University of new haven, soccer, moving to another town, upbeat Essay

University of new haven, soccer, moving to another town, upbeat program that helps the community ,playing the piano, going to polish school every saturday for s - Essay Example ersity of New Haven) It is considered the 2nd largest private provider of Protective Services Education which offers a unique combination of forensic science with criminal justice. At least 121 credits are required for a student to earn the BS degree in criminal justice. The most rewarding professions, a graduate of this course can look forward to, are employment in any of the following prestigious institutions: the FBI, the DEA, ATF, the Secret Service, and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury Border Patrol Military Police, CID IRS, CID, and the CIA. UNH actually â€Å"sponsors 17 variety sports (8 men’s, 9 women’s) which compete at the NCAA Division II level in the prestigious Northeast-10 Conference† (Official Website of University of New Haven). At UNH, the administrators have explicitly emphasized the importance of a holistic approach to the development of the athlete’s life. Opportunities are continuously provided for â€Å"academic achievement, learning in high-level athletic competition and development of positive societal attitude in service to the community†. (Official Website of University of New Haven) The existence of a Polish School dates back to the heirs of Poland wanting to keep their culture, tradition, and heritage intact. The basic teachings include learning the language, literature, geography, history of Poland; as well as the traditional Polish folk dances, songs and catechetical lessons. (Walnut Creek United Methodist Church). The regular session in a Polish school is approximately 21 Saturdays within the school year. The program usually encourage the participation of the parents in activities which would With the onset of the internet age, playing the piano is really as easy as ABC. There are a variety of online keyboard lessons and even free online instructions. Lessons vary depending on the level of the student’s expertise – from beginners to advance. (Free On-Line Piano Lessons Copyright@Gregory D. Ramsey 1996 –

Questions and answers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Questions and answers - Assignment Example This time the Americans won the battle. On May 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb at Hiroshima which claimed 78000 lives. The second atomic bomb which took place at Nagasaki led to Japanese to seek for peace. 1. Braceros program is series of diplomatic agreements and laws which were in introduced in August 1942 by an interchange of notes among diplomats from Mexico and United States, with the agenda of introducing temporal contract laborers from United States and Mexico. 2. Manhattan project it was the first atomic bomb research and development project that was done during the Second World War. United States was the leader in these research and development project though with assistance from Canada and United Kingdom. The purpose of these project was to produce atomic bombs and in collection of intelligence on another project for Germans on nuclear energy. 2. Taft-Hartley act which is also known as labor management Relations Act of 1947 is a law in United States that inhibits power and activities of labor unions. The significance of Taft-Hartley is to protect people’s welfare and their rights in relation to labor organization. 3. The relevance of Trauma Lewis confrontation was that he changed the nation from war to peace yet he was also maintaining a prosperous and a stable economy. Though most of this significance attained was not predictable by the time he took on the government. 4. National Security Act of 1947 was the base for reformation of the United States governments intelligence and military agencies due to the second world war. The Act became effective on 18th September 1947. This was exactly one day after confirmation of the first secretary of defense, James Forrestal. 5. Containment was the foreign policy announced at the beginning of the Second World War by the United States. It was aimed at

Police Functions Essay Example for Free

Police Functions Essay Over the years, police have been portrayed in the media, television shows, and the local newspaper as crime fighting heroes. This portrayal would make one think a police officer is always out doing a dangerous job, which may require shooting, beating up, or arrested the bad guy. The truth is, most officers will not make a felony arrest in a given year, and there are also many officers who have never fired their weapon. There are various perspectives of the policing functions. I will examine these perspectives from the local, state, and federal organizational levels. I will identify and address possible future changes in laws and the overall impact these changes will have on the field of policing. Local Police Police, usually called law enforcement officers, apprehend criminals and investigate crimes. There are several other functions that the police perform. Local police have three main functions: maintaining order, controlling crime, and providing basic social services. Local police maintain order in different activities, such as traffic control in power outages, crowd control outside of a local football game, resolving domestic disputes, and removing drunken patrons from the streets. Police officers serve and protect. The main focus of maintaining order is keeping the peace rather than enforcing the law, so to speak. In different situations, officers may have to make an arrest to ensure the peace, but the appropriate order-maintenance solution often consists of less formal actions, like clearing crowds after a big game. Controlling crime is basically patrol and criminal investigation. Basic social service is calling police in an emergency situation. The majority of phone calls to the police are in need of social service as opposed to those relating to crimes. There are several factors that shape what police do. Police officers are available 24 hours a day seven days a week. People call on the police when they find themselves in an emergency situation and there is not another agency available. Because of this availability, it sometimes gives officers a heavy workload. Police work is different and unique from other jobs because these men and women are permitted to use force. Force in this case is deadly or physical force as well as arresting someone. Police officers have to be ready to shoot in a split second, if need be. Discretion is used in all areas of policing. Officers rely on their training as well as experiences to decide what to do when dealing with citizens. A wonderful example of discretion is an officer giving you a warning for speeding as oppose to upholding the law and issuing you a citation. State Police State police are a part of The Department of Public Safety. Every state with the exception of Hawaii has its own police force possessing statewide jurisdiction. The nation’s largest state police force is California Highway Patrol. The directors of highway patrols or state police are appointed by the Governors. Tasks done by state police agencies include assisting the local police departments in criminal investigations, patrolling the state’s highways, training municipal and country police, maintaining centralized crime records for the state, and operate a crime lab. Federal Police Within the executive branch of the national government lies the federal law enforcement. The FBI, or Federal Bureau of Investigation, is a part of this federal organization. The FBI investigates several categories of federal crimes. Their focus is on protecting the nation from threats, such as terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, white collar crimes, and violent crimes, such as kidnappings and bank robberies as well as civil-rights crimes. The FBI is equipped with crime labs, fingerprint files, crime statistics, and a training academy, which enables them to assist state, local, and other federal agencies. Due to the increases in organized crimes, the FBI also has wiretapping authority. Federal officers have jurisdiction nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security is another branch containing federal law enforcement agencies. Some of DHS agencies are: United States Secret Service- which is responsible for apprehending anyone caught counterfeiting U. S. money. They are also responsible for the protection of other officials of the federal government and for protecting the president. Immigration and Customs Enforcement- enforces the flow of immigrants into the United States. INS agents deport aliens who break the United States naturalization laws. They are also responsible for the patrol of the United States border to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country. In the 1990s, INS agents focused on the Mexican-U. S. border, where large numbers of illegal immigrants and huge amounts of illicit drugs entered the United States. INS agents arrest hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants each year, but the number making it safely into the United States still exceeded the number arrested. † (The Nature of Police Work) Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration also fall under this agency. Conclusion Patrol and criminal investigation used to dominate policing. Uniformed officers would roam the streets interrupting crime and trying to prevent them from happening. There are different strategies to policing. These strategies include patrol, special operations, and investigations. There are changes that can be made in laws to impact the field of policing. Local police departments can reduce corruption by keeping a closer eye on the department and listening to the community. Bad seeds would have to be removed from all areas of policing. These departments can also form a positive relationship with the public by showing they are doing more than making arrests. Federal agencies are sometimes limited in the information they can share with other departments, but if there is something useful, they can pass the information along to help all agencies out. There are many functions to policing. While police are heroes to a lot of people, they are not just out fighting crime and locking up the bad guys. They are there for us when we need them, regardless if our cat is stuck in a tree or we have a runaway teenager. Different agencies perform at different levels each having different duties. Once we understand what different agencies are able to do, we understand policing better.

Popular Methods for Pricing American Options

Popular Methods for Pricing American Options Chapter 1 Introduction American options are financial derivatives, an instrument whose value is derived from an underlying asset, usually a stock. Black and Scholes (1973) described an option as: a security giving the right to buy or sell an asset, subject to certain conditions, within a specified period of time. The main question of this dissertation is how American options can be valued. The option value is only known with certainty when the option is exercised, either at maturity or not. When the owner decides to exercise the option or it is the option maturity time, it is possible to determine the price of the option as the strike will be exchanged by the asset in the case that the conditions are favourable for the owner of the option. When the one buys the option, she does not know what will be the future price of the underlying asset, and assuming it follows a random process it is hard to put a price on such contract without knowing what will be the price change. This non linear feature of the option makes calculating the price to pay for such contracts a challenging process and has been the focus of a large number of financial studies and publications. This dissertation deals with the most popular methods for pricing American options and their implementation in MatLab ®, including a graphic user interface. The methods studied include the Black and Scholes (1973) European option pricing as the starting point, followed by the Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) analytical approximation. Then the binomial and trinomial lattice methods presented in Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) are considered also as the Finite difference approximations models AAA. The most sophisticated method is the Least Squares Monte Carlo simulation presented in Longstaff and Schwartz (2001). The analysis of the different option pricing methods in this dissertation follow most of the assumptions made by Black and Scholes (1973), the short term interest rate and the dividend are assumed to be known and constant, the underlying stock follows a log normal distributed geometric Brownian motion, the markets are frictionless and finally it exists the possibility of forming a riskless portfolio, consisting of the option and underlying stock. The dissertation is organised as follows: a brief literature survey is provided in the next Chapter. The analytical approximation method and the numerical methods used are described on Chapter 3 and their implementation in Matlab environment is given in chapter 4. Numerical results are given in Chapter 5. The conclusion and future developments are presented in Chapter 6. Chapter 2 provides a survey of some of the most relevant publications in American Option Pricing, with focus on analytical approximations, lattice and finite difference methods, more precisely, binomial and trinomial trees, explicit, implicit and Crank Nicolson Scheme, and also on Monte Carlo Simulation. Chapter 3 provides a description of the methods used, their advantages, disadvantages and limitations. Here the required equations will be derived and the solution for the pricing of American options will be provided. Chapter 4 focus on the algorithms used and their implementation on the MatLab environment, also as the procedures for the development of the GUI for easier user interface. On Chapter 5 results and their comparison are shown for the different methods used, with the required figures to support the numerical answers. In the final chapter the dissertation is concluded and a summary of the findings is provided, also as with further work on this subject. Chapter 2 Literature Survey Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973) developed the first analytical closed form solution for the pricing of European type options and certain types of American options, such as American call options on non dividend paying stocks. The option pricing model developed by Black and Scholes and extended by Merton gives rise to partial differential equations governing the value of an option Schwartz (1976). Black and Scholes (1973) develop their model on the basis of the no arbitrage theory, If options are correctly priced in the market, it should not be possible to make sure profits by creating portfolios of long and short positions in options and their underlying stocks Black and Scholes (1973). The Black and Scholes (1973) model valued European options on non dividend paying stocks, and with a number of quite restrictive assumptions, constant and known interest rates, the markets are frictionless with no transaction costs and penalties for short selling. The Black and Scholes (1973) model also assumes that the underlying stocks follow a random walk. Due to all this assumptions the pricing model Black and Scholes (1973) proposed was of easy use, and there is only the need to input the required values on the proposed pricing equation. The model they have proposed does not take into consideration early exercise of the option so it is inaccurate for pricing American Options. One of the most popular analytical approximation models that starts from the Black and Scholes (1973) model and adjusts it to consider the scenario of early exercise strategies is the work by Baron Adesi and Whaley (1987) which was based on the paper by MacMillan (1986). Baron Adesi and Whaley (1987) consider that the Black and Scholes (1973) partial differential equation must apply to the early exercise premium as this is just the difference between the American and the European option prices, which are also priced by the same partial differential equation. After some transformation they end with an easily solvable through an interactive process second order differential equation. When closed form solutions, like the Black and Scholes (1973) valuation model cannot be derived, numerical methods must be developed. These are computational methods where the values for the underlying assets are modelled up to maturity and the price of the options is derived from them. In the case of American options this is a complex process, as the modelled price changes may have to be adjusted to include dividend payments and the derivation of the option price must also include the possibility of early exercise. Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) developed a simple discrete time lattice model to deal with the complexity of option valuation, as they considered the methods of Black and Scholes (1973) quite advanced and have tended to obscure the underlying economics Cos, Ross and Rubinstein (1979). The use of lattice models such as the one by Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) is the simplicity of its application. The most significant drawback of the Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) model, is to increase its accuracy the number of time intervals must increase, in order to approach a continuous time model, which will significantly increase the computational time, needed for processing the entire tree in order to derive the option value. Others such as Hull and White (1988), (1993) and Trigeorgis (1991) have extended the model of Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979). Hull and White (1988) present a study of the use of lattice models for underlying assets with known dividends instead of known divided yields. They also consider the use of a control variate to price a option numerically, by a the lattice model, using the price of a similar option calculated analytically. While Trigeorgis (1991) proposes a log transformed variation of binomial option pricing designed to overcome problems of consistency, stability and efficiency encountered in the Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) focusing on the pricing of exotic options. Hull and White (1993) also present an application of binomial and trinomial procedures for exotic path dependent options, where they developed a model faster than Monte Carlo simulation and faster than other numerical methods. Usually the analytical procedures are applicable to simple payoffs of the American Options, but in the cases where this is not possible numerical solutions must be developed. Geske and Shastri (1985) give a detailed comparison of the lattice methods to the different numerical methods, finite difference methods and other simulation methods. The model proposed by Brennan and Schwartz (1978) for valuing options was the first approach that used the finite difference method. This approach was used due to the fact that most of the times an analytical solution for the option pricing problem does not exist. The finite difference method uses the heat equation derived from the Black and Sholes PDE to obtain an approximation of the option price. Courtadon (1998) goes further to reduce the approximation error of the Brennan and Schwartz (1978) model but only applies his findings only to simple option pay offs. Geske and Shastri (1985) give a good description of the finite difference method: The finite difference technique analyze the partial differential equation () by using discrete estimates of the changes in the options value for small changes in time or the underlying stock price to form equations as approximations to the continuous partial derivatives. Usually the approximations is done using forward, backward or central difference theorem, which respectively result in the explicit, implicit and Crank Nicolson schemes, the procedure used in this study will be shown further in the paper. In this case as with most of the methods for pricing options, the most significant drawback is the duality between accuracy and processing time. In order to increase accuracy the time and stock change steps must be smaller, increasing their number and the number of computations to make, this issue also affects the stability and convergence of the methods. Another approach used for solving the option pricing problem, especially for path dependent American options is the use of simulation. This means that the option price is derived from a simulated underlying asset price, usually using a Monte Carlo simulation method. Boyle (1977) and Schwartz (1977) pioneered the use of Monte Carlo simulation which is nowadays used to price complex options contracts. The Monte Carlo simulation method is very powerful in terms of its flexibility to generate the returns of the underlying asset of the options, by changing the random variables used to generate the process a new returns distribution may be easily obtained, Boyle (1977). Boyle (1977) introduces the Monte Carlo technique for pricing European option where there is a dividend payment, but Schwartz (1977) was the true pioneer, pricing American options, with the underlying asset paying discrete dividends, and also deriving an optimal strategy for early exercise of the option, which is the crucial point for pricing American type options. Schwartz (1997) focused on a particular type of contract, warrants, so in fairness his first model is not exactly on an American type option. Tilley (1993) was one of the first to fully focus on the pricing of American option using a Monte Carlo simulation method as he mentioned that simulation methods were reserved for exotic options or other complex debt products. His findings are only applied to American options on non dividend paying stocks, but he develops an important part of the model which is the optimal early exercise option. Carriere (1996) presents a development of the Monte Carlo simulation method presented by Tilley (1993). The paper by Carriere (1996) presents a model where the optima early exercise strategy is based on conditional expectations of Markov processes by carrying a nonparametric regression on the simulated underlying asset return paths. Brodie and Glasserman (1997) extended the previous studies by considering an upper and lower converging bounds of the option price. These estimated bounds are calculated using a high and a low bias, which Combining the two estimators yields a confidence interval for the true price. Brodie and Glasserman (1997) One of the most important papers, and probably one of the most used ones, is the paper by Longstaff Schwartz (2001). Their Least Squares Monte Carlo (LSM) valuation model is very simple and straight forward which combined with the accuracy of the method made it famous. Their greatest advance can be described as: The key to this approach is the use of least squares to estimate the conditional expected payoff to the option holder from continuation Longstaff Schwartz (2001). They applied their model to a series of exotic path dependent American options with great success. Chapter 3 Pricing American Options Methods 3.1 Asset Prices Models The Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton(1973) pricing methods which are the basis for most of this paper assume that the stock returns follow a Geometric Brownian motions, with the stock prices log normally distributed. The stock returns can be represented by the following stochastic differential equation, (3.1.1) Where St is the asset price at time t, is the assets expected return, is the assets instantaneous volatility and Wt is a Wiener process. 3.2 Analytical Approximation by Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) developed a method to approximate analytically and easily the price of American options. They considered that the American and European option pricing equation is represented by the partial differential equation (3.2.1) developed by Black and Scholes (1987) and Merton (1987), (3.2.1) Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) assumed that if this is true, then the early exercise premium of the American option, which is the price difference between the American and the European call option prices (3.2.2), can be represented by the same partial differential equation (3.2.3). (3.2.2) (3.2.3) The above equation after some transformation, shown on Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) paper, and applying an approximation of a term tending to zero, yields the following quadratic equation, (3.2.4) Where (3.2.5), (3.2.6) and (3.2.7). Equation (3.2.4) is a second order ordinary differential equation with two linearly independent solutions of the form . They can be found by substituting (3.2.8) into equation (3.2.4) Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987), (3.2.9) With a general solution of the form, (3.2.10) When the American option boundary conditions are applied to the above solution and considering , then must be equal to 0 as when the asset price tends to zero so does the option price, resulting in the following American call option pricing equation, Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987), (3.2.11) From (3.2.9) we have the value for so the only value missing is . This can be calculated interactively considering another boundary condition of American call options. We know that in early exercise the payoff will never be higher than S X, so from a critical underlying asset value the option payoff curve must be tangent to the S X curve, which means that below the critical asset value the pricing equation is represented by (3.2.11), Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987). The algorithm presented by Barone Adesi and Whaley (1987) for the above pricing problem is presented further in the paper in the section dedicated to the implementation of the American option pricing models. 3.3 Lattice Methods Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979) proposed a model where the underlying asset would go up or down from one time step to the next by a certain proportional amount and with a certain probability until maturity. Due to the up and down characteristic of the asset price model these type of models are characterised by a binomial tree or, in the cases of the existence of a third possible movement, they are characterised by a trinomial tree, therefore named as Binomial or Trinomial models The price of the option would be recursively derived from maturity, due to the boundary condition as has been referenced before that the price of the option is only known with certainty at maturity. This means that the price of the option is calculated at maturity and recursively at each node up to the initial value, by discounting backwards at the risk free rate and respective probabilities. Due to the characteristic of American options, the model has to check if it is optimal to exercise the option at each node or if it has the advantage to continue to the next one, for example on the case of dividend payments. In the case that it is optimal to exercise the option at a certain node, its price will be equal to the intrinsic value at that same node. Every node will be checked for the optimality of exercising the option or not, until we have reached the initial point where we want to price the option. 3.3.1 Binomial Tree Model The model starts being built for a American option of a non dividend paying stock and after that the scenario of dividend payments and optimal early exercise strategy is considered. As referenced before the stock goes up and down by a certain amount form one period to the next, if u is the up movement and d the down movement, then they can be calculated as, (3.3.1.1) and (3.3.1.2) as in Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979). In no arbitrage conditions it is possible to calculate the probability of the up and down movements, with the up being defined as, (3.3.1.3) where from the definition of probability and the down movement as (3.3.1.4). The tree formed using these specifications from Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979), can have the following graphical representation The option is price is calculated from the asset price binomial tree. The maturity boundary condition for an American option, is that the payoff is equal to , we already have S at each maturity node from the asset price model, so we can calculate backwards the price of the option as the expectation of the future payoff of the option. At each node we calculate the expectation of the future payoffs, where the price of the option will be a compound of expectations. These can be represented by the multi period case for a call as in Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979), The option prices are calculated as the expectation of the options future payoffs using their respective weighted risk neutral probabilities of an up movement and a down movement and then discounted at the risk free rate r. The Binomial value is found for each node, starting at the final time step, and working backwards to the

Edna’s Self Discovery in Chopin’s The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening

Edna’s Self Discovery in Chopin’s The Awakening She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which fate had not fitted her. (p. 40) Edna Pontellier is a child discovering her very sense of self. Her attitude toward her own children emphasizes the she is not the typical â€Å"mother-woman† (p. 29). This is one of the key elements in identifying Edna’s â€Å"awakening.† Unlike the other women, such as Madame Ratignolle, she has not accepted her role unquestionably. This passage is an insightful window into the beginnings of Edna’s new thoughts. Edna considers herself â€Å"fond of her children.† This statement alone is strange. Most mothers are enamored of their children, obsessed with their every movement. Even her fondness is considered â€Å"uneven† and â€Å"impulsive.† Edna, beginning to feel as a child herself, is noticing these traits within her. Edna speaks of the summer they spent away â€Å"with their grandmother...in Iberville.† Even in their extended absence she missed them only with â€Å"an occasional intense longing,† perhaps as someone might miss a city, or an old tattered stuffed toy. She seemed to feel towards them more as family, loved and missed, but not intensely as a mother would. Most striking in this passage are the last two sentences. It is in these phrases that Edna begins to demonstrate something important about herself. She feels â€Å"relief† when the children are gone. She feels â€Å"free† of the â€Å"responsibility.† One â€Å"which she had blindly assumed.† Edna had simply accepted the role of motherhood. It was expected, and so she had asked no questions. She is now realizing, however, that she feels this is a position in life â€Å"for which fate had not fitted her.

John Brown: Violent Abolitionist :: essays research papers fc

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. When he was about five years old, his father moved the family to Hudson, Ohio. There, John was filled with the heavy anti-slavery sentiment that was present in that area. This, combined with personal observations of the maltreatment of blacks and the influence of Calvinism, started John Brown on his crusade to abolish slavery. In 1855, Brown and several of his sons moved to Kansas, a territory deeply divided over the slavery issue. Brown was captured after the raid, sentenced to death, and was hung on December 2, 1859 in a field near town. On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown's men brought national attention to the emotional divisions relating to slavery On Pottawotamie Creek, on the night of May 24, 1856, Brown and his sons murdered three men who supported slavery, although none actually owned slaves. Brown and his sons escaped. Brown spent the next three years collecting money from wealthy abolitionists in order to establish a colony for runaway slaves. To accomplish this, Brown needed weapons and so decided to capture the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. In 1794, President George Washington had selected Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and Springfield, Massachusetts, as the sites of the new national armories. In choosing Harpers Ferry, he noted the benefit of great waterpower provided by both the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Producing of weapons began in 1796. In 1817, the federal government contracted with John H. Hall to manufacture his patented rifles at Harpers Ferry. The armory and arsenal continued producing weapons until its destruction at the outbreak of the Civil War. In the summer of 1859, John Brown, using the alias Isaac Smith, too k up residence near Harpers Ferry on a farm in Maryland. He trained a group of twenty-two men, including his sons Oliver, Owen, and Watson, in military training. On the night of Sunday, October 16, Brown and all but three of the men marched into Harpers Ferry, capturing several watchmen. The first victim of the raid was an African-American railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd, who was shot and killed after confronting the raiders. During the night, Brown captured several other prisoners, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of George Washington. There were two keys to the success of the raid. John Brown: Violent Abolitionist :: essays research papers fc John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. When he was about five years old, his father moved the family to Hudson, Ohio. There, John was filled with the heavy anti-slavery sentiment that was present in that area. This, combined with personal observations of the maltreatment of blacks and the influence of Calvinism, started John Brown on his crusade to abolish slavery. In 1855, Brown and several of his sons moved to Kansas, a territory deeply divided over the slavery issue. Brown was captured after the raid, sentenced to death, and was hung on December 2, 1859 in a field near town. On October 16, 1859, abolitionist John Brown and several followers seized the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The actions of Brown's men brought national attention to the emotional divisions relating to slavery On Pottawotamie Creek, on the night of May 24, 1856, Brown and his sons murdered three men who supported slavery, although none actually owned slaves. Brown and his sons escaped. Brown spent the next three years collecting money from wealthy abolitionists in order to establish a colony for runaway slaves. To accomplish this, Brown needed weapons and so decided to capture the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. In 1794, President George Washington had selected Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and Springfield, Massachusetts, as the sites of the new national armories. In choosing Harpers Ferry, he noted the benefit of great waterpower provided by both the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Producing of weapons began in 1796. In 1817, the federal government contracted with John H. Hall to manufacture his patented rifles at Harpers Ferry. The armory and arsenal continued producing weapons until its destruction at the outbreak of the Civil War. In the summer of 1859, John Brown, using the alias Isaac Smith, too k up residence near Harpers Ferry on a farm in Maryland. He trained a group of twenty-two men, including his sons Oliver, Owen, and Watson, in military training. On the night of Sunday, October 16, Brown and all but three of the men marched into Harpers Ferry, capturing several watchmen. The first victim of the raid was an African-American railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd, who was shot and killed after confronting the raiders. During the night, Brown captured several other prisoners, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of George Washington. There were two keys to the success of the raid.

How Television Shapes Our Mind Essay

The television has displaced reading and thus inhibits the growth of reading skills. Watching TV requires less mental effort than reading. Television makes things tangible, while reading demands symbolic representation of language. While television maximizes the use of saliency(bright colors, loud noise, zoom) that appeals more to the right-brain hemisphere, reading depends on the understanding of syntax and the relatively slower, sequential processing of information-the of the left-hemisphere. There is an alarming increase in cases of dyslexia-the inability to read. Reading is a laborious task compared to watching TV. Recognizing the differences in letters, combining to words, distinguishing the order, comprehending the sentence, connecting to the next one etc. If a kid is raised on a TV diet, who finds reading or schooling attractive? Children who never learn to process language without pictures attached will have difficulty in school. Furthermore, writing ability correlates positively with the number of books read.TV viewing diminishes the quality of intellectual output (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 21, 2000) Questions based on the above paragraphs must have been formulated in mind after the survey. Write your questions that vary as to 5 W’s and H. The first sample question is already provided. 1. What two ideas are contrasted in the first paragraph? 2. How does television displace the reading and communication skills? 3. What are the advantage and disadvantage of television in reading and communications skills? 4. Why reading is become a laborious task compared to watching TV? 5. How watching TV requires less mental effort than reading? 6. Why television viewing diminishes the quality of intellectual output? Read the two excerpts now completely, and highlight key ideas. Write below five important concepts in the left column then, describe each briefly in the right column. Highlighted Ideas Brief description 1. TV makes things tangible while reading. Through television we can easily see things we want to know while reading needs deep understanding on what we are reading to comprehend it. 2. Reading is a laborious. When we read, it requires time and effort to understand it compared when we are watching, it is easy to understand because we can visualize the idea. 3. TV viewing diminishes the quality of intellectual output. It means that by TV viewing it decreases the quality of learning and skills to be developed. In addition it weakens the mental abilities of a person to continue on the quest of learning. 4. Writing ability correlates positively with the number of books read. As long as the person understand what he is reading he can come up on writing a purposeful piece that will benefit readers 5. Watching TV requires less mental effort than reading†¦ It is a mere fact because the aid of TV viewing it provides definite description of the characters and other things by its feature, color, dynamic, audio-associated and the like, thus it results on negligence to explore and strengthen the true essence of learning. 6. An alarming increase in cases of dyslexia-the inability to read. Children who expose more on learning through watching TV had difficulties in oral and reading communication because they are more known with visual presentation.