Speech Against Procrastination - 1290 Words

The Five Syllables of Despair What do SpongeBob Squarepants, Joey Tribbiani, my theatre teacher, high school students, and many parents have in common? No, itæŠ ¯ not that they all have Golgi bodies and retinas. Let me give you a hint. They put off 憈ill tomorrow what they should do today... get my drift? About right now, Joey is late for an audition, Spongebob is writing an essay due in five minutes, my theatre teacher is dilly dallying on who to cast for the upcoming show, high school students are too tired to do anything and parents are putting off their morning meetings until the afternoon! And do you know what causes all this chaos? Just five syllables: PROCRASTINATION. From the æ…â€"æŠ £l do it later?excuse to the æ…‰w man, I canæŠ ° believe I put†¦show more content†¦You just realized this and you start to get going on the project. You open Microsoft Word, put your name and period on the top right hand corner, change the date to the day the essay was assigned and think up a titl e for the essay. Suddenly, someone calls your cell phone. Your obnoxious ring tone blasts throughout the house and embarrassed, you quickly pick up. ItæŠ ¯ your friend from AP Music Theory telling you to look up this hilarious music video online. Now distracted from your intended goal, you search the music video. You find out that itæŠ ¯ only three PM and you have enough time to watch a couple other videos. You glance at your incomplete essay, but you have a feeling you can finish it later. You watch a couple more hilarious videos and then glance at the clock again?SEVEN PM. You feel really tired from all the video watching and decide to have dinner. Pretty soon, you are drenched with homework and the essay is due tomorrow! The last minute has arrived! You BS your essay so you can study for the AP Music Theory final exam. You realize that you can get away with procrastinating. The final week of school comes around and you get called over by your teacher about your essay. Uh-oh. You received a *dun-dun-dun* D+. The scholarship you applied to denied your acceptance because you had to maintain a B average. All this happened because you procrastinated. On a larger scale, procrastination can lead toShow MoreRelatedThe Tragic Hero Of Shakespeare s Hamlet1513 Words   |  7 Pagesfriend, and kills the family of his nemesis. Hamlet, on the other hand, weary of the legitimacy of the supernatural, puts on an antic disposition and delays his revenge as he searches for confirmation of the ghost s accusations (x). Hamlet s procrastination causes him to miss multiple opportunities at revenge. For example, he chooses not to kill a vulnerable, praying Claudius (x). In this way, Macbeth and Hamlet fall victim to their own actions. Had Macbeth been satisfied with just his throne, heRead MoreHamlet Cause and Effect Essay1716 Words   |  7 Pageslines 32-66). This speech effectively targeted and engaged an Elizabethan audience because its format, mentions of revenge and ex citing nature caused the audience to sympathise with Hamlet’s decisions and feelings, and become enthusiastic and involved in the play. The format of this speech is a key factor which explains why the Elizabethan audience is effectively targeted. This speech is written and delivered in the form of a soliloquy. This means that it is an â€Å"uninterrupted speech delivered by aRead MoreSoliloquies in Hamlet by William Shakespeare Essay1042 Words   |  5 Pagesthis soliloquy the readers are able to concluded there idea of Hamlet’s character which stimulates his thoughts of revenge and his procrastination. In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, literacy techniques soliloquies are used to expose compelling insights of the main character Hamlet. Hamlet’s opening soliloquy is a remarkably telling and revealing speech that presents a theme of attitude that will supersede continuously throughout the play. The main focus of this soliloquy is the rottennessRead MoreCharlie Chaplin : Film Revolutionary787 Words   |  4 Pageswhy Chaplin was so offended by the new movement and renovations that came to revolutionize the film industry itself, the fusion between film and sound challenged the art of pantomime, the same art Chaplin is known for. The effect of Chaplin’s procrastination of a new era in film caused havoc around him and his team that caused a delay within the popularization of the new movement. Nevertheless, Chaplin was a very creative man when it came to the infinite possibilities he created with the film worldRead MoreCause and Effect Hamlet Essay902 Words   |  4 Pagesof language Elizabethans of his time. A particular example out of the many soliloquies present in the tragedy of Hamlet is the beautiful and moving speech in Act IV, Scene IV (IV, iv, 35-70) of Hamlet depicting his admiration of Fortinbras and his disappointment in himself. The poetic loving audience is noticeably the cause while this splendid speech, along with the many others, is the effect. This soliloquy is a mere example of Shakespeare’s disgust for the political manipulations of his time, theRead MoreAn Examination Of Impulse, Procrastination And Its Consequences1860 Words   |  8 PagesTyler Griffin Mrs. Crochetià ¨re ENG4UR Tuesday, January 6th, 2016 An Examination of Impulse, Procrastination and its Consequences in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet American playwright Maxwell Anderson once stated in his essay, Off Broadway, that, â€Å"the story of a play must be a conflict, and specifically, a conflict between the forces of good and evil within a single person.† The most memorable characters in literature have dealt with struggles both internal and external, in terms of either heroicRead MoreHamlets Key Soliloquies Essay1436 Words   |  6 Pagesbe easier for him to kill himself. The image that is expressed serves to reveal not only the tragic nature of his problem, also highlighted by his reference to suicide, but also create a link between him and the audience. His speech is saturated with suggestions of rot and corruption, as seen in the basic usage of words like rank (138) and gross (138). The world around him is also becoming increasingly more dismal, for his mother- a women of class and grace thatRead MoreThucydides Sicilian Expidition Essay1046 Words   |  5 Pagesto say that one of the most important reasons for the Athenian defeat was due to the fact that they were essentially not ready for another battle. The importance of prepraredness was exemplified by Perciles in his War speech, he was recollecting the Athenian ancestors success against the Persians and he stated it was more good planning than good luck. The problem is that the Sicilian expedition was spontaneous and unanticipated, thus unplanned. As Thucydides recounts that same winter, immediatelyRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet - The Framework Of Deceit1301 Words   |  6 PagesClaudius who becomes the most manipulated in Hamlet s trap characteristic is also of manipulation. Claudius speaks so slyly of the death of King Hamlet to get others to side with him and move on from the mourning of the belated king. Using words in his speech such as â€Å"us†, à ¢â‚¬Å"we† and â€Å"our† to portray unity with the audience, flatter and gain favor from them.Sometime sister, now our Queen, / The imperial jointress (Act I Scene II) The word imperial reminds the court of Denmark s achievements to appealRead MoreHamlet Act 4 Scene 4 Analysis1208 Words   |  5 PagesHamlet’s speech or soliloquy from Act 4, Scene 4 effectively targets both the plays audience and other characters in the play. In Hamlets speech, he is reflecting on how he is meaninglessly prolonging Claudius’s death, even though he could have killed him at anytime and how he has everything he needs to accomplish his goal. He is also reflecting on how God has blessed humans with the power of thought to use when needed and that blessing is what makes humans different from animals. Hamlet’s speech opens

Sunshine Chapter 16 Free Essays

We drove. Old county buildings quickly became Old Town, which turned almost as quickly into downtown and then rather more slowly into nothing-in-particular town, blocks of slightly shabby houses giving way to blocks of somewhat seedy shops and offices and back again. It wasn’t a big city; we went over the line into what most of us called No Town far too soon. We will write a custom essay sample on Sunshine Chapter 16 or any similar topic only for you Order Now In the first place I didn’t want to go there at all, in the second place I didn’t like being reminded that it was so close. New Arcadia’s only big bad spots are in No Town, which did compel a certain amount of evasive driving. Even a SOF car can only go where there are still roads, and urban bad spots get blocked off fast. But we weren’t going nearly indirectly enough for me. Here moved out of the back of my mind into the front, like Large Zombie Rat getting up off your living room floor and following you into the kitchen where you realize that it’s bigger and uglier than you thought, and its teeth are longer, and while zombies are really, really stupid, they’re also really, really vicious. They’re also nearly as fast as vampires, and since they don’t just happen, they’re made for a purpose, if one is coming after you, that’s probably its purpose, and you’re in big trouble. Here was getting worse. It was going to burst out of my skull and dance on the dashboard, and it wouldn’t be anything anyone wanted to watch. â€Å"Stop,† I said. Pat stopped. I tried to breathe. Zombie Rat seemed to be sitting on my chest, so I couldn’t. I couldn’t see it any more though – there didn’t seem to be anything left but its little red eyes – no, its huge, drowning, no-color eyes – â€Å"I – can’t – any – more – turn – around,† I think is what I said. I don’t remember. I remember after Pat turned around and started driving back toward Old Town. After what felt like a long time I began breathing again. I was clammy with sweat and my head ached as if pieces of my skull had been broken and the edges were grinding together. But Zombie Rat was gone. That had been far too much like the bad spot the SOF car hadn’t protected us from, the day Jesse and Pat took me back out to the house on the lake. (Those no-color eyes†¦both mirror-flat and chasm-deep†¦if they were eyes†¦) But we hadn’t tried to drive through a bad spot. And this time it was just me. Pat and Jesse hadn’t noticed anything. Except my little crisis. I didn’t know if I was angrier at their making me try to do – whatever – or at the fact that I’d failed. I’d been to No Town when I was a teenager. It wasn’t like I had no idea. Any teenager with the slightest pretensions toward being stark, spartan, whatever, which I’m afraid I had had, will probably give it a try if it’s offered, and it will be offered. And No Town is a rite of passage; quite sensible kids go at least once. I’d been there more than once. Some of the clubs were pretty spartan by anyone’s standards. Kenny said (out of Mom’s hearing) this was still true. And it was also still true (Kenny said) that you dared each other to climb farther in, over the rubble around the bad spots, although nobody got very far. But I hadn’t got any less far than anyone else, when I was his age. So had whatever-it-was moved there since my time, or was I just more sensitive now than I had been? No Town was actually a lot cleaner now than it had been when I was sixteen and seventeen, which was right after the Wars. Having been once captured by vampires, did I now overreact to their presence? If â€Å"overreact to vampires† wasn’t a contradiction in terms. Or was this another horrible, specific one-off, like my having heard the giggler when no one else could? I didn’t know if I wanted the answer to be yes or no. If it was no, then it might mean my sucker connection was general, which didn’t bear thinking about. But if it was yes, then it meant I was picking up something to do with Bo. Which didn’t bear thinking about. Unless it was Con. Unless this had been his daylight wards, protecting him, protecting us, in the company of a couple of sucker-hating SOFs. No. It wasn’t Con. Whatever it was, it wasn’t Con. Pat drove around into the SOF back lot again. Neither of them had said any word of blame or failure or frustration to me, although I felt I could hear them both thinking. Words like â€Å"triangulation.† I didn’t know if they’d marked where I made them turn around. Probably. But neither of them mentioned it. Yet. â€Å"I’d take you straight to Charlie’s but I don’t think you want the neighborhood seeing you show up in a SOF car,† Pat said, as offhand as if we’d been buying groceries. I started to shake my head – unmarked SOF cars were like SOFs out of uniform; you still knew – but changed my mind. â€Å"Thanks.† I fumbled for the door handle. â€Å"Do you want to come back in? You look a little†¦worn. There are a few bedrooms in the back. They’re pretty basic but they have beds and they’re quiet. Or I could run you home.† This time I did manage to shake my head. Carefully. â€Å"No. Thanks. I’m going for a walk. Clear my head.† The last thing I wanted to do was lie down in a small dark room and try to go to sleep. I didn’t want to go home either. There might be a dead rat in the living room. I got out of the car, lifted my face to the sunlight. It felt like a good fairy’s kiss. Except good fairies don’t exist. As I walked toward the exit Pat called after me, â€Å"Hey. Didn’t you want to tell us something? When you came in.† I looked at him, at the way the shadows fell across his face. He was leaning on the roof of the car, which was unmarked-cop-car blue. That was probably why the shadows in the hollows of his eyes, his upper lip, his throat, looked blue. â€Å"I forget now,† I said. â€Å"It’ll come back to me.† Pat smiled a little: a twitch of the lips. â€Å"Sorry, Sunshine.† I raised a hand and turned away again. He said softly, â€Å"See you.† He could have meant only that he’d see me at Charlie’s, where we’d seen each other for years. But I knew that wasn’t what he meant. I went for a long walk. I spiraled slowly through Old Town, from the outside edge, where SOF headquarters and City Hall lie on the boundary between Old Town and downtown, to the next circle where the area library and the Other Museum and the older city buildings are, through several small parks and down the long green aisle of General Aster’s Way (purple in autumn with michaelmas daisies, some municipal gardener’s idea of a joke), and then into the back streets of Charlie’s neighborhood, where everyone gets lost occasionally, even people who have lived there all their lives, like Charlie and Mary and Kyoko. I was used to getting lost. I didn’t mind. I’d come to something I recognized eventually. I wandered and thought about the latest thing I didn’t want to think about. There seemed to be so many things I didn’t want to think about lately. I didn’t want to think about my increasing sense that something had happened to Con. And that it mattered. There is no fellowship between humans and vampires. We are fire and water, heads and tails, north and south†¦day and night. Maybe I was imagining the bond. Maybe it was a way of dealing with what had happened. Like post-traumatic thingummy. Con himself said the bond existed, but he could be wrong too. Vampires are deadly, but no one says they’re infallible. I blinked my treacherous eyes, watching the things in the shadows slither and sparkle. I had plenty to worry about already. I didn’t have to worry about vampires too. One vampire. The last thing I wanted to be doing was worrying about him. No, the next to last thing. The last thing I wanted was to be bound to him. I hadn’t thought I had any – did I mean innocence? – to lose, after those two nights on the lake. I didn’t know you could go on finding out you’d had stuff by losing it. This didn’t seem like a very good method to me. Over two months of being slowly poisoned probably hadn’t been really good for me either. And the nightmares had been bad. But in a way they’d still been pure. I’d made a mistake – a mistake I’d paid dearly for – but it had been a mistake. A month ago, I’d called on Con. Okay, I was at the end of my tether. But I’d still asked a vampire for help – not Mel, not a human doctor of human medicine. And he’d helped me. The nightmares I’d had since weren’t pure at all. My thought paused there, teetering on the edge of a precipice, and then fell over. What if it hadn’t been a mistake, driving out to the lake? What if I’d had to do it – if not that exact thing, then something similar. What if that restlessness I hadn’t been able to name had caused exactly what it was meant to cause? That question I hadn’t asked Con, out by the lake, is my dad another of your old enemies? Or your old friends? Between the dark thoughts inside my head and the leaping, glittery shadows my eyes saw, I had to stop. I was at the edge of Oldroy’s Park. I groped my way to a bench and sat down. I sat there, and stared at the tree opposite me, and the way the rough ridges of its bark seemed to wiggle where they lay in shade. My thoughts were stuck on that night at the lake. I never liked coincidence much, but I hated the sense I was making now. I watched the wiggling bark. It occurred to me that this was new. I’d been seeing into shadows, but merely what was there, as if there was a rather erratic light on it. This was something else. Which gave me something I could bear to think about, so I thought about it. A few more minutes passed and it seemed to me it was as if I was watching the tree breathing. I found a leaf in shadow, and looked at it for a while; it twinkled, as if with tiny starbursts, but rather than thinking ugh – weird, I kept watching, till there seemed to be a pattern. I thought, it’s as if I’m watching its pores opening and closing. I looked down at my hands. The shadows between the fingers gleamed like a banked fire. The tiny shadows laid by the veins on the backs of them were a tiny, flickering dark green edged with a tinier, even more flickering red. The daylight part of the veins looked as it always did. In the shadow places I could see the blood moving. I was sitting in sunlight, not shade. I automatically chose sun if there was any sun to be had. I remembered the sun on my back the first morning at the lake, like the arm of a friend. I closed my eyes. I heard the footsteps but I didn’t expect them to pause. â€Å"Pardon me,† said a voice. â€Å"Are you all right?† ; I opened my eyes. An old woman stood there, a little bent over, leaning on the handle of her two-wheeled shopping cart. â€Å"You look – tired,† she said. â€Å"Can I fetch you anything? There is a shop on the corner. And it has a pay phone. Can I call someone for you?† She had a nice face. She would be someone you would be glad to have as a neighbor, or as a regular at the coffeehouse you and your family ran. I looked at the shadows that fell half across her face and saw†¦I don’t know how†¦that she was a partblood. And that something about my expression was maybe making her guess I might be going through finding that out about myself. And remembering how hard this was she was going to ask me, a total stranger, if I was all right. I hauled myself back into the ordinary world, and the vision faded. The shadows that fell across her face reverted to being the usual, disorienting, see-through, funny-edged shadows I’d been seeing for a month. She smiled. â€Å"I’m sorry to disturb you. I – er – I thought you might perhaps – er – â€Å" â€Å"Want to be disturbed?† I said. â€Å"Yes. Isn’t it†¦silly†¦how†¦upsetting†¦just thinking can be?† â€Å"It’s not silly at all. The insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.† Scarier than vampires? I thought. Scarier than an affinity for vampires? Well. That was what she’d said, wasn’t it? What my mind contained was an affinity for vampires. She was fishing around in her cart and pulled out a package of Fig Carousels and another of Chocolate Pinwheels. I laughed. She smiled at me again. â€Å"Which?† she said, holding them out toward me. I hadn’t had a Pinwheel in fifteen years, although the secret recipe for Sunshine’s Killer Zebras was the later result of a three-pack-a-week pre-Charlie’s childhood. I pointed to the Pinwheels. She tore open the packet, sat down, and offered it to me. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. She took one too. We sat in silence for a while, and did away with several more Pinwheels. â€Å"Thank you,† I said again. â€Å"Maud,† she said. â€Å"I’m Maud. I live – there,† and she pointed to one of the old townhouses that surrounded the little park. â€Å"I sit here often, in warm weather. I’ve found it’s a good place for thinking; I like to believe Colonel Oldroy was a pleasant fellow, which is why the disagreeable thoughts seem to fall away if you sit here.† Colonel Oldroy had been one of those military scientist bozos who spent decades locked up in some huge secret underground maze because whatever they were doing was so superclassified that the existence of a lab to do it in was confidential information. It still wasn’t public knowledge where his lab had been, but Oldroy got the credit, or the blame, for the blood test SOF still used on job applicants. Before Oldroy there was no reliable test for demon partbloods. (Remember that demon is a hodge-podge word. A Were can’t be a partblood; you either are one or you aren’t. Anything else, anything alive that is, may be called a demon, although things like peris and angels will probably protest.) Pretty much the first thing that Oldroy discovered was that he was a partblood. He’d retired before they had a chance to throw him out, and spent the last twenty years of his life breeding roses, and naming them things like Lucifer, Mammon, Beelzebub, and Belphegor. Belp hegor, under the less controversial name Pure of Heart, was a big commercial success. Mom had a Pure of Heart in her back yard. Oldroy may not have had a very happy life, but it sounded like he’d had a sense of humor. I wondered if he’d had anything to do with synthesizing the drug that made partbloods piss green or blue-violet but pass his blood test, or with setting up the bootleg mentor system. â€Å"Sometimes you have help,† I said. â€Å"Sometimes people come along and offer you Chocolate Pinwheels.† â€Å"Sometimes,† she said. â€Å"I’m Rae,† I said. â€Å"Do you know Charlie’s Coffeehouse? It’s about a quarter mile that way,† I said, pointing. â€Å"I don’t get that far very often,† she said. â€Å"Well, some time, if you want to, you might like to try our Killer Zebras. There’s a strong family resemblance†¦Tell whoever serves you that Sunshine says you can have as many as you can carry away, to bring back to this park and eat. In the sunshine.† â€Å"Are you Sunshine then too?† I sighed. â€Å"Yes. I guess. I’m Sunshine too.† â€Å"Good for you,† she said, and patted my knee. I got home that night at about nine-thirty and had a cup of cinnamon and rosehip tea and stared out at the dark and thought. There was at least one good result of my negative epiphany that afternoon in Oldroy Park: there seemed to me suddenly so many worse things that worrying about Con seemed clean and straightforward. He had saved my life, after all. Twice. Never mind the extenuating circumstances. I stood on my little balcony and remembered: I could not come to you if you did not call me, but if you called I had to come. â€Å"Constantine,† I said quietly, into the darkness. â€Å"Do you need me? You have to call me if you do. You told me the rules yourself.† He’d said Bo was after us. And that Bo would make a move soon. I rather thought that â€Å"soon† in this instance meant a definition of soon that humans and vampires could agree on. Con should have been back before now to tell me what was going on, what we were going to do. How far he’d got in tracing Bo. He hadn’t. There was something wrong. I slept badly that night, but this was getting to be so usual that it was an effort to try to decide if the nightmares I’d had were the kind I should pay attention to or not. I decided that they probably were, but I didn’t know what kind of attention to pay, so I wasn’t going to. I went in to work, turned my brain off, and started making cinnamon rolls, and garlic-rosemary buns for lunch. Then I made brown sugar brownies, Rocky Road Avalanche, Killer Zebras, and a lot of muffins, and then it was ten-thirty and I had the lunch shift free. I had pulled my apron off and was about to untie my scarf when Mel’s hand stopped me long enough for him to kiss the back of my neck. I shook my hair out and said â€Å"Yes† and we went back to his house together and spent some time on the roof. There’s nothing nicer than making love outdoors on a warm sunny day, and this late in the year it felt like getting away with something too. Mel used to laugh, sometimes, right after he came, in this gentle, surprised way, as if he’d never expected to be this happy, and then he’d kiss me, thoughtfully, and I’d hang on to him and hope that I was reading the signs right. That afternoon was one of those times. He’d wound up on top, which, I admit, I had slightly engineered, since there was a bit of an autumnal breeze snaking around and it was nice and warm under Mel’s body. His breath smelled of coffee and cinnamon. We lay there some time afterward – I loved that butterfly-wings feeling of a hard-on getting unhard inside me – and while we lay there I was all right and the world was all right and everything that might not be all right was on hold. And it was daylight and with my treacherous eyes shut I could just lie there and feel the sunshine on my face. After a comfortable, rather dreamy lunch he went downstairs to take apart or put together some motorcycle and I went off to the library. I wanted to talk to Aimil. She looked up from her desk, smiled faintly and said, â€Å"I have a break in, uh, forty minutes,† and went back to whatever she was doing. I had a pass through the NEW shelves where there was a book hysterically titled The Scourge of the Other. It was a good two inches thick. I considered stealing it and putting it through the meat grinder at Charlie’s, but the library would only buy another one and the detritus of ink and binding glue probably wouldn’t do the quality of Charlie’s meatloaf any good. I knew without picking it up that the chapters would have rabble-rousing headings like â€Å"The Demon Menace† and â€Å"The Curse of the Were.† I wasn’t going to guess what noun was desperate enough for vampires. Four months ago I would have just scowled. Today it gave me a hard-knot-in-pit-of-stomach feeling. It was turning out I had a lot of Other friends. And Con, of course, whatever he was. Con, are you all right? My tea was already steeping when I went back to the tiny staff kitchen to find Aimil. â€Å"So, how did it happen?† I said. She didn’t bother to ask how did what happen. â€Å"I knew about your SOFs at Charlie’s because you told me about them.† â€Å"I told you so you wouldn’t stop speaking to me because I seemed to like some guys who wore khaki and navy blue.† â€Å"That they were SOF was supposed to help?† â€Å"They told the best Other stories.† â€Å"I guess. I could have done without the one†¦never mind. Anyway, so I recognized them when they came here. One day Pat and Jesse asked if I’d come by the SOF office some day for a chat – I hadn’t realized you could feel surrounded by two people, you know? – and what was I going to say, no? So I said yes. And then they asked me if I’d be interested in doing a little work for SOF and of course I said no, and then they started working around to telling me they weren’t so interested that I was a reference librarian as they were interested in what I was doing with Otherwatch and Beware. They seemed to know what I was doing at home too, and before I totally freaked Pat held his breath and turned blue. I said, what’s to prevent me reporting you? And he said, because you’re another one†¦I have no idea how they found out.† Aimil stopped, but she didn’t stop like end-of-the-story stop. â€Å"And?† I said. She sighed. â€Å"Rae, I’m sorry. They also said, because you’re a friend of Sunshine’s.† There was no window in the little library staff kitchen. I wanted sunlight. What had my friendship to do with anything? She’d been working for SOF for almost two years. â€Å"And you didn’t tell me.† Aimil walked over to the door and closed it gently. I didn’t want anyone to hear us either, but my spine started prickling with claustrophobia, or dark-o-phobia anyway. â€Å"I’m sorry,† said Aimil. â€Å"It’s only been since I’ve been working for them that I’ve started†¦have been able to start thinking of myself as Other. As a partblood. The best way to pass is to believe in the role, you know? My parents know, of course, but they haven’t made any attempt to find out where it comes from. None of my brothers had anything weird happen to them, and so far as I know they don’t know about me. I haven’t told my family I’m SOF, and I haven’t – hadn’t – told anyone I’m partblood. Who was I going to tell? Why? The only person who would have a right to know is the father of my children, and I’m not going to have children and pass this on. I hope none of my brothers’ kid s†¦well. Because I’d have to tell them then.† I didn’t say anything right away. â€Å"When did you find out?† â€Å"Yeah,† said Aimil. â€Å"Right about the time I met you. You looked as lost as I felt. And then it turned out we got along, and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Did everyone but my mother and me assume that who my dad was was public knowledge?† â€Å"It wasn’t quite that bad.† I looked at her. She said reluctantly, â€Å"It was maybe worse during the Voodoo Wars but by then everyone knew you, and your mom had married Charlie, and Charlie’s family has lived in Old Town forever, and you were normal by context, you know? And then you had two dead-normal little pests for brothers. Nobody ever, ever caught you doing anything weird at school – you seemed just as fascinated as the rest of us when some of the Ngus and Bloodaxes and so on talked about magic handling. I don’t deny that a few people looked at you a little sideways.† I’d let my tea sit too long, but the bitterness in my mouth seemed appropriate. â€Å"You were into cooking, Rae. And a generation or two ago the Blaises were top dog, sure – â€Å" Were they, I thought. So many things my mother never told me. Although I couldn’t really blame her for my avoiding reading globenet articles that mentioned the Blaises. Could I? I’d wanted to be Rae Seddon. â€Å"You still heard a little about them at the beginning of the Wars†¦but then it’s like what was left of them disappeared. So maybe you were genuinely normal, you know? Most people say that magic handling runs out in families sooner or later.† â€Å"The SOFs didn’t think so,† I muttered. Disappeared. Bo’s lot brought me a Blaise. And, not just a third cousin who can do card tricks and maybe write a ward sign that almost works, but Onyx Blaise’s daughter. Onyx Blaise. Whose mother taught his daughter to transmute. How did the people who were looking at me sideways count those one or two generations? What else could my gran do? Had she done? Disappeared how? â€Å"And nobody gets more normal than your mom.† True. I would think about how to thank her for my very well embedded normalcy later. It might be difficult to choose between cyanide and garrotting. â€Å"Can we go outside?† I said. The sun was behind a cloud but daylight is still better than indoors. â€Å"Aimil. I want to ask you a favor.† â€Å"Done.† â€Å"Okay. Thanks. It’s what SOF wants me to do – try and get some location fix on one of your creepy cosmails. But I want to do it somewhere that isn’t behind proofglass.† â€Å"In daylight,† said Aimil. â€Å"Okay. We’ll do it at my house. My next afternoon off is Thursday.† â€Å"I’ll find someone to swap with.† â€Å"It’s not only the proofglass, is it? It’s also SOF. You don’t want to do it just because SOF tells you to.† How to cite Sunshine Chapter 16, Essay examples

Management Accounting Beyond Budgeting

Question: Discuss about the Management Accounting for Beyond Budgeting. Answer: Case Study 1 Topic: Beyond budgeting or budgeting reconsidered? A survey of North-American budgeting practice Author's Thesis: This article is based on the key role of budgeting in management control in an organization. In this paper the author has considered two arguments related to budgeting and surveyed two organizations to find the evidence for the arguments and has concluded which argument is supportive. The first arguments given in this article is that the problems with budgeting arise from the manner budgets are utilized and the second arguments is that budgeting processes are basically imperfect. The 3 main objectives of the study were to make literature on North-American budgeting practices up to date, to gather evidence to evaluate the criticisms and to determine trends in budgeting practice to provide base for future academic research. This shows author's concern for future studies on budgeting (Libbya Lindsay, 2010). As per the author, budgeting is one of the most wonderful opportunities for the managers to rejuvenate their organizations. Budgeting process is one of the most ineffective practices of the management as it consumes a lot of energy and time. Budgeting hides opportunities, big dreams and stunts growth (Hansen, Otley, Stede, 2003; Merchant, 1990; Shields Young, 1993). All main ideas of the paper To conduct the study a web based survey was conducted with the senior managers of the selected organizations. It is the best methods to collect the data from such huge audience as it saves time and cost both. Author selected two countries to analyze the trends: the selected organizations were based on US or Canada only, it must have at least 100 people employed, it must be large enough to have financial budgeting system. The questionnaire of the survey consisted of close ended and open ended questions. To present the evidence of the arguments the author selected a huge sample size for the survey. A total of 2583 CMA members and 13,712 IMA members were selected in the target sample. Canadian survey was conducted first and based on the analysis of the Canadian survey, US survey was modified. Modifications were made to improve some measures, to eliminate non-discriminating questions and to add some new questions as per the Canadian analysis. A total 558 respondents submitted the response for the survey out of which 346 were CMA members and 212 were US members. Out of the total respondents 51 percent of the respondents were from manufacturing industry and 49 percent of the respondents were from service industry. This shows the reliability of the data in terms of diversified industries. It means the results of the study can be applied in both the industries. Strengths and weaknesses of the paper To make the research reliable the author has performed primary research. Secondary research was not present in the paper. Secondary research must be present in this type of research as it provides the past scenarios related to the arguments presented in the research. Lack of secondary research has made the survey questionnaire less targeting towards the main problem. The author has measured the budgeting on various parameters like company's brand value, strategy, fixed performance contracts, adaptability etc. this shows that author interpret their arguments with supportive information. The material provided by the author was authentic, clear and accurate. The work of the author is satisfactory. Case Study 2 Title: Paying People to Lie: the Truth about the Budgeting Process Author's Thesis: This article is based on a situation where employees in an organization lie to their superior and subordinates to achieve targets in the decided budgeting schedule. The author of the article tries to understand the reason behind this situation and then recommended some suggestions to overcome these situations. In this article the author has used real budgeting process of a company for the whole year. Presenting the whole year budget planning process before analyzing the situation is a good approach of the author. To realize the arguments the author has considered some imaginary situations that frequently occurs between a manager and his subordinates. To make his research more reliable and consistent the author has used proved statements from reliable and trusted sources like statement from the book of Adizes (1989), where he stated that the people who tells a lie most about their inability to do, get more rewards as compared to others (Jensen, 2003). Jensen used graphical representation of parameters like salary bonus and performance of the employees measured by the % of budget on various schemes like curvilinear bonus schemes, fundamental sources of the incentives, pay-for-performance scheme etc. Finally, on the basis of the analysis of all these graphs Jensen stated that if manager's compensation is independent of the budget then they have no momentary incentives to lie, to game or to omit information. This shows that Jensen performed a deep analysis at each and every level of the company from lower management to top management. Finally Jensen recommended that organizations must stop to indulge budgets or targets in the compensation formulas and promotion systems for employees and managers. Jensen supported the argument that eliminating budget and target from the organization ultimately improves integrity in the organizations. Jensen supported the statement that employees lie and in revert they get rewarded; this destroys the value of their organization (Jensen, 2003). Other studies related to the topic was conducted by Hope and Fraser (1997), Kersnar (1999), Lester (2000), and Thomas (2000) where they conducted a study on a number of Scandinavian companies including Svenska Handelsbanken wherein they supported the argument that organizations abandoned budgeting to avoid the damaging effects of the behavior it encourages. Strengths and Weaknesses of the research paper This research paper has used all the theoretical aspects to prove their arguments that no practical analysis has been performed by the author to gain the actual insight of the situation that most of the companies face due to budgeting and setting targets. Although Jensen's theoretical work is very reliable and accurate, each term related to the topic has been explained very clearly but absence of actual situation makes a weak point for the research paper as the experts believe on the factual data and practical analysis of current circumstances. Hence overall the research is theoretical significant but it could be made more reliable by adding some current situations (Jensen, 2003). Case Study 3 Topic: Is the annual budget really dead? Author's Thesis: The purpose of study was to assess the validity of the criticism as seen by chief financial officers and other high-ranking officers in large Finnish companies. Bo-Goran Ekholm and Jan Wallin argued that in this age of information, the traditional budgeting is incapable of meeting the demands of the current competitive environment. The motive of the author for considering this topic is the little interest of the other experts in analyzing the reason behind this situation (Ekholm Wallin, 2000). A very few evidence is available till yet in case of Sweden companies. Author has presented his arguments from both perspectives: theoretical and practical. To present the arguments from theoretical perspectives Ekholm and Wallin presented statements from various proved studies like Hope and Fraser (1997: 20), Gurton, (1999), Porter (1996) etc. finally on the basis of the theoretical evaluation they stated that situation is dualistic because on the one hand they found that traditional budgeting is considered as a tool for maintaining internal effectiveness while on the other hand they found that it has apparently lost its active strategic role during the 1990s (Ekholm Wallin, 2000). To find more evidence on the role of traditional budgeting Ekholm and Wallin conducted a primary research to get the first hand results. To get the actual insight of the company's situation this research paper is focused on some very relative research questions which have not been answered yet by the previous researchers. A total of five research questions have been prepared on the basis of which a survey was conducted with 650 Finnish companies including some world-class companies such as Nokia, UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso etc. this shows that this research paper has actually done some relevant work. Finally, on the basis of both theoretical and practical study Ekholm and Wallin argued that only small number of company were thinking of scraping the annual budget entirely. Although the firms have monitoring systems, continuous forecasts, and balanced scorecard, they still believe that annual budget is important in ensuring internal effectiveness. It also helps in informing stockholders a nd other stakeholders (Ekholm Wallin, 2000). Gafvelin and Kamola (1996), Lindvall (1997), and Glader, Johansson, Nilsson, Nilsson, and Samuelson (1996) supports the arguments that most of the Swedish firms use budgets as it is the primarily instrument that helps a company to achieve its internal effectiveness. Although they argued that budget does not offsets to any external effectiveness. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study Overall the research paper is reliable to consider the arguments and to use them in the future studies. Ekholm and Wallin addressed all the previous questions which were not referred till yet by any of the researcher. This research papers has strongly presented all the arguments by providing enough evidence from both primary and secondary research. All the sources used by the author are credible and trusted (Ekholm Wallin, 2000). Case Study 4 Topic: New Ways of Setting Rewards: The Beyond Budgeting Model Author's Thesis: Principles enables leaders to break free from the contracts and move to a more lean, ethical and adaptive organization. Hope and Fraser tried to come out of the budgeting model to know the new ways of setting rewards for the managers and other employees in the organization. Hope and Fraser have focused on the various incentive schemes and their effect on the overall performance of the employees and managers. As per the current available data some people believes that incentives is one of the most powerful way to improve the individual performance while other believes that it is an unnecessary bribe that force people to do what they dont want to do (Hope Fraser, 2003). To reach to a trustful conclusion Hope and Fraser have considered various academic debates on the effectiveness on incentive schemes on the overall performance of the employees and the organization. Hope and Fraser have used graphical representation to show the impact of total salary and bonus on the performance outcome. In their research paper they considered some facts like why traditional approaches fail, beyond budgeting model etc. to come to a reliable solution. They argued that goal of the organizations are disconnected from the rewards. To prove their statements Hope and Fraser used a performance appraisal formula for a particular business unit. Overall by considering all the previous debates and current scenarios they concluded their final statement (Hope Fraser, 2003). Using the Hope and Fraser work it is possible to show that budgeting model is not the only way to reward the people but there are some other approaches also that depends upon the company, strategy, and prevailing culture (Hope Fraser, 2003). Kohn and some other researchers argued that motivating people by giving incentives is not an amount of motivation rather it is a type to deal with the weaken interest of the employees towards the task itself (Kohn, 1993). On the other hand McGregors Theory Y stated that people are motivated by self-esteem and the personal development not with the incentive schemes (McGregor, 1960). Jensen and Murphy stated that virtually there was no link between amounts paid to the employees and how well their companies performed for shareholders. To prove this evidence they conducted a survey in the year 1998 involving 771 companies of the UAE. Out of all companies more than two-third agreed with the fact that they did not see any connection between incentives and financial results (Murphy, 1990). Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study No primary research was conducted by the researchers. Evidences and facts have been collected from the debates and theoretical facts. Data used by the researchers was not robust enough to explain the complex issues related to the approaches beyond the budgeting model. Available evidences were not strong enough to justify the statement of the researchers. Limited sources were used for defining the statements. Research could be made more impressive and significant by doing a little more research (Hope Fraser, 2003). Case Study 5 Title: Budgeting Gamesmanship Author's Thesis: The thesis of this research is related to the budgeting gamesmanship at the product level in several large, diversified companies. The reason to choose this research topic is that Christopher K. Bart analyzed the limited attention of the business writers and other academics from the games that managers play with their budgets. Only a few studies have been conducted on the topic and out of which very few were qualitative. Hence, to add some significant evidences and statements Christopher K. Bart has chosen this topic for the research. The purpose of the author to conduct this research is to present an argument that builds on the past researches. The language of the author used in the paper is objective. The charts used in the research paper are prepared as per the information collected from the managers of all the eight firms. The charts properly presented the whole information (Bart, 1988). To effectively reach to supportive statements the researcher conducted primary research. Through past researches, the researcher has tried to verify the facts and interpret the opinion of various experts. The intended audience was clearly defined by the author. The intended audience for the research was all the product managers from eight diversified firms. An in-depth interview was conducted with each of the manager. In the final conclusion the author argued that product managers do indeed play games in their budgets. Apart from this, the author has also highlighted the facts that contribute to and facilitate the playing of budgeting games and those that frustrate and constrain their occurrence. This shows the efficiency of the author to clearly state their arguments (Bart, 1988). A study was conducted by Derek Teshun Huang (2003) on budgeting gamesmanship of managers in firms operating in various sectors of the economy. Through this research they argued that budgetary gamesmanship behavior was related to the organizational culture and performance measurement system (Huang, 2003). As per Odia and Okoye (2012) budgeting gamesmanship is not new. It is a routine behavior adopted by the managers to cope up with pressure during the budgetary negation process. According to them budget games are a way to achieve the set targets (Odia Okoye, 2012). Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study Data used in the study is consistent, reliable and precise. The research study is quantitative in nature and this saved the overall time and cost. No secondary information was used in the research. A total first hand primary research was conducted by the researcher. No evidences were available from the secondary research yet the research has focused on the issues that were not discussed in the secondary research (Bart, 1988). References Bart, C. K. (1988). Budgeting Gamesmanship. The Academy of management Executives, 2(4), 285-294. Ekholm, B.-G., Wallin, J. (2000). Is the annual budget really dead? The European Accounting Review, 9(4), 519539. Gafvelin, S., Kamola, A. (1996). Budget till vilken nytta? Magisteruppsats vid Foretagsekonomiska institutionen. Uppsala university. Glader, M., Johansson, C., Nilsson, J., Nilsson, G., Samuelson, L. (1996). 'Ekonomistyrning i svenska borsforetag', Rapport fran sektionen for redovisning ochnansiering. Stockholm School of Economics. Hansen, S., Otley, D., Stede, W. V. (2003). Practice developments in budgeting: an overview and research perspective. Journal of Management Accounting Research. Hope, J., Fraser, R. (1997). Beyond budgeting: breaking through the barrier to The Third wave". Management accounting, 75(11). Hope, J., Fraser, R. (2003). New Ways of Setting Rewards: The Beyond Budgeting Model. California Management Review, 45(4), 104-119. Huang, D. T. (2003). Budgeting Gamesmanship In Managers. Pan-Pacific Management Review, 6(1), 17-32. Jensen, M. C. (2003). Paying People to Lie: the Truth about the Budgeting Process. European Financial Management, 9(3), 379406. Kersnar, J. (1999). Re-inventing the budget'. CFO Asia. Kohn, A. (1993). Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work. Harvard Business Review, 71(5). Lester, T. (2000). Monday management: managers count blessings as budgets begin to lose currency some firms long for freedom from the burden of budgeting. Irish Times. Libbya, T., Lindsay, R. M. (2010). Beyond budgeting or budgeting reconsidered? A survey of North-American budgeting practice. Management Accounting Research, 21. Lindvall, J. (1997). Det budgetlosa fo retaget. Balans, 1, 27-30. McGregor, D. (1960). The Human Side of Enterprise. McGraw-Hill. Merchant, K. (1990). The effects of financial controls on data manipulation and management myopia. Accounting, Organizations and Society. Murphy, K. J. (1990). CEO IncentivesIts Not How Much You Pay, but How. Harvard Business Review, 68(3). Odia, J., Okoye, A. (2012). Budget Gamesmanship. JORIND, 10(3). Shields, M., Young, S. (1993). Antecedents and consequences of participative budgeting: evidence on the effects of asymmetrical information. Journal of Management Accounting Research. Thomas, T. (2000). Toss your budget out the window. Business Review Weekly.

Writing Style of Rita Dove free essay sample

She has received numerous literary and academic honors, among them the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and, more recently, the 2003 Emily Couric Leadership Award, the 2001 Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1997 Sara Lee Frontrunner Award, and many more. Most recently, President Barack Obama presented her with the 2011 National Medal of Arts which made her the only poet with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts to her credit. (University of Virginia) Rita Dove has written many different kinds of poetry. She also wrote books, short stories plays and all types of literature. The specifics of her writing can be seen by analyzing three pieces of poetry that Rita Dove has written. The works In the Old Neighborhood, My Mother Enters the Work Force, and The Bistro Styx are great examples. Through these three works, Rita Dove’s use of home in her poetry, her use of figurative devices such as similes and metaphors, and Dove’s view on children coming of age in different ways will be explored and proven. We will write a custom essay sample on Writing Style of Rita Dove or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By looking at the poem â€Å"In the Old Neighborhood† a number of things can be inferred from the overall poem. Dove seems to go back in time to view her home as a child from a newly shifting and surreal location. The speakers in Dove’s poems are not usually at ease with their surroundings, and they tend to look upon scenes of home as seen through a distant and dispassionate eye. Dove’s home seems alien to her. Even the flowers are strangers there. Analyzing the poem farther it appears Dove uses her views on home to further alienate from our familiar picture of that typical suburban home. She seems to be talking about the house in a manner that would indicate it is a photographic negative; this emphasizes race as an alienating factor. Dove’s writing usually charts a sense of displacement and this seems to be the case in â€Å"The Old Neighborhood†. In My Mother Enters the Work Force Dove does not use her home theme, but in The Bistro Styx, which is a small excerpt from a works entitled Mother Love, Dove does make references to home. This poem is a recasting of the story of Demeter and Persephone from ancient Greek mythology. In short, Hades kidnaps Persephone from her home, and Demeter, her mother goes insane trying to get her back. Demeter is able to go after Persephone only to find that too late Persephone has already adapted to life in the underworld, and must remain there because she ate the fruit of the dead. Dove’s version is a lot like this, but hers takes place in Paris. It deals with loss of home and a home coming that was not meant to be. Many of Rita Dove’s works deal, approach, define, or scrutinize the ideas of home, while they are equally concerned about the impossibility of arriving there. Like all poets, Rita Dove relies heavily on figurative language to create a vivid and enthralling imaginary world for her audience. As Dove’s poetry is so varied, it is easy to spot any number of types of figurative language she likes to use. After looking through the selections it appears she does not rely heavily on any particular type of figurative language. In the Old Neighborhood makes use of personification and contrasting dark vs. light elements. My Mother Enters the Work Force uses a little personification with rich and descriptive metaphors and even throws in a hyperbole or two. The Bistro Styx is a beautifully worded poem that uses elements of different types of rhyme schemes combined with similes, metaphors, and personification all rolled into a semi-tight package. The reason for the semi-tightness is that Dove feels a weak poem is one that is not left open in at least one way. Dove’s description is very vivid as seen with this simile from The Bistro Styx, â€Å"The Chateaubriand arrived on a bone-white plate, smug and absolute in its fragrant crust, a black plug steaming like the heart plucked from the chest of a worthy enemy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  . Here is a short but memorable hyperbole from My Mother Enters the Work Force, â€Å"†¦traveling the lit path of the needle through quicksand taffeta or velvet deep as a forest†. Figurative language has a direct effect on tone but with the variety of poems that Dove produces it is hard to pin anything like a specific figurative language setter for the tone. It depends on what, and for whom she is writing. Rita Dove uses many different kinds of figurative language and seems to be effective in getting her message across from her different works in different ways. Dove also wrote very heavily on mother/daughter relationships and coming of age stories. In My Mother Enters the Work Force, it is obvious that this person finally has to take on the responsibility of becoming an adult and caring for himself or herself. While this may not be a traditional coming of age type story it still represents a great change for an individual who has never experienced this kind of thing before. In The Bistro Styx, the darker side of the mother/daughter relationship is explored. The poems displays there comes a point when a mother can no longer protect her daughter, and in a sense, she must let her out of the nest. Dove approaches this from both sides of the issue. Demeter, the mother, is insanely worried about her daughter. Persephone is unmindful of her mother’s fear and is off having a great time partying in Paris. Although Persephone is having a great time, what she doesn’t realize is that she can never really return home. The end of the poem symbolizes the mother realizing her daughter’s sexual awakening, and with that the realization that things are out of her control. Dove delves deep into these kinds of relationships in many of her poems, not just the examples given. (afropoets. net) Through these three works examples were explored of Rita Dove’s use of home in her poetry, her use of figurative devices such as similes and metaphors, and her views and themes on children coming of age in different ways. These three elements do not fully encompass all that is Rita Dove. In fact, with a poet as diverse as she is it is hard to pick three main ideas when really they aren’t as main as you might think.  Rita Dove is a complex and fascinating individual who will continue to write her style of poetry for many years to come.

Biography of Hans Bethe

Biography of Hans Bethe German-American physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced BAY-tah) was born on July 2, 1906. He made key contributions to the field of nuclear physics and helped to develop the hydrogen bomb and the  atomic bomb used in World War II. He died on March 6, 2005. Early Years Hans Bethe was born on July 2, 1906 in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine. He was the only child of Anna and Albrecht Bethe, the latter of whom worked as a physiologist at the University of Strasbourg. As a child, Hans Bethe showed an early aptitude for mathematics and often read his fathers calculus and trigonometry books. The family moved to Frankfurt when Albrecht Bethe took a new position at the Institute of Physiology at the  University of Frankfurt am Main. Hans Bethe attended secondary school at Goethe-Gymnasium  in  Frankfurt until he contracted tuberculosis in 1916. He took some time off school to recover before graduating in 1924. Bethe went on to study at the University of Frankfurt for two years before transferring to the University of Munich  so that he could study theoretical physics under German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld. Bethe earned his PhD in 1928. He worked as an assistant professor at the University of Tubingen and later worked as a lecturer at the University of Manchester after immigrating to England in 1933. Bethe moved to the United States in 1935 and took a job as a professor at Cornell University. Marriage and Family Hans Bethe married Rose Ewald, the daughter of German physicist Paul Ewald, in 1939. They had two children, Henry and Monica, and eventually, three grandchildren. Scientific Contributions From 1942 to 1945, Hans Bethe served as the director of the theoretical division at Los Alamos where he worked on the Manhattan Project, a team effort to assemble the worlds first atomic bomb. His work was instrumental in calculating the bombs explosive yield. In 1947 Bethe contributed to the development of quantum electrodynamics by being the first scientist to explain the Lamb-shift in the hydrogen spectrum.  At the beginning of the Korean War, Bethe worked on another war-related project and helped to develop a hydrogen bomb. In 1967, Bethe was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his revolutionary work in stellar nucleosynthesis. This work offered insight into the ways in which stars produce energy. Bethe also developed a theory related to inelastic collisions, which helped nuclear physicists understand the stopping power of matter for fast charged particles. Some of his other contributions include work on solid-state theory and a theory of the order and disorder in alloys. Late in life, when Bethe was in his mid-90s, he continued to contribute to research in astrophysics by publishing papers on supernovae, neutron stars,  black holes. Death Hans Bethe retired in 1976 but studied astrophysics and served as the John Wendell Anderson Emeritus Professor of Physics Emeritus at  Cornell University  until his death. He died of congestive heart failure on March 6, 2005 at his home in Ithaca, New York. He was 98 years old. Impact and Legacy Hans Bethe was the  head theoretician on the Manhattan Project  and was a key contributor to the atomic bombs that killed more than 100,000 people and wounded even more when they were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during  World War II. Bethe also helped to develop the hydrogen bomb, despite the fact that he was opposed to the development of this type of weapon. For more than 50 years, Bethe strongly advised caution in using the power of the atom. He supported  nuclear nonproliferation treaties and frequently spoke out against missile defense systems. Bethe also advocated for the use of national laboratories to develop technologies that would lower the risk of nuclear war rather than weapons that could win a nuclear war. Hans Bethes legacy lives on today. Many of the discoveries that he made in nuclear physics and astrophysics during his 70 year career have stood the test of time, and scientists are still using and building upon his work to make progress in theoretical physics and  quantum mechanics. Famous Quotes Hans Bethe was a key contributor to the atomic bomb used in World War II as well as the hydrogen bomb. He also spent a significant portion of his life advocating for nuclear disarmament. So, it is really no surprise that he was often asked about his contributions and the potential for nuclear war in the future. Here are some of his most famous quotes on the topic: When I started participating in thermonuclear work in the summer of 1950, I was hoping to prove that thermonuclear weapons could not be made. If this could have been proved convincingly, this would of course have applied to both the Russians and ourselves and would have given greater security to both sides than we can now ever achieve. It was possible to entertain such a hope until the spring of 1951, when it suddenly became clear that it was no longer tenable.If we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history will remember is not the ideals we were fighting for but the methods we used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan who ruthlessly killed every last inhabitant of Persia.Today the arms race is a long-range problem. The Second World War was a short-range problem, and in the short range I think it was essential to make the atomic bomb. However, not much thought was given to the time after the bomb. At first, the work was too absorbi ng, and we wanted to get the job done. But I think that once it was made it had its own impulse - its own motion that could not be stopped. Today we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons development still continues. Whether and when the various Nations of the World can agree to stop this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still influence this process by withholding their skills.  Accordingly, I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.   Hans Bethe Fast Facts Full Name:  Hans Albrecht Bethe  Occupation: PhysicistBorn: July 2, 1906 in  Strasbourg, Germany (now Strasbourg, France)Died: March 6, 2005 in Ithaca, New York, USAEducation: Goethe University Frankfurt,  Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichKey Accomplishment: Received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work in  stellar nucleosynthesis. Served as head theoretician on the Manhattan Project.  Spouses Name: Rose EwaldChildrens Names: Henry Bethe,  Monica Bethe Bibliography Broad, William J. â€Å"HANS BETHE CONFRONTS THE LEGACY OF HIS BOMB.†Ã‚  The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 June 1984, www.nytimes.com/1984/06/12/science/hans-bethe-confronts-the-legacy-of-his-bomb.html?pagewantedall.Broad, William J. â€Å"Hans Bethe, Prober of Sunlight and Atomic Energy, Dies at 98.†Ã‚  The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/science/hans-bethe-prober-of-sunlight-and-atomic-energy-dies-at-98.html.Gibbs, W. Wayt. â€Å"Hans Albrecht Bethe, 1906-2005.†Ã‚  Scientific American, 1 May 2005, www.scientificamerican.com/article/hans-albrecht-bethe-1906-2005/.â€Å"Hans Bethe.†Ã‚  Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2 July 1906, www.atomicheritage.org/profile/hans-bethe.â€Å"Hans Bethe - Biographical.†Ã‚  Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1967/bethe-bio.html.Irion, Robert. â€Å"A Towering Physicists Legacy Faces a Threatening Future.†Ã‚  Science, American Asso ciation for the Advancement of Science, 7 July 2006, science.sciencemag.org/content/313/5783/39.full?rss1.

Superb electric cars you should know about

Superb electric cars you should know about 5 coolest electric cars in the world No doubt, electric cars can be called the automobiles of the future. Though a lot of people only start to accept these vehicles, trying to make a step forward from petrol consuming cars. The industry develops greatly and there are a lot of descent representatives among the electric cars range, which will astonish you and will not leave you indifferent. Our nature friendly future welcomes such cars and we suggest you to reveal all design and functionality options of these progressive cars. Tesla Model X A lot of specialists consider this car the coolest for now. Tesla Model X has outstanding design; its Falcon Wing doors give it special elegancy and refinement. The interior attracts its buyers with the windshield, which is panoramic, and touch screen for functions controlling. There are three models of this car available: Model 75D, Model 90D and Model P90D. All of them have two engines and differ in battery capacity and engine power. The car can have five, six or seven seats and its price range is from 132 to 142 thousand dollars. However, Tesla Inc. already plans issue of new breakthrough model in 2019. So, let’s arm ourselves with patience and see what the company has designed for customers and whether it can surprise us. Audi R8 e-tron Cool design of this car can hardly leave someone without interest. Two electric engines, which total capacity reach more than 450 horsepower, make it possible to move with 280 kilometers per hour. Huge lithium-ion battery is located in the bottom of the car and makes it possible to have rides with the 450 kilometers without additional charging, in comparison to 215 kilometers, which could drive its predecessor. The car’s charging station requires only two hours for charging the battery. The functional capabilities and outstanding design make this car a superb model for those, who want to own an electric car. Renovo Motors Coupe Designers of the Renovo Coupe developed design of this car similar to sport car exterior of the 60-70th. The retro style, combined with the classical interior, makes this car unique and not alike others. The classical interior is distinguished by the liquid-crystal control panel and astonishes with its luxury style. Electric engine of the Renovo Coupe has the 500 horsepower capacity and enables to pick-up the speed from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3-4 seconds. The maximal speed of the car equals 194 kilometers per hour, which is quite impressive, taking into account the heavy weight of the car. The approximate price of the car is about 529,000 dollars and for sure it will be available to a limited number of people, but driving this car will be a great experience for any of us. Morgan EV3 The car is made by the British constructors and represents by itself an untypical automobile. You can drive almost 240 kilometers without charging and pick up to 145 kilometers per hour. If you want to be an owner of such unusual car, be ready to spend from 40,000 to 50,000 dollars. The only thing you should bear in mind is that this automobile has no top. So there can be two options, drive this car only when the weather is fine or get adjusted to any weather conditions. Honda CR-Z prototype This electric car is distinguished from the above mentioned cars by its four engines, which together make 450 horsepower.   The car is extremely fast and is designed for sport racings. Thus, in 2015 the car won the 11th place in overall and first in the Exhibition Class at the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. However, the idea with four engines is great; it still requires some improvements and modifications. Presumably, Honda will deal with this question in the nearest future. Apparently, these are the coolest electric automobiles nowadays. Unfortunately, they are unavailable for ordinary people, who ride bikes to work or students, who have a lot of concerns with their academic papers and limited budget. Anyhow, follow the latest researches and constructions and you never know, maybe tomorrow you will be driving one of those cuties.

Change Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Change Managment - Essay Example As the discussion declares  managers today face constant change and they are often exposed to various challenges. Against this background, this paper has been designed to critically analyse the extent to which the concepts of management and leadership impact on the change process in a given organization.  This paper highlights that  change is either unplanned or planned alteration in the mode of carrying out activities or the status quo. Change is about making things differently and in case of planned change, it can be seen that the change activities are goal oriented and they are intentional. Both internal and external factors can necessitate change in a particular organization. The internal factors that can influence change in an organization include human resources issues while external factors include economic, social, political as well as technological issues.   It is important for organizations to conceptualise change as the gap that exists between the current status qu o and the desired objective. In order to achieve this feat, change has to be properly planned and there are many issues that are involved in carrying out this initiative. Drawing from the case given in patch1 attached, it can be observed that managing change is a process that requires concerted efforts especially by the leaders responsible for the change process.  There are quite a number of activities that are involved in change management such as initiating change, planning, action plan as well as stabilising the change results.

Understanding Research in Social Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Understanding Research in Social Work - Essay Example 3) Quality of the article: The article met the conditions of a good research article since it had an abstract or the summary of the methods and findings, background to the study in terms of aims/objectives and justification or rationale for the study. Additionally, he article included a literature review stating what is already known about the topic and gaps in knowledge. 5) Conclusion: Manthorpe, Goodman, Harari, Swift, and Iliffe article was extensive and addressed the objectives of the study. The data reflected the situation for the target population since it entailed interviewing individual as well as groups. The sample was large and thus meaningful inferences on the target population were obtained. Manthorpe, Goodman, Harari, Swift, and Iliffe’s article Smarter Working in Social and Health  Care: Professional Perspectives on a New  Technology for Risk Appraisal  with Older People  focuses on a report by Smarter Working in Social care and Health (SWISH). The report was a feedback on how an information technology system for assessment of old people in the society can be improved. The report suggested that it would be more appropriate to use feedback information obtained from the old people themselves to develop health and social programs for them. The research involved two qualitative studies done in different regions within London that aimed at developing a method that would enable assessment of the information regarding old people to determine those who were at risk. Additionally, the study intended to investigate the applicability of such a method in enriching public sector information and empower the local communities report cases of old people at risk. This p aper is a qualitative analysis of Smarter Working in Social and Health Care: Professional Perspectives on a New  Technology for Risk Appraisal  with Older People. The paper will critically discuss

Hamilton county judges Essay Example for Free

Hamilton county judges Essay Hamilton County judges try thousands of cases per year. In an overwhelming majority of the cases disposed, the verdict stands as rendered. However, some cases are appealed, and of those appealed, some of the cases ae reversed. Kristen DelGuzzi of The Cincinnati Enquirer conducted a study of case handled by Hamilton County judges over the years 1994 through 1996 (The Cincinnati Enquirer, January 11, 1998). Shown in Judge.xls are the results for 182,908 cases handled (disposed) by 38 judges in Common Pleas Court, Domestic Relation Court, and Municipal Court. Two of the judges (Dinkelacker and Hogan) did not serve in the same court for the entire three-year period. The purpose of the newspape’s study was to evaluate the performance of the judges. Appeals are often the result of mistakes made by judges, and the newspaper wanted to know which judges were doing a good job and which were making too many mistakes. You are called in to assis in the data analysis. Use your knowledge of probability and conditional probability to help with the ranking of the judges. You also may be able to analyze the likelihood of appeal and reversal for cases handled by different courts. Managerial Report Prepare a report with your rankings of the judges. Also, include an analysis of the likelihood of appeal and case reversal in the three courts. At a minimum, your report should incluse the following: a. The probability of cases being appealed and reversed in the thee different courts. b. The probability of a case being appealed for each judge. c. The probability of a case being reversed for each judge. d. The probability of reversal given an appeal for each judge. e. Rank the judges within each court. State the criteria you used and provide a rational for your choice.

The Roles of WWI and WWII in International Politics Essay -- History W

Throughout the field of international politics, many things forward the change of thinking and many cause futile argument and heated debate amongst international relations theorists and politicians alike, but none do this more than the subject of war. War has long been on the minds of the greatest thinkers the world has known, from Aristotle’s â€Å"A Treatise on Government† (322BC) through, Machiavelli, Da Vinci to more recent thinkers and philosophers of our time. Theories have clashed violently over the subject and no other wars have had such a significant impact as World War I or World War II. They have become staple points for debate, and the basis’ of theories themselves, not just for war, but for the eventualities of other world-changing factors. The question of which war has had more impact on thinking about International Politics has puzzled intellectuals since the Second World War commenced. Not like many would think, at the end of World War II, simply the advent and prospect of another ‘Great War’’ immediately changed opinion. Realists sat smugly back as Liberal Internationalists ideals were thrown out. The questions began. How has the start of this war altered our previous ideals? How will it change world opinion? How on earth are we going to win another war? And the questions never stop, to this day, we evidently are still discussing the outcomes and impact of each World War, and of their collective impact. Unlike many of the great debates throughout International Politics, there is no ‘general consensus’ to subscribe to on this subject of thought. You may still freely choose World War II or shown here, World War I, and find plentiful evidence to shape and back up your theory, that â€Å"The Great War† had a greater impac... ...ations Theory. Routledge Goldmann K., 1994 Logic Of Internationalism - Coercion and accommodation. Routledge Gray C. S., 2007. WAR, PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. An Introduction to Strategic History. Routledge Griffiths M. 1992. Realism, Idealism and International Politics - A reinterpretation. Routledge Morgenthau H., 1948. Politics Among Nations. New York, Knopf Nye S. J. Jr. and Keohane O. R., 1971. Transnational Relations and World Politics. Harvard University Press Rengger N. J., 2000. International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order. Routledge Sheffield, G., 2001. Forgotten Victory: The First World War - Myths and Realities. Headline Review Wendt A., 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Camebridge University Press Waltz K., 198.1 The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Better. Adelphi Papers, Number 171 The Roles of WWI and WWII in International Politics Essay -- History W Throughout the field of international politics, many things forward the change of thinking and many cause futile argument and heated debate amongst international relations theorists and politicians alike, but none do this more than the subject of war. War has long been on the minds of the greatest thinkers the world has known, from Aristotle’s â€Å"A Treatise on Government† (322BC) through, Machiavelli, Da Vinci to more recent thinkers and philosophers of our time. Theories have clashed violently over the subject and no other wars have had such a significant impact as World War I or World War II. They have become staple points for debate, and the basis’ of theories themselves, not just for war, but for the eventualities of other world-changing factors. The question of which war has had more impact on thinking about International Politics has puzzled intellectuals since the Second World War commenced. Not like many would think, at the end of World War II, simply the advent and prospect of another ‘Great War’’ immediately changed opinion. Realists sat smugly back as Liberal Internationalists ideals were thrown out. The questions began. How has the start of this war altered our previous ideals? How will it change world opinion? How on earth are we going to win another war? And the questions never stop, to this day, we evidently are still discussing the outcomes and impact of each World War, and of their collective impact. Unlike many of the great debates throughout International Politics, there is no ‘general consensus’ to subscribe to on this subject of thought. You may still freely choose World War II or shown here, World War I, and find plentiful evidence to shape and back up your theory, that â€Å"The Great War† had a greater impac... ...ations Theory. Routledge Goldmann K., 1994 Logic Of Internationalism - Coercion and accommodation. Routledge Gray C. S., 2007. WAR, PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. An Introduction to Strategic History. Routledge Griffiths M. 1992. Realism, Idealism and International Politics - A reinterpretation. Routledge Morgenthau H., 1948. Politics Among Nations. New York, Knopf Nye S. J. Jr. and Keohane O. R., 1971. Transnational Relations and World Politics. Harvard University Press Rengger N. J., 2000. International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order. Routledge Sheffield, G., 2001. Forgotten Victory: The First World War - Myths and Realities. Headline Review Wendt A., 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Camebridge University Press Waltz K., 198.1 The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Better. Adelphi Papers, Number 171

Describe the cognitive processes required when preparing for examinations

Introduction The aim of the present paper was to investigate and discuss the cognitive processes involved in the preparation for exams. The paper covers the background of cognitive psychology, discussing the separate faculties of cognitive processing. It then goes on to discuss the specific faculties of attention and memory, as these were two fundamental mechanisms included in the literature when taking into account the learning and memorisation of information. Discussion about the cognitive processes involved in attention and memory is incorporated in to the paper, and suggestions on how students can use cognitive techniques to enhance the performance of these cognitive processes whilst preparing for exams are subsumed. The paper concludes with the suggestion that the working memory model as proposed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974) is the main cognitive process involved in exam preparation. The term â€Å"cognition† is derived from the Latin word â€Å"cognoscere† which when translated in to the English language, denotes the meaning â€Å"to know†. Hence, cognitive psychology is concerned with the scientific study of human cognition. Processes such as perception, learning, judgement, decision making and memory are some of the mechanisms that constitute as cognitive ability. The fundamental aim of researchers in the field of cognitive psychology is to establish how individuals acquire and apply knowledge and information to and from their environments (Lu & Dosher, 2007). Knowledge through perception is attained by way of the five senses where different aspects of the information such as form and motion represent various different features of the stimuli (Livingstone & Hubel, 1988; Ungerleider & Mishkin, 1982; Julesz, 1971). The purpose of learning is to improve the response of the individual to their environment (Kandel, 1976; Estes, 1969). Thus, thr oughout the psychological literature on cognitive processing, emphasis has been based on the effect of prior experience and procedural knowledge on an individual’s performance (Roediger, 1990). The attention function of the cognitive process manages information so that the mind operates efficiently without becoming overloaded. This is done through selective processing, whereby certain pieces of information are elected for processing. Additionally, the attention faculty may also manage the intake of simultaneous pieces of information by dividing and distributing the resources applied to them (Broadbent, 1957; Posner, 1980; Treisman, 1969). The judgement and decision making faculty of cognitive processing is required for the individual to effectively perform a voluntary behaviour. The choice that the individual makes may be driven by implicit or explicit judgement and selection, implicating that the individual may have a conscious or unconscious cause for their decision (von Ne umann & Morgenstern 1944; Luce, 1959). Yet, the most developed aspect of cognitive psychology and the study of cognitive processes is the faculty of memory. Memory studies place considerable emphasis on investigating the methods in which memories are acquired, stored and retrieved. Research provides indication that the capacity of memory is divided to perform separate duties such as retaining information about the environment, procedures, skills and running the working memory mechanism (Cowan, 1995; Dosher, 1999). The essay at hand endeavours to discuss which cognitive processes are employed during preparation for an exam, with specific references to the attention and memory functions of the brain, as these are the two functions that go hand in hand when retaining and recalling information (Cherry, 2014). The aptitude to process information selectively through attention, and retain information in a way in which is accessible through the working memory are two imperative aspects of c ognitive capacity. While evidence indicates that attention plays little role in the maintenance of information encoded in the memory (Fougnie, 2008), it has been suggested that there are strong links between the working memory and attention faculties of the cognitive mind during the encoding and manipulation process of knowledge acquisition (Cherry 2014; Fougnie, 2008). Theoretical models of the working memory commonly describe a role for attention. However, between these different models, the exact role for attention has not been agreed on and remains vaguely unclear, thus debates about which processing stage that attentional selection occurs (Fougnie, 2008). The most widely accepted model of memory is the Working Memory Model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. In this model, attention is the mediator between sensory memory and the central executive, where sub functions such as the phonological store and the visuospatial sketch pad, two short term memory stores, hold short ter m auditory and visual information respectively. These are known as the ‘slave systems’ and provide evidence as to how humans are able to multitask. According to the working memory model, the information from these slave systems are then transferred back to the central executive whereby they are encoded in the long-term memory (Fougnie, 2008). These findings provide an outline to which cognitive processes occur during exam preparation, where students attempt to retain information that they will later on retrieve. Yet, further research suggests that learning and retaining information for exams may be a more complex procedure than those outlined by memory models (Hill, 2009). Ebbinghaus (1885) investigated the method in which the retention and forgetting of information occur. The establishment of the forgetting curve provided insight into how memories dissipate over a period of time (Groome, Brace, Dewart, Edgar, Edgar, Esgate, Kemp, Pike & Stafford, 2006). Similarly, Bart lett’s Story Recall experiment (1932) lent insight to the notion that information is required to hold semantic value in order to be remembered (Groome, et al., 2006). Thus, according to Hill (2009), the most effective ways for students to memorise information for their exams is through repetition, elaboration and organisation. To further elaborate on the suggestions of Ebbinghaus (1885), Bartlett (1932) and Hill (2009), researchers proposed several studies in sustenance. Ebbinghaus (1885) further stated that in order to avoid forgetting and enhance memory, repetition was significantly valuable. Making use of the ‘mind’s voice’, the phonological loop, the cycle of learning and accurately recalling strengthens the memory, thus making exam preparation easier as less time will be required to re-learn the material, hence why revising for exams more than once improves recall (Hill, 2009). Moreover, in favour of Bartlett (1932), it has been found that information possessing semantic value is recalled more efficiently (Craik & Tulving, 1975; Ley, 1978). It may be hypothesised that the explanation of is deduced to the attention function of the working memory selecting meaningful information in order to enhance the individual’s performance based on prior learning and experience. Based on these findings, mnemonics may be suggested as an effective revision tool, since associating information with vivid visual imagery and words has proven enhanced recall (Bower, 1972). Furthermore, presenting information in a structured manner in which meaning is conveyed has been found to facilitate recall (Hill, 2009). By grouping or ordering materials in an organised manner, the individual will take advantage of the mind’s existing method of representing information semantically, thus making the information easier to encode and retrieve through memory. For example, Ley et al (1978) found that presenting medical information to patients in an organ ised and structured way improved their recall up to 25%. Thus, it is suggested that students adequately organise their learning materials in a semantic manner in order to prepare for their exams in the most resourceful way. Although the literature has provided rich evidence to support the notion that the memory and attention faculties play a major role in exam preparation, there are also relevant limitations in need of addressing. The working memory model has been criticised as being invalid, as when new studies propose findings that do not fit with the current working memory model, the working memory model is modified in order to accommodate the new findings. This makes it difficult to falsify the model or replace it with a new one, and indicates that any research findings based on the working memory model are void (Neath & Nairne , 1995). Moreover, the findings of Ebbinghaus (1885) have been questioned, as the subject of his study was himself. Without any objective findings, resea rchers believe the results of the forgetting curve to be unreliable (Hill, 2009). Despite these criticisms, later research based on both the working memory model and the forgetting curve has successfully uncovered new findings on the cognitive processes involved in memory (Groome, et al., 2006). In conclusion, the findings in the literature have lent ample support to the notion that exam preparation heavily relies on the cognitive processes of attention and memory. The literature has indicated that these two faculties work conjointly in order to achieve long-term memory. Studies on the Working Memory Model have identified the specific roles of the two cognitive processes, and the literature has provided further support on how the working memory model is vital in exam revision through detailed descriptions of these functions. Studies on memory retention and forgetting have implicated that repetition, elaboration and organisation are the key skills that an individual needs to employ whist preparing for exams in order to maintain an optimal memory capacity for the revised information. Regardless of the limitations associated with the research done on memory, the working memory model still stands as a strong representative for the cognitive process involved in exam preparation. References Baddeley, A.D. & Hitch, G.J. (1974). Working memory, in G.H. Bower (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory. Vol. VIII. 47-90, New York: Academic Press. Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bower, G.H. (1972). Mental imagery and associative learning. In L. Gregg (Ed.), Cognition in Learning and Memory, 51-88. Broadbent, D. E. (1957) A mechanical model for human attention and immediate memory. Psychological Review, 64. 205-215. Cherry, K. (2014). Top 10 Memory Improvement Tips. Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/tp/memory_tips.htm Accessed: 12/03/14 Craik, F.I.M. & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, General, 104. 268-294. Cowan, N. (1995) Attention and memory: an integrated framework. New York: Oxford University Press. Dosher, B.A. (1999) Item interference and time delays in working memory: Immediate serial recall. International Journal of Psychology Special Issue: Short term/working memory, 34. 276-284. Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Uber das Gedachtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie. Leipzig: Dunker & Humbolt. Estes, W. K. (1969) Reinforcement in human learning. In J. Tapp (Ed.), Reinforcement and behavior. New York: Academic Press. Fougnie, D. (2008). The Relationship Between Attention and Working Memory. New Research on Short Term Memory. 1-45. Groome, D., Brace, N., Dewart, H., Edgar, G., Edgar, H., Esgate, A., Kemp, R., Pike, G. & Stafford, D. (2006). An introduction to cognitive psychology. Processes and disorders. Second Edition. East Sussex: Psychology Press. Hill, G. (2009). AS & A Level Psychology Through Diagrams: Oxford Revision Guides. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Julesz, B. (1971). Foundations of cyclopean perception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kandel, E. R. (1976) Cellular basis of behavior: An introduction to behavioural neurobiology. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. Livingstone, M.S. and Hubel, D.H. (1988) Segregation of form, colour, movement and depth: Anatomy, physiology and perception. Science, 240. 740–749. Ley, P. (1978) Memory for medical information. In Gruneberg, M.M., Morris, P.E. & Sykes, R.N. (eds) Practical Aspects of Memory. London: Academic Press. Lu, Z.L. & Dosher, B.A. (2007). Cognitive Psychology. Scholarpedia.2(8), 2769. Luce, D. R. (1959) Individual choice behavior; a theoretical analysis. New York: Wiley. Neath, I. & Nairne, J.S. (1995). Word length effects in immediate memory: Overwriting the trace decay theory. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2, 429-441. Posner, M.I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3-25. Roediger III, H. L. (2002) Processing approaches to cognition: The impetus from the levels-of-processing framework. Memory, 10. 319-332. Treisman, A. M. (1969) Strategies and models of selective attention. Psychological Review, 76. 282-299. Ungerleider, L.G. & Mishkin, M. (1982) In D.J. Ingle, M.A. Goodale, & R.J.W. Mansfield (Eds.). Analysis of visual behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

Acquiring the Human Language-Playing the Language Game

1.What arguments in support of language as an innate ability are brought up in the film? This video is about a great mystery; how do children acquire language without seeming to learn it and how do they do so many things with so little life experience. 2.Explain the ambiguity of the question asked by Jill de Villiers to both children and graduate students: â€Å"When did the boy say he hurt himself?† Why is this question ambiguous and why is it interesting to note that this question is ambiguous? Question was â€Å"When did the boy say he hurt himself?† and there are 2 answers to this question. If focus on When said, the answer is â€Å"in the bathtub.† However when it focus on When fallen, the answer is â€Å"climbing the tree† And it is very interesting because they found that children will give only 1 answer when given unambiguous sentence â€Å"When did the boy say HOW he hurt himself†, â€Å"in the bathtub.† By this experiment, we can conclude that a child must have some kind of knowledge of syntactic structure because nobody had ever taught the child about this. 3.List some of the fundamental questions regarding language learning/language acquisition that are discussed in the film and explain how are linguists trying to answer these questions. (What questions do linguists ask and what kind of evidence do they look for to answer them?) The original theory on how languages are learned was it is learned by imitation. However, linguists found that child not only imitate adult but produces brand-new sentences. And the fundamental questions were raised, if we don’t learn by imitation, how do we learn? So linguists try to prove that acquiring language is different from learning other things by some experiments. 4.Mention some of the evidence in the film presented as evidence AGAINST the imitation theory of language learning. Child can produce brand-new sentence and they make errors. They can understand quite complex sentence in early age. 5.The film (Chomsky) claim that acquiring language is different from kinds of learning. What does he mean? It means we seem to learn language with different say from leaning other difficult things such as playing the trumpet and riding bicycle. It is not learned by practice, or by imitation. 6.What proof is there that analogy is not the explanation for first language learning? With the sentence â€Å"I painted the red barn†, we can substitute color word, and it is acceptable. If we switch the last two words, it is still acceptable. So by analogy, child will extend this to other verb â€Å"see† and create new sentence. â€Å"I saw a read barn.† And a concept of analogy doesn’t work for switching last two words, since I saw a bard red is broken sentence. And also, with sentence â€Å"Taro ate† it means he ate something but this something is not his shoes or hat. Another proof that analogy is not the explanation of first language learning is the verb â€Å"grow† can mean differently in the sentence such as â€Å"John grows tomatoes† and â€Å"John grows.† Analogy is wildly broken and cannot explain first language learning. 7.Observe the details of the experiment with the 16-month old babies who are shown Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Explain the experiment’s design, including the question posed by the researchers and the conclusions they reach regarding children’s acquisition of syntax based on the results of this study. The experiment design is showing two films simultaneously to babies. And asks to find the same scene with the explanation, Cookie monster washing Big Bird and Big Bird feeding Cookie Monster. The questions behind the study was will the child look more at the screen that matches the language that they are hearing. And the result surprisingly show that they understand the order of the information. 8.An extended section of the film discusses how children learn new words. Explain the point(s) illustrated by the following examples: -The child who calls his own dog â€Å"Nunu†, then applies the word Nunu to several other things (another dog, cow, slippers, salad) : Overgeneralization – â€Å"The Gavagai Problem† (the big rabbit on a billboard) : Assumption – Child labeling an item a flimmick, a closed flimmick and a spud : Child expects object labels to refer to the whole object – Children discussing the meaning of the word â€Å"alive† and the one child deciding that a car must be â€Å"alive† A child picks out a category that is relevantly alike 9. The film moves to Papua New Guinea (home of 750 languages spoken by 3,000,000 people) and discusses language universals and then Universal Grammar. -What aspects of language are candidates for language universals? Subject, Object, Verb – What are examples are presented in the film as evidence of Universal Grammar? There are certain kinds of mistake that children never seem to make. (ex. What did you eat your egg and?) 10. Explain what Chomsky means when he says that â€Å"all children are pre-programmed in advance of experience; they know fixed, invariant structural principles of language†. Capacity to learn language is deeply engraved in the mind and children are not taught language, they just do it.