Wednesday, November 27, 2019

The Odyssey essays

The Odyssey essays 1) The setting of the story was in Greece and the year was about 1000 b.c or around that time. I am not exactly sure but I no its along time ago since they have simple technologies. 2) The main character in this story is Odysseus. His son and wife are also important characters as well. And the lead guy who wants to marry Odysseus wife. He was always telling the other guys what to do and he was the one he kept on winning all the battles and contest they held in the courtyard of Odysseus house. 3) The minor characters in the story were all the men who wanted to marry the wife of Odysseys and all of Odysseys warriors. Poseidon, the god of the ocean, was also kind of a minor. 4) Odysseus had a whole mess of problems going on in the story. But his main one was getting back home to his wife. He had got Poseidon, the god of the sea, angry with him and couldnt return home. He had to go through many encounters with other gods and goddesss just to make it to the next island. And before he knew it his ship and all his men were destroyed. Eventually he drifted to an island that had heard about him and gave him a ship and men to get him home safely to his wife in Ithaca. His solution is coming back home to his wife and son. But he had to kill all the men who wanted to kill him if he were ever to return. All the men who wanted to marry Odysseus wife were planning on killing his son and Odysseus. So Odysseus and his son killed all the men and they lived happily ever after. 5) The thing I liked most about the movie is all the adventures that Odysseus got into. He was always killing something or meeting attractive women. Odysseus is my kind of cool guy. And plus he killed like 40 people just for trying to get with his woman. Thats just to cool. And plus how he did it to. He barely even moved and they were running around throwing stuff at him. And how he used that disguise to get passed all of ...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Cosmos Episode 5 Viewing Worksheet

'Cosmos' Episode 5 Viewing Worksheet Lets face it: there are some days when teachers need to show videos or movies. Sometimes, it is to help supplement a lesson or unit so visual learners and auditory learners can grasp the concept. Many teachers also decide to leave videos to watch when a substitute teacher is planned. Still, others give students a bit of a break or a reward by having a movie day. Whatever your motivation, the Fox series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, is an excellent and entertaining television show with sound science. Tyson makes the science information accessible for all levels of learners and keeps the audience engaged throughout the entire episode. Below is a set of questions for Cosmos Episode 5, titled Hiding in the Light, that can be copy-and-pasted into a worksheet. It can be used as an assessment or a guided note-taking guide for the students as they travel along on the Ship of the Imagination and get introduced to great scientists and their discoveries. This particular episode focuses on waves and, in particular, light waves and how they compare to sound waves. It would be an excellent supplement to a physical science or physics class studying waves and their properties. Cosmos Hiding in the Light Worksheet What are two things Neil deGrasse Tyson says helped us evolved from a band of wandering hunting and gathering ancestors to a global civilization?What type of camera did Mo Tzu invent?What three things should all doctrines be tested with, according to Against Fate by Mo Tzu?What was the name of the first Emperor of China who wanted everything in China to be uniform?What happened to the books written by Mo Tzu?During Ibn Alhazen’s time, what was the agreed-upon hypothesis of how we see things?Where did our current number system and the concept of zero come from?What important property of light did Alhazen discover with only his tent, a piece of wood, and a ruler?What must happen to light in order for an image to form?How is the lens of a telescope and light like a big bucket and rain?What was Alhazen’s greatest contribution to science?What is the name of the only particle that can travel at the speed of light?The word â€Å"spectrum† comes from a Latin word meaning what?What did William Herschel’s experiment with light and heat prove? What was the profession of the man that kept an 11-year-old Joseph Fraunhofer as a slave?How did Joseph Fraunhofer get to meet the future King of Bavaria?Where did the King’s counselor offer Joseph Fraunhofer a job?Why are organ pipes in the Abbey different lengths?What is the difference between light and sound waves as they travel?What determines the color of light we see?Which color has the lowest energy?Why are there dark bands in the spectra Joseph Fraunhofer saw?What is the force that holds atoms together?How old was Joseph Fraunhofer when he fell ill and what probably caused it?What did Joseph Fraunhofer discover about the elements that make up the universe?

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Fictional biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fictional biography - Essay Example Although many explorers of the established road traversed continents, the Chinese monk of focus in this essay used the Silk Road to establish a religious and cultural interconnection of Asian countries. This fictional biography will highlight the critical aspects that defined the Silk Road, as well as the religious connectivity that resulted from the exploration of the monk. Unlike the literal understanding adopted by many people regarding the Silk Road, it was a virtual road. The term road implies land to many people, but the Silk Road was defined by multiple sea routes that connected different regions between china where it started, Persian cities, India, Somalia, Egypt and other North African regions, until Turkey in Europe. The availability of these routes served to alter the globe in multiple ways (Brockey 67). It introduced new realms of possibilities. These routes saw to it that goods moved from one region to the other, a factor that led to an intensive interconnectivity. Moreover, as people travelled, an interchange of cultural aspects occurred. In the case of the Chinese monk under study, he embarked on a long trip that saw him use the Silk Road routes as he ventured into India. Being a Buddhist, the trip to India was a critical one, because Buddhism had its roots in the region. Throughout his trip, he would gain familiarity with many Buddhist towns, cities, beliefs and a diverse range of history. Trading is known for enhancing civilization all over the world; it is vital for a country’s wealth and often survival. The early trade between China and West led to human civilizations; there was development of leadership and order, empires developed in the West such as the Iranian empire, Greek and Roman empires as well as the growth of the economy. Cities such as Petra and Palmyra in Syrian Desert developed out of a need for places to trade

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Jack Michael Dixon as a policeman Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Jack Michael Dixon as a policeman - Coursework Example The misuse of personal data falls under the ambit of Data Protection Act 1984. On violation of mentioned act, the trial court awarded penalty of 500 GBP each on count-1 and count-2 along with the cost of suit amounting to 1,750 GBP. Q.2. Explain in your own words the legal issue in the case? Answer: Jack Michael Dixon was a police constable in the Nottingham police constabulary who misused personal data on the computers of the National Police. The misuse occurred in the sense that he was blamed for performing contrary to prescribed task enshrined in the relevant entry register. This invokes s5 (2) (b) (3) and (5) of Data Protection Act 1984. Accordingly he was found guilty on two counts by the trial court. For the initial offence he was convicted to an attempt and for the second time he was convicted to full offence. In each count the court of competent jurisdiction found him guilty and for each offence awarded him penalty of 500 GBP each plus cost of suit incurred thereon i.e. 1,750 GBP. Q.3. what technique of statutory interpretations, presumption and / or rule of language did Lord Goff employee in this case? Give reasons for your answer. Answer: The defendant Dixon on appeal was exonerated by the Court of Appeal. The prosecution against the judgment of the trial court files an appeal to Lordship’s House to reconsider the matter of exoneration. ... The defendant plea was that enquires made by him was legal. However, incidentally the enquired data was belonging to the Best Investigation Ltd. The trial court did not accept the plea and fined Dixon. The prosecution was of the view that displaying data on screen or make a print of it amounts to leakage the information to some other person which is in violation of section 5(2) (b).The concerned court accepted the stance of the prosecution and sentenced the said accused. Since the word ‘use’ has no specific meaning in terms of relevant act, therefore, it should be treated a commonly used word. The said word did not confine someone to perform something specific. The word used with reference to data amounts to information recorded in a computer readable format i.e. on the screen or to make a print out of it. But as per the interpretation of law, a police officer who have an access to his personal data or to the data of his chief, if knowingly / intentionally pass on the in formation to another person for an improper use liable to punish under the said Act. Q.4. To what aids to statutory interpretation did Lord Goff refer? Your answer should indicate whether such aids are â€Å"intrinsic† or â€Å"extrinsic†. Answer: In accordance with the interpretation of Lord Goff the similar principles are applicable in the disclosing of information being no specific meaning of the word ‘disclose’ available in the referred Act as in the case of defining the word ‘use’. In view the said Lord information recorded in a computer readable format cannot be disclosed or pass on to others for its use other than the prescribed purposes. However, the section 1(9) put no bar as far

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Learning Plan Essay Example for Free

Learning Plan Essay The learning plan described in this paper is to have students debate a topic related to the Civil War. The debate topic is â€Å"Was the Emancipation Proclamation enacted for moral reasons or political reasons?† The main concept of this learning plan is to have students work collaboratively to research facts, and recall and use facts from the Civil War unit to incorporate into their arguments. (It should be noted that the learning plan described in this paper will take several classes to complete, however the learning plan procedures will only address the class where the debate will occur. ) It is assumed that debate skills were taught in a previous class. The learning theory certainly incorporates constructivist aspects. They are constructing knowledge rather than absorbing it. This is constructivist approach is illustrated through the collaborative nature of the assignment, as well as through the research that students’ must produce. In terms of the use of technology and media; the students will be instructed to research one source of information, from the internet, related to their argument. They must submit a one-page analysis of the information in which they found along with a references page. This must be submitted to the teacher a week before the scheduled debate. The teacher will assess the content of the paper, but the references page will also be important. Teacher must evaluate the kinds of internet sources that the students have used. The credibility of the internet source, and the strength of student’s research will be analyzed by the teacher. The purpose is to assess student’s traditional literacy and critical analytical skills (assessed when evaluating the content), and information literacy/interpretation skills of online material (assessed by reviewing the reference page). Finally, the teacher will hand back papers to the students, and he/she will instruct each group to use at least two of their group members’ papers into their group’s arguments. Media and technology will also be incorporated with the use of social media. The teacher will tell students that their debates will be recorded and submitted to youtube or a private school website (if issues of privacy are raised). Others will be allowed to view th e video to evaluate the strength of each team’s arguments. Based on the comments of public viewers, a winner will be chosen (by popular vote). This popular vote will be incorporated as a small percentage into the assessment. This is being done as to allow students to  participate in new media opportunities within an educational context. Learning Plan Context Setting The high needs school will be a High School in the Bay Area, either in San Francisco or Oakland. There will be 25-30 students in an individual classroom.  The lesson will take place the week after the Civil War unit is finished. It is anticipated that the unit will last about two weeks, therefore the debate class will occur during the third week. The actual debate class will take up one class period. The content area is US History/Politics. The grade level is Juniors (11th grade). In sum, the curriculum unit is 11th grade, US History/Politics, Civil War unit. Standards According to California standards for literacy in History/Social Studies in 6-12th grades. A student must be able to demonstrate analysis of primary and secondary sources, and connect these insights to the understanding of the whole text. This ability will be addressed and assessed when students must incorporate information learned from the textbook with information gained from the internet, and use both sources of information, into their debate. The student’s ability to undertake this task will be evaluated by the teacher with the submission of student’s sources, and also during the debate. (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf.) Also according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate various explanations for events and actions. This standard is illustrated in the nature of the activity. A debate, in itself, evaluates different explanations for one event, which makes it an ideal means of addressing this standard (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf.)  Finally, according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate differing points of view on the same historical issue. Once again, this standard is illustrated within the nature of a debate. It is also illustrated when students submit their own analysis of internet research (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf.) Learning Objective Students will be able to collaboratively demonstrate their knowledge of Civil War policy, events and information, from the textbook and from online sources, by formulating arguments to be presented within a debate. Learning Theory Applications Constructivism is certainly at play in this lesson plan: The activity allows knowledge to be organized into schemas, concepts, and worldviews. This activity is emphasizing the use of authentic activities by constructing knowledge through interaction with the environments (internet and peers), and applying it to real-life situations (debate). The collaborative component certainly illustrates constuctivism; learners will help each other create conceptual connections. Finally, students are working autonomously with the help of the teacher as facilitator, supporter, and model (Ormrod, 2006). Learning Accommodations: Individualized Education Plan for Special Accomodations: In each team, all students will be assigned a role. For example, â€Å"speaker†, â€Å"writer†, â€Å"time-keeper†. A student’s IEP will be taken into consideration when assigning roles. A student with an IEP, will be assigned a role that best fits their IEP. For example, a student with ADD, may be best suited to be a time-keeper since their attention span is not as focused. They may be anxious to change the pace of the group’s discussions, and therefore they may be eager to keep track of the time. Language Development needs: When assigning the internet-based research; the teacher will give ELL students a website to navigate to, instead of having the students navigate the internet themselves. Teacher will give explicit instructions as to where to look on the website so students do not feel too overwhelmed with the English language. Teacher will ask the students to try to comprehend some of the information, however if this proves too difficult, then the teacher will ask the students to find 15-20 words from the website that the student did not understand. The student will then find the meanings of these words in their own language. They must write at least a paragraph about the Civil War unit incorporating five of the words that they found on the internet. Also,  at least two of these words must be incorporated into the arguments of their team. Gifted and Talented needs: This is a challenging component to consider because a gifted/talented student does not necessarily mean an academic-rigorous student. To really tailor the lesson to address the interests of a gifted/talented student, then the teacher will have to be familiar with the personality of that particular student. However, some situations will be addressed here. First of all, from the research, the lesson itself befits that of a gifted/talented student. Competition, which characterizes a debate, usually suits the nature of gifted/talented students. (http://www.teachersfirst.com/gifted_strategies.cfm) The first situation to consider is a student who is gifted/talented, but not academically rigorous. This student will be given a leadership role within his/her team. He/she may be assigned to organize/manage all the ideas of the students. He/she is the one who will be given the rubric for what the teacher is assessing when observing the team’s discussions and arguments. He/she is the manager, and he/she will be assessed on their ability to keep his/her team on task. In this way, this student isn’t necessarily doing more â€Å"academic† work, but he/she is being challenged in a rather difficult manner. A second situation to consider is to have a gifted/talented student who is academically rigorous. The teacher will give this student a second component to add to his/her research paper. The student must connect textbook material and internet material to the US politics of today. This is increasing the cognitive process from analyze (which all students must do with their research papers) to evaluate (Anderson and Krathwol, 2001). The student can choose to incorporate this extra component into their team’s arguments. Resource Accommodations: Low tech: There are no computers, projector, or internet access in the classroom. If this is the case, teacher may have to allocate time in different lessons to use school facilities where computers are available. Computers must be used so that the teacher can show students the kinds of websites that are credible, as well as to use sites, like youtube, to show students examples of debates. Computer use is necessary so teacher may have to take time before or after school to meet with students (who are willing) to show them the above-mentioned websites. Mid tech: One computer connected  to a projector is available in the classroom. The teacher can use this computer to show examples of credible websites, as well as to show examples of debates online. High tech: Class is equipped with several computers. Teams can go online themselves to view videos of debates and start research for their paper. In this way, the collaborative nature of the lesson will start even earlier (in the pre-plan ning stage). Content-Based Literacy Skills In terms of text-based literacy; students must incorporate information from their textbook into their arguments Critical thinking, reflective thought, and text-supported thinking will be illustrated when students must draw connections between internet-based information and textbook information while doing their analysis/research paper. This connection will be evaluated when student’s cute their sources within their paper. (This explanation will also illustrate students’ information literacy.) New Media Literacy Skills Performance: This skill is illustrated when students view sample debates on the internet and use this as models of performance in their own debates. Collective Intelligence: This skill is done when students are within their respective teams and they must draw upon their own and others ideas, research, and knowledge to formulate strong arguments. Judgement: This skill is illustrated when students must judge which websites and information are to be included in their research/analysis paper. Networking: Once again, this skill is illustrated when students must search, connect, and analyze information on the internet for the purpose of their research/analysis paper (Jenkins, 2001). Learning Material: Textbook: Learners will need textbook so that they can recall information. Paper, pen: Leaners will need so that they can write down information. Rubric: Both the learner and teacher needs. Learners need it so that they are aware of what’s expected of them while working in teams and formulating their arguments. Teacher needs it so that he/she can refer to it when assessing the team’s progress. Notes: Learners will need them as a reference when formulating arguments. Stopwatch/watch: This will be given to the student whose job is timekeeper. Video Camera: Used to record the debate Learning Plan Procedures Phase I: Motivation Activity Teacher will show a short clip of a very powerful, interesting debate. Possibly a presidential debate. The clip will only show the most poignant part (according to the teacher) of the debate. Hopefully the clip will be no longer than 5 minutes long. (if there’s no computer available, then teacher must bring in her/his own computer.) In a class of 30 chair/table. There will be 15 chairs/ tables on each side of the room. They will be facing eachother. Learners will enter the classroom and sit down immediately with their team. The teacher will then show the video as soon as the class is seated and quiet. This activity is being done to motivate, encourage, and remind students of what a good debate looks like so that the output of the students’ debates can match skills such as speaking (clear and concise) and eye-contact of the debaters within the video. Phase II: Input (Teacher Driven) Activity: During this class, the teacher will, serve only as facilitator, therefore not much activity will be driven by the teacher. However, after the video, the teacher will remind students of the rubric that was given to them, and tell students that she/he is only their to assist in the logistics of the debate (time, flow, managing emotions if this becomes a problem). The teacher will also instruct students to take notes on each other’s arguments because this assignment will be important for their homework assignment. She/he will also remind student that they will be recorded. Teacher will tell all students to take out their rubrics. She/He will go over some key point from the rubric as it relates to the debate. The teacher will tell students to make sure that they keep these key points in mind because these points will be assessed during the debate. The teacher will instruct students to have their rubrics out for the entire class so they can monitor their team’s progress by themselves. Teacher will formally go over key questions from the rubric that he/she hopes the teams have incorporated into the nature of the debate (clear speech, eye contact,  concise points, respectful behavior) as well as into the content of the debate. In term of the nature of the debate, questions might look like â€Å"Is my team being quiet/respectful as the other team presents their arguments?†, â€Å"Are my responses to the other’s teams arguments not insulting?† etc. In terms of the content of the debate, questions may look like, â€Å"Did my team incorporate facts from the textbook?†, â€Å"Did my team use at least two credible internet sources within the argument?†, â€Å"Did my team follow special instructions assigned by the teacher (e.g. incorporating ideas from IEP students, ELL student, gifted students)?.† This activity and these questions serve to remind students of the importance of the collaborative nature of the learning objective. They also serve to remind students that they must be able to demonstrate their understanding of the Civil War unit, as well as their understanding of outside sources within the context of an argument. Phase III: Output (Learner Driven) Activity Students will take part in a debate. The topic is â€Å"Was the Emancipation Proclamation enacted for moral reasons or political reasons?† This activity will illustrate the learning objective in several ways. First, the collaborative nature of the previous classes will finally be demonstrated. Second, the students must illustrate their knowledge of Civil War policies within their arguments. Third, both sides’ arguments must include information from outside sources. The teacher will select one team to present their arguments first. Recording will begin The speaker of that team will stand up and come to the front of the class. They will present their team’s argument. In the argument they must mention the sources in which they got their information. For example, if they got a particular piece of data from the textbook, then they must state â€Å"As is presented in the textbook†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . If they got a particular piece of data from the internet then they must state, â€Å"As is presented on so-called website, or by so-called author†¦Ã¢â‚¬  They must also explicitly state how they used the â€Å"special instructions† from the teacher. For example, â€Å"(ELL’s student’s name) found that ‘compromise’ was not a possible solution of the Civil War.† In this example, it is assumed that compromise was on a list of words that an ELL student did not understand. He/she presented these list of words to  his/her team. The team reviewed the list, and chose to use the word compromise as part of their argument. The student will finish the presentation of his/her argument. The teacher will tell the next team to present its argument. The team will follow the same procedure as above. The teacher will then stop recording of the debate. This debate will naturally lead to questions, comments from both the teacher and the students. Phase IV: Culmination.  The teacher will ask the groups to clear up any misunderstandings or misinformation the teams may have had within their argument. This is to give other team members a chance to speak about the argument, which reinforces the collaborative effort of the lesson. The teacher will also ask students how their team’s or the other team’s information and debate skills differed and how these things were similar to the debate presented in the beginning of the class. As a smaller activity, the teacher will instruct all the students to come up with one question, comment, critique of the other team’s argument. This assignment will illustrate each student’s understanding of the Civil War Unit because it challenges students to relate, connect, or counter-argue their own knowledge of the unit. This question will be submitted to the teacher. Phase V: Exte nsion For homework, students will write a one-page analysis of the opposing teams arguments. The student will address the opposing side’s arguments. He/she will evaluate the argument’s weaknesses, strengths; and why he/she disagreed or agreed with the points that were made. Learning Plan Analysis Formative assessments will include analyzing the collaborative efforts of the team, the behavior of each team during the presentation of the opposing team’s arguments, how well each team member took on their role within their team, and how well the team incorporated textbook information, outside information, and ‘†special instructions† from the teacher into their argument. A summative assessment will include the teacher’s evaluation of the internet analysis/research paper, the one-page analysis of opposing team’s argument, teacher’s evaluations of the strength of the arguments, and finally the â€Å"popular vote† (the results of youtube or school-based website). Weaknesses of this lesson plan include time constraints, and the many assessments involved. It may be difficult to accurately assess how well each team members took on their roles. Some students may still be taking on more work than others. Also, incorporating ELL/IEP students proved to be a difficult task.. Strength of the lesson is it fosters team work, analytical skills, and gives students more power in the direction and implementation of a lesson. The teacher will implement these varied assessments in its first year, and then will evaluate the effectiveness of these assessments for future classes. The learning theories applied in the first phase was Vygotzky’s Cognitive Process. Students are witnessing two adults debating and they are expected to try to learn/imitate the behaviors of those adults. In the second phase, social cognitive theory is at play. The teacher both models desired behaviors/outcomes, as well as emphasizes self-efficacy and self-regulation. In the third phase, constructivism is illustrated. The debate is student-driven because the students are demonstrating their constructed knowledge within the debate. The assessments have a behaviorist component. Negative reinforcement (decrease a behavior) is illustrated when the teacher warns students that if they are not respectful or a team member does not contribute meaningfully, then they may be marked down (Ormrod, 2008). References Anderson, L. W. , Krathwol, D. R. (2001) . A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 28-31. California Department of Education. (2013) California Common Core State Standards. http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., and Weigel, M. (2006). â€Å"Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.† Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational Psychology Developing Learners, 8. 25-36. Teachers First. (2014) http://www.teachersfirst.com/gifted_strategies.cfm

Thursday, November 14, 2019

determinism Essay -- essays research papers fc

Free Will Imagine if you found yourself in a state of bondage where every action desire and feeling was planned on an inexorable agenda that you could not help but comply with. Although this seems like a dark and fantastical world, if the idea of determinism is fully accepted than it may not be as distant as you might think. The idea of Free Will is one of the most timeless and dubitable philosophical questions and is imposable to disregard. The idea of Free Will has three prevailing schools of thought, consisting of Determinism, (The belief that every action is determined and therefore, not free.), Liberalism (the belief that our actions are not causally determined and therefore, free.)and lastly, Compatibilism (The belief that Determinism is Compatibilism with Free Will.). Each outlook has its points as well as dissentions, but of all the angles, the one I must believe in is Compatibilism and this is why. Although Compatibilism is what I choose to believe, the other arguments are based on pr incipals that cannot be ignored. The first view that I am going to deal with is that of the Determinist, namely the â€Å"Hard† one. Determinism is the belief that every action is the result of a previous action, and was therefore determined to occur. If all actions are determined by previous actions than no actions can be made freely. Like the cosmological argument, determinism rests on the logical fact that no uncaused event can occur. What separates a DeterministËÅ" from a compatibilist is the belief that any action that occurs could not of happened in any other way. If this were the case then it would be theoretically possible to predict the future simply by observing the past and present. Because nobody can successfully and consistently predict the future, some people believe that this is an argument against determinism. The determinist easily dismisses this argument with the response that humans don’t have the power to see let alone interpret the myriad of event s that lead to an action. Another common argument is the idea that if you were told what the future had in store for you, you could therefore consciously alter this out come. This argument is smashed with the fact that if you were told the future and you altered it, the future you were told was not the future because what actually occurred was different than what was predicted. Although, the strongest argument... ...cause you ran out of gas, the reason you ran out of gas is because you were driving your car, the reason that you were driving your car was because you had to drive to work, the reason that you had to go to work was because you needed to feed and shelter yourself. As you can see, even the most mundane task of going to the gas station can be linked back to basic human survival. Now imagine that you are at the gas station and you realize that your oil is very low. As a result you go inside and find two brands of oil, neither of which you have seen before. Both brands cost the same, have the same ingredients, have the same general appearance, (ex. color, shape and texture) and are both equally accessible. Even though it was causally determined that you are in the gas station making this decision, the decision it’s self is under no constraint and can go one way as easily as the other and is there fore a free, as well as causally determined decision. Even though the writing of this paper was causally constrained and did not answer a single question, I hope that it helped you as much as it helped my self get a grasp on the most enduring question of all. bibliography: sparknotes

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 27~28

27 Girl Talk Sepie washed the pilot's hair in a bowl with pounded coconut and brackish water. She had been taking care of the unconscious white man for two days and it was starting to get tedious. She was mispel of the bachelors' house, and washing and ministering to a sick and stinky white man was not in her job description. This was women's work. There are legends in the islands, and some of the old men swear they are true, that the women who service the bachelors' houses, the mispels, were taken to the secret island of Maluuk, known only to the high navigators, where they were trained in the art of pleasuring a man. After months of training, a mispel was required to pass a test before she was allowed to return to her home island to take over the duty of tending to the sexual needs of the men of the bachelors' house. The test? She was sent into the ocean with a ripe brown coconut clutched between her thighs, and there she floated, in heavy surf, for the entire circuit of the tides. Should the coconut pop loose or the mispel touch it with her hands, she failed the test (although there was some leeway in the event of shark attack). It is said that the inner thighs of the mispels of old were as strong as net cable. The second part of the test required the girl to find a delicate dragonfly orchid with a straight stem, and while her teachers looked on, she would lower herself over the flower until it disappeared inside of her, then rise again after a few minutes, leaving the stem unbent and the petals unbruised. The mispel held a position of honor, respected and revered among the is-landers. She was n ot required to do housekeeping, cooking, or weaving, and while the other women toiled in taro fields from the time they could walk, a mispel was allowed to nap in the shade, conserving her energy for her nocturnal duties. A mispel often ended her tour of duty by marrying a man of high status. No stigma followed her into married life, and she would be sought out to the end of her days by the other women for advice on handling men. Sepie, however, had not been chosen because of any special skill, nor had she passed through any vigorous concubinal boot camp. Sepie had been marked for mispel from the moment of her menses, when she emerged from the women's house with her lavalava tied a bit too high and showing a bit too much cappuccino thigh, her skin rubbed with copra until she glistened all over, and her breasts shining like polished wooden tea cups. She had painted her lips with the juice of crushed berries and peppered her long black hair with scores of sweet jasmine blossoms. She giggled coquettishly in the presence of all the men, danced dangerously close to the taboo of speaking to them in public, risked beatings by refusing to fall to her knees when her male cousins passed, and went about her chores with a wiggly energy that had caused more than one of the distracted village boys to fall out of a breadfruit tree during harvest. (She broke ankles as well as hearts.) Sepie was all titter and tease, a lazy g irl who excelled at leisure, a natural at invoking and denying desire, a wet dream deferred. At fifteen she took up residence in the bachelors' house and had lived there for four years. When Malink and the men brought the flyer and the man in the dress to her, she knew she was in for some trouble. â€Å"Take care of them,† Malink said. â€Å"Feed them. Help to make them strong.† Sepie kept her head bowed while Malink spoke, but when he finished she took his hand and led him into the bachelors' house, gesturing to the other men to lay the flyer and his friend on the ground outside. The men smiled among themselves, thinking that old Malink was going inside to receive a special favor from the mispel. What, in fact, he was receiving was an ass chewing. â€Å"Why don't you take them to your house, Malink? I don't want them here.† â€Å"It's a secret. If my wife and daughters find out they are here, then everyone will know.† â€Å"I'm the only one who can keep a secret in the bachelors' house. Take them to old Sarapul's house. No one goes there.† â€Å"He wants to eat them.† Malink couldn't remember ever having to argue with a woman and he wasn't at all prepared for it. â€Å"You're chief. Tell him not to. I will not cook for them. If I feed them, they will shit. I'm not going to clean it up.† â€Å"Sepie, what will you do when you marry and have children? You will have to do these things then. I am asking you as your chief to do these things.† â€Å"No,† Sepie said. Malink sighed. â€Å"I am asking you to do these things because these men have been sent to us by Vincent.† Sepie didn't know what to say. She had heard the Sky Priestess chastise Malink in front of the people, but she had been more concerned with losing coffee and sugar for a month than with the actual offense. â€Å"You will tell the men to cook for them?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"And they will carry them to the beach and wash them if they shit?† â€Å"I will tell them. Please, Sepie.† No man had ever said â€Å"please† to her before, let alone the chief. It was not a courtesy that women deserved. For the first time she realized how desperate Malink really was. â€Å"And you will tell Abo to wash his dick when it is his turn.† â€Å"What does that have to do with this?† â€Å"He is stinky.† â€Å"I will tell him.† â€Å"And you will tell Favo to quit making me put beads in his ass.† â€Å"Favo does that?† â€Å"He said he learned it from the Japanese.† â€Å"Really? Favo?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"But he's old, and he has a wife and many grandchildren.† â€Å"He says it makes his spear stronger.† â€Å"He does? I mean, does it work?† Malink had momentarily forgotten why he was here. â€Å"I don't like it. It is evil and unclean.† â€Å"You're talking about my old friend Favo, right? He's the one you're talking about?† â€Å"I told him only bachelors were suppose to stay here, but he says his wife doesn't understand him. His hands are like the skin of a shark.† â€Å"What kind of beads?† â€Å"Tell him,† Sepie said. â€Å"Okay,† Malink said in English. Then to himself he said: â€Å"Old Favo.† He shook his head as he walked out of the bachelors' house. â€Å"Beads.† Sepie watched him go, wishing that she had asked for more favors. Outside the men were grinning when Malink stepped into the moonlight. He hitched up his loincloth and averted his eyes from theirs. â€Å"Take them inside. You must cook and clean for them. Don't let the woman do it. It is too important for her.† As the men carried Tuck and Kimi into the bachelors' house, Favo ambled up to Malink. â€Å"How was it?† Malink looked at his old friend and noticed for the first time that Favo wore a long string of ivory beads around his neck. â€Å"I have to go home now,† Malink said. Sepie was, once again, swabbing up the wooden floor where the pilot had urinated on himself, when she heard the other one speak for the first time. The men had propped the Filipino up in the corner, where he had sat drinking the coconut milk and fish broth that she had been pouring into the pilot, but except for a few grunts when he made his way outside to urinate, the man in the dress had been quiet for two days. Sepie had learned to ignore him. He didn't smell as bad as the pilot, and she sort of liked his flowered dress. She'd said a prayer to Vincent for a dress just like it. â€Å"Where is Roberto?† the Filipino said. Sepie jumped. It didn't surprise her so much that he had spoken, but that he had spoken in her language. Although the words were clipped, the way someone from Iffallik or Satawan might speak. â€Å"He's right here,† she said. â€Å"Your friend stinks. You should take him outside and wash him in the sea.† â€Å"That's not Roberto. That's Tucker. Roberto is shorter.† Kimi crawled over to Tuck and laid his hand on the flyer's forehead. â€Å"He has bad fever. You have medicine?† â€Å"Aspirin,† Sepie said. Malink had given her a bottle of the tablets to crush into the flyer's broth, but after he gagged on the first dose she had stopped giving it to him. â€Å"He is more sick than aspirin. He needs a doctor. You have a doctor?† â€Å"We have the Sorcerer. He does our medicine. He was a doctor before the Sky Priestess came.† Kimi looked at her. â€Å"What island is this?† â€Å"Alualu.† â€Å"Ha! We have to get doctor for Tucker. He owes me five hundred dollars.† Sepie's eyes went wide. No wonder he wears such a fine dress. Five hundred dollars! She said, â€Å"The chief says I have to be secret about this man. Everyone knows he is here. The boys get drunk and talk. But I can't get the doctor.† â€Å"Why are you taking care of him? You are just a girl.† â€Å"I am not just a girl. I am mispel.† Kimi scoffed. â€Å"There are no mispels anymore.† Sepie threw down the rag she was using to wipe the floor. â€Å"What do you know? You are a man in a dress, and I don't believe you have five hundred dollars.† â€Å"It was a nice dress before the typhoon,† Kimi said. â€Å"Wash-and-wear. No dry cleaning.† Sepie nodded as if she knew what he was talking about. â€Å"It is a very pretty dress. I like it.† â€Å"You do?† Kimi picked at the crushed pleats around his legs. â€Å"It's just an old thing I picked up in Manila. It was on sale. You really like it?† Sepie didn't understand. Among her people, if you admired someone's else possession, manners bound them to give it to you. How could this silly man speak her language and still not know her customs. And he wasn't even looking at her that way all men looked at her. â€Å"What island do you come from?† â€Å"Satawan,† Kimi said. â€Å"I am a navigator.† Sepie scoffed. â€Å"There are no more navigators.† Just then the doorway darkened and they looked up to see Abo, the fierce one, entering the bachelors' house. He was lean and heavily muscled and he wore a permanent scowl on his face. The sides of his head were shaved and tattooed with images of hammerhead sharks. He wore his hair tied into a warrior's topknot that had gone out of fashion a hundred years ago. â€Å"Has the pilot awakened?† he growled. Sepie looked down and smiled coyly. Abo was the one boy in the bachelors' house who didn't seem to accept the communal nature of her position. He was always jealous, enraged, or brooding, but he brought her many presents, sometimes even copies of People that he stole from the men's drinking circle. Sepie thought she might marry him someday. â€Å"He is too sick for this,† Kimi said. â€Å"We need to take him to the doctor.† â€Å"Malink says he must stay here until he is well.† â€Å"He is dying.† Kimi said. Abo looked at Sepie for confirmation. â€Å"Well, he smells dead,† she said. The sooner they sent the pilot to the Sorcerer, the sooner she could get back to spending her days swimming and preening. â€Å"Malink will be angry if he dies,† she added for good measure. Abo nodded. â€Å"I will tell him.† He pointed to Kimi. â€Å"You come with me.† Kimi got up to leave, then turned back to Sepie when he reached the doorway. â€Å"If Roberto comes, tell him I'll be right back.† Sepie shrugged. â€Å"Who is Roberto?† â€Å"He's a fruit bat. From Guam. You can tell by his accent.† â€Å"Oh, him. I think Sarapul ate him,† Sepie said casually.† Kimi turned and ran screaming into the village. Malink looked up from his breakfast, a banana leaf full of fish and rice, to see Abo coming down the coral path toward his house. Malink's wife and daughters shuffled to the cookhouse at the sight of the fierce one. â€Å"Good morning, Chief,† Abo said. â€Å"Food?† Malink answered, gesturing with his breakfast. Abo had already eaten, but it would have been rude not to accept. â€Å"Yes.† Malink's wife poked her head out of the cookhouse and saw the chief nod. In a second she was giving her own breakfast to Abo, who neither thanked her or acknowledged her presence. â€Å"The pilot is sick,† Abo said. â€Å"Very bad fever. Sepie and the girl-man say that he will die soon without the Sorcerer's help.† Malink suddenly lost his appetite. He set his breakfast on the ground and one of his daughters appeared out of nowhere to take it to the cookhouse, where the women shared what was left. â€Å"And what do you think?† Malink asked. â€Å"I think he is dying. He smells of sickness. Like when Tamu was bitten by the shark and his leg turned black.† Malink rubbed his temples. How to handle this? The Sky Priestess was angry with him for even dreaming of the pilot. What would happen if he suddenly showed up with him? â€Å"What about the girl-man?† â€Å"He is not sick, but he has gone crazy. He runs around the village looking for Sarapul.† Malink nodded. â€Å"Catch him and tie him up. Make a litter and take the pilot to the betel nut trees by the runway. Leave him there.† â€Å"Leave him there?† â€Å"Yes, quickly. And bring the litter back with you. Make it look as if he walked to the runway. Send a boy to me when it is done. Go now.† Abo put down his food and ran off down the path. Malink went into his house and pulled the ammo box out of the rafters. Inside, next to the portable phone, he found the Zippo that Vincent had given him. He clicked it open, lit it, and sat it on the floor while it burned. â€Å"Vincent,† he said, â€Å"It's your friend Malink here. Please tell the Sky Priestess that this is not my fault. Tell her that you have sent the pilot. Please tell her for your friend Malink so she will not be angry. Amen.† His prayer finished, Malink snapped the lighter shut, put it away, then took the portable phone and went outside to wait for the boy to tell him everything was in place. 28 Choose Your Own Nightmare Tucker Case rolled through a fever dream where he was tossed in great elastic waves of bat-winged demons – crushed, smothered, bitten, and scratched – and there, amid the chaos, a pink fabric softener sheet passed by the corner of his eye, confirming that he had been stuffed into a dryer in the laundromat of Hell. He tumbled toward the pink, ascended out of the clawing mass, and awoke gasping, with no idea where he was. The pink was a dress on a heart-faced woman who said, â€Å"Good morning, Mr. Case. Welcome back to the world.† A man's voice: â€Å"After your message and the typhoon, we thought for sure you'd been lost at sea.† He was a white blur with a head, then a lab coat wrapped around a tall, smiling middle-aged man, gray and balding, a stethoscope around his neck. The doctor had his arm around the heart-faced woman. She too was smiling, with the aspect of an angel, the vessel of human kindness. Together they looked as if they had walked off of fifties television. The man said, â€Å"I'm Dr. Sebastian Curtis, Mr. Case. This is my wife, Beth.† Tuck tried to speak, but emitted only a rasping squeak. The woman lifted a plastic cup of water to his lips and he drank. He eyed the IV bag running into his arm. â€Å"Glucose and antibiotics,† the doctor said. â€Å"You've got some badly infected wounds. The islanders found you washed up on the reef.† Tucker did a quick inventory of his limbs by feel, then looked at them lest he had lost a leg that was still giving off phantom feel ing. He raised his head to look at his crotch, which was sending pulses of pain up through his abdomen. The woman gently pushed him down. â€Å"You're going to be fine. They found you in time, but you're going to need more rest. ‘Bastian can give you something for the pain if you need it.† She smiled beatifically at her husband, who patted Tuck's arm. â€Å"Don't be embarrassed, Mr. Case. Beth is a surgical nurse. I'm afraid the catheter will have to stay in for a few days.† â€Å"There was another guy with me,† Tuck said. â€Å"A Filipino. He was piloting the boat.† The doctor and his wife shot each other a glance and the â€Å"Ozzie and Harriet† calm shattered into panic, but only for a second, then they were back to their reassuring cooing. Tuck wasn't even sure he had seen the break. â€Å"I'm sorry, but the islanders didn't find anyone else. He must have been lost in the storm.† â€Å"But the tree. He was hung in the tree†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Beth Curtis put her finger gently on his lips. â€Å"I'm sorry you lost your friend, Mr. Case, but you need to get some rest. I'll bring you something to eat in a little while and we'll see if you can hold down some solid food.† She pulled her hand away and put her arm around her husband's waist as he pushed a syringe of fluid into Tuck's IV tube. â€Å"We'll check on you shortly,† the doctor said. Tucker watched them walk away and noticed that for all her â€Å"Little House on the Prairie† purity, Beth Curtis had a nice shape under that calico. Then he felt a little sleazy, as if he'd been caught horning on a friend's mom. Like the time, drunk and full of himself, he'd hit on Mary Jean Dobbins. To hell with solid food. Gin – in large quantities over a tall column of ice – that's the rub. Tonic to chase away the blues of bad dreams and men lost at sea. Tuck looked around the room. It was a small hospital ward. Only four beds, but amazingly clean considering where it was. And there was some pretty serious-looking equipment against the walls: technical stuff on casters, stuff you might use in complicated surgery or to set the timing on a Toyota. He was sure Jake Skye would know what it was. He thought about the Learjet, then felt himself starting to doze. Sleep came with the face of a cannibal, leg-jerk dreams, and finally settled in on the oiled breasts of a brown girl brushing against his face and smelling of coconut and flowers. There was a scratch and scuttle on the tin roof, followed by the bark of a fruit bat. Tuck didn't hear it. The pig thief had been caught and Jefferson Pardee had to find a new lead story. He sat at his desk pouring over the notes he'd written on a yellow legal pad, hoping that something would jump out at him. In fact, there wasn't a lot of jumping material there. The notes read: â€Å"They caught the pig thief. Now what?† You could run down the leads, pound the pavement, check all your facts with two sources, then structure your meticulously gathered information into the inverted pyramid form and what you got was: The pig's owner had gotten drunk and beat up his wife, so she sold his pig to someone on the outer islands and bought a used stun gun from an ensign with the Navy Cat team. The next time her husband got rough, a group of Japanese tourists found him by the side of the road, sizzling in the dirt like a strip of frying bacon. Mistaking him for a street performer, the tourists clapped joyously, took pictures of each other standing beside the electrocuted man, and gave his wife five dollars. The whole intrigue had been exposed when police found the pig-stealing wife in front of the Continental Hotel charging tourists a dollar apiece to watch her zap her husband's twitching supine body. The stun gun was confiscated, no charges were pressed, and the wife beater was pronounced unharmed by a Peace Co rps volunteer, although he did need to be reminded several times of his name, where he lived, and how many children he had. The mystery was solved and the Truk Star had no lead story. Jefferson Pardee was miserable. He was actually going to have to go out and find a story or, as he had done so many time before, make one up. The Micro Spirit was in port. Maybe he'd go down to the dock and see if he could stir up some news out of the crew. He slid his press card into the band of his Australian bush hat and waddled out the door and down the dusty street to the pier where rock-hard, rope-muscled islanders were loading fifty-five-gallon drums into cargo nets and hoisting them into the holds of the Micro Spirit. The Micro Spirit and the Micro Trader were sister ships: small freighters that cruised the Micronesian crescent carrying cargo and passengers to the outer islands. There were no cabins other than those of the captain and crew. Passengers traveled and slept on the deck. Pardee waved to the first mate, a heavily tattooed Tongan who stood at the rail chewing betel nut and spitting gooey red comets over the side. â€Å"Ahoy!† Pardee called. â€Å"Permission to come aboard.† The mate shook his head. â€Å"Not until we finish loading this jet fuel. I'll come down. How you doing, Scoop?† Pardee had convinced the crew of the Micro Spirit to call him â€Å"Scoop† one drunken night in the Yumi Bar. He watched the mate vault over the railing at the bow and monkey down a mooring line to the dock with no more effort than if he was walking down stairs. Watching him made Pardee sad that he was a fat man. The mate strolled up to Pardee and pumped his hand. â€Å"Good to see you.† â€Å"Likewise,† Pardee said. â€Å"Where you guys in from?† â€Å"We bring chiefs in from Wolei for a conference. Pick up some tuna and copra. Same, same.† Pardee looked back at the sailors loading the barrels. â€Å"Did you say jet fuel? I thought the Mobil tankers handled all the fuel for Continental.† Continental was the only major airline that flew Micronesia. â€Å"Mobil tankers won't go to Alualu. No lagoon, no harbor. We going to Ulithi, then take this fuel special order to the doctor on Alualu.† Pardee took a moment to digest the information. â€Å"I thought the Micro Trader did Yap and Palau States. What are you going all the way over there for?† â€Å"Like I say, special order. Moen has jet fuel, we here in Moen, doctor wants jet fuel soon, so we go. I like it. I never been Alualu and I know a girl on Ulithi.† Pardee couldn't help but smile. This was a story in itself. Not a big one, but when the Trader or the Spirit changed schedules it made the paper. But there was more of a story somewhere in those barrels of jet fuel, in the ru-mor of armed guards, and in the two pilots that had passed through Truk on the way to No One's Island. The question for Pardee was: Did he want to track it down? Could he track it down? â€Å"When do you sail?† he asked the mate. â€Å"Tomorrow morning. We get drunk together tonight Yumi Bar. My boys carry you home if you want. Hey?† The mate laughed. Pardee felt sick. That was what they knew him for, a fat, drunken white man who they could carry home and then tell stories about. â€Å"I can't drink tonight. I'm sailing with you in the morning. I've got to get ready.† The mate removed the betel nut cud from his cheek and tossed it into the sea, where tiny yellow fish rose to nip at it. He eyed Pardee suspiciously. â€Å"You going to leave Truk?† â€Å"It's not that big a deal. I've gone off-island before for a story.† â€Å"Not in ten years I sail the Spirit.† â€Å"Do you have room for another passenger or not?† â€Å"We always have room. You know you have to sleep on deck?† Pardee was beginning to get irritated. He needed a beer. â€Å"I've done this before.† The mate shook his head as if clearing his ears of water and laughed. â€Å"Okay, we sail six in morning. Be on dock at five.† â€Å"When do you come back this way?† â€Å"A month. You can fly from Yap if you don't want to come back with us.† â€Å"A month?† He'd have to get someone to run the paper while he was gone. Or maybe not. Would anyone even notice he was gone? Pardee said, â€Å"I'll see you in the morning. Don't get too drunk.† â€Å"You too,† the mate said. Pardee made his way down the dock, feeling every bit of his two hundred and sixty pounds. By the time he made it back to the street, he was soaked with sweat and yearning for a dark air-conditioned bar. He shook off the craving and headed for the Catholic high school to ask the nuns if they had any bright students who might keep the paper running in his absence. He was going to do it, dammit. He'd be on the dock at five if he had to stay up all night drinking to do it.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

A Game of Thrones Chapter Thirty-six

Daenerys The Horse Gate of Vaes Dothrak was made of two gigantic bronze stallions, rearing, their hooves meeting a hundred feet above the roadway to form a pointed arch. Dany could not have said why the city needed a gate when it had no walls . . . and no buildings that she could see. Yet there it stood, immense and beautiful, the great horses framing the distant purple mountain beyond. The bronze stallions threw long shadows across the waving grasses as Khal Drogo led the khalasar under their hooves and down the godsway, his bloodriders beside him. Dany followed on her silver, escorted by Ser Jorah Mormont and her brother Viserys, mounted once more. After the day in the grass when she had left him to walk back to the khalasar, the Dothraki had laughingly called him Khal Rhae Mhar, the Sorefoot King. Khal Drogo had offered him a place in a cart the next day, and Viserys had accepted. In his stubborn ignorance, he had not even known he was being mocked; the carts were for eunuchs, cripples, women giving birth, the very young and the very old. That won him yet another name: Khal Rhaggat, the Cart King. Her brother had thought it was the khal's way of apologizing for the wrong Dany had done him. She had begged Ser Jorah not to tell him the truth, lest he be shamed. The knight had replied that the king could well do with a bit of shame . . . yet he had done as she bid. It had taken much pleading, and all the pillow tricks Doreah had taught her, before Dany had been able to make Drogo relent and allow Viserys to rejoin them at the he ad of the column. â€Å"Where is the city?† she asked as they passed beneath the bronze arch. There were no buildings to be seen, no people, only the grass and the road, lined with ancient monuments from all the lands the Dothraki had sacked over the centuries. â€Å"Ahead,† Ser Jorah answered. â€Å"Under the mountain.† Beyond the horse gate, plundered gods and stolen heroes loomed to either side of them. The forgotten deities of dead cities brandished their broken thunderbolts at the sky as Dany rode her silver past their feet. Stone kings looked down on her from their thrones, their faces chipped and stained, even their names lost in the mists of time. Lithe young maidens danced on marble plinths, draped only in flowers, or poured air from shattered jars. Monsters stood in the grass beside the road; black iron dragons with jewels for eyes, roaring griffins, manticores with their barbed tails poised to strike, and other beasts she could not name. Some of the statues were so lovely they took her breath away, others so misshapen and terrible that Dany could scarcely bear to look at them. Those, Ser Jorah said, had likely come from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai. â€Å"So many,† she said as her silver stepped slowly onward, â€Å"and from so many lands.† Viserys was less impressed. â€Å"The trash of dead cities,† he sneered. He was careful to speak in the Common Tongue, which few Dothraki could understand, yet even so Dany found herself glancing back at the men of her khas, to make certain he had not been overheard. He went on blithely. â€Å"All these savages know how to do is steal the things better men have built . . . and kill.† He laughed. â€Å"They do know how to kill. Otherwise I'd have no use for them at all.† â€Å"They are my people now,† Dany said. â€Å"You should not call them savages, brother.† â€Å"The dragon speaks as he likes,† Viserys said . . . in the Common Tongue. He glanced over his shoulder at Aggo and Rakharo, riding behind them, and favored them with a mocking smile. â€Å"See, the savages lack the wit to understand the speech of civilized men.† A moss-eaten stone monolith loomed over the road, fifty feet tall. Viserys gazed at it with boredom in his eyes. â€Å"How long must we linger amidst these ruins before Drogo gives me my army? I grow tired of waiting.† â€Å"The princess must be presented to the dosh khaleen . . . â€Å" â€Å"The crones, yes,† her brother interrupted, â€Å"and there's to be some mummer's show of a prophecy for the whelp in her belly, you told me. What is that to me? I'm tired of eating horsemeat and I'm sick of the stink of these savages.† He sniffed at the wide, floppy sleeve of his tunic, where it was his custom to keep a sachet. It could not have helped much. The tunic was filthy. All the silk and heavy wools that Viserys had worn out of Pentos were stained by hard travel and rotted from sweat. Ser Jorah Mormont said, â€Å"The Western Market will have food more to your taste, Your Grace. The traders from the Free Cities come there to sell their wares. The khal will honor his promise in his own time.† â€Å"He had better,† Viserys said grimly. â€Å"I was promised a crown, and I mean to have it. The dragon is not mocked.† Spying an obscene likeness of a woman with six breasts and a ferret's head, he rode off to inspect it more closely. Dany was relieved, yet no less anxious. â€Å"I pray that my sun-and-stars will not keep him waiting too long,† she told Ser Jorah when her brother was out of earshot. The knight looked after Viserys doubtfully. â€Å"Your brother should have bided his time in Pentos. There is no place for him in a khalasar. Illyrio tried to warn him.† â€Å"He will go as soon as he has his ten thousand. My lord husband promised a golden crown.† Ser Jorah grunted. â€Å"Yes, Khaleesi, but . . . the Dothraki look on these things differently than we do in the west. I have told him as much, as Illyrio told him, but your brother does not listen. The horselords are no traders. Viserys thinks he sold you, and now he wants his price. Yet Khal Drogo would say he had you as a gift. He will give Viserys a gift in return, yes . . . in his own time. You do not demand a gift, not of a khal. You do not demand anything of a khal.† â€Å"It is not right to make him wait.† Dany did not know why she was defending her brother, yet she was. â€Å"Viserys says he could sweep the Seven Kingdoms with ten thousand Dothraki screamers.† Ser Jorah snorted. â€Å"Viserys could not sweep a stable with ten thousand brooms.† Dany could not pretend to surprise at the disdain in his tone. â€Å"What . . . what if it were not Viserys?† she asked. â€Å"If it were someone else who led them? Someone stronger? Could the Dothraki truly conquer the Seven Kingdoms?† Ser Jorah's face grew thoughtful as their horses trod together down the godsway. â€Å"When I first went into exile, I looked at the Dothraki and saw half-naked barbarians, as wild as their horses. If you had asked me then, Princess, I should have told you that a thousand good knights would have no trouble putting to flight a hundred times as many Dothraki.† â€Å"But if I asked you now?† â€Å"Now,† the knight said, â€Å"I am less certain. They are better riders than any knight, utterly fearless, and their bows outrange ours. In the Seven Kingdoms, most archers fight on foot, from behind a shieldwall or a barricade of sharpened stakes. The Dothraki fire from horseback, charging or retreating, it makes no matter, they are full as deadly . . . and there are so many of them, my lady. Your lord husband alone counts forty thousand mounted warriors in his khalasar.† â€Å"Is that truly so many?† â€Å"Your brother Rhaegar brought as many men to the Trident,† Ser Jorah admitted, â€Å"but of that number, no more than a tenth were knights. The rest were archers, freeriders, and foot soldiers armed with spears and pikes. When Rhaegar fell, many threw down their weapons and fled the field. How long do you imagine such a rabble would stand against the charge of forty thousand screamers howling for blood? How well would boiled leather jerkins and mailed shirts protect them when the arrows fall like rain?† â€Å"Not long,† she said, â€Å"not well.† He nodded. â€Å"Mind you, Princess, if the lords of the Seven Kingdoms have the wit the gods gave a goose, it will never come to that. The riders have no taste for siegecraft. I doubt they could take even the weakest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but if Robert Baratheon were fool enough to give them battle . . . â€Å" â€Å"Is he?† Dany asked. â€Å"A fool, I mean?† Ser Jorah considered that for a moment. â€Å"Robert should have been born Dothraki,† he said at last. â€Å"Your khal would tell you that only a coward hides behind stone walls instead of facing his enemy with a blade in hand. The Usurper would agree. He is a strong man, brave . . . and rash enough to meet a Dothraki horde in the open field. But the men around him, well, their pipers play a different tune. His brother Stannis, Lord Tywin Lannister, Eddard Stark . . . † He spat. â€Å"You hate this Lord Stark,† Dany said. â€Å"He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-ridden poachers and his precious honor,† Ser Jorah said bitterly. From his tone, she could tell the loss still pained him. He changed the subject quickly. â€Å"There,† he announced, pointing. â€Å"Vaes Dothrak. The city of the horselords.† Khal Drogo and his bloodriders led them through the great bazaar of the Western Market, down the broad ways beyond. Dany followed close on her silver, staring at the strangeness about her. Vaes Dothrak was at once the largest city and the smallest that she had ever known. She thought it must be ten times as large as Pentos, a vastness without walls or limits, its broad windswept streets paved in grass and mud and carpeted with wildflowers. In the Free Cities of the west, towers and manses and hovels and bridges and shops and halls all crowded in on one another, but Vaes Dothrak sprawled languorously, baking in the warm sun, ancient, arrogant, and empty. Even the buildings were so queer to her eyes. She saw carved stone pavilions, manses of woven grass as large as castles, rickety wooden towers, stepped pyramids faced with marble, log halls open to the sky. In place of walls, some palaces were surrounded by thorny hedges. â€Å"None of them are alike,† she said. â€Å"Your brother had part of the truth,† Ser Jorah admitted. â€Å"The Dothraki do not build. A thousand years ago, to make a house, they would dig a hole in the earth and cover it with a woven grass roof. The buildings you see were made by slaves brought here from lands they've plundered, and they built each after the fashion of their own peoples.† Most of the halls, even the largest, seemed deserted. â€Å"Where are the people who live here?† Dany asked. The bazaar had been full of running children and men shouting, but elsewhere she had seen only a few eunuchs going about their business. â€Å"Only the crones of the dosh khaleen dwell permanently in the sacred city, them and their slaves and servants,† Ser Jorah replied, â€Å"yet Vaes Dothrak is large enough to house every man of every khalasar, should all the khals return to the Mother at once. The crones have prophesied that one day that will come to pass, and so Vaes Dothrak must be ready to embrace all its children.† Khal Drogo finally called a halt near the Eastern Market where the caravans from Yi Ti and Asshai and the Shadow Lands came to trade, with the Mother of Mountains looming overhead. Dany smiled as she recalled Magister Illyrio's slave girl and her talk of a palace with two hundred rooms and doors of solid silver. The â€Å"palace† was a cavernous wooden feasting hall, its rough-hewn timbered walls rising forty feet, its roof sewn silk, a vast billowing tent that could be raised to keep out the rare rains, or lowered to admit the endless sky. Around the hall were broad grassy horse yards fenced with high hedges, firepits, and hundreds of round earthen houses that bulged from the ground like miniature hills, covered with grass. A small army of slaves had gone ahead to prepare for Khal Drogo's arrival. As each rider swung down from his saddle, he unbelted his arakh and handed it to a waiting slave, and any other weapons he carried as well. Even Khal Drogo himself was not exempt. Ser Jorah had explained that it was forbidden to carry a blade in Vaes Dothrak, or to shed a free man's blood. Even warring khalasars put aside their feuds and shared meat and mead together when they were in sight of the Mother of Mountains. In this place, the crones of the dosh khaleen had decreed, all Dothraki were one blood, one khalasar, one herd. Cohollo came to Dany as Irri and Jhiqui were helping her down off her silver. He was the oldest of Drogo's three bloodriders, a squat bald man with a crooked nose and a mouth full of broken teeth, shattered by a mace twenty years before when he saved the young khalakka from sellswords who hoped to sell him to his father's enemies. His life had been bound to Drogo's the day her lord husband was born. Every khal had his bloodriders. At first Dany had thought of them as a kind of Dothraki Kingsguard, sworn to protect their lord, but it went further than that. Jhiqui had taught her that a bloodrider was more than a guard; they were the khal's brothers, his shadows, his fiercest friends. â€Å"Blood of my blood,† Drogo called them, and so it was; they shared a single life. The ancient traditions of the horselords demanded that when the khal died, his bloodriders died with him, to ride at his side in the night lands. If the khal died at the hands of some enemy, they lived only long enough to avenge him, and then followed him joyfully into the grave. In some khalasars, Jhiqui said, the bloodriders shared the khal's wine, his tent, and even his wives, though never his horses. A man's mount was his own. Daenerys was glad that Khal Drogo did not hold to those ancient ways. She should not have liked being shared. And while old Cohollo treated her kindly enough, the others frightened her; Haggo, huge and silent, often glowered as if he had forgotten who she was, and Qotho had cruel eyes and quick hands that liked to hurt. He left bruises on Doreah's soft white skin whenever he touched her, and sometimes made Irri sob in the night. Even his horses seemed to fear him. Yet they were bound to Drogo for life and death, so Daenerys had no choice but to accept them. And sometimes she found herself wishing her father had been protected by such men. In the songs, the white knights of the Kingsguard were ever noble, valiant, and true, and yet King Aerys had been murdered by one of them, the handsome boy they now called the Kingslayer, and a second, Ser Barristan the Bold, had gone over to the Usurper. She wondered if all men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat the Iron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own to protect him against treachery in his Kingsguard. â€Å"Khaleesi,† Cohollo said to her, in Dothraki. â€Å"Drogo, who is blood of my blood, commands me to tell you that he must ascend the Mother of Mountains this night, to sacrifice to the gods for his safe return.† Only men were allowed to set foot on the Mother, Dany knew. The khal's bloodriders would go with him, and return at dawn. â€Å"Tell my sun-and-stars that I dream of him, and wait anxious for his return,† she replied, thankful. Dany tired more easily as the child grew within her; in truth, a night of rest would be most welcome. Her pregnancy only seemed to have inflamed Drogo's desire for her, and of late his embraces left her exhausted. Doreah led her to the hollow hill that had been prepared for her and her khal. It was cool and dim within, like a tent made of earth. â€Å"Jhiqui, a bath, please,† she commanded, to wash the dust of travel from her skin and soak her weary bones. It was pleasant to know that they would linger here for a while, that she would not need to climb back on her silver on the morrow. The water was scalding hot, as she liked it. â€Å"I will give my brother his gifts tonight,† she decided as Jhiqui was washing her hair. â€Å"He should look a king in the sacred city. Doreah, run and find him and invite him to sup with me.† Viserys was nicer to the Lysene girl than to her Dothraki handmaids, perhaps because Magister Illyrio had let him bed her back in Pentos. â€Å"Irri, go to the bazaar and buy fruit and meat. Anything but horseflesh.† â€Å"Horse is best,† Irri said. â€Å"Horse makes a man strong.† â€Å"Viserys hates horsemeat.† â€Å"As you say, Khaleesi.† She brought back a haunch of goat and a basket of fruits and vegetables. Jhiqui roasted the meat with sweetgrass and firepods, basting it with honey as it cooked, and there were melons and pomegranates and plums and some queer eastern fruit Dany did not know. While her handmaids prepared the meal, Dany laid out the clothing she'd had made to her brother's measure: a tunic and leggings of crisp white linen, leather sandals that laced up to the knee, a bronze medallion belt, a leather vest painted with fire-breathing dragons. The Dothraki would respect him more if he looked less a beggar, she hoped, and perhaps he would forgive her for shaming him that day in the grass. He was still her king, after all, and her brother. They were both blood of the dragon. She was arranging the last of his gifts—a sandsilk cloak, green as grass, with a pale grey border that would bring out the silver in his hair—when Viserys arrived, dragging Doreah by the arm. Her eye was red where he'd hit her. â€Å"How dare you send this whore to give me commands,† he said. He shoved the handmaid roughly to the carpet. The anger took Dany utterly by surprise. â€Å"I only wanted . . . Doreah, what did you say?† â€Å"Khaleesi, pardons, forgive me. I went to him, as you bid, and told him you commanded him to join you for supper.† â€Å"No one commands the dragon,† Viserys snarled. â€Å"I am your king! I should have sent you back her head!† The Lysene girl quailed, but Dany calmed her with a touch. â€Å"Don't be afraid, he won't hurt you. Sweet brother, please, forgive her, the girl misspoke herself, I told her to ask you to sup with me, if it pleases Your Grace.† She took him by the hand and drew him across the room. â€Å"Look. These are for you.† Viserys frowned suspiciously. â€Å"What is all this?† â€Å"New raiment. I had it made for you.† Dany smiled shyly. He looked at her and sneered. â€Å"Dothraki rags. Do you presume to dress me now?† â€Å"Please . . . you'll be cooler and more comfortable, and I thought . . . maybe if you dressed like them, the Dothraki . . . † Dany did not know how to say it without waking his dragon. â€Å"Next you'll want to braid my hair.† â€Å"I'd never . . . † Why was he always so cruel? She had only wanted to help. â€Å"You have no right to a braid, you have won no victories yet.† It was the wrong thing to say. Fury shone from his lilac eyes, yet he dared not strike her, not with her handmaids watching and the warriors of her khas outside. Viserys picked up the cloak and sniffed at it. â€Å"This stinks of manure. Perhaps I shall use it as a horse blanket.† â€Å"I had Doreah sew it specially for you,† she told him, wounded. â€Å"These are garments fit for a khal.† â€Å"I am the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, not some grass-stained savage with bells in his hair,† Viserys spat back at her. He grabbed her arm. â€Å"You forget yourself, slut. Do you think that big belly will protect you if you wake the dragon?† His fingers dug into her arm painfully and for an instant Dany felt like a child again, quailing in the face of his rage. She reached out with her other hand and grabbed the first thing she touched, the belt she'd hoped to give him, a heavy chain of ornate bronze medallions. She swung it with all her strength. It caught him full in the face. Viserys let go of her. Blood ran down his cheek where the edge of one of the medallions had sliced it open. â€Å"You are the one who forgets himself,† Dany said to him. â€Å"Didn't you learn anything that day in the grass? Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails.† Viserys scrambled back to his feet. â€Å"When I come into my kingdom, you will rue this day, slut.† He walked off, holding his torn face, leaving her gifts behind him. Drops of his blood had spattered the beautiful sandsilk cloak. Dany clutched the soft cloth to her cheek and sat cross-legged on her sleeping mats. â€Å"Your supper is ready, Khaleesi,† Jhiqui announced. â€Å"I'm not hungry,† Dany said sadly. She was suddenly very tired. â€Å"Share the food among yourselves, and send some to Ser Jorah, if you would.† After a moment she added, â€Å"Please, bring me one of the dragon's eggs.† Irri fetched the egg with the deep green shell, bronze flecks shining amid its scales as she turned it in her small hands. Dany curled up on her side, pulling the sandsilk cloak across her and cradling the egg in the hollow between her swollen belly and small, tender breasts. She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, and sometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver, as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragons locked inside. She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her . . . as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood. â€Å"You are the dragon,† Dany whispered to him, â€Å"the true dragon. I know it. I know it.† And she smiled, and went to sleep dreaming of home.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

louis isadore kahn and the salk institute essays

louis isadore kahn and the salk institute essays Standing alone against the endless blue sea, the Salk Institute by Louis I. Kahn is one of a kind. "Louis Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Studies on the Pacific coast near La Jolla aspires within its own spirit to an order achieved through clarity, definition, and consistency of application"(Heyer 195). To many, this magnificent structure may seem out of place, but it works well with the surrounding environment because of the spatial continuity that it possesses. The relation to the site, the tectonic characteristics, and the ideas of servant versus served, combine to achieve a great sense of order in the Salk Institute. Many of the ideas that went into the construction of this design are still utilized in architecture today. Kahn's modern design takes full advantage of the atmosphere by opening up a broad plaza between two research and lab wings providing a view of the beautiful Pacific Ocean and the coastline (Ghirardo 227). The laboratories are separated from the study areas, and each study has a view of the magnificent blue Pacific with horizontal light pouring in. This allows scientists to take a break from their frantic studies and clear their minds with a breath-taking view. In relation to this idea Kahn stated, "I separated the studies from the laboratory and placed them over the gardens. Now one need not spend all the time in the laboratories" (Ronner 158). The two lab wings are symmetrical about a small stream that runs through the middle of the courtyard and feeds into the ocean. This steady ban of water flowing towards the sea symbolizes the success that human can accomplish. I thought this idea had a worthy presence, considering the Salk Institute is one that promotes research and st udy. Thus, the courtyard is considered the facade to the sky. Kahn didn't need to dress up the land around the plan because the Salk Institute is the landscape. It is one with the site ...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) served as Americas thirty-second president of the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms and served during the Great Depression and World War II.   Franklin Roosevelts Childhood and Education Franklin Roosevelt grew up in a wealthy family and often traveled overseas with his parents. His privileged upbringing included meeting Grover Cleveland at the White House when he was five. He was cousins with Theodore Roosevelt. He grew up with private tutors before attending Groton (1896-1900). He attended Harvard (1900-04) where he was an average student. He then went to Columbia Law School (1904-07), passed the bar, and decided not to stay on to graduate. Family Life Roosevelt was born to James, a businessman and financier, and Sara Sallie Delano. His mother was a strong-willed woman who did not wish her son to be in politics. He had one half-brother named James.On March 17, 1905, Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt. She was the niece to Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin and Eleanor were fifth cousins, once removed. She was the first First Lady to be politically active, involving herself in causes like Civil Rights. She was later appointed by Harry Truman to be part of the first American delegation to the United Nations. Together, Franklin and Eleanor had six children. The first Franklin Jr. died in infancy. The other five children included one daughter, Anna Eleanor and four sons, James, Elliott, Franklin Jr., and John Aspinwall. Career Before the Presidency Franklin Roosevelt was admitted to the bar in 1907 and practiced law before running for the New York State Senate. In 1913, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He then ran for Vice President with James M. Cox in 1920 against Warren Harding. When defeated he went back to practicing law. He was elected Governor of New York from 1929-33. Franklin Roosevelts Nomination and Election of 1932 In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt won the Democratic nomination for the presidency with John Nance Garner as his Vice President. He ran against incumbent Herbert Hoover. The Great Depression was the backdrop for the campaign. Roosevelt gathered a Brain Trust to help him come up with effective public policy. He campaigned continuously and his apparent confidence made Hoovers meager campaign pale in comparison. In the end, Roosevelt carried 57% of the popular vote and 472 electors versus Hoovers 59. Second Reelection in 1936 In 1936, Roosevelt easily won the nomination with Garner as his Vice President. He was opposed by progressive Republican Alf Landon whose platform argued that the New Deal was not good for America and relief efforts should be run by the states. Landon argued while campaigning that the New Deal programs were unconstitutional. Roosevelt campaigned on the programs effectiveness. The NAACP supported Roosevelt who won an overwhelming victory with 523 electoral votes versus Landons 8. Third Reelection in 1940 Roosevelt did not publicly ask for a third term but when his name was placed on the ballot, he was quickly renominated. The Republican nominee was Wendell Willkie who had been a Democrat but switched parties in protest to the Tennessee Valley Authority. War was raging in Europe. While FDR pledged to keep America out of war, Willkie was in favor of a draft and wanted to stop Hitler. He also focused on FDRs right to a third term. Roosevelt won with 449 out of 531 electoral votes. Fourth Reelection in 1944 Roosevelt was quickly renominated to run for a fourth term. However, there was some question over his Vice President. FDRs health was declining and the Democrats wanted someone they were comfortable with to be president. Harry S. Truman was eventually chosen. The Republicans chose Thomas Dewey to run. He used FDRs declining health and campaigned against waste during the New Deal. Roosevelt won by a slim margin getting 53% of the popular vote and winning 432 electoral votes versus 99 for Dewey. Events and Accomplishments of Franklin D. Roosevelts Presidency Roosevelt spent 12 years in office and had an enormous impact on America. He took office in the depths of the Great Depression. He immediately called Congress to special session and declared a four-day banking holiday. The first Hundred Days of Roosevelts term were marked by the passage of 15 major laws. Some of the important legislative acts of his New Deal included: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- hired more than three million men to work on various projects.Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)- used the Tennessee River to provide electricity for the depressed area.National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)- created the Public Works Administration to provide aid to cities for construction and the National Recovery Administration to help businesses.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)- corrected abuses which led to the stock market crash.Works Progress Administration (WPA)- hired many people for a variety of projects including in the arts.Social Security Act - Created the Social Security System. One of the election promises Roosevelt ran on was the repeal of prohibition. On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment passed which meant the end of prohibition. Roosevelt realized with the fall of France and the Battle of Britain that America could not remain neutral. He created the Lend-Lease Act in 1941 to help Britain by delivering old destroyers in exchange for military bases abroad. He met with Winston Churchill to create the Atlantic Charter vowing to defeat Nazi Germany. America did not enter the war until December 7, 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Important victories for the US and the allies included the Battle of Midway, the North African campaign, the capture of Sicily, the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, and the D-Day invasion. With an inevitable Nazi defeat, Roosevelt met with Churchill and Joseph Stalin at Yalta where they promised concessions to Soviet Russia if the Soviets entered the war against Japan. This agreement would eventually set up the Cold War. FDR died on April 12, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Harry Truman took over as president. Historical Significance Roosevelts terms as president were marked by bold moves to fight two of the largest threats to America and the world: the Great Depression and World War II. His aggressive and unprecedented New Deal programs left a lasting mark on the American landscape. The federal government grew stronger and became deeply involved in programs traditionally reserved for the states. Further, FDRs leadership throughout World War II led to victory for the Allies even though Roosevelt died before the war ended.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

First new york subway Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

First new york subway - Research Paper Example The lessons in design, planning and implementation that attended the project continue to offer practical wisdom for city planners and urban architects alike. More importantly, the infrastructure of the subway proves to be a cultural melting pot for a nation that is constantly evolving its identity. The NYC subway was commissioned to be built by the Rapid Transit Construction Company. Privately owned, the company spun off an exclusive branch (Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)), for overseeing the operations of the construction. Moreover, the stakeholders in the company applied and won the contract to operate the railway line upon its construction. The grand scale of the project warranted that the IRT publish a book in 1904 highlighting the features of the just-completed project. Considering the numerous hurdles and hiccups the project successfully overcame, the company showcased its achievement in the large-format book with plenty of photographs and in a appealing layout. The book is now rightly considered a colletor’s item, not only for the momentous occasion it marked but also for the rich detail it contained. For example, the book included the reasons and considerations behind certain decisions taken during the planning and design stage. As well, it contained d etails of particular problems and their resolutions during the implementation stage. Further, much of the content was serialized in a reputed trade journal in the lead up to the inauguration of the subway. This was meant to serve two objectives: to educate the general public about the upcoming utility and also to generate excitement and anticipation of its launch. (Interborough Rapid Transit, 2004, p. 1) It is not surprising that the NYC subway project elicited lots of excitement among the general public upon its initial announcement. The subway employees were looked upon as noble public servants and the IRT motormen were celebrated as heroes. The train engine was a

Friday, November 1, 2019

Implementing Cloud Computing Programs Research Paper

Implementing Cloud Computing Programs - Research Paper Example The process of implementing cloud computing programs is detailed particularly because of the several steps that the interested parties need to go through in the course of undertaking the project. As such, all entities should consider employing strategies that are in line with their ventures. The next section highlights some of the strategies that are far-reaching in ensuring a successful implementation of cloud computing programs. Â  Planning is particularly imperative because it provides the interested parties with the opportunity to analyze and re-evaluate their ability to handle the key steps of the implementation process contentedly. This includes forecasting on the entire process and the parties who will be involved in procuring all the needed hardware and software as well as the mechanism of going about the installation process. Similarly, planning entails forecasting on how the installed software, hardware, and the backup systems will be tested (Gulla, 2013). Also, planning is far-reaching given that it enables the interested parties to understand the alternatives at its disposal, the scope of technology and the business model. Â  Given the number of cloud installation programs that are currently going on as well as the planned ones, it is important to take note of the fact that there may be lack of enough expertise and talent to handle all of them. In that regard, it is imperative for organizations to ensure that they have key cloud computing experts at their disposal. Interested entities should, therefore, consider not only recruiting, but also training and retaining available staff.