Saturday, August 31, 2019

Beowulf Paper Essay

â€Å"Time and again, foul things attacked me, lurking and stalking, but I lashed out, gave as good as I got with my sword. My flesh was not for feasting on, there would be no monsters gnawing and gloating over their banquet at the bottom of the sea. Instead, in the morning, mangled and sleeping the sleep of the sword, lay slopped and floated like the ocean’s leavings. From now on sailors would be safe, the deep-sea raids were over for good. Light came from the east, bright guarantee of God, and the waves went quiet; I could see headlands and buffeted cliffs. Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked. However it occurred, my sword had killed nine sea-monsters. Such night-dangers and hard ordeals I have never heard of nor of a man more desolate in surging waves. But worn out as I was, I survived, came through with my life. The ocean lifted and laid me ashore, I landed safe on the coast of Finland.† * Seamus Heaney, Beowulf: A new Transla tion, Lines 559-581 The epic poem, Beowulf, is an old classic hero tale. The author tells throughout the poem how Beowulf is an archetypal hero through different characteristics, good and bad combined. He usually portrays health, skill, consideration, honor, loyalty, respect and the quality of a protagonist, and then at times he also is an antagonist. He sticks to what the king asked him to do, and fought off Grendel, then he stayed around to fight off Grendel’s mother and the dragon to keep the town out of danger and terror, showing loyalty, honor, skill, respect, and health. But he was an antagonist when he taunted Grendel to get him to battle him. (Lines 301-709) He also showed consideration when he fought off Grendel’s mother after she wanted vengeance for Grendel (Lines 710-1007), and when he fought off the dragon (2211-2512). In the particular passage above Beowulf is perceived as Healthy, Skillful and Educated. He comes off as healthy because he says that he fought monsters time and time again, which requires a healthy system to uphold against the constant fighting. He comes off as Skillful because he said that no monsters were gloating over him at the bottom of the sea, instead he was lying on top of the sea, still living and then landed on shore. He also is skillful because he killed nine sea-monsters and protected the sailors from all of the sea monsters that they were once terrorized and killed by. Then Beowulf comes off as Educated because of all the sailors and men that passed through that part of the sea, he was the only one that had the education and skill to kill off the monsters that were dangerous and a hard ordeal. And it’s not only in this passage that the author shows that Beowulf is healthy, it’s all the way up until the very last battle where his health pretty much crashes and burns because he can’t withstand the wound. But even with all the good, Beowulf is also bad, he doesn’t have the best moral quality, being in a Christian poem. He boasts about how he killed Grendel, and still takes money from the people in the town even when they don’t have the most money in the world (Lines 1925-2210). Any person with any moral uphold wouldn’t accept the money, gold and horses from the town people and he wouldn’t boast about killing someone, he would boast that he protected the town from danger. The author successfully proved Beowulf to be the great hero he was said to be through his depiction of Beowulf as the skillful, educated epic hero and the way he told the story. Works Cited: Heaney, S. (n.d.). Beowulf: The New Translation.

Friday, August 30, 2019

“Please Be Honest With Me Even If It Hurts Me” Poetry Essay

So many nights I sit all alone and and I think about you, wondering if you are ever thinking about me too. It is probably unrealistic to think that you might be thinking of me as much. In the silence of the night with the moonlight shining through my window the tears roll down my face because I care so much and in my heart I’m doubtful that you can feel the same. All I ever asked from you is that you give me honesty, even if hurts me. Oh so long ago our paths ran into each others online, we chatted from time to time and you became my friend. After a while I started to feel things in my heart that I have never felt before. I started to care about you more than I thought it was possible to care about someone . You never said that you cared for me, but sometimes I just do not know. Would you even care if I disappeared into nothing? The entire time that we were getting to know each other I’ve asked you time and time again to Please be honest with me even if it hurts me, I still need that from you. I know that you have your life there just as I have my life here, and our lives keep us busy with our daily responsibilities, but when days pass and I do not hear from you my heart begins to ache and my eyes begin to fill up with tears once again. Sometimes I check my email just to see if I hear from you. I know that there were no promises made to me but if you truly care about me lease remember that I need to be reminded often. Loving someone with some much to over come , between is never easy to begin with, insecurities can become even more intense without knowing or hearing that you care each day. I will never ask you to be anyone but yourself, you are the one I have grown to love, but I do ask you to be honest with me even if it hurts me. Once again I am getting ready to climb into my bed, just wishing and dreaming that you were here with me, even if it can only be a short while. Do you ever wish that also or am I living in a silly fantasy world? For now I will tuck my hopes and dreams in my heart for the night. If I knew for sure how you felt I would know if I should back off or get closer. Should I take my hopes and dreams and put them in a box where I know that they will be safe, or do I take a risk and keep telling you my feelings? Whatever you have to say to me say it honestly, even if it hurts me. For some reason fate has brought us together, I’m not sure of it’s plan, but I know there was a reason. I have put my trust into fate’s hands, where it wants me to be in your life, I will be, what it wants from you and I will be. I can hope and I can wish, but it can only work out the way I dream of, if that is want it wants it to be. There is only one thing I need to ask of you and that is â€Å"Please Be Honest With Me Even If It Hurts Me†

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Personal & Professional Development Essay

1. Introduction In this assignment we can find the many different terms used to explain the Self-Managed Learning process, with the advantages and disadvantages of it. How this process can influence in a lifelong term, the personal and professional of an individual and how Selfmanaged learning can benefit inside of an organization. 2. The Self-managed Learning Context Many researches over the years have been showing the self- managed learning is getting very popular inside organization, based on the benefits that an individual acquires at the end of each achievement. Individuals that can manage their learning and activities are more responsible, independent and able to make tough decisions. Self-planning learning; selfeducating; self-directed learning and other similar terms together form the Self-managed context, in other words, the ability to organize and carry out an activity settled as a goal. 2.1 Self-Directed Learning In the early age, individuals are full dependents on the structure and the context given by their tutor, responsibility here is very low. A child needs to have some task to be accomplished, the tutor has to explain why and how tasks should be done. At the teenage stage the individual starts to be interested in their  own learning, the tutor give them more  space to be responsible. A simple example, when starting college they have the possibility to choose some subjects they would like to study deeper than the others. Once reached mature life the role tended to change. The adult pass to be self-directed learner, deciding what will be their own goals according with their needs. At this stage the tutor can be only partial responsible in the process of learning, showing them how important is to become a „SelfDirected Learner‟, encouraging and guiding, also stimulate the individuals to think outside the box, always to seek for evaluation on everything that they do, letting the participants dedicate their time on researches and experiments. The process helps the learners understand how to achieve their goals. The practice involves training and lifelong acquired skills. The self-managed learning starts when people show initiative to conquer some learning experience, being fully in charge for the learning and practicing constant evaluation to succeed. Determination; time; place; tools; evaluation; responsibility, are extremely important elements that a person must consider to be successful. We can find these factors in Malcolm Knowles‟s theory definition: â€Å"In this broadest meaning, ’self-direct learning’ describes a process by which individuals take the initiative, with or without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.† (Knowles, 1975) The process of self-directed learning can be different based on the lifelong circumstances. All the tools, method, structures, conditions for learning  are directed by the situations (Merriam & Caffarella, 1993). People learn things in different ways and speed, with their own or other people‟s experiences. It can depends on where it will be applied (e.g. at home, at work, study group, etc.); what tools will be used (e.g. books, internet, videos, etc.); whom is going to perform the task. It can be formal and informal. The self-directed learners after conquering their aims, starts to be more aware of their responsibility in taking learning seriously and directing themselves (Garrison, 1997). They become more creative, curious and the willing to try something new, different (Lyman, 1997), Problems and difficulty to complete a task are seeing as fun challenges (Taylor, 1995). Based on Taylor‟s point of view, the S-D Learners are motivated and persistent, independent, self-disciplined, self-confident. 2.2 Self-Regulated Learning It is a reference to â€Å"thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and adapted to the attainment of personal goals† (Zimmerman, 2000). The components of S-RL involves, as all the other terms, setting goals for learning, focus on training, using strong strategies to organize ideas, looking for researches effectively, managing performance and time, holding positive beliefs about one‟s capabilities (Schunk & Ertmer, 2000). There are tasks that makes Learners more autonomous, being capable of create an environment of S-RL, some of them are authentic strategies, autonomy-based assignments, and portfolios. Self-Regulated Learners don‟t only need to understand the strategies but realize the importance of using them to achieve success. Self-Regulation processes focus on how learners can manage their feelings and motivations to learn. It can be improve with practice. However, stresses related with low income such as psychological distress on adults and low quality of childcare background can harm the development of the individual, like occupational rank inside the organizations. Self-control is one of the most important key/skill to success inside any organization, also in the personal life. 2.3 Self-Planned Learning The term says for itself. Here we can find some procedure to put on practice SML: Selecting a subject or skill to learn, first evaluating knowledge acquired, seeking for weakness and errors that can be improved. Selecting methods, resources or equipment for learning  S-M Learners thinks they would be wasting time by letting the responsibility on somebody else to manage the time for each task. No wrong time and location, the learners will be available whenever/wherever there are. Expect to feel proud for accomplishing the task and get people attention. They may be too confident planning the steps for the learning, will be easy to complete, but say is easier than done. Perseverance and self-control will lead the learner. May feel hesitant to let and accept others direct their procedures, affecting their beliefs, attitudes or habits. Setting goals and deadlines. Designing all the steps and following them one by one. 2.4 Learning Project Project-based learning is an instructional method that provides students with complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve the students’ problem solving, decision making, investigative skills, and reflection that includes teacher facilitation, but not direction. PBL is focused on questions that drive students to encounter the central concepts and principles of a subject in a hands-on method. Students form their own investigation of a guiding question, allowing students to develop valuable research skills as students engage in   design, problem solving, decision making, and investigative activities. Through Project-based learning, students learn from these experiences and apply them to the world outside their classroom. PBL emphasizes creative  thinking skills by allowing students to find that there are many ways to solve a problem. 3. Ways to promoted of S-DL in Personal & Professional Lifelong Term Happy staffs are productive Staffs. Foucher’s (1995) revealed based on research that organization that promote SDL can increase the presence of a participative management style, a pleasant environment that employees enjoy independence, making them seeing as very competent and motivated individuals. Giving them support for new strategies application, being tolerant with error and supporting unplanned, non-systematic learning activities, such as little private projects. SDL process can increases creativity and sense of perception, getting a better spot among the others. Once outside of the organization, they feel lighter, happier, self-confident, etc. All this emotion opens space for a healthier life, the individual become more communicative and comprehensive and patience. 4. Benefits of S-ML Inside Organization Organizations nowadays are becoming â€Å"learning organizations.† Where it promotes or rewards individuals to learn on benefit of the organization (Beitler, 2003, Chapter 12). For this process the establishment needs to have a continuous creation of learning opportunities that can be shared with others learners/employees (team work). Promoting a healthy dialogue and giving also space for continuous evaluation (Watkins and Marsick, 1993). Promoting seminarians; handling books; re-printed articles; and light sessions of training are, still, the most used. However, SDL costs should be away less than to traditional training programs. A learning organization can be defined as a structured environment focused on teamwork, collaboration, creativity. Senge (1990) identifies five disciplines essential for the learning organization: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building a shared vision, and team learning. An evaluation of all those 5 elements it is a win-win between employers and employees. 5. Conclusion We could see, individuals that can practice self-managed learning, who can evaluate, plan, sets their own goals based on their needs and interests are  more capable to stand-out among people that always have been told what to do. Changes are not a problem; they are challenges to be achieved. Self-evaluation is the key, is where everything starts. S-ML is a process to be developed at your personal life, professional, at school, at your social group. Be different and become unique. It‟s never late to start learning, it all depends on you.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Managerial Competences. Exploring personal development needs (Set of Essay

Managerial Competences. Exploring personal development needs (Set of tests) - Essay Example MBTI TYPES ISTJ Serious, quiet, earn success by concentration and thoroughness. Practical, orderly, matter of fact, logical, realistic and dependable. See to it that everything is well organised. Take responsibility. Make up their own minds about what should be accomplished and work towards it steadily, regardless of protests or distractions. ISFJ Quiet, friendly, responsible and conscientious. Work devotedly to meet their obligations. Lend stability to any project or group. Thorough, painstaking, accurate. Their interests are usually not technical. Can be patient with necessary details. Loyal, considerate, perceptive, concerned with how other people feel. INFJ Succeed by perseverance, originality and desire to do whatever is needed or wanted. Put their best efforts into their work. Quietly forceful, conscientious, concerned for others. Respected for their firm principles. Likely to be honoured and followed for their clear visions as to how best to serve the common good. INTJ Have or iginal minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes. Have long-range vision and quickly find meaningful patterns in external events. In fields that appeal to them, they have a fine power to organise a job and carry it through. Sceptical, critical, independent, determined, have high standards of competence and performance. ISTP Cool onlookers – quiet, reserved, observing and analysing life with detached curiosity and unexpected flashes of original humour. Usually interested in cause and effect, how and why mechanical things work and in organising facts using logical principles. Excel at getting to the core of a practical problem and finding the solution. ISFP Retiring, quietly friendly, sensitive,... If you are an active learner in a class that allows little or no class time for discussion or problem-solving activities, you should try to compensate for these lacks when you study. Study in a group in which the members take turns explaining different topics to each other. Work with others to guess what you will be asked on the next test and figure out how you will answer. You will always retain information better if you find ways to do something with it. How can reflective learners help themselves? If you are a reflective learner in a class that allows little or not class time for thinking about new information, you should try to compensate for this lack when you study. Don't simply read or memorize the material; stop periodically to review what you have read and to think of possible questions or applications. You might find it helpful to write short summaries of readings or class notes in your own words. Doing so may take extra time but will enable you to retain the material more effectively.

Walt Disney World.Demand For Euro Disney Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Walt Disney World.Demand For Euro Disney - Essay Example Unfortunately, there are no pictures here of the parks' buildings or landscape due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company has copyrighted many of the buildings and structures, so that even a tourist guide like The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (Sehlinger, 1994) contains no photographs. In his discussion of the Disney parks, Sorkin turns these restrictions into parody by printing a photograph of the sky above Disney World to which the following inscription is added: This is the sky above Disney World, which here substitutes for an image of the place itself. Disney World is the first copyrighted urban environment in history, a Forbidden City for postmodernity. Renowned for its litigiousness, the Walt Disney Company will permit no photograph of its property without prior approval of its use. Is there a better illustration of the contraction of the space of freedom represented by places like Disney World than the innocent sky (Sorkin, 1992:207) All the Disney theme parks are united by a common approach which distinguishes them from conventional amusement parks. The share prospectus for Euro Disneyland provides a good account of their thinking and this forms a useful backcloth to the discussion that follows: Rather than presenting a random collection of roller coasters, merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels in a carnival atmosphere, these parks are divided into distinct areas called 'lands' in which a selected theme (such as exotic adventures, childhood fairy tales or the frontier life of the nineteenth century American West) is presented through architecture, landscaping, costuming, music, live entertainment, attractions, merchandise and food and beverage. Within a particular land, intrusions and distractions from the theme are minimized so that the visitor becomes immersed in its atmosphere.... Restaurants and retail stores at Disney theme parks are designed to entertain guests and support the theme. Disneyland Disneyland is situated outside Anaheim, a town to the south of Los Angeles. It is built on a 160-acre orange grove which Walt bought following a feasibility study by the Stanford Research Institute which had been hired to find a suitable site. It is said that Walt's original notion was for a small playground across the road from the studio, but as the vision grew this idea was eliminated. Schickel (1986) notes that Walt sent some of his staff to examine ideas which could be seen at existing amusement parks and to find manufacturers. Apparently, these informants felt that his idea of having a park without a roller coaster or a Ferris wheel or barkers was absurd. Nor were they impressed with his notions of not having outdoor hot dog stands or the sale of beer (he disliked the smells they created). But the exclusion of these symbols of the amusement fair may have been a deliberate strategy of product differentiation, whereby he could establish the distinctiveness of his enterprise and i ts market niche. Roller coasters were added in later years as visitors made it clear that they wanted more exciting fare, but the heavy theming of these rides disassociates them from traditional roller coaster rides. Disneyland opened on 17 July 1955 at a cost of $17 million. One problem with describing a park which has been in existence for 40 years is that it has changed greatly over the intervening period. Many of these changes are summarized in Bright (1987). When it opened there were 26

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

PDF summary 500 words Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PDF summary 500 words - Essay Example ew tips from his online friends and great determination, Smith was able to pin point the location of the fraudster and informed the authorities who went ahead to make the arrest (Smith, 2002). The story of Shiva Brent Sharma shows how he learned the skills of identity stealing from websites. With the help of online identity thieves and websites set up to help would be fraudsters learn tricks on fraud, he was able to gain enough skills which helped him to wire transfer money from other people’s accounts to his after stealing their identities. He also used other people’s credit cards to purchase items. His victims seem to be people who were new to computer use or maybe who were not cautious enough when responding to prompts made to them through their e-mails. Sharma said the money was coming too fast and he found it hard to resist engaging in identity stealing (Zeller, 2006). This story illustrates the challenges that authorities encounter when hunting down hackers. It is clear that hackers are becoming more skilled and elusive to hunt down. ShadowCrew website is significantly focused on in explaining the technicalities of hunting hackers. It is noted that cyber gangs are becoming international groups and consequently tracking them is becoming harder. Some of them have their servers in countries that are not cooperative in the fight against cyber crimes. The fight against cyber gangs will only succeed if all the stakeholders cooperate. The input by private security firms which develop anti-viruses is noted to be important as well as cooperation of security agent in different nations (Grow, 2004). This article focuses on manipulation of eBay system to make some account holders appear highly credible and therefore trustworthy. It is noted that the user evaluation system of eBay is vulnerable to manipulation and unfortunately it is this system that is used by buyers and seller to evaluate the credibility of other buyers and sellers. This article argues that eBay

Monday, August 26, 2019

Nutrition and Autism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Nutrition and Autism - Assignment Example Moreover, the elimination of lead-loaded petro has been identified as a deliberate campaign program that has been adopted to eliminate the adverse effects of the chemical substances. The article, therefore, links development of autism t exposure to chemical agents and thus its prevention lies squarely on elimination of exposure. Besides, the author identifies that children are more prone to these chemical agents. Exposure is mainly through maternal transfer to the baby during pregnancy or consistent early exposure to these chemicals. Whichever the case, there are over 200 chemicals that have been proven in laboratories to inhibit brain development. However, there is a critical impediment identified by the author as stumbling a block in avoidance of these chemicals. Firstly, the threshold to prove is too high and require study sample with the control group that is impossible due to ethical consideration. Besides, there are still gaps in chemical neurotoxicity tests leading to insufficient literature (Grandjean and Landrigan 2169). Despite the shortcomings, the article suggests removal of food items that contain these dangerous elements. I feel that the article is scientific and ought to offer direction to food industries that use chemical additives as preservatives or as food components. Mercury and lead have been identified many times as the dangerous elements whose exposure at pregnancy predisposes to teratogenicity. I consider the article findings on chemicals in food, fuel or any other source substantially convincing and policy makers should work around the clock to prevent exposure as an important step in prevention against autism and related conditions. The article explores nutrition, autism and how a combination of nutritional supplements can benefit autistic children. It further reports experimental studies that help affirm suggestion that vitamin B6 and Magnesium element combination is more

Sunday, August 25, 2019

State-Building and theOperation of the Market Essay

State-Building and theOperation of the Market - Essay Example Since then, international state-building has become acceptable because the condition had called for it. Today international state-building has seemed to change the understanding on the operations of the market; yet a deeper analysis on its arguments essentially reveals how capitalism manoeuvres to get over with its present crisis. In short, international state-building is a framework that further strengthens the relationship of the state and capital to ensure the pre-eminence of free-market economy in which the US remains unchallenged. International State-building State-building, a concept in state theory first used at the end of Cold-War, pertains to deliberate interventions by national or international forces meant to capacitate and strengthen weak/fragile states and state institutions thereby making them functional (Jones & Chandran 2008, cited in Menocal 2009, p. 2; Caplan 2004, p. 53; Lotz 2010, p. 219). Current world events – e.g. ... 16). In his book, International state-building: The rise of post-liberal governance, Chandler (2010) noted, how the world today has grown more acceptable of international state-building not only as a reactive response to reconstruct war-torn or conflict-ridden states but more as a preventive mechanism to save states from possible economic and political collapse (p. 1). What made this so, Woodward (2011) traced back to the end of Cold-War and the collapse of the USSR, which had resulted to violent break-up of socialist states, beginning with Yugoslavia in 1991. These chaotic disintegration of the USSR simultaneous with the humanitarian crises in Sudan and Somalia had reversed the view toward the state of major world powers and their international machineries for security (UN, NATO, EU) and finance (IMF-WB) – The strong and totalitarian states are no longer viewed as the primary threat to international peace and prosperity; today the considered problem states are the weak/fragil e ones, because as they fail to secure the needs of their people; they cause so much human suffering and chaos, resultantly preventing the smooth operations of the market, thus threatening international peace and prosperity. Within this premise, international state-building – through which international aids were diverted to conflict transformation by building-up government capacities and institutions – was then made acceptable and until lately was seen necessary. (p. 316) This changed perception of the state, Chandler (2009) explained, had redefined sovereignty as no longer pertaining to a nation’s political independence, but to state capacity. Thus sovereignty is perceived no longer as a ban but

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Should circumstantial evidence be the sole basis for a conviction in Essay

Should circumstantial evidence be the sole basis for a conviction in capital cases - Essay Example When a prosecutor brings a capital case, which is also called a death penalty case, she must charge one or more "special circumstances" that the jury must find to be true in order to sentence the defendant to death. (http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/term/52557AC3-B765-4BEE-B51CE8A9811D2939, para 1) These circumstances should be able to give enough proof that a capital crime is committed by the accused beyond doubt. These "special circumstances" should be able to lead the prosecution to the person who has truly committed the crime. Circumstantial evidence is just as important as direct evidence. These are evidence of facts from which inferences or presumptions can be drawn. Providing circumstantial evidence from a capital crime aids in the conviction of the right person responsible for the crime committed. Prosecutors are able to create a picture of how the crime may have been committed given the circumstantial evidences. It may even lead them to further investigation of the crime that may lead them to the direct evidences that might give them clues as to the actual crime scene. Circumstantial evidence may at the same time provide the investigators a guide to get the right convict. Circumstantial evidence is not considered to be proof that something happened but it is often useful as a guide for further investigation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstantial_evidence, para 9) On the other hand, however important circumstantial evidences may be in a capital case, it should not be the sole basis in bringing the accused to the death row. Circumstantial evidence must be closely examined and it must be looked at cumulatively. In other words, a court would be very slow to convict a defendant on the basis of one piece of circumstantial evidence alone. For instance, a particular person's fingerprint found in the crime scene does not necessarily mean that he committed the crime. (http://oasis.gov.ie/justice/evidence/circumstantial_evidence.html, para 14)He could be a close friend of the victim who happened to come to the crime scene before the actual crime took place. It could just be any innocent person who came to the scene before the criminal incident happened. These are just some instances that may give wrong accusations to the wrong persons who may have directed the circumstantial evidences. In this case, circumstantial evidence cannot be considered to be the sole basis of conviction in a capital case. Nevertheless, if there are a number of different strands of circumstantial evidence, taken together, it is rather another story that must be given as much as necessary attention such that it provides more weight than a single circumstantial evidence. (http://oasis.gov.ie/justice/evidence/ circumstantial_evidence.html, para 15) Say for instance that the accused was seen at the scene of the crime at the exact time the incident was assumed to have happened, his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, his DNA is identified with the victims body, he loathe the victim that he may have threatened the victim before, and that he behaved suspiciously after the crime had happened. Provided this series of circumstantial evidences that points to the direction of the accused, the prosecutor may find these

Friday, August 23, 2019

Paul and Wives Submission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Paul and Wives Submission - Essay Example Paul. Will a realised soul like him compromise the revelations of the gospel? The real problem with all revelations, including the present issue under discussion related to the inferior status of women, is elsewhere. These revelations are not made at the mind level, but transcending the mind. At that level what is revealed is perfect and no one can imagine duality there. All realised souls reveal the same truth from their levels. Just as the sun and the moon are one and the same for all individuals practicing different faiths, the ultimate truth is the same for all men and women and for the entire humankind. But the mind-level preachers, mullah, pundits and the so-called intellectuals interpret it from the level of their spiritual progression and hence the differences crop up. Interpretations about the truth vary, but truth in in itself is Immutable. A common individual who thinks from the mind-level is unable to comprehend the profound and deep meaning of a particular word or a phra se uttered by the realised soul. Various interpretations crop which result in arguments and counter arguments. In the heat of such arguments the real issue is lost sight off. The context in which the revelation is made has some bearing, but truth is beyond all limitations of time as well. Go through the arguments of John Temple Bristow on Paul and Wives submission. He writes, â€Å"Perhaps Paul was torn between the ideal and realities of his time. Perhaps he compromised the gospel in order not to upset the social structures of his age. Perhaps Paul could not escape his own background and culture or perhaps Paul gave a good line in public, but in private revealed his own disdain regarding women.†(Preface, x) Bristow make the careful and repeated use of the word ‘perhaps’ and I give full credit to him for treading carefully while trying to comment on the revelations of Paul on this sensitive subject. This viewpoint is one that of an intellectual and has been elucid ated here just to restate the position of mind-level interpretations and the pitfalls involved in such procedure. Mr. Bristow has erred in his judgment about the stand of St. Paul, relating to the status of women. Whatever are the realities of time, a Realized Soul will not employ shortcuts to gain followers for his viewpoints. He will stand by truth on his assertions on any topic, irrespective of the consequences. I believe that women are equal to men and yet I’m wrong. Let’s assume for a while, from the secular point of view that men and women are equal. From the spiritual standpoint, women are more equal as compared to men. How can one treat women as equal to men? God has created her, given her the status of more equal. Nobody can take that right away. It is the woman who gives protection for the initial nine months to the divine creative force of the future of humanity, male or female. St. Paul is aware of this position and one cannot expect a divine personality to make mistakes in divine interpretations about man-woman status. Expressing his dilemma about the stand of St. Paul on this issue, Bristow admits his confusion and writes, â€Å"We were also taught that women, according to Paul, are to obey their husbands and to be subject to male leadership.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

A Poem from Aeon Entelechy Evangelion by Earthscorpion Essay Example for Free

A Poem from Aeon Entelechy Evangelion by Earthscorpion Essay Many a star must have been there for you so you might feel it. A wave lifted towards you out of the past, or, as you walked past an open window, a violin gave of itself. All this was their mission. But could you handle it? Were you not always, still, distracted by expectation, as if all you experienced, like a Beloved, came near to you? (Where could you contain her, with all the vast strange thoughts in you going in and out, and often staying the night. ) But if you are yearning, then sing the lovers: for long heir notorious feelings have not been immortal enough. Those, you almost envied them, the forsaken, that you found as loving as those who were satisfied. Begin, always as new, the unattainable praising: think: the hero prolongs himself, even his falling was only a pretext for being, his latest rebirth. But lovers are taken back by exhausted Nature into herself, as if there were not the power to make them again. Have you remembered Gastara Stampa sufficiently yet, that any girl, whose lover has gone, might feel from that intenser example of love: Could I only become like her? Should not these ancient sufferings be finally fruitful for us? Isnt it time that, loving, we freed ourselves from the beloved, and, trembling, endured as the arrow endures the bow, so as to be, in its flight, something more than itself? For staying is nowhere. Voices, voices. Hear then, my heart, as only saints have heard: so that the mighty call raised them from the earth: they, though, knelt on impossibly and paid no attention: such was their listening. Not that you could withstand Gods voice: far from it. But listen to the breath, the unbroken message that creates itself from the silence. It rushes towards you now, from those youthfully dead. Whenever you entered, didnt their fate speak to you, quietly, in churches in Naples or Rome? Or else an inscription exaltedly impressed itself on you, as lately the tablet in Santa Maria Formosa. What do they will of me? That I should gently remove the semblance of injustice, that slightly, at times, hinders their spirits from a pure moving-on. It is truly strange to no longer inhabit the earth, to no longer practice customs barely acquired, not to give a meaning of human futurity to roses, and other expressly promising things: o longer to be what one was in endlessly anxious hands, and to set aside even ones own proper name like a broken plaything. Strange: not to go on wishing ones wishes. Strange to see all that was once in place, floating so loosely in space. And its hard being dead, and full of retrieval, before one gradually feels a little eternity. Though the living all make the error of drawing too sharp a distinction. An gels (they say) would often not know whether they moved among living or dead. The eternal current sweeps all the ages, within it, through both the spheres, forever, and resounds above them in both. Finally they have no more need of us, the early-departed, weaned gently from earthly things, as one outgrows the mothers mild breast. But we, needing such great secrets, for whom sadness is often the source of a blessed progress, could we exist without them? Is it a meaningless story how once, in the grieving for Linos, first music ventured to penetrate arid rigidity, so that, in startled space, which an almost godlike youth suddenly left forever, the emptiness first felt the quivering that now enraptures us, and comforts, and helps.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Public Relations Essay Example for Free

Public Relations Essay Public relations (known often as just PR) can be and is defined in a multitude of ways. A commonly heard statement in terms of public relations is ‘there is no such thing as bad press. ’ And while that statement may be true, in some cases to much PR can create a situation where a person/company becomes overexposed (and to be quite honest, seen as annoying because the public no longer cares to know about the person/company/situation but the media still is following. ) Media around the world reports the news but not just political, sports, and the like but things they feel will keep the population interested in their programming, magazines, and newspapers. In order for the media to succeed they will follow stories (the good and the bad) as long as the public is interested, when disaster strikes (a person, company, or government) they will be there and so will the public. In order for the person, company, or government to stay on the positive side of the public (of which they may need their support), the affected person/group must use the unwanted media coverage (in some cases, not in others) to their advantage. Edward Bernays (1961) felt public relations was, â€Å"†¦ information given to the public, persuasion directed at the public to modify attitudes and actions, and efforts to integrate attitudes and actions of an institution with its publics and publics with those of that institution. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) (a group on individuals whose daily work focuses on the success of public relations) does not have an exact definition of public relations but instead a statement, â€Å"Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other. (2007). One final definition of public relations is, â€Å"The art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public. †(Free dictionary, 2007). Comparison and Contrast Each person/group’s view of public relations’ definition have similarities as well as differences. In all instances both the groups affected by the publicity and the public are affected. The public in general can and will affect any business or person and the affect can be completely based on the information the public receives from the media outlets. The advantage seems to be in the hands of the public but some can say the advantage also lies in the hands of the person/company because no matter how bad a situation may first present itself their relationship with the public (whether pre-existing, on-going (in most cases), or new) can turn the possible problem around (i. e. turning a negative into a positive). The Public Relations Society of America seems to have the most well balanced definition (while no one can find a right or wrong answer in the area of public relations) because the PRSA defines PR as a give and take situation so that they remain balanced with one another. Mr. Bernays definition comes across as how companies/people must spin (turn around) the news in order to make any information seen as a positive in the public eye. Why so many definitions? In an area the business world that is held to so many different interpretations it is not a wonder as to why there are so many definitions to public relations. Marketing ties in advertising and the media which creates the public relations but that is only a fraction of what establishes public relations. The most important thing to remember in public relations is that most of the media attention (in fact, almost all of it) is not wanted attention (ie solicited) but awareness that was brought to light for no gain for the person or company. The person/company must then decide how to proceed in the eye of the public (ie public relations) and keep themselves in a positive light. References: Bernays E. L. , Crystallizing Public Opinions, Liveright, New York 1961 Free Dictionary. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 from http://www. thefreedictionary. com/public+relations Public Relations Society of America. Retrieved on May 12, 2007 from www. prsa. org

Interventions to Reduce Risk of Sexual Abuse

Interventions to Reduce Risk of Sexual Abuse Introduction Various intervention strategies have been implemented to try and reduce the risk of sexual abuse in those persons with a learning disability. There is a general consensus that education programmes directed towards the perpetrator are least effective and that techniques aimed at fostering assertiveness and communication in the learning disabled adult are the best preventative measures. In this review I found there to be a significant lack of research that measured the effectiveness of these interventions and further support and investigation is needed into researching these intervention strategies, advocacy and community awareness studies. Methods of obtaining research In recent years the number of articles on ‘sexual abuse in people with a disability’ found in databases such as Medline and Proquest have increased although there is still a considerable lack of quality statistically significant research. Political and media exposure has unsurfaced the need for this group to be protected. For example, the European ‘Valuing People’ agenda unsurfaced serious inequities.3 Some of the most in-depth studies come from research in which women with learning disabilities have been interviewed directly about their experiences including the ground breaking work of Michelle McArthy.3   A number of factors can limit the disclosure of abuse and lead to an underestimation of the extent of this problem. For example, an individual that has had limited exposure to prevention programs and sexuality education may not recognise the abusive nature of sexual contact they have experienced.4 Disclosure may also be inhibited by feelings of confusion, guilt or denial especially if the abuse occurred from a care-giver or a person that was trusted by the victim.4 This paper aims to criticize interventions and assess the most appropriate methods used to help educate those with learning disabilities about sexual abuse and foster prevention rather than looking at ways to support post-abuse. I haven’t addressed the issue on whether sterilization is appropriate in this review as it steers away from the autonomy of the mentally disabled adult and it is more appropriate to concentrate on education as a tool of prevention and looking at the efficacy of training methods. Method of obtaining papers for literature review All papers in ‘British Journal of Social Work’, Medline via PubMed and Medline via ProQest from 1995 – 2005. Keywords used were ‘learning disability’, ‘sexual abuse’, ‘mental handicap’, ‘prevention’, ‘intellectual disability’, ‘consent sexual relationships’, ‘learning disabilities’, ‘sexual act’, ‘sexual malpractice’. Search terms were grouped as follows:- ‘education, sexual abuse, disabled’, ‘education, sexual abuse, handicap’, ‘education, sexual, disabled’, ‘assertiveness training, sexuality, disabled’ and ‘sexuality, training, mentally disabled.’ Papers found that concentrated on adults only were used and those articles found on sexual abuse pertaining to children were omitted apart from one paper that examines the use of a Computer-Based Safety Programme that could be useful in edu cating mentally disabled adults. Papers that addressed interventions used to prevent abuse from occurring were included in the review. Definitions A ‘learning disability’ is defined as â€Å"a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the reduced ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.†2 Disorders not included are â€Å"learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities or mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.†2 It is not necessarily the person’s learning disability that makes them more vulnerable to the sexual abuse as to the situation they are placed in so that if we took a person of normal mental capacity and placed them in the same environment the risk of sexual abuse for that person would be greate r as well. Sexual Abuse refers to any form of sexual contact to a vulnerable party and violates the victim’s rights as they are not fully aware of the situation. Sexual exploitation is evident when done by anyone in a position of trust or authority towards a person or where the victim has a relationship of dependency with the perpetrator. There are various definitions of sexual abuse used in the literature and widely diverging definitions tend to be used in studies of adults with intellectual disabilities.5 Brown and Turk (1992) also distinguished between non-contact and contact abuse. Another definition of sexual abuse was â€Å"any sexual contact which is unwanted and/or unenjoyed by one partner and is for the sexual gratification of the other†.6 This is still ambiguous as sometimes sexual contact is misunderstood and it could still be enjoyed it is just that the victim is unaware of what the full extent of the act means. I believe that a better definition of sexual abuse is any sexual act performed on a victim in a position of vulnerability. That is one party is not fully aware of the act being performed and there is an imbalance in power. Could this then exclude those persons with an intellectual disability from having a relationship with a person of normal mental capacity? Perhaps, if there is balance in t he relationship and the learning disabled adult can make decisions in other aspects of the relationship this would be a more equally distributed balance of power and this person may be able to fully make decisions on relationships at their own accord. There are varying degrees of mental handicap and this makes research difficult as ethical dilemmas on whether there is full consent and understanding of sexual contact can be ambiguous. However, there are also clear cut cases such as when a disabled person is institutionalized or the primary care-giver is the perpetrator. For the purpose of this review it is important to move more onto preventing the abuse in those that are vulnerable and critiquing methods used to empower those with disabilities rather than focus on the definition of abuse. Protection of those that are in a more vulnerable position and empowerment of individuals already victims of abuse should be fore-front in the social literature. Prevalence of Sexual Abuse There is an increase in the prevalence of sexual abuse in children with learning disabilities. A study conducted by the US National Center on Child Abuse and neglect (1993) found that caregivers abused children with disabilities 1.7 times more than children without disabilities.11 The violation of children can foster the development of low self-esteem and lead onto abuse into their adult lives. A research study by Sobsey found that the risk estimate of abuse of people with disabilities may be as high as an increase of five times greater than the risk for those that aren’t disabled.8 A study by Zemp (2002) found that 64% of female and 50% of male participants were sexually exploited and that disabled room mates were the predominant group of perpetrators for the male and third important for the female participants in the study.9 The statistics in the current literature does vary and â€Å"the wide variation in the figures is due to differences of abuse, the differences in the populations sampled and differences in research methods.†7 Vulnerability For children with disabilities the risk factors for sexual child abuse are increased. A child with a learning disorder has more difficulty in understanding and communicating and has an increased level of vulnerability. As they are unable to understand tasks as well as other normal children of the same age they are often brought up with low self-esteem as their care givers perform more of the tasks for them than they would for other children. This also leads onto a greater vulnerability and increased risk of sexual abuse than what is seen in children of the same age and normal development.1 This low self-esteem can continue into adulthood resulting in the learning disabled adult also possessing low-self esteem and greater risk factors of vulnerability in comparison to other adults. For those adults with intellectual disabilities there is a difficult balance to be met between empowering the individual to make their own sexual choices and to be leading more of a normal life and to claim their sexual rights and protect them from sexual abuse.4 Murphy et al (2004) suggests that services should be guided as to whether a person has the capacity to make their own sexual choices, however, the ability to assess this capacity to consent hasn’t been clearly defined. It is obvious that a caregiver would be taking advantage of their position of trust and it would be defined as sexual abuse. However, relationships outside this sphere are much more difficult to assess. Sexual acts between two adults of diminished mental capacity for instance and with adults outside the care-giving role. A more appropriate definition in this case may be â€Å"where a person is used by another in order to satisfy certain needs without being informed or giving consent†. This focus is more on the perpetrator as satisfying their sexual needs while the victim does not gain anything by the relationship so the victim is in a position of vulnerability and may not be able to represent themselves. Review of Intervention Techniques as a method of preventing Sexual Abuse in the learning disabled adult Lobbying the Government and changes to policy The manner in which sexual abuse is dealt with in a community reflects the way disabled people are regarded by in society. A report was released in 2004 that spoke about the changes the government is try to initiate as part of the ‘Valuing people: Moving Forward Together’ project.12 According to the Health and Social Care Act 2001, an annual report must be given to Parliament on learning disability. The Leaning Disability Task Force report for 2004 was called ‘Rights, Independence and inclusion’ and addressed the Sexual Offences Bill. Part of the Bill that talks about capacity and consent was changed to reflect the rights of people with learning disabilities to a full sexual life. The British Home Office is now working on helping others understand the Sexual Offences Act fully. Change has taken place and inclusion in helping to form government policy can be considered ‘morally and ethically the most appropriate form of education’. The acceptance of the disabled person as an individual is important not only at school level but right through to parliament. Behavior modification in the learning disabled adult; empowering the victim It has been suggested that programs aimed at re-educating the perpetrator have had little success and interventions aimed at modifying the behavior of the victim have a much greater success at reducing the risk of sexual abuse in adults with learning disabilities (Bruder et al, 2005). To be able to protect themselves against perpetrators, the adult with learning disabilities needs to learn how to assess whether a situation is inappropriate, must have the assertiveness to say no and seek help and to report the event. The eleven papers chosen for review are listed in Table 1 in the Appendix. Burke et al, 1998, suggested that one way a care provider can lower the risk of sexual abuse in a learning disabled adult is to help provide functional communication skills. The adult may use their own form of communication whether this be symbols or words and their form of communication should be encouraged so that they are able to express their needs. Communication is empowering to the individual and enables them to be able to get a message to their Caregiver. Often those with intellectual disabilities are hard to understand and the carer should ask themselves if they have tried to read non-verbal behavior or begun to establish an alternative form of communication. Burke et al, 1998, also suggested that it was the Carer’s role to provide sexual education to limit the risk of abuse. This education then becomes a way of communicating the common language of sexual health. It is important that the individual understands what appropriate sexual behavior is and understands how to trust their feelings by ‘validating, rather than dismissing or minimizing, them’. The person also needs to be made aware of the appropriate forms of touch so that they can maintain and understand personal boundaries. Burke has suggested that these adults need to have a plan for when somebody doesn’t obey their personal boundary rules so that they are able to get themselves out of the situation and avoid sexual abuse altogether. It doesn’t mean being afraid of strangers but learning how to remain safe. Burke has suggested ways of empowering the learning disabled adult and reducing the risk of sexual abuse. These methods may not be useful when the caregiver is the perpetrator and it could be suggested that a teacher outside the carer role provide this type of education so that the individual is then able to recognise when a person in close association with them has crossed personal boundaries. It does not give ways to avoid abuse altogether and aims to reduc e the risk when the person knows what types of behavior is inappropriate and requires reporting. The main downfall of Burke’s research was that she didn’t quantitatively measure the reduction in risk of introducing a communication skills program so further research is needed to assess whether the implementing education on sexuality and encouraging communication strategies actually lower the incidence of sexual abuse. Earle, (2001), agreed that those with learning disabilities are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse due to the disabled person’s dependent environment, difficulty in articulating their abuse and understanding when abuse has taken place. She suggested that ‘whilst disabled people have the right to be protected from sexual abuse and exploitation, it could be argued that a concern with this risk should not be used as a smokescreen to deny disabled people their sexual identity.’ Earle also postulated that by not discussing sexuality and creating an atmosphere where ‘sexuality is taboo’, this may in fact increase the incidence or worsen the experience of the sexual abuse. Earle also found that nurses tended to think of their disabled patients as asexual and in denial did not address the sexual needs of the patient at all. She also found that disabled individuals have been unable to access information and services on sexuality. Earle admits in this paper that ‘the purpose of this paper has not been to provide answers’,’ nor has it been possible to explore all of these issues in depth’ but to show that the issue of sexuality should be given greater emphasis in a holistic health care framework. The missing link is whether empowering the disabled individual to make their own sexual choices and discover their own sexual identity actually reduces the incidence of sexual abuse. Teaching refusal skills to sexually active adolescents was introduced in a study by Warzak et al (1990). The training was given to sexually active handicapped female adolescents who lacked an effective refusal strategy. Role-plays were used to help teach effective strategies using ‘the who, what, when and where of situations which resulted in unwanted sexual intercourse.’ The skillfulness and effectiveness of the subjects’ refusal skills were judged to be improved as a result of the training. This study did not have a control group. The research did have a long-term follow up after 12 months and this showed a decrease in sexual activity for each girl. Singer (1996) introduced a programme to seven intellectually disabled adults that lived in a residential group home. The programme consisted of weekly sessions of assertiveness training, group exercises, role-plays and information giving. The participants had previously been subjected to verbal, physical and emotional abuse by previous members of staff and Singer aimed to teach them how to respond appropriately and assertively in situations of abuse. The trainers assessed each client individually to evaluate how they would initially act in a situation of abuse and also measured their social behavior, assertiveness skills, use of verbal and non-verbal behavior and reading and writing skills. They were given ratings on assertiveness in each role play and it was found that after the training was implemented, the participants did not show improvements in scores where authority figures were the perpetrators but that an overall general improvement in assertiveness scores was established. T he staff did comment that the residents showed an increase in confidence, communication and positive attitude post-intervention. This type of study would be great implemented on a larger scale. The difficulty in establishing whether this research has been effective is due to the small numbers. The long-term effects of the trainings are also unknown as there has not been any follow up study. The research study is lacking statistical analysis and a control group so it is difficult to assess whether the trainings actually reduced the risk of further sexual abuse. Mazzucchelli (2001) introduced a ‘Feel Safe pilot study of protective behaviors programme for people with intellectual disability.’ The programme was designed to increase personal safety skills by teaching ways of recognizing unsafe situations and developing a range of coping and problem-solving skills. This research study implemented the use of a control group. There were ten participants in each group. This intervention program was originally developed in the 1970s for children and was then used in this research study with learning disabled adults. Another main focus of the training was â€Å"Nothing is so awful that we can’t talk to someone about it.† The training programme involved the research group participating in role-plays and then evaluating how they behaved to promote self-regulation of behavior as well as using the role-plays in real, everyday situations. Questionnaires were used to evaluate quality of life and protective behavior skills and con ducted by assessors that weren’t involved in delivery of the programme. The experimental group did show a statistically significant increase in performance on the Behavioral Skills Evaluation in comparison to the control group from pre-test to follow-up suggesting that the programme did improve favorable behavioral skills but did not improve the participant’s quality of life. The six-week follow up may have been too soon to appropriately evaluate any change in quality of life. Mazzucchelli also had a small number of participants which led to difficulties in showing statistical significance for the research. The themes which showed the greatest increase from pre-test to post-test were â€Å"we all have the right to feel safe†, â€Å"it is acceptable to be non-compliant or ‘break rules’ during an emergency and self-assertion skills. The researchers Lee et al (2001), examined the effectiveness of a computer-based safety programme for children with severe learning difficulties that could be implemented into an adult training programme. Three groups were established. One group was offered the safety programme, one was a control and the third group was given the intervention programme much later in the study. All of the participants were tested for cognitive ability and knowledge of personal safety concepts pre-training. Two post-tests were conducted 1 week and 2 weeks after the safety programme. There were 18 candidates in the control group and 31 children in the experimental group. None of the schools had previously implemented formal personal safety training programmes although some of the teachers had started to discuss personal safety with their students. The computer programme went through role-plays illustrating types of behavior and the experimental group was divided into ‘less able’ and ‘ more able’ depending on cognitive ability. The researchers used two interviews to establish the student’s perception of authority figures and their knowledge of personal safety. MANOVA analysis found authority to have an independent effect on the respondent’s safety scores and this authority awareness was independent of the participant’s cognitive ability. These researchers found that those involved in the safety programme have significantly improved their knowledge of safety concepts and maintained this increase in knowledge for 15 weeks. There was also a statistically significant result in those going through the programme for the skill of ‘being able to tell someone’ and the study illustrated that they would repeatedly tell someone even after being dismissed the first time and they could also provide a reason for this disclosure. The research showed that there was no significant increase in knowledge attained by the control group leaving t hese untrained students as potential targets by perpetrators. Lee et al (2001) also found that the increase in knowledge post-training was greater in the ‘more able’ group so that training may need to be repeated for those with lower cognitive ability. By the end of the programme all the students were able to produce a list of people that they would tell if they experienced an incident. The researchers also explored the importance of acknowledging authority issues when designing a personal safety programme. This research illustrates that learning disabled students can benefit from training programmes on personal safety. The implementation of these programmes with adults may prove beneficial. Education of teachers, health care providers and caregivers Howard-Barr et al (2005) explored the beliefs in teachers regarding sexuality training of mentally disabled students. The researchers also investigated the range of sexuality topics they would teach and their professional preparation. The participants in the study believed that sexual education should be taught, they rated their current delivery as inadequate and expressed that they needed much more preparation. The number of participants was moderate (n=494) although only 206 candidates actually returned the questionnaire resulting in a response rate of 42%. There were 36 sexuality topics presented and out of the top 6 most important skills, the concept of personal skills was rated the highest. Teachers of mentally disabled students rated personal skills topics such as finding help, assertiveness, communication and friendship more important than human development topics such as reproduction, anatomy and body image. Subjects such as masturbation, human sexual response and shared sexu al behavior were the most neglected topics. The limitations of this study included the inability to assess the quality of teaching and whether the teacher was actually addressing any specific areas of the 36 topics. This research topic did not address the effectiveness of education as a risk reduction method for sexual abuse however it did examine the beliefs of the teachers in the type of topics covered in sexuality education of mentally disabled students. It also revealed a general feeling of professional inadequacy in this area. Fronek et al (2005), conducted a research study that examined the effectiveness of a Sexuality Training Program for patients post-spinal cord injury. They found that there was evidence to support consideration of the client sexuality and a lack of training given to caregivers in this area. This study evaluated the attitudes of staff before and post-sexuality training. The researchers based the training on the Specific Suggestions and Intensive Therapy (PLISSIT) model. The sample group (n=89) was divided into a control group and experimental group randomly. A series of one-day workshops were conducted to the experimental group. Topics covered included identification of professional boundaries, limit setting, maintaining boundaries, development of sexual identity and case studies. This training programme was not focusing on the prevention of sexual abuse, rather the education of staff to being able to be open and teach their patients about sexuality. The staff assigned to the treatment group showed a significant improvement on all subscales of the KCAASS (Knowledge, Comfort, Approach and Attitudes towards Sexuality Scale) post-training and these changes were still significant three months later. In comparison, the control group did not show any significant changes on the KCAASS. Those patients suffering from spinal cord injury are not necessarily affected cognitively and may be only physically affected so this study is limited in assessing how sexuality training of staff could benefit the needs of people with a learning disability. The training was conducted over a one day period and a longer programme may be more beneficial to staff. There was a reporting bias shown by the control group as they were not assigned to receive training initially and the researchers believe that feelings of resentment and a tendency to over-estimate knowledge resulted from being assigned into the control group. Whether improvements can be maintained for longer periods of time (>3 mon ths) is uncertain and refresher courses may be necessary. The research did not examine the effect this education has on the patient in improving their own sexual identity and further studies would be useful in examining whether this limits the risk of sexual abuse. The PLISSIT model has been widely used to implement staff training and sexuality rehabilitation interventions within various clinical disciplines and could be an effective model to use to train carers of mentally disabled people. This model also allows for staff involvement according to level of comfort, previous knowledge and counseling skills. Community awareness Rogow (1998) discusses the impact of different forms of abuse in two case studies and expresses the need for comprehensive preventative or pro-active intervention strategies. The author discusses the release of an education campaign that consists of a video, handbook, workshop series and public service announcements for broadcast media that is aimed as a preventative to educate people involved with disabled youth. These publications are not specifically addressing prevention of sexual abuse in mentally disabled persons although, these forms of media could be used to help foster community awareness of this subject. The effectiveness of these media releases has not yet been evaluated and requires research. The video and handbook is being supported by government and private agencies and made in co-operation with parents and organizations advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. Advocacy Leicester Cooke (2002) expressed a need for further advocacy to those individuals to whom the giving of informed consent is difficult (individuals who are most likely to be among those labeled as having ‘severe learning disabilities’). These researchers also suggest that advocates, in representing other people, must attempt to work out what the learning disabled person would choose and not necessarily what they would choose. Advocates needs to have high levels of empathy and the ability to know when and how to set their own beliefs and values aside. Assessing the ability to use advocacy to reduce the risk of sexual abuse in learning disabled persons is yet to be researched. Recommendations for social work practice at local level There are several great projects currently in place that foster the empowerment of the learning disabled adult to help them protect themselves and also to be able to make their own choices about sexual relationships. For example, The Disability Pride Project explores avenues that promote safety and support by promoting awareness within the community and developing healthy sexuality workshops for people with disabilities.10 This group teaches community specific advocacy and self-advocacy skills, organizes workshops for personal attendants and institutions about sexuality in the lives of people with disabilities and creates opportunities for young women with disabilities to be mentored by older women with disabilities.10 These educational sessions could be implemented by Social Workers, carers and other educators internationally to foster empowerment in the learning disabled adult to help prevent abuse and instill confidence and responsibility in both the disabled adult and the caregivers. In this review I have critiqued papers that have researched the effectiveness of education of both the carer / teacher and the learning disabled adult and it is evident that there is an extreme lack of research in this area and there is a need for more statistically significant, large numbered studies that investigate the effectiveness of intervention strategies. Conclusion The studies on interventions used to prevent sexual abuse in those with a learning disability are limited. There is some suggestion from the research that advocacy and changes to policy will help to encourage greater understanding of learning disabled people in the community. Greater awareness can foster independence and boost self-esteem which may then lower the risk of sexual abuse in this minority group. Some of the research papers presented in this review have shown that intervention strategies such as improving communication skills in the learning disabled and education of both staff and carer may be beneficial. The implementation of behavioral strategies including role-plays may help the intellectually disabled person gain an increase in confidence, assertiveness and develop a strategic plan if placed in danger of a sexual predator. These training programmes could be introduced by the social worker or some other authority figure apart from the actual care-giver as there have be en cases where the carer is actually the perpetrator of the abuse. More studies of greater numbers using both an experimental and control group are necessary to determine whether these intervention strategies will be successful at significantly reducing the risk of sexual abuse in the learning disabled adult. Although, an increase in confidence and assertiveness in these people would also be a great benefit so even if the studies are unable to show significant risk reduction of sexual abuse the training could positively influence other aspects of their lives. References Abuse of Children with Disabilities. NCFV. Public Health Agency of Canada. www.phac-aspc.gc.ca http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/sped/projects/ose/categories/ld.html#defin Brown, H. 2004. A Rights-based Approach to Abuse of Women with Learning Disabilities. Tigard Learning Disability Review. Volt 9, Is 4, pp41-44. Murphy, GH and O’Callaghan, A.2004. Capacity of adults with intellectual disabilities to consent to sexual relationships. Psychological Medicine, Volt 34, Is 7, pp 1347 Brown, H and Turk, V. 1992. Defining sexual abuse as it affects adults with learning disabilities. Mental Handicap Volt 20, pp 33-55. McCarthy, M. 1993. Sexual experiences of women with learning disabilities in long stay hospitals. Sexuality and disability Volt 11, pp 277-286. McCarthy, M and Thompson, D.1996. Sexual abuse by design: an examination of the issues in learning disabilities services. Disability and Society. Volt 2, pp 205-224. Subset, D. 1994. Violence

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Upton Sinclair :: essays research papers

Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ). Upton Beall Sinclair began writing when he was 15 years old. He mostly wrote ethnic jokes and fiction for a fun magazine. He wrote these silly stories and jokes in order for the magazine to pay for his studies at New York City College. After he was done at New York City College, in 1897, he enrolled at Columbia University. By this time, Upton was putting out many novels and respected works. He was already being realized as one of the greatest writers of his time. Upton was putting out up to two novels per week. This was unheard of at this point in time. During these years he wrote Clif Faraday stories such as "Ensign Clarke Fitch." He was also writing Mark Mallory Stories like "Lieutenant Frederick Garrison" for boys’ weekly magazine. His writing was on the right track, but he still didn’t have that one book to put him over the top. In 1900 Sinclair married his first wife. This was a start of a whole new era of writing for him. By 1904 Sinclair was moving toward a realistic fiction type of writing. He had become a regular reader of the "Appeal to Reason", which was a popular socialist-populist weekly magazine at that time. Upton’s big break came in 1906 when he published a book called, " The Jungle." As a writer this is where Sinclair gained most of his fame. This book gave him not only fame, but it also led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This book had the deepest impact since Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The books popularity enabled Sinclair to establish and support the socialistic Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, N.J. However the popularity of his type of writing fell away after that year. After " The Jungle" was written it set off many sim ilar studies of a group, and industry. or a region. Among some of them were: "The Metropolis" (1908) which was a exploration of New York people, "King Coal" (1917) which was a story about the Colorado Mining strike of 1914, and "Oil!" which was considered one of Sinclair’s most influential writings. Upton Sinclair :: essays research papers Upton Sinclair was an American writer whose works reflects not only the inside but also the socialists view on things. Upton sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was born into a family which held to it’s Southern aristocracy in every thing that was done. When Sinclair was ten years old, the family packed up and moved to New York City ( Where there were more opportunities to succeed ). Upton Beall Sinclair began writing when he was 15 years old. He mostly wrote ethnic jokes and fiction for a fun magazine. He wrote these silly stories and jokes in order for the magazine to pay for his studies at New York City College. After he was done at New York City College, in 1897, he enrolled at Columbia University. By this time, Upton was putting out many novels and respected works. He was already being realized as one of the greatest writers of his time. Upton was putting out up to two novels per week. This was unheard of at this point in time. During these years he wrote Clif Faraday stories such as "Ensign Clarke Fitch." He was also writing Mark Mallory Stories like "Lieutenant Frederick Garrison" for boys’ weekly magazine. His writing was on the right track, but he still didn’t have that one book to put him over the top. In 1900 Sinclair married his first wife. This was a start of a whole new era of writing for him. By 1904 Sinclair was moving toward a realistic fiction type of writing. He had become a regular reader of the "Appeal to Reason", which was a popular socialist-populist weekly magazine at that time. Upton’s big break came in 1906 when he published a book called, " The Jungle." As a writer this is where Sinclair gained most of his fame. This book gave him not only fame, but it also led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This book had the deepest impact since Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The books popularity enabled Sinclair to establish and support the socialistic Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, N.J. However the popularity of his type of writing fell away after that year. After " The Jungle" was written it set off many sim ilar studies of a group, and industry. or a region. Among some of them were: "The Metropolis" (1908) which was a exploration of New York people, "King Coal" (1917) which was a story about the Colorado Mining strike of 1914, and "Oil!" which was considered one of Sinclair’s most influential writings.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Essay --

1.0 Introduction Valves are mechanical devices that control the flow and gases in the process. They are essential components of piping system that conveys liquid, vapor and gases. They come in variety of material ranging from steel and plastic. There are different types of the valves such as globe, gate, ball, plug and check valve. Each of these valves has different features and functional capabilities. Some valves can self operated (automatically) while the other manually or with pneumatic or hydraulic system. In this report I will talk about the benefits and the useful of the gate valves and the globe valve as well as compare the different between the two valves in term of cost and maintenance. 2.0 Background Gate Valve and globe valves achieves the important function of controlling the flow; they are installed on the piping and pipeline to straight the flow from one location to another and to prevent losses of the flow. Like the faucets in home plumping system that we observed every day, when it is open the flow is begins to move and speed up and when it close the flow will stop moving. Valves comes in different sizes the smallest one can be weight as 1lb (0.50 kg), while the largest valves can weigh up to 10 tones (9070 kg). Deciding the type of the flow or the gas can lead you and help to determine which valve will be suitable for the process. However the valves can be affecting by several factors such as slurry (mixture of the liquid like water or cement) which required Maintenance permanently to avoid the errors of the reading. 3.0 Technology This section will describe the functionality of both gate valve and globe valve and also will show the features of each technology. 3.1Gate valve The gate valve is designed to con... ...he flow to pass through the pipes. There are different types of the valves with different sizes, and each valve has several features that make suitable for different process. The most important feature is the efficiency. Globe valves are installed in parallel position not perpendicular like the gate valve, which make it more efficient than the gate valve in services that required frequent operation and when the pressure drop across the valve. 5.0 Recommendation After studying this report and from the analyzing I recommended to use the gate valves because it’s suitable for the different process and simply operates in fully open and fully close with no pressure drop also its required less maintenance and not expensive, rather then the globe valve which is not recommended where the pressure drop and resistance to flow, it’s preferable only for frequent operation.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Antigone :: essays research papers

Justice is a word we hear today all the time. Left and right we hear of judges and citizens demanding justice. Is justice always the right way? It seems that justice is not always the correct solution to a problem, but a solution that is the easiest to make. The classic play Antigone is a perfect example of this. Antigone is classic tragedy at its finest. A simple civilized and humane right of burying a loved one is turned into a great loss. Creon’s inapt decision to hold his power and sentence Antigone to death causes him to lose the people he loves most. The â€Å"justice† of the play is simply Creon’s punishment for his cruelty to Antigone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Antigone learns that no one is to bury her brother, she immediately knows what she must do. She doesn’t even hesitate to her decision and she is fully willing to face the consequences to do what is right. She believes that what she is doing is just a humane right and she’s willing to die for what she believes in. She even tells Creon that what he’s doing is against what the gods wanted and that his laws were worthless. She states: â€Å"Not through dread of any human pride could I answer to the gods for breaking these.† It seems that gods are almost speaking to Creon through Antigone and warning him of his decision.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Antigone is almost hailed to a god like status, as Oedipus was before her. She is extremely strong and unbelievably willing to sacrifice everything in the name of honor and pride. She so easily makes her decisions and chooses to die willingly without a second thought. The minute Creon questions her on breaking the law, she states: â€Å"Die I must, -I knew that well (how should I not?)-even without thy edicts.† What is even more is that Antigone was a woman, a woman in a time of extreme male domination. This makes her even stronger of a person in the play and shows the growing strength of the gender that we know of today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The blind sear once again plays the roll of an extremely reliable, but ignored person. He warns Creon of his terrible mistake but when Creon goes to change his wrongs, he finds out its too late. Creon is given more than enough warnings of his fate as Antigone states in the play: â€Å"And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Virtue Ethics Notes

Virtue Ethics Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived between 384 and 322 BCE. He was deeply interested in the idea of cause and purpose. On the Foundation Paper, you will have explored the ideas of the Four Causes and the Prime Mover. Both of these theories look at the idea of how things are caused and how they move towards their purpose. In ethics, any theory that looks at how we become better people over time, or that looks at how we move towards our purpose is called a teleological theory, from the Greek word telos meaning goal or purpose.Virtue ethics is teleological because it argues that we should practice being good, or virtuous people over time. Virtue ethics is therefore not deontological (like Kant’s ethics) and it is also not normative. It is known as aretaic ethics from the Greek word arete meaning excellence or virtue. Virtue ethics is not concerned with what we ought to do, but with what kind of person we should try to become. Aristotle argued that every act ion we perform is directed towards some purpose, that it tries to achieve something. He then argued that there are superior and subordinate aims.Subordinate aims are what we have to achieve first, before we achieve superior aims, for example, if you are hungry (which might be a superior aim) you need to make a sandwich to achieve that aim. Making the sandwich becomes a subordinate aim. The aim of life Aristotle argued that the superior aim of human life is to achieve something called eudaemonia. Eudaemonia is a Greek word that roughly translates to mean ‘happiness’ or ‘flourishing’. Aristotle argued that this is the aim that should govern our lives: the pursuit of happiness or pleasure.Eudaemonia is achieved when we become virtuous and Aristotle argued that this is a process that we grow towards by practising virtues. It is much like learning to play a musical instrument: the more you practise, the better you get. Some of you will have come across the word daemon before in the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman. All the characters in the books have daemons and Pullman says of them: ‘the daemon is that part of you that helps you grow towards wisdom. ’ Lyra, the central character in the trilogy has a daemon called Pantalaimon who is instrumental in helping her deal with situations wisely as the story progresses. [Pleasure] is also thought to be most important for the forming of a virtuous character to like and dislike the right things because pleasure and pain permeate the whole of life and have a powerful influence upon virtue and the happy life, since people choose what is pleasant and avoid what is painful. ’[1] Aristotle did realise however, that one person’s view of happiness might be very different from another person’s view of happiness. He distinguished between three types of pleasure/happiness: 1. Pleasure seekers: these are people who are driven by their basic desires and simply live from one pleasurable experience to the next: e. . eating good food, sleeping, drinking and having sex. 2. Seekers of honour: Aristotle saw politicians as seekers of honour. These are people who try to find solutions to important problems and get a sense of honour from doing that. 3. Those who love contemplation: these are philosophers and thinkers. Aristotle believed that the lowest forms of happiness are those found by the pleasure seekers. He wrote: ‘The utter servility of the masses comes out in their preference for a bovine [animalistic] existence. ’[2] For Aristotle, the distinguishing feature of humans is their ability to reason, which they get from their soul.In plants, the anima or soul produces the search for nourishment and food, and in animals, the anima produces the ability to move. Humans have these two characteristics, but also the ability to reason. Aristotle called humans ‘rational animals’. It is for this reason that he beli eved we should strive to achieve something better with our lives than simply living from pleasure to pleasure. Happiness for Aristotle is an activity of the soul, i. e. the correct and full use of the soul can help us to discover happiness. Aristotle divided the soul up into two parts, the rational part and the irrational part.Both parts of the soul are then divided in two. The rational part contains the calculative and scientific parts. The scientific part of the soul holds types of knowledge that are factual and not up for debate: in other words, a priori knowledge. The calculative part does what it says; it calculates. It weighs up knowledge and helps us to arrive at decisions. The irrational part of the soul contains the desiderative part and the vegetative part. The vegetative part of the soul is concerned with basic needs that keep us alive and is effectively our survival instinct.The desiderative part helps us to distinguish between needs and wants. For Aristotle, a correctly functioning soul uses all of the parts well and properly. Vardy and Grosch use the example of a fruitcake to demonstrate this. If the vegetative part recognises that I am hungry, it tells me to eat. The desiderative part may desire cake to alleviate the hunger: something I want, but don’t necessarily need. The scientific part of my soul knows that fruit is better for me than cake and the calculative part, weighing up the evidence, comes up with the suggestion of fruitcake. Thus all the parts of my soul have been used in the decision.This is very important, as only a soul that functions correctly can find happiness, or eudaemonia. The Virtues Now that we have seen the basic ideas that Aristotle had about humans and how they function, we can look at the virtues. Aristotle believed that the correct way to live, was to follow something called the doctrine of the mean, the middle way or temperance. Aristotle realised that human behaviour is made up of extremes which he called vic es of excess and vices of deficiency. Aristotle argued that the best course of action falls between the two and that this is the virtue.For example, if courage is the virtue, then cowardice is the vice of deficiency and foolhardiness is the vice of excess. Aristotle believed that there are two types of virtue: intellectual virtues and moral virtues. The intellectual virtues are learned through instruction i. e. they are taught. The moral virtues are developed through habit. The intellectual virtues are developed in the rational part of the soul and the moral virtues are developed in the irrational part of the soul. There are 9 intellectual virtues, as follows: †¢ Art or technical skill (techne) †¢ Scientific knowledge (episteme) Prudence or practical wisdom (phronesis) †¢ Intelligence or intuition (nous) †¢ Wisdom (sophia) †¢ Resourcefulness or good deliberation (eubolia) †¢ Understanding (sunesis) †¢ Judgement (gnome) †¢ Cleverness (deinotes) The 12 moral virtues, with their corresponding vices are set out in the table below. |Vice of deficiency |Virtue |Vice of excess | |Cowardice |Courage |Rashness | |Insensibility Temperance |Intemperance | |Illiberality |Liberality |Prodigality | |Pettiness |Munificence |Vulgarity | |Humble-mindedness |High-mindedness |Vaingloriousness | |Want of ambition |Right ambition |Over-ambition | |Spiritlessness |Good temper |Irascibility | |Surliness |Friendliness/civility |Obsequiousness | |Sarcasm |Sincerity |Boastfulness | |Boorishness |Wittiness |Buffoonery | |Shamelessness |Modesty |Bashfulness | |Callousness |Just resentment |Spitefulness | Aristotle recognised that not all people will attain to the virtues, but he did argue that a balance between the intellectual and moral virtues was essential. Practising the moral virtues alone, might result in conformity and being an automaton. Aristotle urged us to think about the life we lead too. He believed that the virtues were essential to a harmonious society.Aristotle believed that the overall well being of the group is much more important than the well being of individuals alone and argued that it is through encouraging the practise of the virtues that society will be a harmonious place. It is friendship that is the main aim of the moral life, for without friendship, justice is meaningless. Aristotle was not a deep believer in the after-life. Aristotle was a man who valued empirical (sense) evidence above all else and believed that if anything lived on, it would be our memories. Because of this, the point of being virtuous is not to achieve unity with God, or win a place in heaven, it is good because it is the right way to live.Modern virtue ethics In 1958, Elizabeth Anscombe wrote an essay entitled ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’. In this essay, she argued that deontological ethics had become outdated. The existence of God had a considerable shadow cast over it and she argued that the religious basis to ethi cs and morality (i. e. that God gives rules to humans to follow and they must follow them if they wish to get to heaven) could no longer be trusted. She also felt that ethics had moved away from a focus on a person’s character and had instead become obsessed with lots of rules and laws. Anscombe argued that it was time for a return of virtue ethics. Alasdair MacIntyreIn 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre (left) wrote a book called ‘After Virtue’ in which he argued that we should give serious consideration to Aristotle’s theory. In his book, he traced the history of virtue ethics and tried to establish a system of virtue ethics for the modern age. His basic complaint was that modern ethics put too much emphasis on reason and not enough stress on people, their characters and the contexts of their lives. MacIntyre noticed that as societies developed 2,500 years ago, so different virtues developed too. In the age of Homer (who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey), the follo wing virtues were paramount; †¢ Physical strength †¢ Courage †¢ Cunning †¢ Friendship These are known as the Homeric Virtues. As cities (the polis) developed, life slowly became more civilized.Aristotle developed his theory of virtues for the city of Athens and his virtues became known as the Athenian Virtues. They were (briefly) as follows: †¢ Courage †¢ Friendship †¢ Justice: retributive (getting what you deserve) and distributive (making sure that the goods of society are fairly distributed) †¢ Temperance †¢ Wisdom The emphasis on strength and cunning, needed in time of war, was gone. MacIntyre argued that the Athenian virtues of Aristotle were the most complete. For MacIntyre, the problems with ethics began during the Enlightenment, a period of time during the 17th and 18th Centuries when Science became more important for discovering truth.It was thought that a single, rational cause for morality could be discovered and thinkers such as Hume and Kant attempted to do this. MacIntyre realised that whilst the theorists in universities were trying to work morality out, society still needed virtuous people in everyday life; people who run jumble sales to raise money for the local hospital for example. MacIntyre argued that despite the theories of people like Kant and Hume, the virtues have lived on. What’s more, society depends for its very existence upon people who exhibit the virtues. MacIntyre argued that living a virtuous life depended upon getting into the habit of being moral and of striving towards being virtuous. He argued that this can give life an overall purpose and meaning.The virtues for MacIntyre, are any human quality which helps us to achieve the ‘goods’ in life. MacIntyre’s virtues are as follows: †¢ Courage: courage is very important as it helps us to face up to challenges that may come our way. †¢ Justice: this is a very important virtue. Justice is fairness and it is the art of giving someone what they deserve or merit. To be unjust is to be unfair. †¢ Temperance: this prevents us from acting rashly; losing our temper for example. †¢ Wisdom: this is not knowledge: it is the ability to know how to act in the right way in particular situations. †¢ Industriousness: hard work. †¢ Hope: being optimistic. †¢ Patience.Underneath the virtues must be the good will of the person. To be virtuous, one must desire to do virtuous things, rather than do them involuntarily. An act is not virtuous if it is not intended. MacIntyre also used the idea of internal and external goods, a version of which is seen in Natural Law. An internal good is specific to the activity itself; for example, giving money to charity results in helping others and developing a sense of satisfaction. An external good, is a good that is not specific to the act. For example, when giving to charity, your example may inspire others to do the same. MacIntyre al so warned that being virtuous does not prevent you from being open to vices.He gives the example of a great violinist who could be vicious, or a chess player who could be mean spirited. The vices would prevent these people from achieving maximum virtue. MacIntyre suggests that the three most important virtues are justice, courage and honesty. We can only achieve moral excellence through practising these three. They are core virtues that help to prevent organisations and institutions from becoming morally corrupt. It is largely through institutions that traditions, cultures and morality spread: if these institutions are corrupt, then vices become widespread. Philippa Foot Philippa Foot has also put together a modern version of virtue ethics.She has argued that the wise person directs their will to what is good and a good is something that is both intrinsically and extrinsically good (see MacIntyre above). The wise, or virtuous person also knows that there are particular ways of obtai ning certain goods and it is these ways of obtaining goods that are the virtues. She also argues that virtues and skills are different things. We may make a deliberate mistake with a skill, but not damage our character or reputation; for example, a teacher who deliberately misspells a word to draw their students attention to it. However, if you deliberately act in a non-virtuous way, your reputation and character will suffer. Foot also characterises virtues as ‘correctives’. She likens humans to planks of wood that are left out to season.Wood naturally warps and changes shape and it needs continuous straightening to make it straight. Virtues do the same for the human character: they continually straighten us out so that eventually we can, through habit, become virtuous. Evaluation of virtue ethics argued that justice and truthfulness are not a middle way, but are ethical absolutes that we have a duty to follow. Grotius argued that there are absolute moral laws that we h ave a duty to obey and that can be worked out by anyone of sufficient intelligence. ———————– [1] Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, X 1172a. [2] Ibid: I, 1095b. ———————– The five primary intellectual virtues The four secondary intellectual virtues