittoria picked up the spatula. â€Å"You feeling what I'm feeling?† â€Å"Tense?† â€Å"No. Short of breath.† Langdon was definitely starting to feel it too. The air was thinning faster than he had imagined. He knew they had to hurry. Archival conundrums were nothing new for him, but usually he had more than a few minutes to work them out. Without another word, Langdon bowed his head and began translating the first page in his stack. Show yourself, damn it! Show yourself! 53 Somewhere beneath Rome the dark figure prowled down a stone ramp into the underground tunnel. The ancient passageway was lit only by torches, making the air hot and thick. Up ahead the frightened voices of grown men called out in vain, echoing in the cramped spaces. As he rounded the corner he saw them, exactly as he had left them – four old men, terrified, sealed behind rusted iron bars in a stone cubicle. â€Å"Qui etes-vous?† one of the men demanded in French. â€Å"What do you want with us?† â€Å"Hilfe!† another said in German. â€Å"Let us go!† â€Å"Are you aware who we are?† one asked in English, his accent Spanish. â€Å"Silence,† the raspy voice commanded. There was a finality about the word. The fourth prisoner, an Italian, quiet and thoughtful, looked into the inky void of his captor's eyes and swore he saw hell itself. God help us, he thought. The killer checked his watch and then returned his gaze to the prisoners. â€Å"Now then,† he said. â€Å"Who will be first?† 54 Inside Archive Vault 10 Robert Langdon recited Italian numbers as he scanned the calligraphy before him. Mille†¦ centi†¦ uno, duo, tre†¦ cincuanta. I need a numerical reference! Anything, damnit! When he reached the end of his current folio, he lifted the spatula to flip the page. As he aligned the blade with the next page, he fumbled, having difficulty holding the tool steady. Minutes later, he looked down and realized he had abandoned his spatula and was turning pages by hand. Oops, he thought, feeling vaguely criminal. The lack of oxygen was affecting his inhibitions. Looks like I'll burn in archivist's hell. â€Å"About damn time,† Vittoria choked when she saw Langdon turning pages by hand. She dropped her spatula and followed suit. â€Å"Any luck?† Vittoria shook her head. â€Å"Nothing that looks purely mathematical. I'm skimming†¦ but none of this reads like a clue.† Langdon continued translating his folios with increasing difficulty. His Italian skills were rocky at best, and the tiny penmanship and archaic language was making it slow going. Vittoria reached the end of her stack before Langdon and looked disheartened as she flipped the pages back over. She hunkered down for another more intense inspection. When Langdon finished his final page, he cursed under his breath and looked over at Vittoria. She was scowling, squinting at something on one of her folios. â€Å"What is it?† he asked. Vittoria did not look up. â€Å"Did you have any footnotes on your pages?† â€Å"Not that I noticed. Why?† â€Å"This page has a footnote. It's obscured in a crease.† Langdon tried to see what she was looking at, but all he could make out was the page number in the upper right-hand corner of the sheet. Folio 5. It took a moment for the coincidence to register, and even when it did the connection seemed vague. Folio Five. Five, Pythagoras, pentagrams, Illuminati. Langdon wondered if the Illuminati would have chosen page five on which to hide their clue. Through the reddish fog surrounding them, Langdon sensed a tiny ray of hope. â€Å"Is the footnote mathematical?† Vittoria shook her head. â€Å"Text. One line. Very small printing. Almost illegible.† His hopes faded. â€Å"It's supposed to be math. Lingua pura.† â€Å"Yeah, I know.† She hesitated. â€Å"I think you'll want to hear this, though.† Langdon sensed excitement in her voice. â€Å"Go ahead.† Squinting at the folio, Vittoria read the line. â€Å"The path of light is laid, the sacred test.† The words were nothing like what Langdon had imagined. â€Å"I'm sorry?† Vittoria repeated the line. â€Å"The path of light is laid, the sacred test.† â€Å"Path of light?† Langdon felt his posture straightening. â€Å"That's what it says. Path of light.† As the words sank in, Langdon felt his delirium pierced by an instant of clarity. The path of light is laid, the sacred test. He had no idea how it helped them, but the line was as direct a reference to the Path of Illumination as he could imagine. Path of light. Sacred test. His head felt like an engine revving on bad fuel. â€Å"Are you sure of the translation?† Vittoria hesitated. â€Å"Actually†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She glanced over at him with a strange look. â€Å"It's not technically a translation. The line is written in English.† For an instant, Langdon thought the acoustics in the chamber had affected his hearing. â€Å"English?† Vittoria pushed the document over to him, and Langdon read the minuscule printing at the bottom of the page. â€Å"The path of light is laid, the sacred test. English? What is English doing in an Italian book?† Vittoria shrugged. She too was looking tipsy. â€Å"Maybe English is what they meant by the lingua pura? It's considered the international language of science. It's all we speak at CERN.† â€Å"But this was in the 1600s,† Langdon argued. â€Å"Nobody spoke English in Italy, not even – † He stopped short, realizing what he was about to say. â€Å"Not even†¦ the clergy.† Langdon's academic mind hummed in high gear. â€Å"In the 1600s,† he said, talking faster now, â€Å"English was one language the Vatican had not yet embraced. They dealt in Italian, Latin, German, even Spanish and French, but English was totally foreign inside the Vatican. They considered English a polluted, free-thinkers language for profane men like Chaucer and Shakespeare.† Langdon flashed suddenly on the Illuminati brands of Earth, Air, Fire, Water. The legend that the brands were in English now made a bizarre kind of sense. â€Å"So you're saying maybe Galileo considered English la lingua pura because it was the one language the Vatican did not control?† â€Å"Yes. Or maybe by putting the clue in English, Galileo was subtly restricting the readership away from the Vatican.† â€Å"But it's not even a clue,† Vittoria argued. â€Å"The path of light is laid, the sacred test? What the hell does that mean?† She's right, Langdon thought. The line didn't help in any way. But as he spoke the phrase again in his mind, a strange fact hit him. Now that's odd, he thought. What are the chances of that? â€Å"We need to get out of here,† Vittoria said, sounding hoarse. Langdon wasn't listening. The path of light is laid, the sacred test. â€Å"It's a damn line of iambic pentameter,† he said suddenly, counting the syllables again. â€Å"Five couplets of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.† Vittoria looked lost. â€Å"Iambic who?† For an instant Langdon was back at Phillips Exeter Academy sitting in a Saturday morning English class. Hell on earth. The school baseball star, Peter Greer, was having trouble remembering the number of couplets necessary for a line of Shakespearean iambic pentameter. Their professor, an animated schoolmaster named Bissell, leapt onto the table and bellowed, â€Å"Penta-meter, Greer! Think of home plate! A penta-gon! Five sides! Penta! Penta! Penta! Jeeeesh!† Five couplets, Langdon thought. Each couplet, by definition, having two syllables. He could not believe in his entire career he had never made the connection. Iambic pentameter was a symmetrical meter based on the sacred Illuminati numbers of 5 and 2! You're reaching! Langdon told himself, trying to push it from his mind. A meaningless coincidence! But the thought stuck. Five†¦ for Pythagoras and the pentagram. Two†¦ for the duality of all things. A moment later, another realization sent a numbing sensation down his legs. Iambic pentameter, on account of its simplicity, was often called â€Å"pure verse† or â€Å"pure meter.† La lingua pura? Could this have been the pure language the Illuminati had been referring to? The path of light is laid, the sacred test†¦ â€Å"Uh oh,† Vittoria said. Langdon wheeled to see her rotating the folio upside down. He felt a knot in his gut. Not again. â€Å"There's no way that line is an ambigram!† â€Å"No, it's not an ambigram†¦ but it's†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She kept turning the document, 90 degrees at every turn. â€Å"It's what?† Vittoria looked up. â€Å"It's not the only line.† â€Å"There's another?† â€Å"There's a different line on every margin. Top, bottom, left, and right. I think it's a poem.† â€Å"Four lines?† Langdon bristled with excitement. Galileo was a poet? â€Å"Let me see!† Vittoria did not relinquish the page. She kept turning the page in quarter turns. â€Å"I didn't see the lines before because they're on the edges.† She cocked her head over the last line. â€Å"Huh. You know what? Galileo didn't even write this.† â€Å"What!† â€Å"The poem is signed John Milton.† â€Å"John Milton?† The influential English poet who wrote Paradise Lost was a contemporary of Galileo's and a savant who conspiracy buffs put at the top of their list of Illuminati suspects. Milton's alleged affiliation with Galileo's Illuminati was one legend Langdon suspected was true. Not only had Milton made a well-documented 1638 pilgrimage to Rome to â€Å"commune with enlightened men,† but he had held meetings with Galileo during the scientist's house arrest, meetings portrayed in many Renaissance paintings, including Annibale Gatti's famous Galileo and Milton, which hung even now in the IMSS Museum in Florence. â€Å"Milton knew Galileo, didn't he?† Vittoria said, finally pushing the folio over to Langdon. â€Å"Maybe he wrote the poem as a favor?† Langdon clenched his teeth as he took the sheathed document. Leaving it flat on the table, he read the line at the top. Then he rotated the page 90 degrees, reading the line in the right margin. Another twist, and he read the bottom. Another twist, the left. A final twist completed the circle. There were four lines in all. The first line Vittoria had found was actually the third line of the poem. Utterly agape, he read the four lines again, clockwise in sequence: top, right, bottom, left. When he was done, he exhaled. There was no doubt in his mind. â€Å"You found it, Ms. Vetra.† She smiled tightly. â€Å"Good, now can we get the hell out of here?† â€Å"I have to copy these lines down. I need to find a pencil and paper.† Vittoria shook her head. â€Å"Forget it, professor. No time to play scribe. Mickey's ticking.† She took the page from him and headed for the door. Langdon stood up. â€Å"You can't take that outside! It's a – â€Å" But Vittoria was already gone.