Effects of Inflation

Inflation is defined as a sustained increase in the general level of prices which results in a decline in the purchasing power of money. Inflation is measured through the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures proportional changes in prices in a representative â€Å"basket† of g’n’s, weighted according to their importance in a typical Australian households budget. The RBA aims to keep inflation at an annual rate of 2-3%, and in order to do this a number of policies are available for the Australian government.Keeping Inflation under control is a primary concern for the Australian Government as it affects so many different parts of the Economy, including Economic growth, standard of living and unemployment. There are three types of inflation, depending on their causes. Firstly, demand pull inflation occurs when there is an excessive aggregate demand at or near full employment. If aggregate demand exceeds aggregate supply, prices of g’n’s rise as a rationing mechanism. This form of inflation is usually associated with periods of high economic activity.Secondly is cost-push inflation. If business costs such as the cost of wages or materials rise, businesses may aim to maintain profit levels by passing these costs onto consumers. This will result in higher prices and therefore inflation. The final type of inflation is imported inflation. Imported inflation occurs when the price of imports rises, and either adds to business costs (resulting in cost-push inflation) or feeds into the CPI as the price of final goods. Furthermore, a depreciation in the Au$ will raise import prices, also adding to imported inflation.There are a number of factors which may cause inflation in the Australian economy. A major cause of demand-pull inflation is excessive growth in aggregate demand. If aggregate demand increases from AD to AD1, aggregate supply which is the equivalent of real GDP will rise to GDP2 and the price level will rise from P to P2. This results in the inflationary gap of cd. This increase in aggregate demand may be the result of a number of factors, including increases in consumption expenditure, investment spending, net government expenditure, the money supply, or export incomes.Another major cause of inflation, this time cost-push inflation, is a decrease in aggregate supply. If aggregate supply decreases from AS to AS1, real GDP will decrease to GDP2 and the price level will rise to P1. This results in both a contraction in real GDP and a rise in inflation. The main causes of this decrease in aggregate supply is excessive wage growth not accompanied by productivity increase, a rise in the cost of raw materials, and other inputs, or a rise in government taxes or other charges that raise costs for firms.Cost-push inflation may also be the result of imported inflation it there is a rise in world prices of imported goods used in the production process (such as raw materials and intermediate goods) firms are lik ely to pass these costs onto consumers, resulting in inflation on the other hand if there is a rise in world prices of consumer goods, increased import prices will feed directly into the CPI, also resulting in inflation. Furthermore a depreciation in the Au$ in foreign exchange markets will result in a rise in the prices of imported raw materials, intermediate goods, and consumer goods, again contributing to Australia’s inflation.This is demonstrated in the stimulus when the RBA credits the decrease in inflation to the fading impact of 2000s exchange rate depreciation. A less common cause of inflation is the existence of monopolies or oligopolies. If a monopoly or oligopoly exists in an industry, the lack of competition allows producers to push up prices. This again results in inflation. The final cause of inflation in Australia is inflationary expectations. Inflationary expectations refer to the behaviour of individuals and businesses who seek to compensate for the current i nflation, as well as expected future price rises.This may be the result of either firms pushing up prices, or wage earners seeking higher nominal wages. Also, if consumers expect future prices to rise, they rather buy g’n’s now, which leads to increases in spending. This results in demand-pull inflation. Inflation can impact the economy in 3 ways. 1)By encouraging investment in speculative and unproductive activities and discouraging investment in ventures considered productive. Inflation encourages investment in real assets such as gold and real estate because they are considered ‘good shelters’ for inflation.This is because the scarcity of them often outpaces or at least keeps pace with the rate of inflation. If inflation occurs, people will seek to own such assets, shifting resources to these speculative and unproductive assets. Similarly this discourages investment in other assets. This is because entrepreneurs will not think it is financially viable t o invest and pursue a project that will only result in less profit, due to the higher costs of inflation. Similarly inflation increases the cost of production thus also discouraging entrepreneurs.For example, if inflation is high, people will invest in gold and real estate. Otherwise known as the opportunity cost, because people will allocate their resources into such ventures (gold and real estate) they must then forego investing into other ventures that are considered productive such as a new business, that may be producing capital goods or normal goods and services. Also by discouraging entrepreneurs is the rise in the costs of production that occur due to inflation, for example the raw materials.Similarly interest rates will rise, making it more expensive to borrow funds for investment purposes, making investment projects less profitable. Either way, inflation can cause a loss in production of capital goods, leading to lower living standards in the future, or a loss in the produ ction of normal goods and services, leading to lowering current living conditions, as current needs and wants go unsatisfied. Since returns from productive capital take longer to materialise, it means that entrepreneurs are also faced with a lesser return.This means that if the rate of inflation is greater than the return offered by the investment, then the project will not be considered economically viable, nor worthwhile. Similarly the risk of loss from any investment project will grow with inflation. Many small businesses take a couple of years before they start to make a profit, so if inflation is high, and is was not taken into account when the business was first planned, then the cost of production may rise, and the resulting price for the commodity will be too high for consumers. ) If inflation is present and is greater than that overseas, it reduces the overseas competitiveness of the Australian economy. This is because inflation is not only associated with a rise in prices, but also an increase to the costs of production. Therefore making overseas exports cheaper to the domestic market. Similarly the overseas firms do not have to put up with the rises in the costs of production. This provides a leakage in the circular flow (purchase of exports) and thus dampening demand in the domestic market, which if severe enough could lead to a recession, bringing with it many economic problems.An example of how inflation can lead to a recession, would be the 1970s, when high inflation averaged at 10. 4%. Which due to the high oil prices and strong domestic demand led to high inflation in the 1980s (8. 1%). This period of high inflation led to a dampening in spending and a recession in the 1990s (1990-1992) causing many problems such as unemployment. 3) It also creates many winners and losers in the economy. Those that benefit are the owners of real assets (real assets and gold), because their assets are worth more.As well as those belonging to well-organized grou ps who can demand wage increases (eg, strong trade unions. ) This can lead to rapidly rising wages, increasing the costs of production, and also discouraging investment in productive capital as mentioned above. In addition to this inflation can benefit people who have already borrowed funds because the cost of repayment, represent less as inflation rises. This is because inflation is defined by a loss in the real value of money, therefore the repayment will diminish over time.Conversely inflation disadvantages those on fixed incomes because they lose the real value of income as their money represents less purchasing power. Similarly for the same reasons it disadvantages those that keep their money in liquid form (ie, bank deposits). Also those that lend money receive less back in terms of repayment, due to the loss in value (eg, A mortgage repayment in 1960 was worth more than in 1980, where high inflation had occurred).Also since it reduces international competitiveness, inflation can disadvantage exporters who find themselves with less business opportunities. This can effect the economy, as overseas markets will not purchase Australian goods and services. Therefore the economy will not receive the injection into the circular flow that it would usually, without inflation. Without the strong domestic support that is present in Australia’s economy, the economy could have the effect of dampening economic activity, and aggregate demand.When inflation occurs in the Australian economy it usually had a number of causes. The main causes are excess aggregate demand, cost-push inflation, inflationary expectations and imported inflation. inflation disadvantages many groups in the economy, who in turn benefit other groups. This is because inflation can influence the allocation of resources in regards to encouraging and discouraging investment, the overseas competitiveness of the Australian market, as well as effecting individuals and firms, who often benefit at th e expense of others.

Gender and the Media Essay

Socialisation is the way an identity is defined throughout life for a person. Children are seen a blank slate that is going to have a personality and roles set by the environment he lives in. A child generally has an idea on what gender they are by the time they are 2 years old. A boy will portray himself with the colour blue, would be very hyperactive and tend to bully girls. Females would be more mature, refer themselves to the colour pink and socialise with other girls, this is called primary socialisation. Personalities are defined through interactions with people that are close to them, there society’s values and they learn the attributes of their sex at a young age and they know what is expected of them as a certain sex. The person is reinforced by social praise and punishment so the person can learn from mistakes and good deeds. Media has played a massive part on how socialisation as occurred to an individual. I am directly concerned with how the media affects young women within today’s society, particularly through the use of gender stereotyping within young women’s magazines, mainly through articles and advertisements. Here, the ideas and beliefs already created by the media are useful to advertisers because they are socially accepted ideologies. They know that they will influence women. It has been stated in the past that it is these media interpretations of ‘The Perfect Woman’ that have been the cause for so many women becoming increasingly pressured into looking good and so dieting, keeping fit etc. This can, in extreme cases lead to serious psychological diseases such as anorexia and bulimia, where one of the main causes has been identified as social pressure. Society affects how people perceive themselves, Body Image awareness still exists in our society. Many people living on our society are influenced by the media and the fashion industry. Both are equally responsible for the increased number of people suffering from eating disorders. Fashion industries tend to only feature whose figures vary from eight to ten. Their androgynous waif-like figures are presented as representative of the everyday woman. In doing so the average woman in the street is forced to measure herself against an unrealistic ideal. Most models are above average height, have naturally lithe bodies and are aged between sixteen and thirty. Their image is constructed and manipulated by a predominately male homosexual industry which appears reluctant to show women as curvaceous individuals. Celebrities themselves fall foul of the dominant media representation of women. When society thinks of a family we automatically think of the nuclear family in which there is a mum, dad and often two or three children. This type is seen as the statistical norm until the 1980’s where it was considered abnormal to deviate from this ideal family type and there were characteristics that came with this which were seen as socially acceptable. Children were seen as the outcome of a loving heterosexual couple and each person i. e. the mum and dad should have distinctive roles within the family. The mother should be concerned with motherhood and household chores. The father should protect the family and be a disciplinary role model, as well as their main role being defined as the breadwinner, this meaning they often bring in the most money. The mother should be the housekeeper who attians the house and looks after the children as they grow up. A young male would grow up learning the princilpes of the father and the young female would grow up adobting the mather principles. Post modernism shows that gender is the main topic in an individual’s life as events that have occurred are directly linked to a individuals gender. Post modernism gives the individual more choice and that is the basis of post modernism, choice! The individual is more independent on their life choices; such old life ambitions of marriage and children are not compulsory but are a option that some people may seek. Unlike pre modernism and modernity where marriage and kids are ultimate goals and people automatically assume that this is the right path to follow. This gives way to new events that once were either not existent or unethical such as unisex and inter-racial marriages. It shows a deterioration of religion and supernatural belief, which leaves great division among people in identity and lifestyles. People are now working more flexible times, fashion has changed in such away that people can wear what they want, food is more oriental and music comes in a wide variety. Identity has separated into many huge groups such as social classes, ethnic group, age and gender. This leads to unrest to certain groups that want change as people now have a sense of spreading opinion and arguing their rights. Certain groups such as feminists, Marxist ideology and ageist rights. As choice and individual opinion now can be widely credited it gives chance for concern to be broadcasted such as the feminist supporters wanting females to be treated as equals among men. The first wave of feminism gave people the ideology in 1928 when they got the vote, which provoked the idea of gaining more such as the 2nd wave of feminism in the 1960’s when women burned the bra’s, this caused great reasoning between the two gender differences. Karl Marx however says that society not the individual is the important issue as that eventually the working class will soon rule society. This radical change has brought in new changes such as ‘the new man’ that is a unique gender that of a masculine and unemotional male, the new man focuses on his physical appearance and pays attention to diet, personality and self image, he is more emotional and doesn’t fit in with a patriarchy idea. As post modernism has totally effected today’s society it shows how an individual can make all the differences and how self concern and freedom is the new ideal but this idea could change and evidence suggests that it could lead to pre modernism of the old age as though it is a long term cycle of a society but critics say this is the final situation of society and the end solution is total equality among genders, races and age. This idea of choice could lead in any direction depending on current affairs within society yet time is not a important issue as this process could last a log time.

Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 18

Maggie stared at her wildly. â€Å"You†¦what?† â€Å"I shouldhave told you earlier,† Aradia said. â€Å"ButI didn't realize he was your brother until my mind became clearer. You're a lot alike, but I couldn'tthink properly to put it together.† She added,quickly and with terrible gentleness, â€Å"But, Maggie, I don't want to get your hopes up. I don't thinkthere's much chance he's all right.† Maggie went still. â€Å"Tell me.† â€Å"He actually saved me before you ever did. I wascoming to this valley, but I wasn't alone-therewere several other witches with me. We didn'tknow where the pass was exactly-we'd only man aged to get incomplete information from our spiesin Hunter Redfern's household.† Maggie controlled her breathing and nodded. â€Å"It was Samhain evening-Halloween. We werewandering around in the general area of the pass,trying to find a spell that would reveal it. All wedid was set off an avalanche.† Maggie stopped breathing entirely. â€Å"An avalanche?† â€Å"It didn't hurt your brother. He was on the road,the place we should have been, if we'd only known.But it did kill the others in my party.† â€Å"Oh,†Maggie whispered. â€Å"Oh, I'm sorry†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I wasn't seriously hurt, but I was completely dazed. I could feel that the others were dead, butI wasn't sure where I was anymore. And that waswhen I heard your brother shouting. He and Sylvia had heard the avalanche, of course, and they cameto see if anyone was caught in it.† â€Å"Miles would always stop to help people,† Maggiesaid, still almost in a whisper. â€Å"Even if they only needed batteries or socks or things.† â€Å"I can't tell you how grateful I was to hear him.He saved my life, I'm sure-I would have wandered around dazed until I froze. And I was so happy torecognize that the girl with him was a witch †¦ â€Å"She grimaced. â€Å"Huh,† Jeanne said, but not unsympathetically.†I bet that didn't last.† â€Å"She recognized me, too, immediately,† Aradiasaid. â€Å"She knew what she had. A hostage to bargainwith all the other witches. And to buy credit withHunter Redfern. And of course, she knew that she could stop me from seeing Delos.† â€Å"All she cares about is power,† Maggie said quietly. â€Å"I heard hertalking-it'sall about her, and how the witches have given her a bad deal becauseshe's not a Harman or something.† Aradia smiled very faintly. â€Å"I'm not a Harman byname, either. But all true witches are daughters of Hellewise Hearth-Woman-if they would just realize it.† She shook her head slightly. â€Å"Sylvia was so excited about finding me that she couldn't resist explaining it all to your brother. And he †¦ wasn't happy.† â€Å"No,† Maggie said, burning with such fierce pride that for a moment the cold cell seemed warm to her. â€Å"She'd only told him before that she was taking him to some secret place where legends were stillalive. But now she told him the truth about theDark Kingdom, and how she wanted him to be apart of it. She told him that it could be theirstheir own private haven-after Delos left with Hunter Redfern. He could become a vampire orshapeshifter, whichever he liked better. They wouldboth be part of the Night World, and they couldrule here without any interference.† Maggie lifted her hands helplessly, waving themin agitation because she couldn't find words. How stupid could Sylvia be? Didn't she know Miles atall? â€Å"Miles wouldn't care about any of that,† she finally got out in a choked voice. â€Å"He didn't. He told her so. And I knew right awaythat he was in trouble with her.† Aradia sighed.†But there was nothing I could do. Sylvia played it very cool until they got me down the mountain.She pretended all she cared about was getting meto a doctor and telling the rangers about my friends. But once we were in her apartment, everything changed.† â€Å"I remember her apartment,† Maggie said slowly.†The people there were weird.† â€Å"They were Night People,† Aradia said. â€Å"And Sylvia's friends. As soon as we were inside she toldthem what to do. I was trying to explain to Miles,to see if we both could get away, but there weretoo many of them. He put himself in between meand them, Maggie. He said they'd have to kill himbefore getting to me.† Maggie's chest felt not so much tight now asswollen, like a drum barrel full of water. She couldfeel her heart thudding slowly inside, and the wayit echoed all through her. She steadied her voice and said, â€Å"Did they killhim?† â€Å"No. Not then. And maybe not ever-but that'sthe part that I don't know. All I know is that theyknocked him out, and then the two slave tradersarrived. Bern and Gavin. Sylvia had sent for them.† And they must have come fresh from kidnappingP.J., Maggie thought. What wonderful guys. â€Å"They knocked me out. And then Sylvia boundme with spells and practiced with her truth potions on me. She didn't get much information, becauseI didn't have much information. There was no armyof witches coming to invade the Dark Kingdomright now, I wish there were. And she already knew that I was coming to see Delos.† Aradia sighed again and finished quickly. â€Å"Thetruth potion poisoned me, so that for days afterwards I was delirious. I couldn't really understandwhat was going on around me -I just faded in andout. I knew that I was being kept ina warehouse until the weather cleared enough to take me to thevalley. And I knew that Miles had already been disposed of-Sylvia mentioned that before she left mein the warehouse. But I didn't know what she haddone with him-and I still don't.† Maggie swallowed. Her heart was still thumping in that slow, heavy way. â€Å"What I don't understandis why she had to set up a whole scenario to explainwhere he went. She let some rangers find her onthe mountain, and she said that he fell down acrevasse. But if he was dead, why not just let himdisappear?† â€Å"I think I know the answer to that, at least,† Aradia said. â€Å"When Miles was fighting them off he saidthat his roommates knew he'd gone climbing withher. He said that if he didn't come back, they'dremember that.† Yes. It made sense. Everything made sense-except that Maggie still didn't know what had becomeof him. There was a long silence. `†Well, he was brave,† Jeanne said finally, andwith unexpected seriousness. â€Å"If he did die, he wentout the right way. We just ought to hope we cando the same.† Maggie glanced at her, trying to read the angularfeatures in the darkness. There was no trace ofmockery or sarcasm that she could see. Well, Cady's changed into Aradia, Maiden of allthe witches, and I've changed into the Deliverernot that I've been much good at it, she thought. But I think maybe you've changed the most afterall, Jeanne â€Å"You know, I don't even know your last name,† she said to Jeanne, so abruptly and so much offthe subject that Jeanne reared back a little. â€Å"Uh-McCartney. It was-it is?CMcCartney.† Sheadded, â€Å"I was fourteen when they got me. I was at the mall playing Fist of Death at the arcade. And Iwent to go to the bathroom, and it was down this long empty corridor, and the next thing I knew Iwas waking up in a slave trader's cart. And now you know everything,† she said. Maggie put out a hand in the dimness, â€Å"Hi,Jeanne McCartney.† She felt the cold grip of slen der, callused fingers, and she shook Jeanne's hand.And then she just held on to it, and to Aradia's soft warm fingers on the other side. The three of themsat together in the dark cell, slave, human, andwitch Maiden-except that we're really all just girls,Maggie thought. â€Å"You didn't tell me one thing,† Maggie said suddenly. â€Å"What'd they callyou when you started working here? What was your job?† Jeanne snorted. â€Å"Second Assistant Stable Sweeper.And. now you know everything. â€Å" Maggie didn't think she could possibly sleep in aplace like this, but after the three of them had sat quietly for a long time she found herself dozing. And when the rattle of the dungeon door startledher, she realized that she'd been asleep. She had no idea what time it was-the flare wasburning low. She could feel Aradia and Jeannecome awake beside her. â€Å"Dinner?† Jeanne muttered. â€Å"I just hope it's not PJ.-† Maggie began, and then broke off as firm, determined steps sounded on the stone floor of the corridor. She recognized the stride and she stood up tomeet Delos. He stood outside the cell, the dying torchlightflickering on his dark hair, catching occasionalsparks off his golden eyes. He was alone. And he didn't waste time getting to the point. â€Å"I came to see if you've decided to be reasonable,† he said. â€Å"I've been reasonable from the beginning,† Maggie said quietly and completely seriously. She was searching his face and the slight link she felt between their minds at this distance, hoping to findsome change in him. But although she felt turmoilthat was almost anguish, she also felt the steel ofhis resolve. I won't let you be killed. Nothing else matters. Maggie felt her shoulders sag. She turned slightly. Aradia and Jeanne were stillsitting on the bench, Aradia motionless, Jeannecoiled and wary. But she could tell that they bothfelt this was her fight. And they're right. If I can't do it, nobody can†¦But how? â€Å"They're people,† she said, gesturing toward theother girls, but watching Delos's face. â€Å"I don't knowhow to get you to see that. They matter, too.† He hardly glanced back at them. â€Å"In the time ofdarkness that is coming,† he said, as carefully as ifreciting a lesson, â€Å"only the Night People will survive. The ancient forces of magic are rising. They'vebeen asleep for ten thousand years, but they'rewaking up again.† A low voice, not belligerent, but not afraid either,came from the back of the cell. â€Å"Some of us believethat humans can learn to live with magic.† â€Å"Some of you are idiots and fools and are goingto die,† Delos said, without even looking. He stared at Maggie. She stared back at him.They were willing each other ashard as possible to understand. And I think he's got a stronger will, Maggiethought, as she broke the locked gaze and looked away, thumping the heel of a clenched fist against her forehead. No. That's not right. I'm Steely Neely and I nevergive up. If I tell him that some things are worth dyingfor†¦ But I don't think he's afraid to die. He's justafraid for me. And he just won't listen if I say that I'd rather die than see some things happen. Butthat's the truth. There are some things that you just can't allow to happen, whatever the cost. There are some things that have just got to be stopped. She froze, and the cell seemed to disappeararound her. She was seeing, in her mind's eye, an equallydark and uncomfortable little cart. And her ownvoice was saying, Jeanne. It's got to stop. Feeling very light-headed, she turned toward thebench. â€Å"Jeanne? Come over here.† Jeanne straightened and walked up doubtfully.She looked into Maggie's face. Maggie looked at her and then at Delos. â€Å"Now you show him,† she said in a voice thatwas like her own voice, but older and much grimmer, â€Å"what his Night People do to slaves who try to escape. Like you showed me.† Jeanne's expression was inscrutable. She went onstaring at Maggie for a moment, then she raisedher eyebrows and turned around. She was wearing the same slave tunic she hadbeen wearing for the last four days. She lifted it upin the same way and showed Delos her back. He took one look and reeled back as if she'd hit him. Maggie was braced, but even so the backlash ofhis shock and horror nearly swamped her. Shegrabbed on to the iron bars of the cell and waitedit out, teeth gritted while her vision went fromblack to red to something like a normal gray. â€Å"Who did this?†Delos managed finally, in a voice like ground glass. He was dead white, except forhis eyes, which looked black in contrast. â€Å"Who?† Jeanne dropped her tunic. â€Å"I thought you didn't care about vermin.† And she walked away without answering him, leaving him speechless. Maggie watched her sit down, then turned back. â€Å"Some things have got to be stopped,† she saidto Delos. â€Å"Do you see what I mean? Some thingsyou just can't let go on.† And then she waited. I knew he didn't know that kind of thing washappening, she thought, feeling vaguely glad in avery tired, sad, and distant way. But it's good to see it proved. The silence stretched endlessly. Delos was still staring at Jeanne. He had run ahand through his hair at some point; it was disheveled and falling over his forehead. The skin of hisface seemed to be stretched, very tight and his eyeswere burning gold. He looked as if he'd completely lost his bearings,and he didn't know what to trust anymore. And then he looked at Maggie. She was still standing there, waiting and watching. Their eyes met and she realized suddenly thatshe'd never seen him so vulnerable-or so open. But if there was one thing Prince Delos had, it was resolution. After another moment of helplessness, she saw him straighten his shoulders and draw himself up. And, as usual, he got directly to the point.†You're right,† he said simply. â€Å"And I was wrong. There are some things that have got to be stopped.†Maggie leanedagainst the bars and smiled.†I'll get the key,† he said, and then went on,briskly planning. â€Å"I want the three of you out ofthe castle, at least, before I confront Hunter.†Ã¢â‚¬ You can't do it alone,† Maggie began.Sheshould have known he'd immediately start arranging everybody's life again. â€Å"Especially not with yourpower blocked-â€Å" â€Å"There's no reason for you to be in any moredanger than you have to be,† he said. â€Å"I'll send youoff with some of my people who can be trusted-â€Å" â€Å"I'm afraid that won't be possible,† a voice saidfrom the corridor. It gave Maggie a horrible jolt. They were all tired,and all caught up in the moment, and none of themhad seen the figure until it was almost behindDelos. Hunter Redfern was standing there smiling. Sylvia was behind him. And behind them,crowdedtogether, were armed guards. â€Å"We've had to dispose of the few idiots who insisted on remaining loyal to you,† Hunter said amiably. His eyes were shining like the purest gold.†The castle is now under our control. But do go onwith your plans, it's very sweet to hear you trying to save each other.† â€Å"And it's no use trying to pretend,† Sylvia addedspitefully. â€Å"We heard everything. We knew you couldn't be trusted, so we let you come down here on purpose, to see what you'd say.† For someone who'd known Delos a while, shedidn't understand him very well, Maggie thought.Maggie could have told her that pretending was thelast thing that would occur to Delos. Instead he did what Maggie knew he would; he launched himself at Hunter Redfern's throat. Delos was young and strong and very angry but it was no contest. After Sylvia had squeaked and withdrawn, the guards all came to help Hunter. After that it was over quickly. â€Å"Put him in with his friends,† Hunter said, brushing off his sleeves. â€Å"It's a real pity to see my onlysurviving heir come to this,† he added, once Deloshad been kicked and thrown into the cell. For amoment there was that note of genuine feeling in his voice that Maggie had heard before. Then the golden eyes went cold and more bitter than ever. â€Å"I think tomorrow morning we'll have a very special hunt,† he said. â€Å"And then there will be onlythree Wild Powers to worry about.† This time, when the guards left, they took all theflares with them. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Maggie whispered, trying to inspectDelos's bruises by touch alone. â€Å"Delos, I'm sorry†¦I didn't know †¦ â€Å" â€Å"It doesn't matter,† he said, holding her hands.†It would have happened eventually anyway.† â€Å"For a vampire, you didn't put up much of afight,† Jeanne's voice came from the back of the cell. Maggie frowned, but Delos turned toward herand spoke without defensiveness. â€Å"That witch bound more than just the blue fire when she putthis spell on my arm,† he said. â€Å"She took all myvampire powers. I'm essentially a human until she removes it.† â€Å"Aradia?† Maggie said. â€Å"Can you do anything? Imean, I know only Sylvia is supposed to be able totake the spell off, but †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Aradia knelt beside them, graceful in the darkness. She touched Delos's arm gently, then sighed. â€Å"I'm sorry,† she said. â€Å"Even if I were at full power, there's nothing I could do.† Maggie let out her breath. â€Å"That's the only thing I regret,† Delos said. â€Å"ThatI can't save you.† â€Å"You have to stop thinking about that,† Maggiewhispered. She was filled with a strange resignation. Itwasn't that she was giving up. But she was very tired, physically and emotionally, and there wasnothing she could do rightnow†¦. And maybe nothing ever, she thought dimly. Shefelt something steadying her and realized it was Delos's arm. She leaned against him, glad of hiswarmth and solidity in the darkness. There was a tremendous comfort in just being held by him. Sometimes just having fought is important, shethought. Even if you don't win. Her eyelids were terribly heavy. It felt absolutely wonderful to close them, just for a moment †¦ She only woke up once during the night, and thatwas because of Delos. She could sense something in himsomething in his mind. He seemed to beasleep, but very far away, and very agitated. Was he calling my name? she wondered. I thought i heard that †¦ He was thrashing and muttering, now. Maggieleaned close and caught a few words. â€Å"I love you†¦ I did love you †¦always remember that †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Delos!† She shook him. â€Å"Delos, what are youdoing?† He came awake with a start. â€Å"Nothing.† But she knew. She remembered those wordsshe'd heard them before she had actually met Deloson the mountain. â€Å"It was my dream. You were †¦ going back intime somehow, weren't you? And giving me thatdream I had, warning me to get away from thisvalley.† She frowned. â€Å"But how can you? I thought you couldn't use your powers.† â€Å"I don't think this took vampire powers,† he said,sounding almost guilty. â€Å"It was more-I think itwas just the bond between us. The soulmate thing.I don't even know how I did it. I justwent to sleepand started dreaming about the you of the past. Itwas as if I was searching for you-and then I foundyou. I made the connection. I don't know if it's ever been done before, that kind of time travel.† Maggie shook her head. â€Å"But you already know it didn't work. The dream didn't change anything.I didn't leave as soon as I woke up in the cart,because I'm here. And if I had left, I would never have met you, and then you wouldn't have sentthe dream†¦.† â€Å"I know,† he said, and his voice was tired and abit forlorn. He sounded very young, just then. â€Å"Butit was worth a try.†

Visual Literacy in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 10

Visual Literacy in Business - Essay Example These are important to me because the target audience must be considered so as, for example, to capture and hold the attention of men, women or youth. The importance of purpose is that it will define the overall goal of creating the image, which must be reasonably easy to understand but still deliver the intended message and create a desire to take action. Purpose is complemented by context because context entails background information that will enable viewers to analyze and understand the image. In turn, this makes arrangement important because it will determine how text, graphics and images are placed in the advertisement. Then, location will have its significance in the sense that where the advertisement is placed matters. One concept that I would like to explore further is context. This is because if the advertisement does not give sufficient and relevant background information, it may not serve its purpose because the viewers will not be able to analyze what is being communicat ed and, therefore, not take any action (Elkins,

Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Differences in Culture of America and Term Paper

Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Differences in Culture of America and Australia - Term Paper Example The effects of the United Kingdom culture is also very strong on both America and Australia. America sports are unique as compared to the rest of the world. The more popular sports in America are Baseball, American football etc. This shows that the impact of British culture is less on America as compared to Australia, where Cricket is a very famous sport. The social institutions of a family are very weak in the American system and are falling apart. The Australian social institutions, on the other hand, are similar to the British. This nuclear family and extended family are closer together as compared to the American system. This discrimination based on economic prosperity has strengthened the class differences in American society. Moreover, this also creates two different cultures in American society based on economic prosperity. The education system is more cohesive in Australia whereas the dominant religion in both Australia and America is Christianity. The most prominent fact about the American business culture is the Autocratic leadership style. In the Australia business, culture titles have less importance as compared to the American. Studies on both cultures conducted by Hofstede have shown similarities in the culture of America and Australia. There is a high level of individuality in both people belonging to both nations. These similarities point to almost similar business culture in both countries. The phenomenon of globalization has engulfed different aspects of research and business. The reach of business organizations has reached to different continents. This phenomenon of globalization has also affected the nature of organizations. The emphasis on the service sector is continuously increasing. Not long ago any manufacturing company was represented by its manufacturing plants, engineers etc. The situation today is very different.

Financial Markets and Institutions, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Financial Markets and Institutions, - Essay Example The function of the US financial market is to insert the household savings into the circular flow in the form of investment, so as to enhance the income level of the country (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 2012). Apple Inc. was instituted in the year 1977 and is headquartered in California, United States of America. Apple Inc. is a constituent of the S&P 500 Index and it trades under the symbol AAPL. The earnings per share of Apple for the year 2012 were $44.64, while it was only $28.05 in 2011. This increase in EPS was due to the 61% rise in the net income of Apple in the year 2012 as compared to that of 2011. The graph below illustrates the evaluation of the five year total shareholder return of Apple as against the S&P 500 Composite Index, the Dow Jones U.S. Technology Index and the S&P Computer Hardware Index (Apple Inc, 2012). In the figure, it has been assumed that in September 2007, $100 was invested in each of the index including Apple (Apple Inc, 2012). It can be observed from the graph that the total shareholder returns of Apple Inc. had been consistently higher that of the other Indexes considered. Vodafone is a global telecommunication company, operating in above 30 nations across the world and with more than 404 million customers (Vodafone, 2012). It has been extremely cash generative during the historical period and has incessantly returned its market capitalization to its shareholders through dividend payments and share buybacks. The following figure represents the share price movements of Vodafone from April 2011 to May 2012, against that of the FTSE: It can be observed that Vodafone had performed relatively better than the FTSE stock in terms of share price movements. Additionally, the company had been continuously giving out dividends to its shareholders since the last four years. France Telecom-Orange is one of the major telecommunication companies in the

How race and ethnicy can impact when evaluating an individual Essay

How race and ethnicy can impact when evaluating an individual - Essay Example rican American, the experiences such people go through in their daily endeavors and how such experiences shape their behaviors, beliefs, and values before attempting to offer a corrective or curative measure whatever problem he is facing. The above process helps reduce cases by which a clinician’s personal biases may influence the client’s diagnosis. For instance, if the clinician dealing with Marvin’s was a woman and had ever gone through the experiences faced by Marvin’s wife with a Black American Husband, this would wrongly influence the clinician’s diagnosis of Marvin’s case if she does not adequately consider Marvin’s developmental history that includes the experiences at work that shaped some of his bad behaviors and pessimistic attitude. Clinicians face culturally diverse clients in their professional endeavors. All these clients have a right to accurate diagnosis and treatment plans. In order to achieve this, as a professional clinician, I will work hard to develop culturally competent skills, attitude, and knowledge that will help me correctly interpret the client’s cultural identity. However, I will also seek help from a cultural consultant to reduce chances of biases and misdiagnosis. Secondly, I will make a critical evaluation of my personal cultural identity, attitudes, and beliefs concerning ethnic minorities because it is a factor that will largely affect my relationship with my clients. Finally, I will always explore new strategies of getting information from clients because the traditional methods of interviewing clients may lack effectiveness and psychological tests may not be appropriate or adequate for some cases. Part of my new strategies may be to use an interpreter for a specific case that one is required; I may conduct family interviews; and make some modifications on the psychological tests to fit different

Design Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Design Thinking - Essay Example rtaking an active uptake of the design-thinking concept in order to instill these skills among the students so that by the time they graduate from school, they are already qualified experts and professionals in the field (Cox and Rigby, 2013). Design thinking incorporates a high level of creativity and innovation in an effort to bring solutions to modern day problems, or come up with new products and services that bring about a transformative change to the world. A company that employs design thinking in its products and services ends up gaining a competitive edge over other industry players as it produces products designed to meet the tastes and preferences of its target customers. On the other hand, it also instills into the product an element of surprise thereby taking the market by storm once launched or introduced into the market sphere. A good example of a company that incorporates design thinking in the development of its products and services is the Apple Technologies. Design thinking is the key driver of success behind the massive profitability and success recorded by the apple corporation. Other cases of successful application of design thinking is the reason for the reduction of the rates of malnourishment among the children in Vietnam, which reduced by half after application of the concept in the management of children’s health and nutrition. The process of design thinking incorporates a number of steps and procedures. The first step is immersion, which is the process of gaining a clearer understanding of the aspect at hand that requires intervention. The second step is the ideation stage, which incorporates creation of a credible solution to suit a given situation or to solve a given problem. The third stage of prototyping, a procedure that entails testing the designed solution, product or service to the targeted problem, audience, market, or consumers to see whether it works or not, such as bringing about the solution for the problem. The fourth

Personal Ethical Foundations Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical Foundations - Personal Statement Example I have moral obligation to offer my patients the best care possible to alleviate their suffering because it is right to help a person in need. I would not perform abortions because it’s murder unless when saving the life of the mother. This is a dilemma but by saving the mother, I am following the natural law. I would not practice in eugenics or assist in voluntary suicide because it is morally wrong and is against the social norms of the society. These laws preserve the dignity of human life and the sanctity of life as it is God given. They uphold the dignity and respect of medical practice and all who practice it. Human nature makes upholding natural law very difficult. One must be virtuous to have consistency in medical practice. According to Aristotle, a virtue lies between two central vices and is described as the mean by reference to two vices. Cardinal virtues expounded by ancient Greek philosophers are courage, prudence, temperance, and justice. By using reason, we make the right decisions and this will make me achieve job satisfaction and eventually actualization. By being courageous and doing the right thing we get happier and better at our jobs, this law is fundamental to success in the work place, as the code of conduct will govern most of the key decisions in the work place eliminating unnecessary conflict of beliefs. It is my responsibility to care for my patients and be responsive to their needs at all times during their medical care. It is not right to say that this principle applies to females alone as all practitioners care for the sick in health facilities. My responsibility would be to reduce their physical and emotional suffering by using own experience and expertise in the medical field. I would not withhold necessary treatment and facilities to a sick individual for whatever reason because it is morally wrong and against the medical code of ethics. It would be wrong to offer

Compare role science & technology play in Lunar Men & Heart of Essay

Compare role science & technology play in Lunar Men & Heart of Darkness. How have attitudes & uses of them changed - Essay Example le genius and ability to make new things, gain a deep understanding of the world both philosophically and physically—their inventions too are used to allow other people to more profoundly understand the physical world. In Heart of Darkness, it is the West’s ability to harness technology that makes the minerals and rubber of the Congo valuable and that makes it important to extract such products. But the novel also shows the limits to human’s knowledge—even using technology and science humans cannot know everything. When they think the do, trouble occurs. These aspects of the roles of science and technology will be looked at in this essay. One of the main points of the book Lunar Men is the sheer joy of the intellectual curiosity Uglow’s heroes possess and show. They want to find out about the world, they want to learn new things. It is this sense of adventure and exploration that drives them, even though they don’t really leave their hometown—they just meet in person. The adventure is what they learn about the world through their scientific experiments and from sharing information and curiosity with one another. It isn’t a physical journey across the world. Indeed, they don’t need to take such a journey because they can bring the world to themselves through their experiments and discoveries. Boulton, for example, when he is starting out feels an air of energy surrounding him and feels the time is ripe for â€Å"adventure,† but he doesn’t get on a merchant ship. Instead: â€Å"Armed with the security of Anne’s money and his own inheritance from his father, Boulton made plans. The workshop and warehouse on Snow Hill were too small and he dreamed of a site big enough to have stores of raw materials, drawing and design rooms, workshops for all stages and products, and a warehouse for finished goods. He also wanted a mill to drive machines . . .† (65) The latest technologies let him stay at home. For other men, like Robinson, for example, worldly

Discrimination - Thought Essay Example for Free

Discrimination Thought Essay 1. What do you consider to be the most valuable information you got from this class? Why do you consider this most valuable? I think that the most valuable thing that I took from this class is the fact that racism is still very much a major part of our society. Growing up in rural Iowa I always new that there were racist people, but I never knew how the racism actually affected our society and how strongly it influences such things as government funding for education and housing developments. Racism and prejudice always seemed secondary to me. I always knew that this country had issues with racism, but I never imagined that it affected serious issues so heavily. Minorities in this country are put at a greater disadvantage then whites. Many minorities especially those that do not speak English as their primary language have to deal with inadequate housing, under funded school districts and the everyday struggle of discrimination for their differences and beliefs. 2. To what extent, if any, has your thought process about race relations change as a result of this class? Explain your answer. I wouldnt say that my personal beliefs have changed due to this class, because I feel that I have always been open-minded and treated everyone with equal respect. I would however say that my thought process has changed slightly. My thought process has been altered because I always looked at racism as a problem, but not my problem. I was never directly involved in racism, and I thought that there was nothing that I could do to change the views of others. After this class I have realized that if you are not part of the solution then you are ultimately part of the problem. Many people turn their head when they are around a situation of discrimination, saying nothing. People have the misconception that just because you didnt say anything negative or directly discriminate against another person that there is nothing else that they can do to fix the problem. The only way for racism and discrimination to disappear in this country is for us to admit that they exist and they are a major problem. 3. What will you do differently as a result of what you learned? After taking this course it opened my eyes and really made me think in a different light. Since the course began in August I have accepted new concepts and have decided for myself which ones that I choose to follow and which ones I have chosen to ignore. I feel that my mindset involving racism has changed and because of that I will attempt to get more involved and stop ignoring racist comments and gestures. I have never been a person to treat people differently based on their beliefs, race and/or ethic backgrounds, but that doesnt mean that I have done anything to help get rid of the problem. I believe that people can make very small steps to correct racism and it will indeed make a huge difference. Some people feel that their individual efforts will make little, if any, difference in the overall scheme of things. If only one person from each group friends changes their mindset about racism then they can begin to reverse the situation. If that one person educates themselves about the issues involving racism and practices their beliefs then they will ultimately begin to change the minds of many of their friends. Obviously this will not work to change everyones mindset, as some people are set in their ways and due to ignorance will never change or even attempt to broaden their views and beliefs.

Unstructured interviews to investigate violent crime Essay Example for Free

Unstructured interviews to investigate violent crime Essay Assess the strengths and weaknesses of using unstructured interviews to investigate violent crime. (15 marks) Violent crime is difficult to study in the context where it occurs; this is because by their nature, violent crimes are often swift and unexpected. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a researcher to know when and where a violent crime is likely to be committed. Unstructured interviews are a research method which entails a sociologist asking participants a series of open-ended questions in an unstructured format. This method has both strengths and weaknesses, but is overall preferred by interpretivists as it provided qualitative data and is highly valid. This method is highly valid as it uses open-ended questions which allow for follow up questions to be asked. There aren’t any pre-set questions on the topic; the participant’s answer to a question determines what is asked next. This means that participants are more likely to answer questions about violent crime and they will be more inclined to give in depth answers which can be used to paint a true to life picture. However, unstructured interviews lack reliability, this is because they aren’t standardised. As the questions are created based on previous answers, no two people will have the same interview; they also cannot be repeated as it is unlikely that someone will provide the same answers on separate occasions. Also victims of violent crime are likely to answer differently to perpetrators as they have different experiences, for example, in cases of domestic violence. Another issue is representativeness as unstructured interviews are very time consuming, sociologists can only focus on small groups of people. Also as they are so personalised, they may not be representative of all who have a connection with violent crime. A factor in unstructured interviews is the interviewee’s view; participants can speak freely about themselves due to the fact that there are not set questions. The greater freedom allows the participant to bring in new ideas about themselves and what they have experienced within violent crime. One problem found with using interviews to study violent crime, is that victims are less likely to agree to participate, especially if the violence was recent (Crawford et al, 1990). Aldo investigating the perpetrators of violent crime after the event raises problems of cooperati on, memory and ethics. Unstructured interviews allow for the interviewer to form a rapport with the person being studied.

No Way Of Measuring Crime Criminology Essay

No Way Of Measuring Crime Criminology Essay There are many ways of measuring crime; the main way is crime statistics which are released by the Home Office every six months. Statistics released by the Home Office are produced by the ONS which is the Office for National Statistics. These statistics are made up of crimes that have been reported by the police, people that have been charged for a crime and people who have been convicted by a court and help the police and Government measure trends and analyses crime patterns on a large scale. However this method may be flawed in a number of ways, firstly the public may not decide to report a crime may be because it is a private matter such as domestic violence and they feel reporting it may shame them. Secondly certain types of crime are not included within the statistics such as white collar crime; this type of crime is described by Edwin Sutherland (1939) as being a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. Types of crime that are classed as white collar are insurance fraud, identity theft, money laundering and internet scams. Another crime that is not included within the statistics is corporate fraud; this includes making false accounts, not being truthful about any finances, false transactions, leaking information about a company, hiding financial losses and taking bribes. Secondly official statistics are flawed since not all crimes are recorded by the police; officers may use discretion in certain cases such as using a mobile phone whilst driving then that person may just get a verbal warning. Most crimes are reported to the police but not recorded, either because the offence is minor or the police choose not to. This is referred to as the dark figure of crime crimes that are committed that are never reported or are undiscovered (Biderman Reiss 1967). When the police choose which crimes to include then the figures overall show a false total of the levels of crime in England and Wales. A way in which the government have tried to improve the reliability of the official statistics is the Offending, Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS), this is a self-reporting survey which asks questions about white collar crime, anti-social behaviour, victimisation, domestic violence, drink and drug use. The idea of the survey which was introduced in 2003 was to fill in gaps in the statistics from the Home Office and examine new emerging crimes (Thornberry Krohn 2002:43). The first British Crime Surveys were carried out in the 60s and 70s to help examine crime that had not been reported to the police (Jansson 2007:3), it is used to examine new types of crime that are emerging (Jansson 2007:30). The survey asks around 50,000 people living in England and Wales about crimes that they have experienced first-hand that they have not reported. However a disadvantage of using this method is that it does not include certain crimes such as rape, fraud, abuse and drugs. As the survey focuses on the victims, murder cannot be included as the person would be unable to answer. The survey only uses people living in private houses so this excludes nursing homes, hostels, students living at university and council rented property. All methods of measuring crime provide different perspectives at different levels for example, national or local crime levels. The British Crime Survey provides the government with statistics at a large scale but local government for example; the Islington Crime Survey only uses 2,000 people. This is good as the police will know what areas to focus on in that constituency; it also provides statistics is more detail as it is a smaller area with less people. One of the purposes of measuring crime is that it will help the government implement new policies and laws, if they know which areas of crime to focus on then they can create a law that targets that aspect of crime. Measuring crime also helps monitor the crime level within the country so that the police can focus on areas with a higher crime rate to reduce it either by campaigns or putting more police on the streets to make it safer. Another purpose is that it can be compared to previous years of crime and it will reveal trends in the figures like if crime is on the rise or it is at a consistent level. Measuring crime is also a good way of keeping the public informed, the media can sometimes exaggerate crimes which could turn to moral panic so having official statistics can show the public the actual figures and explain the crime to them. Also measuring crime is important to see if the police are doing their job correctly, if crime levels go down then the police are doing the job if they rise then they need to know how to reduce it. When the Home Office and Office for National Statistics release the statistics they look at what needs improvement and advice the police on how to proceed in different areas. There also may be a disparity between the crime reported to the police and the crime that is actually recorded; there may be a difference because some police forces pay more attention to other crimes than other types of crimes. Also the government may change the legislation so that certain crimes are downgraded such as drugs or prostitution. Police discretion also plays a part in the different between recorded and reported a crime, it is less likely that the police will charge someone for not wearing their seatbelt but more likely to arrest someone for drunk driving. However the difference might occur when the public decide not to report the crime, this may be because they feel it is not worth police time or they do not want to report the offender if they know them for example, domestic violence incidents. Some people might prefer to deal with the problem themselves rather than contact the police if they dislike the police for example, ethnic minorities may not be comfortable reporting crimes to the police (Maguire 2002). Another way in which there may be a disparity is that the Home Office issue guidelines to the police to tell them how to classifying different crimes, categorization helps the police to determine what class the crime is in but it may fall under a category that the police do not consider important so they may not record it. A disparity of the figures could be that a rise of a certain crime being reported more than others for example, burglary. In conclusion measuring crime can never be completely accurate, even with all of the current methods such as statistics and surveys both locally and nationally, the dark figure of crime still exists. However many methods and together they show better results but it is helpful if more members of the public report crimes for the police to record but it would also produce more accurate results if the police recorded more crime even if it is petty. Overall it is useful to have crime data it can help to prevent crime and enable the police to use resources more efficiently in certain areas.

Salman Rushdie :: essays research papers

There have been very few writers who have been dogged by controversy throughout their careers. Some have been persecuted in less enlightened times such as Mark Twain, and some have been ridiculed by the press like Edgar Allan Poe. Yet, Salman Rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by a foreign government. To say Salman Rushdie is a very controversial writer in today’s society would be a gross understatement. Rushdie in fact could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press. It is not that Rushdie prides himself on being rebellious, he simply presents his ideas bluntly and it just so happens that his ideas address extremely volatile topics such as the Islam religion. Rushdie’s philosophy was eloquently put when he wrote, â€Å"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.†Contrary to many great authors, Rushdie did not endure a traumatic childhood, suffer from alcohol addiction, or live with chronic depression. Instead, Rushdie actually had what many would view as a close to perfect upbringing. Rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class Moslem family in the great city of Bombay, India. His paternal grandfather was an Urdu poet, and his father a Cambridge educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England where he excelled in his studies. Rushdie went on to continue his studies at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. After graduating in 1968 he worked for a time with television in Pakistan as an actor with the theatre group at Oval House in Kennington. Then, from 1971 to 1981 Rushdie earned his living by working intermittently as a freelance advertising copywriter for Ogilvy and Mather and Charles Barker. Rushdie eventually began his literary career in 1975 when he made his debut with Grimus, a sort of fantastical science fiction novel based on the twelfth century Sufi poem â€Å"The Conference of Birds†. Grimus however received little fame and Rushdie truly broke into the literary world with his second novel Midnight’s Children, in 1981, which won him the Booker prize and international fame. This novel began his controversial persona as well. The novel is a comic allegory of Indian history that revolves around the life of its narrator, Saleem Sinai, and the one thousand children born after India’s Declaration of Independence.

What is Education? :: Learning Learn Scholastic Essays

What is Education? To really think about what education is, it is practically anything we view it to be. Whether it may be formal or informal schooling, such as learning about the way mobs are run from your uncle, Fat Tony or someone, education is all these things. Of course, growing up I tend to have had this notion that education only involved Math, English, Science, and History, and now as I reflect, I thought about how stupid I was to think that. I know now that education is, and always will be anything we view it to be. I have learned a great deal from my formal schooling, but the education I seem to treasure most are the experiences I learn in life. When I think about all the situations I have been through and having been able to learn something from it is just simply a wonderful thought. I like it best when James Spayde said that the whole world around us is like a big classroom in which we are always constantly learning. In addition, another saying that has also caught my attention was when Mik e Rose said in his article, Lives on the Boundary, "Education is like one culture embracing another (107)." And through these statements, I have come to realize that though the classroom education is important, it seems that learning in your own environment, through experiences and trials, is the most priceless education of all. In the following paragraphs, I will explore the many ways in which education can be anything we view it to be in respect to bell hooks article, Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education, Mike Rose article, Lives on the Boundary, and Jon Spayde's article, Learning in the Key of Life. In bell hooks article, she talks about an essential main point that seems to resonate through her whole article, that point being talks about assimilation. Looking through her eyes and seeing the process of assimilation through them, we can see how she views what education is. Before talking about this whole topic about assimilation, we first need to look at some facts that lead up to the topic at hand. When hooks was given the opportunity to learn at Stanford University, she took the opportunity to do so. The first problem she faced was with her parents. Hooks mother expressed to her that she did not want her to go so far away from home and that the colleges around there were just as good.

The Rise & Fall of the Japanese Semiconductor Industry, 1970 †2000 Ess

The Rise & Fall of the Japanese Semiconductor Industry, 1970 – 2000 Summary: The semiconductor was the created with the innovation of transistor by Bell Corporation. The industry was driven by the of great US electronic giants such as general Electronic, Texas Instruments and others. These US giants conquered most of the world market sharers. However in the ever-changing world economy the market always moves here to there. Nothing was different in the case of semiconductor industry. With the span of time US gradually lost control of the semiconductor market shares and Japan captured the industry. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of period to misplace the market share of semiconductor business by Japan. The time frame of semiconductor business started immediately after WWII and running even now. In a way the changes took place and how the shape of distribution of market has been changed was grounded by all time great market and economic mechanisms. Some argues those government policies and economic mechanisms in an optimistic viewpoint some obviously in sees in pessimistic view. However, this is known to all that the policies that have been part of the cause have made those countries the world’s leader in electronic production as well as the economic super power of the planet. Although US is the originator and architect of the semiconductor technology, especially was outstanding in DRAM (Digital random Access Memory) assembly, US actually struggled to stay in the competition in long run because of the excellent Japanese policy about the foreign direct investment in Japan. Many may argue with various benefits of green field investment that it is good for the host country but Japan never encouraged Greenfield investment by US or by any other countries especially in semiconductor industry. Forget about the encouragement, Japan had a great barrier and restrictions on this semiconductor industry. The policy of Japanese government, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), deliberately made US firms to go for joint adventure with the Japanese companies. Initially US firms were making profit but with the help of Japanese government policy Japanese firms took over 80% of global market share of chip making business especially semiconductor industry where US was the innovator of the DRAM. Afterward tremendous... ...gained DRAM market share in Japan. Even in 1988 Samsung never produced DRAM but in 1994 got more than 12 percent of market share lot ahead of Japanese giants like Mitsubishi or NEC. The investment on plants of digital chip making was lot higher by the Korean and Taiwanese company compared than Japanese or US. South Korean firms invested 55 percent of the revenue from the semiconductor revenue whereas Japanese did only 15 percent. The aggressive move from South Korea and Taiwan made them able to grasp the market share of Japan. Still now from 1991 Japan is losing its market share in semiconductor business. Also, The U.S. comeback in chips was due primarily to rapid growth in the market for microprocessors, the chips that act as the "brains" of personal computers. That market is dominated by Intel & Motorola. Intel's semiconductor sales increased from $1 billion in 1986 to about $4 billion in 1991, a gain that by itself is responsible for the U.S. share of the world market being about 5% higher than it otherwise would be. The Japanese attempt to develop its own microprocessor design standard – â€Å"TRON† failed in large part because there was no software to support it.

Efficient Financial System: Fuel for Economic Growth Essay

The financial intermediaries and financial markets which form a part of the financial systems are the pillars for economic growth leading to a more practical resource allocation as they decrease the costs of moving funds among lenders and borrowers, thus helping to provide information symmetry between both the parties. However, the inability of these pillars to function together may result in operational inefficiencies of the economy, negatively affecting the economic growth. The reduction in poverty through greater access to finance and efficient allocation of societal savings promotes financial sector development leading to economic growth. To understand how an efficient financial system fosters economic growth, we need to understand the ways in which such a system eases goods and service exchanges through provision of payment services, help to collect and mobilize a large number of investor savings, gather and develop enterprise information and potential investment projects, thus ensuring allocation of societal savings to their most fruitful use, scrutinize investments and wield corporate governance there by reducing the inter-temporal risk and liquidity. However, the disparity across countries with respect to the efficiency with which financial markets and institutions lower the operation costs and information asymmetries, with significant ramifications for economic expansion and development is noteworthy. (http://www. treasury. govt. nz/workingpapers/2004/twp04-17. pdf) To have a better understanding of how an efficient financial system may lead to economic growth, let us consider the following example. With a stable financial institution in place, there have been recent introduction of a 40 year term mortgage loans in the U. S, however in comparison, in many developing countries lending for housing is limited to five year term loans if at all available. The lending ratios i. e. , the available loan per 1000 people vary from four loans per 1,000 people in Albania to almost 800 loans per 1,000 people in Poland. The interest rate spreads i. e. , the disparity between deposit and lending rates – vary classically between 2% and 4% in developed financial systems such as USA and Europe as compared to being over 30% in Brazil. Development of the financial sector promotes economic growth through more well-organized allocation of resources and growth due to productivity instead of providing it through the scale of savings mobilization or investment. This promotes economic development by extending entree to external finance thus improving resource allocation and increase in efficiency of reallocation of investment funds across industries. Financial development also helps to diminish the force of external shocks on the domestic economy, it being a vital determinant of the balance of trade structure, thus, providing countries with a relative advantage, in those industries which are mostly dependent on external finance. Thus, given the significance of an efficient financial system development for economic growth leading to poverty reduction, academicians and policy makers would be similarly interested in and concerned about the building blocks for a strong and efficient financial system. Carlton- Home Loan For the purpose of investment, a loan for $300,000 in Carlton for ten years has several sources and costs involved. It is best to choose a mortgage loan with fixed rate interest and avail the same from the bank. The rationale for the choice is explained below, considering the factors that are involved in the choice, the advantages and its cost. Choice of the Source The home loan market is dynamic and offering various kinds of loans ranging from mortgage loan, home equity loan, reverse mortgage etc. These are further replete with choices like interest only loans. Consideration the loan for buying an apartment for investment purpose, there are sources available like broking houses, mortgage loan companies and banks. All these sources have a different way of operation, and offer various loan products. The choice of the type of loan depends on certain questions like purpose of the loan, the period for which one plans to stay in the home, the tenor of the loan preferred, preferred amount of down payment, frequency and structure of payment. Each different loan source has its pros and cons. One can select loan types from a choice of Fixed Rate Mortgages (FRM), Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM), Balloon Mortgages, no fee and no point programs etc. (Source: â€Å"Factors affecting mortgage rates†) For the home loan into consideration, looking at the investment purpose and a horizon of 10 years, the fixed rate mortgage loan happens to be the right choice. Moreover, it is best to avail the loan directly from the bank, rather than a broking house.

Fire Detection Using Surveillance Cameras Environmental Sciences Essay

With the increasing figure of surveillance cameras being installed in everyplace, there is a greater demand for computing machine vision applications for sensing of unnatural events. Fire sensing utilizing surveillance cameras has become an of import country of research. Most current fire dismay systems are based on infrared detectors, optical detectors, or ion detectors that depend on certain features of fire, such as fume, heat, or radiation. However, these traditional fire dismay systems are non alerted until the atoms really reach the detectors, and they are normally unable to supply any extra information, such as the location and size of the fire and the grade of combustion. In contrast, vision sensor-based fire sensing systems offer several advantages. First, the equipment cost is lower, as such systems are based on CCD ( Charge Coupled Device ) cameras, which have already been installed in many public topographic points for surveillance intents. Second, the response clip for fire and fume sensing is faster because the camera does non necessitate to wait for the fume or heat to spread. Third, because the camera besides functions as a volume detector, as distinguishable from traditional point detectors, it can supervise a big country, making a higher possibility of fire sensing at an early phase. Finally, in the instance of a false dismay, the system director can corroborate the being of a fire through the surveillance proctor without sing the location. The purpose of this undertaking is to observe fire in picture by analysing the frame-to-frame alterations of specific low-level characteristics depicting possible fire part. These characteristics are colour, country size, surface saltiness, boundary raggedness, and lopsidedness within estimated fire parts. Because of flickering and random features of fire, these characteristics are powerful discriminants. The bing system for fire sensing algorithms in picture chiefly focuses on the colour facet of fire and on the form form to analyse the sum of fire gesture, which leads to a faulty consequence. Uniting both the spatial and temporal features of fire and fume can take to a better consequence. Besides the bing method chiefly deals with inactive camera, which is non the instance in newscast pictures. Computer vision-based fire sensing algorithms are applied in closed-circuit telecasting surveillance scenarios with controlled background. It can be applied non merely to surveillance but besides to automatic picture categorization for retrieval of fire calamities in databases of newscast content. In the latter instance, there are big fluctuations in fire and background features depending on the picture case. Chapter 2 LITERATURE SURVEY Early sensing of fire is an of import jobs, hence there have been many methods proposed to work out this issue. Color, geometry, and gesture of fire part are all indispensable characteristics for efficient categorization of fire from non-fire parts. In general, in add-on to colour, a part that corresponds to fire can be captured in footings of the spacial construction defined by the boundary fluctuation within the part. The form of a fire part frequently keeps altering and exhibits a stochastic gesture, which depends on environing environmental factors such as the type of firing elements and air current. These factors form the utile characteristics for observing fire. Based on these factors several utile characteristics for observing fire are: colour, country size, surface saltiness, boundary raggedness and lopsidedness.2.1 ColorFire has really distinguishable colour features, and although empirical, it is the most powerful individual characteristic for happening fire in video sequen ces. Based on trials with several images in different declarations and scenarios, it is sensible to presume that by and large the colour of fires belongs to the red-yellow scope, as in the instance for hydrocarbon fires, which are the most common type of fires seen in nature. For the type of fires considered ( hydrocarbon fires ) , it is noticed that for a given fire pel, the value of ruddy channel is greater than the green channel, and the value of the green channel is greater than the value of bluish channel. Unique colour scope of fire can be estimated in RGB and HSI individually. Hardware by and large display or present colour via RGB. So a pel is associated with a three dimensional vector ( R, g, B ) . HSI ( Hue, Saturation and Intensity ) is the manner of show which follows that how human sees. Here hue represents the sensed colour like orange or purple. Saturation measures its dilution by white visible radiation. HSI extract strength information, while chromaticity and impregnation correspond to human perceptual experience. Fire pels have a colour that runs from ruddy to orange to yellow to about white. This graduated table indicates the energy of the fire, with the redder the fire, the less temperature and radiant heat it is let go ofing. Color cues may be the most of import property when acknowledging fires in fire sensing. A colour infinite is a agency of stipulating colourss, and they can be classified into three basic dividers: HVS ( human ocular system ) based colour infinites ( e.g. RGB ) , application-specific ( e.g. CMY, YCbCr ) , and CIE colour infinites ( e.g. CIELab ) . To observe fire pels, a method is proposed [ 2 ] utilizing the Red channel threshold, which is the major constituent in an RGB image of fire fires and impregnation values. The colour chance theoretical accounts are so generated utilizing a unimodal Gaussian distribution from sample images that contain dynamic fire scenes. Fire pels are so detected utilizing these RGB chance theoretical accounts. The Gaussian chance distribution can be estimated as follows: where Ii ( x, Y ) is the colour value for the ith colour channel R, g, B in an image, ?i the average value of Ii ( x, Y ) , and ?i the standard divergence of Ii ( x, Y ) . To simplify the calculation, the distributions of colour channels of each pel are assumed to be independent, and the joint chance denseness map of the R, g, B chance distribution is given by:2.2 Area SizeArea is an of import characteristic of fire, the fire country represented by the figure of fire pels will be consecutively increasing if the fire has an instable and developing fire. To place a fire ‘s growing, we can cipher the size fluctuations of fire country from two back-to-back images. If the consequence is more than a predefined threshold value, there is a likely fire ‘s growing. For the estimated fire pel country, because of the fire flickering, a alteration in the country size of the possible fire mask occurs from frame to border. Non-fire countries have a less random alteration in the country size. The normalized country alteration ?Ai for the ith frame is given by: where Ai corresponds to the country of the fire blobs stand foring the possible fire parts in the PFM. In instance a difficult determination regulation is used, fire is assumed if ?Ai & A ; gt ; ?A, where ?A is a determination threshold. One of the chief features of fire is a changeless alteration of form due to the air flow caused by air current or firing stuff. Thus, campaigner fire parts are ab initio detected utilizing a simple background minus theoretical account. This procedure is indispensable for bettering fire sensing public presentation and cut downing sensing clip. Assorted algorithms have been late proposed to divide foreground from background. First, traveling pels and parts are extracted from the image. They are determined by utilizing a background appraisal method [ 3 ] .In this method, a background image Bn+1 at clip instant N + 1 is recursively estimated from the image frame In and the background image Bn of the picture as follows:( ten, Y ) stationary( ten, Y ) travelingwhere In ( x, y ) represents a pel in the n-th picture frame In, and a is a parametric quantity between 0 and 1. Traveling pels are determined by deducting the current image from the background image. T is a threshold which is set harmonizing to the scene of the background.2.3 Surface CoarsenessUnlike other false-alarm parts, like a xanthous traffic mark, fire parts have a important sum of variableness in the pel values. Filter Bankss are often used in texture analysis when seeking to depict a given form. In the instance of fire, nevertheless, it is really difficult to depict its texture with any given theoretical account. The entropy observed in fire can change significantly in frequence response ( cyclicity is frequently non present ) and gradient angles, for illustration. The discrepancy is a well-known metric to bespeak the sum of saltiness in the pel values. Hence, we use the discrepancy of the blobs as a characteristic to assist extinguishing non-fire blobs in the Potential Fire Mask.2.4 LopsidednessThe lopsidedness measures the grade of dissymmetry of a distribution around its mean. It is zero when the distribution is symmetric, positive if the distribution form is more dis persed to the right and negative if it is more dispersed to the left. Fire parts have high pel values for the green and specially for the ruddy channel. Very frequently, we observe a impregnation in the ruddy channel, taking the histogram to the upper side of the scope. This causes the lopsidedness of this distribution to hold a high negative value. For this ground, we employ the lopsidedness as an utile characteristic to place fire parts.2.5 Boundary raggednessGiven a metameric fire part, we retrieve its boundary utilizing a classical Laplacian operator, and so it is convenient for us to recover its 8-connected boundary concatenation codification [ 8 ] . From the concatenation codification, we can easy cipher the margin L of the boundary. Based on the margin and the country of fire part, we calculate the rotundity as L2/S, which describes complexness of the form, i.e. more complex form has greater value. Roundness can assist to acquire rid of the inerratic bright topics in the earl y clip. Traveling pels and parts in the picture are determined by utilizing cagey border sensing for the old estimation of the background strength value at all pixel places. Accurate sensing of traveling parts is non every bit critical as in other object trailing and appraisal jobs. We are chiefly concerned with real-time sensing of traveling parts as an initial measure in the fire and fire sensing system. We choose to implement this suggested method because of its computational efficiency. A fire in gesture has a comparatively inactive general form ( determined by the form of firing stuffs ) and quickly altering local form in the unobstructed portion of the boundary line. The lower frequence constituents of fire part boundary are comparatively steady over clip, and the higher frequence constituents change in a stochastic manner. Consequently, we use a stochastic theoretical account to capture the characteristic random gesture of fire boundaries over clip.Chapter 3PROPOSED WorkThe fire sensing method that is proposed in this paper foremost extracts the characteristics of fire like colour, country size, surface saltiness, boundary raggedness and lopsidedness. In this paper a probabilistic attack for fire colour sensing is used. Using this attack a Potential Fire Mask ( PFM ) is created and based on this mask the remainder of the chara cteristics are extracted. All these characteristics are so taken together into a classifier which classifies the part as fire or non-fire part.3.1 Potential Fire Mask creative activityHarmonizing to most fire sensing documents presented in the literature and based on our ain experiments, we notice that fire has really distinguishable colour features. Based on trials with several images in different declarations and scenarios, it is sensible to presume that by and large the colour of fires belongs to the red-yellow scope. For the type of fires considered ( hydrocarbon fires ) , it is noticed that for a given fire pel, the value of ruddy channel is greater than the green channel, and the value of the green channel is greater than the value of bluish channel, as illustrated in Fig. 3.1. Fig.3.1. Histogram of a fire part inside the black square, for the ruddy, green, and bluish channels. Several extra features besides hold, which are discussed in the followers, where colour sensing metric is proposed. This sensing metric is used to bring forth the PFM, which will so be further analyzed with the other non-color fire characteristics. Let a fire pel at place ( m, N ) in an image be represented by degree Fahrenheit ( m, N ) , where degree Fahrenheit ( m, n ) = and francium, fG, and fB are the ruddy, green, and bluish channels representation of degree Fahrenheit, severally. Let, and stand for the sample norm of the pels in a fire image part, for the ruddy, green, and bluish channels, as shown in Fig. 1. Interpretation, , and as random variables, we employ a Gaussian theoretical account for these variables, such ~N ( , ~N and ~N. With these premises, allow us specify ( 3.1 ) ( 3.2 ) ( 3.3 ) Where post exchange ( x0 ) represents the rating of the chance denseness map ( PDF ) of a random variable ten at value x0. In this instance, represents the mean value in the ruddy channel of an ascertained set of pels. Fig. 3.2 illustrates that the maximal value for DCR is obtained when = . Fig.3.2. Graphical representation of the parametric quantities in ( 1 ) . Maximal assurance is obtained when = . can be interpreted as a normalized metric that indicates the chance that a given part represents fire harmonizing to the ruddy channel distribution. For illustration, if in ( 1 ) is really close to, is really near to 1 and we assume with chance that the ascertained part represents a fire part ( sing the ruddy channel merely ) . To widen this to the three colour channels, in the followers we employ, , and as given in Eqn ( 3.4 ) . Using the definitions ( 1 ) – ( 3 ) , the proposed sensing metric to bespeak whether the ascertained part represents fire is given as = + + ? ( + + ) + ( 3.4 ) Based on the metric DC a binary image PFM is generated for each frame, such that where ?C is a assurance threshold degree and the values 1 or 0 indicate the presence of absence of fire at the matching location in the image f. The threshold ?C is the same for all pixel locations.3.2 Randomness of Area SizeFor the estimated fire pel country, because of the fire flickering, a alteration in the country size of the PFM occurs from frame to frame.Non-fire countries have a less random alteration in the country size. The normalized country alteration ?Ai for the ith frame is given by where Ai corresponds to the country of the fire blobs stand foring the possible fire parts in the PFM. In instance a difficult determination regulation is used, fire is assumed if ?Ai & A ; gt ; ?A, where ?A is a determination threshold.3.3 Surface CoarsenessWe use the discrepancy of the blobs as a characteristic to assist extinguishing non-fire blobs in the PFM. Therefore, fire is assumed if the blob has a discrepancy ? & A ; gt ; , where is determined from a set of experimental analyses.3.4 LopsidednessThe lopsidedness measures the grade of dissymmetry of a distribution around its mean. It is zero when the distribution is symmetric, positive if the distribution form is more dispersed to the right and negative if it is more dispersed to the left, as illustrated in Fig. 3.3. Fig. 3.3. Illustration of the consequence of positive and negative lopsidedness on a distribution. Fire parts have high pel values for the green and specially for the ruddy channel. Very frequently, we observe a impregnation in the ruddy channel, taking the histogram to the upper side of the scope. This causes the lopsidedness of this distribution to hold a high negative value. For this ground, we employ the lopsidedness as an utile characteristic to place fire parts. Let the sample lopsidedness of the ruddy channel be defined as where J is the figure of pels in the blob. A possible fire part nowadays at frame I is assumed as existent fire if where is a determination threshold.3.5 Boundary RoughnessFire does non hold a specific boundary feature on its ain. Therefore, we propose the usage the boundary raggedness of the possible fire part as a characteristic, given by the ratio between margin and convex hull margin. The bulging hull of a set of pels S is the smallest convex set incorporating S. The boundary raggedness is given by where is the margin of S and is the margin of the bulging hull of S. To calculate the margin, a simple attack is to number the figure of pels connected horizontally and vertically plus v2 times the figure of pels connected diagonally.A difficult determination regulation is used, fire is assumed if & amp ; gt ; , where is a determination threshold.Chapter 4EXPERIMENTAL RESULTSIn the experiments, different sorts of fires pictures such as edifice, wild land and residential fire, incorporating shootings captured at twenty-four hours clip, twilight or dark clip were taken. This diverseness is convenient to measure the public presentation of the system under different lighting and quality conditions. ( B ) ( degree Celsius ) ( vitamin D ) ( vitamin E ) Fig 4.1 ( a ) Input picture frame, ( B ) Histogram of R, G and B sets, ( degree Celsius ) Potential Fire Mask ( PFM ) , ( vitamin D ) morphologically closed PFM, and ( vitamin E ) the concluding PFM. Table 4.1 Table demoing some illustrations of the country alteration, surface saltiness and lopsidedness in the back-to-back frames. Frame Number Area ( Number of pels ) Area Change Surface Coarseness Lopsidedness 1 11159 No alteration Detected Negative 2 11159 Detected Negative 99 17623 Change Detected Negative 100 17717 Detected Negative 207 19058 Change Detected Negative 208 19203 Detected NegativeCONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKIn this paper, we have proposed a new sensing metric based on colour for fire sensing in picture. In add-on, we have exploited of import ocular characteristics of fire, like country size, surface saltiness, lopsidedness and boundary raggedness of the fire pel distribution. The lopsidedness, in peculiar, is a really utile form because of the frequent happening of impregnation in the ruddy channel of fire parts. In contrast to other methods which extract complicated characteristics, the characteristics discussed here allow really fast processing, doing the system applicable for existent clip fire sensing. As the portion of minor undertaking, all the characteristics for fire sensing have been extracted. Now, these characteristics need to be fed into a classifier to sort the given picture frame as incorporating fire or no fire. A Bayes classifier can be employed for this intent.

Literary of Dead Poets Society

Bill Beattie once said, â€Å"The aim of education should be to teach us how to think rather than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.† All too often, however, individual thoughts are crushed by the powerful weight of conformity. In the film Dead Poets Society, conformity exercises it†s influence and the results prove disastrous for some. For others, the effect of conformity compels them towards individual strength and the discovery of one†s true self. Modern education is one of the largest â€Å"offenders† when it comes to conformity, and that point is illustrated repeatedly in the film Dead Poets Society. At Wellton, students of all walks of life are expected to learn the same lessons the same ways. They are expected to memorize the important facts and regurgitate the same facts during exams. Latin class involves recitation, while chemistry involves memorization, and as long as the students can deliver what they have been told, they are successful in life. The new English teacher, Mr. Keating, challenges his students to think for themselves and to resist conformity. He most memorably illustrates how easily conformity affects people during his lesson involving a stroll in the courtyard. He instructs three of his pupils to walk around the courtyard. The three boys march in unison, and the remainder of the pupils begin to clap in time with the marching. He asks why the boys are clapping, and they do not know. Perhaps they were clapping because everyone else was clapping, or perhaps they were just having a good time. However, it cannot be disputed that the group conformed without thinking. All too often, the words of the textbook are considered undisputed fact. All chemistry textbooks will list the elements with the same symbols and all Latin textbooks will list approximately the same translations. The poetry textbook, written by a Dr. Pritchett, attempts to lump words that are meant to touch the heart into the same factual categories of math and the sciences. Can Dr. Pritchett†s method of analyzing poetry by graphing its importance and perfection be used to measure what one feels? More importantly, is Dr. Pritchett†s method the only method that one must use when measuring the greatness of poetry and can poetry be looked at using only the mind and not the heart? Mr. Keating did not feel that poetry was meant to be analyzed using measurable techniques but rather through the feelings of one†s heart. He summed up his feelings on Dr. Pritchett†s method of measuring the greatness of poetry in one word, â€Å"Excrement.† He took his class on a journey of self-discovery, a journey where they learned that there is not always a right answer or a wrong one. In order to find one†s true self, one must learn to resist conformity and walk one†s own way, as was illustrated in the lesson out in the courtyard. He taught them that just one perspective is not necessarily the only way of viewing a situation as was revealed in the lesson where he stood on his desk. At Wellton Academy, individuality is strongly discouraged, and the fight for individuality often results in dire consequences. Mr. Keating became a mentor, as well as a teacher for his students, and he helped them discover the strength necessary to be one†s true self. Individuality, unfortunately, does not come without a price. Often the price is fear, especially fear of what others will think, but the cost is often much higher. Neil Perry, one of Mr. Keating†s students, paid with his life. He committed suicide when his father insisted he conform, and go on to Harvard to become a doctor. Charlie Dalton was expelled from Wellton for his unwillingness to conform. Todd Anderson found the courage to stand up for himself and realized he had value in the world. It is not just to say that education is only about textbooks and memorization. The memorization of the Periodic Table of Elements in Chemistry has very little impact on a large part of life; such as that of personal relationships, friendships, love, loyalty and trust. All the characters in the film are human, and therefore have the same physical components in their bodies, but their feelings and point of view are unique unto themselves. The true danger of education is the attempt to call for all people to see the world in the same way.

Balinese Trance Séance

The film â€Å"Balinese Trance Seance† centers on a medium named Jero Tapakan who has been a medium for 24 years. She became a medium after suffering a series of both physical and mental breakdowns and attributes her ability to contact sprits and deities to this. It appears that in Indonesia a person who can enter a trance and contact sprits and gods is a person held in high regard. The reason people of Bali utilize sprit a medium is because they may want information on how to perform a ritual properly so they do not suffer misfortune through supernatural means.They will also consult a medium before they build a home or on political disputes even for spiritual revenge from a vengeful spirit. For Jero to go into a Trance she begins by lighting an incenses and preparing holy water as well as offerings from the family members that are believed to carry the spiritual senescence of the person of whom they wish to speak to. However, it is explained that it is unknown what deity or s prit will come forth to communicate with the family. Before the Jero begins her clients do not consult with her and she is not giving any prior knowledge of the person or gods/goddess the family wishes to communicate with.To put her self in a trance she will cant and pray to the gods to grant her the ability to contact the sprits she, will also purify her self and all object offered with holy water. Jero prays to the gods of the sky, sea and the earth. Once in a trance Jero brought forth a deity that was angry that the family had not performed a ritual correctly and wished the family to have a public cremation to appease the god. When Jero was in her second trance it was explained that the ritual was for the grandson who had passed away off a disease and being that the doctors could not save him the family had suspected witchcraft.During the second trance another deity came forth an instructed the family to make offerings at the main home and by doing this all there sins will be red eemed. After this the family once again asked Jero to go into a trance to contact the sprit of they dead son and she did. This time the sprit of the boy come forth an explained to the family that it was a female member of the family that was the cause of his death. He stated that he was â€Å"pierced through the heart†.The boy went on to question the family as to why his mother was not present and the father explained that she was spiritually unclean and could not attend the ritual. The boy orders the family to make offering to brama, swiwa and wishna to help with his cremation. He also asked he father for permission to make the female responsible for his death sick but only if the father wished it. At the conclusion of the ritual the family plays the recording back for further explanation from Jero and the money and offerings are returned to the family and Jero only takes a small tip and food for her services.When Jero is shown herself on film she explains that once the spri ts enter her she blacks out and does not remember what is said she explains that she feels still and in a daze while in trance. She continues to explain that it is hard for her to get into the first trance but very easy to enter the state after this. I found this film very interesting because you see that although Jero makes a her living in this way she does not charge the family large amounts of money and gives them peace of mind and happiness in return.