Should Animals be Kept in Zoos Essays - Zoos, Apoikozoa, Filozoa

Should Animals be Kept in Zoos? Many people feel that it's dangerous to hold wild animals in captivity. The tiger attack on Christmas day at San Francisco Zoo has raised many concerns about this issue this includes the Siberian tiger attack in 2006. Jack Hannah, a famous animal expert, hosts a T .V. show on PBS about animals. His opinion is "that if you cross a barrier in a NASCAR race and you get on the track you might get hurt" just like you can with animals. Many believe that keeping wild animals is very stressful. Some studies have shown that reintroducing animals into the wild doesn't always have a positive effect. These animals have a higher mortality rate because they are lacking the skills they need to survive in the wild , s uch as being able to catch food . I f they were born in captivity , then they are used to their food being thrown into the habitat for each meal. In the wild they actually have to hunt for their food. Adam Roberts, the vice president of an animal protection group, says that caged wild animals can pose danger to humans and other animals. He also says that caging wild animals doesn't have any educational value. His point is that wild animals are meant to be free. Captivity could aggravate them and cause them to attack, which could result in physical injury to the person or more importantly the animal. T here are also some beneficial points in keeping animals in captivity . It helps increase endangered animal's population numbers. They can do captive breeding or tag animals to monitor their progress and see how they are responding to the tag and then release them again. In captivity, animals can also get medical treatment for diseases or injuries that could be fatal if not treated.

Ludwig van beethooven essays

Ludwig van beethooven essays 1. Mozart's finest opera, The Magic Flute is a comic German opera which is so lively with elements of fantasy and free-flying imagination. The Magic flute has an enormous complex plot and multilevel story The opera encompass variety of styles such as fugue, folk songs, comedy and hymn that describes autonomy of individual, self-determination, appalling sexism, the ideals of power, wisdom, and beauty. Mozart wrote The Magic Flute in 1791, just after the French Revolution and tragically just two months before his death it was premiered in Vienna. The opera is so rich with elements, it portrays different characters and expresses their every emotion and feelings that changes and evolves throughout the piece. Mozarts ability to express music in a way that it portrays human emotions and feeling so clear that it relates the audience in a personal level and where the audience becomes one with the music is indescribable. Mozart music and passion has inspired composers in his era and the m usic history after him. Countess Natalie Clarinet you are cardinally invited to a concert featuring the music of Herr Ludwig van Beethoven. The concert will begin at 7:30 and will take place at Theater-an-der-Wien. A premiere of Herr Ludwig van Beethoven new work, Symphony No. 5, will be included on the program. Also included will be the following works: Ah perfido, Mass in C major, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and Choral Fantasy. It was a cold dready winter of 1808, in Vienna, the year that has changed my life. It was the year when Napoleon occupies Rome and invades Spain, taking Barcelona and Madrid where he became a King of Spain. The Spanish king and his son were removed from power and replaced by Napoleon's brother Joseph. As news of this affront to their national pride spread, Spain's population exploded into a spontaneous revolt. It was a time of war, despair, and revolution. My family has already lost two brothers in the battle f...

Body Parts as Tools of Measurement

Body Parts as Tools of Measurement Body Parts as Tools of Measurement Body Parts as Tools of Measurement By Maeve Maddox An online writer relating the history of luggage tells how in the old days, holiday makers didnt try to manage with a mere suitcase when they went to the seaside for a week or so. They took the same kind of large trunks they would use if they were going on a long voyage: after all they had to change several times a day and not into dresses that barely covered their private parts but into foot-long petticoats and skirts. Marie-Luise Stromer I dont think that a foot-long petticoat would cover much of a ladys anatomy. The writer was reaching for an expression to convey the fact that in those days, a womans dress extended all the way to her feet. A choice of foot-length may not have been as jarring as foot-long. The reader could probably infer a meaning of extending to the feet. The usual idiom for what the writer intended is floor-length. Ex. She wore a floor-length gown. The expression foot-long, on the other hand, means a foot (12 inches) in length. Ex. They sell foot-long hotdogs here. English possesses several measurement words that derive from body parts. cubit from Latin cubitum, the elbow. A cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be from 18 to 22 inches. digit In Latin, digitus could mean either finger or toe. The same is true of digit in modern English. People use the digits of their hands to count to ten. And just think, we imagine were so modern and up-to-date because we live in a Digital Age. fathom Old English faethm was the length of the outstretched arm, about six feet. Water depth is measured in fathoms. Miners use the term to describe an area equal to six square feet. hairbreadth According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, hairbreadth is said to have once been a formal unit of measure equal to one-forty-eighth of an inch. hand Originally, a hand was a measurement of three inches, but now it is four inches. This measurement is stil used to reckon the height of horses. handful This is an indeterminate quantity of some dry measure, such as grain, that can be held in the cupped hand. A Greek word for handful is the origin of the Greek coin called a drachma. span In Old English a span was the distance between the thumb and little finger of an extended hand, roughly nine inches. Again, it all depended on whose hand. thumb was probably the basis of the measurement now called an inch. We dont measure things in thumbs, anymore, but we do talk about thumbnail sketches and thumbnails in the sense of small images. The expression rule of thumb probably originated with carpenters who used their thumbs to take rough measurements. The notion that the expression originated with a law permitting a husband to beat his wife with a stick no larger in circumference than his thumb, has no historical basis. NOTE: The article that triggered this post is interesting and, considering that the author may be writing English as a second language, extremely well-written. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†List of Greek Words in the English Language50 Musical Terms Used in Nonmusical Senses

Manifest Destiny Concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Manifest Destiny Concept - Essay Example The Manifest Destiny concept tremendously influenced the United States policy. This enhanced the American expansion to the West. The idea was largely put forward by posters, newspapers and other avenues. Despite the fact that it was not a formal policy of the government, it facilitated the passing of legislation like the Homestead Act, which promoted colonization and acquisition of areas in the West (Robinson 2010, 21). Additionally, the idea was a factor in the thought of America. Movement into the West regions provided a prospect for self-development. To be familiar with the concept of Manifest Destiny, it is essential to comprehend the desire and need of the United States to expand. This paper will look at how issues around it affected the U.S, how the views of Americans on the issue changed over the period, and will also mention some events as examples. How the Issues Affected the U.S John O'Sullivan, a U.S newspaper editor writing on the planned occupation of Texas, was the firs t to use the term in 1845. He asserted that it was America’s â€Å"manifest destiny to spread to the whole continent.† The newspaper issue recommended that through expanding, America could turn out to be a renowned superpower. According to O'Sullivan, the United States had been exclusively selected for the mission of Westward expansion. This would push out the wilderness and bring civilization. Between independence and 1920, the government passed land laws that were favorable for people to migrate. The federal government also persuaded people from Europe to come and inhabit. It used the military to protect the settlers from natives. It further put money into explorations, such as that of Clark and Lewis. Wherever there was sufficient water, homesteading was practiced by people from the Midwest to the Pacific regions. Cheap and available land, high birth rates and immense population formed the basis of the expansion. Imperialism was used to facilitate the Manifest Desti ny. There was a perception that mission and God was the path to Manifest Destiny.  Ã‚  

Statistical regression Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Statistical regression - Statistics Project Example s sustainable development through the prospering of economy is the key ideology of the United States because sustainable development is the road map to justify the economical growth. This means poverty issues, minimum wage rate and new employment would be the key factors to determine the prosperity of lifestyle of the population for any nation in the long run (Corsetti et al, 2011). The decay of economic growth in the United States has been believed to be of a product of different factors like unemployment rate, consumer price index and inflation control. The economical theory of any healthy market is to keep the flow of capital in the market and it would get stagnated or decline with reduced household disposable income, increased consumer price index and decreased wage rates and employee compensation(Corsetti et al, 2011). The various factors may be reviewed as under: i. GDP & Consumption: Gross Domestic product specifies the market value of the total accepted and recognized final commodities produced over a given time. It represents government spending, exports and consumption. Consumption the largest component of GDP includes the private or household expenditure on goods and private investments also. Investments indicate how the industries invest on manpower and machinery which might act to reduce unemployment and encourage cash flow and production. Increased household expenditure also means that people have the buying power and are maintaining that in spite of inflation. ii. Inflation & Wage rates: refers to the general price of the commodities and services in an economy over time. This means when inflation raises purchasing power of unit money will fall and unless the wage rate increases it will be difficult to purchase the same service over time(Corsetti et al, 2011)( Devereux et al, 2003). Econometric and Social analysis are done by time series data points. Time series is an array of data points which are measured at uniform time intervals to calculate

A Positive View on Social Media and Facebook Essay Example for Free

A Positive View on Social Media and Facebook Essay Over one billion people worldwide use or have a profile on some sort of social media. Facebook is one form of social media that leads the charge. Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows users to locate and reunite with old friends, join groups of members that share your same interests, do research, and entertain themselves through the use of a variety of applications embedded within the website. Every so often we feel the urge to locate old friends that we have not been in touch with in a long time. We just type in their name and see what comes up. One day my wife looked up an old friend of mine, Paul Z. and found a man about the right age. She thought at first it was someone else because with age we all look different. Looking back at her was an older man with grey hair and a beard, something that neither Paul nor I had the last time we had seen each other. So she started to go through pictures and started seeing familiar faces, pictures from the past that was our past too. She immediately requested that they become â€Å"friends† on Facebook knowing that this was our friend from years ago. The request was accepted and our friendship was reunited again. After Facebook and my wife reunited two old friends I started to look at Facebook for other ideas on who to try and communicate with. Old classmates came to mind and it just so happens that Facebook provides a tool for reuniting classmates on the website. After about ten minutes or so of answering a few simple questions about where I went to school and when, I logged off and went about my business. About two or three days later I started getting responses. At first I didn’t recognize anybody, but then after a little research, yearbooks mostly, I started to recognize some of the names and memories followed. I have since been in touch with a couple of classmates from as far back as second and third grade, an amazing feat since second and third grade was in 1966 and 1967. I now get invitations to class reunions and other events that I never had before. Although I haven’t attended one yet, maybe someday I will. Another part of Facebook that I thoroughly enjoy, are all the groups that are available to join and hang out with. The Navy is just one of the many groups that I belong to. There I get to chat and share the many memories I have from my time in the service. Some are really great, like the time I got to ride a camel in front of the main Pyramid in Egypt, except when it spit on me, that wasn’t fun. Or the time I rode a Gondola in Venice down the waterways. And some not so great, like 1991 in the Persian Gulf or rescuing refugees off the coast of Haiti. But all are memories I love to share with old shipmates and Facebook makes it possible. Genealogy is a subject that has interested me for years. One of the greatest challenges I have found, is how to quickly and accurately research the information I need on members of my family. I even subscribed to an online genealogy website. Where, for $30.00 per month, I could do all the research I wanted. This soon became more than I could fit into my budget, so I started to look for another way. I saw an advertisement on Facebook for a new application called â€Å"Family Tree†, an online web app that allows family members to input their own family information and merge it into an existing family tree. It also allows each family member to visit and update their own part of the tree as often as they like. I signed up and started to enter information about my own immediate family and forwarded requests for other members of my family to join. The response was amazing. To date my family has placed 1,288 entries into the family tree and it continues to grow every day. Although groups, family history research, locating long lost friends takes up a lot of time, I still try to find ways to amuse myself on the computer. Facebook can do that too. There are literally hundreds of games that you can play either by yourself or with family and friends. CityVille 2 is the one that I am currently involved in socially. I haven’t started any individual games yet, but I will eventually. Games are not the only forms of entertainment provided by Facebook. The posts that all of my friends place on the site can be hilarious. I am constantly looking at all of the photos and videos that have been posted and at times they can be pretty entertaining as well. All things considered, there are many ways to communicate with family, friends and classmates. Newer forms of social media, like Facebook give us a significantly more effective and in most cases, less expensive way to stay in touch with the people that mean the most to us. It can also provide tools for exploring new and exciting ways to entertain ourselves, research your family history by starting a family tree, or join a group that shares your interests. The opportunities are endless.

Susan Glaspells A Jury of Her Peers :: Jury Her Peers

A Jury of Peers In   A Jury of Peers   by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The unfortunate death of John Wright was a mystery to all. A team of individuals consisting of the sheriff, county attorney, Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Peters were on a mission to find the purpose of the murderer. At this point, Mrs. Wright is the primary suspect. Mrs. Hale was asked to join the party in order to give Mrs. Peters, the sheriff s wife, some companionship. In the story, Mrs. Hale leaves cues of guilty feelings. As an example, the narrator states,   Martha Hale had a moment of feeling that she could not cross that threshold.   The reason being given that she had been too busy to come by but   now   she could come (Glaspell 2). Another instance to be noted is a conversation between her and the young attorney. During this conversation, he asked if they were friends since they were neighbors. Her answer was sympathetic,   I’ve seen little enough of her late years. I ve not been it this house-it s been morethan a year.   Then she goes on to explain,   I liked her well enough. Farmers   wives have their hands full,   it never seemed a very cheerful place (Glaspell 6). At this point, Mrs. Hale s empathy toward Mrs. Wright is apparent.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The two women were left in the kitchen while the men were investigating inthe crime scene. Mrs. Hale noticed the   half done   work in the kitchen. She hated unfinished things. For example, her unfinished kitchen that she had to leave. Therefore, she made a connection between her unfinished business and the one at hand. Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers :: Jury Her Peers A Jury of Peers In   A Jury of Peers   by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The unfortunate death of John Wright was a mystery to all. A team of individuals consisting of the sheriff, county attorney, Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Peters were on a mission to find the purpose of the murderer. At this point, Mrs. Wright is the primary suspect. Mrs. Hale was asked to join the party in order to give Mrs. Peters, the sheriff s wife, some companionship. In the story, Mrs. Hale leaves cues of guilty feelings. As an example, the narrator states,   Martha Hale had a moment of feeling that she could not cross that threshold.   The reason being given that she had been too busy to come by but   now   she could come (Glaspell 2). Another instance to be noted is a conversation between her and the young attorney. During this conversation, he asked if they were friends since they were neighbors. Her answer was sympathetic,   I’ve seen little enough of her late years. I ve not been it this house-it s been morethan a year.   Then she goes on to explain,   I liked her well enough. Farmers   wives have their hands full,   it never seemed a very cheerful place (Glaspell 6). At this point, Mrs. Hale s empathy toward Mrs. Wright is apparent.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The two women were left in the kitchen while the men were investigating inthe crime scene. Mrs. Hale noticed the   half done   work in the kitchen. She hated unfinished things. For example, her unfinished kitchen that she had to leave. Therefore, she made a connection between her unfinished business and the one at hand.

Zoe’s Tale PART II Chapter Thirteen

Two weeks after we landed on Roanoke, Magdy, Enzo, Gretchen and I went for a walk. â€Å"Watch where you land,† Magdy told us. â€Å"There are some big rocks down here.† â€Å"Great,† Gretchen said. She shined her pocket light – acceptable technology, no computer equipment in it, just an old-fashioned LED – at the ground, looking for a place to land, and then hopped down from the edge of the container wall, aiming for her preferred spot. Enzo and I heard the oof as she landed, and then a bit of cursing. â€Å"I told you to watch where you landed,† Magdy said, shining his light on her. â€Å"Shut it, Magdy,† she said. â€Å"We shouldn't even be out here. You're going to get us all in trouble.† â€Å"Yeah, well,† Magdy said. â€Å"Your words would have more moral authority if you weren't actually out here with me.† He flicked his light up off of Gretchen and toward me and Enzo, still up on the container wall. â€Å"You two planning to join us?† â€Å"Will you please stop with the light?† Enzo said. â€Å"The patrol is going to see it.† â€Å"The patrol is on the other side of the container wall,† Magdy said. â€Å"Although if you don't hurry it up, that's not going to be the case for long. So move it.† He flicked the light back and forth quickly in Enzo's face, making an annoying strobe effect. Enzo sighed and slid down off the container wall; I heard the muffled thump a second later. Which left me, feeling suddenly very exposed on the top of the containers that were the defensive perimeter around our little village – and also the frontier beyond which we were not allowed to go at night. â€Å"Come on,† Enzo whispered up to me. He, at least, remembered we weren't supposed to be out and modulated his voice accordingly. â€Å"Jump down. I'll catch you.† â€Å"Are you dumb?† I asked, also in a whispery voice. â€Å"You'll end up with my shoes in your eye sockets.† â€Å"It was a joke,† Enzo said. â€Å"Fine,† I said. â€Å"Don't catch me.† â€Å"Jeez, Zoe,† Magdy said, in a definite nonwhisper. â€Å"Will you jump already?† I hopped off the container wall, down the three meters or so from the top, and tumbled a little when I landed. Enzo flicked his light on me, and offered me a hand up. I took it and squinted up at him as he pulled me up. Then I flicked my own light over to where Magdy was. â€Å"Jerk,† I told him. Magdy shrugged. â€Å"Come on,† he said, and started along the perimeter of the wall toward our destination. A few minutes later we were all flashing our lights into a hole. â€Å"Wow,† Gretchen said. â€Å"We've just broken curfew and risked being accidentally shot by the night guard for this. A hole in the ground. I'm picking our next field trip, Magdy.† Magdy snorted and knelt down into the hole. â€Å"If you actually paid attention to anything, you'd know that this hole has the council in a panic,† Magdy said. â€Å"Something dug this out the other night while the patrol wasn't watching. Something was trying to get in to the colony from out here.† He took his light and moved it up the nearest container until he spotted something. â€Å"Look. There are scratches on the container. Something tried to go over the top, and then when it couldn't it tried to go under.† â€Å"So what you're saying is that we're out here now with a bunch of predators,† I said. â€Å"It doesn't have to be a predator,† Magdy said. â€Å"Maybe it's just something that likes to dig.† I flicked my light back up to the claw marks. â€Å"Yeah, that's a reasonable theory.† â€Å"We couldn't have seen this during the day?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"When we could see the things that can leap out and eat us?† Magdy motioned his light over to me. â€Å"Her mom had her security people around it all day long. They weren't letting anybody else near it. Besides, whatever made this hole is long gone now.† â€Å"I'll remind you that you said that when something tears out your throat,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Relax,† Magdy said. â€Å"I'm prepared. And anyway, this hole is just the opening act. My dad is friends with some of the security folks. One of them told him that just before they closed everything up for the night, they saw a herd of those fanties over in the woods. I say we go look.† â€Å"We should get back,† Enzo said. â€Å"We shouldn't even be out here, Magdy. If they find us out there, we're all going to catch hell. We can see the fanties tomorrow. When the sun is up, and we can actually see them.† â€Å"Tomorrow they'll be awake and foraging,† Magdy said. â€Å"And there's no way we're going to be able to do anything other than look at them through binoculars.† Magdy pointed at me again. â€Å"Let me remind you that her parents have kept us cooped up for two weeks now, waiting to find out if anything might bruise us on this planet.† â€Å"Or kill us,† I said. â€Å"Which would be a problem.† Magdy waved this away. â€Å"My point is that if we actually want to see these things – actually get close enough to them that we can get a good look at them – we have to do it now. They're asleep, no one knows we're gone, and we'll be back before anyone misses us.† â€Å"I still think we should go back,† Enzo said. â€Å"Enzo, I know this is taking away from valuable make-out time with your girlfriend,† Magdy said, â€Å"but I thought you might want to explore something other than Zoe's tonsils for once.† Magdy was very lucky he wasn't in arm's reach when he made that comment. Either my arm or Enzo's. â€Å"You're being an ass again, Magdy,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Fine,† Magdy said. â€Å"You guys go back. I'll see you later. I'm going to see me some fanties.† He started toward the woods, waving his pocket light in the grass (or grasslike ground cover) as he walked. I shined my light over to Gretchen. She rolled her eyes in exasperation and started walking after Magdy. After a minute Enzo and I followed. Take an elephant. Make it just a little smaller. Lose the ears. Make its trunk shorter and tentaclly at the end. Stretch out its legs until it almost but not quite seems impossible that they could support the weight. Give it four eyes. And then do other assorted weird things to its body until it's not that it looks like an elephant, it's just that it looks more like an elephant than it looks like anything else you can think of. That's a fantie. In the two weeks we'd been trapped in the colony village, waiting for the â€Å"all clear† to actually begin colonization, the fanties had been spotted several times, either in the woods near the village or just barely in the clearing between the village and the woods. A fantie spotting would bring up a mad rush of children to the colony gate (a gap in the container wall, closed up at night) to look and gawk and wave to the creatures. It would also bring a somewhat more studiously casual wave of us teenagers, because we wanted to see them too, we just didn't want to seem too interested, since that would mess with our credibility with all our new friends. Certainly Magdy never gave any indication of actually caring about the fanties at all. He'd allow himself to be dragged to the gate by Gretchen when a herd passed by, but then he spent most of his time talking to the other guys who were also happy to make it look like they had gotten dragged to the gate. Just goes to show, I suppose. Even the self-consciously cool had a streak of kid in them. There was some argument as to whether the fanties we saw were a local group that lived in the area, or whether we'd seen a number of herds that were just migrating through. I had no idea which theory was right; we'd only been on planet for a couple of weeks. And from a distance, all the fanties looked pretty much the same. And up close, as we quickly discovered, they smelled horrible. â€Å"Does everything on this planet smell like crap?† Gretchen whispered to me as we glanced up at the fanties. They waved back and forth, ever so slightly, as they slept standing on their legs. As if to answer her question, one of the fanties closest to where we were hiding let rip a monumental fart. We gagged and giggled equally. â€Å"Shhhh,† Enzo said. He and Magdy were crouched behind another tall bush a couple of meters over from us, just short of the clearing where the fantie herd had decided to rest for the night. There were about a dozen of them, all sleeping and farting under the stars. Enzo didn't seem to be enjoying the visit very much; I think he was worried about us accidentally waking the fanties. This was not a minor concern; fantie legs looked spindly from a distance but up close it was clear they could trample any one of us without too much of a problem, and there were a dozen fanties here. If we woke them up and they panicked, we could end up being pounded into mincemeat. I think he was also still a little sore about the â€Å"exploring tonsils† comment. Magdy, in his usual less-than-charming way, had been digging at Enzo ever since he and I officially started going out. The taunts rose and fell depending on what Magdy's relationship with Gretchen was at the moment. I was guessing at the moment Gretchen had cut him off. Sometimes I thought I needed a graph or maybe a flow chart to understand how the two of them got along. Another one of the fanties let off an epic load of flatulence. â€Å"If we stay here any longer, I'm going to suffocate,† I whispered to Gretchen. She nodded and motioned me to follow her. We snuck over to where Enzo and Magdy were. â€Å"Can we go now?† Gretchen whispered to Magdy. â€Å"I know you're probably enjoying the smell, but the rest of us are about to lose dinner. And we've been gone long enough that someone might start wondering where we went.† â€Å"In a minute,† Magdy said. â€Å"I want to get closer to one.† â€Å"You're joking,† Gretchen said. â€Å"We've come this far,† Magdy said. â€Å"You really are an idiot sometimes, you know that?† Gretchen said. â€Å"You don't just go walking up to a herd of wild animals and say hello. They'll kill you.† â€Å"They're asleep,† Magdy said. â€Å"They won't be if you walk right into the middle of them,† Gretchen said. â€Å"I'm not that stupid,† Magdy said, his whispered voice becoming louder the more irritated he became. He pointed to the one closest to us. â€Å"I just want to get closer to that one. It's not going to be a problem. Stop worrying.† Before Gretchen could retort Enzo put his hand up to quiet them both. â€Å"Look,† he said, and pointed halfway down the clearing. â€Å"One of them is waking up.† â€Å"Oh, wonderful,† Gretchen said. The fantie in question shook its head and then lifted it, spreading the tentacles on its trunk wide. It waved them back and forth. â€Å"What's it doing?† I asked Enzo. He shrugged. He was no more an expert on fanties than I was. It waved its tentacles some more, in a wider arc, and then it came to me what it was doing. It was smelling something. Something that shouldn't be there. The fantie bellowed, not from its trunk like an elephant, but from its mouth. All the other fanties were instantly awake and bellowing, and beginning to move. I looked over to Gretchen. Oh, crap, I mouthed. She nodded, and looked back over at the fanties. I looked over at Magdy, who had made himself suddenly very small. I don't think he wanted to get any closer now. The fantie closest to us wheeled about and scraped against the bush we were hiding behind. I heard the thud of its foot as the animal maneuvered itself into a new position. I decided it was time to move but my body overruled me, since it wasn't giving me control of my legs. I was frozen in place, squatting behind a bush, waiting for my trampling. Which never came. A second later the fantie was gone, run off in the same direction as the rest of its herd: away from us. Magdy popped up from his crouching position, and listened to the herd rumbling off in the distance. â€Å"All right,† he said. â€Å"What just happened?† â€Å"I thought they smelled us for sure,† I said. â€Å"I thought they'd found us.† â€Å"I told you you were an idiot,† Gretchen said to Magdy. â€Å"If you'd been out there when they woke up, we'd be scooping what was left of you into a bucket.† The two of them started sniping at each other; I turned to look at Enzo, who had turned to face the opposite direction from where the fanties had run. He had his eyes closed but it looked like he was concentrating on something. â€Å"What is it?† I asked. He opened his eyes, looked at me, and then pointed in the direction he was facing. â€Å"The breeze is coming from this direction,† he said. â€Å"Okay,† I said. I wasn't following him. â€Å"Have you ever gone hunting?† Enzo asked. I shook my head. â€Å"We were upwind of the fanties,† he said. â€Å"The wind was blowing our scent away from them.† He pointed to where the first fantie to wake up had been. â€Å"I don't think that fantie would have smelled us at all.† Click. â€Å"Okay,† I said. â€Å"Now I get it.† Enzo turned to Magdy and Gretchen. â€Å"Guys,† he said. â€Å"It's time to leave. Now.† Magdy flashed his pocket light at Enzo and seemed ready to say something sarcastic, then caught the expression on Enzo's face in the pocket light's circle. â€Å"What is it?† â€Å"The fanties didn't run off because of us,† Enzo said. â€Å"I think there's something else out there. Something that hunts the fanties. And I think it's coming this way.† It's a cliche of horror entertainments to have teenagers lost in the woods, imagining they're being chased by something horrible that's right behind them. And now I know why. If you ever want to feel like you're on the verge of total, abject bowel-releasing terror, try making your way a klick or two out of a forest, at night, with the certain feeling you're being hunted. It makes you feel alive, it really does, but not in a way you want to feel alive. Magdy was in the lead, of course, although whether he was leading because he knew the way back or just because he was running fast enough that the rest of us had to chase him was up for debate. Gretchen and I followed, and Enzo took up the rear. Once I slowed down to check on him and he waved me off. â€Å"Stay with Gretchen,† he said. Then I realized that he was intentionally staying behind us so whatever might be following us would have to get through him first. I would have kissed him right then if I hadn't been a quivering mess of adrenaline, desperately running to get home. â€Å"Through here,† Magdy said to us. He pointed at an irregular natural path that I recognized as being the one we used to get into the forest in the first place. I was focusing on getting on that path and then something stepped in behind Gretchen and grabbed me. I screamed. There was a bang, followed by a muffled thump, followed by a shout. Ezno launched himself at what grabbed at me. A second later he was on the forest floor, Dickory's knife at his throat. It took me longer than it should have to recognize who it was holding the knife. â€Å"Dickory!† I yelled. â€Å"Stop!† Dickory paused. â€Å"Let him go,† I said. â€Å"He's no danger to me.† Dickory removed the knife and stepped away from Enzo. Enzo scrambled away from Dickory, and away from me. â€Å"Hickory?† I called. â€Å"Is everything all right?† From ahead, I heard Hickory's voice. â€Å"Your friend had a handgun. I have disarmed him.† â€Å"He's choking me!† Magdy said. â€Å"If Hickory wanted to choke you, you wouldn't be able to talk,† I yelled back. â€Å"Let him go, Hickory.† â€Å"I am keeping his handgun,† Hickory said. There was a rustle in the darkness as Magdy picked himself up. â€Å"Fine,† I said. Now that we stopped moving, it was like someone pulled a stopper, and all the adrenaline in my body was falling out from the bottom of my feet. I crouched down to keep from falling over. â€Å"No, not fine,† Magdy said. I saw him emerge out of the gloom, stalking toward me. Dickory interposed itself between me and Magdy. Magdy's stalking came to a quick halt. â€Å"That's my dad's gun. If he finds it missing, I'm dead.† â€Å"What were you doing with the gun in the first place?† Gretchen asked. She had also come back to where I was standing, Hickory following behind her. â€Å"I told you I was prepared,† Magdy said, and then turned to me. â€Å"You need to tell your bodyguards that they need to be more careful.† He pointed at Hickory. â€Å"I almost took off that one's head.† â€Å"Hickory?† I said. â€Å"I was not in any serious danger,† Hickory said, blandly. His attention seemed elsewhere. â€Å"I want my gun back,† Magdy said. I think he was trying for threatening; he failed when his voice cracked. â€Å"Hickory will give you your dad's gun back when we get back to the village,† I said. I felt a fatigue headache coming on. â€Å"Now,† Magdy said. â€Å"For God's sake, Magdy,† I snapped. I was suddenly very tired, and angry. â€Å"Will you please just shut up about your damn gun. You're lucky you didn't kill one of us with it. And you're lucky you didn't hit one of them† – I waved at Dickory and then Hickory – â€Å"because then you would be dead, and the rest of us would have to explain how it happened. So just shut up about the stupid gun. Shut up and let's go home.† Magdy stared at me, then stomped off into the gloom, toward the village. Enzo gave me a strange look and then followed his friend. â€Å"Perfect,† I said, and squeezed my temples with my hands. The monster headache I was on the verge of had arrived, and it was a magnificent specimen. â€Å"We should return to the village,† Hickory said to me. â€Å"You think?† I said, and then stood up and stomped off, away from it and Dickory, back to the village. Gretchen, suddenly left with my two bodyguards for company, was not far behind me. â€Å"I don't want one word of what happened tonight to get back to John and Jane,† I said to Hickory, as it, Dickory and I stood in the common area of the village. At this time of night there were only a couple of other people who were loitering there, and they quickly disappeared when Hickory and Dickory showed up. Two weeks had not been enough time for people to get used to them. We had the common area to ourselves. â€Å"As you say,† Hickory said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said, and started walking away from them again, toward the tent I shared with my parents. â€Å"You should not have been in the woods,† Hickory said. That stopped me. I turned around to face Hickory. â€Å"Excuse me?† I said. â€Å"You should not have been in the woods,† Hickory said. â€Å"Not without our protection.† â€Å"We had protection,† I said, and some part of my brain didn't believe those words had actually come out of my mouth. â€Å"Your protection was a handgun wielded by someone who did not know how to use it,† Hickory said. â€Å"The bullet he fired went into the ground less than thirty centimeters from him. He almost shot himself in the foot. I disarmed him because he was a threat to himself, not to me.† â€Å"I'll be sure to tell him that,† I said. â€Å"But it doesn't matter. I don't need your permission, Hickory, to do what I please. You and Dickory aren't my parents. And your treaty doesn't say you can tell me what to do.† â€Å"You are free to do as you will,† Hickory said. â€Å"But you took an unnecessary risk to yourself, both by going into the forest and by not informing us of your intent.† â€Å"That didn't stop you from coming in after me,† I said. It came out like an accusation, because I was in an accusatory mood. â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"So you took it on yourself to follow me around when I didn't give you permission to do so,† I said. â€Å"Yes,† Hickory said. â€Å"Don't do that again,† I said. â€Å"I know privacy is an alien concept to you, but sometimes I don't want you around. Can you understand that? You† – I pointed at Dickory – â€Å"nearly cut my boyfriend's throat tonight. I know you don't like him, but that's a little much.† â€Å"Dickory would not have harmed Enzo,† Hickory said. â€Å"Enzo doesn't know that,† I said, and turned back to Dickory. â€Å"And what if he had gotten in a good hit on you? You might have hurt him just to keep him down. I don't need this kind of protection. And I don't want it.† Hickory and Dickory stood there silently, soaking up my anger. After a couple of seconds, I got bored with this. â€Å"Well?† I said. â€Å"You were running out of the forest when you came by us,† Hickory said. â€Å"Yeah? So?† I said. â€Å"We thought we might be being chased by something. Something spooked the fanties we were watching and Enzo thought it might have been a predator or something. It was a false alarm. There was nothing behind us or else it would have caught up with us when you two leaped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of all of us.† â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"No? You didn't scare the crap out of us?† I said. â€Å"I beg to differ.† â€Å"No,† Hickory said. â€Å"You were being followed.† â€Å"What are you talking about?† I said. â€Å"There was nothing behind us.† â€Å"They were in the trees,† Hickory said. â€Å"They were pacing you from above. Moving ahead of you. We heard them before we heard you.† I felt weak. â€Å"Them?† I said. â€Å"It is why we took you as soon as we heard you coming,† Hickory said. â€Å"To protect you.† â€Å"What were they?† I asked. â€Å"We don't know,† Hickory said. â€Å"We did not have the time to make any good observation. And we believe your friend's gunshot scared them off.† â€Å"So it wasn't necessarily something hunting us,† I said. â€Å"It could have been anything.† â€Å"Perhaps,† Hickory said, in that studiously neutral way it had when it didn't want to disagree with me. â€Å"Whatever they were, they were moving along with you and your group.† â€Å"Guys, I'm tired,† I said, because I didn't want to think about any of this anymore, and if I did think about it anymore – about the idea that some pack of creatures was following us in the trees – I might have a collapse right there in the common area. â€Å"Can we have this conversation tomorrow?† â€Å"As you wish, Zoe,† Hickory said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said, and started shuffling off toward my cot. â€Å"And remember what I said about not telling my parents.† â€Å"We will not tell your parents,† Hickory said. â€Å"And remember what I said about not following me,† I said. They said nothing to this. I waved at them tiredly and went off to sleep. I found Enzo outside his family's tent the next morning, reading a book. â€Å"Wow, a real book,† I said. â€Å"Who did you kill to get that?† â€Å"I borrowed it from one of the Mennonite kids,† he said. He showed the spine to me. â€Å"Huckleberry Finn. You heard of it?† â€Å"You're asking a girl from a planet named Huckleberry if she's heard of Huckleberry Finn,† I said. I hoped the incredulous tone of my voice would convey amusement. Apparently not. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. â€Å"I didn't make the connection.† He flipped the book open to where he had been reading. â€Å"Listen,† I said. â€Å"I wanted to thank you. For what you did last night.† Enzo looked up over his book. â€Å"I didn't do anything last night.† â€Å"You stayed behind Gretchen and me,† I said. â€Å"You put yourself between us and whatever was following us. I just wanted you to know I appreciated it.† Enzo shrugged. â€Å"Not that there was anything following us after all,† he said. I thought about telling him about what Hickory told me, but kept it in. â€Å"And when something did come out at you, it was ahead of me. So I wasn't much help, actually.† â€Å"Yeah, about that,† I said. â€Å"I wanted to apologize for that. For the thing with Dickory.† I didn't really know how to put that. I figured saying Sorry for when my alien bodyguard very nearly took your head off with a knife wouldn't really go over well. â€Å"Don't worry about it,† Enzo said. â€Å"I do worry about it,† I said. â€Å"Don't,† Enzo said. â€Å"Your bodyguard did its job.† For a second it seemed like Enzo would say something more, but then he cocked his head and looked at me like he was waiting for me to wrap up whatever it was I was doing, so he could get back to his very important book. It suddenly occurred to me that Enzo hadn't written me any poetry since we landed on Roanoke. â€Å"Well, okay then,† I said, lamely. â€Å"I guess I'll see you a little later, then.† â€Å"Sounds good,† Enzo said, and then gave me a friendly wave and put his nose into Huck Finn's business. I walked back to my tent and found Babar inside and went over to him and gave him a hug. â€Å"Congratulate me, Babar,† I said. â€Å"I think I just had my first fight with my boyfriend.† Babar licked my face. That made it a little better. But not much.

Analysis of the Images of Mind in Society Essay

In our society, there are different images, icons and symbols of the mind, and one set of this are those that are portrayed by nerds and geeks. These types of symbols are popularly seen in movies and television shows. By definition, a nerd is â€Å"a person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept (Nerd 2009). † According to this article, it bears a derogatory connotation or stereotype. In television shows and movies, the nerds are the ones who are often ostracized by the more popular crowd. In this image (http://www. dougweb. org/images/blog/ Nerd_of_the_Year_2001. jpg), nerds are shown as having big eye glasses and are socially awkward. It can be seen in the picture that they seem to be a laughing stock since they â€Å"do not get laid. † I believe that people of intelligence are portrayed like this because only a small percent of population has only been made intelligent, or only a small percentage of people are willing to sacrifice their social image to pursue an endeavor (most especially academic ones). Because they are small in number, what they are doing is not popular to others. By doing these things, intelligent people do not get asked in proms and other social activities. This can also be seen in the show the Big Bang Theory, where the main characters are intellectuals (theoretical physicists). It is shown in this series that they are socially awkward, and do not know how to deal with girls (Picture: http://editorial. sidereel. com/Images/Pages/big_bang_theory. jpg). Other images/symbols of the mind that is portrayed in society are the Ivy League schools and the professors there. It shows that highly intelligent people need to have an exceptional environment where they could hone their skills. Also, these kinds of schools have high standards because not all students have the intellectual capacity to persevere in these kinds of schools. These schools are needed to produce exceptional work and researches and brilliant minds that could be helpful in improving the society. List of References â€Å"Nerd† The Free Dictionary. com. Available from [22 July 2009]

Salvation on Sand Mountain essays

Salvation on Sand Mountain essays Dennis Covington writes about the snake handling rituals that go on in Scottsboro, Alabama, in March on 1992 he calls it Salvation on Sand Mountain. While going to the services held at the churches, Covington realizes that he is not only doing a story on other peoples religions, but that he is also discovering his own religion. Covington creates feelings of sympathy and disgust for the reader while he talks about snake handling in southern churches. Through Covingtons eyes the reader is exposed to his spiritual journey, family, and southern beliefs about snake handling. Covingtons spiritual journey throughout Salvation on Sand Mountain was shocking. It makes one think that the phrase everything happens for a reason really is true. His first experience in a serpent-handling church was exhilarating and unsettling (11). Compared to Covingtons small Methodist church in Birmingham, Al. the snake-handling church on Sand Mountain seemed to bring a different point of view to Covington about his spiritual life. For example, Covington stated that he wanted to experience more (11) because the services at The Church of Jesus with Signs Following always seemed to leave Covington wondering about what was going to happen next. Dennis Covington began to get closer to the congregation and he soon had a taste for handling snakes. After he became familiar with the church services, he began to invite his family to come along. Covingtons daughter, Ashley, also had an influence on Covington becoming more interested in the snake handling ritual. She was the one person that he thought would never like an act such as snake handling. Her reaction to the services startled him. The raw hillbilly music had been imprinted on her genes, like something deep within her she was remembering (114). Ashleys reaction to the ritual brought on a more determined ...

Business Process Reengineering Essay Example for Free (#3)

Business Process Reengineering Essay Business process (20) , Business process reengineering (7) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Whenever we order our drinks at the coffee shops on a daily basis, we are actually triggering a business process. When the waiter at the coffee shop takes the order at our table, he will pass our orders to the kitchen by yelling our orders from one end of the coffee shop to another. Most of the time, the kitchen helper will hear the order and start to prepare. The waiter will then go around taking a few other orders. After he is done with taking orders, he will collect the drinks from the kitchen and serve it to the customers. Customers will then pay up for the drinks. In the event there isn’t enough change for big notes, the waiter will have to go back to the counter to break the notes into smaller variations in order to return the correct amount of change to the customers. In some cases, he might deliver the wrong order as he doesn’t note down the orders in pen and paper, he just passes on the order to the kitchen by shouting. Restaurant scenario Many years down the road, the coffee shop has earned enough to pay for a renovation and overhaul. The boss of the coffee shop has decided to upgrade the coffee shop to a restaurant. He realises that he need to retrain his staff to operate the restaurant as the methods of operating a restaurant differs from the methods of operating the coffee shop. He also realise that he can incorporate some equipment to help him process orders more efficiently. In summary, he needs to change the way the restaurant does things (processes) and how he does things (Method/tools used to carry out the task). The boss has to do a total revamp of the methods and processes of how he was previously used to in the coffee shop. This is what is meant by business process reengineering. In definition, business process is an organizational change in its methods used to redesign an organization to improve efficiency and effectiveness (Mehta, 2011). Reengineering is the organizational change characterized by drastic process transformation. Concepts BPR focus & Objectives In order for companies to operate more efficiently, reduce waste, retain their customers and drive sales, understanding and applying BPR is essential for this change to happen. Firstly, we have to map out the organization’s goals, objectives, primary business function, the people they have and the tools they use. The second objective would be to analyse the current process and redesign/revamp them. By doing so, companies will be able to achieve better ROI and eliminate waste. This will help the company to gain competitive advantage over others in its efficiency and also profits (Muharram, 2007). Perspective of BPR BPR is a framework designed for companies to adopt. This framework helps to optimize processes by making it more streamlined. A good example to explain this point would be the difference between a vertical and cross functional organization. In a horizontal organization, the customer interacts only with one party but in a vertical structure, customers might have to deal with different departments. Figure 3 shows a customer dealing with his account manager for the application of a loan. In the process, the customer does not need to deal with the different departments involved in the application of a loan. This allows the loan application to be more streamlined (Zigiaris, 2000). A vertical structure is not as efficient as customers will have to deal with several departments to process their requests. In a call centre environment, when the customer logs a call for a IT issue, the calling department will answer his call and log the case. He will then be transferred to the technical department who will assist him with 1st level troubleshooting. In the event he cannot solve the problem, the matter will be escalated to a level 2 support and also a product specialist. After his issue has been resolved, he will be transferred to the payment department where he will pay for the IT services he has used. After making payment, he will receive an email from the feedback department where they will ask the customer for feedback for the case. This slows down the entire process of resolving the problem from end to end. One of the main goal in BPR is to optimize the processes that takes place within the organization and reduce lead time. In order to do so, businesses has to look at its processes from a clean state perspective. For a company to be able to streamline their processes, they have to add value to their customers through their processes. Processes should maintain its ability to add value to customers. For those processes that do not, we can automate them and put the focus on adding value. This will result in higher customer satisfaction, better efficiency, elimination of watse and greater ROI(Park, 2008). BPR Methodologies There are several techniques to business process redesign and reengineering. We will discuss a few in this section. Hammer and Champy A major overhaul in the organization’s process and structure is one of the keys to ensuring that cost is lowered and service quality is being improved. The means of implemeting these is via the use of information technology. Besides reorganization and using IT to power the business, redesigning the work process and optimizing it, helps the organization to reduce time taken, lower costs and improve quality (Rouse, 2009). A Case study of Ford Motor Company Ford used to employ 500 accounts payable staff in the past. These 500 staff are running the tasks of tracking faults between purchase orders, receipts and invoices. After Ford decided to reengineer their process, the number of staff needed reduced from 500 to 125. Their reengineering efforts include: * Creating an online database where all purchase orders issued by the buyers are being captured * Goods are being checked when received. The shipment being sent has to match with that in the database. This allows the staff to check if the goods were actual orders being indented. This system of checking eliminates the need to check for faults between purchase orders. * Goods being received will be marked as received and the database is being updated real-time. (Hammer & Champy, 2000) Perspective of process reengineering by Hammer and Champy 1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks. 2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of redesign urgency. 3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the information. 4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized. 5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results. 6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process. 7. Capture information once and at the source. (Rouse, 2009) The methodology preached by Hammer and Champy clearly reflects what was being discussed in the BPR focus and objectives at the start of this report. Its focus is to eliminate waste and also to focus on deliverables that will add value to customers. In order to do so, IT systems can be employed in order to automate processes which do not add value. This point of automation is being reiterated in the case study of Ford Motors. This concept of rethinking and redesigning the business process radically helps us to improve many areas of the business such as lowering costs, improving customer service, ensure quality is being maintained and speed up the entire workflow. Business Process Reengineering. (2016, Dec 15). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Please follow the instructions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Please follow the instructions - Essay Example I have a plan to complete my graduation from Harvard University with a major in Accounting in the June of 2016. I plan to do my internship with Ernst & Young in 2015. This would be a long and detailed internship which would be helpful for me in future. I believe that, good performance during the tenure of internship would help me to get placed in the same company. I want to start my accounting career with a reputable accounting organization. It would provide me good practical exposures and platform related with accounting. During the initial phase of my accounting career, I would like to be an established CFA in future. One of my weaknesses is that I have a lot of patience and this affects the speed of meeting desirable objectives. However my weakness turns to be my strength in critical scenarios where having patience is a must. There are many job opportunities for me in the nearby future due to large friend circle and family contacts. I even plan to join the scholarly group of Harvard University which would give me immense opportunity in the accounting field. In the current market scenario there are many people having accounting major. Hence competition will be not only in university level but even in professional level. On the other hand, CFA as my career goal can be subjected to intense competition. The market belonging to the accounting is highly competitive and an individual can survive in this market if one possesses analytical skills and quantitative orientation. There are various positions in this field and it is not just about tax or audit. In any firm a decent salary is given to accountant professionals such as $40,000 minimum. The diverse accounting fields as per market research are financial accounting, cost accounting, auditing, forensic accounting, managerial accounting, etc. An individual can earn the degree of a CFA and then further study for becoming a