Genetic Engineering in Agriculture Essay - 3427 Words

Genetic Engineering in Agriculture Among the millions of species that inhabit the planet, only twenty species provide ninety percent of the human food supply (Montgomery 2000). Since the introduction of genetic engineering, however, livestock and crops have a more productive future. Transfer of engineered genes from organism to organism occurs through hybridization, conjugation, and transformation in microorganisms. By the substitution of genes into agricultural species, biodiversity can flourish to improve social and economic development. Although methods of gene and DNA implantation quickly develop advanced products, even precise genetic alterations do not ensure that the environment will remain balanced or that changes in†¦show more content†¦Instead of transferring large blocks of genes from donor plant to recipient, small isolated blocks of genes are put into the plant chromosome through biolistics, vectors, or protoplast transformation (Horsch 1993). Biolistics is a technique that shoots the gene block into the potential host cell. In order for the process to succeed, the microscopic particles and DNA must enter the cell nuclei and combine with the plant chromosome. Biolistics is commonly used but has a slight failure risk since the breeder has little control over the destination of the gene block (Mooney Bernardi 1990). Bacteria or viruses can also carry the gene blocks into a new cell. Common vectors in gene transfer between plants are Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes. In the soil, the bacteria will infect the plants with their own plasmid, transferring the desired gene that was placed in the bacterias DNA. Vector gene transfer is a preferred method of transformation since this modification already occurs naturally in the environment (Rudolph McIntire 1996). Last is protoplast transformation, which uses enzymes to dissolve the cellulose in the plant wall that leaves a protoplast. Once a specific gene block is added to the protoplast, th e cell wall will re-grow into a transgenic plant. Direct manipulation of DNA focuses on selective breeding, altering organisms to achieve higher quality products and more of them. These improvedShow MoreRelated Genetic Engineering in Agriculture Essay2099 Words   |  9 PagesGenetic Engineering in Agriculture Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before would deserve better of Mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. -The King of Brobdingnag, Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift, 17271 Introduction Genetically engineered foods are the rage of the day for farmers across the world. Farmers are able to grow larger, tastier, moreRead MoreThe Effects of Genetic Engineering on Agriculture Essay1291 Words   |  6 PagesGenetic engineering is a way in which specific genes for an animal or plant can be extracted, and reproduced to form a new animal or plant. These new organisms will express the required trait for that gene. This practice is a very controversial topic within the scientific world. It is being implemented in various areas such as agriculture even though there are many alternatives that can be found for genetic engineered crops, such as organic materials and reducing leeching of the soil. The controversyRead MoreThe Effects of Genetic Engineering on Agriculture Essay1409 Words   |  6 PagesThe Effects of Genetic Engineering on Agriculture Agribiotechnology is the study of making altered agricultural products. Agribusiness is trying to alter the genes of already existing products to try to enhance the biocompetitiveness and adaptability of crops by enhancing plant resistance to drought, salinity, disease, pests and herbicides. They are going to try to enhance their growth, productivity, nutrient value, and chemical composition. The old way of doing this was through selectiveRead MoreTrials. Genetic Engineering Is Commonly Found In Agriculture897 Words   |  4 Pages Trials Genetic engineering is commonly found in agriculture and within the past few years scientists began animal experimentation, but this technology is now touching upon human embryos. â€Å"The first field experiments of food crops that had been genetically modified using recombinant DNA technology began in 1987† (Range, Gabriel).The trial consisted of extending the shelf life of tomatoes. Animals are the next trial class â€Å"animals that have been safely genetically engineered (GE) include cattleRead MoreThe Use Of Genetic Engineering On Agriculture And Food Production Essay1622 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction : The use of genetic engineering techniques in agriculture and food production is seen as an exciting and valuable development by many people who welcome the improvements in production efficiency that they offer to farmers and the enhanced nutritional value that is envisioned to benefit consumers. Others, however, are objecting strongly, raising environmental, food safety, and ethical concerns. A majority of people in Western Europe, Japan and Australia, for example, want at leastRead MoreDustin Peacher . Engl 1302.C09. Professor Mccovery. April985 Words   |  4 Pagesof Genetic Engineering and it s Ethics How far would you go to save human lives and to progress society for those in need? The benefits of genetic engineering have shown to outweigh the ethical and environmental consequences associated within the field. Genetic Engineering has shown to provide major benefits in the field of medicine and agriculture but is faced with extreme criticism and backlash, specifically on the basis of ethics. To understand the modern concept over field of the Genetic EngineeringRead MoreGenetic Engineering : The Technique Of Producing Recombinant Hybrid Dna By Combining Two Different Strands Of Dna1731 Words   |  7 Pagesgroup for their help in improving and reviewing this paper. Finally I would like to thank Abdul Ahad Memon for proof reading my paper. Abstract Genetic engineering is the technique of producing recombinant hybrid DNA by combining two different strands of DNA. The fundamental concept of genetic engineering is gene cloning; the technique of altering the genetic structure of an organism. Gene cloning has four basic processes, namely cutting : the process of isolating the required starnd of DNA, modificationRead MoreGenetically Modified Organisms Are Dangerous Or Bad For Our Citizen s Health1025 Words   |  5 Pagesscientists have been working on developing new forms of technology regarding genetic modification. This involves the transfer of genes from one plant or animal, to another similar specimen. Furthermore, with the help of genetically modified organisms, scientists are now able to help prevent pollution, increase crop productivity, as well as aid in medicinal purposes. To begin, due to a past study that linked genetic engineering to the following possibilities such as stomach inflammation, the transferRead MoreDna And Ethics Of Recombinant Dna1601 Words   |  7 Pages Recombinant DNA and Ethics Brooke Boland BIO/410 - Genetics October 23, 2017 Miranda Gauthier Recombinant DNA and Ethics Recombinant DNA technology has become a powerful influence to many fields including medicine, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Genetic modifications of plants, animals and other organisms have allowed scientists to improve the quality of human life. As genetic engineering continues to rapidly grow, many ethical, social and legal issues arise evaluating the risksRead MoreEssay about Should Genetic Engineering Be Controlled by Law?992 Words   |  4 PagesShould Genetic Engineering Be Controlled by Law? â€Å"Just as the success of a corporate body in making money need not set the human condition ahead, neither does every scientific advance automatically make our lives more meaningful† ( Professor George Wald, Noble Prize winning biologist, The Dangers of Genetic Engineeering 1976, p.45) . Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organism’s genes. It uses the techniques of molecular cloning and transformation to alter the

Dance Concert Free Essays

CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY Cause and effect essays are usually taught in high school and introductory college writing courses. This type of essay does just as the title suggests; it explains the cause(s) of a problem and details the resulting effect(s). These few steps can help you write this type of essay. We will write a custom essay sample on Dance Concert or any similar topic only for you Order Now Suggestions: Step 1: Present an event, phenomenon or trend. This will be the cause and the starting point of your essay. You should explain the background of the cause in significant detail so your reader understands the basis of your paper. Step 2: Explain the effects of your event, phenomenon or trend. You should continually refer back to the cause to make links and connections between the cause and effect. Links and connections will help your audience effectively process the cause and effect. Step 3: Limit your major points. While there may be multiple causes or multiple effects in any given relationship, limit your points depending on the length of your essay. Too many points will only confuse your reader. Step 4: Organize your essay effectively. A good model to follow is a thesis statement that presents your event, phenomenon or trend at the beginning of the essay. Each subsequent body paragraph should start with a topic sentence that explains the cause or effect up for discussion. Step 5: End with a recap of the causes and effects discussed in your essay. In complicated essays like cause and effect, it’s important to revisit the major points and the overall idea of your essay so the reader can tie together your thoughts. Sample Outline for Cause Effect Essay (see example topics): Write an essay exploring causes, effects, or both of choosing to attend college. Write an essay exploring the effects of text-messaging, cell-phone use, or e-mail use in your life. Write an essay exploring causes, effects, or both of stress in your life (limit this to one situation) Write an essay exploring the beneficial or problematic effects of high school sports on athletes, families, communities, etc. Write an essay exploring causes, effects, or both of a major life decision you have made or will make soon. Write an essay exploring effects of having the parent or parents you have had. Think about how your life has been affected and/or who you have become (â€Å"Parent† means whoever raised you). 1. Introduction Paragraph: a. Capture attention with the first sentence (could include a quote). b. Give necessary background information. c. Explain the situation in a transitional sentence. d. Give a clear thesis statement. (What are you trying to prove? Examples: â€Å"Unfair stereotypes cause problems. † â€Å"Homelessness is a big problem in Tennessee. †) e. Summarize the 3 main points to be covered (What 3 causes or effects are you going to discuss? ) See examples: These days many people like to _____. There are three main causes of ______ in America: ______, ______, and ______. There are three main effects of in America: ______, ______, and ______. There are three main reasons why people like to_____: _____, _____, and _____. . First Body Paragraph: Topic Sentence–One cause/effect/reason why†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ a. Support/example 1 b. Support/example 2 c. Closing sentence 3. Second Body Paragraph: Topic Sentence–Another cause/effect/reason why†¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ a. Support/example 1 b. Support/example 2 c. Closing sentence 4. Third Body Paragraph: Topic Sentence–A third cause/effect/reason why†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ a. Support/example 1 b. Support/example 2 c. Closing sentence 5. Conclusion Paragraph: a. Summarize main points b. Restate thesis statement c. Suggest a solution, give moral of the story, add commentary, and/or additional thoughts How to cite Dance Concert, Essay examples

Emancipation Proclamation passed by Abraham Lincoln free essay sample

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, as a result of the Civil War, which saw the abolition of slavery. He deemed this act as a military strategy that was necessary to preserve the Union. Many would refer to Lincoln as the Great Emancipator because of his role in the passing of such a profound bill and it is a common belief by many that Lincoln had always been in favor of the abolition of slavery right from the beginning. However, there are some beliefs that Lincoln is undeserving of this title because his main objective was to save the Union whether that meant freeing all the slaves or none at all. I believe that Lincoln deserved this title because if it weren’t for him, slavery may have existed for several more years.Although Abraham Lincoln’s main objective during his time in office was to preserve the Union by reuniting the North and the South, his main political issue was to stop the expansion of slavery into western territories. We will write a custom essay sample on Emancipation Proclamation passed by Abraham Lincoln or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page With the Emancipation Proclamation he achieved both of these goals by dissolving slavery, defeating the South, and saving the future of the United States by reuniting the North and the South. Some people also believed Lincoln felt that African-Americans were inferior to white people, however, Lincoln was a strong follower of the Declaration of Independence which stated that all men possessed equally the inalienable right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.In Conclusion, I believe that Abraham Lincoln is deserving of the title because he sought to end the expansion of slavery into the west, and pushed to exterminate it all together before he took office. It is his belief that all men are created equal and although he may have used the Emancipation Proclamation as a military strategy to reunite the United States it was his objective from the beginning to put an end to slavery.

Overview of Banking Sector Inthailand Essay Example

Overview of Banking Sector Inthailand Essay The University of Hong Kong School of Economics and Finance FINA0501 Asian Financial Institutions Term Paper Overview of Thailand’s Financial Institutions (Banking Sector) Submitted by Lo Ka Yiu, Timothy BBA(Law) II U. No. : 2003506031 Overview of Thailand’s Financial Institutions (Banking Sector) Submitted by Lo Ka Yiu (2003506031) Introduction With the glorious history of achieving an average GDP growth of 11. 5% from 1987 to 1996, Thailand was acclaimed as one of Asia’s Tigers in the 1990s (Deepak, 1997). However, ironically, this is the same country which suffered a sharp depreciation of its currency, bath, and the ensuing economic downturn in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Poor supervision over financial institutions, especially commercial banks, has been generally regarded as a key reason for Thai economy’s rapid collapse (Vatikiotis, 1998). Therefore, Thailand’s financial institutions, which have been largely restructured by the authorities after the crisis, are a topic of value. This paper will take an overview of Thai financial institutions, with a focus on the banking sector. Historical Background Thai banking system dates back to 1888 when the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation established its branches there. Subsequently, the Chartered Bank in 1894, and a French bank called Banque de I’ Indochine in 1897 also established branches in Thailand. These banks share the same purpose of facilitating trading between their home countries and Thailand (Blanchard, 1958). Chinese people of Thai nationality began the domestic banking industry in Thailand during the early 1900s. They saw opportunity in Thai banking industry because of the lack of law governing it. We will write a custom essay sample on Overview of Banking Sector Inthailand specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Overview of Banking Sector Inthailand specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Overview of Banking Sector Inthailand specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Although massive speculative pressures resulted in the failure of these early banks, new banks formed and adapted to avoid the mistake made by previous attempts (Blanchard, 1958). In the past, Thai banking and financial systems were traditionally controlled by a limited elite group of business from approximately ten families (Traisoral, 2000). Overall framework of the Thai Financial Institutions The current banking system in Thailand consists of the following components: a. A central bank, namely the Bank of Thailand (BOT) b. 12 domestic and 18 foreign commercial banks . 27 international banking facilities (IBF) d. 4 specialised banks, namely the Government Saving Bank (GSB), the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), the Government Housing Bank (GSB) and the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Bank) Note that there is an overlap between the commercial banks and IBFs. Among the 27 IBF licenses, 8 are currently held by domestic commercial banks, 15 by foreign comme rcial banks. Other financial institutions include credit foncier companies, financial companies and securities companies (Bank of Thailand, 2005). Central to the economic crisis during 1997 are the central bank and commercial banks. We will now explore these financial institutions in a more specific way. Banking Sector 1. The Central Bank Thai National Banking Bureau, established in 1939, was the first organization assuming the responsibilities of a central bank in Thailand. It was a department attached to the Ministry of Finance. During the Second World War, the Thai government saw the success that other countries were experiencing from a strong central banking system. As a result, the Bureau was turned into a central bank, i. . the Bank of Thailand, with the passing of the Bank of Thailand Act in 1942. The Bank of Thailand has been given many responsibilities, including the following: i) Formulate and recommend monetary policy to the Thai Government ii) Provide banking services to the government, state enterprises, and financial institutions, iii) Oversee financial institutions and their support of economic development, iv) Supervise and develop the financial systems, v) Promote the economic sectors with priority, vi) Print and issue bank notes, vii) Manage Thailand’s international reserves, iii) Represent Thailand during international meetings and keep good relations with other central banks, ix) Provide and distribute information on the economic condition of Thailand both within the country and abroad, x) Act as the lender of last resort to other banks Nevertheless, the Bank still has some limitations in powers. It is not responsible for the development of a capital market, and it has little control over short-term credit (Blanchard, 1958). Both on-site and off-site method s are adopted by the Bank of Thailand to supervise financial institutions in Thailand. On-site methods are unannounced physical inspections conducted at least once a year for each Thai registered commercial bank. Off-site methods require all financial institutions to submit weekly, monthly, or annually reports over every area of operations (Supervision Group Policy, Bank of Thailand, 2002). Currently, the Bank of Thailand has 4 regional branches, which perform central banking activities in there locality. The North Eastern Region Office is located in Khon Kaen, the Southern Region Office is located in Songkhla, while the Northern Region Offices are located in Chiang Mai and Lampang (Sunsite Thailand, 2005). 2. Commercial Banks Commercial banks dominate Thailand’s financial sector by holding 73% of both household savings and credits extended by all financial institution (Elgar, 2003). All commercial banks are established under the Commercial Banking Act and need the authorization from the Ministry of Finance. They are monitored by the Bank of Thailand and bound by numerous regulations. For instance, they must meet minimum capital requirements in order to be incorporated. They must transfer at least 15% of their profits into reserves, and dividends are limited to 15% of reserves until the amount of reserves exceeds 60% of their paid-in capital. They must also maintain a capital adequacy of approximately 10% to the two tiered capital standard set by the Basle Committee in the 1988 Capital Accord (Traisorat, 2000). The major business areas of commercial banks include taking time, saving and current deposits, issuing certificates of deposit, securing domestic and foreign loan, lending, buying and selling of foreign exchanges, as well as trading bills of exchange and tradable financial securities. Commercial banks normally provide credit in the form of overdrafts which are on a short-term basis but may be rolled over on a year-to-year basis. Due to fluctuations in interest rates both in the international and domestic markets, commercial banks at present encourage customers to utilize term loans instead of overdrafts. Recently, some commercial banks have been allowed to apply for additional licenses from the Bank of Thailand to expand their scope of business into different new areas, such as information and consultancy services, underwriting sales of government and state enterprise securities, as well as acting as debt collection agents (Haron and Yamirudeng). 3. Specialised Banks While all the 4 specialised banks are owned by the Thai Government and under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, each of them has its own position in the Thai financial industry. The Government Saving Bank (GSB) was established in 1913 with the aim of educating court officials on banking services, and encouraging the habit of saving among the Thai, especially the low and middle income groups. It has an extensive network of branches and mobile units to accept deposits all over the country. Apart from savings service, it is also providing various services for the public sector, general public and business sector. The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) was established in 1966 to provide credit to the agricultural sector, with the aim of promoting a better standard of life for Thailand’s farming population. Nowadays, it has gradually transformed from a specialised agricultural lending institution to a diversified rural bank which provides different kinds of financial services. The Government Housing Bank (GHB) was set up in 1953 to provide mortgage loans at a low interest rate in order to assist low and middle income groups in purchasing houses. It specializes in providing long-term mortgage loans for individual borrowers, construction loans for private developers for land and housing development projects, and construction loans for land owners who want to develop rental apartments. The Export-Import Bank of Thailand (EXIM Bank) was established in 1993 to provide support for international trading and foreign investments, in order to help the growth of Thai exporters and investors. It practises in different areas, such as offering direct loans and guarantees loans, insuring exports and providing financial services. Besides, it also provides advice to Thai exporters and investors. Other Financial Institutions Besides banks, finance companies and securities companies also play an important role in Thailand’s financial sector. In the past, it was commonplace that a company got two licenses, one for finance business and one for securities business. Such a company was called a â€Å"financial and securities company†, and it could operate in both fields. In 1992, the Bank of Thailand separated these two practising areas. Currently, finance companies are intermediaries in the money market, and regulated by the Bank of Thailand; while securities companies, practising in the capital market, are monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We will now explore these two types of financial institutions in more detail. 1. Finance Companies The areas of operation of finance companies include selling agent, underwriting, arranging for debt securities, representing of holders debentures, custodial service, registrar, and managing provident funds and private funds (Survey of Thai industry). Financial companies cannot raise fund by deposit, but they can accept deposits in terms of issuance of bills of exchange and certificates of deposits. They can also mobilize fund by issuing promissory notes and borrowing from the commercial banks. The major uses of fund are loans for commerce, loans for development, loans for consumer products and loans for housing. However, after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, due to the severe economic downturn and the collapse of property and stock markets, a number of finance companies were facing the problem of liquidation. Nine finance companies were ordered to ecapitalize in 1997 (Traisoral, 2000). There were 91 finance companies in 1996, but only 21 left in 2000 (Chandler, 2000). Now, there are only 18 (Bank of Thailand, 2005). In order to facilitate the financial reform and restore public confidence, a lot of rules and regulations have been set and amended. 2. Securities Companies Securities companies are those engaging in investment ba nking activities like brokerage, underwriting and giving advice about securities. As mentioned, since 1992, securities companies have been regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Current Trends in Thailand’s Financial Sector Now, we have gone through the general framework of Thailand’s financial institutions. It is time to look at what is happening in the industry. In general, two trends are taking place. One is the foreign entry into the Thai commercial banking sector, the other one is the restructuring of the financial sector. 1. Foreign Entry into the Commercial Banking Sector Even before the Asian Financial Crisis, the authorities had started to liberalize the Thai commercial banking system. The Bangkok International Banking Facility (BIBF) was created in March of 1993. It gave 32 foreign banks licenses to provide Thailand banking facilities. The Bank of Thailand made a similar move in 1995 when it announced that it would issue up to 14 new commercial bank licenses, half of which would be foreign and half domestic (Demaine 1997). After the Crisis in 1997, in order to restore investors’ confidence in the Thai banking system, the Government reinforced its effort to accelerate liberalization. As a result, it relaxed the existing foreign shareholding restrictions on domestic commercial banks (Traisoral, 2000). The banking sector attracted US$2. 3 billion of foreign direct investment in 1998 and US$2. 5 billion in 1999 (Bank of Thailand, 1999). Since the eruption of financial crisis, a few commercial banks have been taken over by foreign banks. At the end of 1999, DBS Thai Danu Bank (DTDB), Bank of Asia (BOA), Standard Chartered Nakornthon Bank(SCBN) and UOB Radanasin Bank (UOB-RAB) were the 4 commercial banks which were controlled by foreign corporations. For Thailand, the entry of foreign banks does have it positive effects. Those foreign banks can provide sources of capital, raise the level of technology, and introduce new management philosophies as well as marketing strategies. For example, BOA has increased its number of ATMs, and launched mini branches in subway stations and supermarkets; while UOB-RAB has launched a flexible mortgage-loan package with low interest rates (Montreevat, 2000). Simply put, the competitiveness of the whole banking industry has been enhanced as a result. 2. Restructuring of the Financial Sector The Thai authorities initiated a series of tough measures in relation to domestic financial institutions. Quite a number of unsafe and unsound finance companies have been closed and the remaining ones are subject to strict prudential conditions and supervision. The Bank of Thailand did exercise its enhanced powers to order changes of management in some commercial banks and a finance company. In order to rebuild investors’ confidence, it is foreseeable that this restructuring process will continue. Conclusion This paper has presented an overview of Thailand’s financial institutions with a focus on the banking sector. We first looked at its historical background, and then explored different components in the sector, including the central bank, commercial banks, specialised banks, finance companies and securities companies. At the end, two current trends, namely the foreign entry into Thailand’s commercial banking sector and the restructuring of the financial sector, were discussed. As mentioned at the beginning, it is widely agreed that the ineffectiveness of the Thai banking sector is at least partly to blame for Thailand’s suffering in the Asian Financial Crisis.

William Hazlitts On Going a Journey

William Hazlitts On Going a Journey Its fortunate that William Hazlitt enjoyed his own company, for this talented British essayist was not, by his own admission, a very pleasant companion: I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those that would reform them.(On Depth and Superficiality, 1826) The Romantic poet William Wordsworth echoed this assessment when he wrote that the miscreant Hazlitt ... is not a proper person to be admitted into respectable society. Yet the version of Hazlitt that emerges from his essays witty, passionate, plain speaking continues to attract devoted readers. As the writer Robert Louis Stevenson observed in his essay Walking Tours, Hazlitts On Going a Journey is so good that there should be a tax levied on all who have not read it. Hazlitts On Going a Journey   originally appeared in the New Monthly Magazine  in 1821 and was published that same year in the first edition of  Table-Talk. On Going a Journey One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey, but I like to go by myself. I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, Nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone. The fields his study, Nature was his book. I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time. When I am in the country I wish to vegetate like the country. I am not for criticising hedgerows and black cattle. I go out of town in order to forget the town and all that is in it. There are those who for this purpose go to watering-places, and carry the metropolis with them. I like more elbow-room and fewer encumbrances. I like solitude when I give myself up to it for the sake of solitude; nor do I ask for a friend in my retreat,Whom I may whisper solitude is sweet. The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do, just as one pleases. We go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences; to leave ourselves behind much more than to get rid of others. It is because I want a little breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters, where Contemplation May plume her feathers and let grow her wings,That in the various bustle of resortWere all too ruffled, and sometimes impaird, that I absent myself from the town for a while, without feeling at a loss the moment I am left by myself. Instead of a friend in a postchaise or in a tilbury, to exchange good things with, and vary the same stale topics over again, for once let me have a truce with impertinence. Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours march to dinnerand then to thinking! It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths. I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy. From the point of yonder rolling cloud, I plunge into my past being and revel there as the sun-burnt Indian plunges headlong into the wave that wafts him to his native shore. Then long-forgotten things, like sunken wrack and sumless treasuries, burst upon my eager sight, and I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places, mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence. No one likes puns, alliteration, alliterations, antitheses, argument, and analysis better than I do; but I sometimes had rather be without them. Leave, oh, leave me to my repose! I have just now other business in hand, which would seem idle to you, but is with me the very stuff o the conscience. Is not this wild rose sweet without a comment? Does not this daisy leap to my heart set in its coat of emerald? Yet if I were to explain to you the circumstance that has so endeared it to me you would only smile. Had I not better then keep it to myself, and let it serve me to brood over, from here to yonder craggy point, and from thence onward to the far-distant horizon? I should be but bad company all that way, and therefore prefer being alone. I have heard it said that you may, when the moody fit comes on, walk or ride on by yourself, and indulge your reveries. But this looks like a breach of manners, a neglect of others, and you are thinking all the time that you ought to rejoin your part y. Out upon such half-faced fellowship, say I. I like to be either entirely to myself, or entirely at the disposal of others; to talk or be silent, to walk or sit still, to be sociable or solitary. I was pleased with an observation of Mr. Cobbetts, that he thought it a bad French custom to drink our wine with our meals, and that an Englishman ought to do only one thing at a time. So I cannot talk and think, or indulge in melancholy musing and lively conversation by fits and starts. Let me have a companion of my way, says Sterne, were it but to remark how the shadows lengthen as the sun declines. It is beautifully said: but, in my opinion, this continual comparing of notes interferes with the involuntary impression of things upon the mind, and hurts the sentiment. If you only hint what you feel in a kind of dumb show, it is insipid: if you have to explain it, it is making a toil of a pleasure. You cannot read the book of Nature without being perpetually put to the trouble of translating it for the benefit of others. I am for the synthetical method on a journey in preference to the analytical. I am content to lay in a stock of ideas then and to examine and anatomise them afterward. I want to see my vague notions float like the down of the thistle before the breeze, and not to have them entangled in the briars and thorns of controversy. For once, I like to have it all my own way; and this is impossible unless you are alone, or in such company as I do not covet. I have no objection to  argue  a point with  any one  for twenty miles of measured road, but not for pleasure. If you remark the scent of a bean-field crossing the road, perhaps your fellow-traveller has no smell. If you point to a distant object, perhaps he is short-sighted and has to take out his glass to look at it. There is a feeling in the air, a tone in the  colour  of a cloud, which hits your fancy, but the effect of which you are unable to account for. There is then no sympathy, but an uneasy craving after it, and a dissatisfaction which pursues you on the way, and in the end probably produces ill-humour. Now I never quarrel with  myself and take all my own conclusions for granted till I find it necessary to defend them against objections. It is not merely that you may not be of accord on the objects and circumstances that present themselves before youthey may recall a number of ideas, and lead to associations too delicate and refined to be possibly communicated to others. Yet these I love to cherish, and sometimes still fondly clutch  them when I can escape from the throng to do so. To give way to our feelings before  company seems extravagance or affectation; on the other hand, to have to unravel this mystery of our being at every turn, and to make others take an equal interest in it (otherwise the end is not answered) is a task to which few are competent. We must give it an understanding, but no tongue. My old friend C [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], however, could do both. He could go on in the most delightful explanatory way over hill and dale, a summers day, and convert a landscape into a didactic poem or a Pindaric ode. He talked far above singing. If I could so clothe my ideas in sounding and flowing words, I might perhaps wish to have  someone  with me to admire the swelling theme; or I could be more content, were it possible for me still to bear his echoing voice in the woods of All-Foxden. They had that fine madness in them which our first poets had; and if they could have been caught by some rare instrument, would have breathed such strains as the f ollowing Here be woods as greenAs any, air likewise as fresh and sweetAs when smooth Zephyrus plays on the fleetFace of the curled streams, with flowrs as manyAs the young spring gives, and as choice as any;Here be all new delights, cool streams and wells,Arbours oergrown with woodbines, caves and dells:Choose where thou wilt, whilst I sit by and sing,Or gather rushes to make many a ringFor thy long fingers; tell thee tales of love,How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove,First saw the boy Endymion, from whose eyesShe took eternal fire that never dies;How she conveyd him softly in a sleep,His temples bound with poppy, to the steepHead of old Latmos, where she stoops each night,Gilding the mountain with her brothers light,To kiss her sweetest.- Faithful Shepherdess Had I words and images at  command  like these, I would attempt to wake the thoughts that lie slumbering on golden ridges in the evening clouds: but at the sight of Nature my fancy, poor as it  is droops  and closes up its leaves, like flowers at sunset. I can make nothing out on the spot: I must have time to collect myself. In general, a good thing spoils out-of-door prospects: it should be reserved for Table-talk. L [Charles Lamb]  is, for this reason, I take it, the worst company in the world out of doors; because he is the best within. I grant, there is one subject on which it is pleasant to talk on a journey; and that is, what one shall have for supper when we get to our inn at night. The open air improves this sort of conversation or friendly altercation, by setting a keener edge on appetite. Every mile of the road heightens the  flavour  of the viands we expect at the end of it. How fine it is to enter some old town, walled and turreted, just at approach of nightfall, or to come to some straggling village, with the lights streaming through the surrounding gloom; and then, after inquiring for the best entertainment that the place affords, to take ones ease at ones inn! These eventful moments in our lives are in fact too precious, too full of solid,  heart-felt  happiness to be frittered a nd dribbled away in imperfect sympathy. I would have them all to myself, and drain them to the last drop: they will do to talk of or to write about  afterwards. What a delicate speculation it is, after drinking whole goblets of tea, The cups that cheer, but not inebriate and letting the fumes ascend into the brain, to sit considering what we shall have for suppereggs and a rasher, a rabbit smothered in  onions or an excellent veal-cutlet! Sancho in such a situation once fixed on cow heel; and his choice, though he could not help it, is not to be disparaged. Then, in the intervals of pictured scenery and Shandean contemplation, to catch the preparation and the stir in the kitchen  Procul, O  procul  este  profani!  These hours are sacred to silence and to musing, to be treasured up in the memory, and to feed the source of smiling thoughts hereafter. I would not waste them in idle talk; or if I must have the integrity of fancy broken in upon, I would rather it were by a stranger than a friend. A stranger takes his hue and character from the time and place:  his  is a part of the furniture and costume of an inn. If he is a Quaker, or from the West Riding of Yorkshire, so much the better. I do not even try to  sympathise  with him, an d  he breaks no squares. I associate nothing with my  travelling  companion but present objects and passing events. In his ignorance of me and my affairs, I in a manner forget myself. But a friend reminds one of other things, rips up old grievances, and destroys the abstraction of the scene. He comes in ungraciously between us and our imaginary character. Something is dropped in the course of conversation that gives a hint of your profession and pursuits; or from having  someone  with you that knows the less sublime portions of your history, it seems that other people do. You are no longer a citizen of the  world; but  your unhoused free condition is put into circumspection and confine. The  incognito  of an inn is one of its striking privilegeslord  of ones self,  uncumbered  with a name. Oh! it is great to shake off the trammels of the world and of public opinionto lose our importunate, tormenting, ever-lasting personal identity in the elements of nature, and become the creature of the moment, clear of all tiesto hold to the universe only by a dish of  sweet-breads, and to owe nothing but the score of the eveningand no longer seeking for applause and meeting with contempt, to be known by no other title than  the Gentleman in the  parlour! One may take ones choice of all characters in this romantic state of uncertainty as to ones real pretensions, and become indefinitely respectable and negatively right-worshipful. We baffle prejudice and disappoint conjecture; and from being so to others, begin to be objects of curiosity and wonder even to ourselves. We are no more those hackneyed commonplaces that we appear in the world; an inn restores us to the level of Nature, and quits scores with society! I have certainly spent some enviable hours at innssometimes when I have been left entirely to myself and have tried to solve some metaphysical problem, as once at Witham-common, where I found out the proof that likeness is not a case of the association of ideasat other times, when there have been pictures in the room, as at St Neots (I think it was) where I first met with Gribelins engravings of the Cartoons, into which I entered at once; and at a little inn on the borders of Wales, where there happened to be hanging some of Westalls drawings, which I compared triumphantly (for a theory that I had, not for the admired artist) with the figure of a girl who had ferried me over the Severn, standing up in a boat between me and the fading twilightat other times I might mention luxuriating in books, with a peculiar interest in this way, as I remember sitting up half the night to read Paul and Virginia, which I picked up at an inn at Bridgewater, after being drenched in the rain all day; a nd at the same place I got through two volumes of  Madam  DArblays Camilla. It was on the 10th of  April 1798, that I sat down to a volume of the New Eloise, at the inn at Llangollen, over a bottle of sherry and cold chicken. The letter I chose was that in which St. Preux describes his feelings as he first caught a glimpse from the heights of the Jura of the Pays de Vaud, which I had brought with me as a  bon  bouche  to crown the evening with. It was my birthday, and I had for the first time come from a place in the  neighbourhood  to visit this delightful spot. The road to Llangollen turns off between Chirk and Wrexham; and on passing a certain point you come all at once upon the valley, which opens like an amphitheatre, broad, barren hills rising in majestic state on either side, with green upland swells that echo to the bleat of flocks below, and the river Dee babbling over its stony bed in the midst of them. The valley at this time glittered green with sunny showers, and a budding ash-tree dipped its tender branches in the chiding stream. H ow proud, how glad I was to walk along the high road that overlooks the delicious prospect, repeating the lines which I have just quoted from  Mr. Coleridges poems! But besides the prospect which opened beneath my feet, another also opened to my inward sight, a heavenly vision, on which were written, in letters large as Hope could make them, these four words, Liberty, Genius, Love, Virtue; which have since faded in the light of common day, or mock my idle gaze. The Beautiful is vanished, and returns not. Still, I would return some time or other to this enchanted  spot; but  I would return to it alone. What other self could I find to share that influx of thoughts, of regret, and delight, the traces of which I could hardly conjure up myself, so much have they been broken and defaced! I could stand on some tall rock and overlook the precipice of years that separates me from what I then was. I was at that time going shortly to visit the poet whom I have above named. Where is he now? Not only I myself have changed; the world, which was then new to me, has become old and incorrigible. Yet will I turn to thee in thought, O sylvan Dee, as then thou wert, in joy, in youth and gladness; and thou shalt always be to me the river of Paradise, where I will drink the waters of life freely! There is hardly anything that shows the short-sightedness or capriciousness of the imagination more than  travelling  does. With  change  of place we change our ideas; nay, our opinions and feelings. We can by an effort indeed transport ourselves to old and long-forgotten scenes, and then the picture of the mind revives  again; but  we forget those that we have just left. It seems that we can think but of one place at a time. The canvas of the fancy is but of a certain extent, and if we paint one set of objects upon it, they immediately efface every other. We cannot enlarge our conceptions, we only shift our point of view. The landscape bares its bosom to the enraptured eye; we take our fill of  it; and  seem as if we could form no other image of beauty or grandeur. We pass on and think no more of it: the horizon that shuts it from our  sight,  also blots it from our memory like a dream. In  travelling  through a wild, barren country, I can form no idea of a w oody and cultivated one. It appears to me that all the world must be barren, like what I see of it. In the  country, we forget the town and in the  town, we despise the country. Beyond Hyde Park, says Sir Fopling Flutter, all is a desert. All that part of the map which we do not see before  us  is a blank. The world in our conceit of it is not much bigger than a nutshell. It is not one prospect expanded into another,  country  joined to  country, kingdom to kingdom, lands to seas, making an image voluminous and vast; the mind can form  no  larger idea of space than the eye can take in at a single glance. The rest is a name written on a map, a calculation of arithmetic. For instance, what is the true signification of that immense mass of territory and population, known by the name of China to us? An inch of paste-board on a wooden globe, of no more account than a China orange! Things near us are seen of the size of life; things at a distance are diminished to the size of the understanding. We measure the universe by  ourselves and even comprehend the texture of our own being only piece-meal. In this way, however, we remember an infinity of things and places. The mind is like a mechanical instrument that plays a great variety of tunes, but it must play them in succession. One idea recalls another, but it at the same times excludes all others. In trying to renew old recollections, we cannot as it  were unfold  the whole web of our existence; we must pick out the single threads. So in coming to a place where we have formerly lived and with which we have intimate associations,  every one  must have found that the feeling grows more vivid the nearer we approach the spot, from the mere anticipation of the actual impression: we remember circumstances, feelings, persons, faces, names, that we had not thought of for years; but for the time all the rest of the world is forgotten! To return to the question I have quitted above. I have no objection to  go  to see ruins, aqueducts, pictures, in company with a friend or a party, but rather the contrary, for the former reason reversed. They are intelligible  matters and will bear talking about. The sentiment here is not tacit, but communicable and overt. Salisbury Plain is barren of criticism, but Stonehenge will bear a discussion antiquarian, picturesque, and philosophical. In setting out on a party of pleasure, the first consideration always is where we shall go to: in taking a solitary ramble, the question is what we shall meet with by the way. The mind is its own place; nor are we anxious to arrive at the end of our journey. I can myself do the  honours  indifferently well to works of art and curiosity. I once took a party to Oxford with no mean  Ãƒ ©clatshewed  them that seat of the Muses at a distance, With glistening spires and pinnacles adornd descanted on the learned air that breathes from the grassy quadrangles and stone walls of halls and collegeswas at home in the  Bodleian; and  at Blenheim quite superseded the powdered Cicerone that attended us, and that pointed in vain with his wand to commonplace beauties in matchless pictures. As another exception to the above reasoning, I should not feel confident in venturing on a journey in a foreign country without a companion. I should want at intervals to hear the sound of my own language. There is an involuntary antipathy in the mind of an Englishman to foreign manners and notions that  requires  the assistance of social sympathy to carry it off. As the distance from home increases, this relief, which was at first a luxury, becomes a passion and an appetite. A person would almost feel stifled to find himself in the deserts of Arabia without friends and countrymen: there must be allowed to be something in the view of Athens or old Rome that claims the utterance of  speech; and  I own that the Pyramids are too mighty for any single contemplation. In such situations, so opposite to all ones ordinary train of ideas, one seems a species by ones self, a limb torn off from society, unless one can meet with instant fellowship and support. Yet I did not feel this wan t or craving very pressing  once when I first set my foot on the laughing shores of France. Calais was peopled with novelty and delight. The confused, busy murmur of the place was like oil and wine poured into my ears; nor did the  mariners hymn, which was sung from the top of an old crazy vessel in the  harbour, as the sun went down, send an alien sound into my soul. I only breathed the air of general humanity. I walked over the vine-covered hills and gay regions of France, erect and satisfied; for the image of man was not cast down and chained to the foot of arbitrary  thrones: I was at no loss for language, for that of all the great schools of painting was open to me. The whole  is vanished  like a shade. Pictures, heroes, glory, freedom, all are fled: nothing remains but the Bourbons and the French people! There is undoubtedly a sensation in  travelling  into foreign parts that  is  to be had nowhere  else; but  it is more pleasing at the time than lasting. It is too remote from our habitual associations to be a common topic of discourse or refere nce, and, like a dream or another state of existence, does not piece into our daily modes of life. It is an animated but a momentary hallucination. It demands an effort to exchange our actual for our ideal identity; and to feel the pulse of our old transports revive very keenly, we must jump all our present comforts and connections. Our romantic and itinerant character is not to be domesticated, Dr. Johnson remarked how little foreign travel added to the facilities of conversation in those who had been abroad. In fact, the time we have spent there is both delightful and in one sense instructive; but it appears to be cut out of our substantial, downright existence, and never to join kindly on to it. We are not the same, but another, and perhaps more enviable individual, all the time we are out of our own country. We are lost to ourselves, as well as to our friends. So the poet somewhat quaintly sings: Out of my country and myself I go. Those who wish to forget painful thoughts, do well to absent themselves for a while from the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to  fulfil  our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in  travelling  abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend  afterwards  at home!

Behavior Goals for Individual Education Plans

Behavior Goals for Individual Education Plans Behavioral Goals may be placed in an IEP when it is accompanied by a Functional Behavioral Analysis (FBA) and Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP). An IEP that has behavioral goals should also have a behavioral section in the present levels, indicating that behavior is an educational need. If the behavior is one that could be handled by changing the environment or by establishing procedures, you need to attempt other interventions before you alter an IEP. With RTI (Response to Intervention) entering the area of behavior, your school may have a procedure for being sure that you attempt interventions before you add a behavioral goal to an IEP. Why Avoid Behavioral Goals? Behavioral goals will automatically withdraw a student from the progressive discipline plan in place in your school, as you have identified behavior as a part of the students disability.An IEP that has a BIP attached often labels a student when he or she is moved to another teacher, either to a new classroom or to a new schedule in middle school or high school.A BIP must be followed across all educational environments and can create new challenges not only to the teacher of record but also for specials, general education classroom teachers. It will not make you popular. It is best to attempt behavioral interventions such as learning contracts  before you move to a full FBA, BIP and behavioral goals.​ What Makes a Good Behavioral Goal? In order for a behavioral goal to legally be an appropriate part of an IEP, it should: Be stated in a positive manner. Describe the behavior you want to see, not the behavior you dont want. i.e.: Dont write: John wont hit or terrorize his classmates. Do Write: John will keep hands and feet to himself. Be measurable. Avoid subjective phrases like will be responsible, will make appropriate choices during lunch and recess, will act in a cooperative manner. (These last two were in my predecessors article on behavioral goals. PLEEZZ!) You should describe the topography of the behavior (what does it look like?) Examples: Tom will remain in his seat during instruction 80 percent of observed 5 minute intervals. or James will stand in line during class transitions with hands at his side, 6 out of 8 daily transitions. Should define the environments where the behavior is to be seen: In the classroom, Across all school environments, In specials, such as art and gym. A behavior goal should be easy for any teacher to understand and support, by knowing exactly what the behavior should look like as well as the behavior it replaces. Proviso We do not expect everyone to be quiet all the time. Many teachers who have a rule No talking in class usually do not enforce it. What they actually mean is No talking during instruction or directions. We are often not clear about when that is happening. Cueing systems, are invaluable to help students know when they can talk quietly and when they must remain in their seats and be silent. Examples of Common Behavior Challenges and Goals to Meet Them. Aggression: When John is angry he will throw a table, scream at the teacher, or hit other students. A Behavior Improvement Plan would include teaching John to identify when he needs to go to the cool down spot, self- calming strategies and social rewards for using his words when he is frustrated instead of expressing it physically. In his general education classroom, John will use a time out ticket to remove himself to the in class cool down spot, reducing aggression (throwing furniture, shouting profanities, hitting peers) to two episodes a week as recorded by his teacher in a frequency chart. Out of Seat Behavior: Shauna has difficulty spending much time in her seat. During instruction she will crawl around her classmates legs, get up and go to the classroom sink for a drink, she will rock her chair until she falls over, and she will throw her pencil or scissors so she needs to leave her seat. Her behavior is not a reflection only of her ADHD but also functions to get her the teacher and her peers attention. Her behavior plan will include social rewards such as being line leader for earning stars during instruction. The environment will be structured with visual cues which will make it clear when an instruction is happening, and breaks will be built into the schedule so Shauna can sit on the pilates ball or take a message to the office. During instruction, Shauna will remain in her seat for 80 percent of five minute intervals during 3 of 4 consecutive 90 minute data collection periods.

Violent Behavior in the Media and its impact on Violence in the Research Proposal

Violent Behavior in the Media and its impact on Violence in the Physical World - Research Proposal Example Society as a whole is consistently being fed with violent images, ideas and themes from the media that surrounds us. This is particularly important in the present age where mass media is a common method is a common method of advertising and entertainment. Mass media comes in many forms and the term is used to any form of media communication that reaches a large group of people at the same time. Different forms of mass media include newspapers, the Internet, billboards, movies, television and magazines. One form of mass media that is of particular interest is television. From once being a novelty, and a luxury item that only a few could afford, televisions are now commonplace in households, with many who consider themselves ‘light’ viewers watching several hours each day. Many who watch television pride themselves on the ability to distinguish fact from fiction, what is real from what is illusion, yet these distinctions are solely on the part of the viewer, and change as the viewers own perception changes. The high prevalence of television in the lives of a large amount of people, as well as the high number of hours that are viewed by even light viewers leads to concern that there is high potential for what is observed to affect both thought processes and behavior. In addition to this the large amount of information that can be portrayed through the television, both from sounds and visual information is substantial. A factor that has been of interest within the literature for many years is whether the violence and aggression that is prevalent in mass media in general and particularly on television has any influence on the levels of violence and aggression that are observed in the real world. Violence in media can generally be defined as visual or audio portrayals of physical aggression by one character, generally human-like, towards another. In contrast, aggression in the media can be defined as an act intended to either injure or irritate another person . Debate has been wide ranging concerning whether the violence on television plays any role, with opinions and studies indicating different results. This debate is becoming of increasing importance as the prevalence of violence on television continues to rise . Murders and shootings are common in many different genres of television program and movies. Martial arts, expositions and fist fights are all common fare to emphasize a point, or to fill in the gaps between pieces of story . This study looks at the background and need for studies on violence on television, the arguments for the ability of mass media to cause violence,

Human Sleep-Wake Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Sleep-Wake Cycle - Essay Example In the decrement of circadian processes, sleep homeostasis takes charge, allowing for sleep opportunities to dominate (Martinez-Rodriguez & Santamaria, 2005). As part of biological rhythm, patterns in sleep-wake cycle may vary, depending on developmental age, but some of its mechanisms remain the same. Anatomical Description Neurological in origin, sleep-wake cycle is governed by brain structures, which in turn regulates neurochemical mechanisms. On structural construct, hypothalamus in midbrain is home to suprachiasmatic nucleus, which primarily controls circadian patterns of being awake and asleep (Conn, 2006). Progressively, arousal states in consciously-aware individuals are governed by several neurological parts: â€Å"brainstem...thalamus, and basal forebrain.† These anatomic landmarks are sources for several neurotransmitters, which chemically influence the sleep-wake cycle--promoting active or passive stimulation. Specifically, wakefulness is generated by chemical reac tions with â€Å"hyprocretin and locus coeruleus in hypothalamus and dopamine in thalamus,† while sleepiness is induced by â€Å"serotonin in brainstem and prostaglandin in forebrain† (Stiller, & Postolache, 2005, p. 2008). Each is either inhibited or exploited in order to maintain balance between wakefulness and sleepiness. If a part malfunctions, other neurochemicals compensate, before disruptions in sleep-wake cycle manifest. ... In stage 1, there is initial drowsiness and progression towards light sleep. On the next stage, light sleep deepens into true sleep--consistently repeated at midnight. In the last two stages, 3 and 4, biologic functions are slower, and slow-wave category of sleep takes place. This frequently occurs early in sleeping episodes and account for less than a quarter of overall sleeping time. As NREM has been through, more active brain activity signals entry into REM. Brain stimulation is intensive compared to previous levels in NREM, with distinctive â€Å"rapid eye movement...muscle paralysis, and dreaming† (Davis & Parker, 2004). As NREM occupies earlier periods of sleeping time, REM is exhibited during early mornings. In cyclical manner, sleep levels must pass from phases in NREM to REM, and constantly repeated as the chain is through--to achieve restful sleep. Sleep-wake Changes in Age Development Between the lengths of staying awake and falling asleep, there is a supposed diffe rence in this aspect for young and older groups. Length of continuous sleep is shortest in newborns, with less than 4 hours, and increases by 2 hours as they get older--totaling to 14-16 hours per day. In adolescence stage, 10 to 12 hours of sleep is common (Davis & Parker, 2004). Nonetheless, shortened sleep in young children lengthens with age augmentation, and declines as old age approaches. Significantly, circadian wake indicator is an hour or two earlier in older ones; hence, the range between staying awake and falling asleep is no longer proportional to that of younger samples (Billiard & Kent, 2003). The source for such alteration is traced back to circadian rhythm, where diminished natural processes change the older generations’ ability to stay asleep. As circadian

A computer virus Essay Example for Free

A computer virus Essay A computer virus is much the same as a human virus, but whereas flu affects the human body, the wonderfully named viruses Antics, stoned, Notepad A, michealangelo all affect the computer in various ways human can carry a virus without even knowing they have it (measles has an incubation period of a couple of weeks), a piece of computer equipment such as a floppy dice may similarly be carrying a virus without knowing. Unfortunately, the virus carrier may maliciously pass the virus on, knowing that there is an infection. A virus is a computer program that is intended to copy itself to other programs and causes disruption to the infected equipment. There are different types of virus. The Trojan horse is a virus which hides inside another program, a time bomb is one which is activated on a certain date, a logic bamboo is one activated by a certain condition Su as file being accessed 10 times, there are literally thousands of viruses around, some have been written maliciously. Others were designed to be nice, such as displaying the message Happy Christmas, but then destroyed information as a side effect. Doctors in the computer world are other programs, known as anti-virus software, or virus killing software. Anti-virus software can search disks oft viruses, then disinfect the disk if a virus us found. Gatekeepers exist which will scan any newly accessed information such as loading a file from floppy, or downloading e-mails from your internet Service Provider. Software is regularly updated to take account of the new viruses which appear daily. Most people update monthly. Anti-virus software is of fundamental importance in the modern ICT world. The only time you are safe is if you have a stand-alien computer not connected to any network, in which you use no disks, and only use legal software. (Even then I m afraid you are not entirely safe, as viruses have sometimes affected legal software, such as the Notepad A virus which is a macro virus which comes with MS Word 6. 0) Viruses infect computers, we will never get rid of them, and must be aware of their existence, and use our computer equipment sensibly, including wrapping up warm when winter comes!

Finding Hope in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay examples -- Their E

Finding Hope in Their Eyes Were Watching God   Ã‚  Ã‚   Their Eyes Were Watching God recognizes that there are problems to the human condition, such as the need to possess, the fear of the unknown and resulting stagnation. But Hurston does not leave us with the hopelessness of Fitzgerald or Hemingway, rather, she extends a recognition and understanding of humanity's need to escape emptiness. "Dem meatskins is got tuh rattle tuh make out they's alive (183)" Her solution is simple: "Yuh got tuh go there tuh know there." Janie, like characters in earlier novels, sets out on a quest to make sense of her inner questionings--a void she knew she possessed from the moment she sat under the pear tree. "She found an answer seeking her, but where?...where were the shining bees for her (11)?" Though tragedy invades her life, it does not cripple her, but strengthens her. Alone at novel's end, having loved and lost, Janie sits in her home, banished of the "feeling of absence and nothingness (183)." Her road to discover led to herself, and she gains a better understanding of the world she lives in and how small a thing happiness is comprised of: "If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all. (151)" Instead of Hurston portraying racial unwholeness, she portrays the African American as being racially healthy. She was discarded by the black writing movement of the 30's and 40's for picturing the African-American as whole instead of downtrodden, oppressed people. Hurston was no militant, out to prove no theory. Capturing the essence of Black womanhood was more important to her than social criticism.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Comparison of Hurston's life and work is ironic. Though Janie, having... ...ttp: 11 www. à ± hsc. usc.edu/ ~ gallaher/ hurston/ hurston. html>. Johnson, Barbara. "Metaphor, Metonymy and Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " ‘Tuh de Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God.† Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Pondrom, Cyrena N. "The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." American Literature 58.2 (May 1986): 181-202.    Wright, Richard. "Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston - Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993 Finding Hope in Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay examples -- Their E Finding Hope in Their Eyes Were Watching God   Ã‚  Ã‚   Their Eyes Were Watching God recognizes that there are problems to the human condition, such as the need to possess, the fear of the unknown and resulting stagnation. But Hurston does not leave us with the hopelessness of Fitzgerald or Hemingway, rather, she extends a recognition and understanding of humanity's need to escape emptiness. "Dem meatskins is got tuh rattle tuh make out they's alive (183)" Her solution is simple: "Yuh got tuh go there tuh know there." Janie, like characters in earlier novels, sets out on a quest to make sense of her inner questionings--a void she knew she possessed from the moment she sat under the pear tree. "She found an answer seeking her, but where?...where were the shining bees for her (11)?" Though tragedy invades her life, it does not cripple her, but strengthens her. Alone at novel's end, having loved and lost, Janie sits in her home, banished of the "feeling of absence and nothingness (183)." Her road to discover led to herself, and she gains a better understanding of the world she lives in and how small a thing happiness is comprised of: "If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all. (151)" Instead of Hurston portraying racial unwholeness, she portrays the African American as being racially healthy. She was discarded by the black writing movement of the 30's and 40's for picturing the African-American as whole instead of downtrodden, oppressed people. Hurston was no militant, out to prove no theory. Capturing the essence of Black womanhood was more important to her than social criticism.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Comparison of Hurston's life and work is ironic. Though Janie, having... ...ttp: 11 www. à ± hsc. usc.edu/ ~ gallaher/ hurston/ hurston. html>. Johnson, Barbara. "Metaphor, Metonymy and Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. " ‘Tuh de Horizon and Back': The Female Quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God.† Modern Critical Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Pondrom, Cyrena N. "The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." American Literature 58.2 (May 1986): 181-202.    Wright, Richard. "Review of Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston - Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Eds. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993

Future of Policing Proposal Essay

Policing is not just keeping the peace in today’s society. Police officers have several responsibilities and also new technology to learn. New technology helps law enforcement preform a better job in communication, crime solving, decreasing crime and making communities a better place to live for citizens and their families. Biometrics and GPS tracking are two useful technologies’ that have made the police able to catch criminals, and solve crimes quicker and more sufficient. Biometrics modalities used by law enforcement is fingerprints, DNA (Blood), and patterns of the voice and faces of victims. Then GPS Tracking helps law enforcement keep track of other police officers, or GPS can be used to tract a suspect if he or she is running away from the law. There are many vehicles that come standard with the GPS system that makes it easier for law enforcement to track a car if it has been stolen the owner. The future of the GPS tracking system may be identifying as leaving things like, the satellites, cameras, computers that will have been powerful, all in all just leaving all the â€Å"complicated† technology in the past. In today’s time you need three working satellites in order to get a good enough signal for your GPS, and even then you it might take a minute or two to get an accurate destined location. There are places all around the world where you cannot get any satellite signal, and even in big cities, it can become very difficult to get signal. â€Å"The world-first approach to visual navigation algorithms, which has been dubbed SeqSLAM (Sequence Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), uses local best match and sequence recognition components to lock in locations. SeqSLAM uses the assumption that you are already in a specific location and tests that assumption over and over  again. For example if I am in a kitchen in an office block, the algorithm makes the assumption I’m in the office block, looks around and identifies signs that match a kitchen. Then if I stepped out into the corridor it would test to see if the corridor matches the corridor in the existing data of the office block lay out. Said by Dr. Michael Milford from Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Biometrics is all the quantifiable biological or behavioral characteristics used for the identification and classification of individuals. Fingerprints are the most common biometric modality used by law enforcement, but there are others. These modalities include deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), voice and facial patterns. Biometrics also consists of all the various technologies used to categorize and recognize human characteristics. Biometric fingerprint scanning works because fingerprints are unique to each individual. People are born with a pattern of ridges and valleys on their fingers. These patterns are created thru a number of genetic and environmental factors. As a unique marker, a skilled analyst or a fingerprint scanner can recognize the patterns and use it to identify the person the fingerprint belongs to. Biometric fingerprint authentication is used to securing access to information and technology. The fingerprint of an authorized user is scanned and kept on record. The user swipes its finger along the scanner and only those with the proper clearance is allowed to enter or have access to the information. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a biometric system known as Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The system is a national fingerprint and criminal history catalog. The system is available to law enforcement officers from the local, state, and federal levels. It allows an agency to makes inquiries 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. IAFIS aids policing organizations in solving and preventing crimes and catching criminals before they break the law again. The system gives law enforcement access to its automatic fingerprint database, its considerable search capacity, electronic picture storage, and allows for the electronic exchange of fingerprints. The system contains the information on over 70  million criminal subjects in its master file along with the fingerprints of 73,000 known and suspected terrorists investigated by the United States and international law enforcement agencies. All biometric systems do have a potential weakness associated with it. Unlike passwords and pin codes which can be changed easily, fingerprints cannot be altered. Should the stored digital copy be stolen and used for fraudulent transactions, the user would have little recourse to fix the situation as they cannot change their prints. They would be unable to use any biometric fingerprint scanner in the future as there will always be doubts and concerns about the authenticity of their prints. Gun use and safety is an important issue around the world and especially in the United States. Mytec Technologies are working with American firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson on a â€Å"smart gun.† The partnership is intended to create a gun that will prevent anyone other than authorized users from shooting the weapon. The focus of the joint venture is to build a programmable handgun which will prevent any accidental shootings. The system will use finger tip sensor on the handle of the gun that will â€Å"read† the fingerprint. It will then convert the fingerprint into a digital medium and compare the newly scanned fingerprint against the authorized directory stored inside the scanner. The weapon will unlock and can be fired if and only if a match is found. An issue yet to be remedied is the control of the user’s biometric data. A database of authorized users will need to be created and kept secured. Will a government agency have to be created to control of this data or will it be under the purview of the users? The second issue which has arisen is how many authorized fingerprints will be allowed per weapon? Should there be a limit or will it be at the owner’s discretion as to how many fingerprints are authorized? These issues must be solved before the technology is allowed to be sold to the public. Being efficient and effective is a must when it comes to policing this includes using any and all forms of modern technology. Relying on technology is a must especially when it comes to the need and the importance of vital information. Since this information can  have an extreme amount of influence on any given the circumstance, it is important that the information being provided is accurate. Biometrics and GPS Tracking are important forms of modern technology that help provide such information such as facial recognition and location of suspects at a very accurate rate. Without the use of modern technology to aid the police with the work they do, providing efficient and effective police work can prove difficult. References Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2014, May 08). Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/iafis Fox News. (2001, January 25). Smart Gun, Smart Solution? Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/2001/01/25/smart-gun-smart-solution/ Global Security.org. (2011, July 13). Homeland Security Biometrics. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/stsyems/biometrics.htm

Mexico: the Yucatan Peninsula

Mexico: The Yucatan Peninsula The Yucatan Peninsula is located in southeastern Mexico, which separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, on the northern coastline on the Yucatan Channel. The Yucatan Peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic divider separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America. The Yucatan Peninsula comprises of the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; the northern part Belize; and Guatemala's northern subdivision of El Peten. Geology The peninsula is the exposed part of the large Yucatan Platform. The Yucatan Peninsula is an unconfined flat lying erosion landscape. Sinkholes, locally called cenotes are widespread in the northern lowlands. According to the Alvarez hypothesis, the mass extinction of the dinosaurs at the transition from the Cretaceous (K) to the Tertiary (T) Periods (the K-T Boundary) 65 million years ago was caused by an asteroid impact somewhere in the Caribbean Basin. The deeply buried Chicxulub Crater is centered off the north coast of the peninsula near the town of Chicxulub. The now-famous â€Å"Ring of Cenotes† outlines one of the shock-waves from this impact event in the rock of ~65 millions years of age, The presence of the crater has been determined first on the surface from the Ring of Cenotes, but also by geophysical methods, and direct drilling with recovery of the drill cores. Water resources Due to the extreme erosion nature of the whole peninsula, the northern half barely consists of any rivers. Where lakes and swamps are present, the water is marshy and is not suitable for drinking water. The thousands of sinkholes, locally called Cenotes throughout the region provide access to the groundwater system, and the cenotes have long been relied on by ancient and contemporary Mayan people. Vegetation The short and tall tropical jungles are the predominant natural vegetation types of the Yucatan Peninsula. The boundaries between northern Guatemala (El Peten), Mexico (Campeche and Quintana Roo), and western Belize are still occupied by the largest continuous tracts of tropical rainforest in Central America. However, these forests are suffering extensive deforestation. Etymology There is a popular myth that the name Yucatan comes from the Yucatec Maya phrase for â€Å"listen how they speak,† or â€Å"I don't understand your words† — supposedly said by contact period Maya, when the first Spanish explorers asked, what the area was called. The proper derivation of the word Yucatan is widely debated. However, it is also claimed that the actual source of the name â€Å"Yucatan† is the Nahuatl (Aztec) word Yokatlan, â€Å"place of richness. † People The Yucatan Peninsula comprises a significant proportion of the ancient Maya Lowlands. There are many Mayan archaeological sites throughout the peninsula; some of the better-known sites are in Chichen Itza, Tulum and Uxmal. Indigenous Mayans and Mestizos of partial Mayan descent still make up a sizable portion of the region's population, and Mayan languages are still widely spoken there. Economy In the late historic and early modern eras, the Yucatan Peninsula was largely a cattle ranching, logging, chicle and henequen production area. Since the 1970’s, the Yucatan Peninsula has fixed its economy towards tourism, especially in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Once a small fishing village, Cancun in the northeast of the peninsula has grown into a thriving city. The Riviera Maya, which stretches along the east coast of the peninsula between Cancun and Tulum, houses over 50,000 beds and is visited by millions of tourists every year. The best-known locations are the former fishing town of Playa del Carmen, the ecological parks Xcaret and Xel-Ha and the Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba. Climate Like much of the Caribbean, the Yucatan Peninsula lies within the Atlantic Hurricane Belt, and with its almost uniformly flat terrain, it is vulnerable to these large storms coming from the east. The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was a particularly bad season for Mexico's tourism industry, with two forceful category 5 storms hitting, Hurricane Emily and Hurricane Wilma. The 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season was a typical year which left the Yucatan untouched, but in the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season Yucatan was hit by the Hurricane Dean (which is also a category 5 storm); nevertheless Hurricane Dean left little damage on the peninsula despite heavy localized flooding. Strong storms called nortes can quickly descend on the Yucatan Peninsula any time of year. Although these storms pummel the area with heavy rains and high winds, they tend to be short-lived, clearing after about an hour. The average percentage of days with rain per month ranges from a monthly low of 7% in April to a high of 25% in October. Breezes can have a cooling effect; humidity is generally high, particularly in the remaining rainforest areas. Bibliography â€Å"Beautiful Underground Lakes & Rivers. † Wonderfulinfo. com. 5 January 2010. http://www. wonderfulinfo. com/photos/underground/ â€Å"Climate and Weather of Mexico. † yahoo. answers. com. 26 Sept 2009. http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20090419162859AAZ2D7m&. crumb=eYF8u9vJN5s â€Å"Mapas de Mexico. † Mexicoadventourist. com. 5 January 2010. http://www. mexicoadventourist. com/Mapas/YucatanMap. jpg â€Å"Mexico’s Government. † Viva Mexico. 2 October 2009. http://staff. esuhsd. org/balochie/studentprojects/mexico/MexGovernment. html Parfit, Michael, â€Å"Yucatan Peninsula,† National Geographic. Aug 1996. 108-113. â€Å"Sunset over the Yucatan. † flickr. com/photos/afagen/. 5 January 2010. http://www. flickr. com/photos/afagen/2262221520/ The World And Its People. â€Å"Mexico – The Land Yucatan†. New York. Greystone Press. 1964. 34-35. â€Å"The World Factbook – Mexico. † CIA the World Factbook, 10 Sept 2009. ttp://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_mx. html â€Å"Yucatani iguanaleso naplo. † atjeffs. blog. hu/2008. 5 January 2010. http://m. blog. hu/at/atjeffs/image/Yucatan_peninsula_250m. jpg â€Å"Yucatan Sunset. † flickr. com/photos/bjkresearch/. 5 January 2010. http://www. flickr. com/photos/bjkresearch/183792616/ â€Å"Yucatan Peninsula Sunset. † flickr. com/photos/kevmac66/. 5 January 2010. http://www. flickr. com/photos/kevmac66/3495944443/ â€Å"Yucatan Peninsula Resort. † Alwaysonvacation. com. 5 January 2010. http://www. a lwaysonvacation. com/LSS/images/29225/YucatanPeninsula3BedroomsSle

Australian Welfare System Essays - Social Inequality, Social Work

Australian Welfare System Essays - Social Inequality, Social Work Australian Welfare System PART 1 -INTRODUCTION Review Process On 29 September 1999, the Minister for Family and Community Services announced the Government's intention to review the Australian welfare system. The Minister appointed this Reference Group to consult with the community and provide advice to the Government on welfare reform. The Group's terms of reference and membership are at Attachment A to this report. In March this year the Reference Group released an Interim Report that outlined a new framework for a fundamental re-orientation of Australia's social support system and sought feedback from the Australian community. After the Interim Report was released, the Reference Group received over 300 written responses as well as verbal feedback from income support recipients, business and community representatives. This Final Report presents our medium to long term recommendations. In addition, we set out some initial steps, which could be taken in the development of a new Participation Support System. The Reference Group believes the full implementation of the new system may take a decade. Nevertheless, much can be done in the short term to improve the current system to encourage and facilitate participation. The Need for Fundamental Reform Trends Australia is in the midst of a profound economic and social transformation. The consequences of this transformation require us to re-think and re-configure our approach to social support. Disappointingly, the current social support system may be failing many of those it was designed to help. Australia is in its eighth year of strong economic growth, yet joblessness, underemployment and reliance on income support remain unacceptably high. Disadvantage is also concentrated increasingly in particular segments of the population and in particular localities. These are not problems being faced by Australia alone; they are being experienced in many comparable countries. Over recent decades a variety of economic and demographic factors have combined to create the new and disturbing phenomena of jobless families and job poor communities. These unequal outcomes have generated the unacceptable prospect that significant concentrations of economic and social disadvantage might become entrenched. In its analysis, the Reference Group focused on four trends (discussed more fully at Attachment B) that underpin the need for a bold change to our social support system: A growing divide between 'job rich' and 'job poor' households. There is strong employment growth in some areas, but high rates of joblessness persist in many regions and localities. In addition, too many children live in families with no parent in paid work. Labour market trends have brought changes in the balance between permanent full-time jobs and part-time and casual work, between male and female employment, between jobs in manufacturing and primary industry and jobs in service industries. Many of the new part-time jobs have been taken in households where there is someone already in employment, which contributes to the widening gap in the distribution of jobs. More people receive income support. Over the past thirty years, there has been a steady upward trend in the proportion of the workforce-age population receiving income support and other publicly provided assistance. Of special concern is the proportion of the population that depends on income support for the majority of their income. Job opportunities for less skilled workers have stagnated or declined, while technological change and the globalisation of industry and trade has increased the demand for highly skilled workers. This has been associated with a widening distribution of earnings. Entrenched economic and social disadvantage Without appropriate action now, Australia may be consigning large numbers of people to an intergenerational cycle of significant joblessness. Australia already has one of the highest levels of joblessness among families with children in OECD countries (OECD 1998). In June 1999, about 860,000 children lived in a jobless household. The available evidence suggests that children in families experiencing long term joblessness are more likely to rely heavily on income support as they grow up (Pech & McCoull, 1999). Long term economic and social disadvantage has negative consequences for individuals, their families and the broader community. Lack of paid employment during the prime working years, and consequent reliance on income support, reduce current and lifetime incomes. Participation in paid employment is a major source of self-esteem. Without it, people can fail to develop, or become disengaged from, employment, family and community networks. This can lead to physical and psychological ill health and

Here is How to Make Edible Glitter

Here is How to Make Edible Glitter Make your own edible glitter. Its easy and inexpensive and much safer for kids or to put on your face. Edible Glitter Ingredients 1/4 cup sugar1/2 teaspoon liquid food coloring You can use granulated white sugar or any of the crystalline sugars. Avoid brown sugar (too moist) and powdered sugar (not sparkly). Use liquid food coloring because paste coloring is more difficult to mix and may discolor when baked. Mix together the sugar and food coloring.Bake the colored sugar in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes.Store the sugar glitter in a sealed container, to protect it from moisture. Non-Toxic Glitter Recipe 1/4 cup salt1/2 teaspoon liquid food coloring Mix together the salt and food coloring.Bake the colored salt on a baking sheet at 350 F for 10 minutes.Allow the glitter to cool. Store the glitter in a sealed bag or container. You can mix either type of glitter with corn syrup or non-toxic glue for craft projects or stick it to your skin. It also sticks fairly well onto petroleum jelly for use on your lips. Because petroleum jelly is oil-based, it wont dissolve the sugar.

Descartes Mind Body Dualism in 6th Meditation Essay

Descartes Mind Body Dualism in 6th Meditation - Essay Example Although his theory was subjected to a lot of challenges and controversies, yet philosophers mutually hold the consensus that there is a certain level of truth in the theory proposed by Descartes because we would never have felt the existence of our bodies had we never had any minds. Thus, existence of mind was fundamental to the human realization of body. This somewhat promotes the view that mind works independent of the body. The thesis proposed by Descartes is frequently referred to as the substance dualism. The thesis derives its name from its underlying ideology that emphasizes that this world is fundamentally made up of two types of substances, one materialistic and the other mental, with the former being mortal and the latter being immortal. The dual substance theory also reflects in the fact that human mind is free of the principles of nature, while all physical things abide by the principles of nature. Human thinking is quite vast. This paper evaluates the mind-body theory p roposed by Descartes. Human mind does work independent of the body but with certain restrictions. Yes, the mind can exist independent of the body, though it depends which part of the body is lost. This can be estimated from the fact that some people lose parts of their body like limbs, feet, hands in some accident and some are born with these disabilities, yet it does not decrease their mental ability in any way. In fact, in a vast majority of cases in which people suffer from a certain kind of disability, they are able to optimize on their other kinds of skills. For example, an individual that is born deaf is sharper in learning the language of signs than an individual who can hear and speak. Likewise, people that lose their foot and have to walk with the help of crutches increase their muscular strength because of the constant exercise. Hence, losing some part or parts of the body does not deprive an individual of the natural energy. In fact, the mind has the same amount of energy to exert of the remaining body parts due to which, the individual’s performance in other areas improves. An individual’s mind would keep functioning if he/she receives a bullet in his/her hand, feet or leg. But if someone is shot in the heart, the mind would stop functioning soon thereafter because it will lose its source of blood supply. Heart purifies and pumps the blood to all parts of the body. If heart is lost, life is lost. If heart is intact, there is good chance that the individual would survive. In addition to the heart, another area that is very critical and is fundamental to the sustainability of life is the mind itself. Although human mind is a part of the body like all other parts including hands, feet and chest, yet its function is just as important as that of the human heart. Human mind sends messages to all parts of the body through electrical impulses. Therefore, if the mind is destroyed, every system inside the body would stop functioning and the ind ividual would lose life. Hence, mind can exist independently of the body to some extent, but the body can not exist without mind. Another example that proves the statement that mind can exist without body but to a certain extent is the fact that man can survive both in the space and under water, provided that he is equipped with sufficient supply of air. In the space, body loses all its weight and the man begins to float. Losing body