Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle Chapter Ten

The bell rang. There was no time to go back to the cafeteria and tell Bonnie and Meredith. Elena set off for her next class, past the averted faces and hostile eyes that were becoming all too familiar these days. It was hard, in history class, not to stare at Caroline, not to let Caroline know she knew. Alaric asked about Matt and Stefan being absent for the second day in a row, and Elena shrugged, feeling exposed and on display. She didn't trust this man with the boyish smile and the hazel eyes and the thirst for knowledge about Mr. Tanner's death. And Bonnie, who simply gazed at Alaric soulfully, was no help at all. After class she caught a scrap of Sue Carson's conversation. â€Å"†¦ he's on vacation from college – I forget exactly where†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elena had had enough of discreet silence. She spun around and spoke directly to Sue and the girl Sue was talking to, bursting uninvited into their discussion. â€Å"If I were you,† she said to Sue, â€Å"I would keep away from Damon. I mean that.† There was startled, embarrassed laughter. Sue was one of the few people at school who hadn't shunned Elena, and now she was looking as if she wished she had. â€Å"You mean,† said the other girl hesitantly, â€Å"because he's yours, too? Or – â€Å" Elena's own laughter was harsh. â€Å"I mean because he'sdangerous ,† she said. â€Å"And I'm not joking.† They just looked at her. Elena saved them the further embarrassment of having to reply or to get tactfully groupies and headed for Meredith's locker. â€Å"Where are we going? I thought we were going to talk to Caroline.† â€Å"Not anymore,† Elena said. â€Å"Wait until we get home. Then I'll tell you why.† â€Å"I can't believe it,† said Bonnie an hour later. â€Å"I mean, I believe it, but I can'tbelieve it. Not even of Caroline.† â€Å"It's Tyler,† Elena said. â€Å"He's the one with the big plans. So much for men not being interested in diaries.† â€Å"Actually, we should thank him,† said Meredith. â€Å"Because of him at least we have until Founders' Day to do something about it.Why did you say it was supposed to be on Founders' Day, Elena?† â€Å"Tyler has something against the Fells.† â€Å"But they're all dead,† said Bonnie. â€Å"Well, that doesn't seem to matter to Tyler. I remember him talking about it in the graveyard, too, when we were looking at their tomb. He thinks they stole his ancestors' rightful place as the town's founders or something.† â€Å"Elena,† Meredith said seriously, â€Å"is there anything else in the diary that could hurt Stefan? Besides the thing about the old man, I mean.† â€Å"Isn't that enough?† With those steady, dark eyes on her, Elena felt discomfort flutter between her ribs. What was Meredith asking? â€Å"Enough to get Stefan run out of town like they said,† agreed Bonnie. â€Å"Enough that we have to get the diary back from Caroline,† Elena said. â€Å"The only question is, how?† â€Å"Caroline said she had it hidden somewhere safe. That probably means her house.† Meredith chewed her lip thoughtfully. â€Å"She's got just the one brother in eighth grade, right? And her mom doesn't work, but she goes shopping in Roanoke a lot. Do they still have a maid?† â€Å"Why?† said Bonnie. â€Å"What difference does it make?† â€Å"Well, we don't want anybody walking in while we're burglarizing the house.† â€Å"While we'rewhat ?† Bonnie's voice rose to a squeak. â€Å"You can't be serious!† â€Å"What are we supposed to do, just sit back and wait until Founders' Day, and let her read Elena's diary in front of the town?She stole it from your house. We've just got to steal it back,† Meredith said, maddeningly calm. â€Å"We'll get caught. We'll get expelled from school – if we don't end up going to jail.† Bonnie turned to Elena in appeal. â€Å"Tell her, Elena.† Besides, it seemed such a†¦ aviolation , to go into someone's house when they were not there, to search their possessions. She would hate it if someone did that to her. But, of course, someone had. Caroline had violated Bonnie's house, and right now had Elena's most private possession in her hands. â€Å"Let's do it,† Elena said quietly. â€Å"But let's be careful.† â€Å"Can't we talk about this?† said Bonnie weakly, looking from Meredith's determined face to Elena's. â€Å"There's nothing to talk about. You're coming,† Meredith told her. â€Å"You promised,† she added, as Bonnie took a breath to object afresh. And she held up her index finger. â€Å"The blood oath was only to help Elenaget Stefan!† Bonnie cried. â€Å"Think again,† said Meredith. â€Å"You swore you would do whatever Elena asked in relation to Stefan. There wasn't anything about a time limit or about ‘only until Elena gets him.' â€Å" Bonnie's mouth dropped open. She looked at Elena, who was almost laughing in spite of herself. â€Å"It's true,† Elena said solemnly. â€Å"And you said it yourself: ‘Swearing with blood means you have to stick to your oath no matter what happens.' â€Å" Bonnie shut her mouth and thrust her chin out. â€Å"Right,† she said grimly. â€Å"Now I'm stuck for the rest of my life doing whatever Elena wants me to do about Stefan. Wonderful.† â€Å"This is the last thing I'll ever ask,† Elena said. â€Å"And I promise that. I swear – â€Å" â€Å"Don't!† said Meredith, suddenly serious. â€Å"Don't, Elena. You might be sorry later.† â€Å"Now you're taking up prophecy, too?† Elena said. And then she asked, â€Å"So how are we going to get hold of Caroline's house key for an hour or so?† November9,Saturday Dear Diary, I'm sorry it's been so long. Lately I've been too busy or too depressed – or both – to write you. Besides, with everything that's happened I'm almost afraid to keep a diary at all anymore. But I need someone to turn to, because right now there's not a single human being, not a single person on earth, that I'm not keeping something from. Bonnie and Meredith can't know the truth about Stefan. Stefan can't know the truth about Damon. Aunt Judith can't know about anything. Bonnie and Meredith know about Caroline and the diary; Stefan doesn't.Stefan knows about the vervain I use every day now, Bonnie and Meredith don't. Even My life is full of lies right now, and I need someoneto be completely honest with. I'm going to hide this diary under the loose floorboard in the closet, so that no one will find it even if I drop dead and they clean out my room. Maybe one of Margaret's grandchildren will be playing in there someday, and will pry up the board and pull it out, but until then, nobody. This diary is my last secret. I don't know why I'm thinking about death and dying. That's Bonnie's craze; she's the one who thinks it would be so romantic. I know what it's really like; there was nothing romantic about it when Mom and Dad died. Just the worst feelings in the world. I want to live for a good long time, marry Stefan, and be happy. And there's no reason why I can't, once all these problems are behind us. Except that there are times when I get scared and I don't believe that. And there are little things that shouldn't matter, but they bother me. Like why Stefan still wears Catherine's ring around his neck, even though I know he loves me. Like why he's never said he loves me, even though I know it's true. It doesn't matter. Everything will work out. It has to work out. And then we'll be together and be happy. There's no reason why we can't. There's no reason why we can't. There's no reason. Elena stopped writing, trying to keep the letters on the page in focus. But they only blurred further, and she shut the book before a betraying teardrop could fall on the ink. Then she went over to the closet, pried up the loose board with a nail file, and put the diary there. She had the nail file in her pocket a week later as the three of them, she and Bonnie and Meredith, stood outside Caroline's back door. â€Å"Hurry up,† hissed Bonnie in agony, looking around the yard as if she expected something to jump out at them. â€Å"Come on, Meredith!† â€Å"There,† said Meredith, as the key finally went the right way into the dead bolt lock and the doorknob yielded to her turning fingers. â€Å"We're in.† â€Å"Are you surethey're not in? Elena, what if they come back early? Why couldn't we do this in the daytime, at least?† â€Å"Bonnie, will you getinside ? We've been through all this. The maid's always here in the daytime. And they won't be back early tonight unless somebody gets sick at Chez Louis. Now, come on!† said Elena. â€Å"Nobody would dare to get sick at Mr. Forbes's birthday dinner,† Meredith said comfortingly to Bonnie as the smaller girl stepped in. â€Å"We're safe.† â€Å"If they've got enough money to go to expensive restaurants, you'd think they could afford to leave a few lights on,† said Bonnie, refusing to be comforted. Privately, Elena agreed with this. It was strange and disconcerting to be wandering through someone else's house in the dark, and her heart pounded chokingly as they went up the stairs. Her palm, clutching â€Å"It's got to be in her bedroom,† she said. Caroline's window faced the street, which meant they had to be even more careful not to show a light there. Elena swung the tiny beam of the flashlight around with a feeling of dismay. It was one thing to plan to search someone's room, to picture efficiently and methodically going through drawers. It was another thing actually to be standing here, surrounded by what seemed like thousands of places to hide something, and feeling afraid to touch anything in case Caroline noticed it had been disturbed. The other two girls were also standing still. â€Å"Maybe we should just go home,† Bonnie said quietly. And Meredith did not contradict her. â€Å"We have to try. At least try,† said Elena, hearing how tinny and hollow her voice sounded. She eased open a drawer on the highboy and shone the light onto dainty piles of lacy underwear. A moment's poking through them assured her there was nothing like a book there. She straightened the piles and shut the drawer again. Then she let out her breath. â€Å"It's not that hard,† she said. â€Å"What we need to do is divide up the room and then searcheverything in our section, every drawer, every piece of furniture, every object big enough to hide a diary in.† She assigned herself the closet, and the first thing she did was prod at the floorboards with her nail file. But Caroline's boards all seemed to be secure and the walls of the closet sounded solid. Rummaging through Caroline's clothes she found several things she'd lent the other girl last year. She was tempted to take them back, but of course she couldn't. A search of Caroline's shoes and purses revealed nothing, even when she dragged a chair over so that she could investigate the top shelf of the closet thoroughly. Meredith was sitting on the floor examining a pile of stuffed animals that had been relegated to a chest with other childish mementos. She ran her long sensitive fingers over each, checking for slits in the material. When she reached a fluffy poodle, she paused. â€Å"I gave this to her,† she whispered. â€Å"I think for her tenth birthday. I thought she'd thrown it away.† Elena couldn't see her eyes; Meredith's own flashlight was turned on the poodle. But she knew how Meredith was feeling. â€Å"I tried to make up with her,† she said softly. â€Å"I did, Meredith, at the Haunted House. But she as good as told me she would never forgive me for taking Stefan from her. I wish things could be different, but she won't let them be.† â€Å"So now it's war.† â€Å"So now it's war,† said Elena, flat and final. She watched as Meredith put the poodle aside and picked up the next animal. Then she turned back to her own search. But she had no better luck with the dresser than she had with the closet. And with every moment that passed she felt more uneasy, more certain that they were about to hear a car pulling into the Forbes' driveway. â€Å"I've got it. Elena, it's a diary!† Relief swooped through Elena then, and she felt like a crumpled piece of paper being straightened and smoothed. She could move again. Breathing was wonderful. She'd known, she'd known all along that nothingreally terrible could happen to Stefan. Life couldn't be that cruel, not to Elena Gilbert. They were all safe now. But Meredith's voice was puzzled. â€Å"It's a diary. But it's green, not blue. It's the wrong one.† â€Å"What?† Elena snatched the little book, shining her light on it, trying to make the emerald green of the cover change into sapphire blue. It didn't work. This diary was almost exactly like hers, but it wasn't hers. â€Å"It's Caroline's,† she said stupidly, still not wanting to believe it. Bonnie and Meredith crowded close. They all looked at the closed book, and then at one another. â€Å"There might be clues,† said Elena slowly. â€Å"It's only fair,† agreed Meredith. But it was Bonnie who actually took the diary and opened it. Elena peered over her shoulder at Caroline's spiky back-slanted writing, so different from the block letters of the purple notes. At first her eyes wouldn't focus, but then a name leapt out at her.Elena. â€Å"Wait, what's that?† Bonnie, who was the only one actually in a position to read more than one or two words, was silent a moment, her lips moving. Then she snorted. â€Å"Listen to this,† she said, and read: † ‘Elena's the most selfish person I've ever known. Everyone thinks she's so together, but it's really just coldness. It's sickening the way people suck up to her, never realizing that she doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything except Elena.' â€Å" â€Å"Carolinesays that? She should talk!† But Elena could feel heat in her face. It was, practically, what Matt had said about her when she was after Stefan. â€Å"Go on, there's more,† said Meredith, poking at Bonnie, who continued in an offended voice. † ‘Bonnie's almost as bad these days, always trying to make herself important. The newest thing is pretending she's psychic so people will pay attention to her. If she wasreally psychic she'd figure out that Elena is just using her. There was a heavy pause, and then Elena said, â€Å"Is that all?† â€Å"No, there's a bit about Meredith. ‘Meredith doesn't do anything to stop it. In fact, Meredith doesn'tdo anything; she just watches. It's as if she can't act; she can onlyreact to things. Besides, I've heard my parents talking about her family – no wonder she never mentions them.' What's that supposed to mean?† â€Å"Try around October eighteenth. That was when it was stolen,† said Elena, putting her questions aside. She'd ask Meredith about it later. There was no entry for October eighteenth or the weekend after; in fact, there were only a few entries for the following weeks. None of them mentioned the diary. â€Å"Well, that's it then,† said Meredith, sitting back. â€Å"This book is useless. Unless we want to blackmailher with it. You know, like we won't show hers if she won't show yours.† It was a tempting idea, but Bonnie spotted the flaw. â€Å"There's nothing bad about Caroline in here; it's all just complaints about other people. Mostly us. I'll bet Caroline wouldlove to have it read out loud in front of the whole school. It'd make her day.† â€Å"So what do we do with it?† â€Å"Put it back,† said Elena tiredly. She swung her light around the room, which seemed to her eyes to be filled with subtle differences from when they'd come in. â€Å"We'll just have to keep on pretending we don't know she has my diary, and hope for another chance.† â€Å"All right,† said Bonnie, but she went on thumbing through the little book, occasionally giving vent to an indignant snort or hiss. â€Å"Will you listen to this!† she exclaimed. â€Å"There isn't time,† Elena said. She would have said something else, but at that moment Meredith spoke, her tone commanding everyone's immediate attention. â€Å"A car.† It took only a second to ascertain that the vehicle was pulling up into the Forbes' driveway. Bonnie's eyes and mouth were wide and round and she seemed to be paralyzed, kneeling by the bed. â€Å"Go! Go on,† said Elena, snatching the di-ary from her. â€Å"Turn the flashlights off and get out the back door.† They were already moving, Meredith urging Bonnie forward. Elena dropped to her knees and lifted the bedspread, pulling up at Caroline's mattress. With her other hand she pushed the diary forward, wedging it between the mattress and the dust ruffle. The thinly covered box springs bit into her arm from below, but even worse was the weight of the queen-size mattress bearing down from above. She gave the book a few more nudges with her fingertips and then pulled her arm out, tugging the bedspread back in place. She gave one wild glance back at the room as she left; there was no time to fix anything more now. As she moved swiftly and silently toward the stairs, she heard a key in the front door. What followed was a sort of dreadful game of tag. Elena knew they were not deliberately chasing her, but the Forbes family seemed determined to corner her in their house. She turned back the way she had come as voices and lights materialized in the hall as they headed up the stairs. She fled from them into the last doorway down the hall, and they seemed to follow. They moved across the landing; they were right outside the master bedroom. She turned toward the adjoining bathroom, but then saw lights spring to life She was trapped. At any moment Caroline's parents might come in. She saw the french windows leading to a balcony and made her decision in that same instant. Outside, the air was cool, and her panting breath showed faintly. Yellow light burst forth from the room beside her, and she huddled even farther to the left, keeping out of its path. Then, the sound she had been dreading came with terrible clarity: the snick of a door handle, followed by a billowing of curtains inward as the french windows opened. She looked around frantically. It was too far to jump to the ground, and there was nothing to grab hold of to climb down. That left only the roof, but there was nothing to climb up, either. Still, some instinct made her try, and she was on the balcony railing and groping for a handhold above even as a shadow appeared on the filmy curtains. A hand parted them, a figure began to emerge, and then Elena felt something clasping her own hand, locking on her wrist and hauling her upwards. Automatically, she boosted with her feet and felt herself scrambling onto the shingled roof. Trying to calm her ragged breath, she looked over gratefully to see who her rescuer was – and froze.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Children’s literature Essay

Reading is one of the most important lifelong activities. Young children are connected with reading and books long before they actually know how to read. It starts when a child has the first book in his hand or when parents read to him from a book. It is a wonderful way for young children to spend time together with their parents. The interaction that is going on between a child and parent when they are reading together has some important components. One of them is predictability—as these activities usually occur on a regular schedule and follow a regular pattern of steps. Playfulness is evident as these activities are done for fun. Language is used to construct meaning and share ideas. The child gets opportunities to lead the activity, the parent is modeling language and reading behavior and together they develop their own jargon for many ideas. In this way parents intuitively use the â€Å"lab method† to teach their children about language, print, and books (Daniels, 1994, p. 37). A child understands that a book is connected with something pleasant for him and his important adults, something that makes them feel good. He understands the meaning of the word for an object long before he can say this word. Later he starts to understand that there are pictures and words in books and that they have some meaning. This is first step in developing reading abilities and love towards books. The joy of reading and love of books is crucial for each child’s development it is measured not only in school success but also in meaningful social interactions. This has been a decade of technological advances. From iPods to electronic readers children are bombarded with electrical images and stimulations. But the surprising truth is that even with all the advances in electronics and gadgetry, reading to children and having them read is still one of the most important skills to give a child. Reading to a child can promote a child’s cerebral and emotional development. While any positive interaction between parent and child is helpful, reading is always a sure fire way to gain a positive foothold into a child’s life. Books open doors to new ideas, cultures and concepts. By reading to young children a parent helps instill a love of books in children and helps them want to read more. The internet is a great learning resource for children as well as adults but a good reading ability should come first and foremost. Without a strong reading capability a child is unable to use the internet to its full potential. The Parent’s Role in Fostering a Love of Reading A parent is a partner in the life of his or her child. Parents can instill a love of books and delight in wordplay, develop pre-reading skills and help children become accomplished independent readers. Listed below are several ways to incorporate a joy of reading in a child. †¢ Read to the child every day. Start as early as possible. Books on tape can also be utilized. †¢ Sing nursery rhymes and children’s songs. †¢ As early as possible help the children obtain a library card. †¢ Treat books as though they are special. †¢ Give books at Christmas, birthdays and as rewards. †¢ Let the child make picture books by cutting out pictures from magazines or pictures they colored and glue them into homemade books. †¢ Make sure the child sees the parent reading. It doesn’t have to be a book; reading newspapers, magazines, or even the back of a cereal box can provide an example. When reading aloud, read with expression and excitement. †¢ Give the child opportunities to write even if it is unreadable. †¢ Let the child tell a story that the parent writes down. When it is completed let the child illustrate the story. †¢ Let the child pick the story for story time. †¢ Let the child help parents cook following a recipe card or cookbook. Books Help Children Develop Vital Language Skills Reading is an important skill that needs to be developed in children. Not only is it necessary for survival in the world of schools and (later on) universities, but in adult life as well. The ability to learn about new subjects and find helpful information on anything from health problems and consumer protection to more academic research into science or the arts depends on the ability to read. The more children read, the better they become at reading. It’s as simple as that. The more enjoyable the things they read are, the more they’ll stick with them and develop the reading skills that they’ll need for full access to information in their adult lives. Reading should be viewed as a pleasurable activity – as a source of entertaining tales and useful and interesting factual information. The more young children are read to, the greater their interest in mastering reading. Reading out loud exposes children to proper grammar and phrasing. It enhances the development of their spoken language skills, their ability to express themselves verbally. Reading, by way of books, magazines or websites, exposes kids to new vocabulary. Even when they don’t understand every new word, they absorb something from the context that may deepen their understanding of it the next time the word is encountered. When parents read aloud to children, the children also hear correct pronunciation as they see the words on the page, even if they can’t yet read the words on their own. Reading Can Open Up New Worlds and Enrich Children’s Lives As mentioned above, reading opens doors – doors to factual information about any subject on earth, practical or theoretical. Given the wealth of available resources such as Internet, libraries, schools and bookstores, if children can read well and if they see reading as a source of information, then for the rest of their lives they will have access to all of the accumulated knowledge of mankind, access to all of the great minds and ideas of the past and present. It truly is magic ! Through books, children can also learn about people and places from other parts of the world, improving their understanding of and concern for all of humanity. This, in turn, contributes towards our sense that we truly live in a â€Å"global village† and may help us bring about a more peaceful future for everyone. This can happen through nonfiction but, perhaps even more importantly, reading novels that are set in other places and time periods can give children a deeper understanding of others through identification with individual characters and their plights. Through stories and novels children can vicariously try out new experiences and test new ideas, with no negative consequences in their real lives. They can meet characters who they’ll enjoy returning to for comforting and satisfying visits when they reread a cherished book or discover a sequel. Books also give kids the opportunity to flex their critical thinking skills in such areas as problem solving, the concepts of cause and effect, conflict resolution, and acceptance of responsibility for one’s actions. Mysteries allow children to follow clues to their logical conclusions and to try to outguess the author. Even for very young children, a simple story with a repetitive refrain or a simple mystery to solve gives a confidence boost. Children can predict the patterns and successfully solve the riddles. Children are influenced by and imitate the world around them. While a steady diet of violent cartoons may have a detrimental effect on children’s development, carefully chosen stories and books can have a positive influence on children, sensitizing them to the needs of others. For example, books can encourage children to be more cooperative, to share with others, to be kind to animals, or to respect the natural environment. Reading Can Enhance Children’s Social Skills  Although reading is thought of as the quintessential solitary activity, in certain circumstances reading can be a socializing activity. For example, a parent or grandparent reading a story aloud, whether from a traditional printed book or from an ebook, can be a great opportunity for adult and child to share some quiet, relaxed quality time together away from the rush and stresses of the business of daily living. They share a few minutes of precious time, plus they share the ideas that are contained in the story. In addition, older children can be encouraged to read aloud to younger ones as a means of enhancing their relationship. At school or at a library story hour, books can bring children together and can be part of a positive shared experience. For some preschoolers this may be their primary opportunity to socialize and to learn how to behave around other children or how to sit quietly for a group activity. Make the most of this experience by encouraging children to talk about what they’ve read or heard. Reading Can Improve Hand-Eye Coordination  It may sound funny, but ebooks can be a way for children to improve their fine motor skills and their hand-eye coordination, as they click around a childfriendly website or click the backward and forward buttons of online story pages. They may also be picking up valuable computer skills that they’ll need in school and later in life. Reading Can Provide Children with Plenty of Good, Clean Fun I’ve saved the most important point for last. Reading can provide children with endless hours of fun and entertainment. All of the pragmatic reasons above aren’t at all necessary to justify reading’s place in children’s lives. Stories can free up imaginations and open up exciting new worlds of fantasy or reality. They allow children to dream and may give them a good start on the road to viewing reading as a lifelong source of pleasure; so read to your young children every day. Inspire your older children to read. Give them access to plenty of reading material that they’ll enjoy and discuss it with them. Sample everything – traditional printed books and ebooks on Internet, classic children’s novels and fairy tales, as well as more modern stories. If a child wants to hear the same story over and over again, don’t worry about it. Children take comfort from the familiarity and predictability of a beloved story that they know by heart. There’s no harm in that. Reread old favorites and, at the same time, introduce your children to new stories. Your child’s mind and heart have room for both. So Reading Really Does Matter After All There are so many ways in which reading continues to be both a vital skill for children to master, and an important source of knowledge and pleasure that can last a lifetime. Nurture it in your children. Make the most of all the resources that are available and waiting for you: printed books, online books, magazines and so forth. Encourage follow-up activities involving creative writing skills and the arts, as well, so that your children can reflect upon or expand on what they’ve absorbed and, at the same time, develop their own creativity. As you help your kids appreciate the magic of reading, you’ll find that there’s a whole wonderful world full of children’s literature out there that you  can enjoy too.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Influence of US Marcellus Shale exploration & production on Russian Thesis Proposal

Influence of US Marcellus Shale exploration & production on Russian LNG export in Shtokman_proposal - Thesis Proposal Example The increasing supplies of shale gas in the US have substantially reduced US needs for Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), and this shift in demand has resulted in several geopolitical implications. This paper will examine the effects of US Marcellus Shale exploration and production on Russian LNG export in the Shtokman area of Russia. Russian is among the world’s largest natural exporter. The Shtokman fields are some of the largest gas fields holding more than 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, as well as slightly more than 37 million tons of condensate gas (Barker 1). The Shtokman field, discovered by Soviet geophysicist Vladimir Shtokman in 1988, has not been explored due to the extreme climatic conditions in the Artic, as well as the depth of the sea as it varies from 1,050 to 1,120 feet. Russians scientists also warn that the development of Shtokman field will encounter problems as global warming sets free icebergs into the Arctic. In order to counter this challenge, the Shtokman Development Company will utilize floating removable platforms that can easily be removed in emergency situations. Knowledge about the existence of shale gas in the US is not new as geologists have known of the existence of shale formations for quite a long time. The principal hurdle has, however, been the issues of costs and technology. These have diminished over the last decade by the advent of new technologies that yield substantial cost reductions, hence making shale gas production in the US a reality. The net production of shale gas in the US has increased from a low amount in 2000 to more than 10 billion cubic feet each day in 2010. These figures will quadruple by the year 2040 and meet the requirements of natural gas in the US. It is paramount to note that without the constraints of government policies, as noted in other fuels such as coal, natural gas will play a significant role in the US energy market, as well as the entire

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Earth's Deserts Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Earth's Deserts - Research Paper Example The most important abiotic factor which influences the desert ecosystem is rainfall. Most deserts are characterized by the fact that it experiences little or no rainfall. The deserts receive a total of less than 300 mm of rainfall per year, where a rainforest receives about 2000 mm. The lack of rain, and ultimately water in a desert makes the vegetation scarce and influences the adaptation of the plants and organisms. Plants such as cacti which are very common in a desert ecosystem have adapted to the scarcity of water by storing water in their stems. The saguaro cacti do not have very deep roots, allowing it to soak up rain and dew before it evaporates. It's spongy surface inside expands to hold more water (Cunningham n.d.). Bushes develop small and few leave, but long roots to adapt to the harsh conditions by conserving water. Some plants are short lived and grow only during when rain is available. Temperature is another important factor which has a great impact on the ecosystem which ultimately is affected by another abiotic factor, sunlight. The temperature in the deserts reaches its extremes on a daily basis because there is no humidity in the desert air to block the Sun rays. Mean annual temperature in North American deserts like Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave, for example, is 20-25Â ° whereas it can reach up to 49Â °. Minimum temperature here can drop to -18Â ° as well. But temperatures can be so high that rain starts falling and gets evaporated whilst it reaches the ground (The desert biome. (n.d.).

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Monetary Policy and its Effects on Stock Markets Essay

Monetary Policy and its Effects on Stock Markets - Essay Example Despite claims that monetary policy should not affect stocks, there is evidence that the policy can affect real stock prices in the short run (Bernanke & Kuttner 2005) and also an opinion that the nature of the monetary policy regime can affect the performance of asset markets over longer horizons. It has also been observed that by altering the path of expected dividends, the discount rate or the equity premium is one of the effects of the monetary policy on stocks1 Observers of Financial Markets have noted that an unexpected decrease in the federal funds rate target leads to a rapid and positive reaction in stock prices thus implying the effect of the Monetary Policy on Stock Markets. Research Methodology - Our research methodology includes secondary data indicating the effect of policies on stock markets. We shall also examine the behaviour of important macroeconomic and monetary policy variables during stock market booms which will lead us to understanding the effect of macroeconmic policies like the Monetary Policy on Stock markets. The effects of Monetary Policy on Stock Markets. Monetary Policy Tools that affect stock prices Discount Window Lendings - The Monetary Authority can directly change the size of money supply by using the Discount Window tool. By calling in existing loans or extending new loans, the money supply in the country is regulated. When the money supply is ample, investors look to investments and when money supply is low, invetments are diluted to increase liquidity. Thus Discount Window Lendings influences stock prices. Reserve Requirement - A certain reserve of their assets is meant to be held by the Central Banks which is for withdrawals and the remainder is normally invested in mortgages and loans. A change in the reserve... In this essay, the researcher aims tol ascertain the importance of the Monetary Policy and its effect on the stock markets. Despite claims that monetary policy should not affect stocks, there is evidence that the policy can affect real stock prices in the short run and also an opinion that the nature of the monetary policy regime can affect the performance of asset markets over longer horizons. The research methodology includes secondary data indicating the effect of policies on stock markets. The researcher also examines the behaviour of important macroeconomic and monetary policy variables during stock market booms, which lead to understanding the effect of macroeconmic policies like the Monetary Policy on Stock markets. The researcher then concluds that early effects of the monetary policy can be observed when asset prices tend to focus on the impact of changes in liquidity on the demand for various assets that compromise the portfolio of the Private Sector. Extended periods of ra pidly appreciating equity housing and other asset prices in the United States and elsewhere since the mid 1990s have increased attention towards the effects of monetary policy on asset markets. The researcher also can conclude, that 20th century stock market booms typically were associated with the business cycle arising, when output growth was above average and ended as output growth slowed showing the effect of economic policies which affect stock markets and the stock markets globally are affected by Monetary Policy.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Oscar Pistorius; I Blame Myself for Taking Reevas Life Essay - 87

Oscar Pistorius; I Blame Myself for Taking Reevas Life - Essay Example Second, he has to deal with the prosecution and prison sentence of 25 years to life if he is found guilty of premeditated murder. And lastly, he has to deal with public scrutiny because the trial is publicized around the world. He did not only lose his girlfriend but also his privacy and possibly, earning the wrath of many people around the world. It is like, he against the world for accidentally killing his girlfriend. The news is credible not only because it used law terms such as cross-examination, premeditated, and that the defense, as well as the prosecution’s argument, are presented. In addition, the actual coverage of the trial was shown (but is not record anymore because it is already over) for the viewers to see and hear the actual proceeding of the trial. The news cannot be more credible than that. The news is about the annexation of Crimea, a province of Ukraine by Russia. In this news, it is about the seizure of the Crimea airbase by Russian troops. Putin alleged t hat many of Crimean residents are of Russian root and they are annexing it to protect its citizens. As a backgrounder, this happened after the ouster of former Ukraine President _who ordered the killings of demonstrators after they protested the President’s agreement with Russia. Ukrainians wanted their future with the European Union and not with Russia. At present, United States are threatening for more sanction against Russia with Putin just shrugging off the possibility of harsh sanctions. Putin’s troops, however, remain a threat to Ukraine. My thought here is that Russian President Vladimir Putin is clearly wrong because no matter how he argues it, invading another country’s province is wrong. He is behaving like Second World War Europe where countries will just invade any countries.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The American Male at Age Ten & Orchid Fever by Susan Orlean Essay

The American Male at Age Ten & Orchid Fever by Susan Orlean - Essay Example According to the study at the age of ten, a child may surprise you with his awareness of what goes on in society. At the same time, however, he may amaze you with how the little things in his life make it significant. Similarly, someone who is passionate about something will find meaning in life even with the menial things that satisfy his zeal. Susan Orlean is known to write about ordinary people â€Å"who are not normally in the public eye or consciousness, but in whose very ordinariness Orlean finds something extraordinary.† Because of her essay topics, Orlean enables her readers, and even herself, to be in awe at how everyday people can have such meaningful lives. There is nothing unusual about the people in the middle of Orleans stories. They are not famous celebrities or notorious folks. They are, however, passionate about things or people that are important to them. Because of this, their lives have become exceptional. From this study it is clear that in â€Å"The American Male at Age Ten†, Orlean describes the life of a typical 10-year old American boy living in the suburbs. Like any boy his age, Colin Duffy shows the writer’s audience that he can be a child and yet at the same time be as sensitive and mature in thinking as an older person. The author shares that Colin plays games and pranks and hangs out with his best bud. Amidst all this carefree behavior, Orlean also describes Colin as someone smart, aware of social issues normally discussed between adults and has a mind which can and does process a lot of stuff whenever Colin feels like it. Towards the end of the essay, the reader is made to realize that although Colin is just ten, there is more to him than just video games and childish pranks.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Global business context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global business context - Essay Example The purchasing power is significant consideration for Glass Phone. As Glass Phone is costly thus, per capita income of prospective customer is expected to be in between 5,000 USD to 15,000 USD or above. The cell phone industry has strong potential for growth. It is recognized as one of the fastest growing industries globally. In the year 2004, almost 58.5% of telephone subscribers used cell phone which is almost 1,752 billion globally. Only Asia comprised of 709 million of global cell phone users. In the year 2004, China which was recognized as â€Å"low and middle income nation† had 335 million mobile phone subscribers and the rate is growing rapidly. In present day, society is living with innovative technology and everybody desires to keep pace with latest technology. This is the reason for the new Glass Phone to have great future potentials in the Asian market. Using cell phone need not require high level of education. Customers irrespective of literacy have already recognized the necessity of having a cell phone. But literacy level can influence the perception and utilization of cell phone. Mobile phone industry has low necessity of infrastructure compared to landline telephone industry, but it has high necessity for skilled labour. Only skilled labours can deliver quality products and services which led to higher customer satisfaction. Mobile phone manufacturing company requires high level of reliability and unskilled employees are less dependable which can impact on the performance of the organizations. As Glass Phone is high tech instrument, the cheap labour is ineffective as it can lead to defective products. Highly qualified employees are appropriate which might call for greater expenses, can provide positive results by minimizing number of faulty products. The Glass Phone is an expensive product and thus it would require increased marketing

Summary11 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary11 - Essay Example The researchers try their best that there is no negative impact of their entry into their lives so they maintain the confidentiality and the privacy of the participants’ information. The threats to the confidentiality of the data are rare but occur often and therefore, the researchers take every possible precaution to protect the data. At the same time, they maintain agreements with the government agencies such as police, customs and tax agents to thwart any demand for the disclosure of information. Basically, the harm to the participant of the disclosing of the information is greater than the benefits to the society at large and therefore, poses an immense ethical issue for criminologists. Protection of the privacy of the personal information of the participant of the criminologists’ research poses another threat to the ethics of the society. The benefits to the society of the research must be weighed against the harms done by the disclosure of the information. At times, the researchers complain that the privacy law prevents them from the active beneficial research work. The disclosure of the personal information related to homicides, sexual abuses and frauds could jeopardize the safety of the respective participants. Therefore to ensure the safety of these people and the researchers, the reports and all other work related to research was anonymised. Informed consent is another issue that confronts the criminologists. The participants must be provided with the lucid understanding of the research objectives and the consent process so that they are aware of all the possible interactions as well as possible dangers to them. The interests and the freedom of the participants must be protected from the researchers and that informed consent must be taken. The criminologists have the probability and the potential to affect the wellbeing of the participants as well as their future economic interests. These researchers must try to minimize the harm to the

Friday, August 23, 2019

Global Marketing-Strategy and Practice 1 Assignment

Global Marketing-Strategy and Practice 1 - Assignment Example Chili’s Grill and Bar offers its customers with exotic Mexican and Texan food through a chain of restaurant outlets all over America. The business development strategies consider exploring the UK markets in future. While the restaurant chain has been successful in establishing a strong market presence in the States, the UK market presents new challenges in the form of food culture and consumer habits. The report analyzes the market strategies of the retailer and recommends fresh strategic moves that can help Chili’s explore the UK markets with specific focus on the city of London. Organizations constantly seek new market opportunities for pursuing its growth objectives. However, international marketing strategies face the primary challenge of entering new markets and this challenge involves the vital decision of where, how, and when to enter. Decisions related to global marketing strategies are often complex considering the wide range of social, economic, political, and technology based factors that impact market viability and approach. Doole and Lowe (2008) in their works on international marketing strategy observed that globalization for firms â€Å"should be the route to maximizing performance by introducing, where possible, standardized marketing programmes and processes, but at the same time, adapting certain operational activities to local needs in order to maximize short term revenue generation† (p187). The vital strategic consideration while entering a new market is deciding on how and where to adapt as per the needs of the local market segment s. London presents a lucrative market for those in the food business owing to its demand for fast food and restaurant services (Horizon News, 2011). London is a vital business destination attracting large numbers of tourists every day. According to recent reports by PWC (2013) the UK bars and restaurants business is worth over  £40 billion since consumers constantly seek new tastes

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Most Writers of Fiction Do Not Earn Enough Money to Live from Their Writing Essay Example for Free

Most Writers of Fiction Do Not Earn Enough Money to Live from Their Writing Essay Here are some conditions under which a novelist could reasonably expect some government suport. In general terms, if the writer has already proved that he or she can write well, and if the stories produced are stimulating and interesting, then I consider that some financial help might be given. Language quality is difficult to define, but if the writing shows, for example, good grammar, a wide vocabulary, and elegance and imagination, then I can see a valid reason for assisting an author to spend some time free from money problems. Such a writing needs to be encouraged. the entertainment value of a book would be also a factor in deciding whether to provide assistance to an author. Further consideration would include social and educational values expressed in the authors work. However, if the ideas were socially irresponsible, or if the stories contain unnecessary violence or pornography for its own sake, then I would not want to see the author sponsored to write stories which do not benefit society. Other exceptions are the many writers of good books who do not require financial help. Books which proved to be extremely popular, such as the Harry Potter stories, clearly need no subsidy at all because the authors have become rich through their writing. Views on what good quality writing means will vary widely, and so if any author is to be given money for writing, then the decision would have to be made by a committee or panel of judge. An individual opinion would certainly cause disagreement among the reading public.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Ecological Impact Of Coal Mining Environmental Sciences Essay

The Ecological Impact Of Coal Mining Environmental Sciences Essay The goal of coal mining is to economically remove coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s is widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. Coal is the most important fossil fuel around the world and vital for its energy security. In the process of development, coal mining is one of the major industries, which is contributing accidentally towards the pollution of the environment. The power sector is the bigger consumer followed by industrial sector (steel and cement manufacturing units). It also assures the energy supply which is important for any countries development. Coal is still remains essential in producing a diverse and balanced energy mix. It is a major fuel generating electricity worldwide. Coal is poised with different toxics which effect the environment and one of the key challenges coal industries is facing today. Coal is less effective and energy efficient compared to other fossil fuels and pollutes more as well. The main concerns is to focus at the regional level to do with the environmental impacts on air, water, land, forest, climate and the costs of mitigating these. Even with these concerns coal will remain a future mainstay. The coal mining industry finds it difficult to meet current needs as a bridge to meet future goal through the enhancement of knowledge and technology. The challenge is to apply the right technology in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way [1]. . Environmental Issues Most of the mining operations carried out underground and opencast mines like drilling, blasting, extraction transportation and crushing. These operations damage the environment and ecology to an unacceptable extent. Sometimes rapid and unchecked activities results in air, water and noise pollution, land degradation, health hazards, loss of forest wealth and agriculture land, drying of wells, rehabilitation problems lending to large scale environmental deterioration [2]. Environmental issues should observe and controlled by appropriate planning and study. A balance is required between mining and environment. In addition, due to excessive mining, chances of accidents increase which lead to misery and tragedy [2]. Impact of Mining on Air Quality Air pollution happened in mines due to the runaway emissions of particulate matter and gases including methane, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Mining operations produce a lot of dust. The drilling, loading, transporting, blasting, hauling, and crushing mainly produce dust in major operations. They dust sources in mines can be categorized as primary sources that generate the dust and secondary sources, which disperse the dust and carry it from place to place called as fugitive dust [2]. Opencast mining has severe impact on air pollution as compared to underground mining. In underground mining men suffer from dust inside underground mine workings. But opencast mining create much more air quality deterioration in respect of dust and gaseous pollutants. It creates air pollution problem not only within the mining premises but also in surrounding residential area affecting abundant air quality. High levels of suspended particulate matter increase respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and asthma cases while gaseous emissions contribute towards global warming besides causing health hazards to the exposed population [2]. The dust which is uncontrollable creates serious health hazards and also affects the productivity creating poor visibility, increased maintenance cost, breakdown of equipment and ultimately deteriorates the ambient air quality in and around the mining site. The dust can also pollute nearby surface waters and stunt crop growth by shading and clogging the pores of the plants [2]. Besides polluting the environment, the generation of dust means the loss of fines, which act as road surface binders. The vehicular traffic on haul roads has been identified as the most important cause of fugitive dust emissions [2]. The increase in the earths surface temperature due to the presence of certain gases in the atmosphere called greenhouse effect [3]. These gases are building up by human activities by extracting various minerals from the earth. The combustion of coal produces CO2 like other fossil fuels, this gas affect the greenhouse effect which is linked to global warming. The coal combustion produces gaseous emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) that produces ground level ozone and acid rain. SO2 and NOx gases react in the atmosphere with oxygen, water and other chemicals to form acidic compounds. Ground level ozone (O3) is mainly responsible for smog that forms a brown haze over cities. Ground level ozone is formed when NOx gases react with other chemicals in the atmosphere and is enhanced by strong sunlight [3]. Emissions of SO2 and NOx are termed trans-boundary air pollution because the environmental impacts from the production of these gases are not restricted by geographical boundaries [2]. Impact of Mining on Water regime Mining activities not only use a lot of water but it also affect the hydrological regime in the region and can affect the water quality. Disturbance to hydrologic regime The deep and large opencast mines have greater impact on the hydrologic regime in the region. With deforestation over the mine leasehold and changes brought about in the watershed characteristics, water flow in many streams in mining regions, is known to have dwindled and some perennial streams have turned into seasonal streams and others have receded [2]. The most important impact in large and deep opencast mine is on the ground water regime of the region. The water seeping into the mine and collected in the mine sump is partly used up in the mine and the excess amount is discharged into the surface drainage system [1]. The water used up in the mine for spraying on haul roads, conveyors, at loading and unloading points, bunkers etc. are lost by evaporation. A deep mine is likely to have longer haul roads requiring more spraying water. The water used for green belts and plantation areas are also lost by evapo-transpiration [2]. A part of the water discharged into the surface drainage system seeps into the ground and partially replenishes the loss of ground water caused by mine seepage but the proportion is generally very low. Many countries face the problem of over exploitation of ground water resources results in alarming lowering of water table [2]. The major focus is taken to estimating the water need and the mines for future to apply constraints on water use and discharge. The opportunity to re-use the water for drinking or agriculture purposes from surface and underground mines. Women in particular should be protected from potentially diminished water supplies. Mining companies should be a partner with the community in integrated water management. If mining diminishes the local water supply, then that water needs to be replaced [2]. To reduce the impact on the surface water bodies and surface drainage system, the surface layout for the underground and opencast should be planned and well managed. Underground and opencast mines should be planned with provisions for the development of underground and surface water bodies so that in the post mining period water in sufficient quantity is available for various uses [2]. In both the opencast and underground mines water is pumped out of the mines. This water should be planned for treatment so that the requirement for domestic and industrial uses can be met. Acid Mine Drainage Acidic water damages the water severely and produces water pollution problems. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) refers to distinctive types of waste bodies that originate from the weathering and leaching of sulphide minerals present in coal and associated strata [2]. Environmental effects of AMD include contamination of drinking water and disrupted growth and reproduction of aquatic plants and animals. Effects of AMD related to water pollution include the killing of fish and loss of aquatic life and corrosion of mining equipments and structures such as barges, bridges and concrete materials [1]. AMD is the most persistent pollution problems in mines of North Eastern Coalfield. Generally, water quality characteristics of acidic mine water reflect high acidity and high hardness along with high iron and sulphate contents [2]. Various toxic trace/ heavy metals become soluble in acidic water and may be presenting significant to concentration levels depending upon their availability in the source material [1]. Fortunately the considerable majority of coal mining areas are safe and only in a few localized areas problem of AMD exists. AMD cripples the economy of mines due to compliance of stringent environmental standards and involves huge cost burden in its management [2]. Augmentation of pumped out mine water from coal/Lignite mines The mining industry has to discharge millions of litres of water every day to the adjacent watercourses and thereby may cause water pollution in and around the mining areas [2]. This water, otherwise a valuable water resource because of acceptable quality, becomes contaminated with various domestic and industrial trade effluents and subsequently is just wasted while putting on an extra cost burden on the underground mines [2]. Further costs are incurred on abstraction of water from adjoining surface water bodies containing this water and additional costs are required for the treatment to meet the water quality objective criteria [2]. It is emphasized here to augments and protects this precious ground water availability of nearly acceptable quality to meet various water demands particularly drinking water of already affected mining population [2]. Augmentation of pumped out mine water from coal/Lignite mines for various water supplies particularly for potable purpose should be the pri me goal of the concerned mining authority in the already drought prone thickly populated mining areas [2]. Heavy Metal Pollution The heavy metals are important component of pollutants which not only cause phytotoxicity but also enter into food chain causing hazardous impacts on human health and animals. Human biology is full of instances where heavy metals toxicity has led to mass death [2]. Heavy metal pollution is quite prevalent in acidic mine water situations. Mining and Milling operations, together with grinding, concentrating ores and disposal of tailings, provide obvious sources of contamination in the surface environment, along with mine and mill waste water. As a result, elevated levels of heavy metals can be found in and around metalliferous mines due to discharge and dispersion of mine wastes into nearby agricultural soils, food crops and stream systems [2]. Eventually, they may pose a potential health risk to residents in the vicinity of mining areas. The extent and degree of heavy metal contamination around the mines vary depending upon geochemical characteristics and mineralization of tailings. Water Pollution from seepage, waste dumps and mine benches Major water pollution problem occurs due to erosion of mine benches, overburden and reject dumps and failing dams [2]. The soil particles are carried away during the heavy rains due to deforestation and baring of ground. The blasted material in overburden and mine benches contain fine particles, which are also carried away by the rainwater [1]. Many chemicals also enter the water streams in dissolved state. These sediment-carrying effluents are responsible for siltation of agricultural fields and chocking of streams and rivers on the downstream. Surface and ground water pollution, is a common feature of mining and associated processing activities [2]. Runoff from dumps and exposed mine surface carries fine sediments in suspension, which is deposited on downstream valleys and agricultural fields. Impact of Coal Mine Fire Most of the coal mines are affected by fires which leads the steady destruction of energy resource. The reason for mine fires presumably involves the phenomenon of spontaneous heating through two interrelated processes viz., the oxygen coal interaction or oxidative process and the thermal process [2]. If the fire remains uncontrolled, it can spread further through the pathways and crack in the strata. Mine fires give hike to several environmental problems besides economic losses and safety hazards. Apart from direct losses due to burning of coal, the other associated hazards encountered are [2]: Gas poisoning Difficult geo-mining conditions Sterilization of coal Hindrance to production Explosions Damage structure and adjacent properties The adverse impacts of mine fires are observed on all the four basic components of the environment viz. Air, water, land and population. Mine fires pollute the atmosphere to a greater extent and have a bad impact on air. The effects are severe on air once the fire becomes surface fires. The pollutants released from mine fires mainly comprise of gases like carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulphides (H2S) and other photosensitive oxidants apart from particulate matter [2]. Un-burnt hydrocarbons in presence of NOx and other oxidants produce eye irritation. Impact of Mining on Land The type of mining operation used for extracting coal, mining constantly results in enormous land disturbance- e.g. large scale excavation, creation of derelict land, removal of top soil, dumping of solid wastes, cutting of roads, etc [1]. The mining industry is not eager to re-handle the overburden material for economic reasons but you can see in few cases they planned to re-handle the material to fill the empty space created at the end of mining, and probably this practice will become more common and spread in future. Opencast mining has bigger impact on land compared to underground mining. With new and improved technology, opencast coal mining is used commonly because it is cost effectiveness and productivity in large-scale land disturbance. Underground mining has considerably less impact than opencast mining on land [2]. The surface settling impose several damages to engineering structures such as bridges, highways, buildings and drainage besides interfering with ground water regime. Impact of Mining on ecology The mining results the significant area of land devalued and existing ecosystem are replaced by unwanted wastes. The extraction process of mineral drastically alters the biological and physical nature of the mining area. Commonly practiced strip-mining to recover coal reserves, causes extensive soil damage, destroys vegetation and destroy and alter microbial community. In the process of removing desired mineral material, the original vegetation is inevitably destroyed and soil is lost or buried by waste [2]. We are usually confronted with a complete absence of soil, in either a pedagogical or a biological sense, and what is left is just a skeleton full of limiting factors. Strip-mining can cause compaction, changes in soil texture, loss of soil structure and reduced water infiltration. In addition, steep-sided soil piles are prone to erosion [1]. The landscapes that emerge are devoid of supportive and nutritive capacity for biomass development. Several microbial processes such as nitrogen and carbon cycling, humidification and soil aggregation are practically non-functional posing scientific challenges in the restoration of rhizosphere productivity and fertility [2]. The devalued land does not posses suitable surface soil to provide bedding layer for anchorage of plant and to support the biomass. Also the plant growth is not supported due to presence of toxic materials gradual increase in such landscapes due to intensive mining activity endangers not only the agro forestry productivity but also the aquatic eco-systems [2]. Impact of Noise and Vibrations from Mining The mining activities produce enormous noise and vibration which establish a disturbance in the source. The blasting of hundred of tones of explosive is identified as prostrate noise in the mining area. In pit crushing system with mobile crusher and large capacity materials handling plants are being installed to facilitate speedy handling of large quantities [2]. All these activities are major sources of noise vibrations in and around the mining complexes. The major implication of noise is the potential hearing loss of human ear. The noise also produces other health effects, influence to work performance and makes communications more difficult. The wildlife in the forests and other areas surrounding are also affected by noise. The wildlife is more sensitive to noise and vibration as compared to human beings. Select all potentially noisy construction equipment and then consider the sound power level of the equipment and comply with the need to limit the noise in the mining area. If the operations have the potential to beak the specified noise limits or barrier then effective measures needs to be taken to ensure the sound power level is within the limits either by using different equipments which has less noise and while constructing the plant noise attenuation materials should be used to reduce the effective noise.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Arab and Jewish Conflict Causes

Arab and Jewish Conflict Causes ABSTRACT The clash between Palestinian Arabs and Jews started around the turn of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that these two gatherings have distinctive religions (Palestinians incorporate Muslims, Christians and Druze), religious contrasts are not the reason for the clash. It is basically a battle over area. Until 1948, the region that both gatherings guaranteed was referred to globally as Palestine. Yet after the war of 1948-49, this area was partitioned into three sections: the state of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip (1). Jewishs claims to this area are focused around the scriptural guarantee to Abraham and his relatives, on the way that this was the chronicled site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel (which was decimated by the Roman Empire), and on Jews requirement for a sanctuary from European hostile to Semitism (2). Palestinian Arabs claims to the area are focused around nonstop habitation in the nation for several years and the way that they spo ke to the demographic dominant part. It depicts the â€Å"clash of civilizations† theory between the East which is still hanging to its historical inheritance and patrimony, and the West which uses its technological and scientific achievements to prove supremacy and legitimacy of spreading his values. Religiously, Jewish Islamic relations have historical roots, which stimulated several religious interpretations, later enhanced by ultra-Orthodox Zionist and Islamic extremists. In this project, I will try to evaluate the role of religion, nationalism and other forces which have triggered the conflict and look at the two prospective of this conflict. Tracing the history of the conflict In the late 19th Century, Jews and Palestinians both began to create a national cognizance and prepared to attain national objectives. Since Jews were spread over the world, the Jewish national development, or Zionist pattern, looked to distinguish a spot where Jews could meet up through the procedure of migration and settlement. In 1897, the first Zionist congress took place at Basle. Its aim was to discuss the ideas of Theodor Herzls 1896 book Der Judenstaat. Later, Basle program was established which supposed to establish a home for the Jews in Palestine Until the start of the twentieth century, most Jews living in Palestine were living in four urban communities with religious hugeness: Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. The greater part of them watched conventional, standard religious practices. Numerous invested their time considering religious messages and relied on upon the philanthropy of world Jewry for survival. Their connection to the area was religious not national, and they were not included in the Zionist development that started in Europe and were brought to Palestine by migration. Till the start of World War I, Jew population had risen to 60,000. In 1916 the British Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, had guaranteed the Arabs post-war autonomy for previous Ottoman Arab regions. On the other hand, Sykes-Picot Agreement Britain and France isolated the district under their joint control. In 1917, the British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour conferred Britain to help the foundation in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish individuals, in a letter to leading Zionist Lord Rothschild. It got to be known as the Balfour Declaration. Arabs were incensed by Britains inability to satisfy its guarantee to make an autonomous Arab state, and numerous restricted British and French controls as an infringement of Arabs entitlement to determination toward oneself. In Palestine, the circumstances were more convoluted due to the British guarantee to backing the formation of a Jewish national home. The increasing European Jewish migration and settlement in Palestine created expanding safety by Palestinian laborers, writers and political figures. They expected that the increase of Jews would lead inevitably to the stronghold of a Jewish state in Palestine. Palestinian Arabs were against the British Mandate in light of the fact that it foiled their aspirations for their rule, and they restricted huge Jewish movement on the grounds that it undermined their position in the nation. In the next 15 years, there was huge influx of Jewish population and around 1 million Jews were living in Palestine in 1936. During this time militant Zionist group Irgun Zvai Leumi carried many attacks on the Palestinian to liberate Palestine and Transjordan using force. In 1937, Lord Peel recommended partitioning of Palestine into Jewish state and Arab state. However it received huge opposition from the Arab representatives. In 1947, Britain which was ruling Palestine since 1920, handed over the matter to United Nations (UN). UN setup a committee which recommended splitting the nation into two parts, Jewish and Arab nations. The plan gave 56.57% land to the one-third of the population of Jews and 43.43% land to the two-third population of Muslims. On 29th November, 1947, 33 members voted for the plan, 13 voted against it and 10 abstained from voting process. However this plan was refused by the Arab representatives. On 14th May 1948, the first Jewish state, State of Israel was proclaimed. The declaration came into effect the next day as the British troops withdrew Soon after the independence, five Arab states attacked Israel including, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. However due to better military organization and skills, Israel was able to ward off the attack successfully. In 1949, the war between Israel and the Arab states finished with the consent to peace negotiation arrangements. The nation once known as Palestine was currently isolated into three sections, each under an alternate political administration. The limits between them were the 1949 armistice lines (the Green Line). The State of Israel incorporated in excess of 77 percent of the domain. Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and the hill county of the West Bank. Egypt took control of the seaside plain around the city of Gaza (the Gaza Strip). However the tension didn’t finish here. In 1967, The Six Day War took place as a result of mounting tension between the Arab state and Israel. Israel seized Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt in the south and the Golan Heights from Syria in the north. It pushed Jordanian out of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also increased the area under Israel’s control as it increased to two times it had previously. Another war took place in 1973, known as the Yom Kippur war. It caused a lot of casualty on both sides and USA and USSR had to intervene to bring the ceasefire agreement. 1970’s saw the rise of Yasser Arafat who led PLO and carried out many attacks, most notably the Munich Olympics in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed. However during the same period, a right wing emerged in Israel which joined hands with Egypt as the Egypt president Anwar Sadat came to Israel in 1977. Israel also returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt that it had seized in 1967 war. In 1983, massacre of hundreds of Palestine refugees by Phalangist, ally of Israelis, was a great shame for the Israeli government. Ariel Sharon, the then defense minister had to resign from his post as inquiry proved that he was unable to avert the massacre. This massacre resulted in Palestinian intifada which started in 1987 against Israeli occupation of land. However a ray of peace was appeared in 1993 when Rabin and Yasser Arafatshook hand at the White house. Since then, various attempts to maintain peace have been made but they have proven to be futile as the extremists have tried to disrupt the peace. In recent occurring, unusually horrific murders of four young men in Hebron and Jerusalem strained the realtion between Israel and Palestine, after which Israel responded violently and bombing in gaza which resulted in deaths of many innocent lives. Concluding with the background of the conflict, the main reason for the conflict appears to be the control over land. However, the conflict over land is not because of controlling the resources or its uses but the religious importance that it carries for both the sects, Jews and Muslims. RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM Religious nationalism as talk and social development is regularly seen as an occurrence of societys self-governance as a wellspring of personality and evaluate, a self-governance showed in the shaping of politicized religious gatherings. It is a slip-up to start an examination of religious nationalism through the social gatherings forming it. From this perspective, religious nationalism turns into a development to safeguard a specific type of gathering character, contrast considered as traits of persons, much the same as that of racial, sexual orientation, sexual or etymological gatherings who dispatch developments to attest or guard their disposition before or from the general publics predominant gathering, here an instrument by which religious individuals secure participation in the political group or distinguishment in people in general circle. Religious nationalism could be seen as one among the panoply of the obviously new social developments, guarding way of life instead of seeking after investment, a substitute or a stand-in for the redistributive material governmental issues of class. Alternately it might be seen as a social refraction, or intercession, of underlying social grievances. These castings of politicized religion are both prefaced on recognizing the social as an instrumental distributional arrangement of things from the social as an expressive arrangement of signs, on understanding the economy as a material institutional request, the paragon of the social, while common society is a typical institutional request, the paragon of the social. Religious nationalism has no political-monetary import; it is an end in itself. Religious nationalism is both social and social. Religious nationalisms are vivified by a family show; they all middle their savage energies on the family, its sensual energies, its gendered request. This is on the grounds that the institutional rationale of religion fixates on the request of creation, finding human- ness in the universe, duplicating cosmology through custom, a reasonable mysticism that fundamentally focuses before life and after death. To decipher religious nationalism, we must tag the significance of nationalism. Nationalism is a state-focused type of aggregate subject development, a manifestation of state representation, one establishing the personality and authenticity of the state in a populace of people who occupy a domain limited by that state. The social shared traits of that populace dont, in themselves, constitute the premise for the creation of a country. Nationality is an unexpected and challenged case, not a social certainty (Brubaker 2000, Smith 1991). Nationalism, the political courses of action composed through the state for the sake of the country, makes the country, not the opposite (Calhoun 1998). Nationalism is a system for the co-constitution of the state and the regionally limited populace in whose name it talks. Nationalism is not philosophy. It is a digressive practice by which the regional personality of a state and the social character of the individuals whose aggregate representation it cl aims are constituted as a solitary institutional reality. Religious nationalism does not change the type of aggregate representation, just its substance, privileging a premise of personality and a paradigm of judgment which cant not be picked. The religious foundation of judgment is, similar to human rights, racial immaculateness, or specialized levelheadedness, past the span of prominent voice or the convincing diversions of the state Religious nationalist constantly focus their energies on the country states in which they live. Indeed activist Islamicists, who have a memorable transnational regional ambit, to be sure a general perfect, and the air conditioner tual custom of the caliphate whereupon to draw, just about all try to make an Islamic request inside the existent country state. In the event that nationalism does not give a determinate premise of aggregate personality, not one or the other do specific manifestations of religion give a determinate premise of legislative issues. Religious nationalism is a type of politicized religion, one in which religion is the premise of political judgment and character, for sure in which governmental issues tackle the nature of a religious commitment. Religious nationalist all read religious messages politically. While it is positively printed, religious nationalism is not inalienably more literalist in its application of its holy messages, nor more absolutist in its ontologies and good objectives, that is, than its common equivalents-communism, majority rule government, nationalism, and modem science, to take four illustrations each of which deliver their own particular hallowed writings, their sacred qualities. To talk about religions section into the general population circle essentially as a manifestation of fundamenta lism is to redirect consideration from the social specificity of its institutional duties. Each religious group, not simply politicized ones, makes specific utilization of their literary custom, tailor their elucidations to the current workload. It is impractical to recognize politicized religious developments from non-politicized ones focused around the degree to which they take after the basics, themselves simply a specific development. The religious distinction between endeavors by Hindus or Jews to control specific bits of challenged region and comparable endeavors by Muslims or American Christians, who are incorporated in the fundamentalist classification, to control the domains they as of now possess escapes me. Both of these fundamentalists look to utilize state force to control components of regional choreography-work hours, film, sustenance consumption, dress-basing their rights to do so in religious cosmology. Religious nationalism represents the return to text, to the fixity of signs, the renarrativization of the nation in a cosmic context. It returns us to bodies and souls, a zone to be defended against things on the one side and beasts on the other. Religious nationalism is literally about reading, the collective plumbing of a text for its timeless truths, as a basis for the narration of contemporary history. Islamic fundamentalists look to the Quranic history of the community founded by Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century as a template by which to gauge and goad the present order. Their Jewish counterparts locate their foundation and telos in the ancient Temple-centered kingdom that was the culmination of Gods territorial promise to Abraham, Moses, and David documented in the Torah. RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM IN ISRAEL Israel has a long history of consolidating religious advancements in its political structure; Jewish religious nationalists, ultraà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ orthodox Jewish political improvements, and Islamists have all participated in choosing administrative issues to moving degrees. We focus on the effects of the joining of the religious nationalists for different accurate and methodological reasons (which we inspect underneath). Not in any way like ultraà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ orthodox Jewry, which for the most part contemplated the Zionist reach out as strange, by the 1930s, the staggering strain inside religious Zionism saw the Zionist stretch out as having significant religious and messianic basics. In like manner, religious Zionism, while holding quick to the conviction that the spot where there is Israel was divinely ensured to the Jewish people, in the meantime favored the state of Israel as the Start of the Redemption and as the harbinger of the Messiah. It envisioned the state as the stage of Gods throne and favored its strongholds, especially the military. The blessedness of the state of Israel was seen as an ontological standard, withdrew from either the individual dedication of its inhabitants or the exercises of its pioneers. Thusly, when considering the probability of provincial concessions, it possessed with a modifying test between two religious targets the estimation of the region and the estimation of the state. In practical terms, this intimated that the relative moderates inside religious Zionism could help territorial concessions if these were seen to benefit the state of Israel. Without a doubt, headed by this wing of the advancement, the National Religious Party (NRP) did so when they underpinned Israels withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip in 1957. While these religious loyalists are still hawkish diverged from the general Israeli masses, the way that they partake in this changing test makes them reasonably administer appeared differently in relation to the radical wing of Jewish religious patriotism. Reflecting the gift of the state likewise especially of the military, one of its pioneers battled that the people who participate in violence against state associations are debasing the name of religious Zionism. They are debasing the weave kippa [skullcap (a picture of religious Zionism)]. Whoever tosses stones at IDF (Israeli Defense Energy) troopers, judgments and wars against the state of Israel is not piece of religious Zionism. The Jewish Home Party adjusted a potential union with the National Union Party on the lates renouncement of any brutality against state establishments and of any affiliation that judgments and puts down the estimation of IDF officers and of the establishments of the state of Israel (the national tune of dedication, the picture of the state, the flag of the state, recognition additionally flexibility days, and the parliamentary and legitimate skeletons). The primary lesson from the knowledge of the Israeli religious patriot development is that the same fundamental instruments (intraà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ party rivalry and the outer political setting) that are expected to prompt balance by the IMH can likewise prompt radicalization, and that such radicalization can happen even in completely democratic contexts.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Terrorism - Towards An Understanding :: essays research papers fc

I am in complete disagreement with Corrado and Cohen's theory of political terrorism. I believe that political terrorism is committed by dominant, aggressive males in positions of power, acting with other dominant, aggressive males for more power, money, or status, and without regard to the spiritual nature of human kind. I believe that dividing political terrorism into state or anti state terrorism, does not get to the root cause of terrorism. To uncover the true cause of terrorism, I believe involves identifying motive and personalities of those "terrorizing". In most cases it is dominant, aggressive males who hold positions of power in either the political, economic, or military arenas, and who manipulate events to suite themselves, e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and in more recent times, Slobodon Milosovic. Those that fight against dominance and aggression, I believe should be called revolutionaries. For example, the Irish Republican Army. The North of Ireland harboured a protestant streak of dominant, aggressive males, who in attempt to hang on to power, unleashed the horrific events of Bloody Sunday, and many other uncalled for acts of aggression. These acts where sanctioned by politicians, in both the North of Ireland and England, who acted in conjunction with both the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the British Army. On Bloody Sunday, the British soldiers deliberately aimed and killed young men, they believed most likely to be members of the Irish Republican Army, at the peaceful, albeit illegal, demonstration. "...all the deceased where men, and nine of them were under the age of 25." It was an effort to stop what has almost come to pass. A fair assembly of politicians, who represent all layers and fabrics of the society. The event is still under review. The actions of the Irish Republican Army has eventually destroyed the positions of power that the dominant, aggressive males abused. But I do not be lieve that we should label those who fought for a better life as terrorists. People who put their lives on the line for true justice, I believe should be referred to as a Revolutionaries. We are exposed to new conflicts now, almost on a daily basis, and no two situations are ever identical. This makes the breakdown of a typology extremely difficult. The typology which defines "political terrorism", according to Corrado and Cohen, has eleven different categories, in order to encompass all of the different situations. These typologies may be useful in a security setting, but in order to get to the bottom of the problem, I believe that rather than complicating the issue with many meanings, it should instead be simplified and attributed to one of two choices.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Americans With Disabilities Act Essay -- Argumentative Healthcare

"The Americans With Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in American History. The preamble to the law states that it covers 43,000,000 Americans."(Frierson, p.3) Before the Americans With Disabilities Act(A.D.A.) was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the persons physical disability were they turned away or released from a job. The Americans With Disabilities Act prevented this type of discrimination by establishing rules and regulations designed to protect persons with physical disabilities. With a workforce made up of 43,000,000 people, it is impossible to ignore the impact of these people. The Americans With Disabilities Act not only opened the door for millions of Americans to get back into the workplace, it is paving the road for new facilities in the workplace, new training programs and creating jobs designed for a disabled society. I believe the Americans With Disabilities Act is the most important precedent set in the struggle against all discrimination for persons with disability. In this paper I will give a brief description of the statutes set by the Americans With Disabilities Act, pertaining to disabilities in the workplace. I will then discuss what employers are required to do according to the A.D.A. and some of the regulations they must abide by. The next section of this paper will discuss the actual training of employees with disabilities with a highlight on training programs for workers with mobility and motion disabilities. The following section of this paper will discuss the economic effects of a vocational rehabilitation program. Finally this paper will conclude with a brief discussion of what the measures set by the Americans With Disabilities Act means to the actual workers and people it benefits. The Americans With Disabilities Act The Americans With Disabilities Act has a section devoted to nothing but practices by employers regarding the treatment of applicants and on staff workers based on their physical condition or any health problems they may have. Some of the disabilities included are vision, hearing, motion, or mental impairments. "Title I of the Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hi... ...ersons with disabilities to function as a productive member of society. Or what is thought to be a productive member, in that this person can be completely independent both in the home and in the workplace. Technology, persistence, and understanding makes it all happen. Now go back and look at the person who had a disability take control of his or her life. That person is no longer, hiding in the shadows, he is out, proudly contributing and living his life to the best of his ability. Also this person can support himself with a regular paycheck, not a government aid or the help of family and friends. This aspect in particular is of extreme importance to many disabled Americans. The ability to survive on their own, not having to be dependent on someone or some group to provide food, clothing or shelter, isn't that what we all want anyway? That is why the Americans With Disabilities Act is the most important precedent set in the struggle to end all discrimination against disabled people. Although there will always be some discrimination and prejudice against all groups in society, at least now one of those groups has the opportunity to prove themselves in an unforgiving society.

Evil in Shakespeares Macbeth - Lady Macbeth as a Second Eve :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

The Different Faces of Evil - Lady Macbeth as a Second Eve    Natural disasters in newspaper headlines, literature, video games, Hollywood movies, gapers at accidents, TV series in the afternoon - they all prove the our fascination about the evil, about death and violence. The evil in Macbeth is clearly omnipresent and an almost endless theme for different analysis. The role of Lady Macbeth is interesting on many levels of interpretation, but I shall focus on her way of being evil and her way of interacting with other characters in the play. Lady Macbeth is characterized at least as complex as her husband, although she is not the traditional tragic hero in the play. She doesn't only show the trait of being the evil but also many other, very human, traits.    The above was provided to give the student an idea of the content of the paper.   The complete paper begins below.    Bosheit ist eine Art Delirium und verwirrt den Verstand.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Friedrich II von Preussen    Prà ¼fe das Innere jedes beliebigen Menschen - in jedem wirst du wenigstens einen dunklen Punkt finden, den er verhà ¼llen muss. (Bernick)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ibsen, Die Stà ¼tzen der Gesellschaft III    Natural disasters in newspaper headlines, literature, video games, Hollywood movies, gapers at accidents, TV series in the afternoon - they all prove the our fascination about the evil, about death and violence. The evil in Macbeth is clearly omnipresent and an almost endless theme for different analysis. The role of Lady Macbeth is interesting on many levels of interpretation, but I concentrate on her way of being evil and her way of interacting with other characters in the play. Lady Macbeth is characterized at least as complex as her husband, although she is not the traditional tragic hero in the play. She doesn't only show the trait of being the evil but also many other, very human, traits. Her interaction with Macbeth and the other characters passes on different levels: She plays the charming serpent, she's a perfect strategist and she's probably, before her fall, the most self-confident and straight person in the play. And, she succeeds in achieving even more influence on her husband than the witches. Therefore it is worth to deal with   an analysis of her conduct, which will show that she has many faces - though all of them are a sign of her evocation of the evil and, make her to a second Eve in the fall of men.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Freedom: Meaning of Life and Br Essay

Freedom is often spoken of in what can be referred to as a â€Å"loose sense†. One country has more freedom than another; a twenty-one year old has more freedom than a fifteen year old, but what exactly does this word, which is so often flippantly used, mean? Or, if this conclusion cannot be reached, what does it not mean? For different people it may mean different things, but there has to be an equilibrium that can be reached in order to determine the meaning of freedom itself. In one form, freedom can mean that a person has â€Å"exemption from an obligation.†* If only the root (free) is looked at, it can be interpreted that one is â€Å"not under the control or power of another.†* However often the latter definition is used, it is also disagreed with, and for good reason: there is always a ruler, although the ruler may not necessarily be in the form of a person or group of persons. Take, for instance, the human body. It consists of basically three things, as far as ruling powers are concerned: prudence, will, and raw appetite. Raw appetite can be looked at as what we have without reason, will is what can control raw appetite (or desires that we have without reason), and prudence is that which provides a choice between will and raw appetite. Prudence has the ability to choose between the two options. This is just one example of how a ruler must always exist, although it may not have a physical form. Taking this into consideration, the meaning of freedom can further be explored. Perhaps it can be defined as having the liberty to choose who/what the ruler is to be. For, since nothing can exist without having some form of rule, if people are not permitted to choose what the ruling factor is, then that would not be considered having freedom. Through this, it can be concluded that freedom, possibly, is not simply the ability to be able to do whatever it is that you want, and it is not simply being liberated from the power of another. It can also be concluded that one of the definitions of freedom could possibly be the liberty to choose the ruler. However, it is possible that it is unfeasible to ever obtain the exact definition of freedom.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Show how you respond to Austen’s presentation of balls and other social events in Emma

‘It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind: – but when a beginning is made – when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly felt – it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.' Using the quotation as a starting point show how you respond to Austen's presentation of balls and other social events in Emma. The above quotation put in simple terms connotes socializing to not be essential for survival yet once experienced, addictions can be produced. This is implied within Jane Austen's Emma as hinted by social events presentation and their significance. Suggestions of such views display human development by the mistakes made within society to encourage moral growth and wisdom. The central focus upon balls and social pursuits indicates the triviality of the upper classes. Austen's satirical tone throughout the novel exemplifies the hierarchy of the eighteenth nineteenth century, while ridiculing their concerns. The author has illustrated a further emphasis by concentrating particularly on Emma's development and need for social awareness as progressed through the various social affairs. The Weston's Christmas party acts as an introductory occasion for the readers to establish a hierarchy, as well as Emma's importance within the Highbury society. The Woodhouses are treated to be at the centre of attention as illustrated by the great fuss created for â€Å"poor Mr. Woodhouse† due to the falling of snow. By making such characters much pleased with them, they begin to believe they are and feel much more superior. This permits Emma in her match making schemes of ultimately feeling a strong love interest among Mr. Elton and Harriet Smith. Emma's confidence is quilted by the safety of her fathers smothering and her lack of awareness. This meddling leads to devastating consequences, which may be seen through the contrasting behaviour contained in private and public atmospheres. A faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade of etiquette is created publicly to portray perfectionism of characters friendly decorum. Mr. Weston kindly criticizes Emma while she politely â€Å"listened† and â€Å"coolly† replies. Emma needs to preserve her good manners in a situation like this as not cause any damage to her status. Conversely, when Emma and Mr. Elton are alone in the carriage, returning home, the change in conduct insights readers to the true colours of the character concerned. Previously, Mr. Elton seemed â€Å"so anxious for† Emma, demonstrating agitating behaviour, explaining the true exposition of Mr. Elton's â€Å"pretence of being in love with her†. His obnoxious behaviour screened to Emma and the readers reflects his snobbery, as he believes â€Å"everybody has their level†, as well as degrading his respect. The significance of this event adds to the background of future events and creates a build up. Emma looks forward to a night of being admired at the Coles dinner party but clear differing levels of accomplishment with the â€Å"superior† Jane Fairfax prevent this, as well as distinguishing a sense of competition between the two characters. One major accomplishment, the art of piano playing, may be regarded as a form of battle ground among Emma and Jane. Jane's advancement clearly initiates much threat for Emma as her attentions are overtaken. Nevertheless due to social expectations of the formal times, Emma is required to be friendly towards poorer, low class woman such as Miss Fairfax. This allows others to publicly view Emma's character to be of a good image. The use of falseness and pretences supports the idea of conformist public behaviour through superficial mannerisms of always â€Å"smiling†. Ironically, the narrative reveals much deeper thoughts of Emma privately whilst creating comedy though the anticipation of her reactions which â€Å"she never could attempt to conceal.† However her opinion of Jane is not openly expressed but slyly gossiped with Frank who joins in, yet continuously is â€Å"glancing towards Miss Fairfax.† The divisions of social classing prevent Frank from freely associating himself with Jane who he is secretly engaged with. This becomes evident alongside the social gatherings, suggesting secrets codes of honour to carry out, by enforcing heavy use of faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ades in friendships among Emma, Frank and Jane. False pretences are deepened within the society of Highbury as immediately reflected through Emma holding a dinner party for Mrs. Elton, a woman she can not stand. During this gathering much commotion is taken up by party guests, predominantly by Mr. Knightely, about Jane's â€Å"venture.† Austen can be seen to be ridiculing society as characters take much interest upon a minority issue of visiting the post office. Jane shows a â€Å"little blush† of running â€Å"such risks† while reserving her manners regardless to the invasion of her privacy. Consequently the time period within the novel compels Jane's consistence and Mr. Knightley's courtesy to be purely based upon concern for her health. Adoptions of significance still withstands similar to the previous events, and allow development of future plots such as the suspicion formed upon Miss. Fairfax's behaviour. The great Crown Inn Ball had been postponed several times creating much enthusiasm and excitement for the people of Highbury. This is an indication of the emptiness of their lives. Being the first formal social gathering due to Mrs. Elton's arrival, social codes would advocate her to have central focus. This angers Emma as â€Å"her taste was not the only taste which† was to be depended upon. Nevertheless Emma masks her true judgement by appearing to appeal to all those around her. Dancing was seen as a metaphor of courtship as Emma encounters this â€Å"flirtation between her and her partner† Frank, others may view them as having a more intimate relationship. Mr. Knightley breaks this code as he â€Å"takes pity on† Harriet to dance, after being embarrassed by Mr. Elton. It is suggestive to surrounding party members of a love connection between Harriet and Mr. Knightley. This is highly contradictory as it was not expectant of someone with Knightley's class and status to degrade down to Miss Smith's level. On the contrary, readers are at an advantage of having an insight upon the text as they know Mr. Knightley's behaviour is due to his chivalrous good natured attitude which compels him to be considerate of everyone around him. This comedic approach stimulates Austen to simultaneously mock and uphold social codes. The interaction between Knightley and Harriet reveals that broken social codes lead to chaos and confusion, as displayed further in the text by Emma's confusion and â€Å"terror† over Harriet having feelings for Mr. Knightley. The faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade of etiquette breaks down vigorously at Box hill, partially as Emma now expresses her thoughts while forgetting her manners. The scene has been set in a very elegant atmosphere â€Å"in favour of a pleasant party† with a â€Å"burst of admiration.† All characters engage in a game for amusement and Emma faces a sudden outbreak which she â€Å"could not resist† towards Miss Bates. The oversight of her politeness and â€Å"mock ceremony of her manners† prevent immediate meaning being obtained. Only until Knightley's â€Å"remonstrance† does Emma realise the impact of her appalling behaviour being in the need of amendment. The idea of Emma acting in such a way in public creates a barrier for her not to be able to undo her actions, whereas if she spoke in private to say Harriet she could have easily justifyed herself. Whether Emma' change was based upon her becoming more self aware or the fact she upset Mr Knightley is open to personal judgement. It could be portrayed that the series of progressively emotional social events lead Emma to realise much more about herself and those around her. By learning from her mistakes she was able to mature and become more purely and truly accepted as a superior of society. Controversially, Emma begins to realise she has feelings for â€Å"my [meaning Emma's] Mr. Knightley† and therefore cannot go about upsetting him as this tarnishes his vision of her. Her change therefore would be due to selfish terms. In regard of all this, Emma does change herself and correct her faults. The destruction of polite faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade works as an incentive to compel Emma in re-evaluating her misconduct and to reform. The consecutive chapter illustrates Emma's embracement of self realisation, after the eventful picnic, as Mr. Knightley's disapproval deeply hurts her. Her â€Å"confidence [had] told her so† that she â€Å"had often been remiss.† After the Box Hill incident, Emma did not want others to consider her â€Å"without a heart† and â€Å"so unfeeling towards [her] father.† Emma's â€Å"completely misspent† morning obliged her to recollect herself and no longer interfere. By directly paying a visit to Miss. Bates, she begins the journey of self correction. This is further illustrated as Emma talks about Jane with genuine feeling and interest in spite of Jane's abrupt and extra reserved behaviour. Emma learns, with the help of Mr. Knightley's finger pointing, that she needs to concentrate on her own thoughts and actions rather than those around her. The limited use of action throughout the novel constructs social occasions to be at the focal point of the plot. Consistently, this reflects the artificialities of Austen's world which she wanted the reader to pick up upon. By exposing society's hypocrisy, due to the show of gestures, the satire acts a comedic tool for readers. Even though Emma's faults are chiefly stressed upon; the story reveals faults in other characterisations such as Mrs. Elton, Frank and Mr. Woodhouse. I feel the idea of concentrating heavily on, what would be considered by the modern reader, small concerns; Austen specifies the consequences of falling out of traditional practice. The juxtaposition of such problematic proceedings, ending with a minute ounce of happiness for Emma, makes the novel unique and intensifies the effect. Nevertheless the moral message overrides such views to allow the reader to learn from the mistakes of characters and the importance of maintaining a balance. This allows progression of readers to improve themselves and become more self-aware also. Finally, the use of misconception and confusion adds to the ironic use of satire to amuse spectators.