Wastewater Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Wastewater Management - Essay Example Considering the sewer systems, earlier sewer systems were combined. They were designed to enable the collection of sanitary and storm wastewater in a single system. As such, they prevented flooding by warding off water from roofs and streets. As a result, early sanitarians concluded that the combined systems did provide adequate health protection. In recent times, this is known as Attached Growth Processes. Wastewater passes over a media along with air (oxygen). Methods like trickling filters and biotowers are effective in removing biodegradable organic wastewater materials. However effective these methods are, the passage of organic matter over oxygen releases some pollutants like poisonous gases like Ammonia and infectious micro-organisms that contaminate the water causing deadly diseases. There are advanced tertiary methods like the addition of chemical to primary clarifiers as a way of removing phosphorus and nitrogen. However, this is viewed as advanced treatment method hence em ployed when some specific wastewater constituents cannot be removed. An example of an advanced method is the Bardenpho-plant that involves the passage of Ammonia gas through several zones (Assano, 2007).

Merchants of Cool Essay Example for Free

Merchants of Cool Essay In watching the film, Merchants of Cool, which was aired in 2001, it is quite concerning how our society is turning to consuming as a means of achieving a satisfying standard of living. The film brought to light how large media companies, especially conglomerates that own all production and distribution of media from start to finish, study and sell to teen youths because of their large quantity of â€Å"guilt money†, disposable income giving to youth by parents to keep them happy. They have become the most marketed group, which in turn turns the youth into adults that continue to seek happiness in consuming. The fear in this standard of living is that we start losing touch with our true values, and instead of looking towards family, community, ethnicity and religion as the creator of cultural forms, we are now being oriented as a society by the world of commodities. And with the advancement of technology, so has marketing research advanced, where we are being specifically being catered to with ads to continue this cycle of finding meaning and happiness through the purchase of goods and services. Advertisers know that they cannot sell meaning and happiness, but they can illicit those feelings by advertising visions of what a â€Å"good life† should be through the selling of products, known as **image-based advertising**. Sut Jhally’s article, Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture, explains how image-based advertising has been so integrated into our way of thought and consumption that it is difficult to pinpoint when our most cherished values became tied into consumer culture (p 201). Advertisements have taken up so much of our public space and discourse, and now even our private with the advancement of technology, that we are constantly being shown what the vision of happiness is, and what we must buy to achieve a satisfying standard of living. Juliet Schor’s article, The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need, breaks down the idea that Americans live in a constant state of **dis-ease**: worrying about the preoccupation with getting and spending (p 205). Not only is this disconcerting because it takes away from living in the moment, but it pushes us to live beyond our means. We aren’t happy because we do not emulate what we see as the â€Å"good life† because of the growing aspirational gap because of upscale emulation. We are never at ease where we stand economically and socially, and feel the pressures to keep up. And although this is a problem with the upper and middle class, it is a more dangerous problem for the lower class. The trickle effect of status symbol goods, such as state of the art phones, flat screen televisions, etc. , sets up those with limited resources and aspirations of living the â€Å"good life† by buying those goods for continual financial failure through consumption of expensive goods that is beyond their means. The film, The Merchants of Cool, aired in 2001, and the way that companies acquired information from the consumer was with â€Å"cool hunters†, marketing researchers who would research and interview to see what trends could be capitalized on. The analyzing was apparent, as opposed to now where consumers are being researched and targeted in ways that are more subtle, and now advertisers have the tools to more conspicuously sell us the â€Å"good life†. On the radio interview â€Å"How Companies are ‘Defining Your Worth’ Online†, Joseph Turrow discussed how marketers don’t even have to do much to gather information from us, they can now track our online movements using digital tracking like cookies. This information is gathered and sold to advertisers by data marketers, unbeknownst to us. Market research has evolved so much because of the growing digital world we live in. And advertisers are now able to subtly sell to us in a personally targeted way, instead of the blatant in your face banner ads that we would automatically close without even reading them. Although this is perfectly legal, the downfall falls on the consumer that is being researched and targeted. Our sense of consumption is insatiable when we are constantly being targeted, we lose a sense of privacy when we are constantly being watched, and, as Joseph Turrow also discussed, and we can also be targets of **digital social discrimination**. Digital social discrimination, which is the idea that companies can take digital information and make inferences of what kind of ads are suitable for the individual consumer, they target only certain ads, discounts, and such (2012). Advertisers then think of that individual only in a certain way, and may even target ads that may have negative connotations, such as getting out of debt ads, weight loss, and such. Consumers are being categorized, and because of the categories they are being targeted by certain ads, which perhaps sell a good that is not appropriate, and denied others because of assumptions being made by the online information gathered on that individual. This is why it is important to have some sort of regulatory system overseeing the structure and ownership of media. U. S. government plays only a small role in determining who owns the media, and only regulates it minimally, and the power of the U. S. media that uses the market research to produce products reaches us not just here in the United States, but also has a global impact. Because of the United States’ **cultural imperialism**, where American styles in fashion and food, as well as media far, dominate the global market, our versions of the â€Å"good life† are influenced on parts of the world, as discussed in Richard Campbell’s â€Å"Media Economics and the Global Marketplace†, (p 411). Our ‘cultural dumping’ of exporting U. S. media can influence other countries societal value systems, development of original local products, and abandon their own rituals to adopt American tastes. In reality, the power behind these large media researchers, marketers, producers, and distributors, who are often the owned by the same company, is astounding and influences not only our lives as an individual, but also has the potential to influence on a global level. They are able to gather information about individuals, sell it, and categorize as they see fit, leaving us with no sense of privacy, with the goal of selling us as many goods and services as possible until we reach the unattainable â€Å"good life†, which is a vision that they have carefully created. Until we, as consumers, are more aware of how much consumption has taken over our sense of self-worth and satisfaction and how little privacy we have in the new digital age, we will keep trying to buy the â€Å"good life†. ?

Reading Aloud: Challenges and Solutions

Reading Aloud: Challenges and Solutions This assignment is my guide to the final step of my dissertation. In this assignment, I will discuss in details about what I will do for my dissertation. First, I will discuss my topic and why I have chosen, it and I will indicate my research questions and sub-questions. Next, I will identify key areas I need to read about and I will summarize 11 books and articles that give useful theoretical background for my research. The topics I am interested include define reading, then the process, models, methods of teaching reading, strategies readers use and the miscue analysis in relation to reading strategies. This second section will help me build the literature review for my dissertation. Finally, I will describe my research procedure and research methods I am going to use. Section one: My topic and why I chose it My topic is about problems my pupils have in reading aloud and find ways of improving my pupils reading aloud. I have chosen this topic because in my experience as a teacher I faced and taught different kinds of pupils from different levels, I have found that most of them have problems in reading, particularly reading aloud. Some of them are good in reading aloud but have many do substitute other words, have omission of words or letter-sounds while reading. This could be due to lack of sight vocabulary, lack of phonic skills, lack of strategies for reading. Some of them cant produce a single word. I discovered that pupils were learning nothing if they could not read aloud. My pupils who cannot read aloud have general difficulty in decode any reading text successfully. I believe my research is important because reading aloud is very important for my pupils in grade 9, which is closer to the final school leaving examinations in grade 12. I hope it may able me and my colleges to find the diagnoses to help the participants and in future to help all my pupils with their reading problems . In my research I wil try to analyze and describe their miscues in reading aloud according to their levels good, average and week. That time I couldnt do any thing about it because I didnt have the experience to help them. After I joined the B.A course and studied EDUC 2031 TEYL, EDUC2033 Initial Literacy, EDUC2028 Language learning from these modules I realized the nature of young learners how do they learn, how do they acquire new language and how to teach reading to young learners. As I understood the older ways of teaching reading focused on letters and words and how to say them, all language books are concerning on that view only. The new researches showed a different view which rely on development of all language skills so, because reading in a second language is seen as a thinking exercise thats not only concerned on reading words, sentences and pages only but it is on developing language as a whole. Reading is the main reason to build the personality of a person as I mentioned before and it is the main thing that teaching and learning stands on because it is a communication way between the learner and the academic culture in the schools . I would like my pupils to be able to use reading for study, for pleasure , to understand and to interact with what they learning. My pupils are in grade 9 of general education school at the age of 14 years old with different ability levels. They have been studying English for five years only using Our World Through English. They started leaning English from grade 4. In addition, they are similar in many things such as pupils environment, strengths and weakness areas they have. I decided to do research for my dissertation where I will focus on finding the difficulties my pupils face in reading aloud and helping me find ways to improve my pupils in reading aloud. Although my research will focus on reading aloud, from my experience a pupil cannot read aloud well, he can have little or no comprehension when he read silently. My research question is: How can I develop the reading aloud abilities of my grade nine pupils?. My sub-questions will be: What miscues my good pupils and weak pupils make when reading aloud? Based on my miscue analysis, what reading strategies do my good pupils and my weak pupils use when reading aloud? What reading strategies can I encourage my pupils to develop to improve their reading? In my research the subjects will be six pupils from 2 of them are good , the other 2 are average and the last 2 are weak pupils) (785 words) Section 2 Summaries of relevant literature The key areas I will need to read about for my research are: reading process models of reading Methods of teaching reading. reading strategies miscue analysis How miscue analysis can be used to identify the reading strategies that pupils use and the errors they make. In this section I discuss 11 books / articles that I want to use for my dissertation because they will help me to develop my understanding of issues related to my research. The aspects that are relevant to my study are summarized below. Urquhart and Weir(1998) Urquhart and Weir discuss three models of reading and I will state them here : Bottom up approach. They say this analyses begin with the stimulus, i.e. the text, or bits of the text. They say that in Goughs (1972) model, the reader begins with letters, which are recognized by a scanner. The information thus gained is passed to decoder, which converts the string of letters into a string of systematic phonemes, then word, then sentence then text. So bottom-up models are sequential in that one stage is completed before another is begun. Top-down approaches. Since bottom-up models starts with the smallest text unit, either letters or letter features, we could expect, then, that top-down models begin with the largest unit, the whole text. According to Urquhart and Weir for top-down model of reading, readers first use their background knowledge to help them make a sense from the text. So for top-down approaches background knowledge is very important. Interactive approach. In interactive models (Urquhart and Weir refer to Rumelhart, 1977), there is no regular sequence from top to bottom or from bottom up. They quote Stanovich the best known proponent of interactive models, that in interactive models a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several source (1980:35). So in interactive approaches reader uses both small text units and background knowledge to make sense out of a text at the same time. Urquhart and Weir describes reading strategies to be a conscious response to difficulties in the text while reading action selected deliberately to achieve goals (Is this a Quotation?). Aebersold and Field (1997) Aebersold and Field also have sections on models of reading (bottom up , top down and interactive). They also focus on the readers experience in learning how to read and the ways reading fits into their lives. They give five common influential sources for information that affect reading development, particularly family, the community and the school influence. They mention that despite relatively small size, a family can foster a variety of experience that affects a childs reading development. They say that the community influence provides readers with a set of varied life experiences that also shape their individual knowledge. Thirdly the school can bring children into contact with communities other than their own or they can be homogeneous institution that reflect shared values. This is interesting because in Oman children learn English without much support from the family or the community and school does not bring child in contact to many other communities. Riley (1996) This article has a section on models of reading (bottom up , top down and interactive). The author discusses how schema theory describes the process by which readers combine their own background knowledge with the information in a text to help them comprehend that text. All readers carry different schemata (background information) and these are also often culture-specific. This is an important concept in ESL teaching, and many books have pre-reading tasks that are designed to build or activate the learners schemata. The author also highlights some of the limitations of the use of the schema-theory approach and points out the importance both of developing the learners vocabulary and of encouraging extensive reading. (This sounds as if it is copied. Beware plagiarism, Saif.) Wray and Medwell (1991) This article focuses on reading process , models of reading and approaches to teaching reading. In reading process, they mentioned that reading is a highly complicated process, and there are a number of insights and concepts that the successful reader must develop. In models of reading, they discuss bottom-up models, top-down models, and interactive models and they strongly criticize the bottom up model. They also have a section on teaching reading approaches look and say, phonic methods of teaching reading and language experience approach. I discuss these under Graton and Spratt (1998) below. Graton and Pratt (1998) This book have useful sections on methods of teaching reading (whole word , phonics , language experience ) the methods teachers can use to teach pupils how to read. Most teachers use these methods to help their student in reading , sometimes they chooses one of these methods but some teachers work on two or more because they think each method is completed by the other. The phonic method as widely used from the language teachers to teach reading and writing in the English for second language learners. It is relies on children being taught the alphabet first. Then they learn to pronounce the sounds of the letters . However it is difficult to depend only to phonics because English is not a regular spelling language. The second method is look and say or whole word method. Here pupils learn to recognize whole words or sentences rather than individual sounds. The pupils will look at a word which the teacher sound, often with a picture, and in turns will repeat the word. The problem is that it does not teach children to work out new words for themselves. The context support method can be used when the pupils are just learning to read and it is important to choose exercises or activities that really interest them. If the pupils like cars, choose an activity or exercises with pictures and simple words about cars. This will keep their interest and they will enjoy learning with the teach. OMalley and Valdez Pierce (2001) OMalley and Valdez Pierce give a useful part about miscue analysis (p 124-5). They say it involves listening to a student reading aloud and recording the miscues. In types of miscues, they mention repetitions, substitutions, insertions, omissions and self-corrections. They also recommend the teacher must get the student to answer reading comprehension questions. They say miscue analysis can provide information about (1) the readers ability to use language and the reading process (2) it can be used for assessing reading, the readers approaches to reading and reading comprehension (3) information for revising approaches to teaching reading, how it can be used by teachers effectively to improve their learners reading. This book has useful lists of reading strategies (p 121-123) and suggest how miscue analysis can be used to identify reading strategies readers are using. The authors talk about reading in the native language then reading in second language, which I am interested in. The writers said that learners who do have native language literacy skills might not know how to transfer their skills to the second language without specific strategy instruction. Carter and Nunan (Eds.) (2001) Carter and Nunan (Eds) (2001) define reading strategies as Ways of accessing text meaning which are employed flexibly and selectively in the course of reading. In teaching, attention is paid to the manner in which the reader is able to draw effectively on existing linguistic and background knowledge. They list the good reading strategies that learners use to help them read in a very efficient way, to get maximum benefit from their reading with minimum effort. These include drawing inferences, predicting and using information in the text such as pictures. They also discuss miscue analysis in relation to reading strategies: As they say, miscue analysis refers to the study of the text alterations conducted by the subject while the pupil reads the text and would be very impossible without reading aloud. Carter and Nunan (Eds) (2001) assert that for early readers miscue analysis can be used by teachers to assess the quality and quantity of learners errors in their processing of text. First, this is especially useful for L2 learners who because of their interlanguage system may show systemic syntactic and phonological departures from Standard English. In addition, they argue that miscues will be based on learners current interlanguage rather than because of misunderstanding the text. Wallace (2001) p26 in Carter and Nunan (2001) Wallace discusses miscue analysis and she focuses on how miscue analysis can be used for early readers to assess the quality and the quantity of learners errors. Beard (1987) Beard has a section on miscue analysis and methods of teaching reading (whole word , phonics , language experience). The author focuses on miscue analysis and gives some models of how to use miscue analysis to develop pupils reading and how miscue analysis can fulfill an important diagnostic function of a kind not readily offered by other more established means of reading assessment. Cameron (2001) The author has sections on reading strategies , models of reading (bottom up , top down and interactive) , methods of teaching reading(whole word , phonics , language experience ) and discusses how miscues can help the teacher identify the reading strategies a reader is using . The author gives an example from her experience of reading with a little Malaysian girl. The author mentioned that she had introduced her to the strategies such as: With the word bar, I pointed to the first letter , the sound of which she knew, and then she managed to sound out the word. With the word rather I just told her the word and did not spend any time on it , because it was not crucial to the meaning of the story and is not a particularly useful word to learn at her stage. ith the word meals I told her the word and then explained the meaning as the story progressed and the heroine moved from break fast to tea. When she came to watching TV she said washing . From this miscue I could see that she was making a good attempt at the word and had noticed the initial consonant and the final rime. www.mindtools.com/pages/articals/ According to www.mindtools.com/pages/articals/ miscue analysis refers to the study of text alterations made by the subject while s/he reads the text aloud. They summarise the research of Clay, Goodman and Weber (Davies 1995, p13) and they give a useful list of types of miscues. They say that the alterations often made by a reader are: Substitution (another word is pronounced instead of the printed word) Self-correction (the reader realizes his/her mistake and corrects by him/herself.) Repetition (the printed word is repeated orally) Omission (a word is missed from the text) Insertion (a word not in the text is added by the reader) Reversal (the word order gets changed or inverted) Hesitation (the reader pauses or makes a sound indicating hesitation) A long pause. The article also relates the miscues to approaches. It says that if a reader shows more hesitations, long pauses and self-correction, this shows a bottom up approach with the reader giving most attention to pronouncing the printed words. If a reader shows more miscues such as omission, insertion, reversal and substitution, this shows a more top-down approach where the reader is paying attention to the meaning of the whole text, not reading word by word. (Check this is not plagiarized. Can you give authors?) (1,910 words) How I will investigate my research question As discussed above, my research question will be How can I develop the reading aloud abilities of my grade nine pupils ? My Approach: For my approach and method, I read Blaxter, Hughes, Tight, (2000), Cohen, Manion, Morrison (2000), Nunan (1992). For my research approach, I will use an action research approach enabling me to investigate my own pupils over a period. Action research grows from the idea that a good teacher is one who reflects on what happens in the classroom à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" possibly with a view to changing it. (EDUC3079 session3). My Method For my research I will plan to use miscue analysis and interviews. The miscue analysis will provide quantitative data and the interviews will provide qualitative data. I will select a text from the course book which is not familiar to my pupils , I will let them each to read aloud this text , I will record them while reading , then I will use miscue analyses to help me analyse their mistakes. Finally I will interview each pupil, I will ask questions to to assess their comprehension of the text, to get them to tel me what strategies they used to work out the meanings of some words and to try to find out why they failed to read certain words correctly. The research Procedure My research will include an unknown reading text from the OWTE course book that the six pupils will read it in order to have effective and organized results for my research question. This text from the course book OWTE that I think will be not familiar for the pupils because I gave it to them for the first time (See the appendix). First I will use pre-reading questions to prepare each pupil for the reading. Pre-reading is a way of sampling where the students are familiar to the content that you are going to give them. It is a useful strategy for beginning with a class, especially when classes contain students with mixed abilities coming from a diversity of backgrounds. Then each pupil will read the text and I record it. Then I will note down all the miscues. Finally I will interview them to examine their understanding, to assess their comprehension of the text, to get them to tel me what strategies they used to work out the meanings of some words and to try to find out why they faile d to read certain words correctly. My Expectations: I expect some problems, and here I discuss how I will overcome them: Miscue analysis, I cannot assume that any two pupils will have the same miscues. In addition, anxiety may cause artificial results. To overcome these problems, I will choose six pupils from different levels. I will try to get them relaxed, so I will tell them about the reason for my research, and I will do the recording in a quiet place, so we are undisturbed. Pupils may feel boring from doing reading every time, so I must prepare a good situation for them to feel comfortable. The main problem I think it is the time. These kinds of studies should not used in a short period because the researcher need to try many ways to investigate his pupils and his study in order to collect a valid, reliable data. Conclusion: The EDUC 3079 helped me a lot on finding solutions for many problems that I will face in future in my life as a teacher to help my pupils to reach the successes in their life as students. I learned how to read a lot and how to use the linguistics theories to help my pupils and to learn and discover the problems. The use of miscue analysis is a very useful way to solve pupils weaknesses in reading because it is allows me to focus on the problem it self , and how to deal with each problem individually.

We Need Hate Crime Legislation Essay -- racism, prejudice

Hate crime is one of the biggest issues many people face today. Whether or not they should be legislated against has been highly debated and continues to be a hot topic. This essay will explain the ideas and opinions of several authors including Charley Reese, Michael Lieberman, Helen Dodge, Gregory S. Parks, Shayne E. Jones and Samuel Francis. It will also elaborate on the topic of why hate crimes should be legislated against, with supporting information. The phrase â€Å"hate crime† is generally referred to as a criminal act against a person, a group, or property because of one’s race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation (Civil Rights- Hate Crimes- Overview). A person who experiences a hate crime may be threatened, harassed, physically harmed, or even killed. In order to ensure protection, laws have been established by society against those who commit hate crimes. There is a lot of debate among the general public about laws that should not punish people more harshly based on the motivation of their crime; instead, a criminal should only be punished for the crime committed. However, the motive behind a crime is often more significant than the crime itself. For example, if a black family moves into an area where the majority of the people are white and a group of white teenagers vandalize the property, they would be charged with vandalism. However, if after vandalizing the property they spray paint the word â⠂¬Å"nigger† on the garage door, they would most likely be found guilty of some sort of racial hate crime involving vandalism. While both of these actions are considered crimes, the motive behind the racial crime should be taken into consideration when the punishment is issued. One might say that the motive was ... ...on | Education Book Publishing | Academic Textbooks. Web. . â€Å"Hate Crime† Laws Change the Law (Francis 141 & 142) Keyes, Jere. "Hate Crime Legislation: An Essay | Blind Prophecy." Blind Prophecy | Jere Keys Online. 11 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . "About Hate Crimes." Homepage. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . "State Hate Crimes Laws." Human Rights Campaign. 1 June 2009. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. "List of Hate Crime Laws." Homepage. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . "Declaration of Independence." National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. .

Actions And Behavior Of The President Essay -- essays research papers

Actions and Behavior of the President The broad language of the second article of the Constitution left many questions about the power and authority of the President and the Executive branch of the Federal Government. Since George Washington, each Chief Executive has come to the position with different beliefs on the responsibility and power of the President. However the performance of the president is often shaped by outside factors which control how he must act as a Chief Executive. The behavior of presidents come from a number of different criteria. A president's personal character, his approach to the position and circumstances during his term all contribute to presidential behavior. Presidents have approached the office from two vague positions. They have believed, to varying degrees, that either the president has a strong leadership position and broad powers to direct the nation in one direction, or that the president has very limited powers dictated by the Constitution and should act like a chief administrator for the Federal Government. These beliefs were reflected in their behavior while in the White House. Franklin Roosevelt believed that the Federal Government had an obligation and interest in bringing the nation out of the depression. In order to do this he initiated a number of agencies and projects to employ people. In the first "Hundred Days" of Roosevelt's first term he initiated a number of programs which increased the size of the Federal Government and the power of the President. He did all that he could to see that his proposals were put into place. This included a failed court packing scheme to have a more friendly Supreme Court to find his programs constitutional (Lowi and Ginsberg 230.) In contrast to this belief in broad presidential authority by Franklin Roosevelt was Howard Taft. Taft believed that Presidential authority was very limited the constitution and had to be specifically granted to the President by Congress or the Constitution (Lowi and Ginsberg 220.) Another example of a passive approach to the presidency to is George Washington. While he is often seen as a very influential president, his position as the first President require that he had to set many standards. In fact President Washington hoped that the presidency would not be dominate. In his inaugural address he argued for a strong legislature which he r... ...t must deal with, it does not necessarily explain how he comes to a position on issues and deals with problems. The behavior of a President can only be explained as a combination of many factors. His personal politics and approach to the power of the Presidency will explain if he will try to lead the whole government and beyond that the whole nation, or if he will act as a clerk, putting into action the orders of Congress. A Presidents character and style of leadership are an important factor in his approach to leadership. The size and duty of the Federal Government also effect a President's behavior and the priorities of his office. Finally a President must react to events at home and abroad which are out of his control. The pressures that these events and the public reaction to them probably have the greatest influence over his behavior and decisions. Actions and behavior of a President are the result of a complex set of circumstances. No one criteria can be used to explain the behavior of the president in any event. Explaining actions on the basis of one criteria is futile and should be reserved to talk radio hosts.

Biography of Ogden Nash Essay -- Papers

Ogden Nash was born on August 19, 1902 in Rye, New York and was raised there and in Savannah, Georgia. He received his education from St. George’s School in Rhode Island and he also attended Harvard University. His first published poem "Spring Comes to Murray Hill" was featured in the New Yorker Magazine in 1930. He subsequently joined the staff of the New Yorker Magazine in 1932. Throughout his career he published a total of nineteen books of poetry before his death on May 19, 1971. He manipulates the English language to fit in his poems to male jokes and keep his audience entertained. Nash says he gave up hope of becoming a serious poet and decided that it would be better to be a good bad poet than to be a bad good poet. Ogden Nash employs the use of humor and light hearted verse to talk about relationships, parenting, and life in general. Relationships were one of Ogden Nash’s most written about subjects. Relationships are a hard subject to write fun poetry about, but Nash makes it work like a charm by using funny generalizations and making them rhyme. He can do this like no other with any voice he feels needed. He uses serious, silly, and sincere tones in his work relating to relationships. In one poem in particular â€Å"u of an Ode to Duty† he tells about the confusing ever confusing relationship between men and women, and seems to take no obvious side in the matter. â€Å"On some occasions he writes in conventional modes, which means dropping the playful and the lightly satirical to write the pure lyric or to add a didactic note to the prevailing humorous tenor of his verse,† (Louis Hasley,2). Many of his poems about this topic are written with a personal feel, reading them makes you feel as... ... which he views on a daily basis. â€Å"The expression of wisdom, the incongruous sound effects, the comic deflation, all serve to endear the poet-fool to his audience,†(George Crandell,3). Through viewing Nash’s poetry I have learned that there needs to be a voice like his out in society to comment on nonsense, otherwise we would lose touch with our senses of humor. Works Cited Crandell, George W. Studies in American Humor, Vol. 7, 1989, pp.94-103. http://www.galenet.com/servelet/LitRC/ (10/26/1999) Frankenberg, Lloyd The New York Times Book Review, November 19, 1950, p.4 http://www.galenet.com/servelet/LitRC/ (10/26/1999) McCord, David The Saturday Review, February 10, 1951, p. 18 http://www.galenet.com/servelet/LitRC/ (10/26/1999) Hasley, Louis The Arizona Quarterly, Vol.27, 1971, pp. 241-250 http://www.galenet.com/servelet/LitRC/ (10/26/1999)

Alcohol drinking

The last reason of alcohol drinking among the youth In Hong Kong is tension reduction and it is the most common excuse among them. From a survey result conducted in 2008 by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Group, about 30% of students increase their pressure index during the beginning of each new academic year. It was found that the high consumption of alcohol Is related to the high level of pressure Index. And the frequency of drinking depends on how early the students have experienced drinking alcohol. Drinking daily or over consumption of alcohol will lead toa chain of bad impacts.If we drink in a large amount, it will have lifelong negative consequences, including physically and mentally, Drinking can affect thinking capacity and the active attention period will be reduced effecively_ Also fatigue may happen easily although only drinking a small amount of alcohol. As a result, It may affect in studies. As we notice that there are many foreign researches about the motivation of d rinking but there are only llttle researches Investigate the Hong Kong tertiary students. That means the foreign researches cannot completely reflect the Hong Kong situation due to the different cultural norms of east and west.Also. the education of alcohol management and knowledge are not prevalence in Hong Kong. Therefore, we would like to know about the basal motives of alcohol drinking and the influences of drinking among the tertiary students. And the healthcare stream students In IVE will be our target group. As our target group are studying In healthcare stream, we hypothesize that they are more likely to consider their health and a lower drinking frequency and quantity of alcohol will be found. We also assume that their motivation of drinking are due to peer, environment and social. Alcohol Drinking The last reason of alcohol drinking among the youth in Hong Kong is tension reduction and it is the most common excuse among them. From a survey result conducted in 2008 by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Group, about 30% of students increase their pressure index during the beginning of each new academic year. It was found that the high consumption of alcohol is related to the high level of pressure index. And the frequency of drinking depends on how early the students have experienced drinking alcohol. Drinking daily or over consumption of alcohol will lead to a chain of bad impacts.If we drink in a large amount, it will have lifelong negative consequences, including physically and mentally. Drinking can affect thinking capacity and the active attention period will be reduced effecively. Also fatigue may happen easily although only drinking a small amount of alcohol. As a result, it may affect in studies. As we notice that there are many foreign researches about the motivation of drinking but there are only little researches investigate the Hong Kong tertiary students. That means the foreign researches cannot completely reflect the Hong Kong situation due to the different cultural norms of east and west.Also, the education of alcohol management and knowledge are not prevalence in Hong Kong. Therefore, we would like to know about the basal motives of alcohol drinking and the influences of drinking among the tertiary students. And the healthcare stream students in IVE will be our target group. As our target group are studying in healthcare stream, we hypothesize that they are more likely to consider their health and a lower drinking frequency and quantity of alcohol will be found. We also assume that their motivation of drinking are due to peer, environment and social. Alcohol Drinking Nowadays, it is very amusing that not only the adults are into drinking but surprisingly, teenagers or youngsters are already exposed to it and unfortunately become alcoholic in a very young age.There are about 74% of youngsters who try alcohol drinking more often (see Facts about underage drinking and statistics on teen drinking). Drinking alcohol beverages with moderation is advisable but excessive drinking is not. When you say alcoholism, it is a compulsive habitual excessive use of alcohol drinks.It is not the same as drunkenness, which may be habitual but is not compulsive (Leigh 2002). Alcoholism becomes a chronic condition; it should not be confused with acute alcoholic poisoning, which is the sudden poisoning of the body by alcohol.Underage drinking is one of the major dilemmas which our society is presently facing. Drinking in an early age can possibly make the youngsters become alcoholic in the future and become addicted to drinking.On the other hand, many crimes and accide nts happen because of excessive alcohol drinking. However, not all crimes are the result of alcohol intake but most likely, crimes happened because of excessive drinking of alcohol. True or false? In large amounts, alcohol is a depressant; in small amounts, it is a stimulant.False. Small doses of â€Å"spirits† may indeed, enliven a drinker, but they do so by slowing activity in brain centers that control judgment and inhibitions. Alcohol facilitates urges that the individual might otherwise resist by focusing attention on the immediate situation and away from future consequences (Steele & Josephs 2000).If provoked, people under alcohol’s influence respond more aggressively than usual. If asked to help, people under alcohol’s influence respond more helpfully than usual. In everyday life, alcohol disinhibits both harmful tendencies, as when sexually coercive college men try to disinhibit their dates by getting them to drink (Mosher & Anderson 1999), and helpful t endencies, as when restaurant patrons tip more when tipsy (Lynn1999).Thus, alcohol makes us more aggressive or helpful—or self-disclosing or sexually daring—when such tendencies are present. Whatever urges you feel when sober, you are more likely to act upon if intoxicated.Low doses of alcohol relax the drinker by slowing sympathetic nervous system activity. With larger doses, alcohol can become a staggering problem: Reactions slow, speech slurs, and skilled performance deteriorates. These physical effects, combined with the lowering of inhibitions, contribute to alcohol’s worst consequences—in America, the more than 100, 000 lives claimed annually in alcohol-related car accidents and violent crime (Lord 2001).Thesis Statement: This paper scrutinizes about alcohol drinking and who are involved to it; thus, be aware of the effects of alcohol to our health and into our society.II. DiscussionDrinking alcoholic beverages moderately can stimulate our system ho wever too much and excessive intake might incur deterioration of our memory. Alcohol has an intriguing effect on memory. It impairs neither short-term recall for what just happened nor existing long-term memories. Rather, it disrupts the processing of recent experiences into long-term memories.Thus, the day after being intoxicated, heavy drinkers may not recall whom they met or what they said or did the night before. This memory blackout stems partly from an inability to transfer memories from the intoxicated to the sober state (Eich, 2000). Blackouts after drinking may also result from alcohol’s suppression of REM sleep.Alcohol has another intriguing effect on consciousness: It reduces self-awareness. Compared with people who feel good about themselves, those who want to suppress their awareness of failures or shortcomings are more likely to drink. The Nazi doctors who selected â€Å"unfit† inmates for the gas chambers often did so while drunk, or got drunk afterwards (Lifton 1999).As with other psychoactive drugs, alcohol’s behavioral effects stem not only from its alteration of brain chemistry but also from the user’s expectations. Many studies have found than when people believe that alcohol affects social behavior in certain ways, and believe, rightly or wrongly, that they have been drinking alcohol; they will behave accordingly (Leigh 2002).For example, alcohol per se has some effect on sexual arousal, by decreasing cognitive inhibitions (Crow & George 1999). But people become even more responsive to sexual stimuli if they believe alcohol promotes arousal and believe they have been drinking. From their view of research, Jay Hull and Charles Bond concluded (2001) that for some people alcohol serves â€Å"as an excuse to become sexually aroused.†Consider one such experiment by David Abrams and Terence Wilson. They gave Rutgers University men who volunteered for a study on â€Å"alcohol and sexual stimuli† either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic drink. (Both drinks had a strong taste that masked any alcohol.) In each group, half the subjects thought they were drinking alcohol and half thought they were not.Regardless of what they drank, after being shown an erotic movie clip, the men who thought they had consumed alcohol were morel likely to report having strong sexual fantasies and feeling guilt-free. Thus, being able to attribute their sexual responses to alcohol released their inhibitions—whether they actually had drunk alcohol or not. This illustrates an important principle: A drug’s psychological effects are powerfully influenced by the user’s psychological state.A. Serves as depressantThe most widely used drug in the depressant class is alcohol. You may be surprised to see alcohol listed as a depressant because you probably have heard someone say that â€Å"a few beers loosen me up and make me have a good time.†Depressants are drugs that have a general sedative effect on the central nervous system, and alcohol clearly has the effect. Initially, alcohol reduces a person’s inhibitions through action on the brain stem. Continued drinking, however, affects higher brain centers in the cortex and leads to reduced alertness. Impaired motor functioning, and slowed reaction times. Higher doses can produce unconsciousness and even death.Alcohol abuse is a major problem for society, costing billions of dollars annually in medical care, insurance costs, job loss, tax loss, and welfare costs, as well as the loss of priceless human life and other human miseries it produces. For example, one half of fatal automobile accidents involve a driver who is intoxicated (World Health Organization 2001).People drink alcohol for a variety of reasons, but principal goals are to achieve another state of consciousness, to relax, to forget one’s worries, to enjoy the high that alcohol initially provides. As tolerance develops, the individual must drink mo re to achieve the same effect. Thus, it is easy to progress from use to abuse. Dependency on the drug is known as alcoholism, a condition that affects an estimated 12 to 15 million Americans.For many years, alcoholism has been viewed in the context of a disease model, emphasizing the effects of the drug on physiological processes. Recently, the pendulum has swung toward psychological theories that emphasize processes such as learning, motivation, and self-awareness to explain how drinking problems are initiated and how they are maintained.Current research also recognizes that there is more than one kind of alcoholic, and studies are under way to differentiate these groups by cause (Conrad 2001). Obviously, such a differentiation would have an important impact on the development of more effective treatment.B. My AnalysisBased on my understanding, experienced, and my personal research, alcoholism is a serious public health problem. It afflicts millions of people, including adults and teenagers from all types of social groups. Why people become alcoholics is not clearly understood; alcoholism can stem from emotional immaturity, insecurity, nervous tension, loneliness, or depression. Physiological causes of alcoholism, if any, have not been determined. Physicians generally consider alcoholism an addiction.Personally, I occasionally take alcoholic beverages and it usually happens when I attend to parties or any special occasions but I drink moderately because I don’t want alcohol rule my life but I want to be the ruler of myself. The way I see it, too much drinking can affect many organs and systems of the body.It irritates the lining of the stomach and pancreas, causing inflammation, tenderness, and ulcerlike lesions. I have read to some articles too that heavy consumption of alcohol inhibits the absorption of proteins, nutrients, and vitamins from the small intestine and this can cause chronic malnutrition. I do not want these things happen to me.III. Conc lusionIn conclusion, our government should pay attention to this increasing and alarming dilemma which the teenagers are facing. One result of continued, excessive drinking is the development of tolerance. The cells of the nervous system become more tolerant of alcohol, and larger quantities must be consumed to produce intoxication.When consumption is discontinued, a severe physical reaction, called alcohol withdrawal syndrome, may occur. Twelve to 48 hours after the last drink, the person may experience nausea, vomiting, profuse sweating, tremors, insomnia, and hallucinations. Forty-eight to 96 hours later, the person may experience delirium tremens, a disorder of the nervous system.Reference:Conrad, Barnaby. Time is All We have: Four Weeks at the Betty Ford Center (Arbos House, 2001).Eich, J.E. (The cue-dependent nature of state-dependent retrieval. Memory and Cognition, 8, 157-173, 2000Leigh, B.C. In search of the seven dwarves: Issues of measurement and meaning of alcohol expect ancy research. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 361-373, 2002.Lifton, R.J. The Nazi doctors. New York: Basic Books. (p.168), 1999Lord, L.J.   Coming to grips with alcoholism. U.S. News and World report, pp. 56-63, 2001Lynn, M. The effects of alcohol consumption on restaurant tipping. Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 404-408, 1999Mosher, D.L., & Anderson, R.D. Macho personality, sexual aggression, and reactions to guided imagery of realistic rape. Journal of research in Personality, 20, 77-94, 1999Steele, C.M., & Josephs, R.A. Alcohol myopia: Its prized and dangerous effects. American Psychologist, 45, 921-933, 2000World Health Organization. The influence of alcohol and drugs on driving. Albany, NY: WHO Publication Centre, 2001