Buddism essays

Buddism essays Buddhists believe that we have a specific problem as human beings. How ever they also offer a very specific answer to what this problem is and what we can do to fix the problem. Buddhism is expressed in the four noble truths, which offer us a clear route to salvation and nirvana. Nirvana is believed to be salvation a release from suffering as human beings, which can be reached by following the 8-fold path. This is the fundamental idea of Buddhism, a path that can lead humans to there nirvana and not to suffering. Our fundamental problem as human beings is that we suffer. We are constantly suffering, this continues from one life to the next through reincarnation. Realization that we have a problem is the first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. In Theravada Buddhism we dont simply suffer in superficial ways, instead we suffer in permeates in every aspect of our lives. We suffer in when we are ill as well and when we see our loved ones ill. We suffer from the first moment of life birth, all the way through our very last moment of life, death. While we do experience brief periods of happiness and satisfaction in life, the suffering that we experience heavily outweighs any brief period of happiness or satisfaction. The second of the Four Noble Truths explains the causes of suffering. There are many causes to suffering, the most fundamental being our desires and cravings. Buddhists believe that any form of craving or desire, such as a desire for sex, money or love will lead to suffering. However the problem doesnt lie in what we desire and crave, it is simply the act of desire that causes suffering. Even the most selfless desires or love of our families is a form of craving; therefore leading to suffering. Another cause of suffering is the misconception that there is a true self, which Buddhism believes to be untrue. The doctrine of Impermanence states that not only are our lives impermanent, but also the sel...

The History of Video Recorders and Television

The History of Video Recorders and Television Charles Ginsburg led the research team at Ampex Corporation in developing one of the first practical videotape recorders or VTRs in 1951. It captured live images from television cameras by converting the information into electrical impulses and saving the information on magnetic tape. By 1956, VTR technology was perfected and in common use by the television industry. But Ginsburg wasn’t done yet. He led the Ampex research team in developing a new machine that could run the tape at a much slower rate because the recording heads rotated at high speed. This allowed the necessary high-frequency response. He became known as the father of the video cassette recorder.†Ã‚  Ampex sold the first VTR for $50,000 in 1956, and the first VCassetteRs or VCRs were sold by Sony in 1971. The Early Days of Video Recording Film was initially the only medium available for recording television programs magnetic tape was considered, and it was already being used for sound, but the greater quantity of information carried by the television signal demanded new studies. A number of American companies began investigating this problem during the 1950s.   Tape Recording Technology Audio and video magnetic recording have had a greater impact on broadcasting than any other development since the invention of radio/TV transmission itself. Videotape in a large cassette format was  introduced by both JVC and Panasonic around 1976. This was the most popular format for home use and for video store rentals for many years until it was replaced by CDs and DVDs. VHS stands for Video Home System. The First Television Cameras American engineer, scientist and inventor Philo Taylor Farnsworth devised the television camera in the 1920s, although he would later declare that theres nothing on it worthwhile. It was an â€Å"image dissector† that converted a captured imagine into an electrical signal. Farnsworth was born in 1906 on Indian Creek in Beaver County, Utah.  His parents expected him to become a concert violinist but his interests drew him to experiments with electricity. He built an electric motor and produced the first electric washing machine his family ever owned at the age of 12. He then went on to attend Brigham Young University where he researched television picture transmission. Farnsworth had already conceived of his idea for television while in high school, and he cofounded Crocker Research Laboratories in 1926 which he later renamed Farnsworth Television, Inc. He then changed the name again to Farnsworth Radio and Television Corporation in 1938. Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines in 1927. He was only 21 years old. The image was a dollar sign. One of the keys to his success was the development of the  dissector tube that essentially translated images into electrons that could be transmitted to a TV. He filed for his first television patent in 1927. He had already won an earlier patent for his image dissection tube, but he lost later patent battles to RCA, which owned the rights to many of inventor  Vladimir Zworkyin’s  TV patents. Farnsworth went on to invent over 165 different devices. He held over 300 patents by the end of his career, including a number of significant television patents although he was not a fan of what his discoveries had wrought. His final years were spent battling depression and alcohol. He died on March 11, 1971, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Digital Photography and Video Stills Digital camera technology is directly related to and evolved from the same technology that once recorded  television  images. Both television/video cameras and digital cameras use a CCD or charged coupled device to sense light color and intensity. A still video or digital camera called the Sony Mavica single-lens reflex was first demonstrated in 1981. It used a fast-rotating magnetic disc that was two inches in diameter and could record up to 50 images formed in a solid-state device inside the camera. The images were played back through a television receiver or monitor, or they could be printed out. Advancements in Digital Technology   NASA converted from using analog to digital signals with their space probes to map the surface of the moon in the 1960s, sending digital images back to earth. Computer technology was also advancing at this time and NASA used computers to enhance the images that the space probes were sending.  Digital imaging had another government use at the time – in spy satellites. Government use of digital technology helped advance the science of digital imaging, and the private sector also made significant contributions. Texas Instruments patented a filmless electronic camera in 1972, the first to do so. Sony released the Sony Mavica electronic still camera in August 1981, the first commercial electronic camera. Images were recorded onto a mini disc and placed into a video reader that was connected to a television monitor or color printer. The early Mavica cannot be considered a true digital camera, however, even though it started the digital camera revolution. It was a video camera that took video freeze-frames. The First Digital Cameras   Since the mid-1970s, Kodak has invented several solid-state image sensors that convert  light to digital pictures for professional and home consumer use. Kodak scientists invented the worlds first megapixel sensor in 1986, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels that could produce a 5 x 7-inch digital photo-quality print. Kodak released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images in 1987, and in 1990, the company developed the Photo CD system and proposed the first worldwide standard for defining color in the digital environment of computers and computer peripherals. Kodak released the first professional digital camera system (DCS), aimed at photojournalists in 1991, a Nikon F-3 camera equipped with a 1.3-megapixel sensor. The first digital cameras for the consumer  market that would work with a home computer via a serial cable were the Apple QuickTake camera in 1994, the Kodak DC40 camera in 1995, the Casio QV-11 also in 1995, and Sonys Cyber-Shot Digital Still Camera in 1996. Kodak entered into an aggressive co-marketing campaign to promote its DC40 and to help introduce the idea of digital photography to the public. Kinkos and Microsoft both collaborated with Kodak to create digital image-making software workstations and kiosks which allowed customers to produce photo CD discs and add digital images to documents. IBM collaborated with Kodak in making an Internet-based network image exchange. Hewlett-Packard was the first company to make color inkjet printers that complemented the new digital camera images. The marketing worked and now digital cameras are everywhere.

The Great Depression between 1929 to 1933 Essay

The Great Depression between 1929 to 1933 - Essay Example Banks in the early 1930s had insufficient funds that would not match with the increased savings take-out that took place during the autumn of 1929. In spite of the banks being many, their small nature did not allow them to insure the bank deposits. The result is that the failure of the banks translated to people losing their savings. The few banks that survived had to pay much emphasis on their survival due to the prevailing conditions at that time and hence they deterred from loans creating. This measure worsened the situation by resulting to less expenditure. In response to the stock market crash, people ceased from purchasing items. Intrinsically, the number of items produced had to reduce and a decline in the number of people needed to produce the goods. The workers affected had to lose their items that they used installment plans to purchase. The selling firms reposes the items and a large amount of inventory was accumulated. With the unemployment rate rising above twenty-five p ercent, a worse situation was anticipate, a further less expenditure to palliate the situation of the economy. Goods remained unsold and more and more workers were laid off, extending the GD. The Federal government, in its effort to protect businesses and companies in the U.S., established a Smoot-Hawley tariff. This 1930 tariff had the effect of economic revenge over the lessened trade between the U.S and other foreign states. The European countries had also borrowed a lot of money from America.

No More Wars by Woodrow Wilson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

No More Wars by Woodrow Wilson - Essay Example Woodrow Wilsons succeded in convincing Europeans through his speech and fourteen points. As a result Germany stopped the war and surrendered within the next 10 months (Snell, 1954). In an interview conducted during the Paris Peace Conference held in 1919, Woodrow Wilson and Sir William Wiseman explained how Germany agreed to stop the war as a result of the famous speech and fourteen points. The speech highlighted the importance of democracy in bringing the losting peace in the Europe . Woodrow Wilson wanted to present United States as a role model before the rest of the world and it was this intention which made him present these fourteen points. He was of the opinion that the United State should not involve in war. He was a democratic person who had true feelings not only for the people of the United States but also for the whole world, who wanted peace in the world. He thought of the entire world that’s why he was a trustworthy person. People had belief and confidence in him and that is why the Fourteen Points given by him were admired by the people. He used this credibility and made an emotional appeal to the people by giving the Fourteen Points which were welcomed by the people. The logic which was used in his points was very clear about the peace and those were having a strong internal consistency, and the benefits of his points were very clear that if they follow his points, there will be no war in future. The speech was having emotions because at that time the people were fed up of war and they wanted peace and prosperity and the speech was based on the peace. The speech was accepted by the Germans and then by the Britian. The base of the speech was the world wide problem rather than based on just self interest. The address which is based on the Fourteen Points given by Wilson was a great help in betterment of his nation.

How Accurate Is Eyewitness Testimony Essay Example for Free

How Accurate Is Eyewitness Testimony Essay The bedrock of the American judicial process is the honesty of witnesses in trial. Eyewitness testimony can make a deep impression on a jury, which is often exclusively assigned the role of sorting out credibility issues and making judgments about the truth of witness statements. In the U. S. , there is the possibility of over 5,000 wrongful convictions each year because of mistaken eyewitness identifications. The continuous flow of media stories that tell of innocent people being incarcerated should serve as a signal to us that the human identification process is rife with a large number of error risks. These risks have been largely supported by research. Unfortunately, a jury rarely hears of the risks; therefore, eyewitness testimony remains a much-used and much-trusted process by those who are uninformed many times, lawfully uninformed. In cases in which eyewitness testimony is used, more often than not, an expert will not be allowed to testify to the faults of eyewitness identification. Thus, the uninformed stay blissfully ignorant of the inherent risks involved in eyewitness identification testimony. Too often, these blissfully ignorant people make up a jury of our peers. (McAtlin, 1999). According to McAtlin, there are three parts of an eyewitness testimony: (1) Witnessing a crime – as a victim or a bystander – involves watching the event while it is happening. (2) The witness must memorize the details of the occurrence. (3) The witness must be able to accurately recall and communicate what he or she saw. Studies of wrongful conviction cases have concluded that erroneous eyewitness identifications are by far the leading cause of convicting the innocent. Several studies have been conducted on human memory and on subjects’ propensity to remember erroneously events and details that did not occur. When human beings try to acquire, retain and retrieve information with any clarity, suppositional influences and common human failures profoundly limit them. The law can regulate some of these human limitations others are unavoidable. The unavoidable ones can make eyewitness testimony devastating in the courtroom and can lead to wrongful convictions. Unfortunately, memories are not indelibly stamped onto a brain video cassette tape. An event stored in the human memory undergoes constant change. Some details may be altered when new or different information about the event is added to the existing memory. Some details are simply forgotten and normal memory loss occurs continually. Even so, witnesses often become more confident in the correctness of their memories over time. The original memory has faded and has been replaced with new information. This new information has replaced the original memory because the natural process of memory deterioration has persisted. Furthermore, individual eyewitnesses vary widely in infallibility and reasoning. . (McAtlin, 1999). Studies of wrongful conviction cases have concluded that erroneous eyewitness identifications are by far the leading cause of convicting the innocent. For example, the Innocence Project of Cardozo School of Law reports that of the first 130 exonerations, 101 (or 77. 8 percent) involved mistaken identifications. But exactly how often eyewitnesses make tragic mistakes that lead to the punishment of innocent persons is unknown and probably unknowable. One of the infamous cases where mistaken identity led to the wrongful conviction and execution was Gary Graham. Grahams case received widespread attention, in part because of substantial evidence indicating that he was innocent of the murder charge, and the indisputable fact that his court-appointed trial lawyer failed to mount a serious legal defense. Graham was convicted of killing grocery store clerk Bobby Lambert on May 13, 1981 during a robbery attempt. Graham was 17 years old at the time. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and only one eyewitness who identified him as the murderer. Eyewitnesses who told police investigators Graham was not the killer were never called to testify at trial by Grahams lawyer. Constitutional Protections In Neil v. Biggers, the U. S. Supreme Court established criteria that jurors may use to evaluate the reliability of eyewitness identifications. The Biggers Court enumerated several factors to determine if a suggestive identification is reliable: (1) the witness’s opportunity to view the suspect; (2) the witness’s degree of attention; (3) the accuracy of description; (4) the witness’s level of certainty; and (5) the time between incident and confrontation, i. . , identification. Courts today continue to allow into evidence suggestive identification testimony. Currently, courts consider the admissibility of identification testimony under a Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process analysis. If a court determines that a pretrial identification was unnecessarily suggestive, it then ascertains whether the suggestive procedure gave rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. A court will find a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification only if the identification is found to be unreliable. Therefore, even if the court concludes that a police identification procedure was suggestive, it may be admissible if the court finds that the identification is nevertheless likely to be accurate. A court will balance the suggestiveness of the identification procedure against the likelihood that the identification is correct, resulting in an unprincipled rule of law that turns on the court’s subjective assessment of the defendant’s guilt. Issues That Impact an Individuals Testimony A specific look at how memory functions and how suggestion operates llustrates why participation in unregulated lineups creates unreasonable risks of misidentification. Identification procedures differ from other police investigatory procedures in that they solely rely on human memory. Human memory consists of three basic systems: (1) encoding, (2) storage, and (3) retrieval. â€Å"Encoding† is the initial processing of an event that results in a memory. â€Å"Storage† is the re tention of the encoded information. â€Å"Retrieval† is the recovery of the stored information. Errors can occur at each step. Contrary to common understanding of memory, not everything that registers in the central nervous system is permanently stored in the mind and particular details become increasingly inaccessible over time. According to Loftus and Ketchum, â€Å"Truth and reality, when seen through the filters of our memories, are not objective facts but subjective, interpretive realities. † Because these processes are unconscious, individuals generally perceive their memories as completely accurate and their reporting of what they remember as entirely truthful, no matter how distorted or inaccurate they, in fact, may be. An individual’s memories become distorted even in the absence of external suggestion or internal personal distress. Naturally, people tailor their telling of events to the listener and the context. (Loftus Ketchum 1991). Many conditions such as fear, lighting, distance from the event, surprise, and personal biases all affect memory and recall. Human memory is indeed delicate, especially regarding victims and witnesses of crimes. Fear and traumatic events may impair the initial acquisition of the memory itself. At the time of an identification, the witness is often in a distressed emotional state. Many victims and witnesses experience substantial shock because of their traumatic experiences that continue to affect them at the time of identification procedures. In a particular case in court, the psychologist can determine the reliability of the evidence of a particular witness and enable the judge and the jury to put the proper value on such witnesss testimony. For example, a witness may swear to a certain point involving the estimation of time and distance. The psychologist can measure the witnesss accuracy in such estimates, often showing that what the witness claims to be able to do is an impossibility. A case may hinge on whether an interval of time was ten minutes or twelve minutes, or whether a distance was three hundred or four hundred feet. A witness may swear positively to one or both of these points. The psychologist can show the court the limitations of the witness in making such estimates. Overview of Psychology and Law The service of psychology to law can be very great, but owing to the necessary conservatism of the courts, it will be a long time before they will make much use of psychological knowledge. Perhaps the greatest service will be in determining the credibility of evidence. Psychology can now give the general principles in this matter. Witnesses go on the stand and swear to all sorts of things as to what they heard and saw and did, often months and even years previously. The expert clinical psychologist can tell the court the probability of such evidence being true. Experiments have shown that there is a large percentage of error in such evidence. The additional value that comes from the oath has been measured. The oath increases the liability of truth only a small percentage. Psychologists sometimes provide expert testimony in the form of general testimony where theory and research is described and applied to a problem before the court. The expert would not provide opinions about any party involved in the case before the court, but might give opinions about substantive research that is relevant to the issues. Role of Psychology Professional in Forensic Matters Clinical-forensic psychologists are employed in a variety of settings including state forensic hospitals, court clinics, mental health centers, jails, prisons, and juvenile treatment centers. Clinical-forensic psychologists are perhaps best known for their assessment of persons involved with the legal system. Because of their knowledge of human behavior, abnormal psychology, and psychological assessment, psychologists are sometimes asked by the courts to evaluate a person and provide the court with an expert opinion, either in the form of a report or testimony. For example, clinical-forensic psychologists frequently evaluate adult criminal defendants or children involved in the juvenile justice system, offering the court information that might be relevant to determining (1) whether the defendant has a mental disorder that prevents him or her from going to trial, (2) what the defendants mental state may have been like at the time of the criminal offense, or (3) what treatment might be indicated for a particular defendant who has been convicted of a crime or juvenile offense. Increasingly, clinical-forensic psychologists are being called upon to evaluate defendants who have gone to trial and who have been found guilty and for whom one of the sentencing options is the death penalty. In this case, psychologists are asked to evaluate the mitigating circumstances of the case and to testify about these as they relate to the particular defendant. Clinical-forensic psychologists also evaluate persons in civil (i. e. , non-criminal) cases. These psychologists may evaluate persons who are undergoing guardianship proceedings, to assist the court in determining whether the person has a mental disorder that affects his or her ability to make important life decisions (e. g. , managing money, making health care decisions, making legal decisions). Clinical-forensic psychologists also evaluate persons who are plaintiffs in lawsuits, who allege that they were emotionally harmed as a result of someones wrongdoing or negligence. Clinical-forensic psychologists may evaluate children and their parents in cases of divorce, when parents cannot agree about the custody of their children and what is best for them. Clinical-forensic psychologists are sometimes called on to evaluate children to determine whether they have been abused or neglected and the effects of such abuse or neglect, and offer the court recommendations regarding the placement of such children. In addition to forensic assessment, clinical-forensic psychologists are also involved in treating persons who are involved with the legal system in some capacity. Jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities employ clinical psychologists to assess and treat adults and juveniles who are either awaiting trial, or who have been adjudicated and are serving a sentence of some type. Treatment in these settings is focused both on mental disorders and providing these persons with skills and behaviors that will decrease the likelihood that they will re-offend in the future. Clinical-forensic psychologists employed in mental health centers or in private practice may also treat persons involved in the legal system, providing either general or specialized treatment (e. g. treatment of sex offenders, treatment of violent or abusive persons, and treatment of abuse victims). Conclusion Studies confirm that unregulated eyewitness testimony is often â€Å"hopelessly unreliable. † Misidentifications are the greatest single source of wrongful convictions in the United States. Yet courts’ current due process analyses are unsuccessful in ensuring fair procedures and preventing wrongful convictions. A due process analysis alone is inadequate, in part because a due process analysis is essentially a fairness inquiry, and courts regard it as unfair to exclude a correct, yet suggestive identification, from evidence.

Illegalization of Flag Burning Violates the First Constitutional Amendment :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

Illegalization of Flag Burning Violates the First Constitutional Amendment When making flag burning illegal you have to wonder what our lawmakers were thinking. It was clearly not about the First Amendment in which American’s right to free speech is protected. Desecrating a flag is guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, however unpatriotic that may be. It is impossible to draw the line of where desecration begins. What about those that let our sacred symbol touch the ground, a clear violation of respect, do we punish them too? This proposed law is un-American and will only lead to furious citizens exercising their born rights. In 2000, a flag protection amendment was proposed, the statue contained harsh penalties, with fines up to 250, 000 dollars and two years jail time requested. Amendment â€Å"remove freedom† was defeated in the senate by a 36 to 64 vote, 64 people were looking out for our freedom. Laws like this would allow Congress to engage in â€Å"thought control†. Allowing a flag burning amendment to pass is letting Congress determine what is acceptable considering free speech. Surely this law will provoke more than it will help. It is believed, on average, that seven flags are burned a year, and in fact Professor Robert Justin Goldtein documented that only 45 flags were burned in the past 200 years. Seven will multiply if Americans think their rights are being curtailed. During Prohibition, a time when alcohol consumption was outlawed, nearly 30, 000 illegal and secret saloons were started in New York City. This shows that when rights are taken away Americans won’t stop, flag burning won’t cease either with an amendment. Boy Scouts burn flags when retiring them. How can a flag burning law determine just were to draw the desecration line? The amendment would have to detailed guidelines that punished only the protesters. Burning a flag would only become a crime when the thoughts attached to the act are offensive: or forefathers believed free speech to be one of our most necessary rights.

Essay on Plants on Earth

Plants and humans are perhaps the most important organisms, however, us humans, have caused the death of thousands of plants by starting fires and by cutting down trees for things such as paper and furniture. Plants make oxygen which is very important for our survival; we can't live without it. In the year 2003 alone, 774500 acres of land, that contained not only threes but animals too, were burned in California (Jane Strong, 2003). Some of this land was burned due to natural fires but some of it was probably cause by humans that weren't careful enough.These fires do only kill threes and animals sometimes even other people are harmed. People also cut down threes to make furniture and other things needed for construction. As I look around my house I can see that a lot of the things I have, are made of wood. The chair I'm sitting on, the pencils I use to write, the dining table, and even the house is made of wood. It was then that I thought about how many threes had to be cut down just to make my house. How many threes had to be cut down to make all of the houses in Arlington.People also waste a lot of paper without thinking that they are killing threes; people should recycle and think twice when they waste paper. As the number of people in the world increases, the need for wood increases too. Food companies as well as the companies who cut down threes need to look for ways to make plants grown faster in order to satisfy the need for wood. People have to grow a higher number of plants than the number they cut down. This is necessary because if they number of plants in the world is too low there would be too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; this would be harmful to us because they air would be contaminated.Many food companies use chemicals to make their plants grow faster; they also use chemicals to make their plants stronger against insects and some diseases. Some people do not want to buy these products because they think that they do not have as many nutr ients and vitamins as they would have if they would have been water with normal water. Plants have to be watered with water that has no chemicals. This is good because it ensures that the water doesn't have any chemicals that could harm the consumers and that they would be natural.These chemicals sometimes change the taste of the vegetables or fruits. Plants need water so they can grow. It's very possible that the type of water that is used to water the plant may affect the growth rate of the plants. Finding the appropriate type of water would be a great help for farmers who want their plants to grow as fast as possible. The type of water that is used to water a plant is an important factor. This may be what the companies that make vegetables and the companies that cut down threes might want to change, in order to make all of the plants grow faster.This would be a great help for them because it would give them the opportunity to produce more threes without harming the environment. F inding a way to make plants grow faster without using chemicals is something people should be concerned about, because its plants that give us the air we breathe. Plants are also a very important source of food. If the right type of water is be found the plant growth would be increased, therefore the number of plants would increase and the food as well as the wood companies wouldn't have to worry bout the number of threes.

Dumbo Case Analysis

Hw Assignment #3: Two Trees 1) Continue organic growth in Dumbo – Rent vs. Sell? Walenta should continue organic growth in Dumbo. I believe that he should rent the space that he has this way he continues to have a foot in the neighborhood as it expands. As we know living in Manhattan has become very expensive and people are going right over the bridge to re-establish themselves and their business. It would be critical for Walenta to stay in Dumbo and continue to have an effect in the expansion of the neighborhood homes/businesses. 2) Develop a new neighborhood.I believe there is much potential in Red Hook and Walenta should develop a new neighborhood there. It has the same industrial/neighborhood feel that Dumbo has. This neighborhood has the potential to become like Dumbo and possibly even greater. The neighborhood is slightly larger than Dumbo and he would be able to buy and expand more. 3) Become partner in tenant's businesses. As a fall back he should decide to partner up with a couple of tenant’s businesses. As we know, the real estate industry has gone through many ups and downs in the last few decades.It is important for him to have something else to fall back on. The only thing he would have to consider is that if he decides to enter into these businesses if real estate does go down the businesses might slow down as well. 4) Encourage establishment of new businesses in Dumbo. Establishment of new businesses should be encouraged in Dumbo. It is definitally an up and coming neighborhood. People who don’t want to spend the money in the city look to come over the bridge to spend a little less and still have the same quality and feel.Also as more people move in the more new businesses are needy. I believe that another big reason people are coming to Brooklyn because it allows them to live the city life but also have a community feel, something that is hard to come by in NYC. NYC is very overcrowded and many of the neighborhoods donâ€⠄¢t have a community feel because of this. Brooklyn has the space and ability to make the neighborhood feel like a community. Small businesses will attract these city goers looking for a homey feel with the quality of life like that in the city.

Take 20 Hours and Become an Expert in Anything [VIDEO]

Take 20 Hours and Become an Expert in Anything [VIDEO] It doesn’t take 10,000 hours to learn a new skill. It takes 20. And here’s how†¦ Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA, has demystified Malcolm Gladwell’s famous â€Å"10,000† (supposedly the amount of time you need to invest in acquiring a new skill). He says you can achieve the same mastery in 45 minutes a day, for a month.Here’s the path to learning.1. Deconstruct the skillDecide what you actually want to be able to do, and break it down into manageable parts. Do some research and figure out what the people who succeed at this skill had to learn along the way and where you can learn it too! Do you need to sign up for a class, or lessons, or tackle a reading list? Invest in some equipment or supplies?2. Learn enough to self-correct. Learn just enough that you can actually tell when you’re making a mistake.This is where a teacher comes in handy, whether it’s one-on-one or in a class setting. If your desired skill is a musical or dance-based one, this probably means a lot of listening and watching to pros performing so you learn to tell the difference between a good performance and a great one. Perhaps even record yourself so you can rewatch and examine your technique for improvement.3. Remove practice barriers: i.e. remove distractions, yes, like you, Internet.Other common barriers include pets, children, day jobs (ok, maybe you just need breaks or a little alone time, not a full removal). There are a ton of productivity apps that might come in handy here- Pomodoro helps you time, apps like Self-Control (mac) and Freedom (PC) block all web access from your computer, and leaving your technology outside to go practice hula hooping is its own reward.4. Practice at least 20 hours. Finally, yep, practice for 20 hours.It’s inescapable- whether it’s 20 hours or 10,000, at a certain point there’s nothing to do but spend time practicing the thing you want to learn to love to do. Pace yourself , take breaks, but otherwise, stick to it!

The Best Way to Use the Real ACT Prep Guide

The Best Way to Use the Real ACT Prep Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Want to prep for the ACT on you own? Chances are you’ve ordered a prep book to help you study. One of the most popular prep books around is The Real ACT Prep Guide. But how can you make sure you get your money’s worth out of the book – and make sure you actually study well enough to improve your ACT composite? Read our guide to using The Real ACT Prep Guide to find out. What’s in The Real ACT Prep Guide? The Prep Guide has two main components: an overview of each section of the ACT (English, Math, Reading, Science, and optional essay) and 5 full-length practice tests. The book is made by the ACT, so the practice tests are the best-quality ones you can get, which is why the book is so popular (at the time of writing, it’s the #1 best-selling ACT Test Guide on Amazon.com). This book can be an excellent resource if you’re trying to improve your ACT score. However, there are ways to use it effectively and less effectively – we’ll show you how. How to Use the Content Overview Section The Real ACT Prep Guide contains a brief overview of each section on the ACT and the content you need to know for each. However, it doesn’t teach you the content. For example, it will say you need to know basic trigonometric identities for the math section and give an example problem, but it won’t explain what those identities are. So if there is a concept you don’t know, The Real ACT Prep Guide won’t help you learn it. Still, we advise you read through the content review so you know what you are being tested on. If you come across content areas you’re fuzzy on – whether that’s plane geometry or grammar rules – you’ll need to find a more specific prep book or source to help you actually learn it. Make a list of content areas (if any) that you’re shaky on as your read through the content review, and seek out other resources (like more specific prep books and websites) to learn them before embarking on the practice tests. You also might check out our free detailed guides on ACT English, ACT Math, ACT Reading, ACT Science, and ACT Writing. How to Use the 5 ACT Practice Tests These five practice tests are the main reason people go for The Real ACT Prep Guide. Since the tests are written by the test-makers themselves, they give you some of the best quality practice for the ACT you can get. However, if you go through the tests without a strategy, or without adequately checking your answers, you’ll waste them. Taking the tests alone will not help you get a higher ACT score. Point improvements can only come if you identify your weaknesses and drill them until they’re gone. By "perfect practice," we don't mean you should already be getting perfect scores on your practice tests. We mean treating the practice tests like real ones, and then taking adequate time to correct them and understand your mistakes. With that in mind, here’s how to make the most of the practice tests. Timing If you tend to run out of time on ACT sections, you can experiment with giving yourself time and a half, time and a quarter, and then strict timing on the practice tests, to build up your speed. (If you ever run out of time on a section, by the way, still answer the rest of the questions after you’re done with the test to maximize your knowledge-building.) In any case, be careful to time yourself strictly for each practice test, even if you’re starting with time-and-a-half. You’ll be the most prepared for the ACT if you’re able to deal with both the pacing and content. Wear a watch when you practice so you can get use to monitoring your time per question. You won’t be able to bring your phone with you to the test, so get used to using a more old-fashioned timer. Read more about ACT timing for more tips on timing (including the approximate time you have for each question). Stamina If you’re worried about getting through the whole test with enough energy and focus, make sure to take at least some of the practice tests in full blocks, as if you were taking the real ACT, with strict timing throughout. This will help you build your stamina so that on test day, you will have just as much energy on the Science section (which comes last) as you do on the English section (which comes first). If you have no problem with getting through long tests, and you have one particular section giving you trouble, you could focus on just that section and drill it. For example, say that you consistently score 32 and higher when you practice English, Reading, and Science, but are struggling to break 28 on the Math section. You may want to do more practice Math sections to make up for the discrepancy. However, keep in mind any time you take a section by itself, you won’t be able to use that practice test for a complete run-through. Don’t break up all five of the practice tests into their sections. Keep at least two for full run-throughs. Checking Answers When checking the answers on your practice tests, don’t just correct your multiple-choice sheet, tally a score, and wait to see improvement. Rushing through the tests won’t help you get any better. If you correct your practice tests like a Scantron, and only tally up right and wrong answers without further analysis, you're wasting your time. First of all, as you move through the test, mark any questions you are unsure about. This way, even if you get them right, you can examine why they were right and what prevented you from being sure. Next, look at what you got wrong. Figure out the skill, concept, or line of reasoning you didn’t have that prevented you from getting it right. For example, did you miss that reading question because you didn’t know the meaning of a word, or because you misunderstood the context of the passage? Also refer to the answer explanations the Real ACT Guide provides, but keep in mind that can be a bit shallow (â€Å"A is wrong because it is. B is right because†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Finally, log your mistakes in a notebook. This way you can begin to notice any patterns or consistent gaps in your knowledge. For example, when correcting the math section and logging your mistakes, you might find you missed three questions because you weren’t able to figure out plane geometry and seven questions because you made silly arithmetic errors (like forgetting a negative sign). By logging your mistakes and their causes, you will have a ready-made study guide to use in between practice tests. You can go right to the heart of your weaknesses and drill them. What To Do In Between Tests Don’t just jump from practice test to practice test without studying in between. That would be like a marathon runner jogging 26 miles every day instead of training in intervals – they would horribly injure themselves and not improve at all. While you likely won’t injure yourself from taking five ACT practice tests in a row (though your hand may cramp up pretty badly), you will lose the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and improve. Using your notebook of mistakes, go back to your other resources – the Real ACT content guide chapters, other prep books, the internet – to learn content you still don’t know and practice specific problems. This is also the time to develop and try new strategies. For example, say you keep running out of time on Science because you read the passages first then go to the questions. You might test out starting with the questions and seeing if that improves your time while maintaining accuracy while working through smaller blocks of practice problems. Only once you’re feeling confident about your progress should you attempt the next practice test. The Study Regimen You Should Follow By following the principles above, you can make the most out of the practice tests in The Real ACT Prep Guide. But you may be asking how often you should take practice tests, and what your study schedule should be like. We suggest, before you start studying, you take a full-length practice test. From your performance, figure out your weaknesses in each section. Find resources to improve your weaknesses, and also read through The Real ACT Prep Guide's content review. Depending on when your ACT test date is, take another practice test after two or three weeks of studying. This way you can give yourself adequate time to study and improve. Carefully analyze the results of your second practice test to see where you still need work. You can repeat this process as many times as you need. As you get closer to the test and you correct more of your weaknesses, you can shorten your time between practice tests. Keep studying until you feel confident you will hit your target score on test day. What Happens If I Run Out of Practice Tests? Unlike the SAT’s Official Guide, which has 10 (!) practice tests, ACT only gives you five in The Real ACT Prep Guide. For many students, this is more than enough. But it’s likely, especially if you’re a high-achieving student, you may run out of practice tests before you feel ready for the ACT – especially if you’re going for a 33 or higher. In that case, check out our links to free ACT practice tests online. These don’t come with answer explanations, so save them for after you’ve done the five Real ACT ones so you’ll be more skillful at identifying your mistakes anyway. What’s Next? What other principles should you be keeping in mind as you study for the ACT? Check out our guide to a perfect 36 by our resident full-scorer. Even if you’re not going for a 36, these study principles show you how to make the most of your time studying for the ACT, including the best way to analyze your mistakes. Want more background on the ACT? Get a guide to ACT timing, as well as what’s on each section (English, Math, Reading, Science). Wondering why you keep running out of time on your practice tests? Get in-depth guides for finishing the Math and Reading sections on time. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Language, Communication and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Language, Communication and Culture - Essay Example This establishes a unique identity for the assemblage of inhabitants. Language can also be perceived as a platform for communication not only among a group of people, but also among different people with unique cultural backgrounds and ethnicity. A single language can form a link between different communities since it establishes a channel of communication hence enhancing understanding between different groups with unique ideologies. Therefore, language can be perceived as a tool that enhances inter-cultural interactions and co-existence between different communities and races through communication. Although there are different forms of languages across the globe, any language is characterized by certain features. These should be present for a language to conform to acceptable standards. The features that define any language include its grammatical structure, diction, dialect, and others which are unique to various communities. Language is a mental function that is among other functi ons of human beings. Language is associated with all the other mental functions of human beings but in different ways. The other higher mental functions have an impact on language or language has an influence on them. Language and Self-consciousness Consciousness is a feeling in a human being that is initiated through various modes. It can be initiated either internally or externally depending on the actions that lead to its initiation. Although it is difficult to establish a strong relationship between language and self-consciousness, researches have shown that a strong link exists between the two elements. The development of conscience has been shown to result from the response by others to our actions or from personal reactions to our own actions. This development is what defines either internal or external consciousness. Internally, self-consciousness can be perceived as personal reflection. This is the ability of human beings to think of themselves as doing or feeling something , and then initiate personal reflection that will eventually lead to communication. Externally, human beings communicate through actions, thus people will react differently to their actions based on the response given to their actions by others. It is therefore, evident that other people play a vital role in shaping an individual’s conscience. Either internally or externally, self consciousness is stirred by thoughts, which are basic structural units of a language. Thoughts are therefore, the link between language and self-consciousness. According to (Fromkin 111), language forms the key components for the infrastructure of thoughts of human beings. Human thoughts are thus the link that demonstrates the relationship between language and self-consciousness. It is still difficult to establish which element has a greater authority on the other, but it is apparent that a strong relationship between the two exists. Language and Autonomy Independence and freedom in decision making is what defines autonomy of an individual. Research has been conducted by various researchers that try to establish the relationship between autonomy and language. The aspect of language that focuses on this relationship is communication. Decision making is a critical process in any human being that requires a deep understanding which in turn