The Wall :: Creative Writing Essays

The Wall At precisely 10:30 A.M. I got a call from a Mr. Machiano saying that while renovating a palace his men found the bones of what seamed to be a human body. When I got to the scene one of his men showed me to the corps. It had dirty, out-of-date clothes draped upon its remains with a piece a rope beside it. I asked Mr. Machiano how the body was discovered. "My men were knocking down a wall and one of them found a skeleton with a motlry on, and that's when I called you." I asked whom he bought the palace from. "A man I would say in his early eighties, named Montresor." I then left to learn about this person.. I found out that he was living with a cousin right near his old home. I decided to stop by and ask him a few questions hoping he would remember or know something. After about an hour of getting "I do not know. What are you talking about? Please leave." I realized this was a waste of time and decided to go. The next morning I called Mr. Machiano and asked him to meet me at the palace. As I approached the area where the body was found I began to feel a little queasy. I searched the ground around the body hoping to find some clues. I noticed the sparkle of metal pertruding from the ground. I picked it up and saw it was a gold and diamond ID bracelet with the name Montresor inscribed on it. I decided to do a little more research on this man. I went to the station and asked the secretary to show me the file on any person missing for more than 20 years. The list only had about five people on it with a brief description. There was a man by the name of Fortunato on it who has been missing for about 50 years. He was last seen wearing a motley. I then put two and two together and after some investigation, I found out that the remains were indeed Fortunato. Later that afternoon I decided to visit Mrs. Fortunato. She took the news pretty well, she had suspected he was dead. "The last time I saw him was fifty years ago during carnival season." I went back to Montresor's house and told him that next to Fortunato's body was a gold bracelet with his name on it. He still insisted he had had nothing

Regret and Obligation :: Just Assassins Camus Essays

Regret and Obligation ABSTRACT: In Albert Camus' 1950 play Just Assassins, terrorists are at work in nineteenth-century Russia. They kill people, and they all believe that there is a superior moral reason for doing so. But they also know that killing is wrong. In their own view, they are innocent criminals; innocent, because their action is justified, but criminals, because they kill. So tacitly they conclude that they deserve punishment that will remove the regret from their shoulders. Their execution, by the same despotic authorities they are attacking, completes their actions: regret, caused by justified killing, gets its counterpart. Regret is an interesting mental phenomenon. Some people say that feeling regret is irrational, or even that it is immoral. But surely the usual opinion is that in some situations regret is an appropriate way to react. An interesting question is what it means to say that sometimes it is 'appropriate' to feel regret. Do we have a moral obligation to feel regret sometimes? H ow could one have an obligation to feel anything, since, at least seemingly, feelings are not voluntary acts. If we do have a moral obligation to feel regret in some cases, does it follow that all good people are emotionally "hot," while "cool" persons, who are not able to feel deep regret, are bad? It is not crucial what one does; it is crucial what one does after that. Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften Regret is an interesting mental phenomenon. (1) Some people say that feeling regret is irrational, or even that it is immoral. (2) But surely the usual opinion is that in some situations regret is an appropriate way to react. An interesting question is what it means to say that sometimes it is 'appropriate' to feel regret. Do we have a moral obligation to feel regret sometimes? How could one have an obligation to feel anything, since, at least seemingly, feelings are not voluntary acts? If we do have a moral obligation to feel regret in some cases, does it follow that all good people are emotionally 'hot' while 'cool' persons, who are not able to feel deep regret, are bad? If persons feel automatically regret when they realize that they have done something blameworthy, is it not useless to suppose that they have a moral obligation to do so? In the next few pages, I would like to briefly consider the above questions and to explicate ways how regret might be a moral virtue.

Omnivores Dilemma Essay

Learning Objective: The goal of this two day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they’ve been practicing on a regular basis to unpack Pollan’s investigative journalism of industrial farms. By reading and rereading the passage closely combined with classroom discussion about it, students will identify why and how farming practices have changed, as well as identify Pollan’s point of view on the subject. When combined with writing about the passage and teacher feedback, students will begin to appreciate investigative journalism, as well as question from where their food is coming. Reading Task: Students will silently read the passage in question on a given day—first independently and then following along with the text as the teacher and/or skillful students read aloud. Depending on the difficulties of a given text and the teacher’s knowledge of the fluency abilities of students, the order of the student silent read and the teacher reading aloud with students following might be reversed. What is important is to allow all students to interact with challenging text on their own as frequently and independently as possible. Students will then reread specific passages in response to a set of concise, text- dependent questions that compel them to examine the meaning and structure of Pollan’s reporting. Therefore, rereading is deliberately built into the instructional unit. Vocabulary Task: Most of the meanings of words in the exemplar text can be discovered by students from careful reading of the context in which they appear. Teachers can use discussions to model and reinforce how to learn vocabulary from contextual clues, and students must be held accountable for engaging in this practice. Where it is judged this is not possible, underlined words are defined briefly for students to the right of the text in a separate column whenever the original text is reproduced. At times, this is all the support these defined words need. At other times, particularly with abstract words, teachers will need to spend more time explaining and discussing them. In addition, in subsequent close readings of passages of the text, high value academic (‘Tier Two’) words have been bolded to draw attention to them. Given how crucial vocabulary knowledge is for academic and career success, it is essential that these high value words be discussed and lingered over during the instructional sequence. Sentence Syntax Task: On occasion, students will encounter particularly difficult sentences to decode. Teachers should engage in a close examination of such sentences to help students discover how they are built and how they convey meaning. While many questions addressing important aspects of the text double as questions about syntax, students should receive regular supported practice in deciphering complex sentences. It is crucial that the help they receive in unpacking text complexity focuses both on the precise meaning of what the author is saying and why the author might have constructed the sentence in this particular fashion. That practice will in turn support students’ ability to unpack meaning from syntactically complex sentences they encounter in future reading. Discussion Task: Students will discuss the passage in depth with their teacher and their classmates, performing activities that result in a close reading of Pollan’s text. The goal is to foster student confidence when encountering complex text and to reinforce the skills they have acquired regarding how to build and extend their understanding of a text. A general principle is to always reread the passage that provides evidence for the question under discussion. This gives students another encounter with the text, helping them develop fluency and reinforcing their use of text evidence. Writing Task: Students will paraphrase different sentences and paragraphs of Pollan’s text and then write either a compare and contrast essay illustrating the differences between the traditional farm and the factory farm or an argument against the factory farm. Students might be afforded the opportunity to rewrite their essays or revise their in-class paraphrases after participating in classroom discussion, allowing them to refashion both their understanding of the text and their expression of that understanding. Text Selection: This selection, taken from the young readers edition of Pollan’s bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, asks students to consider how their food is grown today and why and how that has changed. This brief history and science of United States farm ecology offers students diverse opportunities for exploration and close reading. Outline of Lesson Plan: This lesson can be divided by the teacher into two days of instruction and reflection on the part of students and their teachers, with the option of a written homework assignment after Day 1 and the possibility of adding an additional day devoted to peer review and revision of the culminating writing assignment. Standards Addressed: The following Common Core State Standards are the focus of this exemplar: RI. 7. 1, RI. 7. 2, RI. 7. 3, RI. 7. 4, RI. 7. 5; W. 7. 1, W. 7. 2, W. 7. 4; SL. 7. 1; L. 7. 4, L. 7. 5 The Text: Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat (Chapter 3: From Farm to Factory) Rule or order A substance that kills insects Corn grown from seeds with different traits DNA is the chemical name for genes. Genes give all organisms their traits such as how fast they grow Animal dung used for fertilizing land Relating to energy from the sun Branch of science concerned with the relationships between living things and their environment Grassy fields where animals can graze A basket Exemplar Text Vocabulary That’s around seventy-five gallons of oil per acre of corn (Some estimates are much higher. ) Here’s another way to look at it. Calories, like the calories in food, are units of energy. On the industrial farm, it takes about ten calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of food energy. That means the industrial farm is using up more energy than it is producing. This is the opposite of what happened before chemical fertilizers. Back then, the Naylor farm produced more than two calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil fuel energy invested. In terms of energy, the modern farm is a losing proposition. It’s too bad we can’t simply drink the petroleum directly—it would be more efficient. The factory farm produces more food much faster than the old solar-based farm. But the system only works as long as fossil fuel energy is cheap. A plan of action oil; more productive and less wasteful Day One: Instructional Exemplar for Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Reader’s Edition) Summary of Activities 1. Teacher introduces the day’s passage with minimal commentary and students read it independently (5 minutes) 2. Teacher or a skillful reader then reads the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text (5 minutes) 3. Teacher asks the class to discuss the first set of text-dependent questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes, annotations to the text, or more formal responses as appropriate (40 minutes) Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students It may seem that I’ve given corn too much credit. After all, corn is just a plant. How could a plant take over our food chain and push out almost every other species? Well, it had some help-from the U. S. Government. [read the intervening paragraphs] Then in 1909 a chemist discovered a way to take nitrogen out of the air. This nitrogen could be used for fertilizer. However, making nitrogen this way takes enormous amounts of energy, energy that we mainly get from fossil fuels. Not only that, it uses a lot of hydrogen that also comes from gas and oil. With chemical fertilizer, farming went from being solar powered to being powered by oil, coal, and gas. 1. Introduce the text and ask students to read independently Other than giving an initial gloss to words students would likely not be able to define from context (underlined in the text), teachers should avoid giving any background context or instructional guidance at the outset of the lesson while students are reading the text silently. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Pollan’s words. It is critical to cultivating independence and creating a culture of close reading that students initially grapple with rich texts like Pollan’s without the aid of prefatory material, extensive notes, or even teacher explanations. 2. Read the passage out loud as students follow along Asking students to listen to Pollan’s text exposes students a second time to the rhythms and meaning of his language before they begin their own close reading of the passage. Speaking clearly and carefully will allow students to follow Pollan’s narrative, and reading out loud with students following along improves fluency while offering all students access to this complex text. Accurate and skillful modeling of the reading provides students who may be dysfluent with accurate pronunciations and syntactic patterns of English. Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students It may seem that I’ve given corn too much credit. After all, corn is just a plant. How could a plant take over our food chain and push out almost every other species? Well, it had some help-from the U. S. Government. At the heart of the industrial food chain are huge businesses, agri-businesses. The same businesses that create new seeds provide farmers with the tools and fertilizer they need to grow lots of corn. Agribusinesses also need cheap corn from which they make processed food and hundreds of other products. To get the corn flowing and keep it flowing, agribusiness depends on government regulations and taxpayer money. The government started seriously helping corn back in 1947. That was when a huge weapons plant Muscle Shoals, Alabama, switched over to making chemical fertilizer. How can a weapons plant make fertilizer? Because ammonium nitrate, the main ingredient in explosives, happens to be an excellent source of nitrogen. And nitrogen is one of the main ingredients in fertilizer. After World War II, the government found itself with a tremendous surplus of ammonium nitrate. There was a debate about what the government should do with the leftover bomb material. One idea was to spray it on forests to help out the timber industry. But the scientists in the Department of Agriculture had a better idea: Spread the ammonium nitrate on farmland as fertilizer. And so the government helped launch the chemical fertilizer industry. (It also helped start the pesticide industry, since insect killers are based on poison gases developed for the war. ) Rule or order Substance that kills insects 3. Guide discussion of the first half of the essay with a series of specific text- dependent questions and tasks. As students move through these questions, be sure to check for and reinforce their understanding of academic vocabulary in the corresponding text (which will be boldfaced the first time it appears in the text). At times, the questions provided here may focus on academic vocabulary. (Q1) Ask students to define â€Å"agribusiness. † It is important for students to understand that agribusinesses are not farmers. Some students might need clarification here. Teachers should discuss the following sentence: â€Å"Agribusinesses also need cheap corn from which they make processed food and hundreds of other products. † Agribusinesses are large companies that manufacture farming equipment, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, processed foods as well as provide services to farmers. Sidebar: Website listing many different types of products made from corn. If students are intrigued to learn all the different types of products made from corn, have them view the graphic web on pages 68-69 of Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Reader’s Edition) or examine the following website: http://www. ontariocorn. org/classroom/products. html#Products%20that%20 use%20Corn (Q2) How did the U. S. government help launch the chemical fertilizer industry? The U. S. government sprayed their WWII surplus of ammonium nitrate on farmland. Ammonium nitrate was manufactured for weapons during the war. After the war, the U. S. government needed to do something with the remaining bomb material. It must have worked well as a fertilizer because after that the chemical fertilizer business took off, and many farms began using it to grow crops. Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students Chemical fertilizer was needed to grow hybrid corn because it is a very hungry crop. The richest acre of Iowa soil could never feed thirty thousand hungry corn plants year after year without added fertilizer. Though hybrids were introduced in the thirties, it wasn’t until farmers started using chemical fertilizers in the 1950s that corn yields really exploded. Plants and Nitrogen Plants and all living thing organisms need the element nitrogen. Without nitrogen, cells cannot make proteins or DNA. For thousands of years, farmers added nitrogen to their soil, even before they knew what nitrogen was. They fertilized their crops with manure from their animals. They also rotated crops. That means they never grew corn in a field more than two years in a row. Then they would switch that field to soybeans or some other legume. Legumes such as beans add nitrogen to the soil with the help of friendly bacteria that live on their roots. Then in 1909 a chemist discovered a way to take nitrogen out of the air. This nitrogen could be used for fertilizer. However, making nitrogen this way takes enormous amounts of energy, energy that we mainly get from fossil fuels. Not only that, it uses a lot of hydrogen that also comes from gas and oil. With chemical fertilizer, farming went from being solar powered to being powered by oil, coal, and gas. Corn grown from seeds with different traits DNA is the chemical name for genes. Genes give all organisms their traits such as how fast they grow Animal dung used for fertilizing land Relating to energy from the sun (Q3) Why are chemical fertilizers so important and necessary to agribusinesses? Students should remember from (Q1) that agribusinesses rely on corn to produce many of their products. The type of corn being grown, hybrid corn, needs very fertile soil. Chemical fertilizers are necessary to create this fertile soil especially because of the quantity (thirty thousand hungry corn plants) being planted. (Q4) Ask students to describe in writing one cause and effect relationship they have read about thus far. Possible answers should include the U. S. government’s surplus caused the chemical fertilizer industry to take off or that corn farming exploded as a result of the chemical fertilizers. (Q5) What is the natural way to fertilize crops? The natural way to fertilize crops is by planting different crops every couple of years in addition to spreading animal manure on the fields. (Q6) What are fossil fuels? What might be some problems with using fossil fuels to produce chemical fertilizers? Fossil fuels are natural sources of energy such as oil, coal, and gas. Teachers should point out why â€Å"fossil† appears with â€Å"fuel† (because these types of fuels are derived from the organic remains of prehistoric plants and animals). Students might recognize that â€Å"making nitrogen†¦takes enormous amounts of energy† and fossil fuels are not free, thus raising the cost of chemical fertilizer. Students might also cite the environmental costs (using their own prior knowledge) of using fossil fuels. Day Two: Instructional Exemplar for Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Reader’s Edition) Summary of Activities 1. Teacher introduces the day’s passage with minimal commentary and students read it independently (5 minutes) 2. Teacher or a skillful reader then reads the passage out loud to the class as students follow along in the text (5 minutes) 3. Teacher asks the class to discuss the first set of text-dependent questions and perform targeted tasks about the passage, with answers in the form of notes, annotations to the text, or more formal responses as appropriate (40 minutes) Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students Then in 1909 a chemist discovered a way to take nitrogen out of the air. This nitrogen could be used for fertilizer. However, making nitrogen this way takes enormous amounts of energy, energy that we mainly get from fossil fuels. Not only that, it uses a lot of hydrogen that also comes from gas and oil. With chemical fertilizer, farming went from being solar powered to being powered by oil, coal, and gas. [read the intervening paragraphs] The factory farm produces more food much faster than the old solar-based farm. But the system only works as long as fossil fuel energy is cheap. 1. Introduce the text and ask students to read independently Other than giving an initial gloss to words students would likely not be able to define from context (underlined in the text), teachers should avoid giving any background context or instructional guidance at the outset of the lesson while students are reading the text silently. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Pollan’s words. It is critical to cultivating independence and creating a culture of close reading that students initially grapple with rich texts like Pollan’s without the aid of prefatory material, extensive notes, or even teacher explanations. 2. Read the passage out loud as students follow along Asking students to listen to Pollan’s text exposes students a second time to the rhythms and meaning of his language before they begin their own close reading of the passage. Speaking clearly and carefully will allow students to follow Pollan’s narrative, and reading out loud with students following along improves fluency while offering all students access to this complex text. Accurate and skillful modeling of the reading provides students who may be dysfluent with accurate pronunciations and syntactic patterns of English. Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students Then in 1909 a chemist discovered a way to take nitrogen out of the air. This nitrogen could be used for fertilizer. However, making nitrogen this way takes enormous amounts of energy, energy that we mainly get from fossil fuels. Not only that, it uses a lot of hydrogen that also comes from gas and oil. With chemical fertilizer, farming went from being solar powered to being powered by oil, coal, and gas. THERE GOES THE SUN When George Naylor’s father spread his first load of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the ecology of his farm underwent a quiet revolution. Until then, the farm’s nitrogen had been recycled in a natural loop. Legumes used the sun’s energy to fix nitrogen in the soil. Other plants used the nitrogen to grow. Animals ate the plants and the farmer recycled the nitrogen by spreading the animals’ manure on the soil. But now the Naylors didn’t need to produce their own nitrogen—they went out and bought it. The nitrogen for the fields would no longer be made with the sun’s energy but with fossil fuels. Farming was no longer an ecological loop—it was more like a factory. The farmer bought raw materials (seed and fertilizer) and turned it into a finished product—corn. Since there was no need for legumes to fix nitrogen, farmers could plant corn in every field, every year. Animals and their pastures could be eliminated. Farming became much simpler. Like a factory, the industrial farm produces just one product (or at most, two. ) Relating to energy from the sun A branch of science concerned with the relationships between living things and their environment Grassy fields where animals can graze Ask students to write a paragraph explaining the last sentence of the text box (â€Å"With chemical fertilizer, farming went from being solar powered to being powered by oil, coal, and gas. †) Answers might sound like this: The traditional farm fertilizes its soil with animal dung and by rotating its crops. The crops such as corn and beans grow from the sun’s energy. Crop rotation allows the soil chemistry to change and become more fertile. Alternatively, chemical fertilizers treat the soil without the use of the sun. Chemical fertilizers are manufactured in a factory and transported to farms by machines powered by fossil fuels. (Q7) What does the author mean when he wrote, the â€Å"ecology of his farm underwent a quiet revolution†? Students should recognize that the natural order of fertilization described in the first paragraph was dramatically altered when Naylor’s father began using chemical fertilizer. It was a â€Å"quiet† revolution because nothing in this natural world protested the change. (Q8) Cite textual evidence for the claim, â€Å"Farming was no longer an ecological loop—it was more like a factory. † Teachers should highlight the connection in meaning to â€Å"loop† and â€Å"revolve/revolution. † Students will cite textual evidence such as: â€Å"The farmer bought raw materials (seed and fertilizer) and turned it into a finished product—corn. † â€Å"†¦farmers could plant corn in every field, every year. † â€Å"†¦the industrial farm produces just one product (or at most, two. )† â€Å"†¦the industrial farm, is powered with fossil fuels. † Text Under Discussion Directions for Teachers/Guiding Questions For Students And like most factories, the industrial farm, is powered with fossil fuels. There’s natural gas in the fertilizer and the fossil fuel energy it takes to make the pesticides, the diesel used by the tractors, and the fuel needed to harvest, dry, and transport the corn. Add it all up and you find that every bushel of corn from an industrial farm requires about half a gallon of oil to grow. That’s around seventy- five gallons of oil per acre of corn (Some estimates are much higher. ) Here’s another way to look at it. Calories, like the calories in food, are units of energy. On the industrial farm, it takes about ten calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of food energy. That means the industrial farm is using up more energy than it is producing. This is the opposite of what happened before chemical fertilizers. Back then, the Naylor farm produced more than two calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil fuel energy invested. In terms of energy, the modern farm is a losing proposition. It’s too bad we can’t simply drink the petroleum directly—it would be more efficient. The factory farm produces more food much faster than the old solar-based farm. But the system only works as long as fossil fuel energy is cheap. A basket Suggested plan of action; oil; more productive and less wasteful (Q9) What fossil fuels are needed to power the industrial farm? Students should highlight phrases such as: â€Å"natural gas in the fertilizer† and â€Å"the diesel used by the tractors, and the fuel needed to harvest, dry, and transport the corn. † (Q10) What does Pollan mean when he writes, â€Å"†¦the modern farm is a losing proposition†? This question will determine if the students understand the author’s purpose in writing this passage. It asks students to determine the importance of certain phrases and identify the central theme of this section. Students might cite the following phrases in their answers: â€Å"the industrial farm is using up more energy than it is producing† and â€Å"the system only works as long as fossil fuel energy is cheap. † Students should recognize the traditional farming methods produced more with less fossil fuel energy than the industrial farm. Students can also extract information from the bar graph found in the exemplar. Explanatory Writing Assignment: Directions for Teachers and Students / Guidance for Teachers Choose one of the following writing assignments based on the excerpt from Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Reader’s Edition): Write an essay comparing and contrasting traditional farming methods with those of an industrial/factory farm. Write an argument against the industrial/factory farm. Support your argument with textual evidence. Reread the last three paragraphs of the exemplar and examine the bar graph. In your own words, describe the author’s opinion of the industrial farm. Support your ideas with particular words or phrases that highlight the author’s opinion. Supporting details for a compare and contrast essay might include: Traditional Farm Factory Farm fertilizes soil with manure (needs animals) rotates crops every couple of years solar powered produces more food energy than it uses to grow crops exists as a cycle â€Å"The farmer bought raw materials (seed and fertilizer) and turned it into a finished product—corn. † â€Å"†¦farmers could plant corn in every field, every year. † â€Å"†¦the industrial farm produces just one product (or at most, two. )† â€Å"†¦the industrial farm is powered with fossil fuels. † â€Å"industrial farm is using up more energy than it is producing† Not a cycle Textual evidence for an argument against the factory farm might include: â€Å"factory farm produces more food much faster than the old solar-based farm. But the system only works as long as fossil fuel energy is cheap† â€Å"the industrial farm is using up more energy than it is producing† â€Å"†¦ the industrial farm, is powered with fossil fuels. There’s natural gas in the fertilizer and the fossil fuel energy it takes to make the pesticides, the diesel used by the tractors, and the fuel needed to harvest, dry, and transport the corn. † Factory farms need chemical fertilizers to grow hybrid corn Guidance regarding an essay about the author’s point of view: Asking students to identify the author’s opinion or point of view (â€Å"the modern farm is a losing proposition†) forces them to synthesize the whole text. Students might notice the author’s ironic tone in the sentence, â€Å"It’s too bad we can’t simply drink the petroleum directly—it would be more efficient. † Teachers should point out that this type of emotional language often signifies an author’s point of view. Additional Reading Passages from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat (Young Reader’s Edition) 2009; pp. 48-52 CAFO-Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation The old-fashioned way of raising cattle, like the old-fashioned way of growing corn, was on the small family farm. Cattle were raised in pastures, eating grass and hay—the food they naturally eat. But as corn took over the family farm, cows and other animals were pushed out. Cattle are now raised in densely packed animal cities like Poky’s. These places are called CAFOs—Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Farmers gave up raising cattle because, as strange as it might seem, it costs a farmer more to grow feed corn than it costs a CAFO to buy it. (Thanks to those government subsidies. ) Eating meat used to be a special occasion in most American homes. Thanks to CAFOs, meat is now so cheap that many of us eat it three times a day. Of course, the American taxpayers have already paid part of the cost by subsidizing corn. But there are other costs involved in raising cattle this way, costs that shoppers don’t see when they buy a steak at the supermarket. On the old-fashioned farm, there is really no such thing as waste. Animal manure goes back into the fields as fertilizer. But the waste from CAFOs is a huge source of very toxic pollution. Tons of animal manure are produced with no good way of disposing of it. The feedlots are also breeding grounds for new and deadly bacteria. Some of these bacteria are finding their way into our food. And there is another cost to raising cattle on CAFOs, one that’s even harder to see. These animals have evolved to eat grass. But in a CAFO they are forced to eat corn—at considerable cost to their health, to the health of the land, and ultimately to the health of us, their eaters. (†¦) Cows and Grass—A Partnership Cows have evolved over millions of years to eat grass. It’s not a one-sided deal. At the same time, grasses have evolved over millions of years to be eaten by cows. This partnership is one of nature’s wonders. When a cow eats grass, it doesn’t kill the plant. Grasses have evolved so that they can survive being eaten very well. (As long as the cows give them a chance to recover. ) In return for being chewed on, the plants get help from the cows. The cow protects the grass habitat by eating young trees and shrubs that might compete with grasses. The animal also spreads grass seed, plants it with his hooves, and then fertilizes it with his manure. Only certain animals, including cows, sheep, goats, and bison, can make a meal out of grass. They can do this because they have a specialized second stomach called a rumen. (That’s why these animals are called ruminants. ) The rumen is like a twenty-five-gallon fermentation tank. Here is where the cow gets some help. Inside the tank lives a type of bacteria that dines on grass. The bacteria break down the cell walls of the grass and allow the cows to get at the protein and carbohydrates within. On the plains of the American west, where steer 534 was born, bison and the prairie grasses lived together in partnership for thousands of years. (I guess we should include the bacteria in that partnership, also. ) It was a natural, solar-powered loop. The plants used the sun’s energy to make food. The bison (with the help of bacteria) ate the grass and in return planted it, fertilized it, and defended its territory. It was a successful ecological system. A rumen has evolved into the perfect organ for digesting grass. But it is not good at digesting corn. So then why is steer number 534 forced to eat corn instead of grass? The answer is one word: speed. Cattle raised on grass simply take longer to grow than cattle raised on corn. â€Å"In my grandfather’s time, cows were four or five years old at slaughter,† Rich Blair explained to me. â€Å"In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months. † What gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous amounts of corn, food supplements, and drugs. Fast food indeed. This work was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

English-language films Essay

?I saw this quote in Mr. Laxman Gnawali’s laptop and I copied it right away, I don’t know but I liked that line very much. The quote was written on the wall of some park the place was really clean and that picture showed that it was really nice clean with lots of trees. After searching it in the internet I found it that it was the attribute to those who lost their lives in the war. We were talking about the teaching training session. We were told that we can achieve the next level in our career but we need to concentrate and do the session delivery seriously. There the quote was quite related because we had the freedom to be a teacher trainer but we have to be more responsible and develop certain habit, there with the freedom comes the responsibility. Looking at the history of freedom one can always see war as the synonyma for the freedom. The first thing that comes in our mind when we talk about freedom is war and quarrels. This phrase is mostly used by the people to show gratitude towards those who have lost their life in wars. There are so many articles and books written on them or about them. Shiv Khera have written a book â€Å"freedom is not Free† and there are mny other people who have talked about it and this is the phrase I think will be talked in coming future or as long as the existence of the human beings. Freedoms are rights of individuals, according to Webster it’s a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any, or to any undue, restraints and restrictions. As our country is democratic country and we proudly say that we are free, we have every freedom to do whatever we like to but in the beginning we fought for our freedom, can we still be fighting. In the beginning we fought for our freedom, with the birtishers, we fought with them not for the freedom but to keep our country free. We fought for the democracy from the Rana rulers and then we fought for the cruel royal rule and we achieve the freedom but the question remains that we have been fighting within ourselves. Now we have the ability to exercise free will and make choices independently of any external determining force, but are we truly free. I think we are still fighting within ourselves for the freedom we dream of. History has been our eyewitness that whenever we fought we fought to rule and not for the development or growth and we are still doing that. First we had MAHISHPAL than came GOPALA DYNESTYR and KIRAT after that many other than the most influential SHAH now we have politicians ruling still to rule not to develop. If I talk about the freedom realting with our history than it will never finish. Historians believe we’re not free, but on the other hand I just say we have our rights and restrains. Because completely unrestricted freedom of action would make peaceful human existence impossible, some restraints on freedom of action are necessary and inevitable. But, we do have to recognize that basic limitation, to make our life safe. We the people have to turn over some of our rights so that our country performs right and many say that the government is in our business but if they weren’t all chaos would occur. But, Freedom becomes a cost, a cost of just giving up some rights in return to be a great nation. But, some cost could become a concern. In the declaration of independence, Thomas Jefferson have clearly stated the difficulties and problems that America has to face on the process. The very recent and clear example abo;ut freedom is not free is our own country’s fight against the maost. We faced difficulties than one can imagine but ultimately we overcame with all the difficulties we faced. In the process of freedom government has to include all the armies of moist as well. There comes the pay for freedom. We had to go through traumas which many of the nation have been through but that trauma was from our own people to their own family. India, the biggest country with large population, which is emerging ijn every field in this modern time, have faced problems. They were colonized by British people and treated in the most cruel behave that one could ever treat to another human being in their own country but they fought for their freedom and have lost so many lives but at last they are free. The payment that they paid for the freedom are the lives, the great politicians and enthusiastic youths, there county were divided into parts and there is still fight among those country. Though they got the freedom they are still paying for it, that is why freedom is not free. America the land of opportunity, was not free and with the help of many freedom fighters they declare the independence. Instead of freedom they call it independent, as everyone knows in America most of the people are from different countries, the native people, the red Indians have actually lost their identity in order to be independent or free. the country have faced so many difficulties and still facing but it is the free country everyone says and believed that but they have the most criminal records and most frustration within their country. The fragmented society, self-centered individual, loss of culture and focus point of terrorism are the payment USA is paying with. Every country have their own struggle and history of freedom and the kinds pf payment they are paying as the freedom is not free. All the great people in this world has paid one or the other way for the freedom they fought for. Countries have faced the war and loss of the youngsters but the individual who are the great influential for that event lost their family ,loved once, and their own life as well. Hitler’s life story also suggest that freedom is not free. he hated zuse and to free himself from them he committed the crime which no human can forget and he is the most cruel person in this world. He could not face the failure and to make himself free from the thought of failure he continued doing the things which kept him free from that thought and the payment for the freedom of his thought is being cruel and called murderer and be alone in all his life. However his murder is still have no actual evidence but he was killed because he was becoming cruel and threat for many people so in the quest of freedom to free the abuse and feeling of failure he paid it with his life. Mahatma Gandhi, India call him their BAPU, was hated by his son because he had no time to spend with the family as he was in great mission to free his country from the Birtish. He freed his fellow country but the payment was his own children, he was killed by the very young person as people saw that his generosity is causing the country into many countries. He was free from all the material things and loved by all the people but to gain this freedom to loved by everyone with his life. The four martyrs, who was killed by rana rulers for their freedom speech also shows that whatever our country have got is not free. in whatever way we are enjoying or complaining about is actually the payment that those martyrs paid. They were from well known and educated family but in the quest to free the country from the ranas they paid their life and we got freedom. Being anyone as human is not free from all the responsibilities and rules that we need to follow. As a baby you are free to cry over anything but the payment is most of the time people don’t understand what your problem is. As a student you are allowed to make noise or make wrong choice but the payment is later on you have to fail in your exam and in your life. As a social worker you have the freedom to help others and take their pain as your own and the payment you have to pay is your time, for you and for your family, as an engineer, your freedom is to use any model but the payment is you have to be responsible for the lives of the people who will stay there, as writer you are free to write anything but the payment is no one will write about you, as the teacher you have the freedom to conduct your classroom as you wanted but the payment is you have to be the model all the time, you cannot make any mistake if you do you have to deal with all the consequences that might occur or the payment is your time and effort. When you see some advertisement on television about the free scheme, we always need to buy something with it because nothing is free, not even the water, the air. Freedom is actually the metaphor for all the responsibilities that comes with freedom. When one becomes the minister or join the politics, like in our country everyone blames them to be the negative one, you are free to be the politician but the payment is you won’t be trusted. When I first started to teach I don’t have any freedom to chose what I do in the classroom, so I was just following whatever the teacher told me to do and there no one expected anything from me so I was free from the responsibility and the payment I was paying is getting the low pay. As I developed the teaching learning skill and given the full responsibility of the class, I had the freedom to do any kind of things in the classroom and make it my own and include everything I have learnt but the payment is time and the continuous work load and no self time. Likewise with the PGDE course we had the freedom to garnish ourselves and the payment is all the criteria that was set for us to be what we were trained to be. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE, even the quote is controversial because when freedom is not free than why would one use these words and if it is used why it is mostly related with the people who have done so much for the betterment of the human being?

Summation of the Virgin and the Dynamo

Ben McAllister English 190 10/4/2010 In Henry Adam’s â€Å"The Dynamo and the Virgin,† he starts to speculate about Christianity’s strength during the medieval times and how it can be related to the twentieth century energy, using the dynamos, that produced electricity. He says when he relates religion and energy,† As he grew accustomed to the gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross. By doing this he is explaining he believes the relation between the machines and their parts are just like the Christians being part of the Cathedral and their faith. Therefore, after his relation is given between faith and science, decides he is going to combine the two in his studies, and everything that is considered irrational, he would say it takes faith to believe. He goes on to say how there could never be an American Virgin, since we relate that to sin. As he gets older, continues to sear ch for reasons why the Virgin is still lost in our culture, and he explains it has always been there.He says the Virgin is a force that shaped our Western Civilization, but we had to find her. Word count: 199 Grade: 17/20. Overall, pretty solid here, Ben – the first half of the summation works very well, as you’ve got a clear opening sentence and a pretty clear link to what Adams sees the connection between the two symbols. But, one thing to think about adding here would be less about how Americans see the Virgin, and how of how Adams sees the dynamo – how does he see that symbol as power

Egans Theory Essay

This is a 3-stage model or framework offered by Egan as useful in helping people solve problems and develop opportunities. The goals of using the model are to help people ‘to manage their problems in living more effectively and develop unused opportunities more fully’, and to ‘help people become better at helping themselves in their everyday lives.’ (Egan G., ‘The Skilled Helper’, 1998, p7-8). Thus there is an emphasis on empowerment. Also the person s own agenda is central, and the model seeks to move the person towards action leading to outcomes which they choose and value. This model is not based on a particular theory of personality development, nor on a theory of the ways difficulties develop. It is a framework for conceptualising the helping process, and is best used in working on issues in the recent past and the present. As with any model, it provides a map, which can be used in exploring, but which is not the territory itself. The Egan model and mentoring are not synonymous; the model can be used in many kinds of helping relationships, and mentoring/co-mentoring can be done using other models, (or none!). The model can and should be used flexibly. The model works best if attention is paid to Rogers’ ‘core conditions’, the helpers approach to the speaker being based on genuineness, respect, and empathy, and if principles of good active listening are remembered throughout. The Egan model aims to help the speaker address 3 main questions: 1. ‘What is going on?’ 2. ‘What do I want instead?’ 3. ‘How might I get to what I want?’ Not everyone needs to address all 3 questions, and at times people may move back into previously answered ones. For simplicity, we’ll look at the model sequentially. However, the skilled helper will work with the speaker in all or any of the stages, and move back and forward, as appropriate. Stage 1 is about providing a safe place for the speaker to tell their story in their own way, and to be fully heard and acknowledged. It is about a space where a person can hear and understand their own story. It is also about gently helping them lift their head to see the wider picture and other perspectives, and to find a point from which to go forward with hope. 1a – an expansive part The helper encourages the speaker to tell their story, and by using good active listening skills and demonstrating the core conditions, helps them to explore and unfold the tale, and to reflect. For some, this is enough, for others it is just the beginning. â€Å"†¦.as you summarised what I said, all the jumble began to make sense.† Skills in Stage 1a:- active listening, reflecting, paraphrasing, checking understanding, open questions, summarising. Useful Questions: How do/did you feel about that? What are/were you thinking? What is/was that like for you? Keep them open! What else is there about that? 1b – a challenging part Since they are in the situation, it can be difficult for the person speaking to see it clearly, or from different angles. With the help of empathic reflections and challenges, the speaker uncovers blind spots or gaps in their perceptions and assessment of the situation, of others and of  themselves – their patterns, the impact of their behaviour on the situation, their strengths. â€Å"I’d never thought about how it might feel from my colleague’s point of view.† * Skills: Challenging; different perspectives, patterns and connections, shoulds and oughts, negative self-talk, blind spots (discrepancies, distortions, incomplete awareness, things implied, what’s not said), ownership, specifics, strengths. * Useful Questions: * How do others see it/you? * Is there anything you’ve overlooked? * What does he/she think/feel? * What would s/he say about all this? * What about all of this is a problem for you? * Any other way of looking at it? 1c -Focussing and moving forward People often feel stuck; that is why they want to talk. In this stage, the helper seeks to move the speaker from stuckness to hope by helping Them choose an area that they have the energy to move forward on, that would make a difference and benefit them. â€Å"I see now the key place to get started is my relationship with K† * Skills: Facilitating focussing and prioritising an area to work on. * Useful Questions: * What in all of this is the most important? * What would be best to work on now? * What would make the most difference? * What is manageable? Stage 1 can be 5 minutes or 5 years; it may be all someone needs. Stage 2 – What do I want instead? People often move from problem to action, or problem to solution, without reflecting on what they really want, or in what way their problems might be opportunities. Stage 2 is about this, about helping the speaker to open up a picture of what they really want, and how things could be better. This stage is very important in generating energy and hope. 2a – a creative part The helper helps the speaker to brainstorm their ideal scenario; ‘if you  could wake up tomorrow with everything just how you want it, like your ideal world, what would it be like?’ The speaker is encouraged to broaden their horizon and be imaginative, rather than reflect on practicalities. For some people this is scary, for some liberating. â€Å"At first it was really difficult but after a while I Jet my imagination go and began to get really excited about what we could achieve in the department†. * Skills: Brainstorming, facilitating imaginative thinking, i.e. * Quantity vs. Quality Anything goes – have fun * Write down ideas verbatim, don’t analyse or judge * Keep prompting – ‘what else?’ * Don’t hurry, allow lots of time * Useful Questions: * What do you ideally want instead? * What would be happening? * What would you be doing/thinking/feeling? * What would you have that you don’t have now? * What would it be like if it were better / a bit better? 2b – a reality testing part From the creative and visionary brainstorm, the speaker formulates goals which are specific, measurable, achievable/appropriate (for them, in their circumstances), realistic (with reference to the real world), and have a time frame attached, i.e. SMART goals. Goals which are demanding yet achievable are motivating. â€Å"It feels good to be clear that I want a clear understanding with my colleagues about our respective rules and responsibilities.† * Skills: facilitating selecting and reality checking with respect to internal and external landscape. * Useful Questions: * What exactly is your goal? * How would you know when you’ve got there? * What could you manage/are you likely to achieve? * Which feels best for you? * Out of all that, what would be realistic? * When do you want to achieve it by? 2c – moving forward This stage aims to test the realism of the goal before the person moves to action, and to help the speaker check their commitment to the goal by reviewing the costs and benefits to them of achieving it. Is it worth it? â€Å"It feels risky but I need to resolve this.† * Skills: facilitation of exploring costs and benefits, and checking commitment to goal. * Useful Questions: * What will be the benefits when you achieve this? * How will it be different for you when you’ve done this? * What will be the costs of doing this? Any disadvantages/downsides to doing this? Stage 3 – How will I get there? This is the ‘how’ stage†¦ how will the person move towards the goals they have identified in Stage 2? It is about possible strategies and specific actions, about doing something to get started, whilst considering what/who might help and hinder making the change. 3a – another creative part! The speaker is helped to brainstorm strategies – 101 ways to achieve the goal – again with prompting and encouragement to think widely. What people, places, ideas, organisations could help? The aim is to free up the person to generate new and different ideas for action, breaking out of old mind-sets. â€Å"There were gems of possibilities from seemingly crazy ideas†. * Skills: Facilitation of brainstorming * Useful Questions: * How many different ways are there for you to do this? * Who/what might help? * What has worked before/for others? * What about some wild ideas? 3b – focussing in on appropriate strategies What from the brainstorm might be selected as a strategy that is realistic for the speaker, in their circumstances, consistent with their values? Forcefield analysis can be used here to look at what internal and external factors (individuals and organisations) are likely to help and hinder action and how these can be strengthened or weakened respectively. â€Å"I would feel comfortable trying to have a conversation with him about how he sees things†. * Skills for Stage 3b: Facilitation of selecting and reality checking. * Useful Questions: * Which of these ideas appeals most? * Which is most likely to work for you? * Which are within your resources/control? 3c – moving to action The aim is to help the speaker plan the next steps. The strategy is broken into bite-size chunks of action. Here the speaker is doing almost all the work, producing their action plan. The helper works with them to turn good intention into specific plans with time scales. Whilst being encouraging, it’s also important not to push the speaker into saying they’ll do things to please the helper. â€Å"I will make sure we have time together before the end of the month. I will book a meeting, so that we can be sure of quiet uninterrupted time. I will organise this before Friday†. * Skills: Facilitation of action planning. * Useful Questions: * What will you do first? When? * What will you do next? When? If the end point of producing an action plan has been reached, the experience of trying it out could be the starting point for a follow-up mentoring/co-mentoring session. The work would start in stage I again, telling a new story. If an action plan had not been reached, that’s fine too, and the model can be used over a series of sessions. The key in using the model, as with any theory or model, is to keep the speakers agenda central, the individual in the foreground and theory in the background, and to use the model for the person, rather than vice versa.

Weight Loss Diets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Weight Loss Diets - Essay Example High protein and low carbohydrate diets are available in different names and brands such as, Paleo, South Beach, Dukan, Atkins etc., but all are based on the common principle, i.e., to lower the carbohydrate consumption and consume large amount of protein by adding protein-rich foods like, meat, eggs, fish, and dairy products in diet (Kennedy, n.d). Over the last few years, many books on high protein and low carbohydrate diets altogether sold thousands of copies in the US. Advocates of high protein and low carbohydrate diets argue that these diets encourage the metabolism process of adipose tissue, resulting rapid weight loss without any adverse effect in long-run (Bravata et al. 2003, p. 1838). However, various professional organizations, like the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association, have warned against the excessive use of such diets. There are concerns that these type of diets focus on changing one’s metabolism and achieve weight loss by eating protein-rich foods and avoiding sources of carbohydrates which may cause the increase in blood sugar levels in the body due to gluconeogesis process. Gluconeogenesis turns protein into glucose by means of cortisol hormones. High level of cortisol causes rapid glucose production from protein, which results in high blood sugar level.Also, there are concerns that these diets can cause impaired metabolic functioning that may lead to serious medical problems, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, or dyslipidemia.