Drew University Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA

Drew University is a private university with an acceptance rate of 69%. Located in Madison, New Jersey 10 miles west of Midtown Manhattan, Drew students have easy access to opportunities in New York City. The university is comprised of the College of Liberal Arts, the Drew Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. Drew has an 11-to-1  student / faculty ratio  and an average class size of about 20. Strengths in undergraduate programs in the liberal arts earned Drew a chapter of  Phi Beta Kappa. Popular majors include Business, Psychology, Biology, Theatre Arts, and Economics. Considering applying to Drew University? Here are the admissions statistics you should know, including average SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of admitted students. Acceptance Rate During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, Drew University had an acceptance rate of 69%. This means that for every 100 students who applied, 69 students were admitted, making Drews admissions process competitive. Admissions Statistics (2017-18) Number of Applicants 3,788 Percent Admitted 69% Percent Admitted Who Enrolled (Yield) 16% SAT Scores and Requirements Drew University has a test-optional standardized testing policy. Applicants to Drew have the option of submitting SAT or ACT scores to the school, but they are not required. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 66% of admitted students submitted SAT scores. SAT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile ERW 570 650 Math 540 660 ERW=Evidence-Based Reading and Writing This admissions data tells us that of those students who submitted scores during the 2017-18 admissions cycle, most of  Drew Universitys admitted students fall within the  top 35% nationally  on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Drew scored between 570 and 650, while 25% scored below 570 and 25% scored above 650. On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 540 and 660, while 25% scored below 540 and 25% scored above 660. This data tells us that a composite SAT score of 1310 or higher is competitive for Drew University. Requirements Drew University does not require SAT scores for admission. For students who choose to submit scores, note that Drew participates in the scorechoice program, meaning that the admissions office will consider your highest score from each individual section across all SAT test dates. Drew does not require the essay portion of the SAT. ACT Scores and Requirements Drew University has a test-optional standardized testing policy. Students applying to Drew have the option of submitting SAT or ACT scores to the school, but they are not required. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 24% of admitted students submitted ACT scores. ACT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile Composite 25 30 This admissions data tells us that of those who submitted scores during the 2017-18 admissions cycle, most of Drews admitted students fall within the  top 22% nationally  on the ACT. The middle 50% of students admitted to Drew University received a composite ACT score between 25 and 30, while 25% scored above 30 and 25% scored below 25. Requirements Note that Drew does not require ACT scores for admission. For students who choose to submit scores, Drew does not superscore ACT results; your highest composite ACT score will be considered. Drew University does not require the ACT writing section. GPA In 2018, the average high school GPA of Drew Universitys incoming freshmen class was 3.54, and over 50% of students had average GPAs of 3.5 and above. These results suggest that most successful applicants to Drew University have primarily high B grades. Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph Drew University Applicants Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph. Data courtesy of Cappex. The admissions data in the graph is self-reported by applicants to Drew University. GPAs are unweighted. Find out how you compare to accepted students, see the real-time graph, and calculate your chances of getting in with a free Cappex account. Admissions Chances Drew University, which accepts over half of applicants, has a competitive admissions pool. However, Drew also has a  holistic admissions  process and is test-optional, and admissions decisions are based on much more than numbers. A strong  application essay  and  glowing letters of recommendation  can strengthen your application, as can participation in meaningful  extracurricular activities  and a  rigorous course schedule. The college is looking for students who will contribute to the campus community in meaningful ways, not just students who show promise in the classroom. Students with particularly compelling stories or achievements can still receive serious consideration even if their grades and scores are outside of Drews average range. Note that Drew recommends that applicants who choose not to submit standardized test scores have an average GPA of B or higher in college preparatory or honors level courses. In the graph above, the blue and green dots represent accepted students. You can see that most accepted students had grade point averages of B or better, SAT scores over 1050 (ERWM), and ACT composite scores of 21 or higher. If You Like Drew University, You May Also Like These Schools: Drexel UniversityRutgers UniversityBoston UniversityHofstra UniversityCornell UniversitySeton Hall UniversityPace UniversityTemple University All admissions data has been sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics and Drew University Undergraduate Admissions Office.

What Is Serial Murder - 1864 Words

What is serial murderer? It is difficult to define the term ‘serial murder’ due to the complexity and the diversity of the phenomenon, ‘the term remains elusive, ambiguous and amorphous’ in the literature, there is a suggestive trend towards the ‘achievement of a standardised definition’, yet going through current research and legal definitions of serial murder revealed ‘some discrepancies in how the term is defined’ the reason why this occurs is due to the practice of authors using various term interchangeably. There is not just one definition for defining serial murders however most definition claim that a serial murdered is an individual who has murdered three or more victims who were unknown to him/her and that there is generally a†¦show more content†¦Psychogenic motivation is fundamental in nature, it also says that murder is a product of the individual’s psychological characteristics, whereas the sociogenic mo tives are motives that can be explained on the basis that the individual realises that their social interaction is below their desired levels. Psychogenic motivations could occur from the impact of failed attachments between infants and their mothers which is crucial as it’s the infants first emotional contact, if the mother is unresponsive it creates a steady state of painful anxiety for the child it also would cause the development of uncontrolled aggression, to reduce the anxiety children would engage activities that would provide pleasure independent of the mothers services, a traumatic childhood has an intense impact of the physical and mental well-being of the individual as an adult, depending on the trauma or lack of having a positive relationship with care-givers it most likely affects the child when they are an adult, they are unable to form relationship with other and would blame the lack of them having a positive relationship when they were younger and may even bec ome resentful of this, this may then motivate them and the murders begin?, ‘Serial murderers are frequently found to haveShow MoreRelatedWhat Twists a Man so Far as Murder? 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Evidence of this can be seen by reviewing some of the world’s most high-profile crimes; some of which remain unsolved. Serial killers are difficult to detect. They are able to move through society, masquerading as normal, healthy individuals. A serial sexual sadistic killer is a specific type of predator. Their crimes suggest that they are void of any feelings or emotion. However, theories suggestRead More profile of a killer Essay examples1561 Words   |  7 Pagesstaggering elevation in serial killings. To give some insight into the scale of the problem posed by the serial killer, in the United States can be gained from examining the statistics for just one year. In 1989 (the last year for which detailed figures are available) there were 21,500 recorded homicides, of which some 5,000 are unsolved. Unofficial sources believe that as many as a hundred serial killers may be at large at any given time. Add to this the number of known victims of serial killers, then between

Poverty and Wealth free essay sample

These countries also have population centered away from the ocean therefore inhibiting the progress to access international markets. 3. What advice do the authors have for the two main international financial institutions (World Bank and IMF)? The authors are saying that these two organizations should focus less on international reform ie. Civil services and taxes. They should instead pool more resources into developing technologies that will benefit a country in a tangible manner. 4.According to the authors, what implications does this research have for wealthy nations? The research implies that wealthy nations should do more to support those countries who have been limited due to their geographic situation. These efforts are not substantial and would prove to be beneficial in the long run as countries become more economically stable. The Geography of Poverty and Wealth Jeffrey D. Sachs, Andrew D. Mellinger, and John L. Gallup Scientific American, March 2001 Why are some countries stupendously rich and others horrendously poor?Social theorists have been captivated by this question since the late 18th century, when Scottish economist Adam Smith addressed the issue in his magisterial work The Wealth of Nations. Smith argued that the best prescription for prosperity is a free-market economy in which the government allows businesses substantial freedom to pursue profits. Over the past two centuries, Smiths hypothesis has been vindicated by the striking success of capitalist economies in North America, western Europe and East Asia and by the dismal failure of socialist planning in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.Smith, however, made a second notable hypothesis: that the physical geography of a region can influence its economic performance. He contended that the economies of coastal regions, with their easy access to sea trade, usually outperform the economies of inland areas. Although most economists today follow Smith in linking prosperity with free markets, they have tended to neglect the role of geography. They implicitly assume that all parts of the world have the same prospects for economic growth and long-term development and that differences in performance are the result of differences in institutions.Our findings, based on newly available data and research methods, suggest otherwise. We have found strong evidence that geography plays an important role in shaping the distribution of world income and economic growth. Coastal regions and those near navigable waterways are indeed far richer and more densely settled than interior regions, just as Smith predicted. Moreover, an areas climate can also affect its economic development. Nations in tropical climate zones generally face higher rates of infectious disease and lower agricultural productivity (especially for staple foods) than do nations in temperate zones.Similar burdens apply to the desert zones. The very poorest regions in the world are those saddled with both handicaps: distance from sea trade and a tropical or desert ecology. A skeptical reader with a basic understanding of geography might comment at this point, Fine, but isnt all of this familiar? We have three responses. First, we go far beyond the basics by systematically quantifying the contributions of geography, economic policy and other factors in determining a nations performance.We have combined the research tools used by geographers – including new software that can create detailed maps of global population density – with the techniques and equations of macroeconomics. Second, the basic lessons of geography are worth repeating, because most economists have ignored them. In the past decade the vast majority of papers on economic development have neglected even the most obvious geographical realities. Third, if our findings are true, the policy implications are significant. Aid programs for developing countries will have to be revamped to specifically address the problems imposed by geography.In particular, we have tried to formulate new strategies that would help nations in tropical zones raise their agricultural productivity and reduce the prevalence of diseases such as malaria. The Geographical Divide The best single indicator of prosperity is gross national product (GNP) per capita – the total value of a countrys economic output, divided by its population. A map showing the world distribution of GNP per capita immediately reveals the vast gap between rich and poor nations [see map on page 74].Notice that the great majority of the poorest countries lie in the geographical tropics – the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn. In contrast, most of the richest countries lie in the temperate zones. A more precise picture of this geographical divide can be obtained by defining tropical regions by climate rather than b y latitude. The map on page 75 divides the world into five broad climate zones based on a classification scheme developed by German climatologists Wladimir P. Koppen and Rudolph Geiger.The five zones are tropical-subtropical (hereafter referred to as tropical), desert-steppe (desert), temperate-snow (temperate), highland and polar. The zones are defined by measurements of temperature and precipitation. We excluded the polar zone from our analysis because it is largely uninhabited. Among the 28 economies categorized as high income by the World Bank (with populations of at least one million), only Hong Kong, Singapore and part of Taiwan are in the tropical zone, representing a mere 2 percent of the combined population of the high-income regions.Almost all the temperate-zone countries have either high-income economies (as in the cases of North America, western Europe, Korea and Japan) or middle-income economies burdened by socialist policies in the past (as in the cases of eastern Europe, the form er Soviet Union and China). In addition, there is a strong temperate-tropical divide within countries that straddle both types of climates. Most of Brazil, for example, lies within the tropical zone, but the richest part of the nation – the southernmost states – is in the temperate zone.

Native Sun Themes Of Racism, Violence, And Social Injustice Essays

Native Sun: Themes of Racism, Violence, And Social Injustice In his most famous novel, "Native Sun", Richard Wright successfully develops three major themes: Racism, violence as a personal necessity, and social injustice. He has captured the powerful emotions and suffering, the frustrations and yearnings, the restlessness and hysteria, of all the Bigger Thomas's in this grippingly dramatic novel. Wright shows to us, through Bigger Thomas, how bad things were for the black race. He tells how Bigger was raised in a one?room apartment, living with his family and rats. The rent was very high, and his mother was barely able to pay it. Bigger's education like most blacks at that time , did not exceed the eighth grade. Without the help of the Relief Agency, Bigger and his family may not have been able to keep up much longer financially. Bigger had no money, except for the spare change his mother gives him, so he would usually just hang out at the pool hall, which was in the black district, or southside. Bigger used to pull little jobs with his friends, but all of them including Bigger wanted to pull off a big job, by robbing Blum's store. They were afraid though, of getting caught for robbing a white man. They know the police don't care about blacks, and would probably accuse them of many more crimes. Luckily for Bigger, though, the Relief Agency did find him a job with the Daltons. When Bigger went to the Daltons house for the first time, he brought his gun, because it made him feel equal to the white people. When Bigger got to the Daltons house, he didn't know whether to enter the house by the front or back door. He looks for a way to the back, and realizes the only way in is through the front door. As he rang the doorbell, he felt very disturbed. And when he started talking to Mr. Dalton, Mr. Dalton asks Bigger about his past crimes, which made Bigger feel pressured. Then Mary Dalton walked in and asked Bigger if he was in a union, if he knew about communism, and then still more questions, until her father finally asked her to leave the room. Bigger was afraid that this little brat was going to get him to lose his job. Then he met Peggy, a maid, Who asks Bigger all these questions, like he could understand what she was talking about. Then Peggy showed Bigger the car he was to drive the family in. When He saw the black car, he thought about how the whites own everything. When Bigger meets Miss Dalton, she talks to other people about him while he is standing next to her, like he was the third person. Richard Wright also shows how Bigger is caught up by forces he could neither understand, or control. Bigger found a sense of freedom and identity in acts of violence. Bigger mainly disliked his family because he feels sorry for them. And when Bigger picks on his friend, Gus, it is mainly out of fear of robbing Mr. Plum. When Bigger, Mary, and Jan get drunk, Bigger takes Mary home and accidentally kills her while trying to shut her up so her mom wouldn't know she was drunk. Then, after Mary is dead, and her mom is gone, Bigger shoves Mary's Body in her trunk, and carry's her downstairs. Then Bigger tries to shove Mary's body in the furnace, but her head won't fit. So, he takes the hatchet and cuts her head off, throwing it as well as her body, in the furnace. After everyone found out Bigger had killed Mary, Bigger ran to Bes sie, his girlfriend's, house. When he arrived, he ended up telling her everything that had happened. Bigger, after telling Bessie everything, realizes he can't leave her alone with this knowledge. So, Bigger and Bessie, ran to an abandoned building, where Bigger figured how hard it would be to keep going with Bessie along. Bigger felt he had to kill her to keep her quiet and keep her off his back, so he did. Richard Wright also showed us the social injustice blacks had. When Bigger got caught by the police and was jailed, he received constant harassment. He was faced with a choice of either confess, or else be lynched by a white crowd, which shows the violence of whites towards blacks. At the trial Bigger was tried unlawfully. For instance: When Buckley, the man prosecuting Bigger, tells Bigger

The Problem of Opium in Persia essays

The Problem of Opium in Persia essays The League of Nations has among its many functions, to take over the supervision of international agreements such as the Hague Convention. . At the League's first meeting, an advisory committee on opium and other drugs was set up, with two functions; to collect and analyse information on the drug traffic, and to try to persuade member States to keep the regulations laid down to control it. The information collected, when analysed, revealed that La Motte's strictures had been justified. The Hague Convention was revealed as no more than a string of aspirations. That happend because the League can not have the pretention of creating restraining rules to countries and wait to see how the countries will handle those rules, some nations, for example, had pledged themselves to control the output of raw and prepared opium; but they had been careful not to say how, or when, mostly because they dont have the interest of doing such thing. India believes that opium is something that needs to be regulated, but dont understand what means can be taken to achieve such thing. A fair dabate will be the only way to find answers to this problem, that will not be resolved in the short term. Opium its a important economic factor in countries like China, India and Persia. As we all know, it will be an utopic way of thinking to just abolish opium. We know thats not what the League is proposing but we are afraid that this will be the solution. Besides all of the enconomic and social factors, Indian opium could produce admirable morphine and its decided that we are going to produce much of it to the consumption of the great British Empire and its colonies. Even though India is willing to fight the drug prodution and exportation of the illegal opium. ...

Theories on Theories essays

Theories on Theories essays The question as to whether scientific theories can be shown to be true or false is a complex one. The answer depends on one's interpretation of the meaning of theory. To what does it refer? Is its role to reveal the nature of reality, or is it merely a human construct? In which case what do we mean by truth? Is it an accurate description of reality, or does it simply refer to a successful theory that produces accurate predictions? Duhem attacks this problem from a very strict non-metaphysical standpoint. As a result he shows that we can know nothing about material reality, and indeed very little about the validity of our own theories. In the end it appears that the theoretical framework within which scientists work is more a matter of convention than anything else. In order to determine whether scientific theory can or cannot be proven true we must first understand what Duhem means by scientific theory. He introduces two possibilities as to the nature of a physical (which we can equate to 'scientific') theory (Brittanica Encyclopidia Online). The first being that it is an explanation of the reality lying behind a group of experimental laws (those that are empirically determined). The second is that a physical theory is simply an abstract system to classify and summarize a group of laws. Taking the first possibility (a belief still held by many today we are challanged to look beyond the sensible appearances and find the reality behind them, which cause the sensations we experience. However, this presents us with a problem. We only have access to perceptions so how can we hope to find a physical theory that provides a certain explanation of the reality causing these sensations? A theory can only suggest a reality that would produce all those perceptions on which our experimental laws are based. In that sense it becomes just a hypothetical explanation. A perfect physical theory, as described, aims to explain the reality of the m...

Interview a Family Business Leader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interview a Family Business Leader - Essay Example Q: When was the Liqun established? And who named the restaurant? Xou Liqun: The restaurant was established in 1992. It was named after my father Zhang Liqun who was a former chef at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant chain. Q: How did you get started? For how long have you been running this restaurant? Xou Liqun: I have always been inspired by the way Zhang Liqun worked at the restaurant. During my childhood, I often used to help Zhang Liqun at work; it developed a spontaneous devotion to the field. After the death of Zhang Liqun, I look after the activities of the restaurant. It has been about 10 years since Zhang Liqun passed away, and from that time, I have been supervising the restaurant. Q: Do you have managers and supervisors at the restaurant? A: Well†¦as you know that the restaurant is a small and family owned business therefore, I personally manage and supervise at the restaurant, but we do have assistants and attendants to take care of our valued customers. Q: What is the signature dish of your restaurant? Tell us something about it. A: Roaster Duck is the main specialty of Liqun Restaurant. This is a dish, which is one of the oldest and famous gourmet cuisine of Beijing (Pillsbury). It is known for its shining color, crispy skin and tender meat. Liqun restaurant is famous for providing the best Roasted Duck in town. ... The roasted duck is thinly sliced, served with cucumber, spring onion, pancakes, and a sweet bean sauce. Q: What are your duties and responsibilities at the restaurant as a manager and owner? A: To place orders for meat, vegetables fishes and other grocery, Ensure that everyone is happy and working appropriately, Keep a check on the cleanliness and hygiene of the restaurant, Checking the quality of the food and listen to complaints of customers, Ensuring the working of equipment, Welcoming and chatting with the customer, Making sure that the arrangements and presentations are done properly, and finally, evaluating the feedbacks of the customers and making appropriate changes in the management Q: What is the secret you keep your customers coming in? In your opinion what is your best promotion of your restaurant? A: Well, there is no such secret exactly. I believe that the restaurant is providing the best-roasted duck I the town (Gillham). We have been following the authentic recipe cr eated by Zhang Liqun. The authentic taste and quality of the food is the major attraction that keeps customers coming in. The other main factor is the buzz and the hype that has been observed among the people (Harper, Chen and Chow). Apart of the roasted duck we keep changing our menus with different and innovated dishes. Creativity of the dishes and presentations is the key to successful business. Regarding the successful promotions of the restaurants, on the days when we are closed (Mondays) we have an event of ‘home-style cooking’ session for the chefs. In this event, the chef’s cook different dishes, about 36 guests are invited all around the city including merchandise and other people (Plamer and Richt). Through this, we are

Choose 2 questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Choose 2 questions - Assignment Example The law that I would want reviewed or repealed is the antitrust laws. This is because they need to elaborate to ensure that they make way for the organizations to be accountable. The act has a loophole because competing hospital system can decide to come together and share pricing information meaning that they will impose more money on the patients. However, under the Sherman Act section one it is illegal to raise prices, but when hospital organizations come together to lower prices they cannot be held accountable (Harris & American Bar Association, 2001). Therefore, it is imperative that the federal government corrects that mistake to ensure that the hospital organizations are regulated to ensure that they do not overprice their patients. This is because some of them may not even have the ability to pay for the little that is being asked by the hospital. Additionally, the issue of raising prices because of market dominance is not a role given to the Medicare as they set their prices unilaterally. Case law in the health care system have played a major role as precedents. This is because the federal and state courts have used them as reference to establish whether they have the same legal basis; hence, making it easy for them to solve problems. For example, the case of Roe v. Wade has helped many jurisdiction to determine whether it is morally and ethically right to terminate a pregnancy and at what stage (Hyatt & Hopkins, 2012). This case has allowed the enactment of statutes that have safeguarded and guarantee the equal rights of women. Therefore, without the case law the justice system would delay in finding the correct way to make a ruling. For that reason, it is clear that case laws in the health care system have an imperative role in creating precedents that can be used. In my opinion, the case law that should be

Han Chinese Essay Example for Free

Han Chinese Essay I. Introductory Paragraph Although Han China and Rome shared the same attitudes regarding the importance of public works, with China devising the flood prevention system, and Rome creating the indispensable aqueducts, they had completely opposing views concerning tools used for crafts, with the Roman upper-class viewing such tools as demeaning and the Han China upper-class approving and encouraging such tools, especially after the invention of the mortar and pestle. II. Importance for Public Works A.Water seems to have been the main theme in both Roman and Chinese culture B. Chinese devised an elaborate flood prevention system, and a water-powered blowing-engine and Romans created the aqueducts. C.Romans also had a superb military, which led to the construction of the roads, and the necessity of a courier system. III. Roman views on tools A.Cicero considers crafts as a means of earning a living unsuitable. B.He considers physical labor as beneath and thinks non-material ideas such as language and education are superior. C.The Roman upper-class is of the opinion that tools are not something important and will not benefit the Romans (especially the upper-class) in any way. IV. Han Chinese views on tools A.The lower class, before the first century B.C.E., was allowed to make their own tools, and thus produced excellent tools. After the state â€Å"took over,† the tools made were of inferior quality. B.The document written was written by a government official, which suggests that some people in the government do not approve of the government interference and wish for the older days. C.Around 20 C.E., tools were definitely encouraged in Han China, especially after the invention of the mortar and pestle. V. Conclusion Perhaps, with the inclusion of the views of the lower-class people in both Roman and Chinese documents, it would better help strengthen or weaken the argument regarding the different views concerning tools.

Online Communication Essay -- Internet Web Communication

Online Communication Communication via instant messaging and e-mail is far more effective than using the telephone or post office due to their speed of delivery and ability to simultaneously talk to many people. Instant messenger services have become very popular over the years, and there are currently 180 million registered users for AOL Instant Messenger alone. In some respects, e-mail is even more widespread-- people next door to each other and people across the world keep in touch and even conduct extensive business, simply by sending e-mails back and forth. There are also countless numbers of discussion forums on the internet, on topics ranging from anarchy to zoology. The internet has grown rapidly over the last two decades, and there are now a myriad of internet services available to the general public for free. Anyone with an internet connection can register for an instant messenger account today. As long as a person has the means to get on the internet, there's no limit to what kind of instant messenger accounts they can register for. Ranging from AOL Instant Messenger to Yahoo! Messenger, it is possible to talk to anyone in the world with a computer. With instant messenger services, a person can talk to as many people as humanly possible with ease, while being on the telephone is restricting. When using instant messengers, a person can surf the internet, shop online and even read news articles while talking to as many of their friends as they wish. With the telephone, a person is limited to the amount of people they can talk to unless they are willing to pay the additional fee to talk to another person at the same time. Even then, the conversation is restricted to 3 people, unless the person on the other line is wi... ...n with others simpler and better. Instant messaging is a great alternative to using a telephone because online chatting is capable of simultaneous conversation with many different people. E-mail replaces snail mail because it is able to do things ordinary mail can do with bonus features faster and more efficiently. Using e-mail is also more reliable and secure than sending mail via the post office. Works Cited Daum, Meghan. "Virtual Love." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. New York: Longman, 2003. 254-261. Dyson, Esther. "The Anonymous Voice." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. New York: Longman, 2003. 262-270. Parsons, Russ. "A Shared Sadness." Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. New York: Longman, 2003. 249-253.

History of Education Essay

This essay attempts to discuss the area of childhood through the ages. The concept of childhood was firstly found by a French historian called Aries. Aries studied childhood through the ages but it was argued that â€Å"his thesis under-estimated the nature of childhood within changing household structures of family forms†(Gelis,1986: Stone1974). Aries believed that during medieval society children were no more than little adults. There was no realisation of childhood. They were treat as little adults as soon as they could walk and talk. Between the 15th and 18th Century children became more a sense of amusement for adults, there was no regard for childhood and no understanding of the development of children. The only educational dimension of childhood at this stage was by ‘churchmen or gentlemen of the robe. ‘ This secured control over children’s ‘depravity’ with emphasis on discipline and knowledge of theology, humanities and sciences. This was initially only accessed by the upper classes. During the first decades of the 19th Century Children were used as cheap labour, the period of time was called the industrial revolution. The state at this time could not offer any form of state education, as the huge amount of finance for such a venture was not available. Vain attempts were made to set up parish schools but they came to nothing. Education was not at this point seen as important. Children were forced to worked in poor conditions and work very long hours. They were widely employed in textiles, mining, agriculture and domestic service. The work was traditional, universal and inescapable. The nation needed children to work to keep up with the demands of industry. To have spent public money or enforced children to attend school would have at this time been regarded as an infringements of liberty. It would have been impossible during the early decades of the industrial revolution to keep the economy going and release children for schooling. As industry grew so did the fact that children were not needed as much and adults that could read and write were indispensable. Quote from Robert Lowe ‘it will be absolutely necessary to compel our future masters to learn their letters. ‘ The 1833 Factories Act limited the conditions under which children could be employed. Unfortunately restrictions on employment led to high child vagrancy and unemployment. Many children had nowhere to go and no means of income. Children from the poorer families were often abandoned by their parents, as they were bringing in no income and parents were unable to support them. Children were forced into petty crime or to begging. Effectively the factory children were replaced by delinquent children. (Hendrick,1990,1994) So many children were roaming the streets with no protection and no kind of welfare. They would sleep rough and steal to survive. They led the life of an adult with no authority or guidelines. The number of delinquent children with no home and no care caused an increase to crime and caused panic for authorities. Due to this panic The CHILD RESCUE MOVEMENT was formed, by a lady called Mary Carpenter. Acts were passed by parliament in 1854/1857 to set up reformatories and industrial schools. The need to help the child vagrants was seen as urgent. Reformatories were introduced to provide a type of education for these children. They would have been sixteen years of age or under. These children would have been convicted of a punishable offence and would have been imprisoned had it not been for the emergence of reformatories. The reformatories tried to teach the children of their wrongdoing and educate them to be law-abiding citizens. Industrial schools were provided for the poor children who had taken to begging on the streets and had no home. Many of these children would have been forced to leave home. Their parents could not support them any more because household income was reduced without children’s wages. Reformatories taught of moral correctness. These schools reconstructed the role of childhood and slowly put an end to child labour. Through these two types of schools children were cared for and deprived children were separated from depraved. This would have prevented deprived children from mixing with young criminals and learning new skills from them. Hill, in 1855 wrote that the delinquent ‘is a little stunted man already – he knows much and a great deal too much of what is called life – he can take care of his own immediate interests. He is self-reliant, he has so long directed or mis-directed his own actions and has so little trust in those about him, that he submits to no control and asks for no protection. He has consequently much to unlearn – he has to be turned again into a child’ (in Hendrick, 1990) Both these schools emerge as a response to delinquency and destitution. The re-educating of children helped to re-socialise and teach moral correctness. Schooling has always involved more than just gaining knowledge. A child is socially constructed through school. As the economy grew more money was available and the need to educate more readily acceptable to keep up the growing Empire. The Education Act in 1870 was a major step forward in education as the state took responsibility for educating all able-bodied children from the age of 4 until 11. The school leaving age increased three times between 1870 and 1940. Many rural area’s ignored this age because children were needed in the home or out at work to bring in a wage. Further to the 1870 Education Act and the 1833 Factory Act many more acts were introduced limiting ages for working and making provision for schooling, each Factory Act was an Education Act and vice versa. Schools in this era tended to copy the layout of factories, they would have a vast hall with tiered seating and galleries for the classes. The 1918 Childrens Act increased the leaving age to 14. Again this was ignored and authorities were forced to employ school attendance officers. Parents would be sent warnings and if the children repeatedly were absent from school after the warnings summons were sent and fines issued. In London in the year ending March 1900 28,836 summons were sent out. This dramatically dropped in following years. Many children wanted to work as they were accepted as adults when they earned a wage and their opinions counted. Some children would be made fun of by older working children for going to school. Ref Children, childhood and English Society 1880-1999 – Harry Hendrick. The concept of ‘national childhood emerged’. Children were given back their childhood, child labour was stopped and all were children were entitled to an education. Hendrick noted: ‘There is no doubt that in the last quarter of the nineteenth century the school played a pivotal role in the construction of a new kind of childhood – this construction directly involved all children – and was intended to be inescapable. (Hendrick 1990) During the later 19th century Britain had widening markets, industry was increasing. The state was growing and the importance of the Empire was realised. Children were seen as vital to keep up with the running of the Empire. Children were the ‘Bricks for Empire Building’ (Bean and Melville, 1989) By 1900 ordinary people were given some political power by being given the right to vote.

Determining Operating Systems and Software Applications

Determining Operating Systems and Software Applications BIS/320 Amazon has made a business of selling a variety media types while also making the reselling of the same media an attractive option. What better way to regain in part what you spent on media interests than to resell it and have money to put towards the next interest. As of 2004 Amazon began running the Linux operating system across the board. Amazon then became one of the largest and well known companies running the Linux operating system.As one of the largest ecommerce centered businesses with a large global customer base with high expectations of constant expansion. Currently, it is known that Amazon is running Linux servers â€Å"Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), had close to half-a-million servers already running on a Red Hat Linux variant (Vaughn, 2012). † At this time â€Å"Amazon has never officially said what it's running as EC2's base operating system, it's generally accepted that it's a customized ve rsion of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). (Vaughn, 2012)† In addition Amazon uses Xen hypervisor as host to the Linux system for virtual machines.Solaris; OpenSolaris; FreeBSD and NetBSD and Windows 2003 and 2008 are additional virtual machine instances. The multiple operating services that Amazon is currently using assist with meeting the high demand of users that browse and purchase from their sites. In using their cloud technology, EC2, it is also possible that not all information will be stored at any specific location, but is easily accessible to anyone within the company to access it. With Linux gaining popularity this will ultimately become beneficial to Amazon in their continual global expansion goals.Hardware are electrical mechanisms that is physically connected to your computer such as an electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process, output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer programs or software (Kroenke, 2012). The Amazo n-to-buyer operating system is quite simple and uses a variety of input and output in comparison with various office based business. A difference will be the amount that is actually used verses an output or input device. The individual consumer at home using their computer will initiate the process by registering as a user , followed by inputting heir shipping and billing information which will be stored by the website’s servers. The consumer’s computer is considered the input device and the server is a storage device. Once a purchase has occurred the website will use the stored information to input the customer’s credit card information into a card reader which automatically debits the funds from the customer’s account. Card readers and scanners are widely used input devices (Kroenke, 2012). Most output devices are located at various individual merchants that use Amazon to sell their goods. Each having a database that show pending orders inputted through Amazon.These merchants will use their printers to document the order and locate the desired merchandise. Once the merchandise is located, information is then sent to the shipping department. Versatile shipping options like UPS, Fed Ex, or the U. S. Postal service are available and output devices will print things such as the bill of lading; the inventory of the packaged goods and the shipping labels with the previously entered customer’s shipping information on it. Once delivered, the merchandise is scanned via another input device called a barcode scanner.This information is then relayed to the merchant who reports a successful delivery to Amazon. A confirmation email will be sent to the customer confirming their transaction is complete. If desired the consumer can give their input on the Amazon experience via their home based computer. Amazon’s Founder and Chiefy Executive Office outlines the companies business objectives as: Increase Sales, promote the brand, creat e a loyal customer base and fiscal strength. By expanding each operational goal its gives a better understand on how the operating systems contribute to Amazon’s objective.Sales can be defined as making sure the customer gets what he wants, but also feeding in to the psychology of impulse buying. Impulse purchases can be promoted through an application Amazon employs, called the Dash. When conducting a search for a particular item the results of that search offer not only the item itself, but also similar items. There is also a feature that shows the customer what other customers, who have order this particular item of interest, have also purchased. Promotional brand occurred during Amazon’s Kindle was launched.In 2005 Bezos believed that â€Å"every book ever written in any language will be available (to the enduser) in less than sixty seconds†. (Bezos, 2009). The edict issued that the demarcation between Kindle, the device and Kindle the service be seamless to the enduser. In the four years that followed, sales have exceeded budgetary expectations. The e-mail feedback from customers is strongly positive with 26% of customer e-mails containing the word â€Å"love†. Amazon has positioned itself prominently on search engine sites so a pattern match of only a few letters will bring Amazon to the forefront.Amazon itself has become a search engine of sorts, which many people use for pricing items being considered for purchase. The brand has made Amazon not only a shopping site, but also a reference guide for benchmarking other purchases. Bezos defines customer loyalty as encouraging his staff to be â€Å"obsessed over our customers†. The computer applications used for tracking purchases as well as shipping allows customer service representatives to assist dissatisfied customers and get them to a satisfactory result. References Kroenke, D. M. (2012). MIS Essentials (2nd ed. ). : Pearson Education Thorp J. Feb 99), The Information Paradox, Retrieved from http://www. amazon. com/Information-Paradox-Realizing-Business-Technology/dp Vaughn, S. (2012, March 16). Amazon's EC2 cloud is made up of almost half-a-million servers. ZDNet. Retrieved from http://www. zdnet. com/blog/open-source/amazon-ec2-cloud-is-made-up-of-almost-half-a-million-linux-servers/10620 | Operating Systems| Horizontal-Market Applications| Vertical-Market Applications| One-of-a-Kind Market Applications| Example| Linnux, Eucalyptus(cloud), OpenStack(cloud),EC2 and Red Hat Linux†¦ for starters| | | | Description of how it is used| | | | |Typical user| Amazon draws its users from anyone that can operate a computer and has an internet connection. | | | | Advantages| Easy to use; large amounts of information can be accessed without incorporating mass amounts of storage on a single server with cloud technology; accessibility to data from any location with cloud technology. | | | | Disadvantages| Even though Amazon continues to hire developers b andwidth is still and issue. People lose data. With such a broad base of people with the ability to browse and purchase products it poses a security issue regarding

Product Analysis Clinique 3 Step System Essays - Skin Care, Clinique

Product Analysis Clinique 3 Step System Essays - Skin Care, Clinique Product Analysis Clinique 3 Step System PRODUCT ANALYSIS PRODUCT AND BRAND NAME: Clinique 3-Step System MAJOR FEATURES AND CORRESPONDING BENEFITS OF PRODUCT: Clinique Facial Soap Features Benefits Unique soap formulated to Provides thorough specifically cleanse skin. cleaning and leaves skin comfortable. Cushioned lathering. Mild, gentle to skin. No wax fillers. Easy to rinse off. Hard-milled and generously Long lasting (3-4 months). sized (hard milling renders a A great value. solid bar without air). Clinically formulated by Soap is generally dermatologists. recommended by dermatologists as the best way to clean skin. Clinique Clarifying Lotion Features Benefits Exfoliation, which helps Skin appears smoother, speed the natural renewal softer with more light of skin cells. reflecting qualities. Contains Menthol. Provides a cool, refreshing feeling for the skin. Exfoliation, removes Allows better make-up dead skin cells. application. Make-up goes on smoother and stays on longer. Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion Features Benefits Lightweight formula. Comforts and soothes skin. Replaces lost moisture. Non-greasy formula. Leaves no residue. Penetrates into keratin layer. Replenishes moisture only Skin looks fresher and when needed. healthier. CURRENT ADVERTISEMENTS (MAJOR MEDIA SOURCES AND DOMINANT THEMES): Media Source Theme Mailer (McRaes Dept. Store) Free Gift/ 3-Step System Billboards (Paris Subway) 3-Step System Mademoiselle Magazine (Sept. 2000) Hair Care TOP TWO MAJOR COMPETITORS: 1. Origins 2. Estee Lauder The information was obtained from primary and secondary research. The primary sources were Jennifer Falcon, a Clinique Business Manager and Lori Hinton, a Clinique Consultant. The secondary source was attained from the Estee Lauder website. COMPARE YOUR PRODUCT TO YOUR COMPETITORS PRODUCTS (ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:) Clinique Origins Estee Lauder ADVANTAGES Price $29.50 $55.00 $57.50 Packaging Set Package Separate Separate Variety of Formula 5 Strengths 2 Strengths 1 Strength DISADVANTAGES UV Protection None SPF 15 SPF 15 Alcohol-free Contains alcohol No alcohol No alcohol Oil-free moisturizer Not oil-free Oil-free Oil-free CURRENT AVERAGE PRICE (OR PRICE RANGE) AND LOCATIONS OF SALE: Price = $29.50 Location= All major department stores (Ex: Bloomingdales, Dillards, Lord & Taylor, Macys, McRaes, Parisians, and Saks Fifth Avenue) OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION: The Estee Lauder Companies first launched Cliniques line of skin care in 1968. Cliniques mission has always been to meet individual skin care needs. Its 3-Step System of cleansing, exfoliating, and moisturizing is the basis of Clinique skin care. All Clinique products are allergy tested, 100% fragrance free, and created under the guidance of leading dermatologists. Clinique was the first to offer one-on-one consultations for clients and consultant training. Clinique was the first brand to discuss the need for daily sun protection. In 1973, Clinique became the first cosmetics brand to exhibit at the American Academy of Dermatology Convention. Clinique was one of the first prestige cosmetics brands to launch a website in 1996 and also the first to offer fully interactive shopping online in 1998. CREATIVE WORK PLAN KEY OPPORTUNITY: The research obtained for Clinique 3-Step System was acquired through primary and secondary sources. The primary sources consisted of interviews with a Clinique Consultant and Business Manager. Secondary sources of research were obtained from consultant workbooks, pamphlets published for consumers, and the Clinique website. The opportunity we discovered through our research is to achieve great looks you must have great skin. Clinique products are designed to address individual skin types and needs. TARGET MARKET: Demographics- Gender : Female Age : 13-45 yrs.old Marital Status/Household Size: NA Income : Any Educational Level : NA Occupation : NA Psychographics- Lifestyle : Interest : Concerns: ADVERTISING OBJECTIVE: The specific objective with regards to our ad is for the target market to believe the basis for any great look starts with great skin. Clinique 3-Step System is the answer to achieving it. STRATEGY FOR ACCOMPLISHING OBJECTIVE: To accomplish the advertising objective of great looks and great skin can be achieved with using Clinique 3-Step System, we will create a magazine ad that will be simple yet informative for our target market. The ad will be featured in a variety of magazines directed towards the target market. The magazines are Teen, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, and Ladies Home Journal. CONSUMER RESPONSE STATEMENT: To have a great look and great skin, I need to use Clinique 3-Step. Clinique has a system that is specific to my skin needs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes Character ArtArt is the path of the creator to his work. ChallengeAs long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way. BeliefBelief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief in denying them. CharacterCharacter is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well to think. ArtClassic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance. CommitmentConcentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs. AttitudeCoolness and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. AdventureDo not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. CharacterEach man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well - he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun. ConfidenceEvery man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other people. AmbitionHitch your wagon to a star. CharacterIf you would lift me up you must be on higher ground. CharacterIf you would not be known to do anything, never do it. ChallengeIt was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person: Always do what you are afraid to do. CharacterJudge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams. CharacterMake the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. CharacterNo change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. AmbitionNo one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself. CalmnessNothing can bring you peace but yourself; nothing, but the triumph of principles. CalmnessPeace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. BeliefSelf-trust is the essence of heroism. ConfidenceSelf-trust is the first secret of success. BirthdaySo much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each mans genius contracts itself to a very few hours. AdventureThe invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ArtThe sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly; the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line. AttitudeThis time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it AttitudeTo be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. BeliefTo believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in our private heart is for all men - that is genius. AttitudeTo different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. AmbitionWe aim above the mark to hit the mark. AttitudeWhat lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. CharacterWhat you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. ActionWhat you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say CommunicationWho you are is speaking so loudly that I cant hear what youre saying. CharacterWho you are speaks so loudly I cant hear what youre saying. AmbitionWithout ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. CommitmentYou cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. AttitudeYour own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.

Philosophy- Dualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy- Dualism - Essay Example In the world of religion, there is the persistent visible combat between what is good and that which is evil. In general, the key centre of argument is a belief in existence of two morally opposing links which cannot occur at the same moment. Occurrence of one means the other cannot happen concurrently. One cannot be a male and female at the same time under normal spheres of life. On the other hand, darkness and lights are two scenarios which cannot occur one on top of the other at the same time. In addition, it is impractical to display an active and at the same time passive .No one can be in motion at a stand still. To create an extinct reality, contrast is applied to experience something. These reciprocal interactions are what is referred to as a feedback loop an axis where two antagonizing forces do not oppose each other in occurrence but instead inverse to encourage stability. Active part of every autonomous unit lays a function of its contradictory. For instance, in illness lie s good health, in sadness is passive happiness. This concept applies the basic reality in simultaneous interaction of generally bad or good (Miller 6). Human mind is comprises of more components rather than just the brains. There is a spiritual non-materialist dimension encompassing consciousness and holistic eternal element. To comprehend this concept, an individual should imagine himself being an urn containing the physical body, brains alongside non physical parts like the mind, soul, spirit as the cables connected to urn to enable it perform completely and wholly desired by its owner who is the individual. Just like in a radio, the sound waves are not physical but the radio is just a piece of a thing without well configured waves. In contradiction, materialism concept concentrates only on physical aspects of material and dismisses non-physical parts as vague imagination. If this is true, then dualism is just but a wild imagination. However, in practicality, this cannot be true a s the human mind would completely lack the conscious and non conscious components actively involved in imagination and reasoning. Mind then would be compared to programmed software in a computer operating on manuals like machines (Miller 7). The brain would only reorganize the usual module of operation rather than normal free choice alternating between emotions, desires, will, thoughts and angulating sensations. Materialistic mind would only detect a pre determined program based no more than the edict of nature. With these revelations, dualism seem to carry the day as many scientists have come to accept that the law of science, cannot comprehensively explain the root components of the conscious and sub conscious attachments of human mind. The only response which would be expected from material minds would be machinery response rather than responsibility of behavior as all their action would be directed just by a program based on matter attributes. It would be difficult in that world to even allocated the lowest percentage of trust to our minds that are dependent on matter to carry out its duty. Dualism exist in so many varieties, one being substance dualism and the second variety is property dualism. Substance and property dualisms are but ones way of choosing what things are dualistic about. The third variety of dualism, which is however, the weakest form of dualism, is predicate dualism. This form is possible for the description of

ICD 9 to ICD 10 Regulations and Standards - Benefits and Challenges Article

ICD 9 to ICD 10 Regulations and Standards - Benefits and Challenges - Article Example It was first instituted in the mid 1970’s and is therefore almost forty years old. Along with being outdated, the codes for the older editions are at maximum capacity. Technically, the United States will be almost the last developed country to fully embrace ICD 10, as it had been in use in many countries since 1993. Actually it will be known in this country as ICD 10-CM, due to changes made to the version. The change from nine to ten was also necessitated by the increasing evolvement of informatics. Where edition nine can only utilize 13,600 volumes of code, ICD 10-CM can handle 69,000, an increase of over five hundred per cent (AAPC, 2012). Discussion Besides the added capacity of ICD 10-CM, there are various benefits it offers. First of all, part of the reason for the increased volume is the difference in the size of codes between the two. Nine has no more than five characters and is alpha numeric but only uses E or V (only in digit 1). ICD-10 has up to seven characters and is likewise alpha numeric but the difference is the alpha character can be any letter, first or last position. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2010) defines the benefits (among others) as the ability to have a measurement device for care and efficiency, preventing public health risks (such as communicable diseases), streamlining payment devices, tracking and stopping fraud, and conducting policy and research. The attachments required by ICD-9 to diagnose a patient will also be greatly reduced in ten. With benefits of a new system there are also always challenges involved. First are the financial and resource liabilities payers will face for implementation, as it â€Å"will be a complex and painstaking process† (Thompson, 2011). Another problem for payers and health care staff alike is the training involved, both for the time constraints involved and moneys expended. Like Thompson points out however, training is tantamount, for health Workers entering the wrong codes could be disastrous and also result in delayed payments for their entity. Also, certain private payers such as Workmen’s Comp insurers are not required to transition to ICD 10-CM. So providers will have to face the economic and logistical nightmare of operating two different versions. Actually Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced earlier this year that the deadline for ICD 10-CM has been extended for one year, until October 1, 2014. So hospitals have some breathing room. Cumberland Consulting Group specializes in helping healthcare facilities employ new technologies such as ICD 10-CM. Their Amanda Brenegan in an unbiased report on ten (Herman, 2012) points out over forty per cent of hospitals at least have a plan of implementation and many have already started the laborious process of training physicians and staff. However, she is critical in stating that the training is probably lacking, as most trainees donâ⠂¬â„¢t understand the concept of ICD 10-CM. Another hurdle facing hospitals is having to undergo too many transitions at once. Electronic Health Records (EHR) has already surpassed its October 3, 2012 deadline for incentive payments due to early implementation. In February of this year the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published a roadmap to help with the interaction of ICD 10-CM and the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), which had been adopted by eighteen countries, including the US, Australia and Denmark.

Memorial to Imaginary Choson King Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Memorial to Imaginary Choson King - Essay Example The largest population of Korea comprises of secondary people with the citizens being recognized as the owners of the country, since they influence the future. In this case, discrimination can result to rebel against the king, which may lead to undesired outcomes. Therefore, the secondary status groups act as a buffer between the ruling aristocracy and the numerous numbers of commoners; thus, they are significant for facilitating social stability. Prohibition against Remarriage of Women Marriage has been considered as an affair between two people, which should last beyond the death of the husband. In fact, the Confucians have an emphasis on exclusiveness of marital relationships; the legislators argue that there is need to prohibit remarriage of women, as a custom, during the Koryo. This is a form of discrimination, since there is no sound base for barring women from remarrying after the death of their husband. Moreover, there is the law that constraints the sons and grandsons of wom en, who have been married thrice from attaining a bureaucratic position, taking national examinations and receiving a post in administrative offices. This hinders them from effectively contributing to the economic development of the country. Discrimination can be considered sensitive, given that it is addressed in the State Code of 1485 without a direct outlaw of remarriage in women. In fact, sons and grandsons of remarried women are denied a chance to be eligible for civil military office. Therefore, the law hinders them from involvement in higher or lower civil service examinations. Consequently, it results to legal implications and facilitate the impossibility for remarriages in women. Nevertheless, women who have been remarried twice are not mentioned in this law, since the law is based on the basic law and ritual decorum related to human feelings. Therefore, this law is discriminating against poor women who live without supportive relatives, whereby they have trouble in maintai ning their chastity in a situation of being windowed in their early years. In this case, they are bound to make a decision of marrying for the second time, and there is no harm on ritual decorum. Therefore, laws barring their sons and grandsons from receiving high office should be expunged. Discrimination against Secondary Sons Since the beginning of the dynasty, there was a distinction between the main wife and concubines, which led to severe implications on the social status of the concubine’s sons. Consequently, the sons have been regarded as superfluous member in relation to the main descendant line, since their mothers are in the lower status in the society, which is attributed to being socially despised. They have been barred from examinations and becoming officials due to their personal initiatives; there are structural constrains of lineal consideration because of social imbalances. Barring secondary sons and their descendants from taking civil service examination and attaining a bureaucratic position is not a traditional law in Choson society. In fact, the law was compiled along with the State Code [1485], and since then, the law has been passed for a century. In fact, this form of discrimination has never been experienced in other counties such as China or other territories surrounding Choson society. Nevertheless, the reason behind barring of secondary sons from taking bureaucratic position is inappropriate maternal line in their generations. Consequently, they end up being frustrated and dying in the countryside, whereby their talents end up being wasted to the society. Peasants and Slaves Social differentiation has been accepted by the Confucians, whereby there are four categories comprising of

The Religious Roots of the Festival of Halloween Essay Example for Free

The Religious Roots of the Festival of Halloween Essay Halloween is an extremely enjoyable festival that occurs every year on October 31st. It is mostly celebrated in the United States and Britain and my talk today is associated with the British version of this holiday. Today many people see Halloween as a pleasurable holiday, for both adults and children. The celebrations of the ancient Celts are still evident in modern festivities as you can see from the old traditions still practiced today. October 31st today is a time for dressing up, eating sweets, scaring both ourselves and each other and holding parties. Many people consider it to be their favourite holiday of the year. Modern Halloween is all about dressing children in their favourite costumes, walking from house to house, collecting sweets and treats. Many families also decorate their homes and gardens with cobwebs, skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. However, the true origins of Halloween have become almost unrecognisable in todays celebrations, although they do include many traditions that I will outline.  ·Costuming The Celts wore these to ward of evil entities that were believed to be roaming the earth on that night. They could also be worn in some ceremonies as a symbol of becoming closer to their Gods. Later, when the festival turned to the Christian All Hallows Eve, people were still extremely superstitious and continued to disguise themselves by dressing in costume to confuse the spirits. Today, costumes of modern themes are worn on Halloween by children going trick or treating and by adults seeking fun and amusement. Many parties that are held in honor of this festival are themed and ask for the guests to dress in costume.  ·Trick Or Treating Our modern custom of trick or treating may have originated from several similar old customs. I will just concentrate on one of these, a ninth-century European custom called souling. Children would walk from village to village begging for soul cakes, made out of square pieces of bread with currants. For every cake that a child collected, he or she would have to say a prayer for the dead relatives of the person who gave the cake. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for some time and that a prayer, even said by a stranger, could send the soul to  heaven. Today, children walk from house to house asking for sweets, but not in exchange for prayers.  ·Bobbing For Apples In Celtic tradition, apples were associated with female deities who controlled the ways of love and fertility. This may have had something to do with the pentagram (a star with five points) shape that you see when you slice an apple in half. The pentagram was an important shape for the Celts and it was largely recognised as a Goddess symbol. The pentagram today is still used in fortune telling and spell casting. The apples were used by the Celts in fortune telling in two main ways. The first is where we got the modern tradition of apple bobbing from. It was for young unmarried people, who would try to bite into an apple floating in water. The first person to bite into the apple would be the next one to marry. Peeling an apple was also a way to predict your life expectancy. If you cut off one long peel, you would live to an old age. If you only cut off a small peel, you would die young. Apples are still a big part of Halloween celebrations. In addition to apple bobbing, people also drink apple cider, make candy apples and hand out apples to trick or treaters.  ·Pumpkin Carving or Jack-O-Lanterns Although the Celts would bring home and ember from the communal bonfire in a hollowed out turnip, the direct tradition of jack-o-lanterns dates from 18th century Ireland. As told in a very popular Irish folk tale, the originator of the modern Jack-O-Lantern was a character named Stingy Jack. The story goes that that he convinced Satan to climb up a tree for some apples, and then cut crosses all around the trunk so that the devil couldnt climb down. The devil promised to leave Stingy Jack alone forever, if he would let him down out of the tree. When Jack eventually died, he was turned away from heaven, due to his trickery and life of sin. But, in keeping with their agreement, the devil wouldnt take Jack either. He was cursed to travel forever as a spirit in limbo. As Jack left the gates of hell, the devil threw him a hot ember to light the way in the dark. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, and wandered off into the world. Folk Tradition held that they would ward off Stingy Jack and Other Spirits on Halloween, and they also served as representations of the souls of the dead. Later, when Halloween festivals  were brought to America by the Irish, turnips were replaced with pumpkins which where much more plentiful and easier to carve. People began to cut frightening faces and other designs into their Jack-O-Lanterns, as they still do today. The festivities of modern Halloween are thought to be a combining of two separate celebrations. The first is a pre-Christian Celtic feast associated with the Celtic New Year. The second is the Christian celebration of All Saints Day (November 1st). The Celtic Feast of the New Year was celebrated on what would be November 1st on our calendar. This festival was known as All Hallowtide and was held to celebrate the New Year and would also signalize the close of the Harvest and the initiation of winter. But this Celtic festival was also a celebration to commemorate Samhain, the Feast Of The Dead. It was known as the Feast of The Dead because the Celts believed that on the last day of the year, (October 31st) the souls of the dead could return to their familys homes. It was believed that evil spirits, demons, ghosts and witches were also free to roam around on this night and could be mollified with a feast. These frightening creatures would also leave you alone if you dressed like them and thus appeared to be one of them. The Christian Feast of All Saints transpired as a result of the many martyrs who died for their faith in Jesus Christ due to the persecutions of the Roman State against the Church. The most renowned of these were honored locally by the preservation of their relics and by the celebration of the anniversary of their death, as a feast in honor of their birth into eternal life. At the end of the third century the martyrs became so many that in some places it was impossible to commemorate even the most significant of them. The need for a common feast of all martyrs was becoming evident. Beginning with Gregory III the celebration of a feast of All Saints was commemorated at St. Peters on November 1st. Halloween today is widely regarded as one of the most enjoyable ( if not frightening) festivals of the year.

Immigration in America Essay -- essays research papers

Coming to America†¦Maybe Immigration has been a part of the United States ever since its inception. When Christopher Columbus made his way across the Atlantic Ocean he discovered a land that was almost entirely inhabited. The colonists, essentially the first immigrants to what would be the United States, began to come over group after group until they finally decided that there were enough people living in America that they were a strong enough power to be a separate entity. In 1776 the Americans declared their independence from Great Britain and through the revolutionary war, created the United States. Views from varying sources as well as some insight from North Dakota representatives will be used in order to examine current immigration laws, explain how and why changes should be made, and determine who will be affected by the changes. Early in its history, the United States was often called a melting pot because it was a new nation with no distinctive culture at the time it was established. As immigrants came to the United States, oftentimes they quickly lost their original culture and integrated into the new nation rapidly. Although the United States has been shaped by successive waves of immigrants, Americans have often viewed immigration as a problem. Established Americans often look down on new immigrants. The cultural habits of immigrants are frequently targets of criticism, especially when the new arrivals come from a different country than those in the established community. This type of behavior towards immigrants can be found throughout the nation. When interviewing my district representatives what they were currently doing with immigration laws I received a very common answer from all three of them. They all said that currently they weren’t dealing with any immigration laws because they are usually determined at a national level. Representative Ole Aarsvold said in an e-mail response, â€Å"Immigration is primarily a federal concern but we have had a couple of bills dealing with this issue, very generally, in this legislative session in ND. I will do some research for you.† This led me to open my eyes to the national scope of immigration laws. The United States had no type of immigration laws during its colonial years. Leonard Dinnerstein is a Professor of American History and Director of Judaic Studies at University of Arizona. His Encarta entr... ... Americans declared their independence from Great Britain and through the revolutionary war, created the United States. Views from varying sources as well as some insight from North Dakota representatives were used in order to examine current immigration laws, explain how and why changes should be made, and determine who will be affected by the changes. Work Cited Aarsvold, Ole. â€Å"Re: Thoughts on Immigration.† E-mail to State Representative 22 Mar. 2001. â€Å"American Presidents Talk About Immigration.† American Immigration Law Foundation 1997. 27 Feb. 2001. . Dinnerstein, Leonard. â€Å"Immigration.† Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. 2000. â€Å"Ellis Island Lesson Plan (Immigration).† MSNBC Pencil News. 2000. 27 Mar 2001. . Goldsborough, James. â€Å"Out-of-Control Immigration.† Foreign Affairs. Sept. 2000: 89 Hicks, Chester. â€Å"Remaking the political landscape: how immigration redistributes seats in the House.† Spectrum: the Journal of State Government. Spring 1999: 17. Vialet, Joyce. â€Å"Immigration Legislation and Issues in The 106th Congress.† Migration World Magazine. Sept 1999: 41.

Definitions of biological science Essay

1) Cite 3 definitions of biological science. Why is it significant to include it in your curriculum? a) Science of life b) Transcends such as sciences as chemistry, physics, mathematics and geology c) Study of living things * We can have information’s about the workings of living systems, turning the discoveries into medical treatments, methods of growing food and innovative products. We can learn organic structure, properties and chemical mechanism as we apply biological systems. It will empower us to understand and even predict about living things and other related to science. 2) Analyze the timeline of biology presented and discussed previously. What do you think are the 5 major inventions or discoveries of all time? Prove your point. a) 1961 – Leonard Hayflick demonstrated that a population of normal human fetal cells in a cell culture divide between 40 and 60 times then enter a senescence phase. b) 1970 – Geerat â€Å"Gary† Vermeij, a blind scientist, while studying mollusks in Guam, discovered that predators play a major role in determining how and why specie change. In 1992 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and in 1996 published â€Å"Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life†. c) 1974 – Albert Claude, a Belgium-born biologist, won the Nobel for his work on the sub-structure of the cell. d) 1977 – Robert Ballard and John B. Corliss found unknown creatures thriving on bacteria from that depended on sulfur from volcanic vents. e) 1981 – Lynn Margulis wrote â€Å"Symbiosis in Cell Evolution†. She proposed that three types of prokaryotes fused biologically to create the first living cells with nucleic structures. 3) Name 5 approaches/disciplines that are related to biology and make connections why you consider them related to biology. a) Botany – study the ways in which we can manipulate the growth of plants and genetically alter them for nutritional or environmental benefits. Plants will lead you to study their individual structures, how plants are alike and how they differ, and how to identify and classify plants of all kinds. b) Cell Biology – Cell biology is the sub discipline of biology that studies the basic unit of life, the cell. It deals with all aspects of the cell including cell anatomy, cell division and cell processes such as cell respiration, and cell death. c) Herpetology – the field of herpetology may include studies related to behavior, genetics, anatomy, physiology, ecology, health, and reproduction. d) Integrative Biology – the study and research of biological systems. It does not simply involve one discipline, but integrates a wide variety of disciplines that work together to find answers to scientific questions. e) Physiology – it is a broad sub-field in biology. It may be categorized into animal and plant physiology depending on the organisms described. It determines the relative functions of parts, it crosses another important sub-field in biology. The biological processes and functions of the parts of an organism.

Chapter 18 The Weighing of the Wands

When Harry woke up on Sunday morning, it took him a moment to remember why he felt so miserable and worried. Then the memory of the previous night rolled over him. He sat up and ripped back the curtains of his own four-poster, intending to talk to Ron, to force Ron to believe him – only to find that Ron's bed was empty; he had obviously gone down to breakfast. Harry dressed and went down the spiral staircase into the common room. The moment he appeared, the people who had already finished breakfast broke into applause again. The prospect of going down into the Great Hall and facing the rest of the Gryffindors, all treating him like some sort of hero, was not inviting; it was that, however, or stay here and allow himself to be cornered by the Creevey brothers, who were both beckoning frantically to him to join them. He walked resolutely over to the portrait hole, pushed it open, climbed out of it, and found himself face-to-face with Hermione. â€Å"Hello,† she said, holding up a stack of toast, which she was carrying in a napkin. â€Å"I brought you this†¦.Want to go for a walk?† â€Å"Good idea,† said Harry gratefully. They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall, and were soon striding across the lawn toward the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water. It was a chilly morning, and they kept moving, munching their toast, as Harry told Hermione exactly what had happened after he had left the Gryffindor table the night before. To his immense relief, Hermione accepted his story without question. â€Å"Well, of course I knew you hadn't entered yourself,† she said when he'd finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. â€Å"The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody's right, Harry†¦I don't think any student could have done it†¦they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's -â€Å" â€Å"Have you seen Ron?† Harry interrupted. Hermione hesitated. â€Å"Erm†¦yes†¦he was at breakfast,† she said. â€Å"Does he still think I entered myself?† â€Å"Well†¦no, I don't think so†¦not really,† said Hermione awkwardly. â€Å"What's that supposed to mean, ‘not really'?† â€Å"Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?† Hermione said despairingly. â€Å"He's jealous!† â€Å"Jealous?† Harry said incredulously. â€Å"Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?† â€Å"Look,† said Hermione patiently, â€Å"it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault,† she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. â€Å"I know you don't ask for it†¦but – well – you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous – he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Great,† said Harry bitterly. â€Å"Really great. Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it†¦.People gawping at my forehead everywhere I go†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I'm not teiling him anything,† Hermione said shortly. â€Å"Tell him yourself. It's the only way to sort this out.† â€Å"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!† Harry said, so loudly that several owls in a nearby tree took flight in alarm. â€Å"Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or -â€Å" â€Å"That's not funny,† said Hermione quietly. â€Å"That's not funny at all.† She looked extremely anxious. â€Å"Harry, I've been thinking – you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?† â€Å"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the -â€Å" â€Å"Write to Sirius. You've got to tell him what's happened. He asked you to keep him posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts†¦.It's almost as if he expected something like this to happen. I brought some parchment and a quill out with me -â€Å" â€Å"Come off it,† said Harry, looking around to check that they couldn't be overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted. â€Å"He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell him someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament -â€Å" â€Å"He'd want you to tell him,† said Hermione sternly. â€Å"He's going to find out anyway.† â€Å"How?† â€Å"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet,† said Hermione, very seriously. â€Å"This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the Daily Prophet about you competing†¦.You're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, you know†¦and Sirius would rather hear it from you, I know he would.† â€Å"Okay, okay, I'll write to him,† said Harry, throwing his last piece of toast into the lake. They both stood and watched it floating there for a moment, before a large tentacle rose out of the water and scooped it beneath the surface. Then they returned to the castle. â€Å"Whose owl am I going to use?† Harry said as they climbed the stairs. â€Å"He told me not to use Hedwig again.† â€Å"Ask Ron if you can borrow -â€Å" â€Å"I'm not asking Ron for anything,† Harry said flatly. â€Å"Well, borrow one of the school owls, then, anyone can use them,† said Hermione. They went up to the Owlery. Hermione gave Harry a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink, then strolled around the long lines of perches, looking at all the different owls, while Harry sat down against a wall and wrote his letter. Dear Sirius, You told me to keep you posted on what's happening at Hogwarts, so here goes – I don't know if you've heard, but the Triwizard Tournament's happening this year and on Saturday night I got picked as a fourth champion. I don't who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, because I didn't. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff. He paused at this point, thinking. He had an urge to say something about the large weight of anxiety that seemed to have settled inside his chest since last night, but he couldn't think how to translate this into words, so he simply dipped his quill back into the ink bottle and wrote, Hope you're okay, and Buckbeak – Harry â€Å"Finished,† he told Hermione, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes. At this, Hedwig fluttered down onto his shoulder and held out her leg. â€Å"I can't use you,† Harry told her, looking around for the school owls. â€Å"I've got to use one of these.† Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder. She kept her back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, but she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach. â€Å"First Ron, then you,† Harry said angrily. â€Å"This isn't my fault.† If Harry had thought that matters would improve once everyone got used to the idea of him being champion, the following day showed him how mistaken he was. He could no longer avoid the rest of the school once he was back at lessons – and it was clear that the rest of the school, just like the Gryffindors, thought Harry had entered himself for the tournament. Unlike the Gryffindors, however, they did not seem impressed. The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold toward the whole lot of them. One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this. It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry had stolen their champion's glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory, and that Cedric was one of the few who had ever given them any, having beaten Gryffindor once at Quidditch. Ernie Macmillan and Justin FinchFletchley, with whom Harry normally got on very well, did not talk to him even though they were repotting Bouncing Bulbs at the same tray – though they did laugh rather unpleasantly when one of the Bouncing Bulbs wriggled free from Harry's grip and smacked him hard in the face. Ron wasn't talking to Harry either. Hermione sat between them, making very forced conversation, but though both answered her normally, they avoided making eye contact with each other. Harry thought even Profes sor Sprout seemed distant with him – but then, she was Head of Hufflepuff House. He would have been looking forward to seeing Hagrid under normal circumstances, but Care of Magical Creatures meant seeing the Slytherins too – the first time he would come face-to-face with them since becoming champion. Predictably, Malfoy arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his familiar sneer firmly in place. â€Å"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion,† he said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot of Harry. â€Å"Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer†¦.Half the Triwizard champions have died†¦how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet.† Crabbe and Goyle guffawed sycophantically, but Malfoy had to stop there, because Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt. To the class's horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk. The only good thing about this plan was that it distracted Malfoy completely. â€Å"Take this thing for a walk?† he repeated in disgust, staring into one of the boxes. â€Å"And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?† â€Å"Roun' the middle,† said Hagrid, demonstrating. â€Å"Er – yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Harry – you come here an' help me with this big one†¦.† Hagrid's real intention, however, was totalk to Harry away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts, then turned to Harry and said, very seriously, â€Å"So – yer competin', Harry. In the tournament. School champion.† â€Å"One of the champions,† Harry corrected him. Hagrid's beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows. â€Å"No idea who put yeh in fer it, Harry?† â€Å"You believe I didn't do it, then?† said Harry, concealing with difficulty the rush of gratitude he felt at Hagrid's words. â€Å"Course I do,† Hagrid grunted. â€Å"Yeh say it wasn' you, an' I believe yeh – an' Dumbledore believes yer, an' all.† â€Å"Wish I knew who did do it,† said Harry bitterly. The pair of them looked out over the lawn; the class was widely scattered now, and all in great difficulty. The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor. They looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs- but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control. â€Å"Look like they're havin' fun, don' they?† Hagrid said happily. Harry assumed he was talking about the skrewts, because his classmates certainly weren't; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts' ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet. â€Å"Ah, I don' know, Harry,† Hagrid sighed suddenly, looking back down at him with a worried expression on his face. â€Å"School champion†¦everythin' seems ter happen ter you, doesn' it?† Harry didn't answer. Yes, everything did seem to happen to him†¦that was more or less what Hermione had said as they had walked around the lake, and that was the reason, according to her, that Ron was no longer talking to him. The next few days were some of Harry's worst at Hogwarts. The closest he had ever come to feeling like this had been during those months, in his second year, when a large part of the school had suspected him of attacking his fellow students. But Ron had been on his side then. He thought he could have coped with the rest of the school's behavior if he could just have had Ron back as a friend, but he wasn't going to try and persuade Ron to talk to him if Ron didn't want to. Nevertheless, it was lonely with dislike pouring in on him from all sides. He could understand the Hufflepuffs' attitude, even if he didn't like it; they had their own champion to support. He expected nothing less than vicious insults from the Slytherins – he was highly unpopular there and always had been, because he had helped Gryffindor beat them so often, both at Quidditch and in the Inter-House Championship. But he had hoped the Ravenclaws might have found it in their hearts to support him as much as Cedric. He was wrong, however. Most Ravenclaws seemed to think that he had been desperate to earn himself a bit more fame by tricking the goblet into accepting his name. Then there was the fact that Cedric looked the part of a champion so much more than he did. Exceptionally handsome, with his straight nose, dark hair, and gray eyes, it was hard to say who was receiving more admiration these days, Cedric or Viktor Krum. Harry actually saw the same sixth-year girls who had been so keen to get Krum's autograph begging Cedric to sign their school bags one lunchtime. Meanwhile there was no reply from Sirius, Hedwig was refusing to come anywhere near him, Professor Trelawney was predicting his death with even more certainty than usual, and he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick's class that he was given extra homework – the only person to get any, apart from Neville. â€Å"It's really not that difficult, Harry,† Hermione tried to reassure him as they left Flitwick's class – she had been making objects zoom across the room to her all lesson, as though she were some sort of weird magnet for board dusters, wastepaper baskets, and lunascopes. â€Å"You just weren't concentrating properly -â€Å" â€Å"Wonder why that was,† said Harry darkly as Cedric Diggory walked past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls, all of whom looked at Harry as though he were a particularly large Blast-Ended Skrewt. â€Å"Still – never mind, eh? Double Potions to look forward to this afternoon†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but these days it was nothing short of torture. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins, all of whom seemed determined to punish Harry as much as possible for daring to become school champion, was about the most unpleasant thing Harry could imagine. He had already struggled through one Friday's worth, with Hermione sitting next to him intoning â€Å"ignore them, ignore them, ignore them† under her breath, and he couldn't see why today should be any better. When he and Hermione arrived at Snape's dungeon after lunch, they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. For one wild moment Harry thought they were S.P.E.W. badges – then he saw that they all bore the same message, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage: SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY- THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION! â€Å"Like them, Potter?† said Malfoy loudly as Harry approached. â€Å"And this isn't all they do – look!† He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glowed green: POTTER STINKS! The Slytherins howled with laughter. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message POTTER STINKS was shining brightly all around Harry. He felt the heat rise in his face and neck. â€Å"Oh very funny,† Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, â€Å"really witty.† Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either. â€Å"Want one, Granger?† said Malfoy, holding out a badge to Hermione. â€Å"I've got loads. But don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see; don't want a Mudblood sliming it up.† Some of the anger Harry had been feeling for days and days seemed to burst through a dam in his chest. He had reached for his wand before he'd thought what he was doing. People all around them scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor. â€Å"Harry!† Hermione said warningly. â€Å"Go on, then, Potter,† Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. â€Å"Moody's not here to look after you now – do it, if you've got the guts -â€Å" For a split second, they looked into each other's eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted. â€Å"Funnunculus!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Densaugeo!† screamed Malfoy. Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles – Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy's hit Hermione. Goyle bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up – Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth. â€Å"Hermione!† Ron had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; Harry turned and saw Ron dragging Hermione's hand away from her face. It wasn't a pretty sight. Hermione's front teeth – already larger than average – were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin – panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry. â€Å"And what is all this noise about?† said a soft, deadly voice. Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, â€Å"Explain.† â€Å"Potter attacked me, sir -â€Å" â€Å"We attacked each other at the same time!† Harry shouted. â€Å"- and he hit Goyle – look -â€Å" Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. â€Å"Hospital wing, Goyle,† Snape said calmly. â€Å"Malfoy got Hermione!† Ron said. â€Å"Look!† He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth – she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back. Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, â€Å"I see no difference.† Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight. It was lucky, perhaps, that both Harry and Ron started shouting at Snape at the same time; lucky their voices echoed so much in the stone corridor, for in the confused din, it was impossible for him to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however. â€Å"Let's see,† he said, in his silkiest voice. â€Å"Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it'll be a week's worth of detentions.† Harry's ears were ringing. The injustice of it made him want to curse Snape into a thousand slimy pieces. He passed Snape, walked with Ron to the back of the dungeon, and slammed his bag down onto the table. Ron was shaking with anger too – for a moment, it felt as though everything was back to normal between them, but then Ron turned and sat down with Dean and Seamus instead, leaving Harry alone at his table. On the other side of the dungeon, Malfoy turned his back on Snape and pressed his badge, smirking. POTTER STINKS flashed once more across the room. Harry sat there staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing horrific things happening to him†¦.If only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse†¦he'd have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching†¦. â€Å"Antidotes!† said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. â€Å"You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Snape's eyes met Harry's, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was going to poison him. Harry imagined picking up his cauldron, and sprinting to the front of the class, and bringing it down on Snape's greasy head – And then a knock on the dungeon door burst in on Harry's thoughts. It was Colin Creevey; he edged into the room, beaming at Harry, and walked up to Snape's desk at the front of the room. â€Å"Yes?† said Snape curtly. â€Å"Please, sir, I'm supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs.† Snape stared down his hooked nose at Colin, whose smile faded from his eager face. â€Å"Potter has another hour of Potions to complete,† said Snape coldly. â€Å"He will come upstairs when this class is finished.† Colin went pink. â€Å"Sir – sir, Mr. Bagman wants him,† he said nervously. â€Å"All the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry would have given anything he owned to have stopped Colin saying those last few words. He chanced half a glance at Ron, but Ron was staring determinedly at the ceiling. â€Å"Very well, very well,† Snape snapped. â€Å"Potter, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote.† â€Å"Please, sir – he's got to take his things with him,† squeaked Cohn. â€Å"All the champions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Very well!† said Snape. â€Å"Potter – take your bag and get out of my sight!† Harry swung his bag over his shoulder, got up, and headed for the door. As he walked through the Slytherin desks, POTTER STINKS flashed at him from every direction. â€Å"It's amazing, isn't it, Harry?† said Colin, starting to speak the moment Harry had closed the dungeon door behind him. â€Å"Isn't it, though? You being champion?† â€Å"Yeah, really amazing,† said Harry heavily as they set off toward the steps into the entrance hall. â€Å"What do they want photos for, Colin?† â€Å"The Daily Prophet, I think!† â€Å"Great,† said Harry dully. â€Å"Exactly what I need. More publicity.† â€Å"Good luck!† said Colin when they had reached the right room. Harry knocked on the door and entered. He was in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Harry had never seen before, who was wearing magenta robes. Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fheur were in conversation. Fheur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye. Bagman suddenly spotted Harry, got up quickly, and bounded forward. â€Å"Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come†¦nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment -â€Å" â€Å"Wand weighing?† Harry repeated nervously. â€Å"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead,† said Bagman. â€Å"The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter,† he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. â€Å"She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet†¦.† â€Å"Maybe not that small, Ludo,† said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry. Her hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy-jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile-skin handbag ended in two-inch nails, painted crimson. â€Å"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?† she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. â€Å"The youngest champion, you know†¦to add a bit of color?† â€Å"Certainly!† cried Bagman. â€Å"That is – if Harry has no objection?† â€Å"Er -† said Harry. â€Å"Lovely,† said Rita Skeeter, and in a second, her scarlet-taloned fingers had Harry's upper arm in a surprisingly strong grip, and she was steering him out of the room again and opening a nearby door. â€Å"We don't want to be in there with all that noise,† she said. â€Å"Let's see†¦ah, yes, this is nice and cozy.† It was a broom cupboard. Harry stared at her. â€Å"Come along, dear – that's right – lovely,† said Rita Skeeter again, perching herself precariously upon an upturned bucket, pushing Harry down onto a cardboard box, and closing the door, throwing them into darkness. â€Å"Let's see now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She unsnapped her crocodile-skin handbag and pulled out a handful of candles, which she lit with a wave of her wand and magicked into midair, so that they could see what they were doing. â€Å"You won't mind, Harry, if I use a Quick-Quotes Quill? It leaves me free to talk to you normally†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"A what?† said Harry. Rita Skeeter's smile widened. Harry counted three gold teeth. She reached again into her crocodile bag and drew out a long acid-green quill and a roll of parchment, which she stretched out between them on a crate of Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover. She put the tip of the green quill into her mouth, sucked it for a moment with apparent relish, then placed it upright on the parchment, where it stood balanced on its point, quivering slightly. â€Å"Testing†¦my name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter.† Harry hooked down quickly at the quill. The moment Rita Skeeter had spoken, the green quill had started to scribble, skidding across the parchment: Attractive blonde Rita Skeeter, forty-three, who's savage quill has punctured many inflated reputations – â€Å"Lovely,† said Rita Skeeter, yet again, and she ripped the top piece of parchment off, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into her handbag. Now she leaned toward Harry and said, â€Å"So, Harry†¦what made you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?† â€Å"Er -† said Harry again, but he was distracted by the quill. Even though he wasn't speaking, it was dashing across the parchment, and in its wake he could make out a fresh sentence: An ugly scar, souvenier of a tragic past, disfigures the otherwise charming face of Harry Potter, whose eyes – â€Å"Ignore the quill, Harry,† said Rita Skeeter firmly. Reluctantly Harry looked up at her instead. â€Å"Now – why did you decide to enter the tournament, Harry?† â€Å"I didn't,† said Harry. â€Å"I don't know how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. I didn't put it in there.† Rita Skeeter raised one heavily penciled eyebrow. â€Å"Come now, Harry, there's no need to be scared of getting into trouble. We all know you shouldn't really have entered at all. But don't worry about that. Our readers hove a rebel.† â€Å"But I didn't enter,† Harry repeated. â€Å"I don't know who -â€Å" â€Å"How do you feel about the tasks ahead?† said Rita Skeeter. â€Å"Excited? Nervous?† â€Å"I haven't really thought†¦yeah, nervous, I suppose,† said Harry. His insides squirmed uncomfortably as he spoke. â€Å"Champions have died in the past, haven't they?† said Rita Skeeter briskly. â€Å"Have you thought about that at all?† â€Å"Well†¦they say it's going to be a lot safer this year,† said Harry. The quill whizzed across the parchment between them, back and forward as though it were skating. â€Å"Of course, you've looked death in the face before, haven't you?† said Rita Skeeter, watching him closely. â€Å"How would you say that's affected you?† â€Å"Er,† said Harry, yet again. â€Å"Do you think that the trauma in your past might have made you keen to prove yourself? To live up to your name? Do you think that perhaps you were tempted to enter the Triwizard Tournament because -â€Å" â€Å"I didn't enter,† said Harry, starting to feel irritated. â€Å"Can you remember your parents at all?† said Rita Skeeter, talking over him. â€Å"No,† said Harry. â€Å"How do you think they'd feel if they knew you were competing in the Triwizard Tournament? Proud? Worried? Angry?† Harry was feeling really annoyed now. How on earth was he to know how his parents would feel if they were alive? He could feel Rita Skeeter watching him very intently. Frowning, he avoided her gaze and hooked down at words the quill had just written: Tears fill those startlingly green eyes as our conversation turns to the parents he can barely remember. â€Å"I have NOT got tears in my eyes!† said Harry loudly. Before Rita Skeeter could say a word, the door of the broom cupboard was pulled open. Harry looked around, blinking in the bright light. Albus Dumbledore stood there, looking down at both of them, squashed into the cupboard. â€Å"Dumbledore!† cried Rita Skeeter, with every appearance of delight – but Harry noticed that her quill and the parchment had suddenly vanished from the box of Magical Mess Remover, and Rita's clawed fingers were hastily snapping shut the clasp of her crocodile-skin bag. â€Å"How are you?† she said, standing up and holding out one of her large, mannish hands to Dumbledore. â€Å"I hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizards' Conference?† â€Å"Enchantingly nasty,† said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. â€Å"I particularly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat.† Rita Skeeter didn't look remotely abashed. â€Å"I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a little old-fashioned, Dumbhedore, and that many wizards in the street -â€Å" â€Å"I will be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita,† said Dumbledore, with a courteous bow and a smile, â€Å"but I'm afraid we will have to discuss the matter later. The Weighing of the Wands is about to start, and it cannot take place if one of our champions is hidden in a broom cupboard.† Very glad to get away from Rita Skeeter, Harry hurried back into the room. The other champions were now sitting in chairs near the door, and he sat down quickly next to Cedric, hooking up at the velvet-covered table, where four of the five judges were now sitting – Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; Harry saw her slip the parchment out of her bag again, spread it on her knee, suck the end of the Quick-Quotes Quill, and place it once more on the parchment. â€Å"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?† said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. â€Å"He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament.† Harry hooked around, and with a jolt of surprise saw an old wizard with large, pale eyes standing quietly by the window. Harry had met Mr. Ollivander before – he was the wand-maker from whom Harry had bought his own wand over three years ago in Diagon Alley. â€Å"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?† said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room. Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Olhivander and handed him her wand. â€Å"Hmm†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he said. He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully. â€Å"Yes,† he said quietly, â€Å"nine and a half inches†¦inflexible†¦rosewood†¦and containing†¦dear me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"An ‘air from ze ‘ead of a veela,† said Fleur. â€Å"One of my grandmuzzer's.† So Fleur was part veela, thought Harry, making a mental note to tell Ron†¦then he remembered that Ron wasn't speaking to him. â€Å"Yes,† said Mr. Ollivander, â€Å"yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands†¦however, to each his own, and if this suits you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, â€Å"Orchideous!† and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip. â€Å"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order,† said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. â€Å"Mr. Diggory, you next.† Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her. â€Å"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?† said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Cedric handed over his wand. â€Å"Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn†¦must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches†¦ash†¦pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition†¦You treat it regularly?† â€Å"Polished it last night,† said Cedric, grinning. Harry hooked down at his own wand. He could see finger marks all over it. He gathered a fistful of robe from his knee and tried to rub it clean surreptitiously. Several gold sparks shot out of the end of it. Fleur Delacour gave him a very patronizing look, and he desisted. Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric's wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, â€Å"Mr. Krum, if you please.† Viktor Krum got up and slouched, round-shouldered and duck-footed, toward Mr. Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes. â€Å"Hmm,† said Mr. Olhivander, â€Å"this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm much mistaken? A fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I†¦however†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes. â€Å"Yes†¦hornbeam and dragon heartstring?† he shot at Krum, who nodded. â€Å"Rather thicker than one usually sees†¦quite rigid†¦ten and a quarter inches†¦Avis!† The hornbeam wand let off a blast hike a gun, and a number of small, twittering birds flew out of the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight. â€Å"Good,† said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. â€Å"Which leaves†¦Mr. Potter.† Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand. â€Å"Aaaah, yes,† said Mr. Ohlivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. â€Å"Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember.† Harry could remember too. He could remember it as though it had happened yesterday†¦. Four summers ago, on his eleventh birthday, he had entered Mr. Ollivander's shop with Hagrid to buy a wand. Mr. Ollivander had taken his measurements and then started handing him wands to try. Harry had waved what felt like every wand in the shop, until at last he had found the one that suited him – this one, which was made of holly, eleven inches long, and contained a single feather from the tail of a phoenix. Mr. Ollivander had been very surprised that Harry had been so compatible with this wand. â€Å"Curious,† he had said, â€Å"curious,† and not until Harry asked what was curious had Mr. Olhivander explained that the phoenix feather in Harry's wand had come from the same bird that had supplied the core of Lord Voldemort's. Harry had never shared this piece of information with anybody. He was very fond of his wand, and as far as he was concerned its relation to Voldemort's wand was something it couldn't help – rather as he couldn't help being related to Aunt Petunia. However, he really hoped that Mr. Ollivander wasn't about to tell the room about it. He had a funny feeling Rita Skeeter's Quick-Quotes Quill might just explode with excitement if he did. Mr. Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry's wand than anyone else's. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition. â€Å"Thank you all,† said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges' table. â€Å"You may go back to your lessons now – or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end -â€Å" Feeling that at last something had gone right today, Harry got up to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat. â€Å"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!† cried Bagman excitedly. â€Å"All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?† â€Å"Er – yes, let's do those first,† said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. â€Å"And then perhaps some individual shots.† The photographs took a long time. Madame Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever she stood, and the photographer couldn't stand far enough back to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee around his finger to give it an extra curl; Krum, whom Harry would have thought would have been used to this sort of thing, skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. The photographer seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front, but Rita Skeeter kept hurrying forward and dragging Harry into greater prominence. Then she insisted on separate shots of all the champions. At last, they were free to go. Harry went down to dinner. Hermione wasn't there – he supposed she was still in the hospital wing having her teeth fixed. He ate alone at the end of the table, then returned to Gryffindor Tower, thinking of all the extra work on Summoning Charms that he had to do. Up in the dormitory, he came across Ron. â€Å"You've had an owl,† said Ron brusquely the moment he walked in. He was pointing at Harry's pillow. The school barn owl was waiting for him there. â€Å"Oh – right,† said Harry. â€Å"And we've got to do our detentions tomorrow night, Snape's dungeon,† said Ron. He then walked straight out of the room, not looking at Harry. For a moment, Harry considered going after him – he wasn't sure whether he wanted to talk to him or hit him, both seemed quite appealing – but the lure of Sirius's answer was too strong. Harry strode over to the barn owl, took the letter off its leg, and unrolled it. Harry – I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted – we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure that you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd ofNovember? I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbkdore's nose. Be on the watch, Harry. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd ofNovember as quickly as you can. Sirius