Parental Involvement And Its Relationship To Discipline In Elementary Schools Essay

There is a plethora of research on books, journal articles, and stand-alone reports on the subject of parental involvement and its relationship to discipline in schools. These writings include research reports, expert opinions, theory papers, program descriptions, and guidelines for how to address this issue. Many of these reports are informative and useful, and because parental involvement and its link to discipline have been greatly emphasized in the past few years, there is considerable current information. An important influence on the way parents raise their children are the experiences they have in their family of origin (Hops, Davis, Leve, & Sheeber, 2003). The way a person is raised influences the rest of their life. Socioeconomic status can have a very significant effect on a family and how parents behave with their children. This effect continues into the school environment and could be directly related to how students behave in schools (Hops et al. ). The extra stress that families from a lower Socio Economic Status (SES) household experience can cause parents to use more punitive parenting practices. Some students have shown that, along with the economic hardships families from low SES groups experience, minority ethnic groups also have to deal with the added stress of racism (Pinderhuges, Dodge, Bates, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000). These factors all have an influence on parental involvement and its relationship to discipline in schools. Discipline concerns in schools are not new. MacDonald (2002) stated that student behaviors that require discipline have always existed in schools. However, it is the seriousness and widespread nature of discipline concerns that is disturbing. School campuses, once islands of safety, are now faced with violence daily (MacDonald). School discipline problems are impacting every demographic segment of society. O’Donoghue (2005) stated that in the 1990s, discipline concerns were viewed widely as an inner city phenomenon, but since then, discipline concerns have been distributed across the entire spectrum of schools in the United States of America. At a time when our nation’s children need adult guidance the most, some parents retreat from involvement in their child’s schools. Johnson (1999) stated that our nation’s youths are making desperately poor choices oftentimes guided by equally confused peers. All children, youths, adolescents, and teenagers alike need the advocacy and support of parents. Parental involvement is vital to the behavior and achievement of students. Unfortunately, many parents are doing much less than they should be doing. According to the U. S. Department of Education (2005), American mothers, on the average, spend less than half an hour a day talking, explaining, or reading with their children, and fathers spend less than 15 minutes interacting with their children. As vital as parental involvement is to discipline in schools, many parents do much less than they should and many schools engage in practices which serve to limit the extent of parental involvement. Literature Review Several researchers have attempted to categorize parental involvement according to the nature or type of activity in which parents are involved. Epstein and Salinas (2004) suggested that parents may be involved as tutors, volunteers, advisory committee members, school board members, or room mothers or room fathers. They grouped these types into three basic groups: advocates, decision-making partners, and co-production partners. They defined advocacy as politically active parental involvement; decision-making refers to parental involvement as committee members; and co-production refers to parental involvement in those areas or activities that contribute to school efforts for developing and planning and instructing students toward improved behavior and achievement (Epstein & Salinas). Data from the 2005 Children’s Defense Fund indicated that every day in American, 13,076 students are suspended from school, 6,042 students are arrested, 3,356 high school students drop out of school, and 3,087 students are corporally punished. Additionally, more than 3 million acts of violence and theft were reported in American public schools (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 2005). A factor in improving discipline in American schools is to empower school personnel to be proactive rather than reactive. This means that teachers must become skilled in behavior management strategies that would enable them to create school environments that motivate students to act according to school and classroom rules as well as foster positive interpersonal interactions with peers and authority figures (Lewis & Sugai, 1999). In contrast to zero tolerance policies that emphasize punishing instead of positive consequences, it is critical to stress positive incentives that will motivate all students to behave (Lewis & Sugai). When schools develop disciplinary action plans, parents should be included at every stage of the process to obtain their input and to give them a sense of shared responsibility. According to the National Parent Teacher Association (2004), the following three types of parental involvement are critical to a child’s education: (a) parents as first educators in the home; (b) parents as partners with the school; and (c) parents as advocates for children in society. The full involvement of parents is vital to the success of these efforts. Barton, Coley, and Wenglinsky (1998) identified four basic components of parental involvement: the basic obligation of parents, school to home communications which include monitoring students’ discipline, parental involvement at school, and parental involvement in learning activities at home. Children growing up in society today need parental involvement and adult attention more than ever before (Comer, 2006). Parents belong at the center of a child’s education. The single best way to improve students’ behavior is by strengthening parents’ role in it, by both reinforcing parents’ relationships with the school and by helping and encouraging parents in their critical job of teaching the young. Not all teachers are parents, but all parents are teachers (Comer). The most basic statement that can be made about parent and family involvement is that when it is effective, everyone benefits. Research has shown us conclusively that effective parental involvement in education benefits parents, teachers, and students, whether the involvement is at the pre-school, elementary, middle, or high school level (State Department of Iowa, 1999). Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to examine issues surrounding parental involvement in schools. The experiences of parents were examined with the goal of giving parents an opportunity to express themselves in parent surveys. The study brought new insights to the body of research concerning parental involvement and its relationship to discipline in schools. Research Questions 1. What is the relationship between the level of parental involvement and the number of student discipline referrals? 2. What is the relationship between socio economic status and the level of parental involvement? 3. What is the relationship between the level of parental involvement and student academic success? Limitations/Delimitations Limitations 1. This study was limited to two elementary schools in a Trenton, North Carolina school district. 2. One limitation would be the honesty of parents’ responses. 3. Another limitation would be the sample size of the respondents; therefore, the findings should be viewed with caution. Delimitations 1. Duplication of the study may or may not produce the same results. 2. The study analyzed one school year of discipline records for students. Definition of Terms Parental Involvement – Parents’ level of active involvement in their child’s education (Epstein & Salinas, 2004). Parenting Styles – What strategies parents use to as it relates to disciplining their children at home (Coolahan, McWayn, Fantuzzo, & Grim, 2002). Socioeconomic Status – A person’s social and economic status (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Student Academic Success – measured by students’ mathematics and reading scores obtained from the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (GCRCT). Student Discipline – Control or order exercised over students. The system of rules used to maintain this control (Barton, Coley, & Wenglinsky, 1998). Student Referrals – Discipline referrals students receive for disciplinary problems in school (Gosche, 2005). Importance of the Study It has become increasingly evident that parental involvement in education contributes to students’ success in school. Research also suggests that when parents are involved in their children’s learning at school and at home, discipline referrals decrease at school and academic progress increases (Comer, 2006). This study is important because it investigated the relationship between the level of parental involvement and student academic success. It also investigated the relationship between the level of parental involvement and the number of student discipline referrals and the relationship between socio economic status and the level of parental involvement. It is essential for this data to be examined because the results will assist school boards, statewide evaluators, and school personnel in restructuring the learning environment to address and include parental involvement and its relationship to discipline in schools. Chapter Two will provide a review of the literature findings on parental involvement and discipline. CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introduction Not all parents are involved in their children’s school although there is a dire need for parental involvement and guidance in schools (Kornbluth, 1997). All children, regardless of age, need the unwavering support of their parents to further guide their academic growth. According to the U. S. Department of Education (2005), â€Å"American mothers, on the average, spend less than half an hour a day talking, explaining, or reading with their children, and fathers spend less than 15 minutes daily interacting with their children† (p. 2). The U. S. Department of Education further stated that positive results such as increased student performance, better communication between parents and teachers, and better socialization skills occurred when parents play an active role in their children’s education. According to Barton, Coley, and Wenglinsky (1998), chaos in the schoolhouse requires disciplinary measures. An exemplary discipline program is truly vital to the success of schools, thus making good discipline an educational requirement. Research has shown that when schools have discipline problems, academic achievement is negatively affected. As a result, a distinct relationship exists between how students achieve academically and their behavior in school (Barton, et al. ). A dire need exists for parents to partner and communicate with school staff so that problems with discipline could be reduced. Johnson (1999) stated that poor choices are often made by children and adolescents in the United States, and these choices are oftentimes aided by their bemused peers. Research by Kornbluth (2006) has noted that many schools do not put forth enough effort to enlist parents’ support and involvement in schools. On the other hand, Waggoner and Griffith’s (2001) research revealed that students with involved parents performed at higher levels on standardized tests than students with uninvolved parents. In a similar vein, Kornbluth’s study found that students not only performed better in school but also improved in discipline when their parents were actively involved in their education. It has become increasingly evident that parental involvement in education is a major contributing factor to reduced disciplinary concerns and a need for disciplinary action in schools. An article by the San Diego County Office of Education (2000) entitled, What Does Research Tell us About the Influence of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement, includes research on the benefits of parents nurturing their children at home and the importance of parents setting academic goals and expectations for their children. It also stresses the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education as it relates to their academic success. According to Parlardy (2005), parental involvement produces a decline in classroom disruptions and the need for disciplinary action while improving school climate, teacher and student morale, and student achievement. Cotton’s (2001) study revealed the importance of effective schoolwide and classroom discipline strategies and lists various ways to improve discipline in schools such as staff commitment to achievement, parental involvement, high expectations for students and faculty, clearly defined rules, and good school climate. Additionally, Wright, Wright, and Heath (2004) provided research on how the No child Left Behind act affects parents, teachers, administrators, and students as it relates to discipline and parental involvement. Waggoner and Griffith’s (2001) research supported parental involvement since it strengthens teacher/parent/student relationships and reinforces teachers’ expectations in the home environment. Homework is another area where parental involvement is critical. When parents are aware of what the curriculum entails and what teachers expect, they are better equipped to help their children with homework so that increased learning could occur. Kornbluth (2006) provided data to support the importance of parental involvement in schools. The results of their study revealed that students with involved parents performed better on tests than students with uninvolved parents. Hand in hand with parental involvement is involving the community in the school. Epstein and Salinas (2004) noted the benefits of partnering with the community. These benefits included having businesses become partners in education and serving on school councils along with parents. The benefit that is derived from this is that the community is involved in the decision-making process of the school and; therefore, has a pulse for the school’s goals and missions. As a result, one of the goals will also be to decrease disciplinary infractions and improve student learning. What is Parental Involvement? There are numerous books, journal articles, and stand-alone reports on the subject of parents’ involvement in their children’s education. Parental involvement is a term that frequently has different meanings to people. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that parental involvement covers a multitude of interactions between parents, students, and the school (Swap, 1998). Swap further postulated that parental involvement may be as simple as a parent attending a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting or a conference with the teacher or as complex as representing other parents in decision-making situations or other aspects of school governance. In general, parents may take an active role, passive role, or non-involvement role regarding their participation in the school their child attends. A review of literature indicates that there are several strategies and activities available to parents, teachers, and administrators to obtain optimum parental involvement at different levels of commitment. For example, parents may volunteer to read to a class, become a book buddy for a student, or work with their child on take-home learning materials (Gordon, 1998). The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parental involvement is a component that is positively related to improving students’ discipline and achievement in schools. When defining parental involvement, it is very important to consider Brandt’s (1979) four basic assumptions about parental involvement. The first assumption is that the family’s capabilities for providing a learning environment that accentuates the positive elements of cognitive and emotional factors can be improved (parent impact model). The second assumption is that the child’s health, nutrition, social, and psychological development influences academic learning (comprehensive services model). The third assumption is that when schools are made more responsive to parents, this responsiveness will lead to better discipline and achievement by the child (school impact model). The fourth assumption for parental involvement is that everything relates to everything else (community impact model). Swap (1998) asserted that various models have different assumptions and goals that must be clear to all participants. Swap’s premise of parental involvement described four models and their goals: The protective model’s goal is to reduce conflict between parents and educators, primarily through the separation of parents’ and educators’ functions and to protect the school from interference by parents. The second model’s goal (school to home transmission) is to enlist parents in supporting the objectives of the school. The third model’s goal (curriculum enrichment) is to expand and extent the school’s curriculum by incorporating the contributions of families. Finally, the fourth model’s goal (partnership) is for parents and educators to work together to accomplish a common mission – success for all children. Barriers to Effective Parental Involvement According to Hampton, Mumford, and Bond (1998), many students come from home environments described as America’s worst problems such as drug abuse, neglect, alcoholism, and domestic violence. On the other hand, Kornbluth (1997) maintained that not all students are in trouble because their parents are irresponsible, lazy, or uninvolved. Many students come from good homes, and they have parents who are doing their best to care for them. Often parents face different circumstances that affect how well they believe they can make contributions to their children’s education. Issues such as language barriers, work schedules, transportation, and access to childcare, for example, affect the frequency and conditions under which parents believe they can realistically spend time in schools (Kornbluth). Seeley (1999) noted that another complicating factor facing parental involvement is the idea that some well-meaning school staff members feel that they have been delegated as the educators of children and the sole responsibility for education is in their hands. Seely proposed that this idea of delegation has been subconsciously signaled to the parents so that they do not need to be involved in their children’s educational experiences. In brief, Seeley’s study concluded that one must convince all involved in the child’s education that parental involvement is essential to the education process. This study further implied that once parents and teachers understand the importance of parental involvement, they will be willing to commit do doing all that is necessary to achieve the identified goals. Davies (1998a) revealed that the growing number and variety of students’ ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds make reaching out to families increasingly complex. Educators who think only in terms of traditional families are likely to have a particularly hard time dealing with today’s great variety of family types. Davies suggested that educators must face their own misperceptions about parents. However, a child born to parents who are mature, educated, employed, and married is statistically more likely to do well rather than a child who lacks that family support, even if the child is exposed to a host of government intervention programs. Parenting Styles and Ethnicity According to Coolahan, McWayn, Fantuzzo, and Grim (2002), parenting styles differ based on ethnicity and are also determined by parents’ characteristics. Parents from different cultures may have different characteristics and may, therefore, use different parenting styles when raising their children. For example, ethnic differences have been found in the acceptance of spanking. Thus, there may also be ethnic differences in parenting (Pinderhughes, Dodge, Bates, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000). Research has found the authoritarian parenting style to be more common among African-American families than European-American families (Clark & Gross, 2003). Families from the same SES group but from different ethnic groups have been found to have differing levels of stress. For example, African-American families with low SES report higher levels of stress than European-American families with the same SES. This could be due to the fact that African-American families are also vulnerable to additional race-related stressors (Pinderhughes et al. , 2000). The Asian-American culture differs from European and Mexican-American cultures. Studies have shown that the styles of parenting used among Asian-American families may differ significantly in some areas. For example, Liu (2003) found two main types of parenting styles among Asian-American families. They are care and overprotection. When parents use the care styles of parenting, they are affectionate, emotionally warm, empathic, and close to their children. However, many Asian-American families use a style of parenting that closely resembles an authoritarian style called overprotection in which parents strictly enforce rules and discourage independent behavior. The overprotection style of parenting is comprised of parental control, overprotection, intrusion, excessive contact, and prevention of independent behavior. Other studies have found that the families who use the care style of parenting are closer and more functional with each other (Kee, Sim, Tech, Tian, & Ng, 2003). They also found the families who use the overprotection style of parenting to be more dysfunctional on the average. Other studies on parenting styles and ethnicity have found African-American families from low SES groups to have a more punitive attitude towards their children because of the higher levels of stress they experience (Pinderhughes, et al. , 2000). This attitude would lead to a more authoritarian style of parenting. Authoritative parenting predicts good psychosocial outcomes and problem behaviors in all ethnic groups and is associated with increased academic performance (Steinberg, Darling, & Fletcher, 2005). Parenting Styles and Their Relationship to Discipline Parenting styles begin determining, to a significant degree, how a child will develop at a very early age. For example, with infants, sensitive, responsive maternal behavior is associated with healthy and secure mother-infant relationships (Isabella, Belsky, & von Eye, 1999). According to Schaefer (2000), parenting style is the single most important factor associated with conduct disorders. Behavioral instability and non-optimal parenting across four generations was examined by Gosche (2005), and it was reported that non-optimal parenting is reproduced in subsequent generations due to the development of unstable behavioral styles in children exposed to poor parenting. Children who are exposed to more hostility from their parents are more likely to display aggressive behavioral styles as adolescents and adults which, in part, cause their aggressive and hostile behavior toward their children (Gosche).

Comparison Between Twelfth Night and the Rivals

Final Paper A0981150 Compare Twelfth Night with The Rivals, both of them are comedies evolving around several couples. The two plays contain the device of disguise and mistaken identity. In Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as Cesario, which attracts Orsino and Olivia; while in The Rivals, Jack Absolute disguises himself as Ensign Beverley, who fascinates Lydia. Speaking of similarities, both the disguises lead to the characters’ affairs, and they are proved to be true love at the end of the plays.On the other hand, as for differences, in Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as a man, and that results in her complex situation, a love triangle. Instead, in The Rivals, Jack takes the disguise as an ensign, which does not alter his real gender as a man; therefore, his situation is purer, that is, earning Lydia’s heart only and not drawing other admirer. Both the plays mention the communication of mails. In Twelfth Night, Maria writes letters to Malvolio, which purpo rts to be from Olivia.The function of letters in this play is to trick Malvolio, who is such a fool that believes the countess Olivia, a woman of a higher rank than his, would fall in love with him. In The Rivals, the function of letters is simpler, that is, Jack writes to Lydia to court her under the mistaken identity of a poor Ensign in order to win her affection or some other sentiment. In The Rivals, Jack Absolute’s line â€Å"Pho! man, is not music the food of love? is an allusion to Twelfth Night. In the beginning of Twelfth Night, Orsino says â€Å"If music be the food of love, play on†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Nevertheless, these two characters utter such statement in very different situations. Orsino, at that time, is melancholic and insanely in love, by contrast, Jack says his line when his friend, Faulkland, is getting crazy since his lover’s merriment during his absence irritates him. Thus Jack plays the role of a calm, reasonable, and comforting friend.Compar e the situations the two characters Orsino and Jack are in, their state of mind is completely different. The former stands for sentimental emotion, while the latter represents rationality. The two plays also involve the same element, duel. In Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew demands a duel with Cesario in order to have Olivia as lover. In The Rivals, encouraged by Sir Lucius, Acres writes a challenge note to â€Å"Beverley† to a duel.However, these two fights are in vain, the disturbers cannot achieve their goals to win the girls they want. These plots seem unimportant, but the duels actually help the meant-to-be couples to assure themselves that they have chosen the suitable ones for love and marriage. On account of the duels, the couples either reunite or get to know each other’s true identity. Generally speaking, the duels add much entertainment to the plays. Most important of all, they elicit the happy endings.

Harm of Nuclear Weapon

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act. Good morning respected judges teachers and my dear friends I here today to speak on the topic dangers of nuclear weapons We all know that the effect of the nuclear explosion in hiroshima and Nagasaki can be felt even today the survivors tell us that no one should ever undergo what they have been through a nuclear explosion creates a living hell where the living envy the dead. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion comparable to the detonation of more than a billion kilograms of conventional high explosive. [1] Thus, even single small nuclear devices no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire and radiation. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major focus of international relations policy since their debut. In the history of warfare, only two nuclear weapons have been detonated offensively, both near the end of World War II. The first was detonated on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named â€Å"Little Boy† on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second was detonated three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named â€Å"Fat Man† on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. These bombings resulted in the immediate deaths of an estimated 80,000 people (mostly civilians) from injuries sustained from the explosion. When factoring in deaths from long-term effects of ionizing radiation and acute radiation sickness, the total death toll is estimated at 120,000. The use of these weapons remains controversial. Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstration purposes. A few states have possessed such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and that acknowledge possessing such weapons—are (chronologically) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not acknowledge having them. [2]

Design and Evaluation of a Wind Turbine in Urban environment Assignment

Design and Evaluation of a Wind Turbine in Urban environment - Assignment Example Although the concept of wind turbines is old a large – scale development of a new generation of turbines for power generation began in the world. Winds contribution in the fight of global warming, the total carbon dioxide emissions avoided by wind power in 2009 is 1.93% of the worlds total emission from power generation. Even if a home wind turbine does not provide significant savings, it is more preferable when it comes to treating planet earth with more respect. In this project, we try to use this clean power in charging different devices such as cell phones and laptops among others. Calculating the power needed to charge such devices the turbine will be designed, and connected by a network providing power for such devices at home. The use of an alternative energy option is very helpful since it facilitates rural and local area electricity connection. For the case of the cost of the turbine tower, although the initial cost of purchase and installing of a turbine can be expensive in all ways but it saving money, and environmental resources. When such kind of projects are used widely, there will be a database for all the areas including the wind direction, wind speed and the suitable kind of turbine that may be used for each region. Study the wind atlas map for my home area in Egypt , " the new and renewable energy authority in Egypt " site provide reliable and accurate wind atlas data sets for evaluating the wind power output for any place in Egypt , studying the wind atlas will help with the data for the wind direction and the speed variation all the year. Blades are sensitive, and the most breakable part of the system, they are creating mechanical stress caused by centrifugal forces and fatigue, so designing the blades correctly is very important or else they will break or not function efficiently. The tower supports the parts and holds them

Reflection Assignment for the Intro to Orienteering Class Essay

Reflection Assignment for the Intro to Orienteering Class - Essay Example Consequently, we split into several groups and allowed to walk through the park, carrying out our studies on the environment. Most of the tracks were muddy and led deep down the forests. As a result, most of us could not trace their way back to the camp at the end of the day. However, the game rangers and tour guides came to our rescue. The reason for getting lost in the forests was the lack of adequate orientation on the geography of the park. We did not have a map to guide us on the tracks and routes to use while in the forests. In addition, neither the school nor the game wardens assisted us with compasses that could help us back to the camp. Orientation is critical before one engages in any outdoor activity as it helps them to conduct a reconnaissance. Notably, this helps the person to familiarize him or herself with the routes to use, the culture of the people, the nature of the environment, and the potential risks. Consequently, one can prepare adequately for the activity. There are instances when people get lost due to lack of orientation and lack of map reading or both. Our experience exemplifies the adverse effects of the lack of direction. In other cases, one may fail to interpret a map correctly especially when they have to locate a place using longitudes and latitudes. The trip changed my mentality towards approaching new places. I learnt that it was important to gather information about new places prior to the visit. It also scrapped off my all-knowing mentality. The highlight of the trip was the instance when we got lost in the forest. It was awkward how we could not retrace the routes we had used. None of us wanted to imagine a night in the cold with a prospect of wild animal attacks. One of the things I learnt on the trip is that it is always critical to consult when one is clueless. None of us had taken the initiative of asking for a map or a compass from the teacher or game rangers.

Write your own critical analysis of Desiree's Baby 1 page and Hunters Essay

Write your own critical analysis of Desiree's Baby 1 page and Hunters in the Snow 1 page - Essay Example The first hint of menace, of things awry came with her reactions to the child. '"This is not the baby", she exclaimed, in startled tones." There is brooding atmosphere of heat that seems to suggest the calm before a storm in this scene. As the changes in the baby are reflected by changes in his father, Armand, it became apparent that the child was not white, so Desiree, of unknown parentage was blamed. The awful response of the father, cruelty to his wife, love turned to hate and his beating of the slaves showed his how his damaged pride, social standing and prejudice had dreadful effects on all around him: "..the spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves." Armand caused so much suffering and pain to those who were different, through prejudice and misplaced pride. When he drove her away, punishing her for disgracing him, I realized that I wanted Desiree and her baby to be saved from the bayou, to go and live with the people who understood the meaning of unconditional love. The irony in the last few words exposed the tragedy: "his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery." In this story, the universal truth stands out; those people who believe themselves better and more important than others, letting that rule their lives, are left with nothing, as the ashes of the fire Armand lit, symbolized.

Hrm issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Hrm issues - Essay Example Therefore, even though hiring such people might be more expensive for the company, the business will win in the long run since a team of professionals in their function is more likely to help in avoiding compensation payments following tribunal decisions than promoted and untrained people from within the company. As the working team is created it is the time to start the design of a strategic business development plan, which would address such issues as resourcing, training and rewarding employees. However, all these functions should be incorporated into a larger-scale plan for developing and maintaining such aspects of business behaviour as leadership, performance management and organizational culture, among others. The most immediate issues to solve are related to employees’ resourcing, training and reward systems. Resourcing System Armstrong (2000) outlines that among the major objectives of employee resourcing strategy are finding and hiring employees with the needed skill s, knowledge and training potential. These initial requirements to the choice of potential employees are, then, to become the basis for further development and motivation of the staff. However, since most of the company’s employees are unskilled, part- time or agency workers, it is worth to pay more attention to the attitudinal and behavioural characteristics of the potential employees (Townley, 1989). The employees should not view the company as a temporary place to work at. On the contrary, the organization should be perceived as a stable and developing company that provides a good long-term employment opportunity. To become such, the company has to modify its resourcing system. In the first place it is suggested to minimize the number of part-time and agency workers and use their services on an as needed basis. Though employing part-time employees provides higher levels of scheduling flexibility and reduces the wage and benefit costs (Conway and Briner, 2002), using their service should be limited to the busiest periods of business operations. This suggestion can be justified by the fact that, according the research conducted by Conway and Briner (2002), part-time employees have lower commitment, trust and loyalty levels in comparison to those of full-time employees. Therefore, employing people on a full-time basis will help, in the long run, to shape such, directly related to performance, aspects of employees’ behaviour as job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviour, loyalty and, therefore, efficiency. Furthermore, full-time employment will help people to develop organizational commitment and trust and, as a result, will reduce turnover. At the same time, effectively designed training and rewards systems are the other elements of business operations that are to have a significant impact on the reduction of turnover. Another important aspect to deal with is hiring supervisors to manage the work of the production staff. Currently the production director of the company chooses and draws supervisors from the production st

Leisure Tourism in Switzerland Project for Microeconomics Term Paper

Leisure Tourism in Switzerland Project for Microeconomics - Term Paper Example ntry remains active in the United Nations and other international organizations and yet manages to retain strong commitments towards being a neutral entity. Here are some important facts about the country (Cowan, 2005: 7). Gross Domestic Product $659.3 billion (2011) Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate 1.10% (2011) Population 7.912 million (2011) Life Expectance 82.70 years (2011) Median 41.3 Land Area 40,000.0 Unemployment Rate 3.10% Economic Performance The per capita GDP growth in Switzerland was 1.6 in 2011, according to a report published by the World Bank in 2012. The annual percentage of the per capita GDP growth rate has been calculated based on the stable local currency (Frank, 1964:21). Figure 1. Per capita GDP growth (annual %) in Switzerland (Source: World Bank) The real gross domestic product (GDP) in Switzerland has increased by 1.10 % in the first quarter of 2013, as compared to the same quarter of the last year. The annual real GDP growth rate in the country has been r eported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. From 1981 to 2013, the real GDP growth rate has been averaged at 1.66 percent. An all-time record high of 7.30 percent was reached in March of 1990. Here it should also be mentioned that a record all-time low of -3.70 was reached in June 2009. In the country, the annual growth rate in GDP shows the change in the value of the services and goods produced by the economy of the nation during the period of a year (Henry, 2008:51). Figure 2: Real GDP Annual Growth Rate of Switzerland (Source: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs) Although labor productivity continues to be the preferred choice, various economists also tend to think in terms of the total factor productivity, or TFP. The total factor productivity of the country has gone down... This paper presents a comprehensive economic analysis of the structure of Swiss economy and assesses the influence of the tourism industry performance on overall economic indicators. The real gross domestic product (GDP) in Switzerland has increased by 1.10 % in the first quarter of 2013, as compared to the same quarter of the last year. The annual real GDP growth rate in the country has been reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. From 1981 to 2013, the real GDP growth rate has been averaged at 1.66 percent Although labor productivity continues to be the preferred choice, various economists also tend to think in terms of the total factor productivity, or TFP. The total factor productivity of the country has gone down in the last year or so. Since the major recession, there was a downward and upward trend in 2009. The majority of exported goods are shipped to a number of countries from where the imported goods come in. Most of the import trade partners of the country are the industrialized countries such as Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, USA, Great Brittan, Japan, According to a report published by the International Monetary Fund, the gross fixed investment of the country in 2012 was 20.6%. A part from this the expenditure of the foreign guests in the country has the same effect on the balance of payment of the nation as the export of goods and services. Tourism industry contributes 6% to the country’s GDP. This is the very reason due to which sometimes tourism is referred to as an invisible export.

Aaron Douglas The Father of Black American Art Essay

Aaron Douglas The Father of Black American Art - Essay Example He was an artist who not only extended the boundaries drawn by previous painters, in favour of African writers but also created portrayals of the African-American experience that recognized its history in African heritage. His paintings never need words for they were those creations that speak themselves.Aaron Douglas, born in Topeka, Kansas on May 26, 1899 was a born artist since childhood and was lucky enough to be appreciated by his parents. Douglas graduated in arts from the University of Nebraska in 1922. In 1944, he felt an urge to teach what he learnt throughout his life so he graduated once again from Teachers College of Columbia University. After graduating, he taught in Kansas Art schools for a few years but then after realizing his true goal was not in teaching but in doing something that would contribute towards the black culture, he began to study with Winold Reiss, an illustrator who motivated to identify and contribute to his racial identity, Aaron Douglas, started ill ustrating advertisements for books and magazines like 'Nigger Heaven'. "Douglas' use of African design and subject matter in his work brought him to the attention of William Edward Burghardt, DuBois and Alain Locke who were pressing for young African-American artists to express their African heritage and African-American folk culture in their art. This was during the 'Harlem Renaissance' and Aaron Douglas became a leading visual artist during this time. In fact, he was called the "Dean of African-American painters" at a time when DuBois and others were trying desperately to convince painter Henry O. Tanner to return from Europe and establish a school of Negro painting". (Exhibition, 2006) "Douglas' work was published regularly in The Crisis. He also illustrated for Opportunity and Vanity Fair magazines. His most famous illustrations were for James Weldon Johnson's book of poetic sermons, God's Trombones. Alain Locke called him a "pioneering Africanist" and used his illustrations in his famous anthology, The New Negro, published in 1925 in which his classic essay "The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts" appeared". (Exhibition, 2006) "Douglas' talents allowed him to become a successful muralist. He was commissioned to do the murals for the 1920 opening in the Club Ebony in Harlem. In 1929, he travelled to Chicago to create a mural for the Sherman Hotel's College Inn Ballroom. At the end of 1930, Douglas created another mural for Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. James A. Porter wrote about Douglas in Modern Negro Art that "...most of his murals are based on themes from Negro history.... Douglas' mural style is the result of a rationalization of form. He has adopted a formula for Negro physical characteristics which depends on two effects of design: elongation and angularization.... his Negro forms appear to be linked with a context of primitive dance patterns"." (Artnoirs Art History, 2006) Later Douglas acquired the opportunity to share and further expand his talents of painting and sculpture by visiting Paris. "On his return to the United States in 1928, Douglas became the first president of the Harlem A rtists Guild. The Guild was successful in helping to get African-American artists the necessary acceptance into the arts project under the U.S. Government's Works Progress Administration (WPA)". (Artnoirs Art History, 2006) "Douglas joined the faculty of Fisk University in 1937 and stayed there until his retirement in 1966. His artistic insight is a lasting influence and a testament to the themes of African heritage and racial pride". (Exhibition, 20

The impact of the internet Essay Example for Free

The impact of the internet Essay 1. INTRODUCTION The Internet has taken the business community by storm since the early 1990s. When the community realised the potentiality of the Internet they hailed it as the most transforming invention in history. It has the ability to completely change the way business is being done. And, it is doing so at a feverish pace, turning business upside down and inside out (The Economist 1999). Information Technology (IT) experts went on to use the Internet technology to spin off the Intranet and Extranet to enhance business competition. Together with the Internet, their innovative implementations were able to provide competitive advantage for a company. The Internet, Intranet and Extranet collectively have dramatically affected business. A growing number of corporations believe in the technologys potential to lower cost, add value, improve productivity and create new business opportunities (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2001). So much has been written about the Internet, Intranet and Extranet. What exactly are they? What are their impacts on current business practices and activities? This report seeks to address these questions in the Trading Process Network, a business tool that integrates the Internet, Intranet and Extranet technologies. First, the report introduces the Internet, Intranet and Extranet. Then, it goes on to provide a brief description of the Trading Process Network. Subsequently, the study proceeds to critically review the positive and negative impacts of the Trading Process Network on current business practices and activities. It concludes with some key findings resulting from the positive impact and then provides some suggestions to overcome the negative impacts. 2. INTERNET, INTRANET AND EXTRANET. The Internet technology has risen so fast in the last ten years that it is now considered a business necessity. The Star (2004), a local newspaper, published the figure below summarising the history of the Internet. (source: Star 2004) Figure 1: History of the Internet. Presently, business corporations all over the world are scrambling to implement this technology to take advantage of its impact on their business practices and activities. The Internet The Internet is a dynamic group of computer networks that interconnect computers around the globe (Comer 1997). It is a network of networks thus a powerful form of information and communication technology. Figure 2 illustrates the Internet setup. (source: GE Lighting, www.gelighting.com) Figure 2: The Internet network Computers linking to the Internet communicate by using a common Internet protocol to disseminate information across computers (Kambil 1995). Users of the Internet can communicate electronically, retrieve information and interact with other computers. Therefore, Kambil (1995) said that the Internet is basically used for: * Electronic mail and news services * File transfer to and from remote computers * World Wide Web * Telnet the ability to use remote computers The World Wide Web is the information space for storing and retrieving hypertext documents on the Internet through a unique addressing scheme (Schaper Volery 2002). Often, the Internet is known as the World Wide Web or Information Superhighway because of its superior information reservoir. Any information placed on public web servers can be viewed by anyone with Web access using a browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer (Bullock et al. 1997). The Intranet. The Intranet is an internal corporate communication networks riding on the transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP/IP) (Szuprowicz 1997). (source: GE Lighting, www.gelighting.com) Figure 3: The Intranet network It is designed for staff use only and does not to allow outsiders access. The intranet hooks into corporate databases giving the individual users access to all this data through the standard Web browsers that access Web pages on the Internet (Competia n.d. in Knowlegdepoint 2002). Although the Intranet still allows company employees access to the Internet, outsiders are prevented from entering the internal corporate sites by security features (see Figure 3). The Extranet. An extranet is an extension of the Intranet that is partially accessible to authorised distributors, suppliers, customers and business partners (Long and Long 2005). Simply, an extranet is set up on the same TCP/IP network as the Intranet which allows outsiders access to that same internal corporate information (Bullock et al. 1997). Refer to Figure 4. (source: GE Lighting, www.gelighting.com) Figure 4: The Extranet network Like a private business club, the extranet centralises business transaction by using the same user-friendly technology that has made the Internet a global network. Its members can include companies of all sizes located in virtually every corner of the world (GE Information Services 1999). The Hierarchy. The Internet is the conceptual incubator of both intranets and extranets, and universal connectivity has liberated corporate communications practices (Franklin Jr. 1997). Though they are all Internet and Web based technologies, there are differences between them such as: * The type of information each are designed to disseminate * The targeted group of people allow to access the information * Security Table 1 below compares some of the common differences: Information Type Targeted Group Security Internet general general public lacking Intranet corporate employee moderate Extranet specific to business selected outsiders good Table 1: Common differences between Internet and Web based technologies Wailgum (1998, p. 1) appropriately summed up the differences with this statement: First there was the Internet, which is available for everyone to use. Then businesses got smart and started developing their own intranets that used the same friendly Web interface but put up firewalls so that only employees could see the information on the site. Finally, the extranet was created. It finds itself somewhere in between. Theres still a firewall, but you allow only selected outsiders, such as business partners and customers, inside. Following the differences, the structural hierarchy can actually be illustrated as shown in Figure 5 below: (source: Bullock et al. 1997) Figure 5: The Internet hierarchy The Internet, the World Wide Web and Internet-based technologies such as intranets and extranets provide global links to a businesss customers and suppliers. This allows electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications (Schaper Volery 2002). Phil Gibson, director of interactive marketing at National Semiconductor, is blunt about the importance of the Internet, Intranet and Extranet to the applications when he said, Without all the nets, you just cant do that. (Franklin Jr. 1997). 3. THE TRADING PROCESS NETWORK. The Trading Process Network (TPN) is a technology that integrates the Internet, Intranet and Extranet into a package to revolutionise the way  business is done. It is pioneered by General Electric (GE), a well diversified company with business in technology (aircraft engine, plastics, power generators and consumer electronics) and services (financial services, television broadcasting and medical and science services) (General Electric 2004). (source: General Electric, www.ge.com) GEs leadership in management has long been recognised and progressive. Many of its successful business portfolio management, strategic planning, quality initiatives, employee empowerment and business process reengineering are business models for companies worldwide ( 1997). Jack Welch, GE former chief executive officer, anticipated the potential threat of the Internet. He told the MRO Today magazine (Arnold 2001, p. 1) that: Its like any big change. You can look at it in one of two ways: as an opportunity or as something to fear. You have to have a certain amount of fear to see the opportunities. The Internet is all about getting information from its source to the user without intermediaries. The new measurement is how fast information gets from its origin to users and how much unproductive data gathering, expediting, tracking orders and the like can be eliminated. Seeing reality today means accepting the fact that e-business is here. Its not coming. Its not the thing of the future. Its here. The challenge is to resolve issues in the context of the new Internet reality. Tentativeness in action can mean being cut out of markets, perhaps not by traditional competitors but by companies never heard of 24 months ago. GEs challenge is to leverage the Internet technology as a strategic weapon at a corporate level to change its business practices and activities. It started developing the TPN in 1995 as just an internal GE Intranet using an Oracle7.2 database server with a Netscape Communications commerce server and custom software developed by GE. One year later, it developed to include the Extranet. Full integration with the Internet occurred in 1998 when GE, Thomas Publishing Company and Oracle together created a data registry accessible via the web to search out suppliers of such goods or services. The database lists over 60,000 products from about 6,000 vendors and it took six IT people three months to create ( 1997; 1998; Linthicum 1996; 1997; n.d.). Figure 6 shows a typical TPN concept. (source: Bullock et al 1997) Figure 6: A typical Trading Process Network model. Basically, the TPN allows GE to call for tenders and manages bids from suppliers around the world via the web. Using the TPN Intranet software and other standard office applications, GE creates a set of tender documents with a response form. GE then searched the TPN Internet database for suppliers and decides whom it would like to receive a quotation. The tender documentation is forwarded to the list of prospective suppliers through the TPN Extranet. Suppliers who are interested in bidding began to download the call for tender and passed back to the TPN upon completion. GE may then access and evaluate them anytime ( n.d.). The TPN is so successful that many corporations wasted no time in emulating GEs initiative by creating their own version of the TPN. Today, many corporations have implemented the TPN system in one form or another. For example, Tesco developed the Tesco Information Exchange that linked the retailer with all its suppliers to increase product availability and reduce wastage (GE Information Services 1999). Presently, GE is also commercially offering its TPN technology comprehensively to companies around the world ( n.d.). Its global implementation has impacted business practices and activities which shall be discussed shortly. 4. POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE TPN ON BUSINESS. Since the TPN is a collaboration of the three web-based technologies, it is essential to critically review the positive impact of the three technologies on current business practices and activities separately. Many of the evidences presented here are taken from the impact on GEs business practices and activities. This is because as the world most admired company (General Electric 2004), GEs business practices and activities has been acknowledged and adopted globally as role models. The TPN Internet Impact. As an Internet solution to conduct business electronically and simplify business processes like purchasing, selling and marketing, the TPN impacts business practices and activities in many ways (http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/depts/mnss/courses/ 456/cases/geis.htm n.d.). Some of these impacts are listed on the Computing Insights website (, n.d.): * Instantaneous Communication. The Internet establishes immediate communication between companies and their prospects, customers, and employees without waiting and down time. It is a very fast and efficient method of communication, with messages arriving anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds (Schapel Volery 2002). By taking advantage of this the TPN enables GE to evaluate suppliers bids and award within the same day and orders may start arriving to the supplier within 24 hours ( 1997). Speed in despatching specialised information enhances service relationship thus providing superior service (Khambil 1995). * Global Access. The worldwide reach of the Internet opens the door to unlimited business opportunities by instantly placing it in any office or any home. Business  websites are doors to businesses that never close. Information about products and services are accessible anytime. The web is ideal for providing whole year round self-services ( 1998). GE Lightings 46 plants around the world procure materials and parts from more than 25,000 suppliers globally. By utilising the TPN, GE Lighting has electronic access to this list. With only a set of catalogues and documents GE Lighting obtained multiple feedbacks instantaneously ( 1997). Furthermore, the TPN provides global access to Gary Reiner, CIO of GE to monitor GEs mission operations once every 15 minutes across the companys 13 different businesses around the globe with different time zones (Lindorff 2002). * Instantaneous Customisation The Internet keeps businesses in the fast lane by offering goods and services in real time thus providing individual company the ability to tailor to the needs of customers. According to Barua et al. (n.d.), Dell Computer implemented an online supply chain management application which is somewhat similar to the TPN to help its component suppliers increase the accuracy of their forecasts by providing them access to direct customer order information. This way Dells suppliers can customised their products to Dell customers needs. Frantz (2000, p. 2) provided another example from GE Aircraft Engines: GE Aircraft Engines maintenance and overhaul market frequently requires decision on retention, rebuilding or discarding a worn part. Previously, the worn part was sent to the customer to be evaluated or the repairs had to wait until a customers representative could inspect it at GE, often taking many days. Today, a new customised part can be graphically transmitted over the TPN and quickly evaluated by the customer before installation. * New Distribution Channels. The Internet can rapidly reduce the time to market for new products because direct distribution shortens the path to markets. Electronic commerce can be used to find the best deal from distributors in terms of time and cost (Schapel Volery 2002). The TPN is a secure electronic commerce environment that supports the business-to- business buying and selling of goods and services. It provides GE the ability to find new distributors based upon the database records ( n.d.). Home Depot is one such distributor when it set up a TPN form of Internet application that enables GE appliances purchased at Home Depot to be delivered directly to consumers homes from the nearest GE warehouse (Barua et al. n.d.). * E-Shopping The Internet enables many companies to create an electronic shopping environment that enables users to browse, review, select and purchase products instantly. It is a revolutionary business tool, guaranteed to attract new, web-knowledgeable customers who buy everything online (Schapel Volery 2002). This is the TPNs primary solution where the TPN Marketplace provides purchasing professionals access to a searchable catalogue of GE goods and services including pricing and contract terms in a standardised format (Mark 2001). The TPN Intranet Impact. By allowing company staff exclusive access to corporate information electronically, the TPN Intranet positively impacts current business practices and activities. Some of these impacts are mentioned in the  Vialogix website (Vialogix n.d.): * Increase productivity. The Intranet has the ability to increase staff productivity. According to the Vialogix website, many companies have invested in intranets to boost productivity and encourage knowledge sharing. Its to have tools aimed at productivity, at letting employees do their jobs better and more efficiently, says Pam Wickham, e-business public relations manager and manager of GE (USA Today (Tech Report) 2001). Bill Snook, a sales manager at GE Energy Services in Canada said his TPN Intranet sales portal home page is the gateway to all the applications that he has. Anthes (2003, p. 2) reported Snook as saying: Before I used to go from one application to another to search for things randomly and each required a separate sign-on and password. The new portal has made multitasking much more efficient and has increased face time with customers. In May 2001, IBM launched its TPN offshoot known as the WorldJam where its 52,600 employees worldwide convened online to swap ideas on how to work faster without undermining quality (Fast Company 2001 in Vialogix n.d.). * Reduced paperwork. When employees communicate through the Intranet they effectively reduce the amount of paperwork required such as internal memos, invoices and printed company newsletters. Forbes (2001 in Vialogix n.d.) reported that GE processed 3.1 million paper invoices in 2000. Today, half of those invoices are processed digitally. John Rice, the chief executive of GE Transportation system, confirmed this fact when he said that the 1 million pieces of paper GE faxes to suppliers  each year are going to go away (GE Transportation System 2000). * More informed/empowered employees. There are many types of competitive or business intelligence information that can be included on an Intranet. Users can easily navigate and locate this information using the point-and-click hyperlinking technology (Linthicum 1996) to be informed and empowered. General Electric uses the TPN to manage its business intelligence by keeping its globally dispersed workforce informed. In a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, more than 85% said the intranet is useful for disseminating information (USA Today (Tech Report) 2001) Szuprowicz (1997, p. 7) found out that the information available in the TPN are: Annual report of the company, financial data and business information designed to allow employees to manage their own investments. In addition, GE provides employees direct access to the GE travel centre which allows them to schedule their own business trips. * Savings in expenditure. Companies exploit the inexpensive Intranet web technology for in-house applications. Since the web applications use only a single browser, training is less. Moreover, implementation costs are considerably low due to a single interface, protocol and middleware architecture (Linthicum 1996). In a 1997 survey, American Express discovered the magnitude of the savings (Fast Company 2001 in Vialogix n.d.): It was found that at a typical company where paper still predominated, the average cost of handling a single expense account was #36 or more. After switching to a similar TPN approach the cost reduced to as little as $8 per  account. * Connects users across disparate platforms. The TPN Intranet is a new dynamic client/server application development platform for corporate applications that uses open standards such as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, CGI, ODBC and Java to connect heterogeneous database (Linthicum 1996). Venki Rao, an IT leader in GE Power Systems, said that the TPN sales portal software has an open architecture and is flexible, making it especially easy to connect all the different platforms (Anthes 2003). USA Today (Tech Report) (2001, p. 1) reported that after GE revamped its Intranet last year, 10 million visitors a week used it: By connecting all its disparate platforms through the TPN, GE employees can now create personalised pages, read industry-specific news or check the weather. They also can download tax forms and review benefits information. An online marketplace offers discounts on GE appliances, Dell computers and other products.

Contextual Positioning Of Photographic Media Photography Essay

Contextual Positioning Of Photographic Media Photography Essay Using one image that you feel is representative of the work of a particular photographer, movement or genre, contextually deconstruct the image, in an objective and considered way. The image I have chosen to contextually deconstruct, is one photographed by Henri Cartier- Bresson. This image was taken in 1969 it is named Sidewalk Cafe, Boulevard Diderot, Paris. To discover the socio-cultural identity of Henri Cartier- Bresson, an exploration into his history must be undertaken, to determine the attitudes and outlook that influenced his thinking, understanding and perception, which can be leant from the social and cultural group to which he belonged. Henri Cartier Bresson was born in the 1900s and was raised and grew up during the age of the bourgeoisie. A Period in time that lasted for around a century and a half, Bourgeoisie translated means city dweller, this was considered a social class. Henri Cartier Bresson captured many great images that symbolise this time period during his life. Paris at that time was the city of its age, the 1900s, incredible wealth, incredible beauty, incredible art next to incredible poverty and bohemianism and a complete reworking of social morays. Henri Cartier Bresson was primarily a photojournlist who was most concernered with time and timing, his photographic fusion of form and content was groundbreaking. His images captured the moment, they are unplanned, this was made obvious when he publisised his book The Decisive Moment in which his introduction stated i craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes. Henri Cartier Bresson decided what to take a photo of, what elements to exclude and what angle to frame the photo, and these factors may reflect a particular socio-historical context. In the 1900s, World War I, was beginning, in the northeast of France, by 1918 the war was over and the Versailles Treaty was signed, the period between World War I and World War II was a time of Depression which lasted almost ten years, this was also the time of the avant-garde movement, in which France played a leading role, which brought artists, musician and filmakers worldwide, to France. The Avant- garde movement was a time in which boundaries of the norm in society were pushed. Henri Cartier Bresson was born into this world, being the eldest of five children and having a wealthy upbringing, he had the option of succeeding his fathers business, however Henri Cartier Bresson held a existentialist view, which meant that he believed he responsible for giving his own life meaning and living his life passionately and sincerely. Many people had this view as it was the time of existentialism. For Bresson it ment persueing his own dreams and passions instead of being duty bound to his f athers company. Henri Cartier Bresson influencer was his uncle, who was a painter, that died during the first World War, when Bresson was a mear age of five. Henri Cartier Bresson mentioned in an interview, in the year in which he died, my uncle, by being a painter, represented freedom to me. Bressons uncle represented bohemianism. Bresson was primarily a painter until he became inspired by a photojournalist from hungary, Martin Munkacsi. Munkacsi captured an image called Three boys at Lake Tanganyika, after seeing this image, Bresson was entralled, and took his camera and began image making himself, mainly in the streets. Bresson began working with a Leica, which he apparently painted black as to disguise it. this gave him anonymity in a crowd and he was able to capture more intimate shots such as the one he capture above, the couple outside a cafe, probably had no idea they were actually being photographed. Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in a candid situation, it is like holding up a mirror to society. This particular image that I have chosen I feel is a fair representation of his work, it captures the decisive moment attitude. It perfectly captures the Parisian cafe culture. Philosopher Josef Peiper said leisure is the basis of culture. The French cafe is as much a part of the culture of France as wine and cheese. This image captures a sterotype of France, the cliche black and white striped shirt, the Cigerette, and of course the beret. Even nowadays a trip to Paris, will almost always involve, french cafe culture, no matter which area of France a person goes to. Cafe culture is still a prominent leisure activity in France today. Henri Cartier- Bresson being a documentary photographer, photographed significant and historical events, he took images across the world in the beginning of his career, until doing extenstive work on the streets of Paris. Being brought up in a bourgeoisie society, where many people dwelled in cities, could have been part of the reason why Bresson entered the world of street photography. Bresson would have been considered fairly wealthy, in that era, simply because his was born into wealth, this gave him the oppurtunity to pursue his career in photography and the arts, which may not have been made possible otherwise. Bresson also had an full and beneficial education, attending university, and doing his mandatory service in the French Army. Bresson matured both artistically and as a man during a turbulent cultural and political era, which reflects in many of his images because of his documentation, of the worlds great events during his lifetime, such as Gandhis funeral, the final stage of the Chinease Civil War and many other great historial events. Bresson has a skill at envisaging an image, even when simply walking through the streets of Paris, his compostion is second to none, the rule of third is a compostional technique, captured in most of his images seems almost flawless. The fact that his camera is hand held, he manages to capture images, without camera shake, with good compostional skill, with the lighting being natural and without the subjects even realising they are being photographed. Once a subject realises they are being photographed they become far more formal and adapt and unnatural behaviour. The fact his subjects are completely unaware of the image being taken, makes his photographs far more pure and untainted and therefore even more spectacular. Especially so in this image, the couple being photographed are kissing, and are clearly unaware, if they were, this image would have lost its natural beauty, because the image would have been posed for. The small camera Bresson used when taking this specific shot, gave him the ability to get very intimate with this couple without there knowledge. For Bresson the street was his studio Susan Sontag a philosopher argues, To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s self into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge, and therefore like power. Bresson managed to do this with such ease, and elegance, his perception of the world was captured through his camera, which was basically an extension of his eye. Although Bressons images are influential even in todays society, it can be argued that the way in which he took his images, violated social norms. However, this could be deemed acceptable considering he was living during a time of bohemian revolution whereby the norms in society were being pushed anyway. The fashion captured in this image is a perfect example of the time period. The strippy black and white shirt is not just a sterotype of France, it was the dress that middle class parisians wore. The sterotype of a person riding a bicycle through the streets of Paris, selling bread, garlic and onion is also somewhat true, it was the uniform the sellers wore, but became fashionable and others began wearing it. Another example of parisians pushing boundaries of the norm. Bresson was the co-founder of a company called Magnum photos, in which he himself as well as his co-founders began a project whereby they went out and took a series of images there project names were People live everywhere, Youth of the World, Women of the World and The Child Generation. The aim of the organisiation was to use the photographic medium as a service to humanity. Being a street photographer Bresson captured specific images of the time and the fashion and the attitude Parisians had. The fact that Bresson capture images that were publisized at the time could have been what influenced society, because it is not just society that influences a person, a person can influence society. The image I chose represents Bressons work well because it gives an insight into how exactly he created and captured the image and also gives an example of some of his greatest street photography, as well as proving that Bresson socio-cultural identity does effect his work in many ways. He photographed very ordinary things for the time period, but because they are documenting an era, it makes them timeless. The world in which Bresson has been raised and brought up in, definitly is apparent in his images especially those taken in Paris, his native country. This exploration into Bressons past and subsequently his image making proves that a his upbringing and the social climate in which he existed made an impact on his work, and lifestyle.

HMMs Pattern Recognition

HMMs Pattern Recognition Assignment 3 of Pattern recognition is on HMMs. It should contain a detailed report on HMMs. The topics covered should include: 1. An introduction to HMM and its uses. 1. Problems of HMM, their explanation and relation to prior, posterior, and evidence. 2. Solution to the problems of HMM and their algorithms. Pattern Recognition Assignment # 3 Name: Muhammad Sohaib Jamal An Introduction to HMM and its Uses A Hidden Markov Model HMM is a stochastic model which has a series of observable variable X which is generated by hidden state Y. In an indirect way HMM consist of hidden states which has output that is comprised of a set of observations. Simple Markov Model models the states are directly observables means the states are directly output while in HMM the states are hidden and different form the observables or output. HMM is very reliable model for probabilistic estimation. HMM have applications in pattern recognitions such as speech recognition, gesture and hand writing recognition, computational Bioinformatics, etc. Suppose we are considering three trails of a coin toss experiment and the person who is observing only know the results of the experiment when another person announces the result who is hidden in a closed room from the person noting the results. The result of this coin experiment can be any set of heads and tails e.g. THT, HHH, THH, TTT, THT etc. The person observing the results can get any sequence of heads and tails, and it is not possible to predict any specific sequence that will occur. The Observation Set is completely unpredictable and random. Lets assume that the third trail of coin toss experiment will produce more Head than the Tails. The resulting sequence will obviously have more number of heads then tails for this particular case. This is called Emission probability denoted by Bj(O). Now we suppose that the chance of flipping the third trail after the first and second trail is approximately zero. Then, the transition from 1st and 2nd trail to 3rd trail will be actually very small and as an outcome yields very little number heads if the person starts flipping the coin from 2nd trail to 3rd trail. This is called Transition probability denoted by aij. Assume that each trail has some probability associated with the previous trail, then the person will start the process of flipping from that particular coin. This is known to be the Initial probability denoted by à Ã¢â€š ¬i. The sequence of number of heads or tails is known to be the observables and the number of trail is said to be the state of the HMM. HMM is composed of: N number of hidden states S1, S2 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦., SN M number of observations O1, O2, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, OM The à Ã¢â€š ¬i (Initial state probability) Output Probability or Emission Probability B: P (OM | SN), where OM is observation and SN is the state. Transition probability matrix A = [ aij ]. Transition probabilities aij. Mathematically the model is represented as HMM ÃŽÂ » = {ÃŽÂ  , A, B} Problems of HMM and their explanations HMM has three basic types of problems: The Evaluation problem: Suppose we have an HMM, complete with transition probabilities aij and output probabilities bjk. We need to determine the probability that a particular sequence of observables states OT was generated by that model. The Decoding problem: The transition probabilities, output probabilities and set of observations OT is given and we want to determine the most likely sequence of hidden states ST that led to those observations. The Learning problem: In such problem the number of states and observation are given but we need to find the probabilities aij and bjk. With the given set of training observations, we will determine the probabilities aij and bjk. Relation of HMM to Prior, Posterior and evidence The à Ã¢â€š ¬i (Initial state probability) is analogous to the Prior probability. Because the initial probability is given before the set of experiments take place. This property of initial probability is identical to that of prior probability. Similarly, the output probability or emission probability B: P (OM | SN) is analogous to the posterior probability. The posterior probability is used in forward backward algorithm. In the same manner, evidence is the probability the next state is C given that the current state is state Sj. So the evidence is analogous to the transition probability A. Solution to the problems of HMM and their algorithms From the above mentioned discussion, we know that there are three different of problems in HMM. In this section we will briefly know how these problems are solved Evaluation problem, this type of problem is solved the using Forward-Backward algorithm. Decoding problem, for such type of HMM problem we use the Viterbi algorithm or posterior decoding Training problem, in case of this type of problem we have the Baun-Welch re-estimation algorithm to solve it. Forward-Backward algorithm The forward and backward steps are combined by the Forward-Backward algorithm to estimate the probability of each state for a specific time t, and repeating these steps for each t can result in the sequence having the most likely probability. This algorithm doesnt guarantee that the sequence is valid sequence because it considers every individual step. The forward algorithm has the following three steps: Initialization step Iterations Summation of overall states . Similarly, for backward algorithm we have the same steps like the forward algorithm: Initialization step Iterations Summation of overall states Viterbi algorithm Viterbi algorithm is used to find the most likely hidden states, resulting in a sequence of observed events. The relationship between observations and states can be inferred from the given image. In first step Viterbi algorithm initialize the variable In second step the process is iterated for every step In third step the iteration ends In Fourth step we track the best path Baun-Welch re-estimation algorithm Baun-Welch re-estimation algorithm is used to compute the unknown parameters in hidden Markov model HMM. Baun-Welch re-estimation algorithm can be best described using the following example. Assume we collect eggs from chicken every day. The chicken had lay eggs or not depends upon unknown factors. For simplicity assume that there are only 2 states (S1 and S2) that determine that the chicken had lay eggs. Initially we dont know about the state, transition and probability that the chicken will lay egg given specific state. To find initial probabilities, suppose all the sequences starting with S1 and find the maximum probability and then repeat the same procedure for S2. Repeat these steps until the resulting probabilities converge. Mathematically it can be References Andrew Ng (2013), an online course for Machine learning, Stanford University, Stanford, https://class.coursera.org/ml-004/class. Duda and Hart, Pattern Classification (2001-2002), Wiley, New York. http://en.wikipedia.org http://hcicv.blogspot.com/2012/07/hidden-markov-model-for-dummies.html http://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/hidden-markov-models-hmm.html http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/roger/HiddenMarkovModels/html_dev/viterbi_algorithm/s3_pg3.html

Invasion of Normandy Essay -- WWII World War 2 American History

Invasion of Normandy Invasion of Normandy, also known as D-Day or Operation Overlord, was a cross channel attack planned by the allies that took place over the English channel. Not only was D-Day the largest amphibious assault the world had seen, it was a critical point in World War II. (Locke, Alain, ed. Pg 203) The Invasion of Normandy is when the allies decided that they must take an offense and invade Germany on their home land if Hitler was to be stopped. The allies put all of their power together, for failure was not an option. If the invasion was to fail it was quite likely that the United States would have to postpone their fight against Germany and turn their full attention to the war in the Pacific, leaving the fate of Europe to Britain and the Soviet Union. Chances are that by the time the United states returned to fight Germany, Hitler would have overrun the continent since all of Britain's resources had been drained, leaving the majority of the fighting to the Soviet Union. Towards the end of November 1943, President Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in Tehran for the first meeting about how to invade Germany. Roosevelt and the prime minister had already agreed that it would be best to launch a cross-channel attack, code named Overlord. President Roosevelt was in full favor of launching operation Overlord as soon as the weather permitted. With Stalin's agreement to join in, operation Overlord was set for May 1944, depending on the weather. (Anderson, Jervis. Pg 86) American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named supreme commander for the allies in Europe. British General, Sir Frederick Morgan, established a combined American-British headquarters known as COSSAC, for Chief of Staff to the Supreme... ..., Steve Pg 53)eyes focused somewhere else while the main part of the war took place on five beaches. With the exception of Omaha beach, the rest were reasonably easy compared to past battles. Work Cited Anderson, Jervis. World War II. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982. Bloom, Harold, ed. Conflicts during World War II. New York: Pantheon, 1993. Huggins, Nathan. World War II in picture. London: Oxford University Press, 1989. Lewis, David Levering, ed. D-Day. New York: Penguin 1994. Locke, Alain, ed. The Longest Day. New York: Atheneum, 1992. Studio Museum, The. Music, the once great art. New York: Abrams, 1987 Watson, Steve. Nothing Less then Victory. New York: Pantheon, 1995 Candaela, Kerry. The Voices of D-Day. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997. Daniel, Mips. Weapons of World War II. New York: Pantheon, 1995

Reflection on Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Essays

Reflection on Jane Eyre "That strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit." This was the painful reaction of young Jane Eyre to her own horrifying ten-year-old reflection in the mirror . This reflection illustrates the harsh and fearful childhood of a strong-willed girl in the beginning of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte. Set in the mid-nineteenth century on the English countryside Jane Eyre tells the story of one orphan's troubled childhood and her yearning to belong to someone somewhere as she matures into an adult. Jane Eyre is a story replete with romance, morality, mystery, and coincidence. After the death of her parents, Jane lives in the house of her aunt, Sarah Reed. Sarah only allows Jane to stay in her house because of a promise Sarah made to her brother who was on his death bed. However, Sarah regrets her promise, despises Jane from the beginning, and blames her for every disturbance between her own children...

Off Balance Sheet Accounting

Off balance sheet financing is financing from sources other than debt or equity offerings, such as joint ventures, research and development partnership and operating leases. For complex institutions such as banks, they increase their use of off shore subsidiaries and swap transactions to avoid disclosing liabilities. In other words, off balance sheet accounting is a process which a business creates what is practically a debt that it must pay off, but the debt is accounted as another type of transaction that does not count as a liability. Similarly, this applies to asset too.Operating leasing is the most common form of off balance sheet financing. With leasing, on the one hand, an entity could acquire the right to use an asset through a rental agreement. On the other hand, the entity could purchase the same asset using external finance. While the two arrangements may result in identical net cash flows to the entity, in the case of a purchase both the asset and the associated financing obligation appear on the entity’s balance sheet whereas in the formal scenario rental payments are accounted for as a period expense, with the asset corresponding liability omitted from the entity’s balance sheet.Entities used Special Purpose Entities (SPE), are also known as Variable Interest Entities (VIE) for off balance sheet treatment of deals. SPE or VIE is a corporation or partnership formed for the purpose of borrowing money to buy financial assets. Debts are move to a newly created company (SPE OR VIE) specifically to make a company look like it has far less debt than it actually does, which was the case with Enron. For example, a company needs to finance a business venture but doesn’t want to take on the risk, or when there is too much debt to get a loan.By starting a new SPE, they can secure a loan through the new entity. There are situations where it makes sense to start a SPE. If a company wants to branch out into another area outside of its core b usiness, a SPE will keep that risk from affecting the main balance sheet and profitability of the company. The main factor that companies are doing off balance sheet accounting is to provide a better looking balance sheet with lower reported debt to equity ratio, which usually results in driving their stock price higher. Nevertheless, omission of the asset could help to inflate return on assets.This may make the firms look more creditworthy. For instance, by having operating leases, debt does not appear; thus, reducing financial leverage with an increase in operating leverage. By having lower leverage ratio or higher operating leverage, it could attract more investments from investors; therefore, it drives up the stock prices. Next, off balance sheet accounting allows the firms to receive benefits of the interest deduction for tax purposes while avoiding the obligation and the interest expense on its financial statements.In other words, firms with off balance sheet financing are lik ely to have tax interest expense that exceeds financial reporting interest expense. However, off balance sheet accounting has brought some impacts toward the stakeholders. Off balance sheet accounting removes the transparency from investors, markets and regulators. Firms use financial engineering to make their balance sheet appear that they are better capitalized and less risky than they really are. Without transparency, investors and regulators can no longer accurately assess risks.This is because investors and regulators use the balance sheet as an anchor in their assessment of risk. The shareholders could only guess at the extent of the firm’s exposure risks. This affects the judgment of stakeholders; and, it could bring tremendous loss to the stakeholders when the firms collapse. The Enron accounting fraud will best illustrate this. In order to overcome this issue, regulators have established several methods through Sarbanes-Oxley Act, MD&A as well as new rules on leasing .The Securities and Exchange Commission issues final rules implementing Section 401(a) of the Act relating to the disclosure of off balance sheet arrangement, contractual obligation and contingent liabilities. These rules require disclosure of off balance sheet arrangement that have, or are reasonably likely to have, a current or future effect on a company’s condition, changes in financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources that is material to investors.The disclosure includes elements such as the nature and business purposes to the company of the off balance sheet arrangement and the importance to the reporting company of the liquidity, capital resources, market risk support, credit risk support or other benefits provided by the arrangement. Nonetheless, firms are to disclose the amounts of revenues, expenses and cash flows of the company arising from the arrangements as well as the nature and amounts of interest retained, securities issued and other debt incurred by the company in connection with the arrangements.The rules also require public companies to disclose in a tabular format in their MD&A the amounts of payments due under specified contractual obligations, aggregated by category of contractual obligation. The five categories of contractual obligations, consisting of long term debt obligations, capital lease obligations, operating lease obligations, purchase obligations and other long term debt liabilities reflected on the company’s balance sheet. The table must disclose what portion of payments under these obligations is due within less than one year, from one to three years, from three to five years and more than five years.To encourage the disclosure on off balance sheet arrangement, the amended rules include a safe harbor that applies the existing statutory safe harbors protecting forward-looking information required by the rules. With regard to the disclosure of off balance sheet arrangements, the safe harbor provision indicates that the meaningful cautionary statements element of the statutory safe harbor will be satisfied if the company satisfies all the requirements of the amended rules relating to off balance sheet disclosures.As mentioned above, operating leases can be exploited by entities for off-balance sheet financing – using an operating lease to obtain assets, thereby not increasing leverage and not decreasing return on assets. The proposed new standard on leases by the joint project of FASB and IASB, currently under development, moves away from the current â€Å"risk and returns† basis to a â€Å"right of use basis†. The lessee and the lessor will recognize assets and liabilities individually for all rights and obligations arising from a lease contract.There will no longer be separate treatments for operating and finance leases – all leases will be accounted for on the same basis. In short, operat ing leasing contract is no longer available and only finance leasing will be used for accounting in the near future. In short, off balance sheet accounting could be use but only with appropriate disclosures are done. By having the disclosures, balance sheet is more transparent to the stakeholders; and, the stakeholders do not need to have a wild guess on the risk of a company. Stakeholders’ investments are said to be more secured.

Hydraulic cone crusher operating principle in manufacturer

Upper material through the crusher feed opening into the crushing chamber, crushed material from he lower row of the discharge port. hydraulic cone crusher:http://www. ock- crusher. org/products/Hydraulic-Cone-Crusher. html SMG single-cylinder series hydraulic cone crusher:http://www. conecrusher. org/SMG-Hydraulic-Cone- Crusher. html SMG single-cylinder series hydraulic cone crusher operating principle: summed up the advantages on the basis of the crushing chamber type, experienced a theoretical analysis and practical test case, Yifan engineers design the SMG series hydraulic cone crusher has a variety of crushing chamber type, available for users to hoose, by selecting suitable crushing chamber and eccentric distance, can meet customer production requirements, to achieve high yields.Packed feed laminated crushing, to make the final product better grain shape, particle content of the cube. Meanwhile,SMG single-cylinder series hydraulic cone crusher is uesd in stone production line. SMH series hydraulic cone crusher is the cone crusher developed after the absorption of the world advanced crushing technology with the advanced level, the more widely used in metallurgy, construction, utilities, transportation, hemical industry, building materials industry, suitable for crushing hard, medium hardness a variety of ores and rocks.SMH series hydraulic cone crusher is a high- performance cone crusher, will design speed and stroke, as well as crushing cavity optimized portfolio to achieve intergranular laminating crushing significantly improves yield and product shape is also greatly improved . rock crusher in china:http://www. rock-crusher. org/ Yifan machinery is professional hydraulic cone crusher manufacturer in china. Any problem,contact us.

Ethics: an Overview

Human Resource Management Summer 2009 Session B To Lie or No to Lie 1) Polygraph testing began in the early 20th century. The first celebrated case using a polygraph test was the Lindberg baby kidnapping. Polygraph tests a popular among the branches of law enforcement (FBI, CIA and Homeland Security). There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to utilizing polygraph tests in the workplace. The advantages to using a polygraph test in the workplace are that the test allows the individual(s) in question to give â€Å"their side of the story. It protects the organization from being discriminatory towards and particular group or faith. It shows employees that the organization is willing to go to great lengths to find out what has occurred. This type of action should be recorded into the employee manual to protect against any future issues. The disadvantages to polygraph testing are that employees may see the test as an infringement of their rights. The employee may refuse to take th e test, especially if it is not part of company policy. The testing could be manipulated to reflect a desired outcome. The testing is not admissible as evidence on a court of law in most states. 2) Drug testing at Team Fun is not legal in most of the United States. Before proceeding with any type of drug testing, especially any random drug testing, it is highly recommended that the organization consult with the state Department of Labor to confirm the guidelines with regard to company drug testing. The company should consider is this to be pre employment or post employment drug testing. Most drug testing is done pre employment. Policies that should be instituted around random post employment drug testing are employees (supervisory and staff) are to have educational programs about the drug testing, the drugs being tested and the event of having a positive result of a test (supervisory level education). The company should not or cannot terminate the post-employment employee for failing random drug test. This could result in litigation against the organization. In the event of a positive drug test, the company is to recommend or provide counseling or rehabilitation for the employee found to be an addict to one of the drugs in the screening process. ) In the case of a pre employee submitting to a random drug test the following steps are to be taken. 1) The employee filled out the appropriate applications and paperwork, the employee is to proceed to the outside vendor for completion of the drug test. Once the results are received. 2) The next phase of the employee hiring process takes place. In the case of a pos t hired employee submitting to a random drug test the following steps are to be taken. 1) The employee is to report to an offsite third – party vendor to complete the drug screening (this can be by blood, by urine or by saliva). ) Once the resulted are founded and if the findings are negative, employee is free to resume his/her duties for the organization. If the results are found to be positive, the HRM department begins to take steps to give the employee the best care possible and the best references within the scope of their influence. 4) The organizational issues that are relevant to this discussion are the mission of the organization, the lack of discipline within the organization, the lack of written and enforced policy of the organization as well. The leadership wanted to institute an organization of levity, of positivity and of fulfillment for its employees. This all well and good, a company must establish guidelines for its employees to function to the best of their abilities and to feel that sense of â€Å"fun† within those constraints. Having no disciplinary policies put this organization at risk for litigation from disgruntled employees and for any issues of thievery, disrespect and absences. You can have a positive and fun environment, as long as all parties understand the rules of the game and how to play the game.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 29

Chapter 29 When it was all finished, Simon looked great, better than I'd ever seen him look. Joshua had not only raised him from the dead, but also healed his leprosy. Maggie and Martha were ecstatic. The new and improved Simon invited us back to his house to celebrate. Unfortunately, Abel and Crustus had witnessed the resurrection and the healing, and despite our admonishments, they started to spread the story through Bethany and Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea accompanied us to Simon's house, but he was hardly in a celebratory mood. â€Å"This dinner's not exactly a trap,† he told Joshua, â€Å"it's more like a test.† â€Å"I've been to one of their trials by dinner,† said Joshua. â€Å"I thought you were a believer.† â€Å"I am,† said Joseph, â€Å"especially after what I saw today, but that's why you have to come to my house and have dinner with the Pharisees from the council. Show them who you are. Explain to them in an informal setting what it is that you are doing.† â€Å"Satan himself once asked me to prove myself,† said Joshua. â€Å"What proof do I owe these hypocrites?† â€Å"Please, Joshua. They may be hypocrites, but they have great influence over the people. Because they condemn you the people are afraid to listen to the Word. I know Pontius Pilate, I don't think anyone would harm you in my home and risk his wrath.† Joshua sat for a moment, sipping his wine. â€Å"Then into the den of vipers I shall go.† â€Å"Don't do it, Joshua,† I said. â€Å"And you have to come alone,† said Joseph. â€Å"You can't bring any of the apostles.† â€Å"That's not a problem,† I said. â€Å"I'm only a disciple.† â€Å"Especially not him,† said Joseph. â€Å"Jakan bar Iban will be there.† â€Å"So I guess it's another night sitting home for me, too,† said Maggie. Later we all watched and waved as Joseph and Joshua left to go back to Jerusalem for the dinner at Joseph's house. â€Å"As soon as they get around the corner you follow them,† Maggie said to me. â€Å"Of course.† â€Å"Stay close enough to hear if he needs you.† â€Å"Absolutely.† â€Å"Come here.† She pulled me inside the door where the others wouldn't see and gave me one of those Maggie kisses that made me walk into walls and forget my name for a few minutes. It was the first in months. She released me and held me at arm's length, then, â€Å"You know that if there were no Joshua, I wouldn't love anyone but you,† she said. â€Å"You don't have to bribe me to watch over him, Maggie.† â€Å"I know. That's one of the reasons I love you,† she said. â€Å"Now go.† My years of trying to sneak up on the monks in the monastery paid me back as I shadowed Joshua and Joseph through Jerusalem. They had no idea I was following, as I slipped from shadow to shadow, wall to tree, finally to Joseph's house, which lay south of the city walls, only a stone's throw from the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas. Joseph of Arimathea's house was only slightly smaller than the palace itself, but I was able to find a spot on the roof of an adjacent building where I could watch the dinner through a window and still have a view of the front door. Joshua and Joseph sat in the dining room drinking wine by themselves for a while, then gradually the servants let in the other guests as they arrived in groups of twos and threes. There were a dozen of them by the time dinner was served, all of the Pharisees that had been at the dinner at Jakan's house, plus five more that I had never seen before, but all were severe and meticulous about washing before dinner and checking each other to make sure that all was in order. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I really didn't care. There seemed to be no immediate threat to Joshua, and that was all I was worried about. He could hold his own on the rhetorical battlefield. Then, when it seemed that it would end without incident, I saw the tall hat and white robe of a priest in the street, and with him two Temple guards carrying their long, bronze-tipped spears. I dropped down off the roof and made my way around the opposite side of the house, arriving just in time to see a servant lead the priest inside. As soon as Joshua came through the door at Simon's house Martha and Maggie showered him with kisses as if he had returned from the war, then led him to the table and started interrogating him about the dinner. â€Å"First they yelled at me for having fun, drinking wine, and feasting. Saying that if I was truly a prophet I would fast.† â€Å"And what did you tell them?† I asked, still a little winded from the running to get to Simon's house ahead of Joshua. â€Å"I said, well, John didn't eat anything but bugs, and he never drank wine in his life, and he certainly never had any fun, and they didn't believe him, so what kind of standards were they trying to set, and please pass the tabbouleh.† â€Å"What did they say then?† â€Å"Then they yelled at me for eating with tax collectors and harlots.† â€Å"Hey,† said Matthew. â€Å"Hey,† said Martha. â€Å"They didn't mean you, Martha, they meant Maggie.† â€Å"Hey,† said Maggie. â€Å"I told them that tax collectors and harlots would see the kingdom of God before they did. Then they yelled at me for healing on the Sabbath, not washing my hands before I eat, being in league with the Devil again, and blaspheming by claiming to be the Son of God.† â€Å"Then what?† â€Å"Then we had dessert. It was some sort of cake made with dates and honey. I liked it. Then a guy came to the door wearing priest's robes.† â€Å"Uh-oh,† said Matthew. â€Å"Yeah, that was bad,† said Joshua. â€Å"He went around whispering in the ears of all the Pharisees, then Jakan asked me by what authority I raised Simon from the dead.† â€Å"And what did you say?† â€Å"I didn't say anything, not with the Sadducee there. But Joseph told them that Simon hadn't been dead. He was just sleeping.† â€Å"So what did they say to that?† â€Å"Then they asked me by what authority I woke him up.† â€Å"And what did you say?† â€Å"I got angry then. I said by all the authority of God and the Holy Ghost, by the authority of Moses and Elijah, by the authority of David and Solomon, by the authority of thunder and lightning, by the authority of the sea and the air and the fire in the earth, I told them.† â€Å"And what did they say?† â€Å"They said that Simon must have been a very sound sleeper.† â€Å"Sarcasm is wasted on those guys,† I said. â€Å"Completely wasted,† said Joshua. â€Å"Anyway, then I left, and outside there were two guards from the Temple. The shafts of their spears had been broken and they were both unconscious. There was blood on one's scalp. So I healed them, and when I saw they were coming around, I came here.† â€Å"They don't think you attacked the guards?† Simon asked. â€Å"No, the priest followed me down. He saw them at the same time that I did.† â€Å"And your healing them didn't convince him?† â€Å"Hardly.† â€Å"So what do we do now?† â€Å"I think we should go back to Galilee. Joseph will send word if anything comes of the meeting of the council.† â€Å"You know what will come of it,† Maggie said. â€Å"You threaten them. And now they have the priests involved. You know what will happen.† â€Å"Yes, I do,† said Joshua. â€Å"But you don't. We'll leave for Capernaum in the morning.† Later Maggie came to me in the great room of Simon's house, where we were all bedded down for the night. She crawled under my blanket and put her lips right next to my ear. As usual, she smelled of lemons and cinnamon. â€Å"What did you do to those guards?† she whispered. â€Å"I surprised them. I thought they might be there to arrest Joshua.† â€Å"You might have gotten him arrested.† â€Å"Look, have you done this before? Because if you have some sort of plan, please let me in on it. Personally, I'm making this up as I go along.† â€Å"You did good,† she whispered. She kissed my ear. â€Å"Thank you.† I reached for her and she shimmied away. â€Å"And I'm still not going to sleep with you,† she said. The messenger must have ridden through several nights to get ahead of us, but when we got back to Capernaum there was already a message waiting from Joseph of Arimathea. Joshua: Pharisee council condemned you to death for blasphemy. Herod concurs. No official death warrant issued, but suggest you take disciples into Herod Philip's territory until things settle down. No word from the priests yet, which is good. Enjoyed having you at dinner, please drop by next time you're in town. Your friend, Joseph of Arimathea Joshua read the message aloud to all of us, then pointed to a deserted mountaintop on the northern shore of the lake near Bethsaida. â€Å"Before we leave Galilee again, I am going up that mountain. I will stay there until all in Galilee who wish to hear the good news have come. Only then will I leave to go to Philip's territory. Go out now and find the faithful. Tell them where to find me.† â€Å"Joshua,† Peter said, â€Å"there are already two or three hundred sick and lame waiting at the synagogue for you to heal them. They've been gathering for all the days you've been gone.† â€Å"Why didn't you tell me?† â€Å"Well, Bartholomew greeted them and took their names, then we told them that you'd be with them as soon as you got the chance. They're fine.† â€Å"I lead the dogs back and forth by them occasionally so we look busy,† said Bart. Joshua stormed off to the synagogue waving his hands in the air as if asking God why he had been plagued by a gang of dimwits, but then, I might have been reading that into his gesture. The rest of us spread out into Galilee to announce that Joshua was going to be preaching a great sermon on a mountain north of Capernaum. Maggie and I traveled together, along with Simon the Canaanite and Maggie's friends Johanna and Susanna. We decided to take three days and walk a circle through northern Galilee that would take us through a dozen towns and bring us back to the mountain just in time to help direct the pilgrims that would be gathering. The first night we camped in a sheltered valley outside a town called Jamnith. We ate bread and cheese by the fire and afterward Simon and I shared wine while the women went off to sleep. It was the first time I'd ever had a chance to talk to the Zealot without his friend Judas around. â€Å"I hope Joshua can bring the kingdom down on their heads now,† Simon said. â€Å"Otherwise I may have to look for another prophet to pledge my sword to.† I nearly choked on my wine, and handed him the wineskin as I fought for breath. â€Å"Simon,† I said, â€Å"do you believe he's the Son of God?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"You don't, and you're still following him?† â€Å"I am not saying he's not a great prophet, but the Christ? the Son of God? I don't know.† â€Å"You've traveled with him. Heard him speak. Seen his power over demons, over people. You've seen him heal people. Feed people. And what does he ask?† â€Å"Nothing. A place to sleep. Some food. Some wine.† â€Å"And if you could do those things, what would you have?† Here Simon leaned back and looked into the stars, as he let his imagination unroll. â€Å"I would have villages full of women in my bed. I'd have a fine palace, and slaves to bathe me. I would have the finest food and wine and kings would travel from far away just to look at my gold. I would be glorious.† â€Å"But Joshua has only his cloak and his sandals.† Simon seemed to snap out of his reverie, and he wasn't happy about it. â€Å"Just because I am weak does not make him the Christ.† â€Å"That's exactly what makes him the Christ.† â€Å"Maybe he's just naive.† â€Å"Count on it,† I said. I stood and handed him the wineskin. â€Å"You can finish it. I'm going to sleep.† Simon raised his eyebrows. â€Å"The Magdalene, she's a luscious woman. A man could lose himself there.† I took a deep breath and thought about defending Maggie's honor, or even warning Simon about making advances on her, but then I thought better of it. The Zealot needed to learn a lesson that I wasn't qualified to teach. But Maggie was. â€Å"Good night, Simon,† I said. In the morning I found Simon sitting by the cold ashes of the fire, cradling his head in his hands. â€Å"Simon?† I inquired. He looked up at me and I saw a huge purple goose egg on his forehead, just below the bangs of his Roman haircut. A spot of blood seeped out of the middle. His right eye was nearly swollen shut. â€Å"Ouch,† I said. â€Å"How did you do that?† Just then Maggie came out from behind a bush. â€Å"He accidentally crawled into Susanna's bedroll last night,† Maggie said. â€Å"I thought he was an attacker, so naturally, I brained him with a rock.† â€Å"Naturally,† I said. â€Å"I'm so sorry, Simon,† Maggie said. I could hear Susanna and Johanna giggling behind the bush. â€Å"It was an honest mistake,† said Simon. I couldn't tell whether he meant his or Maggie's, but either way he was lying. â€Å"Good thing you're an apostle,† I said. â€Å"You'll have that healed up by noon.† We finished our loop of northern Galilee without incident, and indeed, Simon was nearly healed by the time we returned to the mountain above Bethsaida, where Joshua awaited us with over five thousand followers. â€Å"I can't get away from them long enough to find baskets,† Peter complained. â€Å"Everywhere I go there are fifty people following me,† said Judas. â€Å"How do they expect us to bring them food if they won't let us work?† I had heard similar complaints from Matthew, James, and Andrew, and even Thomas was whining that people were stepping all over Thomas Two. Joshua had multiplied seven loaves into enough to feed the multitude, but no one could get to the food to distribute it. Maggie and I finally fought our way to the top of the mountain where we found Joshua preaching. He signaled the crowd that he was going to take a break, then came over to us. â€Å"This is excellent,† he said. â€Å"So many of the faithful.† â€Å"Uh, Josh†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I know,† he said. â€Å"You two go to Magdala. Get the big ship and bring it to Bethsaida. Once we feed the faithful I'll send the disciples down to you. Go out into the lake and wait for me.† We managed to pull John out of the crowd and took him with us to Magdala to help sail the ship back up the coast. Neither Maggie nor I felt confident enough to handle the big boat without one of the fishermen on board. A half-day later we docked in Bethsaida, where the other apostles were waiting for us. â€Å"He's led them to the other side of the mountain,† Peter said. â€Å"He'll deliver a blessing then send them on their way. Hopefully they'll go home and he can meet us.† â€Å"Did you see any soldiers in the crowd?† I asked. â€Å"Not yet, but we should have been out of Herod's territory by now. The Pharisees are hanging on the edge of the crowd like they know something is going to happen.† We assumed that he would be swimming or rowing out in one of the small boats, but when he finally came down to the shore the multitude was still following him, and he just kept walking, right across the surface of the water to the boat. The crowd stopped at the shore and cheered. Even we were astounded by this new miracle, and we sat in the boat with our mouths hanging open as Joshua approached. â€Å"What?† he said. â€Å"What? What? What?† â€Å"Master, you're walking on the water,† said Peter. â€Å"I just ate,† Joshua said. â€Å"You can't go into the water for an hour after you eat. You could get a cramp. What, none of you guys have mothers?† â€Å"It's a miracle,† shouted Peter. â€Å"It's no big deal,† Joshua said, dismissing the miracle with the wave of a hand. â€Å"It's easy. Really, Peter, you should try it.† Peter stood up in the boat tentatively. â€Å"Really, try it.† Peter started to take off his tunic. â€Å"Keep that on,† said Joshua. â€Å"And your sandals too.† â€Å"But Lord, this is a new tunic.† â€Å"Then keep it dry, Peter. Come to me. Step upon the water.† Peter put one foot over the side and into the water. â€Å"Trust your faith, Peter,† I yelled. â€Å"If you doubt you won't be able to do it.† Then Peter stepped with both feet onto the surface of the water, and for a split second he stood there. And we were all amazed. â€Å"Hey, I'm – † Then he sank like a stone. He came up sputtering. We were all doubled over giggling, and even Joshua had sunk up to his ankles, he was laughing so hard. â€Å"I can't believe you fell for that,† said Joshua. He ran across the water and helped us pull Peter into the boat. â€Å"Peter, you're as dumb as a box of rocks. But what amazing faith you have. I'm going to build my church on this box of rocks.† â€Å"You would have Peter build your church?† asked Philip. â€Å"Because he tried to walk on the water.† â€Å"Would you have tried it?† asked Joshua. â€Å"Of course not,† said Philip. â€Å"I can't swim.† â€Å"Then who has the greater faith?† Joshua climbed into the boat and shook the water off of his sandals, then tousled Peter's wet hair. â€Å"Someone will have to carry on the church when I'm gone, and I'm going to be gone soon. In the spring we'll go to Jerusalem for the Passover, and there I will be judged by the scribes and the priests, and there I will be tortured and put to death. But three days from the day of my death, I shall rise, and be with you again.† As Joshua spoke Maggie had latched onto my arm. By the time he was finished speaking her nails had drawn blood from my biceps. A shadow of grief seemed to pass over the faces of the disciples. We looked not at each other, and neither at the ground, but at a place in space a few feet from our faces, where I suppose one looks for a clear answer to appear out of undefined shock. â€Å"Well, that sucks,† someone said. We landed at the town of Hippos, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, directly across the lake from Tiberius. Joshua had preached here before when we had come over to hide the first time, and there were people in the town who would receive the apostles into their homes until Joshua sent them out again. We'd brought many baskets of the broken bread from Bethsaida, and Judas and Simon helped me unload them from the ship, wading in and out of the shallows where we anchored, as Hippos had no dock. â€Å"The bread stood piled like small mountains,† Judas said. â€Å"Much more than when we fed the five thousand. A Jewish army could fight long days on that kind of supply. If the Romans have taught us anything it's that an army fights on its stomach.† I stopped schlepping and looked at him. Simon, who stood next to me, set his basket down on the beach, then lifted the edge of his sash to show me the hilt of his dagger. â€Å"The kingdom will be ours only when we take it by the sword. We've had no problem spilling Roman blood. No master but God.† I reached over and gently pulled Simon's sash back over the hilt of his dagger. â€Å"Have you ever heard Joshua talk about doing harm to anyone? Even an enemy?† â€Å"No,† Judas said. â€Å"He can't speak openly about taking the kingdom until he's ready to strike. That's why he always speaks in parables.† â€Å"That is a crock of rancid yak butter,† said a voice from the ship. Joshua sat up, a net hung over his head like a tattered prayer shawl. He'd been sleeping in the bow of the ship and we'd completely forgotten about him. â€Å"Biff, call everyone together, here on the beach. I haven't made myself clear to everyone, evidently.† I dropped my basket and ran into town to get the others. In less than an hour we were all seated on the beach and Joshua paced before us. â€Å"The kingdom is open to everyone,† Joshua said. â€Å"Ev-ree-one, get it?† Everyone nodded. â€Å"Even Romans.† Everyone stopped nodding. â€Å"The kingdom of God is upon us, but the Romans will remain in Israel. The kingdom of God has nothing to do with the kingdom of Israel, do you all understand that?† â€Å"But the Messiah is supposed to lead our people to freedom,† Judas shouted. â€Å"No master but God!† Simon added. â€Å"Shut up!† said Joshua. â€Å"I was not sent to deliver wrath. We will be delivered into the kingdom by forgiveness, not conquest. People, we have been over this, what have I not made clear?† â€Å"How we are to cast the Romans out of the kingdom?† shouted Nathaniel. â€Å"You should know better,† Joshua said to Nathaniel, â€Å"you yellow-haired freak. One more time, we can't cast the Romans out of the kingdom because the kingdom is open to all.† And I think they were getting it, at least the two Zealots were getting it, because they looked profoundly disappointed. They'd waited their whole life for the Messiah to come along and establish the kingdom by crushing the Romans, now he was telling them in his own divine words that it wasn't going to happen. But then Joshua started with the parables. â€Å"The kingdom is like a wheat field with tares, you can't pull out the tares without destroying the grain.† Blank stares. Doubly blank from the fishermen, who didn't know squat from farming metaphors. â€Å"A tare is a rye grass,† Joshua explained. â€Å"It weaves its roots amid the roots of wheat or barley, and there's no way to pull them out without ruining the crop.† Nobody got it. â€Å"Okay,† Joshua continued. â€Å"The children of heaven are the good people, and the tares are the bad ones. You get both. And when you're all done, the angels pick out the wicked and burn them.† â€Å"Not getting it,† said Peter. He shook his head, and his gray mane whipped around his face like a confused lion trying to shake off the sight of a flying wildebeest. â€Å"How do you guys preach this stuff if you don't understand it? Okay, try this: the kingdom of heaven is like, uh, a merchant seeking pearls.† â€Å"Like before swine,† said Bartholomew. â€Å"Yes! Bart! Yes! Only no swine this time, same pearls though.† Three hours later, Joshua was still at it, and he was starting to run out of things to liken the kingdom to, his favorite, the mustard seed, having failed in three different tries. â€Å"Okay, the kingdom is like a monkey.† Joshua was hoarse and his voice was breaking. â€Å"How?† â€Å"A Jewish monkey, right?† â€Å"Is it like a monkey eating a mustard seed?† I stood up and went to Joshua and put my arm around his shoulder. â€Å"Josh, take a break.† I led him down the beach toward the village. He shook his head. â€Å"Those are the dumbest sons of bitches on earth.† â€Å"They've become like little children, as you told them to.† â€Å"Stupid little children,† Joshua said. I heard light footsteps on the sand behind us and Maggie threw her arms around our necks. She kissed Joshua on the forehead, making a loud wet smacking sound, then looked as if she was going to do the same to me so I shied away. â€Å"You two are the ninnies here. You both rail on them about their intelligence, when that doesn't have anything to do with why they're here. Have either one of you heard them preach? I have. Peter can heal the sick now. I've seen it. I've seen James make the lame walk. Faith isn't an act of intelligence, it's an act of imagination. Every time you give them a new metaphor for the kingdom they see the metaphor, a mustard seed, a field, a garden, a vineyard, it's like pointing something out to a cat – the cat looks at your finger, not at what you're pointing at. They don't need to understand it, they only need to believe, and they do. They imagine the kingdom as they need it to be, they don't need to grasp it, it's there already, they can let it be. Imagination, not intellect.† Maggie let go of our necks, then stood there grinning like a madwoman. Joshua looked at her, then at me. I shrugged. â€Å"I told you she was smarter than both of us.† â€Å"I know,† Joshua said. â€Å"I don't know if I can stand you both being right in the same day. I need some time to think and pray.† â€Å"Go on then,† Maggie said, waving him on. I stopped and watched my friend walk into the village, having absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. I turned back to Maggie. â€Å"You heard the Passover prediction?† She nodded. â€Å"I take it you didn't confront him.† â€Å"I don't know what to say.† â€Å"We need to talk him out of it. If he knows what awaits him in Jerusalem, why go? Why don't we go into Phoenicia or Syria? He could even take the good news to Greece and be perfectly safe. They have people running all over the place preaching different ideas – look at Bartholomew and his Cynics.† â€Å"When we were in India, we saw a festival in the city of their goddess Kali. She's a goddess of destruction, Maggie. It was the bloodiest thing I've ever seen, thousands of animals slaughtered, hundreds of men beheaded. The whole world seemed slick with blood. Joshua and I saved some children from being flayed alive, but when it was over, Joshua kept saying, no more sacrifices. No more.† Maggie looked at me as if she expected more. â€Å"So? It was horrible, what did you expect him to say?† â€Å"He wasn't talking to me, Maggie. He was talking to God. And I don't think he was making a request.† â€Å"Are you saying that he thinks his father wants to kill him for trying to change things, so he can't avoid it because it's the will of God?† â€Å"No, I'm saying that he's going to allow himself to be killed to show his father that things need to be changed. He's not going to try to avoid it at all.† For three months we begged, we pleaded, we reasoned, and we wept, but we could not talk Joshua out of going to Jerusalem for Passover. Joseph of Arimathea had sent word that the Pharisees and Sadducees were still plotting against Joshua, that Jakan had been speaking out against Joshua's followers in the Court of the Gentiles, outside the Temple. But the threats only seemed to strengthen Joshua's resolve. A couple of times Maggie and I managed to tie Joshua up and stash him in the bottom of a boat, using knots that we had learned from the sailor brothers Peter and Andrew, but both times Joshua appeared a few minutes later holding the cords that had bound him, saying things like, â€Å"Good knots, but not quite good enough, were they?† Maggie and I worried together for days before we left for Jerusalem. â€Å"He could be wrong about the execution,† I said. â€Å"Yes, he could be,† Maggie agreed. â€Å"Do you think he is? Wrong about it, I mean?† â€Å"I think I'm going to throw up.† â€Å"I don't see how that's going to stop him.† And it didn't. The next day we left for Jerusalem. On the way we stopped to rest along the road at a town along the Jordan River called Beth Shemesh. We were sitting there, feeling somber and helpless, watching the column of pilgrims move along the riverbank, when an old woman emerged from the column and beat her way through the reclining apostles with a walking staff. â€Å"Out of the way, I need to talk to this fellow. Move, you oaf, you need to take a bath.† She bonked Bartholomew on the head as she passed and his doggy pals nipped at her heels. â€Å"Look out there, I'm an old woman, I need to see this Joshua of Nazareth.† â€Å"Oh no, Mother,† John wailed. James got up to stop her and she threatened him with the staff. â€Å"What can I help you with, Old Mother?† Joshua asked. â€Å"I'm the wife of Zebedee, mother of these two.† She pointed her staff to James and John. â€Å"I hear that you're going to the kingdom soon.† â€Å"If it be so, so be it,† said Joshua. â€Å"Well, my late husband, Zebedee, God rest his soul, left these boys a perfectly good business, and since they've been following you around they've run it into the ground.† She turned to her sons. â€Å"Into the ground!† Joshua put his hand on her arm, but instead of the usual calm that I saw come over people when he touched them, Mrs. Zebedee pulled away and swung her staff at him, barely missing his head. â€Å"Don't try to bamboozle me, Mr. Smooth Talker. My boys have ruined their father's business for you, so I want your assurance that in return they get to sit on either side of the throne in the kingdom. It's only fair. They're good boys.† She turned to James and John. â€Å"If your father was alive it would kill him to see what you two have done.† â€Å"But Old Mother, it's not up to me who will sit next to the throne.† â€Å"Who is it up to?† â€Å"Well, it's up to the Lord, my father.† â€Å"Well then go ask him.† She leaned on her staff and tapped a foot. â€Å"I'll wait.† â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You would deny a dying woman her last request?† â€Å"You're not dying.† â€Å"You're killing me here. Go check. Go.† Joshua looked at us all sheepishly. We all looked away, cowards that we were. It's not as if any of us had ever learned to deal with a Jewish mother either. â€Å"I'll go up on that mountain and check,† Joshua said, pointing to the highest peak in the area. â€Å"Well go, then. You want I should be late for the Passover?† â€Å"Right. Okay, then, I'll go check, right now.† Josh backed away slowly, sort of sidled toward the mountain. Mount Tabor, I think it was. Mrs. Zebedee went after her sons like she was shooing chickens out of the garden. â€Å"What are you, pillars of salt? Go with him.† Peter laughed and she whirled around with her staff ready to brain him. Peter pretended to cough. â€Å"I'd better go along, uh, just in case they need a witness.† He scurried after Joshua and the other two. The old woman glared at me. â€Å"What are you looking at? You think the pain of childbirth ends when they move away? What do you know? Does a broken heart know from a different neighborhood?† They were gone all night, a very long night in which we all got to hear about John and James' father, Zebedee, who evidently had possessed the courage of Daniel, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Samson, the devotion of Abraham, the good looks of David, and the tackle of Goliath, God rest his soul. (Funny, James had always described his father as a wormy little guy with a lisp.) When the four came back over the hill we all leapt to our feet and ran to greet them – I would have carried them back on my shoulders if it would have shut the old woman up. â€Å"Well?† she said. â€Å"It was amazing,† Peter said to us all, ignoring the old woman. â€Å"We saw three thrones. Moses was on one, Elijah was on another, and the third was ready for Joshua. And a huge voice came out of the sky, saying, ‘This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.'† â€Å"Oh yeah, he said that before,† I said. â€Å"I heard it this time,† Joshua said, smiling. â€Å"Just the three chairs then?† said Mrs. Zebedee. She looked at her two sons, who were cowering behind Joshua. â€Å"No place for you two, of course.† She started to stagger away from them, a hand clutched to her heart. â€Å"I suppose one can be happy for the mothers of Moses and Elijah and this Nazareth boy, then. They don't have to know what it is to have a spike in the heart.† Down the riverbank she limped, off toward Jerusalem. Joshua squeezed the brothers' shoulders. â€Å"I'll fix it.† He ran after Mrs. Zebedee. Maggie elbowed me and when I looked around at her there were tears in her eyes. â€Å"He's not wrong,† she said. â€Å"That's it,† I said. â€Å"Well, ask his mother to talk him out of it. No one can resist her – I mean, I can't. I mean, she's not you, but†¦Look! Is that a seagull?†