Calculus

Calculus Calculus Calculus By Maeve Maddox A reader writes, The other day I heard a radio commentator constantly using the phrase in that calculus, something Id never heard before. [The] commentator was using it in a political context, pretty much as a fancy way of saying in that situation; Id be grateful if you could look into it and cover it some time! Calculus is one of those words like parameter and paradigm that have been yanked from their habitual scientific contexts into the general vocabulary by non-scientists to make their utterances sound more profound. In the context of mathematics, the word calculus is usually preceded by differential or integral: integral calculus: a branch of mathematics concerned with the theory and applications (as in the determination of lengths, areas, and volumes and in the solution of differential equations) of integrals and integration. differential calculus: a branch of mathematics concerned chiefly with the study of the rate of change of functions with respect to their variables especially through the use of derivatives and differentials. Calculus is the diminutive of Latin calx, â€Å"stone.† A calculus was a little stone or pebble. The plural, calculi gives us the word calculation because pebbles were used for counting. Calculi were also used as game pieces and for voting. In the context of medicine, calculus is a hard deposit that builds up in the body to produce kidney stones, plaque, and such. The word calculus is now to be found in a variety of contexts: Competition along routes is just one variable in that calculus. (The context is a discussion of the process of airline pricing.) They are casting Ellsworth as an unwilling enabler who will further an agenda even though he might not fully support it. And, in that calculus, his vote for Speaker of the House comes first and foremost. No medical intervention is 100% safe. However vaccines are remarkably  safeIt is risk versus benefit and in that calculus vaccines win. J. C. Watts Endorsing Newt Gingrich is Awful Political Calculus In New Calculus on Smoking, It’s Health Gained vs. Pleasure Lost The political calculus on immigration reform changes day by day, but the moral calculus has not. It seems to me that in each of these examples, situation, calculation, or thinking would serve the context. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Is She a "Lady" or a "Woman"?What is Dative Case?How Many Sentences in a Paragraph?

How to Write a Scene The Ultimate 8-Step Guide

How to Write a Scene The Ultimate 8-Step Guide 8 Steps to Writing a Perfect Scene- Every Time You know how complex writing a novel can be. You not only have to come up with a great premise, engaging characters, high stakes, and conflict that pushes the protagonist toward his goal, but you must also learn how write a scene that compels readers- and fill your book with them. That is a lot harder than some think. Many writers spend a moment thinking up a vignette but give little regard to the scene’s purpose. While a checklist can help analyze the structure, it doesn’t address the process. Need help writing your novel?Click here to download Jerrys ultimate 12-step guide. Positioning First: scene types vary depending on where each is placed over the span of a novel. Opening Scenes should be loaded with character and set up your premise. That’s where you want to slip in important bits of backstory. Middle Scenes carry complications, twists, and raise the stakes. Climactic Scenes should build to a riveting climax, so they might be shorter and packed with action and emotion. Genre Second: there’s no â€Å"one size fits all† template for a perfect scene. The kind of novel you’re writing also dictates the style, length, and structure of a scene, so study novels in your genre. How to Write a Scene Using My 8-StepProcess Progressive steps to help you write that perfect scene: 1. Identify Its Purpose Here’s where too many writers flounder. You’ve likely heard that a scene should either advance the plot, reveal character, or both. Good advice but vague. You want strong pacing, showing rather than telling, and to create empathy for your protagonist. Plus, you want mystery and conflict in every scene to keep readers turning the pages. So, the purpose of the scene is key. In life, things happen, we react, process what happened, and decide on new action. So it’s action-reaction-process-decide-new action. Write one sentence that encapsulates that for each scene. For instance, a scene I’m working on for my new historical Western romance marks the midpoint of my novel. Its purpose is to show my hero, Buck, losing control and scaring the heroine, Angela. I fix that in my mind and make sure every element of my scene serves that purpose. If you can’t identify the purpose for your scene, throw it out and come up with one that works. 2. Identify the High Moment This occurs near the end of a scene, maybe even in the last line. Why? Because most of your scenes should mimic overall novel structure, with a beginning, middle, climax, and ending. Of course, a scene could effectively â€Å"hang† at the end, to add tension and propel the reader into the next scene. The high moment in my midpoint scene comes when Buck goes crazy in an attempt to keep Angela safe. I had established that she is terrified of snakes, and the scene begins just before they run into a mess of rattlers. The high moment is Angela screaming as the snakes strike. Buck shoots his rifle, then slashes in fury at the critters with his knife. I end the scene with Buck a man possessed and Angela more frightened of his behavior than she is of the snakes. This crucial step in the process reveals the ultimate purpose of your scene. 3. Emphasize Conflict: Inner and Outer A great novel will have conflict on every page, sometimes inner, other times outer. Or both. But you don’t want meaningless conflict, such as two people arguing over what type of coffee to order- unless that specific argument reveals something important that advances the plot or exposes a key bit of character. Think of ways to ramp up conflict to the highest stakes possible. Too few writers do this. Every scene- even thoughtful, â€Å"processing† ones- should convey tension, inner conflict, and high stakes. You don’t need explosive action to have conflict. My rattlesnake scene carries obvious outer conflict: man against snakes. But if that were all, the scene would be lacking. The deeper conflict is Angela’s inner angst over Buck’s violent streak. She has resisted falling for him, so this incident creates super-high conflict between them, as Buck’s behavior pushes her away. He intends to show courage and his desire to protect her, but it backfires. 4. Accentuate Character Change Writing instructor James Scott Bell says, â€Å"Every scene should have a death†- of a dream, a relationship, or a plan. Literary agent Donald Maass encourages writers to consider how a point-of-view (POV) character feels before a scene starts and how she feels when the scene ends. Your character should be changed by what happens. That change can be subtle or huge. It can involve a change of opinion, or it could be a monumental personality shift. But change must occur. Why? Because, for the story to advance, decisions must be made and action instigated. Every event in your novel should impact your characters and foment change. But it must be significant and serve the plot. How will Angela change by the end of the snake scene? Before the scene, she was falling in love. Now, her feelings have been squashed. She wants to flee back to NY. Buck drastically changes too. He’s also shocked at the violent streak he fears he’s inherited from his father (who murdered Buck’s ma). Though he loves Angela, he believes he can never let himself get close to any woman because he will hurt her. 5. Determine POV Who is the best character through whom the reader should experience this scene? With novels solely in the protagonist’s POV, this isn’t an issue. But for novels in shifting third person, with more than one perspective character, you need to decide whose POV you’ll portray in each scene. You may find it easier to choose your POV character when you determine the purpose of your scene. Or the POV choice may become obvious. In romance novels it’s common to alternate between hero and heroine, so each gets a turn filtering the scene through their POV. To decide whose POV to choose, ask yourself: Who has the most to lose or gain in the scene? Who will react strongest emotionally? Who will change the most? Whose reaction would most impact the plot? 6. Leave Out Boring Stuff And the on-the-nose stuff no one wants to read. Start your scene in the middle of the action, a bit before you build to the high moment, and you’ll avoid pages of unimportant narrative. Inject important backstory but not at the expense of the present action. Cut anything that doesn’t serve your scene’s purpose. Make every word count. 7. Perfect Beginnings and Endings It’s not just your novel’s first line that has to hook readers. Every scene promises to entertain your reader, to enthrall, to evoke emotion. You must make good on those promises. Study best-selling novels in your genre to see how adept authors create strong scene openings and riveting scene endings. A scene’s last paragraph and closing line should ratchet up the conflict and underscore character transformation. What about symbolism or motif? In my scene, by the end, the snakes become to Angela a symbol or image of Buck. One minute they’re silent, unmoving, and the next, they erupt in a violent attack. Beneath that calm exterior, Buck is poised to strike. 8. Inject Texture and Sensory Details While some writers stuff scenes with too much detail, most tend to underwrite sensory specifics. This step in this scene-crafting process involves combing through your draft and bringing scenes to life with vivid detail that engages your reader’s senses. Your goal is to paint enough of a picture to help your reader see the scene as if on the big screen. Too much detail is boring, as are details that don’t reveal anything important. Scenes serve as the framework of your novel and shouldn’t be thrown together. Use this 8-step method every time, and you’re sure to succeed. To help, I’ve created a worksheet you can download and print. What are your biggest challenges when youre deciding how to write a scene? Does this process make sense? What would you add to the process? The guest blogger: C. S. Lakin is a novelist, copyeditor, writing coach, mom, and backpacker. She blogs about writing at Live Write Thrive, and specializes in manuscript critiques. Get a free copy of her book Writing the Heart of Your Story when you join her novel-writing fast track mailing list here. Need help writing your novel?Click here to download Jerrys ultimate 12-step guide.

Phase 1 - Concepts and terminology of statistics applied to business Essay - 2

Phase 1 - Concepts and terminology of statistics applied to business decision-making 4-20 - Essay Example Mean-  the arithmetic mean (mean) of a list of numbers is the sum of all the members of the list divided by the number of items in the list. A  classic example of Arithmetic mean is average income. The arithmetic mean may be misinterpreted to imply that most peoples income is higher than the case in fact is.† In statistics, mean has two related meanings: MEDIAN-  The median is the number which is in the exact  middle of the data set. Literally, it is the value in the middle. â€Å"The statistical median is the middle number of a group of numbers that have been arranged in order by size. If there is an even number of terms, the median is the mean of the two middle numbers: If there is an even number of terms, add the two middle terms and divide by 2.†Ã‚   (Statistical Median). Mode means the number that appears the most often, if working with only one variable. In statistics, mode means the most frequent value assumed by a random variable, or occurring in a sampling of a random variable. The term is applied both to probability distributions and to collections of  experimental data. Range  - It means the difference between the highest and the lowest value. The range is the length of the smallest interval which contains all the data. It is calculated by subtracting the smallest observations from the greatest and provides an indication of  statistical dispersion. The mid range point is the half way between two variables. .Variance -   In probability and statistics , the variance of a   random variable, is a probability distribution , a measure of its statistical dispersion , indicating how its possible values are spread around the expected value . Where the expected value shows the location of the distribution, the variance indicates the scale of the values. A more understandable measure is the square root of the variance, called the Standard deviation... For a population, range is more than twice the standard deviation. Variance

Has the quality of global news improved over the past 20 years Essay

Has the quality of global news improved over the past 20 years - Essay Example The use of televisions had continued to increase but most of the under-developed countries still relied more on radios and newspapers. Still, journalism and mass communication is not as widespread as it is in developed countries. Like many other fields relating to different aspects of our lives, technology has deeply influenced journalism and mass communication. The processes of producing news and delivery of information have become much quicker. News can reach everywhere with much more accuracy. The quality of radio, television and newspapers has improved greatly. The impact of technology has helped journalism to become a more professional field. The news reporters and editors have now to perform at a certain standard. In the early 90s, the performance standards had developed but still a lot of editors and reporters were more inclined to join hands in propaganda to spread a particular point of view or a political party. The USSR had fallen by then but biggest examples of such news r eporting can be found in the cold war during which many reporters had the objective of asserting one ideology and renounce another i.e. capitalism and communism. Such mindset made the editors and reporters refrain from telling the whole story. As the Internet has now joined the news industry, it is very hard to hide or avoid a piece of news. It is because the Internet is probably the quickest of all means of promulgating news and anyone can report any news to the world now. Previously, there used to be a competition among journalists only due to which only the journalists got most of the stories or â€Å"scoops†. The journalists had the liberty to spread only that portion of the news that they wanted to spread. Journalism and mass communication used to be a closed society to which only those belonged who had the funds to own a printing press or were closely related in some other capacity to one who belonged to that society. Mostly during the last 10 years, the Internet has be come very widespread and the cost of reporting news is at the minimum level. Now even the minorities can join the field of journalism as it has become an open society. The general public has access to electronic devices which are portable and can take pictures and videos. These pictures and videos can be posted on the Internet at almost no cost. Therefore, for professional journalists, omission of news has become out of the question. The recent US presidential campaigns used mass internet campaigning which curtailed the influence of the journalists manifold. Journalists have often been used as mediums to convey a political message to the public. Mass internet campaigning seeks to cut out this medium and make the conveying of message more direct and at a lesser cost. This trend has been set by Obama and is followed and likely to be followed by other political parties all over the world. It can be said that the introduction of the Internet has made everyone a journalist. Through blogs , forums and many other veritable devices, anyone can have their voices heard. In recent times, a Facebook fueled uprising led to a huge change in Egypt. It started out with one voice that ignited the inner voices of many others. Egypt was under a dictatorial rule for a long time and probably the biggest reason for that was the ability to the Government to silence the dissenting opinions and make the public hear only what it wanted it to hear. The Internet made it

Biblical World View Essay Example for Free

Biblical World View Essay Genesis chapters 1-11 depicts four great events that explains the creation of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. The creation and the fall of man. It explains how sin enters into human nature and man loses his relationship with the creator. It tells how God judges man because of sin, although sending a great flood to destroy His creation, He preserves a remnant because of His compassion for what He had created. In this essay I will explain my worldview on how these events have impacted the natural world, human identity, human relationships and civilization. Chapter one of Genesis tells us that the earth and all that is in it exist because God said â€Å"let there be†¦. † The earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the fish in the ocean, the animals on the land, the birds in the air, even down to the creepy crawling things God said â€Å"let there be†. Then it tells us that God created man in His own image and gave him also a help mate and gave them dominion over all that He had created. The author tells us that God did all this in six days, and on the seventh day He rested and reviewed all His work and declared it to be good! As I look around and notice all the trees, the flowers, beaches, oceans, watch a sunset or the rising of a full moon, all the things nature has to offer, I must agree with God that it is good. In fact, as I look around me the explanation given in Genesis chapter one is the only one that makes sense. The Holy Spirit within me confirms this explanation. The author says that God made man in His own image. That means I am somewhat intelligent and a big bang theory or theory of evolution insults the intelligence that God has ingrained in me as a part of Himself. God has given us so much of Himself and we have allowed the enemy(satin) to deceive us to the point we are lost even with the specific instruction manual that God has given us. Chapter three of Genesis tells the fall of man from the grace of God because he was deceived by the serpent(satin) who knew that God had created man in His likeness and that meant he had free will to make choices and decisions. They were deceived by the twisting of God’s words and straight out bold face lies. They got played like monopoly with false dreams and hopes being tempted by the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life. The same way we are tempted to this day. God gave Adam and Eve specific instructions when He placed them in the garden, â€Å"do not touch the tree in the middle of the garden lest you die†. The serpent twists God’s words and tells them â€Å"you will not surely die, but become like Him†. He shows them how beautiful the fruit was (probably a big red juicy Georgia peach just ripe for the picking)lust of the eyes, he tells them how the fruit of the tree will make them wise(you want to be like God don’t you? )lust of the flesh, He does not want you to be like Him the pride of life. As I look at my own life everything that has kept me out of the will of God has been centered on this method of temptation. If it looked good I wanted it(lust of the eyes), if it felt good I did it(lust of the flesh), and there was nobody who could tell me I could not have it(pride of life). It is this very nature of sin that makes us not want to be told what we can and cannot do. It has been man’s downfall since the Garden of Eden. God confronts Adam and Eve about this choice of disobedience and they played the blame game because now they were wise and they knew what guilt and shame felt like. Adam blames the woman who You gave to be with me(ultimately he was blaming God), Eve blames the serpent for deceiving her. Whenever trouble arises everyone always looks for someone else to blame. It causes people to lose their jobs. It causes marriages and families to breakup. Wars are started and people even lose their lives playing the blame game. The same guilt, shame and fear that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden has been passed down to every generation since. God dealt harshly with Adam and Eve casting them from the garden and imposing punishment on them and their descendants indefinitely. Because that sin would be passed down through their offspring man progressively became more and more sinful to the point Genesis 6:5 says Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It goes on in verse 6 to say that The LORD was sorry that He had made man. He then made a decision to destroy His creation. But there was one that had found favor with God. Gen. 6:9 says Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. God has great compassion for His creation, in fact John 3:16 says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. God spared Noah and his family to preserve the creation that He loved. After the flood God blessed Noah and said be fruitful and replenish the earth. He made a covenant with Noah that never again would He send the floods to destroy the earth. But in preserving Noah He also preserved the sin nature that had been passed down from Adam and Eve. God knows this and He puts stumbling blocks in our paths to slow us down as did He to the people of Babel confusing their languages and scattering them over the earth so that they could not be so quick to conspire together against the will of God. Genesis 1-11 teaches us who we are, how we came to be and whose we are. It teaches us who God is and what He expects from us. Micah 6:8 says, He has told you O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. It also teaches us who the real enemy is and shows us his intent, the weapons that he uses and the end result. I am convinced in my mind and in my heart that if there were no consequence for sin and we could do what we wanted with no one telling us what we can and cannot do, we would not have atheist in the world. He shows us this in His word and in our hearts. The people want to have a god, but not one who has rules and punishment for disobedience. The lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life refuses to let us be completely obedient to a loving God that is just and sovereign.

Animal Farm as a Fable Essay -- Animal Farm

Animal Farm as a Fable Traditional fables are moral stories that usually feature animals. Aesop's Fables, which are probably the most well known, tell tales about animals that have clearly human characteristics, like the sly fox, the patient crow and the selfish dog. Since Aesop's stories have been told for over 2,500 years, they are clearly a form well suited to telling a universal truth in a way that is accessible to children and memorable for adults. In writing Animal Farm, Orwell wanted to express a particular set of ideas about revolutions - ideas that he thought were more or less universal. The success of the book since its publication would seem to indicate that he had the right idea. The plot of Animal Farm is clearly based on the events of the Russian Revolution. Old Major's ideas about animalism correspond to those of Karl Marx, and the way in which they are taken up and put into action represents the activities of Leon Trotsky (Snowball) and a combination of Lenin and Stalin (Napoleon). The haphazard nature of the rebellion closely parallels the opportunistic response to events that brought the Bolsheviks to power in 1917, and the history of the farm roughly follows events in European history up to the Second World War. The fact that we are still reading Animal Farm long after these events have passed into history again suggests something of Orwell's achievement. The fable format allowed Orwell to reduce complicated events to a level that almost anyone could understand - the workings of the Russian Politburo or of the NKVD (the secret police) are complex matters but the story of Squealer and Napoleon's trained dogs is much more accessible. Similarly, the lives an... ...such as when he speaks of Squealer, "who had unaccountably been absent during the fighting." Again, young readers are likely to enjoy this kind of statement where the real meaning is only slightly below the surface. Fables are meant to have a moral, and the moral of Animal Farm is that all revolutions fail in the end. Orwell could have written a long essay expressing such ideas but it is doubtful that many people would now be reading it. The success of Animal Farm is that it tells the sad tale of a group of creatures we care about, and how their hopes and dreams were dashed. Beyond the surface story, however, is the message that for ordinary people revolutions simply change one set of rulers for another. It is a depressing message but people are prepared to listen to it because it is told in a simple and entertaining way like all the best fables.

Myths And Reality Of Crime Essay

In this paper, I will be providing a prediction of how strangers will describe a criminal and whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, corporate, white-collar, or state crime. An insight of how society defines crimes and how decides what to define as a crime will also be provided. A statement about a particular crime will be presented and used in order to illustrate how we as a society know that it is an accurate statement. At last, an example of a widely held myth or misconception about crime and society will be provided explaining how society determines that it is a myth and why is so difficult to abandon that myth. It is clear that as a society we have the misconception that a criminal is a person that comes from a very poor area, lack of resources, and does not have an education. As a society we tend to focus on street criminals rather than other types of crimes that we barely hear about because they are not presented or shown on the news as much as street crimes are. I am sure that if I would have to ask or interview one hundred strangers to describe a criminal, many of them would say that a criminal is a person that breaks or does not want to follow the law. A person that steals because that is the only way they can provide for their families, a person that has mental issues that affect his/her stability to be able to have a normal life without breaking the law, can be also described as a criminal. I would say society has described crime as one of the most serious problem that our community faces due to the different behaviors people have adapted that violate values and norms. As society would say crime is a system that is put in place in order to protect the human rights of others; crime is an act of breaking and violating the law, or a behavior that offends or harm a  community or the ones around it. As the Former President Richard Nixon said in several occasions â€Å"crime is our number-one enemy and we must declare war against it† (Zastrow, 2010) but it can never be that way because we never know when we are going to be involved in some type of crime just like president Nixon was, when he faced criminal charges in connection with the Watergate affair. There are many different types of crimes that had helped society create and understand the definition of it but I think, society tends to â€Å"think that crime is a well-defined phenomenon and to have stereotyped v iews about who criminals are† (Zastrow, 2010). Most of the times, we believe that criminals are only those who are not able to have a decent job, those who does not have an education, those with lack of resources that in order to provide for their families the only way to do it is by committing a crime, and many times we tend to stereotype that generally only people of a certain race and color are the ones that commit crimes, when actually, â€Å"criminal offenses and the characteristics of lawbreakers are almost as varied as noncriminal offenses and law abiders† (Zastrow, 2010). As an example of a particular crime we have â€Å"theft† which refers to â€Å"illegally taking someone’s property without the person’s consent† (Zastrow, 2010). As a society we know this is an accurate statement because as many of us were growing up, our parents always taught us to not to take or touch things that do not belong to us otherwise we would go to jail or we will have consequences since we were committing a crime because we were violating someone else’s property and space. But as we all know this type of offense is not only about taking some else’s property, these types of offenses â€Å"range from pickpocketing and burglary to sophisticated multimillion-dollar swindles (Zastrow, 2010). Misconceptions about crime make society believe certain things that are not true most of the times. And knowing that is not true, we tend to hold this myth and misconception because that is what we heard as were growing up and learning about different types of crimes. As an example of a misconception or myth that we usually believe is true is that, â€Å"Most sexual assaults are committed by strangers† (CSOM, 2012), why do we believe this? Because we would never relate or think that our families or friends would commit a crime such as sexual assault to one of our loved ones. But the truth is that  Ã¢â‚¬Å"most sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim or the victim’s family, regardless of whether the victim is a child or an adult† (CSOM, 2012). According to the Center for Sex Offender Management, statistics indicate that the majority of women who have been raped know their assailant. The CSOM also states that relatives, friends, baby-sitters, persons in positions of authority over the child, or persons who supervise children are more likely than strangers to commit sexual assault. It is clear that myths like this one, makes us believe that only strangers have the power to hurt us and our families when the truth is that many times we have the enemy living under the same roof. It is sad but true, nowadays as parents and adults we have to very cautions and aware of the people around us because we never know when someone is going to harm our family and loved ones. I believe this is a myth that is very difficult to abandon because as I have stated before we do not believe that our family or friends, the people we trust are going to hurt us. We have always learned to be aware and be careful of strangers because they are dangerous person that only want to harm us and that is what teach our children too. I think we have to educate ourselves a little more in order to be able to abandon this myth and be able to teach our children the importance of speaking up when someone is trying to touch or hurt them even when is someone we know. In conclusion, as we know crime is one of the most serious problems that we face as a nation and the misconception we have as a society makes us believe that only certain type of people are the ones that commit crimes. When reality is that there are different types of crimes such as organized crimes, gambling, drug trafficking, loan sharking, white-collar crime, computer crime, hare crime, and many more. The misconceptions we have about crime create myths which makes it hard for other to believe that there are many other types of crimes and that anyone is capable of committing a crime or violate laws. References: Center for Sex Offender Management. (CSOM). (2012). Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders. Retrieved from: http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html Collica, K., & Furst, G. (2012). Crime and Society. San Diego, CA: Bridgeport Education, Inc. Short Cuts TV (Producer). (2010). Crimes of the Powerful [Video]. In Crime and Deviance: A Sociological Inquiry. Retrieved from http://digital.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx? Zastrow, Charles. (2010). Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare. Empowering People. Tenth Edition.