Bless Me Ultima Religion Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Bless Me Ultima: Religion Essay, Research Paper Merry Uchiyama Bless Me Ultima-responses # 1 After reading the book, Bless Me Ultima, I realized the built-in importance of faith and demand for faith and replies to life? s inquiries. At first, while reading this book, I thought it was merely about relationships and the significance in them but as the secret plan progressed I realized the book, is more than that, it inquiries the constructions that decide the regulations, ethical motives and values that society is composed of. There were three types of faith that I identified in the book that immature Anthony chose to prosecute. The first was the paganistic rites of Ultima. Ultima came into the life of Tony at a really immature age and had great influence n the kid. Ultima saved the life of Lucas through Tony? s strength. Physical hurting was brought unto Anthony because of Ultima # 8217 ; s ritual, demoing existent cogency of the rites themselves, that they were had tangibleness. We will write a custom essay sample on Bless Me Ultima Religion Essay Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She brought torture on the Tenorio? s household ( he was the adversary in the book-the bad cat ) salvaging Lucas though utilizing ritualistic dolls and chants. This showed her thaumaturgy was non merely good but bad every bit good. Ultima guided Anthony through all of the mental and societal torture during his early old ages of grade school. So in off Ultima was a usher for Tony through his early old ages to do sense of all of the storms in his early life, but besides was an instrument of faith to establish his life on. But in the terminal of the book Ultima finally dies and the strength he one time found in her is destroyed. She is buried and the leftovers of her medical specialties and herbs must be burned. So the faith that she commands is dead. In add-on, Tony? s female parent Maria was a steadfast Catholic who urgently wanted her youngest boy to go a priest to a little community of husbandmans. Her roots were in agriculture and life off the land ( holding a reciprocally profiting relationship-being connected to the land ) . She prayed during times of household labor invariably. Tony has a dream after his brothers beckon him into a brothel to kip with the adult females at? Rosie? s House. ? He refuses the offer and affirms that he will continue his innocenc vitamin E in order to go a priest in the holy Catholic religion. His brothers mock him. They try to state him that in being a adult male and the boy of a buckaroo his demand for bodily pleasance will go stronger. Here is where I believe Tony accepts the fate that his female parent supplies for him as a adult male of God, but once more his religion in this faith fails. He feels that his catechism will protect him from being corrupted and that God will uncover himself during this ceremonial rite-but nil happens. He thought that when he partakes in this ceremonial all will be revealed to him, but it is non. Furthermore, the aureate carp is besides a in a signifier a faith. He believes the myth of the aureate carp and that it is sacred because it saved world. Tony and Cico go to a brush where the carp emerges from under the H2O. There it is explained of the narrative of the carp and even more significantly another belief that Tony holds of import. The lakes are remnant of when at one times the sea covered the land and the rhythm of the sea lifting once more will be end point of the wickednesss of the people weighing down the land and doing it to fall in. For a concluding clip, another one of the values he set for himself was destroyed upon the decease of Florence in the H2O before they could inform him about the faith associated in the Carp. A childhood myth is destroyed and all of the faiths and beliefs hat Tony has chosen to believe hold been destroyed. Cico and Tony both know Florence is gone everlastingly because he had no faith or belief that would salvage his psyche. In a dream all of this is foreshadowed ( chapter 14 ) , god refuses to allow Andrew forgiveness from infinity in snake pit, a rabble comes after Ultima, the carp is eaten and a new universe signifiers. There is no happenstance that all of this happened in the same dream or that the happenings in the novel are parallel to the events that really go on in the book. There are so many events that are foreshadowed by the dreams that Tony? s has ( he is prophetic! ! ) . But I besides believe that the writers purpose was to foster the subject that all things are transeunt and you must non depend on the beliefs that others present you but you must follow your beliefs.

Questions for American Greetings Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Questions for American Greetings Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Questions for American Greetings 1. The shares of American Greetings are currently trading at an EBITDA multiple that is at the bottom of its peer group. Do you think a 3.5 times multiple is appropriate for American Greetings? If not, what multiple of EBITDA do you think is justified? What is the implied share price that corresponds to your multiple? EBITDA , which is an acronym for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization is one of the valuation measures that is used to indicate the financial performance of a company. EBITDA therefore, is equivalent to Revenue-Expenses (excluding amortization, depreciation, interest and tax). Thus means that it refers to net income with amortization, depreciation, taxes and interest added back to it. This measure can help in the analysis and comparison of profitability between companies since it eliminates the effects of accounting and financing decisions (Ferris & Petitt, 2002). Financially, when the EBITDA margin is higher, it means that less operating expenses will be eating into the bottom line of the company and this will lead to an operation that is more profitable. EBITDA multiple according to the article refers to the Enterprise Value divided by EBITDA. For the case of American Greetings, the EBITDA multiple being at the bottom of its competitors is encouraging to investors. This is because the comparatively low EBITDA equates to low EBITDA margin and when the EBITDA margin is low, the EBITDA multiple will be high since EBITDA margin is the denominator. At the same time, high EBITDA margin will result in low EBITDA multiple. However, Therefore, since high EBITDA means that less operating expenses be eating into the bottom line of the company and this will lead to an operation that is more profitable, then I think a 3.5 times multiple, which is the lowest in the group is appropriate since it means less operating expenses eating into the company's revenues and hence higher profitability. The implied share price corresponding to this multiple is 12.51. 2. Please model cash flows for American Greetings for fiscal years 2012 through 2015 based on the two sets of ratios in Exhibit 8. | |Actual 2011|2012 |2013 |2014 |2015 | |Bull | | | | | | |Scenario | | | | | | |Cash Inflow|1747.98 |1676.6 |1684.9 |1693.2 |1701.5 | |Operating |0.10393 |0.10355 |0.10355 |0.10355 |0.10355 | |Margin | | | | | | |Net Working|11.0811 |13.2444 |14.3481 |15.4518 |16.5555 | |Capital | | | | | | |Turnover | | | | | | |Fixed Asset|1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 | |Turnover | | | | | | |Bearish | | | | | | |Scenario | | | | | | |Revenue |1747.98 |1747.98 |1747.98 |1747.98 |1747.98 | |Growth | | | | | | |Operating |0.10393 |0.10355 |0.10355 |0.10355 |0.10355 | |Margin | | | | | | |Net Working|11.0811 |13.2444 |14.3481 |15.4518 |16.5555 | |Capital | | | | | | |Turnover | | | | | | |Fixed Asset|1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 |1675.05 | |Turnover | | | | | | 3. Based on the discounted cash flows associated with the forecast, what is the implied enterprise value of American Greetings and the corresponding share price? Enterprise Value refers to a measure of the total value of a company. It is calculated by adding the market capitalization of the company to the preferred shares, minority interest and debt and subtracting cash equivalents and total cash. Since the minority preferred equity and minority interest is zero, then the Enterprise value is obtained by (Share Price* number of shares)+ debt-cash and cash equivalents. =($12.51*75)- 172. - 938.25-172=766.25. According to the discounted cash flows, the corresponding share price is 12.52 and the implied enterprise value of the American Greetings is $766.25 4. What are the key drivers of value in your model? 1) Cutting-edge Technology and Innovation According to analysts, the product innovation in the company is needed to drive the interest of the customers in the company's goods. The valuation will improve if technological enhancements are left to be the key to the company's long-term approach. The rolling out of several complementary interactive goods such as mobile apps is for instance, one of the innovative moves meant to bolster the company's digital position. The effect of technology is evident from the information provided in the case study. For instance, with the introduction of social networking sites, some respondents are claiming that they are sending fewer e-cards that they used to since most of the greetings are being sent through facebook. This means that technology is affecting the American Greetings

Discuss the benfits ,limitations and methodology of population Essay

Discuss the benfits ,limitations and methodology of population screening for breast cancer - Essay Example 371). The abnormality is too distinct in the sense that instead of the aged cell to die, they continue piling up in number and this generates emergence of tissue comprising of cancer cells. These cells are as a result of the damage occurring in the setting of the DNA. This is the condition of multiplication of malignant cells that starts forming in the breast tissues and spread to some other areas in the body. Research has showed that these malignant cells range from noninvasive state to invasive state of carnicoma and thus early screening facilitates in lowering the level of attacks (Kosters & Gotzsche, 2008, p. 6). A female breast comprise of lobules which are milk-producing glands, ducts composed of capillaries that carries milk to the nipples, and stroma which are rich in fatty tissue, connective tissues and blood vessels. It was set up after high concern about the possibilities of the attack of the women by this trauma. It was realized to be common with both American and Australian women. The statics indicated that 1 out of every 10 women would fall victims of it in course of their lifetime. The likelihood of death after the attack of the disease is 3% but this figure has been declining after the awareness to the society. Breast screening is widely encouraged since it facilitates detecting the malignant cell and thus lowering the levels of spread. This is critical as it reduces the mortality rate. Experts have weighed the benefits of screening to the demerits of it and this has been accomplished through evaluating date and other information from oral means or written form (Kosters & Gotzsche, 2008, p. 8). The main need for screening in advance assists in progressing the time for diagnostic measures. Research indicated that earlier diagnosis increases the living span for any human being and thus it is very critical (Fong et al, 2009, p. 126). However

Reflective Learning Log Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflective Learning Log - Essay Example Every new type of problem literally gives me a blackout and I need to rest my brain periodically. It is very tough to start work and I tend to procrastinate as much as possible. Only repetitive problems are enjoyable for me. Mental calculations are very difficult and I have to use calculator even for simple addition and subtraction unlike many of my classmates. Essay writing is relatively easy but here again the structured essays are difficult to master especially writing introduction, body and conclusion. I have yet to fully grasp reference style both in text citation and reference list at the end of the essay. The time after classes is spent in gossiping and lounging around with friends. On coming to the room, the computer games and internet beckon me and I spend most of the room immersed in the computer either playing games or surfing the net for entertainment. At the end of the day when I discover that assigned work needs to be completed, I usually work late and study half heartedly which makes it difficult to wake up on time for the next day. These logs have given me tremendous feedback. My attention and concentration in class was always good, yet I had never consolidated on my quick grasping ability. Now I have realized that despite having reasonably good IQ why I was not performing as well as I could have. I know now that just understanding the concepts is not sufficient to get good grades or master a subject. Following were the positive outcomes of my reflective learning: Focus-Once I started writing down the logs of my class studies and reviewing my study pattern, I realized that it was possible for me to change my habits to provide for more number of study hours during the daytime. I was able to eliminate the wasteful activities and start work much faster. I started spending time in the morning planning my day, writing down my plan and checking the achievements at the end of the day. It was difficult initially

Byzantium And Islam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Byzantium And Islam - Essay Example .   Byzantium attained its political height through Justinian, who re-conquered the old Western empire parts.   Successive attacks from various peoples, including Latin Christians, made Byzantium weak, finally falling to the Ottoman Turks (1454) (Perry, Chase, Jacob, & Jacob, 2008 pg. 29). As the 7th century began, vast territories that extended from Egypt to Syria and across North African territories were under the rule of Byzantine Empire from Constantinople (modern Istanbul), its capital. Critical to the power and wealth of the empire, these southern territories long influenced by the Greco-Roman traditions held Orthodox, Syriac and Coptic, Christians, Jewish communities, among other many religions (Ratliff & Evans, 2012 pg. 36). Great pilgrimage centers engrossed the faithful followers from as far away as Scandinavia in the west and Yemen in the east. Major trade routes extended down the Red Sea to eastward past Jordan to Indian lands in the south, bringing ivories and silks to the imperial territories. Key cities made wealthy by commerce protracted along inland trade routes Constantinople north and along the coastline of Mediterranean sea. Commerce carried ideas and images freely through the region. In the same 7th century, the newly founded faith of Islam began from Medina and Mecca along the Red Sea trade way and reached westward to the Byzantium Empire’s southern provinces. Religious and political authority was conveyed from the long conventional Christian Byzantine to the newly founded Umayyad and well along Abbasid Muslim dynasties. These new powers capitalized on the advantage of existing region traditions in developing their compelling religious and secular visual identities. This exhibition shadows the Byzantine Empire southern provinces artistic traditions from the 7th century to the 9th, as they were changed from being fundamental to the Byzantine tradition and beliefs to being a critical Islamic world part (Ratliff & Evans, 2012 pg. 6 1). Byzantium preserved key foundations of the Greco-Roman practices and tradition.   Under Justinian's order, Byzantine scholars collected and organized Roman law in the Corpus Juris Civilis, which had four parts.   Influenced by the Greek historians, Byzantines including Anna Comnena, Procopius, and Michael Psellus offered rational, comprehensible, if not always objective, versions of historical occasions.   Byzantine religious philosophers studied Greek philosophy but they subordinated philosophical activity to theology enterprise. Byzantium developed a rich architectural, artistic, and musical tradition influenced by some pre-existing ones.   Drawing from Hebrew and Greco-Roman practice and theory, Byzantine musicians formed a tonal system that greatly influenced the Western music course, and Kontakion hymnody derivative of early Christianity models.   Byzantine art largely concerned itself with exalting the empire and serving spiritual purposes.   The iconoclastic c ontroversy made artists to find new methods of approaching the issue of representing the human nature, but despite that, Byzantine artists never reconnoitered realism in deep as their Western complements did.   Ravenna became the focus of much early artistic engagements.   Buildings such as Theodoric's church of St. Apollinare, Galla Placidia's mausoleum, and San

Sociology Essays Tattooing Body Mutilation

Sociology Essays Tattooing Body Mutilation Tattooing Body Mutilation Sociology Cultural Studies Question. Undertake a case study of any contemporary cultural practice or set of practices of your choice, explaining what you consider to be their sociological significance. Tattooing Body mutilation has long been part of non-Christian cultures as a positive mark of identity, while in many modem Body modification practices are so prolific that an exhaustive account of the practices of body magic and marking around the globe is nearly impossible. Body mutilation such as tattooing often functions as part of a healing ritual, protection against forces that may cause injury and admission to a social group. Cultural practices of body mutilation are often functionally akin to prayer as a practice that spiritually elevates an individual. Tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable. -Henry David Thoreau. Several major religions exhibit complex attitudes toward self-mutilation and adornment. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 19.28 prohibits followers of Judaism from marking the body: Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you. The â€Å"Holly Koran† forbids marking the body. The Christian Bible associates body markings with sin as shown in the story of Cain, who was marked in punishment for slaying his brother. Still, many people apparently have continued to feel a need for confirmation of their religion by marking their bodies. The Judaic custom of circumcision persists. Coptic, Armenian, Abyssinian, Syrian, and Russian pilgrims returning from the Holy Land frequently acquired souvenir tattoos to commemorate their journey. At the turn of the nineteenth century, it was traditional for Gypsies to tattoo these pilgrims, and the tattoo marks became part of the pilgrims social status. An example of this is the Armenian title for one who has made the pilgrimage which is Mahdesi, which translates as I saw death. Because only religious pilgrims were tattooed, the religious tattoos were also known as Mahdesi. The tattoo is a code indicating a spiritual passage, or at least a religious pilgrimage. Similarly, in Turkey the souvenir tattoos were known by the Turkish word for one who has made the religious pilgrimage, Haji. These religious tattoos became symbols of entry into a higher plane of spiritual existence and exemplify the overlap between Christian beliefs and body magic. First documented by a traveler in 1660, common marks included dots in the shape of a cross at the base of the fingers and crosses on the back of the hand or inside of the wrist. Biblical scenes marked the bearer as a devout Christian, but also served magical purposes. Women chose Annunciation scenes to ensure fertility, and sufferers of illness placed tattoos on ailing parts of the body to promote healing. Although Greek and Latin Christian churches have criticized these practices, they persist, and many Muslim Arabs tattoo in disregard for the Islamic prohibition on marking the body. Even today, many American tattooees have permanent religious icons and emblems as well as personal magical symbols inked upon their bodies. Tattoos are prompted by the primitive desire for an exaggerated exterior and are manifestations of deep psychological motivations. They are the recording of dreams, which simultaneously express an aspect of the self and recreate and mask the body As products of inner yearnings, self-concepts, desires, and magical or spiritual beliefs, designs on the human body formed by inserting pigments under the skin have been crafted by nearly every culture around the world for thousands of years. Definitive evidence of tattooing dates to the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt, approximately 2000 B.C., but many scholars believe that Nubians brought the practice to Egypt much earlier. There was little anthropological attention to tattooing in the early part of the century because of preconceived notions of its insignificance to cultural analysis. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec cultures performed tattooing and scarification, and that the practice is thousands of years old in Asian cultures. Although tattooing was practiced in pre-Christian Europe, the word tattoo does not appear in English until Captain John Cook imported it after a journey to the Pacific Islands in the eighteenth century. Although no connection has been made between the words tattoo and taboo, it seems highly likely that they are related. While enduring the process of acquiring socially meaningful marks, the tattooee is being formed and shaped into an acceptable member of society. Prior to the completion of the tattoos the person is not only physically vulnerable because of the possibility of contamination during the penetrating process of tattooing but symbolically vulnerable as well. No longer without a tattoo, but without a finished tattoo, the persons body and therefore the self are not yet completed. The person is a luminal entity not yet in society and therefore taboo. Although the origin of tattooing is uncertain, anthropological research confirms that tattooing, as well as other body alterations and mutilations, is significant in the spiritual beliefs of many cultures. Various peoples tattoo or scarify during puberty rituals. In traditional South Pacific Tonga society, only priests could tattoo others and tattoos were symbolic of full tribal status. Eskimo women traditionally tattooed their faces and breasts and believed that acquiring sufficient tattoos guaranteed a happy afterlife. In many African cultures scars indicate social status and desirability as a marriage partner. Scarification patterns often identify the bearer as a member of a specific village. Many of these practices are changing and fading as Western influences enter African cultures. Until the mid-nineteenth century, Cree Indians living on the Great Plains tattooed for luck, for beauty, and to protect their health. Cree men with special powers received tattoos to help them communicate with spirits. A dream conferred the privilege of receiving a tattoo, which would be inscribed during a ceremony conducted by a shaman authorized to tattoo. The ability to withstand the painful and tedious process of tattooing, which often lasted two to three days, confirmed the tattooees courage. Blood shed during the process was believed to possess magical power and was absorbed with a special cloth and kept for future use. The ritual recreates the flesh bequeathed to initiates by their parents and experienced during childhood. The physical change marks a symbolic rebirth into a new spiritual, social, and physical reality as well as a real physical change. This magical use of the body reiterates the idea that physical and spiritual existence and their interactions are deeply entwined. European civilizing cultures often attempted to eradicate body marking practices, often in the name of religion. In 787 A.D. Pope Hadrian I decreed a ban on tattooing. Constantine prohibited tattooing as an act of altering the body that God molded in His own image. Puritans in the New England colonies connected body markings with witchcraft, and those suspected of practicing witchcraft were searched for devils marks as proof of their alliance with Satan. Quoting the Old Testament interdict against printing or cutting marks upon the flesh, the Puritans also condemned Native American tattooing. By the 1850s many Native Americans had adopted the settlers customs of dress and began to view tattooing as unnecessary and uncivilized. Africans brought to the colonies as slaves often bore scarification marks of royalty, social standing, or servitude, which were probably perceived by the colonists as heathen tokens of savage cultures. In some cultures, the elite class marks the bodies of individuals considered pariahs or marginal members of society. In the Near East, slave masters sometimes tattooed slaves as a sign of degradation and branded incorrigible slaves. In late medieval and early modern Europe, slaveholders branded their slaves, a practice continued in France until the early 1800s and in Russia until the mid-1800s. Runaway slaves in Brazil, the renegade quilombos who were branded if recaptured, considered their brands marks of honor and infamy. In Yoruba, where body markings placed one within society, slave owners denied their slaves distinguishing marks of social status. Exemplifying a much different assumption about body marking, slaveholders in the Americas branded and tattooed their slaves to place them firmly outside mainstream society. During the eighteenth century, prisoners incarcerated in France were physically marked. The use of body markings as positive signs of identification and inclusion in many African societies contrasts sharply with European use of the marks as signs of degradation and marginalization. The American association of tattooing with exoticism solidified in 1851 when Dan Rice hired a tattooed man named James F. OConnell to appear in his circus. During this time Rice was also fascinating America with another body image in popular culture, the blacked-up minstrel. The minstrel representation of the black body was replete with complex meanings of manhood, race, and class. The tattooed body on display was probably less familiar but equally intriguing. Without evidence of what kind of tattoos Rices employee had, or whether or not he performed, or served only as a display object, it is difficult to assess the meaning of his existence. Perhaps OConnell conjured images of a white savage, halfway between the articulate, civilized white man and the Native American who expressed his culture with paint and body markings. Perhaps audiences saw the tattooed man as Melvilles Queequeg incarnate; exotic, half-blackened with ink-and half† black, but not without feeling or humanness. P.T. Barnum followed Rices success by displaying an elaborately inscribed Albanian named Constantine, who was an extremely popular attraction. Barnum was the first to exhibit a tattooed woman, in 1898, which added the erotic element of viewing the female body. During the latter part of the nineteenth century as the public became more familiar with the art of tattooing through the circus, which was primarily a working and lower-class entertainment, tattoo was also developing commercially. The first known professional tattooist in the United States was Martin Hildebrand who had an itinerant practice during the Civil War and opened a shop in New York City in the 1890s. At the turn of the century, tattoos showed up in titillating and disreputable places. Tattooing became a shop-front industry in the disreputable Chatham Square area of New York City. Electric tattoo machines made tattooing cheaper and less painful and good tattoos easier to render. With this new technology, tattooing became popular among the lower classes and quickly came to be associated with blue-collar workers and ruffians. Although tattooing was an upper-class trend for a brief period, by the 1920s the middle class considered it deviant. Tattoos were considered a decorative cultural product dispensed by largely unskilled and unhygienic practitioners from dingy shops in urban slums, and consumers were seen as being drawn from marginal, rootless, and dangerously unconventional social groups. In the 1930s, the American fascination with body alteration as a deviant practice, continued. During this time a psychiatrist and writer named Albert Parry often wrote about the significance of tattoos and embedded stereotypes of deviance in the public discourse. Although Parry was an avid fan of tattooing, and bemoaned its decline in popularity, he called tattooing a tragic miscarriage of narcissism. He claimed tattooing was a substitute for sexual pleasure, evidence of homosexuality, and a source of masochistic pleasure. Parry associated tattooing with abnormal sexuality. Although the exhibition of a tattooed woman in the circus in prior decades was tinged with a hint of sexual voyeurism, Parry explicitly constructed images of tattooed women as abnormal and accessible commodities. He claimed that five percent of American women were tattooed and insinuated that beneath their conventional clothes, these disguised women had marked their bodies with signs of desire and erotic adventure. Parry stated that prostitutes in America, as elsewhere, get tattooed because of certain strong masochistic-exhibitionist drives. Parry reasoned that prostitutes obtained tattoos because they desired yet another reason to pity themselves and were seeking to be mistreated by clients. He also asserted that they believed tattoos would prevent disease and that they obtained sexual pleasure from the tattoo process. As proof of the prostitutes urge to self-humiliate, Parry described several tattoos of cynical humor and sexual innuendo inscribed upon prostitutes, such as pay as you enter. Conflating racism, homophobia, and the idea of women as a sexual commodity, Parry also claimed that English prostitutes etched names of their pimps on themselves or likenesses of their Negro lovers, much to the chagrin of American sailors, while French women inscribed the names of their lesbian lovers, and gay men tattooed themselves in order to seduce young boys. Parry relished the stereotype of tattooing as a perverse and deviant activity. His assertions reverberated for decades in the assumptions psychologists held about tattooed man and women. Tacitly based on the preconception that marking the body is deviant, psychologists have sought to determine a connection between tattoos and psychopathology. Members and potential members of the military who bear tattoos have served as subjects for several studies that correlate tattoos and social adjustment. A study in 1943 concluded that psychopathology or social or emotional maladjustment is significantly higher among tattooed than among non-tattooed men. A 1968 study concluded that sailors with tattoos were more likely to be maladjusted, and military men with Death before Dishonor tattoos were more likely than non-tattooed sailors to be discharged from the service. Other studies conducted during the late 1960s link tattooed women with homosexuality and masochism and tattooing practices in institutions with high levels of aggression, sexual insecurity, and social maladjustment. These studies both pre-selected the subject pools and ignored the effects of the institutional milieu on the tattooees. Other studies of imprisoned populations reveal motivations to tattoo that are similar to the motivations to self-mutilate as a reaction to the surrounding environment. Similar to inmate self-mutilation, tattooing may provide relief from the numbness of incarceration and establish individual or gang identity. A 1964 survey of the public perception of tattooed persons revealed that a majority of people perceived tattooed individuals as physically strong and psychologically aggressive. This survey concluded that whether or not tattoos are indicators of social maladjustment, they may function to enhance the bearers self-image and integrity. Returning to the theory of confirmation of the self in a pain-enduring interaction, one can understand the connotation of toughness and integrity that a tattoo confers. One psychoanalytic case study observed that a dominatrix in this relationship bore her tattoos as evidence of her ability to manage the ritual infliction of pain adroitly. This self-mastery and toughness earned her the right to control her submissive partners and proved her ability to alter, both own and her partners consciousness and identity. The lack of understanding of the functional purposes of both the tattooing process and the final marks have led to a perception of tattooing as barbaric, deviant, and sexually perverse. Dominant American culture has considered tattoos as marks of degradation, criminality, and marginality. Without an understanding of manipulation of the body to inspire sacred awe in viewers and bearers of tattoos and other body alterations, one can not grasp the significance of these alterations as tangible establishment of personal, spiritual, and social identity. Although body modifications such as tattooing and piercing have been construed as signs of deviance, during the past two decades body alteration has begun to filter into mainstream culture as a popular form of self-expression. Articles about tattooing and piercing proliferate in popular literature. Fashion magazines show models with tattooed ankles and pierced navels, and recruit well-known tattooed musicians for their pages. Children are able to play with tattooed dolls. Exhibits of tattoo art are shown in art galleries. Piercing boutiques and tattoo shops are conducting brisk business. Several factors have encouraged a tattoo renaissance since the 1950s. Post war prosperity along the West Coast combined with a new interest in Asian cultures, many of which revere tattooing. The Japanese, for instance, have a long tradition of tattoo as an intricate body art. New technology and interest in tattooing as a fine art have produced new aesthetic standards, a wider clientele, and an infinite variety of tattoo designs, including neo-tribal stylistic forms that are heavily influenced by tattoo traditions of other cultures. Today, as sociologist Clinton Sanders notes, tattooing has become more professional and more of a fine art. Tattoo artists are much more likely to have formal artistic and academic training than in previous years and to consider their tattooing practice a creative pursuit. A more diverse population is getting tattooed in the past two decades. New tattoo clients are better educated, have more disposable income, and care more about the decorative and aesthetic elements. Customer’s often custom design their own tattoos and the tattooer-customer relationship is changing from one of service provider and buyer to a collaborative effort. The relationship between a piercer and his or her client may be even more intricate and personal. With or without conscious realization of the significance of body making in other cultures, Americans today are adopting similar practices. To understand these practices as cultural phenomena, we must first understand their significance for individuals. Tattooing and piercing are not just adornments added to the body surface like jewelry or cosmetics, but they penetrate the flesh. Piercing is a quick process followed by several weeks of tenderness while healing. Tattooing is a tedious, painful process followed by a period of transformation in which the wound heals and the redesigned body emerges. These adornments, like self-starvation and self-cutting, accrue significance from both the process of physical transformation and the final product. The tattoo procedure is often a highly social act in which an individual manipulates and asserts identity within a specific social milieu. Getting a tattoo is often a social event experienced with close associates, who provide moral support, offer advice, and help pass the anxiety-filled waiting time. Many tattoo artists and piercers comment on the large percentage of their customers who belong to college fraternities or sororities and get pierced as part of the initiation process. It is rare that these individuals tattoo or pierce alone. Often several associates accompany the initiate to provide companionship and fortification. Many cultures attach social status to body alterations and consider pain a crucial element for imparting meaning to body alteration. Yoruban scarification is not only considered aesthetically pleasing but announces the marked individuals fortitude and ability to endure pain. A Yoruban woman acquires her markings when she is old enough to marry and accept the painful ordeal of childbirth. Her kolo cicatrices exhibit her willingness to bear pain. Aesthetic value is bound up with the value of endurance and the willingness to bear discomfort to accomplish a greater good. Tiv women remark on the ability of scarification to indicate masculinity and the desire to withstand pain in order to be attractive: What girl would look at a man if his scars had not cost him pain? Withstanding the pain of tattooing and other body alterations is also significant in American culture. The tattooee or piercee, like any initiate, vulnerably awaits the pain and new status the procedure will impart. Enduring pain is often considered crucial to gender constructions and demonstration of toughness. Although some tattooees have a difficult time bearing the pain, others see it as a good pain. Part of the pleasure of a tattoo is the macho implication of being able to bear the pain, and during the 1950s and 1960s getting a tattoo was a common rite of passage into adulthood for many young men. Still today, withstanding the tedious and painful process with bravado may be required to gain membership in a youth gang, or to demonstrate rebellion against authority. College fraternities may require members to get tattooed or pierced as a sign of their loyalty. One tattoo artist with many tattoos connects the pain of the process with the pleasure of creativity. Its a strange metaphor to say that pain is like an orgasm, but it is in a way. And its like labor too, to go through this pain to create a thing, to get it out of you. The design is inside of you, it just wants to get out. The creative expression of identity is enhanced by the feeling of aliveness that accompanies the pain of the process for many people. This sense of existing, of feeling, of enjoying life, [comes] to many with the touch of the needle. The prolonged pain produces euphoria for many, and pain is also a meaningful and enjoyable element of the piercing process for some piercees as well as people who indulge in body branding or scarification.62 Individuals who tattoo and pierce imbue the body with narcissistic or magico-religious powers to confirm identity and connect them to a deeper self-awareness, a social group, or a vision of integration with the cosmos. Similar to the way in which the self-mutilator or anorectic physically demarcates a change in self-awareness and interaction with the surrounding milieu, an individual who chooses to self-mark physically confirms a change in status. The badge of admission may carry personal meaning as well as a message of affiliation with a religion, one other person, a community, a youth gang, a fraternity, a military organization, or any specific group. The complexity of the action lies in the fact that the confirmation of identity is based on distancing the self from a large non-marked portion of the population. Body markings are marks of disaffiliation with the mainstream and visually proclaim a sense of camaraderie to others so marked.† The change in status, similar to the self-mutilators change in tension level and temporary cure of feelings of fragmentation, Body alteration functions in similar ways in Western culture, but it accrues a different potency as a deliberate choice of identification because of the stigma it incurs as a rebellion against, rather than an embodiment of, dominant cultural values. American women, fully aware of the stigma attached to tattooing and body alteration that doesnt help achieve standard beauty goals for women, are more likely than men to choose adornment that is not publicly visible and attach more personal meanings to their markings. In a culture that has taught them to preserve their bodies for the enjoyment of others, women who tattoo themselves are implicitly making a declaration of independence from at least some aesthetic standards expected of them by families, friends, and society. One 21-year-old woman explained the reaction of her mother to her tattoo. She asks me to keep it covered if we go out in public. It is a sign of disrespect to her. One woman explained, I did this not for my husband, not for my parents, not for a boss, not for anyone else but me, my internal reason was to make a statement. Women mark their bodies as an act of reclamation of their identity after a divorce, as a gesture of healing from sexual or other physical abuse, or simply as self-celebration. Body alteration symbolizes control over and pride in the physical self for many women. Centuries ago, this tangible evidence of self-control and self-celebration may have been enough to convict a woman of witchcraft and sentence her to death. If a devils mark was found on the body of a woman accused of witchcraft -whether self-imposed or organic in reality-it was interpreted as a chosen mark that confirmed the womans autonomous nature and rebellion against prescribed behavior. Her willful desecration of her God-given body proved her collusion with the Devil. Today, a womans self-creation carries less formidable consequences. Similar to the ways of punk styles of leather and metal access forbidden gender symbols and behavior for women, tattoos and piercing provide a form of gender rebellion also. The 1970 study highlighted this idea when one of the woman subjects proclaimed her motivation to tattoo as I want to act like a boy anything they can do I can do better. Tattooing and body piercing blur previous assumptions about gender roles for both women and men. Historically considered a salacious and pagan badge by Western cultures, deliberate body alteration proclaims defiance of cultural standards for both men and women, and many body modifiers enjoy the shock value of their adornment and take pride in their stigmatized identities. Piercers and tattooees reject mainstream norms of adornment while simultaneously embracing subterranean status. This is an especially important component of the body modification trend for adolescents who are trying to establish social identity and autonomy from parental authority. Recreating the body differentiates one from ones previous childhood body, and conventional familial and cultural milieus. One connection between body alteration and youth and popular culture is explained by Daryl Bear Belmares, who had been a professional piercer for nine years in 1996 Belmares attributes the rise in piercing popularity since 1990 to the influence of media and describes two general motivations to pierce. Some people are entranced by the trends of the look. They come in and say I saw it on MTV. Theyve seen the Aerosmith video that has a model with a pierced navel and think it looks sexy. Their main motivation is a desire to be different. These individuals are likely to let their piercing heal over after a few years. Other piercers are functional piercers who spend more time premeditating their decision and pierce for sexual enhancement, to consciously mark a transition in their life, or to heal emotional scars. Although one might think that women are more likely to pierce as a narcissistic use of the body to establish identity, based on the proportion of self-starvers and self-cutters who are women, Belmares denied this gender distinction, noting that his clientele is 50 percent men and 50 percent women. In 1969, Edward Podvall noted that not only does the iconography of self-mutilation appear continually on the landscape of our culture as something seemingly more honest, authentic, pure, or disciplined, but it can be found as an unexpected posture within one particular developmental epoch. He concluded that individual self-mutilation is an attempt to fend off developmental anxiety, and its prevalence may indicate exoneration and approval by the surrounding culture. As a cultural phenomenon, the iconography of self-mutilation may be interpreted in several ways. Podvalls depiction of self-mutilation as part of a developmental process, like Turners delineation of body marking as a resolution of an initiation process and like psychoanalytic theory of body narcissism and self-mutilation as attempts to combat fragmentation of the ego, reveals the cultural significance of body modification. Self-starvation, self-cutting, performance art, and painful, permanent body adornment are potent expressions of rebellion, desire for autonomy, and need to disseminate tension. They are attempts to self-heal, self-initiate, and self-symbolize. Self-mutilation may augment self-awareness, provoke euphoric feelings of spirituality, and resolve a state of liminality by culminating in marks of identity. In the context of culturally sanctioned rituals, these marks incur social inclusion and demarcate social status. In American society, which has considered body alteration practices barbaric and has few formal coming of age rituals that mark the body, the perception of these marks as deviant or perverse has been changing as they have become more common. Conclusion: Although the extent to which contemporary Western society accepts self-mutilation is debatable, many forms of self-mutilation are becoming increasingly popular as real and symbolic forms of self-creation. The public and private, individual and social spheres in which body alteration is significant are entwined. Self-mutilation cannot be separated from the culture in which it exists. As David Napier points out, American culture is obsessed with coming of age as a never-ending process. This struggle to achieve identity is reflected by the implosion of self and identity into the physical symbol, and reality, of the body. The human body is an accessible and viable pathway to holistic integration of self and is a terrain upon which to carve and etch ones deepest desires for identity and meaningful connection to both earthly and spiritual realms. At times altering the body is a form of play and adornment, assuming a mask, playing a role, at other times it is a desperate attempt to feel alive and combat a feeling of alienation and disassociation. Altering the body is an exploration of limits and boundaries of the self, whether in the arena of staged art, subculture, or the local tattoo shop. As individuals test their own limits, they test and change the limits of society. Although still considered distasteful and non-mainstream by many people, body piercing and tattooing are being adopted by individuals seeking to fulfill spiritual and social identity needs. In contrast to societies in which body marks are inscribed according to cultural tradition, the self-chosen marks of todays modem cultures are marks of disaffiliation with convention and historical values. Finally, as individuals modify their bodies as exploration of their individual identities, the culture composed of these individuals begins to explore what it means to be human and what role the body plays in civilization. Tattooing is an act which is very much painful in some cases so why should someone get the tattooes even when they are so terrible. This is society‘s responsibility to set such standards for such unusual things so that every body can have clear mind about these weird things. Bibliography 1. Edward Westermarck, â€Å"The History of Human Marriage† Volume: 1. Macmillan. London. 1921 2. Alfred Metraux, Easter Island: A Stone-Age Civilization of the Pacific Oxford University Press, New York. 1957 3. Tattooing and Civilizing Processes: Body Modification as Self-Control Michael Atkinson Journal Title: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology. Volume: 41. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2004 4. Tattooing, Gender and Social Stratifica

The Light-dark Metaphor in Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad Essay

Throughout his narrative in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow characterizes events, ideas, and locations that he encounters in terms of light or darkness. Embedded in Marlow's parlance is an ongoing metaphor equating light with knowledge and civility and darkness with mystery and savagery. When he begins his narrative, Marlow equates light and, therefore, civility, with reality, believing it to be a tangible expression of man's natural state. Similarly, Marlow uses darkness to depict savagery as a vice having absconded with nature. But as he proceeds deeper into the heart of the African jungle and begins to understand savagery as a primitive form of civilization and, therefore, a reflection on his own reality, the metaphor shifts, until the narrator raises his head at the end of the novel to discover that the Thames seemed to 'lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'' The alteration of the light-dark metaphor corresponds with Marlow's cognizance that t he only 'reality', 'truth', or 'light' about civilization is that it is, regardless of appearances, unreal, absurd, and shrouded in 'darkness'. Marlow uses the contrast between darkness and light to underscore the schism between the seemingly disparate realms of civility and savagery, repeatedly associating light with knowledge and truth; darkness with mystery and deceptive evil. When Marlow realizes that his aunt's acquaintances had misrepresented him to the Chief of the Inner Station, Marlow states, 'Light dawned upon me', as if to explicitly associate light with knowledge or cognizance. It is significant then, that Marlow later associates light with civilization. He describes the knights-errant who went out from the Thames to conquer... ... October 2002. Available: http://www.lawrence.edu/~johnson/heart. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, New York: Dover, 1990. Hayes, Dorsha. "Heart of Darkness: An Aspect of the Shadow," Spring (1956): 43-47.. Levenson, Michael. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80. McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol & Gey, 1992. Mellard, James. "Myth and Archetype in Heart of Darkness," Tennessee Studies in Literature 13 (1968): 1-15. Rosmarin, Adena. "Darkening the Reader: Reader Response Criticism and Heart of Darkness." Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York: St. Martin's, 1989. Watt, Ian. Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. San Diego: U. of California P, 1979. 168-200, 249-53.

History of Vernacular Language Essay

Spanish has one of the richest and longest histories of any of the world’s languages. It is the fourth most-spoken language in the world after Chinese, Hindi and English. Native Spanish speakers exist throughout Europe, the United States, Pacific Islands and Africa (Penny, 2002). Spanish originated on the Iberian Peninsula which is located in the southwestern region of Europe. The vernacular language was not originally known as Spanish, it was referred to as Vulgar Latin. The Celts were a nomadic tribe from central Europe who moved into the peninsula towards the end of the sixth century (Penny, 2002). The Celts mixed with the peninsula’s residents, the Iberians resulting in a new people known as the Celtiberians who spoke a form of the Celtic language. By the nineteenth century BCE, the region in southwestern Europe was known as Hispania and the inhabitants learned Latin from Roman settlers, traders and soldiers. Soon after the people in Hispania learned Latin, a new language was created as a mixture of the Celtiberians language and classical Latin (Penny, 2002). The new language became known as Vulgar Latin which developed into modern Spanish. Vulgar Latin was similar to classical Latin but implemented many words from other languages. Spanish started as a native language dialect spoken in the Castilian region of Spain. After many years of conquest, exploration and forced conversion, the people in the region spread the language to a worldwide vernacular. The Spanish language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and the Romance language family as the language was greatly influenced by Latin. The anguage took many years to fully develop and spread because of the influence of other countries. Towards the end of the fourth century A. D. , Roman control over the Iberian Peninsula had significantly declined (Pimsluer, 2013). The fifth century brought on the rule of the Visigoths who spoke a German vernacular which made it difficult to communicate in Spanish. The Islamic people invaded Spain in A. D. 711 which led to the spread of Vulgar Latin throughout the Peninsula (Pimsluer, 2013). The Islamic people brought their culture and Arabic language to parts of Spain. The effects of the Islamic Moors conquest did not reach all parts of Spain which contributed to the spread of Spanish. Many residents borrowed from Arabic but the residents of the northwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula preserved the Spanish language. The northwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula was often referred to as Castile and by the eleventh century A. D. , Castile had gained enough power to declare itself as a kingdom. The Castilian people spread south and east throughout the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and drove out the Islamic and Arabic presence. As the Spanish speaking people moved throughout the peninsula, they spread their language into the conquered territories as well as surrounding territories. The Spanish language was known as Castilian during that time period and was often considered a prestigious language (Lopez, 2007). By the end of the fifteenth century, Castile and the Spanish language ruled a large territory encompassing the peninsula, spanning from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Latin had a significant influence on the development of Western languages as it led to the creation of many individual dialects. The Roman Empire gained power during the fourth century B. C and Latin spread throughout the Italian peninsula and the Mediterranean region. Speakers of Latin traveled in Europe and Central Asia which sparked new innovations in language (Sayre, 2013, pg. 264). Latin influenced the development of languages in the Western region of the world by serving as a basis for the creation of new languages. An example of this influence would be the use of Latin words in the Spanish language as a result of the Roman power in the Spanish peninsula. Native populations learned Latin first and then eventually developed new dialects and languages. Local residents often became bilingual in classical Latin and the newer language or dialect. Latin is the main foundation of languages in Western Civilizations. The languages spoken in Spain, Romania, Italy, France and Portugal were created from a hybrid form of Latin. Western languages were also influenced by other languages such as German and Arabic but the most significant influence remains Latin (Sayre, 2013, pg. 264). Without the Latin language, only a small number of the languages spoken today would be recognizable in their current dialects. Latin survived the fall of the Roman Empire and continued to be an international language for educated individuals and the socially elite. After the Middle Ages, the Western Hemisphere underwent a cultural Renaissance and many forms of Latin were transplanted into Western languages (Sayre, 2013, pg. 265). Not only did Latin serve as a basis for the Spanish language but it had a substantial impact on the development of languages in Western civilizations.

Teens and Plastic Surgery

Should teens get plastic surgery? Unlike adults who undergo plastic surgery to turn back the clock, some teenagers crave plastic surgery just to fit in. Many reports suggest that plastic surgery is now topping teen wish lists. This raises the question of whether teens are mature enough to be making a decision that poses risks and that will permanently change their appearance. The definition of plastic surgery is surgery to remodel, repair, or restore body parts, especially by the transfer of tissue (â€Å"Cosmetic surgery,† 2007).The most common surgical procedures performed on teens eighteen years and younger are otoplasty (ear surgery), rhinoplasty, breast reduction, and gynecomastia. Otoplasty was the most popular surgical procedures in 2010 (ASAPS, 2012, para. 4). Ear surgery is usually recommended for children age five or six, but can be done as young as four years old. Correcting the ears prior to the child beginning school helps eliminate psychological trauma from teasi ng. Rhinoplasty is a nose reshaping procedure.The procedure can be done when the nose has completed ninety percent of its growth, which occurs as early as age thirteen to fourteen in girls and fifteen to sixteen in boys (ASAPS, 2012, para. 5). Breast reduction is performed on females with overly large breasts that may cause back and shoulder pain. It can also restrict physical activity. Gynecomastia is excessive breast development in boys. Excess tissue is removed from the breast to make for a more masculine body. This condition may disappear at the end of puberty.Surgery usually becomes an option if gynecomastia has been present for more than two years or if the problem is severe. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) it can become a big psychological problem for teenage boys. According to the Consumer Guide to Plastic Surgery, there are plastic surgery procedures that teens should avoid. Teens should avoid breast enhancements, liposuction, cheek i mplants and botox. When it comes to breast enhancements, only saline-filled breast implants are used in teens.By law, in the United States a teen has to be at least eighteen years old to get breast implants, and this is because the breast may still be developing. There are some exceptions to this rule; such as if a teen is born with a congenital defect, there is trauma, or a disease that may require breast reconstruction. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved silicone-filled breast implants only for women twenty-two years or older, but it can be used for breast reconstruction in women of all ages† (Mann, 2012, para. 9).Liposuction is not recommended for teens. Some teens may lose baby fat as they mature. Spot reduction is a liposuction procedure that is commonly used in teens. It removes fat pockets from specific areas of the body. This is an option when a teen has tried diet and exercise without success. â€Å"Liposuction should never be used to treat obesity in te ens, or be considered a substitute for diet and exercise (Mann, 2012, para. 10). Cheek implants may not work well to make a teen’s appearance better because facial features can still be developing.Botox is only approved for people at least eighteen years old, yet a mom on a reality show â€Å"Toddler’s and Tiara’s† that recently made headlines, takes her eight year old daughter who is in beauty pageants for regular botox injections and takes her waxing as well. There are several things that the parents, teens, and even the doctors need to consider before deciding on plastic surgery. The first thing that all parties should consider is who desires the plastic surgery. It should be one hundred percent the teen’s choice.It should not be parents, friends, or boyfriends and girlfriends. â€Å"Teens who are encouraged to have surgeries by families and friends when they are not interested are poor candidates for plastic surgery,† says Malcolm D. Pau l, MD, president-elect of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and a plastic surgeon (WebMD, 2004, p. 2 para. 2). Parents need to consider if their child is serious about the surgery. If they are inconsistent and change from wanting their ears done one day and their nose done the next, they are not a good candidate for plastic surgery.Parents also have to make sure that the teen has realist expectations. Some teens may think a new nose or bigger breasts will change their life. They may think it will make them more popular or open the door to more social outlets. â€Å"While the correct procedure in the correct teen may bring about positive changes in self-esteem, teen plastic surgery does not guarantee a fairy tale ending† (Mann, 2012, para 8). Doctors usually do a more extensive evaluation on teens wanting plastic surgery than they would a mature adult coming in for the same procedure.Most board-certified plastic surgeons will spend a lot of time interv iewing teens to make sure they are mature enough to handle surgery. Plastic surgeons will rule out teens who have psychological problems, such as a teen with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). People with this disorder believe they are unusually ugly. BDD should not be treated by having plastic surgery. It needs to be treated by a mental health professional. â€Å"The ASPS does not recommend cosmetic surgery for teens that are prone to mood swings or erratic behavior, who abuse drugs and/or alcohol, or who are being treated for a mental illness† (Markowitz, 2010, para. ). There are some unconscionable plastic surgeons who may capitalize on a teenager who is obsessed with their appearance. They may also capitalize on those whose parents are set on having â€Å"the perfect child. † There are plenty of statistics out on the subject of teens and plastic surgery. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) there were nearly 219,000 cosmetic procedures performe d on people age thirteen to nineteen years of age in 2010. In 2010, there were 4,153 breast augmentation procedures on women eighteen and under, which accounts for 1. percent of the total number of breast augmentation procedures in the United States (ASAPS, 2012, para. 5). According to Diana Zuckerman, Ph. D. research indicates that breast augmentation patients are four times more likely to commit suicide than other plastic surgery patients (Markowitz, 2012, para. 5). This raises questions about the mental health of women who want implants. There are no laws in the United States governing the minimum age for cosmetic procedures. The only real law pertaining to teens and plastic surgery is that the U. S.Food and Drug Administration does not approve cosmetic saline implants for women under eighteen (Markowitz, 2012, para. 2). In the United Kingdom, a teen has to be at least sixteen years of age for any breast augmentations or related surgery. There are negative factors to consider whe n it comes to teens having plastic surgery. As with any surgical procedure, the cost is very expensive. Most insurances do not cover cosmetic procedures. There are plenty of risks and complications involved as well. For example, a 17 year old Florida teen died after having breast surgery.Doctors said the cause of her death was malignant hyperthermia, which is a rare metabolic condition that can be triggered by certain anesthesia. It raises a patient’s heart rate and metabolism, causing the body temperature to rise as high as 112 degrees. Some believe she was too young to handle the anesthesia (Rose, 2008, para. 3). There are some negative psychological effects as well. Some teens are chasing a false perception, and end up not being happy with the end result. Some believe teens will become addicted to plastic surgery, and think of it as a quick fix.There are some psychological benefits as well. Teens gain self-esteem and confidence when their physical problems are corrected. M any teens welcome the changes because it can mean being in a less bullied state, which can lead to normal life. Fixing these conditions can alleviate teasing and bullying. Another benefit to plastic surgery is that it fixes deformities and body parts, making them functional. A common deformity that plastic surgeons fix is cleft palates. A cleft palate is a certain facial deformity that prevents a child from using the mouth properly.This can affect their ability to eat, drink, and talk. Sometimes a plastic surgeon can repair this deformity to improve the child’s appearance as well as the functionality of the affected body part. I am about 95 percent against children and teens having plastic surgery. I only agree with it if it is for the purpose of restoring the function of body parts. Teen’s bodies are not fully developed at that age, and most likely their bodies will change for the better. I also don’t believe teens are mature enough to be making a decision that poses risks and that will change their appearance forever.References Cosmetic Surgery. (2007). Thefreedictionary. com. Retrieved from http://medical-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/Cosmetic+Surgery Markowitz, Andrea. (2010, June 1). Too young for cosmetic surgery?. Retrieved from http://www. southflorida. com/specialsection/teenlinks/sns-health-young-cosmetic-surgery,0,7776311. story American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. (2012). Teens and plastic surgery. Retrieved from http://www. surgery. org/media/news-releases/teens-and-plastic-surgery American Society of Plastic Surgeons. (2011). Plastic surgery for teenagers briefing paper.Retrieved from http://www. plasticsurgery. org/news-and-resources/briefing-papers/plastic-surgery-for-teenagers. html Rose. (March 28, 2008). Florida teen dies after breast surgery. Retrieved from http://www. zimbio. com/Stephanie+Kuleba/articles/4/Florida+Teen+Dies+After+Breast+Surgery WebMD. (2004). Is plastic surgery a teen thing? Retrieved from http://www. webmd. om/healthy-beauty/features/is-plastic-surgery-teen-thing Mann Denise. (2012) Teen plastic surgery: special report. Retrieved from http://www. yourplasticsurgeryguide. com/trends/teen-plastic-surgery. htm

Agriculture and Farm Innovations and Inventors

Agriculture and Farm Innovations and Inventors Farming and farm machinery were basically unchanged in Europe and its colonies for over a thousand years until the Agricultural Revolution  beginning in the late 1700s. Modern agricultural machinery has continued to evolve. The threshing machine has given way to the combine, usually a self-propelled unit that either picks up windrowed grain or cuts and threshes it in one step. The grain binder has been replaced by the swather which cuts the grain and lays it on the ground in windrows, allowing it to dry before being harvested by a combine. Plows are not used nearly as extensively as before, due in large part to the popularity of minimum tillage to reduce soil erosion and conserve moisture. The disk harrow today is more often used after harvesting to cut up the grain stubble left in the field. Although seed drills are still used, the air seeder is becoming more popular with farmers. Todays farm machinery allows farmers to cultivate many more acres of land than the machines of yesterday. Famous Agriculturists Luther Burbank - The Idaho Potato: Horticulturalist patented many cropsGeorge Washington Carver: Agricultural chemist who diversified agriculture and promoted crop rotationJethro Tull: Inventor of the seed drill Milestones in Farm Machinery The following inventions and mechanization led to an agricultural revolution in America in its first two centuries as a nation. Corn picker:  In 1850, Edmund Quincy invented the corn picker.Cotton gin:  The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls and other unwanted materials from cotton after it has been picked. Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin on March 14, 1794Cotton harvester:  The first cotton harvester was patented in the U.S. in 1850, but it was not until the 1940s that the machinery was widely used.  Mechanical cotton harvesters are of two types: strippers and pickers. Stripper harvesters strip the entire plant of both open and unopened bolls, along with many leaves and stems. The cotton gin is then used to remove unwanted material.​  Picker machines, often called spindle-type harvesters, remove the cotton from open bolls and leave the bur on the plant. The spindles, which rotate on their axes at high speeds, are attached to a drum that also turns, causing the spindles to penetrate the plants. The cotton fibers are wrapped around the moistened spindles and then removed by a special device called a doffer; the cotton is then delivered to a large basket carried above the machine. Crop rotation: Growing the same crop repeatedly on the same land eventually  depletes the soil of different nutrients. Farmers avoided a decrease in soil fertility by practicing crop rotation. Different plant crops were planted in a regular sequence so that the leaching of the soil by a crop of one kind of nutrient was followed by a plant crop that returned that nutrient to the soil. Crop rotation was practiced in ancient Roman, African, and Asian cultures. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a three-year crop rotation was practiced by farmers rotating rye or winter wheat in year one, followed by spring oats or barley in the second year, and followed by a third year of no crops. In the 18th century, British agriculturalist Charles Townshend aided the European agricultural revolution by popularizing a four- year crop rotation with rotations of wheat, barley, turnips, and clover. In the United States, George Washington Carver brought his science of crop rotation to the farmers and save d the farming resources of the south. Grain elevator: In 1842, the first grain elevator was built by Joseph Dart.Hay cultivation:  Until the middle of the 19th century, hay was cut by hand with sickles and scythes. In the 1860s early cutting devices were developed that resembled those on reapers and binders; from these came the modern array of fully mechanical mowers, crushers, windrowers, field choppers, balers, and machines for pelletizing or wafering in the field. The stationary baler or hay press was invented in the 1850s and did not become popular until the 1870s. The pick up baler or square baler was replaced by the round baler around the 1940s.In 1936, a man named Innes, of Davenport, Iowa, invented an automatic baler for hay. It tied bales with binder twine using Appleby-type knotters from a John Deere grain binder. A Pennsylvania Dutchman named Ed Nolt built his own baler, salvaging the twine knotters from the Innes baler. Both balers did not work that well. According to The History of Twine, Nolts innovative patents pointed the way by 1939 to the mass production of the one-man automatic hay baler. His balers and their imitators revolutionized hay and straw harvest and created a twine demand beyond the wildest dreams of any twine manufacturer. Milking machine:  In 1879, Anna Baldwin patented a milking machine that replaced hand milking - her milking machine was a vacuum device that connected to a hand pump. This is one of the earliest American patents, however, it was not a successful invention. Successful milking machines appeared around 1870. The earliest devices for mechanical milking were tubes inserted in the teats to force open the sphincter muscle, thus allowing the milk to flow. Wooden tubes were used for this purpose, as well as feather quills. Skillfully made tubes of pure silver, gutta percha, ivory, and bone were marketed in the mid-19th century. During the last half of the 19th century, over 100 milking devices were patented in the United States.Plow:  John Deere invented the self-polishing cast steel plow - an improvement over the iron plow. The plow was made of wrought iron and had a steel share that could cut through sticky soil without clogging. By 1855, John Deeres factory was selling over 10,000 stee l plows a year. Reaper:  In 1831, Cyrus H. McCormick developed the first commercially successful reaper, a horse-drawn machine that harvested wheatTractors:  The advent of tractors revolutionized the agricultural industry, freeing agriculture from using oxen, horse, and manpower.

Internationalization of Financial Markets Essay - 1

Internationalization of Financial Markets - Essay Example People adopt all these strategies to reduce the risk and allocate the resources in a strategic manner. Â  During the last 20 years, internationalization of financial markets has developed at a very swift pace. This took place due to the amalgamation of goods market leading to the presence of multinational corporations. Imports and exports volumes have increased largely leading to increasing in international transactions. All these elements have increased their presence internationally but the growth of internationalization of financial markets has gone beyond the adjustment of trade. Along with this growth, banks’ existence has also increased internationally with many new branches in new countries to satisfy the needs of customers working for multinational organizations (Horne, 1990). Â  The reason that banks have different packages for different countries is that people have different needs and trends. Some countries might have the trend of saving more and some might have investment trend depending on the current situation of the country. If there is inflation in the country, demand is high but supply is very low because the purchasing power of consumers has increased but output has not increased at the same pace. The government will increase the interest rate so that instead of spending the money people save the money and do not demand much (Welch & Liostarinen, 1993). During this period, foreigners will start saving their money in those countries’ banks. Similarly, when there is deflation in any country government will decrease the rate of interest so that people invest more to stimulate the production and prices. Â  Moreover, different countries confront different kind of natural calamities and other destructions. Insurance companies have great significance in these kinds of countries, they collect premium from people periodically and invest this money in different projects.

UCLA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

UCLA - Essay Example However, the magnitude of the compromised ethics on the situations differs from one segment to the other. Among the five segments the most ethically compromised situation is act two in which the two businesses talked about have a silent partner. One of the businesses, Chad’s business has Chad as a business partner. This results to unethical undertakings like placing his picture on the business and wearing t-shirts with his name and yet he is dead. The action sets superstition that causes it to be unethical thus influencing the running of the business. Unlike other situations where few individuals compromise ethics, in this segment all the individuals involved in the business compromise ethics. Everybody was wearing a shirt with Chad’s name; the activity of every person involved was shaped by Chad who died before the business started. This makes the segment ideal for explaining an ethically compromised situation. Family businesses are very different in characteristics when compared to other types of businesses. One of the characteristics that makes them unique is that they require succession after a certain period. The business is passed from an incumbent senior generation to a next generation of leadership or ownership (Ward 3). This provides a challenge and opportunities that are rare in other kinds of businesses. Another thing that makes family business rather unique is that unlike the public companies owned by investors who are the main shareholders, this business has an individual owner or a team of owners who are family members. According to Gersick (1), these owners play a very different role from that played by shareholders. They directly influence the running of the business and general performance of the employee of that business which is not the role of the shareholders in the public companies. Family ties prohibit a person from doing certain things to certain members of his family. Private enterprises