Memoirs Of A Mountain High Essays - 9, , Term Papers

Memoirs of a Mountain High It was the summer of 94 when I took a Wilderness Leadership Semester from the Colorado Outward Bound School . Needless to say that it was the most emotional, challenging, and rewarding experience that I have had in all of my 19 ears of existence. One week spent running the Upper Green River in western\Colorado and northern Utah. Through The Gates of the Ladour Canyon and Dinosaur National Monument, we floated to end where the Green meets the Colorado River just beyond Echo Canyon. The high desert canyons echoed with rapids ovarious classes; Hells Half Mile and Disaster Falls were the most memorable. Upon completion we headed to climbing camp in Wyoming at a place called Vedauwoo (va-da- vu).Two weeks of vigorous climbing these granite towers left many scars both physically and emotionally for this rock was indeed as sharp as knives. Somehow no matter hard climbed; even if successful, this rock always seemed to have the last say. By this time a month had passed and I was very grateful to have that one shower on the way to the Gore Range in Colorado. This section of the course was by far the most demanding, the mountaineering section. Stepping off the bus in Frisco, Colorado we looked back knowing that we were not to see civilization for at least a month. There were 8 men and women in my group from all over the country. Each one had a unique personality not knowing that we would all become closer to each other than family, possibly being dependent during life threatening situations which we experienced on many occasions. This in itself could be another long story. By the end of this section we were required to do what they call a solo. In addition to rest up for the 15 mile marathon and finals, (a week of travel) this was also used for reflecting on our experiences. The solo was for three days. During these three days we were all to be separated about a quarter to half mile apart, alone. All of our flashlights, candles, and watches were taken away along with any books which were left at base camp. All we were allowed to take was our clothes, a tarp(not a tent) which wasn't but 5ft by 2ft, a water bottle, a pencil, paper, and our iodine to purify the water.I also want to note that we had the choice to fast or take a survival pack which consisted of a few crackers and raisins. I wanted the full experience so I chose to fast. This was a trip in itself, no food for three days. My spot on this solo was at around 12000 ft, the highest of my group. the only water I had was from an alpine stream which dried up on me the first day, after searching for a while I did find another stream. The first day it rained all day, the next was clear, I didn't do much...just thought allot. I have never been this long without seeing or talking to another person,not even pictures...everything I had was in my mind.No toys...no material possessions.....no problems....just me....at this time I felt the true essence of the wilderness and everything that is so sacred to me, It is much too difficult to explain, I didn't feel human in some respect, truly a wild creature....possibly like a wolf.....this is where I thought of Of the Wolf, every goal I stated on this solo has come true so far. There is much, much more to the story but due to time I will condense it. On the second day it was rather warm so I decided to wash my clothes in the stream, yes I spent the whole day naked, clothes...as natural as one can get....of course I didn't think much of it because I was far from any other living creature. Not much lives that high. While my clothes were drying I sat naked on a rock.... the view was incredible.... absolutely stunning......and I wrote.....A crack in the glass and I'm thinking....Alone in the field and I'm sinking, Soaking in breeze on a rock and I'm hypnotized, the world inside me Cranking the weight off of my mind...testing the strength of a fine line Relative thoughts... no control... become justified, the world defied me Tasting the sweat off of my lips...feeding my soul with the suns kiss laughing out loud I'm remembering everything... foolishly sighing Now I'm lost inside these words that speak so loudly in my head Honestly I'll take the vow to cut these chains

myself essays

myself essays I am a qualified Administrative Assistant with four years experience serving executive management for a large manufacturing company. My qualifications include extensive PC knowledge, customer service skills, itinerary planning, and report writing. I was recently discussing these qualifications with Mary Smith, Vice President of Marketing. Mary believes that I am uniquely qualified for a position in your office. Although my resume is actively on file with Human Resources, Mary suggested that I contact you directly for consideration. Enclosed is my resume for your review and consideration. I will be in the area on August 20, 199- and would like to meet with you to discuss my qualifications in greater detail. You can expect to hear from me next week to arrange a time. Thank you for your time and consideration. recent, controversial repeal of the federal highway speed limit guidelines is a truly significant step. Whatever side of the issue you personally stand on, the fact that states may now set their own speed limits will undoubtedly have an enormous effect people's driving habits. Because of the "hot" nature of the issue, we thought it worthwhile to open a discussion on the Edmund's site about the prudence of this legislative act. We begin with a short article by Christian Wardlaw, our automotive editor. Following his article, we have collected several additional articles and reports further discussing this issue. Some are in strong favor of the legislation, some are vehemently opposed. At the end, we offer you the opportunity to make your own comments. We will post your comments as they arrive. Hopefully, the articles we have provided will encourage some thoughtful, genuine dialog on this topic. We look forward to hearing from you. It is really funny that we are just now getting the speed limits on highways to what they should be. In Washington our major freeways are now 70 MPH and the fre ...

The History of How Time Zones Came to Be

The History of How Time Zones Came to Be Prior to the late nineteenth century, time keeping was a purely local phenomenon. Each town would set their clocks to noon when the sun reached its zenith each day. A clockmaker or town clock would be the official time and the citizens would set their pocket watches and clocks to the time of the town. Enterprising citizens would offer their services as mobile clock setters, carrying a watch with the accurate time to adjust the clocks in customers homes on a weekly basis. Travel between cities meant having to change ones pocket watch upon arrival. However, once railroads began to operate and move people rapidly across great distances, time became much more critical. In the early years of the railroads, the schedules were very confusing because each stop was based on a different local time. The standardization of time was essential to efficient operation of railroads. The History of the Standardization of Time Zones In 1878, Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming proposed the system of worldwide time zones that we use today. He recommended that the world be divided into twenty-four time zones, each spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart. Since the earth rotates once every 24 hours and there are 360 degrees of longitude, each hour the earth rotates one-twenty-fourth of a circle or 15 degrees of longitude. Sir Flemings time zones were heralded as a brilliant solution to a chaotic problem worldwide. United States railroad companies began utilizing Flemings standard time zones on November 18, 1883. In 1884 an International Prime Meridian Conference was held in Washington D.C. to standardize time and select the prime meridian. The conference selected the longitude of Greenwich, England as zero degrees longitude and established the 24 time zones based on the prime meridian. Although the time zones had been established, not all countries switched immediately. Though most U.S. states began to adhere to the Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern time zones by 1895, Congress didnt make the use of these time zones mandatory until the Standard Time Act of 1918. How Different Regions of the Word Use Time Zones Today, many countries operate on variations of the time zones proposed by Sir Fleming. All of China (which should span five time zones) uses a single time zone eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (known by the abbreviation UTC, based on the time zone running through Greenwich at 0 degrees longitude). Australia uses three time zones its central time zone is a half-hour ahead of its designated time zone. Several countries in the Middle East and South Asia also utilize half-hour time zones. Since time zones are based on segments of longitude and lines of longitude narrow at the poles, scientists working at the North and South Poles simply use UTC time. Otherwise, Antarctica would be divided into 24 very thin time zones! The time zones of the United States are standardized by Congress and although the lines were drawn to avoid populated areas, sometimes theyve been moved to avoid complication. There are nine time zones in the U.S. and its territories, they include Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii-Aleutian, Samoa, Wake Island, and Guam. With the growth of the Internet and global communication and commerce, some have advocated a new worldwide time system.

Gandhi's ethic of nonviolent civil disobedience Essay

Gandhi's ethic of nonviolent civil disobedience - Essay Example The Holocaust and more recently, the attacks on the World Trade Center may be considered as examples of an unfortunate inversion of sacred beliefs and moralities, that led to the attempted annihilation of two distinct groups of people and their cultures. In the first instance, it was the Jews, who were the target, and in the second it was the American people. The responsibility for these two subversions of the holy can be narrowed down and fixed on two powerful personalities, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. But what motivated these two to such actions'Hitler firmly subscribed to the belief that the Germans were of Nordic/Aryan origin, and were a superior race; if they mixed with the inferior race of Jews, racial purity would be diluted. (Jewish Virtual Library, para 4) This view may have also been exacerbated by his personal dislike of Jews; he felt they, along with the Communists, (most Communists were Jews too!) were responsible for the defeat of Germany in the First World War, a defeat that led to the Fatherland's total humiliation. (Burleigh qtd. in Spartacus.schoolnet) Germany had to pay 38% of its national income in war reparation. In the spirit of a Plato advocating regulated breeding of humans to ensure better 'quality', Hitler went a step further by advocating ethnic cleansing, which would set the stage for building a strong and pure Nordic race. Hitler gave his eugenic program a 'scientific' base too. He referred to Nietzsche's and Darwin's theories to justify it. He firmly believed that he would be helping to achieve the evolutionary ideal of getting the best to survive by wiping out the inferior Jewish race. (Brief History: Evolutionary Theory)The Jews were first isolated in ghettos in order to be stopped from 'polluting' the pure Nordic race. The next step taken by Hitler was to exhort his countrymen to partake in a cleansing pogrom devised for the complete annihilation of the Jews. And Hitler, being the demagogue that he was, was also able to co nvince his compatriots that it was a sacred duty to wipe out an inferior race, thus paving the way for making Germany a great country.As for Osama, his belief was (is) that Islam is the only true religion, and Mohammed, the only Prophet, and all those who did not agree were infidels. It was God's great plan that the infidels should be wiped out through the process of 'Jihad' (Holy War). It was a devout Mussalman's sacred duty to kill or forcefully convert the infidel to Islam. '''''As Fasching says: Bin Laden and the al Qaeda, according to a discovered terrorist manual, are clear about the goal - "overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime." This goal authorizes Muslims to kill Americans and all unbelievers. The killing of even innocent women and children is not only permitted but religiously required. (2002) Bin Laden justified his aggressive anti-American stand by stating that the Americans caused offence to Islam and its followers by their very presence in the Holy Land (Saudi Arabia) during the Gulf War of the early 1990's. The most holy of Islamic sites are located in Saudi Arabia, and Islam forbids a non-Muslim to visit these sites (Mecca, for instance) even under normal circumstances of peace. Thus the presence of American soldiers during the war was seen as a wanton desecration of the Holy Land of Islamic tradition. (Fasching 2002) From Osama's perspective, secularism as a way of life, accepted by the modern Western outlook, is itself profane, with its implications of a free intermingling of different religious groups, and a negation of religious and cultural identities. Bin Laden's antipathy to the outsider, encompasses all the nations of the UN, including "those who pretend(ed) they are leaders of the Arab world" and continued with their U.N membership. Bin Laden, it must be

Gender and Marriage in Chinese culture Research Paper

Gender and Marriage in Chinese culture - Research Paper Example Generally, economic development is an umbrella key to understand environmental concern, gender differences in environmentally oriented behaviors, and environmental knowledge. Making use of interview analyses, I identified a pattern of gender differences where women demonstrated a high participation inside home while are concerned with economic role â€Å"Breadwinner† as opposed to environmental issues. Accordingly, gender differences in environmentally oriented patterns could further be understood in family perceptive where children adhere to witness and understand traditional practices. Most Chinese people believed that marriage customs is subject to the pressures of culture. Recently, I interviewed Angie who created great insights on gender and marriage customs in Chinese culture. Angie, 95 is an elderly woman who lives in one of the village in China. She spends most of her life teaching the young generation about the Chinese culture. In fact, she explained that her life exp erience has tremendously increased knowledge of understanding Chinese culture. From her dialogue, I could tell that Angie had profound information about gender issues and marriage customs in her culture. ... Angie continued to explain that women were less privileged in the society and men only counted the number of sons when questioned about the size of their family. Still, some families sold their daughters to wealthy families as slaves. As the Cultural Revolution took hold, Angie explained that women moved into the workforce, but with lower pay rates than men. To date, the Chinese society continues holding men responsible for providing basic needs while women taking care of their households. This discussion is similar to the broader literature of Jin, Li & Feldman (2006, p. 150) who in their research used theoretic perceptive regarding gender and environmental behaviors of Chinese. The study is further supported by Canchu (2010, p. 75) who argues that early childhood interaction render women to being sensitive to the needs of others, thus being more responsible to take on nurturing roles. By contrast, early socialization leads men to great value of achievement and independence. The vie w about interview dissemination created a platform to understand in depth gender issues in the Chinese culture. It is true with regard to Angie argument that women’s greater share of household duties have reduced their availability in the market place. The reverse effect has offset men and women to differ in their levels of contribution in the marketplace and domestic duties. However, Angie claimed that the Chinese government is emphasizing on gender equality as a major constituent of economic development. Following this, she affirmed that women have emerged in the market place to support their families. Overall, Angie created a platform for me to comprehend Chinese marriage ceremonies and customs. She derived her argument from ancient times to make me understand about Chinese

Are Grades Distributed Fairly English Language Essay

Are Grades Distributed Fairly English Language Essay Elliott Miles, a retired educator and university president, discusses a disturbing trend on college campuses: grade inflation. Before you read, think of these questions: In the American education system, what does a grade of A mean? A grade of B, C, D? What about a grade of F? In your university courses, what grades do most students receive? Do you think the grades are distributed fairly (1) Most American universities today still use the traditional grading system of A-B-C-D-F, with A meaning excellent, B good, C satisfactory or average, D unsatisfactory but passing, and F of course failing. While some feel that this system has shortcomings (too inexact, too artificial, too subjective), it does represent the possible range of a students work, and most students and faculty members are comfortable or at least familiar with it. So far so good. However, American universities since the mid 1960s have increasingly been affected by the problem of grade inflation. This refers to the tendency of many faculty members to over-evaluate the quality of a students work and consequently to assign her/him a grade higher than the work deserves. The reason this practice is called inflation, a term borrowed from economics, is that it resembles paying too high a price for a given item, for example twenty dollars for a loaf of bread. The problem is common among American universities, in cluding even our most prestigious institutions, such as Harvard. As Craig Lambert reports in his article Desperately Seeking Summa, the grade of A there accounted for about twenty-two percent of all grades in 1966-67, whereas by 1991-92 it had come to account for forty-three percent almost double. (2) The trend toward inflated grades began in the mid-1960s probably because that was a time of great unrest on college campuses in the United States. There were widespread student protests against the Vietnam War and civil authority in general, frequently with the support and participation of the faculty. Under these circumstances, grading standards began to shift for the worse. Faculty members became more and more unwilling to give students a D, let alone an F; the grade of C came to denote a minimal pass, B to represent satisfactory, and A to mean better than a B. Today, students and faculty alike have this new, watered-down system in their heads, although their universitys official grading policy may be unchanged from previous times. (3) Why is this a problem? After all, a student is unlikely to feel put upon if his/her work is over-valued. However, when a faculty member records that a student has done excellent work, when in fact the work might only be pretty good or merely fair, that faculty member has committed two faults. First, he/she has told a lie about the students work, misrepresenting the students achievements. How would we react if the misrepresentation went the other way if the student had done excellent work, but the faculty member assigned a grade of B or even C? This would strike us all as dreadful, yet faculty members who assign falsely high grades are showing equally faulty judgment. Inaccurate grading is inaccurate grading, no matter which direction it takes. (4) The second fault is that the faculty member has broken faith with all those who will be harmed by the dishonesty. Most obvious among these are the students who really did do excellent or good work. It is grossly unfair to students who earned real As or Bs if their accomplishments are devalued by the lax standards applied to others. To illustrate with an example from the workplace: would it be fair for two employees to receive the same raise when one had done excellent work and the other only mediocre? (5) Grade inflation also harms anyone who must evaluate a students record, such as admissions officers at other universities and at professional schools. For instance, medical and law schools never have enough spaces for all applicants and hence must choose only the best qualified. When admissions officers evaluate the transcript of a student who received inflated grades as an under graduate, they get a false idea of that students past performance as well as his/her potential for future success in a rigorous professional curriculum. For a similar reason, potential employers are harmed when they are presented with an inflated academic transcript; faced with seemingly equal candidates, they may give a desirable position to a less deserving applicant because they had a false understanding of that persons actual abilities. (6) And finally, our society at large is harmed because grade inflation undermines the integrity of the universities, which is one of our greatest assets. If university faculty members cannot be trusted to give an honest evaluation of each students academic work, public disappointment will inevitably set in and rightly so. The solution to the problem, though difficult, is simple: each faculty member should make a conscious decision to assign grades based on the actual quality of a students work, realizing that not every student will be able to earn the highest, or even the second highest, grade. One of my former students made the point very concisely in an essay that she wrote on grade inflation: Lets put the excellence back in the A. Author of article Elliott Miles Title of article Lets Put the Excellence Back in the A Title of the book Refining Composition Skills: Rhetoric and Grammar Author of book Reginal L. Smally, Mark K. Reutten and Joann R. Kozyrev Publisher Heinle Heinle Date 2001 Place Australia Choose one or more of the following questions to inspire your reader response paragraph. 1. How do the impressions of the audience change (or do they) after the second reading? Does the audience think any differently? Is the topic one that would make readers want to learn more? Why or why not? What is it that a reader would want to research for additional information? 2. Sometimes articles touch their audience, reminding them of their own life, as part of the larger human experience. Are there connections between the article and the audiences own life? Or, does the article remind its audience of an event (or events) that happened to someone they know? Does the article have a connection to a previous book or article? 3. If you were the author, would you have changed anything in the article and ideas? Do you have a negative connotation associated with the idea? What would you chance? 4. Does the article leave the audience with questions they would like to ask? What are they? Would the audience like to direct their questions at a particular character or an idea? What questions would the audience like to ask the author of the article? Are they questions that the audience may be able to answer by reading more about the authors life and/or works? What are the questions and how would they be answered? 5. Is there an idea in the book that makes the audience stop and think, or prompts questions? Identify the idea and explain the responses. 6. Has the article changed the reader in any way? The way you look at this theme or behave if you were to talk about this theme? What did you learn that you never knew before? 7. Capture what it is about the book that stands out (or doesnt stand out).

Kingdoms of Egypt and Nubia Essay

Historians once thought that the human race began with the white Greek and Romans. Present day archaeologists are telling us that the cradle of civilization is in the Nile Valley of Africa. Two rival kingdoms called Egypt and Nubia have much in common but they also have their unique differences. In my essay I will explore some of these similarities and differences. Egypt and Nubia were both ruled by monarchy, which shows that they had an advanced form of political organization. Archeologist’s findings show that the symbols of Nubian royalty are the same as those of Egyptian Kings. They believed that they were god-Kings and built large pyramids to spend eternity surrounded by there riches to keep them comfortable after death. The difference between the Egyptian and the Nubian monarchy is that the Egyptian monarchies were all male rulers but Nubians monarchies were both male and female and held power jointly. Egypt and Nubia both traded with other countries to acquire the goods they desired. Egypt had few natural resources but was involved in manufacturing glass, paper, perfume, cosmetics and fine linen fabric. Egypt wanted to trade these for the different products from Central Africa. Nubia had many natural resources such as gold, ivory, copper, frankincense, iron ore, hardwood timber, ostrich feathers, leopard skins and elephants. Nubia traded these along with their pottery and manufactured goods. The powerful, wealthy black Nubians Kings controlled the trade routes between central Africa and Egypt, which is one reason why Egypt eventually attacked and conquered Nubia. Egyptians and Nunians both believed in the god-Amun (the ram-head god). The Egyptians thought the silhouette of the mountain at Gebel Barkel looked like a cobra’s head which is a sign of royal power. They believed that the god-Amun lived there so they built a temple to him. Thus, it’s considered to be a sacred mountain, perhaps the holiest place in the Nile valley. It is where the pharaohs held their crowning ceremonies. The Nubians also believed the god-Amun lived in the mountain. When they conquered Egypt they called on the authority of the god-Amun. This was confirmed when archaeologists found a curving of a man making an offering to the god-Amun in the remains of a  large temple in Nubia. Both the Egyptians and the Nubians had a system of writing to record important events in their history. The Egyptians used picture writings called hieroglyphs that they curved on the temple walls and on tablets describing events in their lives. The Nubians used an alphabet called meroitic. Historians are hoping to understand this alphabet so that they will be able to read the Nubian’s writings and discover more about their culture. It is clear that the early African people were a politically organized, intelligent industrious, creative and civilized people worthy of our respect. Probably, due to racial prejudice, it was once thought that black Africans were not capable of producing high civilization. Nubia, the homeland of the earliest black culture may have been the home of the first human race on earth. Bibliography Edward Reynolds (1994) Focus on Africa: D.C. Health and company. CanadaWho are the Nubians? (Date N/A). Homestead. October 23, 2006. http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/nubians.htmlJamila, White. (1999). Black Kingdoms of the Nile episode 2. PBS. October 23, 2006http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi1/1_wondr4.htmJimmy Dunn (Copyright 1999-2003). The Yam of Egypt’s Old Kingdom. Tour Egypt. October 23, 2006. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/yam.htm