Time you were shamed Essay Example for Free

Time you were shamed Essay Ive had great embarrassing moments in my life. Most occurred during my childhood days. One of these happened when I was 8. I got my   most humiliating spanking which I will never forget in my entire life.   Studying should be at the top of every students priority. During this age I need to do some homework everyday.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My parents used to monitor my studies and pay lots of attention to my school work and the grades on my report card. I was a very lazy kid and forgot to do my homework most of the time. My teacher once caught having no homework. She then decided to report it to my parents. We have a school handbook wherein every important school reminder should be written. My teacher wrote a letter to my parents that they were supposed to read and to sign. I really wanted to avoid any punishment from my parents and so I confidently signed the letter by forging their signature. It was a very bad idea since a childs handwriting is far different from an adults . The next day it was time for my teacher to see if my parents were already aware of my misbehavior and told me that she wanted to talk to them after the class. I can never forget the day after that. It was Saturday which meant no class and so I have to face the truth since my parents already knew what I did. Two birds in one stone. First is by not doing homework and next is by copying their handwriting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As I woke up I went to the bathroom downstairs but my father saw me already and told me that I should be punished. He grabbed my arms and took me to the kitchen. I was about to pee in my pants and to my surprise, dad pulled down my pajamas and slid it together with my underwear to my ankles. I was standing naked and what I didnt notice was that my mom and my teacher on the subject which I failed to do homework were standing right in front of me. They both saw everything and were both staring at my genitals and laughing. It was very embarrassing and I was really ashamed of my lazy deed.

General relativity Essay Example for Free

General relativity Essay For many years time travel was the stuff of science fiction. This was all just part of the worlds imagination until recently. Scientists now believe that the current laws of physics allow us to travel though time. They believe that we can now travel back to see our founding fathers sign the declaration of independence. We could travel to 2999 to witness the birth of the next new millennium. Such travel would require a machine capable of withstanding great pressures and incredible amounts of speed. The act of actually traveling though time is for the most part, agreed upon, but the implications of such travel is not so decided upon. Many different theorists have different views of what could happen and some go, as far as to say that if we did travel to the past, we would end up in a different universe that is a replica of this one. One of the most basic concepts is that of Dilation, a stretching of something. Some scientists believe that the main gateway to the past or future is a wormhole. Einsteins general relativity theory explains about universal constants, this is important to understand the concepts of travel at light speed. Traveling to the past could create problems if someone tried to change something. This is a paradox. A few of these paradoxes are explained through the use of quantum mechanics. Sailing though the cosmos at the speed of light with no time passing us by, moving throughout time to witness the ancient Egyptians create their masterpieces. This is an exciting concept that we could actually formulate and make happen. Before the time of Einstein, Newton and other great investigators thought of space as an infinite expanse in which all things exist (Hewitt 213). We are in space and we live in it along with all of the planets and stars. It was never clear if the universe exists in space or space exists in the universe. Dose space exists outside the universe or only within the bounds of it. The similar question, does the universe exist only in time or does time only exist in the universe? Was there time before the universe, and will there be time after it ceases to exist? Einsteins answer to this is that time and space only exist within the universe. There is no time or space ? outside. (Hewitt 213) Einstein said that space and time are two separate parts of a whole called space-time (Hewitt 213). To understand this, consider our present knowledge. We move though time at the rate of 24 hours per day. This is only half the story though. To get the other half we have to convert our thinking from moving though time to moving though space-time (Hewitt 213). When we move, we not only move through space, we move though time. This is the idea of space-time. If a person were to stand still, they would be moving only though time. If they moved a little bit, they would be moving though space a little bit, but still mostly though time. If one were to travel at the speed of light, what changes would they experience in time? The answer is simple; they would be traveling through space, with no travel though time (Hewitt 214). They would be as ageless as light, for light travels though space only (not time) and is timeless. The frame of reference of a photon, a particle of light, a trip across the universe would take no time at all (Hewitt 214). To understand how traveling though time would work, we must first understand how time and space can be stretched. Motion in space affects motion in time. Whenever we move through space, we to some degree alter our rate of motion in time. This is known as time dilation, a stretching of time that occurs ever so slightly for everyday speeds, but significantly for speeds approaching the speed of light. If we were to attempt to travel to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, which is 4 light years away, even traveling at the speed of light would take 8 years round trip (Hewitt 228). The center of our galaxies is something like 30000 light years away and at the speed of light would take 30000 years to get there. We could not possibly survive that long. These arguments fail to take in to account of time dilation though. Time for a stationary observer on earth and for an astronaut on a spaceship of high velocity is different. A persons heart beats to the rhythm of the realm it is in. One realm of time seems the same as any other to the person in the realms, but not to an observer outside that realm that can see the difference. As an example, astronauts traveling at 99% the speed of light could make a trip to the star Procyon that is 11. 4 light-years away in 23 earth years round trip (Hewitt 229). Because of time dilation, it would seem that only 3 years passed for the astronauts, there clocks would be 3 years older; they would be biologically only 3 years older (Hewitt 229). It would be the mission control people that would appear to be 23 years older. The question is why dose this happen. Lets say that we are in our hometown, looking at the grandfather clock that is in the center of town. The clock reads 12:00 noon. Light from the sun bounces off the face of the clock and hits our eyes. We then turn our head and the light misses us and travels off into space. In space, there is a space ship that is traveling at the speed of light. An astronaut looks out his passenger-side window and sees the reflection of the clock. It reads 12:00 noon. As he continues to move at the speed of light, he keeps up with the reflected face of the clock. In the space ship time would pass as normal, but time in the universe would have seemed to stop. This might sound like cosmic bologna but the idea has been proven. In 1975 Professor Carl Tllie of the University of Maryland tested this theory using two synchronized atomic clocks (Brian par2). One clock was placed on a plain and flown for several hours while he other clock stayed on the ground. Upon landing, the clock on the plain was a little slower than the one on the ground. This was not due to experimental error, for the same test was done several times and each time yielded the same results. Because of time dilation travel in to the distance future is a definite possibility. The only problem lies in propelling a craft to such speed at which light travels. Carl Sagan wrote a science fiction novel about a fictional device that allowed his character to travel great distances across the universe. Those faster than light speeds are not achievable; he also knew there was a common convention in science fiction that would allow a gimmick of a shortcut through ? Hyper space as a means around this problem( par2 ) . Sagen turned to Kip Thorne for help for hyperspace connections through space-time( par2). A black hole always has two ends, a property ignored by everyone except a few mathematicians until the mid-1980s. Thorne was sufficiently intrigued to set two of his Ph. D. students, Michael Morris and Ulvi Yurtsever, the task of working out some of the details of the physical behavior of what the relativists know aswormholes. By starting out from the mathematical end of the problem, they constructed a space-time geometry that matched Sagans requirement of a wormhole that could be physical traversed by human beings. Sagan was right; hyperspace connections do at least in theory provide a means to travel to far distant regions of the universe without spending thousands of years putting around in an ordinary spacecraft. Since the 30s scientists have speculated that wormholes exist. Einsteins theory combines 3 dimensional space with time to create a 4 dimensional space (Brian par3). Wormholes are gateways between two different parts of the universe made by linking two black holes. Wormholes are in the fabric of 4 dimensional space that are connected, but which originate at different points in space and different times. By connecting the two holes they provide a quick path between two different locations in space and time. Distortions in space cause the point separated by the gap to bulge out and connect. This forms a wormhole through, which something could instantaneously travel to a far away place and time. This is basically the 4dinensial equivalent of a folded sheet of paper, to make contact from one edge of the paper to the other. One could build a craft strong enough to withstand the intense force of the gravity towards the center, and pass right through like opening a door of a house and stepping outside, except the space travelers outside could be light-years away and centuries before the current time. If the traveler enters one side he would exit in the opposite side in a different place and time. The difficulty of doing this is in keeping the hole open till the travel gets through otherwise it would collapse and the traveler would not be seen again. The trip is not impossible just extremely difficult. It is believed to be possible to create our own wormhole. To actually make one, two identical machines consisting of 2 parallel metal plates charged with unbelievable amounts of energy would need to be constructed. When the machines are placed in close proximity of each other the enormous amounts of energy, about that of an exploding star, would rip a hole in the space-time continuum and connect the two machines via a wormhole. This is possible and the beginnings of it have been illustrated in the lab by what is known as the Casimir effect. The next step would be to put one of these machines on a space ship and send it off at near light speed. The ship would take the machine on a journey while being connected to the other on earth via the wormhole. A step in the hole would take us to where the other machine is, but that would be in a different time. Its use would be somewhat limited because we could not travel to a time before the machine was created. However if we were to utilize wormhole technologic we would have to be so advanced that we could master the energy within blockhouse. Space-time consists of portraits or events that represent a particular place at a particular time. Your life forms sort of a worm in space-time. The tip of the tail is your birth and the head is your death. And everything that is the body is your life, otherwise called your world line. In three-dimensional space, a rocket that is not accelerating is stationary, but in four-dimensional space the ship is moving along is world line. Einsteins law states simply that the world line of every object is a geodesic in the continuum. A geodesic is the shortest distance between two points but in curved space is not generally a straight line. If an objects world line were to be distorted, so much of form a loop connected with a part on itself that represented an earlier place in time it would create a corridor to the past. Picture a loop to loop that runs into it as it comes around. This closed loop is called a closed time like curve. These curves could be used to travel into our own history. All the clams made about time travel are consequences of the basic scientific laws and standard Quantum Mechanics. Wormholes and closed time like curves appear to be the main way to travel to the past. The aforementioned theories do fine in expelling how to we would go about traveling through time, but they do little to explain what it would be like traveling through them. Quantum mechanics can be used to model possible scenarios and yields the probability of each possible output. In the context of time travel, it has a so-called many universe interpretation. First pursed by Huge Evertt III in 1957. This means that if something can physically happen it does in some universe. Everett says that our reality is only one of the many equally valid universes. There is a collection of these universes called a multiverse. Every multiverse has copies of every person, structure and atom. For every possible event every possible outcome is said to be played out in a different universe. This interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is quite controversial, but it does suggest that it may be impossible to travel backward in it to our own dimension, but quite possible to travel back in time to an alternate dimension. Such an idea of linking parallel universes has been suggested in science fiction novels and in some television shoes such as Sliders. In the television series Sliders, a sliding machine creates a wormhole that links 2 parallel dimensions. Each week a group of these sliders jump into the wormhole and emerge in the same place and time, but in a different dimension. They can run into there own selves and experience a society vastily different than their own. The stuff of science fiction stems from existing Physical theories. So now that we know travel through time is theoretically possible, what would it be like? What would traveling at light speed be like? It would be similar to driving our car at 60 mph. You could not really tell the difference, Einstein says that you can not tell the difference in uniformly moving vessels. According to Einsteins laws of special relativity sight speed travel is not achievable. For any object to attain light speed, an object must be massless, such as a photon. Any object with mass would require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to light speed. As we know, everything has mass so it would be impossible for any human to achieve these speeds. Another barrier on our traveling the speed of light, is the fact that light is pure energy, if we were to travel at that speed, we would turn into energy blobs. What happens when we actually travel back in to time? What happens if we change something, or try to commit suicide or to invent something from the future that we take for granted? The future from that point could be drastically changed. This argument is commonly called the Chronology principal. This principal states that the time travel could bring information to the past that could be used to create new ideas or products. If Pablo Picaso, the most influential and successful painter of the 20th century were to travel back in time to meet his younger self, assuming he stayed in his correct universe, he could then give himself a portfolio of all his work. His younger self could reproduce the paintings and profoundly and irrevocably affecting the future of art. This would involve no creative energy by the inventor. The reproductions would exist because they are copies from the original and the originals exist because they are copies of the reproductions. No creative energy would ever have to be put forth to create these masterpieces. Because of the chronology principal time travel, by some, has been ruled out. The cosmos await us, and the history of our world is at our fingertips. Would we use this great power for good, bad, and wealth? All we have to do is get in our spaceship, set sail for the nearest wormhole, and hope for a little luck, and we can witness things only told in stories. Only the traveler can decided what he or she wishes to go back for. The theories today state that traveling through time is possible, however they do not say what could be the repercussions of our actions. This great frontier awaits us; we have the knowledge, and are slowly but surly developing the technology. Only time will tell when time itself no longer rules our lives as one of the chief amendments of the universal constitution.

Satire In The Musical Urinetown

Satire In The Musical Urinetown The musical Urinetown, by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, falls in the class of the modern anti-musical with its untraditional structure and content, not only breaking the mold of what makes musical theatre, but making satire of itself and its relatives in the process. This essay will investigate how Urinetown uses satire to create a new, participatory role for audience unimplemented by its predecessors. This is relevant theatrical topic as it suggests a contrast from musical theatres historical structure, as well as changing social roles in the theatrical culture. To approach this proposition, I will investigate by researching the creation of Urinetown, as well as traditional musicals to serve as a comparative structure. I will use this research to draw conclusions about Urinetowns satirical nature and the role it creates for the audience. Introduction My interest for Urinetown came with the announcement of a local high schools theatrical season, which included the musical. Having heard the name but being unfamiliar with the show, I began to research the plot and was enthralled by the story. As wacky as it is, Urinetown has contemplative themes with social commentary. The musical tells the story of citizens in a town where all restrooms are government operated. As crude as it is, much of the focus of the musical is on having to pay to pee. While Hollmann and Kotis take a humorous approach, the show does embody the peoples oppression by their own government, a theme all too familiar in a historical and current context. Urinetown creates a culture of desperation, the frequent consequence of unequal wealth distribution. Corrupt members of the Urine Good Company, or UGC, live in lavishness while average citizens cannot even afford to fulfill their most basic needs. Essential to the plot are the characters which embody theatrical archet ypes. These archetypes will be included in my scope of investigation along with Hollmann and Kotis creation of the musical. My interest in audience role came with my attendance of the North Carolina Governors School in the area of theatre. During our five weeks, we created a show which challenged traditional audience roles. The expectation of a theatre patron is to sit and be entertained, perhaps laugh and cry, and then go home. This actor-audience relationship has been upheld majorly through Vaudeville, opera, dramas, comedies, and most theatre imaginable. My investigation intends to prove that Urinetown does not adhere to these traditional audience roles, and instead uses satire to challenge its viewers, making them uncomfortable and offering a more participatory, engaging theatre experience. My methodology for this essay will primarily be analysis of research regarding record of Urinetown and its formation, and traditional musical theatre structure and the satirical comparison of it. Investigation Urinetown was inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, specifically Threepenny Opera. Threepenny Opera, which transformed old-fashioned opera and operetta forms, incorporated a sharp political perspective, and the sound of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret, is most strikingly similar to Urinetown. From the shows opening number, the audience is introduced to an oppressed society run by a corrupt government, shown through operatic chorus chords and lyrics. The show mimics others through its number, Too Much Exposition , poking fun at the notion of an excess of background knowledge to ruin a show, taking stabs at Threepenny Opera and other musicals such as Les Miserables. Dark and dramatic with crude humor laced on top, Threepenny Opera certainly bears a resemblance to Urinetown. Urinetown is a prime example of ironic detachment, but it wasnt the first musical to use this perspective. Though this approach has not been standard practice for most of the history of musical theatre, it has appeared in Of Thee I Sing (1931), The Cradle Will Rock (1937), Guys and Dolls (1950), The Threepenny Opera (1954),How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Hair (1968), Company (1970), Grease (1972), Chicago(1975), 42nd Street (1980), Assassins (1990), Bat Boy (1997), and others. These shows broke the traditional role of musical comedy. Urinetown strays from self-importance in favor of self-deprecation. John Bush Jones writes in his book Our Musicals, Ourselves, It seems no accident that a cluster of solemn musicals came right at the end of the century. Among serious and thoughtful creative people, the ends of centuries have often provoked a lot of serious and thoughtful thinking, and the production of works of literature, art, or in our case, musical theatre of especially unsmiling seriousness. Urinetown rebels against this seriousness, even mocking it. This show acknowledges its own art form, but is also part of what it mocks, taking on issues such as corporate corruption, environmentalism, civil liberties, class warfare. Ironic detachment has now become so present in television and modern culture that it no longer packs the same artistic or political punch. As our culture evolves, so must storytelling. Rodgers and Hammerstein were groundbreaking in 1943, but times have changed. Contracting to their elaborate storytelling , new musicals are more honest, breaking the fourth wall, that barrier of lies between actor and audience. Urinetown, first opening in New York in the summer of 1999, referenced dozens of movies and other bits of American pop culture, including The Wizard of Oz. Contrasting though, where Dorothys selflessness and bravery saved the day in Oz, the traits result in hopelessness in Urinetown. Even though both stories take place in an era of depression, they have separate audiences. Referenced in the musical is a response to Thomas Robert Malthus Essay on the Principles of Population (1798), which discusses the tendency of human beings to outstrip their resources. This heavy and dark allusion contrasts to the traditional musical, even in Urinetown with its light potty-humor. Urinetown breaks the mold of the traditional musical and yet, in certain ways, is true to conventional musical theatre, the shows structure taking after a Rodgers and Hammerstein model. The score ranges from direct homages to Threepenny Opera to traditional ballads to hymns, gospel, Bach, and the B-52s. The work, Urinetown, though it seems shallow and crude, is carefully constructed theatre, presented by outrageous circumstances. Urinetown registered with audiences on many levels, like any good fairy tale, providing for each audience member a slightly different message, question, or experience. The show received ten Tony nominations, winning for best score, best book, and best director. Bruce Weber in The New York Times called it a sensational piece of performance art, one that acknowledges theatre tradition and pushes it forward as well. Linda Winer inNewsday called it elevated silliness of the highest order that makes a gratifying case for the restorative return to knowing foolishness and the smartly absurd. Rex Reed in The New York Observer wrote, What kind of musical is this? A fresh, unique, original, impudent, colorful, exciting, irreverent, surprising and wonderful musical, thats all. Clive Barnes of the New York Post called it a wild and happy mix of biting satire and loving parody. Urinetown is both a satire of American political and social forces, and also a parody of musical theatre as an art form, both aspects equally well crafted. The show ran 965 performances, more than two years, a run that might have lasted far longer if not for September 11 and its crippling of Broadway. Unlike traditional musicals, Urinetowns extreme emotionalism is followed by cynicism. When a metaphor pops up, it is promptly diffused by literalism, such as the gazes to the distance. Even the resolution of the plot contrasts idealism with tragedy and harsh reality. Literalism is present throughout the show, from the conversations between Lockstock and Little Sally about the show itself, to the opening number that tells the audience where the bathroom is and what should be on their tickets. Of the two love songs, one focuses less on emotion and more on the literal body, and the other is relayed through Little Sally, as one of the lovers is already dead. Urinetown is satirical, laughing at the sappy old-fashioned musical comedy, but also laughing at shows like Les Miz or Passion which reject those conventions and perhaps go too far the other way. Urinetown raises questions about what we expect from musicals, whether or not musicals confronting an issue are satisfying entertainment, why certain stories or topics are musicalized, whether or not serious musicals are too serious. Hollmann and Kotis use musical theatre clichà ©s ironically throughout the show, using traditional musical comedy and making it more cruel, dark, and modern. Each time Officer Lockstock and Little Sally talk about what musicals shouldnt do, theyre also talking about devices certain musicals have used traditionally. When Urinetown kills off its hero, the joke is on Carousel. The violent-rage dance number, Snuff That Girl, consciously parodies Cool in West Side Story, right down to the finger snaps. Cladwells self-justification songs comically mirror Javerts Stars in Les Misà ©rables. In the original Broadway production ofUrinetown, one bit of choreography even invoked the now famous Les Miserables March. The scene in which Cladwell bribes Bobby mirrors the same scene in The Cradle Will Rock. And of course, Urinetown both uses and abuses the devices of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and their Threepenny Opera. The song Mr. Cladwell is a stab at traditional musicals which laud over the lead, like Hello, Dolly, Mame, and others, but instead of celebrating love for the leading lady and her optimistic spunk, here the adoring chorus is celebrating murderous, unchecked capitalism. The Cop Song is both a tribute to Threepenny but also an ironic nod to hip-hop culture. While hip-hop music has historically taken violence against the poor and turned it back on the police, here the violent imagery usually used for anti-police rhetoric is given to the police themselves, with the violence now turned back on the poor again. Other names in the show follow the Dick Tracy, with Robbie the Stockfish, Billy Boy Bill, Soupy Sue, Little Becky Two Shoes, Tiny Tom, and Hot Blades Harry. Sallys description of why Urinetown isnt a good musical is funny precisely because the aspects she thinks are missing are no longer essential aspects to musical theatre. She thinks all musicals are 1920s musical comedies, but one of the central jokes of this show is that almost no musicals are like that anymore. Urinetown takes musical comedies, serious book musicals, political musicals, and concept musicals and takes them at extremes, showing us exactly how far we have strayed from the 1920s. Its very existence mocks anyone in the audience who still holds those mindsets about musicals in this age of Rent, Assassins, Passion, Bat Boy, Reefer Madness, Chicago, Floyd Collins, A New Brain, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Urinetown demonstrates that at conventional musical is no longer the convention. Bobby Strong is the archetypal American musical comedy lead being charming, cocky, and heroic. This traditional character extends back to George M. Cohan in his 1904 musical Little Johnny Jones, Billy in Anything Goes, Joey in Pal Joey, Larry Foreman in The Cradle Will Rock, Billy in Carousel, Woody in Finians Rainbow, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Nathan in Guys and Dolls, and Ponty in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Ms. Pennywise is another archetypal musical theatre character, the immoral but realistic older woman that Bertolt Brecht seems to have invented with Threepenny Opera, and well as in other musicals such as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, and Joanne in Company. Josephine Strong is the archetypal older wise woman, joining Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, Nettie in Carousel, Lady Thiang in The King and I, the Mother Abbess inThe Sound of Music. But here, the older woman does not have much to offer in the way of wisdom. Urinetown also takes much inspiration from Marc Blitzsteins 1937 political musical The Cradle Will Rock, which was itself heavily influenced by Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. The Cradle Will Rock label names like Mr. Mister, Editor Daily, Dr. Specialist, Reverend Salvation, Harry Druggist, and Larry Foreman. Greg Kotis did the same thing in Urinetown, with the heroic Bobby Strong, the well dressed Mr. Cladwell, the optimistic and rich Hope Cladwell, the amoral but practical Ms. Pennywise, and the cops Lockstock and Barrel. The cops names are funny in relation the literal meanings of the phrase. But its also why the original staging of The Cop Song was ill-conceived; if Lockstock and Barrel are the only two cops on the force, if they are the whole police force, lock, stock, and barrel. Urinetown is created with the spirit of Bertolt Brecht, particularly his Threepenny Opera and other political theatre. Brecht aimed to engage the audience through their brains instead of their hearts, to get them to think about the issues and questions put before them on stage and constantly reminding them of the over the top nature of storytelling while maintaining levels of wonder and self-criticism. The set projected an environment rather than representing it; the small chorus, songs to the audience, and elegance with which even the most serious scenes are performed commented on the fable nature of the show and the actions shown on stage. Reflecting the mindset of his work, Brecht once wrote, Nothing is more revolting than when an actor pretends not to notice that he has left the level of plain speech and started to sing. Its a bold statement, but not an unfair one. Brecht wanted truthfulness and realism on stage, not the performance. He rejected the ignoring of the Fourth Wall and thought that the Rodgers and Hammerstein naturalistic acting isnt actually the least bit naturalistic since most people in the real world dont break into four-part harmony. To Brecht, the act of singing onstage is more honest, more real, and connects the actor to the audience more fully because hes not trying to fool them. This isnt an approach that works with shows such as Brigadoon, but is almost necessary for Urinetown. Urinetown uses all of these ideas presented by Brecht. Urinetown is satirical in its theme, plot, characters, and music numbers, parodying traditional musicals as well as modern anti-musicals. Urinetown particularly gains influence through the satirical principles of Berlolt Brecht.

Three Contributions Of Chinese Immigrants Essay -- essays research pap

Three Contributions Of Chinese Immigrants   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Chinese started immigrating to the United States in 1849. They left China in search of a better life. Life in China in the 1800's was very hard. There wasn't enough food, money and the cities were overpopulated. They heard about the United States and believed there was an opportunity to start over again. They hoped to find jobs on the railroad or to strike gold. When they arrived in the United States, life was difficult. Laws were made which discriminated against them. However, eventually they became a respected part of our society. They are responsible for many contributions which are part of American life today. This essay will describe three of these contributions: two products, ginseng and tea, and one method of medicine, acupuncture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ginseng is a perennial herb grown in China and other Asian countries. It is also grown in North American, but the Asian variety is thought to be more valuable. There are many legends and superstitions surrounding ginseng. The Chinese have long believed that the ginseng is a cure for many aliments and can even make one live longer. However, Western researchers are have been unable to prove this. Today, many manufacturers add ginseng to such products as hair tonics, shampoos, skin creams and even soft drinks. Also ginseng can be bought over the counter in drug stores under such names as â€Å"Ginkoba† and â€Å"Ginsana†. â€Å" Ginkoba† is supposed to... Three Contributions Of Chinese Immigrants Essay -- essays research pap Three Contributions Of Chinese Immigrants   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Chinese started immigrating to the United States in 1849. They left China in search of a better life. Life in China in the 1800's was very hard. There wasn't enough food, money and the cities were overpopulated. They heard about the United States and believed there was an opportunity to start over again. They hoped to find jobs on the railroad or to strike gold. When they arrived in the United States, life was difficult. Laws were made which discriminated against them. However, eventually they became a respected part of our society. They are responsible for many contributions which are part of American life today. This essay will describe three of these contributions: two products, ginseng and tea, and one method of medicine, acupuncture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ginseng is a perennial herb grown in China and other Asian countries. It is also grown in North American, but the Asian variety is thought to be more valuable. There are many legends and superstitions surrounding ginseng. The Chinese have long believed that the ginseng is a cure for many aliments and can even make one live longer. However, Western researchers are have been unable to prove this. Today, many manufacturers add ginseng to such products as hair tonics, shampoos, skin creams and even soft drinks. Also ginseng can be bought over the counter in drug stores under such names as â€Å"Ginkoba† and â€Å"Ginsana†. â€Å" Ginkoba† is supposed to...

Scales Of Justice :: Free Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scales of Justice shows a police force where there is a culture of corruption. The parts of the TV program that we saw were made up of two parts, The Job, and the Game. The Job is about a new probationary officer named Webber, and how he is forced to accept the corruption that occurs in the force, and ends up getting fired. The Game takes corruption to a new level involving higher powers such as MP’s and non-uniformed officers. They both are good examples of how it is a culture for them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The corruption that occurs in the Job is nothing unusual or abnormal, even to some of the higher ranked officers. Much of it involves accepting small bribes and breaching the code of conduct that is involved in being a policeman. For example, on more than on occasion, Sergeant Borland drinks and smokes while he is on duty. He then ended up influencing the new officer, Webber, to drink on duty. There is also an instance where Borland was offered an insufficient bribe so he locked the guy up and took him to court. He then influenced Webber to testify and say that he saw the man offer the bribe, which he didn’t see.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many times it is shown that officers avoid crime because there is too much paperwork to go with it. While Webber and Borland were on duty, the saw a moving car collide with a parked car, and Webber was told to do a U-turn. This was because if they caught the guy that did it, they would have to do several hours of paperwork. There was also a scene in the show when Borland told Webber about a time he found a corpse in a river, and they dumped in back inside because it would be too much of a hassle dealing with it.

The Four Functions of Management Essay -- essays research papers

The Four Functions of Management There are four functions of management that need to be successfully applied if a business is to survive and thrive in the fast paced economy of today. They are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Every business, large or small, public or private will benefit from a well-structured, coordinated, directed, and monitored business plan. Planning is the process of defining a structured sequence of specific tasks that need to be accomplished to achieve a goal. Good planning is key to their success of all projects. Some projects involve the installation of whole production lines and others may involve only modifications to an existing line. However the size or scope of the project, there must be a well thought out plan in place to guarantee a successful outcome. When planning a project it is important to first imagine the completed project. The project manager must ask him/herself, what will the successful project look like? What are the customer’s requirements? When these questions are answered the project manager can move forward with an action plan. One method a project manager will use to begin developing the action plan is to break the project down into manageable segments. Each segment will have numerable tasks and we will call them â€Å"milestones†. When building the list of project milestones it is helpful to begin by imagining the completed project and working backwards, consider all the steps it took to get there. Now that the project manager has a list of milestones and has broken them down into manageable segments, he or she will organize the necessary resources into a project team. This organizational aspect is vital to the success of the project. The team will be comprised of individuals qualified to deliver those milestones. A project manager charged with modifying an aseptic filling line will select team members from engineering, manufacturing, process validation, quality assurance, and safety. The project manager is now the project team leader. The team will meet and agree on a timeline for meeting the project milestones. The team leader will establish the frequency of subsequent meetings, assign responsibilities, and state member expectations through the development of a team charter. The entire team will participate in developing the charter. The charter will describe their com... ...t has 4 fields they are the action item, date assigned, individuals responsible, and date when they expect to deliver. During each team meeting the team members are required to report the progress made on their action items and comment on their anticipated completion. It may be possible for the team leader to adapt and modify the timeline based on unexpected challenges or changes that can often occur. After each team meeting the scribe will produce a formal-minutes document and E-mail it to all members. This is helpful in that all members will know through their â€Å"next steps† what is expected of them and their role on the team. The team has completed their goals when all milestones in the plan have been achieved. As technology changes, businesses have to change with it to remain competitive. Businesses must be willing to apply the four functions of management in new ways. In the example above the team concept is used to empower and motivate its members by giving them ownership in the project, however a team needs a good plan to follow. Today’s manager is often a team leader that delegates, motivates, controls, and targets resources towards the successful completion of the project.

Book Review: Train to Pakistan Essay

Khushwant Singh opens his novel Train to Pakistan in a seemingly peaceful village on the countryside of Punjabi. Although the small village is fictional, it is important to note the historical significance this village, its people, and the time period represent in the novel. Revered as a one of the finest and best-known renditions of the Indian tragedy of partition, Train to Pakistan embodies more than a fictitious community. The following literary analysis will depict the consequence of human calamity by analyzing the political history of India, the social and cultural struggle of the people, and the moral message and character development. It is evident that Singh did not want to make this novel a political recount because he shies away from describing the political role of the British and the Indian people in much detail. However, to understand the novel’s progression, it is essential to examine the historical background. Singh bases his relatively short novel in the year 1947 in India; in other words, in the midst of the India Independence Act of 1947 which resulted in the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. Unfortunately, the British withdrawal did not lead to a unified, free India, but instead divided into two, struggling, newly instituted states of India and Pakistan. At midnight of August 15 of 1947, the two governments of India and Pakistan simultaneously declared independence, officially trying to separate Muslims from Sikhs. This violent divide between the two governments lead to the displacement of approximately 12.5 million men, women, and children and a death toll between several hundred thousand to one million. The violent nature of partition created an atmosphere of mutual hostility and suspicion that still hangs in the air between the two sides today. Singh, who was thirty at the time of partition, published one of the few first-hand accounts of this human tragedy that is now fading into history. Nevertheless, he captivates his audience in the retelling of a major human dispute. This leads into the social and cultural struggle determined by the setting of Train to Pakistan. In the brief novel, we, as the reader, get the chance to know many of characters in great detail. Examination of these varied groups of people not only increases cultural and social understanding of that time and place, but also shows that the blame could not be placed on any one group; everyone was responsible. In fact, in the opening sentences of the book Singh writes, â€Å"Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped† (1). From a reader’s stand point, it is important to note this passage’s significance. Singh wanted to make it clear that blame must be shared for these inhumane acts. As I stated before, Singh opens his novel by recreating a tiny village in the Punjabi countryside called Mano Maj ra. Set next to a railway line that crosses the rising Sutlej River, the lives of the inhabitants of Mano Majra would fatefully change one summer season. The fictional village on the border of Pakistan and India is predominantly made up of Sikh farmers and Muslim tenants. Singh depicts how the residents of Mano Majra lived in an almost ignorant seclusion, surrounded by mobs of Muslims who hate Sikhs and mobs of Sikhs who hate Muslims; however, in the village the people had always lived harmoniously. Villagers were unaware about the happenings of larger scope than the village outskirts, which Singh depicts in the mystery of the trains full of murdered people. This obliviousness made them especially vulnerable to outside views. In fact, the most heart-rending passage in the book comes out of the people’s cluelessness when the government makes the decision to transport all the Muslim families from Mano Majra to Pakistan. One Muslim said, â€Å"What have we to do with Pakistan? We were born here. So were our ancestors. We have lived amongst [Sikhs] as brothers† (126). The dumbstruck villagers are overtaken by events as a small joint army convoy, containing one unit of Sikh soldiers and one of Baluch and Pathans, arrives in the village and orders the Muslims to board within ten minutes. They do so with the barest minimum of their meager belongings. The Muslim officer politely shakes hands with his Sikh colleague, and sets off with his caravan to Pakistan, leaving the non-Muslim families without a chance to say goodbye. After the Muslims flee to a refugee camp from where they will eventually go to Pakistan, a cluster of religious agitators come to Mano Majra and instill in the local Sikhs a hatred for Muslims and convinces a local gang to attempt mass murder as the Muslims leave on their train to Pakistan. This entire scene takes place after we are familiar with the characters, and it is painful at many levels: the poverty in which these people live; the terrible uncertainty they are suddenly cast into; and at least temporarily, the eclipse of people’s humanity. To continue, if these groups of people (i.e. government workers and ordinary citizens) are scrutinized on a closer level than their religious affections, a more detailed social structure emerges. First, government officials were corrupt and manipulative of villagers. They could arrest anyone they chose for any reason, more often than not for their own benefit. They did just enough in terms of dealing with the dispute so that nobody could say that they did not do anything, as I will point out later with Iqbal and Juggut. The law enforcement was completely at the whim of the local government, meaning that in practice, there was no law. Also, small amounts of educated people trickled in and out of villages, trying to instill in people democratic, communist, or other western ideologies, though the common people were turned off and confused by their dissent. An example of this is when a villager explain, â€Å"Freedom is for the educated people who fought for it. We were slaves of the English, now we will be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis† (48). More than midway through the novel, Singh depicts a scene in which the villagers learn that the government was planning to transport Muslims from Mano Majra to Pakistan the next day for their safety. To better understand the situation surrounding the Partition of India, Singh provides information about both religions involved. The book sheds light on the various religious practices of both Sikhs and Muslims in rural India, including daily life for individuals from both practices. For example, the practice of prayer for Muslims is described in the novel: â€Å"The mullah at the mosque knows that it is time for the Morning Prayer. He has a quick wash, stands facing west towards Mecca and with his fingers in his ears cries in long sonorous notes, Allah-o-Akbar† (4). Singh points out practices of Sikhs as well, â€Å"The priest at the Sikh temple lies in bed till the mullah has called. Then he too gets up, draws a bucket of water from the well in the temple courtyard, pours it over himself, and intones his prayer in monotonous singsong to the sound of splashing water (5)†. These daily routines are not necessarily provided to exemplify the differences between the two religions, but more so how they rely and have a friendly tolerance for one another and the unfortunate changes the compatibility would undergo. In addition to giving an understanding of human actions and pointing out that everyone was responsible, Khushwant Singh sketches his characters with a sure and steady hand, and we come to know quite a cast. Foremost, Hukum Chand is the regional magistrate, and the most influential character in the story for many symbolic purposes. It becomes noticeable that he is a morally conflicted man who has probably used his power over the years with much corruption. He is often described with a dirty physical appearance which is important emblematically because it is as if he is overwhelmed with unclean actions and sins and is trying to wash himself of them. Hukum Chand’s ethical issues are also shown in one of repeated encounters he has with two geckos. Allegorically, we can likely infer that these geckos represent Muslims and Hindus in conflict and on the verge of fighting one another. When the geckos start fighting, they fall right next to him, and he panics. The guilt he gets from not helping when he has more than enough power to do so literally jumps onto him: â€Å"Hukum Chand felt as if he had touched the lizards and they had made his hands dirty. He rubbed his hands on the hem of his shirt. It was not the sort of dirt which could be wiped off or washed clean† (24). Alcoholism is another tool Hukum Chand uses in attempt to clean his conscience. He feels the guilt of his actions by day but is able to justify them with alcohol and visits from the teenage prostitute Haseena, a girl that is the same age as his deceased daughter. In all his conflictions, Hukum Chand is able to acknowledge that what he is doing is bad, but is still unable to promote good possibly inferring to the weakness of the human will or at least of those in power. The two other main characters featured in the novel are Iqbal Singh and Juggut Singh, and they are likely meant to be contrasted. Iqbal is described as a slightly effeminate, well-educated and atheist (which is symbolic as his ambiguous name makes his family religion unidentifiable) social worker from Britain who thinks politically and cynically. Iqbal can easily represent modernity as he has purposely forgotten his traditional Sikh heritage and culturally adapted to the Western life style by cutting his hair and going through circumcision. Juggut, conversely, is a towering, muscular, and uneducated villager who places action over thought and is known for frequent arrests and gang problems. When the Hindu money-lender is murdered, it is as if the novel is warming Iqbal and Juggut up for comparison, as they were both arrested for the same murder they did not commit and were placed in adjacent cells. In that time, a train pulls up full of dead corpses, obviously symbolic and representative of the violence and torment the two sides, Muslim and Sikh, placed upon one another. Upon the prisoners’ release, they learned that a gang was planning to attack the train taking Mano Majra’s Muslim population to Pakistan. They each had the potential to save the train, though it was recognized that this would cost their lives. Although Singh leaves us questioning who the heroic figure of the novel is, it is easy to place Juggut in the role of martyr. He acts on instinct after he found out about the fiasco that was going on, and then sacrifices his life to save the train. Iqbal, on the other hand, spends pages wondering to himself whether he should do something, revealing a moral irony: â€Å"The bullet is neutral. It hits the good and the bad, the important and the insignificant, without distinction. If there were people to see the act of self-immolation†¦the sacrifice might be worth while: a moral lesson might be conveyed†¦the point of sacrifice†¦is the purpose. For the purpose, it is not enough that a thing is intrinsically good: it must be known to be good. It is not enough to know within one’s self that one is in the right† (170). The questions of right versus wrong which Singh poses throughout the book are numerous, including those of what one should do when one has the opportunity to prevent something bad, when an act of goodwill is truly worthwhile, and how much importance is the consciousness of the bad. Train to Pakistan represents what one calls an â€Å"eye-opener.† Many times people block out or remain ambivalent to difficult circumstances surrounding them, but Singh writes, with multiple gruesome and explicit accounts of death, torture, and rape for the public to read, to make the case that people need to know about those improbable dangers.