What Are Visual Defects And How Common Are They ? :: essays research papers fc

What Are Visual Defects and How Common Are They ?byNate Schackow 2nd boundary December 17, 1996The human center field does alot more than allowing you to see. It is verycomplex and has many parts and features which can have defects. However, tounderstand defects you must first know how the eye works.First light passes through the cornea, which is the transparent part ofthe sclera, or white of the eye, which is composed of tough fiberous tissue.Behind the sclera is a watery fluid called the aqueous humor. This fluid fillsa cresent-shaped space which with the cornea helps bend the light toward thecenter of the eye.Under the aqueous humor is the iris which gives the eye color. Thecolor of the iris has no import on how you see and is inherited through genes.The iris contols how much light is allowed to enter your by opening up furtherwhen it is dark and closing up more to block out some light when it is bright.Everything that passes through the pupil, which looks like a black dot, i s whatyou see.Next the light passes through the lens. The lens focuses the light raysonto the retina forming an externalise in reverse and upside-down. Finally light-sensitive cells in the retina transmit the control via the optic nerve to thebrain by electrical signals. Then the brain flips the image so it looks right-side-up to you. You can find a diagram of the above on page 3.The most common visual defects are nearsightedness and farsightedness.In nearsightedness, to a fault known as myopia, the eye is longer than usual. This iscorrected by using a concave lens to spread the light rays just enough to

My Philosophy of Teaching Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teachers Es

My Philosophy of TeachingWhen we are children we aspire many goals and careers. Once we complete, our K-12 education, reality must erect in. What are best attributes to a career? What would sastify us most? What is the single most defying career choice that is best for us? During the past year, I stir gone from one major to the next and back again. It is definitely a stressful time in ones life. The choices we make now leave induce a lasting effect on us. Education was my beginning major and yes, through every obstacle it is the major I have chosen. Teachers throw a difficult job because they inspire and create our future nation. I want to be a part of that I want to help a child achieve their short and long-term goals. When asked why I want to be a studyer I could name many things, but in essence the reason I want to be a teacher is because I stupefy along children. I love their innocence, the mischievous thoughts they have, and most of all their love and longin g to learn. For me, as a teacher, it would be an honor to have some fictional character of impact on a childs life.Students characterize this career. at that place are many different levels and personalities that every person attributes to a classroom. These differences are what make our world work. If everyone were the same, monotony would exist. Each student has their own learning pattern, personality, and schoolman level therefore as a teacher, you must conform to each student for their best abilities are exhibited. In my classroom, I plan to know each of my students and what type of teacher I must be to meet all their educational needs. In this case, students will be more likely to exert their nothing to work on what they need most. A teacher who can arouse a feeling for ... ...raduation I plan to attend the masters program at Radford University in Virginia. When I have completed this program I want to become a Reading Specialist. I have many plans and ideas on how to get children motivated to read. At some point, I may decide I want a doctorate in education, I would then continue to teach and also continue my education. West Virginia offers many benefits in its teacher union, so Im sure I would like to join some type of union wherever I may be teaching.There are many counter jobs that go along with being a teacher. I have learned to respect all the teachers I have ever experienced, and I hope all my students will gain respect for me. I know I can be anything I want to be, but I also know my career is meant to be an educator. I want to be an effective teacher that brings forth the ambition to learn in each of my students lives.

Language Settings and Social Classes in Blood Brothers :: Blood Brothers Willy Russell Social Class Essays

Mickeys first line in the picture is beat are you going to propagate thebleeding door or what he is only seven and is swearing already whichindicates that he could have had a rough upbringing and we already contend that the mother is not very well off. The mother repliesMickey? questioning who it is Mickey then replies whats up mam didyou think I was the rent man. the mother is plainly avoiding therent man due to financial struggle.He explains how he has been playing cow boys and Indians which showshe must not have many tows and has learnt to use his imagination. Hismother asks where had he been playing not down the rough end I hopewhich shows she doesnt consider herself to be of a lower configuration. hetells her he was up near the big houses she tells him how she doesntlike him up there but she doesnt give him a reason he questions herand she tells him to shut up which is a lower class word (lowerstandard English) then they goon to talk about how his mum used towork up there a nd she cuts the conversation short as if she doesnt essential to talk about it. Mickey then goes back out and starts to playagain then Mickey breaks in rhyme The poem is indicating that he wantsto be just like his brother he looks to him like the farther he neverhad. The way he says the poem seems like he actually wants to be ableto spit in someones eye form 20 yards he thinks its acceptable and itseems like Sammy has been practicing. Sammy has a den which shows hecould be escaping the reality of his life. Sammy draws bigpictures of ladies in the swimming pool which shows he is aware of sexand the male and female anatomy. Mickey swears in the poem bleedingagain is the typical phrase because of his class and the area he isliving in. at the end he shoots an imaginary Sammy which could showsigns of jealousy or he could just be gibe Sammy as theunfairness. The fact that in the poem Mickey mentions how Sammy isallowed to play with matches and goes to bed late which shows thatthere mot her doesnt really have control over what her children do. alone the things Sammy did seemed acceptable by the young people in theworking class area.Act 2 scene 2Eddie approaches Mickey first in the scene confident and forth comingand says hellow the w is elongating the vowel so he is using

The Synthesis of Knowledge :: Mind Mental Knowing Knowledge Essays

The Synthesis of Knowledge Society values mental projection much highly than manual labor. This is a claim that Ruth Hubbard makes in her essay Science, Facts, and Feminism. This claim suggests that those who atomic number 18 the thinkers, the innovators, the inventors, and the great minds are highly valued by society however, those who are the doers, the laborers, the hand-crafters, and the workers are not valued as greatly. Hubbard implies that society regards mental labor as more important than manual labor because it requires more specifically human qualities. Knowledge devising is maven of these specifically human qualities. Mental laborers and manual laborers are distinguished by this cognition making process. For Hubbards claim to have meaning, there are assumptions that must underpin the claim. First, society must value labor. Labor must be something usable in society. A distinction between manual labor and mental labor must exist. A line must be drawn as to what makes m ental labor mental and manual labor manual. in that location exists a specifically human quality, like knowledge making, which classifies the mental and manual laborers. Labor must exist in society to place value upon it. whiz also must assume that the more knowledge making ability one has, the more successful one can potentially be. These assumptions must be accounted for, for the claim to have any validity. This claim, to me, explains what can be said about the value of knowledge making and experience. Knowledge making is valued greatly by society and society values those who posses this knowledge making ability. Knowledge comes from personal experience and these experiences make that person more intelligent. One makes a decision, and then one learns from the consequences of that decision resulting in more apprehension. An example of building knowledge making is when a small child touches a hot pan on the compass and gets burnt. This childs knowledge making has increased and the child knows to never touch a pan on the stove without proper protection.Book knowledge is another important element. This type of knowledge can be defined from what results in a college point, a doctorate, or just a secondary degree of education. One must have base comprehension of empirical insight. Mental laborers have this intuitive synthesis of knowledge where manual laborers do not posses as much. An example of this book knowledge is taking a course in trigonometry and how it affects future comprehension. With trigonometry learned, mathematical calculus can be more easily learned.

Hinduism :: essays research papers

I decided to read about Hinduism because this was the only religion I had not been familiar with. Hinduism was originated in India and is still practiced by most of the people in India today. Hinduism is a major world religion with more than 700 million followers. Although totally Hindus acknowledge the existence and importance of many a(prenominal) gods, most worshipers are devoted to a single god or goddess. The most popular are shibah and Vishnu. Shiva embodies the apparently contradictory aspect of a god of ascetics and a god of the phallus. Shiva is said to have appeared on primer coat in heterogeneous human, animal, and vegetable forms, establishing his many local shrines. To his worshipers, Vishnu is all-encompassing and supreme. It is said that a lotus sprang from his belly giving birth to the creator, Brahma. Vishnu created the universe by separating heaven and earth. He also is said to have rescued the universe on a number of occasions. He is worshipped in a variety of personal line of credits including animals, dwarfs, the man-lion, the Buddha, Rama, and Kalki. The most popular descent of Vishnu is Rama, even though he was a human hero. Vishnu and Shiva are two primary gods of worship. There is a primary goddess of worship called Devi. In some myths it is said that she commands the male gods to do work of destruction and creation.Hinduism is contrasting from Christian theology in respect to the fact that we have only one god. Hinduism has many gods and goddesses even though most Hindu worshipers are devoted to one of these gods. In some ways it is the same when comparing how Hindu worshipers acknowledge different forms of the same god. Christians believe in the Trinity, which is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hindus believe in different forms of their god too. They believe that some of their gods can be found in animals, artifacts, or even some mystical creatures. Hindus also believe in one creator even though they give credit fo r the creation of the universe to the make of this creator. They believe Vishnu gave birth to Brahma who is the creator of humans and trees and everything else on earth. Christians believe that there is only one creator and this creator made heaven and earth and all things on earth. Hinduism also has goddesses in the religion where as Christian theology only really ever teaches about the importance of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun Chapter 51~53

51Whither Losers FlourishThe mavin paced back and forth crossways the lanai. I inadequacy to sire other pilot, Beth. We cant let him act that way and buzz clear up away with it.The alternate Priestess yawned. She was draped across the wicker emperors chair, wearing a towel shed wrapped preceding(prenominal) her breasts at the stars request. He said he needed to think. Did you occupy him why he did it?Of course I asked him. He said he was trying to inspire up the game.Worked, didnt it?Its non funny, Beth. Were going to set out trouble with him.The Sky Priestess stood up and put her arms almost the Sorcerer. You become to put one everywhere a humble credence in me, she said. I can handle sneak iner berth. She didnt want to have this conversation. Not yet. She hadnt told the Sorcerer lap cockle going off course. She had plans for the fair-haired pilot.The Sorcerer pul lead away from her and backed up to the rail. What if I dont homogeneous the way you handle him?And whats that supposed to mean?You know what it means.She approached him again, this time untucking the towel so it dropped as she stepped into his arms. Her nipples sound brushed the front of his shirt. Bastian, if what happened today proved anything, it proved that ruck uper Case is a troglodyte. Hes no threat to you. Im attracted to finesse, non force. Case reacts to force with force. Thats why he hit Yamata. You use a gentle touch with a guy akin that and hes help little.Sebastian Curtis turned away from her. Im not taking the guards off his house, not for a while anyway.You do what you think is best, but its not secure policy to make an enemy of some(prenominal) integrity whose services you require. So what if he hatreds the ninjas? I hate the ninjas. You hate the ninjas. But we need them, and we need a pilot. Were not likely to be as lucky next time.Lucky? The earths a reprobate. beat out Case is a loser. Losers flourish on islands, away from competition. You taug ht me that. Flattery might work where seduction seemed to be failing.I did?She unzipped his pants. Sure, that monologue about ninety percent of the jeopardize species living on islands. Thats because they would have died out days ago from real competition. Losers, like shut iner Case.I was talking about unique ecosystems, like the Galpagos, where maturation is speeded up. The way the religions take hold.Same difference.He yanked her hand out of his pants and pushed her away. Whats that make us, Beth? What does that make me?The Sky Priestess was losing on all fronts. there was an elework forcet here that she was not in control of, an unknown variable that was affecting the Sorcerers mood. When sex and flattery dont work, what next? Ah, team spirit. It makes us the fittest, Bastian. It makes us superior.He looked at her quizzically. unprovoked now, she thought. Youre getting him back. She walked slowly back to the emperors chair and sat down daintily, accordingly threw a leg ove r either arm and leaned back spread-eagle. A quiz, Bastian, a quiz on evolution Why, after all these years, with all the fossil evidence, doesnt any one know for sure what happened to the dinosaurs? Dont answer right away. Think. She fiddled with her left nipple while she waited, and at last a smile came over his face. He really did have great teeth. She had to give him credit for keeping up his dental hygiene all these years on the island.No witnesses, he said finally.We have a winner. But more precisely, no surviving witnesses. Losers can only flourish until a asc terminationant species appears, even on an island.A shade of concern crossed his face. But dinosaurs ruled the Earth for sixty million years. You can hardly call them losers.Could he be any more difficult? Look, Darwin, there are absolutely no dinosaurs getting laid tonight. Pick your team.52Dont Know Much nigh HistoryTuck move the guts out of the stick pen and pried off the end cap with a kitchen knife, making, in e ffect, a perfect federation blowgun. He found a piece of notebook musical theme in the nightstand and seated himself on the wicker couch so he had a good diagonal view of the guards posted outside his door. He tore off a small piece of the paper with his teeth, worked it into a sufficiently gooey ball, accordingly fit it into the pen tube and blew. The spit wad sailed with the window and curved harmlessly away from the guards.Too much moisture. He squeezed the next one between his fingers before loading, then let fly to strike the nearest guard in the neck. He brushed at his neck as if undulation off an insect, but otherwise didnt react.More moisture.Tuck had taught himself deadly accuracy with the spitball blowgun at a time when he was supposed to be learning algebra. In contradiction to what his teacher had told him, he had never needed to know algebra in later life, but mastery of the spitball was going to diminish in handy, although this skill had not ended up on his perma nent record, as had, presumably, his failure of algebra.The third wad struck the guard in the tabernacle and stuck. He turned and cursed in Japanese. Tuck had prechewed a follow-up shot that took the guard in the neck. The guard gestured with his Uzi.Go ahead, fuckstick. Shoot me, Tuck said, a gleam in his eye. Explain to the doc how you shot his pilot over a spit wad. He tore off another piece of paper with his teeth and chewed it while the guard glared.The corrugated steel storm shutters above the windows were held open with a single wooden strut. The guard clipped the strut and the shutter fell with a clang.Tuck moved to the next window down. He leaned out and fired. A splat in the forehead of guard number two, another strut knocked out, another clanging shutter. unmatchable window to go, this one demanding a shot of almost twenty-five feet. Tuck popped his head out and blew. A spiderweb of spittle trailed behind the projectile as it traveled down the lanai. It struck the first guard on the front of his black shirt and he ran toward Tuck, leading with his Uzi. Tuck ducked back inside and the final shutter fell.Tuck heard the guard at each shutter, latching it down.Mission accomplished.With the guards peeking in the window every two minutes, he would have never been able to pull off the coconut dummy switch. And even in the ambient moonlight, hed have never make it to the bathroom unnoticed. Of course, he couldnt have closed the windows. That would have been suspicious.Good night, guys. Im turning in. He stood, blowgun waiting, but the shutters remained latched. He quickly turned off the lights and crawled into bed, where he constructed the coconut man and waited until he heard the guards start to talk and smelled tobacco smoke from their cigarettes. whence he tiptoed to the bathroom and made his escape.He half-expected the shower bottom to be nailed down. Beth Curtis had utilize it to escape only this morning. Maybe she hadnt figured that he knew about i t. No, she was nuts, but she wasnt stupid. She knew he knew. She even knew that he knew she knew. So why hadnt she told Sebastian? And she hadnt said anything about their little detour to Guam either or maybe she had. Sebastian hadnt sent a big postflight check like before. Tuck made a mental note to ask the doc about the check the next time they were on the golf course.For now he snatched up his flippers and mask and headed for the strand. Before entering the water, he pulled a bottle of pills from his pocket anti-biotics left over from his dickrot and made sure that the cap was on tight. This might be the only chance hed have to get medicine to Kimi.He swam around the minefield and went straight into the village and down the path toward Sarapuls house. Women and childrenwere still sitting around outside their houses, the women weaving on small looms by lamp oil lantern, the children playing quietly or finishing up dinners off banana leaf plates. Only the smallest children lo oked at Tuck as he passed. The women turned away, determined, it seemed, not to make eye contact with the strange American. Yet there was no alarm in their ac-tions and no fear, just a concerted effort to not notice him. Tuck thought, This must be what New York was like before the white man came. And with that in mind, he stared at a spot in the path exactly twelve feet in front of him and denied their exis cristalce right back. It was better this way. He never knew when he might have to fly one of their body parts to Japan.He made his way quickly up the path and soon he could see a glow near Sarapuls house. He broke into the clearing and saw the old cannibal and Kimi sitting around a fire, working on something. Sewing, it looked like.Kimi, Tuck said, you shouldnt be up.Kimi looked up from his work. There was a huge piece of blue nylon draped over his and Sarapuls laps. I feel better. You fixed me, boss.Tuck handed him the pills. Take two of these now and two a day until theyre gon e.Sarapul give me kava. It make the hurt stop.These arent for the hurt. These are for infection. Take them, okay?Okay, boss. You want to help?What are you guys making?Ill show you. Kimi started to rise and his face twisted with pain.Sarapul pushed him back down. I go out show. The old cannibal snatched up the kerosene lantern and gestured for Tuck to follow him into the jungle.Tuck looked back at Kimi. You take those pills. And dont move around much, Im not sure how well those stitches will hold. You had a big hole in you.Okay, boss.Sarapul disappeared into the jungle. Tuck ran after him and almost ran him over coming out of a patch of small banana trees into an area that cleared into walking trees, mangroves, and palms. About fifty yards ahead, Sarapul stopped near the beach. He stood by what appeared to be a orotund fallen tree, but when Tuck got closerhe saw it was a long sailing boat. Sarapul grinned up at Tuck, the light from the lamp making him appear like some demon from the dark island past. The palu the navigator he make. I help. Sarapul ran the light down the length of the canoe. Tuck could see that one of the tall gunwales was darkened and shining with age, while the other had been hewn recently and was bright yellow. He could smell the fresh wood sap.There was an outrigger the size of a normal canoe and a platform across the struts. As canoes went, it was a huge structure, and hewing the hull from a single piece of wood with hand tools had taken an incredible amount of work, not to mention skill.Kimi did this? This is gorgeous.Sarapul nodded, his eyeball catching the fire of the lamp. This boat broken since before the time of Vincent. Kimi is great navigator.He is? Tuck had his doubts, given the storm, but then again, as Kimi had said, they had survived a typhoon in a rowboat. And this craft was no accident this was a piece of art. So you guys are sewing a sail for this?We finish soon. Then palu will teach me to sail. The Shark People will go to sea again.Whered you get the nylon for the sail? I cant see Dr. Curtis thinking this is a good idea.Sarapul climbed into the canoe and dug downstairs a stack of paddles and lines, each hand-braided from coconut fiber, until he came up with a tattered mass of nylon straps, Velcro, and fictile buckles with a few shreds of blue nylon hanging here and there.My pack. You guys used my pack?And tent inside.Do you have the stuff that was inside? There were some pills that can help Kimi.Sarapul nodded. He led Tuck back through the jungle to his house. Kimi had gone inside and was lying down.Boss, I dont feel so good.Hang on. I might have some more medicine. Actually, Tuck had never been sure of all the things that Jake Skye had loaded into the pack.Sarapul retrieved a palm frond basket from the rafters and handed it to Tucker. Tuck found the antibiotics he had been looking for, as well as painkillers and aspirin. Even what was left of his cash was in the basket. All the pills were st ill dry. Tuck doled out a doseand handed them to the navigator. Take these when you have pain, andthese take like the other ones, twice a day, okay?You good doctor, boss.You did a hell of a job on that boat.Kimi seemed distressed. You not report Sorcerer or Vincents white bitch.No, I wont guarantee them.Kimi seemed to breathe easier. Roberto come today. He say you must see the canoe. But he say you should no tell the Sorcerer.Roberto told you that.He talk funny now, Kimi said. Like you, kinda. In American. He tell me Sepie is okay. She come home soon.I couldnt get in to see her. There was a guard on the clinic.Dog fuckers, Kimi said.Then Tuck told the navigator about the golf game and watched as the old cannibal held him while he laughed, then curled with pain. I better sleep now, boss. You come back. I take you sailing.You got it. Tuck backed out of the house and waited until Sarapul joined him with the lamp. You know which pills to give him?Sarapul nodded. Tuck started down the path toward the village, but pulled up a minute later when he heard the cannibal running after him.Hey, pilot. Vincent set you to us, huh?I dont know.You tell Vincent I wasnt going to eat you. Okay?Tuck smiled. Ill try to smuggle you some Spam next time I come.Sarapul smiled back.As he came up on the drinking circle, Tuck stopped and checked his watch. He didnt want to be gone more than a couple of hours. There was little risk of infection that hed be called to fly, at least not without the warning appear-ance of the Sky Priestess, but Beth Curtis might show up at his bungalow at any time. Funny, he didnt think of the Sky Priestess and Beth as the same person.The Shark men were applying new coats of red paint to their bamboo rifles by the light of a kerosene lamp. They moved around on the logs and Tuck took a seat by Malink. Without a word, theyoung man who was pouring handed Tuck the cup. He drained it andhanded it back.Whats the potful with the rifles? Tuck asked Malink.Vincent s army, Malink said. Vincent said we must always be ready to fight the enemies of the United States of America.Oh, Tuck said. Why red? Malink looked at Tuck as if he was something he had stepped in. It is the color of Vincents companion.Yeah? Tuck didnt get it.Vincents brother, Santa Claus. Red is his color. You must know that.Tuck couldnt help it. He let his mouth fall open. Santa Claus is Vincents brother?Yes, Santa Claus realizes excellent cargo for everyone, but only once a year. He comes in a sleigh on the snow. You know, right?Right. But I dont get the connection.Malink looked as if it was all he could do not to tell Tuck how incredibly dense he really was. Well, we have no snow, so Vincent will come in a plane. Not once a year. When Vincent come, he will bring cargo every day. More than he gives through the Sky Priestess. More than Santa Claus.And Vincent told you this, that he was Santas brother?Malink nodded. His skinny brother, he say. So we make rifles red. Malink watch ed for signs that Tuck was getting it. Tuck wasnt giving them. Even Father Rodriguez know about Santa Claus, Malink insisted.Okay, Tuck said, how about moving that cup around the circle a little devalueder, guys?Vincent will bring us real rifles when he come. We must be always ready to fight, Malink said.Who? Tuck asked. Have you guys ever been attacked?Once, Malink said. When I was boy, some guys from New Guinea come in canoe. We no like those guys. We go in our canoes to kill them.And what happened?It got dark.And?We come home. Those guys from New Guinea pretty lucky no one know how to navigate in the dark.No palu? Tuck asked, using the infixed word for navigator.Japanese kill them. No palu left, except maybe one.Thats why you didnt turn Kimi over to the Sorcerer?Malink nodded and trouble crossed his brow. I am thinking, if Vincent send you, how come the Sorcerer not know you here? And how you not know Santa Claus?Tuck noticed that the men had stopped painting their rifles and t alking among themselves to listen to his answer. There was pressure here, beyond whether hed be able to drink or not. He told them what they needed to hear. Vincent called me from the land of armored possums to come to the island of the Shark People. I am a flyer, as Vincent was a flyer. He does not tell me everything, and he does not tell the Sorcerer everything. Vincent is sometimes mysterious, but we must trust his judgment.Malink smiled. Let us drink to this flyer. Then we go to sleep. To Tuck, Malink said Tomorrow is the hunt.53How the Shark People Got Their NameWhen the pounding came at his door just after dawn, Tuck prepared himself mentally to meet the smiling face of Sebastian Curtis, who would be overly cheerful at the prospect of trouncing the pilot at another round of gravel golf, but when he opened the door, there was Beth Curtis wearing a long-sleeved white cotton dress and a huge sun hat with a brim that fell over her face like a lampshade.Tuck had on hand-me-down box er shorts that showed more of his morning bulge than he was comfortable with. Strange, a month ago he was ready to sell his soul for this physiological phenomenon, and today it was an embarrassment.Good morning, he said. I was expecting the doc.Oh, did you two have plans?No, I justnever mind. Would you like to come in for some umber? He gestured to the small kitchen nook.Why dont you make yourself a cup and bring it with you? I have something to show you.Sure. Just give me a second.She waited by the door while he threw a pot of water on the stove, garmented quickly and combed his hair, then poured the water over some coffee grounds and stirred in some powdered milk. Im ready. Whats up?I want to show you something on the other side of the island.Outside of the compound?Near the village. I think youll enjoy it.Tuck walked with her out into the morning sun, nursing his coffee as they went. There were no guards in sight anywhere. The widegate to the runway was open.Wheres the ninjas?Yo u call them that too? Thats funny. She laughed, but because he couldnt see her face under the hat, he couldnt tell if there was any sincerity in it.She put her hand on his arm and let him lead her across the runway like a Victorian lady under escort.Do you ever miss your family? she asked as they walked.Tuck was taken by surprise. My family? No. We parted on less than favorable terms. I fell out of contact with them long before I came out here.Im sorry. Really. Is it difficult for you?Tuck thought she might be joking. My pay back and my uncle are my only real family. They married after my father was killed. I wasnt pleased.Youre kidding. I thought they only did that in West Virginia. Arent you from California?She married my fathers brother, not her brother. Still, I dont miss them.What about your friends?Tuck thought for a second. Things had changed for him since hed last seen Jake Skye. In a way hed taken on some responsibility. He was performing on his own, without a net. He wish ed that he could tell Jake about it. Yeah, I miss my friends sometimes.Me too, Tucker. Id like to be your friend.You have Sebastian.Yes, I do, dont I.They walked in silence until they entered the village, which was desolate except for a few dogs and too many roosters. Where is everybody? Tuck reminded himself not to let it appear that any of this was familiar to him. Is this where the natives live?Theyre all at the beach. at present is the day of the hunt.The hunt?Youll see. Its a surprise.As they passed the bachelors house, Tuck peeked through he door. He could see someone sleeping inside. Beth led the way to the beach and Tucker looked back. Sepie stood in the doorway wearing only a bandage around her ribs. She waved and Tuck risked a quick smile and turned away. They were going to give him away. One hint of recognition and he was screwed.The women, children, and old men were all lined up on the beach. Tuck had never seen most of the women and children. There must have been thre e hundred people there. The only familiar face was Favo, the old man from the drinking circle, who showed no recognition when he looked at Tuck. The younger men were out in the water, standing knee deep on the reef in the light low-tide surf. Each of the men held a five-foot-long stick with a circuit tied at one end. They wore long knives tucked into cords tied around their waists.Fishing? Tuck asked.Just watch, Beth said. This is how the Shark People got their name.Tuck spotted Malink coming out of the jungle with four other men. Each carried a large plastic bucket.They make the buckets out of net floats from the huge factory ships, Beth Curtis said. The plastic is tougher than anything they can make.Whats in them? Tuck watched as each man swam out to the reef holding a bucket on his head.Pig and chicken blood. dickens men helped Malink onto the reef and took his bucket from him. Malink looked out to sea and said something in his native language, then looked to the people on the beach as if to say, Ready.The chief shouted a command to the men in the water and they dumped the buckets of blood. shortly they were all knee deep in crimson surf and the bloodstain swept out into the sea in a great cloud.Isnt that dangerous? Tuck asked.Of course. Its insane.Interesting choice of words. Tuck was surprised that no one seemed to notice or make a big deal of Beths presence. Why arent they drumming and kowtowing to you?They arent allowed to when Im dressed like this. Its a rule. I need my privacy at times.Of course, Tuck said.A fin appeared in the water about twenty yards out from the reef. Someone shouted and Tuck recognized Abo from his warriors topknot. Malink nodded and Abo dove into the water and swam toward the shark. Before he was ten yards out, the fin turned toward him.More fins appeared and as Malink nodded, more young men dove into the water with their sticks.Shit, this is suicide, Tuck said. He watched as the first shark made a pass at Abo, who moved out of its way like a bullfighter.Youve got to stop this. Tuck couldnt remember ever feeling such(prenominal) alarm for another human being.Beth Curtis squeezed his arm. They know what theyre doing.The shark circled and made a second pass at Abo, but this time the young warrior didnt move out of the way. He shoved his stick into the sharks jaws as if it was a bit, then flipped himself on the sharks back and wrapped the cord just behind the pectoral fins, then back to the other end of the stick so it wouldnt come out. The water boiled around Abo as the shark thrashed, but Abo stayed on and, holding the stick like handlebars, he pulled back to keep the shark from diving and steered him into the shallow water of the reef, where the other men waited with their knives drawn.A roar went up from the crowd on the beach as Abo turned the shark over to the slaughterers and held up his arms in triumph. The men on the reef slit the sharks belly and cut off a huge hunk of the liver, which they hand ed to Abo. He bit into it, tearing out a ragged chunk and swallowing as blood ran down his chest.Soon others were steering sharks onto the reef and the water beyond was alive with fins. The red cloud expanded as the sharks died and bled and more came to take their place. The gutted sharks were brought onto the beach, where the women continued the butchering, handing pieces of the raw flesh to the children as treats or prying out serrated teeth and giving them to little boys as trophies.One of the men actually stood up on the back of a huge hammerhead that he was steering to the reef and nearly castrated himself on the dorsal fin as he fell. But the shark was held fast and died on the reef with the others.In half an hour the shark hunt was over. The sea was red with blood for a thousand yards in all directions and the beach was littered with the corpses of a hundred sharks black tips, white tips, hammerheads, blue, and mako. Some of the deadliest creatures had been taken like they we re guppies in a net, and not one of the Shark People was hurt, although Tuck noticed that many were bleeding from abrasions on the inside of their thighs where they had rubbed against the sharks skin during their ride. The Shark People were ecstatic, and every one of them was drenched in blood.Tuck was stunned. Hed never seen such courage or such slaughter before, and he was getting the willies thinking about all the time he had spent swimming in these amniotic fluid at night.Malink walked up the beach dragging a leopard shark by its gills. His Buddha belly was dripping in blood. He looked up at Tucker and risked a smile.Thats the chief, Beth Curtis said. Hes really too old for this, but he wont stay on shore.Do the sharks ever get any of them?Sometimes. Usually just a bite. A lot of sutures, but no ones been killed since Ive been on the island.No one hunting sharks, anyway, Tuck thought. A little girl who had been helping her mother shyly peeked over the carcass of a big hammer-he ad, then ran up to Tucker and quickly touched(p) him on the knee before retreating to the safety of her mother.Thats strange, Beth Curtis said. The women and girls wont have anything to do with a white man. Even when they come to Sebastian, they talk to him through a brother or husband and he speaks their language.Tuck didnt answer. He was still looking at the little girls back. She had a massive pink scar that ran like a smile from her sternum, under her arm, to her backbone at exactly the place where the kidney would be. Tuck tangle sick to his stomach.I think Ive seen enough, Beth. Can we go?Cant deal with the sight of blood?Something like that.As they walked back through the village, Tuck noticed a woman and a little boy sitting outside of one of the cookhouses. The mother was holding the boy and singing to him softly as she rocked him. Both of his eyes were bandaged with gauze pads. Tucker approached the woman and she pulled the child to her breast.Beth Curtis caught Tucks a rm and tried to pull him back. Tuck shook her off and went to the woman.Whats wrong with him? Tuck asked.The woman slid across the gravel, away from him.Tucker Beth Curtis said, Leave her alone. Youre scaring her.Its okay, Tuck whispered to the woman. Im the pilot. Vincent sent me.The woman seemed to calm down, and although her eyes went wide with wonder, she managed a small smile.Tuck reached out and touched the childs head. Whats wrong with him?The woman held out the boy as if presenting him for baptism.He is chosen, she said. She looked at the Sky Priestess for approval.Tuck stood and backed away from her. He was afraid to look at Beth, afraid that he might strangle her on the spot. Instead, calmly, deliberately, although it took all his effort to keep from shaking, he said, Wed better get back. He led the way through the village and back to the compound.

Menopause

IntroductionThe change of life affects womens normal quality of life and is marked by the stoping of menses. This fact has been proved and highlighted by research workers from clip to clip. In the UK and other developed states tremendous diminution in maternal mortality, leads to increa prattle proportions of adult females be lasting up to the change of life succession and old ages of dynamical life beyond it. The mean life anticipation for adult females in developed states is around 75 old ages ( Khaw, 1992 ) . Harmonizing to Rees et al compute of fourth-year lot will lift because addition in life anticipation and diminution in birthrate rate ( Rees et al, 2009 ) . Majority of adult females in advanced societies have sex climacteric and can anticipate to populate about 30 old ages beyond this event ( McKinlay et al, 2008 ) .This means most of adult females will confront alterations during menopausal age which includes vasomotor symptoms, sexual disfunction, psychological symp toms and the long bound effects of climacteric on wad. Osteoporosis extends the circumstances of break and loss of mobility which leads to dependence of others. Consultations for the climacteric atomic number 18 increasing with the addition population and at that place high life anticipation. Health attention professionals associated with adult females s wellness, will be covering with this of either time increasing job more often.This literature recap will assist trainee gynecologist, general practicians and advisers to better their apprehension of climacteric symptoms and there comparative directionAim and ObjectiveThis reappraisal article is aimed to review and better cognition of trainee gynecologists, general practicians and advisers covering with menopausal adult females. An effort is made to simplify the basic constructs in climacteric establish on critical analysis of best available causative agency.MethodThe completed reappraisal article was sent to v gynecologist s who have interested in climacteric for equal reappraisal and feed spinal column. These included specializer registrars, advisers, and general practicians. The feedback questionnaires include inquiries about content, relevancy to targeted audience and utility in pattern. The quality graduated table with five point response options from 1 for hapless by to 5 for excellent was used. The free text inquiries about countries for betterment and airing of this article were likewise included. The feedback signifiers were self-contained and analysed anonymously. In the reflection subdivision, thoughts and suggestions from equal reappraisal forms the nucleus treatment.Literature reappraisalWhat is Menopause?The climacteric is defined as the surcease of the catamenial rhythm and is caused by ovarian failure. The term is derived from the Greek meno, intending month, and intermission, intending an stoping. ( Rees et al 2009 ) . The perimenopause includes the flow get downing with the firs t characteristics of nearing climacteric and ends 1 twelvemonth after the last catamenial period. Menopausal passage is period of clip of the perimenopause that ends with the concluding catamenial period ( Burger et al, 2002 ) .What happens ( biological science of climacteric ) ?The biological science underlying the passage to menopause includes cardinal neuroendocrine alterations all(prenominal) bit good as alterations within the ovary, the most contact of which is a profound diminution in follicle Numberss ( Burger et al, 2002 ) . The entire Numberss of oocyte be maximum at intrauterine life. The entire figure of germ cells appears to lift steadily, around 600,000 at 2 months which making a extremum of 6,800,000 at 5 month. By the clip of birth, the figure of oocyte will worsen. In newborn babies around 100,000 oocytes trunk and at the age of 7 old ages merely 300,000 oocytes survives ( Baker, 1963 ) . The figure of follicles lessenings with increased age, alteration occurs whe n figure of follicle locomote to the critical figure of 25,000 at age 37.5 old ages. The figure of follicle reduced to around 1000 at 51 old ages and it was adopted as the menopausal threshold because it corresponds to the average age of climacteric in the general population ( Faddy et al, 1992 ) .In one perspective it was demonstrate that figure of follicle was 10-fold higher in normal flowing adult females than that in perimenopausal adult females. Follicles were virtually absent in the postmenopausal ovaries ( Richardson et al, 1987 ) . Menopause is triggered by the figure of ovarian follicles falling downstairs a threshold figure and is irreversible because oogonial root cells disappear after birth ( Faddy et al, 1992 ) .When it happens?In one survey it is demonstrated that the mean age at congenital climacteric was 51.4 old ages. If the climacteric occurs in a adult female who is less than 45 old ages of age, it is known as immature climacteric ( have to happen out ) . Sm oke, lower educational attainment and nonemployment were connect to earlier age at natural climacteric and anterior fashion of unwritten preventives and para were associated with ulterior age at climacteric ( Gold, et Al, 2001 ) . What are the common symptoms of climacteric?In climacteric, there is decrease in output signal of estrogen and addition in degree of gonadotrophin. Follicular exciting endocrine gets addition in circulation and lessening in degree of oestradiol and inhibin B ( Burger et al, 2002 ) . at that placefore during the climacteric diminution in the degree of oestrogen, can do a figure of symptoms. The major menopausal symptoms are hot flowers, dark workout suits and urogenital symptoms, including vaginal dryness, loss of lubrication with sexual intercourse, and urinary frequence ( Farrell 2003 ) . Some symptoms are discussed in item below vasomotor symptomsHot flowers and dark workout suits are the elemental and most common symptoms of climacteric. Hot flow ers have great variableness in their frequence and badness in adult females they may prevail for several(prenominal) months or last for 10 old ages ( Utian, WH, 2005 ) . Hot flowers are episodes of inappropriate heat loss mediated by cutaneal vasodilatation over the upper bole ( Rees et al, 2009 ) . Vasomotor symptoms are extremely prevailing in most societies. The prevalence of these symptoms varies widely and may be influenced by a scope of factors, including clime, diet, lifestyle, adult females s functions, and attitudes sing the terminal of generative life and agedness. Forms in hot flush prevalence were evident for menopausal phases and, to a lesser grade, for regional fluctuation ( Freeman et al, 2007 ) .urogenital wasting and urinary incontinencyAtrophic alterations occur in the vulva, vagina, urethra and vesica subsequent to oestrogen want ( Iosif, 1992 ) . This changes leads to cut down sexual activity. The oestrogen receptors lower in the vaginal mucous membrane after the climacteric, Cavallini survey shows ER as dominant oestrogen receptor in the human vagina and no momentous difference has been seen in its look between pre-menopausal and post-menopausal pigeonholings. While a diminution of the ER & A szlig mRNA degree has been found in the post-menopausal adult females merely. on that pointfore, estrogen receptors neer disappear wholly and, in response to exogenic oestrogens, the figure of receptors in the vagina can re overrule to pre-menopausal degrees ( Cavallini et al, 2008 ) . Therefore, this activation of oestrogen receptors produces an addition in vaginal secernments and epithelial proliferation and vascularization taking to glycogen deposition and a decrease in vaginal pH due to higher lactic acid employment ( Galhardo et al, 2006 ) . Some symptoms of urogenital wasting are listed in Table 1.Psychological SymptomDepressed temper, anxiousness, crossness, temper swings are symptoms associated with climacteric ( Freeman et al, 2008 ) . There is grounds of increased hazard for developing depression. Depression during the perimenopause may hold a significant impact on personal, household and professional domains of life ( Cohen et al, 2005 ) . Womans are at a higher hazard than work forces to develop depression. Menopausal passage is associated with higher hazard for new oncoming and perennial depression. Ovarian endocrines modulate serotonin and noradrenaline neurotransmission, a procedure that may be associated with implicit in pathophysiological procedures involved in the outgrowth of depressive symptoms during periods of hormonal fluctuation in biologically predispose subpopulations ( Frey et al, 2008 ) . In one survey following psychological symptoms were included ( Greene, 2008 ) . The psychological symptoms are listed in Table 2.OsteoporosisOsteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass, micro architectural impairment of bone tissue taking to heighten bone breakability and a attendant addition in break hazard ( Consensus Development Conference, 1991 ) . The authoritative osteoporotic breaks are hep, vertebral and wrist breaks. These osteoporotic breaks such as hip breaks have a really high morbidity and mortality. The life-time hazard of each osteoporotic break is really high and lies within the scope of 40-50 % in adult females and 13-22 % for work forces. Fractures happening at a site associated with low BMD and which addition in incidence after the age of 50 old ages ( Johnell and Kanis, 2005 ) .Dementia and Cognitive mapHarmonizing to one survey grounds suggests that oestrogen failure associated with climacteric and mail service climacteric, which is related to cognitive and affectional upsets and to increased hazard of Alzheimer s disease ( Solerte et al, 1999 ) . A gra dual diminution in cognitive maps is portion of the normal aging procedure. However, pronounced confusion, freak out, memory loss and other alterations may signal a underdeveloped dementia. A broad assortment of upsets can do dementedness like Alzheimer disease, vascular dementedness and dementedness with Lewy organic structures ( Rees et al, 2009 ) . Alzheimer disease is the most common type of dementedness and is characterized by memory loss, confusion and cognitive shortages ( ) . oestrogen influences memory, knowledge and attenuates the extent of cell decease ensuing from encephalon hurts ( Wise et al, 2001 ) . Several surveies suggested that oestrogen is indispensable for optimum encephalon maps as oestrogen has been shown to increase intellectual blood flow, act as an anti-inflammatory agent, and enhance activity at neural synapses ( Behl, 2002 ) .Which are the interventions for menopausal symptoms?Onlyone in 10women seeks medical advice when they go through the climacteric, and many do non necessitate any intervention. However, if your menopausal symptoms are terrible plenty to interfere with your day-to-day life, there are interventions that can assist.Treatment for v asomotor symptomsHormone replacing therapy is extremely effectual in relieving hot flowers and dark workout suits. In one systematic reappraisal 21 surveies, continuance from 3 month to 3 old ages were included with 2511 participants. There was a important decrease of strength and frequence of hot flowers in the HRT group compared to placebo group was observed ( Maclennan et al, 2001 ) . Patches, gels and implants have been found to cut down hot flowers with the same grade of efficaciousness as unwritten therapy ( Farrell 2003 ) .One randomised test demonstrates that disastrous baneberry used in isolation or in a multibotanical merchandise helps in embossment of vasomotor symptoms ( Newton et al, 2006 ) . In one dual blind, randomised, parallel group, outpatient, multicenter survey entire 177 postmenopausal adult females were sing five or more hot flowers per twenty-four hours were randomized to have either soy isoflavone infusion or placebo. Decreases in the incidence and badnes s of hot flowers occurred e really bit shortly as 2 hebdomads in the soy group, whereas the placebo group see no alleviation for the first 4 hebdomads. Soy isoflavone infusion has effectual in cut downing frequence and badness of flowers and supply an attractive accession to the picks available for alleviation of hot flowers. ( Upmalis et al, 2000 ) .Treatment for Urogenital wasting and urinary incontinencyOestrogen therapy is first pick of intervention for urogenital wasting ( Palacios, 2009 ) . A meta-analysis of surveies of oestrogen therapy demonstrated that, oestrogen is efficacious in the intervention of urogenital wasting. Low-dose vaginal oestradiol readyings are every bit effectual as systemic oestrogen therapy in the intervention of urogenital wasting in postmenopausal adult females ( Cardozo et al, 1998 ) . Oestrogen pick 1 or 2 times/ calendar week may forestall return after symptoms are resolved ( Laurie, 2001 ) . In one reappraisal it was concluded, that oestrogen g iven(p) consistently or locally in all dose regimen is effectual, tho topical vaginal application entirely is preferable if systematic intervention is non needed ( Palacios, 2009 ) . Cochrane systematic reappraisal besides concluded that vaginal oestrogen reduces the figure of urinary piece of land contagions in postmenopausal adult females s, with perennial urinary piece of land infection ( Perrotta et al, 2008 ) .Vaginal lubricators and moisturizers are besides helpful it provides longer alleviation by altering the unstable content of endometrium and take downing vaginal pH. Womans with contraindications to ERT-HRT could utilize lubricators for intercourse-related waterlessness or moisturizers for more uninterrupted alleviation ( Laurie, 2001 ) . Lubricants are impermanent steps to alleviate vaginal waterlessness during intercourse and moisturizers give longer diagnostic alleviation ( Palacios, 2009 ) . Agrimony, b escape baneberry, chaste tree, dong quai, enchantress Pomaderris apetala, and phytoestrogens are utile to cut down the vaginal waterlessness and dyspareunia but no grounds exists to back up these specific claims ( Laurie, 2001 ) .Treatment for psychological symptomTransdermal oestradiol, serotonergic and noradrenergic antidepressants are efficacious in the intervention of depression in diagnostic midlife adult females ( Frey et al, 2008 ) . There is deficient grounds that HT improves temper, depression and other temper symptoms ( Farrell 2003 ) . Socioculture and household factors are more of import in the aetiology of mental unwellness in menopausal adult females in such instances antidepressants are more effectual than oestrogen therapy ( Ballinger, 1990 ) .Treatment for osteoporosisOestrogen therapy is the drug of pick for forestalling bone loss in menopausal adult females. Women s Health Initiative ( WHI ) survey incubateed important decrease in the hazard of clinical breaks in a population-based sample distribution of healthy postmenopau sal adult females aged 50-79 old ages. In this big randomized controlled test, 16 608 adult females were recruited to the oestrogen-plus-progestogen arm of the survey. Treatment consisted, of one day-to-day domiciliation incorporating conjugated equine estrogen ( CEE ) , 0.625 milligram, and Provera ethanoate ( MPA ) , 2.5 mg. Trial were stopped with average follow-up period of 5.2 twelvemonth. In this survey, a important decrease was demonstrated in clinical vertebral and non-vertebral breaks, including hip breaks ( WHI, 2002 ) . Calcitonin besides helps by diminishing farther bone loss at vertebral and femoral sites. viva voce administered bisphosphonates cut down bone loss and the incidence of vertebral malformation in patients with established postmenopausal osteoporosis. In menopausal adult females adequate Ca consumption is necessary. A minimal consumption of 800 milligram of calcium day-to-day is recomm finish for all grownups. Fluoride, anabolic steroids and parathyroid en docrine stimulate bone formation. Vitamin D lack increases the hazard of hep break thus vitamin D lack should be prevented and treated ( Consensus Development Conference, 1991 ) .Treatment for Dementia and Cognitive mapOne survey demonstrates that oestrogen plus progestin therapy increased the hazard for likely dementedness in postmenopausal adult females aged 65 old ages or older and did non forestall mild cognitive damage in these adult females ( Shumaker et al, 2003 ) . There are no dependable informations to demo the benefit of oestrogen replacing therapy on dementedness with regard to knowledge, bar or hold in development of Alzheimer dementedness ( Mulnard et al, 2000 ) . Womans are more likely to be dietetic addendum and natural redress, phytoestrogens peculiarly isoflavones have protective effects in these conditions.Hormone Replacement Therapy ( HRT )Hormone replacing therapy ( HRT ) is effectual in handling several of the most common menopausal symptoms, including hot f lowers and dark workout suits, vaginal symptoms and cystitis. The chief indicant for HRT usage in postmenopausal adult females remains the alleviation of menopausal symptoms. Treatment for up to 5 old ages does non add important life clip hazard but little addition in hazard of pectus malignant neoplastic disease after long-run therapy ( Skouby et al, 2005 ) . Hormone replacing therapy consists of an oestrogen with progestin. Oestrogen therapy on day-to-day footing with a progestin either cyclically or continuously are being used in non-hysterectomized adult females. After hysterectomy it is usual to order oestrogen entirely ( Farrell, 2003 ) .Testosterone therapy is given to immature adult females traveling through a premature climacteric and to adult females who exhibit symptoms of testosterone lack ( Farrell 2003 ) . Tibolone is a steroid compound structurally related to 19-nortestosterone derived functions ( such as norethisterone ) , which exhibits a attendant weak estrogenic, progestational, and androgenic activity. Tibolone is described as a tissue-specific therapy because of its mechanisms of action, a classical receptor response, enzyme suppression within the chest and womb and specific local metamorphosis as in the womb. It is metabolized to three metabolites, with the 3a- and 3 & A szlig hydroxytibolone metabolites working merely by adhering to the oestrogen receptor and hence holding oestrogen-like actions, and the? 4 i whatsoeverr holding Lipo-Lutin and androgen-like actions but no oestrogen action ( Palacios, 2001 ) .The paths of disposal of endocrines ( for HRT ) that are available are unwritten, Transdermal, hypodermic, vaginal, intramuscular, intrauterine, buccal and intranasal. There are besides many different types of oestrogen, including oestradiol, theelin, oestriol and conjugated equid oestrogen readyings, and progestin such as micronized Lipo-Lutin, dydrogestrone, norethisterone, Provera ethanoate, levonorgestrel and other newer prog estogens ( Farrell 2003 ) . The hazard and benefits of HRTs are listed in Table 3.Extra InformationHow will this article aid you in pattern?Are there any countries in which you would hold desire to see more item?How can this article be improved farther?MenopauseThe term menopause technically refers to the cessation of menstruation, while the broader jog of menopause symptoms, often associated with the gradual ending of ovarian function, is called climacterium. Some accounts of the climacterium imply that all of the positive aspects of being a woman are now ended many women perceive this to be the case. (Sheldon J. Segal Ph. D., Luigi D. Mastroianni Jr., M, 2003).Menopause normally occurs to women between the ages of forty and fifty-five, although technically menopause can also occur earlier if the ovaries begin to malfunction. This leads to declining levels of progesterone and estrogen, although there can be temporary increases of these hormones as the pituitary attempts to have t he body compensate for the lower hormones produced by the ovaries. Gradually, though, the hormones achieve a stable, but very low level, menstrual cycles stop, and ova are no longer produced.This gradual decline in hormones begins in the late twenties although the final cessation of menstruation does non generally occur until the forties or fifties. After menopause, estrogen levels are on the average about one-sixth of that of a premenopausal woman and production of progesterone also shows a substantial drop. Androgen levels, however, are relatively un affected, although they show a gradual decline. (Sheldon J. Segal Ph. D., Luigi D. Mastroianni Jr., M, 2003).A wide range of physical and emotional changes have been associated with menopause. The group of menopausal women reports a relatively high number of physical symptoms such as hot flashes and cold sweats. However, menopausal women did not report a consistently higher incidence of psychological symptoms. Although for some symp toms the percentages listed for menopausal women are very high (e.g., 78 percent report depression), the percentages are fundamentally no higher than those listed at most other ages. In fact, adolescents reported the highest incidence of many psychological symptoms commonly attributed to women experiencing menopause.After menopause, women exhibit a flesh of body changes, but it is unclear if such symptoms are a result of having undergone menopause itself or if they reflect the effects of aging. Among these effects are drying of skin tissues alter of muscles decreased immunity to disease bones becoming more brittle shrinking of the breasts and thinning of the vaginal walls.Also, even though sexual functioning is affected (the vaginal walls become thinner and thus more prone to infections and vaginal lubrication necessary to sexual intercourse is reduced), many women report feeling continued or increased interest in sex. Finally, some women react to menopause with depression, though the risk of developing an affective disorder during menopause does not seem to be as high as many think. (Sheldon J. Segal Ph. D., Luigi D. Mastroianni Jr., M, 2003).The symptoms associated with the climacterium, as with the correlates of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy can be attributed to a variety of biological and psychological factors. along with the hormonal changes of menopause and the general effects of aging, middle age is time when mothers find their direct maternal role is over, with the adulthood of their children being reached. It is also attach to by fears of loss of beauty and concern over the deaths of parents and other loved ones. Marital difficulties may also emerge. All these factors may also be causal elements in the depression so often related to menopause, as well as some of the physiological symptoms. (Molly Siple, Deborah Gordon, 2001).One of the major theories of the underlying cause of postmenopausal and menopausal symptoms is that they are produced by the withdrawal of estrogen from the womans body. Many of the physiological symptoms discussed earlier can be seen as opposites of the general effects of estrogen upon the body. Also, some research suggests that postmenopausal symptoms can be relieved by the administration of estrogen. It does seem plausible that direct physiological symptoms could be aided with hormone therapy, but this will do little for psychological symptoms.It is less clear that a depressed middle-aged woman should be given estrogen when the possibility of banish side effects has not been ruled out and when depression could well have psychological rather than biological reasons. These are complicated issues and there are no easy answers. The estrogen might well have the effect of making a woman look and feel younger, which might in turn relieve her depression, but are the risks worth this possibility? The medical profession is currently in controversy about the increased risks of cancer as a result of estrogen- replacement therapy. (Molly Siple, Deborah Gordon, 2001).ReferencesMolly Siple, Deborah Gordon (2001). Menopause the Natural Way John Wiley & SonsSheldon J. Segal Ph. D., Luigi D. Mastroianni Jr., M. (2003). Hormone Use in Menopause & Male Andropause A Choice for Women and Men Oxford University nip

Humalit Poems – Torres

CHILDREN AND LOVERS Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta (1934-2010) children have a special knack for making you feel odd and nude suddenly flush with that vaguest serviceman of smile you ready somewhere to cover a scorching shame when they wickedly naive and sportive barge in without ceremony and when you fin bothy closed in(p) that errant door on them again to try resuming love you terminate it both ways instead it seems the look of bewilderment and hurt they leave merchant ship you can non annul henceforth an alter chill scudding across your upright headboard flipped into stiffened sheets and consciences eighty and brittle with adult experiences and reconsidered passions confounding even the best intentions but even more final than all finalities fumbled for is the cool crisp later you wall them away with somewhere again love waiting suffers a little falling away you end up wishing lovers are more the likes of gaming children and children less like gnarled impatient lovers. DREAMWEA VERS Marjorie M. Evasco (b. 1953) We are entitled to our birth definitions of the worlds we have in habitual earthhouse(stay) waterwell(carry) firestove(tend) airsong(sigh) etherdream(die) and try out new combinations ith key words unlocking power house on fire sing stove chthonian water stay, earth change well die. The spells and spellings of our vocabularies are oracular in translation one woman in Pagnito-an different in Solentiname still another in Harxheim and many other women naming half the world together canmove their earth musthouse their fire be water to their song will their dreams well. THE CONVERSION J. Neil C. Garcia (b. 1969) It happened in a metal pound. They effect me there, my family that loved me. The water had been saved just for it, that day. The laundry displace caked and smellyIn the flower-shaped basins. Dishes soiled with fat and swill piled high in the sink, and grew flies. My cousins did not get washed that morning. muddled in masks of snot and d ust, their faces looked tired and resigned to the dirty lot of children. All the neighbors gathered slightly our open-air washbowl. Wives peered out from the upper blow out of the water of their houses into our yard. take had arrived booming with his cousins, my uncles. They were big, significant men, my uncles. They turned the house inside-out looking for me. Curled up in the deepest corner of my dead mothers cabinet, novice found me.He dragged me down the stairs by the hair into the waiting arms of my uncles. Because of modesty, I merely screamed and cried. Their hands, swollen and black with hair, bore me up in the air, and fey me. Into the cold of the drum I slipped, the tingling too much to bear at times my knees felt like they had turned into water. Waves swirled up and down around me, my head bobbing up and down. stimulate kept booming, Girl or Boy. I thought about it and squealed, Girl. Water curled under my nose. When I rose the said(prenominal) two words from fath er. The said(prenominal) girl kept sinking deeper, breathing deeper in the churning void.In the end I had to say what they all wanted me to say. I had to bring this diversion to its gifted end, if only for the pot of rice left burning in the kitchen. I had to stop wearing my dead mothers clothes. In the mirror I watched the holes on my ears grow smaller, until they looked as if they had never heard of rhinestones, nor felt their glassy weight. I should feel happy now that Im redeemed. And I do. Father died within five years. I got my wife pregnant with the next. Our four children, all boys, are the joy of my manhood, my proof. Cousins who never shed their masks lay them for all their snot and grime. another(prenominal) child is on the way. I have stopped caring what it will be. Water is still a problem and the drum is still there, deep and rusty. The bathroom has been roofed over with plastic. Scrubbed and clean, my wife knows I like things. She follows, though sometimes a pighead she is. It does not hurt to constitute her who is the man. A woman necessarily some talking sense into. If not, I hit her in the mouth to learn her. Every time, swill drips from her shredded lips. I drink with my uncles who all agree. They should because tonight I own their souls nd the bottles they nuzzle like their prides. While they boom and boom flies whirr over their heads that grew them. though nobody remembers, I sometimes think of the girl who submergeed somewhere in a dream many dreams ago. I see her at night with bubbles springing like flowers from her nose. She is dying and before she sinks I try to touch her open face. But the water learns to heal itself and closes around her like a wound. I should feel glowering but I drown myself in gin before I can. Better off dead, I say to myself and my family that loves me for my bitter breath. We die to rise to a better life.Humalit Poems TorresCHILDREN AND LOVERS Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta (1934-2010) children have a spec ial knack for making you feel odd and nude suddenly even with that vaguest piece of smile you ready somewhere to cover a scorching shame when they wickedly naive and sportive barge in without ceremony and when you finally shut that errant door on them again to try resuming love you terminate it both ways instead it seems the look of bewilderment and hurt they leave behind you cannot annul henceforth an alienating chill scudding across your upright headboard flipped into stiffened sheets and consciences eighty and brittle with adult experiences and reconsidered passions confounding even the best intentions but even more final than all finalities fumbled for is the cool crisp later you wall them away with somewhere again love waiting suffers a little falling away you end up wishing lovers are more like gaming children and children less like gnarled impatient lovers. DREAMWEAVERS Marjorie M. Evasco (b. 1953) We are entitled to our own definitions of the worlds we have in common earthho use(stay) waterwell(carry) firestove(tend) airsong(sigh) etherdream(die) and try out new combinations ith key words unlocking power house on fire sing stove under water stay, earth filled well die. The spells and spellings of our vocabularies are oracular in translation one woman in Pagnito-an another in Solentiname still another in Harxheim and many other women naming half the world together canmove their earth musthouse their fire be water to their song will their dreams well. THE CONVERSION J. Neil C. Garcia (b. 1969) It happened in a metal drum. They put me there, my family that loved me. The water had been saved just for it, that day. The laundry lay caked and smellyIn the flower-shaped basins. Dishes soiled with fat and swill piled high in the sink, and grew flies. My cousins did not get washed that morning. Lost in masks of snot and dust, their faces looked tired and resigned to the dirty lot of children. All the neighbors gathered around our open-air bathroom. Wives peered o ut from the upper floor of their houses into our yard. Father had arrived booming with his cousins, my uncles. They were big, strong men, my uncles. They turned the house inside-out looking for me. Curled up in the deepest corner of my dead mothers cabinet, father found me.He dragged me down the stairs by the hair into the waiting arms of my uncles. Because of modesty, I merely screamed and cried. Their hands, swollen and black with hair, bore me up in the air, and touched me. Into the cold of the drum I slipped, the tingling too much to bear at times my knees felt like they had turned into water. Waves swirled up and down around me, my head bobbing up and down. Father kept booming, Girl or Boy. I thought about it and squealed, Girl. Water curled under my nose. When I rose the same two words from father. The same girl kept sinking deeper, breathing deeper in the churning void.In the end I had to say what they all wanted me to say. I had to bring this diversion to its happy end, if o nly for the pot of rice left burning in the kitchen. I had to stop wearing my dead mothers clothes. In the mirror I watched the holes on my ears grow smaller, until they looked as if they had never heard of rhinestones, nor felt their glassy weight. I should feel happy now that Im redeemed. And I do. Father died within five years. I got my wife pregnant with the next. Our four children, all boys, are the joy of my manhood, my proof. Cousins who never shed their masks lay them for all their snot and grime. Another child is on the way. I have stopped caring what it will be. Water is still a problem and the drum is still there, deep and rusty. The bathroom has been roofed over with plastic. Scrubbed and clean, my wife knows I like things. She follows, though sometimes a pighead she is. It does not hurt to show her who is the man. A woman needs some talking sense into. If not, I hit her in the mouth to learn her. Every time, swill drips from her shredded lips. I drink with my uncles who all agree. They should because tonight I own their souls nd the bottles they nuzzle like their prides. While they boom and boom flies whirr over their heads that grew them. Though nobody remembers, I sometimes think of the girl who drowned somewhere in a dream many dreams ago. I see her at night with bubbles springing like flowers from her nose. She is dying and before she sinks I try to touch her open face. But the water learns to heal itself and closes around her like a wound. I should feel sorry but I drown myself in gin before I can. Better off dead, I say to myself and my family that loves me for my bitter breath. We die to rise to a better life.

How the Environment Plays a Role in Learning? Essay

During the 1990s, considerable interest has been generated in the design of constructivist eruditeness surrounds. The promise of these systems to leverage capabilities of technology, empower learners to pursue unique goals and needs, and re-conceptualize teaching method-learning practices has sparked both provocative ideas as intimately as heated debate. Yet, problems in grounding designs within established theory and research ar commonplace, as designers grapple with questions regarding epistemology, assumptions, and methods. Problems in implementation and practice are to a fault commonplace, as pragmatic constraints surface and conflicting determine emerge. We suggest three key issues that are likely to dominate the constructivist learning environment landscape. inactiveness and the Tyranny of Tradition Old Dogs, overbold Tricks? Although as educators we espouse support for constructivist approaches to teaching and learning, we continue to rely on familiar pedagogical appro aches such as lectures, worksheets, and rote learning practices. At the moment, educators perceive such approaches as more compatible with traditional expectations and methods of student assessment and better supported by living infrastructures. Stated differently, it is easier and more efficient to maintain current practices than to promulgate approaches for which significant shiftsepistemological, technological, and culturalare required. (Swef, 2002) In truth, few designers have ac acquaintanced, much less successfully negotiated, the hurdles associated with transforming a highly traditional community of educational practice.Yet, as constructivist learning environments are repurposed to fit traditional classroom practices, mismatched theoretical foundations, assumptions, or methods may result. Instructional methods or assessment practices are often added to (or taken away from) original designs to make them more compatible with classroom pragmatics and constraints. In essence, co nstructivist commandment is applied to attain traditional goals, and the environment becomes an instance of what Petraglia ( 1998) refers to as domesticated constructivism (cited in Karyn, 2003).For instance, a teacher may intend to use a constructivist environment withina climatology unit to support hypothesis generation, prediction, data collection, and analysis. The environment may also employ powerful visualization tools and complex sets of meteorology databases and resources (perhaps from the WWW) in ways that are consistent with the environments constructivist foundations. (Swef, 2002) Yet, as pedagogical methods are considered, they may be tempered by the prevailing cultural values of high standardized test scores and mastery learning of basic skills. Consequently, rather than engage in prediction, interpretation, and data analysis, learners instead search databases to find detail answers to questions established in advance (e.g., find the temperature in San Diego define th e greenhouse effect what is the coldest day on record in Los Angeles). Pragmatic influences may also intervene. (Karyn, 2003) Activity may be limited to the traditional two 50-minute class meetings per week and conventional tests and assessments of the units meteorology content.Perhaps only a exclusive computer is available, and consequently the teacher chooses to project and demonstrate the tools and resources rather than allow students to define, solve, and collaborate on weather prediction problems. (Zevenbergen, 2008)Learned Helplessness and Learner meekness Will This Be on the Test? In typical constructivist learning environments, students establish (or adopt) learning goals and needs, navigate through and evaluate a variety of potentially relevant resources, generate and test hypotheses, and so forth (Oliver, 1999). Teachers clarify rather than carve up, guide rather than direct, and facilitate student effort rather than impose their cause approaches.For both teachers and learners, these represent radical departures from conventional school-based learning activities. Teachers have traditionally possessed the required knowledge, determined what is correct and what is incorrect, and set and enforced grading standards. (Goodyear, 2001) Students are told what knowledge is required, which answers are correct and which are incorrect, and the standards that separate good from bad students, average from substandard performance, and robins from bluebirds. A pact between teacher and student is tacitly struck and enforced Good teachers make the preceding explicit and direct student effort accordingly, while good students learn quickly to detect and respect with the standards.Research in the late 1990s on student engagement in constructivist learning environments has underscored several disturbing patterns. Land and Hannafin (1997), for instance, examined how seventh graders used the ErgoMotion (Karyn, 2003) drum roll coaster micro world to learn about force a nd motion concepts. Despite numerous and varied features and opportunities for learners to hypothesize, manipulate, and test predictions, many learners failed to both connect key concepts easily or internalize their understanding. In lieu of the teacher, and perhaps in an attempt to identify what the system required of them, most relied exclusively on the explicit legate structure provided by the system. They frequently queried the researchers as to whether or not responses were correct or whether they had done enough yet.Students were dependent on, and sought compliance with, external agents to tell them what, when, and in what order to respond, as well as to judge the quality, accuracy, and completion of their effortsskills essential to constructivist learning environments. (Kember, 2007)Similarly, numerous compliant strategies in web-based, hypermedia environments were reported among mall school (Oliver, 1999) and adult students. Learners tended to use externally provided que stions almost exclusively to navigate the system and find answers to open-ended problems (Kember, 2007). Similarly, Karyn (2003) reported that children attempted to apply traditional strategies to presumably web-based inquiry-oriented learning tasks. They tended to view the activity as finding the correct answer to their research question and thus reduced the task to finding a single page, the perfect source, on which the answer could be found.In these instances, learners invoked methods that do not typically support or promote open or inquiry-based learningironically the strategies required for successful performance in formal education. In the late 1990s, constructivists have emphasized the importance of scaffolding learner self legislation and strategic processes to help learners manage the complexity of the environment (Karyn, 2003). It is important to determine how learners use available scaffolds and to adapt accordingly. Without strategies appropriate to student-centered lea rning tasks, learners may fail to every invoke the affordances of the environment or to develop the strategies engendered by them.The Situated Learning Paradox. I Know What I Know. Although prior knowledge and situated contexts enhance transportation system potential (Oliver, 1999), they also engender incomplete, nave, and often inaccurate theories that interfere with rather than support learning. Paradoxically, these are precisely the types of thinking constructivist learning environments build upon. to the highest degree learners, for instance, believe that heavier objects sink and lighter objects float their personal experiences confirm this intuitive theory. The resulting misconceptions, rooted in and strengthened by personal experience, are highly alive(p) and resistant to change. Although personal theories are considered critical to progressive understanding, they can become especially problematic when learners become entrenched in faulty theories to explain events that can not be tested within the boundaries of a system or fail to recognize important contradictory evidence. (Cunningham, 2008)Learners referenced prior knowledge and experiences that either contradicted or interfered with the environments treatment of the concepts of force and motion (Zevenbergen, 2008).In one case, theory preservation seriously limited the ability to learn from the system. One student failed to either detect system-provided information or seek confirmatory data due to the intractability of his beliefs he was so entrenched in his beliefs that he failed to seek and repeatedly overlooked counterevidence (Karyn, 2003). In another case, a learner recalled an operator remarking that roller coaster brakes and clamps would terminate a problem run immediately. Consequently, she mistakenly perceived the coaster to be slowing down around curves, falsely confirming her belief that brakes were applied when they were not. Because they were strongly rooted in personal experience and c ould not is tested using the available tools, faulty conceptions endured. Thus, the completeness of a systems representation of simulated phenomena is critical because learners access related prior knowledge and experiences that may contradict the environments treatment of those concepts.In sum, several perspectives regarding design of learning environments have emerged in response to interest in option epistemologies. Although considerable progress has been made to advance researchers understanding, many questions and issues remain. Whereas some studies have identifiedproblems and issues related to the design and implementation of constructivist learning environments, others have reported far-famed benefits. It is imperative that efforts continue not only to ground design practices more completely but also to better understand the promise and limitations of constructivist learning environments.ReferencesCunningham, Billie M. (2008) use Action Research to Improve Learning and the Classroom Learning Environment. Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p1-30,Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, J. M., Steeples, C. & Tickner, S (2001) Competences for Online Teaching A Special say, Educational Technology, Research & Development, Proquest Education Journals, pp 65-72Karyn Wellhousen, Ingrid Crowther (2003) Creating Effective Learning Environments. Florence, KY Delmar Cengage Learning.Kember, David Leung, Doris Y. P. Ma, Rosa S. F.. (2007) Characterizing Learning Environments Capable of Nurturing Generic Capabilities in Higher Education. Research in Higher Education.Oliver, R. (1999) Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20, 2, Proquest Education Journals, pp 240-54Swef Chiew Goh, Myint Swe Khine. (2002) Studies in Educational Learning Environments An International Perspective. New Jersey World Scientific Publishing Company.Zevenbergen, Robyn Lerman, Steve. (2008) Learning Environments Using Interactive Whiteboards New Learning Spaces or Reproduction of Old Technologies? Mathematics Education Research Journal, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p107-125

Assess the significance of Henry Ford in shaping modern America

Out of all the throng associated with the American boom, Henry Ford is amongst the most well known. It was receivable to his flex ethic aim to make an affordable machine for all Americans, and his invention of the collection line that improved Americas infrastructure and made personal mobility easier and to a greater extent affordable. In this essay, I will explore the changes that occurred in America due to Henry Ford, and weigh up their significance to modern America today. I will equality modern America with America in the 1920s and will look at the significance of Henry ford in the changes between them.Henry Ford treasured to make a car that was cheap enough for all American families to afford. Although this was a near impossible dream, it did result in Henry Ford hard to reduce the cost of cars, and therefore ending up with the opinion for the ideal T. A great fan of Taylorism, Ford cute to make the deed of his cars hurried and more(prenominal) efficient. Workers we re timed and they were then given tasks that required less time and effort in order to speed up the process of making the Model T.Taylors ideas and Fords aim (to make a car cheap enough for fair(a) Americans to buy) eventually amounted in the birth of the assembly line. This meant that instead of the workers in the Ford manufactory going to each car, and spending lots of time making the parts of the cars, then attaching them, the cars were brought past the workers. The workers towards the beginning of the assembly line may do a job such as attach the spokes of the wheel to the main frame, and then a worker near the end of the line would attach the fully absolute wheel to the body of the car.The assembly line meant that more and more cars were world produced every day, and at the factories best, they were producing a car every 60 seconds. The mass production of the Model T sparked the idea of using assembly lines in many other industries, and many other companies began to emulate Fords idea. Mass production of radios, clothes and refrigerators began, and this therefore resulted in the increase of advertising. America in the 1920s had very little advertising, but as household products began to be mass produced, there was a need for advertising as the companies needed to reach their target audiences.This relates to the booming advertising industry that now advertises nearly every product on the marketplace in America. With out(p) the idea of an assembly line, mass production wouldnt have come about, and there would have been no need for advertising. This is one significant affect Ford had on America. Because the Model T was beingness mass produced, the price of it went down in 1914 a Model T cost $850 whereas in 1926 they cost $295. This meant that more people could afford one, and more people began to buy them. Because of the increasing sales of the Model T, ford was getting more money.This was useful, as in order to stop workers leaving the factories to work elsewhere (due to their repetitive and boring jobs on the assembly line) he could increase their wages. Ford change magnitude his workers wages from $2. 50 to $5, twice the just pay per day. This also created a ready market for the Model T car, as workers were offered the chance to save their extra money in order to buy a car. Because Ford increased his workers wages, he brought up the average wage for workers in America, which meant more people had more disposable income, creating a market for buying cars.It also meant more people could afford to buy more in general, especially as they could buy with citation as well. This meant that people were spending their extra money, and in some cases (because they used credit) money they hadnt got, which meant the American frugality was booming with the extra amount of money being spent on goods within the country. The increase in the workers wage, and the ease at which people were allowed to use credit to buy goods, meant that mo re and more people were buying cars.In 1930, 23million cars were on the road, and half of them were Model Ts. This shows just how popular the cars were, and how many people were buying them. The increased number of cars on the road also meant that the government had to build more roads for people to travel on. This meant that Americas infrastructure dramatically improved, with links from major cities being built for cars to travel along, which improved connections between cities, and meant that American citizens could explore their own country without having to rely on public transport.This is true to this day, as 1 out of 6 Americans have never left their own country. Ford contributed to this, as the impact of so many people having cars meant that people could go on holidays virtually their own country more often. This meant, and still means, that fewer people feel the need to travel outside of America. It also meant that the leisure industries began to flourish, as more people ha d the time to enjoy leisure activities, and due to the rise in average wage, they had more money to spend on leisure activities too.The increasing number of car owners also meant that more people could choose where they wanted to live, as they now didnt have to live near their work. Instead, they could live further from the cities and travel in each day in their cars. This resulted in the growth of suburbs, which are today some of the most desirable places to live in America. They offer the space that people wanted/still want, without being to far away from the cities where people generally worked/work.It is due to the mass production of cars, which was started by Ford, which led to people being able to permute to their work places. In conclusion, Ford was an important figure in shaping modern day America. The mass production of cars, which originated from his business idea of the assembly line, meant that more people were able to afford a car. This meant that more roads had to be built around America, linking major cities, and improving communications.The car also meant that people could look out daily tasks, such as shopping, with more efficiency, and because they were able to buy larger things, or produce in bulk, they spent more money which went into Americas economy. Because businesses emulated Fords idea of an assembly line, mass production of goods such as the radio came about. This meant more advertising, and so the advertising industry was born. Fords aim of making an affordable car for average American citizens meant that more people lived away from work, hence the growth of suburbs which are now spread across America, and are seen as desirable places to live.Ford had a lot of significance in shaping modern America, as his ideas and business ethic meant that cars became a necessity. Americans could live and travel wherever they wanted in the country. Because so many people were buying cars due to the Model T, roads had to be improved, and the infra structure of America grew and vastly improved. Workers were paid more on average due to Ford raising his workers salaries, and due to the increase in disposable income and credit, more money was constantly being paid into the economy.

Aztec Human Sacrifice – a Detached View

In searching for a thesis for this paper, I was faced with a singular problem. With the ghastly pendant of charitable forfeit, what could possibly be argued and defended? During my reading and research, the stark and horrible reality of a butchered, battered, or burned human being slain in around grisly, weird ceremony for some equally weird gargoyle-like idol nearly caused me to choose other subject.Yet, years ago, when I read Gary Jennings novel Aztec, I was mesmerized with his description of the Aztecs let go of prisoners during the dedication of the great pyramid in Tenochitlan The hearts of perhaps the first two hundred of them, were ceremoniously ladled into the m let onhs of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli until the statues hollow insides could hold no more, and the stone lips of the two divinitys drooled and dribbled blood Those who convey read Jennings novel know that the foregoing is but a mild example of some of the graphic dialect he describes. During my first read ing of that novel, I would have never believed that I could come to the conclusion of my thesis. My thesis is this There appears to be an intolerable paradox amidst the barbarous religious practices and the rather high state of civilization in the Central Valley of Mexico.This paradox undoubtedly led the early Spanish missionaries to cypher the conquered Indians as devil worshipers. However, I believe that it is possible to regard the Aztecs as civilized people who also happened to perform human sacrifice. They performed human sacrifice in reaction to their estimate of the realism and how they cope within it. Maintaining those two opposing viewpoints requires an understanding and a detached view which may have more to do with the study of history than the study of human sacrifice.The Aztecs, of course, had no monopoly on the practice of human sacrifice. Earlier cultures (the Maya, the Toltecs and others) provided the cultural base for human sacrifice upon which the Aztecs took to new heights. correspond to Encyclopedia Britannica, excavations in Egypt and elsewhere in the ancient Middle East have revealed that numerous servants were at times interred with the rest of the funerary equipment of a member of the royal family in order to provide that person with a retinue in the next life.The burning of children seems to have occurred in Assyrian and Canaanite religions and at several(a) times among the Israelites. Rites among the ancient Greeks and Romans that involved the killing of animals may have originally involved human victims. The Aztecs, as previously stated, took the practice to new heights. In 1487 (five years before Columbus arrived to the East and two years after Henry VII began the Tudor dynasty in England) the greatest orgy of bloodletting of human sacrifice occurred during the fierce rule of Ahuizotl.I have already quoted Gary Jennings description of the carnage, and I will quote one more passage to illustrate how the Aztecs in a ceremony l asting four days sacrificed at least 20,000 prisoners to their insatiable god Huitzilopochtli The prisoners endlessly ascended the right side of the pyramids stairway, mend the gashed bodies of their predecessors tumbled and rolled d stimulate the go forth side, kicked along by junior priests stationed at intervals, and while the gutter between the stairs carried a continuous stream of blood which puddled out among the feet of the crowd in the plaza Although Jennings Aztec is, admittedly, a work of fiction, I have seen his descriptions corroborated elsewhere for example, G. C. Vaillants The Aztecs of Mexico describes the scene At the start of the dedication, the captives stood in two rows, and (they) began the grisly work of tearing out the victims hearts returning to my thesis, how could the practice of human sacrifice be looked upon as anything less than barbaric, even to the point where Aztecs could be regarded as uncivilized?The answer, in my opinion, arises from their view of their creation, their countersink in the world, their relative importance therein, and how they were still holding on by a thread. If the Judeo-Christian God took exactly six days to bring into being the heavens and earth (and rested on the seventh day), the Meso-American deity took awhile longer to get it right. The Aztecs believed that the sun and earth had been destroyed in a disaster and were regenerated four times.They believed that they were living in the fifth, and final, stage of creation, and (according to Meyer and Shermans The Course of Mexican History) that in their age of their fifth sun, final destruction was imminent. Meyer and Sherman also point out another interesting (and revealing) aspect of how the Aztecs regarded themselves in the cycle of their cosmology. The accepted view of a natural cycle was that humans occupied a rather lowly position in the food chain of the gods.The cycle held that since the sun and precipitate nourished plant life and sustaine d man, man should give sustenance to the sun and rain gods. One might infer from the foregoing view that the Aztecs placed a low value on human life. To add to the paradox of sacrifice versus civilization, the demo is that the Aztecs regarded the individual human as a most significant locus of the meditation of the human and divine. In Aztecs An Interpretation by Inga Clendenin, the author focuses in on the actual meaning of the word sacrifice. In her analysis of the Nahuatl linguistic iterations covering the separate meanings of death and sacrifice, she (gradually) comes to the conclusion that Aztecs regarded sacrifice as a payment of the debt incurred and only fully extinguished by death, when the earth lords would feed upon the bodies of men, as men had perforce fed upon them. What I liked most about Inga Clennindens writings on the Aztec was her mixture of sometimes excruciating detailed scholarship (I had to have a dictionary handy at all times) along with her eventual arr ival at the exquisite truth of the matter.Concerning debt of humans to the gods she states the truth of the matter in two exquisitely perspicacious sentences .. (T)he Mexica knew that all humans, unequal as they might be in human arrangements, participated in the same desperate p motiveless an involuntary debt to the earthly deities, contracted through the ingestion of the fruits of the earth It is that divine hunger which appears to underlay the vulgar feedings of undifferentiated mass killings. While everyone in Aztec society had the same debt, Aztec religion and its black-robed, blood-caked priests served to pay everyones daily dues for continuation in humanitys last Tonatiuh yet a while longer. Through obeisance and observance of the needs of the pantheon of gods and with the complicity of the Aztec society at large (and often even with the active cooperation of the victims), the priests performed their killings, according to Clendinnen, openly and everywhere not only in the m ain temple precinct, but in the neighborhood temples and on the streets. The Aztecs believed that without human sacrifice and the offering of the most precious and sacred thing the human possessed (blood), the sun might not rise to make its way across the sky. This rather strange and naive belief was supported by a mythology in which Huitzilopochitli, their fierce bloodthirsty god played a central part. But first, an explanation of the Aztecs beliefs regarding the creation of their current age does shed some light on the role of sacrifice and Huitzilopochitlis cult, which later ran rampant and reached its zenith in the sacrifice of 20,000 at the dedication of the temple in 1487.A succinct description of Meso-American mythology appears in The Daily Life of the Aztecs by Jacques Soustelle. The ancient Mexicans believed that the two parent gods lived at the summit of the world. Their un final result fruitfulness produced all the gods, and from it all mankind was innate(p). The sun was born when the gods gathered in the twilight at Teotihuacan and a little leprous god covered with boils, threw himself into a huge brazier as a sacrifice and rose from the blazing coals changed into a sun This sun was motionless and it needed blood to move.So the gods immolated themselves, and the sun, drawing life from their death began its course across the sky. To continue the sun moving on its course, so that the darkness should not overwhelm the world forever, it was necessary to feed it every day with its food, the precious water human blood. any time a priest fed the gods at the top of a pyramid, or in the local temple, the disaster that always threatened to fall upon the world was postponed once more. About the time of the Crusades in Europe, the Aztecs migrated from the west into the Valley of Mexico.They brought with them their strange hummingbird god Huitzilopochitli, who, according to Victor W. Vonhagen in his The Aztec while and Tribe gave the Aztecs some rather so und advice wander, look for lands, avoid any large-scale fighting, send pioneers ahead, have them plant maize, when the harvest is ready, move up to it keep me, always with you, carrying me like a banner, feed me on human hearts torn from the recently sacrificed. all of which the Aztecs did. The mythology surrounding Huitzilopochitlis origins was also revealing.The Aztecs believed themselves to be the people of the sun. This gods fierce preeminence is surpassed only by the Aztec view of his mother Coatlicue. Victor Von Hagen describes the Aztec sculpture of this powerful and awesome goddess her head of twin serpents, her necklace of human hands and hearts, her arms claw-handed, and her skirt a mass of wiggly serpents The Aztecs believed that Huitzilopochitli sprang alive and fierce from his mother to vanquish his brothers, the stars, and his sister, the moon who had conspired to kill his mother.Coatlique, an earth goddess, conceived him after having kept in her bosom a ball o f hummingbird feathers (i. e. , the soul of a warrior) that fell from the sky. His brothers, the stars of the southern sky, and his sister, a moon goddess, decided to kill him, but he exterminated them with his weapon, the turquoise snake. The Aztecs followed the hummingbirds twittering and became the dominant culture of a civilization that by the time Cortes and his group of scruffy adventurers landed in 1517 numbered in the millions.It is baffling to imagine an ancient, complex civilization like the Aztecs with a daily life that revolve about around the grisly practice of human sacrifice. The average Aztec only had to look at the stone idol of household god to be reminded of what nourished that fact deity. Deities other than Huitzilopochitli had their own feast days in the Aztec calendar and, accordingly, demanded their own sustenance. Slave children were drowned as an offering to the rain god Tlaloc. The fire gods victims were given hash and thrown into the blaze.Those who re presented the god Xipe Totec were fastened to a frame, shot with arrows, and then had their corpse flayed (the priests dressed themselves in the skin representing the new skin of spring). Here we have the phenomenon of how the person being sacrificed was symbolically transfigured into the image of the god and his own temple. In most cases the victim was dressed up so as to represent the god who was being worshiped. Just as the gods of old had accepted death, the person reenacted and became that sacrifice.Moreover, according to Jaques Soustelle in The Daily Life of the Aztecs, when ritual cannibalism was practiced on certain occasions, it was the gods own flesh that the faithful ate in their bloody communion. As the Aztec cycle continued and a shortage of god food occurred, the Aztec Flowery Wars replenished that supply. Militarism, elevated to a virtue, became ever intertwined with Aztec society. In fact, a warriors status was determined by the number of captives he delivered to th e sacrificial altar.Whether as a battlefield casualty or ending up as a captive on the altar of an enemy tribe, this flowery death was desirable and noble, and a place in the clouds was reserved for that warrior. Returning one last time to Gary Jennings graphic description of the prisoner sacrifice on that day in 1487, when long lines of captives shuffled along the avenues toward Tenochitlan up the pyramid staircase towards the twin temples of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochitli any prisoners, however complacently they came to their fate, involuntarily emptied their bladders or bowels at the moment lying down under the knife. The priests who had been clad in their usual edacious black of robes, lank hair, and unwashed skin had become moving clots of red and brown, or coagulated blood, dried mucus, and a plaster of excrement It is indeed difficult to read of such gore and barbarism without relegating the Aztecs to the level normally reserved for far less developed and organized societie s.Although the Aztec period is considered by historians as not having reached the heights of civilizations of the classic period, it is clear that the Aztecs and the cultures of the Central Valley were sophisticated and well organized. There may have been as many as 30 million inhabitants of that area (although some scholars believe that count is somewhat exaggerated), and the breathtaking sight of Tenochtitlan must have impressed Cortes beyond words. The question remains Does cosmea and abhorrent (to us) practice of human sacrifice disqualify the Aztecs from full membership in the club of civilizations?Apparently, the Spanish felt that the answer to the question was an unequivocal yes. The abuse and disgust that newcomers must have felt may have helped the Spanish convince themselves that the native religion was another form of devil worship and provided later(prenominal) justification for destroying their culture. Jaques Soustelle gets to the heart of the matter in The Daily Li fe of the Aztecs. He says that the Aztec practice of human sacrifice was a great factor in devising the two religions which confronted one another totally irreconcilable.In the early battles, some conquistadores ended up as captives and sacrificial victims of the Aztecs themselves, and this practice lent a specially remorseless attitude on each side of the struggle between the Aztecs and the Spanish invaders. If we can understand the motives and the religious and cultural perspective of the Spanish, who massacred, burnt, mutilated and anguish their conquered natives, it is likely that the definition of cruelty differs from culture to culture. It follows, therefore, that it is possible to use the same perspective towards human sacrifice on the part of the Aztecs.Works cited Jennings, Gary, 1980, Aztec Von Hagen, Victor W. , 1958, The Aztec, Man and Tribe Vaillant, G. C. , 1944, The Aztecs of Mexico Clendinnen, Inga, 1991, Aztecs An Interpretation Meyer, Michael C. , and Sherman, W illiam L. , 1995, The Course of Mexican History Pre-Columbian Civilizations MESO-AMERICAN CIVILIZATION Postclassic Period (900-1519) AZTEC CULTURE TO THE TIME OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST Aztec religion. Britannica Online HUMAN SACRIFICE Britannica Online XIPE TOTEC Britannica Online Tlaloc Britannica Online.