Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Illegal Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in the...

Illegal Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in the Olympics Since the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece, athletes have struggled to find a way to gain the competitive edge. Early rituals included consuming wine and brandy before an event, eating potent mushrooms, and even concocting magic potions thought to give the athlete improved performance ability (Phillips, 2000, p.53). A constant battle has been fought as the International Olympic Committee struggles to keep drug testing up-to-date and effective. We have come to associate drug use with a few famous names of fallen heroes, such as Ben Johnson and the most recent, C.J. Hunter, but few people realize just how widespread drug use is in Olympic sports and how small a†¦show more content†¦Swimmers and athletes of track and field are inherently more reliant on their physique than any ball-player (Economist, 1998, p.10). The athletes of track and field are competing as individuals, compared to an entire team. Their flaws and faults are more obvious and prevalent than if they we re part of a team and had other athletes around them to help them. Yes, track and field can be considered a team-oriented sport, since everyone is part of a team. But the competition itself is based upon the individual, and that is why many athletes feel the pressure to use any method possible to help them gain a competitive edge. But my thought is that no matter what the competition is, or whom you are competing against, there is no need to use chemicals to increase your athletic performance. I also feel as though many of the athletes in track and field use performance- enhancing drugs because they feel pressured into it. There is an ever-increasing amount of athletes in track and field who use performance-enhancing drugs, so many athletes feel compelled to taking them. They probably feel as though if they are working and training as hard as they can, and there are other athletes out there who are also working just as intensely, plus taking chemicals to give them added strength and endurance, then those athletes will have the competitive edge. It reminds me of Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Those who are the most fit, or in other words, those who are stronger,Show MoreRelatedPerformance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legal1039 Words   |  5 PagesIllegal performance enhancing drugs should remain illegal they truly shatter the idea that hard work pays off, performance enhancing drugs are for cheaters, and cheaters never prosper. Performance enhancing drugs are far too easily accepted and used. Performance enhancing drugs are more prevalent, needed, and dated than many know. Athletes do not feel ashamed or the need to hide their use of performance enhancing drugs. Performance enhancing drug use is a universal thing, and using them has beenRead MorePerformance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports1078 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿Performance-enhancing drugs in sports: A literature review A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a fall from grace, because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer what am I on? Im on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. Professional cycling is often cited as one ofRead MoreAnabolic Steroids : Use And Performance Enhancing Drugs1516 Words   |  7 PagesSteroids The use of performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids has been a debatable topic in the United States as early as the 1950’s. Former U. S. Representative Howard Berman expresses that â€Å"Steroids can seem necessary to compete at the highest level, and the quick rewards may seem to outweigh the long term consequences to users.† The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) states that countless athletes, both young and old, face life threatening illnesses due to the use of performance-enhancingRead MorePerformance Enhancing Drugs. . Performance-Enhancing Drugs1580 Words   |  7 PagesPerformance Enhancing Drugs Performance-enhancing drugs (PED s) have been an issue for many decades now for the medical and sports field. Olympic and professional athletes have been using them to gain an upper hand on the competition, but some may ask if it s really worth it? Studies show that performance-enhancing drugs have been proven to negatively affect the health of athletes who take them. Simply put, performance-enhancing drugs could either improve athletic performance or can be extremelyRead MoreTesting for Drugs In The Olympics Essay1507 Words   |  7 Pageswatched the Olympics and wondered how the athletes can be that strong and fast?   The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) certainly has.   Each year the athletes come up with new ways to enhance their performance, and make it harder for the Olympic drug testers to detect banned substances.   With performance enhancing drugs becoming harder to police, the burden of trying to keep the Olympics as clean as possible falls on the I.O.C.s sh oulders.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Drug use in the Olympics is not a newRead MorePerformance Enhancing Drugs791 Words   |  3 PagesPerformance enhancing drugs Using performance-enhancing drugs such as doping. Most of the athletes take PED’s so they can win a golden medal for their country. And they want fame. No any athlete shouldn’t take PED because no one knows the risks. The penalty for using performance enhancing drugs should be stricter because it can cause health risks, it’s cheating, an it’s legally, and world class athletes use it and still get away with it. The government should banned drugs so no any athlete shouldn’tRead MorePed in Sports1082 Words   |  5 PagesI Introduction Performance-Enhancing Drugs, various substances, chemical agents, or procedures designed to provide an advantage in athletic performance. Performance-enhancing drugs affect the body in different ways, such as enlarging muscles or increasing the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity. Despite these apparent benefits, the use of such drugs is considered both competitively unethical and medically dangerous. Most performance-enhancing drugs are outlawed by organizations that govern majorRead MorePerformance Enhancing Drugs Sports Today1476 Words   |  6 PagesResearch, period 3 December 15, 2013 Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Today Performance enhancing drugs, or steroids, have long been in the lifestyle of athletes. Many famous athletes like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong have all confessed to the use of steroids. Celebrities like actor Charlie Sheen and ex Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, have also admitted to using steroids in the past. Performance enhancing drugs are a dangerous form of medicineRead MoreThe Drawbacks Of Anabolic Steroids1384 Words   |  6 PagesThe Drawbacks of Anabolic Steroids and Why They Should Stay Illegal Anabolic steroids have been used and taken by humans for over half a century. The effects they provide have developed large ongoing debates as to whether these substances should be allowed to the general public. Anabolic steroid in short provide the human body a much grander potential to build muscle by helping the cells within the body produce more muscle fibers at an astonishing rate that could never be achieved naturally. ManyRead MoreShould Athletes Be Suspended Because Of Illegal Acts?1137 Words   |  5 PagesShould athletes be suspended because of illegal acts? Suspension’s in sports are very controversial in the sports and news world. It’s almost like there is a athlete each month who was convicted for homicide, taking performance enhancing drugs, or DUI and DWI. And this continues to happen in the sports community. Leagues such as the NBA, NFL, MLB take this into vigorous consideration. But that doesn’t stop an athlete from injuring others and themselves. This is why suspensions need to occur more

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Baroque Period through the Romantic Age Free Essays

Art not only serve as a tool for visual appreciation, but is oftentimes referred to as the mirror of the society. It’s because art effectively conveys or reflects what is happening in a certain society, at a certain period of time. With this, we see art not only as entertainment, but also as social critique. We will write a custom essay sample on Baroque Period through the Romantic Age or any similar topic only for you Order Now In viewing art, we go deeper than the colors, lines, and shapes that we see. We read between the lines, and look at art in relation to the time and society it was conceived. By doing so, we are able to build a deeper understanding of how and why a specific artwork is created. Indeed, social, political, and economic conditions are able to shape and alter the nature of meaning of art. In order to further understand how art’s nature and meaning are altered by the abovementioned factors, we can specifically look at a certain era in art and scrutinize some of its details. First, we can consider the neoclassical era. Neoclassicism was prevalent during the 18th and 19th century. It was based on Ancient Greek or Roman classics, with high standards on the artwork’s subject, design, and a lot more. We can see that this is the time of abundance, wherein artists follow high standards clearly. Some of the works reflect a time of oppression, of the need to follow the rules and conventions not only in the art but also in the society. This is the time when there were ruling kings and other tyrants, who dictate everyone to conform to the standards and repercussions that he want. No one is above the ruling authority, so the society indeed has to follow. This is reflected in the works of art at this time, one good example is David’s Oath of the Horatii (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/File:David-Oath_of_the_Horatii-1784. jpg). Instead of using bright, pastel colors, it uses sharp ones which exude sophistication and clarity in the works. The subject are well-made, life like figures of Roman soldiers and other men. Romanticism is another era in art that we could consider in order to see how it is affected by social, political, and economic factors. This began during the second half of the 18th century, wherein there is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement. It was also prevalent during the Industrial Revolution. Works of art at these times were considered to revolt against the social and political norms of the ruling aristocrats, as well as the rationalization of nature by science. The works of art in this era exudes strong emotions, giving the viewers a great aesthetic experience. It appeals on emotions like horror and awe, with the use of vibrant colors, unique themes, and creative styles. This era reflects a changing society, moving from the aristocratic rule towards freedom of expression. It does not conform to any rules of design; instead its strong appeal to the emotion is what sets it apart from other eras. A great example of this is Eugene Delacroix’ Liberty Leading the People which commemorate the toppling down of a prominent political figure during the French Revolution (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People). The liberation from the ruling aristocrat inspired the creation of this work, and it exudes great emotion in its subject, a half naked woman leading the people forward, walking past the bodies of the fallen during the war. Another example is Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808, wherein he depicts the oppression during the reign of Napoleon I, commemorating the Spanish resistance to the invading French ruler (http://eeweems. com/goya/3rd_of_may. html). How to cite Baroque Period through the Romantic Age, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Sustainability Leadership Programs in Education †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Sustainability Leadership Programs in Education. Answer: Introduction: Leadership is of different style it is all about leading people, organization, or leading your own self. One must lead his own self for betterment but lack of self-awareness cause the diminished self-leadership. The ability of being influential will harm by this diminishing effect, it clears that lacking of self-awareness will diminish persons ability to lead himself. Self-awareness to focus on your Strength We can easily discover our strength by paying full attention to work. In order to discover strength, peoples must analyze when they feel more energetic. Discovering your strength basically enhanced leadership qualities. We can easily sharp our strength by focusing on interpersonal and communication skills. Focusing on strengths able an individual to understand that how passion, spiritual gifts, skills and personality work together in shaping their personality (Kerns, 2017). Discovering weakness builds humility, this basically helps to understand which sort of projects a persons must avoid. A person can recognize his weakness by interacting with family, friends and co-workers. By sharing your experience with others and asking them what they should by putting themselves in those scenarios, this basically clarify the other perceives weaknesses. Identifying major weakness is influential for person to demonstrate best abilities (Larsson, 2016). Self-awareness to focus on your Dark-Side Self-leadership enables person to deal with his dark sides that effect abilities of leadership management. This step of dealing with dark side requires a multi-pronged approach. This approach helps to: Understand dark side of yourself that effect leadership abilities Examine growth regularly by setting up accountability with partners Try to share about your dark side with family and friends. The worst part of self-awareness is to understand about your dark side. There is a need to work on your darker side. This can be possible by picking up an effective strategy in order to shine in dark places of leadership (Neck, 2016). Self-awareness to focus on your Emotional Triggers The level of anxiety in an individual is the reflection that reflects anxiety in other as well. It is important to focus on situations that trigger anxiety. Some situation may incudes: A well-developed action plan cannot be followed during meetings One might be working with person who demonstrate less competent than person There is no fun related thing seen around the corner of long day But knowing about your emotional triggers management can enables person to develop such strategies to keep calm in panic situations. Try to be a less anxious person even in the stressful situations (Shribeg, 2016). Hence the self-awareness growth is critical to ones own growth of leadership. These demonstrate an essential change in others as well. Dont stagnate yours influential side because of lack of self-knowledge. References Kerns (2017). Leader Personality at Work: A Key Individual Difference Domain.International Leadership management Journal,9(1). Larsson, (2016). Self-leadership in managerial work: the case of middle managers. Neck (2016).Self-leadership: The definitive guide to personal excellence. SAGE Publications. Shriberg, M. (2016). Sustainability leadership programs in higher education: alumni outcomes and impacts.Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences,6(2), 360-370.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Life of Pi Analysis Essay free essay sample

It is not until the very end that the reader finally notices how the parts interrelate and tie the whole book together. Once the reader is aware of the book’s delicate balance the true meaning of the work is revealed: is there such thing as truth? Does our unique way of viewing the world affect what we believe to be the truth? Part One is the story of Pi’s up-bringing, and a way to suspend the reader’s disbelief. It tells of Pi’s knowledge of animals (he’s grown-up on a zoo), it reveals Pi’s love of religion and God (he actively practices three), and it gives a glimpse into Pi’s life after the shipwreck (he is alive and well, living in Canada). Part One is also the section that introduces a narrator into the story, whose purpose is to have Pi’s story told. It also adds documentary realism into this fictional story, making the reader further believe the stories told by Pi. We will write a custom essay sample on Life of Pi Analysis Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By interspersing the narration and Pi’s first person accounts, the story becomes one of fiction and non-fiction, because it is Pi’s story, but as told through the narrator. This relates to the true meaning because we realize that Pi’s story was told as how the narrator interprets it and believes it to be true; especially when Pi tells him, â€Å"Now it is your story to tell. † Part Two is the first-person account of Pi’s survival after the shipwreck, which takes up the majority of the book. During his description of his survival he explains his intimate relationship with the animals, especially Richard Parker, and uses creditable details to establish the account as true. He tells of how he achieved basic life functions, like sleeping, eating, drinking, to show that his survival was reality. But, throughout Pi’s accounts, there are still some seemingly impossible events, such as meeting the stranded Frenchman at sea, or discovering the carnivorous island. Part Two also highlights the importance of blind faith. Pi describes how whenever he felt as though he could not go on, he turned to God and faith to bring him solace. Part Three wraps everything up. It is the section in which Pi is rescued and interviewed, and in which the reader revealed to both the â€Å"better story† point, and the true meaning of the work. When Pi reveals the second story, this time with humans in place of the animals, the reader finally realizes the traumatic events he went through. This trauma, forces Pi to believe in the first story, with the animals. One can even argue that Pi wants to believe in God, faith, and the goodness of mankind so badly that he has tricked himself into thinking the first story is true. Because the truth is never full revealed, the reader is left to choose which is the â€Å"better story. † The placement of Part Two is crucial to this point. Since the story with the animals came first, and is much less traumatic, it makes you not want to believe the second story. Whatever story the reader picks to be true is a reflection upon how they view the world, relating to the true meaning of the work. At the end, one is forced to ponder whether Pi’s story is just an allegory of another set of events. Finally, the circular structure of the story seems to highlight the religious motifs in this book. At the very beginning of Life of Pi, Pi tells the narrator â€Å"I have a story that will make you believe in God†, and at the very end, after the Japanese interviewers pick the story with the animals, Pi says to them, â€Å"And so it goes with God. † The book goes full circle. It starts with God and ends with him; seeming to be without beginning and without end, much like religion and faith.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Contrasting Moods of Two Paintings essays

Contrasting Moods of Two Paintings essays When analyzing Julian Alden Weirs Portrait of Alexander Webb Weir and Thomas Wilmer Dewings Green and Gold, one notices the color and the texture of the brushwork and the compositions of the figures define the contrasting moods of these two pieces. The position and expressions of the figures and the use of color and painting styles are the main differences between the two works of art. The poses of the figures in each painting portray the paintings mood. Even at first glance, the two paintings reveal their contrasting moods. Weirs large, stiff figure appears to be more aggressive compared to the small, relaxed figure in Dewings painting. The figure in Green and Gold stands relaxed, with her hand on her hip and not making any eye contact with the viewer. These characteristics of Green and Gold force the painting to be calm and peaceful. While the Portrait of Alexander is intimidating; he sits stiff with his hands crossed on his lap, staring straight at the viewer. Although the figure in Portrait of Alexander is constrained, the brushwork in the background is chaotic to the point where the objects are hard to make out. This background contrasts greatly with Green and Gold. Dewings background is blank; the colors of the background actually start to blend with the colors towards the bottom of the womans gown. The painting styles of Weir and Dewing contrast greatly to give each painting a unique mood. The subtle colors of Green and Gold are used to show the movement of the womans gown rather than using the brushwork to show movement. The colors are blended together throughout Dewings painting to make a smooth texture. Weirs brushwork is careless to the point that its distracting from the objects in the painting. Weirs painting style appears to be much more forceful than Dewings. The painting styles and the composition of the figures in th...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Bottled Water

When the children have lunch at school or buy a drink, the kids choose bottled water to make the right choice. Imagine a case where you can not access bottled water because all children are forbidden. Children go to sugar and unhealthy drinks. This makes the children obese and the health care of the children will go up. Then the US obesity rate will rise and our economy will be destroyed. So do not ban the bottled water, it plays an important role for us. Water is one of the most useful resources in history. You have two different types of mineral water: mineral water for city water supply and mineral water from natural hot spring. Bottled drinking water from municipal water sources will be supplied by local municipal supplies of the city. It is cleaned and bottled by the manufacturer. Because this type of mineral water is often surface water, it certainly contains several contaminants. In other words, urban water may come from open canals, reservoirs, snow melting water, or any wate r coming from the ground. The basic elements of our own brand mineral water are of course water, there are many differences in the quality of mineral water. Ultra pure water produced by the distillation / filtration / ozone combination process does not contain minerals, pollutants, bacteria, so many people think that it is of the highest quality. A tag is an element indicating a message, and the message must be transmitted in the strongest and clear way. Labels should be developed by graphic designers or technologies so that consumers can develop high quality images themselves. Printing is particularly important, and the printing process should ensure that the label has the same quality as any top brand of your grocery store or luxury grocery store.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Managing, Evaluating and Developing Human Resources Essay

Managing, Evaluating and Developing Human Resources - Essay Example It has ensured that employees, no matter their level of experience, gain the necessary skills and get better opportunities for training. For improved employee performance, all employees should be computer literate and proper courses should be designed to enable them encounter technology as it evolves. Training and development is a strategy aimed at developing and improving the skills of an employee. According to Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, â€Å"employee training is the process of teaching operations and technical employees how to do their present jobs more effectively and efficiently† (2011, p. 264). Companies which want to stand still in competition opt to provide constant training to their employees on any technical occurrence. Employee training has been eased with the introduction of internet based training, because it saves cost and time. Williams says that â€Å"during the late 1990s, the learning support organisation at Telcordia technologies... began to actively pursue online delivery of performance support materials for the software applications that they supported† (2004, p. 8). This shows that technological training has been a long time training strategy, but has been growing steadily and also evolving with the changes in technology. When analysing what to offer in training, employers have to consider what is needed for the training. What appears to be most essential in training is motivation. Training also varies depending on what the management considers most crucial. Some employees have to be trained on technological skills, but since training may be expensive, its advisable that the company classify what is most essential. Training is important for employees so that they can be equipped with skills, attitude and knowledge required to do their job well. They are taught on how to interact with the customers and managers use this opportunity to motivate them. Technology came due to

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Explanation of Roper et al's Activity of Living Essay

Explanation of Roper et al's Activity of Living - Essay Example Other underpinning theories including dignity, consent, and privacy shall also be discussed in this paper as they relate to better and effective nursing care. Although not all of Roper’s activities of daily living apply to this case, they shall nevertheless be included for discussion purposes. This paper is being carried out in order to establish a clearer picture and understanding of Roper’s activities of daily living and the impact of disease, disability, and infirmities on such activities. Body The patient is a 55-year old Afro-Caribbean male who was admitted to the hospital after suffering a fall secondary to excessive alcohol intake. He also has Type 2 diabetes as his other co-morbid condition based on his previous medical history. He lives alone after his wife divorced him two and a half years ago. He is also unemployed because he lost his driving license three years ago and has since sought solace in alcohol which he initially thought he could control. Roper†™s Activities of daily living 1. Maintaining a safe environment Maintaining a safe environment is crucial for this patient. Patients who have experienced falls are likely to fall again because of any injuries they may have suffered and any immobility which their fall might have caused (Lord, et.al., 2007). Maintaining a safe environment includes safety precautions which can be made on the home and in the patient’s hospital room. Guard rails on the bed have to be put up, especially in instances where the patient’s mental awareness is low (Miller, 2008). Since the patient is suffering from excessive alcohol intake, the guard rails need to be put up in order to prevent any repeat falls. Maintaining a safe environment also requires the nurses taking on leadership roles in order to maintain and monitor standards which can secure the cleanliness and effective infection control measures (Smith, n.d). The care administered to the patient therefore includes various remedies i ncluding infection control as well as monitoring of patient progress. Maintaining a safe environment for the patient also includes the process of ensuring that the nurses have the sufficient skills and training to care for the patient and administer to his needs (Smith, n.d). Such safe environment also includes working in partnership with health professionals in order to deliver adequate patient care (Smith, n.d). Ensuring a safe environment also includes the process of effective communication with the patient, gaining their consent before interventions are carried out (Department of Health, 2010). Maintaining a safe environment for the patient also involves patient education, teaching the patient about the dangers of alcoholism and any further injuries he may suffer due to his intoxication. It is also important to educate the patient about his disease and the risks he is taking with his alcohol intake (Gonzalez, et.al., 2005). Any injuries he may suffer would also likely take a lon g period of time to heal because of his diabetes. Maintaining his privacy at all times is also part of the safe environment created for the patient, ensuring that he can trust the nurse and his dignity can be respected at all times (Department of Health, 2010). 2. Communication Since the patient is still in the throes of his alcoholic stupor, there is a communication barrier between the nurse and the patient. When he was sober, there were no apparent communication bar

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Wannsee Conference Essay Example for Free

The Wannsee Conference Essay How valid is this assessment of the Holocaust? The true origins of the Holocaust have been under academic debate and intense scrutiny among historians for a considerable amount of time. Dividing them into two major perspectives; Functionalists and Intentionalist.[1] The pair bring into view a key question and queries the shroud surrounding the Shoah. It questions what point in time the mass genocide of 6.6 million Jews was decided upon. Many would put forward the Holocaust was already assigned a position in the time-line using Hitlers own â€Å"Mein Kampf† as justification. Others would suggest the Holocaust was result of numerous political economic and social factors, that brought about the rise of both The Nazi Party and Thrid Reich. There is substantial evidence to support both sides of the debate. Functionalist historians such as Browning and Mommsen agree that the power struggle between Hitlers subordinates and war played a much greater role in deciding the demise of the Jewish people compared with Hitler himself while Intentionalists like Fleming and Dawidowicz say Hitler was following a gradualist policy. Taking these perspectives into account while researching my own sources it seems implausible the Wannsee Conference headed by Reinhard Heydrich on 20th January 1942, conceived the Holocaust and it was most definitely not fully responsible for the Shoah, however it did play its part, comprised of fifteen highly educated leading Nazi officials, civil servants and SS members, brought together under a grand villa in Berlin on shores of Lake Wannsee to discuss a programme of mass murder. Anti-Semitism was by no means birthed from Nazi imagination, although it was the Nazi party who took advantage of this hidden resentment and unleashed it with mass exaggeration. Undoubtedly without the Nazi party it would not have manifested itself in such the way it did. Rhodes perspective is from the very early stages of the Nazi party they had clear enemy. Hitler had convinced himself that Bolshevism was birthed from Jewish ideology and like a disease, would slowly infect its way around the globe until every country was a Bolshevic state and his National Socialist state was the last line of defence against Bolshevism. Having also convinced himself that the Jews who were a very easy target, were responsible for Germanys humiliating defeat of the First World War and blamed them for accepting the crippling terms of the Treaty of Versailles.[2] Historian Yehuda Bauer adds â€Å"No genocide to date had been completely on myths, on hallucinations, on abstract, non-pragmatic ideology†[3] Once he had internalised these â€Å"myths† and â€Å"hallucinations† he then required the German people to join in his beliefs; which wouldnt require much prompting. [4] The phase â€Å"two opposing political systems† which Yehuda Bauer also refers to as â€Å"parallel quests† means that National Socialism and Bolshevism or the Nazi Party and the Jews were on a collision course which could only endure one outcome, essentially one destroying the other in terms of how the Nazis perceived it to be. Seeing as the Jews were seen as an inferior race to the Aryans (Nazis) through the ideologies of eugenics and Charles Darwins â€Å"Survival of the fittest† theory, the Nazis believed they had the right to destroy the Jews. The term â€Å"quest† and â€Å"conspiracy† invokes the feelings that eventually they would reach the end and they would be willing to travel a great length to reach that end, and the Jews conspiracy would be the main obstacle upon the quest, therefore in the Nazis eyes eradication of that obstacle would bring glory upon the German Nation. It was this ideological racial war[5] so to speak between the two political systems that was the most powerful driving factor of the Holocaust and the Nazi war machine. Hitler then had to pass his ideological war onto the people, of course he knew the outcome, but would have to encourage step by step resentment and programme by rational means in order to reach this outcome. By using the intentionalist theme, this allows us to see the invasion of the Soviet Union as a way of disguising the horrors of the Einsatzgruppen and justify the killings of Jews as acts of war. The invasion of the Soviet Union was the first step in Hitlers racial war against non-Aryans and the first step towards the elimination of Bolshevism. This source is neither for or against the functionalist or intentionalist approach, however if we continue with the idea that the Holocaust and mass genocide of all inferior races, Jews in particular had already been decided upon long before the meeting at the Wannsee conference, Wannsee being in January 1942 and this taking place in September 1941[6] shows that the method of killing compared to that of 1942/1943 was extremely different, what remains completely the same between the two dates is the logistical removal of unwanted races of people through murder proves that it was well entrenched in Operation Barbarossas blueprints. As Himmler ordered his men to act harshly against â€Å"a racially and humanly inferior population† To have such an unwavering tenacious view toward a race of people and view them as ideologically under them just highlights how much the Nazi ideology of race and purity was bombarded into the people of Germany, and also means that genocide had been amo ngst the Nazi Partys designs for a long time. With these answers comes another question, what was the purpose of the Wannsee Conference. To view the source from a functionalists perspective, one could argue that with the newly acquired territory of Soviet Union due to occupation, the Nazi Party now found themselves under the control of another 2.5 million Jews who all had to be accounted for, and that would mean the next problem the Nazis came under was what to do with such a high amount of people. The quickest and simplest answer was to liquidate them at the source, so while conquering the land; they disposed of its inhabitants in order to make way for the German population in later years. Even with the intentionalist and functionalist view, the invasion of the USSR of one of the major key steps in Hitlers racial war of extermination. Using this source we can see how far the Nazi partys anti-Semitism had come since it began in the 1920s. The ideology had come straight from the pages of Mein Kampf to being practised in the streets of Germany and in the theatres of war. It is approximated the Einsatzgruppen killed 1,500,000 people through Operation Barbarossa. It is this mass murder why many historians such as Richard Rhodes6 believe that the Wannsee Conference of January 1942 does not mark the starting point for the Holocaust, this evidence of the previous source linked with Richard Rhodes link of â€Å"Operation Barbarossa† with genocide directly opposes the statement that the Wannsee conference was entirely responsible for the Holocaust. There is something else that throws mystery over the Holocaust in itself, in terms of Hitlers leadership was that he hardly gave specific orders; to the contrary he would issue an overall outcome or goal to reach and then his subordinates concluded the best approach in order to reach this target. Sometimes appointing two or more people to complete the same or similar task in order to reach different methods of completing this chosen vision and normally picking the most radical of the two to go ahead with. This caused much confusion within the Nazi party and inner conflict between the main leadership of the Nazi party which often meant they were constantly in a power struggle with different departments, each despised the other, mostly competing for Hitlers attention and acknowledgement, each time becoming more ruthless and radical with their approach to meeting his agenda in order to obtain respect and acknowledgement by their Furher. Even though the killing of those known as undesirables had been well under way long before the Wannsee protocol. The conference could still arguably be noticed as the start of the Holocaust as it made the killing of innocents an official policy. Even though the Einsatzgruppen had taken a ruthless approach to the invasion of the Soviet Union it could still be added to brutalities of war, exempt from the Nazi partys official policy. Perhaps Wannsee can be seen as responsible for the beginning of the Holocaust. This source goes against the intentionalist ideology and suggests the Wannsee Conference was intended for a different purpose altogether, the Wannsee conference at the time was going through a rapid transition in terms of the Nazi Partys ever changing ideas and beliefs toward the shifting perspectives of the final solution to the Jewish question, at a time when the intention of the party of was to take on an enormous deportation programme leading to total extermination in work camps in occupied Soviet territory after the end of the war. The source suggests that the â€Å"change in situation† was that the Nazis were coming to the shocking realisation throughout the time period the Wannsee conference was postponed to consider the harsh realities that the Jews would be disposed of during the war, and in the territory of the General government. The speech on the 12th of December to declare war against the Jews This need for a â€Å"full-scale extermination programme† could be the need to adjust from the original design of having all non-Aryans annihilated through attrition and natural causes within the camps, to organising a complex or simplistic method of killing other than bullets[7] and to discuss how they were going to kill those within the general government without deportation to the occupied Soviet Union. I dont think the decision to murder the Jews was made at the Wannsee Conference, however I do believe that the Wannsee Conference was used as a way of trying to make a decision as to what to with those deemed as Jews and Slavs within occupied territory, opposed to the original plan of working them to death through starvation and disease, it was a way of speeding up the already draw-up designs and agreeing about what was happening. Viewed in such a way, the Wannsee Conference possibly making the official start to the Holocaust that the Jews endured, many contemporary historia ns consider it to be not the exact point in time where the decision to murder the Jews was made, which would place it in agreement with my point made previously. However, regardless of this, the event is certainly of some overall significance. This sources however brings fourth another important question about the extent to which the Nazis supported were supported in their murderous actions. Also at what point can we accurately say that a policy for mass-annihilation was drafted up and started – a valuable point to highlight is that the seeds for such an operation were possibly already were affirmed within the minds of the German people long before the Nazi party ever took power over Germany. The hatred was already there, the Nazis just acted upon this hatred in their rise to power and well after they had affirmed this power with the enabling act.[8] Tracing back to the original question at hand, perhaps you could place the argument that genocide can be traced back indefinitely with the savage rise of anti-Semitism throughout the 1930s gripping Germany in a tightened vice and gradually got more radically over the years. Anti-Semitism within Germany built up in stages; however it is doubtful that the stages were planned from the entrance of National Socialism. Although there is some sort of pragmatic footpath which leads up to the Holocaust. If we begin the starting point as anti-Semitic activities and attitudes then a number of clear events come into light, with each one more ruthless and radical than the first. It is as if the Nazi Party is testing the limits the German people are willing to go, each time making the next more adventurous than the first. The first to start was the boycott of Jewish businesss which is than strongly followed by the Nuremburg Laws,[9] these laws deprived the Jewish people, many of which were born in Germany of their citizenship and forbid marriages between Jews and Germans in an attempt to purify than Aryan blood. The third step through this line of events can be viewed as Kristallnacht,[10] next to this is the invasion of the Soviet Union and the horrific work of the Einstazgruppen which led to the Wannsee Conference taking place, this then cemented the attitudes and actions that had arisen through the previous steps, finally all culminating in the arrival of the Holocaust. Kristallnacht itself was the act of a coincidence, but it leads as an example as to how far Anti-Semitism within Germany and Austria had progressed in terms of hatred of a certain race and allows an insight into how the acts of one were accountable for all in terms of the Jews. This source is particularly interesting as we get to see just how far the German people had been indoctrinated into the Nazi propaganda, although there were some who were against Kristallnacht, they were many who took it as an act of war, and saw it as their right to rid their country of the Jewish conspiracy. What is most disturbing about this extract is that it shows the murderous attitudes of people of persuasion and how far the German people were willing to go after being under the Nazi propaganda machine of Dr. Joseph Goebells. Kristallnacht was the result of the German people holding all the Jews accountable for the acts of one and was a key stage in the 1938 pogroms which would then culminate in the Holocaust. It was the actions of well-educated people, mostly the middle class which truly enforced Kristallnacht, taking it to a whole new level, the Nazi party had the fire service on hand just in-case the synagogue fires spread to the neighbouring buildings. Hitler was apart of Kristallnacht, it was mostly Joseph Goebbels who enraged the resentment towards to the Jews to produce this outcome, however the main ideology behind Kristallnacht was to remove Jews from their homes in order to re-home German citizens within the city. This source is definitely a structuralist as Kristallnacht was pure coincidence that Grynszpan saw the need to take revenge, however the intentionalist approach could argue that this event would have happened eventually regardless of his actions, as anything else could have been used to enrage the German people into action after the amount of Nazi propaganda they had been indoctrinated into over the years. Although there were many other incidents of anti-Semitism, these events can be viewed as a straight line toward the Holocaust, even though it is easy to see them as progressive steps towards the Shoah it can be argued from a functionalist perspective. Arranging these particular events in order of least radical to the most suggests that there was a clear and defined plan from the very beginning, however many were just by chance they happened as they took advantage of the opportunity at hand, something which the Nazi party were extremely good at. Kristallnacht is a key example of this and shows how the extremist and chaotic nature of the Nazi party could lead to mass destruction. Something which most definitely undermines the importance of the Wannsee Conference is that the extermination camps had been constructed long before the meeting ever took place. By the end of 1940 the Nazi war machine had 11 concentration camps[11], two years before the Wannsee Conference ever took place, one of those being the most significant of them all; Auschwitz in 1940. and Chelmo had already been using stationary gas vans since the December 1941. If the decision to build death camps had already been made and construction and indeed the process of murdering prisoners within those camps had actually begun, this significantly undermines the significance that the Wannsee Conference had on the Holocaust. However, by the beginning of 1942 in different camps fixed gas chambers were built, or already existing buildings were restructured for this purpose,[12] in light of this it could be used as evidence that the Wannsee Conference had authorised this during its meeting. Although, Hitlers undisputed absence from the meeting is also an important argument to add to its insignificance, but as we know Hitler allowed his subordinates to find the paths, so it would not seem to significant that he did not attend this meeting, however it is an argument that puts forth the idea that this meeting was just a platform for which Reinhard Heydrich to convey his many positions of power.[13] This theory can be supported by the minutes of the meeting to which Heydrich opens the proceedings by not only stating in detail but repeating how he has been granted the position of authority by Goering to oversee and co-ordinate the â€Å"Final Solution†. There is no doubt that all who attended the meeting knew that the mass-destruction of the Jewish people in Europe had been common practise, the meeting was not to discuss whether to carry out murder, but rather how to carry out the murder. At the Eichmann[14] war crimes trial in Jerusalem, Eichmann testified that â€Å"during the conversation, the minced no words about it at all. They spoke about methods of killing, about liquidation, about extermination.† The meeting simply concreted ideas and bound those in authority together rather than formally deciding upon anything new, this does not however make it a widely significant event, but it does insure its important within the history of the National Socialist movement. Another factor which also undermines the importance of the Wannsee Conference in terms of birthing the Holocaust is that the Shoah itself could have been brought forward in time due to an increasingly difficult problem which only increased with every new territory brought under occupation of the Third Reich. This problem was the question of what to do with every new Jew, Slav, Gypsy and all other inferior races of people that the Nazi party captured, the Ghettos and extermination camps already housed hundreds of thousands of â€Å"undesirables†, making the establishments extremely over-crowded, especially the Ghettos in particular. Huge numbers of people were being moved in order to suit the needs of the Nazi party. This again, is an important factor in the history of the Holocaust as it shows the Nazi party may have been forced to kill inferior races in order to make way for the new influx of victims to the Nazi war machine. This source is interesting as it explores Hitlers intentions before coming into the role of Furher, here Hitler describes the Jews building â€Å"a state within a state† suggesting that the Jews do not follow a religion but are an invasion, what is also interesting from this source is that Hitler accuses the Jews of taking advantage of Aryan generosity, which adds to the intentionalist perspective that Hitler had a plan from the very beginning. In this case, it would be removing the Jews from Aryan society and then taking it further with the Holocaust after proving to the German people that his believes are the truth, so to speak. Again, using the Jews as a scapegoat, stating they have â€Å"spread all over the world† adding more to his Jewish conspiracy theory, I believe at this point Hitler is trying to convince himself that these theories are correct by adding specific points that align with what he is saying, including how they are all made up of â€Å"one race exc lusively† It is very important to recognise the importance of the Wannsee Conference, by the fact fifteen high Nazis were in attendance that their discussions on that day were certainly of some significance to the Holocaust. However, past events and horrors that had previously taken place in the time-line of the Third Reich such as, over-crowding of the Ghettos and camps, and the mass-murders of the Einstazgruppen, were far more important in shaping the Holocaust than any formal meetings discussing it. It was acts of murder like these that allowed the Nazis to push their â€Å"genocidal† boundaries even further, among other goals, it was the overall goal of the Nazis to systematically be responsible for the demise of the Jewish race, alongside European domination. As the time went by, years of radicalisation went with it. Wannsee was a sit down to review what had happened so far, and what direction to take next. Although my argument supports the intentionalist perspectives. It seems implausible that the Nazis anticipated all aspects of Jew killing. However there was a plan, the Nazis seized opportunity and manipulated their ideas. It was this ability of opportunism that allowed the Nazis to create the single most aggressive act of mass genocide in the history of man. The two opposing political systems were Bolshevism, which Hitler and his Nazi leadership believed to be a Jewish conspiracy, and National Socialism. Richard Rhodes, Masters of Death – The SS enisatzgruppen and the invention of the Holocaust. Pg14 Another example of â€Å"Abnormal† warfare in the east is General Max von Schenckendorffs â€Å"cause for combating the partisans†, held on Mogilov between 24 and 26 September 1941. It also shows the close operation between the army and the SS. Schenckendorff has charged the SS – Cavalry Brigade under Strandartenduhrer (colonel) Hermann Fegelein with mopping up the Pripyat marshes. This operation had begun on 29 July 1941, after Himmler had instructed his men to act harshly against â€Å" a racially and humanly inferior† population. All male Jews were to be shot, women to be driven into the marshes. Suffering 17 dead, 3 missing-in-action, and 36 wounded, Fegelein could proudly report to his leader that the brigade had shot 660 Soviet soldiers, 1,001 partisans and 14,178 Jews† Jurgen Foster, The Final Solution, Origins and Implementation, edited by David Cesarani Gerlach suggests that the purposes of the Wannsee Conference had changed sharply during the period of its lengthy postponement – or at any rate its inordinate length – was caused by the changed situation following Hitlers speech on 12 December, and the need to now prepare for a full-scale extermination programme which had not been the case when the initial invitations had gone out at the end of November 1941. Ian Kershaw, Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution. Pg.267 In an act of anguished revenge, he shot the Third Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris, Ernst vom Rath. The German diplomat died of his wounds on 9th November 1938. Grynszpans action was immediately denounced by the Nazi propaganda machine as a â€Å"declaration of war† and part of the world-wide Judaeo-Masonic conspiracy. It would unleash an unprecedented orgy of ferocious anti-Jewish violence and terror across Germany. Robert S. Withrich, Hitler and the Holocaust, How and why the Holocaust happened. Pg.68 The Jewish state has never been delimited by space. It has spread all over the world, without any frontiers whatsoever, and has always been constituted from the membership of one race exclusively. That is why the Jews have always formed a State within the State. One of the most ingenious tricks ever devised has been that of sailing the Jewish ship-of-state under the flag of religion and thus securing that tolerance which Aryans are always ready to grant to different religious faiths. ________________ [1] Intenionalists and Functionalists can be divided into sub-categories of moderate and extreme and historians within the same block can have differing perspectives. [2] The terms of Versailles stated, the Germans had to accept the blame for starting the war (The war guilt clause), they had to pay reparations of  £6.6 billion and the army was reduced to 100,000 men, the Rhineland was demilitarized, submarines, air force were forbidden and they were only allowed six battleships. Lost territory included Alsace-Lorraine to France and numerous colonies to Britain. [3] Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2002, Pg.48. [4] The hatred of the Jews birthed from using them as a scapegoat for the Treaty of Versailles and defeat of the world was greatly advanced by the propaganda of Dr. Joseph Goebells. [5] Nazi Ideology viewed all those of non-Ayran decent, especially Jews as inferior races, these being, Nigeros, Slavs, Gypsys and many others. The only race of people they seen pure were the British and believed they shared the same blood as the Germany people. [6] Richard Rhodes, Masters of Death – The SS einsatzgruppen and the invention of the Holocaust. Pg.98 â€Å"The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, codenamed â€Å"Operation Barbarossa† was indeed to be inextricably linked with the decision to implement a genocidal war against all the Jews of Europe.† [7] 15 August 1941 two months into â€Å"Operation Barbarossa† Himmler went to the Minsk Ghetto to observe the shootings of â€Å"undesirables† for the first time. During the shooting Himmler who had never seen dead people before stood right at the edge of the open grave to look in, and because of this he had brain matter splashed onto his coat and head and began to feel sick, heaving and wobbling. Himmler then took into account the effect shooting people would have on their soldiers and began to look for alternative methods. [8] The Enabling Act was a decree put forth by Hitler in his rise to power that allowed him to maintain his reign over the German people, the decree abolished the need for a democratic vote every four years and therefore allowed Hitler to maintain his political position until his demise in 1945. [9] The Nuremburg Laws of September 15th 1935: the laws outlawed relationships betweens Jews and Aryans in order to make the Aryan blood pure again. [10] On the 9th November 1938: Kristallnacht (Night of broken glass) was responsible for approximately 100 dead Jews, 20,000 German and Austrian Jews arrested; many of those were sent to concentration camps. 1,350 Jewish synagogues were burnt to the ground and Jewish shops throughout Germany and Austria had their windows smashed and their homes looted. [11] By January 1942, the Nazi party had 11 concentration camps throughout their occupation of Europe. These were Dachau(1933), Sachsenhausen(1936), Buchenwald(1937), Flossenburg(1937), Mauthausen(1938), Ravensbruck(1939), Gusen(1939), Neuengamme(1940), Gross-Rosen(1940), Natzweiler(1940) and finally Auschwitz(1940) [12] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/gascamp.html [13] Heydrich was Heinrich Himmlers deputy and head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt. (Reich Security Main Office, or RSHA) [14] Eichman was in charge of organising and maintaining the logistics of the Holocaust.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Comparision Between Tabloid and Broadsheet Newspapers -- Media News Ne

A comparison between how broadsheet and tabloid newspapers convey the same story I have chosen to compare a story from The Times as my broadsheet paper and The Sun as the Tabloid. The story is primarily about a man who had raped his two daughters several times. In The Times, the headline said ‘How two girls were trapped by shame, fear and the love of their own children’. The Broadsheet focuses on sympathizing for the girls, giving all information they have in a straightforward way and getting the story through rather than trying to get attention or exaggerating the story, as they did in the tabloid paper, The Sun. The headline was ’25 life terms for Brit Fritzl who raped his two daughters 1,000 times’. The numbers stand out and make the story seem more shocking. 1,000 is a very big number and it makes any audience shocked to see such a big number in a headline. As this is a tabloid, you never know, the number might have been altered. But that is not the first thing that comes to mind when you see such a headline. You would want to read more about it. In the Broadsheet, the man who raped his two daughters is referred to as ‘Mr X’, as his family do not want to be recognized in public, and it is also ag ainst the law to identify names for a story about sexual abuse. But in the Tabloid they avoid needing to use a name as a reference. In the tabloid, the man is compared with a well-known Austrian person named Fritzl who just like ‘Mr x’ had raped his daughter then imprisoned her. This is very typical of a tabloid paper to make comparisons and also use informal language such as ‘Brit’. The language in the tabloid is much more easy to understand, and it is quite informal and simple. It is the sort of language you would use ever... ...ger audience, one who would rather know the general details rather than the whole story in detail. That is why I prefer to read a tabloid paper as it is easier to empathize with for you have a better understanding of what is going on. It keeps it short so that you can move on to the next story. But that is my opinion and I fall into the tabloid’s aiming category, and others may have different ideas. The Broadsheet is aimed at a smaller yet more complex audience, who would want to know all the details in the story. Stories in broadsheets are more about business, tax or politics, the sort of things that these sort of people are interested in, so it helps if they know all the smallest details. Broadsheet uses increasingly formal language, for more mature readers. That is why I find in hard to read a broadsheet newspaper, I would rather just know the general details.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Australian initial public offers

Australia has been characterized by a varying trend in its initial public offerings between the years 2003-2007.  Ã‚   There has been continued initial under-pricing in the daily capital market and high under performance of the initial public offers.Broadly, Australian IPO’s have greatly been influenced by the government activities with its intention to promote public policy. Through out the time, the government has been in strict control of the IPO’s in an attempt streamline the economic activities.Australia has gone under rapid changes in the IPO’s of companies which were initially owned by the state. Over the years since 2003 the government has restructured the IPO’s to focus a more economic growth. In nearly all the cases, firms owned by the government have been inefficient in comparison with those of the private sector.(Prasad, Vozikis) Since 2003, Australia has been faced with the problem of under pricing, which has been using the two-tiered pricin g system allowing, retail investor to only pay a set fixed price as they leave investors from other institutions to form the price through bidding. This is an attempt to allow small sized investors with varied investment inefficiencies to have a chance of a probable investment in the capital. Over the years, since 2003, small retail investors are let to have their IPO order first before the bigger institutional investors.For both of the public and state companies, IPO’s have generally being under priced. There two basic reasons behind this, majority been market asymmetry and any possible government regulation to attain political interests.The variability of the under pricing is highly determined by the size of the issue, in which case high issues may imply lower under pricing statements due possible lower rates of subscription.   (Suchard, Woo, 2003) However, to the government, under pricing of IPO’s is a strategy geared toward immediate increase in the value to the gains from offer.   The IPO’s under pricing are structured towards achieving various economic policies.For every IPO, the domestic investors are mostly favored than private investors. This is an attribute that the government uses to minimize the cash outflow by the foreign investors. This is through the recognition attached to the capital outflows from economies. Through under pricing, investors are normally able to buy many shares which in turn give relatively high returns after the offer high returns.Market asymmetry is the major reason behind under pricing of IPO’s, where investors with large investment schemes are more informed about the market information to the new market share issue than small marginalized investors.To cater for this, the government regulation is to ensure that these marginalized investors are given the first favor.   In the purchase of the shares, huge investor would really buy them in bulk form at their under price situation.To the small i nvestors, they will always benefit from receiving the new shares at a desirable chance. (O’Flynn, 2004)   Other investment entities like bankers may be in fear of possible litigation that may be accompanied by significant decline of the government to developed credibility in polices concerning market orientations.   Therefore, under pricing is a silent attempt by the government to control the prevailing status of the economy through adjustments in the capital markets.From the manner in which the IPO’s are released, they actually help to safeguard the weak and less developed investor from the activity of big investors who are well informed about the market system.Basically, timing of IPO’s Australia is normally scheduled when the government wants to release some of its ownership it has in its public owned companies.   Its basic intention is to create income to finance different government structures.   Either, IPO’s by the privately owned companies is done when the companies want to acquire income from the public for further expansion of its activities.   For both cases, initial public offers have showed almost the same characteristic in their under pricing characteristics. (Gharghori, Chen, Robert, 2006)In its use of two-tiered pricing system, the government helps to keep the low informed investors from any exploitation from the big markets.The subject of finance has struck the activities of many scholar who have been extensively been under the study of the influence of corporate finance and any market blocks that affect sourcing of this finance by different sized incomes in the investment concept by firms. It has been seen that, this concept is determined by the liquidity value of these forms in Australia.Such liquidity is basically determined by different firm’s context that pertains their cash flows.   Investment depends on this ratio, where firms subject to a high liquidity a faced with higher investment than those with low liquidities whose investment is relatively low. (Prasad, Vozikis, Ariff, 2006)However, under pricing in Australia has been a vote to the subject of asymmetry and possible imperfections that exists in the market system. On understanding the rigidities that exists in the market system, the Australian government has undertaken to ensure under pricing to safe guard the interest of the low investor in the understanding of the market structures that work in favor of the big investors. (O’Flynn, 2005)Therefore, for the Australian government, it’s rational to undertake such activity since it basically leads capital development for the low income investors.ReferenceSuchard, J& Woo, L (2003) Are Hot Markets Driven by Hot Resource Shares or    Hot Commodities? Australian Journal of Management, Vol. 28Prasad, D, Vozikis, G & Ariff, M (2006) Government Public Policy, Regulatory Intervention and Their Impact on IPO Under pricing. Journal of small Business Management , Vol. 44O’Flynn, J (2004) Australian Capital Territory: January to June 2004. The Australian   Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 50

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Succubus Blues CHAPTER 15

Sometimes you wake up from a dream. And sometimes, every once in a while, you wake up in a dream. That's what happened to me. I opened my eyes, head throbbing, vaguely aware of something warm and fuzzy in my arms. Bright sunlight made me squint at first, but when I could finally focus, I realized I was looking straight into the faces of Cady and O'Neill. I shot upright, a motion my head did not approve of at all. Surely I was mistaken. Surely, no†¦ there they were. Before me, next to the bed I sat in, was a large oak desk surrounded by bulletin boards and white boards. Pinned to the bulletin boards were magazine cutouts, faces and faces of people who reflected every nuance of the characters described in Seth's books. One section was even labeled NINAcady, displaying at least twenty different cutouts of slim blondes with cropped, curly hair, while another section – marked BRYANT O'NEILL – displayed brooding, thirty-something men with dark hair. Some of the cutouts were from major ads I recognized, though I'd never before connected the resemblance to Seth's characters. Other minor characters from the books also had places on the display, though less noticeably so than the leads. Scrawls of notes and words filled the white boards, most done in a bizarre shorthand type of flow chart that made no sense to me. Working Title: Azure Hopes – fix later; Add Jonah Chap. 7; Clean up 3-5; C&O in Tampa or Naples? Check stats; Don Markosin 8†¦On and on the scrawls went. I stared and stared at them, realizing I was seeing the skeleton foundation of Seth's next novel. Part of me whispered I should look away, that I was ruining something, but the rest of me was too fascinated at glimpsing the way a novel and its world came to life. Finally, the smell of frying bacon made me turn from Seth's desk, forcing me to piece together how I'd arrived here. I cringed, recalling what an idiot I'd been around Doug, Roman, and even Seth, but my hunger won out in temporarily allaying my remorse. It seemed odd that I should feel hungry after what I'd put my stomach through last night, but like Hugh's beating, I could bounce back quickly. Disentangling myself from the covers and the teddy bear I'd unknowingly been holding, I made my way to the bathroom to rinse my mouth and study my appearance: wild-haired and downright adolescent looking in the T-shirt. I didn't want to waste the energy to shape-shift, however, and trotted out of the bathroom, following the sounds of sizzling against a background of â€Å"Radar Love† by Golden Earring. Seth stood in a modern, well-lit kitchen, tending a skillet on a stove. The color scheme was bright and cheery, maple wood cupboards and beams accented with cornflower blue paint on the walls. Seeing me, he turned down the music and gave me a solicitous look. His shirt today displayed Tom and Jerry. â€Å"Good morning. How are you feeling?† â€Å"Surprisingly well.† I made my way to a small, two-person table and sat down, tugging the shirt to cover my thighs. â€Å"My head seems to be the only casualty thus far.† â€Å"You want something for it?† â€Å"No. It'll clear up.† I hesitated, detecting something through the smell of salty, greasy meat. â€Å"Is that†¦ coffee?† â€Å"Yup. Want some?† â€Å"Regular?† â€Å"Yup.† He walked over to a pot, poured a mug of steaming coffee, and brought it to me, along with a cute sugar and creamer set. â€Å"I thought you didn't drink this stuff.† â€Å"I don't. I just keep it on hand in case caffeine-crazed women wake up in my bed.† â€Å"That happen a lot?† Seth smiled mysteriously and returned to the stove. â€Å"Are you hungry?† â€Å"Famished.† â€Å"How do you like your eggs?† â€Å"Over hard.† â€Å"Nice choice. You want bacon too? You're not a vegetarian or anything?† â€Å"I'm an honest carnivore. I want the works†¦ if that's not asking too much.† I felt kind of sheepish about him waiting on me, considering everything else he'd already done. He didn't appear to mind. The works turned out to be more than I'd imagined: eggs, bacon, toast, two kinds of jam, coffee cake, and orange juice. I ate it all, thinking about how jealous Peter would be, still confined to his low- carbdiet. â€Å"I'm in a food coma,† I told Seth afterward, helping with the dishes. â€Å"I'll need to go back to bed and sleep it off. Do you eat like this every day?† â€Å"Nah. Just when aforementioned women are hanging out. It ensures they don't leave too quickly.† â€Å"Not a problem, considering this is all I have to wear.† â€Å"Not true,† he told me, pointing toward his living room. Looking up, I saw my dress – clean – hanging on a hanger. The sheer, bikini-cut panties I'd worn under it had been looped around the hanger's head. â€Å"It said dry-clean, but I took a chance on putting it on extra-gentle cycle in the wash. It came out okay. So did the, uh, other thing.† â€Å"Thanks,† I replied, unsure as to how I felt about him washing my underwear. â€Å"Thanks for everything. I really appreciate what you did for me last night – you must think I'm a total freak – â€Å" He shrugged. â€Å"It's no problem. But† – he glanced at a nearby clock – â€Å"I may need to run out on you soon. Remember that one party? It starts at noon. You can still hang out here.† I turned to the same clock. Eleven forty-seven. â€Å"Noon! Why didn't you wake me up sooner? You'll be late!† He shrugged again, infinitely unconcerned. â€Å"I figured you needed the sleep.† Setting down the towel I'd been holding, I darted to the living room and grabbed my dress. â€Å"I'll call a cab. You go. Don't worry about me.† â€Å"Seriously, it's no problem,† he argued. â€Å"I can give you a ride home even, or†¦ well, if you wanted, you could come with me.† We both froze awkwardly. I didn't really feel up to going to some strange party. What I needed to do was get home and do damage control with Roman and Doug. Yet†¦ Seth had been terribly nice to me, and he had wanted me to go to this thing before. Didn't I owe him? Surely I could do this for him. An afternoon party probably wouldn't even last that long. â€Å"Would we need to pick up anything?† I asked at last. â€Å"Wine? Brie?† He shook his head. â€Å"Probably not. It's for my eight-year-old niece.† â€Å"Oh. So no wine then?† â€Å"Yeah. And I think she's more into Gouda anyway.† I looked at the dress. â€Å"I'll be overdressed. You got anything I can put on over this?† Seven minutes later, I sat in Seth's car, driving toward Lake Forest Park. I had the georgette dress back on, along with a man's plaid flannel shirt in shades of white, gray, and navy. The shirt was open save for a couple buttons. I had French-braided my hair in lieu of shape-shifting it into place and now frantically applied cosmetics from my purse as I rode. I suspected I had a sort of Ginger-Rogers-Joins-Nirvana look going. We arrived at the suburban house I'd dropped Seth off at a few weeks ago. Pink balloons fluttered from the mailbox, and a mother in jeans and a sweatshirt waved goodbye as a small girl disappeared into the house. Said mother then returned to the massive, soccer team-carrying vehicle running in the driveway. â€Å"Whoa,† I said, taking it all in. â€Å"I've never been to anything like this before.† â€Å"You must have when you were little,† Seth amended, parking across the street. â€Å"Well, yeah,† I lied. â€Å"But it's a different experience at this age.† We approached the front door, and he entered without knocking. Immediately, four small, blond female forms slammed into him, grappling onto his limbs, nearly knocking him over. â€Å"Uncle Seth! Uncle Seth!† â€Å"Uncle Seth's here!† â€Å"Is that for me? Is that for me?† â€Å"Desist, before I have to break out the tear gas,† Seth told them mildly, unclasping one who threatened to rip his left arm off. One of them, all blond curls and giant blue eyes like the others, caught sight of me. â€Å"Hi,† she said boldly, â€Å"who are you?† Before I could answer, she tore out of the foyer, yelling, â€Å"Uncle Seth brought a girl!† Seth made a face. â€Å"That's Morgan. She's six.† He pointed to a clone of her. â€Å"This is McKenna, her twin. Over here's Kayla, four. This one† – he paused to lift up the tallest of the four, a motion that made her cackle gleefully – â€Å"is Kendall, the birthday girl. And I imagine Brandy's here somewhere, but she's too civilized to assault me like the rest.† A living room extended beyond the foyer, and another blond girl, a few years older than Kendall, watched us over the back of a couch. Other assorted children – the party guests, I presumed – ran and screamed beyond her. â€Å"I'm here, Uncle Seth.† Seth set Kendall down and tousled Brandy's hair, much to her chagrin. She wore the affronted dignity only one on the edge of adolescence could have. Morgan returned shortly thereafter with a tall, blond woman in tow. â€Å"See? See?† exclaimed the little girl. â€Å"I told you.† â€Å"Do you always create such a scene?† the woman asked, giving Seth a quick hug. She looked happy but exhausted. I could understand why. â€Å"I should be so lucky. My fans aren't half this ravenous. Andrea, this is Georgina. Georgina, Andrea.† I shook her hand as a slightly shorter, younger version of Seth entered the room. â€Å"And that's my brother, Terry.† â€Å"Welcome to our chaos, Georgina,† Terry told me after I'd been introduced. He glanced at all of the children, his own and others, running around the house. â€Å"I'm not sure I fully understand Seth's wisdom in bringing you here. You'll never come back.† â€Å"Hey,† exclaimed Kendall to me, â€Å"isn't that the shirt we got Uncle Seth for Christmas?† An awkward silence fell among us adults as we all tried to look somewhere else. Finally, Andrea cleared her throat and said, â€Å"All right, guys, let's fall into line and get some games going.† I had expected a child's birthday party to be wild, but what proceeded to pass that afternoon surpassed even my imaginings. Equally impressive was the way in which Seth's brother and sister-in-law managed to control the herd of screaming, jumping creatures that somehow seemed to be everywhere in the house at once. Terry and Andrea handled them all with efficient good nature while Seth and I did little more than watch, occasionally fielding random questions tossed our way. The entire experience stunned me as a bystander; I could hardly imagine coping with it on a regular basis. It was fascinating. At one point, catching his breath, Terry saw me alone and struck up a conversation. â€Å"I'm glad you could come,† he said. â€Å"I didn't know Seth was seeing anyone.† â€Å"We're just friends,† I clarified. â€Å"Still. It's nice to see him with someone flesh and blood. Someone he didn't make up.† â€Å"Is it true he nearly missed your wedding?† Terry grimaced by way of confirmation. â€Å"My best man, if you can believe that. Showing up two minutes before the ceremony began. We were on the verge of starting without him.† I could only laugh. He shook his head. â€Å"If you continue hanging out with him, make sure you keep him in line. My brother may be brilliant, but by God, he needs a keeper sometimes.† After party games came cake, and after cake came presents. Kendall lifted Seth's up expertly and shook it. â€Å"Books,† she declared. Brandy, older and therefore quietest of the group, glanced at me and explained, â€Å"Uncle Seth always gets us books.† This did not seem to faze Kendall any. She tore open the package and crowed delightedly over three books of pirate stories contained within. â€Å"Pirates, huh?† I asked Seth. â€Å"Is that politically correct?† His eyes danced. â€Å"She wants to be one.† As the party wound down and guests were retrieved by parents, Kendall beseeched Seth to read stories, and I followed him, the nieces, and other stragglers into the living room while the girls' parents attempted to clean up in the kitchen. Seth read in the same compelling way he had at his signing, and I curled up in an armchair, content to just listen and watch. I was therefore startled when Kayla's small form scrambled up and sat on my lap. Youngest of the girls, she could shriek with the best but tended to speak very little. She studied me with her globes of eyes, touched my French braid with interest, and then snuggled into me to listen to Seth. I wondered if she understood any of what he was saying. Regardless, she was soft and warm and smelled like little girl. Unconsciously, I ran my fingers through the fine, corn silk strands of hair and soon began weaving it into a braid similar to mine. When Seth finished a story, McKenna noticed what I was doing. â€Å"Me next.† â€Å"No, me,† ordered Kendall eagerly. â€Å"It's my birthday.† I ended up braiding for all four of the younger girls. Brandy shyly demurred. Not wanting four copies of me, I elected other styles for the girls, herringbones and plaits that delighted them. Seth continued to read, occasionally glancing up at me and my handiwork. By the time we were ready to leave, I felt drained physically and emotionally. Children always made me feel a little wistful; being in close contact like this made me downright sad in a way I couldn't explain. Seth said goodbye to his brother while I lingered near the door. As I did, I noticed a small bookcase beside me. Studying the titles, I picked out Burberry's New Annotated Bible: Old and New Testaments. Remembering what Roman had said about the King James Version being a bad translation, I opened this one up to Genesis 6. The wording was nearly identical, a little cleaner and more modern sounding here and there, but mostly unchanged. With one exception. In verse 4, the King James Version had read: â€Å"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This version, however, said: â€Å"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Nephilim? A superscript number appeared by the word, and I followed it to the appropriate footnote. The word † nephilim† is sometimes translated as â€Å"giants † or â€Å"fallen ones.† Sources vary in accounts of these angelic offspring, citing them sometimes simply as neighbors to the Canaanites and other times as Titan-like creatures reminiscent of Greek heroes (Harrington, 2001). Frustrated, I looked up the Harrington reference in the book's bibliography, finding it linked to Biblical Arcanaand Myth by Robert Harrington. I memorized the title and author, slipping the Bible back into its place just as Seth turned to go. We drove in silence, the sky graying early as Seattle's winter loomed nearer. I might normally have interpreted the quiet in the car as awkward or weird, but I found it comfortable as my mind pondered the nephilim reference. I needed to get a hold of the Harrington book, I decided. â€Å"They didn't have ice cream,† Seth suddenly noted, interrupting my thoughts. â€Å"Huh?† â€Å"Terry and Andrea. They had cake with no ice cream. You want to get some ice cream?† â€Å"Not enough sugar for you already?† â€Å"They just go together, that's all.† â€Å"It's only about fifty out,† I warned as he pulled up next to an ice cream parlor. Ice cream in inclement weather seemed odd to me. â€Å"And it's windy.† â€Å"Are you kidding? In Chicago, a place like this wouldn't even be open this time of year. This is balmy.† We went inside. Seth ordered a double cone of mint chocolate chip. I ordered a more adventurous double of blueberry cheesecake and mocha almond swirl. Sitting at a table by the windows, we ate our sugary confections in more silence. Finally, he said, â€Å"You're quiet today.† I turned on him in wonder, pausing in my mental dissection of nephilim. â€Å"That's a switch.† â€Å"What is?† â€Å"Usually I think you're too quiet. I have to talk and talk to keep things going.† â€Å"I've noticed. Er, I didn't mean that like it came out. That sounded bad. You talking is a good thing. You always know what to say. Exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.† â€Å"Not last night. I said horrible things last night. To Doug and Roman both. They'll never forgive me,† I lamented. â€Å"Sure they will. Doug's a good guy. I don't really know Roman, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"But what?† Seth suddenly looked embarrassed. â€Å"I imagine you're easy to forgive.† We looked at each other for a moment, and warmth flushed my cheeks. Not blood boiling, get naked and jump someone warm, but just cozily warm. Like being wrapped in a blanket. â€Å"That looks terrible, you know.† â€Å"What does?† He pointed at my cone. â€Å"That combination.† â€Å"Hey, don't knock it until you try it. They actually go pretty well together.† He looked doubtful. I slid my chair over by him and offered him a bite. â€Å"Make sure you get both flavors.† He leaned in for the bite and managed both the blueberry cheesecake and mocha almond swirl. Unfortunately, a piece of the blueberry cheesecake scoop fell off onto his chin in the process. I instinctively reached out to stop it, sliding it back to his mouth. He just as automatically nabbed the wayward piece with his tongue, licking it off my fingers. A blast of eroticism coursed through me, and looking into his eyes, I knew he'd shared it too. â€Å"Here,† I said hastily, reaching for a napkin, ignoring the desire to return my fingers to his mouth. Seth wiped his chin with it, but for once, he didn't let his self-consciousness get the better of him. He stayed where he was, leaning close to me. â€Å"You smell amazing. Like†¦ gardenias.† â€Å"Tuberose,† I corrected automatically, dazed by how close he was to me. â€Å"Tuberose,† he repeated. â€Å"And incense, I think. I've never smelled anything like it.† He leaned a hair closer. â€Å"It's Michael by Michael Kors. You can get it at any high-end department store.† I nearly groaned as the words left my flustered lips. What an idiotic thing to say. My nervousness made me flippant. â€Å"Maybe Cady could start wearing it.† Seth was all seriousness. â€Å"No. This is you. Only you. It would never smell exactly the same on anyone else.† I shivered. I wore this perfume because it was reminiscent of what other immortals sensed in my unique signature, my aura. This is you. With just a few casual words, I felt as though Seth had uncovered some secret part of me, looked into my soul. We sat there then, chemistry burning between us like crazy, neither of us acting. I knew he would not try to kiss me as Roman had. Seth was content simply to look at me, to make love to me with his eyes. Suddenly the wind caught the door to the tiny restaurant, forcing it open as a huge gust swept in. Wisps of hair blew into my face, and I slammed my hands down on the napkins that flew up from our table. Other items in the parlor had less success as more napkins and scraps of paper drifted around, and a cup of plastic spoons fell off the counter, spilling its contents on the floor. The clerk behind the counter ran to the door, fighting against the wind to make the latch catch. When he'd finally done so, he glared at the door resentfully. With the moment – whatever it was – shattered, Seth and I picked up our things and left shortly thereafter. I asked him to drop me off at the bookstore. I hoped Doug would be there to apologize to, plus I wanted to get ahold of that Harrington book. â€Å"You want to come in and hang out? Say hi to anybody?† I somehow felt reluctant to leave Seth now, in spite of all the things I needed to do. He shook his head. â€Å"Sorry. I've got to go. I'm meeting someone.† â€Å"Oh.† I felt kind of foolish. He could have a date now for all I knew. And why shouldn't he? It wasn't like I was his only social connection, especially after my no-dating spiel. I was foolish to be reading so much into the ice cream encounter, especially since I was supposedly crazy about Roman. â€Å"Well. Thanks again for everything. I'll make it up to you.† He waved his hand dismissively. â€Å"It wasn't anything. Besides, you paid me back by going to the party.† Now I shook my head. â€Å"I didn't really do anything there.† Seth only smiled. â€Å"See you around.† I stepped out of the car and suddenly stuck my head back in. â€Å"Hey, I should have asked you this earlier. Do you have my book signed yet? The Glasgow Pact ? â€Å" â€Å"Oh†¦ man. No. I can't believe I forgot about that. It's still at my place. I'll sign it and bring it soon. I'm sorry.† He looked sincerely contrite. â€Å"Okay. It's no problem.† I should have ransacked his condo for it. We said goodbye again, and I turned into the bookstore. If I remembered my schedule right, Paige should have opened and Doug should be here now as the late manager. Sure enough, he stood at the information desk, looking on while Tammi helped a customer. â€Å"Hey,† I said, walking up to him, uneasiness filling me as I recalled my harsh words. â€Å"Can I talk to you for a minute?† â€Å"No.† Whoa. I'd expected him to be upset†¦ but this? â€Å"You need to call your friend first.† â€Å"I – what?† â€Å"That one guy,† Doug explained. â€Å"That plastic surgeon that hangs out with you and Cody.† â€Å"Hugh?† â€Å"Yeah, that's the one. He's called, like, a hundred times, leaving messages. He's been worried about you.† His expression turned both soft and wry as he took in my dress and flannel ensemble. â€Å"So have I.† I frowned, wondering at Hugh's urgency. â€Å"Okay. I'll call him now. Come talk to me later?† Doug nodded, and I started to pull out my cell phone until I remembered I'd broken it last night. Retreating to the back office instead, I sat on the desk's edge and called Hugh. â€Å"Hello?† â€Å"Hugh?† â€Å"Jesus Christ, Georgina. Where the hell have you been?† â€Å"I, er, nowhere†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We've been trying to get ahold of you all last night and today.† â€Å"I wasn't at home,† I explained. â€Å"And my cell phone broke. Why? What's going on? Tell me there hasn't been another one.† â€Å"Afraid so. Another murder this time, no more friendly beatings. When we couldn't reach you, the vampires and I thought he'd got you too, even though Jerome said he could feel that you were fine.† I swallowed. â€Å"Who†¦ who was it?† â€Å"Are you sitting down?† â€Å"Sort of.† I braced myself, ready for anything. Demon. Imp. Vampire. Succubus. â€Å"Lucinda.† I blinked. â€Å"What?† All my theories of an avenger of evil shattered. â€Å"But that's impossible. She's – she's – â€Å" † – an angel,† Hugh finished for me.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

How to Use FamilySearch Historical Records

How to Use FamilySearch Historical Records Whether your ancestors came from Argentina, Scotland, the Czech Republic, or Montana, you can access a wealth of free historical records online at FamilySearch, the genealogy arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has a wealth of indexes available through its free Historical Records Collection, which includes more than 5.57 billion searchable names in 2,300 collections from countries all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Hungary, the Philippines, and many more. However, theres a lot more data available thats not searchable via a keyword, which is where the huge trove of historical document images come in.   Basic Search Strategies There are so many records online at FamilySearch now that a general search often turns up hundreds if not thousands of irrelevant results. You want to be able to target your searches to wade through less chaff. If youve already tried using the exact search checkboxes next to the fields; searched birth, death, and residence places; used wildcards in names that could be spelled different ways; or tried to narrow by relationship with another person, location, or type of record already, you still have other options that can make your search more fruitful. Search by Collection A general search almost always turns up too many possibilities unless the search contains someone with a very unusual name. For best results, start by choosing a country to find collections, via the location search, or by browsing by location down to a particular record collection (e.g., North Carolina Deaths, 1906–1930). When you have the collection open that you want, you can use the narrow by technique within each collection (e.g., use parent surnames only to find married female children in the N.C. Deaths collection).  The more possible places and connected names that you can try, the more meaningful your results will turn out to be.Take notes on the title and years of the collection youre searching, in relation to whom. If the collection is missing records from certain years, youll know what youve been able to check- and what you havent- because those missing records could come online or become searchable one day. Vary the Fields You Use   The records might not have everything in them that youve typed into the narrow by fields if youve used multiple boxes, so it might not come up  even if its there. Try the search multiple ways, varying what fields you try to refine by. Use different combinations of fields. Use Wildcards and Other Search Refinements   FamilySearch recognizes both the * wildcard (replaces one or more characters) and  the ? wildcard (replaces a single character). Wildcards can be placed anywhere within a field (even at the beginning or end of a name), and wildcard searches work both with and without the exact search checkboxes being used. You can use and, or, and not in your search fields as well as quotation marks to find exact phrases. Show a Preview   After your search has returned a list of results, click on the little upside-down triangle to the right of each search result to open a more detailed preview. This reduces your time spent, versus clicking back and forth between the results list and the result pages. Filter Your Results   If youre searching across multiple collections at one time, use the Category list in the left-hand navigation bar to narrow your results by category. This is useful for filtering out census records, for example, which often end up topping results lists. After youve narrowed to a particular category (Births, Marriages Deaths, for example), the left-hand navigation bar will list record collections within that category, with the number of results that match your search query next to each collection title. Browse as Well as Search   Many  collections at FamilySearch are only partially searchable at any given point in time (and many are not at all), but this information isnt always easy to determine from the collection list. Even if a particular collection is searchable, compare  the total number of searchable records listed in the  Collections List  with the total number of records available by selecting the record set and scroll down  to see the number of records listed under View Images in This Collection. In many  cases,  you will find many records available for browsing that arent yet included in the searchable index. Use the Wrong Documents   A childs birth record can find information about his or her parents. Or, being the more recent document about the person, a death certificate could also contain his or her birthdate, if the birth certificate (or vital record or civil registration) is elusive. Dont Forget Nicknames and Variants   If youre searching for Robert, dont forget to  try Bob. Or Margaret if you search for Peggy, Betsy for Elizabeth. Try both the maiden name and married name for women. Volunteering Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have generously donated their time to help to index the collections through FamilySearch Indexing. If youre interested in volunteering, the software is easy to download and use, and instructions are well thought out and generally self-explanatory. A little of your time can help get that genealogy record online for someone else who is searching for it.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Aquaintance Rape of College Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aquaintance Rape of College Students - Essay Example ed to formulate competent policies and measures to tackle the issue; the police, public safety officers, the school management and other enforcement agencies need to stay vigilant to prevent and wipe away this menace from the American campuses. This essay focuses on the various aspects of the problem of acquaintance rape in the American campuses with special reference to articles entitled â€Å"The Problem of Acquaintance Rape of College Students† by Rana Sampson and â€Å"Acquaintance rape on college and university campuses† by Felicia F Romeo. Deriving conclusions from the two articles, the essay also seeks to offer some practical guidelines and advices for the fresh students who attend the American campuses. As Sampson (2002) points out, most of the rapes in the colleges go unnoticed and unreported and this gives the false impression that the current prevention programs are adequate to tackle the issue. However, researches and available statistics underline the fact that the current policies and prevention programs on the issue are quite insufficient and inadequate. Sampson also deals with the other related sexual assault crimes in the campus such as stranger rape, drug induced rape, sexual assault other than rape, use of verbal coercion to obtain sexual intercourse, indecent exposure in college libraries, â€Å"peeping Toms† on college campuses, obscene phone calls made to college students, sexual harassment and stalking of college students, and purports that acquaintance rape in colleges can be prevented only when there are comprehensive measures and coherent college strategies to prevent these related issues too ( Sampson, 2002, p. 1). The available statistics on acquaintance rape in American colleges and universities is quite alarming and shocking and this in turn calls for better effective measures to solve the problem. Sampson (2002) cites a number of statistical information on the issue which highlight the depth and seriousness of the issue. The findings

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Apology by Plato Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Apology by Plato - Essay Example However, their works are written during the years witnesses of this trial were still alive, so it is likely Plato was trying to give a fairly accurate picture of what had happen during the trial. Historians are still puzzled by the reasons Socrates was executed. Athens, the city philosopher lived at the time, enjoyed many liberties, the freedom of speech and democracy, and was favoring wise man and philosophers. Socrates was often outspoken of his critiques on the society and governance of that time. He was often found speaking in the market squares and workshops, where he would discuss moral issues and views that were in odds with his set of values – thus was putting himself in odds with other people. He developed his own set of views which he was following regardless of the circumstances. He dared to refuse follow the orders of bringing a man to a trial, however, he did nothing to change the order – he simply went home. Some of his teachings appeared antidemocratic, e .g. he was speaking against a right of any free citizen to speak in Athenian assembly. He was a famous educator of the young people, however he was doing it free of charge, and he was very poor himself. Being so outspoken, finally he was officially charged with "refusing to do reverence to the gods recognized by the â€Å", and also of corrupting youth. However, the real reasons, most likely, were political – he was very vocal with his critics. In modern times, Socrates’ death has generally been seen in two ways: as the conflict of the individual with the state and as the downfall of rational, talkative man. (Wilson, 2007, p.192) The whole trial and conviction is a sample of ethnocentrism. Society at large, or, better yet, the influential people of Athens, had certain views they were comfortable with and, therefore, considered them being right one. Socrates’ views came into opposition with this mainstream opinion. He was stigmatized, and then punished for being so different. His death had to give Athenians sense of being right, and him – being a criminal and the one, worth of punishment. So his views, measured against the mainstream society’s opinions did not stand the ground. And, as it is often done, those who speak differently are often reprimanded, persecuted and punished. It is not the same as in the case with someone being a real criminal. Even though there is no clear evidence of either Socrates’ guilt or innocence, according to him, he did not do anything that would merit such severe punishment as death. To the contrary, he was trying to serve his fellow citizens to his own hurt. He did not have any gain from his services; to the contrary, he was very poor, which was documented by several historians. He often neglected his family to be of the service to his students. So the outcome of his trial is a clear and extreme example of ethnocentrism. â€Å"Silencing dissent in times of conflict results from equating criticism of society with disloyalty†, as Joel M. Charon put wisely in â€Å"Ten Questions†. This is exactly what was happening. Socrates’ prosecutors had to have justification for their action – they wanted to rid themselves of the man they could not stand any longer. So they had to fabricate accusations – which Socrates answered in the â€Å"Apology†, and refuted as being false and inconsistent. However, it seems that Socrates himself took this trial as a