Examining the Pros and Cons of a Four-Day School Week

Across the United States, several school districts have begun to explore, experiment with, and embrace a shift to a four-day school week.  Just a decade ago this shift would have been unimaginable.  However, the landscape is changing thanks to several factors including a slight change in public perception.   Perhaps the biggest shift giving leeway to the adoption of a four-day school week is that an increasing number of states have passed legislation giving schools the flexibility to substitute the number of instructional days for instructional hours.  The standard requirement for schools is 180 days or an average range of 990-1080 hours.  Schools are able to switch to a four-day week by simply increasing the length of their school day.  Students are still getting the same amount of instruction in terms of minutes, just in a shorter number of days. Too Early to Tell The shift to a four-day school week is so new that the research to support or oppose the trend is inconclusive at this point.  The truth is that more time is needed to answer the most pressing question. Everyone wants to know how a four-day school week will impact student performance, but conclusive data to answer that question simply does not exist at this point. While the jury is still out on its impact on student performance, there are several clear pros and cons of moving to a four-day school week.  The fact remains that the needs of every community are different.  School leaders must carefully weigh any decision to move to four-day weekend seeking out community feedback on the topic through the use of surveys and public forums.  They must publicize and examine the pros and cons associated with this move. It may turn out to be the best option for one district and not another. Saving School Districts Money Moving to a four-day school week saves the district money.  Most schools that have chosen to move to a four-day school week do so because of the financial benefits. That one extra day saves money in the areas of transportation, food services, utilities, and some areas of personnel. Though the amount of savings can be argued, every dollar matters and schools are always looking to pinch pennies. A four-day school week can improve student and teacher attendance. Appointments for doctors, dentists, and home maintenance services are able to be scheduled on that extra day off.  Doing this naturally boost attendance for both teachers and students. This improves the quality of education the student receives because they have fewer substitute teachers and are themselves in class more often. Higher Teach Morale Moving to a four-day school week boosts student and teacher morale.  Teachers and students are happier when they have that extra day off.  They come back at the start of the workweek refreshed and focused. They feel like they accomplished more over the weekend and were also able to get some extra rest.  Their minds come back clearer, rested, and ready to go to work. This also allows teachers more time for planning and collaboration.  Many teachers are using the day off for professional development and preparation for the upcoming week. They are able to research and put together higher quality lessons and activities. Furthermore, some schools are using the day off for structured collaboration where teachers work and plan together as a team. Better Quality of Life for Families The change can provide students and teachers more time with their families.  Family time is an important part of American culture. Many parents and teachers are using the extra day off as a family day for activities such as exploring a museum, hiking, shopping, or traveling.  The extra day has given families the chance to bond and do things that would not have been able to otherwise. Teachers Already on Board The change can be a great recruiting tool for attracting and hiring new teachers.  The majority of teachers are on board with the move to a four-day school week. It is an attractive element that many teachers are happy to jump on.  School districts that have moved to a four-day week often find that their pool of potential candidates is higher in quality than it was before the move. Evidence Against a Four-Day School Week Moving to a four-day school week increases the length of the school day.  The trade-off for a shorter week is a longer school day. Many schools are adding thirty minutes to both the beginning and end of the school day.  This extra hour can make the day pretty long especially for younger students, which can often lead to a loss of focus later in the day.  Another drawback to a longer school day is that it gives students less time in the evening to participate in extracurricular activities. Shifting Costs to Parents Moving to a four-day school week also has many drawbacks. The first of which is that it shifts a financial burden to parents.  Childcare for that extra day off can become a major financial burden for working parents. Parents of younger students, in particular, may be forced to pay for costly daycare services.  In addition, parents must provide meals, typically provided by the school, on that day off. Student Accountability The extra day off may also lead to less accountability for some students.  Many students may be unsupervised on the extra day off.  The lack of supervision translates to less accountability which could potentially lead to some reckless and dangerous situations.  This is especially true for students whose parents work and make the decision to allow their children to stay home by themselves in lieu of structured childcare. Moving to a four-day school week will potentially increase the amount of homework a student receives.  Teachers will have to resist the urge to increase the amount of homework that they give to their students.  The longer school day will give students less time in the evenings to complete any homework.  Teachers must approach homework cautiously, limiting homework during the school week and potentially giving them assignments to work on over the weekend. Still A Divisive Subject Moving to a four-day school week can divide a community.  There is no denying that the potential move to a four-day school week is a sensitive and divisive topic.  There will be constituents on both sides of the aisle, but little is accomplished when there is contention.  In difficult financial times, schools must examine all cost-saving options. Members of the community elect school board members to make difficult choices and they ultimately must trust those decisions.

The Cause And Effects Of Acid Mine Drainage Essay

The Cause and Effects of Acid Mine Drainage INTRODUCTION nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Imagine going fishing on a cool Autumn day, the trees are all different shades of orange, brown and red and the birds are singing their beautiful songs, but their is a serious problem because when you arrive at the river all plant and animal life are gone. This is by no means a recent phenomenon. This is due to the effects of acid rock drainage (ARD). This is a problem that has been occurring since ancient times, but it was not until the 1800s when fast growing industrialization and heavy mining that it caught alot of attention. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Acid rock drainage is the term used to describe leachate, seepage, or drainage that has been†¦show more content†¦Each of the chemicals in acid mine drainage is toxic to fish and aquatic insects in moderate concentrations. At real high concentrations all plant life is killed. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;quot;Underground mines that are likely to result in ARD are those where mining is located above the water table. (Kelly 1988)quot; Most of the mines are also located in mountainous terrain. quot;Underground workings usually result in a ground water table that has been lowered significantly and permanently. (Kelly 1988)quot; Mining also helps in the breaking of rock exposing more surface area to oxidation. OTHER SOURCES OF ARD nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;ARD is not necessarily confined to these mining activities. quot;Any process, natural or anthropogenic, that exposes sulfide- bearing rock to air and water will cause it to occur. (Ellison amp; Hutchison)quot; There are examples of natural ARD where springs produce acidic water. These are found near outcrops of sulfide-bearing rock, but not all exposing sulfide rock will result in ARD formation. quot;Acid drainage will not occur if sulfide minerals are nonreactive, the rock contains sufficient alkaline material to neutralize any acid produced, or the climate is arid and there is not adequate rainfall infiltration to cause leakage. (Ellison amp; Hutchison 1992)quot; CHEMISTRY nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;quot;The most important factor inShow MoreRelatedThe Cause and Effects of Acid Mine Drainage1699 Words   |  7 PagesThe Cause and Effects of Acid Mine Drainage INTRODUCTION Imagine going fishing on a cool Autumn day, the trees are all different shades of orange, brown and red and the birds are singing their beautiful songs, but their is a serious problem because when you arrive at the river all plant and animal life are gone. This is by no means a recent phenomenon. This is due to the effects of acid rock drainage (ARD). 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In Australia, iron ore mining is conducted in what are known as ‘open-cut’ mines, meaning that the mines are pits along the surfaceRead MoreResearch Aspects Of Water Quality1818 Words   |  8 PagesPurpose of the Report The purpose of this investigation is to research aspects of water quality such as guidelines for water quality, water quality parameters, contaminants that effect water quality, water quality tests and catchment area influences. Samples from the Dee River, from above and below the former Mount Morgan mine site, will be tested and compared in terms of pH level, conductivity and water hardness. The links that exist between pH levels and water hardness will also be investigated. TheseRead MoreWater Quality Of The Mine Drainage Running Into The Afon Goch North998 Words   |  4 Pagesthe water quality of the mine drainage running into the Afon Goch North has meant that any remediation system must be multi-staged. Furthermore, the unique characteristics of the mine and the heavily polluted water requires an exclusive method of mediation. The treatment system outlined uses passive systems that require relatively little maintainence and have low running costs in order to be used as a long term solution to the pollution being produced. Extending the Mine Adit 　　Initially, the hillside

Human Resource Officers and Managers Free Essays

Human Resource Officers and Managers play a special role in a company or establishment whether it is a school, bank, factory or a firm. They are the ones who screen the aspiring employees of the company. The Human resource officers are the judges in the company whether an applicant has the qualities fitted for the vacancies in their companies. We will write a custom essay sample on Human Resource Officers and Managers or any similar topic only for you Order Now Nowadays, according to the article I have read, there are many changes that happen in the positions of the employees, their roles and their functions in the group. It noted that the changes undergone by the HR officers are not as grand as the other positions of the company. The changes that have gone with the HR officers may not be that big, but the article stated that the company or corporation, no matter how big or small it is must have at least an HR officer in order to have better communications with their heads regarding business matters. I think HR officers are designed to be the bridge of the heads to its subordinates. The HR officers must have the qualities like expertise in the communication strategies, managerial skills and the like. HR Managers are now involved in the planning of the organization, setting marketing preferences and also for conducting leadership trainings and programs that will enhance its members and employers to the fullest regarding their works in the industry. There has been a problem to the increasing cost rate of the benefits for employers. Years after years, the benefits that the employers are receiving are getting more expensive, such as for health services and the like. In the present times, the HR Managers must act on it in order to preserve the budgets and assets of the companies they are in. Since employers already know that there are benefits while they are working, it is wrong to cut or halt the benefits they are receiving. Moreover, they might organize a union that could harm the existence of the company. Therefore, there should be ways in order to prevent such things to happen. Also, it is the duty of the HR Managers to help in the brainstorming of the ways to minimize the harm or should we say remove the harm for the company by the increasing benefits that the employers receive. From the article â€Å"The Chief Human Resource Officer†, it can be said that the demand for high quality human resource officers are really needed. The existence of these kinds of people will contribute to the increasing innovations of the companies in the world and might as well lead the company to new working skills that are essential in the workplace. Another article I have reviewed was from â€Å"America’s Retirement: Voice† says that there really is an increase of the benefits that employers received such that of the health insurance benefits which is 8. 6% and the pension plans that are occupying the 4. 6% of the total compensations cost. Thus, the benefits mentioned are only for government employers. It said that the two major benefits received by retiring employers already exceeded other benefits that other employers receive such as with the paid sick and vacation leaves, and the other insurances issued for those employers who are not retiring. On the other hand, the private sector’s employers receive more benefits in their health insurances that comprise the 5. 9% of their payments and the other one is the Social security contributions that in turn get the 4. 9% of the total compensations. Since these benefits are really high, this is now, according to the article, local government officials tend to observe and give focus on it. I can see that the rise for the benefits for the employees happen because the old workers give higher quality product than the work and product of the younger ones. I remember one of my professor’s sayings that â€Å"Quality is measured by age† which may be true in this aspect. Older people might have gotten so many experiences that they already developed the skills that make them assets of the company. Moreover, the older workers only had the capacity to be of good quality since they have been in the company for years and they experience working in the company with or without the innovations. They are more flexible than the younger ones, so the company will of course give them high recognition and importance. The report says that there was a plan of the private sector employers to control the benefits that the retirees are receiving. Their target year was 2003. They already modified their DB (Defined Benefit) plans in order to cater their employers still the benefits they deserve however in a controlled manner. In figure 5 of the report, the graph shows the decline of the DB plans, which is really big. It was a big decrease of the given benefits and they already achieved something out of their planned controlling of the benefits. I think employees are given the privilege to have check – ups once or twice a year in order to detect whether or not they are still fit for the job. Many are already provided health care opportunities and insurances to avoid much leaves and incapacity for the work. Also, the health care insurances might give the option for the employers and employees to avail of the different supplemental foods that could help strengthen the employers. Indeed, HR managers are assets to a company. Even though from one report, I have read that quality HR members are not that easy to be found, and is a problem of some small businesses, it is really needed to have an HR manager with a star quality. I think one way of managing the rising costs of the benefits employers receive is to select a highly recommended HR Manager who can facilitate the dealings of the problem. An HR manager that will give good strategies to solve the problem is in demand with this kind of situation. References Gaylen N. Chandler. Human Resource Management, TQM, and Firm Performance in Small and Medium-Size Enterprises. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Vol. 25, 2000. Retrieved 10 December 2007 from http://www. questia. com/googleScholar. qst;jsessionid=HdHXPtqRjpHmJQTb6Qy0HHS1MV14B3nmgqh2dqZ4v7FY26fb8xKP! -1609856024? docId=5002378696 The Chief Human Resource Officer. Retrieved 9 December 2007 from http://www. heidrick. com/NR/rdonlyres/91911795-CDC1-4DDD-A820 A6C88D9058BF/0/HS_TheCHRO. pdf Public Sector Retirement. Retrieved 10 December 2007 from https://www. nrsservicecenter. com/content/media/retail/pdfs/REI_report. pdf – Measuring and Benchmarking Benefits. 2004. Retrieved 10 December 2007 from http://www. google. com/url? sa=tct=rescd=2url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. iqpc. co. uk%2Fbinary-data%2FIQPC_CONFEVENT%2Fpdf_file%2F4019. pdfei=aBldR-2BMYGQgAOk-oC8DAusg=AFQjCNHX2AxRSau5d9qDHYrSJ1UcaZJW1wsig2=6a7qJMFG4gHhw4oArdRL4Q How to cite Human Resource Officers and Managers, Papers

Introduction To Statistics Populations And Samples

Question: Describe about the Population and Samples in form of Statistics? Answer: i) Data for the amount paid for the sample of families appears to follow normal distribution with positively skewed or skewed to the right data. It appears to be unimodal with peak observed around the category 350 but under 400. ii) Histogram Data for the amount paid for the sample of families appears to follow normal distribution with positively skewed or skewed to the right data. It appears to be unimodal with peak observed around the category 350 but under 400. b) Nominal data Data which can only be categorised. Even if it contains numerical data no numerical operations can be done. Eg: Serial No., Name of the earning person of the family. Ordinal data The data can be ordered in increasing or decreasing order. Eg: amount paid for the sample of families are ordered in increasing order of amount. Sample data consists of few observations drawn from the population. More than one sample can be drawn from the population. Eg: amount paid for the sample of families for 50 families included. Population data Consists of each and every observation. a) Ogive is a line histogram plotting cumulative frequency against classes. Frequency Table- Class Frequency Cumulative Frequency Under 250 0 250 but under 300 8 8 300 but under 350 10 18 350 but under 400 14 32 400 but under 450 9 41 450 but under 500 6 47 500 but under 550 1 48 550 but under 600 2 50 Ogive graph For the above grouped data summary statistics was calculated including mean, median, mode and standard deviation. Standard Deviation and variance provides measure of dispersion. Mean 381 Median 375 Mode 375 SD 75.92 Variance 5764 b) The mean obtained by colleague having access to raw data is 370 and mean calculated from grouped data is 381, which is little higher than the actual mean. Eg: Suppose below values present the number of different playing cards owned by group of friends 9, 15, 11, 12, 3, 5, 10, 20, 14, 6, 8, 8, 12, 12, 18, 15, 6, 9, 18, 11 Average for this data will be given by Mean = sum/N = (9+15+11+12+3+5+10+20+14+6+8+8+12+12+18+15+6+9+18+11)/20= 11.1 Now, if we construct its frequency table and think that we lost the original data then, Number of Cards Midpoint Frequency Product 1 - 5 3 2 6 6 - 10 8 7 56 11 - 15 13 8 104 16 - 20 18 3 54 Sum 20 220 Mean 11 Mean = sum of product/sum of frequency = 220/22 = 11 So, actual mean is 11.1 and grouped frequency mean is 11. Difference between mean calculated using the two above different methods may be due to rounding of data because in grouped data we are estimating mean based on midpoint of the class interval and frequency and not the actual data. i) Mean is obtained by dividing sum of all observations with the total number of observations to get the midpoint of the data while the median is the middle value which separates data into two equal half. Mean gets influenced by few higher values while median does not. In our case, Amount paid above 450 are very less and will influence mean but not median. So, median will provide better measure for central tendency. ii) Approximately 82% people paid less than 475 and 60% of people pay less than or equal to 375 which is the midpoint of class 350 but under 400. These values are derived by calculating cumulative percent. Ogive for Cumulative Percent iii) To calculate 68% interval of amount paid we add and subtract standard deviation from mean which is given by Lower 68% = mean sd = 381 75.92 = 305.08 Upper 68% = mean + sd = 381+75.92 = 456.92 Thus, 68% interval is 305.08 - 456.92. i) Graph Based on the equation obtained forecast values for four quarters of 2015 are 2015 1 2 3 4 408.0 412.8 417.7 422.5 b) These values are not forecast as the seasonal effect observed in the values from 2011 to 2014 is missing in the trend values for 2015. c) As the values are discrete and grouped in the three categories for four quarters column graph was used to represent the data. Also, direct comparison in each quarter can be made. References: 1) Populations and Samples. Stat Trek Teach yourself statistics. Available from: https://stattrek.com/sampling/populations-and-samples.aspx (accessed on 11 Mar 2015) 2) Introduction to Statistics. Available from: https://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/42772_1_Introduction_to_Statistics.pdf (accessed on 11 Mar 2015)

Price Waterhouse free essay sample

Role of firm in mergers acquisitions (MA)industry. Opportunities, financing, accounting, marketing, competition. Companies seeking to maintain growth are faced with several ways of doing so. They can seek to enter new markets or to expand their presence in existing markets. They may choose to acquire companies in industries or markets where they want to compete. They may examine their own business and find synergistic opportunities arising from the skills they already have and the clients they already serve. In the case of Price Waterhouse, one of the nations most prestigious public accounting firms, the opportunity to enter the mergers and acquisitions market by providing management consulting to its clients arose from evaluating its core strengths and market opportunities. This research considers the role that Price Waterhouse has taken on, and offers a marketing plan designed to balance the product mix

Reflection is Important in Life

Reflection is Important in Life Reflection is Important in Life Many people act first, then they start to think and analyze their actions. However, such manner of the behavior is not new, a lot of men and women fall under the influence of it. It cannot be judged whether it is good or bad, if reflection precedes an act, it also depends on the situation in which it has occurred. As any other activity, it has advantages and disadvantages. Otherwise, Andrew Marvells poem To His Coy Mistress and Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleists essay On Thinking Things Over: A Paradox are two examples of the similar approach to the problem. The English author states on the fact that a person should not fight with the mind and thoughts, though to follow his or her desires and act first rather than perform a reflection. One more opinion is of the German playwright. Kleist affirms that mans actions should be in the first place rather than thinking. Thus, two thoughts of these writers have right to exist. However, human reflection depends on the actions and conversely: a man is judged by his deeds, and thinking represents mans ability to act. Andrew Marvells poem To His Coy Mistress is representative of the action without reflection. The main hero of the poem convinces his lover to surrender the struggle of the mind and tempt to their passion. Even more, he tried to urge a mistress to have a sexual contact with him; it was emphasized by heros words that her action would not be a crime. Thus it could be mentioned that mans intentions are unethical and obscene. Opposite to this situation is Kleists appeal, in which the author states that meaning of the act is more important than reflection. Besides, the essay is appointed to his son, as the writer pointed out at the beginning: A military man has to be quick and fearless, his actions have no time to be advised (Miller 217) Such belief also could be explained by the nationality of the playwright. Germans are precise people and the ability to do everything on time is very important. He suggests that realization of the action come to people in the moment of solution or a little earlier. However, long process of reflection could slow strength of the act or to intricate the mans mind and knock out of the way. Humans have a unique ability to think and find out the solution of the problems, however it requires to act quickly for the better result. Kleist writes about the fact, that after the action was made, people could evaluate results of it and according to submitted conclusions analyze faults, weakness or even unpleasant effects. Therefore, human will have an opportunity to regulate the perceptions, emotions and behavior in the future, in order not to make the same mistakes. The writer states that a person thinks first, only then speaks and expresses the thoughts, though it is not right. This false is made by the human brain, which is an alteration of the right order of causes and their effects. As well, Heinrich von Kleist emphasizes that mans life is the struggle with a fate, and all the ways, which are suitable for wrestling also will be good for this fight. He exemplifies, according to which man should act first, as a fighter does in a battle, and reflects in retrospect (Miller 217). As an example it could be a sportsman who almost win as he have no time for thinking things over, everything that is expected of him is t o act quickly and to win. The similar thoughts are presented in Marvells poem, where the main hero addressed to his lovers desire for control and compliments. Later the narrator changes his logic and starts trying to make the real world full of problems and even pushes the mistress away. Therefore, his supplication to the woman for acting first, and after that reflection forces her to destroy all the moral limits. In this situation, the ability to think things over should be first, though it will prevent adverse consequences for the lady. Nevertheless, the author strengthens heros belief by the powerful and eloquent words that they cannot cave their love and be together physically, though they have to make their feelings disappear. As follows, there are two characters in the poem: hero, who acts first and forces his lady to do the same, and heroine, who thinks things over after rather than before an act. Heinrich von Kleist said marvelous words about human life that it is a competition with fate (Miller 217). This point of view is perfectly suitable for my experiences as an international student. Peoples life is a struggle not only the destiny, but with themselves as well. It is necessary to have a great courage for studying in the foreign state with different society, traditions and relationships. Therefore, my decision was guided by long reflections and weighing the pros and cons, which led me to the United Stated. Thus, human life is a contest with the fate, which has to bring joy and happiness; and it can be won by the man who risk. In addition, nowadays it is more typical for the society to to act first and reflect after the actions. It cannot be said that this kind of realization has its advantages and disadvantages. Human life is too shirt to spend all of it in uncertainty and hesitation hesitating. It is better to live in the present day and be confident, fight with the fate, act spontaneously and take the best out of life, and draw the conclusions afterwards.

Risk management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Risk management - Essay Example There is a growing recognition that flood risk can be mitigated making space for water through sustainable management. Management of Flood has started considering dilemmas, challenges, and problems† (Begum, et al., 2007). Vulnerability and Flood risk is increasing due to changes in land use and development in flood prone districts as a result of socio-economic demand, changes in climate and rainfall pattern, increasing frequency of extreme events (Begum, et al., 2007). Jeddah is the most cosmopolitan and second-largest city in Saudi Arabia and the gateway to millions of Muslims who want to go to the holy city of Makkah. Jeddah city, which is the main porter of the country’s wealth, the largest seller of oil in the world at all times, and which has paved the way for single currency in the Gulf with its emergence as the second largest bloc in the monetary world, was affected by heavy rains. The rains which lasted for no more than two days caused massive flooding. This flood caused the deaths of more than 120 citizens (al-Ahmed, 2009). To lessen the embarrassment caused by these deaths, spokesperson and media reports reduced the number of flood deaths in the first four days to less than 80 citizens. (Abumansour, 2009) This massive flood was the strongest natural calamity that Saudi Arabia has seen in its history which is less than 100 years old. However the actual reason for destruction and death that occurred in November 2009 is the corruption in some of the sectors of the municipalities in Jeddah. More than four million citizens live in this city and the city still lacks treatment facility and a sewage system. Hundreds of bodies were found during flood rescue operations and some were registered as missing. The main street going to the Holy City was blocked with hundreds of cars floating in the water. The cars were dragged by the water that could not

International Marketing Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

International Marketing Environment - Essay Example Surplus balance of payments can be maintained only when the total exports of goods and services exceed the total imports of goods and services. Exports bring foreign currency to a country and this in turn can be used for making payments to importers. Government in each and every nation support exporters by arranging extensive loans and subsidies whereas impose restrictions on importing such as tariffs, quotas and embargoes. Economic integration between nations encompasses certain measures that are designed to abolish discriminations between economic units belonging to different nations. There are mainly five levels of economic integration, Free trade area, Customs union, Common market, Economic union and politic union. In free trade area, countries belonging to a specific trade bloc have an arrangement of free trade or less-restricted trade between them. Custom union is more advanced arrangement than free trade since it not only eliminated restrictions but also adopts uniform commercial policy between its nations. In a common market, there is free flow of labor and capital. Economic union is more advanced to these as it achieves some degree of economic harmonization of national economic policies (Bento and Bento, 2009). Economic integration between countries defines the nature and degree of economic as well as social links between nations. For instance, free trade provides more flexible marketing opportunities for both the countries whereas custom union facilitates uniform economic policies between nations. When firms go global and market internationally, there are major concerns of economic and cultural aspects. Each different nation has its own culture, social setting, languages and therefore marketers need to consider the language, culture and social system that they wish to market their goods and services in. The marketer requires extensive marketing research about customers’ general and specific

Early and silent cinema,cinema attractions Essay

Early and silent cinema,cinema attractions - Essay Example The reason for this choice is to show the gradual development of the filmy trends towards modernism. Both the films being silent motion pictures do not have any dialogue. So the actors’ dexterity is the main thing, which made them successful. The Kiss was one of the most popular movies in its genre in the end of the 19th century. This film concentrated more on romance than anything else. It was a challenging job for the director William Heise to make a romantic motion picture where dialogues were not possible to appear. Released in the year 1896, just as the name shows, this was the first film, which showed an onscreen kissing sequence. There were, however, alternative titles given to this film. They were like â€Å"The Mary Irwin Kiss†, â€Å"The Rice Irwin Kiss† and â€Å"The Widow Jones†. All these titles were mainly used in the United States of America where the connoisseurs appreciated the film. John McNally was a playwright who had an earlier work called â€Å"The Widow Jones†. Now this was where the idea of The Kiss was made. The kissing scene is actually said to be the last of McNally’s drama. This work of art is one of the first vaudeville performances transformed into a film. There was no well-knitted plot in this film as such. All it involved was just a kiss. A couple kisses – and this is where the film starts as well as it ends. Rice and Irwin were two popular stage personalities of the late 19th century and they were the only two people who performed in this movie. Kissing on the screen was something, which raised a great hue and cry wherever it was released. Moreover, some viewers were also excited to see a couple kissing on each other’s lip as this was perhaps the first erotic approach made in the world of motion pictures. There were even some controversies regarding the sequence as it was taken to be pornographic as ‘kissing†™ was made public. (Heise, 2008) Voyage à   travers limpossible, Le on the other hand, was a film which involved

Phonetic Transcription And Progress In Speech Synthesis

Phonetic Transcription And Progress In Speech Synthesis Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones). The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet (e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet. The pronunciation of words in many languages, as distinct from their written form (orthography), has undergone significant change over time. Pronunciation can also vary greatly among dialects of a language. Traditional orthography in some languages, particularly French and English, often differs from the pronunciation. For example, the words bough and trough do not rhyme in English, even though their spellings might suggest they do. In French, for example, the s at the end of words is usually silent (militaire is pronounced the same as militaires) unless followed by a word beginning in a vowel. In the orthography of most European languages, the fact that many letters are pronounced or silent depending on contexts causes difficulties in determining the appropriate pronunciation, especially in the cases of English, Irish, and French. However, in other languages, such as Spanish and Italian, there is a more consistent-though still imperfect-relationship between orthography and pronuncia tion. Therefore, phonetic transcription can provide a function that orthography cannot. It displays a one-to-one relationship between symbols and sounds, unlike the traditional Roman alphabet. Phonetic transcription allows us to step outside of orthography and examine differences in pronunciation between dialects within a given language, as well as to identify changes in pronunciation that may take place over time. Phonetic transcription may aim to transcribe the phonology of a language, or it may wish to go further and specify the precise phonetic realisation. In all systems of transcription we may therefore distinguish between broad transcription and narrow transcription. Broad transcription indicates only the more noticeable phonetic features of an utterance, whereas narrow transcription encodes more information about the phonetic variations of the specific allophones in the utterance. The difference between broad and narrow is a continuum. One particular form of a broad transcription is a phonemic transcription, which disregards all allophonic difference, and, as the name implies, is not really a phonetic transcription at all, but a representation of phonemic structure. ]; the broad, phonemic transcription, placed between slashes, indicates merely that the word ends with phoneme /l/, but the narrow, allophonic transcription, placed between square brackets, indicates that this final /l/ is dark (velarized). The advantage of the narrow transcription is that it can help learners to get exactly the right sound, and allows linguists to make detailed analyses of language variation. The disadvantage is that a narrow transcription is rarely representative of all speakers of a language. Most Americans and Australians would pronounce the /t/ of little as a tap [É ¾]. Many people in England would say /t/ as [ʆ] (a glottal stop) and/or the second /l/ as [w] or something similar. A further disadvantage in less technical contexts is that narrow transcription involves a larger number of symbols which may be unfamiliar to non-specialists. The advantage of the broad transcription is that it usually allows statements to be made which apply across a more diverse language community. It is thus more appropriate for the pronunciation data in foreign language dictionaries, which may discuss phonetic details in the preface but rarely give them for each entry. A rule of thumb in many linguistics contexts is therefore to use a narrow transcription when it is necessary for the point being made, but a broad transcription whenever possible. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is one of the most popular and well-known phonetic alphabets. It was originally created by primarily British language teachers, with later efforts from European phoneticians and linguists. It has changed from its earlier intention as a tool of foreign language pedagogy to a practical alphabet of linguists. It is currently becoming the most often seen alphabet in the field of phonetics. Most American dictionaries for native English-speakers-American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Websters Third New International Dictionary-employ respelling systems based on the English alphabet, with diacritical marks over the vowels and stress marks. Another commonly encountered alphabetic tradition is the Americanist phonetic alphabet, originally created for the transcription of Native American and European languages. There exist somewhat similar traditions used by linguists of Indic, Finno-Ugric, Caucasian, and Slavic languages. The difference between these alphabets and IPA is small, although often the specially created characters of the IPA are often abandoned in favour of already existing characters with diacritics (e.g. many characters are borrowed from Eastern European orthographies). There are also extended versions of the IPA, for example: extIPA, VoQs, and Luciano Caneparis. The IPA is not the only phonetic transcription system in use. The other common Latin-based system is the Americanist phonetic notation, devised for representing American languages, but used by some US linguists as an alternative to the IPA. There are also sets of symbols specific to Slavic, Indic, Finno-Ugric, and Caucasian linguistics, as well as other regional specialties. The differences between these alphabets and IPA are relatively small, although often the special characters of the IPA are abandoned in favour of diacritics or digraphs. Other alphabets, such as Hangul, may have their own phonetic extensions. There also exist featural phonetic transcription systems, such as Alexander Melville Bells Visible Speech and its derivatives. The International Phonetic Association recommends that a phonetic transcription should be enclosed in square brackets [ ]. A transcription that specifically denotes only phonological contrasts may be enclosed in slashes / / instead. If one is in doubt, it is best to use brackets, for by setting off a transcription with slashes one makes a theoretical claim that every symbol within is phonemically contrastive for the language being transcribed. Phonetic transcriptions try to objectively capture the actual pronunciation of a word, whereas phonemic transcriptions are model-dependent. For example, in The Sound Pattern of English, Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle transcribed the English word night phonemically as /nixt/. In this model, the phoneme /x/ is never realized as [x], but shows its presence by lengthening the preceding vowel. The preceding vowel in this case is the phoneme /i/, which is pronounced [aÉ ª] when long. So phonemic /nixt/ is equivalent to phonetic but underlying this analysis is the belief that historical sounds such as the gh in night may remain in a word long after they have ceased to be pronounced, or that a phoneme may exist in a language without ever being directly expressed. (This was later rejected by both Chomsky and Halle.) For phonetic transcriptions, there is flexibility in how closely sounds may be transcribed. A transcription that gives only a basic idea of the sounds of a language in the broadest terms is called a broad transcription; in some cases this may be equivalent to a phonemic transcription (only without any theoretical claims). A close transcription, indicating precise details of the sounds, is called a narrow transcription. These are not binary choices, but the ends of a continuum, with many possibilities in between. All are enclosed in brackets. Here every symbol represents an unambiguous speech sound, but without going into any unnecessary detail. None of these transcriptions make any claims about the phonemic status of the sounds. Instead, they represent certain ways in which it is possible to produce the sounds that make up the word. There are also several possibilities in how to transcribe this word phonemically, but here the differences are generally not of precision, but of analysis. The special symbol for English r is not used, for it is not meaningful to distinguish it from a rolled r. The differences in the letter e reflect claims as to what the essential difference is between the vowels of pretzel and pray; there are half a dozen ideas in the literature as to what this may be. The second transcription claims that there are two vowels in the word, even if they cant both be heard, while the first claims there is only one. However, phonemic transcriptions may also be broad or narrow, or perhaps it would be better to say abstract vs. concrete. They may show a fair amount of phonetic detail, usually of a phonemes most common allophone, but because they are abstract symbols they do not need to resemble any sound at all directly. Phonemic symbols will frequently be chosen to avoid diacritics as much as possible, under a one sound one symbol policy, or may even be restricted to the ASCII symbols of a typical keyboard. For example, the English word church may be transcribed as in church. A close approximation of its actual pronunciation, or more abstractly as /crc/, which is easier to type. Phonemic symbols should always be explained, especially when they are as divergent from actual / Occasionally a transcription will be enclosed in pipes (| |). This goes beyond phonology into morphological analysis. For example, the words pets and beds could be transcribed phonetically as and (in a fairly narrow transcript ion), and phonemically as /pets/ and /bedz/. Because /s/ and /z/ are separate phonemes in English, they receive separate symbols in the phonemic analysis. However, you probably recognize that underneath this, they represent the same plural ending. This can be indicated with the pipe notation. If you believe the plural ending is essentially an s, as English spelling would suggest, the words can be transcribed |pets| and |beds|. If, as most linguists would probably suggest, it is essentially a z, these would be |petz| and |bedz|. To avoid confusion with IPA symbols, it may be desirable to specify when native orthography is being used, so that, for example, the English word jet is not read as yet. This is done with angle brackets or chevrons: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹jetà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º. It is also common to italicize such words, but the chevrons indicate specifically that they are in the original languages orthography, and not in English transliteration. Symbol and Sounds: The International Phonetic Alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, using as few non-Latin forms as possible.The Association created the IPA so that the sound values of most consonants taken from the Latin alphabet would correspond to international usage. Hence, the letters à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹bà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹dà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹fà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (hard) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€°Ã‚ ¡Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (non-silent) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹hà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (unaspirated) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹kà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹là ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹mà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹nà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (unaspirated) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹pà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (voiceless) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, (unaspirated) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹tà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹và ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹wà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹zà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º have the values used in English; and the vowels from the Latin alphabet (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹aà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹eà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢ â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¹ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹oà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹uà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º) correspond to the sound values of Latin: [i] is like the vowel in machine, [u] is as in rule, etc. Other letters may differ from English, but are used with these values in other European languages, such as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹jà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹rà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹yà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º. This inventory was extended by using capital or cursive forms, diacritics, and rotation. There are also several derived or taken from the Greek alphabet, though the sound values may differ. For example, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º is a vowel in Greek, but an only indirectly related consonant in the IPA. Two of these (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º) are used unmodified in form; for others (including à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ²Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€°Ã‚ £Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€°Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€°Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º) subtly different glyph shapes have been devised, which may be encoded in Unicode separately from their parent letters. The sound values of modified Latin letters can often be derived from those of the original letters. For example, letters with a rightward-facing hook at the bottom represent retroflex consonants; and small capital letters usually represent uvular consonants. Apart from the fact that certain kinds of modification to the shape of a letter generally correspond to certain kinds of modification to the sound represented, there is no way to deduce the sound represented by a symbol from the shape of the symbol (unlike, for example, in Visible Speech). Beyond the letters themselves, there are a variety of secondary symbols which aid in transcription. Diacritic marks can be combined with IPA letters to transcribe modified phonetic values or secondary articulations. There are also special symbols for suprasegmental features such as stress and tone that are often employed. Letter Forms: The symbols chosen for the IPA are meant to harmonize with the Latin alphabet.For this reason, most symbols are either Latin or Greek letters, or modifications thereof. However, there are symbols that are neither: for example, the symbol denoting the glottal stop, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, has the form of a gelded question mark, and was originally an apostrophe. In fact, there are a few symbols, such as that of the voiced pharyngeal fricative, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, which, though modified to blend with the Latin alphabet, were inspired by glyphs in other writing systems (in this case, the Arabic letter `ain) Despite its preference for letters that harmonize with the Latin alphabet, the International Phonetic Association has occasionally admitted symbols that do not have this property. For example, before 1989, the IPA symbols for click consonants were à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ -à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ -à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, all of which were derived either from existing symbols, or from Latin and Greek letters. However, except for à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, none of these symbols was widely used among Khoisanists or Bantuists, and as a result they were replaced by the more widespread symbols à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€¡Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€¡Ã†â€™Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹Ãƒâ€¡Ã‚ Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º at the IPA Kiel Convention in 1989. Some of the new symbols were ordinary Roman letters typeset turned (= upside-down) (e.g. ÊÅ ½ É ¥ Éâ„ ¢ Ɇ É ¹ à ¡Ã‚ ´Ã… ¡), which was easily done before mechanical typesetting machines came into use. Usage: Although the IPA offers over a hundred symbols for transcribing speech, it is not necessary to use all relevant symbols at the same time; it is possible to transcribe speech with various levels of precision. A precise phonetic transcription, in which sounds are described in a great deal of detail, is known as a narrow transcription. A coarser transcription which ignores some of this detail is called a broad transcription. Both are relative terms, and both are generally enclosed in square brackets. Broad phonetic transcriptions may restrict themselves to easily heard details, or only to details that are relevant to the discussion at hand, and may differ little if at all from phonemic transcriptions, but they make no theoretical claim that all the distinctions transcribed are necessarily meaningful in the language. Phonetic transcriptions of the word international in two English dialects. The square brackets indicate that the differences between these dialects are not necessarily sufficient to distinguish different words in English. For example, the English word little may be transcribed broadly using the IPA as [ˈlÉ ªtÉâ„ ¢l], and this broad (imprecise) transcription is an accurate (approximately correct) description of many pronunciations. It is customary to use simpler letters, without a lot of diacritics, in phonemic transcriptions. The choice of IPA letters may reflect the theoretical claims of the author, or merely be a convenience for typesetting. For instance, in English, either the vowel of pick or the vowel of peak may be transcribed as /i/ (for the pairs /pik, piË k/ or /pÉ ªk, pik/), and neither is identical to the vowel of the French word pique which is also generally transcribed /i/. That is, letters between slashes do not have absolute values, something true of broader phonetic approximations as well. A narrow transcription may, however, be used to distinguish them: [pÊ °Ãƒâ€°Ã‚ ªk], [pÊ °iË k], [pik].

Heinrich Schliemann Essay -- essays research papers fc

"We could describe (Heinrich) Schliemann's excavations on the hill of Hissarlik and consider their results without speaking of Troy or even alluding to it," Georges Perrot wrote in 1891 in his Journal des Savants. "Even then, they would have added a whole new chapter to the history of civilization, the history of art" (qtd. in Duchêne 87). Heinrich Schliemann's life is the stuff fairy tales are made of. A poor, uneducated, and motherless boy rises through his hard work and parsimonious lifestyle to the heights of wealth (Burg 1,2). He travels the world and learns its languages ("Heinrich Schliemann"), takes a beautiful Greek bride, and together they unearth the treasures of Troy and the citadel of Agamemnon, thereby fulfilling the dream he has chased since childhood (Calder 18,19; Burg 8). Indeed, by presenting his life in romantic autobiographies as a series of adventures, starring Heinrich Schliemann as the epic hero (Duchêne 14), h e ensured his status as a lasting folk hero and perennial bestseller (Calder 19). The reality was that Heinrich Schliemann was an incredible con man, a generally unlikable braggart who succeeded only because of his queer mix of genius and fraudulence. He had a shylock's conscience when it came to business dealings, and his shady methods pervaded both his life and his archaeology (Burg, 15-31). Schliemann had a habit of rewriting his past in order to paint a more dramatic picture of himself. Among the events he reported that have been found to be grossly untrue are his tales of being entertained by the American president Millard Fillmore and his wife in 1851, and his narrow escape from the San Francisco fire of that same year (Traill 9-13). More disturbing is when he applies these tactics to his archaeology. In December of 1981 Professor David Traill, a Latinist, concluded that the "Treasure of Priam", Schliemann's most impressive find at Troy, was actually a composite of several small finds uncovered from beyond the walls of the city. Schliemann had collected the pieces from 1871 to 1873 in order to produce a single find large enough to earn him the respect of fellow archaeologists, and also permission from the British to excavate at Mycenae (Calder 33). Twenty years of research led the Traill to the belief that, "the question is no longer whether but rather t... ...tp://www.astro.virginia.edu/~eww6n/bios/Schliemann/> "Homeric Questions Part III - Archaeology- 9/6/98." The Mining Company, <http://archaeology.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa090698.htm?pid=2765&cob=home>(6 September 1998) Kiernan, Mary K. "Heinrich Schliemann." Lecture at Vero Beach High School, 21 October 1997. Lost Treasures of Troy. BBC, London. 1994 "The Minoan Costume." FirstNet, <http://www.firstnethou.com/annam/costhist.html/minoan.html/index.html> Traill, David. Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. "Troy." Thinkquest Organization, <http://www.thinkquest.org/tqfans.html> "Troy VI." Dartmouth Archaeology, <http://devlab.cs.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/23.html> "TROY: 4000 year old Ancient City." <http://www.iit.edu/~agunsal/truva/truva/truva.html> "Western Anatolia and the Eastern Aegean." <http://devlab.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age/lessons/7.html#9>(3 July 1996)            

Mystic Monk Coffee Essay

1. Has Father Daniel Mary established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? What is his vision for the monastery? What is his vision for Mystic Monk Coffee? What is the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming? Father Daniel Mary Has Established a future direction for the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. His vision for the monastery is to transform their small brotherhood of 13 living in a small home used as a makeshift rectory into a 500-acre monastery. His vision to acquire the Irma Lake Ranch for them to provide accommodations for 30 monks, have a retreat center for lay visitors, build a Gothic church, have a convent for Carmelite Nuns, and a hermitage. Father Daniel Mary’s vision for Mystic Monk Coffee is to minimize the effect of cloistered monastic constraints and for it to be a stronger source of income for the monks to acquire the Irma Lake Ranch. The Mission of the Carmelite monks of Wyoming is to be able to increase the number of monks to 30 who will live out their lives in the monastery who understands the reality of the vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty and the sacrifices associated with living a cloistered religious life. 2. Does it appear that Father Daniel Mary has set definite objectives and performance targets for achieving his vision? Father Daniel Mary has not set definite objectives and performance targets to achieve his vision. He and the monks have only made steps widening the reach of Mystic Monk Coffee but it is not enough to support the vision of acquiring Irma Lake Ranch. They have to establish specific programs to really widen the reach of Mystic Monk Coffee to have more consumers, thus increasing profit. Through this, they become more closer in achieving their vision of transforming their existing home to the â€Å"New Mount Carmel†. 3. What is Father Prior’s strategy for achieving his vision? What competitive advantage might Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy produce? In achieving his vision, Father Prior seek the help of Carmelite Supporters in aiming to build a community for God. In doing so, his competitive advantage is having his Catholic supporters his target market thorough word of the mouth and through their website. With its appeal to its supporters in using â€Å"use their Catholic coffee dollar for Christ and his catholic church†, it encourages their supporter to not just support the cause but make them see it as a way of giving to Christ. 4. Is Mystic Monk Coffee’s strategy a money-maker? What is MMC’s business model? What is your assessment of Mystic Monk Coffee’s customer value proposition? its profit formula? its resources that enable it to create and deliver value to customers? Mystic Monk’s Coffee strategy is a money-maker. With the given overview of the coffee industry more than 150 million people consume coffee in the United States alone. Since 89% prefer to brew their coffees rather than purchase ready-to-drink coffee. With an 11% net profit rate the coffee business will surely increase over time. Mystic Monk Coffee business model is to increase their production by purchasing a larger roaster for their growing demand and selling wholesale coffee to local churches and coffee shops. Mystic Monks Coffee has good products that enable them to have a successful customer value proposition. Offering high-quality fair trade Arabica beans that produces a variety of flavors to their customers, they give their customers better options and an opportunity to their secular website operators commissions on its sales through its Mystic Monk Coffee Affiliate Program that placed web banner ads and text ads on participating websites and give them 18% commission. In conclusion their resources and plans not only enable them to create and deliver the value that their customers deserve but it is also a means for the Carmelites to support their community and their causes from the outside world. 5. Does the strategy qualify as a winning strategy? Why or why not? The strategy cannot be considered as a winning strategy. The coffee industry has been growing for the past seven years, and with Mystic Monk’s comparable  prices of coffee bags to the retail prices, Mystic Monk’s coffee can take advantage of this scenario to earn more profits to be able to expand their market and ultimately their business and acquire the land. Mystic Monk also made use of a low-cost advertising strategy where their coffees were promoted through word of mouth among their loyal customers and Catholic patrons and the use of their website, however they are only capturing the Catholic population. With their planned acquisition of a roaster with a larger capacity, Mystic Monk will be able to produce more coffee once demand in the future increases, hence the need for a more efficient market penetration. 6. What recommendations would you make to Father Daniel Mary in terms of crafting and executing strategy for the monastery’s coffee operations? Are changed needed in its long-term direction? its objectives? its strategy? its approach to strategy execution? Explain. We recommend Father Daniel Mary to expand the reach of their product. Apart from their aggressive online, telephone , church and local coffee shop sales, they should take advantage of supplying the coffee to restaurants, malls, supermarkets and bazaars. They could also set up a store in the monastery where people often go and can readily purchase the coffee. Considering that the Catholic population is the largest in the US, they can establish a group of people who are willing to volunteer and sell the coffee across the US. Through this, their belief is shared to the volunteers. Moreover, since it was mentioned that most of their time is spent on prayer or morning and Vesper services which limits the production time, they can hire help and also mask for volunteers who can replace them during these times for a more efficient production of coffee.

Write About What You Know

Write About What You Know Write About What You Know Write About What You Know By Michael For thirty years, the mid-term exam for Dr. McAnellys Biblical Literature class was always the same essay question: Describe the wandering journeys of the Apostle Paul. So a college football fullback and his roommate decided they wouldnt study anything else, thereby leaving them more time for other attractive pursuits. Imagine their surprise when the question instead was, Critique the major themes of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Now, imagine the fullbacks surprise when his roommate nevertheless began to write furiously for the next hour. The fullback stared at his blank test paper for a long time before giving up and leaving the room, but his curiosity was so strong that he peeked at his roommates essay as he walked past. The first sentence read, Who am I to critique the words of the Lord Jesus? Let me rather describe the wandering journeys of the Apostle Paul. Seasoned authors advise, Write about what you know. In fact, you have to write about what you know. Try to write about what you dont know, about which you havent got a clue, and youll be staring at a blank piece of paper for a long time. Its one of the surest ways to contract writers block. If you succeed in actually getting words onto the page, your readers will be staring at it for a long time, trying to figure out what you just said, if not why you wrote it in the first place. Why would anybody write about what they dont know? Why would people do something like that? Because someone important told them to. Essay tests in school are a good example. Your instructor asks you to write about one of the (several) chapters in the textbook that you never got around to studying. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to employ your literary skills to make your instructor believe that you read and understood the chapter. Changing the question rarely works. Because what they dont know seems more interesting than what they do know. Young writers frequently make that mistake. When you move into the cloud of unknowing to write your piece, youre increasing your competition. In the mid-60s, without having any personal experience with them, lots of American teenagers were probably writing about monsters and spaceships, though these markets were already fully stocked with experienced grown-up writers. None of them wrote about being a real American teenager except S.E. Hinton. So her book The Outsiders got published and their books didnt. Because they value style over communication. Poets sometimes make this mistake. They write about the universal life force, instead of about a tree. Down-to-earth, brass-tacks writing doesnt seem stylish enough. But uninformed writing is less interesting than informed writing. The details which make writing vivid and readable are missing, like a price tag in a store, or somehow off, like a carton of old milk. Writing about what you know is a cure for writers block. Thats one reason why journaling or blogging is so popular among writers. Something must have happened to you today, unless you were dead. Write about it. It didnt happen to anyone else, unless youre a clone. Nobody has the same brain or biography as you, so nobody has the same perspective as you. If they do, I suggest you get your own perspective. You need your own. Dont try to share with your neighbor. Thats cheating. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant NamesComma Before ButAppropriate vs. Apropos vs. Apt

Press Freedom of Japan Mongolia and North Korea essays

Press Freedom of Japan Mongolia and North Korea essays In the world today, media is presented in many diverse ways. Through radio, television, magazines, books, newspapers, and the Internet, media is everywhere. Freedom of the press and media does not come as easily for some countries of the world as it does for others such as the United States. Japan, Mongolia, and North Korea are examples of how vastly different press freedom can differ between countries. Japan is a small island chain in Eastern Asia. It is located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean peninsula. The islands include the Bonin Islands, Daitoshoto, Minami-jima, Okinotori-shima, Ryukyu Islands, and Kazan-retto the volcanic islands. A proportional area of Japans total size could be somewhat smaller than California. Japan is entirely surrounded by water and borders no countries (Japan Geography 1996, p.1). The freedom of the press in Japan is considered completely free. Political parties and government organizations do not control the press in Japan, but some unofficial associations between the press and political figures exist (Karlekar Americans, and American occupation began. The American occupation of Japan was a seven-year period in which the Americans restructured the Japanese government. The constitution was rewritten during this time, and communism ended (Costa, 1997, p.1). Japan became a free country and even gave its media freedom of the press. American occupation ended in 1952 and Japan was left to command itself (Penna, 2002, p.1). The size of Japans media structure is massive. They have the biggest newspaper audience in the world (Fujimoto, Kitada, & Scuka, 2001, p. 1). With five national daily newspapers, 65 larger regional papers, over 70,000 books published every year, thousands of weekly and monthly magazines, television, and broadcast radio,...

An Effective Teacher Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 51

An Effective Teacher - Essay Example From this paper it kis clear that students are similarly encouraged to be regularly present in class to listen and perform in a stimulating atmosphere fostered by a teacher who demonstrates skillfulness in classroom management. Along with this characteristic comes the equivalent potential of promoting interactive discussions among students who eventually yield to the confidence of developing critical way of thinking and expressing their viewpoints on various sensible matters besides the main course. It is also a notable characteristic of an effective instructor to possess a genuine concern for the formation and development of values in every student aside from the typical acquisitithe reporter   believes he would be able to determine the areas in my teaching which I ought to adjust in order that each type of student is addressed according to capacity or manner of coping and general interests. Certain course activities have been capable of teaching him to be further contemplative as he observes myself at depth in relation to others.

Reflective Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reflective Summary - Essay Example As a student, I must attest to the fact that it provided me with a platform to test some of the beliefs I have developed overtime, thereby determining assumptions that work and at the same time enabled me develop new ideas. The colleges, notably the professors view the process as an opportunity to support students by helping them tackle some of the challenges they might come across in the course of the activity. At the same time, the industry partners, which in this case was YWCA Niagara region benefited in the sense that as a team, we identified some of the HR concerns facing them, and developed strategies and action plans of successfully tackling each issue. One of the essential challenges that my team members faced in the course of working on the assignment was the fact that all of us were passionate of our ideologies, and wanted each member to buy into our perceptions. Nonetheless, we realized that it was better to share a common goal, and that made it easier for us to complete the

The Underground War in Gaza Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

The Underground War in Gaza - Essay Example In this work, the author was targeting people with plans to encourage peace at Gaza and those who love current affairs. This work creates an understanding of what is happening in Rafah. For instance, it is revealed that depart their residents for worry of being destroyed by the Israelites who destroy houses to demolish tunnels and enemy hideouts. For the lovers of the current affairs, the work informs them on how Gaza war is ongoing. For example, one understands why Israel continues with the destruction of homes. The essay organization reflects what I am doing with the purpose. For example, the essay begins with an overview of the war at Gaza. Next, a thesis is developed as to why this war has continued despite the peace efforts from different countries. In the essay quotes have been used to strengthen the essay. For example, the word Israel has been quoted to imply that it is regarded as the main enemy in the Gaza war. This is because this assumption has been developed by the civili ans of Gaza and thus it has not been proved. Also, quotes have been used in indicating expert’s opinions regarding the Gaza war. The writer’s strategy of presenting his work as comic is what interested me. This is because the strategy helped in reaching different audiences who are convinced to read this work due to its comical nature. I have also addressed the author arrangements. For example, he came up with conclusions after conducting interviews and making comparisons with news.

Deontological ethics Essay Example for Free

Deontological ethics Essay Utilitarianism ethics accentuates that the activity that should be ethically beneficial to the group. In further terms, the outcome of any moral activity ought to be valuable for all by mass offer. This is a universal fundamental theme for ethics in industrialist economies and business as well as in all governments. Virtue Theory is also known as virtue ethics focal point on the person’s character as opposed to the standards and outcomes of the particular acts. This fundamentally means that the prime focus is endured or not to the person who acting ethically is a person who upholds the high virtues and morals, in expressing the good character in people. , plan, results and conclusion are not so much immaterial; nonetheless, the significance of virtue theory is first and foremost. Dissimilar to virtue theory, deontology has a substantial accentuation on obligation in activity, in adherence to runs the show. The right activity is essential here, whereupon fruition, ought to achieve the best useful for all included. This is to some degree like utilitarianism, which does concentrate on the result of the best great. Be that as it may, deontology does not incline toward the result itself, yet all the more so the guideline behind submitting the right activity. The moral behind deontology is about rule and after tenets. Every one of the three of these ethical practices has substantial likenesses. The essential comparability is outcome of activity. Despite the fact that result is not generally the essential center of the activity, it is normal in every one of the three theories that the outcome ought to have a gainful come about as a conclusion of the activity. Whether the activity is focused around rule, qualities or ethics, the end sought to legitimize the methods. The most ideal approach to express the contrasts between virtue theory, utilitarianism and deontological ethics is to take a typical situation and examine from these three alternate points of ETHICS ESSAY 3 view. A person who polishes good virtual ethics would call attention to that by helping the individual, doing so would be a magnanimous demonstration and would express great character of the individual supporting the one in need. One who practices utilitarianism would say that by helping the individual, doing so would be useful for both the individual in need and the individual making a difference. A deontologist would say that by helping, it would be so in agreement to an ethical tenet, for example, karma, or what you do to others will return to you. As the illustration shows, virtue theory concentrates on an individuals ethical morals, and not on any particular conclusion or guideline. Utilitarianism has a stress on more prominent elses benefit, concentrating on an advantageous conclusion for all persons included, where the results of acting are useful to a group. At long last, deontology stresses obligation as the particular activity being carried out in fulfillment of emulating a particular good code, governor charge. In past role as a sales/inventory associate for Centennial wireless. A problem with ethical decisions came up on a daily basis on the job. On a daily basis, I had to do the daily deposits and check each associate cash drawer that always had 100. 00 dollars in them at all times. Multiple times a sales rep had over their cash drawer or short. If they were short, they had to place the cash that was short to equal 100. 00 dollars or if they were over they had to deposit the average. When I check their bags, I gave them a warning they had till business hours to replace that money or just to deposit it. I keep the record for my records, and if it happens regular basis, I get the manager involve. The reason I keep the information to myself is because a sale person can give too much change to a customer and does know till I or they count their cash drawers at the end of their shift. So I understand mistakes can happen. My decision on this issue is based on the utilitarianism theory that looks for the best outcome for everyone within a particular situation. ETHICS ESSAY 4 In conclusion, one can addition further understanding into ethical and social obligation by analyzing the similitude and contrasts between utilitarianism, virtue theory and deontological ethics. Through further understanding of these similitude and contrasts one can start to understand the criticalness social and ethics obligation plays in particular and business achievement. The previous examination portrays the contrasts in how every theory addresses morality and ethics. The dissection likewise incorporates a particular experience clarifying the relationship between temperance, qualities, and good ideas as they identify with one of the three speculations. Besides, the examination clarifies how the data on social and ethics obligation achievement or disappointment, contingent upon the execution of the learning one addition from the information and the choices one makes. References: MANIAS, N. (2013) ETHICS APPLIED 7TH EDITION. PEARSON EDUCATION INC. (2013).

Theories of Depression

Theories of Depression Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process (Rathus 4). By looking at mood disorders in psychology we can see that major depression has affected more than 15 million American adults, about 6.7% of the U.S. population age 18 and older in the year 2016 (Anxiety and Depression Associatin of America). There are generally two types of mood disorders; depression and bipolar disorder. Depression mostly involves feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, and great sadness. According to the DSM-IV, an individual needs to be diagnosed with five or more of nine symptoms in order to be declared depressed. Persistent depressed mood for most of the day, loss of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all activities, significant weight loss or gain due to changes in appetite, sleeping more or less than usual, speeding up or slowing down of physical and emotional reactions, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or unfolded guilt, reduced ability to concentrate or make meaningful decisions, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. Also, the individual must have at least one of the first two symptoms with their five total symptoms to be considered depressed (Rathus 423). According to the DSM-V, there are quite a few types of depression that an individual can experience. The primary example of depression is Major Depression; this can also be known as Chronic Major depression, and or Unipolar Depression. Some symptoms may include persistent anxious, sadness or an empty mood thought the day, feelings of pessimism or hopelessness, irritability and or sudden angry outburst, persistent certain physical symptoms that may not respond to treatments, loss of interest in all or all most all activities that can include sex, decrease in energy, changes in sleeping or eating habits that can result to over or under sleeping and weight loss or gain. Dysthymia is the secondary type of depression mentioned in the DSM-V. This is an overwhelmed state of a chronic state of depression, that was again explained; feelings of a depressed mood for most of the day but must be for at least two years. When an individual experiences dysthymia; he or she may show symptoms of appet ite or weight changes, feelings of fatigue and helplessness, low self-esteem, changes in sleep, and poor ability to concentrate or make meaningful decisions. SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder has also been mentioned in the DSM-V. This is most common in the harsh winters where there is little light for the body to secrete certain hormones for the body to function properly. The best solutions to aid this problem is to have artificial sun light projected to the individual or either go to a tanning salon. The tanning salon also used artificial sunlight to tan the skin or change the pigment within the skin (American Psychiatric Association). Depression has supporting evidence in both sides of the Nature and Nurture Debate. Biologically, the thyroid gland can affect an individuals depression state. Depending of the amount of certain hormones produced in the thyroid gland, a person may show signs of the nine symptoms described by DSM-IV. Some hormones that may affect an individuals depression state are thyroid stimulating hormones, triiodothyronine and thyroxine. Have too much or too little of these hormones may result in a few conditions such as, sleep disturbances, weight loss or gain, trainability or nervousness, fatigue, forgetfulness, inability to tolerate heat or the cold, and dry skin or hair (WebMD).ÂÂ   Also, disorders such as depression and anxiety have the tendency to occur more often in close relatives of affected individuals than they do in the general population. Between 20 and 25 percent of people who is affected with mood disorders have a family member who is affected by a similar disorder. On the side of the nurture debate, the physiocratic view of depression is that same people are prone to depression because they suffered a real or imagined loss of a loved object or person in childhood. Some learning theorists believe that learned helplessness makes people prone to depression. This was demonstrated by a psychologist named Martian Seligman when he conducted an experiment on dogs. The dogs were taught that they were hopeless to escape from electric shock. First, he placed a barrier in the dogs cage to prevent them from leaving when shocks were administered. Later the barrier was removed. However, hen shocks ere again administered, the dogs made no effort to escape. They had learned there was nothing to do to stop the pain (Rathus 424, 425). In the field of psychology, there are many types of theories for different subjects. Depression has many theories which have different implications for the therapy that is used to treat it. Directly and indirectly, the social environment plays a role in depression. Three examples of depression theories are rank theory of depression, Psychodynamic theory of depression and Becks cognitive theory of depression. Theories are used to help treat depression and for an example for each, a female named Sam. The first example used in Wades example would be rank theory depression. Sam made many friends in High School and was well-known throughout school. She would have a major position in the student council and would be the captain and the star player of two major sports teams. As Sam would walk through the hallways, she would find pleasure in being greeted. Sam would be excited over the thought of going to college and having the opportunities of interacting with a new group of people. However , when in college, the idea of instantaneous social acceptance would not be a reality. Starting from the bottom of the social hierarchy, Sam could not begin to understand or accept her new social position and became frustrated and angry; later towards the end of her first semester she would feel depressed. By applying the social rank theory, phycologists may now begin to determine why Sam is depressed. According to Stevens and Price, when organisms are demoted to a lower social rank, they will become depressed in order to accept this fact and reduce their desire to get back on top (Stevens A.). This is an evolutionary function and is designed to avoid conflict between the new and old leaders (Stevens A.). Her treatment should be focused on Rational Emotive Therapy which teaches her that being a leader can be irrational (Wade). The next theory, presented by Sigmoid Freud; is psychodynamic theory of depression which states that depression is a result from anger from imbalanced cognitions and behavior in childhood. To present this theory say for example Sam grew up in a strictly Catholic household that prided on being perfect. Sam has a loving and overprotective mother and a father who overbearing and abusive. However, Sam only displaces positive emotions to her parents and becomes confused on the child. She cannot be angry at her parents because they are essential for survival and she wants to please her parents, but is unable to do so. So instead of being angry at her parents she directs the anger inwards towards herself, this happens unconsciously according to Freud. The treatment based off of the psychodynamic theory would need the Sam to decrease her self-punishment and allow her to understand that it is okay to not be perfect (Wade). Instead of feeling disappointed that she is not perfect, she should ha ve the mind set to work towards perfection; perfection is non-existent. Setting small goals may also help her but only if she allows herself to feel accomplished. Lastly, Becks cognitive theory of depression states that the primary cause of depression is through negative thoughts (Rashmi Nemade). First off, what is cognitive psychology? It is the study of mental processes such as, memory, language, perception, creativity, thinking, attention and problem solving (Wikipedia). Going back to Sam, she thinks that she would never be able to please her parents and that she would be stuck in her social position for the rest of her college career. No matter how much effort Sam put into her activities she would never succeed. Sam is also homosexual and her parents do not accept her because of it. She feels that her future would compromise of either being untrue to herself or defying her parents. There are three thoughts that result in her depression: belief that all efforts are futile, no hope for the future and feeling inadequate. During her therapy sessions, she would be taught to view failures as challenges that are possible to overcome and she needs to know that she is in control of her lifes course (Wade). Sam would have adopted an enchasing attribution to her problems that would enable her to feel hopeful about her efforts and the future (Schneider). References American Psychiatric Association. Diangnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. DSM-5. 2013. Anxiety and Depression Associatin of America. Anxiety and Depression. August 2016. . Rashmi Nemade, Natalie Staats Reiss, and Mark Dombeck. Cognitive Theories Of Major Depression Aaron Beck. 19 September 2007. . Rathus, Spencer A. Psychology Principles in Practice. Auston: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003. 4. Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., Coutts, L. M. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005. Stevens A., Price J. Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning. London: Routledge, 2000. Wade, Rebecca Michelle. Theories of Depression. 5 October 2011. . WebMD. Depression, the Thyroid, and Hormones. 2016. . Wikipedia. Cognitive Psychology. 2016. .

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

A boy once approached Socrates with the desire to obtain wisdom. Without saying a word, Socrates led the boy down to the edge of the sea and walked in, beckoning him to follow. When they were standing waist deep in the water, Socrates pushed the boy down, completely submerging his head. He held him thus for a couple of minutes, until the boy was almost to the point of death, before letting him up. Sputtering and angry, the boy demanded to know why Socrates had held him underwater for so long. In response, Socrates asked, "when you were under the water, what did you want more than anything in the world?" After a moment's reflection, the boy answered, "I wanted to breathe." "Ah," Socrates replied. "When you desire wisdom and knowledge as much as you desired to breathe, it is then that you shall have it." Learning is a talent. It is something that is born from an intense desire to gain knowledge and it is something that can be practiced and improved upon. During our high school career, we have not only been learning how to conjugate verbs or how to integrate polynomials, but w...

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 11

Elena hung up the phone. She and Bonnie had discussed everything that was going on, from the mysterious appearance of Celia's and Meredith's names to Margaret's upcoming dance recital. But she hadn't been able to bring up what she had real y cal ed to talk about. She sighed. After a moment, she felt under her mattress and pul ed out her velvet-covered journal. Dear Diary, This afternoon, I talked with Caleb Smallwood on the front lawn of my house. I barely know him, yet I feel this visceral connection with him. I love Bonnie and Meredith more than life itself, but they have no idea what it's like to lose your parents, and that puts a space between us. I see myself in Caleb. He's so handsome and seems so carefree. I'm sure most people think his life is perfect. I know what it's like to pretend to have it together, even when you're coming apart. It can be the loneliest thing in the world. I hope he has a Bonnie or a Meredith of his own, a friend he can lean on. The strangest thing happened while we were talking. A crow flew straight at us. It was a big crow, one of the biggest I've ever seen, with iridescent black feathers that shone in the sun and a huge hooked beak and claws. It might have been the same one that appeared on my windowsill yesterday morning, but I wasn't sure. Who can tell crows apart? And, of course, both the crows reminded me of Damon, who watched me as a crow before we even met. What's strange – ridiculous, really – is this dawning feeling of hope I have deep inside me. What if, I keep thinking, what if somehow Damon's not dead after all? And then the hope collapses, because he is dead, and I need to face that. If I want to stay strong I can't lie to myself. I can't make up pretty fairy tales where the noble vampire doesn't die, where the rules get changed because it's someone I care about. But that hope comes sneaking up on me again: What if? It would be too cruel to say anything about the crow to Stefan. His grief has changed him. Sometimes, when he's quiet, I catch a strange look in his leaf green eyes, like there's someone I don't know in there. And I know he's thinking of Damon, thoughts that take him somewhere I can't follow anymore. I thought I could tell Bonnie about the crow. She cared about Damon, and she wouldn't laugh at me for wondering whether there were some way he might still, in some form, be alive. Not after she suggested the very same thing earlier today. At the last minute, though, I couldn't talk to her about it. I know why, and it's a lousy, selfish, stupid reason: I'm jealous of Bonnie. Because Damon saved her life. Awful, right? Here's the thing: For a long time, out of millions, there was one human Damon cared about. Only one. And that one person was me. Everyone else could go to hell as far as he was concerned. He could barely remember my friends' names. But something changed between Damon and Bonnie, maybe when they were alone in the Dark Dimension together, maybe earlier. She's always had a little crush on him, when he wasn't being cruel, but then he started to take notice of his little redbird. He watched her. He was tender with her. And when she was in danger, he moved to save her without a second thought as to what it might cost him. So I'm jealous. Because Damon saved Bonnie's life. I'm a terrible person. But, because I am so terrible, I don't want to share any more of Damon with Bonnie, not even my thoughts about the crow. I want to keep part of him just for me. Elena reread what she had written, her lips pressed tightly together. She wasn't proud of her feelings, but she couldn't deny they existed. She leaned back on her pil ow. It had been a long, exhausting day, and now it was one o'clock in the morning. She'd said good night to Aunt Judith and Robert a couple of hours ago, but she didn't seem to be able to make it into bed. She'd just puttered around after changing into her nightdress: brushing her hair, rearranging some of her possessions, flipping through a magazine, looking with satisfaction at the fashionable wardrobe she hadn't had access to in months. Cal ing Bonnie. Bonnie had sounded odd. Distracted, maybe. Or perhaps just tired. It was late, after al . Elena was tired, too, but she didn't want to go to sleep. She final y admitted it to herself: She was a little afraid to go to sleep. Damon had been so real in her dream the other night. His body had felt firm and solid as she held him; his silky black hair had been soft against her cheek. His smooth voice had sounded sarcastic, seductive, and commanding by turns, just like the living Damon's. When she had remembered, with a sickening horror, that he was gone, it had been as if he had died al over again. But she couldn't stay awake forever. She was so tired. Elena switched off the light and closed her eyes. She was sitting on the creaky old bleachers in the school gym. The air smel ed of sweaty athletic shoes and the polish they used on the wooden floor. â€Å"This is where we met,† said Damon, who she now realized was sitting beside her, so close the sleeve of his leather jacket brushed her arm. â€Å"Romantic,† Elena replied, raising one eyebrow and looking around the big empty room, the basketbal hoops hanging at each end. â€Å"I try,† Damon said, a tinge of a laugh coloring his dry voice. â€Å"But you chose where we are. It's your dream.† â€Å"Is it a dream?† Elena asked suddenly, turning to study his face. â€Å"It doesn't feel like one.† â€Å"Wel ,† he said, â€Å"let me put it this way. We're not actual y here.† His face was serious and intent as he gazed back at her, but then he flashed one of his sudden, bril iant smiles and his eyes slid away. â€Å"I'm glad we didn't have gymnasiums like this when I did my studies,† he said casual y, stretching out his legs in front of him. â€Å"It seems so undignified, with the shorts and the rubber bal s.† â€Å"Stefan said that you played sports then, though,† Elena said, distracted despite herself. Damon frowned at Stefan's name. â€Å"Never mind,† she said hastily. â€Å"We might not have much time. Please, Damon, please, you said you're not here, but are you anywhere? Are you al right? Even if you're dead†¦ I mean real y dead, dead for good, are you somewhere?† He looked at her sharply. His mouth twisted a little as he said, â€Å"Does it matter that much to you, princess?† â€Å"Of course it does,† Elena said, shocked. Her eyes were fil ing with tears. His tone was light, but his eyes, so black she couldn't tel where the iris ended and the pupil began, were watchful. â€Å"Everyone else – al your friends – this town – they're al okay, though, aren't they? You have your world back. There are such things as col ateral damages you have to expect if you're going to get what you want.† Elena could tel from Damon's expression that what she said next would matter dreadful y. And, in her heart of hearts, hadn't she admitted to herself the other day that, as much as she loved Damon, things were better now, that everything could be good again with the town saved and her returned to her old life? And that she wanted it that way, even if it meant Damon was dead? That Damon was what he said: collateral damage? â€Å"Oh, Damon,† she said at last, helplessly. â€Å"I just miss you so much.† Damon's face softened and he reached for her. â€Å"Elena – â€Å" â€Å"Yes?† Elena murmured. â€Å"Elena?† A hand was gently shaking her. â€Å"Elena?† Someone stroked her hair, and Elena nuzzled sleepily into the touch. â€Å"Damon?† she said, stil half dreaming. The hand paused in its stroking and then withdrew. She opened her eyes. â€Å"Just me, I'm afraid,† said Stefan. He was sitting next to her on her bed, his mouth a straight, tight line, his eyes averted. â€Å"Oh, Stefan,† said Elena, sitting up and throwing her arms around him. â€Å"I didn't mean – â€Å" â€Å"It's al right,† Stefan said flatly, turning away from her. â€Å"I know what he meant to you.† Elena pul ed him toward her and looked up into his face. â€Å"Stefan. Stefan.† His green eyes had a distant expression. â€Å"I'm sorry,† she said pleadingly. â€Å"You have nothing to apologize for, Elena,† he said. â€Å"Stefan, I was dreaming about Damon,† she confessed. â€Å"You're right, Damon was important to me, and I†¦ miss him.† A muscle twitched at the side of Stefan's face, and she stroked his jaw. â€Å"I wil never love anyone more than I love you, Stefan. It would be impossible. Stefan,† she said, feeling like she might cry, â€Å"you're my true love, you know that.† If only she could reach out and show him with her mind, make him understand what she felt for him. She'd never ful y explored her other Powers, never ful y claimed them, but losing their telepathic connection felt like it might kil her. Stefan's expression softened. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† he said slowly, and wrapped his arms around her. â€Å"I miss Damon, too.† He buried his face in her hair and his next words were muffled. â€Å"I've spent hundreds of years fighting with my only brother, with us hating each other. We killed each other when we were human, and I don't think either of us ever got over the guilt and the shock, the horror of that moment.† She felt a long shudder go through his body. He sighed, a soft, sad sound. â€Å"And when we final y started to find our way back to being brothers again, it was al because of you.† His forehead stil resting on her shoulder, Stefan took Elena's hand and held it between both of his, turning it over and stroking it as he thought. â€Å"He died so suddenly. I guess I never expected†¦ I never expected Damon to die before I did. He was always the strong one, the one who truly loved life. I feel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He smiled a little, just a sad twist of his lips. â€Å"I feel†¦ surprisingly lonely without him.† Elena entwined her fingers with Stefan's and held his hand tightly. He turned his face toward hers, meeting her eyes, and she pul ed back a little so she could see him more clearly. There was pain in his eyes, and grief, but there was also a hardness she had never seen there before. She kissed him, trying to erase that hard edge. He resisted her for half a second, and then he kissed her back. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† he said thickly, and kissed her again. As the kiss deepened, Elena felt a sweet, satisfying sense of rightness sweep through her. It was always like this: If she felt distanced from Stefan, the touch of their lips could unite them. She felt a wave of love and wonder from him, and held on to it, feeding the emotion back to him, the tenderness between them growing. With her Powers gone, she needed this more than ever. She reached out with her mind and emotions, past the tenderness, past the rock-solid love that was always waiting for her in Stefan's kiss, and delved deeper into his mind. There was a fierce passion there, and she returned it, their emotions twining together, as their hands held each other harder. Beneath the passion, there was grief, a terrible, endless grief, and farther stil , buried in the depths of Stefan's emotions, was an aching loneliness, the loneliness of a man who had lived for centuries without companionship. And in that loneliness was the taste of something unfamiliar. Something†¦ unyielding and cold and faintly metal ic, as if she had bitten into foil. There was something Stefan was holding back from her. Elena was sure of it, and she reached deeper into his mind as their kisses intensified. She needed al of him†¦ She started to pul back her hair, to offer him her blood. That always brought them as close as they could possibly be. But before he could accept her offer, there was a sudden knock on the door. Almost immediately it opened and Aunt Judith peeked in. Elena, blinking, found herself alone, her palms stinging from the speed with which Stefan had pul ed away from her. She looked around hastily, but he'd vanished. â€Å"Breakfast is on the table, Elena,† Aunt Judith said cheerful y. â€Å"Uh-huh,† Elena said, distracted, peering at the closet, wondering where Stefan had hidden himself. â€Å"Are you al right, dear?† her aunt said, her forehead creased with concern. Elena had a sudden picture of how she must look: wide-eyed, flushed, and disheveled, sitting in her rumpled bed and looking wildly around the room. It had been a long time since Stefan had needed to use his vampiric speed for anything as mundane as not getting caught in her bedroom! She gave Aunt Judith a reassuring smile. â€Å"Sorry, I'm stil half-asleep. I'l be right down,† she said. â€Å"I'd better hurry. Stefan wil be here to pick me up soon.† As Aunt Judith left the room, Elena final y caught sight of Stefan, waving from the lawn below her open window, and she waved back, laughing, the strange emotions at the bottom of Stefan's mind put aside for the moment. He gestured that he was going around to the front of the house and that he would see her in a minute. She laughed again and jumped up to get ready for the picnic at Hot Springs. It was nice to be the kind of girl who worried about getting grounded. It felt†¦ pleasurably normal. A few minutes later, as Elena, now dressed in shorts and a light blue T-shirt, her hair pul ed back in a ponytail, headed down the stairs, the doorbel rang. â€Å"That'l be Stefan,† she cal ed as Aunt Judith appeared in the kitchen doorway. Elena grabbed her beach bag and picnic cooler from the bench in the hal . â€Å"Elena!† Aunt Judith scolded. â€Å"You have to eat something before you go!† â€Å"No time,† Elena said, smiling at the familiarity of the argument. â€Å"I'l grab a muffin or something on the way.† She and Aunt Judith had exchanged these words, or similar ones, most mornings of Elena's years in high school. â€Å"Oh, Elena,† Aunt Judith said, rol ing her eyes. â€Å"Don't move, young lady. I'l be right back.† Elena opened the door and smiled up into Stefan's eyes. â€Å"Why, hel o there, stranger,† she said softly. He kissed her, a sweet touch of his lips on hers. Aunt Judith hurried back into the hal way and pressed a granola bar into Elena's hand. â€Å"There,† she said. â€Å"At least you'l have something in your stomach.† Elena gave her a quick hug. â€Å"Thank you, Aunt Judith,† she said. â€Å"I'l see you later.† â€Å"Have fun, but please don't forget Margaret's dance recital tonight,† Aunt Judith said. â€Å"She's so excited about it.† Aunt Judith waved good-bye from the doorway as Elena and Stefan strol ed toward the car. â€Å"We're meeting the others at the boardinghouse and caravanning to Hot Springs,† Stefan said. â€Å"Matt and Meredith are both bringing their cars.† â€Å"Oh, good, we won't be as crowded as we were yesterday. Not that I minded sitting on your lap, but I thought I might squish Celia in the middle,† Elena said. She turned her face up and stretched like a cat in the sunshine. A breeze tossed her ponytail, and she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation. â€Å"It's a gorgeous day for a picnic,† she said. The world was alive with birdsong and with the rustle of trees. A faint tracery of white clouds underscored the bright blue of the sky. â€Å"Would it be jinxing ourselves to say it feels like the kind of day where nothing could go wrong?† she asked. â€Å"Yes, it absolutely would be jinxing ourselves to say that,† Stefan said, straight-faced, unlocking the passenger-side door for her. â€Å"Then I won't say it,† Elena said. â€Å"I won't even think it. But I feel good. I haven't been to Hot Springs for ages.† She grinned with pure pleasure, and Stefan smiled back at her, but Elena was struck once again by that certain something new – something troubling – in his eyes.