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Although the influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people in the last year of World War I than the war itself-an estimated 40 million worldwide, altogether (Adams), Americans have not retained this incident their collective memory because they tend to think of it as a relic from a bygone era that no longer affects them in the age of modern medicine. They believe that they can take a pill or get a shot that will arrest the virus's action in their body, not realizing that there is no pill or shot that is universally effective against viruses. Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, but many Americans do not understand those limitations and request antibiotics for viral infections. Believing that all they need to do in the event of a pandemic is to visit their doctor and get medication, they do

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Significance and Aims The trend toward increased smoking of flavoured mini-cigars among Canadian teenagers poses a significant danger. Adolescents metabolize nicotine more rapidly than adults do, which makes their smoke exposure, carbon monoxide levels, and plasma nicotine levels higher than those of adults (Moolchan et al., 2009, p. 1578). Moreover, new evidence suggests that this higher nicotine metabolism exerts an influence on the volume, velocity, and duration of the puffs a pe

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As a conservative and the member of a longstanding conservative family, I identify four major sources for my conservatism-my Christian faith, my morality, a resistance to liberal thinking and politics, and my belief that conservative economic policies are vital to keep the country from going into further debt. My Christian faith places me in a conservative status even before issues of government are considered, since liberal philosophies invite practices that Christianity views as sin-homosexuality and abortion, for example. In addition, liberal ethical philosophies like situation ethics are the opposite of what I believe, since they assume that practically anything is okay as long as someone can offer up a reasonable explanation for it. My morality is based on Christianity and unchanging principles of right and wrong, not the constantly shifting sands of public opinion or liberal agendas. I believe that there are absolutes, not the gray areas that liberals are always using

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On the role of government: From the Renaissance through the Enlightenment, a number of philosophers undertook a major intellectual project - a project involving nothing less than an analysis of the political systems and relationships that had evolved over time as a means of providing order and stability within social systems. Key theorists in this era include Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Identifying a viable system of governance for a changing social system was a vital task for these theorists as they sought to understand man's role in the world. Both Hobbes and Locke, in differing ways and to varying degrees, provide a foundation for much of the political thought of the Enlightenment. Hobbes (1994) believed that we should never maintain that human beings are innately good, moral, ethical, or decent. He suggests that wisdom and prudence in our dealings with other human beings are necessary, but allows that man may not always behave in such behavior. In fact, Hobbes

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In her book The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose discusses not only the criticism that has been leveled against the genre of Hip Hop and the support that has also come its way, but also the accusation that it causes violence and the assumption that it reflects black dysfunctional ghetto culture. She addresses the first of these issues right in the introduction to the book, detailing a variety of complaints against Hip Hop, such as "hip hop is primarily responsible for every decline and crisis worldwide except the war in Iraq and global warming" (Rose, 2008, p. 6). On the opposite side, she identifies hyperbolic praise for Hip Hop, such as "all expression in commercialized hip hop, despite its heavy manipulation by the record industry, is the unadulterated truth...." (Rose, 2008, p. 6). With opinions of Hip Hop running the gamut like these do, it is not surprising to see that truth is a relative thing in the eyes of the public, particularly when the media provide an abundance of "hel

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In her book The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose discusses not only the criticism that has been leveled against the genre of Hip Hop and the support that has also come its way, but also the accusation that it causes violence and the assumption that it reflects black dysfunctional ghetto culture. She addresses the first of these issues right in the introduction to the book, detailing a variety of complaints against Hip Hop, such as "hip hop is primarily responsible for every decline and crisis worldwide except the war in Iraq and global warming" (Rose, 2008, p. 6). On the opposite side, she identifies hyperbolic praise for Hip Hop, such as "all expression in commercialized hip hop, despite its heavy manipulation by the record industry, is the unadulterated truth...." (Rose, 2008, p. 6). With opinions of Hip Hop running the gamut like these do, it is not surprising to see that truth is a relative thing in the eyes of the public, particularly when the media provide an abundance of "hel

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The major reform movements of the early 19th century include such movements as women's suffrage (Calhoun 400)n which assayed to bring women the right to vote; temperance, which attempted to eliminate the drinking of alcoholic beverages; and antislavery/abolition (Calhoun 392), which tried to abolish slavery. The Luddite movement aimed at destroying new textile machines was relatively short-lived and was largely a response to the fact that some people perceived the new technology as responsible for eliminating jobs, (Anissimov, 2010) but the other movements were true social reform movements that had longevity and impact. These movements shared some assumptions and problem-solving strategies because they were all social movements that arose to mitigate social injustices. "Social movements provide weapons for the powerless," and as such they bring together people to create a context for the poor and the abused, who may not have any institutions established to advocate fo

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Nationalism in Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky During the nineteenth century, a musical movement began which was marked by emphasis on national elements such as folk songs and dances, folk rhythms, or subjects chosen for operas and symphonic poems that reflected national life or historical subjects. Not surprisingly, this movement in music as in other art forms coincided with the emergence of political movements for independence such as those occurring in 1848 (Nationalism in music, 2010). Among the many examples of composers whose work reflected a nationalist spirit one can list Poland's Chopin, Hungary's Liszt and Bartok, Bohemia's Dvorak, and Brazil's Villa-Lobos. The subject of this essay is Russia's Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, whose opera, Boris Godunov, serves as an excellent example of the interpretation of national history in music (Asiado, 2007). While there is some doubt among scholars such as Sargeant (2009) as to whether or not Mussorgsky's interpretation of the life

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Measuring the transferability of Curriculum Stone, Alfeld, Pearson, Lewis and Jensen (2006) stated that there are several ways of looking at the transferability of curriculum and measuring this concept. More often than not, transferability in this context refers to the ability of college level students to receive credit at a second institution for courses taken at another institution that are seen as

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All my life I have never had any problems with commitment. Commitment is what drove me to take my schooling seriously and ultimately develop a passion for science and technology. Commitment is what made me dissatisfied with merely wondering how something worked and actively pursue this information through both self-learning, schooling, and tinkering. Commitment is what has ultimately pushed me to en

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Introduction Schools of philosophical thought emerge, receive labels, and are superseded by the next trend in philosophy. In some cases, labels are applied only after significant activity has ceased. In the case of postmodernism, thinkers who have been classified as postmodern have sometimes resisted the label while others have embraced it and used it to further their intellectual pursuits. There is a certain irony in applying a label such as postmodernism to this particular philosophical approach since postmodernism itself challenges the use of text and of labels. When Richard Rorty died, many of his obituaries labeled him a postmodernist and his intellectual approach favored the postmodernist approach. This research considers Rorty's work in light of postmodernism, and considers-as all philosophy is eventually considered-this approach from a subjective and individual viewpoint. Postmodernism In order to analyze Rorty or any other postmodernist t

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Introduction Theories of cognition, meaning and values make for interesting study, but unless they are applied to the "real world," they remain strictly hypothetical. Understanding common theories makes it possible to evaluate one's personal philosophy of cognition, meaning and value, and compare that to philosophies of the institutions with which one has interaction. Such a comparison enables one to determine where there is a disconnect between the theoretical and the practical in the real-world environment. Analysis Understanding how we know what we know, and understanding who we are as part of the human species, are two basic components of the study of philosophy. Western civilization came to dominate much of the scholarship in these areas through the domination of its culture and the expansion - militarily, usually - of its political and economic influence. Caucasian men were the major thinkers in Western thought (for that matter, men have been

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Our company, a small CPA firm, almost universally uses a democratic decision making style. The group of voters changes depending on the decision being made. Most high-level decisions are made by the partners, but no one partner has a say over the others. The "managing partner" has say over the rest only in matters of administration.

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The purpose of this research is to examine the potential for education to be experienced democratically in a global setting. According to Green (1997), the role of the nation state is changing and with it education. Global unions like the European Union as well as global financial unions have great potential to become powerful supranational actors in a world where nations have been stripped of their individual sovereignty by either the corrupt principals and their agents, by a sluggish citizenry, or a combination of both. The place that education has traditionally held in the culture is literally up for grabs. Therefore, a critical question to ask is: How far can nation states control their education systems in a world of global markets and supranational political organization? (Green, 1997). As governments face pressure from their own constituents and the international community to conform their education systems to the Standards, it remains to be seen if nations can preserve their national culture in the schools. What must be examined is the possibility of havi

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What is Hypnosis In order to understand hypnosis, it is necessary to dis-embarrass ourselves of what we know about it from watching movies and television. Hypnosis is not a means of forcing someone to obey commands delivered by the hypnotist while the subject is under hypnosis, for example. Instead, it is merely a state in which the subject is more suggestible (Holroyd, 2003, p. 110). The notion that the hypnotized individual is completely and utterly controlled by the hypnotist is fiction, and many people after being hypnotized insist that they were not hypnotized because they remember what happened, were in complete control, and could stop at any time (Kelly & Kelly, 2000, pp. 3, 11). Moreover, night club acts in which patrons appear unable to rise from their seats, undergo age transformations, or follow a posthypnotic suggestion to leap on top of a table and shout "The British are coming!" are-according to Kelly and Kelly (2003, p. 4), nothing more than "theatricalit

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Introduction An assessment of the United States economy is presented in this paper. The assessment period is 2010-2020 inclusive. The position of this writer is that the United States economy is not healthy in mid-February 2010, and that the economy will not be healthy until 2015. The principal argument within which this assessment is framed is presented in the following section. Principal Argument This writer is aware that gross domestic product (GDP) growth likely will lead the National Bureau of Economic Research (Auerbach & Gale, 2009) and other organizations to declare that the economy is healthy well before 2015. A major contention of this writer, however, is that the United States economy cannot be declared to be healthy until the unemployment rate is no higher than six-percent. There are three major contributors to continuing high levels of unemployment. The major contributors are (a) weak domestic demand, (b) trade policies that reward domesti

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Public Administration Introduction This policy paper analyzes the following recommended action: Facilitate access to health care coverage for Americans who lose their jobs and lose their health insurance. The recommended action for this proposal is that federal and state guidance be directed toward ensuring that every American has health care coverage at all times. Thus, it is recommended that programs be developed that facilitate access to health care coverage for Americans who lose their jobs and health insurance. The specific problem addressed by the proposal is the fact that many Americans face a loss of health insurance when they lose their jobs. This is a problem because most Americans have health care coverage through their employment and when they lose their job they lose this coverage (Meyer & Stepnick, 2002). In fact, Volsky (2009) reported that 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance daily. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to thi

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Introduction In Sophocles' tragedy Antigone, conflict erupts for control of Thebes. Literary critic Ed Downey argues that "Antigone deals with the struggle for the rulership of Thebes that breaks out after Oedipus goes into exile" (2). One of the chief conflicts is the power struggle between King Creon and Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and sister to Ismene and her brother Polynices. When Creon dictates "No man shall bury, none should wail for him" in reference to Polynices's body after he is killed in battle, Antigone disobeys Creon's law and buries her brother. By the end of the play, Antigone is condemned to death and Creon loses his son Haemon (who loves Antigone) and his wife to suicide. Both are tragic figures, but because Antigone follows a higher law and Creon follows man-made law, Antigone is the more tragic figure. Body One of the main reasons Antigone is more tragic than Creon is because she has no choice but to follow the dictates o

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C.S. Lewis and Pope Benedict XVI were both inspired to talk about the meanings and the dynamic of the love of God, and both open with the words "God is love" (Lewis 1; Benedict XVI #1). Lewis (1) distinguishes between two types of God's love that he calls "Gift-love" and "Need-love." Gift-love is love given as a gift, as when God gave Himself in His fullness to the Son, and the Son returned the gift by giving Himself back to the Father (Lewis 1). In human terms, Lewis likens it to a father working, planning, and saving for the benefit of his family's future even though he will die before he can see or share in the benefits of his provision (Lewis 1). Although Lewis initially thinks of God as giving Gift-Love that is embodied in the gift of Christ to the world, he soon acknowledges that Need-love is as much a part of God as Gift-love. The Pope sees love in terms of eros and agape, with the former being "worldly" love and the latter being love that is "grounded in and

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Long before Europeans arrived in Africa and began establishing trade outposts and colonies, there were a number of flourishing and great African civilizations. The history of ancient Africa as described by Henry (2007) is complex and filled with the stories of any number of great civilizations that flourished and then disappeared. Unfortunately, as art historians like Helen Gardner (1962) have suggested, much of African art tends to be characterized as primitive, produced by tribal people who favored animistic religions and whose artistic productions were relatively limited in comparison to their European peers. Nevertheless, pre-colonial African art was dynamic, expressive, and culturally as well as aesthetically significant. Gardner (1962) says that early African civilizations, including that of Meroe and Benin and the Ivory Coast, worked in such varied materials as painting, bronze castings, ivory and wood carvings, and textile manufacturing. Gardner (1962, p. 400) describes the sculpture of these ancient African civilizations as follows: Every part in a typical, fully realized

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Socrates Method Do we live in a world that can change or one that is forever doomed to repeat the same misperceptions over and over? This was the question of Socrates. This was both the question he asked and the question we are still left with after his parting from this Earth more than 2,000 years ago. This is the message of the Neoclassicist painting depicting his final hours, condemned by the city-state whose noble principles he admired but misunderstanding actions he abhorred ("The Death of Socrates" 1). How its composition relates to this message will be explored below. Critics can say that although Socrates asked provocative questions (mostly attempting to define what we know and what we do not know) he never answered them. He had hunches, very often conjecturing on the transmigration of the soul and the function of memory in relation to learning knowledge. Some could say without fear of factual reproach that he was like an open-heart surgeon who ripped out patients' hearts without giving them transplants. Yet we can do better in representing Socrates, as the painting does thro

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Introduction The advent of new technologies and applications like email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs has changed business communication significantly. In my own business environment of commercial property management, business communication is very important for efficiency and success, from responding to resident and potential lesser concerns to following through with coworkers on important issues from sales to maintenance. Smart phones with text and email capability have largely replaced laptops among most employees, while Twittering and Facebook networking are responsible for sending important updates and making business and potential lesser contacts. This analysis will discuss the role of business communications in my workplace, including trends associated with new technologies and their applications. Body The use of new technologies like Twitter and the social networking site Facebook is one trend in my work environment. Our company even has its own Facebook page and all employees are members. We keep in touch on a profe

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Introduction The opening of China, the adoption of neo-liberal economic reforms by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1980s, and China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) signal a new era in international relations between China and the world's major trading partners like the United States and the European Union (EU). Globalization and China's desire to reinvigorate its stalled economy demanded new approaches from Beijing toward international relations. As Noesselt claims, "To realize China's interests, the PRC began to establish partnership relations, which would allow the PRC to pursue her national interests by following a soft power approach and avoiding open military conflicts" (14). Today China is a global power due to these reforms. In contrast to China's partnership diplomacy, international relations theory toward China where the EU is concerned is anachronistic at best. Fox and Godement claim that "Europe's approach to China is stuck in the

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Statistics are a particular way of looking at a set of figures, and they can suggest an interpretation of the facts that may or may not be true. Although facts are facts, and they are unchangeable, perspectives on the facts can be as varied as the number of people interpreting them. As Mark Twain said, "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable" (DeMaria, 2008, p. 1430). The following five subjects can each be viewed from a perspective that either helps or hurts the people involved. The visuals suggested for each could be in the form of bar graphs, pie charts, or even photographs with statistics superimposed over them. To support the cause of immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, for example, a visual showing statistics of the low income and living standards in the immigrants' native country might be used. Statistics on the relative lack of medical care, the number of mothers dying in childbirth, and the average low lifespan there coul

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Introduction As in many cultures, women in Chinese society held less power than men and were often subjected to male constructed roles, behaviors and duties. In Ancient China the Book of Songs and the Book of Changes were fundamental texts helping define the role of women in Chinese society for centuries. In the Book of Songs reinforces the virtues that make an "admirable lady": "It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good, / Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think" (Ebrey 73). In the Book of Changes various roles and duties revolving around domestic pursuits are also established, "In her central place, she attends to the preparation of the food" (Ebrey 73). Women in early and late Imperial China often adhered to the three submissions: submission to parents; submission to husband; and as a widow submission to her son (Ebrey 73). Despite this marginalized position in society compared to men, many women in Imperial China were able to mak

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