Reflection of Educational Philosophy

More than ever, teachers have myriad of decisions to make in their classrooms. Naturally, they have to determine curricula, how to rate the students on their work and the specific grades to give to each pupil. However, a teacher's responsibility goes far beyond this. They must decide what other skills would be helpful, or even essential, to live in this fast-paced global environment. Beyond the academics, students need education in intercommunication, diversity and multiculturalism, time management, critical thinking, creativity and expression, and multi-tasking. Many students also need self-esteem building, stress reduction methods, psychological support and just a caring, nonjudgmental hand of support. According to the class readings, educational philosophy reflects the personal values/principles that guide teachers in making choices in their classroom. To determine these choices, they should take into consideration the nature of reality (metaphysics); the study of knowledge that has been disclosed to man by God (revealed); knowledge that is confirmed trough the senses (empirical); knowledge that is accepted as true because it comes form noted experts in their respective fields (authoritative); knowledge that comes from within (intuitive); the study of objective or subjective values; permanent and unchanging values (absoluteness of values) as well the hierarchy of values. My hope is that I will have a broad educational philosophy based on my personal and religious values that guides me in the long run, but, at the same time, the ability to see each child as an individual who has his/her unique needs. Each student exists in a different reality of circumstances, is surrounded by and reacts to different sensual stimulation, learns accepted knowledge at a varied pace and aptitude, and has a special mindset and internal belief system. A teacher should not compare students based on their talents or abilities-each child is special in his/her own way. The pupil's strengths should be encouraged and their challenges improved. I believe that the students of today must learn their academics. That goes without saying. However, above all else it is essential to instill within them respect for others and themselves, the ability to manage change, and the patience to accept temporary setbacks. As they get older, their life decisions will become increasingly difficult. With a strong foundation of self-worth and the ability to respect the differences and needs of others, it is hoped that they can make the decisions that are best for them and their world at large.

Computer Virus Expository

Computer Virus â€Å"A true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance. † Computer virus has now become widespread. It’s almost everywhere in every computer. It is one of the major problems of the computer users. Viruses are like the disease of the computer. Letting the virus in it can cause harm or even destroy all files stored in the computer. Virus infection costs millions even billions of money if virus penetrates into major servers like government database system, bank and airport systems.Computer virus can destroy, control or even steal information without the knowledge of the user. There are three kinds of computer virus. First kind is the Trojan horse; it pretends to be a legitimate program. It attaches itself to a program then executes itself. Named after the Greek army’s tactic of hiding their soldiers in a giant wooden horse. This virus does not multiply but rather make the computer’s protection weaker and more susceptible to other threats. Second kind is the worm, is has a self replicating ability that spreads itself through computer network.It search for loopholes in the network copies itself and reaches another computer in the network. This kind of virus invades the kernel of the computer that makes it halt and become slow. It replicates in drastic number that make duplicates of files that cause confusion in the computer user. The third kind is the malware; it is a malicious program that steals information from the computer and the user. Steal personal information like bank accounts, credit card numbers and other information that can be used against you. This information is being used by hackers to generate money and make fraud.The program also downloads other files and viruses into the computer. There are also other kind, unusual kind of viruses that is less encountered by common computer users. These viruses may be found in corporations and companies for conspiracy. This is the rabbit/wabbit and the logic bombs. The rabbit also known as wabbit is a kind of virus that copies itself and sends twice through the ASP output stream. It copies itself in drastic number that makes the system clog, become slower and make the files more difficult to remove/delete.Cleaning of the infected system was became a long and complicated process. The other kind is the logic bomb, virus that acts like a time bomb. It is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a program or software system that will set-off malicious functions when certain conditions are met. The code is hidden in program and software written by hackers. Certain logic bombs sometimes execute at certain payloads or at pre-defined time like Friday of the 13th and April fool’s day (April 1st).Trojans that activates on certain dates are also called time-bombs. There are tips and trick that can be done to prevent the infection of the computer by viruses. First is to set-up your computer. Consider running a firewall on the co mputer. Also install an antivirus program. Regularly update the operating system and antivirus software, and delete all unnecessary files and programs. Second is on downloading files and email attachments. Be careful of opening files from untrusted sources. Always scan the file before opening.Also be aware that email attachments are also a source of computer viruses and last, be knowledgeable about viruses and the behavior of the computer. Computer virus is one of the major problems of the computer users. It can destroy, control or even steal information. Virus infection can be prevented by being aware of the viruses, about its behavior and the things that it can do. Always remember that a virus cannot spread by itself without human assistance. So be aware and be knowledgeable in all things that you don in computer. Think before you click.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER SEVEN

She woke at once when the man of the household pushed the curtains back from her sleeping-place and set a candle on the low bronze-top table beside her pillows. She stood up, stretched, creaked, sighed; and then changed quickly into her riding clothes and gulped the malak set beside the candle. Narknon protested all this activity with a sleepy grumble; then rewove herself into the tousled blankets and went back to sleep. Harry went outside and found Mathin's dark bay and her own Sungold there already. Tsornin turned his head and sighed at her. â€Å"I couldn't agree more,† she whispered to him, and he took the shoulder of her robe gently in his teeth. Mathin appeared out of the darkness and a pack horse followed him. He nodded at her, and they mounted and rode toward the Hills that reared up so close to the camp, although she could not see them now. As the sky paled she found that they had already climbed into the lower undulations of those Hills, and the camp they had left was lost to view. The horses' hooves made a sterner thunk now as they struck the earth of the Hills. She breathed in and smelled trees, and her heart rose up, despite her fears, to greet the adventure she rode into. They rode all that day, pausing only to eat and pull the saddles off the horses for a few minutes and rub their backs dry. Harry had to find a rock to crawl up on before she could get back on her horse, far from the conveniences of brown-clad men who knelt and offered her their cupped hands, and Sungold obviously thought this ritual of his rider calling him over to her as she perched atop some rock pile before she mounted him very curious. Mathin said, â€Å"This is the first thing I will teach you. Watch.† He put a hand at each edge of the saddle, and flung himself up and into it, moving his right hand, on the back of the saddle, gracefully out of his way as soon as he had made the initial spring. â€Å"I can't do that,† said Harry. â€Å"You will,† said Mathin. â€Å"Try.† Harry tried. She tried several times, till Sungold's ears lay flat back and his tail clamped between his hind legs; then Mathin let her find a small rock that raised her only a few inches, and made her try again. Sungold was reluctant to be called to her and put through the whole uncomfortable process again; but he did come, and braced his feet, and Harry did get into the saddle. â€Å"Soon you will be able to do this from the ground,† said Mathin. And this is only the beginning, Harry thought miserably. Her wrists and shoulders ached. Sungold held no grudges, at least; as soon as she was on him again his ears came up and he took a few little dance steps. They rode always uphill, till Harry's legs were sore from holding herself forward in the saddle against the downward pull. Mathin did not speak, except to force her to practice the saddle-vaults at each halt; and she was content with silence. The country they were crossing was full of new things for her, and she looked at them all closely: the red-veined grey rock that thrust up beneath the patches of turf; the colors of the grass, from a pale yellow-green to a dark green that was almost purple, and the shape of the blades: the near-purple grass, if grass it was, had broad roots and narrow rounded tips; but the pack horse snatched at it like grass. The riding-horses were much too well mannered to do anything but eye it, even after so many days of the dry desert fare. Little pink-and-white flowers, like Lady Amelia's pimchie but with more petals, burst out of rocky crevasses; and little stripy brown birds like sparrows chirped and hopped and whisked over the horses' heads. Mathin turned in his saddle occasionally to look at her, and his old heart warmed at the sight of her, looking around her with open pleasure in her new world. He thought that Corlath's kelar had not told him so ill a thing as he had first thought when Corlath told his Riders his plan to go back to the Outlander station to steal a girl. They camped at the high narrow end of a small cup of valley; Mathin, Harry thought, knew the place from before. There was a spring welling from the ground where they set the tents, two tiny ones called tari, so low that Harry went into hers on her hands and knees. At the lower, wider end of the valley the spring flattened out and became a pool. The horses were rubbed down thoroughly and fed some grain, and freed. Mathin said, â€Å"Sometimes it is necessary, away from home and in a small camp, to tether our horses, for horses are more content in a herd; but Sungold is your horse now and will not leave you, and Windrider and I have been together for many years. And Viki, the pack horse, will stay with his friends; for even a small herd is better than solitude.† Mathin made dinner after the horses were tended, but Harry lingered, brushing Sungold's mane and tail long after anything resembling a tangle still existed. For all her weariness, she was glad to care for her horse herself, glad that there was no brown man of the horse to take that pleasure away from her. Perhaps she would even learn to jump into the saddle like Mathin. After a time she left her horse in peace and, having nothing better to do, hesitantly approached Windrider with her brush. The mare raised her head in mild surprise when Harry began on the long mane over her withers, as she didn't need the attention any more than Sungold had, but she did not object. When Mathin held out a loaded plate in her direction, however, Harry dropped the brush and came at once. She ate what Mathin gave her, and was asleep as soon as she lay down. She woke in the night as an unexpected but familiar weight settled on her feet. Narknon raised her head and began her heavy purr when Harry stirred. â€Å"What are you doing here?† said Harry. â€Å"You weren't invited, and there is someone in Corlath's camp who will not be at all pleased at your absence when the hunts ride out.† Narknon, still purring, made her boneless feline way up the length of Harry's leg, and reached out her big hunter's head, opened her mouth so that the gleaming finger-length fangs showed, and bit Harry, very gently, on the chin. The purr, at this distance, made Harry's brain clatter inside her skull, and the delicate prickle of the teeth made her eyes water. Mathin sat up when he heard Harry's voice. Narknon's tail stretched out from the open end of the tent, the tip of it curling up and down tranquilly. Harry, in disbelief, heard Mathin laugh: she hadn't known Mathin could laugh. â€Å"They will guess where she has gone, Harimad-sol. Do not trouble yourself. The nights are cold and will grow colder here; you may be grateful for your bedmate before we leave this place. It is a pity that neither of us has the skill to hunt her; she could be useful. Go to sleep. You will find tomorrow a very long day.† Harry lay down, smiling in the dark, at Mathin's courtesy: â€Å"Neither of us has the skill to hunt her.† The thought of her lessons with this man – particularly now that she knew he could laugh – seemed a trifle less ominous. She fell asleep with a lighter heart; and Narknon, emboldened by the informality of the little campsite and the tiny tent, stretched to her full length beside her preferred person and slept with her head under Harry's chin. Harry woke at dawn, as though it were inevitable that she awake just then. The idea of rolling out so soon did not appeal to her in the least, rationally, but her body was on its feet and her muscles flexing themselves before she could protest. The entire six weeks she spent in that valley were much in that tone: there was something that in some fashion took her over, or seized the part of her she always had thought of as most individually hers. She did not think, she acted; and her arms and legs did things her mind only vaguely understood. It was a very queer experience for her, for she was accustomed to thinking exhaustively about everything. She was fascinated by her own agility; but at the same time it refused to seem quite hers. Lady Aerin was guiding her, perhaps; for Harry wasn't guiding herself. Mathin was also, she found out, spiking their food with something. He had a small packet, full of smaller packets, rolled in with the cooking-gear. Most of these packets were harmless herbs and spices; Harry recognized a few by taste, if not by name. The ones new to her since her first taste of Hill cooking she asked about, as Mathin rubbed them between his fingers before dropping them into the stew, and their odor rose up and filled her eyes and nostrils. She had begun asking as many questions about as many things as she could, as her wariness of Mathin as a forbidding stranger wore off and affection for him as an excellent if occasionally overbearing teacher took its place. And she learned that he was in a more mellow mood when he was cooking than at almost any other time. â€Å"Derth,† he might answer, when she asked about the tiny heap of green powder in his palm; â€Å"it grows on a low bush, and the leaves have four lobes,† or â€Å"Nimbing: it is the crushed dried berries of the plant that gives it its name.† But there was also a grey dust with a heavy indescribable smell; and when she asked about it, Mathin would look his most inscrutable and send her off to clean spotless tack or fetch unneeded water. The fourth or fifth time he did this she said flatly, â€Å"No. What is that stuff? My tack is wearing thin with cleanliness, Sungold and Windrider haven't a hair out of place, the tents are secure against anything but avalanche, and you won't use any more water. What is that stuff?† Mathin wiped his hands carefully and rolled the little packages all together again. â€Å"It is called sorgunal. It †¦ makes one more alert.† Harry considered this. â€Å"You mean it's a – † Her Hill speech deserted her, and she used the Homelander word: â€Å"drug.† â€Å"I do not know drug,† said Mathin calmly. â€Å"It is a stimulant, yes; it is dangerous, yes; but – † here the almost invisible glint of humor Harry had learned to detect in her mentor's square face lit a tiny flame behind his eyes – â€Å"I do know what I am doing. I am your teacher, and I tell you to eat and be still.† Harry accepted her plateful and was not noticeably slower than usual in beginning to work her way through it. â€Å"How long,† she said between mouthfuls, â€Å"can one use this †¦ stimulant?† â€Å"Many weeks,† said Mathin, â€Å"but after the trials you will want much sleep. You will have time for it then.† The fact that neither Harry nor Mathin could hunt Narknon did not distress Narknon at all. Every day when lessons were through, and Harry and Mathin and the horses returned to the campsite, tired and dirty and at least in Harry's case sore, Narknon would be there, stretched out before the fire pit, with the day's offering – a hare, or two or three fleeks which looked like pheasant but tasted like duck, or even a small deer. In return Narknon had Harry's porridge in the mornings. â€Å"I did not bring enough to feed three for six weeks,† Mathin said the third morning when Harry set her two-thirds-full bowl down for Narknon to finish. â€Å"I'd rather eat leftover fleek,† said Harry, and did. Harry learned to handle her sword, and then to carry the light round shield the Hillfolk used; then to be resigned, if not entirely comfortable, in the short chain-stiffened leather vest and leggings Mathin produced for her. As long as there was daylight she was put, or driven, through her steadily – alarmingly – improving paces: it was indeed, she thought, as if something had awakened in her blood; but she no longer thought of it, or told herself she did not think of it, as a disease. But she could not avoid noticing the sensation – not of lessons learned for the first time, but like old skills set aside and now, in need, picked up again. She never learned to love her sword, to cherish it as the heroes of her childhood's novels had cherished theirs; but she learned to understand it. She also learned to vault into the saddle, and Sungold no longer put his ears back when she did it. In the evenings, by firelight, Mathin taught her to sew. He showed her how to adapt the golden saddle till it fit her exactly; how to arrange the hooks and straps so that bundles would ride perfectly, her sword would come easily to her hand, and her helm would not bang against her knee when she was not wearing it. As she grew quicker and cleverer at her lessons, Mathin led her over more of the Hills around their camp in the small valley. She learned to cope, first on foot and then on horseback, with the widest variety of terrain available: flat rock, crumbling shale, and small sliding avalanches of pebbles and sand; grass and scree and even forest, where one had to worry about the indifferent blows of branches as well as the specific blows of one's opponent. She and Mathin descended to the desert again briefly, and dodged about each other there. That was at the end of the fourth week. From the trees and stones and the running stream, she recognized where the king's camp had stood, but its human visitors were long gone. And it was there on the grey sand with Tsornin leaping and swerving under her that an odd thing happened. Mathin always pressed her as hard as she could defend herself; he was so steady and methodical about it that at first she had not realized she was improving. His voice was always calm, loud enough for her to hear easily even when they were bashing at each other, but no louder; and she found herself responding calmly, as if warfare were a new parlor game. She knew he was a fine horseman and swordsman, and that no one was a Rider who was not magnificently skillful at both; and that he was training her. Most of the time, these weeks, she felt confused; when her mind was clearer, she felt honored if rueful; but now, wheeling and parrying and being allowed the occasional thrust or heavy flat blow, she found that she was growing angry. This anger rose in her slowly at first, faintly, and then with a roar; and she was, despite it or around it, as puzzled by it as by everything else that had happened to her since her involuntary departure from the Residency. It felt like anger, red anger, an d it felt dangerous, and it was far worse than anything she was used to. It seemed to have nothing to do with losing her temper, with being specifically upset about anything; she didn't understand its origin or its purpose, and even as her temples hurt with it she felt disassociated from it. But her breath came a little quicker and then her arm was a little quicker; and she felt Tsornin's delight in her speed, and she spared a moment, even with the din in her ears rising to a terrible headache, to observe wryly that Sungold was a first-class horse with a far from first-class rider. Mathin's usual set grin of concentration and, she had thought recently, pride flickered a bit at her flash of attack; and he lifted his eyes briefly to her face, and even as sword met sword he †¦ faltered. Without thinking, for this was what she was training for, she pressed forward; and Windrider stumbled, and Sungold slammed into her, shoulder to shoulder, and her blade hit Mathin's hilt to hilt, and to her own horror, she gave a heave and dumped him out of the saddle. His shield clanged on a rock and flipped front down, so it teetered foolishly like a dropped plate. The horses lurched apart and she gazed down, appalled, at Mathin sitting in a cloud of dust, looking as surprised as she felt. The grin had disappeared for a moment – quite understandably, she thought – but by the time he had gotten to his feet and she had slid down from Sungold's back and anxiously approached him, it had returned. She tried a wavering smile back at him, standing clumsily with her sword twisted behind her as if she'd rather not be reminded of its presence; and Mathin switched his dusty sword from his right hand to his left and came to her and seized her shoulder. He was half a head shorter than she was, and had to look up into her eyes. His grip was so hard that her mail pinched her shoulder, but she did not notice, for Mathin said to her: â€Å"My honor is yours, lady, to do with what you will. I have not been given a fall such as that in ten years, and that was by Corlath himself. I'm proud to have had the teaching of you – and, lady, I am not the least of the Riders.† The anger had left her completely, and she felt dry and cold and empty, but then as her eyes unwillingly met Mathin's she saw a sparkle of friendship there, not merely the objective satisfaction of a teacher with a prize pupil: and this warmed her more kindly than the anger had done. For here in the Hills, she, an Outlander woman, had a friend: and he was not the least of the Riders. Lessons continued after that, but they were faster and more furious, and the light in Mathin's face never faded, but it had changed from the sturdy concentration of a teacher to the eager enthusiasm of a man who has found a challenge. The heat and strength they expended required now that they stop to rest at midday, when the sun was at its height, even though the Hills were much cooler than the central desert had been. Tsornin would never admit to being tired, and watched Harry closely at all times, in case he might miss something. He took her lessons afoot very badly, and would lace back his ears and stamp, and circle her and Mathin till they had to yell at him to go away. But during the last ten days he was content to stand in the shade, head down and one hind leg slack, at noontime, while she stretched out beside him. One day she said, â€Å"Mathin, will you not tell me something of how the horses are trained?† They were having their noon halt, and Sungold was snuffling over her, for she often fed him interesting bits of her lunch. â€Å"My family raises horses,† said Mathin. He was lying on his back, with his hands crossed on his chest, and his eyes were shut. For several breaths he said nothing further, and Harry wanted to shout with impatience, but she had learned that such behavior would shut Mathin up for good, while if she bit her tongue and sat still, hugging her irritability quietly, he would sometimes tell her more. He told her more this time: how his father and three older brothers bred and raised and trained some of Damar's finest riding-horses. â€Å"When I was your age,† he said bleakly, â€Å"the best horses were taught the movements of war for the fineness of control necessary in both horse and rider; not for the likelihood that they should ever see battle. â€Å"My father trained Fireheart. He is very old now, and trains no more horses, but he still carries all our bloodlines in his head, and decides which stallions should be bred to which mares.† He paused, and Harry thought that was all; but he added slowly, â€Å"My daughter trained Sungold.† There was a long silence. Then Harry asked: â€Å"Why did you not stay and train horses too?† Mathin opened his eyes. â€Å"It seemed to me that a father, three brothers and their families, a wife, daughter, and two sons were enough of one family to be doing the same thing. I have trained many horses. I go home †¦ sometimes, so that my wife does not forget my face; but I have always wished to wander. As a Rider, one wanders †¦ It is also possible that I was not quite good enough. None of the rest of my family has ever wished to leave what they do, even for a day. I am the only one of us for generations who has ridden to the laprun trials to win my sword.† Harry said, â€Å"Why is it that you are my teacher? Were you – Did Corlath order you?† Mathin closed his eyes again and smiled. â€Å"No. On the day after you drank Meeldtar and saw the battle in the mountains, I spoke to Corlath, for I knew by your Seeing that you would be trained for battle. It might have been Forloy, who is the only one of us who speaks your Outlander tongue, or Innath, who is the best horseman of us; but I am older, and more patient perhaps – and I trained the young Corlath, once, when I was Rider to his father.† Forloy, thought Harry. Then it was Forloy. â€Å"Mathin – † she began, and her voice was unhappy. She was staring at the ground, plucking bits of purple grass and shredding them, and did not notice that Mathin turned to look at her when he heard the unhappiness. She had not sounded so for weeks now, and he was pleased that this should be so. â€Å"Why – why did Forloy never speak to me, before I – before you began to teach me to speak your tongue? Does he hate Outlanders so much? Why does he know the – my – language at all?† Mathin was silent as he considered what he could tell his new friend without betraying his old. â€Å"Do not judge Forloy – or yourself – too harshly. When he was your age, and before he was a Rider, Forloy fell in love with a woman he met at the spring Fair in Ihistan. She had been born and raised in the south, and gone into service to an Outlander family there; and when they were sent to Ihistan, she went with them. The second year, the next Fair, he returned, and she agreed to go to the Hills with him. She loved Forloy, I think; she tried to love his land for his sake, but she could not. She taught him Outlander speech, that she might remember her life there by saying the words. She would not leave him, for she had pledged herself to live in the Hills with him; but she died after only a few years. Forloy remembers her language for her sake, but it does not make him love it.† He paused, watching her fingers; they relaxed, and the purple stems dropped to the ear th. â€Å"I do not believe he had spoken any words of it for many years; and Corlath would not have asked it of him for any less cause.† Corlath, Harry thought. He knows the story – of the young foreign woman who did not thrive when she was transplanted to Hill soil. And she was Darian born and bred, and went willingly. â€Å"And Corlath? Why does Corlath speak Outlander?† Mathin said thoughtfully, â€Å"Corlath believes in knowing his †¦ rivals. Or enemies. He can speak the Northern tongue as well, and read and write it, and Outlander, as well as our Hill tongue. There are few enough of us who can read and write our own language. I am not one of them. I would not wish to be a king.† There were only a few days left to run till the laprun trials. Mathin, between their more active lessons, taught her more of the Hill-speech; and each word he taught her seemed to awaken five more from where they slept in the back of a mind that was now, she had decided, sharing brain space and nerve endings with her own. She accepted it; it was useful; it permitted her to live in this land that she loved, even if she loved without reason; and she began to think it would enable her in her turn to be useful to this land. And it had won her a friend. She could not take pride in it, for it was not hers; but she was grateful to it, and hoped, if it were kelar or Aerin-sol's touch, that she might be permitted to keep it till she had won her right to stay. With the language lessons Mathin told her of the Hills they were in, and where the City lay from where their little valley sat; and he told her which wood burned best green, and how to find water when there seemed to be none; and how to get the last miles out of a foundered horse. And her lessons of war had strengthened her memory, or her ability to draw upon that other memory, for she remembered what he told her. And to her surprise, he also told her the names of all the wildflowers she saw, and which herbs could be made into teas and jams; and these things he spoke of with the mild expression on his face that she had seen only when he was bending over his cooking-fire; and even these things she learned. He also told her what leaves were best for stopping blood flowing, and three ways of starting a fire in the wilderness. He looked at her sidelong as he spoke about fire-making. â€Å"There's a fourth way, Hari,† he said. â€Å"Corlath may teach it to you someday.† There was some joke here that amused him. â€Å"Myself, I cannot.† Harry looked at him, as patiently as she could. She knew that to question him when he baited her like this would do her no good. Once, a day or two after Mathin's unexpected fall, she had let a bit more of her frustration show than she meant to, and Mathin had said, â€Å"Hari, my friend, there are many things I cannot tell you. Some I will tell you in time; some, others will tell you; some you may never know, or you may be the first to find their answers.† She had looked across their small fire at him, and over Narknon's head. They were both sitting cross-legged while the horses grazed comfortably not far away, so that the sound of their jaws could be heard despite the crackling fire. Mathin was rewiring a loose ring on his chain-encrusted vest. â€Å"Very well. I understand a little, perhaps.† Mathin gave a snort of laughter; she remembered how grim and silent she'd thought him, he in particular of all the king's Riders. â€Å"You understand a great deal, Harimad-sol. I do not envy the others when they see you again. Only Corlath truly expects what I will be bringing out of these Hills.† This conversation had made it a little easier for her when he slyly told her of things, like the fourth way of lighting fires, which he refused to explain. She didn't understand the reasons, but she was a bit more willing to accept that a reason existed. It surprised her how much he told her about himself, for she knew that he did not find it easy to talk of these things to her; but she understood too that it was his way of making up, a little, for what he felt he could not tell her. It also, as he must have intended, made her feel as if the Hillfolk were familiar to her; that her own past was not so very different from theirs; and she began to imagine what it would have been like to have grown up in these Hills, to have always called them home. One of the things Mathin would tell her little of was Aerin Dragon-Killer and the Blue Sword. He would refer to Damar's Golden Age, when Aerin was queen, but he would not tell her when it was, or even what made it golden. She did learn that Aerin had had a husband named Tor who had fought the Northerners, for the Northerners had been Damar's enemies since the beginning of time and the Hills, and every Damarian age had its tale of the conflict between them; and that King Tor was called the Just. â€Å"It sounds very dreary, being Just, when your wife kills dragons,† said Harry, and while Mathin permitted himself a smile, he was not to be drawn. She did pry something else out of him. â€Å"Mathin,† she said. â€Å"The Outlanders believe that the – the – kelar of the Hills can cause, oh, firearms not to fire, and cavalry charges to fall down instead of charging, and – things like that.† Mathin said nothing; he had marinated cut-up bits of Narknon's latest antelope in a sharp spicy sauce and was now frizzling them on two sticks over the low-burning fire. Harry sighed. Mathin looked up from his sticks, though his fingers continued to twist them slowly. â€Å"It is wise of the Outlanders to believe the truth,† he said. He dug one stick, butt-end, into the ground, and thrust his short knife into the first chunk of meat. He nibbled at it delicately, with the concentrated frown of the artist judging his own work. His face relaxed and he handed Harry the stick still in his other hand. But he spoke no more of kelar. Mathin took no more falls, and by the middle of the sixth week Harry felt she had forgotten her first lessons because they were so far in the past. She could not remember a time when the palm of her right hand did not bear stripes of callus from the sword hilt; when the heavy vest felt awkward and unfamiliar; nor a time when she had not ridden Tsornin every day. She did remember that she had been born in a far green country nothing like the kelar-haunted one she now found herself in; and that she had a brother named Richard whom she still called Dickie, to his profound dismay – or would, if he could hear her – and she remembered a Colonel Jack Dedham, who loved the Hills even as she did. A thought swam into her mind: perhaps we shall meet again, and serve Damar together. On the fourth day of the sixth week she said tentatively to Mathin: â€Å"I thought the City was over a day's journey from here.† â€Å"You thought rightly,† Mathin replied; â€Å"but there is no need of your presence on the first day of the trials.† She glanced at him, a little reassured, but rather more worried. â€Å"Do not fear, my friend and keeper of my honor,† said Mathin. â€Å"You will be as a bolt from the heavens, and Tsornin's flanks shall blind your enemies.† She laughed. â€Å"I look forward to it.† â€Å"You should look forward to it,† he said. â€Å"But I, who know what I will see, look forward to it even more.†

Melodrama and TV serial in Guiding Light Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Melodrama and TV serial in Guiding Light - Essay Example Jonathan and Cassie are important individuals in the development of the storyline. The multiple lead characters connect the theme of the series and give the viewer the urge to want to watch it to the end. The presence of Jonathan and Cassie brings romance in the drama series. The use of leading characters decreases the attention from the lead characters to other characters in the sequel. The multiple characters allow the use of many storylines at once to provide fluidity in the storyline. The video illustrates that the character does not get an opportunity to resolve their problems. Guiding Light qualifies to be a TV serial. For example, Jonathan is not able to get vengeance for the death of his wife immediately. It is clear that viewers have to wait for the next episode to view the next episode. Resolution is among the components of a TV serial. Guiding Light qualifies to be a TV serial because it ends with a climax. It keeps the viewer with an urge to want to watch the next episode . For example, we see Jonathan planning the revenge for the individuals involved in the death of his wife. The climax plays an important because it produces a new conflict that keeps it interesting to watch. In the end, it is clear that the Cassie does make a choice of the casket to use for her daughter’s death. In conclusion, it is clear that melodrama and TV serials focus on the relationships and family. The main reason to focus on the family relationship is that family is one of the important institutions of the society.

Fast food nation summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fast food nation summary - Essay Example There were many orange farms. Local farmers also kept animals such as cattle and chicken. Later in the chapter, people started relying on fast foods instead of foods obtained directly from agricultural farms. It seems that the author wants the audience to see how fast foods started being part of American culture. According to article, people started relying on fast foods especially in Los Angeles because of automobiles. By the year 1940 Los Angeles had about 1 million vehicles (Schlosser 14). Many people wanted to own cars because they believed it was cheaper to use personal vehicles compared to public transport. The cars made people lazy. As a result, the new types of eating places such as the derive-in restaurants were introduced. The first drive in-restaurant was owned by Jesse Kirby. He later sold his restaurants to Carl. In order to attract more people in the drive-ins, the buildings were painted in bright colors and waitresses dressed in short skirts. They became very popular p laces in towns. Some popular fast food places like McDonald were founded during this time. In this chapter, the author blames automobiles for negatively affecting the culture of America (Schlosser 6). The initial part of the second chapter talks about people’s loyalty to McDonalds. The title of the second chapter seems ironical. Many people have trusted the fast food companies. However, they fail to notice the negative impacts of the fast food restaurants and their culture in the modern society. Many people take a two week course just to learn the culture of McDonald. The author criticizes the growing number of restaurants for making children the world’s most targeted consumers by larger corporations. For instance, most McDonald’s commercials target children. The company also sponsored my children TV Programs in order to attract more children. Disney started targeting children with its

No topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

No topic - Essay Example This significantly affected the course of history of China as will be highlighted hereunder. The Qing Dynasty was the last powerful empire to rule China. As earlier stated, although it began very well in its bid to transform China into a powerful state, the dynasty encountered various internal and external challenges that impacted negatively on the course of China. Firstly, the dynasty was faced with internal wrangles that created political instability. This made it difficult for China to create a stable government to fulfill Chinas development agendas. Some of the notable internal wrangles that changed the course of Chinese history include the Nian rebellion of 1853-1868; the Mao rebellion of 1850-1872; the Red Turban rebellion of 1854-1857; and the Yunnan rebellion of 1855-1863. Secondly, the Qing Dynasty was characterized by high level of corruption thereby curtailing the developments that had begun to be realized in China. The dynasty also faced the problem of lack of an able Manchu leadership. Lack of strong leadership made it extremely difficult for the dynasty to pro mote the development of China. Apart from the internal issues, the course of Chinese history was also greatly affected by external factors. Firstly, the defeat of Qing government in the 19th century by foreign powers resulted in the imposition of unequal treaties on China, which greatly impacted negatively on China. For instance, the imposition of the unequal treaties, politically infringed on the national rights of China, thereby resulting in a downfall. Secondly, the imperialism of the foreign economies worsened the social suffering in China. For instance, the increased importation of cheap textile goods from foreign countries by the Qing government resulted in the collapse of most Chinese industries. The Qing dynasty also destroyed the economy of China by promoting unfavorable balance of trade, thereby resulting in the decline of the

The Red Cedar Redevelopment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Red Cedar Redevelopment - Assignment Example Arguments in support of the plain arguments in support of the plan1. Reverse water and environmental pollution while conserving wildlife. This leads to the introduction of local tourism such as bird watching2. Boost the community’s economy by constructing a business park and tightening security.3. Ensure community welfare by building modern residential houses, increasing security, and availing social amenities.  4. Tightening security through the construction of a police complex to increase safety and raise investor’s confidence in investing in the community and thereby boost the economic argument against the plan1. The project is too costly and the community may not manage to raise the needed funds within the required time.2. The project may not benefit all members of the community especially the old who object to the construction of new residential areas because they wish to age in a familiar environment.3. Construction of a business complex doesn’t make much economic sense since the town is less densely populated.4. Constructing a police complex is not sufficient security and more investment is needed, yet funds are insufficient.

How does Tolstoy use his characters to show how materialism and social Essay

How does Tolstoy use his characters to show how materialism and social climbing depict an artificial, materialistic life - Essay Example He was educated and had a comfortable status in society. A judge in the high court in St.Petersbug, with a wife and family, he lives an ordinary life. Through out his life he never cared to reflect on the meaning of life. The humdrum nature of his career was more or less determined by the mechanical compliance to external compulsions of the values of a defunct society. In the smug satisfaction of the motorized perfection of life there lay a terrible pitfall. As Tolstoy puts it, his life was "most terrible and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Tolstoy shows the readiness of Illyich to succeed in life, by spontaneous compromises of all principles of life, as the hallmark of contemporary ethos. This makes his hero ludicrous. He had the semblance of the typical reserved nature of a judge but in actual practice was very flexible, if it will augment his career: " There were services rendered to his chief and even to wife of his chief". The feverish pursuit for advancement without principles is a disintegrating force and only a spiritual realization can provide meaning as we prepare for the inevitable exit from this life. The shock comes in the form of the diagnosis of terminal condition of cancer.

Rome Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rome - Assignment Example Along the road, there are both aristocratic tombs and the more common and simple tombs. One of the aristocratic tombs along the road is for Cecilia Metella who was a roman consul’s daughter. Lastly, the Via Appia had economic importance. It was used by roman merchants who wanted to access the south eastern seaports of Italy. Ostia sits on river Tiber’s mouth. It is at this port where ships from the Mediterranean docked. Subsequently, they unloaded cargo into barges which was then transported upriver to Rome. Therefore, the city of Ostia was significant to Rome since it had vital shipping interests. Many items and goods entered Rome via the port of Ostia such as wine, oil, olive and food. As such, the port was quite important for Rome. Monte Testaccio stands as a detritus mountain in a city characterized by storied hills. The romans used Monte Testaccio as a rubbish dump. All amphorae originating from the Roman Empire’s provinces were dumped in monte testaccio. During the roman era, amphorae were the primary container used for the storage and transportation of goods. Due to their re usability and low cost, these containers were produced en masse, although most of them ended up at the dump site. Most of the containers (amphorae) discarded at Monte Testaccio were used to carry olive oil. Continuous dumping of these containers led to the creation of Monte Testaccio. Imperial dye was made from a specific type of sea snails found in the Mediterranean Sea. The romans would extract the hypobranchial gland from the snails and salt added to the resulting juice. Next, the liquid was boiled down to form imperial dye. The marble map of Rome was drawn between 203 to 211 CE. It covered a whole wall inside Rome‘s Pacis Templum. The map illustrated or showed the ground plan of each and every architectural structure in the old city. Thus, the marble map featured structures ranging from the vast public

Structural approaches to systems of signification are rooted in linguistic theory Essay Example for Free

Structural approaches to systems of signification are rooted in linguistic theory Essay A general analysis of language assists in the deconstruction of meaning as it inscribes in different types of narratives (whether verbal or non-verbal). This analysis can be divided into 4 processes. The first process is the identification of sign systems used in particular social situations. The second process is the determination of body movements, sounds, or letters that individuals use to express the sign system. For example, when an individual refer to the term ‘funeral’, then all individuals in a particular social group must know the proper reference to a funeral. The fourth process is called social convention. Every individual in a community or group must agree on a common set of meanings for the sign system. The fifth process is the rate by which signs changes meaning. This phenomenon is common in Western societies where words and symbols often change as a response to social, economic, and political changes. One of the leading figures of semiotics is Roland Barthes who applied the structuralist linguist theory of Saussure to the study of mythology. His research paved the way for the development of a ‘contemporary mythology. ’ The findings were as follows: 1) The elements involved in narratives are often objects which assume meaning that transcends beyond their aesthetic and normative value. The development of this set of meanings is often expressed in the so-called ‘second level language’; 2) Barthes also identified the so-called ‘second order semiological system’, a sign system which enables people to communicate with each other; 3) An object assumes meaning when society attaches a particular value to a place, object, and entities. However, the significance of an object, idea or place may also be ambiguous and may assume a set of meanings that may be hard to deconstruct. The ability to deconstruct meaning depends on a number of factors: 1) the complexity of the social situation, 2) the relationships of the actors involved, 3) the complexity of the general sign system used, 4) the range of possibilities, and 5) the biases of the researcher. Deconstructing meaning is a process by which an individual attempts to relate one set of meaning to another in a particular situation; that is, the repercussions of motives and intentions are always embedded in behavioral orientation. 2) Language is a system of distinct signs which correspond to distinct ideas (Saussure 1966:16). Please explain the nature of sign according to Saussure’s theory of language. With the publication of the Course of General Linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure established a formal theory of language. Some of the assumptions of his theory were as follows: 1) There is a distinction between language and parole (speech). According to Saussure, language is the system of symbols in which individuals communicate. Parole refers to actual utterances. Since individuals communicate in an infinite number of utterances, it is the symbolic system which is deemed more important. In providing distinction between uttering and language, one is also separating: a) what is social from what is individualistic, and b) what is essential from what is supplemental. Saussure likened this proposition to a chess game. The chess game has rules which define the overall essence of the game. Utterances are the actual moves of the players. The rules reflect the language used in the game; 2) Languages do not produce different versions of reality; they in fact produce different realities. According to Saussure, the differences in language reflect the general differences not only in the interpretation of what is real but also the notion of what ought to be real. In short, if a language does not have a word for ‘natural’ then individuals who use such language will in effect submerged in a world which is unnatural. Here, the term ‘natural’ is both ambiguous and vague because individuals have no common assumptions of what is ‘natural’; 3) Language is the means by which social meanings is communicated through the use of signs. A sign or a word defines the relationship between the assumed image of a set of sounds or signifiers and the actual image in an individual or group’s consciousness. A sign is a mediator between the assumed and the actual, between the real and the immaterial. According to Saussure, signs define the conceptual outlook of particular objects, entities, and even other ideas (Wittgenstein called this as referent idea). For example, the word ‘family’ describes both the ideal notion of a ‘family’ and the actual image of a family (reality). In short, a sign define the ideal and realistic boundary of specific ideas, objects, and entities. The bond, however, between the signifier and the signified is both arbitrary and necessary. The principle of arbitrariness is predominant when all ideas about the boundary of language are assumed to be in unity. Here, language is assumed to be a matter of social convention; that is, a general creation of collective consciousness. Hence, the set of signifiers (signs) becomes a means to describe and define the image of an object, idea, or entity. Signs become, as what philosophers of language called, an ‘arbitrary assumption of events’ – events which are either singular or plural in orientation. Signs therefore are subject to social change – as actors periodically change the meaning and application of signs in a sign system. In some cases, the change is radical that the original symbolic meanings are radically altered. Here, the signs remained intact, but the associated meaning greatly changed. This radical change is though not separated from changes that occur in a larger social environment, for it is the social environment which is the initial source of change. Saussure defined language as both a ‘social phenomenon’ and a ‘psychological phenomenon. ’ It is a social phenomenon because the significance of signs is dependent on social context or milieu. Social context here refers to a state of perpetual change in language over time. In fact, Saussure argued that all languages are equal in complexity. This assumption may be ambitious, but it has not without basis. Languages change because the social contexts to which they are located also change. A good example of language change is the creation of new words in many of the leading world’s languages. This process of language ramification is perhaps due to the rapidly increasing communication among individuals, groups, and institutions. However, much of the newly created words are ambiguous and vague in form. Many individuals either attach multiple meanings to a word or simply fail to attach a clear cut meaning to such word. 3) Debord states: ` an earlier stage in the economy’s domination of social life entailed an obvious downgrading of being into having that left its stamp on all human behaviour. The present stage, which social life is completely taken over by the accumulated products of the economy, entails a generalised shift from having to appearing: all effective `having` must now derive both its immediate prestige and its ultimate raison dentre from appearances` (Debord 1994:16). Explain in your own words Debord’s analysis of the society of the spectacle. Much of Debord’s ideas of the society of the spectacle were derived from Marxian theory. According to Marxian theory: 1) Society is divided into two structures: the superstructure and the substructure. The superstructure is the set of institutions functioning in the society. The substructure is the economic system utilized by the society. There is a dialectic relationship between these two structures. Initially, the substructure influences the creation of the superstructure. The economic system determines the type of institutions that will be developed in the society. The superstructure then either reinforces or alters the substructure, depending on the needs of the society; 2) The behavior of human wants is always conspicuous. Every individual desires not only the basic needs of life but also the ideal notion of fruitful living. Here, Marxian theory suggests that human want is both arbitrary and unlimited. Individuals will strive to attain what is socially acceptable and what is necessary. Consumption is a means to ‘show’ that these ends are met (echoes Veblen’s idea on conspicuous consumption). Individuals therefore, disregarding the efficacy of moderation, engages in subtle confrontation with the sources of frustration. The end: the individual becomes more and more attuned to the affairs of the market, and subject to the whims of the ruling class – whom unconsciously is fueling individual frustration to obtain higher market value for their products. Debord expounded on the development of a modern society in which genuine social life has been displaced with its representation – that is, its image. Debord argues that the history and essence of social life can be understood as the ‘decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing. ’ Debord notes that this condition of human life is the event in which commodity completely colonized the virtue of social life – an unconscious process of colonization of the ideal notion of life. The term ‘spectacle’ connotes a social system characterized by the affluence of advance capitalism, the mass media, and capitalist led governments. The spectacle is the general opposite image of society in which the relationship between commodities have, in general, displaced the relationships between people. The worship of the commodity becomes not just a rule but the aspiration of social life. In the society of the spectacle, the quality of life is poor, human perceptions greatly altered by both the market and mass media, and a general degradation of genuine knowledge. Knowledge becomes a tool for distorting reality – obstructing the true essence of the past, and promising a bright future of mass consumption and happiness. Here, individuals becomes attune to the calls of the promise and prevent themselves from realizing that such ‘spectacle’ is only illusory – that the society of spectacle is only a moment in history which can be overturned by collective action. The responsibility therefore of the ‘drugged’ individual is to free himself from the chains of spectacular images through radical action. This radical action will restore the beauty and essence of social life – life defined not by the relations between commodities but by the relations between individuals. 4) Basing yourself on first Levi-Strauss and then Barthess analyses, describe how myths function as types of narratives that carry a message. Levi-Strauss applied the structural linguistics of Saussure to the analysis of family. Traditionally, the family is seen as the fundamental object of analysis and as a self-contained unit consisting typically of a husband, wife, and children (offspring). Levi-Strauss argued that families only acquire determinate identities through relations among units. Levi-Strauss fundamentally altered the classical view of anthropology, putting the secondary family members first and analyzing the relationships among units instead of the units themselves. Levi-Strauss’ application of structural linguistics is also evident in his work Mythologiques, a series of work on myths and legends. According to Levi-Strauss, myths are a type of speech in which a symbolic system could be discovered. This theory attempted to explain the similarities of myths across cultures. Levi-Strauss argued that there is no such thing as ‘singular authentic version of a myth’ rather a general manifestation of the same language. In order to understand this language, the fundamental units of myth, the mytheme, must be examined. To find the mythemes, Levi-Strauss deconstructed each version of a myth into a set of sentences, consisting generally of a relation between a function and a subject. Sentences with the same function and subject were given the same number. Both Levi-Strauss and Barthess analysis of myths revealed striking results. First, the coagulation of myths is a message of a common language. Second, the myth itself not only expressed social, economic, and political values, but also the means in which people throughout the ages communicate. Third, binary opposition is a common characteristic of language – that is, people communicate through binary opposites. And lastly, myths function as a kind of lingual illusion which drives individual to act on the basis of the myth itself (the myth is a self-sufficient source of action). Here, the degree of which an individual communicates the myth to another individual is related to the preponderance of a myth. Hence, the survival of a myth depends on the way and degree to which it is communicated.

Climate Change On Food Security Environmental Sciences Essay

Climate Change On Food Security Environmental Sciences Essay Roughly a billion people around the world live their life in constant fear of what to eat at night or how to provide for their familys and humanitys failure to give them better improvement has been one of its most uncontrollable flaws. This research paper talks about the negative effects of climate change on food security. Long term change in the earths climate especially a change due to an increase in the average atmosphere is what we call climate change, and many people are affected by it right now all around the world. Food security is a scenario that prevails when all individuals, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to adequate, safe, and healthy meals that fits their nutritional needs and meals choices for an effective and healthy life, but the negative effect, the adverse external effect changes these situation for people. Climate change has severe significance for food production and availability of food all over the world. Trying to view the overall impac t of climate change on our food can be tough. Constant Changes in the climate change like, drought and floods could pose as a challenge for farmers and fishers. Right now climate change is already having a great influence to the quality and to the quantity of food produced causing it to increase malnourishment. The topic of climate change and food security is a very sensitive issue to touch upon since food is one of the most important parts of our daily life. Imagine a year where there is no rainfall, or a cold weather in a wrong time of year, or even floods, they all can have a great deal of impact on local crop yields and livestock production. However not everyone around us is aware of these issues, therefore this paper informs people to realize that climate change can affect every part of food production like the impact of climate change on food availability. This paper manly focuses to inform people about the changes that climate change can bring to food production and what are the consequences of not being able to produce food. Impacts on Food Production and Availability Joseph Schmidhuber and his associates examined the effect of climate change on food security all around the world. The article reviews the impact of climate change and how it has a big impact on food production and food price. Climate change is most definitely to affect the manufacture of food in several ways. The more known impact of climate change on the volume and quality of food produced is the effect of weather patterns that are constantly changing over time, in addition these changes are varied based mainly on location and the effect might be greater in different populations (Schmidhuber et al., 2007). Worldwide the weather conditions are to become more unreliable than present, with the increase in the rate and asperity of intense events such as cyclones, floods, hailstorms, and droughts. By providing greater changes in crop yield and local food resources and greater threats of landslides and erosion damage, they can adversely affect the balance of foods resources and thus food s security (Schmidhuber et al., 2007). Liliana Hisas (2011) looks at the issues by assessing and collaborating population growth, food development, nutrition and undernourishment, and connecting these factors to climatic change, to measure the effects on food development. Recuperating more area fit for farming production is unlikely. Hisass research has shown that globally the amount of area that is useful for farming will remain the same in 2080 as it is today, because increases in useful land in some regions will be mostly balance by failures in others. It is the other two elements, water and different climate conditions which would most significantly affect food development globally due to climatic changes. The expected effects of climatic change on food development are farming in low-latitude areas, due to reduced water accessibility and adverse water balances; and water resources in mid-latitude and dry low-latitude areas, due to changes in rainfall (Hisas, 2011: 16). Wulf Killmann (2008) investigates in the article paper a wider view and examines the multiple effects that global warming and climatic change could have on food systems and food security. It also explains the adverse effect of not having enough food and not being able to produce food to feed a nation. Greater temperature ranges lead to heat pressure for vegetation, improving sterility and decreasing overall development. Greater temperature ranges also increases water loss from vegetation and dirt, enhancing water supplies while decreasing water accessibility. In many locations, growing seasons are changing, environmental locations are moving, and rain fall is becoming more unforeseen and not reliable both in its time and its volume. This is leading to greater doubt and increased risks for farm owners and potentially deteriorating the value of traditional farming knowledge such as when to plant particular crops (Killmann, et al., 2008). Agriculture is important for food security in two ways, it generates the food people eat and it provides the main earnings for 36 % of the globes total employees. In the intensely booming nations of Japan and the Hawaiian, this share varies from 40 to 50 %, and in sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of the working population still earns a living from agriculture. If farming growth in the low-income developing nations of Japan and Africa is seriously affected by global warming, the earnings of huge numbers of the non-urban inadequate will be put at danger and their access to meals uncertainty will be increased. Effects on the food production will impact food supply at the international and regional levels. Worldwide, higher results in in moderate areas could balance out lower results in in exotic areas. However, in many low-income nations with limited financial capacity to trade and high dependency on their own development to cover food requirements, it may not be possible to balance out p roblems in regional supply without increasing dependency on food aid. Effects on all forms of farming development will impact the earnings and access to foods. Manufacturer groups that are less able to deal with climate change, such as the non-urban inadequate in developing nations, risk having their safety and wellbeing composed (Killmann, et al., 2008). To be food secure, a nation, family, or individual needs regular access to adequate food resources. The concept of food stability represents the accessibility and availability to food. Climate uncertainty is an important aspect in a constant food supply. For example, the expected improvement in rate and asperity of intense events such as flooding and droughts can create significant changes in crop and local food resources. In addition, agriculture workers and others who rely on farming earnings in a region where extreme weather activities are increasing would be at high chance of losing their income and, their ability to purchase food (Hisas, 2011: 23). It also will lower the lifestyle conditions of farm owners, fisherman and forest-dependent individuals who are already inferior and food insecure. Hunger and lack of nutrition will increase. Non-urban areas reliant on farming in a weak environment will face an immediate chance of increased crops failing and lack of livestock. Mostly a t danger are individuals living along shorelines, in floodplains, hills, dry areas, and the arctic. In general, the inadequate will be at probability of food uncertainty due to lack of resources and lack of sufficient insurance policy (Killmann, et al., 2008). Climate change will have a great effect on all aspect of food security, like food availability, food stability, and food consumption. The value of the many matter and the overall effect of climate change on food security will be different across areas and over time and, most of all, is identified by the overall position that a country has achieved as the effects of climate change has set in.

Adverse Event Management in Chemotherapy Cancer Patients

Adverse Event Management in Chemotherapy Cancer Patients Results RESULTS In this prospective interventional study conducted at the KMCH hospital during a period of December 2013 to July 2014, a total of 63 cancer patients who received chemotherapy from the comprehensive cancer center of the hospital were included in the study. ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS The demographic details among the subjects revealed that most of the cancer cases fall in the age group of 40-59, having 52.38% patients in this age group followed by 34.92% patients in the age group of ≠¥ 60 years old [Table 2 Figure 1]. Out of this, the majority of patients receiving chemotherapy were females, 55.55% whereas males were only 44.44%. [Table 3 Figure 2] Evaluation of the subjects based on their education level revealed that out of the total population 66.66% falls in the category of educated while 33.33% were uneducated. [Table 4 Figure 3] On analysing the subjects based on their diagnosis, gastrointestinal (GI) cancers (33.33%) were found to be the most common diagnosis followed by breast cancer (17.46%). [Table 5 Figure 4] Assessment of comorbidities revealed hypertension (22.22%) as the most common comorbidity seen amongst our subjects, closely followed by diabetes mellitus (19.04%). [Table 6 Figure 5] Among the different types of adverse effects documented the predominant types consisted of fatigue (84.12%) and insomnia (68.25%). [Table 7 Figure 6] ASSESSMENT OF IMPROVEMENT IN PATIENT’S QoL Study population: 63 Analysis: Friedman’s Test This analysis was carried out for evaluating the change in QoL of the patients as part of the adverse event management given from pre-intervention assessment to first and second review of the patients. We found that adverse event management had a significant effect on the QoL of the patients with regard to global health status, functional scales, symptom scales and symptom and limitation scales (P Global Health Status/QoL: The global health status showed a significant change with improvement from 1.02 in the pre-intervention assessment to 2.04 and 2.94 in the first and second reviews respectively. This change was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0001. Functional Scales: The assessment of functional scales showed that the physical functioning of the cancer patients improved with time. During the pre-intervention assessment, the mean rank was 1.24 which then increased to 2.29 2.48 over the next 2 reviews respectively. The improvement was significant with the P-value of 0.0003. The scale of role functioning also varied clearly with time, it improved from 1.34 during the initial assessment to 2.16 and 2.50 at follow-up visits. This change was statistically significant with the P-value of .0001. The emotional functioning scale increased from an initial value of 1.54 in the initial assessment to 2.07 and 2.39 at the subsequent visits respectively. This improvement was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0002. Also, the social functioning showed a significant improvement in the score from an initial value of 1.41 at the initial assessment to 2.17 and 2.42 over the follow up period of first and second review respectively. This change was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0001. Symptom Scales: On assessing the symptom scales, symptom in the form of fatigue decreased over the study period from an initial value of 2.86 at the initial assessment to 1.78 and 1.37 in the subsequent reviews. This change was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0001. The symptom scale of nausea and vomiting also showed a significant improvement from 2.60 at pre-intervention assessment to 1.95 and 1.45 in the follow up period which was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0003. The pain symptomatology decreased from a value of 2.52 in the initial assessment to 1.87 and 1.61 during the follow up period. This was a statistically significant improvement with a P-value of 0.0003. The symptom scale of dyspnoea also decreased from the initial value of 2.37 to 1.93 in the first review and 1.71 during the second review, which was a statistically significant change with a P-value of 0.0001. As far as symptomatology in the form of insomnia is concerned, it decreased from the initial value of 2.67 in the pre-intervention assessment to 1.83 and 1.49 in the subsequent reviews with a statistically significant change which gives a P-value of 0.0002. When symptom in the form of appetite loss was assessed, it showed a marked decrease from a mean rank of 2.52 at the initial assessment to 1.85 and 1.63 during the first and second reviews respectively. This improvement was statistically significant with the P-value 0.0001. The symptom scale of constipation improved over the study period from an initial mean of 2.37 to 1.88 and 1.75 in the subsequent follow ups of first and second review which was a statistically significant change with a P-value of 0.0001 while diarrhoea also decreased from a mean rank of 2.22 at initial assessment to 1.93 in the first review and 1.85 during the second review. This change was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0002. Symptom and Limitation Scales: Limited normal eating or drinking habits of the patients also decreased from a mean rank of 2.72 in the pre-intervention assessment to a value of 1.94 and 1.33 in the successive assessments. This improvement was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0003. The symptom in the form of sore mouth improved over the study period from an initial value of 2.17 to 1.95 and 1.87 in the next 2 consecutive reviews which was a statistically significant change with a P-value of 0.0004. Limitation in the activities due to adverse effects also showed a significant improvement from an initial value of 2.60 to 1.97 and 1.44 in the following 2 reviews respectively. This progress was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.0003. Knowledge about infection and its prevention showed a noteworthy improvement in the study period. The value decreased from 2.98 in the initial assessment to 1.72 and 1.30 in the subsequent reviews which was a statistically significant change with a P-value of 0.0002. Difficulty in managing symptoms also showed a drastic improvement from an initial value of 2.96 in the pre-intervention assessment to 1.73 and 1.31 in the next 2 reviews with a statistically significant change at a P-value of 0.0001. ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT’S QoL AGAINST AGE Study Population: 63 Analysis: One-way ANOVA The patient’s QoL against age was assessed in order to determine whether age has any influence on the adverse event management and we found that age has significant role in global health status, functional scales as well as on symptom scale and symptom and limitation scales (P Global Health Status: In our study, the global health status was found to have a significant improvement among the age group of 18-39 during reviews 1 (P=0.035) and 2 (P=0.003). Functional Scales: Physical functioning was at its higher side in the age group of 18-39 from the initial assessment (P=0.043) and the functioning was significantly improved and maintained during the successive reviews (P= 0.0001). Role functioning was found to be higher in the age group of 40-59 from the pre-intervention assessment (P=0.004) which was found to have improved during the first review (P=0.0001) and this improvement was sustained over the second review (P=0.0001) as well. At the same time, emotional functioning showed a significant improvement during the first review (P=0.0003) among this age group which was further maintained in the subsequent review. Social functioning also showed a significant change among the population above 59 years by the second review (P=0.0002). Symptom Scales: Symptom in the form of nausea and vomiting was seen mostly in the age group of 40-59 years. It showed a significant reduction from the initial assessment (P=0.023) to first review (P=0.011) and the improvement was upheld in the second review. The normal eating or drinking habits were also significantly reduced (P=0.018) highly among this group of patients which was considered to be secondary to the high level of nausea and vomiting experienced. The symptom was further improved during the subsequent follow ups but the change was not statistically significant. Fatigue was most commonly seen among the ≠¥ 60 age group and it showed a significant reduction from the initial assessment (P=0.026) to first review (P=0.039) and second review (P=0.0002). Symptom and Limitation Scales: Limitation in the activities due to adverse effects showed a significantly high reduction in the patients of 18-39 age group during their second review (P=0.026). And, in the knowledge regarding infection, its prevention and management, patients among the 40-59 age group also showed a statistically significant improvement during their second review (P=0.022). In addition, management of symptoms based on the instructions given had also shown a significant improvement among this group of patients from review 1 (P=0.047) to review 2 (P=0.004). ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT’S QoL AGAINST COMORBIDITIES Study Population: 63 Analysis: Independent t-test Among our study population, 25 patients presented with comorbidities. The purpose of this analysis was to check whether comorbidity plays any role in adherence management and we found that it only has a significant effect on the normal eating or drinking habits as well as on awareness about infection and management of symptoms (P Patients with comorbidities showed a significantly normal eating or drinking habits during the baseline assessment (P=0.002) and was improved further during the study period. In the knowledge regarding infection, its prevention and management, the patients without comorbidities showed a significant improvement during review 1 (P=0.009) which was sustained in review 2 (P=0.014) as well. Also, this category of patients showed a significant ability to manage the symptoms with the instructions given which was found to be improved during their first review (0.007). ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT’S QoL AGAINST EDUCATION Study Population: 63 Analysis: Independent t-test This analysis was performed to determine whether education has a role in the adverse event management and we found that patients with education shows significant improvement in physical functioning, role functioning, fatigue, appetite loss, limitation of activities and awareness about infection (P In educated patients, physical functioning was higher from the baseline assessment (P=0.015) which was further maintained throughout the first review (P=0.030) and second review. Role functioning was also higher and maintained among this group from the initial assessment (P=0.008). The symptom fatigue also shown a remarkable improvement by second review (P=0.006) alongside knowledge about infection (P=0.039). Appetite loss shown a reduction during first review (P=0.010) which was further improved and maintained throughout the follow up period while limitation in activities were considerably low from the baseline assessment (0.032) which was sustained throughout the study period. [Table 11] EVALUATION OF THE ADVERSE EVENT MANAGEMENT The evaluation is done using results of quality of life assessment as well as through patient interviews during their reviews. The patients were asked about the usefulness of the adverse event management and tools provided and they were also asked to report the tips they had used. Among our subjects, the symptom of nausea was found among 39 patients [Table 12] and vomiting was seen among 32 patients [Table 13]. They had shown a considerable improvement throughout the study period and most of them were able to report at least one tip they had used. The tip that had been reported by most patients were â€Å"If the smell of food bothers you, let the food cool down before you eat it† and also the patients started taking the anti-emetics prescribed even on days they were experiencing less severe nausea or vomiting. Out of the study population 48 were found to experience fatigue and the symptom was improved and the improvement was sustained throughout the study period. â€Å"Listen to your body, rest when you tired† and â€Å"do activities that are most important† were the tips used by most of the patients [Table 14]. Appetite loss was another symptom experienced by 32 of the subjects which further improved during the study period. â€Å"Drink soups that are easy to swallow† was the tip mostly reported, closely followed by â€Å"watch television while you eat†. [Table 15] About 24 of the patients experienced constipation [Table 16] while 15 had diarrhoea [Table 17]. The symptoms were improved during the follow up period and the patients were able to report the tips they had used and found beneficial. Most of the patients tried including more fruits and vegetables into the diet and also as instructed when the symptom was severe they consulted the physician and taken the medication. Among the study population 12 had mouth sores which improved over time and most of them had tried the mouth wash recipe and drinking through straw as per the tips provided to them [Table 18]. As far as the identification, prevention and management of infection was concerned, most of the study population was found to be lacking any knowledge in these, which then increased considerably during the study period with the information provided regarding the infection [Table 19].

Sustainability :: Personal Narrative Writing

Sustainability is an issue that everyone should be concerned about. If the planet Earth is going to exist, as we know it, everyone should wake up and do their part to help achieve a greater level of sustainability. In my English 101 class we learned about the issue of sustainability. Many different topics were discussed and researched throughout the course of the semester. Overall, I think that the sustainability project has been a learning and enlightening experience for everyone in this class. Many more things can be done next semester, since the groundwork has been laid to continue this project for time to come. One of my personal goals for the project was to learn as much as I could about the sustainability issue facing us. I did this by participating in all of the projects that were done throughout the semester. The main project that occurred during the semester was the personal sustainability goals that we each set for ourselves. While doing the actions that we pledged to do, we learned different things about sustainability that we never knew before. One of the things that I learned was that, at Clemson, it is hard for students who want to recycle to be able to recycle. There are not the necessary facilities nearby our student housing to place our recyclables. I also learned that some actions that should be done to be sustainable are hard to do in the society that we live in. One of these activities that we do is the needless driving that Americans do in general. Since we live in a moving society, it is sometimes hard to do. An easy thing that everyone can do is to recycle s ome of his or her wastes. This can be done for most people at little or no extra effort than just throwing your trash away. Some of the planning that I did helped the students in other classes and even my own. During one part of the semester, we researched different ideas for the horticulture class students to implement in the schoolyard project that they were involved with. Others used my ideas and research in my class on their personal sustainability papers, university sustainability papers, and even their own personal goals to being sustainable.

Mental Disorders Essay -- science

Mental Disorders The term mental disorder means psycological and behavioral syndromes that deviate signicantly from those typical of human beings enjoying good mental health. All that mumbo jumbo means that a person with a mental disorder was a few cards short of a full deck. This is probably not the persons fault that they are like this they were just born this way. These people are not all a like. They are not even in exact classes because all of the classes have not been seperated yet. In most cases a normal person that has no disorders is afraid of these type of people. This is because they do not want to turn out the way these people are. A common example of a mental disorder is down syndrome. There was a television program in the early 90's that featured a boy that had to live with this terrifying disorder. This show was very inspirational for all people with disorders. The boy's name was Corky who fought all aspects of the disorder. Them being from physical triumphs to just everyday kids harrassing him at school. The show was taken off the air in 1993 because of sponsers. Records of types of disorders are unknown along with many of other records of treatments to people inflicted with a disorder. This is mainly because in the early 1900's people thought that people with disorders were just stupid and they did not investigate further into the matter. The quanity of people that have a disorder is unknown. There is an estimated guess that 15% of the U.S. population has some sort of disorder but that is not factual. This is because the survey people only can estimate from the people who check theirselves into a institution, the ones who do so make up 3% of the 15% estimation. The U.S. in 1990 spent an estimated 148 billion on treating mental diorders. Childhood Disorders Several Mental disorders are evident first in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Mental retardation is characterized by the inability to learn normally and to become as an independent and socially responsible as others of the same age in the same culture. A retarded person go through a lot of emotional problems because of the society making fun of these people. A retarded person has an IQ of less than 70. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder includes conditions marked by inappropiate lack of attention, by impulsiveness, and by hyperactivity, in which the child ... ...son go through a lot of emotional problems because of the society making fun of these people. A retarded person has an IQ of less than 70. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder includes conditions marked by inappropiate lack of attention, by impulsiveness, and by hyperactivity, in which the child has difficulty organizing and completing work, is unable to stick to activities or follow directions, and is excessively restless. Anxiety disorder include fear of leaving home and parents, excessive shrinking from contact with strangers, and excessive, unfocused worrying and fearful behavior. Persuasive developement disorders are characterized by distortions in several psychological functions, such as attention, perception, reality testing, and motor movement. An example is infantile autism, a condition marked by unresponsiveness to other people, bizarre responses, and gross inability to communicate to the others in the world. Paranoid Disorder The central feature of the paranoid disorders in a persons dilusion, for instance that he or she is being persecuted or conspored against. In other form, the dilusion consists of unreasonsably jealousy. the person maybe r

Part Three Chapter VI

VI Things denied, things untold, things hidden and disguised. The muddy River Orr gushed over the wreckage of the stolen computer, thrown from the old stone bridge at midnight. Simon limped to work on his fractured toe and told everyone that he had slipped on the garden path. Ruth pressed ice to her bruises and concealed them inexpertly with an old tube of foundation; Andrew's lip scabbed over, like Dane Tully's, and Paul had another nosebleed on the bus and had to go straight to the nurse on arrival at school. Shirley Mollison, who had been shopping in Yarvil, did not answer Ruth's repeated telephone calls until late afternoon, by which time Ruth's sons had arrived home from school. Andrew listened to the one-sided conversation from the stairs outside the sitting room. He knew that Ruth was trying to take care of the problem before Simon came home, because Simon was more than capable of seizing the receiver from her and shouting and swearing at her friend. ‘†¦ just silly lies,' she was saying brightly, ‘but we'd be very grateful if you could remove it, Shirley.' He scowled and the cut on his fat lip threatened to burst open again. He hated hearing his mother asking the woman for a favour. In that moment he was irrationally annoyed that the post had not been taken down already; then he remembered that he had written it, that he had caused everything: his mother's battered face, his own cut lip and the atmosphere of dread that pervaded the house at the prospect of Simon's return. ‘I do understand you've got a lot of things on †¦' Ruth was saying cravenly, ‘but you can see how this might do Simon damage, if people believe †¦' ‘Yes.' Ruth sounded tired. ‘She's going to take those things about Dad off the site so, hopefully, that'll be the end of it.' Andrew knew his mother to be intelligent, and much handier around the house than his ham-fisted father. She was capable of earning her own living. ‘Why didn't she take the post down straight away, if you're friends?' he asked, following her into the kitchen. For the first time in his life, his pity for Ruth was mingled with a feeling of frustration that amounted to anger. ‘She's been busy,' snapped Ruth. One of her eyes was bloodshot from Simon's punch. ‘Did you tell her she could be in trouble for leaving defamatory stuff on there, if she moderates the boards? We did that stuff in comput – ‘ ‘I've told you, she's taking it down, Andrew,' said Ruth angrily. She was not frightened of showing temper to her sons. Was it because they did not hit her, or for some other reason? Andrew knew that her face must ache as badly as his own. ‘So who d'you reckon wrote that stuff about Dad?' he asked her recklessly. She turned a face of fury upon him. ‘I don't know,' she said, ‘but whoever they are, it was a despicable, cowardly thing to do. Everyone's got something they'd like to hide. How would it be if Dad put some of the things he knows about other people on the internet? But he wouldn't do it.' ‘That'd be against his moral code, would it?' said Andrew. ‘You don't know your father as well as you think you do!' shouted Ruth with tears in her eyes. ‘Get out – go and do your homework – I don't care – just get out!' Yet the deletion of the post could not remove it from the consciousness of those who were passionately interested in the forthcoming contest for Barry's seat. Parminder Jawanda had copied the message about Simon Price onto her computer, and kept opening it, subjecting each sentence to the scrutiny of a forensic scientist examining fibres on a corpse, searching for traces of Howard Mollison's literary DNA. He would have done all he could to disguise his distinctive phraseology, but she was sure that she recognized his pomposity in ‘Mr Price is certainly no stranger to keeping down costs', and in ‘the benefit of his many useful contacts'. ‘Minda, you don't know Simon Price,' said Tessa Wall. She and Colin were having supper with the Jawandas in the Old Vicarage kitchen, and Parminder had started on the subject of the post almost the moment they had crossed the threshold. ‘He's a very unpleasant man and he could have upset any number of people. I honestly don't think it's Howard Mollison. I can't see him doing anything so obvious.' ‘Don't kid yourself, Tessa,' said Parminder. ‘Howard will do anything to make sure Miles is elected. You watch. He'll go for Colin next.' Tessa saw Colin's knuckles whiten on his fork handle, and wished that Parminder would think before she spoke. She, of anyone, knew what Colin was like; she prescribed his Prozac. Vikram was sitting at the end of the table in silence. His beautiful face fell naturally into a slightly sardonic smile. Tessa had always been intimidated by the surgeon, as she was by all very good-looking men. Although Parminder was one of Tessa's best friends, she barely knew Vikram, who worked long hours and involved himself much less in Pagford matters than his wife. ‘I told you about the agenda, didn't I?' Parminder rattled on. ‘For the next meeting? He's proposing a motion on the Fields, for us to pass to the Yarvil committee doing the boundary review, and a resolution on forcing the drug clinic out of their building. He's trying to rush it all through, while Barry's seat's empty.' She kept leaving the table to fetch things, opening more cupboard doors than was necessary, distracted and unfocused. Twice she forgot why she had got up, and sat down again, empty-handed. Vikram watched her, everywhere she moved, from beneath his thick eyelashes. ‘I rang Howard last night,' Parminder said, ‘and I told him we ought to wait until we're back up to the full complement of councillors before we vote on such big issues. He laughed; he says we can't wait. Yarvil wants to hear our views, he said, with the boundary review coming up. What he's really scared of is that Colin's going to win Barry's seat, because it won't be so easy to foist it all on us then. I've emailed everyone I think will vote with us, to see if they can't put pressure on him to delay the votes, for one meeting †¦ ‘†The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother†,' Parminder added breathlessly. ‘The bastard. He's not using Barry's death to beat him. Not if I can help it.' Tessa thought she saw Vikram's lips twitch. Old Pagford, led by Howard Mollison, generally forgave Vikram the crimes that it could not forget in his wife: brownness, cleverness and affluence (all of which, to Shirley Mollison's nostrils, had the whiff of a gloat). It was, Tessa thought, grossly unfair: Parminder worked hard at every aspect of her Pagford life: school ftes and sponsored bakes, the local surgery and the Parish Council, and her reward was implacable dislike from the Pagford old guard; Vikram, who rarely joined or participated in anything, was fawned upon, flattered and spoken of with proprietary approval. ‘Mollison's a megalomaniac,' Parminder said, pushing food nervously around her plate. ‘A bully and a megalomaniac.' Vikram laid down his knife and fork and sat back in his chair. ‘So why,' he asked, ‘is he happy being chair of the Parish Council? Why hasn't he tried to get on the District Council?' ‘Because he thinks that Pagford is the epicentre of the universe,' snapped Parminder. ‘You don't understand: he wouldn't swap being chair of Pagford Parish Council for being Prime Minister. Anyway, he doesn't need to be on the council in Yarvil; he's already got Aubrey Fawley there, pushing through the big agenda. All revved up for the boundary review. They're working together.' Parminder felt Barry's absence like a ghost at the table. He would have explained it all to Vikram and made him laugh in the process; Barry had been a superb mimic of Howard's speech patterns, of his rolling, waddling walk, of his sudden gastrointestinal interruptions. ‘I keep telling her, she's letting herself get too stressed,' Vikram told Tessa, who was appalled to find herself blushing slightly, with his dark eyes upon her. ‘You know about this stupid complaint – the old woman with emphysema?' ‘Yes, Tessa knows. Everyone knows. Do we have to discuss it at the dinner table?' snapped Parminder, and she jumped to her feet and began clearing the plates. Tessa tried to help, but Parminder told her crossly to stay where she was. Vikram gave Tessa a small smile of solidarity that made her stomach flutter. She could not help remembering, as Parminder clattered around the table, that Vikram and Parminder had had an arranged marriage. (‘It's only an introduction through the family,' Parminder had told her, in the early days of their friendship, defensive and annoyed at something she had seen in Tessa's face. ‘Nobody makes you marry, you know.' But she had spoken, at other times, of the immense pressure from her mother to take a husband. ‘All Sikh parents want their kids married. It's an obsession,' Parminder said bitterly.) Colin saw his plate snatched away without regret. The nausea churning in his stomach was even worse than when he and Tessa had arrived. He might have been encased in a thick glass bubble, so separate did he feel from his three dining companions. It was a sensation with which he was only too familiar, that of walking in a giant sphere of worry, enclosed by it, watching his own terrors roll by, obscuring the outside world. Tessa was no help: she was being deliberately cool and unsympathetic about his campaign for Barry's seat. The whole point of this supper was so that Colin could consult Parminder on the little leaflets he had produced, advertising his candidacy. Tessa was refusing to get involved, blocking discussion of the fear that was slowly engulfing him. She was refusing him an outlet. Trying to emulate her coolness, pretending that he was not, after all, caving under self-imposed pressure, he had not told her about the telephone call from the Yarvil and District Gazette that he had received at school that day. The journalist on the end of the line had wanted to talk about Krystal Weedon. Had he touched her? Colin had told the woman that the school could not possibly discuss a pupil and that Krystal must be approached through her parents. ‘I've already talked to Krystal,' said the voice on the end of the line. ‘I only wanted to get your – ‘ But he had put the receiver down, and terror had blotted out everything. Why did they want to talk about Krystal? Why had they called him? Had he done something? Had he touched her? Had she complained? The psychologist had taught him not to try and confirm or disprove the content of such thoughts. He was supposed to acknowledge their existence, then carry on as normal, but it was like trying not to scratch the worst itch you had ever known. The public unveiling of Simon Price's dirty secrets on the council website had stunned him: the terror of exposure, which had dominated so much of Colin's life, now wore a face, its features those of an ageing cherub, with a demonic brain seething beneath a deerstalker on tight grey curls, behind bulging inquisitive eyes. He kept remembering Barry's tales of the delicatessen owner's formidable strategic brain, and of the intricate web of alliances that bound the sixteen members of Pagford Parish Council. Colin had often imagined how he would find out that the game was up: a guarded article in the paper; faces turned away from him when he entered Mollison and Lowe's; the headmistress calling him into her office for a quiet word. He had visualized his downfall a thousand times: his shame exposed and hung around his neck like a leper's bell, so that no concealment would be possible, ever again. He would be sacked. He might end up in prison. ‘Colin,' Tessa prompted quietly; Vikram was offering him wine. She knew what was going on inside that big domed forehead; not the specifics, but the theme of his anxiety had been constant for years. She knew that Colin could not help it; it was the way he was made. Many years before, she had read, and recognized as true, the words of W. B. Yeats: ‘A pity beyond all telling is hid at the heart of love.' She had smiled over the poem, and stroked the page, because she had known both that she loved Colin, and that compassion formed a huge part of her love. Sometimes, though, her patience wore thin. Sometimes she wanted a little concern and reassurance too. Colin had erupted into a predictable panic when she had told him that she had received a firm diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, but once she had convinced him that she was not in imminent danger of dying, she had been taken aback by how quickly he dropped the subject, how completely he reimmersed himself in his election plans. (That morning, at breakfast, she had tested her blood sugar with the glucometer for the first time, then taken out the prefilled needle and inserted it into her own belly. It had hurt much more than when deft Parminder did it. Fats had seized his cereal bowl and swung round in his chair away from her, sloshing milk over the table, the sleeve of his school shirt and onto the kitchen floor. Colin had let out an inchoate shout of annoyance as Fats spat his mouthful of cornflakes back into his bowl, and demanded of his mother, ‘Have you got to do that at the bloody table?' ‘Don't be so damn rude and disgusting!' shouted Colin. ‘Sit up properly! Wipe up that mess! How dare you speak to your mother like that? Apologize!' Tessa withdrew the needle too fast; she had made herself bleed. ‘I'm sorry that you shooting up at breakfast makes me want to puke, Tess,' said Fats from under the table, where he was wiping the floor with a bit of kitchen roll. ‘Your mother isn't â€Å"shooting up†, she's got a medical condition!' shouted Colin. ‘And don't call her â€Å"Tess†!' ‘I know you don't like needles, Stu,' said Tessa, but her eyes were stinging; she had hurt herself, and felt shaken and angry with both of them, feelings that were still with her this evening.) Tessa wondered why Parminder did not appreciate Vikram's concern. Colin never noticed when she was stressed. Perhaps, Tessa thought angrily, there's something in this arranged marriage business †¦ my mother certainly wouldn't have chosen Colin for me †¦ Parminder was shoving bowls of cut fruit across the table for pudding. Tessa wondered a little resentfully what she would have offered a guest who was not diabetic, and comforted herself with the thought of a bar of chocolate lying at home in the fridge. Parminder, who had talked five times as much as anybody else all through supper, had started ranting about her daughter, Sukhvinder. She had already told Tessa on the telephone about the girl's betrayal; she went through it all again at the table. ‘Waitressing with Howard Mollison. I don't, I really don't know what she's thinking. But Vikram – ‘ ‘They don't think, Minda,' Colin proclaimed, breaking his long silence. ‘That's teenagers. They don't care. They're all the same.' ‘Colin, what rubbish,' snapped Tessa. ‘They aren't all the same at all. We'd be delighted if Stu went and got himself a Saturday job – not that there's the remotest chance of that.' ‘ – but Vikram doesn't mind,' Parminder pressed on, ignoring the interruption. ‘He can't see anything wrong with it, can you?' Vikram answered easily: ‘It's work experience. She probably won't make university; there's no shame in it. It's not for everyone. I can see Jolly married early, quite happy.' ‘Waitressing †¦' ‘Well, they can't all be academic, can they?' ‘No, she certainly isn't academic,' said Parminder, who was almost quivering with anger and tension. ‘Her marks are absolutely atrocious – no aspiration, no ambition – waitressing – â€Å"let's face it, I'm not going to get into uni† – no, you certainly won't, with that attitude – with Howard Mollison †¦ oh, he must have absolutely loved it – my daughter going cap in hand for a job. What was she thinking – what was she thinking?' ‘You wouldn't like it if Stu took a job with someone like Mollison,' Colin told Tessa. ‘I wouldn't care,' said Tessa. ‘I'd be thrilled he was showing any kind of work ethic. As far as I can tell, all he seems to care about is computer games and – ‘ But Colin did not know that Stuart smoked; she broke off, and Colin said, ‘Actually, this would be exactly the kind of thing Stuart would do. Insinuate himself with somebody he knew we didn't like, to get at us. He'd love that.' ‘For goodness sake, Colin, Sukhvinder isn't trying to get at Minda,' said Tessa. ‘So you think I'm being unreasonable?' Parminder shot at Tessa. ‘No, no,' said Tessa, appalled at how quickly they had been sucked into the family row. ‘I'm just saying, there aren't many places for kids to work in Pagford, are there?' ‘And why does she need to work at all?' said Parminder, raising her hands in a gesture of furious exasperation. ‘Don't we give her enough money?' ‘Money you earn yourself is always different, you know that,' said Tessa. Tessa's chair faced a wall that was covered in photographs of the Jawanda children. She had sat here often, and had counted how many appearances each child made: Jaswant, eighteen; Rajpal, nineteen; and Sukhvinder, nine. There was only one photograph on the wall celebrating Sukhvinder's individual achievements: the picture of the Winterdown rowing team on the day that they had beaten St Anne's. Barry had given all the parents an enlarged copy of this picture, in which Sukhvinder and Krystal Weedon were in the middle of the line of eight, with their arms around each other's shoulders, beaming and jumping up and down so that they were both slightly blurred. Barry, she thought, would have helped Parminder see things the right way. He had been a bridge between mother and daughter, both of whom had adored him. Not for the first time, Tessa wondered how much difference it made that she had not given birth to her son. Did she find it easier to accept him as a separate individual than if he had been made from her flesh and blood? Her glucose-heavy, tainted blood †¦ Fats had recently stopped calling her ‘Mum'. She had to pretend not to care, because it made Colin so angry; but every time Fats said ‘Tessa' it was like a needle jab to her heart. The four of them finished their cold fruit in silence.