Public Administration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Public Administration - Research Paper Example The Hamiltonian School of thought holds that power rests with the executive. A perfect public administration according to Hamilton was one that was developed under a dynamic centralized executive control system. He frequently opposed state power in favor of centralized federal power (Milakovich and Gordon 441). The Jeffersonian Tradition of Public Administration was mainly developed during Thomas Jefferson’s latter years. This tradition dwells on the effects of political processes on government administration as well as the importance of connecting contemporary public policy with republican principles that are found in the constitution. Jefferson once stated that he knew of â€Å"no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves†¦every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone† (Farmer 76). To Jefferson, power resides in the people being governed and not to those doing the governing. The Madisonian school of thought holds that the best public administration practices are to be achieved through the separation of powers between national government and the state. To Madison power should be shared between the central and federal governments. The Madisonian Tradition of Public Administration focuses on the need of proper representation under a constitutional institution is the basis that should be used to share power (Warwick and Reed 156). Woodrow Wilson referred Public Administration to as a â€Å"government in action†. He also added that public administration was the executive, the operative and â€Å"the most visible side of government†. The Wilsonian Public Administration tradition emphasizes that public administration should function separately from the interests of the leaders. This school of thought says that power should be left in the hands of an active central government (Farmer 27). Public administration has greatly evolved over the years. The first

Sports Drinks Essay Example for Free

Sports Drinks Essay Energy drinks, sports drinks, recovery drinks†¦call them what you will, their names still suggest that theyre designed for hard-working athletes. These days, however, it seems that everyone is tipping them back. But who really needs them? I recommend sports drinks for intense exercise that lasts for more than an hour, says Suzanne Farrell, R. D. , a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. For anything under an hour, water is fine. Thats because you dont need a 200-calorie burst of refreshment for a brief stint on the treadmill (remember, taking in more calories than you burn will eventually lead to weight gain), and your body isnt depleted of the electrolytes these drinks are designed to quickly replace. If your routine frequently falls into the intense exercise for more than an hour category, and youre shopping for a sports drink, be sure to read the nutrition label. Make sure your sports drink contains potassium and sodium—the electrolytes your body sweats out. And you can skip the vitamin-enriched drinks. According to Farrell, you should be getting your vitamins and nutrients from food; sports drinks make a poor substitute. And, finally, study your choices. Sports drinks are trendy and, as a result, lots of options—and imposters—have popped up. Make sure youre consuming a drink designed to fit your workout level—without excessive calories. And beware of energy drinks filled with nothing but sugar and caffeine—Red Bull, Full Throttle, Mountain Dew AMP and the like shouldnt be confused with sports drinks.

The World Health Organisation Essay -- WHO World Health Organization P

The World Health Organization Introduction ============ The World Health Organization (WHO) was established in 1948 to deal with major health issues of the world. Some of the tasks the organization looks after are to co-ordinate medical research, monitor and combat the infectious diseases of the world, and to help developing countries set up adequate health services. The WHO has over 150 member countries with its headquarters Geneva, Switzerland. The aim of the WHO is ‘to help people attain the highest possible levels of health. The services of the agency may either be advisory or technical[1]. Some services include training of medical personnel, combating disease outbreaks and epidemics, and publishing a series of technical and scientific works. The arrangement of WHO comprises the policymaking organization known as the World Health Assembly, which consists of representatives of all member nations and assembles yearly. This further comprises of an exclusive board of 31 individuals elected by the assembly and a secretariat, consisting of a director-general and a technical and administrative staff. The agency has regional organizations for Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean area, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the western Pacific area1. The WHO and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ==================================================== SARS is the first global epidemic of the 21st century that has shocked the economic and tourism industries. I have very little knowledge on epidemics and the SARS virus, therefore this is my chance to gain awareness on this matter. The first case of SA... .../RefEdList.aspx?refid=210133201> (Current at 9 June 2003) ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome’ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/severeacuterespiratorysyndrome.html (Current at 9 June 2003) ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)’ (Current at 9 June 2003) ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)’ http://www.who.int/csr/sars (Current at 9 June 2003) CD-ROMs ------- ‘World Health Organisation’, ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’. ENCARTA 2000 ENCYCLOPAEDIA Books ----- Brooman J. ‘United Nations?’ 1990. Pg 22. Longman Group UK Ltd. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] "World Health Organization," Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopaedia 2000.  © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Cahill Essay -- essays research papers

The Gifts of the Jews Catholic author thanks Jews for Western values Review by April Witt for Miami Herald Published: Tuesday, April 14, 1998, If not for the Jews, no one would know to love justice, yearn for freedom, struggle for faith in one God or hope for a tomorrow better than today. Jews helped invent Western culture and without Jewish ideas and values there would be no civil rights movement, democracy or even history. That's the central, sweeping premise of The Gifts of the Jews, the latest book by Roman Catholic scholar and best-selling author Thomas Cahill. ''The Jews gave us the Outside and the Inside -- our outlook and our inner life,'' writes Cahill, who will be at Temple Judea in Coral Gables tonight to talk about the book. ''We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish. We dream Jewish dreams and hope Jewish hopes. Most of our best words, in fact -- new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, program, spirit; faith, hope, just -- are the gifts of the Jews.'' Cahill, 58, has his own gift: making history accessible, even compelling to a mass culture largely ignorant of its patrimony. His last book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, was a New York Times bestseller for more than a year and a half. The Gifts of the Jews, the second in a planned series, climbs onto the list next week. ''I tell history as a story and people love stories,'' Cahill said in ...

Anton Chekhovs `Heartache` and William Faulkners `A Rose for Emily`

Throughout his work Faulkner demonstrates this ability to create characters whose loneliness functions both as a dramatic fact and as a psychological theme. In The Sound and the Fury Quentin Compson's personal despair, or sense of irrevocable isolation, is related to his puritan meddling with the lives of others. In As I Lay Dying the individual members of the Bundren family are motivated by secret and lonely desires that are in strong contrast to the apparent solidarity of the family venture.Darl Bundren's madness is the price he pays for a full understanding of human loneliness, of how â€Å"the clotting which is you† struggles to preserve its identity in the relentless flux of time. The moral themes of Light in August are directly related to Joe Christmas's puritan loneliness. But his loneliness is only a product of his desperate search for moral absolution. Human isolation is implicitly identified in such novels with the search for selfhood in a dynamic and time-ridden wor ld.An individual's sense of isolation is never a quality imposed upon him by circumstances; it is rooted in human nature, and circumstances only bring to light its destructive consequences. Loneliness has its particular origin at the heart of puritan self-consciousness, when man tries to create a bulwark of morality and reason against the fear that nothing in this world really matters. Only Faulkner's nonrational characters are free of the destructive fluctuation between moral pride and amoral despair.His primitive characters are never lonely; they never see themselves as isolated human agents. Faulkner's success in portraying human loneliness lies in the fact that only individuals can be lonely — and the characters of his early novels are always individuals. But in Faulkner's later novels a character's sense of isolation is treated primarily as an abstract or universal theme. The opposition between man and his social world becomes a question of philosophy and not of dramatic organization.Atmosphere is defined in the Dictionary of World Literature as â€Å"The particular world in which the events of a story or a play occur: time, place, conditions, and the attendant mood. † When, as in â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† the world depicted is a confusion between the past and the present, the atmosphere is one of distortion–of unreality. This unreal world results from the suspension of a natural time order. Normality consists in a decorous progression of the human being from birth, through youth, to age and finally death. Preciosity in children is as monstrous as idiocy in the adult, because both are unnatural.Monstrosity, however, is a sentimental subject for fiction unless it is the result of human action–the result of a willful attempt to circumvent time. When such circumvention produces acts of violence, as in â€Å"A Rose for Emily,† the atmosphere becomes one of horror. Horror, however, represents only the extreme form of ma ladjusted nature. It is not produced in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† until the final act of violence has been disclosed. All that has gone before has prepared us by producing a general tone of mystery, foreboding, decay, etc. so that we may say the entire series of events that have gone before are â€Å"in key†Ã¢â‚¬â€œthat is, they are depicted in a mood in which the final violence does not appear too shocking or horrible.We are inclined to say, â€Å"In such an atmosphere, anything may happen. † Foreshadowing is often accomplished through atmosphere, and in this case the atmosphere prepares us for Emily's unnatural act at the end of the story. Emily is portrayed as â€Å"a fallen monument,† a monument for reasons which we shall examine later, fallen because she has shown herself susceptible to death (and decay) after all.In the mention of death, we are conditioned (as the psychologist says) for the more specific concern with it later on. The second paragraph depicts the essential ugliness of the contrast: the description of Miss Emily's house â€Å"lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps–an eyesore among eyesores. † (A juxtaposition of past and present. ) We recognize this scene as an emblematic presentation of Miss Emily herself, suggested as it is through the words â€Å"stubborn and coquettish. The tone–and the contrast–is preserved in a description of the note which Miss Emily sent to the mayor, â€Å"a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink,† and in the description of the interior of the house when the deputation from the Board of Aldermen visit her: â€Å"They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. It smelled of dust and disuse–a close, dank smell. † In the next paragraph a description of Emily discloses her similarity to the house: â€Å"She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue.Emily had not always looked like this. When she was young and part of the world with which she was contemporary, she was, we are told, â€Å"a slender figure in white,† as contrasted with her father, who is described as â€Å"a spraddled silhouette. † In the picture of Emily and her father together, framed by the door, she frail and apparently hungering to participate in the life of her time, we have a reversal of the contrast which has already been presented and which is to be developed later.Even after her father's death, Emily is not monstrous, but rather looked like a girl â€Å"with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows–sort of tragic and serene. † The suggestion is that she had already begun her entrance into that nether-world (a world which is depicted later as â€Å"rose-tinted†), but that she might even yet have been sa ved, had Homer Barron been another kind of man. Just as Emily refused to acknowledge the death of her father, she now refuses to recognize the death of Colonel Sartoris. He had given his word, and according to the traditional view, â€Å"his word† knew no death.It is the Past pitted against the Present –the Past with its social decorum, the Present with everything set down in â€Å"the books. † Emily dwells in the Past, always a world of unreality to us of the Present. Here are the facts which set the tone of the story and which create the atmosphere of unreality which surrounds it. It is important, too, to realize that during the period of Emily's courtship, the town became Emily's allies in a contest between Emily and her Grierson cousins, â€Å"because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been. The cousins were protecting the general proprieties against which the town (and the times) was in gradual rebellion. Just as each s ucceeding generation rebels against its elders, so the town took sides with Emily against her relations. Had Homer Barron been the proper kind of man, it is implied, Miss Emily might have escaped both horns of the dilemma (her cousins' traditionalism and Homer's immorality) and become an accepted and respected member of the community.The town's attitude toward the Grierson cousins represents the usual ambiguous attitude of man toward the past: a mixture of veneration and rebelliousness. The unfaithfulness of Homer represents the final act in the drama of Emily's struggle to escape from the past. From the moment that she realizes that he will desert her, tradition becomes magnified out of all proportion to life and death, and she conducts herself as though Homer really had been faithful–as though this view represented reality.Miss Emily's position in regard to the specific problem of time is suggested in the scene where the old soldiers appear at her funeral. There are, we are told, two views of time: (1) the world of the present, viewing time as a mechanical progression in which the past is a diminishing road, never to be encountered again; (2) the world of tradition, viewing the past as a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from (us) now by the narrow bottleneck of the most recent decade of years. The first is the view of Homer Barron and the modern generation in Jefferson.The second is the view of the older members of the Board of Aldermen and of the confederate soldiers. Emily holds the second view, except that for her there is no bottleneck dividing her from the meadow of the past. Emily's small room above stairs has become that timeless meadow. In it, the living Emily and the dead Homer have remained together as though not even death could separate them. It is the monstrousness of this view which creates the final atmosphere of horror, and the scene is intensified by the portrayal of the unchanged objects which have surrounded H omer in life.Here he lay in the roseate atmosphere of Emily's death-in-life: â€Å"What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. † The symbols of Homer's life of action have become mute and silent. Contrariwise, Emily's world, though it had been inviolate while she was alive, has been invaded after her death–the whole gruesome and unlovely tale unfolded.In the first place, she has been frustrated by her father, prevented from participating in the life of her contemporaries. When she attempts to achieve freedom, she is betrayed by a man who represents the new morality, threatened by disclosure and humiliation. Loneliness is associated rhetorically with abstract humanity. Simultaneously it becomes a cause less for despair than for transcendental affirmation, a theme related in A Fable to the Marsha l's faith in irrevocable human evil.The loneliest experience of all, the reader is told in this novel, is just breathing. But in its identification with the human condition, the concept of loneliness loses all personal meaning. Only by declining to state such identifications can the novelist successfully establish them. In his best work Faulkner demonstrates that loneliness is a particular, never a universal state of mind. Loneliness is not an abstract concept of human experience but the world in which each individual must live.Chekhov in his story, â€Å"Heartache,† dealt with being old and alone in the city. In â€Å"Heartache,† an old cabby lamented the fact that his son had died before him. He was then alone with no one to take care of him and with no one to learn from him. He was completely alone, abused by people, with no one to help him bear his grief. He earned enough to feed his horse and not much else. He slept on a bench in a large room with the other cabbie s. One wonders how long he would last with hunger, cold, and loneliness on his old, tired heels. (Williames 132)

Best Ways to Study for Economics Exams

Best Ways to Study for Economics Exams Exams are coming, or they might already be here for some of you! Either way, its time to study. First things first, dont panic. Look at how to study for an economics exam that is a few weeks out, and then consider how to cram the night before a test. Good luck. The Best Way to Study for Economics Exams One to Three Weeks in Advance Congratulations on starting to study early! Heres what to do: Ask your instructor for an exam outline and what to expect on the exam.Create an overview. Review your notes and any assignments you had.Review the courses main ideas.For each big idea, review its sub-topics and supporting details.Practice. Use old exams to get a feel for the style of questions you might be asked. Hints Be realistic. No one can study for 8 hours a day.Make sure you get plenty of food, sleep, and relaxation.Try to study in the same place at the same time every day.At the beginning of each study, period review the last thing you studied for 10 minutes.Rewrite your notes. It can help you retain information.Read your notes out loud.If you dont complete a particular task, dont worry just carry it over to your next session.Dont simply memorize facts. Ask yourself broad open-ended questions about the material thats been covered. The Night Before the Exam Sleep!Try to stick to  review. Dont try to learn anything new.Picture yourself succeeding. One of the key elements for many world-class performers is visualization. The Day of the Exam Eat. Dont skip the meal before your exam because not eating can result in tiredness and poor concentration.Arrive just a few minutes before your exam to avoid the usual wide-spread and contagious panic During the Exam Use a cheat sheet even if youre not allowed to bring one into the exam.Make a cheat sheet of the material you are certain will help. Take it to the exam; throw it out before you sit down, then recopy it from memory, somewhere on the exam booklet, as soon as you can.Read all of the questions (except multiple choice) before beginning, and write notes on the paper for anything important that occurs to you as you read.If youre having a problem with one question move on and return to the problem question if you have time left at the end.Watch the clock. The Best Way to Study If Your Economics Exam Is Tomorrow   While no one really recommends cramming, sometimes thats what you have to do. So here are some hints to get you through it: Pick the most important subjects in your study material.Look over your lecture notes, or someone elses if you dont have any, and see what the lecturer focused on. Concentrate your cramming on these broad areas. You dont have time to learn specifics.The key to cramming is memorization, so it only works for knowledge questions. Focus on material that can be memorized.Spend 25% of your time cramming and 75% drilling yourself.  Recite  and repeat the information.Relax: being upset at yourself for not studying earlier wont help and may hurt your performance in the classRemember how you felt while studying and while writing the exam and plan to study earlier next time! Hints Be realistic. No one can study for 8 hours a dayMake sure you get plenty of food and sleepTry to study in a quiet placeRewrite your notes. It can help you retain informationRead your notes out loud The Day of the Exam Eat. Dont skip the meal before your exam because not eating can result in tiredness and poor concentration.Arrive just a few minutes before your exam to avoid the usual wide-spread and contagious panic During the Exam Use a cheat sheet even if youre not allowed to bring one into the exam.Make a cheat sheet of the material you are certain will help; take it to the exam; throw it out before you sit down, then recopy it from memory, somewhere on the exam booklet, as soon as you can.Read all of the questions (except multiple choice) before beginning, and write notes on the paper for anything important that occurs to you as you read.If youre having a problem with one question move on and return to the problem question if you have time left at the end.Watch the clock.

before 1865 essays

before 1865 essays Nationalism first emerged as the Colonists became more and more Democratic. Some argue that Democracy had always existed in the colonies, but didnt begin to emerge until around the beginning of The Enlightenment. I believe that Nationalism was present during the Revolutionary Era, but then faded again, adding fuel to the fire during the Civil War. Colonists exhibited all the aspects of Nationalism. They had a shared sense of cultural identity, a goal of political self determination, and the overwhelming majority shared a loyalty to a single national Colonists were thousands of miles from the king, the parliament, and Great Britain, this led to a new way of life. While many aspects of colonial society were taken directly from that of England society, they also formed new beliefs and customs as they saw fit. The Enlightenment Helped produce a growing interest in education and a heightened concern with politics and government. (Brinkley pg. 85) With this rise of intellectual curiosity also came the rise of literacy and technology within the colonies. The literacy rates rose and more and more people had readily avaliable texts. The invention of the printing press led to an influx of printed material, much of which delt with politics. Books, pamphlets, and almanacs all were used in expressing the political ideas of many of our great early politicians. One reason the Stamp Act created such a furor in the colonies was because printing technology-and thus print itself-had by then become central to colonial life. The colonies, like any nation, wanted to be self-sufficient, but due to the fixed amount of wealth, this was impossible unless they obtained an outside source of income. Mercantilism was a essential part of colonial society, the demand for impor ...

Childrens Health - Smart Custom Writing Samples

Childrens Health - Smart Custom Writing Italian Renaissance Art Humor and SatireIn History of art, Italian Renaissance period is consider as one of the most productive period. It was the period where large number of   most outstanding masterpiece were found in all the major fields like painting, sculpture and architecture. During this period great artist   like Masaccio in painting, Brunelleschi in Architecture and Donatello in sculpture, their work of master piece marked the beginning of a new era in art history. It is also in this period that the artist were not just considered to be craft people, their social status change, and were recognized as individual with a unique and awesome talents. Art and Science were closely connected in Renaissance period because both the artist and the scientist strove for the mastery of the physical world. These artists bring–out   new concept and methods in the world of artistry. The art painting is profited by the two field of scientific study: the anatomy perspective this provides an accurate representation of the human body and the mathematical perspective. The effect of the perspective in painting to create a illusion of a three-dimension from the two-dimensional surface. Empirical means, make it possible for the   previous painters to achieved this effect, in 1420 Brunelleschi discovered the method of attaining three-dimensional impression by using the mathematical method. Artist used this method as chief instrument to pursuit reality since it could be systematically studied and explained. Some of this talented men were both Scientist and Artist, two of this were Leonardo da Vinci and Piero della Francesca. Along with the spread of the Renaissance, the Europeans a completely new world and culture were conceived. From the Renaissance concept, that humankind in control of   nature, this gave birth to modern science. The humanistic and scholastic thinking of human led to advancement and many great scientists and thinkers existed seventeenth century. The English constitution theory, as we have known today, is the result of the concepts of human freedom and republicanism that were adopted during the period of Renaissance. Perhaps one of the most significant thing that the Renaissance brought to the society aside from the breath taking work of art, was the ideology of individualism. Uniqueness in style and knowledge of each artist became the sign of nobility. During the Renaissance period, portraits of women were made without eye contact because of reasons that â€Å"exchange of glances† is already a form of communication during the fifteenth century. In the culture of Italy on Renaissance, portrait signifies and importance of lineage. A portrait of man is a visual parallel to the ideals of political system, to the nobility of birth to the member of aristocratic dynasties. In northern Italian court portraits celebrate women because of their exceptional aristocratic birth, but contribution to the society was seen principally in forging a family connection through marriage and in preservation of family through the birth of a male heir. Many of the greatest work of the renaissance period was devoted to Christianity, one of this is the painting of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s â€Å"The creation of Adam†. However, intellectual approach to religion has begun to change that affects the cultural life of the society, the changes had influenced the artists of that period which are reflected in their art. The beginning of the Italian Tragedy all goes back to Aristotle. His dramatic precept  Ã‚   became the basis of the all theatre scholarships. Debates regarding the aesthetic and technical aspect of the tragedy such as it concept and function comes from the poetics. The truth is, because of Italian Renaissance the treatise were able to reach the Western Culture. Due to some incidental comment of Aristotle regarding the time span of the dramatic action an Arestotelian Unities was developed by the Renaissance critics. Their interest for the treatise is not for the reason of academic but more especially for practicality since a help for the cinquecento playwright is needed in reviving the just discovered tragedy. Unsure of the real idea of a tragedy a thorough discussion happen in the Middle Ages. Because only few of the ancient text were known and mainly in anecdote or quote, scholars thought that tragedy is about a ghastly crimes that often times participated by women. But on the other hand Donatus concluded it as a literary form which refers to a noble character, great apprehension, and a sad ending. Dante on the other hand concluded that tragedy is a serious subject taken in sublime manner and having a dreadful ending. The purpose of tragedy as a poem is mostly intended for   a reading audience was further substantiated by the discovery of Seneca’s plays in the early fourteenth century first printed on 1474-84. Senecan   give more importance on speech rather than action met with great favor in a culture that give high value to the art of verbal talks. The involvement of the audience in the dramatic action would be the largest extent significant success of the cultural forum of theatre. At this point, playwright would often say that events should be displayed with virtual reality. Their guiding principle was much debated concept of credibility to actual reality. The stage must present the fictional world in a realistic manner to easily suspend the instinctive of audience who are reluctant to be drawn into the theatre’s world of illusion out from their real world. Some authors called attention to the creative ventures through which they brought realistic shows on stage. Some others like Dolce, went so far as to encouraget spectators to imagine themselves as living, if not physically, at least in sprit, in stage’s world of fiction. In the prologue to is Giocasta, he tells the spectators: â€Å"Ora pesante di trovrvi in tebe.... E, se non sete in lei con la persona, Siatevi con la mentre e col pensiero.† [Picture yourselves in ancient Thebes.../And if you cannot be there in person, /you can at least be there with your imagination]43 The involvement of the spectators was not simple enough by just asking them of their attention. In order to get their full attention and participation speak to the audience abut themselves and their problems, then showcase what is current. Whether writing comedies or tragedies, playwrights persistently pursue the novelty on the genre and argue against the boring imitation of a long dead traditions. Francisco Grazzini, Angelo Beolco O Ruzzante, and Geraldiare among to   those who argue for the modernity of theatre, Dolce gave the most distinctive account of this principle of poetics. In his Medea, The spectators are informed   what the are about to see: Una Tragedia nova, Nova dico, per esser novamente Con Nuovi panni da colui vestita. [A new traged,/I say new, for it has been/ dressed with new clothes by him(the author)] Although issues were not resolve, an unusual notion of reality seems to have prevailed: respecting the historical and cultural identity of the characters. Another good attribute of the Italian Renaissance tragedy was the modern courtly ambiance in which numerous plays were cast. Often times it setting were castle and fortress, and the character knights and princes. In Rucelli’s Oreste, for example, the princes were seen dressed in his lavish costume, the stage where the setting was dominated   by structure resembled too the Renaissance tower. Some Renaissance tragedies also take on a dreadful and horrifying stories of brigands and pirates with which cinquecento audiences were quite familiar. Di Maria also explained the role of religion in Cinquecento and how ancient religions and Christian beliefs was connected by the playwrights. He also mention the ideological and dramaturgical development of the deus ex machina expedient. It is easy to find a references even if the tragedies is not exactly a Christian when you unfold the Christian setting. Tragic portrayer expresses Christian beliefs and continuously request for divine comfort and justice. Playwrights most of the time give pagan gods Christian attributes; mythological characters use a language that is often more Christian than pagan; the chorus and helpless victims tend to invoke a Christian deity. The deus ex machina expedient has to be seen not as a opposite but as a "mirror of the changing perceptions that Renaissance society had on religion and its godhead". In fact, in the first part of the century, the humanist ideals that humans could fixed their own affairs and were free to realize their physical and intellect ual capacities were shattered by events (such as the sack of Rome) that proved to be too overwhelming for any human being to control. The playwrights' recourse to the ex machina expedient reflects the growing awareness of human limitations and the need to rely on a superior power. In the second half of the Cinquecento, together with the coming of the Counter-Reformation, people were moving forward to the Christian ways, which results to a stricter observance of religion. Di Maria also tackle the nature of kingship and the debate on Machiavellism beginning with the question whether rulers should follow to Machiavellian precepts or to humanist values. Most Renaissance playwrights built their tragedies around the Sophoclean conflict that pits the interests of the state against the rights of the individual. The Cinquecento tragedy usually convey the defend in the action of the king (on the grounds of ancient traditions and Machiavellian theory) against the advice of his counselor, often of humanist ideals. Giraldi's Orbecche best exemplifies the debate as King Sulmone, the bloodiest and most tyrannical ruler in all of cinquecento tragedies, argues with his counselor Malecche, who exhibits a clear aversion to tyrannical rule. The King was given advised by Malecche to forgive his own son-in-law Oronte because a righteous king should all forgiving like God. His advice points to a view of kingship based on Christian morality. Sulmone is hesitant to forgive b ecause he was afraid it will make as this would give him the character as a compassionate, weak, and vulnerable ruler. This view recalls Machiavelli's advice against appearing cowardly and vulnerable, the point of view in those time that king should rule with fears not by love were established. According to Botero, in beief that power are from God the foundation of kingship should be the religion. Kings, in addition to being pious and observing God's law, should also establish a reputation of being strong and fearsome rulers through the occasional use of violence. Clearly the ideal of politics is beginning to change toward notion of divine justice. He also illustrated how stage was use as instrument to talk about the of a women Though each generation’s culture had their significant influence in their present and future societal state, the Renaissance appears to be one of the most influential period in history. It has affected the works, thoughts and reactions of the society up now and mostly likely continue to influence the future generations’ creations. Bibliography: Cole, Bruce. â€Å"Italian art, 1250-1550: the relation of Renaissance art to life and society†. Harper   Row Publishers Inc.1987 Di Maria, Salvatore.( 2002). â€Å"The Italian tragedy in the Renaissance: cultural realities and theatrical innovations.† illustrated. Bucknell University Press, Print. Killenger, Charles.( 2005) Culture and Customs. 5th. Westport: Greenwood Press, Print

Video Game violence and the effects it has on children and Teens Essay

Video Game violence and the effects it has on children and Teens. Arguementative Paper discussing both sides and choosing a side to work with - Essay Example because even if the video game depicted violence (such as the Atari boxing game), the game was unrealistic and much tilted away from the real experience of the activity. ‘Boxing’ involved tiny â€Å"men† with square limbs who fought one another through a series of repetitive movements. (History, 2007) The world of present times has witnessed a change – for the worse. Our young ones have been enticed into a world of their own, one which is filled with terror and brutalities. To put it in a meticulous manner, the violence ‘imparted’ through the video games is just too much to handle and it is about time an end to this epidemic has to be discerned, for a better and prosperous tomorrow. Today for a gamer, video games resemble mere dots on a screen. By the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, personal computers were becoming much more powerful and with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System, to some extent more realistic games started to make their mark. The characters in the games began to take on more â€Å"human† (physical) attributes; they actually looked human so to speak. In the light of an understanding which is reached between the ethical norms of video games and the people at the helm of affairs calling the shots, in recent years there have been many attempts to either censor video games or to limit access to them by children and young audiences. (Outlaw, 2007) Some have even linked violent video games to a greater propensity for murder. (CBS, 2005) Thus the difference between video game simulation and actual reality began its long progress to the current situation in which some of the most advanced video game systems, such as the Playstation 3, have high definition graphics that approach the point at which the characters being controlled by the gamer could be mistaken for real human beings in a film. As video games developed during the 1970’s and 80’s and then literally exploded in the 1990’s, different genres of video games

Majoritarian vs. Consensus Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Majoritarian vs. Consensus Democracy - Essay Example two, I consider the Majoritarian model to be most applicable and closer in theoretical intent to democracy than the Consensus model but I would be neglecting my prime duties if I do not say that the Consensus model is more applicable in the real world and it the system to which I would give my vote if there was ever an election between the two theories. The first thing to be noted about democracy, as it is presented by Dahl (1956) is that it is â€Å"a state of affairs† (Pg, 50). It is not considered primarily a system of government or even a way of life since democracy has several prerequisites in terms of the level of civilization which a particular group of people must have before they can implement democracy. Perhaps that is why history records an age of kings before the time of the elected philosopher kings was recommended by social scientists. A certain level of sophistication in terms of culture and the way of life is an essential requirement for the establishment of democracy. In fact, this level of social sophistication is so important that it has been suggested that â€Å"The first and crucial variables to which political scientists must direct their attention are social and not constitutional† (Dahl 1956, Pg. 31). The problem comes into play when we notice that the demands of a truly democratic system can only be met by only a few countries. Very few cultures can lay a rightful claim to a Majoritarian model since the prerequisites are so high. On the same page, Dahl makes the observation that: â€Å"To say that perfect attainment of political equality and popular sovereignty is, by definition of terms, consistent only with the majority principle is not to enunciate a wholly useless proposition, but neither is it very helpful.† (Dahl 1956, Pg. 31) The Majoritarian model depends on several things which must be present in a system before such a democracy can be established. The first requirement is a mass participation in politics by people who know how

Self leadership Personal Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Self leadership Personal Portfolio - Essay Example Hence, it can be affirmed that self-leadership skills are essential to judge the personal potentialities and strengths (Centre of Creative Leadership, 2012). This assignment offers an in-depth analysis and examination of my personal and professional aptitudes and talents with the help of a comprehensive approach along with personal manifestation on the ideas discussed in this topic. The paper highlights the essentialities of soft skills of an individual in the working environment along with detailed assessment through the available literatures on self-leadership skills and personal abilities through a 360 degree feedback. This analysis would facilitate me to identify my personal strengths and weaknesses thereby offering the opportunity of any specific changes if required so as to accomplish the personal goals in a more efficient and effective manner. This would enhance my future growth prospects. 2.0 Self-Leadership Skills Literature Overview Amer (2008) focuses highly on the soft sk ills as these are solely responsible for the future growth and the prospects of an individual. It is defined as the feelings and the behaviors that relate to the decisive thinking, problem solving, communication, association and presentation skills that help an individual to sustain in an organization for the long run. Soft skill is a sociological phrase related with the character traits, social elegance, language, personal habits, affability, and buoyancy that portrays the relationships with other individuals (Amer, 2008). Carmeli, Meitar, Weisberg (2006) also highlights that soft skills mainly balance the hard skills which are required for fulfilling occupational demands along with other activities (Carmeli, Meitar, Weisberg, 2006). Hence, it can be avowed that soft skills are responsible for the success of individuals in the workplaces as well as in their careers. According to Rao (2010), soft skills are mainly inherent qualities of an individual which can be improved or enhanced only through high level of devotion, motivation and commitment. Along with this, self awareness also plays an important part for the enhancement of soft skills of an individual. Thus, self–awareness helps to predict the internal strengths and weaknesses of an individual which might be beneficial for the augmentation of self-leadership talents. Hence, the self-leadership ability marks the success of an individual in the long run (Rao, 2010). Bommelije (2009) reveals that soft skills are vital characteristics of life which is essential for success. Most imperative and key soft skills that an individual should contain are tactical understanding, proper decision making ability, team behavior, providing inspiration to employees, communication power, intelligent skills, managerial dynamics, coordination, cooperation, enthusiasm to drive a group, implementation of various ideas, elasticity and capability to handle stresses and risks among others. Hence, it can be clearly affirmed t hat soft skills are also equally important for an individual as it helps to enhance productivity and quality of work thereby augmenting the profitability of organization (Bommelije, 2009). Moreover, soft skills

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames Essay

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames - Essay Example Therefore, he takes his time to engage in cybercrimes and hacking of computer security codes in search of games to play (Bischoff, 1983). His hacking practice eventually leads him to a US supercomputer that is highly secured, due to the sensitive nature of the information it contains. This information is potentially dangerous and capable of causing world destruction through sparking World War III, which is a war of nuclear weapons. The super computer was programmed to launch missile attacks automatically, on the event of being ordered to start such an action, after the Air Force Strategic missile operatives were unwilling to turn on the button which could spark off the nuclear missile attacks (Franklin, 2008). Considering that none of the operatives wanted to be the cause of the devastating attack that could wipe out the whole world, a super computer had to be programmed, which could easily be turned into action by a simple computer operation procedure. Therefore, initially perceivin g the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) program as another exciting game, David Lightman, (Broderick) embarks on a mission to unearth the backdoor password that can be used to hack into, and access the Supercomputer details (Bischoff, 1983). Being a computer whizz, and with the help of his friend who were also hackers, Broderick eventually manages to unearth the backdoor password and starts operating the computer program by running the nuclear war simulation, through his own computer (Franklin, 2008). Considering the threat posed by this computer operation, the simulation scares the whole security and military departments, since it almost causes a full blown World War III, which is a devastating war of nuclear missiles. This cyber crime and security intrusion into the US military department security systems is a form of black hat hacking. This is because, black hat hacking entails the process of violating and cracking computer security systems with malicious intentions of benefitin g oneself (Hanser, 2011). Broderick had been hacking other computer security systems previously, to gain access to computer games that he could play. In the process of searching for more interesting computer games, other than chess, poker and checkers which he had previously accessed, he embarked on searching for new games, which led him to the supercomputer, which seemed to possess a different nature of games than he had been used to (Bischoff, 1983). This practice of hacking into other computer security systems and accessing games to play, instead of purchasing such games from the manufacturers or retailers, is a selfish crime. Additionally, hacking into other security systems without the knowledge of the owners of the systems, regardless of the intentions an individual has, is malicious and damaging (Johnston, 2011). Therefore, this act of Broderick hacking and accessing the security systems of the US supercomputer and his continuation to simulate the war programs is a form of bl ack hat hacking, since it involves the violation of computer security and privacy laws (Subramanian, 2008). The fictional narration of this film falls under the following three categories: Cybercrime Cybercrime refers to any act of an individual to use computers or computer networks for crime. This can occur in the form of using the computer to commit crime or targeting other computers with some criminal intentions (Hanser, 2011).The film WarGames (1983), depicts both forms of crime. There is a crime of using computers to commit a violation of the acceptable computer privacy and security guidelines. Here, Broderick, who is a bright but highly unmotivated teenager, engages in the act of using

Speedo Environmental Analysis and Marketing Mix Essay

Speedo Environmental Analysis and Marketing Mix - Essay Example Speedo has emerged as the distinct and recognisable brand name for swim wear all across the globe especially for more athletic crowds. Innovative technologies have been in use at Speedo to improve drag characteristics for swimmers so that the use of Speedo swim wear has become extremely popular with athletes and sports fans. Speedo is already actively operating in the United States, Australia, most of Europe and Great Britain. Speedo has been sighted as the â€Å"leading player in the highly fragmented swimwear market† (Qumer, 2009). Given emerging challenges in the swim wear and sportswear markets there is constant need to evaluate the business environment so that a fitting marketing strategy can be developed and implemented. This study will concentrate on the market for Speedo available within the geographical limits of Great Britain. The investigation will proceed first through an analysis of the environment in which Speedo is operating, competitor analysis, followed by an analysis of targetable market segments. Two prominent market segments will be selected and defined after which a fitting marketing mix will be developed for each market segment identified. The study will corroborate its ideas using secondary sources while taking note of their credibility and chronological importance. Furthermore, the investigation presented below will attempt its best to delineate actual market conditions and practice but this study cannot be considered as a holistic solution in itself. Products In general, Speedo has been associated with swimwear due to its traditional branding style and due to the marketing strategy that focuses on swimwear more than on other Speedo products. However, Speedo has a differentiated product range that can be broadly classified as swimwear, sportswear, accessories, footwear, underwear and digital products (Horovitz, 2005). Though it is not common knowledge but both Speedo International and Speedo Australia offer a lineage of underwear that is sold at select David Jones retail stores only (Speedo, 2012 a). Swimwear Speedo is primarily a swimwear manufacturer and distributor. The bulk of the company’s business relies on swimwear. Speedo creates two particular forms of swimwear – professional for athletes as well as simple swimwear for the average swimmer. The specialised swimwear market of Speedo has long distinguished the company from other brands and competition. Speedo’s specialised swimwear has always been highly popular with professional athletics teams around the world. For example, 13 out of 15 swimming records broken at the Sydney Olympics (2000) were broken using Speedo swimsuits. In a similar manner, Speedo sponsored Michael Phelps was able to score eight medals in Athens in 2004 (Speedo, 2012 e). This performance by Speedo’s swimsuits was exceeded at the Beijing Olympics where Speedo’s regular brands and the specialized LZR Racer were able to take 92% of all medals (Spe edo, 2012 f). Speedo relies in large part on its specialized swimwear market to distinguish itself from other brands. This distinction allows Speedo to capture the regular swimwear market as well since its sports victories make it particularly attractive to the average swimmer. Speedo’s overall specialized swimwear market is small with an overall volume of $200 million as of 2008 (Qumer, 2009) but it is speculated that this market segment is vitally important for the overall business model. The swimwear offered by Speedo concentrates on two prime objectives – speed and style. The swimwear is offered not only for adults but for children alike. One of the more distinguishing characteristics of Speedo

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames Essay

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames - Essay Example Therefore, he takes his time to engage in cybercrimes and hacking of computer security codes in search of games to play (Bischoff, 1983). His hacking practice eventually leads him to a US supercomputer that is highly secured, due to the sensitive nature of the information it contains. This information is potentially dangerous and capable of causing world destruction through sparking World War III, which is a war of nuclear weapons. The super computer was programmed to launch missile attacks automatically, on the event of being ordered to start such an action, after the Air Force Strategic missile operatives were unwilling to turn on the button which could spark off the nuclear missile attacks (Franklin, 2008). Considering that none of the operatives wanted to be the cause of the devastating attack that could wipe out the whole world, a super computer had to be programmed, which could easily be turned into action by a simple computer operation procedure. Therefore, initially perceivin g the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) program as another exciting game, David Lightman, (Broderick) embarks on a mission to unearth the backdoor password that can be used to hack into, and access the Supercomputer details (Bischoff, 1983). Being a computer whizz, and with the help of his friend who were also hackers, Broderick eventually manages to unearth the backdoor password and starts operating the computer program by running the nuclear war simulation, through his own computer (Franklin, 2008). Considering the threat posed by this computer operation, the simulation scares the whole security and military departments, since it almost causes a full blown World War III, which is a devastating war of nuclear missiles. This cyber crime and security intrusion into the US military department security systems is a form of black hat hacking. This is because, black hat hacking entails the process of violating and cracking computer security systems with malicious intentions of benefitin g oneself (Hanser, 2011). Broderick had been hacking other computer security systems previously, to gain access to computer games that he could play. In the process of searching for more interesting computer games, other than chess, poker and checkers which he had previously accessed, he embarked on searching for new games, which led him to the supercomputer, which seemed to possess a different nature of games than he had been used to (Bischoff, 1983). This practice of hacking into other computer security systems and accessing games to play, instead of purchasing such games from the manufacturers or retailers, is a selfish crime. Additionally, hacking into other security systems without the knowledge of the owners of the systems, regardless of the intentions an individual has, is malicious and damaging (Johnston, 2011). Therefore, this act of Broderick hacking and accessing the security systems of the US supercomputer and his continuation to simulate the war programs is a form of bl ack hat hacking, since it involves the violation of computer security and privacy laws (Subramanian, 2008). The fictional narration of this film falls under the following three categories: Cybercrime Cybercrime refers to any act of an individual to use computers or computer networks for crime. This can occur in the form of using the computer to commit crime or targeting other computers with some criminal intentions (Hanser, 2011).The film WarGames (1983), depicts both forms of crime. There is a crime of using computers to commit a violation of the acceptable computer privacy and security guidelines. Here, Broderick, who is a bright but highly unmotivated teenager, engages in the act of using

Letter from a Birmingham Jail Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Essay Example King gave bits and pieces of the letter to his attorneys to take back to movement’s head office, where Reverend Walker started putting together and editing the legendary jigsaw puzzle. Martin Luther King's letter is a statement put out by eight white Birmingham clergymen on April 12, 1963, known as "A Call for Unity". King composed this letter in reply to that statement. The clergymen concurred that social unfairness existed in the United States, but argued that the fight against racial discrimination should be fought only in the courts, and not in the streets. The clergymen condemned Martin Luther King, referring to King as an interloper who creates problems in the streets of Birmingham. In reply to this, Martin Luther King referred to his principle that all states, as well as communities, were interconnected. King wrote that injustice in any place is a threat to justice in every place. People are caught in an unavoidable system of mutuality, tied in one garment of fortune. A ccording to King, whatever concerns a person directly, concerns everybody indirectly. He said this to prove to the clergymen that anybody who resides inside the United States cannot be taken as an outsider. Martin Luther wanted to show his regrets about the protests that were taking place in Birmingham. He, however, felt that the African American people had no choice but to protest due to the way they were being oppressed by the whites. The clergymen, nevertheless, condemned the massive tension caused by the protests. In reply to this, Martin Luther King affirmed that he plus his fellow protestors were using peaceful actions so as to create tension that would put pressure on the wider society to face the matter head on. The protestors hoped to cause tension (King, 462). They hoped to create a non-violent tension that would lead to the development. This is as written down in King’s letter. King wanted to inform the clergymen that without peaceful forceful actions, proper civil rights could never be attained. The clergymen also condemned the timing of the protests. King, however, wanted to show the clergymen that they had waited long enough for these God given rights. Opposing the clergymen’s statement that the protest was against the law, King argued that not only was civil defiance justified in the face of undeserved laws but that everybody has a moral task of disobeying unfair laws. Luther’s letter contains the famous statement that stated inequality at any situation is a threat to impartiality everywhere (King, 462). Some of the various topics that King was trying to convey are: direct actions, civil rights as well as discrimination. According to King, direct action is a just form of political activism which seeks to remedy political, social as well as economic ills. Direct action is often urgent and challenging. It can contain such activities as workplace occupations, strikes, sit-ins, guerrilla warfare, and demonstrations among others (King, 462). Direct actions are sometimes a form of civil defiance and can contain illegal actions, but it is for the good of a society. King also wanted to show to people that racial discrimination is an ill-mannered culture and that everybody deserved to be treated equally. Finally, Martin Luther King was against deprivation of civil rights to the American citizens especially the African Ameri

Developments in transportation Essay Example for Free

Developments in transportation Essay Developments in transportation, rather than in manufacturing and agriculture, sparked American economic growth in the first half of the nineteenth century. is not accurate. While development in transportation played a fundamental role in Americas growth, if it were not for developments in manufacturing and agriculture the new technology in transportation could not have successfully been completed. Without the raw materials, and the products which came out of the early US iron and steel industry, (which were all ultimately determined by the United States agricultural market), the transportation revolution could not have been carried out. Also, with the rapid growth of the agricultural markets, American economic growth boomed. All three factors, (transportation, agriculture and manufacturing) played an equal role in sparking the American economic growth in the first half of the nineteenth century. The cotton gin was just one of the few reasons in which the American economy grew at a rapid pace. Eli Whitneys intention in 1793 of the cotton gin, which separated raw cotton from seeds and other waste, caused the economy to boom, with the growth of southern farms. As the southern plantations who could keep up with this new boom in cotton got larger and larger, small farmers moved west. This migration of small farmers to the west caused a need for developments in transportation to link the nation. In turn, these developments in transportation caused a boom in economy. Therefore, both manufacturing inventions and transportation inventions caused the growth in economy. New inventions and capital investment led to the creation of new industries and economic growth. As transportation improved, new markets continuously opened. The steamboat made river traffic faster and cheaper, but development of railroads had an even greater effect, opening up immense areas of new territory for development. These new developments just opened up entrepreneurs eyes, and helped them to create the boom parts of the cycles in the 19th century. The new factories which sprang up around the US starting with mills such as the Lowell mills also led to new developments which helped the United States  economy grow. More jobs were created, and wage earners were able to make twice the amount of the price of goods. Although these booms in the economy did not last for every long, it can not be intelligently argued that new developments in transportation were the only reasons in which the United States economy boomed during this time. New inventions, and new ways of creating goods, which came along with the Industrial Revolution truly opened up the nations workforce, and sprang its economy as well.

Ecosystem Approach in Fisheries Governance in the Arctic

Ecosystem Approach in Fisheries Governance in the Arctic A social science perspective on fisheries management and development Mikhnyuk Elizaveta Abstract The ecosystem approach to fisheries is a highly topical issue at present. The aim of current analysis was to reveal the historical development of the ecosystem approach to fisheries in the Arctic. The Arctic has natural resources and a rich wildlife is important to the inhabitants. The Arctic is undergoing major environmental changes including decrease in sea ice cover, increase in river runoff and precipitation, accelerated warming, and permafrost and glacier melt. This changes, along with new opportunities for economic development create more stress and pressure on the Arctic marine ecosystem. Introduction Arctic biodiversity isn’t only valuable in itself, but it is extremely important for use in various fields of human activity. Arctic is the habitat of species with striking adaptations to survive in the extreme cold and highly variable climatic conditions. More than ten percent of the global fish catch accounts for the Arctic Sea and the Arctic. More and more tourists are heading north. Growing worldwide interest in Arctic species and ecosystems as an increasingly rare example of primordial biological diversity. Warming and economic potential will cause health problems and welfare in the Arctic. Effects of pollutants on the environment and human health in the Arctic remains one of the highest priorities. Sources and pathways of these pollutants are found both inside and outside the region. In the Arctic marine and terrestrial animals, which are eaten by indigenous ethnic groups and other inhabitants of the North, accumulate many persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals resulting from industrial and agricultural activities carried much further south, but transferred and accumulated in the food chain. Moreover, many existing and abandoned military and industrial facilities left in the Arctic region pollutants and pollution. These objects can represent significant problems and potentially contribute to the deterioration of local and regional environment. The problem is even more serious conditions, there is a trend in the warming of the Arctic, which leads to an accelerated release and di stribution of substances in the environment. (Perelet R. 2006) What is the ecosystem approach? The term â€Å"Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries† (EAF) was adopted by the FAO Technical Consultation on Ecosystembased Fisheries Management held in Reykjavik from 16 to 19 September 2002 (FAO, 2003). Thereby the EAF should be seen as an evolution of traditional fisheries management and not as revolution. The term â€Å"approach† indicates that the concept delineates a way of taking ecosystem considerations into more conventional fisheries management (Garcia et al., 2003). The Reykjavik FAO Expert Consultation (FAO, 2003) was introduced the main purpose of an ecosystem approach to fisheries is to plan, develop and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the multiplicity of societal needs and desires. (Kempf, 2009) Under the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002, the participants were committed to implement an ecosystem approach to fisheries management within 2010 (Norwegian State Secretary Ulriksen, 2006). In 2003, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, 2002) published guidelines for an ecosystem –based management approach to fisheries. The guidelines emphasized that fisheries should be conducted to limit the impact on ecosystems. Moreover, it also states that dependent and associated species being harvested should maintain their ecological relationship for further generation to be able to benefit from them. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) (the US fisheries in the Bering Sea) was supposed that ecosystem approach to fisheries management should consider the interactions among fisheries and their target species, their direct and indirect impact on other species and this influence on target fisheries, as well as broader ecosystem actions such as climate, predate or play relationship and other socioeconomic activities (NPFMC:71). The plan sees other activities that affect the marine ecosystem, such as communities, shipping, oil and gas development, and military. (Tonje Fingalsen, 2009) Arctic Marian Ecosystems The Arctic is the habitat of more than 21,000 species, well adapted to cold: mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates, plants and fungi, including lichens, as well as tens of thousands of species of microbes. The Arctic is a unique opportunity to keep large intact ecosystems to their original set of species. The implementation of this feature will help to preserve the integrity of Arctic biodiversity and sustainability of Arctic communities. Biodiversity in the Arctic is degraded, but the immediate adoption of decisive measures will help to keep extensive and relatively intact ecosystems tundra, mountains, fresh water, seas, and the role that they play in the livelihood of mankind. The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world’s oceans (total area c. 10 million km2) and consists of a deep central basin, the Arctic Basin, surrounded by continental shelves. The Arctic Basin is further divided by the Lomonosov Ridge (maximum sill depth: 1,870 m; Jakobsson et al. 2008) into the Eurasian and Amerasian Basins. Maximum depths (c. 5,260 m) are found near the Gakkel Ridge, an extension of the North Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge system that divides the Eurasian Basin along a line from northern Greenland to the East Siberian shelf (Jakobsson et al. 2004). The Arctic Ocean has the most extensive shelves of any ocean, covering about 50% of its total area. The circumpolar marine Arctic comprises the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland Sea. The Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi shelves are shallow and broad (400-800 km) while the shelves Arctic marine ecosystems are important constituents of global biodiversity. Arctic marine ecosystems are habitats to a vast array of over 5,000 animal species and over 2,000 species of algae and tens of thousands of microbes. The marine Arctic also provides habitat for large populations of marine mammals and birds, some of which form colonies that are among the largest seabird colonies on the planet. The unique characteristics of Arctic marine ecosystems also contribute directly to global diversity. For example, Arctic sea ice ecosystems support biodiversity at various scales ranging from unique microbial communities to apex predator species such as the polar bear Ursus maritimus and walrus Odobaenus rosmarus whose ecology is closely associated with the sea ice environment. Indirectly, the Arctic Ocean plays a key role in shapingthe global biodiversity of marine and terrestrial ecosystemsas it plays an essential role in the Earth climatesystem. The Arctic Ocean also influences marine ecosystemsof the Atlantic Ocean directly, as waters and sea ice exiting the Arctic Ocean affect the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the North Atlantic. (Christine Michel, 2013) An Ecosystem Approach in the Arctic Ocean. Climate change affects the physical environment, with consequent impacts on ecosystems and species as well as the mobilization of contaminants. Human activity in the Arctic may increase due to improved access and rising global demand for resources. Risks from pollution such as oil spills will increase as Arctic development proceeds. Pathways for invasive species to reach the Arctic will become more numerous as more ships travel north and more roads are built. More activity also means a greater potential for habitat degradation. And more activity may mean more people, who may increase fishing and hunting pressures. The habitat needs of migratory species, long-range transport of persistent contaminants, global shipping lanes and the geography of ecosystems do not follow political boundaries. Thus, international cooperation is increasingly needed to fully address the conservation challenges that face Arctic biodiversity now and in the decades to come. The recommendations that follow recognize the interconnected and transboundary nature of the challenges to biodiversity conservation in the Arctic and beyond. (Henry Huntington, 2013) The cumulative impact of anthropogenic pressures such as climate change, pollution, and overfishing is of great concern in the polar regions, where marine ecosystems already face extreme environmental conditions (Clarke and Harris, 2003). This situation applies to the Arctic Ocean, where early signs of global warming (ACIA, 2004) and significant levels of persistent bio-accumulating pollutants (UNEP, 2006) are superimposed on local Stressors. Climate change impacts are expected to be greater in the Arctic than in any other region and will result in important socioeconomic changes. For example, future scenarios of climate change predict a reduction of the Arctic ice cover that will certainly lead to a significant increase in ship- ping, with new or enhanced harbour infrastructures and facilities built on Arctic coasts (Brigham and Ellis, 2004). In addition to marine transportation, traditional activities like fishing and hunting, a reactivation of the oil and gas industry in the offsh ore zone, and emergent sectors like tourism have the potential to affect Arctic ecosystems as never before. (Siron et al.,2008) In 1999 was started the development of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Integrated ecosystem approach to biodiversity and minimize habitat fragmentation in the Russian Arctic. The ecosystem approach doesn’t focus only on the regulation of certain types of fishing, but also ensures that the fishery absent a negative impact on the species associated with the target species or dependent. Given the inherent complexity of the ecosystem approach, it is not surprising that organizations involved in fisheries management, ecosystem usually ignores questions and focus on species, are subject to specific fisheries. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, Johannesburg) noted that human-induced threats to biodiversity require urgent action, and for achieving progress in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is the ecosystem approach set out in the decisions taken in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity. WSSD welcomed in its final document the application by 2010 of the ecosystem approach, noting the Reykjavik Declaration on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem and of the Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. In 2002, the Declaration of the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council (Inari) gave a positive assessment of the GEF project Integrated Ecosystem Approach to Conserve Biodiversity and reduce violations of habitats in the Russian Arctic (ECORA) as an integrated ecosystem approach to the management of natural resources, in which individuals and communities improve their ability to make responsible decisions about their natural habitat. In 2004, the Reykjavik Declaration on the Strategic Plan for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (AMSP), it is observed that the basis of AMSP put the ecosystem approach, and there was a call for Member States, working groups of the Arctic Council and relevant regional and international bodies to encourage application of this approach to the Arctic marine environment. The ecosystem approach is the key principle proposed to meet the long-term goals of the Arctic Councils Arctic Marine Strategic Plan: to reduce and prevent pollution, conserve marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions, promote the health and prosperity of Arctic inhabitants, and advance sustainable marine resource use (Arctic Council, 2004). The Strategic Plan for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment recognizes the need on the basis of international agreements contribute to global control and reduction of production in the Arctic found dangerous chemicals. Fingalsen T. supposed that the greatest fear in the Arctic is an oil spill. How the petroleum company is going to clean it up, especially from the ice? Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Prince William Sound cannot be perceived as clean. Oil spills might be rare, but it we still don’t know the long term consequences on how an oil spill and seismic exploration affects sea mammals. The petroleum industry might create jobs, but how important is this if it interferes with the way of life of the indigenous peoples? (Fingalsen T, 2009) The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has developed an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. This approach doesn’t concentrate exclusively on industrial species. The main goal is prevent the harmful influence of fishing on the dependent and related species. Unlike other multilateral agreements on Fisheries Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is engaged not only the regulation of fishing, but is also responsible for the preservation of the ecosystem. Such an ecosystem approach, which considers the entire Southern Ocean as a set of interconnected ecosystems, the case for other multilateral agreements on fisheries. The ecosystem approach does not focus exclusively on the species, non-target species. This approach aims to avoid situations in which fishing has an adverse influence on their dependent and associated species (animals with which people compete for food resources). Conclusion Large areas of the Arctic is still relatively little change, which makes it possible to take proactive measures to minimize or even complete prevention of future problems, the elimination which would be very expensive or simply impossible. For the conservation of biological diversity in the Arctic ecosystem approach is needed to the examination of projects implemented here, to assess the possible environmental impact of their implementation, the ecosystem approach to fisheries planning biological resources, taking into account possible changes in climate and ecosystem change, the value of ecosystem functions in the assessment of projects and planning fishing bioresources as well as the choice of options for the development of the Arctic regions. More and more countries (including the Arctic circumpolar countries) will incorporate ecosystem approach into their national legislation and policy instruments for the management of activities and resources in marine areas under their jurisdiction. Optimally, national approaches will be compatible and consistent with each other, though not necessarily similar. Work with this species in the Arctic-wide level will not be easy Reference list Fingalsen T. (2009) Arctic Governance and Human Economic Interest: An Ecosystem Management Approach to Arctic Stakeholders. Bodà ¸ Graduate School of Business, Norway. Fisheries and Aquaculture topics. Fisheries governance. Topics Fact Sheets. in FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department [online]. Rome. Retrieved 15 October 2014 from http://www.fao.org/fishery/topic/2014/en. Garcia, S.M.; Zerbi, A.; Aliaume, C.; Do Chi, T.; Lasserre, G. (2003). The ecosystem approach to fisheries. Issues, terminology, principles, institutional foundations, implementation and outlook. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 443. Rome, FAO. 71 p. Huntington H. (2013) Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). Akureyri, Iceland. Retrieved 20 October 2014 from http://www.arcticbiodiversity.is/the-report/report-for-policy-makers. Kempf A. (2010) Ecosystem approach to fisheries in the European context – history and future challenges. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, pp. 102-109. Michel C. Chapter 14. Marine Ecosystems. Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). 2013, Akureyri, Iceland. Retrieved 1 November 2014 from http://www.arcticbiodiversity.is/the-report/chapters/marine-ecosystems. Perelet R. (2006) The ecosystem approach to environmental management and environmental management. Management of the economy, pp. 34 – 50. Siron R., Sherman K., Skjoldal H.R., Hiltz E. (2008) Ecosystem-Based Management in the Arctic Ocean: A Multi-Level Spatial Approach. Arctic, Vol. 61, Supplement 1: Arctic Change and Coastal Communities, pp. 86-102. Shuntov V.P., Temnykh O.S. (2013) Illusions and realities of ecosystem approach to study and management of marine and oceanic biological resources, pp. 3–29.

Francis Of Assisi - Brother Son Sister Moon Essay -- essays researc

Francis of Assisi - " Brother Son Sister Moon" Crisis and conversion: While Francis is sick and dreaming, he has images of nature which represent the happiness and peacefulness. He also has images of war which help him understand that it isn't the greatest thing†¦ neither is it the most honorable. Francis has many great conflicts with his father. Francis' father is very materialistic and possessive. Francis' father did not honorably earn the money, he bought the "loot" from the crusades for a small price and sold them to their rightful owners for a much higher price. Father expects a lot of Francis. He expects Francis to be just like him†¦ a so called businessman, who is profitable, but not in an honorable way. Francis' father sends him to war so Francis can get bring his father back a triptych. Francis and his father have different views of life. Francis believes in freedom, believes that a person does not have to be rich to be prosperous, and he would rather be poor like Jesus then be rich, which Jesus was not. He thinks that the rich are misrepresenting Jesus because the rich are placing the poor behind themselves. Francis thinks that Jesus represents the poor as well as the rich†¦ "all men are created equal". Francis can't help but to feel scared of lepers in the beginning. After all, being scared is a normal human trait. Being in a big, bulky, helmet must feel awkward. It feels like your being closed in. Francis also...

Essay --

Introduction Sam wakes up, grabs her phone, unlocks it, checks her Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and then gets up and brushes her teeth, in that order. Whether one choses to acknowledge it or not, computer mediated communication (CMC), and more specifically, social networking websites and applications have become an integral part of ones daily routine. Millions of people across the globe have integrated Social Networking Sites (SNSs) into their everyday lives. Amongst those million, adolescents and young adults spend the most amount of time online communicating with their peers (Reich, Subrahmanyam, & Espinoza, 2012). Although many of the SNSs have unique networking functions to offer, generally they perform the same way in allowing individuals to: (1) connect with people they already share ties to, and (2) to make new connections based on shared interest or desired qualities (Reich, Subrahmanyam, & Espinoza, 2012). SNSs are a vastly growing apparatus, but there is still much to be learned about how and if these networks have a direct effect on how individuals communicate face-to-face (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Past and current CMC studies have studied interpersonal communication amongst college aged adults, and late adolescents. However, it is rare to find a study that gives mention to how CMC through SNSs impact FTFC in early adolescents and pre-teens. Understanding how SNS impact face-to-face communication amongst today’s preadolescents can help predict the future of communication. This paper examines existing literature on the use of computer- mediated-communication through social networks and its impact on face-to-face communication amongst adolescents, in hopes that it will identify limitations in past and current studies,... ...nclude the sample not being able to be generalizable to all users of CMC because the participants in the proposed study are preadolescents. The sample size is also too small for it to be generalizable for all preadolescents, and it only focusing in a school setting provides limitations as well. Another limitation that can be assumed is due to the fact that the data being collected is self reported; therefore everything collected must be taken at face value and can be flawed due to selective memory, telescoping, or exaggeration. If access to the schools or parental consent is denied, this could be a big limitation as well. The objective of the current proposed study was to gain insight into how CMC through SNSs affect FTFC in early adolescents. Hopefully researchers will see the value of this study and they will be inspired to conduct further research on the topic.

Angels Demons Chapter 6-8

6 Sixty-four minutes had passed when an incredulous and slightly air-sick Robert Langdon stepped down the gangplank onto the sun-drenched runway. A crisp breeze rustled the lapels of his tweed jacket. The open space felt wonderful. He squinted out at the lush green valley rising to snowcapped peaks all around them. I'm dreaming, he told himself. Any minute now I'll be waking up. â€Å"Welcome to Switzerland,† the pilot said, yelling over the roar of the X-33's misted-fuel HEDM engines winding down behind them. Langdon checked his watch. It read 7:07 A.M. â€Å"You just crossed six time zones,† the pilot offered. â€Å"It's a little past 1 P.M. here.† Langdon reset his watch. â€Å"How do you feel?† He rubbed his stomach. â€Å"Like I've been eating Styrofoam.† The pilot nodded. â€Å"Altitude sickness. We were at sixty thousand feet. You're thirty percent lighter up there. Lucky we only did a puddle jump. If we'd gone to Tokyo I'd have taken her all the way up – a hundred miles. Now that'll get your insides rolling.† Langdon gave a wan nod and counted himself lucky. All things considered, the flight had been remarkably ordinary. Aside from a bone-crushing acceleration during take off, the plane's motion had been fairly typical – occasional minor turbulence, a few pressure changes as they'd climbed, but nothing at all to suggest they had been hurtling through space at the mind-numbing speed of 11,000 miles per hour. A handful of technicians scurried onto the runway to tend to the X-33. The pilot escorted Langdon to a black Peugeot sedan in a parking area beside the control tower. Moments later they were speeding down a paved road that stretched out across the valley floor. A faint cluster of buildings rose in the distance. Outside, the grassy plains tore by in a blur. Langdon watched in disbelief as the pilot pushed the speedometer up around 170 kilometers an hour – over 100 miles per hour. What is it with this guy and speed? he wondered. â€Å"Five kilometers to the lab,† the pilot said. â€Å"I'll have you there in two minutes.† Langdon searched in vain for a seat belt. Why not make it three and get us there alive? The car raced on. â€Å"Do you like Reba?† the pilot asked, jamming a cassette into the tape deck. A woman started singing. It's just the fear of being alone†¦ No fear here, Langdon thought absently. His female colleagues often ribbed him that his collection of museum-quality artifacts was nothing more than a transparent attempt to fill an empty home, a home they insisted would benefit greatly from the presence of a woman. Langdon always laughed it off, reminding them he already had three loves in his life – symbology, water polo, and bachelorhood – the latter being a freedom that enabled him to travel the world, sleep as late as he wanted, and enjoy quiet nights at home with a brandy and a good book. â€Å"We're like a small city,† the pilot said, pulling Langdon from his daydream. â€Å"Not just labs. We've got supermarkets, a hospital, even a cinema.† Langdon nodded blankly and looked out at the sprawling expanse of buildings rising before them. â€Å"In fact,† the pilot added, â€Å"we possess the largest machine on earth.† â€Å"Really?† Langdon scanned the countryside. â€Å"You won't see it out there, sir.† The pilot smiled. â€Å"It's buried six stories below the earth.† Langdon didn't have time to ask. Without warning the pilot jammed on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop outside a reinforced sentry booth. Langdon read the sign before them. Securite. Arretez He suddenly felt a wave of panic, realizing where he was. â€Å"My God! I didn't bring my passport!† â€Å"Passports are unnecessary,† the driver assured. â€Å"We have a standing arrangement with the Swiss government.† Langdon watched dumbfounded as his driver gave the guard an ID. The sentry ran it through an electronic authentication device. The machine flashed green. â€Å"Passenger name?† â€Å"Robert Langdon,† the driver replied. â€Å"Guest of?† â€Å"The director.† The sentry arched his eyebrows. He turned and checked a computer printout, verifying it against the data on his computer screen. Then he returned to the window. â€Å"Enjoy your stay, Mr. Langdon.† The car shot off again, accelerating another 200 yards around a sweeping rotary that led to the facility's main entrance. Looming before them was a rectangular, ultramodern structure of glass and steel. Langdon was amazed by the building's striking transparent design. He had always had a fond love of architecture. â€Å"The Glass Cathedral,† the escort offered. â€Å"A church?† â€Å"Hell, no. A church is the one thing we don't have. Physics is the religion around here. Use the Lord's name in vain all you like,† he laughed, â€Å"just don't slander any quarks or mesons.† Langdon sat bewildered as the driver swung the car around and brought it to a stop in front of the glass building. Quarks and mesons? No border control? Mach 15 jets? Who the hell are these guys? The engraved granite slab in front of the building bore the answer: CERN Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire â€Å"Nuclear Research?† Langdon asked, fairly certain his translation was correct. The driver did not answer. He was leaning forward, busily adjusting the car's cassette player. â€Å"This is your stop. The director will meet you at this entrance.† Langdon noted a man in a wheelchair exiting the building. He looked to be in his early sixties. Gaunt and totally bald with a sternly set jaw, he wore a white lab coat and dress shoes propped firmly on the wheelchair's footrest. Even at a distance his eyes looked lifeless – like two gray stones. â€Å"Is that him?† Langdon asked. The driver looked up. â€Å"Well, I'll be.† He turned and gave Langdon an ominous smile. â€Å"Speak of the devil.† Uncertain what to expect, Langdon stepped from the vehicle. The man in the wheelchair accelerated toward Langdon and offered a clammy hand. â€Å"Mr. Langdon? We spoke on the phone. My name is Maximilian Kohler.† 7 Maximilian Kohler, director general of CERN, was known behind his back as Konig – King. It was a title more of fear than reverence for the figure who ruled over his dominion from a wheelchair throne. Although few knew him personally, the horrific story of how he had been crippled was lore at CERN, and there were few there who blamed him for his bitterness†¦ nor for his sworn dedication to pure science. Langdon had only been in Kohler's presence a few moments and already sensed the director was a man who kept his distance. Langdon found himself practically jogging to keep up with Kohler's electric wheelchair as it sped silently toward the main entrance. The wheelchair was like none Langdon had ever seen – equipped with a bank of electronics including a multiline phone, a paging system, computer screen, even a small, detachable video camera. King Kohler's mobile command center. Langdon followed through a mechanical door into CERN's voluminous main lobby. The Glass Cathedral, Langdon mused, gazing upward toward heaven. Overhead, the bluish glass roof shimmered in the afternoon sun, casting rays of geometric patterns in the air and giving the room a sense of grandeur. Angular shadows fell like veins across the white tiled walls and down to the marble floors. The air smelled clean, sterile. A handful of scientists moved briskly about, their footsteps echoing in the resonant space. â€Å"This way, please, Mr. Langdon.† His voice sounded almost computerized. His accent was rigid and precise, like his stern features. Kohler coughed and wiped his mouth on a white handkerchief as he fixed his dead gray eyes on Langdon. â€Å"Please hurry.† His wheelchair seemed to leap across the tiled floor. Langdon followed past what seemed to be countless hallways branching off the main atrium. Every hallway was alive with activity. The scientists who saw Kohler seemed to stare in surprise, eyeing Langdon as if wondering who he must be to command such company. â€Å"I'm embarrassed to admit,† Langdon ventured, trying to make conversation, â€Å"that I've never heard of CERN.† â€Å"Not surprising,† Kohler replied, his clipped response sounding harshly efficient. â€Å"Most Americans do not see Europe as the world leader in scientific research. They see us as nothing but a quaint shopping district – an odd perception if you consider the nationalities of men like Einstein, Galileo, and Newton.† Langdon was unsure how to respond. He pulled the fax from his pocket. â€Å"This man in the photograph, can you – â€Å" Kohler cut him off with a wave of his hand. â€Å"Please. Not here. I am taking you to him now.† He held out his hand. â€Å"Perhaps I should take that.† Langdon handed over the fax and fell silently into step. Kohler took a sharp left and entered a wide hallway adorned with awards and commendations. A particularly large plaque dominated the entry. Langdon slowed to read the engraved bronze as they passed. ARS ELECTRONICA AWARD For Cultural Innovation in the Digital Age Awarded to Tim Berners Lee and CERN for the invention of the WORLDWIDE WEB Well I'll be damned, Langdon thought, reading the text. This guy wasn't kidding. Langdon had always thought of the Web as an American invention. Then again, his knowledge was limited to the site for his own book and the occasional on-line exploration of the Louvre or El Prado on his old Macintosh. â€Å"The Web,† Kohler said, coughing again and wiping his mouth, â€Å"began here as a network of in-house computer sites. It enabled scientists from different departments to share daily findings with one another. Of course, the entire world is under the impression the Web is U.S. technology.† Langdon followed down the hall. â€Å"Why not set the record straight?† Kohler shrugged, apparently disinterested. â€Å"A petty misconception over a petty technology. CERN is far greater than a global connection of computers. Our scientists produce miracles almost daily.† Langdon gave Kohler a questioning look. â€Å"Miracles?† The word â€Å"miracle† was certainly not part of the vocabulary around Harvard's Fairchild Science Building. Miracles were left for the School of Divinity. â€Å"You sound skeptical,† Kohler said. â€Å"I thought you were a religious symbologist. Do you not believe in miracles?† â€Å"I'm undecided on miracles,† Langdon said. Particularly those that take place in science labs. â€Å"Perhaps miracle is the wrong word. I was simply trying to speak your language.† â€Å"My language?† Langdon was suddenly uncomfortable. â€Å"Not to disappoint you, sir, but I study religious symbology – I'm an academic, not a priest.† Kohler slowed suddenly and turned, his gaze softening a bit. â€Å"Of course. How simple of me. One does not need to have cancer to analyze its symptoms.† Langdon had never heard it put quite that way. As they moved down the hallway, Kohler gave an accepting nod. â€Å"I suspect you and I will understand each other perfectly, Mr. Langdon.† Somehow Langdon doubted it. As the pair hurried on, Langdon began to sense a deep rumbling up ahead. The noise got more and more pronounced with every step, reverberating through the walls. It seemed to be coming from the end of the hallway in front of them. â€Å"What's that?† Langdon finally asked, having to yell. He felt like they were approaching an active volcano. â€Å"Free Fall Tube,† Kohler replied, his hollow voice cutting the air effortlessly. He offered no other explanation. Langdon didn't ask. He was exhausted, and Maximilian Kohler seemed disinterested in winning any hospitality awards. Langdon reminded himself why he was here. Illuminati. He assumed somewhere in this colossal facility was a body†¦ a body branded with a symbol he had just flown 3,000 miles to see. As they approached the end of the hall, the rumble became almost deafening, vibrating up through Langdon's soles. They rounded the bend, and a viewing gallery appeared on the right. Four thick-paned portals were embedded in a curved wall, like windows in a submarine. Langdon stopped and looked through one of the holes. Professor Robert Langdon had seen some strange things in his life, but this was the strangest. He blinked a few times, wondering if he was hallucinating. He was staring into an enormous circular chamber. Inside the chamber, floating as though weightless, were people. Three of them. One waved and did a somersault in midair. My God, he thought. I'm in the land of Oz. The floor of the room was a mesh grid, like a giant sheet of chicken wire. Visible beneath the grid was the metallic blur of a huge propeller. â€Å"Free fall tube,† Kohler said, stopping to wait for him. â€Å"Indoor skydiving. For stress relief. It's a vertical wind tunnel.† Langdon looked on in amazement. One of the free fallers, an obese woman, maneuvered toward the window. She was being buffeted by the air currents but grinned and flashed Langdon the thumbs-up sign. Langdon smiled weakly and returned the gesture, wondering if she knew it was the ancient phallic symbol for masculine virility. The heavyset woman, Langdon noticed, was the only one wearing what appeared to be a miniature parachute. The swathe of fabric billowed over her like a toy. â€Å"What's her little chute for?† Langdon asked Kohler. â€Å"It can't be more than a yard in diameter.† â€Å"Friction,† Kohler said. â€Å"Decreases her aerodynamics so the fan can lift her.† He started down the the corridor again. â€Å"One square yard of drag will slow a falling body almost twenty percent.† Langdon nodded blankly. He never suspected that later that night, in a country hundreds of miles away, the information would save his life. 8 When Kohler and Langdon emerged from the rear of CERN's main complex into the stark Swiss sunlight, Langdon felt as if he'd been transported home. The scene before him looked like an Ivy League campus. A grassy slope cascaded downward onto an expansive lowlands where clusters of sugar maples dotted quadrangles bordered by brick dormitories and footpaths. Scholarly looking individuals with stacks of books hustled in and out of buildings. As if to accentuate the collegiate atmosphere, two longhaired hippies hurled a Frisbee back and forth while enjoying Mahler's Fourth Symphony blaring from a dorm window. â€Å"These are our residential dorms,† Kohler explained as he accelerated his wheelchair down the path toward the buildings. â€Å"We have over three thousand physicists here. CERN single-handedly employs more than half of the world's particle physicists – the brightest minds on earth – Germans, Japanese, Italians, Dutch, you name it. Our physicists represent over five hundred universities and sixty nationalities.† Langdon was amazed. â€Å"How do they all communicate?† â€Å"English, of course. The universal language of science.† Langdon had always heard math was the universal language of science, but he was too tired to argue. He dutifully followed Kohler down the path. Halfway to the bottom, a young man jogged by. His T-shirt proclaimed the message: NO GUT, NO GLORY! Langdon looked after him, mystified. â€Å"Gut?† â€Å"General Unified Theory.† Kohler quipped. â€Å"The theory of everything.† â€Å"I see,† Langdon said, not seeing at all. â€Å"Are you familiar with particle physics, Mr. Langdon?† Langdon shrugged. â€Å"I'm familiar with general physics – falling bodies, that sort of thing.† His years of high-diving experience had given him a profound respect for the awesome power of gravitational acceleration. â€Å"Particle physics is the study of atoms, isn't it?† Kohler shook his head. â€Å"Atoms look like planets compared to what we deal with. Our interests lie with an atom's nucleus – a mere ten-thousandth the size of the whole.† He coughed again, sounding sick. â€Å"The men and women of CERN are here to find answers to the same questions man has been asking since the beginning of time. Where did we come from? What are we made of?† â€Å"And these answers are in a physics lab?† â€Å"You sound surprised.† â€Å"I am. The questions seem spiritual.† â€Å"Mr. Langdon, all questions were once spiritual. Since the beginning of time, spirituality and religion have been called on to fill in the gaps that science did not understand. The rising and setting of the sun was once attributed to Helios and a flaming chariot. Earthquakes and tidal waves were the wrath of Poseidon. Science has now proven those gods to be false idols. Soon all Gods will be proven to be false idols. Science has now provided answers to almost every question man can ask. There are only a few questions left, and they are the esoteric ones. Where do we come from? What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life and the universe?† Langdon was amazed. â€Å"And these are questions CERN is trying to answer?† â€Å"Correction. These are questions we are answering.† Langdon fell silent as the two men wound through the residential quadrangles. As they walked, a Frisbee sailed overhead and skidded to a stop directly in front of them. Kohler ignored it and kept going. A voice called out from across the quad. â€Å"S'il vous plat!† Langdon looked over. An elderly white-haired man in a College Paris sweatshirt waved to him. Langdon picked up the Frisbee and expertly threw it back. The old man caught it on one finger and bounced it a few times before whipping it over his shoulder to his partner. â€Å"Merci!† he called to Langdon. â€Å"Congratulations,† Kohler said when Langdon finally caught up. â€Å"You just played toss with a Noble prize-winner, Georges Charpak, inventor of the multiwire proportional chamber.† Langdon nodded. My lucky day. It took Langdon and Kohler three more minutes to reach their destination – a large, well-kept dormitory sitting in a grove of aspens. Compared to the other dorms, this structure seemed luxurious. The carved stone sign in front read Building C. Imaginative title, Langdon thought. But despite its sterile name, Building C appealed to Langdon's sense of architectural style – conservative and solid. It had a red brick facade, an ornate balustrade, and sat framed by sculpted symmetrical hedges. As the two men ascended the stone path toward the entry, they passed under a gateway formed by a pair of marble columns. Someone had put a sticky-note on one of them. This column is Ionic Physicist graffiti? Langdon mused, eyeing the column and chuckling to himself. â€Å"I'm relieved to see that even brilliant physicists make mistakes.† Kohler looked over. â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Whoever wrote that note made a mistake. That column isn't Ionic. Ionic columns are uniform in width. That one's tapered. It's Doric – the Greek counterpart. A common mistake.† Kohler did not smile. â€Å"The author meant it as a joke, Mr. Langdon. Ionic means containing ions – electrically charged particles. Most objects contain them.† Langdon looked back at the column and groaned. Langdon was still feeling stupid when he stepped from the elevator on the top floor of Building C. He followed Kohler down a well-appointed corridor. The decor was unexpected – traditional colonial French – a cherry divan, porcelain floor vase, and scrolled woodwork. â€Å"We like to keep our tenured scientists comfortable,† Kohler explained. Evidently, Langdon thought. â€Å"So the man in the fax lived up here? One of your upper-level employees?† â€Å"Quite,† Kohler said. â€Å"He missed a meeting with me this morning and did not answer his page. I came up here to locate him and found him dead in his living room.† Langdon felt a sudden chill realizing that he was about to see a dead body. His stomach had never been particularly stalwart. It was a weakness he'd discovered as an art student when the teacher informed the class that Leonardo da Vinci had gained his expertise in the human form by exhuming corpses and dissecting their musculature. Kohler led the way to the far end of the hallway. There was a single door. â€Å"The Penthouse, as you would say,† Kohler announced, dabbing a bead of perspiration from his forehead. Langdon eyed the lone oak door before them. The name plate read: Leonardo Vetra â€Å"Leonardo Vetra,† Kohler said, â€Å"would have been fifty-eight next week. He was one of the most brilliant scientists of our time. His death is a profound loss for science.† For an instant Langdon thought he sensed emotion in Kohler's hardened face. But as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Kohler reached in his pocket and began sifting through a large key ring. An odd thought suddenly occurred to Langdon. The building seemed deserted. â€Å"Where is everyone?† he asked. The lack of activity was hardly what he expected considering they were about to enter a murder scene. â€Å"The residents are in their labs,† Kohler replied, finding the key. â€Å"I mean the police,† Langdon clarified. â€Å"Have they left already?† Kohler paused, his key halfway into the lock. â€Å"Police?† Langdon's eyes met the director's. â€Å"Police. You sent me a fax of a homicide. You must have called the police.† â€Å"I most certainly have not.† â€Å"What?† Kohler's gray eyes sharpened. â€Å"The situation is complex, Mr. Langdon.† Langdon felt a wave of apprehension. â€Å"But†¦ certainly someone else knows about this!† â€Å"Yes. Leonardo's adopted daughter. She is also a physicist here at CERN. She and her father share a lab. They are partners. Ms. Vetra has been away this week doing field research. I have notified her of her father's death, and she is returning as we speak.† â€Å"But a man has been murd – â€Å" â€Å"A formal investigation,† Kohler said, his voice firm, â€Å"will take place. However, it will most certainly involve a search of Vetra's lab, a space he and his daughter hold most private. Therefore, it will wait until Ms. Vetra has arrived. I feel I owe her at least that modicum of discretion.† Kohler turned the key. As the door swung open, a blast of icy air hissed into the hall and hit Langdon in the face. He fell back in bewilderment. He was gazing across the threshold of an alien world. The flat before him was immersed in a thick, white fog. The mist swirled in smoky vortexes around the furniture and shrouded the room in opaque haze. â€Å"What the†¦?† Langdon stammered. â€Å"Freon cooling system,† Kohler replied. â€Å"I chilled the flat to preserve the body.† Langdon buttoned his tweed jacket against the cold. I'm in Oz, he thought. And I forgot my magic slippers.