Awakening: the Role Model

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier continuously struggles with breaking the social norms that are imposed upon her by the people around her including her own friends and husband. Throughout the novel, Edna is able to detach herself from the lifestyle that society appoints her by emulating Mademoiselle Reisz, an independent woman who has lived her life without conforming to society. Mademoiselle Reisz is not only a model for Edna’s awakening, but she also represents the freedom and individuality that Enda wishes she could attain.Through imitating Reisz, Enda realizes the woman she is capable of becoming, but later learns that she cannot truly be an independent woman because of her differences from Mademoiselle Reisz. The relationship between Edna and Reisz is constructed on the artistic connection between the two character’s. Enda, a painter, is very fond of Reisz’s musical talent. Edna specifically likes one of Reisz’s songs that she ca lls â€Å"solitude. † Chopin writes, â€Å"The name of the piece was something else, but she called it ‘Solitude. When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him† (38). This is what the relationship between Edna and Reisz is built on. Not only is it the artistic connection, but it is also the desire to be an individual that brings the two together. The song portrays an almost a vivid painting in the mind of Enda, the form of art that she enjoys.This particularly touches her because even though it is a different form of art, Edna still is able to understand and interpret it. In her mind, Reisz’s song leaves her with the sensation of being alone and free, a feeling that Edna longs to have for herself. The sea, which resembles freedom and knowledge throughout the novel is placed as an obstacle for the man who can only look at the bird that can go the other way and fly over the water.The â€Å"resignation† that the man and Edna feel are both in response to the way that they cannot free themselves completely from the land they are on, which can be understood as society itself, unlike the bird that they have to watch simply fly the other way. From this interaction between the two, it is apparent that Edna’s relationship with Mademoiselle Reisz is based on the two understanding each other through them both being artists. Alongside of their artistic connection, Edna Pontellier looks up to Mademoiselle Reisz as the woman she aspires to be.Enda wants to be an independent artist that is a maverick among the conventional people in the society just like Reisz is. This is evident in how the two characters interact. Chopin writes, â€Å"When Mademoiselle Reisz came and touched her upon the shoulder and spoke to her, the woman seemed to e cho the thought which was ever in Edna’s mind; or, better, the feeling which constantly possessed her† (69). Edna is figuratively and literally touched by Reisz in this moment. Edna wishes to be free and give up the all of the responsibilities she has a a woman.She does not want to be in the â€Å"habit† of doing all the social responsibilities that are placed upon women. Reisz echoes the freedom that Edna wishes she had by touching her and almost giving her that independence she yearns for. We can see how Edna struggles on the inside with wanting to be free and independent from how the narrator refers to it as a â€Å"feeling which constantly possessed her. † The possession shows how Edna does not have control over this feeling and she will always want to be a free individual.Reisz communicates to Edna that it is possible break the social standards by touching her and telling her that it is possible to be different because Reisz has done it herself. The c onnection between the two in this passage is one that is very much one that is mutual and close. Mademoiselle Reisz provides Edna with enlightenment that â€Å"possesse[s] her,† while Edna gives â€Å"the most disagreeable and unpopular woman† a true friendship in a society that is bias against independent women who defy the social convention. Reisz once again touches Edna similarly to how she had earlier on in the novel.Chopin writes, â€Å"She put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth† (p. 127). Similar to the man from the song that wishes that he had wings like the bird to be free. Edna’s wings that she can use overcome the tradition and prejudice of society are being checked by Mademoiselle Reisz to see if she is strong enough to fly on her own. In addition, Edna s reached out to by Reisz and is comforted by her knowledge on how to be an individual. Edna wants to be free and is happy to relieved by the fact that Reisz is there to help her. Although Reisz is there to help Edna, Reisz also does think it is a shame if Edna were to fail in obtaining her independence. Mademoiselle Reisz calls it a spectacle which makes those who fail look ridiculous or like a fool. She is also telling Edna if she doesn’t succeed that she will make herself a spectacle that the entire tradition on the ground, society, is going to see her fall as she makes herself look like a fool.We can also see that Edna does enjoy the presence of Resiz although it may be hard on her at times. Chopin writes, â€Å"There was nothing which so quieted the turmoil of Edna’s senses as visit to Mademoiselle Reisz. It was then, in the presence of that personality which was offensive to her, that the woman, by her divine art, seemed to reach Edna’s spirit and set it free† (p. 120). At this point, Edna Pontellier feels as if the personality of Reisz, which she seems to envy because of its complete freedom, is the only thing that â€Å"reach[es] Edna’s spirit and set[s] it free. Edna’s world that is filled with struggle to be independent can only be calmed by the presence of her role model and deity, Mademoiselle Reisz. Since the relationship between Edna and Reisz is clearly one based on being independent women in a society that is prejudice against those whom that contravene the societal laws, the Edna’s life and suicide can be understood with more lucidity. Edna’s life through the novel is incontrovertibly a mimic of the life of Mademoiselle Reisz. Since Reisz is the independent and free woman Edna strives to be, Edna simply follows all the things that Reisz does.Edna returns back to painting{what does she want from painting}, she no longer â€Å"go[es] t hrough the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us,’ and she no longer let’s society command her what to do. Even though Edna is a free and independent woman by following the lifestyle of her counterpart, Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna struggles to be completely free. She still has to deal with the return of her husband and most importantly living with her children. This struggle makes the seemingly independent woman, Edna, ultimately commit suicide.Although Edna is fulfilled by her ability to initially take flight, gain freedom, Edna is just like â€Å"weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth† (p. 127). Because Edna’s wings are weak she is unable to fly and be free. This is because of the burden on her placed by her family. With Robert’s return, Edna again begins to feel the societal pressures that were absent while Robert was in Mexico. Edna is pressured into falling backing into â€Å"the daily treadmill of lifeâ €  because of her husband. This is one reason that she deicides to discontinue her life.Unlike Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna has a spouse whereas Reisz does not have a spouse that pressures her into conforming to society. Therefore Edna’s independence is challenged in her own home unlike Reisz whom is free to do as she wishes. Alongside of not having a spouse, Reisz does not have to worry about children dissimilar to Edna. This is key in understanding Edna’s suicide because of the extent to which he children were a major component in her deciding to give up her life. Reisz does not have to worry about children so she is much more capable of being a free woman. On the other hand, Edna has to take care of her children.This makes a major difference for Edna because her children will most likely be affected by society’s thoughts and opinions on their mother. Her children, the only people who should be able to love her unconditionally, will have to ultimately ostracize their mother if she was to be an independent woman. Edna also gives her life because she does not want to burden her own offspring with society’s judgement and beliefs of their own mother. In conclusion, Edna is weak considering that she is unable to remain an independent women and that she decides to end her life instead of taking power over her life.By submitting to death, Edna loses to society and ends her life for the interest of her children. Because she conforms in the end to what society wants her to do, take care of her children, Edna’s death can be considered as a defeat. Mademoiselle Ratignolle, the prime example of someone that conforms to society expectations and beliefs, says that women should give their lives for their children. Edna does exactly that and therefore is not only weak, but dies as a woman with no independence or freedom.

Law 531

Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation Systems Law/531 [ July 30, 2012 ] The traditional legal system of utilizes law as it is foundation for all decisions. Laws in the United States have four sources; constitutional, statutes and ordinance, common law and administrative. The features of these four are: * Constitutional Law is based on a formal document that defines broad powers. Federal constitutional law originates from the U. S. constitution. State constitutional law originates from the individual state constitutions. Statutes and Ordinances are legislation passed on the federal, state, or local levels. * Common Law is based on the concept of precedence – on how the courts have interpreted the law. Under common law, the facts of a particular case are determined and compared to previous cases having similar facts in order to reach a decision by analogy. Common law applies mostly at the state level. It originated in the 13th century when royal judges began recording their decisions and the reasoning behind the decisions. * Administrative Law – federal, state, and local level.Administrative law is made by administrative agencies that define the intent of the legislative body that passed the law. These four steps are used to structure and interpret laws to remedy situations as they arise the enforcement occurs at three levels and they are called courts. The Supreme Court, Appellate courts and Trial courts, in the business environment the trial court is a popular choice because it handles the civil disputes and it is only when unique cases appear it is sent to be viewed by the Supreme Court for a ruling.Cases such as NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. (Supreme Court of the United States 2011) otherwise known as the healthcare law which mandates healthcare for all, when this kind of law is in place and it affects the citizens on a whole that decision must be weighed agains t the rules of the constitution which is the law of the land. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) this is the mitigation process where the end result is the agreement according to the process of litigation.ADR is the involvement of a third party to who is unbiased but encourages a discussion between the parties. This features is particularly important to businesses because of this feature the discussions are private and so it reduces the negative publicity which may arise, the process is quicker because it because the terms of the agreement is then presented to judge for his/her viewing and then a ruling is made. Finally, the agreement is also covered by a caveat of confidentiality which reminds both parties that the agreed terms must not be discussed.This type of discussion is helpful in mergers and acquisitions as is used in the work environments where a union supplies the employees. Comparison Both processes are features of the judicial system and the remedy is legally binding. Most times the remedy is monetary and the TORT is settled in the civil courts, however, laws have two features, state and federal and whenever applicable the federal ruling is the governing law. ContrastThe judicial system in terms of the courts is time consuming and the pretrial hearings can be a lengthy task, the courts that will hear the case is also determined by the monetary remedy that is asked by the plaintiff. References Supreme Court System, American Legal System; Quick MBA, Law and Business http://www. quickmba. com/law/sys/, viewed July 30th 2012. Healthcare Reform Ruling; NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL; http://www. supremecourt. ov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2. pdf, viewed July 30th 2012. Definition of Tort; The Lectric Law Library LECLAW. com, http://www. lectlaw. com/def2/t032. htm, viewed July 30th 2012. ———————————⠀”——– [ 1 ]. A tort is an act that injures someone in some way, and for which the injured person may sue the wrongdoer for damages. Legally, torts are called civil wrongs, as opposed to criminal ones. (Some acts like battery, however, may be both torts and crimes; the wrongdoer may face both civil and criminal penalties. ) Law 531 Traditional and Nontraditional Litigation Systems Law/531 [ July 30, 2012 ] The traditional legal system of utilizes law as it is foundation for all decisions. Laws in the United States have four sources; constitutional, statutes and ordinance, common law and administrative. The features of these four are: * Constitutional Law is based on a formal document that defines broad powers. Federal constitutional law originates from the U. S. constitution. State constitutional law originates from the individual state constitutions. Statutes and Ordinances are legislation passed on the federal, state, or local levels. * Common Law is based on the concept of precedence – on how the courts have interpreted the law. Under common law, the facts of a particular case are determined and compared to previous cases having similar facts in order to reach a decision by analogy. Common law applies mostly at the state level. It originated in the 13th century when royal judges began recording their decisions and the reasoning behind the decisions. * Administrative Law – federal, state, and local level.Administrative law is made by administrative agencies that define the intent of the legislative body that passed the law. These four steps are used to structure and interpret laws to remedy situations as they arise the enforcement occurs at three levels and they are called courts. The Supreme Court, Appellate courts and Trial courts, in the business environment the trial court is a popular choice because it handles the civil disputes and it is only when unique cases appear it is sent to be viewed by the Supreme Court for a ruling.Cases such as NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. (Supreme Court of the United States 2011) otherwise known as the healthcare law which mandates healthcare for all, when this kind of law is in place and it affects the citizens on a whole that decision must be weighed agains t the rules of the constitution which is the law of the land. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) this is the mitigation process where the end result is the agreement according to the process of litigation.ADR is the involvement of a third party to who is unbiased but encourages a discussion between the parties. This features is particularly important to businesses because of this feature the discussions are private and so it reduces the negative publicity which may arise, the process is quicker because it because the terms of the agreement is then presented to judge for his/her viewing and then a ruling is made. Finally, the agreement is also covered by a caveat of confidentiality which reminds both parties that the agreed terms must not be discussed.This type of discussion is helpful in mergers and acquisitions as is used in the work environments where a union supplies the employees. Comparison Both processes are features of the judicial system and the remedy is legally binding. Most times the remedy is monetary and the TORT is settled in the civil courts, however, laws have two features, state and federal and whenever applicable the federal ruling is the governing law. ContrastThe judicial system in terms of the courts is time consuming and the pretrial hearings can be a lengthy task, the courts that will hear the case is also determined by the monetary remedy that is asked by the plaintiff. References Supreme Court System, American Legal System; Quick MBA, Law and Business http://www. quickmba. com/law/sys/, viewed July 30th 2012. Healthcare Reform Ruling; NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL; http://www. supremecourt. ov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2. pdf, viewed July 30th 2012. Definition of Tort; The Lectric Law Library LECLAW. com, http://www. lectlaw. com/def2/t032. htm, viewed July 30th 2012. ———————————⠀”——– [ 1 ]. A tort is an act that injures someone in some way, and for which the injured person may sue the wrongdoer for damages. Legally, torts are called civil wrongs, as opposed to criminal ones. (Some acts like battery, however, may be both torts and crimes; the wrongdoer may face both civil and criminal penalties. )

Childhood Obesity and Ways to Prevent It Essay

It would be a gross understatement to say that childhood obesity has become a serious problem in America over the last several years. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated childhood obesity is the fastest growing health crisis in the United States. Over the past thirty years, the rate of obesity has more than tripled for children aged 6 to 11 and more than doubled for adolescents aged 12 to 19. It’s been approximated that more than 33% of youths aged 2 to 19 are overweight or obese. Being an obese child has an enormous impact on physical, mental, and emotional health along with social and overall development. Research has shown obese youths have a higher risk of chronic conditions such as asthma, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, bone/joint problems, sleep apnea, and even certain types of cancer. Equally important is the emerging health concern of metabolic syndrome among American youths, which is a major risk factor for cardiov ascular disease and type 2 diabetes. There are many ways one could prevent obesity. Longer physical education classes and healthier food choices at schools would be very beneficial. It is typical that a parent will do the food shopping for the home so it is important to make healthy, wholesome selections when food shopping. It is also typical for the parent to be the one to take the kids through the drive-thru window, buy them sugary snacks at the store, and super size their meals. It is obvious, then, that the home environment is the first place to set the foundation for proper nutrition. This topic interests me because being from Louisiana I know a lot of obese or over weight children because Louisiana happens to be the second fattest state in the country. Also being a kinesiology major it makes me very interested in exercise and ways to make people more fit and healthy. In the article, it states that the authors work in the Department of Nursing. The article was published at the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland  that proves that the article was written by researchers in the medical field. Since that is all I could find about the authors I could not say that this article is fully credible. The purpose of this article is to review the factors that contribute to the development of childhood obesity, its consequences, and the interventions for managing the problem. The authors found that childhood obesity is associated with the presence of genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors, while its consequences are connected with cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and respiratory diseases. Certain psychosocial and endocrine disorders were also observed. According to the authors, â€Å"management of the problem can be achieved with targeted interventions in the presence of the family, school and community environment.† (Koukourikos et al) This quote explains ways that obesity can be prevented and whom can help to prevent it. The authors came to the conclusion that childhood obesity is directly connected with the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle, a change in healthy eating habits, and reduced physical activity. After reading this article, I feel that I gained a lot of knowledge about childhood obesity as a whole. The article was helpful because it talked not only about obesity but also many of the effects it has on children and briefly talks about what would have to be done to reduce the obesity rates. The University of Southern California website stated that Donna Spruijt-Metz’s research focuses on childhood obesity and has her Ph.D. in Adolescent Health and Medical Ethics. She is also the Director, Responsible Conduct Research for the Keck School of Medicine, and the Associate Editor for Pediatric Obesity. This makes Donna Spruijt-Metz extremely qualified to be writing this article. She states that childhood obesity has become an epidemic on a worldwide scale. This article gives an overview of the progress made in childhood and adolescent obesity research in the last decade. The author talks about current definitions of childhood and  adolescent overweight and obesity. She states the three major obesity-related behaviors and genetic components of childhood obesity. She has done research on how the environment has influences on childhood and adolescent obesity. Lastly, she briefly explains the progress in interventions to prevent and treat childhood and adolescent obesity. The author concludes with recommendations for future research, including the need for large-scale, high-dose, and long-term interventions that take into account the complex nature of the problem. This article was informational and helpful explaining why children are becoming more and more obese. Also, the author explained on how to prevent obesity so this article was helpful for my research topic. On an â€Å"About the Authors† webpage, it stated that Leah M. Frerichs works in the College of Public Health department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. UNMC is one of the top centers for cardiovascular disease research along with several other diseases. Ozgur Araz also work at UNMC in the public health department as an assistant professor. He has his PhD in industrial engineering and has written thirteen other medical articles. Terry T-K Huang is the professor and chair of the department of health promotion, social, and behavioral health at UNMC. He has his PhD is preventive medicine. With this being said, all three of the authors sound very qualified for this article on obesity and how to prevent it because of their medically inclined backgrounds. The authors of this article do research at a couple different places, which includes the Erasmus Medical Center, the TNO Child Health Center, the EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, and the University of Twente. Their research has several studies dealing with children and what contributes to their health and weight. All of these centers deal with health and children, which makes these authors well certified to write an article on my topic. two interventions aim to support parents of preschool children to realize healthy child nutrition and activity behaviors of their young child. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of the two overweight prevention interventions with regard to child health behaviors and child Body Mass Index. Methods/design A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted among parents and their preschool children who attend one of 51 participating YHC teams. The teams were randomly allocated to one of the two intervention groups, or to the control group (care as usual). The ‘BBOFT+’ intervention focuses on effective child rearing by parents from birth onwards by enlarging parental skills concerning healthy behavioral life-style habits. Parents who are allocated to the ‘E-health4Uth Healthy toddler’ intervention group, at the child age of circa 18 and 24 months old, are invited to complete an online E-health module providing tailored health education regarding hea lthy child nutrition and activity behaviors. The E-health messages are discussed and reinforced during the subsequent regularly scheduled visits by YHC professionals, and were repeated after 4 weeks. The primary outcome measures at child age 3 years are: overweight inducing/reducing behaviors, (for ‘BBOFT+† only) healthy sleep, Body Mass Index and prevalence of overweight and obesity. Secondary outcome measures are attitudes and other cognitive characteristics of the parents regarding the overweight-related behaviors of their child, parenting styles and practices, and health-related quality of life of the children. Discussion We hypothesize that the use of the additional interventions will result in a healthier lifestyle of preschool children and an improved BMI and less development of overweight and obesity compared to usual care.

Economics-(hurricane katerina)(about crimes and rebild plans) Essay

Economics-(hurricane katerina)(about crimes and rebild plans) - Essay Example In New Orleans, several houses were damaged and no authority made any effort to address this situation. On the other hand, the city planners were planning to demolish houses that had been damaged in the floods. According to official statistics, more than one thousand eight hundred people had lost their life, during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The city officials failed to remove the cadavers from the ruined houses, and these corpses were allowed to decompose in the flood – damaged houses. Even, several weeks after the storm, dead bodies were to be found in many places (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). There were no plans made to rebuild New Orleans, even after a year had elapsed, after this terrible storm. Moreover, the situation obtaining in the other affected areas along the Gulf Coast was no different. There were no efforts by the authorities to locate the thousands of residents who had been rendered homeless by the storm and who had consequently left the place. The nation’s administration failed to take restorative measures in these storm affected areas (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). The state and local officials were looking for help from Washington. The federal government, state and local governments allowed the situation in New Orleans to deteriorate further, after the Hurricane Katrina storm. However, tourist places and wealthy areas were rebuilt immediately after the storm. The federal aid was apportioned by the financial actors and social lawyers. The majority of the working class people, who were the victims of the storm, were by and large granted no help, whatsoever (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). This glaring injustice was succinctly brought forth by Newsweek, which described the official initiative as, â€Å"mostly an opportunity for Southern companies owned by GOP campaign contributors to make some money in New Orleans.† (One year since

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Software Development Life Cycle - Essay Example The processes are going to be employed in a database system required for the London Olympics expected to take place in the near future. The most essential part in Software De3velopment Cycle is defining of the required data; obtaining and clearly indicating the objectives to be carried out (Dhunna & Dixt 2010: 129). To be able to define the objectives and activities taking place during the event, it is required of the analyst to find the data from the organizers. The organizers of the London Olympics are grouped to form the London Olympics Games Organizing Committee (LOGOC). There are many methods that are used in fact finding or gathering. The main methods include questionnaires, interviews, observations, and record inspection. The different methods are employed in certain situations for optimum data gathering (Dhunna & Dixt 2010: 129). The data is defined to be collected from the London Olympic Games organizing Committee. The most effective method in collecting data from the group is through interview. This is because the LOGOC comprises a small group of people; the management team comprises of persons less than thirty. There are two structures in interviews; open and closed structure. The two structures differ in the questions asked during the interview. There are also two type of interview; face to face and group interview (Dennis, Wixom & Roth 2008: 43). The most essential type of interview is the face to face or one on one or personal interview. It gives an opportunity to varied opinion on the same issue hence deeper understanding of the requirements. The interview would employ the closed structure at its initial stages then after the structured questions are responded to, I would employ the open ended structure to ensure that I attain extra information on some data. The information to be attained in the interview include the type of data; the information of athletes that is stored, the types of sports, the arrangements on how the events are to occur, the organizations past information and challenges that the system needs to address (Dhunna & Dixt 2010: 132). The steps to conducting the interview are carried out strategically as they appear; planning, creating the questions, determining the order of conducting the interview and the information consolidating process (Fettke & Loos 2006: 119). The advantages associated with the interview process include easy framing of questions with objective to attain different set of answers, use of the observable non-verbal communication from the interviewee, immediate response, and there is a high response rate (Marshall & Bruno 2009: 221). The interview method therefore offers detailed facts from the outlined advantages. Despite having advantages that are beneficial, the method of use has disadvantages which include time consuming due to the personal conversation with the interviewee, location of respondents may cause inefficiency, it is costly, it brings an interrogative phenomenon to the inter viewee who may decide to control the information she/he gives. The method is also dependent on the interviewer’s perception (Zendler 1997: 21). There are various ways though through which these disadvantages may be overcome. The proximity effect may be controlled by use of video conferencing. The interviewer may be given a warm feeling by the interviewer to avoid the grill or summon view of the interview pro

Nicolaus Copernicus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nicolaus Copernicus - Essay Example was aware of this and could not present any observational "proof" in his manuscript, relying instead on arguments about what would be a more complete and elegant system. From publication until about 1700, few astronomers were convinced by the Copernican system, though the book was relatively widely circulated (around 500 copies are known to still exist, which is a large number by the scientific standards of the time). Many astronomers, however, accepted some aspects of the theory at the expense of others, and his model did have a large influence on later scientists such as Galileo and Johannes Kepler, who adopted, championed and (especially in Kepler's case) sought to improve it. Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus produced the first observational evidence for Copernicus' theory. The Copernican system can be summarized in seven propositions, as Copernicus himself collected them in a Compendium of De revolutionibus that was found and published in 1878: 1. Orbits and celestial spheres do not have a unique, common, center. 2. The center of the Earth is not the center of the Universe, but only the center of the Earth's mass and of the lunar orbit. 3. All the planets move along orbits whose center is the Sun, therefore the Sun is the center of the World. (Copernicus was never certain whether the Sun moved or not, claiming that the center of the World is "in the Sun, or near it.") 4. The distance between the Earth and the Sun, compared with the distance between the Earth and the fixed stars, is very small. 5. The daytime motion of the Sun is only apparent, and represents the effect of a rotation that the Earth makes every 24 hours around its axis, always parallel to itself. 6. The Earth (together with its Moon, and just like the other planets) moves around the... Copernicus' major work, was the result of decades of labor. It opened with an originally anonymous preface by Andreas Osiander, a theologian friend of Copernicus, who urged that the theory did not necessarily have implications outside the limited realm of astronomy. Copernicus' actual book began with a letter from his (by then deceased) friend, the Archbishop of Capua, urging Copernicus to publish his theory. Then, in a lengthy introduction, Copernicus dedicated the book to Pope Paul III, explaining his ostensible motive in writing the book as relating to the inability of earlier astronomers to agree on an adequate theory of the planets, and noting that if his system increased the accuracy of astronomical predictions it would allow the Church to develop a more accurate calendar (calendar reform then being an important question and one of the major reasons for Church funding of astronomy.

Diversity Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Diversity Paper - Essay Example The supportive personality is more introverted and team-oriented. They are supportive and helpful and thrive in interpersonal relationships. The cautious personality is also reserved and seeks consistency, value and is task-oriented. Their primary focus is on being accurate and correct in their assessments (Rohm, 2004). In addition to these underlying personality traits, many other factors play a role in determining a person’s personality and behavior such as gender, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation. Studies have shown, not surprisingly, that boys are quicker to openly display their temper than are girls. This is because girls are taught from a young age that angry displays are inappropriate and proper control of their emotions is a societal expectation for which they are rewarded. Socially acceptable behavior for girls includes being soft of voice at all times while vocal, outward displays of anger are intolerable. They are taught not to cause hurt feelings or be the cause of another’s anger. Gender stereotypes which are taught from a very early age reinforce to girls the importance of avoiding conflicts and to always act pleasantly, especially in a social setting. Females are expected to be attractive. The less physically attractive she is, the more the girl must take on a subservient role. Girls are also taught to manipulate a situation for their own benefit, but not to control it by being overbearing. There are those examples of girls who actively discard this stereot ype by rebelling against it often by means of intimidating those girls who fall under the ‘normal’ stereotype of which they are rebelling against. The abuse of sex, alcohol and drugs are common aspects of this rebellion. Males who adhere to society’s typical stereotype for suitable behavior and appearance believe they are masters of their own universe. If males are athletic and good-looking, they assume and society confirms that they are

Hispanic Americans Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hispanic Americans - Research Paper Example The Hispanic Americans in United States consists of four particular groups. They are the Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Central / South Americans. Mexican Americans Mexican Americans, as of July 2009, constitutes 10 . 3 % of the United States population. They â€Å" comprise 66 % of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States † ( â€Å" Mexican American† ) . United States houses the second largest Mexican community in the world right after Mexico itself. Mexican Americans as a race is a general agglomeration of Native Mexicans, Spaniards and other Hispanicize European settlers. Their history in the United States ranges for over four hundred years. By 1900 their settlements were mainly focused in the New Mexico, California and Texas. As a matter of fact Californios were strictly Spanish speaking citizens of present day California, who later became associated with the society soon after the California Gold Rush. Presently the Mexican .Americans have a sub stantial population in the cities of Los Angeles, Culver City, Long Beach, La Puente, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, San Francisco Bay Area, Denver and more. In order to avoid racial classification, the United States Census Bureau in 1970 tried to classify Hispanics by â€Å" Spanish speakers and persons belonging to a household where the head of household was a Spanish speaker† Persons by Spanish heritage by birth location or surname Persons who self – identified Spanish origin or descent † ( â€Å" Mexican American † ) Spanish continues to be the main language of the Mexicans since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. English was of minor importance because of proximity of southwestern U S to Mexico. In the beginning of twentieth century, with the second and third generations now on track, English became necessary with different work professions being available. But still in 1980s there were 100 Spanish news papers, with around 500 radio stations and 130 television stations. Since 1960s, there had been a huge influx of illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States which had heavily increased the cheap labor work force of the country. As the prospect of deportation is a constant threat they are highly subjected to exploitation by the employers, who often take a â€Å" don’t ask †, â€Å" don’t tell † attitude towards them. The immigrants are racially dubbed as â€Å" Wetbacks † which is a lucid approach just like â€Å" nigger † to African – Americans. Mexican Americans as a whole mainly form the nucleus of blue collar occupations in the U S. this includes from working as restaurant workers, truck drivers, janitors, gardeners, construction labors and metal moving workers. Several incidents of tensions had often aroused between Mexican immigrants and other ethnicities and also between Hispanic Americans and cheap Mexican labors over the sustainability of working – class jobs. â€Å" However, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in June 2007, 63 % of Americans would support an immigration policy that would put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship if they â€Å" pass background checks, pay fines and have jobs, learn English † † ( â€Å" Mexican American † ) , Socially, immigrants from Mexico come from lower stratus of social ladder and are involved in low skilled jobs by generations. Usually they are form rural areas. Strictly speaking,

Decision Making Stages Essay Example for Free

Decision Making Stages Essay Decision making (decision from Latin decidere to decide, determine, literally to cut off, from de- off and caedere to cut) can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice.[1] The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. * | Decision making stages Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision making process to begin Orientation stage – This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other. Conflict stage – Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out. Emergence stage – The group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them. Reinforcement stage – Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision. It is said that critical norms in a group improves the quality of decisions, while the majority of opinions (called consensus norms) do not. This is due to collaboration between one another, and when group members get used to, and familiar with, each other, they will tend to argue and create more of a dispute to agree upon one decision. This does not mean that all group members fully agree — they may not want argue further just to be liked by other group members or to fit in.[12] Q2 A management information system (MIS) is a system that provides information needed to manage organizations effectively. Management information systems are regarded to be a subset of the overall internal controls procedures in a business, which cover the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures used by management accountants to solve business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Applications of MIS With computers being as ubiquitous as they are today, theres hardly any large business that does not rely extensively on their IT systems. However, there are several specific fields in which MIS has become invaluable. Strategy Support While computers cannot create business strategies by themselves they can assist management in understanding the effects of their strategies, and help enable effective decision-making. ï  ¶ MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for decision making. Computers can provide fina ncial statements and performance reports to assist in the planning, monitoring and implementation of strategy. MIS systems provide a valuable function in that they can collate into coherent reports unmanageable volumes of data that would otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers. By studying these reports decision-makers can identify patterns and trends that would have remained unseen if the raw data were consulted manually. ï  ¶ MIS systems can also use these raw data to run simulations hypothetical scenarios that answer a range of ‘what if’ questions regarding alterations in strategy. For instance, MIS systems can provide predictions about the effect on sales that an alteration in price would have on a product. These Decision Support Systems (DSS) enable more informed decision making within an enterprise than would be possible without MIS systems. Q3 Information Resources Management (IRM) is an emerging discipline that helps managers assess and exploit their information assets for business development. It draws on the techniques of information science (libraries) and information systems (IT related). It an important foundation for knowledge management, in that deals systematically with explicit knowledge. Knowledge centres often play an important part in introducing IRM into an organization. Identification:- * Identifies gaps and duplication of information * Clarifies roles and responsibilities of owners and users of information * Provide costs saving in the procurement and handling of information * Identifies cost/benefits of different information resources * Actively supports management decision processes with quality information Development :- 1. Understand the role of Information. Information can add value to your products and services. Improved information flows can improve the quality of decision making and internal operations. Yet many managers do not fully understand the real impact of information the cost of a lost opportunity, of a poor product, of a strategic mistake all risks that can be reduced by using the appropriate information. 2. Assign Responsibility for Leading your IRM Initiative. Developing value from information resources is often a responsibility that falls between the cracks of several departments the user departments in different business units, and corporate planning, MIS units or librarians.. 3. Develop Clear Policies on Information Resources Policies for ascertaining information needs, acquiring and managing information throughout its life cycle. Pay particular attention to ownership, information integrity and sharing. Make the policies consistent with your organisational culture. 4. Conduct an Information Audit (Knowledge Inventory). Identify current knowledge and information resources (or entities), their users, usage and importance. Identify sources, cost and value. Classify information and knowledge by its key attributes. Develop knowledge maps. As knowledge management gains prominence, this is sometimes called a knowledge inventory knowing what you know. 5. Link to Management Processes. Make sure that key decision and business process are supported with high leverage information. Assess each process for its information needs. 6. Systematic scanning. Systematically scan your business environment. This includes the wider environment legal and regulatory, political, social, economic and technological as well as the inner environment of your industry, markets, customers and competitors. Provide selective and tailored dissemination of vital signs to key executives. This goes beyond the daily abstracting service provided by many suppliers. 7. Mix hard/soft, internal/external. True patterns and insights emerge when internal and external data is juxtaposed, when hard data is evaluated against qualitative analysis. Tweak your MkIS system to do these comparisons. 7. Optimize your information purchases. You dont have to control purchasing, but most organisations do not know how much they are really spending on external information. By treating consultancy, market research, library expenses, report and databases as separate categories, many organisations are confusing media with content. 8. Introduce mining and refining processes. Good information management involves data mining, information refining and knowledge editing. You can use technology such as intelligent agents, to help, but ultimately subject matter experts are needed to repackage relevant material in a user friendly format. One useful technique is content analysis, whose methods have been developed by Trend Monitor International in their Information Refinery, and are used in our analysis services. The classifying, synthesising and refining of information combines the crafts of the information scientist, librarian, business analyst and market researcher/analyst. Yet many organisations do not integrate these disciplines. 9. Develop Appropriate Technological Systems Continual advances in technology increase the opportunities available for competitive advantage through effective information management. In particular, intranets, groupware and other collaborative technologies make it possible for more widespread sharing and collaborative use of information. Advances in text retrieval, document management and a host of other trends in knowledge management technologies have all created new opportunities for providers and users alike. 10. Exploit technology convergence. Telecommunications, office systems, publishing, documentation are converging. Exploit this convergence through open networking, using facilities such as the World Wide Web, not just for external information dissemination but for sharing information internally. 11. Encourage a Sharing Culture Information acquires value when turned into intelligence. Market Intelligence Systems (MkIS) are human expert-centred. Raw information needs interpretation, discussing and analysing teams of experts, offering different perspectives. This know-how sharing is a hall-mark of successful organisations. Q4 Mis use in financial management: Management Information Systems (MIS) in Finance have been widely adopted both by corporations as well as governments. They are information systems with capacity to maintain large data bases enabling organizations to store, organize and access financial information easily. 1. General Ledger * The main use of a management information System (MIS) in finance is that it automatically updates all the transactions in the General Ledger. The General Ledger is the core component of all financial information systems. Financial transactions are simultaneously posted on the various accounts that comprise the organizations Chart of Accounts. Simultaneous updating of accounts such as sales, inventory and accounts receivable, reduces errors. It also provides an accurate and permanent record of all historical transactions. Cash Management * Cash flow management is an important use of MIS in Finance. Cash Management refers to the control, monitoring and forecasting of cash for financing needs. Use of MIS in Finance helps companies track the flow of cash through accounts receivable and accounts payable accurately. Accurate records also help in monitoring cost of goods sold. This can help pin point areas that eat up cash flow such as inventory costs, high raw material costs or unreliable sales. * Sponsored Links * CFP Certification course ICICIdirect experts help you become a Certified Financial Planner.Apply www.icicidirect.com/CFP Budget Planning * Financial budget planning uses proforma or projected financial statements that serve as as formal documents of managements expectations regarding sales, expenses and other financial transactions. Thus financial budgets are tools used both for planning as well as control. MIS in finance helps organizations evaluate what if scenarios. By modifying the financial ratios, management can foresee the effects of various scenarios on the financial statements. MIS thus serves as a decision making tool, helping in choosing appropriate financial goals. Financial Reporting * The use of MIS systems in Finance enables companies to generate multiple financial reports accurately and consistently. Generation of financial statements both for internal reports as well as for shareholder information takes less effort because of the automatic updating of the General Ledger. Compliance with Government regulations as well as auditing requirements is also easier because the records are accurate and provide a permanent historical map of transactions that can be verified. Financial Modeling * A financial model is a system that incorporates mathematics, logic and data in the form of a large database. The model is used to manipulate the financial variables that affect earnings thus enabling planners to view the implications of their planning decisions. MIS in Finance enables organizations to store a large amount of data. This helps managers develop accurate models of the external environment and thus incorporate realistic what if scenarios into their long-range planning goal. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Production means transformation of Raw materials into finished products for sale. According to E. L. Brech, â€Å" Production Management is the process of effective planning and regulating the operations of that section of an enterprise which is responsible for the actual transformation of materials into finished products†. 1.Statergic planning 2 tactical planning 3 operational procedure. Q5 computer programs that are derived from a branch of computer science research called Artificial Intelligence (AI). AIs scientific goal is to understand intelligence by building computer programs that exhibit intelligent behavior. It is concerned with the concepts and methods of symbolic inference, or reasoning, by a computer, and how the knowledge used to make those inferences will be represented inside the machine. Of course, the term intelligence covers many cognitive skills, including the ability to solve problems, learn, and understand language; AI addresses all of those. The Building Blocks of Expert Systems Every expert system consists of two principal parts: the knowledge base; and the reasoning, or inference, engine. The knowledge base of expert systems contains both factual and heuristic knowledge. Factual knowledge is that knowledge of the task domain that is widely shared, typically found in textbooks or journals, and commonly agreed upon by those knowledgeable in the particular field. Heuristic knowledge is the less rigorous, more experiential, more judgmental knowledge of performance. In contrast to factual knowledge, heuristic knowledge is rarely discussed, and is largely individualistic. It is the knowledge of good practice, good judgment, and plausible reasoning in the field. It is the knowledge that underlies the art of good guessing. Knowledge representation formalizes and organizes the knowledge. One widely used representation is the production rule, or simply rule. A rule consists of an IF part and a THEN part (also called a condition and an action). Example: Robotics Use of robots: for example, in industry, health, warfare, airlines, space, underwater exploration Q6 An integral part of any eBusiness system is its database. However, an advanced study of implementing databases is beyond the scope of this course. Here, for now, we are concerned with understanding the role that a database plays in an ebusiness system and in gaining an appreciation for the relational approach to managing data. A relational database turns raw data into persistent structured collections of information. In addition to managing information a database defines the relationships within an ebusiness system. The MIS is supported by database in its endeavor to support the management in decision making. The database models be it the NDBM, the HDBM or the RDBM, play the same role in the MIS. With the latest computer hardware and software capabilities the RDBMS have become popular. The concept of the end user computing can be implemented easily with the database approach to the information system. With the database approach, considerable data processing efforts, which were spent in the approach of the conventional system, are saved. The data is made independent of its application. The MIS designs have become more dependable due to the database and the SQL. The rigidity of the design is replaced by the flexibility of the design. It is now possible to review the applications more frequently from the point of view of utility and have them modified, if necessary. The database has strengthened the foundations of the MIS due to the following: * The database can be evolved to the new needs of the MIS. * The multiple needs can be met with easily. * The data design and the output design is flexible * Open system design of the MIS is possible. * The query handling becomes easier due to the Standard SQL. * User-friendly end user computing is possible. * The data is freed from its ownership and its use has become universal. * The Information Technology provides tools to handle distributed multiple databases making the MIS richer.

Children and Their Security Object Essay Example for Free

Children and Their Security Object Essay Some younger children usually between the ages of 8 and 12 months will become very attached to an object for a few years. Most parents are familiar with the so-called security blanket. Sometimes it is the most stained blanket in a childs collection. Other times, it is an old stuffed animal. Regardless of what inanimate object a child chooses as their beloved security blanket, its difficult to separate the two. There are many benefits and significance for a child to have a security object and numerous misconceptions on regarding the relationship between a young child and their security object. It is very beneficial for younger children to have a security object. Most children will grow attached to an object when they are starting to be weaned from their mother because that’s a very emotional time. This object helps the child get through this critical transition so it is not so horrible. Young children with security objects do not throw such a fit when they have to be left with other adults and children, because they feel like you are still with them through this stressful situation. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that a security blanket can be especially beneficial when incorporated into a childs bedtime ritual (Roberts, 2011). attachments Having this object just personifies all the positive and comforting things in this child’s world. The relationship a child has with their security object is very significant to them emotionally and physically. Children will usually give their object a name and be devoted to it because it gets them through being away from their parents. Young children usually hate being left with someone when their parents have things to do they are so use to having them all the time so when a child has this object with them it makes them feel like they have a piece of their parents there with them. These objects give the child emotional support, a sense of security, and it helps make them feel safe through stressful situations. This object helps the child grow and become independent instead of dependent. Parents often have misconceptions about their child and their security object. Many parents have believed it is signs that the child has insecurities and weaknesses. A study done by Richard A. Passman, psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, shows that children who possess a strong attachment to a security blanket demonstrate less anxiety in a stressful situation (Wikipedia, 2013). Another misconception is that security objects promote thumb sucking which that’s just another self soothe children use. To take a child’s security object away from them would traumatize them greatly. The child will outgrow this item by their selves when they learn to deal with stressful situations. The importance of the relationship between a child and their security object is so great and with this essay some of them have been explained. There is no need to be concerned about this object it is just there for a few years to pretty much give them their parent when their parent cannot be there. I hope this essay has explained enough of the facts about security object that parents will take into consideration all of the pros and the cons before they think badly about security objects and try to take them away. There are the benefits and the significance of a security object to a young child and it is very important not to believe the misconceptions about it because it will be a lot worse to take it away. References http://www.livestrong.com/article/274728-understanding-childrens-attachment-to-security-blankets/ (paragraphs 2-4) (The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that a security blanket can be especially beneficial when incorporated into a childs bedtime ritual.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_object (paragraphs 3-4) (. A study done by Richard A. Passman, psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, shows that children who possess a strong attachment to a security blanket demonstrate less anxiety in a stressful situation.) http://www.ehow.com/about_6613741_child-development-security-blankets.html

How Animation Affects Children Film Studies Essay

How Animation Affects Children Film Studies Essay In today advancement of technology, television is a big part in the role of delivering information to the society. The influence of this form of media has no exception to children. Nowadays, children are growing up with television. They learn from television and trying to make sense of this system of communication. To understand what they are learning from it, the use of television and how they absorb the information are important areas to learn further about this issue. Animation as a part of television programs plays an important role to children development since animation often related to children as its target audiences. The use of cognitive skills and how they relate to many aspects inside the animation such as narrative, character, and many more influence what knowledge and skills that they acquire from watching animation. It influences their cognitive and social development with things that they are not obtained from their parents and teachers at school. This issue raises que stions such as what can children learn from watching animation, or how children with different ages and cultures make sense of it in their development process. Chapter 1: Children Learning Process 1.1 Children Cognitive Development Before talking further about content of animation that influences children learning process, it is important to study the learning process of the children itself. Jean Piaget theory about cognitive development is a good first step to understand how children get their knowledge, construct it and use it. According to Piaget, a newborn baby enters the world without basic cognitive skills and through the development as a child, he consistently trying to adapt the world around him. Constructing such an understanding is basically what cognitive development is all about. Piaget defines it as the properties of intelligence that explains why certain behaviours happened. According to Piaget there are three components that exist in cognitive development, which are function, content, and structure. Function in this case refers to broad characteristics of intellectual activity; on the other hand, content refers to what do children know, which is about raw behavioural data that is observable. In between function and content, Piaget mentioned about the existence of cognitive structure, which is the properties of intelligence that causing particular behaviours to occurs. When a child watching animation, they use their existing knowledge to make sense of the animation that they are watching, they are trying to understand what is happening in front of their eyes at the moment. Different age group has different way of seeing and perceived things because cognitive structure keep evolving as a human grow up and obtaining information through their experiences. To explore further about the age group of children and what can they absorb during those periods of time, Piaget further divided cognitive development process into four stages: Sensory-motor stage / Infancy (0-2 years) In this stage of development, a child is trying many things that he can feel, taste, see, smell, and hear. Through this repetitive process, he starts to build images in his brain about his surroundings. He is learning to identify things based on the interaction between the object and his five senses. He slowly learns about the existence of an object and learning to use symbolic abilities such as language. At this stage, he is still learning about object permanence. He is still unaware about the existence of an object when it is out of his sight, for example is a child who has his candy taken away from him and simply hide it will make him think that the candy is gone therefore he started crying. Pre-operational stage / toddler and early childhood (2-7 years) This stage of development a child started to learn to use symbolic images to define things and developing language ability. This is the stage where a child started to imitate other people behaviour while still having an egocentric thought. He needs a concrete physical situation to understand what is going on around him as he is not able to conceptualize abstractly in his brain. At this stage, a child is able to define an object based on one characteristic, for example is how a child at this stage will group his toys based on a type of the toys (grouping a car toys regardless of the colour of the toy or the size of it) or based on colour (grouping all red toys regardless the shape of them). Concrete-operational period (7-11 years) At this stage, a child start to lose their egocentric thought. He is able to conceptualize things and formed his logic based on his experiences to grasp the situation around him. He is able to use logic appropriately to manipulate symbols related to concrete objects, classifies objects based on their features and dimensions, and able to do abstract problem solving based on their concrete experiences. Formal-operational period (11-15 years) This last stage involves a child ability to use abstract thinking rather than concrete experiences. He is able to explain his problem solving process, able to use logical reasoning, and start to thinking about his future. Another important analysis done by Piaget is the analysis of how well a child performs on different task between each stage. These tasks analysis involves four areas of study, which are: Hidden Object This area involves object permanence as it was mentioned at the sensory-motor stage before. The term object that Piaget mentioned in his theory refers to things that an individual believed that it exist in this world and able to interact with. At the first stage, which is sensory-motor stage, an infant do not see an object as something that is exist in this world, he only perceived it as a thing that drives his reflexive action. Piaget made an experiment by putting a cloth over a toy which made the child not interested anymore to the object that being covered. A child will slowly grasp the concept of object permanence after leaving the sensory-motor stage. Conservation Regardless the space that objects stayed, the quantity of it will stay the same. This is what Piaget means by conservation in this matter. He made an experiment by presenting water inside containers to a child. He poured water into two containers with the same size and asked the child which one has more water and the child think that they have the same amount of water. When Piaget take one container and poured the water inside into a different container that is thinner and taller and presented it again to the child, the child said that the thinner and taller containers have more water compared to the one before. This example shows that a child still do not have the logic to think about the volume of an object and deceived by the physical appearance of it. As a child grow up, his logic of conservation will be developed until age 11-12 when he reached the peak of concrete operational-period, when he is able to define volume in an object. Transitive Inference Also known as Seriation, Transitive Inference is the skill to logically arrange things based on particular criteria. In this case, Piaget made an experiment by presenting wooden sticks with different length to a child and asked him to arrange them. In the end, the child was not able to arrange them based on the height of each stick and just put them randomly next to each other. Transitive Inference will evolve as a child Conservation skill evolving. By grasping the understanding of each measurement unit, a child will form logic of Transitive Inference in his head as well. Balance-Scale Task Balance scale task involves systematic understanding of physics related area. For this area of study, Piaget made an experiment by placing a bar on top of a small object and adding different weight for each end of the bar. Without considering that the length between the small object and two weights are different, child at pre-operational stage said that the side with more weight will go down. Child at concrete-operational stage struggled to use his logic to combine the two elements, distance and weight. Child at formal-operational period has the logic to decide which side will go down. Piaget uses these four areas of study to explain further about his stages of childs cognitive development. He presented relevant experiments for each category to give a clear example of childs learning process at different stages. 1.2 Knowledge Representation Children and adults have a different way of seeing things. Compared to adults who see things more abstractly and conceptually, the way children seeing things are more imaginary. If both adult and children were given a brown coloured dog, different image representation will be formed in their mind. If adults will try to remember why the dog is brown by thinking what breed is the dog, children will simply remember it as a dog with brown colour. After they fully grasp the idea of object permanence when they entering pre-operational stage, they can form a mental representation inside their mind. Arietta Slade in her book Children at Play defines mental representation as ..an ability with enormous adaptive value. Out of sight no longer means out of mind, an achievement that involves a new capacity for organized psychological experiences. (1994, pp.6) She took an example of a mother and her child by saying that the mental representation of a mother can be stored in the childs mind and during the mother absent, the child will use his mental representation to take out the memory of his mothers basic visual appearance, such as the voice, the smell, or the touch. Piaget in his book defines mental representation as an ability to hold an image in a childs mind for a period beyond the immediate experience. Piaget mentioned that a child is able to form a mental representation after a year and a half during sensory-motor stage. At the later stage, which is pre-operational stage, a child takes the mental representation one step further and started to use symbols as a representation of his knowledge. A symbol can take a form of picture, written word, or spoken word. Due to their egocentric thought a child may use symbols as a representation only for their point of view. For example is an experiment called three mountain task done by Piaget and Barbel Inhelder to study the perspective view of a child. The experiment was done by laying down three models of a mountains and a child facing a direction of those models. On the other side, a doll was placed with a different point of view at those models. Then Piaget asked the child to describe the overlappi ng of those models from the dolls perspective. The existence of egocentrism was proven when a child at pre-operational period cannot differentiate their view and the doll view. At the concrete operational period, children take their symbol representation ability one step above from just using symbols as a representation, to be able to manipulate symbols with their logic. They are not seeing things only from their perspective anymore, but they still need a concrete situation to be able to use their logic to manipulate the symbol. Lastly, when they enter formal-operational stage, concrete situation is no longer needed to put logic to manipulate a symbol. They can think logically to adapt in a abstract situation. By exploring further about how children evolved in their knowledge representation as they grow up, one should have a better understanding of how they perceived things around them. Chapter 2: Children and Animation 2.1 Animation and Archetypes Before talking about archetypes in animation, it is important to get an understanding about the basic of animation. According to Paul Wells in his book Understanding Animation, animation derived from the latin verb, animare, which means to give life to and he further said that ..within the context of the animated film, this largely means the artificial creation of the illusion of movement in inanimate lines and forms. (1998, pp.10) Animation provides us with things that cannot be achieved in real life as Paul Wells further explained in his book, Animation can defy the laws of gravity, challenge our perceived view of space and time, and endow lifeless things with dynamic and vibrant properties. (1998, pp.11) Therefore, animation provides us with imagination that we cannot get from live action movie. Imagination is an important aspect in children development. When children watch an animation, they will relate themselves with the character in the animation. By putting themselves in the shoes of one of the character in the animation, their personalities are being influenced by the archetype of the character in the story. Psychologist Carl Gustave Jung defines archetypes as a result of collective unconscious, which he defines as a knowledge we are all born with, yet we are not conscious of it. Jung divided archetypes into four main forms, which are: The Shadow: The Shadow, embodies chaos and wildness of character, It is an archetype that reflects deeper elements of our mind. The Anima (male)/Animus (female): The Anima/Animus is the route of communication with collective unconscious. It represents our true self, without the mask that we use everyday. The Self: The Self is a process where all aspects are brought together as one. It unifies conscious and unconscious. Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces defines seven archetypes in storytelling: Hero: The Hero is basically the protagonist or main character. His journey is a path from the ego, often consist of seperation from his family to a new places before going back to the hometown. Mentor: The Mentor is a character who trains the hero, represents wise quality within us Threshold Guardian: The Threshold Guardian is the heros first obstacle in his journey. Its role is to test the worthiness of the hero to start a journey. Herald: The Herald is not necessarily to be a person. Its role is to delivers a challenge to the hero to begin his journey. Shapeshifter: Often is the opposite sex of the hero, The Shapeshifters role is to delivers suspense to the story by questioning beliefs and assumptions. Shadow: The Shadow often take a role as an antagonist in the story, representing things we do not like that we want to eliminate. Trickster: The Trickster provides comedy to the story to balance its tension. The trickster often is a companion of the hero. 2.2 Narrative in Animation According to dictionary, narrative has a meaning of a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. According to Seymour Chatman in his book Story and Discourse, Narratives are communications, thus easily envisaged as the movement of arrows from left to right, from author to audience. (1978, pp.71) So, it can be said that narrative is a form of communication from the author as a guide to the audience. Chatman tried to draw connections between narrative and how it affecting the audience by breaking down the elements in the narrative. Chatman made an analysis of narrative by detailing the clear distinction between story and discourse. Defining story and discourse is a matter of asking what and how. Story is what the animation trying to communicate, which is the content of the animation, and discourse is how the animation being communicated, which is the form of the animation. Chatman further divides story into two parts which are events and existents. Events exist because there are existents, and vice versa. Events are things that happened in the story and existents are the one who make it happen. Regarding of events, Chatman mention about naturalizing in story which is a way in which audiences come to recognize and interpret convention (1978, pp.49) An author often use Naturalizing to make the audience have a better understanding of what is happening in the event of a story. For example is when a character open and read his diary or a letter, there is background voice that highlighting what is written in it. By connecting the image and the voice, it gives the audience better understanding about that particular event in the story. While Events deal with time in the narrative, on the other hand, existents deal with space. Existents contain settings and characters in the narrative. According to Chatman, setting is the place or collection of objects in movie space that interacting in some way with the character. 2.3 Character in Animation According to Aristotle, characters in narratives have the second place in importance. It exists to fulfill the role that the event requires him or her to perform. This kind of character usually has a very specific trait assigned to them in the story. The meaning of traits according to dictionary is a distinguishing characteristic or quality, especially of ones personal nature. According to Chatman, traits are actions that becoming the label of the character in the story. According to him, character can have more than 1 trait which will creates self conflict in the story; therefore bring out the uniqueness to the character. Chatman definition of character in the narrative can be associated with Carl Jungs archetypes. Carl Jung describes archetypes as repeating patterns of thoughts and actions that re-appear again and again across people. Jung main archetypes are not in a way that each person may be classified as one, but rather we have all the basic archetypes inside us, which is the shadow that embodies chaos and wildness of character, the anima/animus which represents our true self, and the self where all aspects are brought together as one. An example of Jungs archetype can be seen in Lotso, the pink teddy bear from Toy Story 3. He has the anima archetypes at the beginning of the movie when he guiding the hero in his journey. Then as the movie progress, he started to show the shadow archetypes inside of him. 2.4 What Can Children Learn from Animation In their first year, a child is unable to grasp the concept and narrative of the animation that he watches. According to Jean Ann Wright in her book Animation Writing and Development, while an infant still unable to sits by themselves, they enjoying watching television just by paying attention to the changing patterns of light colours and sounds. Therefore, at this sensory-motor stage, animation for them is just the same as other forms of entertainment as they just paying attention to the basic forms, movement and colours. Their lacking of object permanence ability not allows them to understand the existence of a character in the movie. As they move to different stages, they start to explore the world around them. They begin to learn about language and symbols as a representation of actions. They will start to interact with things that they watch until finally they are able to grasp the content of the animation that they watch. As they enter the pre-operational stage, narratives and characters in animation start to have influences on their development. Although they still see things very literally, they start to pay attention at the setting of the event, and as they developing language ability, they will start to imitate the movement and dialog of the character in the animation, although they still unaware of the traits that the particular character possess. They are still relating the character in the animation to them limited to what is literally shown in the movie. Their egocentric thought allows them to relate at the character in the animation in a very narrow point of view. During the Concrete operational stage, a child is now able to relate the characteristic of the character to him to an extent of what a character is being portrayed in the animation. Without his egocentric thought he is able to see the character from other point of view. For example if he watches a Aladdin, he is not only seeing Jasmine as a beautiful princess but also taking the point of view of Aladdin as a princess that want to be free and his lover. But he still need a concrete situation in the movie to help him understand the character from other point of view. And lastly during the formal operational stage, a child is now able to fully relate himself to the character in the animation. He also begins to grasp the concept and morale behind it rather than using an image representation to relate to the character. He is now able to relate himself to the character abstractly using his logic. He is now able to think what possibilities that the character might behave in the movie even i f it is not shown in any scene. Animation has the most impact at this stage, where a child can relate himself to many things from the character other than what the animation showed in the narrative. He will memorize lots of symbols regarding his surroundings. Lets take an example of how a child in formal-operational period can relate himself to violence aspect in animation. Does watching too much violence in animation will leads a child into a violent teenager? For example, a child at this stage will see a gun as a symbol of killing. But at the same time it does not necessarily cause a child to act more violently. As a gun can also symbolize justice where in the movie a hero use it to shoot the villain. It can promote a view that violence is common in everyday life, which will make them think that the world around them is a mean and dangerous place. Therefore it will create fears in their minds. Or it can create the opposite effect that having a gun will make a child feel safe. The ability of abstract thinking that a child at formal-operational period possessed will make a child have a different point of view compared to others. Conclusion By studying children learning process and how they can relate to the narrative and character in animation, it can be said that animation affects children differently according to their cognitive development level. At pre-operational and concrete-operational period, a child started to relate himself to the character in the animation limited to what is being showed in the animation. At formal-operational period, a child is no longer use image representation as much as before and able to fully relate himself to the character in the animation.

Parallel Between Romeo and Juliette and Shakespeare in Love :: Free Romeo and Juliet Essays

During the part of Shakespeare’s life portrayed in Shakespeare in Love, he is writing the play Romeo an Juliet. He based his play on the things that happened to him during that time and therefore there are many comparable between the two films. Shakespeare had fallen in love with Viola, a royalty, but the fact that he was already married and very poor prevented him from marrying the rich Viola. Romeo was a Montaque and Juliet a Capulet. Because of the feud between the two families, Romeo and Juliet were not able to marry as well. Furthermore Viola’s father signed a sealed contract with Lord Wessex, promising Viola to him as wife so that they could have titled offspring. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet’s father had also signed a contract with Paris and Juliet had to marry him. Lord Wessex had threatened to kill Shakespeare and, protecting himself, Shakespeare said his name was Christopher Marlow, his friend. Later on Marlow was killed and Shakespeare felt responsible. In Romeo and Juliet Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio is killed because he defended Romeo’s name. Shakespeare and Viola only made eye contact once during a play and later, when she was disguised as a boy, she played the leading role in his play and he was attracted to her, but he did not know it was her until much later. Romeo and Juliet fell in love at a mask-ball, therefore also unaware of each other’s identities at the time. Only later they discovered that they were from different families. In both films the nurse of Juliet and Viola respectively, served as go-betweens and knew everything about the secret relationships. Viola’s nurse stood watch at the door when Viola and Shakespeare were making love, Juliet’s nurse stood guard at the door when Romeo and Juliet were married in secret. In the beginning of the film Shakespeare is in a state because he needed a muse to be able to write and was involved with a Rosalyn, thinking she might help him restore his ability to write.

Kudler Fine Foods Database Project Essay -- on-line ordering system bu

Kudler Fine Foods Database Project Background and Business Application Proposal Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale specialty food store, servicing the fine food conesouer from their three California locations. Kudler's business objective is to maximize profits by offering the highest quality products at competitive prices. Through adding the on-line ordering system, Kudler hopes to boost profits by increasing their customer base beyond customers in their local areas. The Kudler on-line ordering system will add three important advantages to Kudler customers. First, the on-line ordering system will allow current Kudler customers to access the system, place their order, and have it ready for pickup when they arrive at the store. The second benefit for Kudler?s on-line clientele is the added convenience of local delivery service. This feature, allows the customer to place their order and select a timeframe in which the order will be delivered to their home or place of business. The third and final new offering from Kudler will be worldwide shipping. Using major shippin g companies, such as Federal Express, UPS and DHL, Kudler will provide next day shipping to customers from around the world. Database Revisions to support Application Proposal In order to implement these new services, the current Kudler database needs to be examined and revised. The current database is in a Microsoft Access format and provides a basic inventory system, as well as a list of current customers...

Sex in Woman on the Edge of Time Essay -- Woman on the Edge of Time Es

Sex in Woman on the Edge of Time  Ã‚   In Marge Piercy's book, Woman on the Edge of Time, sex plays a major role in both the utopia and the dystopia. The portrayal of sex in the novel comes from a feminist point of view. The main character, Connie, is caught between a utopian world and a dystopian world where the takes on sex are on different levels. By using a feminist approach, the two worlds of sex can be examined and contrasted. In the dystopia that is Connie's present life, sex is a painful and often a violent experience. Rape, prostitution, and other sexual abuse are a dominant part of the characters lives. In the opening scene of the book, the reader is immediately introduced to this issue. Connie has to open her door to her only close relative, Dolly, only to see that she has been beaten by her fiancà © who is also her pimp. Connie has had to live her entire life with the thought that sex is violent rather than an act of love. Piercy uses the feminist ideals that men are the cause of the pain for women in a very explicit manner. For example, Geraldo, Dolly's fiancà ©, sho...

Last Sacrifice Chapter Thirty-four

I DIDN'T WAKE UP IN the world of the dead. I didn't even wake up in a hospital or some other type of medical center–which, believe me, I'd done plenty of times. No, I woke up in luxury, in a huge bedroom with gilded furniture. Heaven? Probably not with my behaviors. My canopied bed had a red- and-gold velvet comforter, thick enough to be a mattress itself. Candles flickered on a small table against the far wall and filled the room with the scent of jasmine. I had no clue where I was or how I'd gotten here, but as my last memories of pain and darkness played out in my mind, I decided the fact that I was actually breathing was good enough. â€Å"Sleeping Beauty awakens.' That voice †¦ that wonderful, honey-like voice with its soft accent. It enveloped me, and with it came the impossible truth and its full impact: I was alive. I was alive. And Dimitri was here. I couldn't see him but felt a smile come to my lips. â€Å"Are you my nurse?' I heard him get up from a chair and walk over. Seeing him stand over me like that reminded me of just how tall he truly was. He looked down at me with a smile of his own–one of those full and rare smiles. He had cleaned up since last I'd seen him, his brown hair tied neatly back behind his neck, though he hadn't shaved for a couple days. I tried to sit up, but he tsked me back. â€Å"No, no, you need to lie down.' Soreness in my chest told me he was right. My mind might be awake, but the rest of me was exhausted. I had no idea how much time had passed, but something told me my body had been fighting a battle–not with a Strigoi or anything like one, but with itself. A battle to stay alive. â€Å"Then come closer,' I told him. â€Å"I want to see you.' He considered this a moment and then kicked off his shoes. Turning on my side– which made me wince–I managed to wiggle over a little to make room near the bed's edge. He curled up beside me. Our faces rested on the same pillow, only a couple of inches apart as we gazed at each other. â€Å"Is this better?' he asked. â€Å"Much.' With his long, graceful fingers, he reached out and brushed hair from my face before tracing the edge of my cheekbone. â€Å"How are you?' â€Å"Hungry.' He laughed softly and cautiously slid his hand down to rest on my lower back, in a sort of half-embrace. â€Å"Of course you are. I think they've only managed to get broth into you so far. Well, that and IV fluids early on. You're probably in sugar withdrawal.' I cringed. I didn't like needles or tubes and was glad I hadn't been awake to see them. (Tattoo needles were a different matter.) â€Å"How long have I been out?' â€Å"A few days.' â€Å"A few days †¦' I shivered, and he tugged the covers higher on me, thinking I was cold. â€Å"I shouldn't be alive,' I whispered. Gunshots like that †¦ they were too fast, too close to my heart. Or in my heart? I put my hand to my chest. I didn't know precisely where I'd been hit. It all ached. â€Å"Oh Lord. Lissa healed me, didn't she?' It would have taken so much spirit. She shouldn't have done that. She couldn't afford to. Except †¦ why would I still feel pain? If she'd healed me, she would have gone all the way. â€Å"No, she didn't heal you.' â€Å"No?' I frowned, unable to process that. How else would I have survived? A surprising answer came to mind. â€Å"Then †¦ Adrian? He'd never †¦ after how I treated him †¦ no. He couldn't have †¦' â€Å"What, you think he'd let you die?' I didn't answer. The bullets might be long gone, but thinking of Adrian still made my heart–figuratively–ache. â€Å"No matter how he feels †¦' Dimitri hesitated. This was a delicate topic, after all. â€Å"Well, he wouldn't have let you die. He wanted to heal you. But he didn't either.' I felt bad for thinking so little of Adrian. Dimitri was right. Adrian never would have abandoned me out of spite, but I was rapidly running out of options here. â€Å"Then who? Sonya?' â€Å"No one,' he said simply. â€Å"Well, you, I suppose.' â€Å"I †¦ what?' â€Å"People can heal without magic now and then, Rose.' There was amusement in his voice, though his face stayed sober. â€Å"And your wounds †¦ they were bad. No one thought you'd survive. You went into surgery, and then we all just waited.' â€Å"But why †¦' I felt very arrogant, asking the next question. â€Å"Why didn't Adrian or Lissa heal me?' â€Å"Oh, they wanted to, believe me. But in the aftermath, in the chaos †¦ the Court went under lockdown. They were both taken away and put under heavy protection before they could act. No one would let them near you, not when they still thought you might be a murderer. They had to be certain about Tasha first, even though her own actions were pretty damning.' It took me a moment to get past the idea that modern medicine and my body's own stamina had healed me. I'd grown too used to spirit. This didn't seem possible. As I tried to wrap my mind around the concept, the rest of Dimitri's meaning hit me. â€Å"Is Tasha †¦ still alive?' His face fell even more. â€Å"Yes. They caught her right after she shot you–before anyone else got hurt. She's detained, and more evidence has been coming in.' â€Å"Calling her out was one of the hardest things I've ever done,' I said. â€Å"Fighting Strigoi was easier than that.' â€Å"I know. It was hard for me to see, hard for me to believe.' There was a far-off look in his eyes, reminding me that Dimitri had known her longer than he'd known me. â€Å"But she made her choices, and all the charges against you have been dropped. You're a free woman now. More than that. A hero. Abe's bragging that it's all his doing.' That brought my smile back. â€Å"Of course he is. I'll probably get a bill from him soon.' I felt dizzy with both joy and astonishment. A free woman. I'd been burdened with accusations and a death sentence for what felt like years, and now †¦ now it had all disappeared. Dimitri laughed, and I wanted to stay like this forever, just the two of us, sweet and unguarded. Well–maybe not exactly this. I could've done without the pain and thick bandages I felt on my chest. He and I had had so few times alone, moments when we could really relax and openly acknowledge being in love. Things had only begun to mend between us at the end there †¦ and it had almost been too late. It might still be. â€Å"So what now?' I asked. â€Å"I'm not sure.' He rested his cheek against my forehead. â€Å"I'm just so glad †¦ so glad you're alive. I've been so close to losing you so many times. When I saw you on the floor, and there was so much commotion and confusion †¦ I felt so helpless. I realized you were right. We waste our lives with guilt and self-loathing. When you looked at me there at the end †¦ I saw it. You did love me.' â€Å"You doubted?' I meant the words jokingly, but they came out sounding offended. Maybe I was, a little. I'd told him I loved him plenty of times. â€Å"No. I mean, I knew then that you didn't just love me. I realized you really had forgiven me.' â€Å"There was nothing to forgive, not really.' I'd told him that before too. â€Å"I've always believed there was.' He pulled back and looked at me again. â€Å"And that's what was holding me back. No matter what you said, I just couldn't believe it †¦ couldn't believe you would forgive all the things I did to you in Siberia and after Lissa healed me. I thought you were deluding yourself.' â€Å"Well. It wouldn't be the first time I've done that. But no, this time I wasn't.' â€Å"I know, and with that revelation †¦ in that split second that I knew you forgave me and that I really had your love, I was finally able to forgive myself too. All those burdens, those ties to the past †¦ they went away. It was like †¦' â€Å"Being free? Flying?' â€Å"Yes. Except †¦ it came too late. This sounds crazy, but while I was looking down at you, having all these thoughts coming together in my head, it was like †¦ like I could see death's hand reaching for you. And there was nothing I could do. I was powerless. I couldn't help.' â€Å"You did,' I told him. â€Å"The last things I saw before blacking out were you and Lissa.' Well, besides the skeletal faces, but mentioning that would have killed this romantic moment. â€Å"I don't know how I survived getting shot, how I beat the odds †¦ but I'm pretty sure your love–both of you–gave me the strength to fight through. I had to get back to you guys. God only knows what trouble you'd get into without me.' Dimitri had no words for that and answered instead by bringing his mouth to mine. We kissed, lightly at first, and the sweetness of the moment overpowered any pain I felt. The intensity had just barely picked up when he pulled away. â€Å"Hey, what gives?' I asked. â€Å"You're still recovering,' he chastised. â€Å"You might think you're back to normal, but you aren't.' â€Å"This is normal for me. And you know, I thought with all this freedom and self- discovery and expression of our love stuff that we could finally stop with the whole Zen master wisdom and practical advice crap.' This got me an outright grin. â€Å"Roza, that's not going to happen. Take it or leave it.' I pressed a kiss to his lips. â€Å"If it means getting you, I'll take it.' I wanted to kiss him again and prove who really did have greater self-control, but that damned thing called reality set in. â€Å"Dimitri †¦ for real, what happens to us?' â€Å"Life,' he said easily. â€Å"It goes on. We go on. We're guardians. We protect and maybe change our world.' â€Å"No pressure,' I remarked. â€Å"But what's the â€Å"we' and â€Å"guardians' part? I was pretty sure we were out of that career path.' â€Å"Mmm.' He cupped my face, and I thought he might try another kiss. I hoped he would. â€Å"Along with our pardons, we received our guardian status again.' â€Å"Even you? They believe you're not a Strigoi?' I exclaimed. He nodded. â€Å"Huh. Even if I got my name cleared, my ideal future was that we'd get filing jobs near each other.' Dimitri moved closer to me, his eyes sparkling with a secret. â€Å"It gets better: you're Lissa's guardian.' â€Å"What?' I almost pulled away. â€Å"That's impossible. They'd never †¦' â€Å"They did. She'll have others, so they probably figured it was okay to let you hang around if someone else could keep you in line,' he teased. â€Å"You're not †¦' A lump formed in my stomach, a reminder of a problem that had plagued us so long ago. â€Å"You're not one of her guardians too, are you?' It had constantly been a concern, that conflict of interest. I wanted him near me. Always. But how could we watch Lissa and put her safety first if we were worried about each other? The past was returning to torment us. â€Å"No, I have a different assignment.' â€Å"Oh.' For some reason, that made me a little sad too, even though I knew it was the smarter choice. â€Å"I'm Christian's guardian.' This time I did sit up, doctor's orders or no. Stitches tugged in my chest, but I ignored the sharp discomfort. â€Å"But that's †¦ that's practically the same thing!' Dimitri sat up too and seemed to be enjoying my shock, which was really kind of cruel, seeing as I'd almost died and everything. â€Å"A little. But they won't be together every moment, especially with her going to Lehigh. He's not going †¦ but they'll keep coming back to each other. And when they do, so will we. It's a good mix. Besides †¦' He grew serious again. â€Å"I think you've proved to everyone that you're willing to put her life first.' I shook my head. â€Å"Yeah, but no one was shooting at you. Only her.' I said it lightly, but it did make me wonder: what would I do if they were both in trouble?Trust him, a voice in my head said. Trust him to take care of himself. He'll do the same for you. I eyed Dimitri, recalling a shadow in my periphery back in the ballroom. â€Å"You followed when I jumped in front of Lissa, didn't you? Who were you going for? Me or her?' He studied me for several long seconds. He could have lied. He could have given the easy answer by saying he'd intended to push both of us out of the way–if that was even possible, which I didn't recall. But Dimitri didn't lie. â€Å"I don't know, Roza. I don't know.' I sighed. â€Å"This isn't going to be easy.' â€Å"It never is,' he said, pulling me into his arms. I leaned against his chest and closed my eyes. No, it wouldn't be easy, but it would be worth it. As long as we were together, it would be worth it. We sat like that for a long time, until a discrete knock at the half-open door broke us apart. Lissa stood in the doorway. â€Å"Sorry,' she said, her face shining with joy when she saw me. â€Å"Should have put a sock on the door. Didn't realize things were getting hot and heavy.' â€Å"No avoiding it,' I said lightly, clasping Dimitri's hand. â€Å"Things are always hot with him around.' Dimitri looked scandalized. He'd never held back when we were in bed together, but his private nature wouldn't let him even hint about such matters to others. It was mean, but I laughed and kissed his cheek. â€Å"Oh, this is going to be fun,' I said. â€Å"Now that everything's out in the open.' â€Å"Yeah,' he said. â€Å"I got a pretty â€Å"fun' look from your father the other day.' He gave Lissa a quick, knowing glance and then stood up. Leaning down, he kissed the top of my head. â€Å"I should go and let you two talk.' â€Å"Will you be back?' I asked as he moved to the door. He paused and smiled at me, and those dark eyes answered my questions and so much more. â€Å"Of course.' Lissa took his spot, sitting on the bed's edge. She hugged me gingerly, no doubt worried about my injuries. She then scolded me for sitting up, but I didn't care. Happiness surged through me. I was so glad she was okay, so relieved, and– And I had no idea how she felt. The bond was gone. And not like during the jail escape, when she'd put the wall up. There was simply nothing there between us. I was with myself, completely and utterly alone, just as I had been years ago. My eyes widened, and she laughed. â€Å"I wondered when you'd notice,' she said. â€Å"How †¦ how is this possible?' I was frozen and numb. The bond. The bond was gone. I felt like my arm had been amputated. â€Å"And how do you know?' She frowned. â€Å"Part of it's instinct †¦ but Adrian saw it. That our auras aren't connected anymore.' â€Å"But how? How could that happen?' I sounded crazy and desperate. The bond couldn't be gone. It couldn't. â€Å"I'm not entirely sure,' she admitted, her frown deepening. â€Å"I talked about it a lot with Sonya and, uh, Adrian. We think when I brought you back the first time, it was spirit alone that held you back from the land of the dead and that kept you tied to me. This time †¦ you nearly died again. Or maybe you did for a moment. Only, you and your body fought your way back. It was you who got out, with no help from spirit. And once that happened †¦' She shrugged. â€Å"Like I said, we're only guessing. But Sonya thinks once your own strength broke you away, you didn't need any help being pulled back from death. You did it on your own. And when you freed yourself of spirit, you freed yourself from me. You didn't need a bond to keep you with the living.' It was crazy. Impossible. â€Å"But if †¦ if you're saying I escaped the land of the dead, I'm not, like, immortal or anything, am I?' Lissa laughed again. â€Å"No, we're certain of that. Sonya explained it, saying anything alive can die, and as long as you've got an aura, you're alive. Strigoi are immortal but not alive, so they don't have auras and–‘ The world spun. â€Å"I'll take your word for it. I think maybe I do need to lie down.' â€Å"That's probably a good idea.' I gently eased myself onto my back. Desperately needing distraction from what I'd just learned–because it was still too surreal, still impossible to process–I eyed my surroundings. The lush room was bigger than I'd previously realized. It kept going and going, branching into other rooms. It was a suite. Maybe an apartment. I could just make out a living room with leather furniture and a flat screen TV. â€Å"Where are we are?' â€Å"In palace housing,' she replied. â€Å"Palace housing? How'd we end up here?' â€Å"How do you think?' she asked dryly. â€Å"I †¦' I couldn't work my mouth for a moment. I needed no bond to realize what had happened. Another impossibility had occurred while I'd been out of it. â€Å"Crap. They had the election, didn't they? They elected you queen, once Jill was there to stand in for your family.' She shook her head and almost laughed. â€Å"My reaction was a little stronger than â€Å"crap,' Rose. Do you have any idea what you've done?' She looked anxious, stressed, and totally overwhelmed. I wanted to be serious and comforting for her sake †¦ but I could feel a goofy grin spreading over my face. She groaned. â€Å"You're happy.' â€Å"Liss, you were meant for this! You're better than any of the other candidates.' â€Å"Rose!' she cried. â€Å"Running for queen was supposed to be a diversion. I'm only eighteen.' â€Å"So was Alexandra.' Lissa shook her head in exasperation. â€Å"I'm so sick of hearing about her! She lived centuries ago, you know. I think people died when they were thirty back then. So she was practically middle-aged.' I caught hold of her hand. â€Å"You're going to be great. It doesn't matter how old you are. And it's not like you have to call meetings and analyze law books all on your own, you know. I mean, I'm sure not going to do any of that, but there are other smart people. Ariana Szelsky didn't make the last test, but you know she'll help if you ask her to. She's still on the Council, and there are others you can rely on. We just have to find them. I believe in you.' Lissa sighed and looked down, her hair hanging forward in a curtain. â€Å"I know. And part of me is excited, like this will restore my family's honor. I think that's what's saved me from a total breakdown. I didn't want to be queen, but if I have to †¦ then I'm going to do it right. I feel like †¦ like I have the world at my fingertips, like I can do so much good. But I'm so afraid of messing up too.' She looked up sharply. â€Å"And I'm not giving up on the rest of my life either. I guess I'm going to be the first queen in college.' â€Å"Cool,' I said. â€Å"You can IM with the Council from campus. Maybe you can command people to do your homework.' She apparently didn't think the joke was as funny as I did. â€Å"Going back to my family. Rose †¦ how long did you know about Jill?' Damn. I'd known this part of the conversation would eventually be coming. I averted my eyes. â€Å"Not really that long. We didn't want to stress you until we knew it was real,' I added hastily. â€Å"I can't believe †¦' She shook her head. â€Å"I just can't believe it.' I had to go on her tone, not the bond. It was so strange, like losing one of my key senses. Sight. Hearing. â€Å"Are you upset?' â€Å"Of course I am! How can you be surprised?' â€Å"I figured you'd be happy †¦' â€Å"Happy to find out my dad cheated on my mom? Happy to have a sister I hardly know? I've tried to talk to her, but †¦' Lissa sighed again. â€Å"It's so weird. Almost weirder than suddenly being queen. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to think of my father. And I sure as hell don't know what to do with her.' â€Å"Love them both,' I said softly. â€Å"They're your family. Jill's great, you know. Get to know her. Be excited.' â€Å"I don't know if I can. I think you're more of a sister to me than she'll ever be.' Lissa stared off at nothing. â€Å"And of all people †¦ I was convinced for so long that there was something going on between her and Christian.' â€Å"Well, out of all the worries in your world, that's one you can let go because it's not true.' But within her comment was something dark and sad. â€Å"How isChristian?' She turned back to me, her eyes full of pain. â€Å"He's having a hard time. I am too. He visits her. Tasha. He hates what she did, but †¦ well, she's still his family. It hurts him, but he tries to hide it. You know how he is.' â€Å"Yeah.' Christian had spent a good portion of his life masking dark feelings with snark and sarcasm. He was a pro at fooling others about how he truly felt. â€Å"I know he'll be better in time †¦ I just hope I can be there for him enough. So much is happening. College, being queen †¦ and always, always, there's spirit there, pressing down on me. Smothering me.' Alarm shot through me. And panic. Panic over something far worse than not knowing what Lissa was feeling or where she was. Spirit. I was afraid of spirit–and the fact that I couldn't fight it for her. â€Å"The darkness †¦ I can't absorb it anymore. What will we do?' A twisted smile crossed her lips. â€Å"You mean, what will I do. It's my problem now, Rose. Like it always should have been.' â€Å"But, no †¦ you can't. St. Vladimir–‘ â€Å"Isn't me. And you can protect me from some things but not all.' I shook my head. â€Å"No, no. I can't let you face spirit alone.' â€Å"I'm not exactly alone. I talked to Sonya. She's really good at healing charms and thinks there's a way to keep myself in balance.' â€Å"Oksana said the same thing,' I recalled, feeling hardly reassured. â€Å"And †¦ there's always the antidepressants. I don't like them, but I'm queen now. I have responsibilities. I'll do what I have to. A queen gives up everything, right?' â€Å"I guess.' I couldn't help feeling frightened. Useless. â€Å"I'm just so worried about you, and I don't know how to help you anymore.' â€Å"I told you: you don't have to. I'll protect my mind. Your job's to protect my body, right? And Dimitri will be around too. It'll all be okay.' The conversation with Dimitri came back to me. Who were you going for? Me or her? I gave her the best smile I could. â€Å"Yeah. It'll all be okay.' Her hand squeezed mine. â€Å"I'm so glad you're back, Rose. You'll always be part of me, no matter what. And honestly †¦ I'm kind of glad you can't see my sex life anymore.' â€Å"That makes two of us.' I laughed. No bond. No magical attachment. It was going to be so strange, but really †¦ did I need it? In real life, people formed bonds of another nature. Bonds of love and loyalty. We would get through this. â€Å"I'll always be there for you, you know. Anything you need.' â€Å"I know,' she said. â€Å"And actually †¦ I need you for something now †¦' â€Å"Name it,' I said. She did.