Cause and Effects of Propaganda Essay

Throughout history you find that many techniques of propaganda have affected today’s society. Whether it affects it in a good way or a bad way, propaganda is efficacious and does influence the way we think and act. You probably aren’t aware of what sort of propaganda is circling its way around, but once you are, you’ll think â€Å"wow did I really fall for that†? Propaganda is â€Å"information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc† (Dictionary. Com). There are several techniques of propaganda. It can go to anywhere from a glittering generalities commercial with enough colors galore for you to actually purchase it, to a name calling ad saying that your choice of candidate is not the word you’d like him or her to be called. All of these propaganda techniques leave some sort of impact on your mind. There are three types of different messages your mind could classify propaganda underneath, one is being Ethos. An ethos message can be a message from propaganda ads advertising some one or something in your favor. In that case you might just be convinced that the product or message the advertiser is trying to tell to you about is worth it or correct. In commercials using ethos you’ll find that most of the ads are basically a testimonial ad. Advertisers take in mind that there is a chance that a famous star or person is someone you would admire and in that case you’d believe what the commercial advertisers want you to believe. The next message there is to look at is a pathos message. That being a message that is sent to you arousing your emotions to think differently. The American Cancer Society could put up an ad with a child hooked up to what seems like a million IV’s. This would affect people with a sympathetic mind who actually will look at the piteous sight and will be willing to donate those ten dollars because some advertiser knew he could get you with that little child. The final & third message is a Logos Message. When you hear or look at a logos type message you will find yourself come to reasoning. You’ll find yourself doing that because propaganda plus a logos message behind it will make sense and be clear and it will be seem realistic at the time. A logos message will send your mind the message â€Å"that’s a good reason to get that/ believe that†. Now knowing these three types of propaganda you are more aware of how to recognize propaganda and what it is classified as. How much can propaganda affect you and those around you? Looking at the three kinds of propaganda messages, you realize how easy it is for you and others to fall into a propaganda trap. A propagandist wants to do three things. One, they want to modify the content of our opinion, two, change most of society’s views, and three they want to destroy the moral of an enemy (259 Ellul). Sounds pretty evil right? If the finale of a propagandists â€Å"show† happens, it is thanks to society, the people who purchased the tickets to see that the moral enemy is destroyed. Not only will it affect the person being destroyed but it will affect us. Propaganda doesn’t simply leave an effect on ones thoughts it can adjust our attitude for life. â€Å"The way in which an individual reacts to a stimulus depends on the entire pattern of his attitudes†¦ Therefore propaganda must base itself on existing tendencies to have the greatest effect (279 Ellul). Jacques Ellul endorses that a propagandist will do anything to change our attitude because our attitude is the way we react to things and fulfill our life. Ponder about your attitude towards life. It probably has been influenced by propaganda without you even knowing. For instance you could be a teenager reading a magazine, you probably feel a little under pressure because you’ll never be like Taylor Swift. You’ll just spend long years caring about something that’s not going to happen and you don’t even recognize that the magazine you looked at for ten minutes switched your attitude towards yourself for many long years. Its time to take charge, and time for society to realize our own genuine beliefs. We as a group need to come out of the media and look at we really believe deep down inside. (16 Hibbert) Think before you share your opinions and make sure they aren’t lead by beliefs you as a person would actually never believe if it wasn’t for propaganda. We need to never let propaganda get a hold of us because once we do it will set off a trend if it already hasn’t. As shown in the past, propaganda has killed a whole nation; it has been sinner’s best friend. Propaganda can go a long way. Many leaders have gained power and authority through it. Stalin in the Russian revolution had propaganda as his oxygen basically. It is what kept him running. Within the revolutionary war people, wanted the Tsar, the leader at the time, to be thrown out and within time he was killed. Momentarily Stalin was in for leader. At the time of the circumstance, the communist controlled the paper company making Stalin seem like a really good guy, also history books were rewritten so it would show the â€Å"importance† of Stalin. It can be quite amusing to see how far people will go for a disaster waiting to happen. While kissing up to society and making sure his image looked great, Stalin was able to organize 10 million independent farmers to form a communist collective farm. And when they didn’t cooperate, he went and organized troops to kill them. Realizing the ammo was a little bit too much out of his selfish pocket he managed to remove most sources of food and cause the farmers to starve to death. But society thought Stalin was good. It doesn’t take that much brain power to realize that propaganda had a lot to do with this. If people in the first place would’ve just stood up and said Stalin was doing bad pernicious things, no one would’ve believed the propaganda communist were sending around (756 Bullock). Stalin was not the only man in history that used propaganda to his advantage. Adolf Hitler hit home base being able to convince part of the European Nation that all Jews were bad and weren’t human whatsoever. He then hit second base being able to form a group of Nazis to help him with his dream. Getting to third base, basically was making sure all the propaganda he needed to be spread got into the human mind. He made home base by killing around 6 million Jews; unfortunately he won his game. Yet again I don’t know why people couldn’t catch his teams’ ball by standing up and saying it was wrong in the first place. Did anyone ever stop to look at the propaganda being exposed and say what the heck?. No instead they just looked at the ball and let it go because what good could they do? In today’s society we can find propaganda being used all the time. 694 Bullock) Right now Obama is taking the word â€Å"hope† and using it as his own. He is giving it a new meaning. He is using pathos and making you feel better about choosing him as your president. Meanwhile he doesn’t show all the mishaps along the road that are soon to come. Don’t be the person to let propaganda affect someone else’s WHOLE life because you looked at it for three seconds. Because if one man can start only god knows what one person influenced can do. Now you may wonder how in the world you can ever make sure you’re not falling for a propagandists trap. The first thing you should do is form a belief system, and examine it to make sure that what you say you believe is actually what you believe. Then you should really just be careful before you judge. When you say something that might possibly cause controversy, don’t let thoughts influenced by propaganda get in the way. If you have even the slightest care for humanity, you won’t permit propaganda to cause or provoke someone again, and if you don’t have the slightest care, maybe should find somewhere in your heart to fit it. Because propaganda is powerful and will influence the way you think and act.

Goffman and Music Education Essay

For my career, I intend to teach music privately. I will own my own business in my home and teach students of all ages. As a part of my business I will serve students also in small group classes and other special events that I will design in my business. A ‘typical performance’ would include being in front of any students. For example, a student arrives for a lesson, and I am waiting for him/her. I greet him, and he comes in and begins to prepare his instrument and materials. I may glance over his materials, checking anything he was assigned to practice or work on in the previous week. I may also chat with him about how his week has been. Then, the lesson will proceed, and we will work on performing on his instrument. He will play and I will critique his performance and have him try things different ways until he improves. I may make use of metronomes, tuning devices, or my own demonstration to help him learn. At the end of the lesson, I will assign him new materials to work on or practice, and see him out the door. This performance related to Goffman’s idea of â€Å"rituals† that occur in the social situation. Regardless of my mood or desires, I will ask the student how he is doing and listen to his answers. The lesson will proceed in roughly the same fashion every week. The student will come to expect when I will interrupt his performance to give criticism, because he will come to know what I consider unacceptable. The lesson becomes a series of rituals that are performed week after week, lesson after lesson. The members of my team will consist of all of my students, as well as their parents, many of whom may sit in on lessons always or from time to time. I could not be a teacher if I did not have students, so they are a necessary part of my team. It is the direct interaction between myself and them that sets the â€Å"stage,† as Goffman puts it in his dramaturgical explanation of social behavior. The parents factor in because they change the dynamics of the lesson situation when they are present. In these cases, I may choose to address parents in addition to or instead of the students in certain situations, and I will certainly be aware of their presence as I am working with the student. With some of the younger students, or students who have problems behaving, the parents may play a strong role in the lesson situation, guiding the student’s behavior and attempting to keep him on task. Outside of the lesson situation, it is possible that my mentors could also be considered supporting players, as I may turn to them for help with difficult students or situations to solve, and they may lend me moral support in making decisions about teaching or lessons. All of the people who play into what happens in the lesson situation could be considered team members in some sense, even if they never meet one another. Discrepant roles are likely limited in this situation, since for the most part, there is no audience. However, the teacher himself (i. e. me) might be a discrepant role, since the teacher is leading everyone’s reactions and ideas, and guiding the â€Å"audience’s† perception of the situation. Parents may function in a discrepant role, and well, since as both observers and participants in the situation, they may guide how they want their children to react, and how I choose to react because of their presence. Beyond this, there are probably not other discrepant roles. Should I be teaching a larger group, one student could serve in a discrepant role by more actively participating in the class and showing the rest of the group how to behave and react to what is going on around them. The rest of the class could serve as an audience in that case, assuming that some of the members of the class were feeling rather passive. The communications that would go on in lesson situations could be in or out of character, depending on the student, whether or not the parent was present, and the mood itself. In a general lesson situation where the parent and child were both present and the child was fairly young (not yet a teenager), communication would generally be entirely in character. That is, the communication would be formal and appropriate for the student and parent. However, should the student leave the room and the parent remain, the communication may lapse into out of character situations, where the teacher and the parent are sharing information or commiserating as two adults. It is also possible that if the student is older, teenage or adult, that the communication may be out of character, because of the teacher being able to identify with this student better on a person-to-person level, and not finding the need to remain aloof and professionally distant. In these situations, the communication would move often between in and out of character as the teacher goes from having a general conversation with the student to actually providing instruction. The impression one makes is difficult to manage at times, but it is also important. As a teacher, I would like to be seen as a professional at all times, someone who does not let emotions or outside situations affect my work. I would also like to be seen as energetic, upbeat, and involved in the work I do. This relates to maintaining what Goffman calls the â€Å"front. † The behavior at the front is the professional impression one makes, while behavior at the â€Å"back† or â€Å"sides† is related off-stage behavior in actors. Since teaching is often related to being onstage, this is not a totally foreign concept. As a teacher, I must forget any concerns I have when I enter the room to teach a student. I must focus on them and their needs, and not anything else that is going on in my life, good or bad. This is not always possible, and when it is not, I must explain as briefly as possible, apologize, and continue to try to focus solely on the student. I must also smile and use happy tones of voice when I am speaking, even if I do not feel that way. One of the hardest things in teaching is remaining optimistic and positive even when students are struggling or, more likely, refusing to work. It is difficult for a teacher to see students come into a lesson every week with homework undone and no practicing having been completed. What can I teach a student who won’t work on skills at home? But in order to keep my impressions positive and my front appropriate, I must broach the subject of needing to practice more carefully, so as not to discourage the student or to allow them to see how unhappy I am with their lack of preparedness. Teachers are constantly striving for diplomacy in even the hardest situations. Goffman’s work allows me to look at my future career with a much different perspective. I consider that I am on stage and that I am an actor in a play I have created and entered into, but I do not control all the variables. I control myself, but I react to how my students choose to be. It is interesting to note the possibilities that arise in every situation when there are so many different things happening at once, as Goffman points out. However, it is good to think about and try to use in work situations.

Battle of Marathon Essay

In 490 B.C.E. the Battle of Marathon was a brief but important event in the war between the Greek city-states and The Persian Empire. The results of the battle had unforeseen effects on Athens and the future of Western Civilization. The Greek ‘Golden Age’, centred in Athens, brought about new forms of art, the foundations of future philosophy and redirected literature and drama. The achievements of the Athenians during this period were directly connected to the inspiration and prestige (which later translated into power) fuelled by the events at Marathon. How the events of a single day changed the entire course of Western Civilization is hard to fathom but obvious when one looks at the aftermath of that fateful event. The revolts of a few Greek cities of Ionia were what initially sparked the Persians interest in Athens, Attica and the Peloponnese. When Athens sent a small fleet in support of the Ionian rebels they immediately gave Persia a new target for further expansion. The failure of the revolts and the ruin of Sardis and Miletus shocked the Greek world. The Persians now thought, â€Å"if Miletus had been the glory of subject Greece, Athens was the golden gate to free Hellas. A bauble, perhaps, beside the treasures of the empire, but a tempting one.† Now not only did the Persian king Darius want revenge against the Athenians he wanted the entire Greek world to be integrated into the Persian Empire. In 490 BCE Darius finally advanced towards Greece. After the capture of Eretria, confident of their success, the Persians sailed on to Attica; and under the advice of Hippas* landed at the bay of Marathon, 26 km north east of Athens. When the Athenians received news of the Persians landing, they sent a runner (Philippides) to Sparta asking for support. They knew support would not get to them before the Persians decided to move so the Athenians then made â€Å"one of the most fateful decisions ever taken by a democratic government in ancient Greece. It was to advance and engage the Persians at their point of invasion, rather that to sit tight and try to hold the city.† . This decision was a radical one for a few reasons: the Athenians were highly outnumbered and historically, according to the historian Herodotus, the Greeks had never stood their ground against a Persian attack. Every major battle during the six years of the Ionian revolt demonstrated that the  Greeks preferred to defend their cities rather that fight out in the open. For these reasons the Persians were justifiably optimistic about their ability to defeat the Greeks. Upon the Athenian arrival at their base camp, away from the bay, they were joined by troops from the Athenian ally Plataia (about one thousand). There were 10,000 men in the Athenian army; a general represented each 1000. The ten generals of the army debated over a course of action, either to stay and meet the Persians as they advance or to attack them and try to take them by surprise. Miltiades* overcame the deadlock by appealing to the Polemarch Kallimachos who had an equal vote on the board of generals and convinced him to attack. Miltiades waited until the day of his prytaneia*, the day which he had supreme control over the entire army, to attack the Persians at their base camp. The Persians were taken by surprise and being unprepared, retreated back to their ships. While the Persians fled to their ships a point when only a narrow passage of beach separated the sea from a marsh was passed, it was here that around six thousand men from both sides were killed, the overwhelming number were Persians. Herodotus reported the casualties of the Greeks amounted to 192 Athenians, and an unrecorded number of Plataeans and slaves, the Persians lost 6400 men in total. The Greeks pursued in an attempt to capture the Persians ships but all but seven escaped. The Persians changed their course of action and sailed around to attack the now undefended city of Athens from the sea. The Athenian army was force to march the 26 km back to Athens in haste to defend the city. They reached the city and the Persian fleet seeing the defenders had returned, did not land but turned and headed back to Asia. The victory at Marathon and the successful defence of the city, gave the Athenians a sense of moral superiority and pride. In later battles of the Persian War, at Thermopylai and Salamis, the highly regarded Spartans and those of the Peloponnese were largely in control of strategic moves. Although still a major force in every battle, Athens and her allies were outnumbered and thus followed Spartan command. After the second occupation of Athens after the battle of Salamis, the Athenians gave Sparta an ultimatum due to a lack of Spartan support. â€Å"If the Peloponnesians wanted  Athens’ navy, they must save Athens’ land.† Because the Athenians had more damage to recover from it brought stronger confidence and overall pride for them once the city got back on its feet. The Spartans, Corinthians and other Peloponnesian allies now had reason to fear Athens growing naval power and its capabilities now that the city was repaired and invigorated with a renewed sense of pride. This is the point that we see the beginnings of a shift in the balance of power and influence between the city-states. When the Ionian states adopted the Athenians as leaders, as opposed to the Spartans who had been pre-eminent for a long time, the rise of the Athenian influence began to show. For the purpose of protecting all Greeks from a further Persian attack, a league was formed, of which Athens was now the leader. The league included all Aegean states in the interest of their common welfare, and was called The Delian League. At first it was as a leader that Athens lead the allies, who sent members to a general congress, in discussions of further campaigns against the Persians. But that would all change when other city-states adopted the Athenian form of government, democracy, either by force or voluntarily. Inevitably Athens became the leader of what was now an Athenian Empire. When Athens imposed their â€Å"superior† form of government onto other city-states it was no longer a league of self-governing city-states but a league ruled by one. The league, which was formed for the purpose of protection, now became the means for Athens to spread democracy. The Athenian Empire gave Athens a feeling of superiority; it felt that she had the superior form of government, superior ideals, culture and economic practices; that sense of superiority all traced back to the victory at Marathon. â€Å"Suppose, then, that we had never done anything but fight at Marathon – in point of fact we have done much besides: more than any other people of Greece – but just suppose; then Marathon alone would be enough to qualify us not only for the privilege we are claiming but for others too; for in that fight we stood alone against Persia – we dared a mighty enterprise and came out alive – we defended forty-six nations. Do we not, for this act alone, deserve the place of honour†¦Ã¢â‚¬  From the Athenian Empire and its attitude came many great things that had an unquestionable effect on the future of western civilization. Pericles, a famous name in Athenian politics, is a direct result of the Athenian Empire and all its ideals and attitudes. Pericles took advantage of Athens position of power and used money from the Delian League to fund the construction of major pieces of architecture in the city. Without Pericles there would be no Parthenon or Propylea, and Athens might now have gained the prestige it had during its Golden Age. Athens golden age was a direct result of the wealth and prestige of empire; without it Athens may not have reached the point where it became the educational and cultural centre of the Greek world. From this centre came great thinkers and playwrights; western civilization gained philosophy, Greek drama and literature, science and democracy. The Battle of Marathon, although only a single event, had an unquestionable impact on western civilization. Marathon allowed Athens to raise itself to a position of prestige and importance in the Greek world. The Athenians were given the opportunity to become culturally, politically and economically the centre of the Greek world because of the result of the battle of Marathon. Without the Athenians daring strategic move western civilization as we know it today would not be the same.

Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16

Religion - Essay Example Christ had a confrontation with Satan before the beginning of his public life. It is named as the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. He could surpass the temptations of Satan and started his mission of saving the humanity from the clutches of sin. The mythical experience that he had in the wilderness after the fasting of forty days and nights remains to be a key point in The Bible and it is considered to be the beginning of his teachings. The Holy Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe the temptation of Jesus Christ prior to his career as teaching. The Gospel of Matthew and Luke give the detailed description of the incident. The Gospel of Matthew Chapter 4 words 1 to 11 detail the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The Gospel says, â€Å"He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.† (Matthew 4. 2) Satan appeared before him and offered three gifts on three conditions. Satan asked him to change the stones to loaves if Jesus is the son of God and Jesus retorted by stating, â€Å"One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.† (Matthew. 4. 4). As Jesus surpassed the first temptation, the devil took him to the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city and asked Jesus to jump from the top if he is the son of God stating the angels will carry him. Jesus said to Satan, â€Å"Again it is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.â⠂¬ (Matthew.4.6) Then Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed all the kingdoms and their splendor and promised him these entire places if he adores Satan. Jesus rebuked the devil to go away and by stating that only God is to be worshipped and served. (Matthew 4.8-10). When Jesus came over all these temptations Satan left him. This makes that Jesus was able to come over all sorts of human emotions and temptations and it gave him great impetus to venture into his mission of saving the humanity. The temptation of Jesus Christ is a highly

What does advertisement tell us about America before and after Essay

What does advertisement tell us about America before and after capitalism - Essay Example Perhaps, this is why Washington, Mary and their two children were escaping from the subscriber with who the family had lived for the past 15 years. During the closing stages of nineteenth century, industrial revolution aimed at substituting massive manpower as well as animal with mechanical power in the production process. With industrialization gaining popularity, specialization became more dominant with factories producing goods and service in large batches. Despite the fact that artisans together with small shops were never absolutely eliminated by factories, they were largely reduced to insignificant players in the economy of major nations. With rising modern working class and increasing popularity of production mechanization, production tools became concentrated on a few hands. Workers had insignificant property and had to sell their labor to the capitalists for cash. Capitalism was spurred by private property ownership and economic boom and bust brought about by industrialization. As workers continued to exchange their labor for cash, factory owners accumulated huge amounts of wealth, increasing private ownership and mono poly tendencies (Tomka 195). Even though there were outcries for the abolition of such tendencies, capitalism thrived in the phase of industrial revolution in the nineteenth century crossing over to the twentieth century. In the ad on lecture 8:31 â€Å"GREAT WHITE FLEET: CARIBBEAN CRUISES,† the replacement of animal power by mechanized transportation modes is evident. Unlike previous experiences, where farm products were ferried by animals, industrialization led to emergence of the â€Å"Great White Fleet† with higher carriage capacity. This promoted increased production as more goods could be transported with ease to the market. The ships only carried first class passengers, probably capitalists, providing them with comfortable ride to their destinations. The ad also features workers taking farm

The risk of cultural issues in written communications Essay

The risk of cultural issues in written communications - Essay Example A good example is given by Tannen & Saville-Troika (1982, p. 41), about an Egyptian pilot called a traffic controller of Greek origin, asking if it was safe for the plane to land in Cyprus. The controller responded with a silence to mean refusal but the Egyptian interpreted that as acceptance and proceeded with the trip to Cyprus, only to be fired at by the Greeks in Cyprus while approaching the run way. Another cause is the complete language barrier between non related languages such as Russian and English, unlike the case between French and English whereby many words and closely related in spelling and pronunciation. Most of the Russians do not understand or speak English at all (Gudykunst 2003, p. 62). Likewise, Many English speakers do not understand Russian. In such a scenario, if a speech is presented in Russian, an English man will lose some important points. As mentioned before, in a miscommunication and misunderstanding in cross-cultural interaction, people lose the exact meaning of the communication and may respond in undesired ways. In cross cultural conversation, participants may decide to deliberately mislead the hearers, and convince them with false information. For example, Reynolds (2004, p. 38) argues that a participant may masquerade as being of greater social status than his or her true position in the society is. In a written communication, this can be more misleading because apart from just hearing wrongly, the reading itself may be wrong from the onset. Once a misunderstanding has occurred from cross-cultural communication, there should be a quick way to resolve and clarify on the specific errors. For example, it is a good practice to apologize and make possible clarification as suggested by Pride (1985, p. 62). With apology, the hearer’s may not be able to take offence. Where possible, the communication between different cultures ought to

Letter to Law Client Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Letter to Law Client - Personal Statement Example Incorporating does have other benefits as well, including many tax benefits. For instance, some sole proprietors are required to pay the federal tax rate and a self-employment tax, meaning you are being taxed twice; corporations are never allowed to do this. In response to your questions regarding Bubba, there are a few causes for concern here, but a few issues that may still keep you in the clear. First, Bubba is not a regular employee; as you stated, he came down to help out with some extra work. Second, you did not tell Bubba to do this; you gave him different directions. If Bubba is willing to admit to this, then you may safe and the responsibility may fall on him. However, the medical bills are truly an issue-if one person injures another person it is generally required that the person that caused the injury pay for the medical bills of the other. Next, these individuals were clearly blocking the entrance to your place of business, which is very close to trespassing. It sounds like they were still on public property, however, and the actions of Bubba are still an issue-had he asked them and they refused, calling the police would have been a better alternative. Still, the situation does not mean you necessarily have to go bankrupt or lose everything, or even lose the business itself. If these individuals have health insurance, they may only be asking for their deductibles to be paid. Therefore, this may amount to only a few thousand dollars. Also, it depends on the extent of their injuries. If any type of surgery is involved, this will certainly be expensive. However, if it is just a few bruises and broken bones we are concerned about, the issue should not cost as much. If Bubba is not willing to take the blame on his own, because he was there on your accord, the liability very well could fall onto the restaurant, and again, some kind of payment will probably be expected. There are a few things that you can do in this issue in order to prepare yourself. First, I would suggest incorporating as quickly as possible to protect all of your personal assets. This way, only the business, and not everything else, is at risk in this case. Second, I suggest talking to Bubba and seeing how far he is willing to go to assist you with the situation. Third, it may be wise to talk to the people or their attorney, and find out what kinds of medical issues and bills are being considered. It may be easier and less costly to simply settle with the people and pay for their deductibles rather than going to court and possibly spending much more money. Also, if this is done, it is very unlikely that these individuals will have any reason to take the business away. Therefore, my suggestion is to reach out to start the incorporation process, and then to reach out to these individuals to see what can be done to resolve this issue. Taking these steps will probably save you from losing your business, or losing anything else at the expense of Bubba. Thank you and please do not hesitate to contact me if you need

Implementing Change for JLL company Research Paper

Implementing Change for JLL company - Research Paper Example e a hard time to the individuals, as they have to cut down their needs and compromise even the basic needs of their life in order to sustain in the long run. The personal savings came down remarkably which affected every household. The lucrative real estate sector worldwide encountered a drastic change in its profit amount as the demand for the housing and apartments decreased drastically. As a result, the worldwide real estate sector has to encounter drastic decrease in income and demand (Mathiassen and Nielsen, 2000; West, 2005). JLL is one the biggest real estate company in the world; along with real estate business the company also engages in providing financial services to its customers. In order to expand its territory and business, the company has engaged in several merger and acquisition activities. The need for merger and acquisition has resulted from the urge to penetrate and consolidate the greater part of the real estate business. Hence, it has competed about 35 mergers and acquisition activities, which have provided them with both inorganic and organic growth. It is known that a company can attain organic and inorganic growth only by making partners and undertaking merger and acquisition of the resources. The company aims at providing it services to three main geographic locations in the world: Europe, Middle East and Africa, Americas and Asia Pacific. The company has expended its territory by spreading business worldwide and setting corporate offices to support its operations. However, after the financial crisis the company has lost its constant investment opportunities by individuals all over the world (Belt, 2004). Along with that it has also lost the common base of customers with the emergence of Ukraine- Russia conflict. This added flame to the disastrous situation and the revenue and profit of the company decreased to a great extent. The fall in demand for residential as well as commercial buildings have affected the company finance

Linking of Nursing concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Linking of Nursing concepts - Essay Example Generally, in today’s modern health systems, education for both the professionals and the patients plays a critical in the nursing faculty. As Carpenter and Bell suggested, teaching is a vital, teaching is a major characteristic of the nurse’s role. With the emerging trends in healthcare, there is the need for nurses to be accountable in terms of quality care delivery to patients. Therefore, these professionals must demonstrate the extent of the knowledge and skills acquired not only to their peers but also to the patients (Bastable, 2008 p.94). Imperative to note is that these professionals are obliged to teach and assist others while at the same time learn within the healthcare settings. Within the nursing fraternity in a majority of the states are nurse practice acts (NPA) in whose scope include teaching as a nursing responsibility. By the stipulated legal mandate of these acts, it is expected that nurses provide high quality instructions for the wellbeing of consume rs and diseases management. In undertaking this role of information and knowledge dissemination, nurses are able to achieve their professional goal in provision of safe, cost-effective and high quality care. For quality assurance purposes various organizations and agencies have to abide to the mandates stipulated by healthcare accreditation bodies. Such mandates elaborate the forms of care, treatment regimens and services offered to patients with different conditions. Another legal perspective in nursing education has been enshrined in the patient’s bill of rights. In this law, nurses provide complete and up to date information with regard to diagnosis, cure and prognosis in an understandable manner to patients (Bastable, 2008 p.116). Patient education in nursing as a profession majorly focuses on increasing the client’s confidence for managing of self. Effective teaching by the nurses has a lot of potential in boosting client satisfaction, ensuring continuity of self care, quality of life improvement, reduction in health complications and enhance adherence to treatment. On their part, the nurses achieve job satisfaction as educators as they forge and promote therapeutic interrelationships with patients, increased patient nurse independence and accountability boost. The education process in nursing can be likened to the nursing process itself which covers examination, planning, implementation and finally evaluation o the outcomes (Bastable, 2008 p.98). The art of practicing nursing at a higher level requires a thorough understanding of theory and ability to effectively apply the theory in provision of quality healthcare services to patients. The position of theory in the field of nursing has been perceived to be worthless for many years. This has led to the culmination of a situation termed theory-practice gap. Therefore, specialized knowledge at it is a fundamental aspect in other disciplines is also important in nursing. In order to have a deep understanding of this subject, nurses must acquire formal study in nursing comprising of precise philosophical and theoretical aspects. Additionally, the nurses must master the competencies and abilities to employ the knowledge in provision of healthcare to humankind. The carrying out of nursing duties is an intentional and premeditated act that is guided by nursing science and other knowledge sources. This practice is ultimately intended for

Program Evaluation Paper Part III - smoking cessation Term - 1

Program Evaluation Part III - smoking cessation - Term Paper Example The program is extensively large since the target population is the entire populace of smokers in the US (Goel , 2008). This is however not a shortfall since the subject of smoking itself does not require a lot of study since the outcomes of a small comparison group will suffice. The subject being an addiction means that what will be displayed in one smoker will most likely be homogenous among all other smokers. Obtaining information would be considered rather easy. The records of those who have previously been enrolled in smoking cessation programs in health facilities will be found to be useful. Smokers would also voluntarily provide information. As mentioned before that the programs have been in place for some time, information from previous evaluations that were done on a smaller scale will be used as a baseline for this evaluation. This approach of employing surveys will involve distribution of questionnaires to people who smoke or are affected by smoking. The main components of the questionnaires will be finding out how many people admit to being a smoker. Another question would be to find out those who have considered quitting and also to find out what is the biggest challenge that they face when trying to stop smoking. The respondents will be samples collected from different geographical locations to ensure that the sample population is representative of the whole population. It will also be important to have questionnaires designed differently to be filled out by health providers. These questionnaires will be primarily used to find out professional opinions that will be crucial in developing and implementing the smoking cessation program. (Auxin, 2006) Examination of archival documents will also be a vital source of information. These types of source will be used mostly where information like national smoking prevalence is required. Existing records will have to be the latest and most credible. An important

The poets of Vultures and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes Essay Example for Free

The poets of Vultures and Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes Essay In these two poems, Achebe and Ferlinghetti question human nature and the way we think of it as virtuous and moral. In Vultures Achebe argues that evil is innate in humans and is very much more widespread than the tiny good that is in our nature. He uses two vultures and the Commandant of a Nazi Death Camp to powerfully describe evil in nature, but contrasts this with love contained in it. Ferlinghetti, however, also links cruelty to modern society, and further argues that this cruelty, causing the rift between people, is present in even a free society such as Americas. He focuses on one instant of time where two pairs of people of totally different classes are connected by the whole fabrication of society, of injustice and inequality, while stopping next to each other at a red light. Although the poems are similar in the issues that they tackle, it is apparent that the poets argue them in different ways. In this essay I shall explore the, often differing, ways in which the poets discuss these issues. In Vultures, Achebe starts the poem in a dull and deathly mood to outline the grim and evil atmosphere of his poem. This is interpreted by the reader to imply that evil is present everywhere, as the place that the poem is set in is full of evil. In the greynessa vulture perching high on broken bone of a dead tree These lines set the scene for the rest of the poem, and because they so inherently remind the reader of death, the reader immediately feels the poem will be grim. This has been used because of this, as Achebe, in his argument, wants to remind us that evil is ever-present. As death brings about the feeling of evil and suffering, these opening lines are effective at introducing and outlining the argument. Broken bone being used to describe the branches of the tree is particularly effective, because it reminds the reader of pain and suffering. The dead tree is also used, and as these two describe where the vulture is perching, this further associates the vulture with death, adding to the fact that it is a vulture and so feeds on rotting carcasses. The dullness is brought about by the word greyness. This suggests that the dawn is not beautiful or colourful, but is bland and unemotional. The colour grey makes the reader imagine a scene which is almost akin to a black and white photograph of a scene a dull, slow atmosphere that is reminiscent of death. The atmosphere of the poem, set in the beginning, therefore, outlines the theme of evil that is in this poem. The whole context of the poem is symbolising evil, and this overall suggests that evil is ever-present. This is part of Achebes argument. Ferlinghetti, however, starts the poem differently. The start of Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes (hereafter to be referred to as Two Scavengers) is more upbeat and optimistic. This is ironical, and therefore implies that the happiness in society is not true. At the stoplight waiting for the light nine a.m. downtown San Francisco At the beginning, a relaxed and happy atmosphere is created by Ferlinghetti. The word downtown creates a relaxed atmosphere. This is made even more so because waiting for the light is an ordinary thing to do. However, this is deeply ironical, because the title of the poem is more serious and shows clear and immediate contrasts Scavengers are far away from Beautiful People and a Truck is very different and much less luxurious than a Mercedes. The use of Scavengers in the title also implies that the poem is serious. Therefore the reader, having read the title before the beginning of the poem, is meant to see this, and see that this happiness is unreal. Ferlinghetti, by doing this, suggests that although some wealthier people in the society have nothing to worry about, many people are unhappy and are succumbed, just as observers are, that life in his society is wonderful and easy. By letting the reader deduce this, Ferlinghetti makes his argument more personal, and includes the reader as the observer of his society. This integrates him/her more into the poem, thus making the introduction to his argument about inequality and cruelty more effective. Ferlinghetti then goes on to describe the ease of the lifestyle of the wealthier couple, contrasting it with the intense hard work of the garbage men. This shows that there are always two sides, and for the people that enjoy life many people suffer, and the suffering always exists. The young blond woman so casually coifed on the way to his architects office And the two scavengers up since four a.m. grungy from their route The words used to describe the wealthier couple suggest that they are much more relaxed and that life is easier for them. Casually coifed especially suggests that the woman is relaxed. The alliteration is used so that the phrase flows easily. This represents the life of the wealthy couple it is described to be easy and pleasant. However, this is in total contrast to the garbage men. The fact that they have been up since four a.m. suggests that their work is hard and physically demanding as few jobs require the workers to wake up at 4 a.m. Grungy also suggests that their work is demanding but also dirty. These, overall, show how the garbage men suffer so much but do not get rewarded nearly as much as man in the wealthy couple, who is on the way to his architects office. The word his suggests that he is the boss and is in control. This contrasts to the garbage men, who are described as scavengers. As scavengers feed off the leftovers and detritus of other animals, this suggests that these garbage men only have what other people leave behind and kick down to them. These contrasts clearly show how Ferlinghetti argues that society is cruel, and especially to the people that work so hard for it. Cruelty is omnipresent. Achebe also uses contrasts to show contrasts in human nature. Where Ferlinghetti links theses to society, Achebe links these contrasts to basic natural instincts. In Vultures there are contrasts between love and evil. Although the mating vultures perform actions which are disgusting and vile, they still show love and care for each other. feathers inclined affectionately to hers. Yesterday they picked The eyes of a swollen corpse The statement of love is mentioned before the detailed descriptions of the actions of the vultures. This implies that their love takes precedence, and that it is what the vultures themselves are thinking about rather than what they did to the carcass. The eating of the carcass is described explicitly and in full detail by Achebe. By this he is showing the disgusting horrid behaviour and instincts of the vultures. He describes how the picked the eyes of a swollen corpse. This is particularly powerful as the verb picking does not bear any resemblance to humans eating. This phrase (picking the eyes) makes the reader think of cruel and inhumane forms of torture, and therefore makes this image even more disturbing, even though the animal is dead. Furthermore, animals dead bodies are usually referred to as carcasses, however, by using corpse Achebe has related this more to humans further depicting the cruel and horrible nature of the vultures, making it more personal and even more disgusting to the reader. By directly contrasting the image of love and affection to one of the most repulsive sights imaginable, Achebe gives one point of his argument, that in all evil there is love. Contrarily, though, by using powerful imagery, it is evident that the nature of the vultures will not be forgotten by the reader, and it will not be merely overridden by their love. After that, however, Vultures describes cruelty in humans, which is more intense, as vultures always feed on carcasses. Achebe uses a figure that is almost synonymous with evil the Commandant at a Nazi Death Camp to show this contrast between love and evil. However, this also shows more clearly how much more evil there is than love. Thus the Commandant at Belsen Camp going home for the day with fumes of human roast clinging rebelliouslyand pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring The image used is just as repulsive as that of the vultures. The word roast makes the reader think of food, and this especially makes the image repulsive, as the reader is shocked at how this evil figure cam live with this. It does make the reader think of cannibalistic behaviour, as roast is used after many other meats. Because human roast is used the reader would think it is ordinary for it to be called this and is therefore furthermore horrified. Tender offspring suggests that they are just meat, like the people that were killed by the Commandant. The word tender in this context is furthermore repulsive, because it is used after human roast and makes the reader imagine it is being used in this context. However, as offspring is used to describe the children of animals, this is also a reference back to the vultures. This suggests that even a humans behaviour is animalistic and it is in his nature, even though he may be seen as evil. Most readers would find that the Commandant at Belsen is more evil than the vultures, as vultures always feed off carcasses. However, this link back to animals, with offspring makes the reader question whether all creation is purely evil, regardless of what species there are and how much love they have for something else. This further implies that evil is always predominant over other characteristics such as love. This is another one of Achebes points in his argument that suggests that human nature, and the nature of all creation, is predominantly built upon cruelty. With this contrast, showing a loving family man, Achebe indirectly asks the reader whether they think his evil is redeemable, and therefore if they would forgive the Commandant at Belsen because of his love for his child(ren). Because of the obvious answer of no, it makes the reader feel that there is a lot more evil in him than good, and this can be said for the entire world. This poem, and especially lines 30-40, also reflects the state of affairs within the world. As it implies that Nazism is synonymous with evil, it gives Nazism a real place in literature. Therefore the mention of Nazism is in context with this poem, and Achebe has carefully chosen to include this to express the horrors of the Nazi regime. This is a point for his argument in this poem, but also a tribute to (the victims of) Nazism. It makes the evil of it have an eternal place, which will not be forgotten. This is an example of which literature is affected by affairs in the real world. It therefore furthermore makes the reader agree with Achebes argument, as it is supported by major events in the real world. In Two Scavengers, there is also a reference to death and sacrifice. One of the garbage men is compared to Quasimodo, from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, also because of his hunched back. and hunched back looking down like some gargoyle Quasimodo In these lines, the older garbage man is compared to Quasimodo, as he has a hunched back. However there is also another meaning to this at a deeper level. Quasimodo sacrificed himself to save the beautiful image of Paris. The reference to Quasimodo here also therefore suggests that these garbage men are sacrificing themselves in order to preserve the beautiful image of America that they all aspire to be in, but cannot. The fact that they are watching the couple is highlighted by the fact that he is looking down. The comparison to Quasimodo suggests the moral superiority of the garbage men, as they are facing the cruelty of society that is rarely reported and that people in general do not care about, unless they are suffering themselves. This is similar to Quasimodo. Also, the fact that he is also compared to a gargoyle suggests that these people are also the one that care for society, working physically harder and not getting rewarded as much as the people whom they aspire to be. The watching over them is not only a direct reference to the height difference between the truck and the Mercedes, however, and this suggests that they are part of the people looking after the society, integral to it. Because of this, as they are suffering, and being cruelly and unequally treated, Ferlinghetti argues that these morally wrong values are not just present, but a large integral part of the whole society. At the end of their poems, both poets conclude with statements that show cruelty is always going to be part of humans and society. Vultures end with an open conclusion which asks the reader to decide, however it is clear that one conclusion is stronger. Praise bounteousthat grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in the very germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil. After presenting his argument, Achebe gives the reader a choice to be glad and praise bounteous the love that does exist. However, the first statement shows that love is mostly tiny and encapsulated in icy caverns. This is a particularly powerful phrase because it suggests that love is only small and is surrounded by all of the evil in the world. However, the poem does give the reader a choice, and the other statement is that all of humanity should be concerned and frightened at how the relatively small love in the world is nothing in the face of the infinite evil in human nature. In the very germ means in the smallest seed, and in the heart of. This implies that all of love is just a small part of evil which makes up most of the world. The word perpetuity, which is also used in science and mathematics emphasises the effect that evil is constant and never ends. Overall, in this poem, the second conclusion is by far the stronger, as more powerful words like kindred (close to the blood, essential). It is evident that Achebe wants us to leave the poem knowing that even if people have love in their hearts, they cannot stop committing evil. We must despair at the fact that our world is filled with so much evil and cruelty, and how in human nature the love that exists is overwhelmed by the evil within. The very fact that we should be scared of the never-ending evil shows how stronger the second statement is. In Two Scavengers, Ferlinghetti ends by mocking the American dream, and by using his previous link of cruelty to society, using these examples, he finishes by showing the variation in society. as if they were watching some odorless TV ad in which everything is always possible as if anything at all were possible between them across the small gulf in the high seas of this democracy The American dream is what the American society aspires of its citizens. According to the constitution, Any American can become president. However, Ferlinghetti concludes his argument strongly disagreeing with this statement, and persuades the reader to do the same. The reference to the odourless TV ad shows how much advertising has affected the American people, that they were thinking like the advertisement in their real lives. The word odourless suggests that it is fake, plastic. This is the American dream. The TV ad is an illusion from reality. This directly relates how the American dream is just an illusion. Nothing is odourless. Also Ferlinghetti has used irony for entertainment to engage the reader further as the garbage mens jobs are the direct opposite of odourless. The line after in the extract is more powerful than the first, and shows how the American dream is really a dream. It is sarcastic as if anything at all were possible suggests that they did, for that instant, go into the illusion that it was possible to become what they aspired to be. However Ferlinghetti mocks this and therefore highly criticizes the American dream and the motives of the American Constitution it was lying to the people. The small gulf is also a pun, as it means the physical distance between the four people, but also the large gap in class and wealth between the two pairs of people a gulf is geographically very large. The high seas suggests that it is happening everywhere, as the oceans are very large and cover many areas. This further strengthens the effect of the class gap and also fits in with the entertaining line the small gulf. The last line is also highly critical, as it asks why people are not equal if they are meant to be in the democracy. This line also refers to this as being a problem across the whole of America and the whole society, which further strengthens the argument that all the people are not equal. It strongly and ironically suggests that the democracy is unfair and unjust. These are related to cruelty, as the people of America, Ferlinghetti believes, are being treated cruelly, being wrongly told, and believing that they are all equal, when Ferlinghetti sees clearly that they are not. People are told that they are free in a democracy, but Ferlinghetti, in this poem, argues that this is far from the case. Ferlinghetti and Achebe explore issues within their cultures, and link them to different examples. However, analytically, while their use of language and techniques may not be similar, it must not be forgotten that these poems remind us, and depict, the worst and most scarring side of Mans character, and remind us how misguided and flawed our judgements on ourselves can be. What we must learn from them is that we cannot think ourselves above creation if we show the same repulsive habits as vultures, however slight these may be. Ferlinghetti and Achebe argue that unless we totally conquer the evil and cruelty so centrally bound within us and change the society we have built around them, we cannot call ourselves more than any other being.

Short history of literature Essay Example for Free

Short history of literature Essay The purpose of this course is to encourage you to gain an insight into, and broad awareness of, the development of English literature from its perceived origins in the ninth century until the end of the nineteenth century. Attention will be paid not only to influential writers and movements, but to themes such as the influence of Greek mythology, religion, politics, and the rà ´le of Ireland. Some writers, poets and playwrights considered are Langland, Chaucer, Malory, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Pope, Swift, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Dickens. I apologise to the many superb but deceased writers whom I cannot include in this all too brief summary, and even to those whom I have included, for treating them somewhat summarily. The course takes the form of a series of lectures, which form but the tip of the iceberg, providing you with a door to your own research and study. You are encouraged to share the results of your studies, helping not only your fellow students, but the lecturer. We are, after all, in the same boat, even if I am at the helm. Evaluation will be by unseen short written essays. I shall provide some examples of examination questions at the end of this hopefully helpful guide. The course kicks off by considering English literature’s fairly late entry into the world of writing, a fact explained by the destruction of Roman Britain by barbaric German tribes, and a series of subsequent invasions that made it difficult to standardise the language and create high-level writing until the late Fourteenth Century. Naturally, once the area later to be known as England began to settle down during the reign of Alfred, priests began to translate Latin texts into Anglo-Saxon/Old English. Churchmen had an advantage, since they were literate. Gildas, born around 500, wrote The Destruction and Conquest of Britain in Latin, while Bede (who died in 735) wrote the Eclesiastical History of the English People, also in Latin. They cannot therefore be included as writers using Old English exclusively, although their works were later translated into Old English. Although the story of Beowolf is the longest known epic poem in Old English, it is a Scandinavian tale dating fro m the Eighth Century. English literature begins to define itself more clearly following the Norman invasion, which resulted in a minor transmogrification, with the importation of thousands of French words. By 1150, we can therefore identify the result, known as ‘Middle English’. Here we have two superb works, one by the poorish priest, William Langland (1332-1400), Vision of William concerning Piers the Ploughman, which is a religious journey through morality, mentioning the seven Deadly Sins of sloth, avarice, anger, gluttony, lust, envy and pride, concluding that it is better to be good than rich. In contrast, his counterpart, Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), was well off, working in senior government and as a diplomat, going on various European trips. He is said to have met Petrarch or Boccaccio. Certainly, his renowned Canterbury Tales seems to betray elements of Boccaccio in its earthiness and methodology. He wrote several works, including Troilus and Cressida, and The Legend of Good Women. The next well-known piece of work with which we deal is Mallorys (c. 1405-1471) Morte d’Arthur, extrapolated from old French and some English tales, and written in early modern English. One can truly say that it has been impregnated in the British national consciousness. Many scholars think that Arthur was a Romanised Briton who fought against the German invaders. He probably was, but in the centuries of literary Chinese Whispers since then, the tale has probably been considerably embellished. Before now moving into the Sixteenth Century, let us mention that the invention of printing, which was taken up by William Caxton in 1476, had a big impact on literature, in that it became more widespread among the ordinary population. Edmund Spenser’s (1552-1599) Faerie Queen is an example. Notwithstanding criticism that he wrote it to gain favour with Queen Elisabeth (he was awarded some good positions), it is a thrilling piece of work, as the following shows: ‘The steely head stucke fast till in his flesh, Till with his cruell clawes he snatcht the wood, And quite asunder broke. Forth flowed fresh A gushing river of blacke goarie blood, That drowned all the land, whereon he stood; The streame thereof would drive a water-mill.’ Spenser was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School (which my school, St. Pauls, founded in 1509, used to beat at rugger) and Cambridge, living most of his professional life in Ireland, where he was Secretary to the Lord Deputy. His home was burnt down in the 1598 rebellion, so at least some of his life was exciting. One is inclined to wonder whether the Celtic throb of Ireland influenced, and stimulated, his writing. And then of course we come to William Shakespeare (1564-1616), prolific writer of plays and sonnets, son of a dealer in gloves and wool, who had his own theatre company. He was well versed in the classics, having attended Stratford Grammar School. It was indeed the introduction of Grammar Schools during the reign of Henry VIII that had stimulated literature and learning, as well as the influence of the Renaissance, already visible in Chaucer. Consider this, from the Merchant of Venice: ‘All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms unfold.’ Shakespeare, so very influenced by classical Greece and Rome (as were many before and after) invented thousands of new words and phrases such as ‘tower of strength’ and ‘assassination’. It was not until the German Romantics elevated him to an almost godlike literary status that he was to become known world-wide. He has generated controversy as well as fame. Samuel Johnson wrote: ‘Shakespeare is so much more careful to please than to instruct that he seems to write without any moral purpose’, while the great Tolstoy wrote of ‘repulsion, weariness and bewilderment’. Strangely, no original work by Shakespeare is known to have survived. Some even think that he may not have existed. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) is hewn from the same literary stone as Shakespeare, even having contributed to some of the latter’s plays. A sort of literary version of Caravaggio, he was stabbed to death at the age of twenty nine, not long after the issuing of an arrest warrant, possibly for blasphemy. It is possible that, had he lived longer, he would have been at least as well known as his homologue Shakespeare. Consider this, from his Dr. Faustus: ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!’ It is not difficult to see why, with writers such as Marlowe and Shakespeare, the Sixteenth Century was that of the dramatists.   As we move on to the end of the Sixteenth Century and into the Seventeenth, we come to Ben Jonson (1572-1637 (not to be confused with Samuel Johnson).Although he was a pupil at Westminster School, he managed to be a bricklayer for a time, like his father, as well as a soldier. He is best known for his masques, which induced a gay atmosphere of humour, costume, dancing and music. Drama then went into decline, owing to the rise of Cromwellian Puritanism. In the meantime, the essay had begun to flourish as a literary form, in the guise of, inter alia, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), also considered to be an early empiricist philosopher. Although this senior government figure, awarded a lordship, was considered by some to be a bit of a toady, like Spenser, he really was rather good. His most famous essay is The Advancement of Learning. He seems to have believed that knowledge is power. Now we bring in Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who studied at Oxford. His most well-known epithet is that Man’s life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, and his ‘Leviathan’ is a good treatise on political philosophy. He has been claimed, unfortunately in my view, by many international relations theorists to have been a promoter of political realism/power politics, when in fact his main interest was in how to best run a country at national level. He was a true intellectual, translating Thucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars, and the Iliad and Odyssey. Like so many English literary people, he was almost helplessly influenced by Greece. We now come to a spot of poetry (although Shakespeare’s sonnets surely also qualify as such). Let us sum up John Donne, an ex-Roman Catholic, Cambridge man and lawyer, (1572-1631) with the following: ‘Tis time, ‘tis day; what though it be? O wilt thou therefore rise from me? Why should we rise because ‘tis light? Did we lie down because ‘twas night? Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither, Should despite of light keep us together.’ Then along came the ‘Cavalier poets’, one of whom, Robert Herrick, wrote Counsel to Girls: ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying.’ These gay and carefree chaps had a hard time during the Cromwellian dictatorship. Old Pauline poet John Milton (1608-1674), a Cambridge man, thrice married, torn between freedom and convention, is perhaps best known for Paradise Lost. Like many a well-heeled Englishman, he went on the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe, even meeting Galileo. His works are clearly influenced by Greece. Like Chaucer and Spenser, he held senior positions, but was caught in the crossfire of Puritanism (he worked for Oliver Cromwell) and the Restoration. Let us sum up this sensitive and perhaps tortured man with the closing words of one of his sonnets, in which he describes a dream about one of his dead wives: ‘Her face was veil’d; yet to my fancied sight Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear, as in no face with more delight, But oh! As to embrace me she inclined, I waked – she fled – and day brought back my night.’ He clearly loved her and missed her. You will probably have begun to see that there is often a relationship between politico-religious developments and literature. Milton, for example, was imprisoned for a while at the Restoration, for having been close to the despised Cromwell, while the poet John Dryden (Westminster and Cambridge) also lost his stipend under William of Orange, for having converted to Roman Catholicism. Now we move to prose and the diary writers, the most famous of whom is Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), whose description of the Fire of London in 1666, as well as life in the Seventeenth Century is realistic. But let us not forget John Evelyn, who wrote a much longer diary. Now we come to a quintessential English book, by Isaac Walton (1593-1683), The Compleat Angler, one of the best books about angling ever written. It is somehow about much more than angling, about the pleasures of leading a contemplative life, as can be seen from its alternative title. John Bunyan (1628-1688) was a very different kettle: the son of a tinker, he had a meagre schooling, and learnt to write thanks mainly to the Bible. Because he was a bit of a Christian fundamentalist (a Baptist) and preacher, he was imprisoned for twelve years at the Restoration. His most well-known work is The Pilgrim’s Progress, full of morality, but also humour. So we now leave the Seventeenth Century, and come to another of the giants of English literature, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), born in Dublin of English parents, a man influenced by religion, politics and Ireland, and even women. He was a trained priest, spending much of his life in Ireland, ending up as a champion of freedom for Ireland. He was a superb political satirist, making the political pamphlet almost an art form. He is best known for Gulliver’s Travels, a scathing attack on political hypocrisy. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is our next choice. He was an important political philosopher, and is considered to be the founder of English Conservatism. Although a supporter of Irish and American independence, he turned against the French Revolution, because of its excesses. His contemporary, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was a professional writer (he also married a rich widow) and a witty man, writing for example, that he who made a beast of himself got rid of the pain of being a man. Another very witty literary chap was Alexander Pope (1688-1744) who, as a Roman Catholic, was not allowed to vote or hold public office. His best known work is the poetic Essay on Man, a sensitively written moral tract on how Man should accept God’s mysterious ways. As regards Pope’s pithiness, consider this: ‘A little learning is a dang’rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring’. We can see from this, that like so many writers, he was influenced by ancient Greece. He also translated the Odyssey. Let us mention (I wish that we had more space) the group of poets known as the ‘Transition Poets’, such as James Thompson, Thomas Grey, William Collins and William Blake. They tended to concentrate on Nature and the metaphysical. As for the amazing Scotsman, Robert Burns, he is not easy to categorise, but certainly he was of a Romantic bent, and usually wrote his poetry with Scottish pronunciation. Several of his poems were used as lyrics for songs. Drama was popular: the Irishman Richard Sheridan (1751-1816), for example, wrote The Rivals, which includes a character by the name of Mrs.Malaprop, who had problems with finding the correct word. Thus today, ‘saying ‘alligator’ instead of ‘allegory’ (because one does not really know!) is a ‘malapropism’. The novel was now coming into being, the seeds having been sown by the likes of Bunyan and Swift. Daniel Defoe’s (1660-1731) Robinson Crusoe (based on a true story, as are many novels), about a castaway, is still very popular. He wrote various other, more fictional, novels, as well as various pamphlets. He was also a journalist. Another good novelist of the time was Henry Fielding (1710-1768), with his somewhat naughty and bawdy Tom Jones, about a young servant being wooed by his lady employer. It is nevertheless a good reflection of life at the time. The Industrial Revolution then began to make its social impact on the country. Factories were being built, coal mine mines dug, and people dragooned into working mechanically for hours on end, with a good deal of exploitation of women and children. The so-called ‘Protestant work ethic’ ran rampant. The Seven Years’ War had resulted in an enormous and expanding British Empire. For many, greed became the order of the day. It is now that the Romantics came to the fore. Romanticism probably has its origins in the Sturm und Drang movement, which was a reaction to the excesses of the Enlightenment, with its over-interpreted Classical forms, and the Age of Reason, which lacked wild and free spirituality in its scientific, rational pedantry. Some of the ideas behind the French Revolution helped. Most of the British Romantics traveled in Europe, and were clearly heavily influenced by Greek mythology. In Britain, it also manifested itself as a reaction to the greed of the Industrial Revolution. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was surely one, but more conservative and controlled in nature than some of his homologues, such as Byron. He was a Cumbrian who loved nature, and a Cambridge man attracted by the ideas of the French Revolution, who was good enough in his day to become Poet Laureate. Consider this (if you feel like it): ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove A maid who there were none to praise And very few to love. A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye! Fair as a star, when only one is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me!’ William’s friend, Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) was also rather good, and is best known for The Ancient Mariner. Here is an extract: ‘Day after day, day after day, We stuck, no breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water everwhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.’ Our next three Romantics all died young, and not exactly naturally, in their good time, the fate of many a fast liver. John Keats (1795-1821) had women problems, nevertheless qualifying as what one would think would be a down-to-earth ) apothecary-surgeon. Here are two lines from Ode to a Nightingale: ‘My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk.’ The poem is laden with references to Greek things. He is also well-known for Ode to a Grecian Urn. His father died when falling off a horse when Keats was eight, and his mother when he was fourteen. Percy Shelley (1792-1822), who supported freedom for the Irish, managed to struggle on until he was thirty, then drowning in a sailing accident in Italy. Like several Romantics, he left the – for them – intellectually stifling shores of England for Italy. He had various colourful relationships with women (one of whom drowned herself). Here are two of his lines: ‘ Drive my dead thoughts over the universe Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!’ And so we come to Lord Byron (1788-1824), educated at Harrow and Cambridge. He was the epitomy of freedom, a scourge of the hypocritical part of the English Establishment, and was loved more in Europe than England. He found England too insular and was an embarrassment to bigots and the small-minded. Leading a very colourful life with women, he divorced, but managed to sire a daughter. Known for, inter alia, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and Don Juan, some of his scintillating lines are: ‘I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand: I saw from out the wave her structures rise As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying glory smiles.’ Apart from infuriating the English Establishment with an attack on the barbaric removal of the ‘Elgin Marbles’ from the Parthenon (see The Curse of Minerva), he died of a violent fever fighting for Greek independence. It was not until 1969 that his remains were buried in Poets’ Corner of Westminster, an example of considerable pettiness on the part of the tawdry part of the Establishment. You may by now have noticed that no females have been mentioned. This is because women do not appear to have been that hot at writing, for many socio-economic reasons. Mind you, let us not forget the inimitable Sappho! Jane Austin (1775-1817) is surely one of the greatest English writers, with her Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. Her expertise was in handling rough and passionate topics, usually about relationships between men and women in the higher classes, with tact and delicacy. I think that she managed to combine precision with lightness, a rare gift. Pride and Prejudice begins: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, the truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some or other of their daughters.’ The Bronte sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848 and Anne (1820-1849) were influenced by Byron, and managed to slightly shock the Establishment, with their passionate descriptive writing about, inter alia, love affairs. Charlotte is best known for Jane Eyre, Emily for Wuthering Heights, and Anne for Agnes Grey. They were veritable pace-setters, since there are today a number of female writers who concentrate on stories of romances, albeit not at the same high literary level as the three sisters. Moving well into the Victorian Age, we come to (Lord) Alfred Tennyson, famous for his epic The Charge of the Light Brigade, a depiction of a bad military decision in the Crimean war. Here is an extract: ‘Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Into the jaws of death, Into the mouth of hell Rode the six hundred.’ We begin to end this overview with a monument, Charles Dickens (1812-1870), an amazing fellow, who even spent some time when a boy in the workhouse, while his father was in debtors’ gaol. The experience left a lasting impression, and he was most critical of the affects of the Industrial Revolution. Like many writers of the day, his novels were often serialized in cheap magazines, which meant a wide readership. He was an expert in description, especially of people. George Orwell was to write that he seemed to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonizing nobody. It could be that his sometimes humorous approach helped. He did however irritate the Americans with his American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit, by mentioning their lawlessness and rapacity. He was a prolific writer: who has not heard of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities? Consider this extract, from Hard Times: ‘It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled.’ Penultimately, we have Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), of Jungle Book fame. It is he who spoke of ‘the White Man’s burden’ (meaning black and maybe brown people), thus attracting accusations of racism many years later. But that’s the way it was in those days when Britain was on top of the world, and when various rational types, such as Buffon and Darwin, had rather strongly suggested that black chaps were inferior to white ones. I am unsure as to their views on whether the same applied to women. We end with the ‘Pre-Raphaelites’, a group of writers led by the Anglicised Italian Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), influenced by early Sixteenth Century Italian painting and literature.   That, students, is the end of our brief glimpse at the history of English Literature. Clearly, knowing about developments in Britain throughout the period with which we have dealt will help you to see the relationship between political, religious, social and cultural life. My Britain: Country and Culture courses should help there. One thing to remember is that the vast majority of writers read other writers, and that in a sense they are often influenced, perhaps without realising it. Beware of over-categorisation: if we escape from it, we may spot traces of romanticism far earlier than the main movement began: ‘I walked along a stream for pureness rare’, wrote Marlowe, while Donne wrote: ‘A teardrop that encompasses and drowns the world’. Typical questions from my past examination papers have been: ‘ â€Å"English Literature of the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries cannot be understood except in the light of Greek mythology.† Explain this contention.’ ‘What, in your view, were the chief characteristics of the Romantics, and why did they have such characteristics?’ ‘What do you think influenced Jonathan Swifts work?’ ‘Was Lord Byron the same kind of Romantic as Wordsworth?’ It goes without saying, almost, that merely learning the above few pages, parrot-fashion, will not be sufficient to pass the examination: they represent only a skeletal outline. I shall immediately see through any examination paper that appears to rely only on this brief guide. Most marks will be awarded for evidence of originality and thinking, as well as of knowledge. Have fun!

Development of Parkinsons Disease Research

Development of Parkinsons Disease Research The Descendants In the spring of 1988, neurologist Larry Golbe at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey conducted a routine examination of a 48-year-old man David. David was diagnosed with PD ten years earlier. A few weeks after the meeting, David died. After the funeral, Davids brother Frank came to see Golbe, as he was concerned that he also might have PD. After giving Frank a full examination, Golbe confirmed that he had the disease, and started a broad family study to search for any other relatives who might have contracted PD. During his examination, Frank told him the family originated in Contursi, a small village in Italy. Several months after Franks visit, Golbe got a visit from a woman with classic symptoms of PD. After Golbe had examined her, he wondered whether there might be something wrong apart from the PD. The patient, Joyce, told him she was of Italian descent, from a small village called Contursi. Golbe immediately made the connection between David and Joyce. He called his senior colleague Roger Duvoisin, and together they embarked on a complex task of medical detection. A year later, Larry Golbe went to Contursi, Italy to meet with Dr. Salvatore La Sala and his Italian collaborator, the neurologist Giuseppe Di Iorio. They plotted the family tree on a huge chart and found that David and Joyce were seventh cousins. They were two of 574 descendants of a couple who married around 1700. The remarkable finding was that 61 of the recent descendants had developed PD, and that descendants had a 50 percent chance of inheriting the bad gene. Golbe and his team collected blood samples from members of the kindred to take them to New Jersey for DNA analysis. Such analysis might identify the specific genetic mutation and provide clues as to how it caused PD to develop. In the years ahead Duvoisins team failed to capitalize on its discovery because they lacked the specialized skills needed to find the gene. On August 28, 1995, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) held a special workshop about PD. The NINDS director, Zach Hall, had asked Roger Duvoisin to present a progress report on the Contursi kindred. It had now been seven years since they had completed the family pedigree, and people were becoming impatient at the lack of progress. After the meeting, Hall asked Bob Nussbaum, a 46-year-old geneticist from the NIH, if he would be interested in mapping and sequencing the gene. Nussbaum was enthusiastic about the idea and suggested that he worked with his colleague Mihael Polymeropoulos. The geneticists used a process called linkage analysis to locate the gene. By taking blood samples from large numbers of both affected and healthy members of the Contursi kindred, geneticists can pinpoint the gene to a small region of the genome. Within nine days, Polymeropoulos and Nussbaum found the gene in a small region (band 21) of the long arm (q) of chromosome 4. The genetic zip code is 4q21. It took another nine months before they located the precise address within the zip code and sequenced the mutated gene. They checked the sequence against GenBank and found a hit. The mutated gene was called SNCA, which coded for a brain protein called alpha-synuclein. A single base change in the genes code produced a mutant form of the protein, which caused affected individuals to contract PD. Maria Grazia Spillantini, an Italian Alzheimers researcher working in England, had developed special staining techniques to visualize alpha-synclein in brain tissues. On a hunch, she used the stain to search for alpha-synuclein in brain specimens of deceased PD patients. Even though these patients lacked the Contursi mutation, she found lots of alpha-synuclein. She found it in Lewy bodies. As you recall, Lewy bodies are found inside the brain tissues of PD patients. In 1997 no one knew what Lewy bodies were made of. Spillantini had found the answer: they are made of alpha-synuclein. Heiko Braak, the legendary neuoanatomist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, was inspired by the discovery that Lewy bodies were made of alpha-synuclein. He embarked on a massive PD project. Using alpha-synuclein staining, Braak looked for Lewy pathology, and he hunted not only in the brain but in the rest of the body. He found that the location of Lewy pathology appeared to change as the disease progressed. Braak argued that this was compelling evidence that PD started perhaps decades before any tremor or rigidity appeared. He suggested that the disease was possibly triggered by an infection in the gut and/or nose and spread throughout the brain in six anatomical stages that mapped into the pattern of symptoms found in epidemiological studies like the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Stage 1: loss of smell and constipation Stage 2: REM sleep behavior disorder Stage 3: Classic PD tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement Stage 4: Loss of balance Stages 5 and 6: dementia (when the pathology spreads to the forebrain and the neocortex) Since the 1997 discovery of the alpha-synuclein mutation, some eighteen potential genetic forms of PD turned up. In 2003, a group of Mayo Clinic and NIH geneticists announced a discovery of another family kindred with an inherited form of PD. The team of geneticists had been hunting for the gene since the mid-1990s. First they looked for gene mutations but found nothing. Eventually they discovered that the Iowa kindred PD wasnt caused by a point mutation of the gene. They found that affected members of the kindred had extra copies of the normal alpha-synuclein gene on chromosome 4. That means more alpha-synuclein protein is being pumped into the affected individuals bodies. This discovery showed that you didnt need a mutation to get PD, too much alpha-synuclein can cause PD. The discoveries attracted the attention of the Cambridge Professor Chris Dobson. Four decades of research had convinced Dobson that proteins were implicated in a range of diseases from inherited diseases like cystic fibrosis to neurodegenerative conditions like PD and Alzheimers. He speculated that because many diseases appeared to be connected with misbehaving proteins, one day it might be possible to block several of these diseases with a single drug. Key Takeaways In 1997, Larry Golbe discovered the Contursi kindred with an inherited form of PD. Mihael Polymeropoulos and Bob Nussbaum pinpointed the mutated gene to a gene called SNCA, which coded for a brain protein called alpha-synuclein. Maria Grazia Spillantini discovered that Lewy bodies are made of alpha-synuclein, demonstrating the critical role of alpha-synuclein in PD. Heiko Braak classified the pathology of PD into six stages, depending on the pattern of Lewy bodies found in the PD patient. In 2003, a group of Mayo Clinic and NIH geneticists discovered another family kindred with an inherited form of PD. The gene is not a mutation of the alpha-synuclein gene. The affected individual has extra copies of the gene in their chromosomes. This discovery showed that you didnt need a mutation to get PD, too much alpha-synuclein can cause PD. The field is now poised to test a series of exciting agents designed to stop the spread of this rogue protein in our bodies and brains.

Business Ethics Essay -- essays research papers fc

Introduction Background The literature being studied is an article written by Hellen O’ Sullivan, the Director of Scientific Methods Australia. The article entitled â€Å"Business ethics are set to set to stage a comeback† was published on the 75th page of The Australian Financial Review on the 6th February 1990. Literature Review   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Basically, the article discussed several important issues about business ethics. One of the most prominent was the remark she made about business ethics making a comeback. The conclusion was made upon the fact that business ethics are becoming more and more popular among business practitioners as the era of ‘Me-generation’, and its obsession with greed and profit at any cost draws to a close.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Besides that, another notable issue addressed was the positive correlation between business ethics and corporate performance. She suggested that recent corporate failures resulted from a singularly motivated strategy of making profits. She also noted that the 1990’s avalanche of corporate collapse could be all attributed directly or indirectly to the decline in business ethics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The third issue raised was the role of managers or business leaders to actually uphold business ethics. She suggested that the formulation of a sound ethical code of practice should be a part of every company’s strategy and that it is the first responsibility of every business leadership. Procedures   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I have made a research regarding the issues identified in the literature mainly through a computer-assisted research service - LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe at http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe. From this particular research I have gathered altogether sixteen (16) articles. These articles are published in various journals, namely The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Time, Newsweek, Information Week, Accounting Age, PR Week, Business Mexico, The National Journal, Fleet Owner as well as Malaysian Business. All these articles are written by reputable authors, who are either academician or practitioners.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Besides that, I also did some library research. From here, I have chosen two (2) books on Strategic Management, which have sections and topics relevant to the issues addressed in the main literature. ... ...R., PR Week, 11th December. 8) George, T., (2001), Managers, Staff Differ (Slightly) on Ethics, Information Week, 19 February, pp. 140. 9) Harvard Business Review (1996), The Culture and Ethics of Software Privacy, September/October, pp. 52 10) Harvard Business Review, (1996), Values in Tension: Ethics Away from Home., September/October, pp. 48. 11) Hill, C. W. L. & Jones G. R. (1998), Strategic Management; An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed., Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, New York 12) Klien, R., (2001), Torn Between Profit and Purity, The Times Educational Supplement, 16th March, pp. 22. 13) Malaysian Business, (1997), Eliminating the Parasites, 16th January, pp. 1 14) The Economist (1999), US Edition, Sweatshop wars, 14th February, pp. 62 15) The Economist, (2000), US Edition., Doing Well by Doing Good., 22nd April. 16) Wallace, B., (2001), Cell Phones Trigger Litigation Risks and Ethical Choices, Information Week, 19th February. 17) Wheelen, T. L. & Hunger, J. D., (1995), Strategic Management & Business Policy., Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc. 18) Zaino, J., (2001), Companies Give Back to Their Communities, Information Week, 12th March, pp. 163.

In In Total Remission :: Cancer Health Medicine Essays

In Total Remission Valentine's Day will never be the same. Four years ago, Cupid's holiday coincided with my discovery of a tumor in my cheek. Later diagnosed as a rare sarcoma, this capricious cancer has provoked me to understand myself and my passions. While I have developed new life perspectives since vying with cancer, my metamorphosis was not induced by my illness, but through learning to confront myself. My renewed outlook manifests in my leadership with the American Red Cross where I serve as the Chairman of the National Advisory Council on Youth Involvement. Carrying my insight from cancer--that tomorrow is never guaranteed--I have re-focussed the Council's advocacy efforts on behalf of the 340,000 youth volunteers of the Red Cross. Rather than promoting youth as an investment for tomorrow, I have prioritized youth as the asset of today. With a more immediate message, our Council has bolstered corporate youth programs and youth funding. Through my service on the National Committee on Resolution s, I also integrate youth initiatives from the field level of the Red Cross into national policy. My approach to Red Cross service has also changed at the grassroots level. Shortly after my final chemotherapy treatment, I was dispatched to a residential fire in central Fort Worth. At the scene, I discovered a mother crouched at the curb silhouetted against her smoldering house. While listening to the mother, I learned that she lost her thirteen-year-old son in the blaze. Though I had rehabilitated disaster victims before my illness, this event carried a different significance. While I was learning to live anew, I comforted a mother coping with death. My conversation with the mother compelled me to re-confront my journey with cancer. By reflecting on my own anxieties, still real and familiar, I empathized with the mother on an equal plan rather than that of victim and volunteer. Through service, I now probe my own experiences to assist and empower others. I have confronted and challenged myself in other realms of my life. Last spring, in Harvard's Agassiz Theater, the lights were dim and the audience hushed as a cool cube of ice melted over my tongue. Through the crack in the curtain, I noticed my friends huddled in the rear of the theater. A moment later the music roared and I leaped on stage with my troupe. Dressed in our radiant costumes, we feverishly danced, skipped, and clicked our sticks in near perfect harmony.

Alzheimer’s Disease Essay -- Alzheimers Disease Essays

Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease of the future. With the growing aged population, this disease, which affects primarily the elderly, will become of increasing relevance to the medical profession. Also, the high frequency of Alzheimer’s, and the high cost in labor, money, and material of caring for its victims shall put considerable burden on the society as a whole. Here, however, these issues are not going to be debated. Instead the pathology of Alzheimer’s will be reviewed to the extent it is known today. Alzheimer’s disease in many ways is not yet defined. It is a progressive disease afflicting between 5 and 15 percent of people over 65. Additionally, it is not restricted to the elderly, reportedly having presented in teenagers. Prior to 1960, the term Alzheimer’s was reserved for presenile dementia’s resulting in death within 5 years where the classical neuroanatomic changes were seen upon autopsy. Currently, there is still considerable debate as to whether the disease called Alzheimer’s in the elderly is the same disease as that called Alzheimer’s in younger people. In addition, recent and past research into Alzheimer’s has been in geared toward defining the disease as much as describing the disease process. Presently, diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is based on characteristic dysfunction’s of the individual and on brain biopsy or post-mortem brain autopsy looking for cortical degeneration, a preponderance of plaques, and neu rofibrillary tangles. Exactly what causes Alzheimer’s disease is unknown. Aging has been blamed for Alzheimer’s. The preponderance of cases being among the aged supports this theory but the existence of Alzheimer’s scattered across the population not explained. Transmissi... ...Transport of Neurofilament as a Mechanism of Pathogenesis Underlying Alzheimer’s Disease and Many Other Degenerations of the CNS. Normal Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease and Senile Dementia , 51--67. Katzman, R. , T. Brown, P. Fuld, L. Thal, P. Davies, R. Terry (1986) Significance of Neurotransmitter Abnormalities in Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuropeptides in Neurologic and Psvchiatric Disease: 279-286. Martin, A., P. Browers, C. Cox, and P. Fedio (1985) On the Nature of the Verbal Memory Deficit in Alzheimer’s Disease. Brain and Language: 25, 323-341. Rosen, W. G. , R. C. Mohs, K. L. Davis (1985) Assessing Symptom Severity in Alzheimer’s Disease. Interdis. Topics Geront.: 20, 35-42. Wisniewski, H. M., G. S. Merz, G. Y. Wen, K. Iqbal and I. Grundke-Iqbal (1985) Morphology and Biochemistry of Alzheimer’s Disease. Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type: 263-274