The Role of Music in Thomas Hardys Writing :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Role of Music in Thomas Hardy's Writing Music played a role of marked importance in the life of Thomas Hardy. Hardy was surrounded by a family and a community in which music enhanced everything from church services to social gatherings at the local alehouse. His family was full of active musicians; his father and grandfather were instrumentalists in local church bands, his uncle was a violin player, and his mother often sang traditional ballads. Like many village musicians, Hardy had the ability to read music and play the violin. Although he owned a written collection of music, Hardy, like other villagers, focused on an oral musical tradition. Hardy could play several hundred songs on the violin, and was exposed to countless others at family, village, and church gatherings. This music, and the rural tradition out of which it grew, were foundations on which Hardy built a literary identity. Through the incorporation of music into his works, Hardy strove to preserve the musical traditions of his familiar rural settings. In his prose, Hardy used music as a means to evoke emotional responses from his characters. The introduction of music into a lush, fertile nature, such as that described in chapter XIX of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, resulted in a heightened sensuality of the character. As Tess walked through the outskirts of the garden, the music of Angel's harp intensified both her physical and emotional states. In chapter VI of Far From the Madding Crowd, Gabriel Oak sought respite from his sorrow through "the sound of the well-known notes [that] cheered his own heart."(Hardy) By playing his flute in the malthouse, Gabriel shared his joy in music with the townspeople. Hardy incorporated a traditional piece of rural life into his novels using folk songs and church music. He presented folk music in Tess of the d'Urbervilles as a symbolic link between Tess's past and her present circumstances. Tess is reminded of a lullaby sung to her as a child as she is trying on her wedding gown. At that point she realizes the significance of the familiar tune with the current events in her life. In Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy relied on traditional church hymns to develop the Christmas caroling scene with the Mellstock Church Choir. The tradition of caroling in these rural societies exemplifies the role of church music in the lives of the rustic people. Hardy extensively used music in both the structural composition and thematic development of his poetry.

An overview of the history issues and laws on runaway children and teens Essay

Runaway Kids When children and teens have to deal with abuse, family, depression, or any other issues for an extensive period of time without getting the help they may run away. When a kid has these problems and they are unable to get help then why would they stick around and wait for dad to come home? The process in which our government finds and helps runaway children is not up to a standard that keeps them from falling into the streets and succumbing to sex, drugs, and violence.    Runaway children and teens who have been recorded for centuries. Whether it is due to controlling parents forcing their kids into arranged marriages or legally disowning them for various reasons. During the Great Depression Era, children of all ages would leave home looking for work or food to provide for their families or themselves. Ever since the government passed the child labor laws, children could not help provide for their families through a job. So their families either kicked them out or sent them out to find better fortune somewhere else. They would travel together, hopping from train to train, therefore they were called the Box Car Kids.    A little later around 1945 to 1963 sterilization laws were passed which allowed institutions to sterilize individuals against their will. Runaway kids would get detained and if a guardian or parent did not pick them up then they would be sterilized. The era this occurred in was called the Eugenic Era, it spawned from the thought of making a utopian society. Drug ridden, crazy, violent, scared children were not fit to reproduce.    Issues for these children usually begin at home, with abuse acting as a major component. When abuse is not noted and solved, or the child isn’t removed from the environment, then the child may feel like it is their responsibility to solve this when no one else will. No kid should have to face this, when they finally realize that they can’t deal with an abusive parent, sibling, or guardian at home then they resort to fleeing the situation. Some kids are brought up in homes that have been broken for generations, ridden with drug or alcohol abusing parents.    Throwaways are children that parents do not want and have kicked out of their homes. This makes things even more difficult when police finally bring the kid back home but the parent does not want them there. This causes mental issues to occur or grow in the child. These problems include diseases such as depression, anxiety, which could branch into self-harm, self-image issues, acting out, drug abuse, underage drinking, along with many other harmful activities. Teens may turn to drugs and or drink at sometimes a very young age to cope with the hardships they face at home, school, or with personal issues. Whether they turn to them before running away and being exposed to the streets or beforehand, there is a high likelihood of it.    The law about runaways differs from that of abductees. This matters because of the effort put into each one, for example, amber alerts, and simply the effort put into finding the child. A private investigator says, â€Å"that since the kids just ran away and do not seem to be abducted it is a lot harder to get help from the law enforcement, or get the word out by using the Amber Alert System.† (Janis, 2) An amber alert is only put out for abductees because the state knows they are in imminent danger and that they know for a fact that they do not have time to waste in finding them.    There should be an alert sent out that is almost as mainstream as an amber alert. Although they are not in the clutches of a specific person or group of people, there is an extremely high possibility of them being in the same situation soon. The NCMEC or National Center for Missing and or Exploited Children is who people are supposed to call to help find their children along with the police. The problem is that this board is not very familiar with, at least not nearly as much as the amber alert system. Another problem is that the police cannot chase these kids across state lines with no leads or jurisdiction. There are far too many missing children alerts in police headquarters for all or even half to be noticed at one time and be helped. If the child gets outside of the county to city limits past state lines, to possibly across the country that is just lessening the chance of them being found. The further away from the last place they were seen the less the state and government can or will do for them. Depending on how much effort the family puts in, the story will fade out and they could be lost for an extended period of time whether the child is attempting to be gone that long or they got hurt, legitimately lost, trapped, or killed.    Children who run away usually attempt during the summer. Due to obvious reasons such as, they are not freezing, they can sleep, can travel outside with more leisure, and stay away from home for a longer amount of time. Whereas in colder temperatures these things are not available, they usually go back home in a matter of days or weeks. Most runaways return home in 48 hours to two weeks generally, warm or cold climate. If a child has run away before he or she is likely to run away again for the same reasons; if they feel trapped or pressured again by something/ someone else as they did before.    On the other side of the spectrum, this is not what happens when the child runs away, the consequence of them coming back home, it is why they felt like they could not live at home anymore. Now sometimes a child will just leave home out of spite, adventure, petty reason or argument. These children will usually return home in a short amount of time, if not the same day. But for the children/young teens that leave home in fear of their own safety, or have gotten kicked out may feel the need to stay away for a longer period of time. A child may have to throw away their own innocence at such a young age and act on their own to take care of themselves, and in so being subjected to a very dangerous environment.    When many runaway kids flock to large cities to hide perhaps find fortune that they lacked at home. There are far too many stories of children running to cities such as Los Angeles. There are cars waiting at mega bus stops to pick up these kids and befriend them then trap them into prostitution, drug trades, or gangs; this frightens kids even more. The streets in these places are totally different at night, and in some areas, you don’t want to be walking around in any period of the day. Being alone and young they are vulnerable to mugging, rape, abduction, etc. At night they may have to stay in an abandoned building because youth shelters will be full or not allow teens under 18 to stay there. They are a liability, they are under their parent’s jurisdiction. If kids go to these shelters then social services will get involved, and they will make them go back home. If the home is not safe then they will find temporary housing until the service gets a court order. But if t he child does not wish to do that they will hide out in abandoned places where other kids, or older homeless people, junkies, or gangs stay. One in three girls is solicited for drugs within the first 72 hours of hitting the streets. The longer they are out there the harder it is to leave. Drugs seem like a place to go for solace when living in the harshness of the streets. Kids and adults use drugs as a way to escape their problems, but in reality, the drugs only decrease their ability to survive and find a job if they are over eighteen. Once these kids get hooked on drugs such as heroin, cocaine, meth, it is hard to get out of the cycle of needing a fix. Another factor that is brought into the child’s life is prostitution. Being dragged into sex trafficking just brings up so many terrible things that happen with this such as disease and rape. â€Å"But run where when there are 30,000 teenagers who have fled their homes in New York and only 400 emergency shelter beds, 13,000 runaways in New Jersey with a safe haven for only 300, and 10,000 in Connecticut with room for just 115? Even if a runaway finds a bed in a crisis center, where does he or she go after reaching the 30 days federal limit for sanctuary in an emergency shelter?† (Gross, 1) It is a sad thing that these are ordinary numbers, that these numbers for runaway children are realistic at all. There are not enough youth shelters, for kids to be able to flee to a haven when their home isn’t safe. Children need a place of solace and safety so they do not feel the need to turn to the streets and drugs. Unfortunately, shelters have run out of space. This has occurred so drastically that some cities have had to start using hotels to house all of these kids. This is a temporary and weak plan with many holes that should not have to happen in the first place. A government should spend more money on building bigger shelters and hiring professionals to turn these children’s lives around. Instead, the state is using hotels with empty space to let children roam as they please, and spiral out of control. Really this is simply giving them an upgrade to living on the streets, it is a drug house. â€Å"The Capri Motel is one of the places child and family services house kids in care. But listen to how one teen, a girl we are calling Katrina, describes the hotel she was placed in for several months (Barghouti, 1).† â€Å"Sometimes there would be other hotel rooms open through johns and hookers and older people, I guess to drink or party (Katrina, 1).† â€Å"That you guys saw (Barghouti, 1).† â€Å"Yeah, a lot of the kids would go hang out with them and do drugs and party with them (Katrina, 1).†    When children do get back home or get placed into a foster care they have a lot of catching up to do with their family and lives. If therapy didn’t cost nearly as much as it does, then maybe the country could be impacted on a really widespread level. People can make a change to alter the mindset of the government to show this growing problem. One of these countries priorities is to keep people off the streets and in jobs, but with diminishing futures, for these kids, that priority is not going to be fulfilled. Treating teenagers like children but trying them as adults need to stop. Children becoming runaways or throwaways has to be prevented and the signs are seen early so that they can get help. Having someone to listen to them and see signs of abuse, and depression; This can save a child’s life from being taken by the streets.                            Work Cited Blanchard, Jayne. â€Å"Cast shines despite ‘Polaroid Stories†. Washington Times, The (DC). Article. 2 August. 2003.    Janis, Linzie. â€Å"REAL-LIFE ROMEO AND JULIET† Good Morning America (ABC.) 5 Sept. 2013. Article. 12 Dec 2014.    Gross, Jane. â€Å"Fleeing Abuse to the Streets; Shelters Can’t Keep Pace With Increase in Runaways.† The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Dec. 1997. Web. 07 Jan. 2015. .    Moseley, Wendy. â€Å"Teens in CFS care in Winnipeg hotels say they’ve seen prostitution, drugs.† National (CBS Television). Article. Sept. 9, 2011.    â€Å"Teen Runaways- Parenting Teens. â€Å"Teen Runaways- Parenting Teens. N.p., n.d. Web. 30. Dec. 2014 .      

The Article, The Land Ethic

While wading through the reserved reading in the library, I came across the article, â€Å"The Land Ethic†, which caught my eye, as well as sparked an interest deep within me. It revealed the idea that we, as humans, tend to be quite caught up in the idea of community; community between neighbors, co-workers, etc. seems to be something we strive for in our society. It seems that we have not integrated the land into our idea of community, and I feel that this is a serious problem that if not treated, will continue to grow and strive until the land turns into the â€Å"dead nothing† many people of today†s society feel it to be. I had been put face to face with the fact that I was one of those careless and self-involved members of our race. Having never thought of the concept of â€Å"land ethics†, I realized that it is very likely that many other people have yet to know of it either. This is a present conservation problem which worries me more than I have ever thought a simple article could be able to do to me. As the author of this revelation piece, Aldo Leopold (1966), stated in his article, that we need to change our â€Å"human role from conqueror, to a member of the land community†. This is vital for the future existence of an Earth that is habitable and non-toxic. Many people claim that they have ethics in their work place, or in general life practices. I have yet, however, had the pleasure of seeing many people proclaiming their ethics about the treatment of this planet. I have yet to see a serious and unwavering campaign to stop placing ourselves so high up the evolutionary ladder that the fate of the world we live in, will eventually crumble, as will our race and every other animal along with us. Michael Soule stated in his article, â€Å"What is Conservation Biology†(1985), that we cannot change the past, but we can modify the rate at which our land and species are being destroyed. Although in recent years, we have seen more legal responses toward conservation issues, such as establishments of national parks, our attempts are not being fully developed due to the lack of education. Although there is some level of awareness of the vandalism we are acting out onto our earth, there is less being said to members of our society on what they can do to reverse, change, or slow down the process of destruction. How can this be changed? This issue needs a bigger voice in today†s media. It is seen as something that, if we forget, may go away. This is simply causing the situation to worsen. The longer it takes for society to accept the land as part of their community, the longer the land will be destroyed, and the more difficult it will be to heal. As each generation passes, our technology and research continues to grow, and find more problems facing our land; things are not getting any better as time moves on. A possible addition to the small amount of education currently being done in this country, is the teaching of basic conservation science classes in elementary school; maybe if we start now, their generation will be brought up to mother the earth that has nurtured them. Other helpful additions include the passing of new city ordinances which would make it mandatory that businesses recycle, and teaching farmers alternative ways to take care of their crops, such as using bats instead of pesticides to keep insects off of their plants. Each culture responds differently to the problems our world is facing. Each generation is hopefully one step closer to saving this planet. We, as the human race, need to adopt the idea of cooperating with our land, rather than competing in a free for all game of greed and ownership towards it (Leopold, 1966). More education, a louder and more permanent voice in the media, and more legal regulations will hopefully further our ability to right the wrongs that have been done to our earth. With time we may be able to save our planet and the animals which inhabit it, including ourselves.

A Study Of The Use Of Microelectromechanical Systems

A Study Of The Use Of Microelectromechanical Systems In this paper, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) has been utilized to make miniaturized ion optics required for making the portable all-in-one mass spectrometer. Four different ion optics components were fabricated using deep-reactive ion etching (DRIE) of n-doped silicon-on-insulator. These components are 1 mm Bradbury-Nielsen gate, 500 Â µm coaxial ring ion trap (CRITter), reflectron optics and 500 Â µm Einzel lens. The Bradbury-Nielsen gate was made using a pattern of alternating electrode wires which either allows ions to pass or stop through the gate. The CRITter was made using five trapping rings and two end caps to make mass selection ion optics and it was also used in testing the alignment capability of fabrication process. The reflectron optics was made using a assembly of fifteen rectangular elements arranged in series. The fourth ion optics component was assembled MEMS Einzel lens which consisted of three lenses. It was used to focus the ions beam to increase the ion current and detectability. All the components were tested using ion produced with 70 eV EI ionization. These assemblies were characterized in terms of breakdown voltage, durability, and alignment. For current devices, the breakdown voltage was reported 750 V. The CRITter was tested with 1% toluene at pressure of 1 x 10-4 Torr. The resolution was limited due to the alignment errors and also aberration in etched designs got more impactful as the size of the ion trap was reduced. Current reflectron optics was not capable of resolving the peaks of toluene. Therefore, in the future analyzer path length will be increased by using multiple reflectrons. These miniaturized components were assembled using an encoded piezo-manipulator with pick and place capability. Resolution and ion attenuation was found to be the greatest concern of the current design at present. Fox, J.; Saini, R.; Tsui, K.; Verbeck, G., Microelectromechanical system assembled ion optics: An advance to miniaturization and assembly of electron and ion optics. Review of Scientific Instruments 2009, 80 (9), 093302. In this paper, a soft landing (SL) instrument has been developed with capability of depositing the ions onto the substrate for preparative analysis. The two important components of this instrument are custom made drift tube and two split rings. The drift tube is consist of 18 concentric rings along with two split rings at the end. The drift tube was filled with an inert buffer gas like He and operated from 1 to 100 Torr of pressure. High pressure gas thermalized the cluster ions on collision to 0.01 to 1.0 eV kinetic energy and separate the clusters formed by laser ablation. This helped in further analysis of deposited clusters on mica surface. Two functions of split-ring are to direct the cluster ions towards either detector or a landing surface. This instrument works on the principle of narrowing the kinetic energy of ions going through drift tube to prevent the fragmentation on landing. The gating function of split ring was performed using a homemade pulsing circuit that changes t he voltage across the split ring. The SL instruments was built with a quick door CF flange which reduced the number of gaskets required and helped in holding, adjusting and removing the detector and landing surface from the instrument without disassembling the instrument. A simple Faraday plate was used in SL instrument as detector. A 15 mm mica disk used for atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used as landing surface. Split ring pulsing helped in selecting and isolating the specific ion clusters. For initial experiments copper was used as analyte and it was ionized using laser ablation using ND-YAG laser. Mass spectrum of Copper was reported to have multiple peaks due to Cun+, CunOm+ ions formation in the presence of O2 as contaminant. After the cluster deposition on mica surface, surface was analyzed using AFM and was compared with the physical vapor deposition (PVD). In the future, other landing surfaces like gold, silicon, and highly ordered pyrolytic graphite can be used to bette r understand the deposition mechanism.

Assignments 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Assignments 1 - Essay Example The company just arrived in North Sea fields several years ago. By the time LINK650 was setting up in North Sea fields, there was so much excitement about the arrival. This prompted many job seekers to apply for various technical and non-technical jobs within the company. One of the lucky people to have gotten the chance to work for LINK650 as a non-technical employee was Shaun O’Neil. Specifically, O’Neil was given a drilling job, which was dangerous but well-paying and with more time off. Having being selected among a pool of many applicants, O’Neil and his colleagues at LINK650 were so happy and enthusiastic about their new jobs. To them, this represented a great opportunity to showcase their talents, apply their knowledge, and gain some income. The new hires were initially pleased with the recruitment process that was used in selecting them. O’Neil was particularly impressed by the recruitment team because they showed concern about their welfare while working in the oil drills. It is only later on that it emerged that the recruiters were actually hired from a consulting firm with specialization in recruitment and hiring. Apparently, O’Neil and his colleagues had not actually met or interacted with any manager from the LINK Company during the entire recruitment and selection period. Just after a few months of starting work, real problems began to emerge. Although some of the new non-technical hires had previous experience on oil fields, they were shocked to find that the experience they found at LINK650 was not close to what they had anticipated. Their welfare and safety as employees working in dangerous conditions were not taken care of. They had to work under dirty and very cold conditions. This caused some of the employees to resign. As if that was not enough, the supervisors in the company were too harsh on the new hires. They treated the employees badly by being abusive blatantly

Watersheds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Watersheds - Essay Example The watershed has a number of tributaries that drains in all of the states in America or to approximately 31 states within the United States of America between the Appalachian Mountains and the rocky extending to the southern regions of Canada. River Mississippi is ranked as the largest and the longest river in the world and it holds tenth and fourth positions in that order (Carluer and De Marsily 87). For long time watersheds have acted as an important framework for various scientific studies on the impacts of anthropogenic and natural phenomenon on both quantity and quality of water (Naiman 78). The effects of silvicultural and agriculture have been based on watersheds. Studies concerning watersheds have been conducted in places such as Coweeta in which the data collected have been used by researches to evaluate the effectiveness of various ecological regions. Most individuals are not aware about the source of their drinking water an aspect that means that they care less whether th e water they drink have been treated or not before they reach their homes. Additionally, people should be knowledge about the process used in treating the water that they consume. This is because clean water is important to life even though people have taken this fact for granted. Therefore this particular essay will analyze watershed within Mississipi River with an aim of helping the society to have a better understanding of scientific process and various forms of water resources. According to Carluer and De Marsily (95) a watershed is that particular area of land that drains into the lake, river, stream or other forms of water bodies. Moreover, watersheds can be small or large. For instance a small stream located in neighborhood may consist of a watershed. Nevertheless, the watershed of the Mississippi river covers approximately two thirds of the North America (Naiman 78). Figure 1: Mississippi watershed (Schertzer, 124) Put into consideration a small stream located at the top of the mountains. The watershed of this particular stream will comprise of few underground precipitation runoffs and springs coming from the lands that are above it. Hence the stream continues to flow down the hill; it flows to large water bodies including larger rivers, streams and even lakes before flowing into the oceans which accordingly have watersheds that are large. However, it is important to note that all watersheds both large and small have complex processes that in one way or the other impact on the quality of water coming out and utilized by the human population for various purposes. According to Sivapalan (2266) human beings does not only use water for the cleaning and cooking but also for drinking, cleaning and draining the waste systems. In order to achieve this treatment plants, dams and pipes have to be put into place for the purposes of treating water before and after it enters the homes of individuals in the society. Additionally, other structures should be put in pl ace for the purpose of transporting water. This is because in order for human beings to be free from infections, to be water too need free from all forms of pollution and safe for domestic use. This explains the importance of managing all the watersheds as they are the sources of water for human and animal populations. According Sivapalan (2268) most cities and towns have put in place plans for managing the watersheds with an aim of ensuring not only quantity but also quality of the water sources. Moreover, it is important to take note that as watersheds continue to develop; storm water continues to drain from areas such as buildings, parking lots, fields and even fields. Hence, the roadside ditches are designed in a particular manner to prevent the structures from flooding by ensuring

Taxes Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Taxes - Assignment Example The revenues collected through a progressive tax regime can be utilized to strengthen the public healthcare system. As it stands, the United States has more than 50 million citizens without health insurance. This is a shocking statistic, for with only a fraction of the yearly military budget, health access and healthcare outcomes in the country could be improved multifold. In a similar vein, channeling a portion of corporate revenues toward strengthening our healthcare system will pay rich social dividends. Much of the criticism directed at welfare programs like Medicaid, Medicare and social security are misplaced. Existing welfare programs are a godsend for those Americans belonging to the lowest strata of American society. They should not be criticized for being a drain on the economy. To the contrary, it is corporations which owns substantial resources and yet acts without social or environmental responsibility. It is only fair that corporations are taxed more as reparation for the damage they chronically cause to society and