death or dying Essay -- essays research papers fc

Photographs of Death or Dying; Are They Necessary It has been said that, it would be a good thing if newspapers published more photographs of death and dying. There are many reasons why people say that photographs of dead and or dying people should or should not be published by newspapers. For example, some people say that pictures of people dying should be published in newspapers because death is a huge part of life. While members of the opposition state that death should remain private, and it should not be published, especially in a newspaper. The argument for or against publishing pictures of death will be disputed forever, however, I believe that photographs of death are appropriate, and I will argue why I believe in the publishing of photos of death or dying. I believe that photographs of death or dying should very well be available for the to observe. Death is an inevitable part of life, it is going to happen, regardless of whether or not one wants it to occur. If death is a part of everyone’s life, why shouldn’t it be published? Perhaps if death were published in newspapers or magazines people would become less afraid of it because they know what death entails. Nora Ephron states â€Å"Death happens to be one of life’s main events. And it is irresponsible- and more than that, inaccurate- for newspapers to fail to show it† (Ephron 113). This quote is evidence that there are others that feel the same way as I do about this topic. Death is a part of life, and it should be av...

New Age Voting :: Voting Government Essays

New Age Voting The government of the United States of America is founded upon the Constitution, written by our forefathers to create a working democracy incapable of transforming into a monarchy. Basic human rights were established, and power, although little, was given to each individual. The power given to the people can also be referred to as a voice, and in the election system we use, we call this voice a vote. This country fought for and gained its independence from injustices placed upon our ancestors’ lives. Our leaders made sure that these injustices would not occur again, and that by speaking out, by voting, the people could be appeased in the best way possible. Why is it that so many young adults between the ages of 18 and 29, those who apparently have so much to complain about, aren’t using their voices? As a whole, only about half of the population eligible to vote does so. In the election of our forty-third president, fifty one percent of those eligible voted. The young adult age group, 18-29, makes up the smallest part of that group. Seventeen percent of eligible voters between this age group voted (Lewis). In the latest presidential election, 30 million 18-30 year olds did not vote (Anthony, Skaags). Only a small percentage of voters came out of this age group-the smallest; however, it is not uncommon to see members of the group participating in protests or other complaint oriented activities with the intent of making change. Change is able to come easier than most people think. We have a say in everything we do. That â€Å"say† does not always come from our lips; it comes from the ballot. This is important because the government plays an integral role in everything we do. It may not seem like it, and directly, it really isn’t that important to the little everyday things we do, but indirectly, we encounter it all the time. That extra weekend spending money: tax returns. The helpful financial boost that allowed you to open your own small business: government loans. The money needed for important schooling or research: grants. The government also gives back to us by attempting to improve the economy, creating more jobs for the unemployed, and creating programs for general interest.

Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries Essay -- Knowledge Manageme

Introduction Knowledge has become a key resource in the present information and knowledge era. Knowledge management is a concept that has emerged explosively in business organizations during the 20th century. The application of knowledge management has now spread to other organizations as well including academic libraries. Knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important for organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors, to add value to their products and to win greater satisfaction from their customers. Knowledge management is as important for libraries as for business. However in academic libraries there will be the absence of competition and money making concern. As it is already known libraries have had a long and rich experience in the management of information. Much of such knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management. But unfortunately libraries with the exception of special libraries have not paid much attention to k nowledge management. However, the environment in which academic libraries operate today is changing. Knowledge management is a viable means in which academic libraries could improve their services in the knowledge economy. According to David Blair, â€Å"Knowledge management is not so much the management of tangible assets such as data or information, but the active management and support of expertise†. Expertise exists in people and much of this kind of knowledge is tacit rather than explicit. Some of it is expressible and some of it is not. Knowledge is always restricted to people and validated in the context of application. A well-known distinction in this respect is that between explicit and tacit knowledge. Basically, tacit knowledge i... .... â€Å"Knowledge Management: Hype, Hope or Help?† Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (12):1019-1028. 2. Broadbeht, Marianne (1996). â€Å"The Phenomenon of Knowledge Management: What Does it Mean to the Information Profession?† http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/broadben.html 3. Kim, Seonghee (1999). â€Å"The Role of Knowledge Professionals for Knowledge Management†. 65th IFLA Council General Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, August 20-28. http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/papers/042-115e.htm 4. Shanhong, Tang (2000). Knowledge Management in Libraries in the 21st Century. 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, August 13-18. http://cdigital.uv.mx/bitstream/123456789/6221/2/Shanhong.pdf 5. Townley. C.T. (2001). â€Å"Knowledge Management and Academic Libraries†. College & Research Libraries, 62(1): 44-55.

My Sister’s Keeper Essay

In the movie, My Sister’s Keeper, a suspenseful journey through a 13 year old’s push for medical emancipation. Anna, Sara, and Kate Fitzgerald get bumps and bruises from arguing over the overall morals of Kate Fitzgerald’s life. Being an ongoing fighter of leukemia, Anna, the youngest child of Brian and Sara Fitzgerald, go through a seemingly endless process arguing over their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate’s life. Throughout the whole movie, the setting is either in general, Rhode Island or in Providence Hospital where Kate goes for chemotherapy by Dr.  Chance. A suspense filled movie, Nick Cassavetes creates a drama filled movie. During one of the final scenes of this magnificent movie, Kate and Anna are sitting outside of their home in the grass on a blanket. Kate is explaining to Anna all of the thoughts that have been going through her mind for the past few months. Cassavetes includes a flashback of Anna catching Kate locked in her room drinking and doing drugs. Kate was blasting rock music and oblivious to the harm that she was causing her leukemia-stricken body. Not ever was Anna able to put two and two together to realize that Kate did not want to live and suffer with pain every minute of her cancer-full life. As a whole, this scene is etched into the film well. The overall purpose of this scene, after all of the tension, is to show a more sensitive side of the movie. This is brought out, especially when Kate is braiding Anna’s hair, furthermore symbolizing the cancer that has inflicted Kate. This scene also portrays the stronger side of Kate through the movie. Throughout the movie, Kate was always worried about never getting a boyfriend because she had no hair. For the majority of the scene, the distance of the camera follows a pattern. The camera would begin far away and then goes close-up to a certain character. The director chose to do both close-ups and long shots in order to show the proportion difference between Anna’s perspective and Kate’s. Kate can then be seen by viewers as the aggressor in the scene. The camera movement varies throughout the scene. When the director wants to convey the amount of tension in the act, he pans the camera. This type of camera movement is key to showing the unlimited amount of tension present in this scene. The director would focus on how Anna felt beat when she finds out that after all of the donations and surgeries that she had been through, her sister wants to over intoxicate herself. Low-angle shots are used by the actors who would look up into the sky and reminisce. The director uses this angle to exemplify the amount of thinking that Kate does about her life and her future. Overall the purpose of the various camera angles and movement is to draw the audience members into the movie and make is seem as though they are with the characters. Throughout the scene, the lighting varies. The director mainly uses three-point lighting around Kate and Anna to light up and enhance the entire scene. He most likely illustrates this form of lighting to add depth to the surrounding of the two main characters and keep the characters visible at all times of the scene. When the director wants to make a clip seem darker and more serious to the viewers, he uses film noir. This type of lighting is used when Anna catches Kate drinking in her room and blasting rock music in her room. Without this dark lighting, the clip wouldn’t seem as rigid as it should appear. All in all, lighting in this specific scene of My Sister’s Keeper is extremely important to exemplify the scene. The costumes play a major part in this scene. Although the attire seems like clothes that the average teenager would wear on a daily basis, it shows the calm setting of this part of the scene. When Anna finds her sister in her room drinking, Kate was wearing all black and her makeup was running down her face and Anna was in her pajamas. With all of this said, the costumes worn in the scene are substantial for the viewers because it helps them understand the sisters have fights on and off. The set of the movie doesn’t take place in California, but in a studio. Although the scene appears to be located in the city of fame, in actuality it is shot using green screens. If the did take place in the authentic location, the director would have a harder time getting perfect lighting. The majority of the time, the sky was a perfect blue and had just the right amount of clouds. Even though the set is green-screened, the scene is much better because of the computed generated graphics like the sky and the clouds that are produced, From the beginning to the end, the scene has an assortment of different kinds of editing from montage to cut transitions. When the director wanted to separate the two sections of the scene, he cut the two to show the difference in the two sections. When the director was wrapping this scene up, he faded this scene out. In conculsion, this scene, hands down, is the most valuable part of the movie. All of the thought in camera angles, lighting, costumes, set, editing, and sound came together to shape a brilliant scene. All of these elements allowed the audience to capture a â€Å"big-sister moment†, especially when she is braiding her hair and telling her memorable stories. Without this, the movie would not have been complete. I believe that this scene was necessary to bridge the gap between the tension-full scenes to the scene when Kate dies. All in all, the director’s cinematic techniques in the scene portray the themes of love and friendship beautifully in the film.

Coping with Traumatic Life Events Essay

  Ã¢â‚¬Å"All this time, I thought I was learning to live, when all along, I was learning to die.† So said Leonardo da Vinci. We read his words, smile and think to ourselves that they don’t really apply to us. Why so? Most Westerners run from even the talk of death. True, we cry at movies like Terms of Endearment when dying is unrealistically romanticized; we weep at funerals, cheer when the bad guys die on television, and shudder at newspaper accounts of catastrophes, though we soon get over it. But as for the thought of our own death, we avoid discussing it at all cost. We deny death because we are afraid of it. This fear is so deeply ingrained that it keeps us from being fully in the present. It takes attention to hold off death. We plan. We become anxious. We busy ourselves so we do not have to think about it. And we lose contact with present time and present place where wonder and joy–and not death—exist.   Introduction Mourning is a complex process in which the bereaved separate and detach themselves from loved ones who have died and replace them with new relationships. If the work of grieving is handled well, new ties can afford equivalent or greater satisfaction to needs formerly satisfied by lost relationships. On the other hand, if restitutive relationships are not established or are incapable of equivalent satisfaction, the process of mourning becomes diverted, remaining incomplete and in danger of becoming dysfunctional. Mourning is a stressful process. It takes its toll psychologically as well as physiologically. Dysfunctional grief is the root if an astonishingly high proportion of emotional, behavioral, addictive and psychosomatic disorders. The literature of psychotherapy is rich with case materials relating symptomatology to dysfunctional grief. In recent years, an increasing body of data has accumulated relating significant increases in the incidence of physical illness and death to populations experiencing the loss of spouse or other central family members. Parkes, Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life (1973), summarizes the results of a number of studies. He concludes that mourning is a powerful stressor, subjugating body and psyche to crushing pressures, which frequently cause mental and physical illness. A survey of studies on the psychological effects of childhood bereavement is found in Chapter 9 of Furman’s (1974) volume on childhood bereavement. These studies strongly suggest that childhood bereavement, even more than adult bereavement, can be a significant factor in the development of various forms of mental illness and adult maladjustment. Counseling the bereaved Counseling can shorten the period of unresolved grief, and it can increase the probability of establishing satisfactory replacement relationships. This help can be useful in preventing and minimizing the pathological outcome of bereavement. Those interested in primary prevention of mental illness see bereavement as a crucial area requiring further research and new services. This paper takes a look at this event in one’s life and the different ways by which academic and clinical psychologists identify ways of coping that facilitates coping during these traumatic events. This hopes to guide professionals in helping the bereaved by establishing theoretical and clinical benchmarks for assessing the individual situation. The bereavement counseling task is complex and emotionally draining. The novice counselor will find it difficult to translate theoretical formulations into successful clinical work without supervision. Authors Wortman and Cohen Silver pose the question on whether certain beliefs or assumptions about how people should react to the loss of a loved one that is prevalent to Western Cultures. Thus, to determine whether such assumptions exist, they then review some theoretical modes of reactions to loss such as Freud and Bowlby’s. Apparently, it was revealed that there are strong assumptions about the grieving process in Western society. The study also demonstrates that if counseling fore bereaved individuals is based on these erroneous assumptions, then it may ultimately prove unhelpful. Understanding bereavement Early in his clinical work with healthy and dysfunctional grief, the author concluded that a theoretical map to guide the clinician through the labyrinths of normal grief is a necessity. Without a baseline description of normal grief, it is difficult to distinguish factors that lead to pathology. The writings of Lindemann (1944), Glick, Weiss and Parkes (1974), and Parkes (1973), in particular, extended the author’s thinking about the phenomena of normal bereavement. The five-stage theory of a patient’s response to terminal illness, developed by Kubler-Ross (1969), made available a theoretical model for describing the bereavement process.

Is Facebook Making You Mean? Essay

Technology has taken over in the 21st century; the influence of the internet cannot be underestimated. Life is not as it used to be-the communal relationships that thrived before the internet age have been replaced by secluded living. Undoubtedly, technology has changed the conventional trends of human relations and processes into liberal and dynamic patterns. Sherry Turkle in Connectivity and its Discontents explores how technology has extended the distance between people; technology controls the connections between people. According to Turkle (p. 619), â€Å"Technology makes it easy to communicate when we wish and to disengage at will.† Human relations are characterized by confusion today, as people do not distinguish between being close and apart. Even in an audience, people are busy with their technology gadgets; though the physical presence is evident, the conscious is far away. An analysis on Turkle’s article explores the dissociative nature of technology, and it effect on humans. Historically people confined in one another but nowadays technology has become the new way of defending people from loneliness (Turkle, 619). The effects of technology are not only being felt in human relationships, but also in our cognitive abilities. As Nicholas Carr puts it in the article, Is Google making Us Stupid? â€Å"The internet has become the universal medium through which information flows through my ears and eyes to the brain.† (p. 1) Carr’s article highlights that the internet has eroded the capacity of humans to concentrate and contemplate on what they read. Instead of reading texts for comprehension, technology has transformed people into passive readers who skim over literature; the vast information on the internet allows them to access content easily; hence, avoiding the conventional long reading. Carr points out on Scott Karp, an online media writer who confesses of having stopped reading books because of the availability of information on the internet (Carr, 2). An analysis of Carr’s article and the contemporary trends show that people are shifting to online reading to avoid the tra ditional reading. Even with online reading, numerous people are reading quickly through titles and contents without having deep comprehension. Thus, the capacity to interpret texts in a deep and meaningful way is slowly fading away because of massive internet use. Lauren Tarshis in Is Facebook Making You Mean asserts that social media has given young people a platform to connect and share ideas, but the liberal online space can be detrimental if it is not used in the right way. According to Tarshis, jokes on Facebook can go far and hurt feelings of people especially when posting offensive and embarrassing comments. Teenagers should learn to be more sensitive while posting comments on Facebook (Tarshis, 18). An analysis of the article draws the conclusion that without the physical connection between people, it is often easy to overlook emotions in online communication. Offensive comments and perceptions stem from the lack of physical and emotional touch between people. The three articles connect with one another by exposing the effects of technology on human relations. Technology has contributed to passivity in human relations as advanced by Turkle and Tarshis. Technology creates an emotional and physical distance between people, which can translate into hurting one another as elaborated by Tarshis. Moreover, technology contributes to individual passivity where by people are not in a position to read texts comprehensively and interpret meaningfully. Indeed, technology is a medium of massive influence on modern man; only time can tell to what extent it will affect human relations and processes. References Carr, Nicholas. â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† The Atlantic. The Atlantic, July 2008. Thurs. 13 June. 2014. Tarshis, Lauren. â€Å"Is Facebook Making You Mean?† Scholatic.com/scope. Scholastic Press. 5 Sept. 2011. Thurs. 13 June 2014. Turkle, Sherry. â€Å"Connectivity and Its Discontents.† Fields of Reading. Ed. Nancy Comley et.al. Boston: Bedford, 2013. 619-623. Print. Source document

Organizational Ethics Essay

My intent in writing this paper is to describe how ethical principles can address organizational issues. The organization that I have chosen to explore is the Boeing Company specifically and the aerospace manufacturing industry as a whole, more generally. I will cover the role that external social pressures play in influencing the industry in both their compliance with government and professional ethics. I will also endeavor to highlight how the pressures brought to bear on the industry by the public and the government is relevant to their decisions both corporately and individually by their employees. Finally, I will share my thoughts on the relationship between legal and ethical issues with regard to the industry. To begin then, let’s explore what role external social pressures have in influencing the Boeing Company and by extension, the aerospace industry’s organizational ethics. The level of trust that must be present by the public in the company that builds the airplane they fly in is best described in the words of the Boeing employee code of conduct â€Å"†¦must not engage in conduct or activity that may raise questions as to the company’s honesty, impartiality, or reputation or otherwise cause embarrassment to the company.† (Boeing, 2014) Boeing and the entire aerospace industry are hyper aware of their image and the perceptions of the flying public. When social pressure is brought to bear the entire industry takes notice and works to renew and enhance the public’s trust. For example, last year Boeing experienced a public relations nightmare when their new 787 Dreamliner aircraft experienced problems with Lithium Ion Batteries. An aircraft caught fire while waiting to be refueled and prepared for its next use. When news of the incident became known it was received with widespread fear and seeded mistrust of the airframe in the pu blic, in the airline customer and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The entire 787 worldwide fleet was grounded until resolution could be  made to ensure public and aircraft safety. The speed with which Boeing and the FAA dealt with the problem shows beyond any doubt that social pressure influences Boeing and the entire aerospace industry. Aerospace companies are constantly working to keep and enhance the trust of the public and to remain in compliance with the strictest government standards. The Core Values of the Boeing Company are Integrity, Quality, Safety, Diversity and Inclusion, Trust and Respect, Corporate Citizenship and finally Stakeholder Success. (Boeing, 2014) It is interesting to me that stakeholder success is the last item on the list. Boeing sees their public owners as being lowest on their corporate priority list with regard to ethics. In other words they see the need to be ethical as higher than being profitable. The need to be perceived in the public arena as ethical and trustworthy while also remaining in compliance with very lofty government standards demonstrates how Boeing and the aerospace industry strive to perform at a level which helps to mitigate the need for public or social pressure to influence their decisions. The issues the aerospace industry routinely deals with remain relevant and continually influence the decisions made and direct the way the companies involved expect their employee’s personal decisions to be made. Everything Boeing and its employees do have the potential to impact the public trust. In a broader sense the organizational ethics of the aerospace industry are determined by multiple factors. As already mentioned the flying public’s trust is a major factor but added to that are the airlines which operate the aircraft, the government agencies who retain oversight on the industry as a whole and the corporate citizens who build the aircraft. A great deal of effort goes into ensuring each of these levels of influence are balanced and mesh as seamlessly as possible with the core values mentioned above. As I have discovered, the aerospace industry is heavily influenced by many government agencies. Through regulation and legislation these agencies impact the aerospace industry’s relationship with both the public and its stakeholders. The relationship which exists between these entities creates in many instances a legally mandated set of codes which govern the way the aerospace industry conducts business. In the United States the FAA has the ability and, arguably, the responsibility to mandate that certain rules and standards are met in the construction and operation of airplanes. Whether the airplanes are used to transport the flying public  or are designated experimental and only flown under strictly controlled circumstances makes no difference. The ability of a government agency to enforce rules or a code at a level as invasive as exists in the entire aerospace industry creates a question of whether the ethics embraced by the aerospace industry would be at the level they currently enjoy if the amount of regulation was not the same. In a more direct fashion the question then begs itself; given the influences of the public, the airline operators, and the government agencies with oversight, is the aerospace industry as a whole independently ethically responsible or are they forced to be so? When I attempted to determine if there is a clear definition of what ethically responsible means I fell short. The definition is subjective at best and invariably indistinct. I can therefore only use my personal definition to gage what I can research and see for myself to make a determination much as you the reader must do. As I stated my intent in writing this paper was to describe how ethical principles can address organizational issues. Strictly speaking, I may have drifted afield of a clear presentation of that description. However, the role that external social pressures play in influencing the aerospace industry in both compliance with government and professional ethics was demonstrated throughout as well as how the pressures brought to bear on the industry by the public and government is relevant to their decisions both corporately and individually by their employees. Last but certainly not least, I sought to determine the relationship between legal and ethical issues in reference to the aerospace industry which left me with an unanswered and perhaps unanswerable question. Works Cited Boeing Company. (2014). Boeing.com. Retrieved Dec 1, 2014, from Boeing Ethic Home Page: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/companyoffices/aboutus/ethics/