Life On The Mississippi Essays - Fiction, Literature,

Life On The Mississippi ?Life on the Mississippi', by Mark Twain, is a signet classic. It is a romantic history of the great Mississippi River and autobiography of Mark Twain's early days as a steamboat man. It has many interesting stories about nights on the watch and brawls between the men aboard. This is Twain's own experience on learning to navigate the mighty Mississippi. Mark Twain is one of America's greatest writers of all time. His real name was being Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He introduced us to the stories of ?The adventure's of Tom Sawyer', ?The Prince and the Pauper', and Mark Twain's finest novel ?Huckleberry Finn'. ?Life on the Mississippi' is 383 pages long. It has about forty lines on each page and nine to eleven words on each line. The book has a lot of southern dialect, which makes you feel the mood of the story, but is also harder to read. This book is much like Twain's later books in which it is intended for the more adventurous types so that you can follow the every move of young Sam. In my personal opinion, a trip down the Mississippi on a steamboat is quite boring and not adventurous. ?Life on the Mississippi' is much like ?The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and ?Huckleberry Finn'. Critics rank this book in the twain canon with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. This book has been made in to a movie. It was PBS-TV presentation of ?Life on The Mississippi'. I do not know if the movie is better or if the movie corresponds with the book. I have not seen the movie. This book is unusual in the way that it is setup. It starts off talking about Sam's childhood and then goes to his adult years all in one chapter. The change over is not consistent. There is a time lapse there. Mark Twain's purpose for writing this book was to tell about years of being a steamboat man on the mighty Mississippi. He tells all he can remember from his loves to his enemies. There are many characters in this. First there is young Sam. Sam is a young Mark Twain. Sam pays 500 dollars so he can ride along on a boat to learn the Mississippi so that he can one day become a steamboat pilot. Horace Bixby is the steamboat captain who took the cub Sam. Uncle Mumford is Sam's uncle who is a mate on a lot of boats, he was also at West Point for four years. Tom is also a young cub like Sam. He is also one of Sam's better friends on the ship. Mr. Drown is an old businessman that gets himself into a lot of trouble on the ship. Finally there is Mr. Pellicrew. He is a riverboat passenger that is caught bringing life jacket on the boat because of his fear of drowning. A quote that I found meaningful is ?Well, I can follow the front hall in the dark if I know it is the front of the hall; but suppose you set me down in the middle of it in the dark and not tell me which hall it is; how am I to know I think that Sam showed Mr. Bixby up on this little fight. Mr. Bixby knew he was wrong, but still got his last word in by saying, ?Well, you've got to, on the river!? Another quote that stood out to me was in chapter one. ?The world and the books are so accustomed to use, and over-use, the word ?new' in connection with our country, that we early get and permanently retain the impression that there is nothing old about it.? I think this mean that people are changing with the times and that the are excepting as well. This book is a non-fiction book that is not up to dates because like Twain said in the book the river is always changing. He was right about that. The book does have photographs, which were taken during the PBS-TV movie ?Life on the Mississippi,? in the middle of the book. The only way that I would recommend this book to a friend was if he liked the river and stories about the river. My

Free Essays on Christopher Pikes “The Listener“

Plot Synopsis: â€Å"The Listeners† by Christopher Pike The story begins in present day LA during the last few days of FBI agent David Conner’s career. At age 39 Conner A 15-year veteran of the FBI is retiring for good after the murder of his girlfriend and the accidental death of the young girl David was sent to rescue on his last assignment. David believes that he indirectly caused both of their deaths and because of this he has lost his faith in Truth, Justice and the American way, unlike his good friend and boss Ned Calendar who at the age of 70 is also about to retire. Ned gives David one last assignment which he insists only he can handle, and after a short briefing and much deliberation, David is on a plane to Boise Idaho to investigate a Channeling group headed by Anthropologist Dr. Spear, a strange man with a mysterious past. Channeling is a new age term, which is basically going into hypnosis and allowing entities to speak through you. David is curious as to why the FBI would be concerned with such matters and Ned reluctantly informs him that the FBI had come across some memoirs that spear wrote in which he talks about an entity that the group channeled. This entity which calls itself the Big Mind described certain classified information within the government and when the FBI checked it out they found that the Big Mind’s information was correct. They are concerned about how much the Big Mind knows so they want to sent an agent undercover as a reporter to investigate the group on their retreat. When David arrives in Boise the first members he meet are identical twins, Vera and Lucy. Lucy had discovered her talent a year ago when she was working as a massage therapist during her senior year in Stanford. She often used Applied Kinesiology or locking of the muscles to learn things about her clients, eventually she realized she didn’t need to use AK to learn things about people, that the answers just popped... Free Essays on Christopher Pike's â€Å"The Listenerâ€Å" Free Essays on Christopher Pike's â€Å"The Listenerâ€Å" Plot Synopsis: â€Å"The Listeners† by Christopher Pike The story begins in present day LA during the last few days of FBI agent David Conner’s career. At age 39 Conner A 15-year veteran of the FBI is retiring for good after the murder of his girlfriend and the accidental death of the young girl David was sent to rescue on his last assignment. David believes that he indirectly caused both of their deaths and because of this he has lost his faith in Truth, Justice and the American way, unlike his good friend and boss Ned Calendar who at the age of 70 is also about to retire. Ned gives David one last assignment which he insists only he can handle, and after a short briefing and much deliberation, David is on a plane to Boise Idaho to investigate a Channeling group headed by Anthropologist Dr. Spear, a strange man with a mysterious past. Channeling is a new age term, which is basically going into hypnosis and allowing entities to speak through you. David is curious as to why the FBI would be concerned with such matters and Ned reluctantly informs him that the FBI had come across some memoirs that spear wrote in which he talks about an entity that the group channeled. This entity which calls itself the Big Mind described certain classified information within the government and when the FBI checked it out they found that the Big Mind’s information was correct. They are concerned about how much the Big Mind knows so they want to sent an agent undercover as a reporter to investigate the group on their retreat. When David arrives in Boise the first members he meet are identical twins, Vera and Lucy. Lucy had discovered her talent a year ago when she was working as a massage therapist during her senior year in Stanford. She often used Applied Kinesiology or locking of the muscles to learn things about her clients, eventually she realized she didn’t need to use AK to learn things about people, that the answers just popped...

The power of pull Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The power of pull - Essay Example to goods and services that is different from yester years, indeed the 21st century organization is sitting on â€Å"melting iceberg†, oblivious of the urgency needed to make changes to the new business model that would ensure their survival. Hagel, Brown, and Davison (2010) have analyzed the paradigm shift that has been occurring in the world of business over the past decades, especially the past two decades. Indeed, the current business environment is characterized with endless stream of knowledge, interconnected workforce, blurred borders with increased global movement of knowledge, talent and capital, and a shift in power balance, where the power has moved from corporations to the consumers, and employees have also have power without necessarily being in trade unions. All these changes have mainly been due to changes in technology and liberalization of the business world. Organizations are increasing finding newer ways to attract, retain and develop talent, even as employees’ priorities and motivations change with changes in generations. It is only in this new business environment that you find employees working as a virtual team or a big percentage of an organizations employees working from home. It is in thi s business environment that sales made online for a given business may by far exceed offline sales. However, despite these quite clearly notable changes, most organizations, especially those that have existed for a long time, are still focused on doing things the way they have always done. They still hold on to the old culture oblivious of the changing business landscape. Like the penguins in Kotter and Rathgeber (2005) work, the organizations are complacent in the way things have always been done, and are unaware that their iceberg is melting. Newer emerging 21st century organizations are coming up and taking advantage of the shift and surpassing older established organizations in business performance. Such include the Amazon which in only a few years

The four models of corporate governance as outlined by Letza et al Essay

The four models of corporate governance as outlined by Letza et al - Essay Example Letza et al's journal was based on an extensive survey and critical review of the different theories and concepts that exist in corporate governance. Based on this comprehensive study, they identified four main approaches of perceiving corporate governance. This include: 1. Principal/Agent or Finance Model. 2. The Mypoic Market Model 3. Abuse of Executive Power Model and 4. Stakeholder Model Each of these models of corporate governance provide the basis for the perception of the importance and significance of corporate governance in organisations. Although each of them carry different merits, none of them seem to be universally accepted. This paper examines the four models of corporate governance as outlined by Letza et al (2004). The paper will undertake an analysis of the key features of each of the model. The paper will compare and contrast the approaches for each of the models and assess the future survivability of each of the concepts Corporate Governance Corporate governance re fers to the ways that businesses are ran (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2006). Corporate governance is about how the top level managers charged with stewardship roles in the organisation carry out the task of safeguarding assets and meeting the core vision and mission of the organisation. The development of corporate governance has come with several issues and situations that have had important impacts on the relationship between shareholders and strategic leaders of organisations. Major scandals that rocked the corporate world like the Enron matter played a role in facilitating rules and principles that define the corporate governance terrain today (Clarke, 2005). Important components of businesses played various roles in shaping corporate governance rules and regulations. Short Termism V Sustainability Most businesses are faced with a major dilemma of whether they should acquire short term results or work for the development of the longer term interests of the business. In dra wing the balance between shortermism and sustainability, most businesses are concerned with four key things (Aras and Gowther, 2009 p282). These include: 1. Societal impact: That is the impact of the business on the society. 2. Environmental impact: The impact of the business on the natural environment. 3. Organisational culture: The relationship between organisational and internal stakeholders like employees. 4. Finance: The acquisition of adequate returns commensurate with the risks taken. These four important factors play a major role in determining the terrain and activities of the organisation. The major corporate collapses like Enron were attributed to blatant disregard for some key elements of these four components of businesses (Clarke, 2005). Thus, they all played roles in defining the creation of corporate governance rules and systems. Although there is still evidence of shortermism in corporate organisations, there is still some important roles that corporate governance s tandards and roles play in promoting sustainability in business (Eyatt, 2005). Risk Management One of the roles that corporate governance plays is that it helps in the creation of risk management systems to ensure that the board of directors monitor and control risks in organisations (Fraser and Harvey, 2007). â€Å"Company business models should be explained and the board should be responsible for determining the

Contemporary and Critical Issues in Education Essay

Contemporary and Critical Issues in Education - Essay Example One of the main challenges faced by the current educational system is to build an existing strength in order to create an excellent educational experience along with the successful outcomes for learners of all ages. With this concern, leadership is required throughout the modern education system. It is worth mentioning that leadership for learning is considered as a process through which educational system can initiate changes in its cultural environment in order to increase the learning ability perceived by the learners. Leadership for learning is conducted with an aim to offer a wide range of opportunities to the learners which in turn assists them in order to gain highly beneficial experiences. In addition, leadership for learning enhances the career opportunities as well as develop confidence amid the learners’ by enhancing their talents and abilities (Education Scotland, 2007). Leadership for learning is provided with the assistance of staffs possessing variety of skills and core competencies. For instance, it can be conducted with the help of pre-school staffs in order to establish interests for learning amid the children connecting them with imaginative and purposeful play in their learning process. Similarly, it can be executed with the guidance of teachers who build the confidence of learners in order to attain the skills to become leaders in their personal learning process.

PESTEL Analysis of Petrochemical Gulf Markets

PESTEL Analysis of Petrochemical Gulf Markets GCC countries are almost representing the best miscellaneous prudent wealth among the Middle East countries with more stability at their political situation and homogenized society. This is in addition to relaxed position within their neighborhood countries. However, the main social problem is that its citizens are representing less that 50% of the total population of the country. Further, GCC countries are enjoying a political stable regime; moreover, there are not such unexpectedly shifting in business regulations and procedures within GCC countries. In addition, there are some other threats around the Middle East but it has not affected seriously at GCC countries business such as the conflict between Palestinians and Zionists and the war in Iraq. However, there is some risk from Iran, because it attends to acquire nuclear weapons. This is besides the illegally occupying of Iran into three islands of the UAE (Abu Musa, the greater and the lesser Tunbas). Economy: The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) is an oil-based region by the largest persistent oil reserves in the globe; 483.7 billion barrels, 40.2 percent of the worlds total crude oil reserves, OPEC accounts at 78 percent of the worlds total proved oil reserves. Nonetheless, this area ranks as the biggest producer as well as an exporter of petroleum and plays a key role in the world generally along with the OPEC in particular. Thus, the six countries of the GCC region are taking pleasure in a remarkable economic growth that is expected to remain in excess of the medium-term. However, the GCC economy is anticipated to continue through $1 trillion within the year of 2010, making an almost three-fold raise in just five years. However, four GCC countries which are the portion of the OPEC together with KSA, UAE, Kuwait, as well as Qatar account for 51 percent of the total OPEC reserves and 46 percent of the total OPEC crude oil production for the states of GCC area, oil as well as gas represent s just about 73 percent of the total export earnings. Furthermore, oil along with gas sector accounts for lots 63 percent of governments revenues and 41 percent of its GDP. In addition, here, we have to say that the district is continuing its economic adjustment program additionally currently its focus is to attract domestically, regionally, as well as foreign private sector investment involved in oil as well as gas, power generation, telecommunications, along with real-estate sectors. The rush ahead in oil prices, the rising up of fiscal along with external; balance of payments positions, moreover improvements toward the business atmosphere have combined to produce an impressive infrastructure improvement. Therefore, in June 2010, there was practically $2 trillion worth of GCC projects announced, planned or else underway, mostly related in the rule of construction, oil, gas as well as petrochemicals sectors. The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) areas economy has doubled in size during 2004 to 2009. Moreover, a combined official GDP of the area grew by the rate of 12.5 percent within 2009 toward $812.95 billion measured into a growth rate of 17.3 percent to $722.49 billion in 2008. On the other hand, the strong economic performance is endorsed to secure global oil demand; better geopolitical situation; acceleration of growth measures; powerful boost in privatization activities; growth of assets of central banks along with the strength of the GCC corporate sector. For that reason, nominal GDP is expected to grow powerfully through a 25.8 percent toward $1022.62billion within the year 2009 and is the project to develop at an 8.8 percent to $1112.08 billion in 2010. In original terms, the economy of the area grew via 5.5 percent in 2008 compared near a rate of 5.8 percent in the year of 2009. Moreover, it is expected to grow at the rates of 5.8 percent and 6.5 percent in 2010 as well as 2011 respectively. Social: The Societies in the GCC countries are combining of the conservative as well as advanced another attractive than in several of the further countries in the Middle East region. Conceivably due in the piece to the widespread level of development that has been accomplished along with the success of the GCC countries in integrating up to date technology keen on their society with no considerable disruptions. The state religion of the GCC countries is Islam. However, there are people of other religions in the GCC countries such as Hindus, Christians and others. Anyone who wants to continue along with setting up a business in GCC countries should follow the Islamic rules. The official language of the GCC countries is Arabic but English is the language of business. On the other hand, the Arab Gulf states all have substantial revenues from oil and gas and have remarkably little local citizens. This has grown their related per capita incomes to greater than those of their neighbors consist. To join the labor shortages they provide significant quantities of temporary non-citizen economic migrants mainly from South Asia as well as South East Asia, chiefly the Philippines in addition to Indians. In the earlier stage, there were additional remarkable numbers of immigrants coming from Jordan (mainly of Palestinian origin) as well as Egypt. Technology: The GCC countries are one of the ideal locations to market products and services to Middle East and Asia. The users of Information Technology cover all aspects of society, private, consumer businesses, and governments, military in addition to educational facilities. The field has been used primarily through the Internet for business purposes. The governments in the GCC countries act as a matchmaker, to assist businesses and private users to take advantages of the information technology revolution. GCC countries are enjoying the highest advances in communications technology comprise considerably widened the range of services carried through the network. Satellites, besides microwave radio, as well optical cable links, besides digital switching in addition to transmission, offer a potential for the enhancement of quality and for the expansion of right to apply to the most remote areas. The world is presently a perfectly integrated information network. Environment: The GCC countries face a quantity of environmental problems, driven through people pressure, particularly in the cities where metropolitan growth has taken situate. Property degradation, especially, appropriate to desertification in several parts of the district is becoming progressively more critical. Nevertheless, the most severe problem is that of the fast turn down in fresh water accessibility. On the other hand, it is widely known that oil continues to control the worlds energy supply as well as the regions energy sector. GCC oil exports expansion in addition to contribute to advanced incidents of oil spills from offshore extraction along with transportation, foremost to elevated hydrocarbon concentrations in the waters of the Arabian Gulf that negatively have an effect on the desalination production progression, as well human health, in addition to the environment. Legislation: Although legislation are almost similar at the GCC countries, as we find most of them were driven out of Islamic Sharia. On the other hand, for the civil laws, there were two sources at the GCC countries, the first one from the Egyptian laws, which were initially driven out from the France laws. The other source of the GCC countries was the Jordanian laws, where they were driven out from the British laws. SWOT Analysis: Strengths: The GCC countries economy has many positive points that make GCC countries economy strong and we can summarize these points in the following: GCC countries are applying the open economy policy in most of its states. The mighty prestigious location for GCC countries between Asia and Africa continents GCC countries advance ranked among countries that export oil. Policies and procedures that the governments apply ought to support the economy. GCC countries Provide different facilities for investors (local and foreign), like: no restrictions on the foreign currencies, competitive import fees (4%), no taxes on the personal and companies income (except oil companies and the branches of foreign banks) and other facilities. The GCC countries governments offer many investment opportunities for investors in all sectors in most of its countries. The GCC countries governments build many industrial cities and free zones in different places in GCC countries that have all the services that need. Weakness: The GCC countries economy weaknesses are summarized in these points: Financial Frauds in some GCC countries economy from transferring money and no restrictions in loans (UAE and Bahrain). GCC countries currencies are linked with the US dollar and this cause a change in the value of the GCC countries local currencies as the change in the US dollar. Legal system in GCC countries tie to the ruling elite Opportunities: The GCC countries economy has many opportunities, because it is now in the growth period. We can summarize the opportunities in these points: The GCC countries have the opportunity to change from depending on oil as a main source of funds to other sources (non-oil sectors). The GCC countries have enough funds to improve all the sectors. There are many facilities to export GCC countries products to other countries especially Middle East countries. Threats: The inflation fluctuation within GCC countries is representing high threats to their economies. The continuous changing in oil prices which is affecting badly the budgets of GCC countries. Political environment in the neighborhood area might effect on the foreign investments.

Gun Control Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights gives people the right to keep and bear arms. The ideas of setting strict laws that allow only hunting rifle use, and laws that allow more freedom has been argued over for many years. The best argument protecting the Second Amendment is that people have more security when possessing a gun. Although this is possibly true, gun control provides much more than comfort for the people. The second amendment has some benefits, but many dangers also come with having the right to own a gun. One of these dangers includes violence and death with our youth. If Gun Control laws are put into action, they will help prevent deaths of innocent people who carry guns. Gun Control will also help prevent terrorism against us or anyone else with the terrorists using guns from our own country. Gun control will also help prevent robberies and other treacherous hostage situations. In order to shelter the populace of the United States, we have an obligation as voting citizens to enact a strict Gun Control law ridding all weapons, except for hunting rifles, from public use. According to the NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey) the fifty-four and a half percent of people that threaten an attacker with a gun are more likely to get a gun drawn out in return. The other percentage of the victims who use self-protection or do not do anything have a much better chance of getting away without the attacker pulling out a gun (Gun). Under a strict Gun Control law, when a holdup happens, the attacker is less likely to have a gun, and even if the attacker did somehow obtain a firearm, the victim would not have one to use carelessly and get himself killed. Crimes with Gun Control will be much less violent for the people that obey the law, and most criminals will be deterred from even attempting a crime if they cannot buy a gun. Similarly, Gun Control will help prevent terrorism of this country. Terrorism, now a big issue for the United States, can be prevented in many cases if Gun Control laws are put into affect. Many terrorists use easily concealed guns that come from the United States, getting the guns from either exportation or in the country. America cannot suffer as a victim of many more terrorist attacks, and Gun Control laws will help filter out terrorist attacks. Research done by the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) shows that ... ...n our country and others. Gun Control will help protect the guiltless people of our nation from violent attacks and robbery. The best thing Gun Control will prevent is violence with our youth because Americans need to preserve the lives of the next generations to come. Controlling handguns means that everyone and their friends can enjoy life more without worrying about being held up at AM-PM, or being caught up in the middle of a very dangerous terrorist attack. When deciding on gun control, think first about preserving the safety of the citizens of this nation. Works Cited Buchanan, John M. â€Å"Gun Play† Christian Century   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  17 May 2003: 3 â€Å"Brady Campaign.† Brady Campaign   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12 Oct. 2003. â€Å"Calm Before The Storm The Littleton School Massacre† Court TV’s Crime Library   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12 Oct. 2003. â€Å"Is a Gun an Effective Means of Self-Defense?† Guncite   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12 Oct. 2003. â€Å"CNN- State by State Look at Gun Laws in the U.S.† CNNi   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12 Oct. 2003. â€Å"HELP Network – Firearm Injury Prevention State Status Report† Help Network   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   12 Oct. 2003.