Carbon Dioxide and Meat-free Meal Essay

Good night ladies and gentlemen.. To begin, let me sing you guys a song. â€Å"Save my world, save my world. Save my world, save my world.† I am very sure this song is not foreign to all of you. From all your faces, I know that you guys would be thinking â€Å"OMG! This song again?! She is going to talk about the environment-related topics. Definitely something about reduce travelling by cars, reuse the plastic bags or recycle the paper and glass etc.† Well, my speech is about protecting the environment but from an angle that you didn’t realize it. Have you wondered how many animals died every year? Nope. I am not talking about how many animals died because of global warming, I am talking about how many animals died because you ate them. No idea? Was it because you have never thought about it before? 60 billions of animals died every year to fill our stomach, more than 6 million animals died every hour. These figures did not include sea animals because they are measured in pounds. Imagine how many animals died as I am making this speech here. Human beings are not the only living things on earth, save these animals! Imagine how much resources are needed to produce these animals. GO GREEN, EAT VEGGIE! Eating less meat would help to save the environment through three factors, water, land and air. First, let us look at the factor: water. We used about 9000 litres of water everyday. Only five percent of them run through toilets, taps, and garden hoses at home. The other 95 percent is hidden in the food we eat, products we buy, and services we rely on. Producing 1 pound of beef needs 2,500 gallons of water which means that producing half KG of beef needs more than 10,000 litre of water. Comparing with potato, it only requires 100 litres of water for half KG of potato. You may think that there are other ways of conserving water such as washing cars less often, bath less, or using low-flow toilets. But these methods are not as effective as eating less meat. We can help to save the environment by eating a meat-free meal once a week. And after one year, you can save more than 380,000 litres of water. Isn’t that amazing? Remember GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! Next, let us move on to the factor: land. Millions of acres of land are used to feed the animals which is equivalent to the size of 5 Singapore. Imagine the size of 5 Singapore is used to feed the animals. And many of these land used were once rainforest. We all know that clearing rainforest brought about countless negative impact to our environment such as soil erosion, lost of diversity. By choosing a meat-free meal once each week, you could save nearly 8,000 square feet of open space from being converted to farmland. GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! Lastly, it is the factor: air. As I have mentioned earlier, rainforest are cleared to provide the animals with space and food. This causes more carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere. And also, all living things breathe and â€Å"F-A-R-T†. Livestock release carbon dioxide when breathing and also methane when â€Å"F-A-R-T†. These gases are all greenhouse gases which would harm the environment. A single cow can produce 500 litres of methane a day. Imagine how much cows are there in a farm and how many days do they need to be old enough to be eaten? How much methane would be released? And again GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! I am not asking you guys to become a vegetarian but I am asking you guys to reduce the amount of meat in your meal. Having a meat-free meal once a week, I believe it is not too much to ask. Never underestimate the power of individual. Imagine if I collect 10 cent from each of you, a single 10 cent coin is almost worthless but if I collect 10 cent from 20 people, I would be able to afford a meal in school. Imagine if we eat a meal without meat once a week, there are billions of people in the world. How many animals do we save? GO GREEN! EAT VEGGIE! â€Å"Save my world, save my world. Save my world, save my world today!† Thank you!

Passionate geography teacher

Since an early age I have been fascinated by Geography and during my last few old ages at school I have been inspired by a truly passionate geographics instructor. The more I found out about the topic, the more interesting it appeared to me. I was captivated by how in Geography, scientific discipline interlinked with art, and the natural environment interlinked with the human society. Hence, without vacillation I decided to prosecute a grade in Geography. I have already proven my abilities and my echt involvement for this topic as I am already a 2nd twelvemonth geographics pupil at Vilnius University, which is one of the best universities in Lithuania. The grade is disputing but at the same clip it is honoring as I am passionate about the topic. Not merely have I gained good theoretical background, but I have besides already developed some practical accomplishments used in mapmaking, geomorphology, weather forecasting every bit good as the information analysis necessary for recreational and touristry geographics. Thankss to my university surveies I have acquired a better apprehension of the natural environment. Last twelvemonth we undertook a Geomorphology field class, during which we were look intoing the land conditions to acquire a better apprehension of the formation of the soils nowadays in a wood. We besides researched the consequence of the clime alteration on the landscape. [ ( ? ? ? ) ] It was one of the most interesting parts of my class, as I had the chance to use my theoretical cognition and I besides learnt much about the land formation. [ ( ? ? ? ) . ] I enjoy traveling to seminars and discoursing about the issues that the universe and geographers are confronting. This is assisting me to understand the environment as a whole every bit good as my ain function within the universe. From the beginning of my grade I have been actively engaged in assorted facets of university life. I am a portion of the organizational and societal activities commission at our Students ‘ Union. I play a great function in organizing societal events, negotiations and developing. Most of this engagement has been as portion of assorted squads, which has non merely helped me develop my interpersonal accomplishments but besides improved my organizational accomplishments. I have ever been passionate about athleticss and have therefore taken portion in assorted sportive activities runing from swimming to hiting and have taken portion in school and university athletics competitions. I have won several decorations and my dedication for athleticss has helped me develop my squad working accomplishments every bit good as heightening my continuity. These accomplishments are critical for my university surveies and for my future professional calling. Recently, I realised that my current university is unable to suit my demands. My private research has shown that higher ( ? ? ? ) instruction in the United Kingdom offers greater learning quality and more chances for their pupils. Besides, the alumnus chances for natural scientific disciplines are significantly better than in Lithuania. Analyzing in England would besides be an first-class opportunity for me to broaden my skyline, experience cultural diverseness, and run into new people. It would be an priceless experience for me and would surely be an of import plus for my future calling. As I have studied English at school for 9 old ages and have been taking it as portion of my current grade, I am confident that analyzing in English would non present any hurdlings for me. Since the beginning of my grade I have ne'er regretted of taking Geography. Hence, there is no uncertainty in my head that I want to go on analyzing it. However, due to the differences in the course of study of English and Lithuanian universities I believe that the best option for me would be to get down my surveies once more from the first twelvemonth.

Importance of Management in Civil Engineering Essay - 1

Importance of Management in Civil Engineering - Essay Example Management is a leading science domain and routine in managing building companies. It is one of the oldest human activities; it activates human abilities on building investment objects in order to assure necessity for civil engineering purposes. It is good enough reason to take place in management development in civil engineering. As there are too many definitions of management depending on an author, only the most important are offered, namely the most acceptable in civil engineering domain. Remarkable attention is given to managing tasks in civil engineering as well to their correlationsIf we speak about management in civil engineering then the total quality management must be proposed. Total quality management is a business philosophy and accessible way of modern companies around the whole world. It is the most contemporary idea of developing and advancing in all life and work domains. The growing urge of efficient use of the earth's resources such as land, air, water and raw mate rials as well as concentration on efficient design, analysis and maintenance of civil structures requires a better insight in the spatial and temporal patterns of resources and activities (Bean, A.L., 2007). In view of the fact that the parameters of civil engineering today are not only confined to design and construction of structures but due to globalization and privatization of civil engineering organizations now civil engineering emerges as a study, which not only pay attention on construction.

State of Immigration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

State of Immigration - Research Paper Example Nevertheless, the proposal offers provisional status to millions of undocumented immigrants. The country need to come up with measures aimed at solving current challenges in immigration. The first step is to secure the borders. The border with Mexico still allows many illegal immigrants to move into the country hence it need to be secured. A guest-worker program will ensure that people from other countries are accorded the opportunity to work in the United States especially in carrying out hose jobs that have been neglected by the citizens of the nation. However this needs to be backed up with the necessary surveillance so as to ensure that only those who meet the needed qualifications are allowed into the country (Bush, J., McLarty, T. F., & Alden, E. H. 2009). The nation need to increased funding for the U.S. Border Patrol and adding more federal agents who will ensure that no illegal immigrants find their way into the country. Welfare benefits for the illegal immigrants need to be stopped as well as prohibiting in-state education of children from the illegal immigrants’ families. These moves will tend to discourage those who think being immigrants in the United States will offer them with the best opportunities at a lower cost (Borjas, 2007). Chris Gafner and Stephen Yale-Loehr argue that immigration brought great deal of talented and bright immigrants who made positive contributions in the economy as well as other spheres of life among the American people. However the trend is changing due to the fact that many nations have devised strategies aimed at attracting the best of the immigrants thus denying the United States the opportunity of gaining the best of the of the immigrants. Countries such as Canada, China and the European Union have come with attractive means of enticing the best of the immigrants from developing countries especially

Beethoven Hearing Loss May Have Shaped Transition in His Musical Essay

Beethoven Hearing Loss May Have Shaped Transition in His Musical Styles - Essay Example His works are different than any of the previous composers of his time via the formation of extended, architectonic, large forms differentiated by the exclusive development of motifs, themes, and musical materials, particularly by way of â€Å"modulation†, that is, an alteration in the sensation of home key, via a diversification of harmonic or keys regions. A great musician, an expert of almost anything, Beethoven composed thirty two sonatas in only just the years between 1792 and 1822. This time period was a time when Classical period was moving towards Romantic period. Beethoven’s music paralleled the concurrent development of the new idea in the literature, a form of literary emphasized on the expansion of one or more individuals through complicated circumstances of life, and of the contemporary nature of the idealism of Germans’ philosophy, spirit, mind that unfolds via an intricate procedure of challenges between the objective and subjective up till a synth esis or resolution happens in the scenario when all of these challenges and expansion phases have been included in a advanced harmony. (Mann, 2011) He was sent by his instructor to Vienna where he took lessons from Mozart. Mozart was an inspirer of Beethoven’s talent and abilities. ... There are three periods of his life: the first Vienna period (1792-1802), the middle period from 1802 to 1814, and the last period which was after 1815 until his death in 1827. Each period depicts a diverse musical style which was profoundly affected by his hearing disabilities, a study proclaims. Even though later works of Haydn reflected a superior variability between remote keys. The innovation of Beethoven was his capability to refurbish a solidity in contrasting varying keys and unanticipated noted to unite them. This explicit extension of realm of harmonic music makes a sense of experiential and vast musical space via the moves of music, and the expansion of materials of music makes a sense of restating drama in this room. (Mann, 2011) According to a research in British Medical Journal, there is dissimilarity between the music from the early life of Beethoven to the period when his hearing loss began in 1801 to the time period when he became completely deaf in 1825. The study w as made by a team of researchers at Amsterdam University in Netherlands on use of high notes in Beethoven’s composing career. The piano sonatas, which were composed by Beethoven in the period of transition from the Classic time period to Romantic (heroic) time period to Creative era, comprises of the elements of music that Beethoven took from his predecessors and shaped it in a genuinely novel form. Still, those sonatas evidently depicted the transition in his style of music and life, and this music of Beethoven became the antecedent to many of the great composers after his time and to current age. Beethoven is well known for most of his famous works which include the Emperor Concerto, Fifth symphony, the Eroica, his only one opera Fidelio, and Pastoral

Brandon Beaver Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Brandon Beaver - Essay Example The effect of the ERG in any firm can only be secondary, compared to the situations in the workplace which principally defines employee sentiment towards the corporate leadership. Therefore, where the underlying working relationship is essentially adversarial, any management-sponsored ERG initiative will be perceived with suspicion as a ploy by management to take advantage of the employees (Ashton & Sung, 2002). The post’s identification of possible drawbacks to the ERG is perceptive. Because the ERG, in order to be effective, will tend to focus on particular minority groups or their specific situations, their members tend to stand out more distinctly rather than blend in with the majority. This is, I think, the paradox of most diversity and inclusion efforts. The effort to more effectively create inclusion tends to deepen the demarcations. The challenge to management is how to sponsor the creation of ERGs in such a manner that employees come to view the ERG as more closely id entified with the needs and aspirations of the employees, rather than with the desires of management. If the ERG is identified more closely with management than it is with the workers, it may be seen as just another means of manipulating and controlling the work force to comply with managerial designs against their better interests. References Ashton, D N & Sung, J (2002) Supporting Workplace Learning for High Performance Working. Geneva: International Labour Organization Catalyst (2008). Employee resource groups: valuable to employees; valuable to business. www.catalyst.org. Response to post of student 2: Christopher Gilbert The post mentions, strangely enough, the matter of the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. I believe this has little bearing on the matter of diversity and inclusion in the workplace towards its employees, or in the company’s dealings with its customers and the public at large. The Chick-Fil-A issue was more about the inclusion working the other way around, th at of the right of a person to express an opinion and the guarantee attached to that right. The ERG cannot be empowered to dictate changes from above, or from external movements and elements that have little relevance to what happens in the workplace. Diversity and inclusion involves unity of action and goals, not necessarily unity of beliefs and the core principles of individuals (Herek, 2000). The ERG’s goal is to pave the way for tolerance and respect for the diversity of beliefs and opinions that are present in any group at any time. There is a difference between inclusion and uniformity. Inclusion allows for variety and amiable co-existence while retaining people’s innate individuality. Uniformity is intolerant of differences, and wishes to create a single likeness among people, therefore denying them their individuality. The use of employee reference groups should be clear on its objectives, which is to address the diversity and inclusion needs of the employee gr oup while maintaining strategic relevance to the firm’s business goals and objectives (Catalyst, 2008). The Chic-Fil-A issue does not have anything to do with the acceptance of people with different sexual orientations at the workplace and among consumers, it is about the political issue of the legalization of same-sex marriage. In actuality, ERGs should avoid getting themselves embroiled n political contests because they are divisive and have little bearing upon the form’s operations. For ERGs to be effective as tools of the organization, they must be careful not

Approaches to Clinical Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Approaches to Clinical Psychology - Essay Example Most individuals are familiar with Freud’s characterization of the personality as differentiated into three categories of ego, super-ego, and id. When considering the relevancy for this personality theory for psychodynamic counseling it’s important to note that Freud believed that the conscious elements represented by the ego in certain situations experienced cognitive overload resulting in repression as a protective mechanism. Psychodynamic counseling treatment functions by determining the patient’s underlining malaise as rooted in the complex interaction of conscious and unconscious forces governing the individual’s actions. Once the forces governing the patient’s behavior have been identified, the therapy then functions to develop a functional response to the issue. As one might infer, while the process can be implemented through quick and direct methods, psychodynamic therapy usually occurs through the long-term and methodical investigation of t he patient. A number of objections have surfaced in response to psychodynamic therapy that has largely marginalized it as a therapeutic approach. One of the most prominent is the general rejection of many of Freud’s theories as largely unscientific, as their assumptions are predicated on untestable hypotheses (Corey 1991).

Fernando Botero's Style of Art Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fernando Botero's Style of Art - Research Paper Example A particular artist may decide to focus on vegetation, animals or pictures with political thematic concerns and this becomes synonymous with their paintings. One artist that has a unique style is Fernando Botero; this paper will be a discussion of his style of art and an examination of other artists that influence his works. Any work of art with smooth inflated shapes and unexpected scales can easily be recognized as Fernando Botero’s. Botero always uses an innovative way to bring out unique proportions. When asked the reason behind his style of art, Botero replies, â€Å"No, I don’t paint fat people,† (Hanstein, 49). This is despite the fact that all the people in his paintings are well-fed, chubby and corpulent. All other things in his paintings including still works are voluminous and blown out of proportion in a desirable way. Deformation as is synonymous with Botero’s works may be outrageous when used naturally, however, for Botero; it enhances a sens uous quality in his pictures and paintings (Hanstein, 49). Various people have tried to come up with reasons behind Botero’s voluminous paintings. For example, Moravia sees some psychological factor as motivation behind the heavy limbs works of art. He feels that certain aspects of suffering were being expressed by Botero and the proportions that he employed were intended to make those sufferings painless. This may have been influenced by the revolution of Rivera and Orozco where there was declaration of war in a place where poverty, injustice, dictatorship and violence were prevalent (Hanstein, 58). Therefore, through his huge works of art, Botero may be trying to portray the world that had become ‘enormously fat and complacent’ with various regressive events. Moravia feels that this may be Fernando Botero’s view of the world and he always tries to express it in a discreet way. However, Botero insists that his works are motivated by great passion for shap es, color and volume (Hanstein, 58). In the creation of his works, Botero pays homage to other prominent artists who tend to influence his creations. One such artist is the French painter Eduardo Manet. Just like Manet, Botero used to make art for various museums in Europe. This is due to the fact that Botero wanted to be diverse; he was not only interested in the art of his own time but also the history of art (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). Latin-American folk art is also present in Botero’s art; this is evident in his use of flat, bright colors and forms that are boldly outlined. He is also famous for his formal portraits, emulated from his masters Francisco de Goya and Diego Velazquez (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 28). His portraits of the Spanish queen Maria Luisa and her corrupt court was able to bring out atrocities in the society (Sillevis, Elliot & Sullivan, 24). In the same way, he has done a number of his own portraits and they also exhibit his form of distortio n. According to Barnitz, Fernando Botero seems to have gotten a lot of inspiration from Enrique Grau, a Colombian artist born in 1920. Grau also engages in some form of distortion, a trademark in Botero’s works. In addition to this, they both involve in academic painting, Enrique has always been known to use brush strokes in his paintings and in the 1950’s, and Botero’s works were observed to be incorporating this style in his works (257). This

Foreign Capital Essay Example for Free

Foreign Capital Essay Foreign capital: The capital available to any country other than the domestic capital in order to finance any domestic purpose is called foreign capital. Need for Foreign Capital 1.Capital investment requirements – Since underdeveloped countries want to industrialize themselves within a short period of time, it becomes necessary to increase capital investment substantially. This requires a high level of savings. However, because of general poverty, the savings are very low. This creates a resource gap between investment needs and savings. This gap has to be filled through foreign capital. 2. Technology transfers – The under developed countries have lower technological capacity as compared to advanced countries. The desire for industrialization creates the need for importing technology from advanced countries. Such technology transfer usually comes with foreign capital in the form of private foreign investment or foreign collaboration. The technological gap is reduced by training domestic personnel and through establishment of educational, research or training institutes. 3. Exploitation of natural resources – A number of underdeveloped countries possess huge mineral resources, which can be exploited for economic development. These countries do not possess the required technical skill and expertise to accomplish this task. As a consequence, they have to depend upon foreign capital to undertake the exploitation of their mineral wealth. 4. Development of entrepreneurship – Many under developed countries suffer from shortage of private entrepreneurs. This creates a limitation in the process of industrialization. Foreign capital undertakes the risk of investment in host countries and thus provides the much-needed impetus to the process of industrialization. Once the process of industrialization gets started with foreign capital, domestic industrial activity also increases through greater local participation. This automatically develops local entrepreneurship. 5. Development of economic infrastructure – The domestic capital in under developed countries is inadequate to build the required level of economic  infra structure. Thus these countries require the assistance of foreign capital to undertake this task. Over the last 50 years, international financial institutions and governments of advanced countries have made substantial capital available to the under developed countries to develop their economic infrastructure in the form of transport and communications systems, generation and distribution of electricity, development of irrigation facilities, etc. The basic intention is to build an economic model for achieving sustainable development. 6. Financing balance of payments deficit – In the initial phase of economic development, under developed countries face larger imports (in the form of machinery, capital goods, industrial raw materials, spares and components), than exports. The deficit in the balance of trade is financed by inflow of foreign capital. The economic development of an underdeveloped country therefore needs foreign capital to initiate its economic development process and sustain it till desired level of stability is reached

Understand Sensory Loss Essay Example for Free

Understand Sensory Loss Essay 1. Understand the factors that impact on an individual with sensory loss. 1.1. Analyse how a range of factors can impact on individuals with sensory loss. There are a number of factors that can impact individuals with sensory loss. In many cases sensory loss is hidden and people can be unaware an individual has sensory loss. Communication is an area in which people with sensory loss have many issues. Normal day to day activities can cause them a great deal of stress and anxiety. For example if someone does not have a sensory loss they may enjoy watching television. Imagine if you could not hear what was begin said probably. The frustration that must be felt can lead to feelings of inadequacy. For someone who is unable to see the television. The can miss out on actions that are not spoken .For example someone smiling. We express facial expressions that allow to show how we are feeling. Imagine not being able to to tell by looking at someone you know if they are happy or not. This can lead a person feeling extremity frustrated see more:outline the main causes of sensory loss People with sensory loss can miss out on important information that people with out sensory loss take in day to day with out even realising. For example if we had an visual impairment we may not be able to read written material which is important to us such as a bank statement. A person with hearing loss could miss hear important Information such as someone shouting them to warn them of a danger. The environment around a person with sensory loss can have a large impact on a person. For example if a a person parks a car on the curb instead of next to the curb. This can cause a person with visionary loss a great deal of distress. They may not be able to see the car and they could walk into the car causing them embarrassment and physical injury/pain. All in all this factors can have a negative impact on their lives. Causing the individual to feel isolated, inadequate and frustrated. 1.2. Analyse how societal attitudes and beliefs impact on individuals with sensory loss. Societal attitudes and beliefs can impact individuals with sensory loss In a large way. This on the whole can be quite negative. For example we may not mean to but often we be extremely inconsiderate of people with sensory loss in our day to day life’s. A few people often hear sensory loss and assume that a persons intelligence and capacity to understand are effected. For example people often talk to deaf people slowly and loudly. This can make the individual feel undervalued, miss understood and stupid. People can often be very judgemental. A person could be asking a deaf person to move by saying excuse me and how often if they did not get a reaction or the person did not respond would people think they are rude over deaf? We often assume they are unable to complete tasks and treat them without meaning to disrespectfully by taking away there independence by assuming they are unable to do tasks such as cook there own tea. All these factors and make an individual feel insecure, frustrated, isolated, undervalued, stupid and inadequate. Although we are know getting much better at recognising the needs of individual with sensory loss such as audio descriptive screenings for films, subtitles, loop systems, signers and guide dogs. This are helping socially as people are becoming more aware of people with sensory loss and there needs. This is having a positive impact on individuals with sensory loss by allowing them to live more independently. 1.3. Explore how a range of factors, societal attitudes and beliefs impact on service provision. Due to recent changes in attitudes the service provision for individuals has  more about the person and there needs rather than their disability. In the past professionals would decided on the support an individual would need by using a gift model. Where individuals where expected to fit in with the service, not the service to fit them. Now the service has become person centred. This is the idea that a person has control over the services they need to support them. For example they are given a personal budget. This allows the individual a chance to decide on what support they need, how they want it delivered, who they want to deliver it, and when they want it. This is a positive move for individuals with sensory loss as it allows them to take back there independence and receive the correct support to help them life a fulfilling life. 2. Understand the importance of effective communication for individuals with sensory loss. 2.1. Explain the methods of communication used by individuals with: Sight loss Hearing loss Deaf-blindness Sight loss Firstly always identify yourself even in known environment e.g. Hello, its Hannah. Also any others that may be around. Always use names to identify people e.g. when in a group use names. Keep them aware of where you are and if people are moving around them, who is in the room and who is leaving. Keep them informed of where objects such as tables,chairs etc. Talk to them normally there is no need to shout or talk really slowly. Use everyday language dont be worried about using words such as look and see. Dont use non-verbal communication e.g. pulling faces, pointing When giving instructions be accurate and specific. Provide information in alternative formats e.g. audio, extra large pint,  electronic formats, Braille etc. Hearing Loss Firstly make sure you are facing the individual and they can see you clearly. Try to find out the persons preferred communication method When using speech, speak normal lip pattern, clearly, dont shout and don;t turn your head away from them or cover your mouth. Speak at ear level or if they have a preferred side to be on that side Repeat things if necessary or rephrase them. Use finger spelling, write things down Ensure the location is quiet and echos are not present e.g. a room with soft furnishings If there is a loop system present, ask if they want to use it. If necessary book note-takers, lip speaker. BSL interpreters etc. Deaf-blindness Communicating with deaf-blind individual can be difficult. Studying the individuals body language can be helpful. Follows the same guidelines for blind and deaf individuals and additionally. Good lighting of the environment. Plain backgrounds. Light on the person speaking and coming from behind the individual. Distance and positioning are important. Check their preferences. Use objects to help communicate. Provide a guide/communicator if needed. Tactile communication e.g. Braille, moon Finger spelling by the deaf-blind manual alphabet. 2.2. Describe how the environment facilitates effective communication for people with sensory loss. By providing a the correct environment we can provide effective communication for people with sensory loss. For example to put a person with visual  impairments in a room with poor lighting, with lot of objects around them and ask them to read a regular newspaper would be unfair. However if we provided an environment with the correct lighting such as brighter lighting, de clutter there environment also use colour to make things stand out from there background. Use a bigger print for the paper or get a audio version. There are three simple rules to remember for a visually impaired individual. Bigger. Bolder. Brighter. Bigger is simply making things bigger such as prints, buttons. This can also be done by illusion of moving things closer to someone so the object appears bigger. Bolder is making things easier to see. For example colour differences. Say you have a brown table on a brown carpet against a brown wall. By either making the background a light colour or the table it instantly will stand out to them. If this can not be done try a bold colour tape along the edges of an object, edge to make it stand out. It is all about creating a large contrast between things to help them differentiate between objects. Brighter is using better lighting to help make things easier to see. It should be the right amount to make the person feel comfortable. Lamps shinning directly onto items they directly want to see work well. Remember each individual is different so find the correct lighting for them. For individuals with hearing loss the most effective thing in an environment is reduced background noise. Again provide good lighting so peoples faces can bee seen. People are part of the environment also. So make sure they are aware of communication needs of others with sensory loss can help provide a positive environment for everyone. As this provides one another with consideration for one another and mutual respect. 2.3. Explain how effective communication may have a positive impact on lives on individuals with sensory loss. By providing the correct communication for individuals with sensory loss we will eliminate a lot of their anxiety, frustration and isolation. This will help the individuals an improved quality of life as they will be able to do more e.g. go to the cinema, Talk to others. By improving their quality of life this will improve their emotion well-being and their health. By being able to access the community they will feel like an active member of the community and as if they are providing a positive contribution. This will allow them to have a greater personal dignity. As we are all being more aware of sensory loss they will b freer from discrimination. In all by providing effective communication we give the individuals control over their lives. As they are able to express their wants, needs and aspirations. 3. Understand the main causes and conditions of sensory loss 3.1. Identify the main causes of sensory loss. The main course of sensory loss is the ageing process with individuals over 65 more likely to have some form experience sensory loss. The most common causes of vision impairment: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) Glaucoma Cataract Disease e.g. Diabetic Retinopathy Genetics e.g. Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) (Tunnel vision) Infection e.g. Meningitis Injury or physical trauma The most common causes of hearing impairment: Age related deafness Noise Induced deafness Infection e.g. meningitis, mumps, measles, Maternal Rubella Cochlea Ostosclerosis Disease e.g. Mà ©nià ¨re’s disease Genetics Drugs (ototoxic deafness) Physical trauma Presabyacusis The most common causes of deaf-blindness: Ageing process Genetics e.g. Usher Syndrome Maternal infection e.g Rubella Premature Birth Combination of cause of visual and hearing impairments. 3.2. Define congenital sensory loss and acquired sensory loss. Congenital sensory loss is present from birth. Acquired sensory loss is is a sensory loss that was not present at birth but has developed later. 3.3. Identify the demographic factors that influence the incidence of sensory loss in the population. Due to the main course of sensory loss being the ageing process . And people are now living longer and to a greater age this has increased the incidence of sensory loss within the demographics. More people are reaching above 65 so therefore more of the population are developing sensory loss. 4. Know how to recognise when an individual may be experiencing sight and / or loss and actions that may be taken. 4.1. Identify the indicators and signs of: Sight loss Hearing loss Deaf-blindness The indicators for sight loss are: Over cautious driving habits. Find lighting either: too bright or too dim. Frequent eye glass prescription changes. Holding books or reading material close to face or at arms length. Squinting or tilting the head to see. Difficulty in recognizing people. Changes in leisure time activities. Change in personal appearance. Changes in table etiquette. Moving about cautiously. Bumping into objects. Acting confused or disoriented. The indicators of hearing loss: Needing the volume on things turning up e.g. radio. Not hearing when someone knocks at the door or door bell. Often asking people to repeat what they have said. Having difficulty hearing when more than one person is talking. Complaining of people mumbling or talking too quickly. Not responding when you talk from to them from behind them. Having difficulty following people with unfamiliar accents or new to them. Having problems using the phone. Misunderstanding conversation. Avoiding social situations. Feeling stressed and tired. Indication of deaf-blindness can be a combination of both this lists. 4.2. Explain actions that should be taken if there are concerns about onset  of sensory loss or change in sensory status. If a person I was supporting was displaying any of this signs. I would mention it to them to see if they had noticed. They may be feeling ashamed, scared and unsure what to. I would help them by discussing their options and helping them to seek advice for the right health profession. I may also need to inform their support network and family. This will help them support the individual better and support them through the changes. I may be supporting someone who is unable to tell me or communicate that they are having problems. In this case I would discuss it with the relative people in the care management and also record and monitor any signs they are experiencing. This would allows us to help change how we support them to make it the support more effective and helpful to them. 4.3. Identify sources of support for those who may be experiencing onset of sensory loss. There are many sources of support for an individual that is experiencing sensory loss. Specialist support workers that are available to through their local authority and general adult services. Many primary care trust have sensory support teams that can be accessed for support or advice. There specialist organisations like the RNIB and RNID that have all the knowledge you may require and specialist advice. These organisations can provide you with a list of local facilities in your area.

Public Relations And Business Ethics Management Essay

Public Relations And Business Ethics Management Essay Literally Public relations mean relations with publics, e.g. customer, employees, investors, communities, media, suppliers, government, industry bodies, pressure groups, competitors etc. It is defined as the management of communication between an organization and its publics (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.6 McElreath 1996). PR is the discipline that looks after organizations reputation, maintains its public image and facilitates relations in order to gain understanding and support as well as influence opinion and behavior (McElreath 1996, Ciprco.uk). It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its public (Cipr.co.uk). For an organisation, there are varying functions of public relations. The 4 main areas are first, marketing communication, by which PR is used as a promotional tool to help achieve marketing objectives. The second area is financial public relations, by which it present information to business reporters. The third comes to product public relations, which aim to gain publicity for companys product and service and lastly, crisis public relations which concentrate on the responding to negative information. Other areas of PR practise include building rapport with investor and community, employee, media and government (Rubel, 2007). Thus it can be seen that PR can complement advertising and marketing but it has its own identity as a profession Public relations also involve in assessing and supervising public attitudes as well as maintaining mutual understanding and relations between an organization and its public. To provides exposure to its audiences, public relations practitioners use third-party endorsement such as topics of public interest which do not associate with direct payment (Seitel, 2007). Some wildly used PR tools include press releases, media kits, brochures, newsletters, annual reports and interactive social media. Common PR activities include working with the media, speaking at conferences, crisis communication and employee communication. By responding to the stakeholders expectations and harmonizing their interests with the organization, PR serves as an intermediary. Effective PR will help the organization to convey information and message to its public improve communication channels and develop new ways to encourage two-way communication thus crafting its public image and public awareness in order to increase patronage of its product. Why has ethics become a central issue for PR field in recent years? The initiative that corporations should be ethical and socially responsible began in 1960s. It was a time that businesses were growing rapidly and internationally (Lantos, 2001). The danger associates with corporations unethically pursuing profit and social power has heightened public awareness. In recent times, it has also been seen that some of the most famous companies lost public confidence from the publicity because of their dishonourable behaviours. Examples include Shell contributed to environmental degradation; Nike operated sweatshops in developing countries and the once top corporations such as Worldcom and Enron the collapse because of fault. Apart from destroying individual companys reputation, these scandals raised questions of corporate credibility and shaken public confidence in the entire global business. Public relations, as a communications function, has a major role in disclosing the company financial and other critical information as well as the management of relationships between the organisation and its key stakeholders. Thus ethical dilemmas are especially common in Public practices because PR always need to handle highly sensitive and controversial matters. Besides, the complicated and different levels (interpersonal, organisational and societal) of relationships which PR always engaged with will often incur conflicting expectations and interests between different publics. Therefore it is sometimes quiet difficult for PR professionals can act ethically and to get a balance between being an advocator of external and internal publics and at the same time, taking care of companys interests. However, it should be noted that maintaining ethical standards and values is the key to the establishment of good relationships with clients, employees and media (Baskin Aronoff, 1992: 88). Harlow emphasized the importance of ethical communication by highlighting that it is PR practitioners duty to serve public interest (Vithakamontri, 1991:19). The importance of ethics is associated with the positive relationship between good public relations and business success. Ethical and socially responsible companies are proved to enjoy better relations with its public (Baker, 2004). Companies with ethical conduct might appear to succeed at first, but often it can be found that they suffer from poor public relations in a longer term. In 2002, WorldComm admitted falsifying its income statements and became the biggest bankrupt company ever. The scandal wave soon swept away other corporate giants such as HealthSouth, Tyco and Auther Anderson and brought jail terms to many, even homemaking icon Martha Steward. On the other hand, many corporations create a critical source of competitive advantage-a climate of acceptance for the organisation by being ethical and engaging actively with CRS activities. Corporate social responsibility can serve as a way to strategically differentiate itself from the competitors. Like the Co-operative Group, Body Shop and American Apparel, they build customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values (Pieczka, 2001) and they do benefit from building a reputation for integrity. Besides, some of them do it through working with local communities to help educate children and develop skills for adults in Flower Valley, Africa. Starbuck and Marks and Spencer also actively help the African community by guaranteeing fair trade purchases. Another approach to corporate social responsibility is to incorporate the CSR strategy directly into the organizations business strategy. For examples, many business including KPMG, PG and Starbucks has policy to only procure Fair Tra de tea and coffee. As we can see, ethical public relations is key to the organizations success as good ethics is simply good business. So it is worth to examine ethic in a greater detail. Ethic is defined as a value system for making decisions about what is right or wrong. The organisations conduct is not only measured against their consciences but also against societal and professional norm, so organizations, with different nations, industries and organization cultures, have different standards. Ethical choices are rarely black and white but sometimes it means a higher standard than the law. In a business perspective, business ethics and corporate governance refers to the system by which companies are controlled. Nowadays most companies have in-house codes of ethic and codes of social responsibility (Heath and Ryan, 1989). It has been argued that ethics is the duty to tell the truth. A study regarding ethical judgments concluded that regardless of peoples cultures and religions, honesty outweighed all other considerations. Honesty is particularly essential to the communication industry because dishonesty leads to lack of trust. When a PR practitioner is discovered telling a half-truths, he will be resented. According to the PR professional codes of conduct, telling the truth underpins all other practices (Keller, 1983:1). Beside triple bottom line reporting (3Ps) is becoming commonplace. The 3 pillars, People, Planet and Profits capture a new criterion of measuring organizational success: social, ecological and economical. Companies like Shell and McDonalds have issued Statements of Business Principles and Social Responsibility reports. To fulfill societys moral obligations, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is introduced. CSR policy is self-regulating mechanisms where businesses monitor and ensure it follow the law and ethical standards so business can embrace responsibility for the impact on the communities, environment and employees. Moreover, CSR-focused businesses would promote the iterest of the public by encouraging community development and abolishing practices which give damage. So it is said that CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honouring of a triple bottom line (Heath Ryan, 1989). What role should public relations play in improving levels of corporate social responsibility? There is a strong emphasis on the role Public relations play in implementing social responsibility among leading practitioners. Social responsibility has become a major reason for an organization to have a public relations function (Grunig and Hunt , 1984). Similarly, Harold Burson advocated that the public relations practitioners should provide qualitative evaluation of social trends, which helps developing policies and leading to a formal corporate response (Burson, 1974). Bernays also argue that, Public relations are the practice of social responsibility (Stone, 2005, p. 31). It has been pointed out that PR role is to serve not only their clients but the whole society at large (Kruckeberg and Starck, 1988). Social responsibility is understood as a concept of public relations, some scholars believe that with public relations, businesses can successfully implement social responsibility programmes. Thus PRs role of consciences in the decision-making is particularly important (Dennis, 1981). From the above review of related literature, it can be concluded that CRS obligation to serve the society applies to both individual PR practitioners and the professions as a whole. The welfare of the public should be taken into account when individual practitioner helps clients to solve problem. Meanwhile the associations of PR professionals should use their power collectively as moral agents for a better world (Clark, 2000). PR roles in improving the level of corporate social responsibility include the following. First PR need to improve the conduct of company by emphasizing the need for public approval. As a management function which looks after organizations reputation (McElreath 1996), to look for the company best interest, public relations practitioners should actively be engaged in the proposing and initiating of Corporate Social Responsibility. They should fight for CRS implementation with management. Knowledgeable staff is an important as they play a significant role in counseling management and ensuring that CRS programs maintain high professional standards (Tilson and Vance, 1985). It has been argued as the publics expect organizations to take on a greater role in solving community problems; they want to see businesses being ethical. PR professionals should go beyond advisory role and should regard themselves as the consciences of their organizations (Judds, 1989 Choi, 2005). It is true that th e most important thing is how a company conduct itself and deal with its publics. Communications is second to that. It is very important for the company to truly embrace CRS. Merely publicizing them is not effective as it has to be backed by appropriate behaviour. Also, public relation should serve the public interests by making all points of view communicative in the public. When CRS become part of the organization management initiative, PR as a communication function between an organization and its publics (Grunig and Hunt 1984, p.6 McElreath 1996), it has an important role to align corporate organization behaviour with stakeholder expectations. It should be done through a process of identifying public interest and potential CSR issues, prioritizing them, and closely monitoring their evolution, they can be managed-either by changing the companys behaviour or its stakeholders expectations, or both (Clark, 2002). Besides, Public relations should advance its professionalism by codifying and enforcing ethical conduct and standard of performance, serve our society by using mediation to replace misinformation and execute its social responsibility to promote human welfares. However, the practice of CSR is subject to much criticism. Critics argue that CSR is just a superficial window-dressing, they believe that companies like BP, British American Tobacco and McDonalds are using CSR programs to distract the public from ethical questions incurred in their operations. These corporations maximize their profit through raising their reputation. Another example, Shell has a much-publicized CSR policy and was a pioneer in triple bottom line reporting, but this did not prevent the 2004 scandal concerning its misreporting of oil reserves. It is important to note that CRS is an aid to an organizations mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers. Merely taking token gestures will only throw poor practice into sharper focus. Also, organization has to be flexible and see what legislators are up to and update the CSR programme in order to stay ahead as issues change with time and lastly CSR policies needs to be ensured that they are well implemented. It is believed that with well management, CSR can be an opportunity for a company to differentiate itself. Organizations can also benefit from the proliferation of annual list in major media. In a long run, managing relationships successfully required ethical conduct so effective public relations cannot be about deception and manipulations. Thus real public relations require honesty and a genuine concern for the needs and expectations of the public and it will build trust and credibility.

abuse :: essays research papers

There are many different forms of abuse and many people do not realize. Verbal abuse is the use of words to attack, hurt or injure someone, or to gain power and control over them, or to persuade someone to believe something that is untrue and harmful. Abuse does not just occur with men to women, though this paper is going to focus on it. Abuse is about control and the fear of losing it. The abuser may fear not being â€Å"good enough† and or meeting others expectations. He/she may attempt to make their victim feel and believe similar things about him/her self. Abusers exploit, lie, insult, demean, ignore (the "silent treatment"), manipulate, and control. There are a million ways to abuse, directly and indirectly. There are many different forms of abuse and some are when your partner shows rejection, isolation, degrading. These are a few different types of abuse and when used in an extreme situation are they types of abuse. Many people will show some of these characteristics yet when someone is showing more than one and are in an extreme situation is when the acts become abuse. Emotional abuse has much in common with verbal abuse in that it is an attempt to hurt attack or control the victim. The emotional abuser often uses verbal abuse to hurt the victim, but can use other means as well. Emotional abuse often accompanies other forms of abuse such as physical abuse and verbal abuse. Individuals who hold the least power and resources in society are most often emotionally abused. This type of abuse has the potential to leave behind many significant hidden scars for the victim. Victims of physical abuse feel emotional abuse is more sever and debilitating than physical abuse. Out comes of emotional abuse may be manifested in a number of ways such as poor self esteem, social withdrawal, insecurity, substance abuse and difficulty forming positive attachments with others. Emotional abuse can be difficult to pin down because there are no physical signs to look for. Sure, people yell at each other, express anger, and call each other names sometimes, and expressing anger can sometimes be healthy.

Information Systems Ethics :: Technology Internet Papers

The area of Information Systems ethics has received a fair amount of attention in recent times. IS Professionals generally agree that we need adequate ground rules to govern the use of present day Information Technology. We have also recognized for many years the need to incorporate ethics into IS curricula. Current mechanisms which attempt to make IS professionals and students more sensitive to the ethical concerns within IT and IS may be too tightly focused in terms of both issues and audience, especially in the light of the rapid proliferation of Internet use. To properly analyze the impact of the Internet on IS ethics, we would need to establish the appropriate context. To this end, this paper explores several aspects of computer ethics that are relevant to today's users of IT. For example, who are the people that need to be educated on these issues? What are the issues, and what has been the impact of the Internet on these issues? What are current attitudes, perceptions, and behavior in situations involving computer ethics, and what is the effect of the Internet? Do we have guidelines and codes that provide assistance for these ethical situations? What else needs to be done to help address some of the problems in this important area? The People Solomon and O'Brien found that software piracy didn't seem to be much of a problem until microcomputers made their first major corporate and home appearance about 20 years ago. Rapid proliferation of inexpensive technology certainly does provide an ample arena for an increase in the unethical use of this technology. Today, the pervasiveness of microcomputer and technology use is not limited solely to IS professionals and students. As early as 1984, in his testimony before the US Congress, computer security expert Robert Campbell accused the computer industry of failing to develop the necessary ethical framework for IT use. He went on to say that the technology had already breached the boundaries of the professional arena and proliferated into the public domain. Today, technology use spans the widest possible range of activities and often begins at home at an early age. The Internet promises to push this trend forward at a rapid pace. In spite of this growth in use, many people who us e technology at home and at work still find it to be a new and rapidly changing phenomenon. As a result, for many users of IT today, just learning how to use this volatile technology is the most important, and often the only, consideration; ethics and other related concerns are relegated to the distant background.

Patient Plan of Care Essay

Explanation of Teamwork and Collaboration Diagram: Teamwork and Collaboration is the development of partnerships to achieve the best possible outcomes that would reflect the particular needs of the patient, family or community. This concept requires an understanding of what others have to offer. The attributes which measure whether this concept exists at an optimum level are joint responsibility for the outcomes, shared decision-making, and unity of purpose. The antecedents or circumstances that must proceed Teamwork and Collaboration for it to exist are two or more healthcare professionals or nurse and patient, open communication and information sharing, common goals, and understanding the roles. Positive or negative outcomes result from the quality of Teamwork and Collaboration. Negative consequences which occur due to lack of Teamwork and Collaboration  would include bullying, poor retention, nurses leaving the profession, negative effects on the quality of patient care, safety issues, and unresolved conflict. Positive consequences are events or outcomes that occur due to proper functioning of the concept include good retention, job satisfaction, and quality of patient care and safety. Interrelated concepts are concepts which can affect change in Teamwork and Collaboration, these are concepts which work together to ensure a positive process and concepts which if depleted or impaired can cause a negative consequence in Teamwork and Collaboration. Concepts that are interrelated with Teamwork and Collaboration are Professionalism, Ethics, Communication, and Patient-Centered Care. The sub-concepts for Teamwork and Collaboration are components of the concept and provide good teaching points. Nursing interventions are triggered by negative consequences. At which time the antecedents are evaluated and nursing care is directed toward improving the antecedents which should increase the quality of attributes and thereby decrease negative consequences.

Compare Two Research Articles: Philosophical, Ethical, And Methodological

Introduction This paper will compare the major characteristics of two research articles – which are different in philosophical and methodological approaches but are both related to the service of school social workers – and attempt to show the differences and similarities in ontology, epistemology, ethics, methodology and the methods of both pieces of research. The first research piece is a paper called â€Å"Managing school social work records† published in 2012 in which Garrett examines the results of a survey on the record keeping practices of 73 school social workers. This sample of school social workers belonged to the School Social Workers’ Association of America (SSWAA). Based on the quantitative research and survey method, the researcher explored three relevant issues for school social workers, these were: practical issues, ethical issues and legal mandates. The purpose of Garrett’s research was to increase the school social workers practice of record keeping, improve their decision making skills, and to help them choose suitable information to include in workers’ records. Garrett’s article found that about 50% of all social workers were unfamiliar with record keeping policy and most of the respondents had a poor understanding about what they should record. It also found that they struggled to find appropriate ways to achieve goals or to overcome bad situations. The results of this research were then used to give the recommendation that school social workers needed more aid in their daily record keeping. It was explained that professional organizations have to train the social workers by offering workshops or classes that will teach them what information should be included or excluded, and the ethical and the legal policies that or importance to this recording. The second research article that will be used for this essay is called â€Å"Empowering school social work practices for positive youth development,† which is qualitative research carried out by To in 2006 in Hong Kong, China. To’s study investigates the way in which school social workers engage with 3 major dimensions of empowerment: the personal dimension; the school and community dimensions; and lastly, the institutional dimension. The sample used in To’s research consisted of 15 social workers, 10 of which were female and 5 being male. All of these had wide service experience in the schools and most of them had Master’s degrees. The purpose of this study was to explore the way in which school social workers dealt with different situations and how they influenced youth development by using diverse strategies with the students, and within the school, community and the relevant sectors of education. This was largely with the view of encouraging students t o participate in volunteer works. The findings of To’s research indicated that, in the school setting, the research participants played an active role in achieving empowerment. The relevant results provided insightful information for all other social workers who contribute services in the schools. Philosophical During undertaking social research, it is important to consider matters of both philosophical approaches, such as ontology and epistemology, and different research paradigms. These can affect the research technique and direction as it is launched from design through to its conclusion (Flowers, 2009). Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) draw attention to the fact that different paradigms â€Å"encourage researchers to study phenomena in different ways.† The two chosen pieces of research are related with different research paradigms – one of which is related with positivist and the other with interpretivist. Positivist is based on â€Å"values of reason, truth and validity and there is a focus purely on facts, gathered through direct observation and experiences and measured empirically using quantitative methods, surveys and experiments and statistical analysis† (Flowers, 2009). In addition to this, this paradigm is aligned with deductive or theory testing. However, in the case of interpretive it is argued that individuals and groups have an important role within situations that are based on their individual experience and expectations (Flowers, 2009). Interpretive consider that there is no single reality but that there are multiple realities. This paradigm is more aligned with inductive or theory building.OntologyBlaikie (1993) defined ontology as â€Å"the science or study of being† and adopts this definition f or social science, explaining that what exist is either an objective single reality (objectivism) or it is not single reality, only a subjective reality (subjectivism). The ontological approaches behind the two researches seem entirely different. With regard to Garrett’s focus on statistical data, it can be considered that Garrett believes that there is an objective reality that allows for measurement. Ontological objective result means that it does not depend on the researcher. This is because the research only described numerical results which were received from the sample of respondents who completed the survey. This language is defined as representative of the reality. On the other hand, To’s study, which used qualitative research, can be seen to focus on a subjective reality where the researcher interpreted narrative data that was derived from a semi-structured interview.EpistemologyEpistemology is â€Å"the theory or science of the method or ground of knowledge† and explains that what exists â€Å"may be known†, what â€Å"can be known† and what criteria must be satisfied in order to be described as â€Å"knowledge† (Flowers, 2009). In addition to this, Chia (2002) describes epi stemology as â€Å"how and what it is possible to know†, while Hatch & Cunliffe (2006) characterise epistemology as â€Å"knowing how you can know†. Flowers (2009) discusses that, as with ontology, both objective epistemology and subjective epistemology views can exist. Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008) describe the way in which a world can exist in view of an objective epistemology, as long as this is apparent and theory neutral; while, with a view of a subjective epistemology, no existence is possible to the apparent world beyond our subjective observations and interpretations. The two articles display a difference in their epistemological approaches. In the quantitative study, the researcher only described the results in relation to a paradigm of positivism; however, the role of the researcher is not important in influencing the data of the research. On the other hand, regarding to interpretivist epistemology, the researcher gives a weight role which influences the research and the understanding of the situations from the researcher’s point of view. Ethical Issue Ethics is one of the essential aspects in many sciences, especially in social sciences. May (2011) defines ethics as â€Å"concerned with the attempt to formulate codes and principles of moral behaviour.† All social researchers should pay attention to the social research ethics. Punch (2005) believes that all social researches should include ethical issues because social researchers deal with societies and people’s daily lives; fundamentally, all data derives from people. Therefore, it is not easy to avoid ethical issues in both qualitative and quantitative approaches, especially qualitative approaches. Punch (2005) also highlights the way in which the qualitative method approach is more likely to study ethical issues as qualitative research focuses on the more sensitive issues in peoples’ lives. To’s study (2006) asked questions about the personal lives of the respondents; for this reason he used a numerical code instead of actual names to give them independence and to make them feel more comfortable. However, To did mention the name of students who played roles in the social workers’ stories. Therefore, it can be argued that, on the one hand, that To mentioned a student’s name to try and show the school social worker’s achievements, in order to have positive effect on other social workers and encourage them to do the same. On the other hand, however, this could produce ethical issues for the researcher and the school social workers because they mentioned other people’s real names, when they could have used codes or false names. In the case of Garrett’s study, which used Survey Monkey as method for collecting data, he does not mention anything ethically relevant to the respondent. However, this website has some ethical issues; for ex ample, regarding to questions design, the respondents should answer all questions before the survey can be submitted which means there is no right to avoid answering some questions (Buchanan and Hvizdak, 2009). During the period of research, it is important for the researchers to make ethical decisions and consider what is to benefit the respondents or their research process. Furthermore, they have to assess themselves by asking a number of ethical questions (May, 2011). The articles of this essay are about school social work, so all behaviours and relevant ethics are necessary for the researchers and social workers to consider. Methodological Both articles have contrasting methodological approaches which are representative of their philosophical positions (ontology, epistemology). This part will attempt to compare both research methods – one of which is a quantitative method approach and the other is a qualitative method approach – and highlights the differences of the samples, data collections, data analysis and research findings. The two chosen pieces of research use different methods for data collection: one used Survey Monkey and the other used a semi-structured interview. The Quantitative research survey method is defined by Burton (2012) as â€Å"a techniques that uses a wide range quantitative research provides valuable figures based on a large number of population that can be incredibly useful and reliable because statistic and numeric data give certain validity to the research.† A Semi-structured interview is one of the types of interviews whereby the participants have more freedom and allows them to answer questions on their own terms, although it is still arranged and questions are specified (May, 1997). However, the strategy of choosing the samples for both methods is different. Regarding the question of the samples, there are great differences that can be seen. In Garrett’s study the sample composed a small list of members of the School Social Workers’ Association of America (SSWAA). They derived this list from 24 respondents from the United States of America and Canada, who were acceptable to represent the SSWAA. The researcher divided the list into even and odd members and randomly chose one of them to survey. Then the selected group participated in the survey after receiving an email that invited them to participate and explained the purpose of the survey. In total, 245 workers were invited to participate in the survey. Some of the emails were undeliverable and some other members were not completed which meant only 73 respondents completed the survey. This number is about 30% of the potential sample (Garrett, 2012). On the other hand, the samples of To’s research participants were derived from 13 various organizations of welfare in H ong Kong. There were different genders involved, 10 female and 5 male, with an average age between 30-39 years old; only 3 of the participants were in their twenties and 1 was in their forties. On average they had about 7 years’ experience as school social workers, while most of sample had a Master’s degrees (To, 2006). With respect to data collection, during the period of March to June 2005, To’s research (2006) was carried out and the method for data collection was one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Each interview was divided into parts and each part was 1.5 hour. In To’s research the first part of the interview targeted the micro- and meso-sphere services of school social work, meanwhile the second part of the interview targeted the macro-sphere. Furthermore there were some questions about participant’s own stories and their services which were offered in their daily practices. However, in Garrett’s study the quantitative research was undertaken in February of 2009 using Survey Monkey, which is one of the most common websites used for creating surveys. The questionnaire consisted 25 short-answer questions that focused on â€Å"the types of records kept, what was included, decision-making practices, use of the records, challenges, storage, disposal of closed recor ds, access to records, and district policies† (Garrett, 2012). However, the research had one qualitative question which was an open question that focused on the most challenging aspect of keeping records (Garrett, 2012). In the case of data analysis of Garrett’s research (2012), all 25 quantitative questions were analysed after downloaded into MINITAB 15. On the other hand, in the case of the qualitative question, this was analysed after being transcribed into word processing documents where it was defined and themes were â€Å"coded, counted and summarized† (Garrett, 2012). In spite of To’s Hong Kong’s research, the researcher processed the data analysis, step-by-step after transcribing the narratives. At the beginning of this process, To read the transcripts twice to find â€Å"meaningful units†, and then converted these units to codes and began an improvement level of data analysis. Next, To found that various stages of meaning were produced and arranged these as sub-themes. Finally, the researched sorted out similar sub-themes to the main themes of his study. Relevant with the findings of To’s research, it was mentioned that together, the narratives showed a comprehensive understanding of the multidimensional empowering practices of social workers in schools. To believed that these results would help other practitioners to deal with issues of empowerment. However, in Garrett’s study the more significant findings are that more than half of the participants could not successfully record assessment information and more than 75% of participants could not make decisions about closing a case. Therefore, the results of Garrett’s study should be organized with caution because there was a small size of respondents in relation to all the members of the SSWAA. In conclusion, this essay has tried to compare two social research articles which had similar topics but completely different philosophical, ethical and methodological perspectives. One of these studies used a quantitative research approach and the other a qualitative. Each study was they carried out in different places, America and China respectively, and in different period times. Garrett’s 2012 article focuses on the positivism paradigm, which tried to find out about the knowledge gap about practices of record keeping by school social workers. The data in Garrett’s study was collected using Survey Monkey, and the numerical data was analysed. To’s 2006 research was based on a different reality and tried to investigate the role of school social workers in influence youth development and encouraging students to volunteer. The study used a semi-structured interview to collect data. The results showed that they had a live role in achieving empowerment. It can be s een, therefore, that it is significant for all social researchers to concern their philosophical, ethical and methodological positions when undertaking research. References Blaikie, N. (1993) Approaches to social enquiry polity press, Cambridge uk. Buchanan, A. & Hvizdak, E. (2009) â€Å"Online survey tools: ethical and methodological concerns of human research ethics committees†, in Journal of empirical research on human research ethics: an international journal, 4: 37-48. Chia, R. (2002) â€Å"The production of management knowledge: philosophical underpinnings of research design†, in Essential skills for management research, sage, London: 1-18. Eriksson, P. & Kovalainen, A. (2008) Qualitative methods in business research, Sage. Flowers, P. (2009) â€Å"Research philosophies–importance and relevance† in Economic record, 3. Garrett, K. (2012) â€Å"Managing school social work records†, in Children & schools, 34: 239-248. Hatch, M. J. & Cunliffe, A. (2006) Organization theory, Oxford university press: Buckingham. May, T. (1997) Social research: issues, methods and process, Open university press: Buckingham. May, T. (2011) Social research: issues, methods and research, Mcgraw-Hill International. Punch, K. F. (2005) Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches, Sage. To, S. M. (2006), â€Å"Empowering school social work practices for positive youth development: hong kong experience†, in Adolescence, 42: 555-567.

The Meaning of Death in “The Dead” by James Joyce

â€Å"The Dead† is a story written by James Joyce as a part of the collection that was later on entitled as Dubliners. It is the last story that he composed but certainly was one of the first stories on the â€Å"rivalry between the living and the dead. † It is considered to be one of the best written stories and account of Ireland in terms of the city’s geographical, historical, and political details. It is even said that most of the local references are â€Å"painstakingly exact† as that of the original scenarios in an everyday Dublin life (Joyce, 2008).While the title of the story suggests gloomy scenes such as a funeral or a wake ceremony, a first reading of the story would tell us that the story is all about an annual Christmas gathering where friends and old friends meet to catch up with everything that is happening in their lives. However, if we look at the story real deep, we will notice that the story really revolves into the characters of the cou ple Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Like all the other couples in the said party, Gabriel and Gretta are an epitome of a happy couple.It can be said that the love of Gabriel to Gretta is so great that instead of traveling home from the party, they decided to stay in a hotel because he was afraid that she might be ill due to the weather. Gretta, on one hand, is giving back the love that she receives from Gabriel. This is evident in the couple’s treatment of each other in the Christmas gathering. However, there is something in the party that made Gretta feel strange. This is when she heard the song that reminds him of a boy she once fallen in love with. It was a young boy I used to know, she answered, named Michael Furey. He used to sing that song, The Lass of Aughrim. He was very delicate (Joyce, 2008). † Gretta confessed this while they were in the hotel room that they rented to stay for a night when Gabriel is anticipating a romantic night with his wife. At first he felt re ally jealous. Furthermore, he inquired into the very nature of their relationship. Gretta confessed everything that made Gabriel angry at one moment.He even suspected that the reason why Gretta would want to that one place is because she wanted to see her first love. However, as the narration progresses, which speaks of Michael Furey’s death by reason of Gretta herself, his anger ebbed to the point of it being replaced with an epiphany in relation to love, death, and the past. He then realized that lost loves are the most difficult thing to let go in ones lifetime (Joyce, 2008). So she had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake.It hardly ained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept, as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful, but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death (Joyce, 2008).This epiphany leads Gabriel to recall and reflect on the speech that he had delivered in the party: his idea that the past is dead and that it should be buries in oblivion because it will just bring memories that would either hurt them or impair their anticipation of the future. In the words of Gabriel, â€Å"There are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight. Therefore, I will not linger in the past. I will not let any gloomy moralising intrude upon us here tonight (Joyce, 2008).However, he also enunciated his admiration of the past especially of the old values of tradition and love in which he said that â€Å"a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hypereducated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, and kindly humour which belonged to the older day (Joyce, 2008). † Therefore, the idea of death that the story is trying to paint to us is the death of old traditions and values that are still living to those who have experienced such in the past like that of Gretta.The death in the story is the deterioration of values that the Irish are known for that Gabriel mentioned in his speech. However, this is an irony because while he talked about the old values that should be retained, he himself is not doing his part in this endeavor of preserving the old Irish values and tradition. As observed by Ms. Ivors, he has become a West Briton because he prefers to travel to places like France, and Germany instead of seeing the countryside of Ireland. He denounced his own place of birth in exchange for the West and rejected his own native language.The We st, even though, more industrialized than Dublin, is still a land of ghost and a land of unhappy things. The West is a place â€Å"where the ghost of the past have a terrible hold on the living, where tradition leads to bigoted religion and terrorism (Hodgart, 1978). The death can also be attributed to a death of the traditional love that everybody would want to have. In the story, while it is evident that Gabriel loves Gretta, his love for her is limited to that of the physical love. When they were in the hotel, all he can think of was a romantic night with her.Like distant music these words that he had written years before were borne towards him from the past. He longed to be alone with her. When the others had gone away, when he and she were in the room in the hotel, then they would be alone together (Joyce, 2008). † However, after Gretta had told him the story of Michael Furey, he felt very small and inadequate. This is for the reason that his love to Gretta is nothing co mpared to that of the love of Furey. After hearing the story, he was quick to realize that his love for her is limited and not the kind of love that she has expected of him.His love is so puny to the love that Michael Furey has given his wife. He cannot in any way give up his life just for his love for Gretta. This further suggests that love died along with the death of Furey and that the love that Gabriel offered to Gretta, cannot be considered love in her standards. The image of death in the story is not the same as what we normally perceive, a wake, a funeral, and grief. But the death is on how the glorious past is buried in everyone’s memory that will for a long time or for a lifetime haunt them.

The Lost Symbol Chapter 58-61

CHAPTER 58 The coyly nicknamed explosive Key4 had been developed by Special Forces specifically for opening locked doors with minimal collateral damage. Consisting primarily of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine with a diethylhexyl plasticizer, it was essentially a piece of C-4 rolled into paper-thin sheets for insertion into doorjambs. In the case of the library's reading room, the explosive had worked perfectly. Operation leader Agent Turner Simkins stepped over the wreckage of the doors and scanned the massive octagonal room for any signs of movement. Nothing. â€Å"Kill the lights,† Simkins said. A second agent found the wall panel, threw the switches, and plunged the room into darkness. In unison, all four men reached up and yanked down their night-vision headgear, adjusting the goggles over their eyes. They stood motionless, surveying the reading room, which now materialized in shades of luminescent green inside their goggles. The scene remained unchanged. Nobody made a dash for it in the dark. The fugitives were probably unarmed, and yet the field team entered the room with weapons raised. In the darkness, their firearms projected four menacing rods of laser light. The men washed the beams in all directions, across the floor, up the far walls, into the balconies, probing the darkness. Oftentimes, a mere glimpse of a laser-sighted weapon in a darkened room was enough to induce instant surrender. Apparently not tonight. Still no movement. Agent Simkins raised his hand, motioning his team into the space. Silently, the men fanned out. Moving cautiously up the center aisle, Simkins reached up and flipped a switch on his goggles, activating the newest addition to the CIA's arsenal. Thermal imaging had been around for years, but recent advances in miniaturization, differential sensitivity, and dual-source integration had facilitated a new generation of vision enhancing equipment that gave field agents eyesight that bordered on superhuman. We see in the dark. We see through walls. And now . . . we see back in time. Thermal-imaging equipment had become so sensitive to heat differentials that it could detect not only a person's location . . . but their previous locations. The ability to see into the past often proved the most valuable asset of all. And tonight, once again, it proved its worth. Agent Simkins now spied a thermal signature at one of the reading desks. The two wooden chairs luminesced in his goggles, registering a reddish-purple color, indicating those chairs were warmer than the other chairs in the room. The desk lamp's bulb glowed orange. Obviously the two men had been sitting at the desk, but the question now was in which direction they had gone. He found his answer on the central counter that surrounded the large wooden console in the middle of the room. A ghostly handprint, glowing crimson. Weapon raised, Simkins moved toward the octagonal cabinet, training his laser sight across the surface. He circled until he saw an opening in the side of the console. Did they really corner themselves in a cabinet? The agent scanned the trim around the opening and saw another glowing handprint on it. Clearly someone had grabbed the doorjamb as he ducked inside the console. The time for silence was over. â€Å"Thermal signature!† Simkins shouted, pointing at the opening. â€Å"Flanks converge!† His two flanks moved in from opposite sides, effectively surrounding the octagonal console. Simkins moved toward the opening. Still ten feet away, he could see a light source within. â€Å"Light inside the console!† he shouted, hoping the sound of his voice might convince Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Langdon to exit the cabinet with their hands up. Nothing happened. Fine, we'll do this the other way. As Simkins drew closer to the opening, he could hear an unexpected hum rumbling from within. It sounded like machinery. He paused, trying to imagine what could be making such a noise in such a small space. He inched closer, now hearing voices over the sound of machinery. Then, just as he arrived at the opening, the lights inside went out. Thank you, he thought, adjusting his night vision. Advantage, us. Standing at the threshold, he peered through the opening. What lay beyond was unexpected. The console was less of a cabinet than a raised ceiling over a steep set of stairs that descended into a room below. The agent aimed his weapon down the stairs and began descending. The hum of machinery grew louder with every step. What the hell is this place? The room beneath the reading room was a small, industrial-looking space. The hum he heard was indeed machinery, although he was not sure whether it was running because Bellamy and Langdon had activated it, or because it ran around the clock. Either way, it clearly made no difference. The fugitives had left their telltale heat signatures on the room's lone exit–a heavy steel door whose keypad showed four clear fingerprints glowing on the numbers. Around the door, slivers of glowing orange shone beneath the doorjamb, indicating that lights were illuminated on the other side. â€Å"Blow the door,† Simkins said. â€Å"This was their escape route.† It took eight seconds to insert and detonate a sheet of Key4. When the smoke cleared, the field- team agents found themselves peering into a strange underground world known here as â€Å"the stacks.† The Library of Congress had miles and miles of bookshelves, most of them underground. The endless rows of shelves looked like some kind of â€Å"infinity† optical illusion created with mirrors. A sign announced TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT Keep this door closed at all times. Simkins pushed through the mangled doors and felt cool air beyond. He couldn't help but smile. Could this get any easier? Heat signatures in controlled environments showed up like solar flares, and already his goggles revealed a glowing red smear on a banister up ahead, which Bellamy or Langdon had grabbed on to while running past. â€Å"You can run,† he whispered to himself, â€Å"but you can't hide.† As Simkins and his team advanced into the maze of stacks, he realized the playing field was tipped so heavily in his favor that he would not even need his goggles to track his prey. Under normal circumstances, this maze of stacks would have been a respectable hiding place, but the Library of Congress used motion-activated lights to save energy, and the fugitives' escape route was now lit up like a runway. A narrow strip of illumination stretched into the distance, dodging and weaving as it went. All the men ripped off their goggles. Surging ahead on well-trained legs, the field team followed the trail of lights, zigging and zagging through a seemingly endless labyrinth of books. Soon Simkins began seeing lights flickering on in the darkness up ahead. We're gaining. He pushed harder, faster, until he heard footsteps and labored breathing ahead. Then he saw a target. â€Å"I've got visual!† he yelled. The lanky form of Warren Bellamy was apparently bringing up the rear. The primly dressed African American staggered through the stacks, obviously out of breath. It's no use, old man. â€Å"Stop right there, Mr. Bellamy!† Simkins yelled. Bellamy kept running, turning sharp corners, weaving through the rows of books. At every turn, the lights kept coming on over his head. As the team drew within twenty yards, they shouted again to stop, but Bellamy ran on. â€Å"Take him down!† Simkins commanded. The agent carrying the team's nonlethal rifle raised it and fired. The projectile that launched down the aisle and wrapped itself around Bellamy's legs was nicknamed Silly String, but there was nothing silly about it. A military technology invented at Sandia National Laboratories, this nonlethal â€Å"incapacitant† was a thread of gooey polyurethane that turned rock hard on contact, creating a rigid web of plastic across the back of the fugitive's knees. The effect on a running target was that of jamming a stick into the spokes of a moving bike. The man's legs seized midstride, and he pitched forward, crashing to the floor. Bellamy slid another ten feet down a darkened aisle before coming to a stop, the lights above him flickering unceremoniously to life. â€Å"I'll deal with Bellamy,† Simkins shouted. â€Å"You keep going after Langdon! He must be up ahead some–† The team leader stopped, now seeing that the library stacks ahead of Bellamy were all pitch-black. Obviously, there was no one else running in front of Bellamy. He's alone? Bellamy was still on his chest, breathing heavily, his legs and ankles all tangled with hardened plastic. The agent walked over and used his foot to roll the old man over onto his back. â€Å"Where is he?!† the agent demanded. Bellamy's lip was bleeding from the fall. â€Å"Where is who?† Agent Simkins lifted his foot and placed his boot squarely on Bellamy's pristine silk tie. Then he leaned in, applying some pressure. â€Å"Believe me, Mr. Bellamy, you do not want to play this game with me.† CHAPTER 59 Robert Langdon felt like a corpse. He lay supine, hands folded on his chest, in total darkness, trapped in the most confined of spaces. Although Katherine lay nearby in a similar position near his head, Langdon could not see her. He had his eyes closed to prevent himself from catching even a fleeting glimpse of his frightening predicament. The space around him was small. Very small. Sixty seconds ago, with the double doors of the reading room crashing down, he and Katherine had followed Bellamy into the octagonal console, down a steep set of stairs, and into the unexpected space below. Langdon had realized at once where they were. The heart of the library's circulation system. Resembling a small airport baggage distribution center, the circulation room had numerous conveyor belts that angled off in different directions. Because the Library of Congress was housed in three separate buildings, books requested in the reading room often had to be transported great distances by a system of conveyors through a web of underground tunnels. Bellamy immediately crossed the room to a steel door, where he inserted his key card, typed a sequence of buttons, and pushed open the door. The space beyond was dark, but as the door opened, a span of motion-sensor lights flickered to life. When Langdon saw what lay beyond, he realized he was looking at something few people ever saw. The Library of Congress stacks. He felt encouraged by Bellamy's plan. What better place to hide than in a giant labyrinth? Bellamy did not guide them into the stacks, however. Instead, he propped the door open with a book and turned back to face them. â€Å"I had hoped to be able to explain a lot more to you, but we have no time.† He gave Langdon his key card. â€Å"You'll need this.† â€Å"You're not coming with us?† Langdon asked. Bellamy shook his head. â€Å"You'll never make it unless we split up. The most important thing is to keep that pyramid and capstone in safe hands.† Langdon saw no other way out except the stairs back up to the reading room. â€Å"And where are you going?† â€Å"I'll coax them into the stacks away from you,† Bellamy said. â€Å"It's all I can do to help you escape.† Before Langdon could ask where he and Katherine were supposed to go, Bellamy was heaving a large crate of books off one of the conveyors. â€Å"Lie on the belt,† Bellamy said. â€Å"Keep your hands in.† Langdon stared. You cannot be serious! The conveyor belt extended a short distance then disappeared into a dark hole in the wall. The opening looked large enough to permit passage of a crate of books, but not much more. Langdon glanced back longingly at the stacks. â€Å"Forget it,† Bellamy said. â€Å"The motion-sensor lights will make it impossible to hide.† â€Å"Thermal signature!† a voice upstairs shouted. â€Å"Flanks converge!† Katherine apparently had heard all she needed to hear. She climbed onto the conveyor belt with her head only a few feet from the opening in the wall. She crossed her hands over her chest like a mummy in a sarcophagus. Langdon stood frozen. â€Å"Robert,† Bellamy urged, â€Å"if you won't do this for me, do it for Peter.† The voices upstairs sounded closer now. As if in a dream, Langdon moved to the conveyor. He slung his daybag onto the belt and then climbed on, placing his head at Katherine's feet. The hard rubber conveyor felt cold against his back. He stared at the ceiling and felt like a hospital patient preparing for insertion headfirst into an MRI machine. â€Å"Keep your phone on,† Bellamy said. â€Å"Someone will call soon . . . and offer help. Trust him.† Someone will call? Langdon knew that Bellamy had been trying to reach someone with no luck and had left a message earlier. And only moments ago, as they hurried down the spiral staircase, Bellamy had tried one last time and gotten through, speaking very briefly in hushed tones and then hanging up. â€Å"Follow the conveyor to the end,† Bellamy said. â€Å"And jump off quickly before you circle back. Use my key card to get out.† â€Å"Get out of where?!† Langdon demanded. But Bellamy was already pulling levers. All the different conveyors in the room hummed to life. Langdon felt himself jolt into motion, and the ceiling began moving overhead. God save me. As Langdon approached the opening in the wall, he looked back and saw Warren Bellamy race through the doorway into the stacks, closing the door behind him. An instant later, Langdon slid into the darkness, swallowed up by the library . . . just as a glowing red laser dot came dancing down the stairs. CHAPTER 60 The underpaid female security guard from Preferred Security double-checked the Kalorama Heights address on her call sheet. This is it? The gated driveway before her belonged to one of the neighborhood's largest and quietest estates, and so it seemed odd that 911 had just received an urgent call about it. As usual with unconfirmed call-ins, 911 had contacted the local alarm company before bothering the police. The guard often thought the alarm company's motto–â€Å"Your first line of defense†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ could just as easily have been â€Å"False alarms, pranks, lost pets, and complaints from wacky neighbors.† Tonight, as usual, the guard had arrived with no details about the specific concern. Above my pay grade. Her job was simply to show up with her yellow bubble light spinning, assess the property, and report anything unusual. Normally, something innocuous had tripped the house alarm, and she would use her override keys to reset it. This house, however, was silent. No alarm. From the road, everything looked dark and peaceful. The guard buzzed the intercom at the gate, but got no answer. She typed her override code to open the gate and pulled into the driveway. Leaving her engine running and her bubble light spinning, she walked up to the front door and rang the bell. No answer. She saw no lights and no movement. Reluctantly following procedure, she flicked on her flashlight to begin her trek around the house to check the doors and windows for signs of break-in. As she rounded the corner, a black stretch limousine drove past the house, slowing for a moment before continuing on. Rubbernecking neighbors. Bit by bit, she made her way around the house, but saw nothing out of place. The house was bigger than she had imagined, and by the time she reached the backyard, she was shivering from the cold. Obviously there was nobody home. â€Å"Dispatch?† she called in on her radio. â€Å"I'm on the Kalorama Heights call? Owners aren't home. No signs of trouble. Finished the perimeter check. No indication of an intruder. False alarm.† â€Å"Roger that,† the dispatcher replied. â€Å"Have a good night.† The guard put her radio back on her belt and began retracing her steps, eager to get back to the warmth of her vehicle. As she did so, however, she spotted something she had missed earlier–a tiny speck of bluish light on the back of the house. Puzzled, she walked over to it, now seeing the source–a low transom window, apparently to the home's basement. The glass of the window had been blacked out, coated on the inside with an opaque paint. Some kind of darkroom maybe? The bluish glow she had seen was emanating through a tiny spot on the window where the black paint had started to peel. She crouched down, trying to peer through, but she couldn't see much through the tiny opening. She tapped on the glass, wondering if maybe someone was working down there. â€Å"Hello?† she shouted. There was no answer, but as she knocked on the window, the paint chip suddenly detached and fell off, affording her a more complete view. She leaned in, nearly pressing her face to the window as she scanned the basement. Instantly, she wished she hadn't. What in the name of God?! Transfixed, she remained crouched there for a moment, staring in abject horror at the scene before her. Finally, trembling, the guard groped for the radio on her belt. She never found it. A sizzling pair of Taser prongs slammed into the back of her neck, and a searing pain shot through her body. Her muscles seized, and she pitched forward, unable even to close her eyes before her face hit the cold ground. CHAPTER 61 Tonight was not the first time Warren Bellamy had been blindfolded. Like all of his Masonic brothers, he had worn the ritual â€Å"hoodwink† during his ascent to the upper echelons of Masonry. That, however, had taken place among trusted friends. Tonight was different. These rough- handed men had bound him, placed a bag on his head, and were now marching him through the library stacks. The agents had physically threatened Bellamy and demanded to know the whereabouts of Robert Langdon. Knowing his aging body couldn't take much punishment, Bellamy had told his lie quickly. â€Å"Langdon never came down here with me!† he had said, gasping for air. â€Å"I told him to go up to the balcony and hide behind the Moses statue, but I don't know where he is now!† The story apparently had been convincing, because two of the agents had run off in pursuit. Now the remaining two agents were marching him in silence through the stacks. Bellamy's only solace was in knowing Langdon and Katherine were whisking the pyramid off to safety. Soon Langdon would be contacted by a man who could offer sanctuary. Trust him. The man Bellamy had called knew a great deal about the Masonic Pyramid and the secret it held–the location of a hidden spiral staircase that led down into the earth to the hiding place of potent ancient wisdom buried long ago. Bellamy had finally gotten through to the man as they were escaping the reading room, and he felt confident that his short message would be understood perfectly. Now, as he moved in total darkness, Bellamy pictured the stone pyramid and golden capstone in Langdon's bag. It has been many years since those two pieces were in the same room. Bellamy would never forget that painful night. The first of many for Peter. Bellamy had been asked to come to the Solomon estate in Potomac for Zachary Solomon's eighteenth birthday. Zachary, despite being a rebellious child, was a Solomon, which meant tonight, following family tradition, he would receive his inheritance. Bellamy was one of Peter's dearest friends and a trusted Masonic brother, and therefore was asked to attend as a witness. But it was not only the transference of money that Bellamy had been asked to witness. There was far more than money at stake tonight. Bellamy had arrived early and waited, as requested, in Peter's private study. The wonderful old room smelled of leather, wood fires, and loose-leaf tea. Warren was seated when Peter led his son, Zachary, into the room. When the scrawny eighteen-year-old saw Bellamy, he frowned. â€Å"What are you doing here?† â€Å"Bearing witness,† Bellamy offered. â€Å"Happy birthday, Zachary.† The boy mumbled and looked away. â€Å"Sit down, Zach,† Peter said. Zachary sat in the solitary chair facing his father's huge wooden desk. Solomon bolted the study door. Bellamy took a seat off to one side. Solomon addressed Zachary in a serious tone. â€Å"Do you know why you're here?† â€Å"I think so,† Zachary said. Solomon sighed deeply. â€Å"I know you and I have not seen eye to eye for quite some time, Zach. I've done my best to be a good father and to prepare you for this moment.† Zachary said nothing. â€Å"As you know, every Solomon child, upon reaching adulthood, is presented with his or her birthright–a share of the Solomon fortune–which is intended to be a seed . . . a seed for you to nurture, make grow, and use to help nourish mankind.† Solomon walked to a vault in the wall, unlocked it, and removed a large black folder. â€Å"Son, this portfolio contains everything you need to legally transfer your financial inheritance into your own name.† He laid it on the desk. â€Å"The aim is that you use this money to build a life of productivity, prosperity, and philanthropy.† Zachary reached for the folder. â€Å"Thanks.† â€Å"Hold on,† his father said, putting his hand on the portfolio. â€Å"There's something else I need to explain.† Zachary shot his father a contemptuous look and slumped back down. â€Å"There are aspects of the Solomon inheritance of which you are not yet aware.† His father was staring straight into Zachary's eyes now. â€Å"You are my firstborn, Zachary, which means you are entitled to a choice.† The teenager sat up, looking intrigued. â€Å"It is a choice that may well determine the direction of your future, and so I urge you to ponder it carefully.† â€Å"What choice?† His father took a deep breath. â€Å"It is the choice . . . between wealth or wisdom.† Zachary gave him a blank stare. â€Å"Wealth or wisdom? I don't get it.† Solomon stood, walking again to the vault, where he pulled out a heavy stone pyramid with Masonic symbols carved into it. Peter heaved the stone onto the desk beside the portfolio. â€Å"This pyramid was created long ago and has been entrusted to our family for generations.† â€Å"A pyramid?† Zachary didn't look very excited. â€Å"Son, this pyramid is a map . . . a map that reveals the location of one of humankind's greatest lost treasures. This map was created so that the treasure could one day be rediscovered.† Peter's voice swelled now with pride. â€Å"And tonight, following tradition, I am able to offer it to you . . . under certain conditions.† Zachary eyed the pyramid suspiciously. â€Å"What's the treasure?† Bellamy could tell that this coarse question was not what Peter had hoped for. Nonetheless, his demeanor remained steady. â€Å"Zachary, it's hard to explain without a lot of background. But this treasure . . . in essence . . . is something we call the Ancient Mysteries.† Zachary laughed, apparently thinking his father was joking. Bellamy could see the melancholy growing now in Peter's eyes. â€Å"This is very difficult for me to describe, Zach. Traditionally, by the time a Solomon is eighteen years of age, he is about to embark on his years of higher education in–â€Å" â€Å"I told you!† Zachary fired back. â€Å"I'm not interested in college!† â€Å"I don't mean college,† his father said, his voice still calm and quiet. â€Å"I'm talking about the brotherhood of Freemasonry. I'm talking about an education in the enduring mysteries of human science. If you had plans to join me within their ranks, you would be on the verge of receiving the education necessary to understand the importance of your decision tonight.† Zachary rolled his eyes. â€Å"Spare me the Masonic lecture again. I know I'm the first Solomon who doesn't want to join. But so what? Don't you get it? I have no interest in playing dress-up with a bunch of old men!† His father was silent for a long time, and Bellamy noticed the fine age lines that had started to appear around Peter's still-youthful eyes. â€Å"Yes, I get it,† Peter finally said. â€Å"Times are different now. I understand that Masonry probably appears strange to you, or maybe even boring. But I want you to know, that doorway will always be open for you should you change your mind.† â€Å"Don't hold your breath,† Zach grumbled. â€Å"That's enough!† Peter snapped, standing up. â€Å"I realize life has been a struggle for you, Zachary, but I am not your only guidepost. There are good men waiting for you, men who will welcome you within the Masonic fold and show you your true potential.† Zachary chuckled and glanced over at Bellamy. â€Å"Is that why you're here, Mr. Bellamy? So you Masons can gang up on me?† Bellamy said nothing, instead directing a respectful gaze back at Peter Solomon–a reminder to Zachary of who held the power in this room. Zachary turned back to his father. â€Å"Zach,† Peter said, â€Å"we're getting nowhere . . . so let me just tell you this. Whether or not you comprehend the responsibility being offered to you tonight, it is my family obligation to present it.† He motioned to the pyramid. â€Å"It is a rare privilege to guard this pyramid. I urge you to consider this opportunity for a few days before making your decision.† â€Å"Opportunity?† Zachary said. â€Å"Babysitting a rock?† â€Å"There are great mysteries in this world, Zach,† Peter said with a sigh. â€Å"Secrets that transcend your wildest imagination. This pyramid protects those secrets. And even more important, there will come a time, probably within your lifetime, when this pyramid will at last be deciphered and its secrets unearthed. It will be a moment of great human transformation . . . and you have a chance to play a role in that moment. I want you to consider it very carefully. Wealth is commonplace, but wisdom is rare.† He motioned to the portfolio and then to the pyramid. â€Å"I beg you to remember that wealth without wisdom can often end in disaster.† Zachary looked like he thought his father was insane. â€Å"Whatever you say, Dad, but there's no way I'm giving up my inheritance for this.† He gestured to the pyramid. Peter folded his hands before him. â€Å"If you choose to accept the responsibility, I will hold your money and the pyramid for you until you have successfully completed your education within the Masons. This will take years, but you will emerge with the maturity to receive both your money and this pyramid. Wealth and wisdom. A potent combination.† Zachary shot up. â€Å"Jesus, Dad! You don't give up, do you? Can't you see that I don't give a damn about the Masons or stone pyramids and ancient mysteries?† He reached down and scooped up the black portfolio, waving it in front of his father's face. â€Å"This is my birthright! The same birthright of the Solomons who came before me! I can't believe you'd try to trick me out of my inheritance with lame stories about ancient treasure maps!† He tucked the portfolio under his arm and marched past Bellamy to the study's patio door. â€Å"Zachary, wait!† His father rushed after him as Zachary stalked out into the night. â€Å"Whatever you do, you can never speak of the pyramid you have seen!† Peter Solomon's voice cracked. â€Å"Not to anyone! Ever!† But Zachary ignored him, disappearing into the night. Peter Solomon's gray eyes were filled with pain as he returned to his desk and sat heavily in his leather chair. After a long silence, he looked up at Bellamy and forced a sad smile. â€Å"That went well.† Bellamy sighed, sharing in Solomon's pain. â€Å"Peter, I don't mean to sound insensitive . . . but . . . do you trust him?† Solomon stared blankly into space. â€Å"I mean . . .† Bellamy pressed, â€Å"not to say anything about the pyramid?† Solomon's face was blank. â€Å"I really don't know what to say, Warren. I'm not sure I even know him anymore.† Bellamy rose and walked slowly back and forth before the large desk. â€Å"Peter, you have followed your family duty, but now, considering what just happened, I think we need to take precautions. I should return the capstone to you so you can find a new home for it. Someone else should watch over it.† â€Å"Why?† Solomon asked. â€Å"If Zachary tells anyone about the pyramid . . . and mentions my being present tonight . . .† â€Å"He knows nothing of the capstone, and he's too immature to know the pyramid has any significance. We don't need a new home for it. I'll keep the pyramid in my vault. And you will keep the capstone wherever you keep it. As we always have.† It was six years later, on Christmas Day, with the family still healing from Zachary's death, that the enormous man claiming to have killed him in prison broke into the Solomon estate. The intruder had come for the pyramid, but he had taken with him only Isabel Solomon's life. Days later, Peter summoned Bellamy to his office. He locked the door and took the pyramid out of his vault, setting it on the desk between them. â€Å"I should have listened to you.† Bellamy knew Peter was racked with guilt over this. â€Å"It wouldn't have mattered.† Solomon drew a tired breath. â€Å"Did you bring the capstone?† Bellamy pulled a small cube-shaped package from his pocket. The faded brown paper was tied with twine and bore a wax seal of Solomon's ring. Bellamy laid the package on the desk, knowing the two halves of the Masonic Pyramid were closer together tonight than they should be. â€Å"Find someone else to watch this. Don't tell me who it is.† Solomon nodded. â€Å"And I know where you can hide the pyramid,† Bellamy said. He told Solomon about the Capitol Building subbasement. â€Å"There's no place in Washington more secure.† Bellamy recalled Solomon liking the idea right away because it felt symbolically apt to hide the pyramid in the symbolic heart of our nation. Typical Solomon, Bellamy had thought. The idealist even in a crisis. Now, ten years later, as Bellamy was being shoved blindly through the Library of Congress, he knew the crisis tonight was far from over. He also now knew whom Solomon had chosen to guard the capstone . . . and he prayed to God that Robert Langdon was up to the job.