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American Diplomatic Style"It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war." Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister American diplomatic style is the concept of the manner in which diplomacy is conducted by American representatives with foreign states. In general, there is a common notion of what this looks like; at the same time, though, our perspective of American diplomatic style varies with the perspective shared by a significant part of the rest of the world. To clarify, though, generalizations made throughout the paper "and this class, for that matter" simply indicate that either I or the author implied that a view or perspective is prevalent, as opposed to omnipresent. In addition to negotiation style, the actual form of diplomacy that is appropriate to use is discussed by Solomon and Quinney, Kennan, and Grossman. As a whole, though, American diplomats are those individuals that are used in order to further our national interests while maintaining a strategic approach to achieve the desired outcome. America |
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Good and Evil in Religion - The ExorcistThe Catholic Church espouses that the devil is not only real, but fully responsible for all that's evil in the world. While demonic possessions are controversial within the Church, the Bible is deals with the phenomenon through stories that reference both good and evil. Yet, in the last century, both rationalism and scientific methods are being used to explain "possessions" rather than referring to them as a paranormal phenomenon or force grounded in the demonic. There's a tension between the Church and science in an effort to explain if there are such things as good and evil. An example of this tug-of-war is demonstrated in the film, "The Exorcist," (1973) directed by William Friedkin. The male protagonist is a man of science and a man of God and the film delves into his struggle between what is good and what is evil, the secular and religious. In many religions, the devil represents pure evil. The bible states, "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."(John 3:8) The Bi |
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Russia After CommunismA. Plan of Investigation In the late 20th century, the U.S.S.R, as a superpower, exerted tremendous political, military, and economic influence around the world. Eventually the U.S.S.R. collapsed, resulting in the formation of 15 sovereign states, bringing about an end to the Cold War. The Russian Federation was the most developed of the formed nations. However, its internal state has deteriorated, causing tremendous socio-economic change in the new nation. The focus of this investigation is to inquire about the extent to which the collapse of the Soviet Union impacted the socio-economic disintegration of the Russian Federation during its formation in the early 1990's. Both aspects are closely intertwined together along with the anthropological development of the nation. In order to research the economic impacts, I will be looking at the country's financial state in terms of nominal GDP, value of the ruble currency (with levels of hyperinflation), and the distribution of wealth among |
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State Abortion ControlsIn the United States, many current abortion laws were derived from the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court verdict in 1973. In this decision, the Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abort their child. This decision was based on an implied right to personal privacy, emanating from the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. However, several states have passed laws which challenge this right by making it nearly impossible for women to receive an abortion in their state. The current judicial interpretation of the U.S. Constitution regarding abortion in the United States is that abortion is legal but may be restricted by the states to varying degrees. States have passed laws to restrict late term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate the disclosure of abortion risk information to patients prior to the procedure ("Abortion Overview). Although some people may find these restrictions suitable, states should not have the power to establish laws that revok |
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In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." This simple mantra is the center of Michael Pollan's philosophy as shared in his book, "In Defense of Food." Pollan spends the first portion of the book arguing that at one time, humans knew how to eat properly. He further explains that the food industry, media, and nutritional scientists have sent so many mixed message regarding what we should and shouldn't eat, that healthy food intake is no longer an innate human skill. What to eat, when to eat, and how to eat were once a matter of family tradition and generational trends, but new nutritional standards have sent our knowledge of food into a state of confusion. Michael Pollan describes the supermarket as a home for mostly "unreal" foods, where true edibles are few and far between. Further, he warns that a major problem with the current food market is that the worst foods are generally the ones marketed as healthy and nutritious. Arguing that foods cannot be stripped down to their nutrients, |
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In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." This simple mantra is the center of Michael Pollan's philosophy as shared in his book, "In Defense of Food." Pollan spends the first portion of the book arguing that at one time, humans knew how to eat properly. He further explains that the food industry, media, and nutritional scientists have sent so many mixed message regarding what we should and shouldn't eat, that healthy food intake is no longer an innate human skill. What to eat, when to eat, and how to eat were once a matter of family tradition and generational trends, but new nutritional standards have sent our knowledge of food into a state of confusion. Michael Pollan describes the supermarket as a home to mostly unreal food where true edibles are few and far between. Further, he warns that a major problem with the current food market is that the worst "foods " for us are generally the ones marketed as health foods or the most nutritious. Arguing that foods cannot simply be stripped |
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The Power of Women in The Epic of Gilgamesh"The Epic of Gilgamesh" an collection of old Sumerian poems, is filled with the dramatic interactions of gods and men, rulers and peasants, humans and beasts, and men and women. When reading this epic and looking closely at the relationships therein, a clear message surfaces; women represent a civility in that society, making the entire region of Sumeria dependent upon it's women. Both the setting and plot play crucial roles in understanding the central pillar of female power; each time being the base - the foundation - of each character's success. Such a prospect reveals much information about Gilgamesh, the setting of the poems. This element of female-power completely changes the setting and story from one of the strength and courage of tough men to one of the hidden power that women exert from the background. Working from the shadows, the female characters in "The Epic of Gilgamesh" create a story which shows the role of female dominance in the creation of a civilized and powerful |
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The Troubled Life of Aileen WuornosAileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan, and at a young age, she and her brother, Keith, were relocated to another part of the state where they were raised by their grandparents. After becoming pregnant at the age of 14, Aileen was kicked out of her grandparent's house and began traveling the country, making money along the way as a prostitute. Despite her turbulent upbringing, it was impossible for anyone to predict the desperate and deadly woman she would become. Aileen was the second child of teenage parents, Leo and Diane Pittman, who had a tumultuous relationship. They divorced nearly two years into their marriage, only months before Aileen was born. Leo, a career criminal, was later convicted of kidnapping and raping a seven year old girl and eventually hung himself in his prison cell. Unable to handle life as a single mother, Diane left Aileen and her older brother, Keith, with her parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos, who later adopted the two chil |
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The Science of DreamingWe all dream; some dreams we remember when we wake up in the morning, and some come and go as if we'd never had them. Dreaming occurs every time we sleep and enter a period known as the rapid eye movement(REM) stage. Many, if not most of us, cannot recall our dreams in their entirety, and some claim, because they have no memory of them, that they don't dream at all. But studies have proven that whether a person recalls them or not, we all dream - and dream a lot. When we fall asleep, we go through five different stages. The first is noted by a relatively light sleep, lasting only five minutes or so. In this stage, we experience slight physical jerks due to a subconscious feeling that we're falling. At this time, we may also have brief hallucinations, a precursor to dreaming (Myers, 2011). The second stage usually last around twenty minutes, and this is when we have sleep spindles, a burst of brain activity which can be clearly tracked on an electroencephalogram (EEG). It's in this |
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The Science of DreamingWe all dream; some dreams we remember when we wake up in the morning, and some come and go as if we'd never had them. Dreaming occurs every time we sleep and enter a period known as the rapid eye movement(REM) stage. Many, if not most of us, cannot recall our dreams in their entirety, and some claim, because they have no memory of them, that they don't dream at all. But studies have proven that whether a person recalls them or not, we all dream - and dream a lot. When we fall asleep, we go through five different stages. The first is noted by a relatively light sleep, lasting only five minutes or so. In this stage, we experience slight physical jerks due to a subconscious feeling that we're falling. At this time, we may also have brief hallucinations, a precursor to dreaming (Myers, 2011). The second stage usually last around twenty minutes, and this is when we have sleep spindles, a burst of brain activity which can be clearly tracked on an electroencephalogram (EEG). It's in this |
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High School Students and Community ServiceThe first thing I used to think of when I heard the term "community service," is me, giving up my time, to do something for somebody else - for free. However, as high school graduate struggling to find a good paying job without a college degree, I came to see how important it is for high school students to be required to serve one school year involved in some type of community service. High school students would benefit from serving their communities because helping others, with no financial gain, would help them learn the value of giving, as well as instilling the need of having a solid work ethic. Also, if the student takes his/her community service position seriously, those who oversee their service can write letters of recommendation for them when applying to colleges and for grants and scholarships. Making community service a pre-graduation requirement, would lead to an increase in student involvement. In fact, if a student wants to graduate, they'd have to fulfill the volunteer |
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High School Students and Community ServiceThe first thing I used to think of when I heard the term "community service," is me, giving up my time, to do something for somebody else - for free. However, as high school graduate struggling to find a good paying job without a college degree, I came to see how important it is for high school students to be required to serve one school year involved in some type of community service. High school students would benefit from serving their communities because helping others, with no financial gain, would help them learn the value of giving, as well as instilling the need of having a solid work ethic. Also, if the student takes his/her community service position seriously, those who oversee their service can write letters of recommendation for them when applying to colleges and for grants and scholarships. First of all by making this a requirement it would definitely increase student motivation. It would help them grow as individuals and they would learn the responsibility of havin |
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Personal Statement for Chemistry Undergraduate ProgramWhen I first began to study chemistry, I realized rather quickly that I'd eventually take the necessary steps to have a career in that area of study. I remember my first day of 9th grade chemistry; my eyes wide open as I watched the teacher pour two colorless liquids into a test tube, causing them to and they became a unique, transparent, and beautifully blue liquid. It was one of the most astonishing things I had ever seen. I was hooked. I continued taking chemistry for my remaining three years at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, widely know as the best high school in Saigon City, Vietnam. My chemistry teachers were knowledgeable and inspiring, and the more I attended my classes, the more fascinated I became with the subject. Chemistry was a new world, and it was opening up to me. Not only did I have true passion for chemistry, but the more time I invested in my studies, the more I realized that I was a natural at understanding it's rules and concepts. In 1999, when I wa |
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Dead Men's Path by Chinua AchebeMichael Obi, the main character in Chinua Achebe's "Dead Men's Path" is the newly appointed headmaster of the Ndume School. Upon his arrival, his religious and cultural beliefs are immediately challenged by those in his new village. A path leads from the village shrine to the sacred burial ground and cuts through the schoolyard. The path is an important part of village culture and religion, for they believe it be sacred. Mr. Obi has plans to remove the pathway from the village to the burial grounds, causing great turmoil and animosity between him and the people of the village. Michael Obi's personal beliefs |
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The Art of Ivan Albright"Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida," is the most popular of Ivan Albright's paintings. It's an excellent example of the very best of his work. His method of painting remained the same from piece to piece; he would ask someone to model for his painting and then prepare an elaborate arrangement of objects to surround the subject and to complete the composition. Choosing and arranging these supporting objects might take weeks before Albright was satisfied and the model might be asked to sit repeatedly for over a period of weeks or months before the painting was completed. Whenever Albright began a painting, he'd carefully use charcoal to draw the whole composition on a prepared canvas. This seemingly simple step, would often take him several months to complete; and only when he was fully satisfied with it, would he begin the process of applying paint. When he painted over the charcoal, he'd do so with extreme care, often only covering a 1/2 a square-inch in a five-hour working |
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An Advertisement for Protecting ChildrenChild abuse is considered a growing problem and recently, more than ever, the complicated issues have been highlighted and brought to our attention by the media. In an attempt to reach the masses about the child abuse epidemic, The Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation(ANAR), is utilizing the media to present a powerful, thought-provoking marketing campaign. Their advertisements contain a a series of messages, designed to connect specifically with those age twenty and over. The ANAR ad attempts to inform the public on all types of child abuse. It's very straight forward, showing a child's face with scars and bruises and with a text that stating, "Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it."" This sentence doesn't specify a specific type of child abuse, but alludes to the fact that child abuse comes in many forms: physical, sexual, emotional and child neglect. The picture in the ad conveys a child who is being physically abused, showing the bruises |
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Poverty, Growth and the Trickle Down EffectThrough his note "Poverty and Economic Growth: Has Trickle Down Petered Out?," Barry T. Hirsch, Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina, criticizes the study by Thornton, Agnello, and Link (hereafter TAL) in 1978, regarding the relationship between poverty and economic growth from 1947 to 1974. According to TAL, the trickle down effect of economic growth on poverty, which is defined using a fixed threshold, is remarkably less in the post 1963 period than that in the 1947-1963 period. Thus, trickle down has petered out and will predictably vanish in the future. TAL also argues that, when a definition of poverty using an increasing threshold is used, there has still been no statistically remarkable trickle down effect in the post 1963 period for any demog |
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Evolving Women in the Works of Wharton and FreemanEdith Wharton and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman are great historic writers, producing work from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. During this period, there were many changes in American society (including the roles of women in the home, post-civil war dynamics and the upswing of a new industrialization era), and these factors had great influence on where (and how) Wharton and Freeman found inspiration. This era revealed a dramatic shift, steering away from the concept of men being the primary bread winners and the only adult in the household who had the ability to "bring home the bacon"." Prior this changing America, men had worked to support their families with the expectation to arrive home to a home-cooked meal, clean house and well-behaved children. Edith Wharton and Mary Wilkins Freeman wrote about the hardships they faced, and the personal struggles that came with being a woman. Both authors wrote fictional accounts of their experiences and the issues facing wom |
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Divorce - More Common, Still PainfulIn the past, "traditional" families consisted of a husband, his wife, and their children. Today, divorce is close to the norm with nearly 50% of marriages crumbling. Every combination of parent and child is an acceptable; children may live with either mother or father, another family member, two gay dads or two moms, or a foster care situation. Sociological types of divorce include functionalist perspectives, conflict theories, and both interactionist and feminist perspectives. Functionalists see divorce from a negative point of view. A functionalist would blame divorce on the failure of social institutions, as opposed to looking into the individuals involved in the divorce. Their view is that institutions have not provided adequate instr |
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The Swimmer by John CheeverIn John Cheever's, "The Swimmer," symbolism is utilized as a powerful method in expressing Ned's idealistic view of his conflicted life. Ned's empty house is effectively used as a symbol; his delusions of grandeur regarding it, is similar to his perspective of life. Ned's reaction towards the number of bleak characteristics of his house, creates the idea that his overoptimistic attitude is carried on throughout every aspect of his life. When he initially approaches his dark house from the outside, Ned asks himself, "Was it so late that they had all gone to bed? Had Lucinda stayed at the Westerhazey's for supper?"" Ned was a man who couldn't accept the realities of life, especially not when it came to his family and his home. He continued to the "locked "garage doors, with the rust coming off the handles onto his hands." Reality was beginning to overtake his weaknes |
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The Negative Side of Winning the LotteryA single event, such as winning the lottery, can change a person's life forever. Many people dream of winning the lottery, believing it will solve all their problems. And it's true; winning the lottery can bring a person and their family a lot of happiness and a lifetime of financial security. But, just as a windfall of cash can improve a life, it can also destroy one. When someone's life changes drastically - and in the case of a large lottery winning, literally overnight - it can lead him/her to make quick and drastic decisions such as quitting their jobs on the spot, making major unnecessary purchases, and accepting gifts and favors that they wouldn't otherwise be offered. Winning huge sums of money can lead to high anxiety and stress, with negative repercussions such as family issues, severe depression, and even suicide. After landing |
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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"She wore a pull-over jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home. Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere that was not home: her walk that could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make anyone think she was hearing music in her head, her mouth which was pale and smirking most of the time, but bright and pink on these evenings out, her laugh which was cynical and drawling at home- 'Ha, ha, very funny'-but high-pitched and nervous anywhere else, like the jingling of the charms on her bracelet." (p.216) Inductive Reasoning (Conflict in Oneself) The essay, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?," Joyce Carol Oates, is about a pretty fifteen year old girl named Connie, who has split personalities with "everything about her [having] two sides to it". Connie lives with her parents and nine-year-older sister; but it is an unhappy home. Her father pays very littl |
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Huey Long and Barack Obama - Political KingfishHuey Long, also known as the "Messiah of the Masses," was a gifted orator who appealed to a poor, rural constituency due to his various social programs and his "Share our Wealth" plan. The "Kingfish," as he was also called, began his rise to the political forefront in 1918 when he was elected to Louisiana's Railroad Commission. In 1928, Long won the gubernatorial election and went on to rule Louisiana with an iron fist until he was elected to the United States Senate in 1932. Over the course of his political career, Huey Long began creating a political machine in Louisiana similar to the one that Obama implemented in Chicago many years later. It's interesting to note the number of similarities between Huey Long and Barack Obama. Both came from humble beginnings. Huey Long grew up in Northern Louisiana with his family and lacked formal education. Despite taking classes, he never graduated from college or law school, although he did go on to pass the Louisiana Stat |
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Notes on The State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson"Notes on the State of Virginia," by Thomas Jefferson is divided into two parts. The first covers the recently discovered woolly mammoths in North America and the second is a written debate aimed at Count de Buffon who claimed that animals in Europe were generally larger than those found in America. When covering the topic of the discovery of the mammoth, Jefferson states that they were largest known quadrupeds. Indian tradition claimed that mammoths were carnivores, and that some still existed in the Northern parts of America. In and around the Ohio river, an extensive number if extremely large tusks, grinders (molars) and skeletons were found. Accounts published in Europe supposed these discoveries to be similar to bones that were found in Siberia. Jefferson argued that "on the whole, there seem to be no certain vestiges of the existence of this animal further south than the salines last mentioned." Naturalists in Europe claimed that the tusks and skeletons that American's said to belong to woolly mammoths actually belonged to elephants and the grinders belonged to the common hippopotamuses. To this, Jefferson mentioned that the bones which were found were much lar |
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The Ultimate Gift by Jim StovallQuestion: What lessons did the protagonist learn that would become the foundation of his economic choices? How have you experienced these lessons in your own life or how do you expect to experience them? "The Ultimate Gift," by Jim Stovall is the story of one young man's inspiring journey. After his grandfather's death, Jason is presented with an inheritance, a sum of money that would take him on a life-changing path that would change him forever; his faith will be challenged as he faces the spiritual question, "What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?" Along the way, Jason is challenged, and as a result, learns lessons such as the meaning of work, the value of money, and the importance of family, friends and loving. Jason is disrespectful and arrogant, a kid who believes his grandfather owed him his trust fund even though Jason had never worked a day in his life. The lessons he learns don't come easily, but by the end of the story, Jason is better person than he was before. When he is instructed to take on a physical labor job in ord |
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