The Pursuit of Happyness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Pursuit of Happyness - Essay Example With a tag-line, â€Å" How much can you know about yourself if you have never been in a fight?† [1] , the movie, through the character of played by Norton, thoroughly convinces us that even we are living a dead and a boring life like him. And getting into a ‘fight’ is the only way we can be alive again. The movie tells a story of an insurance agent suffering from insomnia who feels that he is the most miserable person on the earth. His doctor asks him to visit the support group of different disease to know that there are more miserable people than him. He starts feeling better by looking at them and feels little alive. But his life becomes hell when girl called Marla enters his life, as even she is a faker like him and this makes him feel exposed. Norton is shown to be a victim of a civilized and commercialized society. His drives are suppressed and his life becomes boring and dead. One day, when thinking if his life would have been different if he was a different person, a man called Tyler enters his life and from that moment Jack’s life changes completely. The movie is a commentary by an insurance agent who tells his story. The scenes and the people that he talks about are shot in such a way that we actually feel the boredom and the depression of his life. His office, his routine, his travels and his visits to the support groups are described in such a robotic and dull manner that it makes us believe how miserable he is. It shows how the external things like brands, products, corporate houses, career and artificialness in relationships have made our life dead. Through Norton’s character, we experience the deadness of our life. The

David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciscek Piper Term Paper

David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciscek Piper - Term Paper Example According to Cole’s interview with Alicia, the tour guide, the gas chamber was in its original state. However, Dr. Piper contradicts this claim by stating that there were reconstructions made in the original gas chamber, which was later converted to air raid shelters. Another confusing information presented by Cole was about the use of Zyklon B. According to Dr. Piper, the traces of Zyklon B differed from those in the gas chamber and the disinfection chamber due to the difference in the number of hours both chambers were being used. At the end of the interview, Cole still did not come up with a conclusive view of the reality of the gas chamber in Auschwitz. The interview just leaves his audience with more questions. One was not enlightened on what is real and what is not. The history that we know is also based mostly on eyewitness accounts without much written documentation. One thinks that Cole failed in giving the documentation needed to debunk the Holocaust. A visit at the Auschwitz camp and interview with is Director was simply not enough to persuade the audience about Cole’s belief that everything was a

Defeating Diabetes one step at a time- the Alpha Gamma Delta Essay

Defeating Diabetes one step at a time- the Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation - Essay Example According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 23.6 million people representing 8% of population are diabetic which is increasingly becoming a cause of growing concern and hence in dire need of strong and prompt action. It is in the light of these facts that I intend to take up the cause and help make a difference to the society of which we all are a part of. The cause need to be popularized through media as well as through word of mouth, so as to cause awareness about this critical issue and touch the lives of millions of people worldwide by spreading the word. With a host of opportunities available today, especially with the growth of internet and its rising popularity among the young and the old alike, the cause could be conveniently propagated through blogs, social networking sites, video uploading sites, as well as through other forms of media such as T.V and news advertisements. In order to make a difference you need to have a vision – a vision that inspires change. They say that you need to be the change you want to see and to suffice I’d like to quote these lines: â€Å"Maybe I will never be, All the things that I’d like to be, Now is not the time to cry, Now is the time to find out why† –

Health Insurance Coverage Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Insurance Coverage - Term Paper Example In the absence of universal healthcare, which is the prevalent norm in neighboring Canada and other developed countries in Europe, the US faces peculiar problems in the delivery of healthcare services’ as the latter are provided in majority by the private insurance sector and employing agencies. President Barack Obama’s latest ‘Healthcare Reform Bill’ endeavors to bring healthcare services within access of the poorest sections’ of American society, and its provisions already claim that due to its enactment as Law, healthcare services will be available to 95% of the US population, at the same time unburdening the private companies from healthcare expenditure for employees’ insurance (Gabbatt, 2010). Another reform, the ‘Young Adults and the Affordable Care Act’ has been aimed at unburdening families and businesses by allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans until the attainment of 26 years age (HHS, W eb). In addition to the abovementioned national policies on healthcare, individual states are streamlining their healthcare infrastructures in order to make it more accessible to everyone through advances in information technology (IT) and state policies’. ... Such exchanges are speculated to assist individuals and small employees in selecting tailor-made private health plans for individual needs from a single unified platform. The State of Oregon has been awarded an amount of $ 48,096, 307 in order to facilitate the implementation of such an exchange which will cater to the 516,000 Medicaid clients and 277,000 commercial insurance consumers to enroll for health coverage according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) (Irving, 2011). Similarly, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services now has access to $ 37, 757, 266 to implement an exchange which will assist state residents to access state based subsidized and non-subsidized health plans from a single platform. The Wisconsin Health department anticipates that this Grant will allow it to make available such services to 35% of the State’s hitherto non served population comprising of 160,000 individuals in the non-group market, a million employees of small businesses, and 770,000 pa rticipants involved in the State’s BadgerCare Plus and Medicaid Programs (Irving, 2011). In Massachusetts, the University Medical School has been awarded a sum of $ 35.591,333 in order to facilitate an IT exchange which will cater to a multi-state consortium involving Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont, along with the parent state in making healthcare plans more accessible and individualized for the residents (Irving, 2011). Voters in Oregon had already disapproved a movement to implement a Canadian-style universal healthcare plan being propositioned in 2003, fearing huge taxes and expressing mistrust in the bureaucracy, which would have assumed enormous powers in case a universal healthcare system had been implemented (Korcok, 2003).

Dog Fighting Essay Example for Free

Dog Fighting Essay Fights between two or more animals have always been popular spectacles. Dog fighting is one of the most in-humane types of animal cruelty out there today; unfortunately pit bulls have been caught in the wrath of it all. Dog fighting is an animal abuse issue. Pit Bulls happen to be the breed most used in dog fights. But if Pit Bulls did not exist, dog fighting would still take place. There is no quenching the blood lust of human ‘kind’. Brutality against animals in the form of staged matches or fights between animals or even between man and animal is an activity almost as old as man himself – it was in existence long before the Pit Bull. History The original, old-time bulldog was used for all manner of stock-related work, particularly as a catch dog: used by the butcher to manage unruly bulls, and by the hunter for help in catching and holding wild boar and other game. The sport of bull baiting became popular in England, having arisen from these functional jobs that the bulldog performed for humans. The modern bulldog breeds descended from these dogs and those re-created through breeding programs include: alapaha blue blood bulldog, American bulldog, aussie bulldog, banter bulldogge, English Bulldog, French bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge, Olde Boston Bulldogge, and Victorian Bulldog. All of these breeds have kept close to the original type and traits of the ancient bulldogs, even when adapting to their local living conditions (Luca, 2010). Pit Bulls are descendants of the original English bull-baiting dog—a dog that was bred to bite and hold bulls, bears and other large animals around the face and head. Bulldogs were bred to hang on without releasing their grip, until the animal was exhausted from fighting and from loss of blood. When baiting large animals was banned in the 1800s, people then started to fight their dogs against each other instead (ASPCA, 2013). Treatment. With fighting Pit Bulls, they are raised in an environment that reinforces and maintains fighting behavior. All fighting dogs are conditioned from a very early age to develop what dog-fighters refer to as â€Å"gameness. † The scope and method of training varies dramatically depending on the level and experience of the dog-fighter. Dogs are run on the treadmills to increase cardiovascular fitness and endurance. Dogs are put on a manmade machine is called a cat mill or jenny also. Jenny: Apparatus that looks like a carnival horse walker with several beams jetting out from a central rotating pole. The dogs are chained to one beam and another small animal like a cat, small dog, or rabbit, is harnessed to or hung from another beam. The dogs run in circles, chasing the bait. Once the exercise sessions are over, the dogs are usually rewarded with the bait they had been pursuing (Gibson, 2005). People that so called train pit pulls for fighting will also have a spring hanging down from a pole to which a rope, tire, or animal hide is affixed that the dogs jump to and dangle from for extended periods of time. This strengthens the jaw muscles and back legs. The same effect is achieved with a simpler spring loaded apparatus hanging from tree limbs. A variation of the spring pole is a hanging cage, into which bait animals are placed. The dogs repeatedly lunge up toward the cage (Gibson, 2005). Granted these people think they are real dog trainers, they will take care of the dog’s health to a certain extent. Dogs are given vitamins, supplements and drugs to condition them for or to incite them to fight. Commonly utilized vitamins, supplements, and drugs include: iron/liver extract; vitamin B-12; Magnum supplement; hormones; weight-gain supplements; speed; steroids and cocaine. The dogs are trained against one another and against older, more experienced dogs. In the early stages of training, the dogs are incited to lunge at each other without touching and engage in quick, controlled fights called â€Å"rolls† or â€Å"bumps. † Once the dogs appear match ready, they are pitted against stronger dogs to test their â€Å"gameness† or tenacity in the face of exhaustion and impending defeat. If the dogs pass the test, they are deemed ready to fight. Types of Dog Fights All across the country, humans abuse dogs in heinous ways. From nonchalant, impromptu ‘street fights’ to the large-scale organized matches held on a regular schedule at set locations, dog fighting still occurs every day. Most law enforcement experts divide dog fight activity into three categories: street fighting, hobbyist fighting and professional activity. Street fighters engage in dog fights that are informal street corner, back alley and playground activities. Stripped of the rules and formality of the traditional pit fight, these are spontaneous events triggered by insults, turf invasions or the simple taunt, My dog can kill yours. Street fights are often associated with gang activities. The fights may be conducted with money, drugs or bragging rights as the primary payoff. There is often no attempt to care for animals injured in the fight (ASPCA, 2013). Some of the dogs are thrown out the car on the side of the road, left to die. Worst case scenario the dogs are killed immediately with a close range shot from a gun to the head. Hobbyist fighters are more organized, with one or more dogs participating in several organized fights a year as a sideline for both entertainment and to attempt to supplement income. They pay more attention to care and breeding of their dogs and are more likely to travel across state lines for event (ASPCA, 2013). Last but not least Professional fighters. Who would even label themselves as a Professional dog figh ter? People do; Professional dogfighters often have large numbers of animals (as many as 50 or more) and earn money from breeding, selling and fighting dogs at a central location and on the road. They often pay particular attention to promoting established winning bloodlines and to long-term conditioning of animals. (ASPCA, 2013) Punishment and Prevention Dog fighting, despite its felony status in all 50 states, is still a grave concern to animal advocates. Although the Michael Vick dogfighting case, and his recent release from home detention, have focused the national spotlight on dogfighting cruelties, dogfighting has long been a thriving underground industry across the country in both urban and rural areas (society, 2011). Those who make dog fighting a pit bull issue do the dogs a grave disservice. A new bill in the Senate would outlaw spectators’ willful attendance at organized animal fights and impose penalties for bringing a minor to an animal fight. This bill has bipartisan support (society, 2011). The Federal Animal Welfare Act prohibits the interstate transportation of dogs for fighting purposes. A pending federal bill, S. 382, would create the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2005. The Act would amend the United States Code, making it a crime for any person to knowingly sponsor or exhibit an animal in an animal fighting venture if any animal in the venture was moved in interstate or foreign commerce. Additionally, it would be unlawful for any person to knowingly sell, buy, transport, or deliver, or receive for purposes of transportation, in interstate or foreign commerce, any dog or other animal for purposes of having the dog or other animal participate in an animal fighting venture. Finally, it would be a crime for any person to knowingly use the mail service of the United States Postal Service or any instrumentality of interstate commerce for commercial speech promoting an animal fighting venture except as performed outside the limits of the states of the United States. Penalties for violations of the Act would include a fine, up to two years imprisonment, or both. The Act would repeal any conflicting provisions of the Animal Welfare Act (Gibson, 2005). If a person see’s or suspect dog fighting they should not hesitate to report the owner to the authority. Conclusion These dogs are VICTIMS in every sense of the word. Exploited, abused, and tortured for human gain, Pit Bulls are innocent beings caught up in a tragic societal issue. The American pit bull has two powerful enemies: the humane groups working for his extinction, and the modern dog fighter who are producing dogs of dubious genetics and characteristics while keeping them in negative headlines. Dogfighting is tremendously widespread and has reached epidemic levels in America’s urban communities. The devastating impact of social, economic and racial injustice in these communities that are exposed to such cruelty to animals. Are just the tip of the ice berg? America’s finest legal minds, political activists and social advocates have painstakingly dissected the culture of poverty in an attempt to understand the disproportionately high rates of crime, drug use, and social deviance in inner-city communities (Gibson, 2005).

University and Research Essay Example for Free

University and Research Essay Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Having spent 40 years in universities, I have had sufficient time to consider some of the idiosyncrasies, foibles and problems of these academic institutions. The purpose of this editorial is to discuss the current state of university research and explain why I find some aspects of the current situation disturbing. Changes that started during the second half of the 20th century and that have continued into the 21st threaten to bring about fundamental changes in the nature of universities. Some of the changes are commendable, for example, the large expansion in the proportion of the population attending universities, at least in the richer nations. Other trends are disturbing, especially the increasing tendency of governments and industry to view universities as engines for short-term economic gain. While universities certainly cannot ignore the context in which they function and the needs of society, responding purely to short-term economic considerations threatens to subvert the very nature of universities and some of the benefits they provide to society. So what exactly is a university and what is its purpose? I much prefer the Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word â€Å"university† to some of the more utilitarian definitions in other dictionaries. The Oxford definition reads, in part, â€Å"whole body of teachers and scholars engaged in the higher branches of learning. † Thus, it is the community of faculty and students that is the essence of a university. The higher branches of learning in which teachers and scholars engage have 2 important products: the educated minds that are essential for the well-being of society, and new knowledge and ideas. Some of that new knowledge will enrich society by producing economic growth, directly or indirectly, but the benefits of new knowledge go far beyond economic gain. Universities have always been subjected to outside influences. The oldest European university, the University of Bologna, has existed at least since the 1080s. Some time before 1222, about 1000 students left Bologna and founded a new university in Padua because of â€Å"the grievous offence that was brought to bear on their academic liberties and the failure to acknowledge the privileges solemnly granted to teachers and students. †1 The outside interference came from the Roman Catholic Church, and, for several centuries, Padua was home to the only university in Europe where non-Catholics could get a university education. Both Bologna and Padua were student-controlled universities with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries. However, in spite of marked differences, there are similarities between what happened then and what is happening today, with important outside influences — then the dogma of religion, now the dogma of business — threatening to change the activities of the community of teachers and scholars. The seeds of what is happening now were sown in the years following World War II. Before the war the most important influence on a faculty member was probably the departmental chair, who in those days had power to influence in an important way what went on in the department. Nonetheless, a faculty member would have had access to departmental resources and would not necessarily have required outside research funding (although such funding was sometimes available from private foundations). The mechanism of funding research, and the amount of money available for research, changed greatly in the postwar years. In 1945, Vannevar Bushs landmark report to President Harry Truman, Science the Endless Frontier,2 had an important influence on university research. In this report, Bush stated, â€Å"The publicly and privately supported colleges, universities, and research institutes are the centers of basic research. They are the wellsprings of knowledge and understanding. As long as they are vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere. † Bush supported the idea that the US government should provide strong financial support for university research, but also supported the idea that the individual investigator should be the main determinant of the topics for investigation, with statements such as â€Å"Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. †2 In the latter half of the last century, many countries adopted the model of granting councils, which used a system based on peer review to distribute money for investigator-initiated research. This model has been a great success, but it has also contributed to important changes in universities. Much more money has been available to support medical research, basic science research and engineering research than has been available for the social sciences or arts. Thus, decisions about support for different disciplines devolved from the universities to governments, who decided on the budgets of their various grant-giving bodies. Also, individual researchers who were successful in obtaining grants no longer depended as much on departmental facilities. In my opinion, this not only weakened the power of departmental chairs but also decreased collegiality within departments. With increased enrolments, as a university education became accessible to a greater proportion of the population, and an increased need for infrastructure for the larger student population and for complex research equipment, administrators became more concerned about sources of funding and consequently more detached from the faculty. There is always a tendency for senior academic administrators to speak and behave as though they were the university (when of course they are there to serve the community of teachers and scholars). This is of course a normal human trait, no different from the tendency of politicians to forget that they are elected to serve the people. However, this increasing detachment of senior university administrators from the faculty has facilitated the erosion of collegiality within departments and universities. The individual personalities of university faculty probably also facilitated this change. I learned recently, when looking at the literature on personality, that an inverse correlation between intelligence and conscientiousness has been demonstrated in a number of studies (see, for example, Moutafi et al3). Thus, it might be more than just my paranoia leading me to believe that the small proportion of university faculty who lack conscientiousness and collegiality is larger than in some other walks of life. The erosion of collegiality is not a matter of great significance, except that it probably played a role in making researchers more open to the efforts of governments to transform them into entrepreneurs. The most recent and possibly the most important change in university research resulted from the push by governments to commercialize the results of such research. In the United States, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 encouraged universities to license to private industry discoveries made with federal funds. 4 The push by governments for commercialization of new knowledge grew during the 1980s and 1990s and continues to have an important influence on universities. Recently, Lord Sainsbury, the science and innovation minister in the United Kingdom, boasted that there had been a cultural change in universities there, which has resulted in a substantial increase in university spin-offs. 5 In 2002 the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada entered an agreement with the government to double the amount of research performed by these institutions and to triple their commercialization performance by 2010. 6 Although this agreement was reached in the absence of any broad consultation with the faculty who are supposed to commercialize their work, the universities seem to be well on track to achieve this objective, with a 126% increase in revenues from licence royalties between 1999 and 2001. 7Most major universities now have a technology transfer office, and at many universities success in commercialization is taken into account when faculty are considered for tenure. Will there come a time when success in commercialization carries the same weight as (or more weight than) teaching and research in the awarding of tenure? The end result of all the changes discussed above is that individual faculty members have become much more like entrepreneurs whose main allegiance is to the maintenance or growth of their own research programs and not infrequently to the commercialization of their research. The researcher exploring Vannevar Bushs â€Å"endless frontier† could be considered the modern equivalent of the homesteader taming the seemingly endless frontier of the 19th century American West. 8 This is not necessarily detrimental if a new generation of university research entrepreneurs provides the new knowledge that will benefit patients and society. However, the change in culture that made university faculty more like entrepreneurs also made them more open to the desire of governments to make them entrepreneurs in the economic sense. Although the nature of universities has been changing, there was no threat to the fundamental nature of universities until the drive for commercialization began. A recent report of the Canadian Association of University Teachers9 states that university administrators have been â€Å"building increasingly hierarchical management structures† that â€Å"place the future of academic medicine in danger. † The reports main concern is that â€Å"incentives to create commercializable products push economic concerns, rather than scientific and ethical considerations, to the forefront. †9In the fields of biologic psychiatry and behavioural neuroscience the emphasis on  commercial applications has already, to some extent, moved research priorities away from an emphasis on mental well-being to an emphasis on commercial products. There are many examples of this shift. For example, more research is being carried out on antidepressant drugs than on psychotherapy, even though in mild to moderate depression (the majority of cases) drugs and psychotherapy are approximately equal in efficacy. There is increasing evidence for the efficacy of exercise10,11 and fish oils12,13 in the treatment and prevention of depression. However, these strategies receive much less attention than antidepressant drugs. Even an established antidepressant treatment such as S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe)14 receives little attention. Searching the abstracts of the 2004 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, I found 179 with the key word â€Å"antidepressant† and only 4 with the key word â€Å"S-adenosylmethionine,† and none of those 4 was concerned with the antidepressant action of SAMe. SAMe is a major methyl donor and seems to work in a fundamentally different way from any product being investigated by drug companies. Surely we could expect that an antidepressant acting through a different mechanism would be a popular topic of investigation. However, SAMe is a natural product and not of commercial interest. Similarly, insights into what exercise or fish oils do to the brain may provide important insights into the pathophysiology of depression and its treatment, but these subjects receive little attention. Many basic science researchers investigating the mechanisms of antidepressants produced by drug companies do not receive funding from those companies. However, enough are lured by drug company research funds into working on topics of interest to the companies to significantly influence what are fashionable topics of research. Laboratories with funding from industry can often afford more trainees, who may then adopt a more industry-centred approach in their own research. While the availability of funds from industry has certainly influenced research, the pressure on university faculty to commercialize the results of their research will undoubtedly cause even greater distortion in the areas of research that are most popular. Granting agencies have increasingly tried to foster research in neglected areas by allocating funds to specific areas of research and requesting applications in those areas. Although this approach is certainly necessary, it has not done much to alter the effects of drug company money on research output. Also, in some ways it moves research even further away from the ideal in Vannevar Bushs report that â€Å"Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on subjects of their own choice, in the manner dictated by their curiosity for exploration of the unknown. †2 This model was notably successful in the last half of the 20th century, but it may not survive the pressure to commercialize. While there is still much scope for curiosity-driven research, the curiosity of researchers is likely to be aligned increasingly with the interests of drug companies. As mentioned above, a cultural change has accompanied the increasing commercialization of university research. The pressure to commercialize has been critiqued in some quarters, but many university faculty have nonetheless embraced commercialization, or at least remained unconcerned about it. Are we far from a time when a researcher without a patent that is being commercialized will be regarded in the same way as those who do not publish regularly in the top journals? And how long will it be before governments make commercialization a mandate of granting councils and a requirement for the majority of grants? A fascination with the workings of the brain and how it can malfunction in mental illness is the usual motivator for researchers in neuroscience and psychiatry research. As a result, curiosity-driven research will always tend to serve the best interests of patients. Although research driven by commercial interests will certainly benefit psychiatric patients in some ways, it cannot serve their overall needs, as it is much too narrowly focused. The designation of funds by granting agencies for specific neglected topics will help but is unlikely to produce any large changes in the direction of research. Thus, the biggest losers from the pressure to commercialize will be psychiatric patients. In addition I am concerned whether students who are trained to focus on the short-term commercial implications of their research will be able to maintain the breadth of vision that is a characteristic of the majority of creative researchers. Changes due to pressure from governments to commercialize are not limited to researchers. The increased emphasis on commercialization in universities has in some ways distorted the perceptions of senior university administrators about the purpose of the institutions. For example, there seems to be a lack of concern about some of the sources of funds that universities receive. Universities now hold patents on many life-saving drugs. These patents sometimes limit access to the drugs, particularly in low-income countries. 15 In Canada, one-quarter of the faculties of medicine receive funding from the tobacco industry. 16 Perhaps a suitable future definition of a university will be a â€Å"whole body of teachers and scholars engaged in turning ideas into profit. † In 13th century Italy the response to interference by the Roman Catholic Church in the work of scholars was a move to another location to escape the interference. In the 21st century that option is not available even to the minority who are concerned about the drive to commercialize. However, the picture is not entirely bleak. Charitable foundations will remain immune to commercial interests. In addition, even though charitable foundations will probably remain relatively small players in the funding of research, there are promising signs. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, created in 2000, has an endowment of about US$27 billion and is striving to use its money for the benefit of humankind in areas neglected by governments. This foundation is not involved in psychiatric research, but its focus on preventive approaches may help to direct interest to that important area. Research on prevention in psychiatry is still in its infancy and will certainly remain that way if short-term commercial considerations stay paramount. However, charitable foundations cannot be expected to have any large effect on the change in university culture brought about by the drive to commercialize. Although I would like to be able to end this editorial on a more hopeful note, I am concerned about these cultural changes, and I do not see any solution. Still, one lesson from history is that the communities of teachers and scholars making up universities have adapted to many changes over the centuries without changing the fundamental nature of universities, and they will surely continue to do so. I am just not sure how. Go to: - Footnotes Competing interests: None declared. Correspondence to: Dr. Simon N. Young, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 1033 Pine Ave. W, Montreal QC H3A 1A1; fax 514 398-4370; simon. [emailprotected] ca Go to: - References 1. History. Padua (Italy): Universita Degli Studi di Padova. Available:www. unipd. it/en/university/history. htm (accessed 2004 Dec 13). 2. Bush V. Science the endless frontier. A report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, July 1945. Washington: US Government Printing Office; 1945. Available: www. nsf. gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945. htm (accessed 2004 Dec 13). 3. Moutafi J, Furnham A, Paltiel L. Why is conscientiousness negatively correlated with intelligence? Pers Individ Differ 2004;37:1013-22. 4. Thursby JG, Thursby MC. Intellectual property. University licensing and the Bayh-Dole Act. Science2003;301:1052. [PubMed] 5. Sainsbury L. A cultural change in UK universities [editorial]. Science2002;296:1929. [PubMed] 6. Allan Rock welcomes framework on federally funded university research [press release]. Toronto: Industry Canada; 2002 Nov 19 [modified 2003 Jun 16]. Available:www. ic. gc. ca/cmb/welcomeic. nsf/558d636590992942852564880052155b/85256a220056c2a485256c76004c7d44 (accessed 2004 Dec 13). 7. Berkowitz P. Spinning off research: AUCC sets new tool to measure universities commercialization performance. Univ Aff [serial online] 2004;June/July. Available:www. universityaffairs. ca/issues/2004/junejuly/print/spinningoff. html (accessed 2004 Dec 13). 8. Kennedy D. Enclosing the research commons [editorial]. Science2001;294:2249. [PubMed] 9. Welch P, Cass CE, Guyatt G, Jackson AC, Smith D. Defending medicine: clinical faculty and academic freedom. Report of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Task Force on Academic Freedom for Faculty at University-Affiliated Health Care Institutions. Ottawa: Canadian Association of University Teachers; 2004 Nov. Available:www. caut. ca/en/issues/academicfreedom/DefendingMedicine. pdf (accessed 2004 Dec 21). 10. Salmon P. Effects of physical exercise on anxiety, depression, and sensitivity to stress: a unifying theory. Clin Psychol Rev2001;21:33-61. [PubMed] 11. Depression: management of depression in primary and secondary care. Clinical guideline 23. London (UK): National Institute for Clinical Excellence; 2004 Dec. Available:http://www. nice. org. uk/pdf/CG023NICEguideline. pdf (accessed 2005 Mar 8). 12. Nemets B, Stahl Z, Belmaker RH. Addition of omega-3 fatty acid.

Holes Book Report Essay

Holes Book Report Essay Louis Sachar was born march 20, 1954 in New York. He is an American author of childrens books. He has written twenty-four books. Louis Sachar is best known for the Sideways Stories From Wayside School book series and the novel Holes. For the novel Holes Sachar won a National Book Award and the Newbery Medal. Holes sold in five millions copies, and it became a movie in 2003. Plot: The book is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats IV, who is supposedly a very unlucky person because of a family curse. He was sent to Camp Green Lake, after being falsely accused of stealing a pair of sneakers that belonged to a famous baseball player, Clyde Livingstone, from a charity auction to benefit the homeless. At camp Green Lake, Stanley was assigned a bed and given two pairs of clothes and a shovel. Stanley and the other boys who stayed there had to dig one hole each day which was supposed to build character. He later found out that the Warden was making them dig holes in order to find a treasure. One day Stanley agreed to teach his new friend Zero how to read and write and in exchange Zero would dig Stanleys hole for one hour everyday. The other boys got jealous of watching Stanley do nothing, and a fight broke out between the other boys and Stanley. Zero got angry and then ran away into the desert. Stanley decided to go after him the next day. After running deep into the desert he finally found Zero. They decided to climb to the mountaintop called Gods thumb in hopes of finding refuge. Stanley found a field of onions and water. For many days they survived on the onions and water. They planned to find the treasure that was hidden at the camp and so decided to make their way back. They returned to the camp to dig out the treasure. What they did not know was that they dig in a yellow-spotted-lizard-nest, and before trying to leave they were surrounded by the lizards. Setting: The story takes place at a juvenile detention facility called Camp Green Lake. The camp is located in a barren and desolate desert. There are only some rundown buildings and some tents. There is also no plant life except for two trees. Also, the lake is completely dry, and in daytime the sun is burning hot. The fact that there is no water in the desert plays a role in the story because it makes it difficult for the boys to escape from the camp. One hundred and ten years ago Camp Green Lake was the largest lake in Texas. The lake was full of clear blue water, and it was lined with peach trees. We do not get to know the exact time and year that the story takes place in, but I think the story takes place around thirty years ago, in 1981. This is because they used cellphones and cars and also, the book was released in 1998. The story takes place in the months May and June, because on the 8th of June it was Zeros birthday and then Stanley had been at camp for fifty-six days. The book is a mix of fantasy and realistic fiction. This is because a lot of the events in the book could also happen in reality, and for many people some of the situations in the book could be for real. The book is also fantasy because his family is cursed with bad luck. The story is told by the narrator in third person point of view. Stanley Yelnats: Stanley is the protagonist of the book. He is fifteen-years old, he doesnt have friends and he is overweighed. He has constant bad luck that was brought to his family by his great-great-grandfather. While he is at Camp Green Lake he loses weight and develops physical strength. The other boys gave him the nickname Caveman. At first Stanley only looks at the negative sides of himself, but when he becomes friends with Zero, the least popular boy, he finds strength. His friendship with Zero helps Stanley to discover his own courage, happiness and self-confidence. By the time he is released, Stanley gets a new positive sense of himself. Zero: Zero is an African American boy. He is fifteen-years old. He is illiterate, but Stanley teaches him how to read and write. He had a mother but he doesnt know what happen to her, and the rest of his life he had been homeless. He is intelligent and very good at math. Zero was sent to Camp Green Lake after stealing a pair of sneakers. He tells that he used to steal, but he only stole what he needed. Theme: Friendship is an important theme in the book. When Stanley comes to Camp Green Lake he is insecure and dont have self-confidante. After he becomes friends with the other boys he becomes more self-confidante. Its important to have good friends and someone to talk with. Also when Stanley carries Zero in the desert, because zero was too weak its a symbol of friendship. The theme is how fate and history impact everyday life. We can say that destinys shoes landed on Stanley, because his life became much better after staying at Camp Green Lake. The curse is broken, or maybe never had been there. Stanley was finally at the right place at the right time. My opinion: I liked the book because it was exciting. In the beginning of the book it was kind of boring, but at the same time I wanted to continue reading. This was because they only dug holes and that was kind of boring, but I wanted to know why they dug all those holes and thats what made it exciting. Recommendation: I recommend this book for girls and boys between twelve and sixteen years. Both girls and boys who like to read an exciting, and mystery book could read Holes.