Ben Carson with Cecil MurpheyGifted Hands The Ben Carson Story :: Essays Papers

Ben Carson with Cecil MurpheyGifted Hands The Ben Carson Story The book is about a kid who grew up in a harsh area, in other words a â€Å"ghetto†. The books starts out when Ben is in fifth grade when he is failing all his classes because he couldn’t see anything without glasses that his family couldn’t afford. But after Ben got glasses he became the smartest student in all his classes. He was a very smart and good student until he reached the beginning of high school. When he entered the ninth grade year he began to be embarrassed of his social standing because people would â€Å"cap† on him and also because he wore old clothes. He was in this period until the middle of the 10th grade when his mom and the ROTC straightened him out. After that he graduated high school and attended college at Yale. While at Yale he had money problems and barely had enough money to survive. He graduated and married his wife Cookie and became a neurosurgeon. He his known as one of the top neurosurgeons if not the top neu rosurgeon because he took difficult cases which all other neurosurgeons wouldn’t take the risk to do. The message of this book is basically never give up and always try to do your best no matter what the situation and you should remember that God is with one and he should be the priority in ones life. Well for different people the message of this book could be considered important or unimportant. The ideas of this book are of importance to certain people and these certain people should consider it. There are expressions of the author shown through certain incidents like when mid-terms came during a year at Yale he was unprepared because of his procrastinating studying techniques but the night before the exam while reviewing his notes he prayed for god to help him do good on the test and he had a dream about the test and the answers were in front of him, this expressed his philosophy of god helping one if they ask. The author never tried to convince me of a point of view but he gave different examples of situations and how he settled those situations. After reading this book I found some similarities of my daily life.

Essays --

Around the turn of the last century, and in the nineteen hundreds, much literature was sent from Canada to the United States for the benefit of those that were interested in farming. People were led to believe that a short cut to happiness and prosperity was to simply go to Canada. It all sounded so interesting. It was written that anyone coming to Canada received 160 acres of land for ten dollars plus slight homestead duties. Canada was the land where you never heard the thunder. It usually rained only at night and the water was so pure, one could drink water off the ground anywhere and it would not make you sick. When you wanted fresh meat, all you had to do was open the door and shoot your choice of the wild game that was so abundant. Seeing no future for themselves as young farmers, on poor, stoney and heavily timbered land at Fosston, Minnesota, several families left for Canada to look for these homesteads. After arriving in Wadena, and with the local guide, the men began walki ng in the north direction. They followed an old Indian trail over to the quarter sections of land available for proving as homesteads. Each man selected a quarter that he would work, they were all enjoined. They had now put in two days of interesting and educationaldiscoveruies. Interesting, in that it looked like there was a future for this country and educational, in learning that you could not expect to be able to do much walking if you drank the supposedly pure water lying everywhere on top of the ground. The local guide was already a seasoned homesteader and anyone that knew him would realize that he knew how sick, those poor greenhorns would get from drinking all that slough water. The next day, they walked back to Wadena and took the train to Hu... ... We had so many ducks that winter that we couldn't eat them all before the weather turned warm in the spring. When we tired of eating duck, there were lots of bush rabbits, and when we tired of rabbits, we ate duck. On the 20th of march 1949, I awoke one morning to find mom in an unusual mood and she told me dad had left for a drive with Cathy and the buggy during the night. For the life of me, I could not grasp what was going on, or what was to take place. Then I heard the buggy on the frozen ground and sure enough, dad was home. He had a passenger with him. She was an older lady and I was told her name was Mrs. Thorsen. I was then told to hook up Black, a calf we had broken, and to drive to the new neighbors to see how the building of their new house was coming along. I went, but I was not away very long because I knew the circumstances were not ordinary at home.

FM Receivers Essay -- essays research papers

Abstract This paper will discuss the design of an FM receiver. It will begin with a brief historical backdrop of FM broadcasting and its use in society. It will continue by providing the necessary mathematical background of the modulation process. Furthermore, it will enumerate some of the advantages of FM over other forms of modulation, namely AM. Finally, the paper will discuss the design of a basic FM receiver as well as introduce some circuits and circuit components which the reader may not be familiar with. Introduction Frequency modulation (FM) was invented in 1936 by an American electrical engineer/ inventor named Edwin H. Armstrong. Possessing numerous advantages over the existing AM broadcasting system, as will be discussed later, in combination with relatively low cost of implementation, resulted in its rapid growth. In the years following World War Two, there were 600 licensed stations broadcasting in the U.S. By 1980, the number grew to 4000. On another historical note, in 1961 stations began broadcasting in stereo. The basic receiver design consists of the following components. An antenna is used to convert electro-magnetic waves into electrical oscillations. Amplifiers are used throughout the receiver to boost signal power at radio, baseband and intermediate frequencies. The core of the FM receiver, the discriminator, comes in various circuit forms and is used in detection and demodulation. Basically, its role is to extract the intelligence or message from the carrier wave. Another component, essential in most electronic circuits, is the power supply (DC or AC converted to DC). Finally, a transducer (speaker in the case of Radio) is needed to convert the message signal into its final form (audio, mechanical, etc ¡Ã‚ ­). Other components more specific to FM receivers are mixers combined with local oscillators used for frequency manipulation, limiters to control amplitude, de-emphasis and other filter circuits. 2 Mathematics of FM Unlike amplitude modulation (AM) where the message or modulating signal, call it m(t), is used to modulate the amplitude of the carrier signal, frequency modulation, as the name implies, uses m(t) to transform the frequency of the carrier. The amplitude of an FM signal should remain constant during the modulating process; an important property of FM. A general FM signal can be described by the following:1  ¦Ã‚ µFM(t) = Acos( ¦ÃƒË†... ...n its output proportional to s(t). Over a short time interval, this variation  ¡Ãƒâ€" C(wc-wo)t. Thus, the system continues to loop until the frequency of the VCO output matches or  ¡Ã‚ °locks ¡Ã‚ ± onto the incoming frequency. The time it takes for the system to  ¡Ã‚ °lock ¡Ã‚ ± is called the acquisition time. Once the frequencies match, s(t) becomes s(t) = AB/s sin( ¦ÃƒË†c- ¦ÃƒË†o) For an incoming FM signal s(t) = AB/2 sin( ¦ÃƒË†c(t)- ¦ÃƒË†o) = AB/2 sin (kf  ¡Ãƒâ€™m( ¦Ãƒâ€œ)d ¦Ãƒâ€œ  ¨C ¦ÃƒË†o) Running s(t) through a differentiator results in an AM signal which can be easily demodulated using envelope detection. Once the signal has been demodulated, it is then passed through a de-emphasis circuit, as mentioned earlier. Typically, it is then amplified one last time before heading to the output transducer. Conclusion In conclusion, the modulation/demodulation process for FM signals has proven to be much less straight forward than simple AM modulation. However, FM has considerable advantages and its use in radio, satellite and radar applications make it indispensable. Many methods of signal and system analysis along with filter and feedback design are employed in the building of an FM receiver, whether it be analog, digital or otherwise. FM Receivers Essay -- essays research papers Abstract This paper will discuss the design of an FM receiver. It will begin with a brief historical backdrop of FM broadcasting and its use in society. It will continue by providing the necessary mathematical background of the modulation process. Furthermore, it will enumerate some of the advantages of FM over other forms of modulation, namely AM. Finally, the paper will discuss the design of a basic FM receiver as well as introduce some circuits and circuit components which the reader may not be familiar with. Introduction Frequency modulation (FM) was invented in 1936 by an American electrical engineer/ inventor named Edwin H. Armstrong. Possessing numerous advantages over the existing AM broadcasting system, as will be discussed later, in combination with relatively low cost of implementation, resulted in its rapid growth. In the years following World War Two, there were 600 licensed stations broadcasting in the U.S. By 1980, the number grew to 4000. On another historical note, in 1961 stations began broadcasting in stereo. The basic receiver design consists of the following components. An antenna is used to convert electro-magnetic waves into electrical oscillations. Amplifiers are used throughout the receiver to boost signal power at radio, baseband and intermediate frequencies. The core of the FM receiver, the discriminator, comes in various circuit forms and is used in detection and demodulation. Basically, its role is to extract the intelligence or message from the carrier wave. Another component, essential in most electronic circuits, is the power supply (DC or AC converted to DC). Finally, a transducer (speaker in the case of Radio) is needed to convert the message signal into its final form (audio, mechanical, etc ¡Ã‚ ­). Other components more specific to FM receivers are mixers combined with local oscillators used for frequency manipulation, limiters to control amplitude, de-emphasis and other filter circuits. 2 Mathematics of FM Unlike amplitude modulation (AM) where the message or modulating signal, call it m(t), is used to modulate the amplitude of the carrier signal, frequency modulation, as the name implies, uses m(t) to transform the frequency of the carrier. The amplitude of an FM signal should remain constant during the modulating process; an important property of FM. A general FM signal can be described by the following:1  ¦Ã‚ µFM(t) = Acos( ¦ÃƒË†... ...n its output proportional to s(t). Over a short time interval, this variation  ¡Ãƒâ€" C(wc-wo)t. Thus, the system continues to loop until the frequency of the VCO output matches or  ¡Ã‚ °locks ¡Ã‚ ± onto the incoming frequency. The time it takes for the system to  ¡Ã‚ °lock ¡Ã‚ ± is called the acquisition time. Once the frequencies match, s(t) becomes s(t) = AB/s sin( ¦ÃƒË†c- ¦ÃƒË†o) For an incoming FM signal s(t) = AB/2 sin( ¦ÃƒË†c(t)- ¦ÃƒË†o) = AB/2 sin (kf  ¡Ãƒâ€™m( ¦Ãƒâ€œ)d ¦Ãƒâ€œ  ¨C ¦ÃƒË†o) Running s(t) through a differentiator results in an AM signal which can be easily demodulated using envelope detection. Once the signal has been demodulated, it is then passed through a de-emphasis circuit, as mentioned earlier. Typically, it is then amplified one last time before heading to the output transducer. Conclusion In conclusion, the modulation/demodulation process for FM signals has proven to be much less straight forward than simple AM modulation. However, FM has considerable advantages and its use in radio, satellite and radar applications make it indispensable. Many methods of signal and system analysis along with filter and feedback design are employed in the building of an FM receiver, whether it be analog, digital or otherwise.

Development and Design

It has been discussed at large that to sustain the revenue growth and the value; organizations need to be innovative at different strata and phases of market and product life cycle respectively. Considering the issue of Virgin Mobile, it is a matter of problem solving propelled by the uncertainty of the stakeholders support and the forecasted possibilities of failing of the existing service plans. Though; to nullify the risk factor of diminishing revenue and the brand image, substitute product coupled with service plane has been introduced.But, like most of the products it will take the brand through a wild ride to gain the market acceptance and to justify its stand against its competitors. To deal the issue strategically; the paper will assess and evaluate the product development process, while differentiating the case of new and existing products, factors of product designing, system administration for new product beta stage, re-launching of product into new market and factors invo lved in designing the proposed product. The holistic approach under the spotlight in this paper is about the process of the product development.New product development (NPD) is the concept of total cycle of the product engineering; to market the new product or the service to boost the business. The process can be executed by following a parallel dual path transition. One path looks after the idea generation, product design, and the detailing of the product engineering. But interestingly, the progression and the acceptance of the proposal of a new product can only take place; if the other side of the parallel process takes its stand.The other way that involves the activities like market research and marketing analysis carry ground work to formulate the further plans that propels the details engineering. The product life cycle management, which observes and help sustain the growth of the market share through the quadrants of the life cycle curve, considers the development of the new p roduct to be the first stage of promoting and marketing the new product in the entire product life cycle.In this inception stage, the development process has structured steps of thinking about the product, its viability to the target audience, its needs and the features required, the sales projection and the revenue expected to be generated, having a real time experience with the product proposed and the other ancillary plans to make the product market. The above stated gist can be technically explained under the following sub-headings. Idea Generation: The brainstorming activity for the new product can only take place when the organization has already conducted the SWOT and the opportunity analysis.A clear conception out these tests helps ideate to take the project forward. This also takes the process to its next level of idea screening. Idea Screening: As the meaning of screening suggests; it eliminates the possible unwanted elements in the course of the new product development. I t seeks about the product benefit to the customers. The size and the projected growth factors in the new market and the market trend of the product or service concept is based on. This to measure how feasible will it be to manufacture the same; technically in regard of cost to price ratio.Concept Development and Testing: In short, this involves the product engineering, which further involves the issues like, end users, the features, product benefit, and cost effectiveness of the product, experiencing a real time scenario and deciding on the actual market price. To gather knowledge on these; it takes a thorough survey of the target segment. Business Analysis: Depending on the potential customer feedback and the competitors stand, the process again revises the ideal selling price of the proposed product to be marketed.Other measures that follow the suite are the sales volume projection calculated on market size, estimated bottom-line and the break-even point. Beta Stage: This is a dra matic event of conducting the real time execution of the proposed product. This is the prototype stage where the product is being used on the customer to collect feedbacks and acceptance by introducing at the shows and conducting interviews. This helps to build the brand identification process that will boost the initial selling in the actual scenario.Technical Implementations and Commercialization mostly considered as the post-NPD activity consider the ancillary factors like the resource estimation, operational planning and the vendor line-up and the other logistic issues. Besides, it steers the post NPD promotional agendas and the channel management too (Ulrich and Eppinger, 2004). To manufacture a new product that suites the market, it needs an important consideration of the factors that make the product designing a success in the market.In the gamut of product management; credit for the successful new product designing that took the market decently, goes to the category of indus trial designing. This genre has an unparallel contribution to product designing in terms of technical know-how, product, its process, aesthetics, usability, and ergonomics. It has the keen observation on product engineering, attributes, market placement; leading to attractiveness, psychology, customers’ need, want and desire and the emotional attachment of the end users with the brand.According to different designers and school of thought the designing aspects may vary though (Pulos, 1988). The factors of new product designing are the professional concepts to create and develop inputs that strike the balance and logisize the function, value and the look of the products and services to leverage a common benefit for both the user and the manufacturer. The concept is big enough to encompass the entire development process of a new product. But in the year 1967, the total concept has focused of the five major backgrounds as per Dreyfuss.Utility: This counts on the products’ user interface in terms of safety, ergonomic approach, and the perceived value of the consumers. Here the concern about the features is about communicating there utilities to the customers. Likewise Virgin’s Data card alone; gives an internet support on go. It is mobile and can enhance the communicating usage of laptops or notebooks. Further, the alternative plan of strategic partnership with IT companies will facilitate the communication features of the notebooks; following a diversified revenue earning.Appearance: This factor reflects the plan and the success of stand-alone proposed product in the crowd of the competitors to stand out of the crowd. As the market is flooded with me too products, the factor like this takes care of form, shape, size, proportion, and color to provide the customers a pleasing presentation. This is particularly in terms of the data card only, not the product development and enhancement with strategic partnership. Ease of maintenance: In this jet age, clients will hardly have the spare to dedicate and cherish the product.The main concern would be the performance and service of the product, for which the factor stated shoulders the responsibilities of easy maintenance, which will not need high involvement of the owner and accessibility to the service hubs for effective after-sales-service. Low costs: To equip the product with forms and features the market price of the same finally goes up. For Virgin; it should bear in mind that proposed product is going to make-up the revenue gap and is set to gain back the confidence of the stake holders.Thus keeping the cost low will help the product and organization to penetrate the new market and introduce the newly developed product smoothly. Communication: This is the factor that highlights the visual features of the product and of course the organizational and brand image. Communication reflects the philosophy of the company; with which the stake holders are heavily involved. In case the product is communicated well from all the aspects; it will help to go off the rack fast, with a promise of yielding more revenue from the process.The entire process plays a significant role surrounding the forte of industrial designing and goes hand-in-hand to lay down the factors of product designing for a successful commercialization (Ulrich and Eppinger, 2004). After the session long development process of a new product the most challenging stage comes with the appearance of moment of truth. At this stage; the organization put proposed product in a usable model to collect the customers’ reactions to predict potential future of the product in the real market situation.Though mostly people consider prototype to be a fully functional model with full form and shape, to be examined by the potential customers, it is further subdivided by the designers as the comprehensive prototype and the focused prototype. The initial type is the essential form the model determining the s uccess and the coordination of all the components, and judging how well they are functioning together. Where as the latter; being focused deals with the limited number of attributes and features.The model; here is more ken in observing certain areas of concern. This can be of importance while developing an existing product design, where the designer knows the particular area needs to be modified or revamped. But; to ensure the smooth running of the concept, a system administration is required to steer the phase. This counts the administrative faculties like, Quality of the user interface that will evaluate whether the data card is understandable by the user and is easy to handle or jack-in into the ports of notebooks.Will the Emotional appeal meet the psychological needs of the customers to make the product a success? Maintenance and repairing process should be easy and user friendly to the users. Appropriate use of resources oversees the right usage of features that will fetch the customer his or her value for money, etc (Crawford and Di Benedetto, 2004). As discussed earlier; the new product involves an extensive development plans, considering both the aspects of present and new products and markets to place in the market in the successfully. But in case of existing product it has edgeSource: Harvard Business Review over the new products as it already holds the earned market share and the awareness. But to boost the performance of the existing products; organizations re-launch and redesign, which creates atleast three key differences than that of the new product development. For a company to expand with its existing product; Market penetration is the least risky key to adopt. As the penetration happens when a company enters the market with existing product, the first approach is to do the poaching of the competitors’ client base.Further it can attracts the non users and the existing users to increase the usage by means of promotional activities and hi ghlighting the enhanced attributes the will make the life of the new and existing users’ life better. This is the key of existing markets and existing products. In case of an existing product; the key of the Market development can help the same to fit in and create new segments with its established brand image, like Lucozade shifted from the sick children target segment to the athletes.Here the market was not new; but the company, which got into motion with time. Companies can use the key of Product development too, where the market exists but the product is new, though for the company; not for the market as the presence of other brands have made the product an existing one, the organization is venturing with its version to squeeze more revenue from the old product too (Ansoff, 1957). The conclusive step of the entire development process circles around the factors that govern the proposed product.The stand alone product like data card should concentrate on the concept evaluat ion measuring the technical and the marketing factors to know the rank of the product at the present state. It controls the financial issues too including the tariff to stand the competition. As the proposal has been made after the initial stages of the developmental process, it becomes more focused, which leads to stage commercialization.In the technical development task it undertakes the responsibilities of the protocols of the prototype and the production line up to make it eventually ready to scale up at the time requirement and subsequently to market the product proposed. Besides, marketing strategies holds plans for business proposals, product augmentation and launch the marketing activities to complete the process of proposed product designe. Reference Ansoff, I. (1957). Strategies for Diversification. Harvard Business Review, 35, 5, 113-124. Crawford, M. and Di Benedetto, A. (2004). New Products Management. (7th ed). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Pulos, A.J. (1988). The American Design Adventure 1940-1975. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Ulrich, K.T. and Eppinger, S.D. (2004). Product Design and Development (3rd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill. Ullman, D.G. (2009). The Mechanical Design Process (4th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Pretty Babies, Child Beauty Pageants Essay

Many of us first learned about the world of child beauty pageants when a 5  ½ year old beauty queen named JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered the day after Christmas in 1996. The child was murdered in her Boulder Colorado home and found in the basement with her hands tied, her mouth duct taped, and her throat garroted. Her death was ruled strangulation but there was also blunt force trauma to her head as well as vaginal injury (Auge, Karen, par. 13-15). Her death brought these pageants into our minds, conversations and living rooms and many people were shocked to see a child of that age made up like an adult woman, some even said like a prostitute and accused the pageants of sexualizing her and the other children. Images and videos of JonBenet with her hair curled, teased, and sprayed, wearing heavy make-up and glamorous outfits were splattered across the newsstands and she pranced across our televisions winking, flirting and dancing. Any link of her death to the pageants is speculative since the murder remains unsolved, but many people could not help but wonder how safe it was for a child to be made a spectacle of in such a fashion. This past Monday would have been JonBenets 22nd birthday. Perhaps it is time that we as a society take a good look at child beauty pageants and decide what place if any they have in the future for our daughters. JonBenet was the daughter of a wealthy businessman named John Ramsey and his wife, a former Miss West Virginia 1977, Patsy. Patsy has since passed away but John Ramsey has written a book titled â€Å"The Other Side of Suffering† and in an interview with Nightline, John has expressed his regret that JonBenet participated in the pageants. He states in the interview â€Å"Only because- that possibly (the pageants) might have drawn attention to us. † â€Å"I don’t know. But- I think for- for advice to parents is just recognize that- regardless of where you live, there could be evil around you. And don’t be naive about it. And keep your kids protected† (Chang, par. 0). He wonders now about some of the public appearances JonBenet made and if the murderer was maybe in the audience. He says â€Å"Patsy had her sitting atop a friend’s convertible in the Christmas parade waving at people lining the streets. † â€Å"Patsy’s mother later told me that a strange man approached the car during the parade and it made her uncomfortable. I think about these things now and it makes me cringe. We were so naive. I now believe with all my heart that it is not a good idea to put your child on public display. (Chang, par. 7). His words give weight to the issue at hand and initially, it seems, many people felt the same way as child pageants took a financial hit as less people wanted to be associated with the â€Å"publicly tainted industry† (Friedman, par. 5). Fifteen years after the tragic death of JonBenet the pageants have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity (Friedman, par. 6) thanks in large part to the hit show on The Learning Channel, Toddlers & Tiaras. The show is immensely popular and is now in its fourth season (IMDB, 2012). Understanding, of course that this is a television show and not a documentary, that it has been edited for drama and to create what is commonly called â€Å"good television†, the show nonetheless gives a viewer a look inside this somewhat alien world. In his interview John Ramsey stated that he had never watched the show but had caught snippets that he finds disturbing. â€Å"It is very bizarre† he states â€Å"And, it certainly- Patsy and JonBenet didn’t approach it that way. We-they just did it for fun. †(Chang, par. 5). Will the parents or the pageant officials take heed? Or will the allure of glamour and profit make them justify their actions? Watching the television show you are immediately struck by one fact; this is a southern thing. To the people who do this, none of it is strange. In fact many of the parents were overjoyed to learn they were pregnant with girls and began to buy gowns before their babies were even born. One mother who has a boy and a girl stated that she had been very upset when she found out that she was pregnant with the boy until she found out that boys could participate in pageants as well. She even stated, on television, that she had only had children so she could put them in pageants. This would seem very strange to many people, but if you watch the show you will hear statements like this over and over, often in front of the children and always on camera (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). What is apparent is that this is truly a culture. They call themselves â€Å"Pageant People† (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) and this encompasses not only the contestants and their families but also the judges, pageant directors and announcers and the many, many service people used by the contestants from dress designers to make-up artists and hairstylists to spray tanners and waxers and many of the girls even get facials before a pageants even though their skin cannot possibly look much younger. The popularity of this television show is evident, anyone using a search engine that types in the name of the show will be directed to literally thousands of articles, opinion pieces and fan based websites as well as many spoofs of the show starring big names like Ashley Tisdale and Tom Hanks and has enjoyed the pinnacle of success in the eyes of many, satire on Saturday Night Live. But what about the tiny stars of the show? How safe are they? Is all of this good for them? Watching the show you will see a few kids and moms that seem almost normal, of course these people never get to be the stars. The stars are the children who are bratty, who throw temper tantrums, hit their parents, try to bite other kids and just generally misbehave. The mothers who get the most airtime are of course the ones who say the meanest and most bizarre things. Who treat their children like performing monkeys and seemingly will do anything to get their small progeny to perform on stage. It is remarkable to watch a child transform in just moments from a sparkling banshee into a sweetly smiling and composed young lady, or gentleman on stage. The majority of the children featured on Toddlers & Tiaras are little girls but there are a few boys featured as well. It seems unfortunate that the more poorly behaved the people on the show are the more they are rewarded with fame. One strange family has even got their own spin-off show called, Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo (IMDB, 2012). The children often throw fits because they are being forced to do something they do not want to do. Over and over, in almost every episode the children state that they hate doing the beauty portion of the competition. For those unfamiliar with how things work it important to know that the beauty portion is the most important piece of the pageant where girls are judged on their poise, their attire, hair and make-up, and most of all their facial beauty. They are not really expected to perform at this stage of the pageant but only to walk slowly from mark to mark on the stage stopping briefly at each mark to spin and smile sweetly at the judges and the audience and slowly turn from side to side so that all spectators can take in their appearance. One little girl who was seven was criticized by a female judge for â€Å"having too much personality for beauty† although of the same girl a male judge stated that he â€Å"could not take my eyes off her†( Toddlers & Tiaras, season 4, 2012). The girl went on to win the biggest crown in the pageant and a contract with an agent. The judges of the pageants can often seem harsh and mark the children down for seemingly acceptable things for the contestants to do, given that most of the girls featured on the show are only between the ages of four and nine. A six year old was marked down because her ankle rolled. She was wearing high heels. A four year old was marked down because her fake teeth or â€Å"flipper† fell out during the beauty portion. Another girl was marked down for being too â€Å"fake†(?! ). And in one episode the little girls were competing for ten thousand dollars and some former contestants came out of retirement to compete. They were as old as twenty-one and some were doing very sexy dances; the male judge was obviously captivated and would not stop talking about the older contestants. A 20 year old won. Against little girls. (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) You will see some moments on the show where the parents are caring and the children seem to be keeping the whole thing in perspective. One of the fathers, who has 3 children in the pageants does not allow his kids to be tanned or wear fake teeth and lashes and says some of it is â€Å"too far†. He also keeps the bills for the pageants a little lower by renting the dresses and says he preferred the natural pageants. Another one of the parents, this one a mother, laughed when her nine year old daughter’s hair fell down during the pageant, she told her she did â€Å"so good† and reassured her when she began to cry that it was okay. Then said she was just glad she got a crown (in many of the pageants every contestant gets some type of crown) and that she did not need to win the ultimate title and the little girl stated after she calmed down â€Å"win graciously, lose humbly†. Another little girl who won a high title stated that the title she had gotten was really good because â€Å"There’s a lot of girls here†¦ and they tried hard too†. One mother who had seemed very extreme during the beginning of the pageant seemed to have an epiphany at some point during the pageant and said that this would be her seven year old daughter’s last pageant and that her daughter was â€Å"beautiful on her own†. (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). In one touching episode, a mother had only boys and it seemed that her six year old son and her had a very special relationship based on the pageants. The father, in spite of being supportive, was done with his son being in the pageants and wanted this to be his last one. The boy seemed happy to do the pageants and seemed to have a very special relationship with his mother. At the end of the show they were crying and hugging each other and it was actually hard not to be sad for them (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) Most of the other parents are not like those ones and the majority of the scenes shown depict these women as bitter and jealous. The way they speak of the other children is disgraceful. They say mean things in front of their own kids about the other children, especially if the other children win and their daughter did not, like that the girl who won did not deserve it and often say that the pageant was unfair or rigged. One mom on the sidelines said about a girl on the stage â€Å"If she wins, she better go get some cellulite treatment done†(Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). The little girls definitely pick up this cattiness from their mothers. Many times over these children say that they are better or prettier than the other girls. One six year old girl knew from her mother that one of the other girls was her biggest competition at the pageant. The other girl was well known for her continuing pacifier dependency and first girl said that she had a secret weapon for her opponent so she could beat her and held up a gag pacifier that had funny looking teeth on the front of it and then snickered. In one sad scene there were sister aged ten and eight who were competing in the same pageant, the eight year old stated that she was going to beat her sister and if her sister started crying she would â€Å"beat her to he ground†. When the older sister started to cry and said that it was because she was being mean the younger one told her to â€Å"Stop crying, you’re embarrassing me! † (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). If you think the â€Å"tiger moms† would be less cruel to their own offspring you would learn that often that is not the case. Over and over when the children cry because they are hungry, tired, something being done to them hurts or they lost they are told not to cry because they are on camera or that the pageant is not over and their make-up will be ruined. One mom talking about her daughter said that she, the mom, had been better at cheerleading and that her daughter just can’t â€Å"get it† like her. Her daughter was nine. One child was forced to stop doing gymnastics because it was making her muscles too big for her costumes and her mother told her â€Å"that was sucky† when she came off stage. Over and over the children are cruelly disregarded or ignored when they state that they are in pain, feeling sick, hungry or tired. In a heart stopping scene a nine year old girl went missing in full hair and make-up and was no longer in the hotel. In every scene shown by the television show the mom was worried about her being late for her age line up and not concerned for her safety. Luckily, she was found in time, and her standing in the pageant was unaffected. That the girls often cry when they lose is no surprise when you take in that the mothers often cry or state they are going to throw up and berate their daughters for blowing on stage by forgetting to smile at the judges or forgetting part of their routine. The moms let their daughters know that they lost too if their crown is not big enough and does not come with a high title attached to it. The moms will tell their daughters who are smiling and holding a crown that they lost and the crown they have is for losers. One mom while sitting in the audience was â€Å"pissed† and going to cry and listed what the other little girls got and that her daughter didn’t get anything. No wonder the little girl had a tantrum and screamed that she wanted a crown (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) Many of these mothers are, like Patsy Ramsey, former beauty queens themselves and will stop and nothing to ensure their daughters success in the pageant world. Sometimes it becomes so extreme that it makes the news. In 2011 ABC News did a story on a mom who gave her 8 year old daughter Botox injections because she had wrinkles (Hagan, Kunin and Ghebremedhin, par. 5). The mother was not a doctor but an esthetician, which is basically a beautician for the skin. She claims her daughter wanted to try it herself because her wrinkles bothered her. This is hopefully a rare case but more commonly these young children have their eyebrows waxed, they receive spray tans, even if they are African American or bi-racial. They have acrylic nails put on, they are fitted for fake teeth to go over their own teeth called flippers, they have hair extensions put in because often their baby fine hair either is not thick enough for the large hair-dos or not strong enough to take the heat and styling. Some of the girls have their hair bleached before a pageant. Sometimes these things hurt or are uncomfortable and the children complain. There seems to be a particular hatred amongst the little girls for the false eyelashes. Many of the girls scream and cry and beg to not have to wear them to no avail. These are typically services reserved for very high maintenance women and many adult women would not have the patience for them. The FDA has not done studies on the safety of these chemicals for use on children either. How does it feel to sit in make-up and hair for two hours for a child of say four? On pageant day the real magic begins. The girls are up early in the morning in their hotel rooms. They are fed breakfast and then the beauty regime begins. The pageants last all day and usually include several outfit changes and the performance of practiced routines. The girls, some very young, are not allowed to eat or nap so their hair and make-up do not become ruined. To make up for this, the moms have found some magic. On pageant day the girls have sugar cubes and Pixie Stix poured into their mouths all day long and are fed through a straw high caffeine and sugar drinks like Mountain Dew and some†¦ Red Bull energy drinks. There is some serious concern over the safety of these drinks (Ostrow, 2011). One mother asked her daughter before the pageant if she wanted to quit doing them. The girl nodded yes and the mom said â€Å" Let’s look at your crowns! Doesn’t that make you feel better? † (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012). One of the reasons many of the parents say they do it is often for the prizes, money, bonds and scholarships. Indeed, some of the pageants featured on the television show do boast some large prizes. But most of the parents admit that they have spent many times over what their child has received. Several of the moms admit to lying to their husbands about how much they spend and one single mom has moved in with her parents so they could continue to pay for pageants and it is common for the mothers to take a â€Å"pageant job† (Toddlers & Tiaras, 2009-2012) to cover some of the expenses. Some of the parents spend lavishly on the pageants. Many of the pageants have a top prize of only several hundred dollars yet the girls will show up in 2500$ dresses. In one episode two sisters have their very own trailer for pageant accessories that have their pictures emblazoned on the sides. One very enterprising mother has published a pageant book about her daughter, recorded a song and had a doll made in her daughters image. In an episode where they went to the Tonight Show she was saying how she was planning to get her daughter and agent and a two million dollar contract so she could quit her job and move to Hollywood. It seems as if the parents either have delusions about some pay off that will eventually come if they keep plugging away or they really have just found a very expensive habit that they justify for other reasons.

Microbiology Bacteria Paper

I would not say science is storybook fun, but who knew it become a mystery. Trying to find out what was in our number seven vial would become a battle we were willing to take on. As I began the test of deciding if our little bacteria friend was gram positive or negative, Jordan my science teammate, was putting together a smear plate. In as little as ten minutes we had discovered by the pink oval shapes we were observing, our microbe friend was a gram negative rod. We had narrowed our search down to five! We decided next we would do oxygen along with a motility test. Along with those, we did a fermentation investigation. These tests would narrow our pursuit down even further. Unfortunately these tests take time. The following day, we curiously went to our ‘stash’ of experiments. As we observed we soon realized our little bacteria was a non-motile, facultative anaerobe. With the observation of acid and gas formation, this microorganism was able to catabolize glucose, lactose and fructose. Our smear plate, with white convex muciod looking colonies confirmed our suspicion. We were now looking at vial number seven with anew respect, he now had a name, and that name was Klebsiella pneumonia. Read also Lab 2 Biology Now that our mystery microbe had a proper name, where would we find it? This bacterium, I found out is ubiquitous in nature, meaning it seems to be present, everywhere at the same time. Just about anywhere you would step, touch or see in nature you could bet this little guy is there. Its family is abundant in soil, water and vegetables. But they have cousins, uncles, second cousins etc. just about everywhere else. â€Å"Wow†, was all I could muster. But our friend not only had a large family in nature, this microbe also found residence inside the human body. The respiratory, intestinal, and urogenital tracts are a favored neighborhood for this microscopic organism. This tiny microbe seems to find just about any region environmentally friendly. Not only is it very versatile in were it lives, I would soon learn it was also just as versatile in what is able to do. This small bacterium could devastate the human body if allowed to. Our secret microbe was considered to be an opportunistic human pathogen, meaning that under certain conditions it may cause disease. All this little guy needed was the perfect scenario and he could ‘thrive’ in only a way harmful bacterium could. Read Chapter 8 Microbial Genetics Persons with underlying diseases such as alcoholism or lung infections were some of their favorite captives. Along with people who are hospitalized and receive invasive procedures, being their other prime hostages. These guys are on the top ten most known list of nosocomial infection pathogens. Trying to get rid of this pathogen is no easy feat either! Once this type is let in he really does not want to leave. Of course, the first attack to rid the body of this pathogen is to use a timely and aggressive treatment of antibiotics. Even that though, can prove to not be beneficial. Since these little critters are proven to be resistant, meaning, they develop ways to inactivate or neutralize the antibiotic. Many cases have to be treated with cephalosporin’s and aminoglycosides to give the bacteria a two-pronged attack. This bacterium certainly has a powerful army when dispersed. But how does this little fella do this? Well, the pathology for it to become Pneumonia develops when the bacilli invade and multiply within the alveolar spaces.General Biology Ii Study Guide (Online Class) The pulmonary parenchyma becomes consolidated, and the mucoid exudates that fill the alveoli is controlled by macrophages, fibrin, and edema fluid. Neutrophils, our bodies own fighting soldiers are inhibited by a neutral polysaccharide in the capsule of this bacterium. Numerous encapsulated gram-negative bacilli appear free in the exudates and in alveolar macrophages. Then exudates accumulate and the alveolar wall becomes compacted and healthy tissue starts to degrade. This area, where the microbe does its best work, is the area of gas exchange with the blood, a vital part of the human anatomy/physiology. So when this microbe is able to take over, a hefty defense force of antibacterial agents have to come to the battle. Antibiotics themselves though have a become an overused tool. This has become a growing problem and many actions have now come into play to stop the abuse of these products. Some would argue a little too late. This lapse of poor judgment has led to the numerous strains of antibiotic resistant infections. Klebsiella pneumonia is one of the leading culprits. The thing is though, bacteria does not know its playing a dangerous game with us, all bacteria is trying to do is win.References Klebsiella pneumonia . Retrieved from: http://www.klebsiellapneumoniae.org/ (Klebsiella pneumoniae ,† 2011) Klebasiella pneumonia. Retrieved from http://www.histopathology-india.net/Klebsiella_pneumoniae.htm (Dr. Sampuna Roy, 2011)

Is Ethics Natural or Learned Behavior?

Human beings have an innate ethical sense that urges them to make predictable choices. Although most people believe their actions are guided by logic and reason, reason often acts only as a way to justify these choices. Ethics is a learned behavior, a behavior that starts from childhood. Every individual has choices in life. And everyone’s perception of right and wrong may not be the same. This discussion will be based on is ethics natural or learned behavior? The ability to speak allows people to come up with rationales which support what are genetically driven decisions. Even though genetics may play a part, I believe ethics is a learned behavior. In understanding ethics, we must first realize that pretense and dissimulation are rooted in our genes. As part of the prehistoric mechanism for survival, human beings unfortunately identify with lying and manipulating. Lying and cheating are believed by too many to be legitimate tools in the quest to achieve selfish ends (www. ethicseducation. com). Despite this truth, as we learned as children, cooperation is actually the better way to achieve individual success therefore ethics can definitely be learned. The history of ethical thought is in this regard a record of attempts to promote communal behavior in order to ensure stability within a group. Many middle and high school students today will tell you that they themselves determine, as does every other individual, the standards of right and wrong. Students will resist the notion that they owe anything to anyone, or that they have any absolute obligation toward society. They recognize that wrongs can be done, but have a very difficult time judging their own actions to be wrong. There is an underlying attitude of: nothing I do can be truly wrong because I am ultimately the final judge of what is right and wrong for me. Ethics is about the individual. The fact that students can be taught to be tolerant of different opinions and see that a variance of viewpoints can be legitimate contradicts the belief that ethics is a natural occurrence. In some instances moral behavior can be natural. Recent studies have shown that dolphins and other marine mammals, chimpanzees, apes, monkeys and even dogs possess a moral sense, and display many of the behaviors considered basic to most normative human ethical standards. Equality, reciprocity, even altruism, have been detected and recorded among these animals, as well as treachery, deceit and manipulation. In fact, a kind of what goes around comes around golden rule is fundamental to the social relationships of most primates. This being said, there must be some sort of social instinct rooted in our genes. Man is driven by innate genetic forces and is capable of making thoughtful assessments of what is happening. Ethics investigates how we can evaluate our behavior in terms of right and wrong, good and bad.