A Woman Mourned By Daughters: An Analysis :: essays research papers

A Woman Mourned By Daughters: An Analysis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A Woman Mourned by Daughters†, by Adrienne Rich, is a very descriptive poem in which two women are speaking to their dead mother. There are several parts to this poem starting from the when the mother dies, and moving gradually backward to when the daughters were young girls.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It begins with the daughters sitting in their mothers kitchen, â€Å"mourning† over their mothers death, only they aren't upset or crying (Lines 1-3). They are â€Å"spent† (drained and tired) from all the pressure their mother put on them, before and after she died.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next section (Lines 4-10) is a description of their dead mother as a persistent presence in their lives. They are so burdened by the power she still carries over them, even though she is no longer living.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  They proceed in speaking about her as an elderly woman, weak and frail, â€Å" a straw blown on the bed† (Lines 11-14). The describe her on her death bed. â€Å" Like a corpse pulled from the sea†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the fourth section (Lines 15-20) they discuss that what upsets them now that she is gone, isn't the fact that she died, it is all the things that she used to do to them. A knot forms in their throats (â€Å"what rises in our throats like the food you prodded in†) as they think about how they used to be treated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After the mother dies, the daughters are left with several responsibilities which are discussed in the next section (Lines 22-28). These responsibilities are not ones which the daughters would be happy to take care of. They are so hateful toward their mother and the problems she left are only a burden to them. They feel that they are still being pushed around even after she is dead. Even the thought of taking care of their sick and dying father is thought of as a chore instead of a blessing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The final section of this poem (Lines 29-33) basically states that if they do something, and it isn't exactly the way their mother would have wished it done, they will be punished. They will feel the guilt from their mother, from beyond the grave, if they do not do things the way she did them, or would

Huckleberry Finn: A Good Role Model :: essays research papers

Huckleberry Finn: A Good Role Model "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" gives a visual look at the time in which the author Samuel Clemens lived. He explains how he felt about his life through the eyes of a young boy named Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry Finn has many adventures that teach him life lessons we can learn from today. Although there are differing opinions on whether Huck Finn is a good role model for today's young people, I will explain why I think he is. Huck is a good role model for several reasons. First, he believes that slavery is wrong. He believes in treating people equally regardless of color. When Huck sees the widow's runaway slave Jim on Jackson's Island, he has mixed emotions about what he should say and do. He feels badly that the widow is going to sell Jim and separate him from his family. Huck decides against better reasoning to help Jim escape down the Mississippi River to Cairo. Another example of good role modeling is Huck's faithfulness to those he loves and cares for. Huck lies to protect Jim on several occasions. Lying is not the best thing, but to Huckleberry, the truth is not always a black and white issue. He is faithful to his friends and chooses friendship instead. He knows that Jim's family needs him. In today's language, Huckleberry's reaction to Jim's situation would reflect what Spock of Star Trek says, â€Å"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.† An illustration of another positive side of Huck shows us that he has a good and true heart, and the best intentions even though they may not turn out right. For example, the widow tells Huck to pray for the dinner they are having. Huck's interpretation is, â€Å"God thank you for the meal and if you get the chance, please let me catch a big catfish.† The widow tells Huck that he shouldn't pray for material things. Huck disagrees because his Sunday School teacher teaches him to pray to God for what you want, and it will be granted. The widow tells him that the teacher is talking about spiritual things. He still disagrees, and is sent to his room. Even though his intentions are the best, he still comes up short; but he keeps on trying. Finally, Huckleberry Finn thinks life is precious and shouldn't be wasted. This is the most important lesson he can teach today's young people. He and Jim find themselves in a situation as they are floating down the Mississippi River in the fog.

Geo100 Brisbane Floods

ESSAY As natural disasters are inevitable, it is essential that we as humans mitigate the potential outcomes caused by these disasters. This essay will explore the 2011 floods of Brisbane and whether proper planning and preparation could have minimised the outcome. It will further explore the impact the Wivenhoe Dam had on the floods and discuss whether dam maintenance; level supplies and warnings could have helped. December 2010 and January 2011 saw Queensland experience record-breaking rainfall that has not been seen since 1960.Approximately 1 000 millimetres of rainfall was recorded in January alone, which caused the second biggest flood Brisbane has experienced since 1974 (Hornet & McAneney, 2011:1150). The 2011 floods caused severe devastation throughout Brisbane with over 26 000 people loosing their homes and over 5 000 businesses around the city either partially or completely flooded. It further caused around ninety kindergartens and sixty schools to be affected and unusable. However the greatest devastation was the loss of twenty-three people’s lives as a direct result of the floods (Calligeros, 2011:4).The Queensland Government also suffered a major financial repercussion from the floods. Over 440 million dollars was spent in repairing roads, bridges, power poles and other public facilities that were destroyed (PM With Mark Colvin 2011). This kind of spending by the Government caused speculation that if proper planning and preparation been implemented, the Brisbane floods could have been mitigated. This speculation further lead to the investigating of whether the Wivenhoe Dam helped or hindered the floods.The Wivenhoe Dam opened in 1985 after the great Brisbane floods of 1974 occurred and was seen as a solution to prevent further floods from happening again. All the dams, creeks and rivers surrounding the Wivenhoe Dam were connected that any potential overflow could run straight into the Wivenhoe and therefore have minimal risk of overflowing. H owever what occurred in 2011 was not what was planned when building Wivenhoe many years earlier. Wivenhoe Dam was built to hold a water supply of 1. 5 million millilitres of water, with a capacity to hold 1. 45 million millilitres at Full Supply Level or FSL. The 30 million-millilitre difference was allocated as a reserve for floodwaters to help mitigate flooding (Honert & McAneney, 2011:1152). Although a reserve level had been allocated in the dam, the issue was that there had been constant and heavy rainfall in the previous spring months. This led to the Wivenhoe catchments being relatively full prior to the downpour that occurred in the December 2010 and January 2011.This rain further caused the surrounding rivers and creeks to overflow causing minor river flooding, with water then starting to flow into Wivenhoe to help prevent major flooding. Leading up to the floods Wivenhoe peaked at 1. 50pm on Wednesday 12th of January reaching an astounding 2. 29 million millilitres. (See Ap pendix 1 – Table 1. 0). A day later Brisbane River peaked at 4. 46 metres at 2. 57am on Thursday 13th of January, causing major flooding to begin. (See Appendix 2 – Graph 2. 0).It was during these two days that the role the SEQWater played was questioned, as they were aware that the dams were high enough to overflow. This speculation was further fuelled when it was made known that SEQWater only released 60% of the dam’s water, moments before the flood engulfed Brisbane (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). SEQWater is the company in charge of the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams and have three simple operating guidelines that they must follow (See Appendix 4 – Guidelines 4. 0).It was apparent that none of the guidelines were followed for a number of reasons. Firstly this was evident as when the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams began filling up as a result of the severe wet weather, SEQWater did not release any water from either dam until Tuesday 11th of January. As t hey had left the water idling for too long they had no other choice but to release the water at once instead of gradually releasing water like they were advised to do from the Senior Flood Operations Engineer.After the flood occurred SEQWater stated back, â€Å"The flood compartments of the dams were filled to a high level by the first flood that there was not sufficient time to release this water prior to the second flood arriving,† (Water, 2011:1158). So although the SEQWater tried to justify their actions, it can be argued that the SEQWater company and the employees were warned a few days in advance that by releasing a small amount of water at different times during the day would help minimise the amount of flooding that could have potentially occurred.Once it was discovered that the SEQWater had received numerous warning of potential warnings, the issue was studied and analysed. It was estimated that between 11:00 Tuesday 11th of January and 19:09 Wednesday 12th of Januar y that 518,000 millilitres of water was released from Wivenhoe dam making around a 60% contribution to the already rising water around the Brisbane area. (See Appendix 3 – Table 3. 0). By 6:09pm Thursday the 13th of January the water flowing past the City Gauge was estimated to be around 866,000 millilitres and was still continuing to rise. See Appendix 5 – Table 5. 0). The final detailed analysis sent out to SEQWater by the Senior Floods Operation Engineer it was analysed that if releases from the Wivenhoe dam were timed appropriately it could have minimised the flooding that occurred. (See Appendix 6 – Analysis 6. 0). The Bureau of Meteorology proved to be helpful through the disaster, by providing warnings through their rainfall data. Day-to-day rainfall charts and rainfall maps were updated online and made easily accessible to the public and those affected. See Appendix 7 and 8 – Graph and Chart 7. 0). The BOM also released a clear warning to both the government and the public that the amount of rain that was coming would have the likely strength of a La Nina event. As the information was made available to anyone with Internet access, SEQWater and the Government could have easily accessed this information. By doing so they would have been able to see the potential threat the approaching heavy rainfall could have and in turn should have helped them make a wiser decision.By choosing to ignore any sort of warning sign provided by the BOM, SEQWater and their employee’s did nothing about the almost full catchment even though more heavy rain was approaching. Leading to the conclusion that by ignoring the warnings they demonstrated poor planning and ignorance to the information provided. Throughout this essay is has been concluded that through proper planning and preparation the Brisbane Floods of 2011 could have been mitigated. Evidence and research shown throughout this essay evidently points unfavourably to the SEQWater compa ny and its team.It concluded that although many warnings were issued, the SEQWater and government chose to ignore them and therefore resulting in all the water being released at once. Even though this natural disaster could not have been prevented through proper planning and preparation it definitely could have been mitigated which would in turn also result in minimal devastation and destruction. This flood has also been dubbed a â€Å"dam release flood† by hydrologists that were appointed with the Insurance Council of Australia.Again as the evidence and research implies, with proper planning and preparation yes, the Brisbane flood of 2011 could have been mitigated. APPENDIX 1 TABLE 1. 0 – WIVENHOE APPENDIX 2 GRAPH 1. 0 – CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 3 TABLE 1. 1 – RELAEASE FROM WIVENHOE PLUS CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 4 GUIDELINES 3. 0 – OPERATING GUIDELINES * The flood storage (or catchments) should generally be kept empty by releasing all the water flowing into the flood storage system until the defined downstream flood event is reached. Releases from the storage system should then be selected to remain below the defined downstream flood event until the flood event has passed or the storage system becomes full. * If the flood storage system becomes full, the storage system must then release all the inflows but releases should never exceed inflows. APPENDIX 5 TABLE 1. 2 – ESTIMATED FLOW PAST CITY GAUGE APPENDIX 6 ANALYSIS 6. 0 – DETAILED ANALYSIS 123,000 millilitres was discharged either earlier than 11. 00 Tuesday 11th or ater than 19:00 Wednesday 12th rather than during this period, the flood level at the Brisbane City Gauge would not have exceeded the Major flood level, or if 335,000 millilitres was discharged outside the period 02:00 Tuesday 10th to 08:00 Thursday 13th rather then during the period, the flood level at the Brisbane City Gauge would not have exceeded the Moderate flood level, or if 623,000 millilitres was d ischarged outside of the period 13:00 Monday 10th to 21:00 Thursday 13th rather than during the period, there would not have been a flood at the Brisbane City Gauge. O’Brien, 2011:9) APPENDIX 7 AND 8 DAILY RAINFALL GRAPH AND CHART 7. 0 REFEERNCE LIST Apelt, Mar 2011, Joint Flood Taskforce Report March 2011, viewed 19 April 2012, Himsley, May 2011, Dams and Flood Mitigation, viewed 19 April 2012, Honert, R & McAneney J 2011, ‘The 2011 Brisbane Floods: Causes, Impacts and Implications’, Water Journal, Vol. , Iss. 4, pp 1149 – 1173, viewed 19 April 2012, < http://www. mdpi. com/2073-4441/3/4/1149/> Calligeros, M 2011, ‘Wivenhoe Dam release caused Brisbane flood: report,’ The Brisbane Times, 11 March, viewed 19 April 2012, < http://www. brisbanetimes. com. au/environment/weather/wivenhoe-dam-release-caused-brisbane-flood-report-20110311-1bqk7. html> Calligeros, M 2011, ‘Brisbane flood victims to confront the destruction,’ The Brisba ne Times, 14 January, viewed 21 April 2012, < http://www. risbanetimes. com. au/environment/weather/brisbane-flood-victims-to-confront-the-destruction-20110113-19q04. html> Seqwater, 2011, The January 2011 Flood Event, viewed 19 April 2012, Bureau of Meteorology, Feb 2011, Brisbane Metro in January 2011: A major rain event and severe flooding, viewed 21 April 2012, O’Brien, Mar 2011, Brisbane Flooding January 2011 An Avoidable Disaster, viewed 19 April 2012, Bureau of Meteorology, Jan 2011, Monthly Weather Review Queensland January 2011, viewed 21 April 2012, PM With Mark Colvin, ABC, 8 February 2011, ABC Australia, Brisbane. (Also a radio broadcast of it on < http://www. abc. net. au/pm/content/2011/s3133417. htm>)

Compare and contrast knowledge which can be expressed in words/symbols Essay

It is funny how the universal signs of intelligence are words and symbols or things that contain them. When someone walks past me with a load of books in their hand I immediately think â€Å"oh what a smart and knowledgeable person,† and I’m sure I’m not the only one that makes these snap judgments. But from my point of view it’s understandable that words and symbols are the universal sign of knowledge since we are taught from books and blackboards since our toddler years. Now what I consider knowledge is things that we hold to be true and are able to identify in real life. Teachers have been molding our brains to be able to communicate our knowledge using words since we were little, but as we grow older and we get into secondary school we come to realize that there is knowledge that cannot be expressed through words and symbols. The goal of the International Baccalaureate program is to make students well rounded and knowledgeable in many fields and along with that comes many requirements that other programs do not ask of their students. From my perspective knowledge that cannot be expressed in words and symbols is as important to have as knowledge that can, justifying the CAS requirements. CAS is the International Baccalaureate program’s way of teaching us what cannot be covered in books or lectures. This knowledge can be described in words but only to a certain extent. I think that CAS is a very large contributing factor to why the IB program nurtures well rounded students. CAS pushes students to seek out new activities for the purposes of gaining experiences that would have been otherwise undiscovered. I believe that the key ingredient to knowledge which cannot be expressed in words and symbols is experience. For one of my CAS creative activities I knit scarves for my friends to wear to a movie premier. Through this activity I learned many things that would otherwise be inadequately explained in words. I learned perseverance from powering through all of the arm cramps and headaches brought on by the sight of yarn. I learned about my personal effort limits when I realized that making four scarves in a week’s time was a greatly optimistic prediction of my abilities. I got out from this experience a sense of pride in what I made, a feeling that is much more complex than the â€Å"pleasure taken in something done† dictionary definition. All of these things add up to knowledge that could not have been expressed to me through words and symbols because they depended on my own experience. But CAS is not solely done by physical experience; there is a certain verbal component to it such as reading to understand how to do something. In another personal experience, not done for CAS, I tried to learn how to swim so before I took swimming lessons I read instruction manuals on swimming. When I finally got the chance to test out what I had learned from the manual in a pool I failed miserably. I knew the concept and the process but somehow there was a disconnect between reading and knowing the steps and their physical application. So from this you can see that verbal/textual knowledge is important to have but it is no replacement for experience. In math words and symbols are essentially all that are used, or rather all that can be used. In this area of knowledge there really isn’t any room for non-verbal knowledge. For example, in my math class I am given a problem to solve; the answer is always expected to be written down to show the right answer since there really is not room left to interpretation. It would be quite the task to explain to my teacher how I used my emotions to lead me to the four digit answer. This begs the question: to what extent is verbal knowledge more objective than knowledge that cannot be expressed in this way? Math is an area of knowledge that is for the most part definite and pertaining to the cold hard facts, so any math done has to be based on established and globally accepted theorems and rules. Because of this, there is no room for personal feelings. When solving out problems you have to be able to write it down so that others can understand what you have done to determine if you justified your answer. Knowledge that can be exactly conveyed is needed in order to make sense of the system of numbers and transfer new ideas whereas knowledge that cannot be expressed in words and symbols are more relative to the knower and subject to emotional coloring as everyone perceives experiences differently. With that said math does take a certain degree of subjectivity as exemplified in Newton’s anecdote to the formation of his laws of gravity. It takes a specific person’s creative imagination and intuition to be able to solve difficult problems; then their insightful problem solving methods are adopted. When I was thinking about knowledge that cannot be express by words or symbols ethics came to mind. Ethics is always that area in our human nature that no one is exactly sure of. Rather than the black and white, right and wrong that we find in math, ethics shows us that there are many shades of gray that make it hard for us to explain why, for example, you can think stealing money is wrong but you are perfectly fine with downloading music from torrents. It is apparently hardwired into our nature to find certain things wrong and others our duty, none of which we can fully explain into words or symbols. This kind of moral knowledge is more intuitive than an exact science like math which can be reasoned through proofs. For example, recently someone from the grade below me came to me asking for clarification on an assignment. Now, because I already had the class I understood the assignment and could have explained it to this person, but the problem came when I considered that I have enough things to worry about other than making sure someone understands an assignment that the rest of us had to figure out ourselves. Nevertheless, I explained the tedious assignment to the person because I felt that it was my duty to help the person. This sense of responsibility for helping others is doubtlessly engrained in all of us, or at least the sane, even when it defies reason and we know that we probably will not gain anything from the good deed. But going back to the very basis of this topic some may ask the question: is there really any knowledge that cannot be communicated through language? Some believe that if you cannot put it into words or symbols then it was never an idea or thought to begin with. Their idea is that those moments where people cannot explain how they feel are not caused because the knowledge cannot be expressed in words or symbols but because the experiencer does not have the vocabulary or the eloquence to express it. From another perspective it could also be said because language is a human invention that it is a problem of language where we have not created enough words to express certain thoughts and that after we label these certain thoughts it could then be expressed in words/symbols. Though there may be arguments about the existence of knowledge that cannot be expressed with words and symbols, I still believe that there is. I believe that there is a gap between book knowledge and knowledge gained from personal experience. Words simply cannot replace human experience, as exemplified by my failed attempts to swim after reading about it and being told how. Words and symbols are essential to areas of knowledge such as math and the sciences where knowledge needs to be specifically conveyed so that there will not be any misunderstandings, but in other areas such as ethics words seem mostly inadequate and there is much more room for different interpretations.

Process Improvement Application Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Process Improvement Application - Research Paper Example The researcher states that Quality Improvement is an outline of a sequence that one needs to follow to arrive at a certain point that would define goal achievement. One can also understand QI to mean ways through which an organization can ensure client satisfaction through an offering of meritorious services. In many circumstances, healthcare facilities are so far the known organization that uses QI story more than any other organization. This does not imply that QI improvement limits its application to health practitioners. In fact, some assembly industries like motor vehicle assembly also use QI in their management system. Some of the benefits that accrue to an organization that employs a Quality Improvement management system are customer loyalty, improvement in market share, reduced service call, higher prices, and greater productivity. Any organization that uses Quality Improvement story has varied reasons for doing so. The reasons for using QI story include helping the team to o rganize, gather and analyze data in a logical fashion; monitors the teams progress; facilitates understanding by non- team members and lastly, it standardizes presentation to management. In the case of a health practitioner, he/she needs to organize the work in search a way that it clearly defines who is going to be responsible for what task. It also indicates the time one would execute the task and the duration that one would take to accomplish such kind of task. The QI story makes sure that it states how one would gather the necessary data and method for analysis of the collected data. Secondly, QI story helps one to monitor the team’s progress. The team enters whatever they have done in a format that one can identify easily or observe with ease. The management is able to evaluate and monitor the progress that the team is making from the format of presentation that QI story delivers.

The Impact of Logistical Performance on Organization Performance Research Proposal

The Impact of Logistical Performance on Organization Performance - Research Proposal Example Logistics is defined as the part of supply chain process which plans, controls and implements the forwards flow, the reverse flow, and storage of goods, services and information from the point of origin and point of consumption to meet the requirements of the organization (Council of Logistics Management, 1991). Logistics gets the input from suppliers and subsequently the movement of material takes place for various operations in the organization. In an organization, a single product goes through a series of processes and logistics is based on time relational positioning, while supply chain is the sequence of events which are performed to satisfy the customer. The logistics performance of an organization reflects its abilities to deliver services and goods on time, and in precise quantities.3. Literature ReviewThe ultimate goal of an organization is to get long term sustainable superior performance (Kluyver and Pearce, 2006, p.4) and this type of superior performance can be attained by a manufacturing organization by becoming a fully integrated partner of the supply chain (Cooper et al., 1997). Wisner (2003) found a positive link between logistics strategy and organization performance but he did not get any data collection related to logistics strategy measurement. Schramm-Klein and Morschett (2006) tried to establish relationship between logistics quality and performance of the organization in the retail sector.

Is Parole Effective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Is Parole Effective - Essay Example It is with this ideological framework in mind that this paper sets out to present an informative look at the New York State's system of parole and probation. The word 'parole' has its origins in the Latin term "probare," meaning "to prove" or "to test," and the term was coined by John Augustus ("A Brief History of Probation," 2006). The meaning of the term suggests, therefore, that parole is a chance given to a person to prove that they are deserving of the right to live in society among free people without being a threat to others or to themselves. The idea of probation is an opportunity given to a former criminal to absolve themselves of the charges against them, and to prove to the authorities, to society, and most importantly, to themselves, that they are capable of conducting themselves in a manner in which they can follow the norms of the society that they live in. (Jeffrey et al., 2003) In terms of the history of probation, two names are definitive: John Augustus and Matthew Davenport Hill. Hill was a judge who "had witnessed the sentencing of youthful offenders to one-day terms on the condition that they be returned to a parent or guardian who would closely supervise them" ("A Brief History," 2006). Hill applied the same idea of 'guardianship' of criminal offenders to the legal system: When he eventually became the Recorder of Birmingham, a judicial post, he used a similar practice for individuals who did not seem hopelessly corrupt. If offenders demonstrated a promise for rehabilitation, they were placed in the hands of generous guardians who willingly took charge of them. Hill had police officers pay periodic visits to these guardians in an effort to tack the offender's progress and to keep a running account. ("A Brief History," 2006) The above citation illustrates a very important aspect of probation: that not everyone is worthy of it. It is only when people in prison demonstrate, either through good conduct or because of the nature of their crimes, or for any other valid reason, that they deserve the chance to be free again, that they may be offered release on probation. Augustus, like Hill, also came up with the idea of probation based on an analogy with another practice; in his case, he was inspired by the way in which victims of alcohol abuse can be reformed through rehabilitation. (Robert et al., 2002) Widely regarded as the world's first parole officer, Augustus was the owner of a successful boot-making business in early nineteenth-century Boston before he made his entry into the judicial system. He believed that those who had committed crimes "could be rehabilitated through understanding, kindness and sustained moral suasion, rather then through conviction and jail sentences" ("A Brief History," 2006). The first person ever to be paroled was a "common drunkard" in 1841, who "was ordered to appear in court three weeks [after his] sentencing. He returned to court a sober man [] To the astonishment of all in attendance, his appearance and demeanor had dramatically changed," ("A Brief History," 2006) and thus began the system of probation in Americ a. The State of New York State had the official beginning of the system of probation in 1901. by 1917, a State Division of Probation had been implemented in the State's Department of Corrections. The Division of Prob