What is Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is one of the most highly discussed topic in society today. It is not morally correct it has to do with killing someone and ruins the intrinsic value of a human being. That is my argument towards euthanasia. Euthanasia goes against nature. Those that oppose say that it is mercy killing, but it is still killing. I am with the majority who are against this so-called mercy killing. Before presenting my arguments, it would be best to define the term â€Å"euthanasia†. Euthanasia can be defined in many ways. Here are categories that fall in with the term euthanasia. â€Å"The term involuntary euthanasia is where the decision is not made by the person who is to die; the patient's life is ended without the knowledge and consent. It is basically a form of murder. Passive euthanasia is to speed up the process of death to a person and stopping some type of support to let that take its course.' (academic, coup) Like: stopping a form of medical procedure, stopping nutrients of food and water and allowing the person to dehydrate or starve to death, with that not delivering CPR. â€Å"The term active euthanasia involves causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response from that person.† (ACADEMIC.COUP) A well-known example of that is the case of Dr. Kevorkian. He gave a lethal dose of medicine to kill a terminally ill patient. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a retired pathologist who assisted in the deaths of over 130 people. The famous court case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought awareness to the controversial issue of euthanasia to the public. â€Å"In Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of the second-degree murder because he administered a controlled substance to end the life of Thomas Youk and had prepared a video showing his action and let the video be broadcast on national television (NY Times). A different yet similar situation and legal case would come about Saskatchewan, Canada when a wheat farmer named Robert Latimer would take the question of euthanasia into his own hands. â€Å"Robert Latimer murdered his young daughter, Tracy, on October 24th, 2008. Behind the reasoning of Latimer's act which was immoral is that he couldn't help to see his daughter suffering from a severe form of cerebral palsy and her disability. He killed her by placing Tracy in the back of his car and ran a hose from the exhaust to the cab, while he watched her die. Latimer was then convicted on November 4,1993 of first-degree murder. The year after he was convicted of second-degree murder.† (Inclusion Daily). So the question is: what's the difference between his actions of killing his Tracy who suffers from serious pain, and a doctor who received given permission to kill an individual who is also suffering from pain? Eventually Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and Robert Latimer, were both charged with murder because they chose to practice euthanasia. If murder is prohibited by law because people take murder into their own hands to kill others, then why shouldn't euthanasia be too since doctors kill their patients even if there is consent. A doctor must receive authorization to assist in the death of a patient who is overly sick. Because of this many have questioned why doesn't Robert Latimer have the right to take his own daughters life, since a doctor would have had to ask him anyways to have the right to kill Tracy? Latimer apparently saved his daughter from suffering, which is the same reason many people.

‘Fire and Ice’ by Robert Frost and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Don Mattera Essay

â€Å"The possession of power over others is inherently destructive both to the possessor of the power and to those over whom it is exercised.† George D. HerronThe modern industrialist society, in which we live, has been shaped by people in the possession of power, and the power of passion. The 20th and 21st century’s have illustrated clearly the deadly potential of power, and not just to the possessor of the power but also to those over whom it is exercised. The poem’s ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Robert Frost and Don Mattera respectively, perfectly convey the idea of the destructive nature of power, the poems are both concerned with Mortality of Age. The ideal readers of these poems are people old enough to understand how harsh and cruel this world can be. Furthermore, people who can appreciate the sense of grief portrayed in these poems, as both poets investigate deeply the potentially devastating capability of humans to destroy themselves and others. ‘Fire and Ice’, written by Robert Frost, is a carefully constructed poem, which carries a straightforward message that emotions become destructive when they are too extreme, destructive enough, even, to end the world. ‘Fire and Ice’ holds the theme of Mortality and Age, also the destructive power of passion, Robert Frost also describes humans as complacent, throughout the poem. Rather then telling a story or receiving an insight, Robert Frost simply expresses an opinion. While in the poem ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ Don Mattera is telling a story of a place called Sophiatown. This poem is a vivid retelling of the experience that Don Mattera went through, and thus is very personal. The main message delivered by this poem is that power can be very destructive, especially if it is used against people with little or no power themselves. Don Mattera illustrates the struggle of the Africans that lived in Sophiatown, when it was being demolished by white people to make a white settlement. The themes of this poem are Mortality and Age and some protest, which come under the main theme of alienation. Also just like Robert Frost he describe humans as being complacent. In the poem ‘Fire and Ice’, Robert Frost creates a speaker whose conjectures about the world’s ultimate destruction are designed to reveal the deadly potential of human passion. To address his theme, Frost cleverly manipulates  the imagery of the title, ‘Fire and Ice’. Frost requires the reader to think first about the destructive powers of fire and ice, and then relate this to desire and hate. In order to understand the poem’s warning about the equally ruinous potential of unbridled emotion. In the lines: ‘Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice’ (stanza 1, lines 1-2), Robert Frost shows two different ways that could lead to the World’s ultimate destruction. These lines relate to the theme of Mortality and Age, because there is an inevitability of death. He then follows on with, ‘From what I’ve tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favour fire’ (stanza 1, lines 3-4), Robert Frost describes the power of fire and its metaphoric companion, desire. In these lines, Frost, has his own opinion of how the world will end, this shows how personal this poem actually is. Robert Frost, thinks that the world will be destroyed from desire and greed. He goes as far as saying that greed itself most probably will end the world. From this we can take that he is writing this as the oppositional discourse, because surely the dominant discourse would deny greed as taking over the world. Without a doubt desire and greed are portrayed intensely in the poem ‘Fire and Ice’ but also in ‘The Day They Came For Our House’. Don Mattera who wrote the poem ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, had the intention to show how dangerous uncontrolled power can be, it can destroy peoples lives and cause serious pain. Don Mattera, just like Robert Frost is writing this poem as the oppositional discourse. This poem is deeply intertwined with that of a protest theme. Don Mattera protests about the arriving whites coming to demolish Sophiatown. He describes their arrival as, ‘Armed with bulldozers/they came/to do a job/nothing more/just hired killers/’ (stanza 2, lines 1-5). This quote represents how insignificant the Africans are perceived to be, by the white people coming to demolish their town. Don Mattera explains no emotion in this stanza. He has done this to show that the white people also had no emotion in what they were doing. In his eyes they didn’t care, it was just another job for them. The lines, ‘We gave way/there was nothing we could do/although the bitterness stung in us’ (stanza 3, lines 1-3). Clearly illustrates the African’s lack of power. They can’t do anything; this highlights the destructive nature of power, and relates to the theme of mortality and age. This is portrayed throughout this  poem, Don Mattera, explains how it is pointless for them to do anything because they have no power. The whites who demolished Sophiatown gave into ego and greed, and used their power against the black Africans. This is a perfect example of power being destructive to those over whom it is exercised. Don Mattera’s cultural background has influenced this poem drastically, because he grew up in Sophiatown, which at the time was a vibrant centre of South African culture. His poem is very personal; this makes it easier for the ideal reader to relate to. Fully understanding this poem requires the readers to understand the hardship and pain that the Africans went through. The lines, ‘We stood/Dust clouded our vision/We held back tears’ (Stanza 4, lines 1-3) exemplify’s some of the pain and suffering that the Africans of Sophiatown went through. The reader of this poem would feel sadness toward the Africans of Sophiatown, and most probably anger towards the white people who demolished their town. But unless they have been through something similar, will not be able to imagine the true extent of the emotions that Don Mattera and the other Africans would have experienced. Similar to ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, Robert Frost’s poem ‘Fire and Ice’ can only be fully understood when the reader can appreciate the grief portrayed in this poem. Although not as personal as Don Mattera’s poem, it is still a depressing poem to read. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California. Because he is American his poem varies in the way he has chose to write it, compared to Don Mattera’s poem. In ‘Fire and Ice’, Robert Frost describes a personal apocalypse. He writes about the power of emotions such as desire and hate to destroy the world. Robert Frost would have witnessed greed and hate and heard of wars and all the hate that fills the world while he lived in America. Thus he has made an opinion of his own explaining how he believes the world will end if these emotions are not kept under control. But unlike Don Mattera and the Africans of Sophiatown he would not have had hatred against him from an apartheid government that evicted 60,000 people from Sophiatown and he would not have been undervalued. Therefore he would not have felt what he was writing about, unlike Don Mattera. This also makes it easier to relate to Robert Frost’s poem, ‘Fire and Ice’ compared to ‘ The  Day They Came For Our House’. ‘Fire and Ice’, is also a text that has a very sophisticated style. The poem is written primarily in rhymed iambic tetrameter, although three of the nine lines are in iambic dimeter. The use of such rhythmic patterns makes this poem more musical and memorable. Robert Frost also uses alliteration in his poem, such as ‘favour fire’ (stanza 1, line 4), which shows that Robert Frost is privileging the oppositional discourse because he believes the world will end from desire. Furthermore, ‘Some say’ (stanza 1, lines 1&2), is another example of alliteration. Compared to ‘Fire and Ice’, ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ is a poem that is less sophisticated, it is more of a free verse poem. In a way this emphasises the poet’s case, because it shows the poem has being unbalanced and less structured, which is what Don Mattera would have felt when he was being evicted from Sopiatown. Don Mattera also uses personification in his poem. It is illustrated in the lines, ‘The sun stood still/ in the sullen wintry sky’ Don Mattera has used this to show how Sophiatown was intertwined with the environment. He loved the surroundings of Sophiatown just as much as the people who inhabited it. This makes it a much depressing poem for the readers as it shows his love for Sophiatown, a place that was demolished to make way for a white suburb called Triomf which means triumph in English. In the poem, ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, the last lines sum up the poem’s themes, but also sum up Robert Frost’s poem ‘Fire and Ice’. The lines, ‘The power of destroying/the pain of being destroyed’ is essential to both poems because it demonstrates the underlying discourse that underpins the text. That is, in our modern industrialist society we are all shaped by power whether it is by people in possession of power or the power of passion. I chose the poems ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, because they reflected the themes of 20th and 21st century very well, themes which are Mortality and Age and protest. Also both were wonderfully constructed poems and both poems appeared simple to read through at first glance. However, upon further reflection, they both presented different facets, which made them more complex and elusive. When I examined both  poems, I could relate more to ‘Fire and Ice’ compared to ‘The Day They Came For Our House’. I do not think I was an ideal reader of the latter poem, mostly because the poet was of a completely different cultural background. I could relate to it in some ways, although I felt almost guilty when reading the poem. I felt like I could not understand the full extent of pain and sadness that the Africans of Sophiatown went through. As mentioned above ‘Fire and Ice’ is a poem that I could relate to much easier, because I understood Robert Frost’s opinion of how desire, greed and hate would be the downfall of mankind. Furthermore it was not as personal compared to Don Mattera’s poem. ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Robert Frost and Don Mattera respectively, through their poems, show the notion of Mortality and Age, protest and essentially Alienation. Although both the poems express the same themes, the authors have chosen different ways to illustrate their feeling towards the subject. Robert Frost uses ‘Fire and Ice’ to simply express and opinion rather than tell a story, which is how Don Mattera illustrates his ideas. His poem is a vivid retelling of the experience that he went through. Both poets position the reader to identify with their ideas. They illustrate the fact that â€Å"The possession of power over others is inherently destructive both to the possessor of the power and to those over whom it is exercised† (George D. Herron). Bibliography Information Obtained From:’Robert Frost’, 2000, The literature Network, www.onlineliterature.com/frost/, viewed 21st May 2008. ‘Don Mattera’, 2001, Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DonMattera, viewed 21st May 2008. ‘The day they came for our house’, 1999, Don Mattera, http://www.saep.org/Sinethemba/Poetry/studied/Mattera/Mattera.htm, viewed 21st May 2008.

Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings

Melvin Richardson Professor Shana Smith English 112 (D22P) March 21, 2013 Machin Rifamos (The Rise of Brown America An argument essay by Melvin Richardson) â€Å"Resistance is futile† is a resounding statement first exclaimed by the alien race called the Borg in the Gene Roddenberry long running television series Star Trek. â€Å"Why do you resist? Asked the Borg commander, Ryker replies â€Å"I like my species the way it is†! Borg commander counters with, â€Å"We only wish to raise quality of life for all species†.This is the last thing you heard before your kind was assimilated and your unique cultural and biological essences absorbed. If you have heard or read this statement before, it’s because it has been the theme of White America since its inception and so has appropriating and assimilating cultures, with racism, class warfare, and loss of ethnic identity as unfortunate by-products. The Xicano (Chicano) was able to evolve and retain their cultural identity and ethnicity by creating a border dialect or language (a Patois) which supports the view of the essayist Gloria Anzaldua’s â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue. This dialect is viewed as sub-cultured jargon in their homeland (Mexico) where Standard Mexican Spanish is spoken and the Working Class English is demanded by their adopted host north of the border, America. Ultimately, the appropriation and assimilation of borderland Mexicans (Hispanic Americans) did not occur as did the Native American Indians or the African Americans that occupy the rest of the nation. However, these Hispanic Americans, who are considered second class in their native home (Mexico) and 3rd class by the U. S.For use many years use of the Spanish language declined in the Chicano Nation because of the immigration of Anglo-Americans and the brutal efforts of the U. S. imperialists to eradicate the Spanish language. Further analysis reveals, the link between language and identity with respect to c ommunity cohesiveness effects self- awareness. The focus of Gloria Anzaldua’s essay, â€Å"How to Tame a Wild Tongue,† focuses on the idea of losing an accent or native language to conform to the current environment. Anzaldua’s essay describe what it was for her, living in a English speaking nvironment, and not being an Anglo, combined with speaking Xicano Spanish and not true Spanish. Many Xicano parents did not pass the Spanish language on to their children, largely because upward mobility in America is directly connected to proper use of the â€Å"Queen’s English† with all its proper enunciations and cultural correctness’s. As substantiated in her piece she stated, â€Å"being caught speaking Spanish at recess—that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler and being sent to the corner of the classroom for talking back to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name.The Anglo teacher said, â€Å"If you want to be American, speak American, if you don’t like it, and go back to Mexico where you belong. † However by contrast, now this trend is reversing itself with the rise of Hispanic Americans, both born in the U. S. and the ones that were able to acquire U. S. citizenship. At one time, it seemed that the English language would replace Spanish as the common language of the Xicano Nation, this no longer appears likely. Anzaldua is arguing for the ways in which identity is intertwined with the way we speak and for the ways in which people can be made to feel ashamed of their own tongues.People no matter what race of culture needs a group of like kinds in which to identify their proud ethnicities and heritages. This tendency for oneness or sameness is demonstrated in an article published in the Colorado Gazette â€Å"A New Era in Race Relations? Real life say’s not so much†. William King, professor of Afro-American Studies of the University of Colorado-Boulder, â€Å"insist(s) it's just human nature to seek out people who look like them† he insists there's more to it: blacks and other minorities segregate themselves only because society has taught them that grouping together is the only way to stay safe.In support of this argument I contend that this feeling of being ashamed of one’s own native tongue is nothing less than marginalization, in order to appropriate the labor of the Hispanic Americans to keep them from assimilating into the American mainstream. In the 1960’s American society was influenced by movements that were fighting the political and social injustices of the time. The Xicano movement was no exception. During this time there were visible signs of â€Å"No Dogs or Mexicans Allowed† as well as a general sentiment of segregation based on race and economic class.As the movement started to progress in the Xicano (Hispanic) community, identifying with the term Chicano b ecame widely accepted. This is an evolutionary moment of the language. Although native Mexicans believe that the word Chicano is an ugly term to use when identifying one’s cultural background. To them, Chicano signifies a lower class of the Mexican. The term â€Å"Chicano† seemed to spring up out of very impoverished areas of the Mexican-American neighborhoods known as Barrios.Mexicans, as well as US culture connected the word Chicano with another term called Pachuco or Cholo. Despite the negative connotations and images the term sparks up youth and others (gang members) embrace being Cholo, to call oneself a child of the Mexica. In support of the position taken by Senora Gloria Anzaldua, I titled my piece â€Å"Machin Rifamos† which means â€Å"High achieving† and â€Å"We Rule†. Xicano dialect is an evolutionary event. With the rise of Hispanic Americans in every walk of American life, the â€Å"phoenix effect† is occurring.William Blaine Richardson, governor of New Mexico; Sonya Sotomayor Supreme Court Judge; Linda T. Sanchez U. S. congresswoman; with individuals that not only speak Xicano; need the support of this new powerful evolved group of Americans and potential Americans . The evidence is irreversible and ongoing. By the end of this century, Spanish speakers will comprise the biggest minority group in the U. S. , and the America that has been, conditioned by effortless assimilating, appropriating cultures and native people, miss the boat this time.

Mini short story response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mini short story response - Essay Example g the story together to the final line, where Elisa is â€Å"crying weakly – like an old woman.† The way that Steinbeck does this can be discovered by taking a closer look at how Steinbeck uses imagery and action to illustrate the depth of Elisa’s isolation and frustration on a physical and emotional level. Steinbeck’s description of Elisa’s garden illustrates how isolated Elisa is physically from the rest of the world. The flowers are totally fenced in a specifically defined space. Although the fence is low, it still manages to serve as a barrier between Elisa and the other characters. Her isolation is added to by the description of the location where she lives. Steinbeck tells the reader about how â€Å"the high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the [valley] from the sky and all the rest of the world.  Ã‚  On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot† (Steinbeck). This setting illustrates how Elisa is sealed within the ‘closed pot’ of the smothering cloud cover of social rules. Reinforcing that this is a symbolic concept, Elisa stands at the beginning of the story watching her husband talk to strangers at a location not far away from where she stands. Although she is curious about what they’r e saying, custom and expectation prevent her from leaving her garden to join them. The flowers within the garden are also symbolic of Elisa’s frustration in life. Steinbeck makes this connection by pointing out how she works with the flowers, â€Å"the chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy† (Steinbeck). The force and energy that she expends while she is tending to her plants is an outlet for the frustration she feels as she realizes that she cannot just join her husband. At the same time, Elisa obviously takes a great deal of pride in the beauty of her plants. This is Steinbeck’s way of pointing out that part of Elisa’s frustration is her failed ability to fulfill the role of

Strategic Human Resource Development Research Paper

Strategic Human Resource Development - Research Paper Example As the stewards of the human capital, the human resource department takes a key role in creating the necessary flexibility required for the optimal performance of State Farm in the industry it operations are based. The department enhances organizational effectiveness and survival in the human capital pool with a broad array of skills as well as developing human resource systems that can be adapted quickly. Coordination flexibility at State Farm goes to the extent the human resource practices can be adapted and applied across a variety of situations where more generally applicable human resource practice is across jobs and situations, the more easily it can be adapted to a particular situation. Management by objectives is a performance appraisal technique favoring majority of job situations due to its flexibility and can be effectively used at State Farm. It is a behaviorally anchored rating system that generally reflects a particular job in a particular setting and therefore is more limited to an application potential across organizations. The increased use of multiple sources of the human capital, as a described, State Farm will need to either develop more generalizable centralized human resource practices or allow more centralized practices that meet specific situational conditions but operate within general organizational parameters. Increasing Diversity and Creating Competitive Advantage at State FarmThe dynamics of change in the labor market are two way due to the flexibility of the working practices.

Part A Analyse the leadership and followership styles found in the Essay

Part A Analyse the leadership and followership styles found in the animated film The Lion King, produced by Walt Disney in 1994 - Essay Example Furthermore, the focus of the paper is to evaluate the leadership style in accordance to the followership style. This will help in understanding the leadership style and the implications which is impossible without the support of the followers. It will not be incorrect to note that the leadership styles are evident in the movie Lion King in different characters. The characters that have shown the leadership styles include Mufasa, Simba, and Scar while followership styles are evident from hyenas (the outsiders), Timon and Pumbaa. Before examining the leadership traits within the context of different characters of Lion King, it is imperative that the sources of leadership and meaning are clearly understood. In simpler and precis manner, leadership can be defined as a power to bring about changes or selecting the flow of the beliefs of followers. Power or leadership cannot be achieved without having the traits which it takes to undergo change and bring motivation for the employees1. The re are typically five sources of the power which are evident in the movie Lion King as well. As per the theory presented by French and Raven, a leader is able to provide reward to its employees. This is merely to provide a token of value to the followers by the leaders2. This aspect is visible from the movie Lion King through the depiction of Scar’s character (Where Scar is a brother of Mufasa). ... The significance behind reward is because it motivates the followers. It has also been noted in many instances of the movie that as soon as Scar becomes the leader, he stopped providing reward to his followers. The aspect of reward is further explained in terms of types. The two types of rewards would be coercive and reward power. In the first type, the leaders are actually looked upon as someone who has settled the standards for the followers where they can be provided with a reward4. On the other hand, the second type coercive gives an idea that it depends upon a leader to settle punishments. In the context of the movie, this is evident from the context of Scar’s character where he promised his followers hyenas to provide them with food and reward them and if they will not follow Scar then they will be put to death ultimately. This shows that Scar has made use of the coercive power in order to dictate the hyenas. Talking about the followership styles, the movie has projected Timon and Pumbaa as the best followership supporting leadership. The character of Simba in particular has been projected with Timon and Pumbaa throughout the movie. In this case, it should be noted that Timon and Pumbaa have shown themselves to be reliant, energetic and intellectual followers. As an example, Timon and Pumbaa go to the Pride Rock with Simba because they knew that was more significant then living the ways they have been in the forest. This concludes that a leadership process is a two way in nature i.e. the followers can help the leaders become successful in their approach5. Also to note is the fact that Timon and Pumbaa show no vying for attaining leadership which means that they have been extremely

Public Spending Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Public Spending - Essay Example The public expenditure was raised in the 20th century due to the impact of the world wars. Before the World War I, the public expenditure was about 15% of the GDP. After the war it appeared to be about 25% of the GDP and maintained the level in the next few years. It did change during the starting phase of depression in the economic conditions (Chantrill, 2010). After the World War II, the public expenditure had increased and it was budgeted to consume 35% of the GDP and this level was retained till 1950s. The public expenditure was slowly raised in the year 1960 and it increased in early 1980s consuming about 45% of the GDP (Chantrill, 2010). Public expenditure rose by 0.7 percent of the GDP from 1999-2008. A decade ago, according to the OECD statistics, UK public spending was registered at 8.7 percent of the GDP below the Euro area average. By 2008, this figure had been registered at 1.3 percent below the Euro area average (IOD, 2008). There were lot of instability in the public expending regarding the defence system. The spending in defence expense was increased before the World War II. 3.5% of the GDP was used in defence spending in the year 1935 and reached to 15.9% in 1939. After the commencement of the World War II, the British Government started to assemble most of its resources for the war. The expenditure was over 40% of the GDP on the defence system for four years and it was raised to 46.37% of GDP in 1943 (Chantrill, 2010). The public expenditure in development of the state of education was expanded from 2% of GDP in 1990 to 6% of GDP in the second decade of 21st century. The spending in this sector has been increased to 3.37% of GDP in 1955. During the starting phase of 1956 the spending was increased rapidly and it accounted to 4% of GDP in 1960 and 6.5% of GDP in 1975 (Chantrill, 2010). There has been a decrease in the spending during the period of 1970 to 1980. In 1989 it reached to 4.25%

What was Harper Lees affect on American Literature Term Paper

What was Harper Lees affect on American Literature - Term Paper Example Nelle Harper Lee is one of the greatest American authors of the contemporary literature world. She rose to fame when her novel â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† selected for the 1960 Pulitzer Prize. The major theme of this novel is her childhood memories about racism. Apart from Pulitzer Prize, â€Å"She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday November 6, 2007 for her services to literature by President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington D.C. She was also awarded the 2010 National Medal of the Arts for her services to literature† (Biography for Harper Lee). This paper analyses the biography and contributions of Harper Lee to American literature. Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Harper Lee grew up in the small southwestern Alabama town of Monroeville. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-38) (Biography of Harper Lee (1926-)) Harper Lee showed immense interest in reading literature even from her childhood. She was very much interested in establishing friendship with others and was eager to learn more and more things from her friends. She was very much sensitive and was eager to analyze or learn more about the incidents happening around her during her childhood. â€Å"Lee was only five years old in when, in April 1931 in the small Alabama town of Scottsboro, the first trials began with regard to the purported rapes of two white women by nine young black men† (Biography of Harper Lee (1926-)). ... After graduating in 1944, she went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Lee stood apart from the other students—she could have cared less about fashion, makeup, or dating. Instead, she focused on her studies and on her writing. Lee was a member of the literary honor society and the glee club (Harper Lee Biography) â€Å"Harper Lee graduated from Monroeville High School in her hometown in Alabama in 1943. She then attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, where she completed most of her core classes from 1944 to 1945† (Benson). â€Å"She studied law at the University of Alabama, and spent a year studying as an exchange student at Oxford. She never completed law school, and moved to New York to pursue a career as a writer† (Southern Writers Tour - Harper Lee). Lee’s law studies happened during the period of 1945-49. â€Å"During the 1950s, she worked as an airline reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways †((Nelle) Harper Lee (1926-)). In fact Lee studied law with an intention to help the black community as much as possible. However, she realized that as an advocate she has limitations in providing enough social justice to the black community. The above realization forced her to stop her Law studies and to concentrate more on writing articles. In 1957 Miss Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company. She was told that her novel consisted of a series of short stories strung together, and she was urged to rewrite it. For the next two and a half years she reworked the manuscript with the help of her editor, Tay Hohoff, and in 1960 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD was published (Harper Lee Bio) To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first and last novel. â€Å"Lee

Managing the Learning Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing the Learning Environment - Essay Example This student was called in the staff room and was warned due to his misbehavior. after few days the student behaved ill mannered with the teacher by saying her that she doesn't know how to communicate with the students and she has a fake accent as she was an Indian teacher. Initially, the teacher did not mind but later she took serious actions towards the student as he was diverting the mind of his classmates. His fellow classmates ignored her and did not pay much attention in the class. moreover, the other students who were sincere to the teacher wanted to join the other section as the class was always disturbed. later the teacher decided to manage the class effectively to get the grip on the situation so that she gains the attention back and make the class more interesting. instructors can talk the help of staff to handle such situations and can discuss such discussions. Many common examples of disruptive behavior are:- -Users of cell phones in classrooms -Inappropriate demands for attention -attending class late and leaving early -creating noise and disturbing the other students -inattentiveness in class(sleeping, reading, chatting and other such things which should not be done in class). -threats to harm oneself or others -monopolizing classroom discussions How to deal with disruptive behavior? †¢ The instructor should serve as a model by demonstrating respectful and responsible behavior with all interaction with students. †¢ the instructor should deal with disruptive behavior immediately ... how to communicate with the students and she have a fake accent as she was an Indian teacher. Initially the teacher did not mind but later she took serious actions towards the student as he was diverting the mind of his class mates. His fellow class mates ignored her and did not pay much attention in the class. moreover the other students who were sincere to the teacher wanted to join the other section as the class was always disturbed. later the teacher decided to manage the class effectively to get the grip on the situation so that she gains the attention back and make the class more interesting. instructors can talk the help of staff to handle such situations and can discuss about such discussions. Many common examples of disruptive behavior are:- -Uses of cell phones in class rooms -Inappropriate demands for attention -attending class late and leaving early -creating noise and disturbing the other students -inattentiveness in class(sleeping, reading, chatting and other such things which should not be done in class). -threats to harm oneself or others -monopolizing class room discussions How to deal with disruptive behavior The instructor should serve as a model by demonstrating respectful andresponsible behavior with all interaction with students. the instructor should deal with disruptive behavior immediately if this behavior isignored the behavior of the student is expected to increase. If the student behavior is irritating, but not particularly disruptive, consider talkingto the student privately, but do not shout on the student or insult the student inanyway. talk to the student calmly, if you feel unsafe being alone request any ofyour colleagues to accompany

Movie Reflection Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Movie Reflection - Research Paper Example People enjoy watching those movies which are close to their dream world. Hence, different people like different genres of movies. People who are dominated by emotions like romantic movies, people who take life lightly enjoy comedies and people who are aggressive love to watch action movies. Movies are nothing but a mirror of an individual mind which is shaped by cultural beliefs, rituals, social environment, religion etc. Hence, analyzing or interpreting a movie is not an easy job. People project their internal make up on movies and choose watching those movies which are compatible with their emotional and psychological make up. Moreover, movie is not just about stories. It involves technical aspects like script, screenplay, sound, technology, light etc., which viewers are not aware of (Gordon, 1975, p.99). Hence, one has to keep in mind the technical aspects of a movie while analyzing one. However, as human being is trained to analyze things on the basis of his own point of view, th e factor that dominates the process of analysis is the internal psychological frame of mind of the analyst. This distorts the chances of analyzing a movie without prejudice and bias. Hence, an unbiased and honest analysis of a movie is possible only when the analyst is capable of being completely independent from projecting his personal ‘mind’ on the movie and, who understands the importance of the connection between the intention of the movie maker and the psychology of the audience for whom the movie is intended. Analysis And Interpretation Even though the words analysis and interpretation look similar in their meaning, there is a huge difference between them when they are applied to the art of understanding the movies (Metz, 2004, p. 7).

Red Cedar Redevelopment Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Red Cedar Redevelopment Project - Assignment Example Currently, in the area is a wooded section that extends about 20 feet along the banks of the River Cedar. Modifications in this area will include the restoration of wildlife, the creation of nature trails and parks. The project divides the site into sections; environmental conservation, community development, and infrastructure. Given that the site is a floodplain, it will be easier to develop the area. The government and the policymakers should give due consideration to the project. The first reason is that the project aims at reducing the pollution of the environment. The implementation of the project will lead to the restoration of the native species of wildlife and control the human access for water testing and recreation. Second, there will be the introduction of fishponds, nature trails, and parks in the region. The third will be the expansion of the scope of water management. There will be a link between water management, the native vegetation, wildlife, and social activities such as boat riding and water spotting (Ryan 46). Other than activities involving nature, there will also be a development of passive recreational activities. Examples of such activities are chess, golfing, and baseball games. It is worth mentioning that the redevelopment activities will also cover the development of a welcoming social environment. This will be through the creation of spacious and ample parking area, integration of cultural values and education into the entire environmental aspects. The plan involves the creation of streetscapes that will make the area welcoming, dense, and urban. Moreover, the project covers the construction of first-floor commercial and residential buildings. There is an allocation for a variety of pedestrian-friendly setbacks and ample space for the social events. Hence, the project is big and has a high potential for success.

Macroeconomics Tutorial Test Essay Example for Free

Macroeconomics Tutorial Test Essay Question 1. (i) Identify and briefly explain the main features of the business cycle. (2 marks) Business cycles are usually characterized by periods of transition from peak to trough and then from trough to peak. The peak of a business cycle is the high point of GDP prior to a downturn whereas a Trough is the low point economic activity prior to a recovery. The period in which the economy is moving from a peak to a trough is called a contraction and the period in which the economy is moving from a trough to peak is an Expansion. (ii) Explain the concepts of (a) potential output and (b) the output gap. (3 marks) Potential Output (y*) or full employment output is the level of GDP an economy can produce when using its resources, such as labour and capital, at normal rates. This is not the same as maximum output. Potential output grows over time with growth in labour and capital and with growths in technology. At any point in time, the difference between the economy’s potential output and actual output is called the output gap (y y*). A positive output gap, which occurs when actual output is higher than potential output and when resources are being utilised at above-normal rates, is called an expansionary gap. This is related to firms operating above normal capacity and can lead them to raise prices (inflationary). On the other hand, a negative output gap, which occurs when potential output exceeds actual output and when resources are not being utilised, is called a contractionary gap. This is related to capital and labour not being fully utilised (cost in terms of forgone output). (iii) Explain the concept of Okun’s law. Discuss the implications of Okun law for policymakers. (5 marks) Okun’s law states that each extra percentage point of cyclical unemployment is associated with about a 1.6 percentage point (for Australia) increase in the output gap, measured in relation to potential output. The quantitative relationship is (y-y*)/y* = -B(u-u*). This describes how an additional percentage point of cyclical unemployment is associated with a B percentage point decline in the output gap. The output losses associated sustained in recessions, calculated according to Okun’s law, can be quite significant. Calculations using this relationship depict that output gaps and cyclical unemployment may have major costs. Therefore, we can conclude with the fact that the public and policymakers have concern in relation to contractions and recessions. Question 2 (i) Discuss the role played by fixed (or sticky) prices in the Keynesian model of income determination. Briefly explain what would happen if prices were fully flexible in the short run. (2 marks) New Keynesians assume prices and wages are fixed or sticky, meaning that they do not change easily or quickly with alterations in supply and demand, so that quantity adjustment prevails. When prices are sticky, higher aggregate demand raises production, and this raises incomes. If prices were fully flexible in the short run, economy’s resources would be fully employed and thereby the economy would return to the natural level of real GDP. Firms would stop producing when price is lower than production cost, so there would be less competition. (ii) Explain the concept of Planned Aggregate Expenditure (PAE). How does PAE differ from Actual Expenditure? (2 marks) Planned Aggregate Expenditure is the total planned spending on final goods and services. In equilibrium, planned expenditure and actual expenditure must equal in the economy. The difference between planned and actual expenditure is unplanned inventory investment. When firms sell fewer products than planned, stocks of inventories increase. Because of this, actual expenditure can be above or below planned expenditure. (iii) Use the Keynesian aggregate expenditure model and appropriate diagrams to explain the following: The paradox of thrift The effect on equilibrium GDP of an exogenous increase in exports. (6 marks) Question 3 (i) Explain what is meant by the multiplier? Why, in general, does a one dollar change in exogenous expenditure produce a larger change in short-run output? (3 marks) The income-expenditure multiplier, or the multiplier for short, is the effect of a one-unit increase in exogenous expenditure on short-run equilibrium output. For example, a multiplier of 3 means that a 6-unit decrease in exogenous expenditure reduces short-run equilibrium output by 18 units. Therefore, a one dollar change in exogenous expenditure produce a larger change in short-run output as initial amount of expenditure leads to raised consumption spending resulting in an increase in national income greater than the initial amount of spending. (ii) Explain the role played by the marginal propensity to import in determining the size of the multiplier. Other things equal, how does an increase in the marginal propensity to import affect the size of the multiplier? (3 marks) The marginal propensity to import is the change in imports divided by the change in disposable income. It decides the slope of the aggregate expenditures line and is part to the multiplier process. Similar to taxes, the marginal propensity to import tends to lower the size of the multiplier as demand for domestically produced final goods and services falls. An increase in the marginal propensity to import increases the value of the denominator of the equation, which then decreases the overall value of the fraction and thus the size of the multiplier. (iii) Use a diagram to illustrate the concept of short-run equilibrium in the Keynesian aggregate expenditure model. Suppose the economy is initially not in equilibrium, explain the process by which the economy adjusts to equilibrium. (4 marks) Question 4 (i) What are the main instruments of fiscal policy? Explain how each might be used to close an expansionary output gap. (4 marks) Main components of Fiscal Policy: Government expenditure: Government spending of goods and services, investment and infrastructure directly affects total spending. If too much or too little total spending causes output gaps, the government can help to guide the economy toward full employment by changing its own level of spending. Taxes or transfer payments: In contrast, changes in tax or transfers do not affect planned spending directly. When disposable income rises households should spend more. Thus tax cut or increase in transfers should increase planned aggregate expenditure. Similarly, an increase in taxes or a cut in transfers, by lowering households’ disposable income, will tend to lower planned spending. This stimulates spending and eliminates contractionary gap. (ii) Explain what is meant by the government budget constraint. Indicate how it provides a link between fiscal policy and public debt. (3 marks) Government budget constraint is the term given to the concept that government spending in any period had to be financial either by raising taxes or by government borrowing.We can denote government expenditure undertaken by the government in period t by Gt and transfer payments by Qt. Therefore, the total spending activities of the government can be noted as Gt+ Qt. Also, the government has three means at its disposal to finance this expenditure: 1. Taxes available to be spent by government it time t – denoted by Tt. 2. Issued security when government borrows money – This is a financial asset that obliges the government to repay the loan, and pay interest, over some designated time period. Bt-2 is the stock of securities that the government still has owing at the end of the last period. Any new borrowing that the government unde rtakes in period t will be denoted as Bt Bt-1. The stockpile of debt that accumulates when government continues borrowing money is called the public debt. 3. Interest needed to pay on government’s stock of debt – in any time t the government pays interest of rBt-1 where r is the real rate of interest. Government expenditures (purchases, transfer payments and interest payments) in any period need to be funded by taxes or by borrowing. This is the Government budget constraint summarized as below: Gt+ Qt + rBt-1 = Tt + (Bt Bt-1). If we rearrange this so that gross taxes are on the left-hand side, the link between fiscal policy and the stock of public debt becomes readily apparent: Gt+ Qt Tt + rBt-1 = (Bt Bt-1). (iii) Explain the difference between discretionary fiscal policy and automatic stabilisers. Which one of these will be the main influence on the size of the structural budget deficit? Explain. (3 marks) Discretionary fiscal policy refers to deliberate changes in the level of government spending, transfer payments or in tax rates. Automatic stabilizers refer to the tendency for a system of taxes and transfers, which are related to the level of income to automatically reduce the size of GDP fluctuations.

Attitudes Towards Gambling Behaviour Psychology Essay

Attitudes Towards Gambling Behaviour Psychology Essay Gambling has always tended to capture ambiguous views and opinions in society. This project discusses definitions of gambling, causes, models and treatments for those with gambling problems. The primary data is collected from an online questionnaire which was designed based on previous research, drawing particularly from the 2007 British gambling prevalence survey which was conducted in order to gain understanding about the social impact of gambling and the costs and benefits. Only 80 actual responses were recorded successfully. The participants age ranged from 17 52 making the mean age 24. The majority of participants were female with 37.5% being male and 62.5% being female. Due to the ethnic demographic of the area being predominantly White British, 81.2% of responses were from White backgrounds. A 14-item attitude scale was used for the main body of the questionnaire, including 7 positive statements and 7 negative statements. Each statement was given a score from 1 to 5, 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. In order to gather the correct data for analysis, the scores of the positive statements was swapped in reverse in order to indicate the more approving attitudes for each item. The 14 items are individually scored and added together to create one score. This score is known as the attitude score. As there were 14 items and each rating which was neither agree nor disagree was scored at 3, the mid-point attitude score is 42, anything below this suggests an overall negative response and anything above therefore suggests an overall positive response. Results show a strong correlation pointing towards a positive attitude towards gambling when the mid-point attitude score is 42, most scores show scores above 42 therefore showing a positive* response. There is only one item that received an overall negative response. Introduction The topic to be addressed in this research is about gambling, the different types and forms and how the public perceive gambling behaviour. The research will discuss various views and opinions of social and problem gambling and draw upon different theories as to why people gamble. Other research studies will be evaluated also. Orford (2009) conducted a survey based study using a 14 item attitude scaled which measures the general attitudes towards gambling. This scale was originally created to be used in a British gambling survey in 2007. This particular survey used a typical sample of 8880 partakers who were over 16 years old. It found that in most cases, attitudes towards gambling were negative, the only exception to these attitudes were from those who gambled the most. What is interesting about the results of this survey is that more people saw gambling to be a foolish and dangerous and to be harmful to families and communities, however, the majority of participants were against the prohibition of gambling. This survey has been the basis for the questionnaire in this study and therefore I will use the results of Orford survey to guide me towards the hypothesis for my own questionnaire. The main hypothesis is those who gamble regularly will have positive attitudes towards gambling. Another key hypothesis is those who have ever had a gambling problem will feel empathy and sympathy towards other problem gamblers. Gambling has always tended to capture ambiguous views and opinions in society while drawing in both massive public involvement and an increasing amount of criticism on moral, social and economic grounds (Cornish, 1978). There are many different types and forms of gambling. The main or most popular forms are gaming machines betting bingo casino lotteries and pools. Gaming machines allow the player to participate in a computerised game of chance in exchange for money and in some way the other forms of gambling are not dissimilar, due to either the exchange of money for a game of chance, like in betting and lotteries. Betting, pools and some casino games take some form of logic and or strategy, and therefore is less based on chance or luck, however, they are similar to gaming in regards to the exchange of money for chance (Gamble Aware, 2013). Game play therefore is a good way of describing what gambling is, for example, Herman (1976) articulates how gambling can be understood best through the example of game playing. He uses this instance because game playing is normal and inconspicuously integrated within the rest of gambling culture and society where it mostly occurs. Herman found that a common them e among previous research is that gambling is being studied as an activity that is singled out from the rest of the social society and that gambling as an activity is different to other routine activities. On the contrary, it can be argued that gambling relates to and links with other factors of society; that it is a product of this society and not separate. Therefore game play was a convenient topic for discussion in this instance. Gamblers anonymous (2012) see gambling as any form of wagering or bet placing, either for other people or themselves, whether it is for money or just for fun, where the result cannot be determined or relies on skill or chance. This definition includes any form of gambling no matter how small or insignificant because to a compulsive gambler, anything can be a trigger to resume their addiction. This definition opens up a new perspective on the term gambling. Routine activities that many of us participate in in everyday life may impact a compulsive gamblers life dramatically; this suggests that more should be done to sensitively create public awareness not just for ourselves but of those around us when gambling. A more in-depth definition and explanation of gambling is proposed by Perkins (1950), whom offered the idea that gambling could be segmented into 4 factors, the first being the swapping of money which takes place without any comparable value; the second is the possession of money regulated only by luck or chance; thirdly, the profit of the winners, made possible only by the loss of other people; and finally, the risk involved which is excessive. Using the belief that different forms of gambling all have clear fundamental features in common, people often, rationally, want to know about the connection between involvement in gambling irrespective of type and the descriptions of gamblers, such as age, sex, social class and income. The easiest measures are those whereby samples can be divided into gamblers and non-gamblers on the foundation of whether they take part in any number of gambling activities (Cornish, 1978). When talking about frequency of gambling, Downes et al (1976) found that there were considerable differences when it came to gender. Men seemed to gamble much more often than women and in particular younger men seemed to be more prone to gambling addiction, especially men from upper class and also, the poor. Downes also explains that younger men are more likely to participate in gambling activity. When it comes to explaining and discussing forms of problem gambling it is likely that biological, psychological and sociological processes are involved (Lesieur Rosenthal, Pathological gambling: A review of the literature, 1991). Each theory or model of problem gambling is more likely to only highlight one of these processes. There are numerous ways to define problem and compulsive gamblers. Clinically, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), and categorizes problem and compulsive gambling as an impulse control disorder and uses ten conditions to conduct a diagnosis of this disorder. The ten conditions range from repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling through to illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft or embezzlement to finance gambling (University of Chicago, 1999). These ten conditions represent three dimensions within problem gambling: loss of control, damage or disruption, and dependence. Research has advocated that people who become easily attached or addicted to activities generally mistrust others around them, this could have stemmed from incidents of social or personal trauma, and therefore, they stay away from seeking help and instead turn to a specific addictive behaviour as a way of distracting them from this trauma, it is a temporary way of relieving distress. From this viewpoint, addiction may have developed as a process of relieving distress; whereas those who have negative views about ideas of histories of trauma are more prone to seek their relief from other places, such as gambling. It was hypothesized by Hoefler Kooyman (1996) that social and personal trauma can be related to problem gambling, and that this association would be arbitrated by perceptions of a lack of social support. One well known model of problem gambling is the social learning model, originating from skinners first (1953) social learning theory. This model assesses gambling as an operant behaviour, meaning a behaviour that can be modified by different consequences and outcomes. Logically, one would assume that in the instance of gambling, money or a prize would be the positive reinforcement factor to initiate addiction; however, more recent research increasing shows the significance of physiological arousal and its properties of reinforcement (Petri Govern, 2003) which can be related to the social learning model. Intriguingly, skinners (1953) study revealed a contradictory argument that a persons behaviour to gamble is a reflection of their prior history reinforcement issues. Skinner posited the hypothesis that beginning with success or beginners luck as some would call it, leads to an increase in the probability that that person would continue to demonstrate gambling behaviours, even when th e reinforcement ratio of winning had declined. Unfortunately, at the time, skinner was only able to test and demonstrate this theory on pigeons and rats. Later research on skinners theory allowed Custer (1984) to test the theory of humans, results showed that the same pattern towards addiction reflected from skinners results on animals, Custers results highlighted the high significance of an early big win towards the progression of a pathological gambling disorder. Although these results demonstrate what this pattern for gambling addiction is, the explanation of why the pattern occurs, still remains, specifically, the question should be why it exists even when reinforcement has gone or is decreased massively, for example, when the gambler hasnt had a win for a long time but still continues to gamble. One explanation of this is what is known as the partial reinforcement extinction effect, this is when an absence of reinforcement creates more persistence of gambling behaviour because the gambler knows that if they continues, eventually they will experience a win, therefore the continuation to gamble even after a long losing streak is eventually reinforced and consequently strengthened by the most recent win (Griffiths, 1995). Another explanation is one that contemplates again the role and idea of arousal. According to Brown (1987) this explanation considers arousal as a key factor of problem gambling, while also relating to physiological views fr om the social learning model. According to browns research, each person has their own unique psychophysiological needs for arousal, for example, one individual may learn to regulate their arousal needs through gambling, therefore in this instance, the loss while gambling would be the main reinforcement of gambling behaviour. Browns (1987) research is not limited to the theory of arousal; he also offered the idea that there are as many as six processes which participate in the development of problem gambling. These six processes are listed according to (Upfold, 2013): Affective states, like anxiety or depression; Cognitive distortions about gambling; Behavioural reinforcement schedules; Social and institutional determinants, like the opportunity to gamble; Subcultural conditions, such as the prevailing attitude toward gambling, and the prevailing values of the individuals social context and reference groups, And; Internal fantasy relationships with personifications such as lady luck, and the gamblers parents. To give a brief explanation, a person first has to be presented to gambling to enable the trigger to be able to express gambling behaviour; this is usually due to social determinants or cultural conditions. To then continue and perhaps escalate the gambling behaviour, arousal and reinforcement is needed. At a point in a gamblers life where all affective and cognitive factors are present, sometimes along with internal fantasy relationships, gambling is the most important task and a priority to that individual (Brown R. , 1987). This explanation that brown offers is broad and in depth, it offers a more complex understanding of problem gambling than the simple model of social learning (Upfold, 2013). For the benefit of evaluation and comparison, the psychodynamic model offers some interesting theories centred on gambling behaviours. This model suggests that problem gambling exists in the psyche; it is proposed by Epstein (1994) that gambling is an unconscious attempt to resolve conflicts within the psyche. Conflicts that exist in the psyche are uncontrollable and it is suggested that gambling is a behaviour performed in order to try to relieve psychological pain and stress. Within this area of exploration, there are a few main psychodynamic oriented theories which can help explain behaviour such as gambling. In these theories there tends to be three key factors, as listed by Griffiths (1995) these are: Gambling is an unconscious substitute for pre-genital libidinal/aggressive outlets. Gambling involves an unconscious desire to lose a wish to be punished in reaction to guilt. Gambling is a medium for continued enactment (but not resolution) of psychological conflict Rosenthal (1994) proposes that most problem gamblers have narcissistic tendencies, along with regular feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy which then leads to their psyche constructing a fictional world where gambling can be perceived as a solution to their pain. This fictional world enables the gambler to learn feelings of power, independence and overall, feel in control and important while they gamble. Rosenthal (1994) also comments that the narcissistic tendencies are vulnerable to fluctuating feelings of depression and arousal. It is noted that by participating in gambling behaviour, these feelings are regulated. An alternative topic of interest in the psychodynamic theory is that of loss, this term includes any form of actual separation from the death of a loved companion to an emotional loss such as self-esteem (Upfold, 2013). To sum up the theory of loss, it is that a universal loss is a significant issue for a problem gambler, resulting in intolerance for losses in the future. Furthermore, the psychodynamic theory suggests that gambling is triggered by an emotional loss but additionally can be a way of avoiding further risks that could cause the emotional pain to increase. The theory suggests that, if a child loses its mother when their psychic development is not yet fully matured, they will then use gambling as a substitute to the love of their mother. An obvious theme throughout the explanation of psychodynamic theories is that it is largely based upon opinions and does not hold a strong factual or scientific content, this is probably due to the concepts of the unconscious and the psych e being untestable as they are not physical objects or places, they are entirely theoretical, most of Rosenthals so called evidence was based upon a few grouped or many individual case studies, therefore cannot be relied upon for accurate scientific research (Cox, Yu, Afifi, Ladouceur, 2005). Granting that the psychodynamic approach isnt reliable in actual research, it is however a good path to look down when thinking about contributions to society, for example, counsellors working with problem gamblers may be led further to understand that there may be unseen, internal processes coinciding with the actual gambling behaviour itself, also, and many gamblers are thought to benefit from counselling which explores their feelings of emotional loss, intimacy and their fantasy ideas about gambling and luck. Many psychodynamic theorists advocate that some gamblers may reunite with these feelings from their unconscious when they stop gambling, thus creating an uncomfortable urge to gamble again (Upfold, 2013). Before moving on to results and statistics about the publics perception of gambling, first it should be discussed as to why the publics perception is important to us and society. First of all, the stances of the public community possibly will influence the capability of local and national governments to apply new, or review existing legislation associated with the control of gambling and gambling activities (Mond, Davidson, McAllister, 2011). In many countries, controlling gambling activities legislation are already under review, for example, in Australia, high stake poker machines will require you to commit to a spending limit in order to play, this disables the player from betting any more money on that particular game that day (Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform, 2011). Secondly, the more accurately public perception is studied, the higher the likelihood of new therapies and treatments becoming available for those with gambling problems and addictions. Additi onally, negative perceptions regarding people with gambling problems may composite negative emotional states such as vulnerability and thus make more people hesitancy to seek help (Mond, Davidson, McAllister, 2011). Treatments In numerous countries around the world, there is growing fascination in early intervention tactics to support people who are suffering from severe gambling-related problems. Key to these thoughts and considerations is whether we are able, as professionals, to recognize problem gambling behaviour and or risky behaviour in risky gambling situations before people officially seek help or treatment (Delfabbro, King, Griffiths, 2012). Literature shows that interventions and treatments for problem gambling and be rather similar to the methods involved in treating other disorders such as drug addiction. Much like drug addiction, a major challenge in treating gambling problems is being able to prevent a relapse. An example to support this is that not many people that discontinue using drugs due to treatment remain sober in the long-term future. Within drug addiction, slips are single episodes of drug use that subsequently lead to a major relapse (Marlatt Gordon, 1985). There are so many factors that can affect the risk of any individual trying to recover from any kind of addiction, from relapsing, these factors can be environmental however, and the majority are personal to each individual. In order to succeed in recovering from an addiction, the development of new skills is essential. These skills should encourage positive behaviour and be integrated into everyday life so that in the event of a relapse; these skills will become easier to perform (Brown, Schubert, Saykally, Evenson, 1986). Many of these skills will be something to substitute trigger activities from their drug addiction, many take up forms of exercise and others turn to spiritual or religious activities in order to sustain their abstinence. At this point it is unknown whether or not the same behaviour patterns will help in problem gamblers to help them quit. It may be important to understand the characteristics of those who want to gain treatment for their gambling. Reasons for this are so that it can help develop the correct effective treatment for those who actually want to stop gambling. It has already been noted that the majority of clinical research on the topic of problem gambling has been either case studies or small sample studies. Data collected from this type of research is not able to be generalised to the wider population. Due to this disadvantage, creating accurate demographic profiles of treatment seekers is problematic; however there has been research that gives a small insight into the most likely candidates. Research from Blackman (1986), Ciarrocchi Richardson (1989) and Volberg (1995)have found that in general, it tends to be white middle-aged men that most commonly seek treatment for their gambling addiction; however, more recently, research is finding an increase in women wanting treatment or advice on gambling probl ems (Moore Volberg, 1998). Many treatment seekers are in their 30s and 40s and have an average or higher educational background. There are many methods to treat problem gambling, the methods derive from many approaches such as psychoanalytical/psychodynamic and behavioural approaches. This discussion of treatment approaches will both reiterate and contradict previous evaluation of the same approaches that have attempted to explain the causes of gambling problems. Psychodynamic professionals look for an understanding of gambling by reflecting upon the motivation influences that come from our unconscious processes; they refer to it as the science of the mind and consider how these processes may be able to oppose cognition and emotion and turn them into a behaviour (Lesieur Blume, 1987). Although psychodynamic therapies and treatments have not proven to gain effective results, they are the most regularly used forms of treatment for problem gambling behaviour at this time. The psychodynamic perspective proposes that problem gambling is an expression or a symptom of an underlying issue within the psyche. The best way of helping gamblers at the moment is by attempting to make them understand their underlying issue and confront it (Rosenthal Rugle, 1994). While many other academics have recorded the significance of psychodynamic treatments relating to addiction, there are no controlled studies or research that investigates the efficiency of this approach in terms of treating a gambling problem. Moving onto a behavioural approach, treatments within this approach are more active, especially looking towards classical and operant conditioning theories as a solution or treatment. One known treatment that is currently used is aversion therapy. This involves a negative stimulus being applied to the patient while they are thinking about or participating in gambling behaviour, the negative stimulus us quite often small electric shock. Obviously, this method has many ethical drawbacks and is used only in severe cases and if the patient is mentally stable to agree to it (Epstein, 1994). A second example of a behaviourist treatment is a simple procedure called imaginable desensitization. It uses two stages in the process. First of all the patient is taught how to relax, once they are in a relaxed state, the behaviourist professional will ask them to imagine some situations related to gambling that they find stimulating. From this, the patient will learn to relax then they find themselves in situations where they are able to gamble, the relaxation will be a substitute to giving in to their addiction (Brown R. , 1987). This approach links closely to some psychodynamic theories, but initially is seen as a cognitive treatment. Methods It was decided that an online questionnaire would be used to conduct this research because they are quick and easy to create and collect data from. Choosing to conduct this questionnaire online proved to be the right choice also as it did not take up lots of time for either the researcher or for the participants. Online questionnaires are effective for a number of reasons, the main one being that they are inexpensive and easy to gain fast responses from a large sample size (Deutskens, Ruyter, Wetzels, Oosterveld, 2004). I designed my questionnaire based on previous research, drawing particularly from the 2007 British gambling prevalence survey which was conducted in order to gain understanding about the social impact of gambling and the costs and benefits (Orford, 2009). General lifestyle and demographic questions are at the beginning of the questionnaire in order to gain data of who is participating in the research. The main body of the questionnaire is the 14-item attitude scale o riginally produced by Orford (2009) who believed that it was vital that his survey about attitudes towards gambling should contain a dependable and legitimate scale that can reliably measure general attitudes towards gambling. This scale uses a straight forward format containing a sequence of statements which express either a specific negative or positive attitude, the participant would rate how much they disagreed or agreed with each statement using a lickert scale. My questionnaire used all 14 items in its attitude scale, 7 positive statements and 7 negative statements. Each statement was given a score from 1 to 5, 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. In order to gather the correct data for analysis, the scores of the positive statements was swapped in reverse in order to indicate the more approving attitudes for each item. The 14 items are individually scored and added together to create one score. This score is known as the attitude score. As there were 14 items and each rating which was neither agree nor disagree was scored at 3, the mid-point attitude score is 42, anything below this suggests an overall negative response and anything above therefore suggests an overall positive response. The aim was to have a sample size of 100, only 80 actual responses were recorded successfully. The participants age ranged from 17 52 making the mean age 24. The majority of participants were female with 37.5% being male and 62.5% being female. Due to the ethnic demographic of the area being predominantly White British, 81.2% of responses were from White backgrounds. The sample was collected online via email, Facebook and twitter accounts along with a description of the study and its purposes. None of the participants are excluded as all relevant questions were answered in every response. To eliminate social desirability, whereby the participant might purposely give the answers the researcher is looking for, the questionnaire aims were distorted slightly by asking general exercise, drinking and diet questions along with gambling questions. The second part of the questionnaire will be the main part used for analysis; this section will state that it is a control group questionnaire about gambling. The title of the questionnaire was explained to be assessing how the public perceive social behaviours, although the questionnaire aim was to measure how the public perceive only gambling behaviours. Ethical situations were taken into consideration in this instance and it was decided that slightly deceiving participants was needed in order to enable the study to gain more realistic results and validity. The next part of the questionnaire measured if each participant had a gambling problem, ever had a gambling problem or if theyre parents or guardians ever had a gambling problem, the results from this section are to be taken into consideration when analysing the final question. The final question is a vignette about a young males gambling problem and some trouble that gambling had got him into; participants were given a list of attitudes and feelings such as Anger sympathy empathy and were asked if they blamed the characters parents or himself. This section is relevant because those with positive attitudes towards gambling may relate to the character and therefore give a positive or sympathetic attitude towards the situation. A recent study about profiling problem gamblers shows that there is near enough a 50/50 weighting of female problem gamblers to female social gamblers. Also, there are a considerably higher amount of males at risk to problem gambling than when compared to women. When analysing demographic results, findings show that there was a significantly lower amount of problem gamblers in the 65 years and over age category. The second most at risk age group was found, in this case to be 35 49 year olds, leaving the most at risk category to be the 18 24 year olds (Department Of Justice, 2013). Demographic Analysis and Results The following results present demographic data collected from the primary survey conducted. The data contains the total number of responses returned for all questions and the representative percentage of responses for each modality available. If there were any non-responses to any questions, this will not be included in the charts and tables. If the value of representative responses is 0, this will not show in the charts, however will be shown in the tables. This chart shows the representative percentage age of all participants. Age ranges Frequencies % representative From 17 to 20 29 36.2% From 21 to 29 40 50.0% From 30 to 37 3 3.8% 38 and over 8 10.0% Total 80 100.0% This chart shows the representative percentage gender of all participants. Gender modality Frequencies % Representative Male 30 37.5% Female 50 62.5% Total 80 100.0% Etiological reports of problem gambling have commonly concentrated on men from Gamblers Anonymous (GA) men from the Veterans Administration hospital system (Lesieur Blume, 1987) Therefore, women are diagnostically underrepresented also. Numerous initial studies that did include women used small samples or case studies from Gamblers Anonymous (Lesieur Blume, 1991). These results show a much higher percentage of female respondents than men. Thus, it enables this type of research to be analysed for gender specific data if needed. This chart shows the representative percentage ethnicity of all participants. The table below shows all the modalities available for selection within the survey. Ethnicity modality Frequencies % Representative White 65 81.2% Mixed white and black Caribbean 7 8.8% Mixed white and black African 1 1.2% Mixed white and Asian 0 0.0% Any other mixed background 2 2.5% Asian indian 3 3.8% Asian Pakistani 0 0.0% Asian Bangladeshi 0 0.0% Any other Asian background 0 0.0% Black Caribbean 1 1.2% Black African 0 0.0% Any other black background 1 1.2% Chinese 0 0.0% Any other ethnic group 0 0.0% Total 80 100.0% Results frequency score and attitude score table The results shown in the table below indicates the response count to each modality and also to each option within that modality. The frequencies are shown to indicate how many responses were given, however any non-responses are not shown in the table. In place of a percentage score, an attitude score is present. An explanation of the attitude scores is presented below the table. Strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree

Helena Viramontes Miss Clairol Essay -- short story, Miss Clairol

Helena Viramontes' short story, "Miss Clairol," takes the reader through a day in the life of Arlene, a single Hispanic mother, and her daughter, Champ. They begin their day at K-Mart in search for just the right beauty products for Arlene because she is going on a date that evening. After leaving without paying, they spend the day at home. Arlene prepares for the date while Champ assists her, watches television, and fixes herself dinner. Once Arlene is sufficiently fixed, she leaves for the date, ignoring Champ as she yells goodbye. Although I had to read "Miss Clairol" all the way through several times in order to develop a full understanding of the story and its purpose, I needed no extra reading to understand Arlene and my feelings about her. From the beginning of the story, my gut reaction to Arlene was disgust, and as I continued to read, my distaste only enlarged. Although I do not feel that Viramontes' sole purpose was to disturb the reader by her characterization of this sin gle mother, that was what kept my attention from the moment she was introduced. My dislike for Arlene began with the mere description of her physical appearance . When Arlene is first presented, she is depicted wearing "bell bottom jeans two sizes too small" and "a pink strapless tube top" (78). Not only do her clothes fit improperly, but "her stomach spills over the hip hugger jeans" as well (78). I next realized Arlene is accompanied by her young daughter, Champ. I was caught off guard by her blatant use of profanity in front of Champ. For example, she responds to Champ's question about which Miss Clairol box to grab saying, "Shit, mija, I dunno," and after dropping a gum wrapper on the ground, the simple comment, "Fuck it," expresses her nonchala... ...e next man is so far from romantic in the way I understand the concept, that it angers me to hear about it. Arlene's misunderstanding of romance epitomizes my serious dislike for her. My experience with good parenting and romance is so opposite of Arlene's parenting and ideas of romance that I am repulsed by them. Because it is so easy to develop set ideas of what is right and wrong concerning these concepts at such a young age, it is difficult to rid myself of the biases now that I am a young adult. These cultural biases that created the lens through which I read this story strongly affected my perception of Arlene in a way that no one else can experience. Work Cited Viramontes, Helena. "Miss Clairol." Literature and Gender: Thinking Critically through Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Robyn Wiegman and Elena Glasberg. New York: Longman, 1999. 78-81. Print.

The Child by Tiger †Dick’s Character :: The Child by Tiger

The Child by Tiger – Dick’s Character In "The Child by Tiger", Wolfe does a superb job of making the story reveal a truth about human experience. Dick's killing rampage in the short story showed how the human sole has a tendency to become violent. Characterization and excellent choice of tone and mood used in the story display how the Dick becomes violent. Wolfe carefully develops Dick's character in the short story. At the beginning of the short story, Wolfe describes Dick's actions precisely. Wolfe illustrates anything from Dick's movements to his talk. Furthermore, Dick is depicted as an honest hard working and notably talented individual. Wolfe does all of this for a simple reason, to show that any human sole can turn evil, no matter how intelligent, honest, or hard working. For this reason, Wolfe's characterization of Dick is essential to the short story. Without a good characterization of Dick before his sole turns violent, the story would have no meaning and would just be about a mad man. However, with Wolfe's exquisite characterization, the reader find outs how an innocent god fearing man can turn violent. Overall, Wolfe's characterization is key to the short stories meaning. Outstanding tone and mood choice also help show the truth about the weak human sole. First, the Wolfe's informal tone of the story is significant. I believe Wolfe's tone help set up the readers for the shock of what Dick does. However, the tone the author sets is important because of the shock we get, we also see how fragile the human sole is and how it can easily change. In this case, the author's informal and almost ironic tone surprise the reader but also help show the significance of Dick's experience. Second, the author's mood for the story is quiet deceiving. Since the plot of the story is to show how any human sole can turn evil, the author sets an ironic mood. Though the mood is informal, the irony of the situation is of a "good" mad turning "evil". Wolfe sets up this mood by his description and analysis of Dick's character and actions at the beginning of the story. The mood is ironic because when the violent side of Dick comes out, our mood towards the story changes because we are shocked at what has happened to innocent Dick.

Bowers V Hardwick Supreme Court Case Essay -- Michael Hardwick

Bowers v. Hardwick United States Supreme Court Opinion This case, Bowers v. Hardwick, originated when Michael Hardwick was targeted by a policer officer for harassment in Georgia. A houseguest of Hardwick's let the officer into his home, where Hardwick was found engaging in oral sex with his partner, who was another male. Michael Hardwick was arrested and charged of sodomy. After charges were later dropped, Hardwick brought his case to the Supreme Court to have the sodomy law declared unconstitutional. Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. Justice Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, and O'Conner joined, filing concurring opinions. In Justice White's opinion, or while delivering it, he mentioned a lot of steps that were taken by Michael Hardwick to have his case at the Supreme Court. Justice White also mentioned and compared past court cases that might had relevance or helped make his opinion more valid. The key issue that was focused on by Justice White was whether or not the Federal Constitution grants a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy. There were still laws in many states that made sodomy illegal, and have been in place for a very long time. When making his way to presenting his opinion of the Supreme Court, Justice White went through prior cases such as Loving v. Virginia, Roe v. Wade, Eisenstadt v. Baird, and many more; because the Court of Appeals and Hardwick claimed that these cases construed the Constitution to grant a right of privacy that stretch forth to homosexual sodomy. After reviewing prior cases and accepting the decisions in those cases, Justice White thought none of the rights announced in the previous cases bears any relevance or relation to Hardwick's claim that it is a cons... ...t it refused to notice the fundamental interest all people have in controlling the nature of their sexual relationships. Due to the activity that was conducted in Hardwick's home, the Fourth Amendment played an important role. The Fourth Amendment was not defined by the Court as being a violation for breaking a person's door, a going through their belongings. It was defined as an invasion of his indefensible right of personal security, personal liberty and personal property. Neither Georgia's law nor Georgia's prosecutor provided insufficient evidence and validity to support the conclusion that homosexual sodomy is considered unacceptable behavior in the state of Georgia. In result of this Court of Opinion, the Court ordered the dismissal of Hardwick's complaint because Michael Hardwick had alleged a constitutional claim well enough to withstand a motion to dismiss.

Second Foundation 3. Two Men and a Peasant

Rossem is one of those marginal worlds usually neglected in Galactic history and scarcely ever obtruding itself upon the notice of men of the myriad happier planets. In the latter days of the Galactic Empire, a few political prisoners had inhabited its wastes, while an observatory and a small Naval garrison served to keep it from complete desertion. Later, in the evil days of strife, even before the time of Hari Seldon, the weaker sort of men, tired of the periodic decades of insecurity and danger; weary of sacked planets and a ghostly succession of ephemeral emperors making their way to the Purple for a few wicked, fruitless years – these men fled the populated centers and sought shelter in the barren nooks of the Galaxy. Along the chilly wastes of Rossem, villages huddled. Its sun was a small ruddy niggard that clutched its dribble of heat to itself, while snow beat thinly down for nine months of the year. The tough native grain lay dormant in the soil those snow-filled months, then grew and ripened in almost panic speed, when the sun's reluctant radiation brought the temperature to nearly fifty. Small, goatlike animals cropped the grasslands, kicking the thin snow aside with tiny, tri-hooved feet. The men of Rossem had, thus, their bread and their milk – and when they could spare an animal – even their meat. The darkly ominous forests that gnarled their way over half of the equatorial region of the planet supplied a tough, fine-grained wood for housing. This wood, together with certain furs and minerals, was even worth exporting, and the ships of the Empire came at times and brought in exchange farm machinery, atomic heaters, even televisor sets. The last was not really incongruous, for the long winter imposed a lonely hibernation upon the peasant. Imperial history flowed past the peasants of Rossem. The trading ships might bring news in impatient spurts; occasionally new fugitives would arrive – at one time, a relatively large group arrived in a body and remained – and these usually had news of the Galaxy. It was then that the Rossemites learned of sweeping battles and decimated populations or of tyrannical emperors and rebellious viceroys. And they would sigh and shake their heads, and draw their fur collars closer about their bearded faces as they sat about the village square in the weak sun and philosophized on the evil of men. Then after a while, no trading ships arrived at all, and life grew harder. Supplies of foreign, soft food, of tobacco, of machinery stopped. Vague word from scraps gathered on the televisor brought increasingly disturbing news. And finally it spread that Trantor had been sacked. The great capital world of all the Galaxy, the splendid, storied, unapproachable and incomparable home of the emperors had been despoiled and ruined and brought to utter destruction. It was something inconceivable, and to many of the peasants of Rossem, scratching away at their fields, it might well seem that the end of the Galaxy was at hand. And then one day not unlike other days a ship arrived again. The old men of each village nodded wisely and lifted their old eyelids to whisper that thus it had been in their father's time – but it wasn't, quite. This ship was not an Imperial ship. The glowing Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire was missing from its prow. It was a stubby affair made of scraps of older ships – and the men within called themselves soldiers of Tazenda. The peasants were confused. They had not heard of Tazenda, but they greeted the soldiers nevertheless in the traditional fashion of hospitality. The newcomers inquired closely as to the nature of the planet, the number of its inhabitants, the number of its cities – a word mistaken by the peasants to mean â€Å"villages† to the confusion of all concerned – its type of economy and so on. Other ships came and proclamations were issued all over the world that Tazenda was now the ruling world, that tax-collecting stations would be established girdling the equator – the inhabited region – that percentages of grain and furs according to certain numerical formulae would be collected annually. The Rossemites had blinked solemnly, uncertain of the word â€Å"taxes.† When collection time came, many had paid, or had stood by in confusion while the uniformed, other-wordlings loaded the harvested corn and the pelts on to the broad ground-cars. Here and there indignant peasants banded together and brought out ancient hunting weapons – but of this nothing ever came. Grumblingly they had disbanded when the men of Tazenda came and with dismay watched their hard struggle for existence become harder. But a new equilibrium was reached. The Tazendian governor lived dourly in the village of Gentri, from which all Rossemites were barred. He and the officials under him were dim otherworld beings that rarely impinged on the Rossemite ken. The tax-farmers, Rossemites in the employ of Tazenda, came periodically, but they were creatures of custom now – and the peasant had learned how to hide his grain and drive his cattle into the forest, and refrain from having his hut appear too ostentatiously prosperous. Then with a dull, uncomprehending expression he would greet all sharp questioning as to his assets by merely pointing at what they could see. Even that grew less, and taxes decreased, almost as If Tazenda wearied of extorting pennies from such a world. Trading sprang up and perhaps Tazenda found that more profitable. The men of Rossem no longer received in exchange the polished creations of the Empire, but even Tazendian machines and Tazendian food was better than the native stuff. And there were clothes for the women of other than gray home-spun, which was a very important thing. So once again, Galactic history glided past peacefully enough, and the peasants scrabbIed life out of the hard soil. Narovi blew into his beard as he stepped out of his cottage. The first snows were sifting across the hard ground and the sky was a dull, overcast pink. He squinted carefully upward and decided that no real storm was in sight. He could travel to Gentri without much trouble and get rid of his surplus grain in return for enough canned foods to last the winter. He roared back through the door, which he opened a crack for the purpose: â€Å"Has the car been fed its fuel, yunker?† A voice shouted from within, and then Narovi's oldest son, his short, red beard not yet completely outgrown its boyish sparseness, joined him. â€Å"The car,† he said, sullenly, â€Å"is fueled and rides well, but for the bad condition of the axles. For that I am of no blame. I have told you it needs expert repairs.† The old man stepped back and surveyed his son through lowering eyebrows, then thrust his hairy chin outward: â€Å"And is the fault mine? Where and in what manner may I achieve expert repairs? Has the harvest then been anything but scanty for five years? Have my herds escaped the pest? Have the pelts climbed of themselves-â€Å" â€Å"Narovi!† The well-known voice from within stopped him in mid-word. He grumbled, â€Å"Well, well – and now your mother must insert herself into the affairs of a father and his son. Bring out the car, and see to it that the storage trailers are securely attached.† He pounded his gloved hands together, and looked upward again. The dimly-ruddy clouds were gathering and the gray sky that showed in the rifts bore no warmth. The sun was hidden. He was at the point of looking away, when his dropping eyes caught and his finger almost automatically rose on high while his mouth fell open in a shout, in complete disregard of the cold air. â€Å"Wife,† he called vigorously, â€Å"Old woman – come here.† An indignant head appeared at a window. The woman's eyes followed his finger, gaped. With a cry, she dashed down the wooden stairs, snatching up an old wrap and a square of linen as she went. She emerged with the linen wrapped insecurely over her head and ears, and the wrap dangling from her shoulders. She snuffled: â€Å"It is a ship from outer space.† And Narovi remarked impatiently: â€Å"And what else could it be? We have visitors, old woman, visitors!† The ship was sinking slowly to a landing on the bare frozen field in the northern portions of Narovi's farm. â€Å"But what shall we do?† gasped the woman. â€Å"Can we offer these people hospitality? Is the dirt floor of our hovel to be theirs and the pickings of last week's hoecake?† â€Å"Shall they then go to our neighbors?† Narovi purpled past the crimson induced by the cold and his arms in their sleek fur covering lunged out and seized the woman's brawny shoulders. â€Å"Wife of my soul,† he purred, â€Å"you will take the two chairs from our room downstairs; you will see that a fat youngling is slaughtered and roasted with tubers; you will bake a fresh hoecake. I go now to greet these men of power from outer space†¦ and†¦ and-† He paused, placed his great cap awry, and scratched hesitantly. â€Å"Yes, I shall bring my jug of brewed grain as well. Hearty drink is pleasant.† The woman's mouth had flapped idly during this speech. Nothing came out. And when that stage passed, it was only a discordant screech that issued. Narovi lifted a finger, â€Å"Old woman, what was it the village Elders said a se'nnight since? Eh? Stir your memory. The Elders went from farm to farm – themselves! Imagine the importance of it! – to ask us that should any ships from outer space land, they were to be informed immediately on the orders of the governor. â€Å"And now shall I not seize the opportunity to win into the good graces of those in power? Regard that ship. Have you ever seen its like? These men from the outer worlds are rich, great. The governor himself sends such urgent messages concerning them that the Elders walk from farm to farm in the cooling weather. Perhaps the message is sent throughout all Rossem that these men are greatly desired by the Lords of Tazenda – and it is on my farm that they are landing.† He fairly hopped for anxiety, â€Å"The proper hospitality now – the mention of my name to the governor – and what may not be ours?† His wife was suddenly aware of the cold biting through her thin house-clothing. She leaped towards the door, shouting over her shoulders, â€Å"Leave then quickly.† But she was speaking to a man who was even then racing towards the segment of the horizon against which the ship sank. *** Neither the cold of the world, nor its bleak, empty spaces worried General Han Pritcher. Nor the poverty of their surroundings, nor the perspiring peasant himself. What did bother him was the question of the wisdom of their tactics? He and Channis were alone here. The ship, left in space, could take care of itself in ordinary circumstances, but still, he felt unsafe. It was Channis, of course, who was responsible for this move. He looked across at the young man and caught him winking cheerfully at the gap in the furred partition, in which a woman's peeping eyes and gaping mouth momentarily appeared. Channis, at least, seemed completely at ease. That fact Pritcher savored with a vinegary satisfaction. His game had not much longer to proceed exactly as he wished it. Yet, meanwhile their wrist ultrawave sender-receivers were their only connection with the ship. And then the peasant host smiled enormously and bobbed his head several times and said in a voice oily with respect, â€Å"Noble Lords, I crave leave to tell you that my eldest son – a good, worthy lad whom my poverty prevents from educating as his wisdom deserves – has informed me that the Elders will arrive soon. I trust your stay here has been as pleasant as my humble means – for I am poverty-stricken, though a hard-working, honest, and humble farmer, as anyone here will tell you – could afford.† â€Å"Elders?† said Channis, lightly. â€Å"The chief men of the region here?† â€Å"So they are, Noble Lords, and honest, worthy men all of them, for our entire village is known throughout Rossem as a just and righteous spot – though living is hard and the returns of the fields and forests meager. Perhaps you will mention to the Elders, Noble Lords, of my respect and honor for travelers and it may happen that they will request a new motor wagon for our household as the old one can scarcely creep and upon the remnant of it depends our livelihood.† He looked humbly eager and Han Pritcher nodded with the properly aloof condescension required of the role of â€Å"Noble, Lords† bestowed upon them. â€Å"A report of your hospitality shall reach the ears of your Elders.† Pritcher seized the next moments of isolation to speak to the apparently half-sleeping Channis. â€Å"I am not particularly fond of this meeting of the Elders,† he said. â€Å"Have you any thoughts on the subject?† Channis seemed surprised. â€Å"No. What worries you?† â€Å"It seems we have better things to do than to become conspicuous here.' Channis spoke hastily, in a low monotoned voice: â€Å"It may be necessary to risk becoming conspicuous in our next moves. We won't find the type of men we want, Pritcher, by simply reaching out a hand into a dark bag and groping. Men who rule by tricks of the mind need not necessarily be men in obvious power. In the first place, the psychologists of the Second Foundation are probably a very small minority of the total population, just as on your own First Foundation, the technicians and scientists formed a minority. The ordinary inhabitants are probably just that – very ordinary. The psychologists may even be well hidden, and the men in the apparently ruling position, may honestly think they are the true masters. Our solution to that problem may be found here on this frozen lump of a planet.† â€Å"I don't follow that at all.† â€Å"Why, see here, it's obvious enough. Tazenda is probably a huge world of millions or hundreds of millions. How could we identify the psychologists among them and be able to report truly to the Mule that we have located the Second Foundation? But here, on this tiny peasant world and subject planet, an the Tazendian rulers, our host informs us, are concentrated in their chief village of Gentri. There may be only a few hundred of them there, Pritcher, and among them must be one or more of the men of the Second Foundation. We will go there eventually, but let us see the Elders first – it's a logical step on the way.† They drew apart easily, as their black-bearded host tumbled into the room again, obviously agitated. â€Å"Noble Lords, the Elders are arriving. I crave leave to beg you once more to mention a word, perhaps, on my behalf-† He almost bent double in a paroxysm of fawning. â€Å"We shall certainly remember you,† said Channis. â€Å"Are these your Elders?† They apparently were. There were three. One approached. He bowed with a dignified respect and said: â€Å"We are honored. Transportation has been provided, Respected sirs, and we hope for the pleasure of your company at our Meeting Hall.† Third Interlude The First Speaker gazed wistfully at the night sky. Wispy clouds scudded across the faint stargleams. Space looked actively hostile. It was cold and awful at best but now it contained that strange creature, the Mule, and the very content seemed to darken and thicken it into ominous threat. The meeting was over. It had not been long. There had been the doubts and questionings inspired by the difficult mathematical problem of dealing with a mental mutant of uncertain makeup. All the extreme permutations had had to be considered. Were they even yet certain? Somewhere in this region of space – within reaching distance as Galactic spaces go – was the Mule. What would he do? It was easy enough to handle his men. They reacted – and were reacting – according to plan. But what of the Mule himself?