Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels The 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was directed and written by Guy Ritchie who would eventually create the reboot of the solid blockbuster series, Sherlock Holmes. His earlier movie is about four criminal friends who are roped into three dramatic events in their life that are going on at the same time. This film is very unique because of the simultaneous structure of the plot tied together with parallel editing. It has so many things to enjoy about it: the atmospheric East London locations, the lush visuals, and the distinctive camera angles employed by Ritchie. Everything in this film catches the eye. Ritchie’s movie is a thrill to watch because he keeps you constantly on edge. The theme of the film is about karma and the way fate plays its fickle finger on the characters’ lives. If the characters in the film have a certain set of moral standards, then their future fates are left to decide whether or not they live or die. If a person is of an â€Å"honorable† background (at least within the code of thieves) or has moral beliefs in loyalty to his friends, in the end they will triumph over the darker elements of the criminal underworld. As you watch the film, you start to understand that some of the characters in this film aren’t exactly great people but they are decent enough to do the right thing for themselves and for their friends in the end. The film starts off with four close friends: Eddy (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Stathom), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher). They are getting 100,000 euro notes so that Eddy can get into one of the many sleazy card games put on by porn mogul Harry â€Å"the Hatchet† Lonsdale (played by P. H. Moriarty.) Harry botches the game so that Eddy losses the 100,000 that he handed them to enter. Now he has to pay an additional amount of 400,000 euros. Harry tells Eddy that he wants the money to be given to him at the end of a full week or else he’ll have to deal with his East End enforcers. This is the inciting action that triggers the entire plot. How are these friends going to raise that huge amount of money? This inspires a great mix of dark comedy and violence for the rest of the film. After several days with no luck acquiring the funds, Eddy comes home and overhears his neighbors, a gang of crooks led by a man named Dog played by Frank Harper. The gang is planning a robbery on some pot growers who may be loaded not only with drugs but the needed money to solve the debt problem. Eddy sends this information to his long-time pals. He is intending for them to rob the shady neighbors as they come back from the theft of the marijuana dealers. The gang of four installs taping equipment to monitor the neighbors. Tom obtains a pair of antique shotguns from a black market dealer, known as Nick the Greek (Steven Marcus) who also strikes a deal with Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood), a sociopathic gangster, to buy the stolen drugs. Nick had purchased the guns from a pair of foolish small time criminals, Gary and Dean, who in turn had stolen them from a bankrupt British lord as part of a job for Harry â€Å"the Hatchet.† None of the characters realize that, of the entire stolen firearms collection, Harry’s only desire was those two extremely valuable antique shotguns now in the hands of Tom. After learning the guns had been sold, an enraged Barry â€Å"the Baptist,† Harry’s personal bodyguard, threatens the two idiots into getting them back. The plot thickens, pointing towards future mayhem. As a sad trivia aside, the film was dedicated to Lenny McLean who performed Barry â€Å"the Baptist.† Mr. McLean had died of cancer only one month before the film’s premie re. The neighbors robbery gets underway according to schedule. Despite the death of a gang member stupidly by his own gun and a shaky chance encounter with a traffic cop, the job against the pot dealers is a success. Thinking they’re finally safe when the crooks arrive back at their London apartment, that neighbor gang is ambushed by our four friends. They take the neighbor’s looted money and return later that night to stash the goods next door. It is now time for a crazy night of celebratory drinking. Socio Rory discovers that the drugs he was going to buy were actually stolen from him. The marijuana growers were in his employees. Rory interrogates/tortures Nick into telling where the four friends live. Meanwhile, furious about their loss, Dog throws one of his men through the wall of their apartment. They discover the taping equipment on the other side and eventually all the stolen money and drugs. As Dog counts the money, the crooked neighbors prepare an ambush. Meanwhile Gary and Dean, trying to recover the antique shotguns, call on a traumatized Nick, who directs them to the same apartment address. Big Chris, Harrys debt collector, leaves with his son to the same destination as the four friends drive home from their bar crawl. Fate has played all the cards on the fortunes of all the characters. This will be the climax of the plot. Rory and his gang assault the apartment and have a shootout with the neighbors, resulting in the deaths of all but Dog and Winston, Rory’s chemist. Winston makes off with the marijuana. Dog is robbed by Big Chris of the shotguns and money during his escape. Gary and Dean spot Big Chris with the guns and hastily follow him, while the four friends return to find their loot missing. Big Chris gives the guns and cash to Harry, but on his return to the car he finds Dog threatening to kill his son if he doesnt retrieve the money. Desperate to get the guns, Gary and Dean attack Harry and Barry at their office, not knowing what Harry looks like and not noticing Barry until after he retaliates. Within seconds all four men are dead. The four friends are arrested, but confirmed to be innocent after the traffic cop identified Dogs dead gang as the primary suspects. When they retreat back to the bar, they discover Tom is out on a mission to throw the priceless shotguns off a bridge into the River Thames. In looking at a catalog of antiques, the friends learn the guns are worth thousands of dollars. As they try to call, Tom puts the phone in his mouth and the film ends with him trying to throw the shotguns off the bridge that he failed throwing the first time. Now, with the guns are on a ledge and the phone is in Tom’s mouth, the film concludes with Tom not knowing what to do next. The movie fades to black in a hilarious cliffhanger making for a perfect ending The emotional tone of the film is that of fear, remorsefulness, and giddy happiness. Another emotional quality felt is ironic surprise. The irony that the characters have to face in nearly every scene is hilarious. The film has a delightfully quirky dark comedic quality. It always puts these characters that you sometimes feel sorry and sympathize, in uneasy situations that they have to pry their way out some manner. Similar and comparable films that share this unique gallows humor include Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. The structure of the film is fairly straightforward following a chronological development of the plot. There was one scene where Ritchie uses flash-forward in his story telling. The sequence involves a car crash. Then the next scene was about the same car crash only it details how it happened and who it happened too. It is a clever use of time manipulation. The musical soundtrack is mostly previously released music that wasn’t originally orchestrated for the film. The score contains a wide variety of music from rock to reggae with songs including â€Å"The Boss† and â€Å"The Payback† by James Brown, â€Å"Spooky† by Dusty Springfield, â€Å"Liar, Liar† by The Castaways, â€Å"I Wanna Be Your Dog† by The Stooges, and â€Å"Walk This Land (Remix)† by Ez Rollers. The use of these musical hits from the 1960s and 1970s is diverse and brilliant. The cinematography by director of photography, Tim Maurice-Jones, is excellent. The most memorable parts include the POV (point of view) camera sequence on Eddie when he is in disarray having just lost all of the money. When Harry dramatically dies, the production team slows things down. You can see the brutal action unfold while time is now going at a much slower intense pace using Slo Mo, a signature Ritchie technique later used in his successful Sherlock Holmes series. Also there is a sequence where a chunk of one of the robber’s hair is completely blown off. The way Maurice-Jones and Ritchie used smoke and lighting in that â€Å"hair-raising† moment was pretty charming. It was reminiscent of those old slap stick cartoons where something ungodly happens to a character. You think the cartoon character is badly damaged but they just have a slight burn or minor scratch. This film has to be one of the best films I’ve seen recently. It is an exciting take on the crime world and how most criminals get the barrel in the end. The film is stunningly balanced between being humorous and serious at the same time. Its use as a â€Å"hyperlink cinema† piece is one for the books. Ritchie does an excellent job in connecting all the different stories, playing with time, and interweaving surprising plot twists. He makes you feel joy when you like a certain character from a different part of the story. Then you see them interact with a dangerous character, you had no idea would ever see him or her again. He creates a feeling of immense tension. The film is a tightly constructed masterpiece. Ritchie’s movie just does not stop for a second. It is full of refreshingly dark humor and filmed with real style and flair. Like a great book, I didn’t want it to end. That is how much I enjoyed this film. You feel such a connection with the story and with the characters. In the paltry 107 minutes this movie is played, you want to watch these characters lives played out even more. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has a certain message or moral: to never be too greedy and always try to stick to an ethical path otherwise you might get the heat of life in the end. There are not moral choices being made in this movie. But nevertheless, there are moral people in this story. Even though they do bad things and sometimes pay dearly for it, their hearts are in the right place. Sometimes. Let’s just pray they won’t get into any trouble next time.

Song - What views about women are expressed in this poem? Essay

Song - What views about women are expressed in this poem? John Donne: Song A) What views about women are expressed in this poem? John Donne’s poems all express very different views about women. This poem expresses a very negative view of women, in particular that nowhere ‘lives a woman true, and fair’ – a beautiful, virtuous woman is impossible to find, and even if you did, by the time that Donne had reached her, she would have adulterated two, or maybe three other men. He believes in the certainty of female immoralism ‘yet she / will be / false.’ And the almost random promiscuity too, it will be two, or maybe three men, it’s very casual. He compares women to the sirens of the sea – mermaids, in the way the seduce you, and pull you down to the depths, suffocating you. While they are not an object of sexual desire but deception, because below the waist they have they have a slimy, scaly fishy tale. He may view himself as sort of Odysseus figure, just trying to find his image of his perfect woman on some mythical Ithaca. He continues these themes of deception further in the poem, which I shall explore in the next question B) How do language and verse form contribute to meaning in this poem In the first stanza Donne uses very commanding language, four lines out of nine begin with an imperative, and this shows his commanding, intellectual persona and his attitude towards women. In the first stanza Donne presents us fantastical images of various impossibilities which contribute meaning to his opinion of woman. The first sentence is a command: "Goe and catch a falling star," and an impossible one, for how can one catch a star? The word "falling" suggests a gradual fading away of the virtuosity of... ...tions take.’ One drop in a pond will cause rippling outwards – it continues to grow. He compares the circles to spheres of the heavens, but he says ‘they are all concentrique unto thee.’ This is a great metaphor for defining love, he feels that his lover is the centre on the heavens and outshines everything, the years passing to nothing bar ‘adde to love new heate.’ His love may increase through springtime but never abates through bad times, â€Å"No winter shall abate the springs encrease.’ Donne suggests that it cannot abate, he compares his growing love as too the infiniteness of the sky and the stars, which would have been never anything less than infinite in those times. Here we can see Donne as a simplistic adolescent, when he is in love he can never see it ending, while when he is feeling bad all women are evil and he will never go out with one again.

Tourism in Thailand :: essays research papers

Tourism in Thailand’s National Parks: The Problems it Brings â€Å"Rainforests are currently being destroyed at a rate of over 200,000 square kilometers a year according to the US National Academy of Sciences† (Wheeler). Some of these rainforests are located in Thailand’s national parks. In Thailand, there are 15 national parks set aside for conservation, though only 80% of these parks remain intact today. These Parks represent approximately 13% of Thailand’s land. The purpose of these parks is for the conservation of the forests and wildlife, educational tours and research studies, as well as recreational adventure (Wheeler). In 1961, The Royal Forest Department (RFD) of Thailand passed the National Park Act. This act stated that activities which endanger any resource within the park boundaries are strictly prohibited. These activities include settlement, land ownership, grazing, the manipulation of waterways, geological deterioration, logging, hunting, and colleting of forest products. These provisions obviously do not a pply to park officials who protect and maintain the park for education, technical research, and facilitate recreational activities† (Pipithvanichtham). One of the main reasons for the Thai government’s plan to expand tourism facilities in the national parks is to bring in foreign money into the economy through tourism to these areas. However, there are concerns that the effects of increasing tourism in these areas will lead to mismanagement, corruption, and environmental destruction. Therefore, the Thai government should not be promoting tourism in Thailand’s national parks. The government claims that problems associated with tourism in national parks can be dealt with by careful planning and with the participation of government agencies. For example, the RFD is making an effort to protect the National Parks. The RFD plans to update their existing park laws and regulations to make them more suitable for the modern times. The RFD and the Kasetsart University conducted a training session for all national park chiefs to provide them a chance to learn about park management policies. The RFD hopes to develop some means of cooperation with other countries, particularly in the fields of expertise which it lacks† (Pipithvanichtham). While the RFD has a plan, it will require money to enact it. Currently, there is not enough money to fund this plan coupled with governmental mismanagement. The parks are not funded well enough, which has caused the amount of upkeep in the parks to decrease. The cost of managing Thailand’s national parks is met using the government’s central budget and park entrance fees.

A Scrutiny of the Ethical Dilemmas in ‘A Few Good Men’

A young Navy Lawyer named Lt. Daniel Kaffee is in charge of the cases of two Marines, namely: PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson, who have been court-martialed because of allegedly murdering a fellow marine that goes by the name of PFC William T. Santiago (Reiner et. al., 1992).PFC William T. Santiago criticizes the status of Guantanamo Naval Base Bay in terms of its health condition (Reiner et. al., 1992). The top officials ignore his appeals which led him to finally decide on requesting that he be transferred to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992). As they continue to pay no attention to his complaints, he threatened that he would expose a case of an â€Å"illegal fence-line shooting† if they would not transfer him to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992).He then sends a letter to Col. Nathan Jessep, the CO of the Marines at the aforementioned base (Reiner et. al., 1992). Col. Nathan Jessep reads it as a way of informing Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson, who is Col . Nathan Jessep’s executive officer and 1st Lt. Jonathan Kendrick, who is the platoon commander of PFC William T. Santiago (Reiner et. al., 1992).Both Col. Nathan Jessep’s subordinates get mad as they were being notified about it but they disagree with the decision of transferring PFC William T. Santiago to another Naval Base (Reiner et. al., 1992). Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson wants to transfer PFC William T. Santiago, however, Col. Nathan Jessep do not agree with it stating that PFC William T. Santiago will be trained there instead (Reiner et. al., 1992).Lt. Daniel Kaffee establishes that PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were just carrying out the instructions/orders given by Col. Nathan Jessep, as well as, 1st Lt. Jonathan Kendrick (Reiner et. al., 1992). PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson reiterate that they were given instructions to â€Å"give the victim a Code Red† (Reiner et. al., 1992). A â€Å"Code Red† is a â€Å"colloquial termino logy† that pertains to â€Å"extrajudicial punishment† (Reiner et. al., 1992).When Lt. Daniel Kaffee began to infer that he was only specifically picked to be the lead counsel of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson, he knew immediately the reasons why (Reiner et. al., 1992). It was because he used to engage himself in â€Å"quickly settling cases by plea bargains† (Reiner et. al., 1992).The ones who picked him had two motives for choosing him: number one is to hamper the case of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson from being tried and number two is to humiliate the Marine Corps which will eventually tarnish Col. Nathan Jessep’s promotion (Reiner et. al., 1992).Fortunately, as the case progresses, Lt. Daniel Kaffee is more motivated to work on the case (Reiner et. al., 1992). He even learned to cooperate and respect LCDR JoAnn Galloway, his partner in defending the case of PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson (Reiner et. al., 1992).In the end, Lt. Daniel Kaffee is successful in defending the case by providing evidence that indeed Col. Nathan Jessep â€Å"ordered a Code Red† to get back at PFC William T. Santiago who has written a letter with regards to a case of an â€Å"illegal fence-line shooting† (Reiner et. al., 1992).As Col. Nathan Jessep confesses that he ordered so, he was arrested and detained while PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were not charged by the court as â€Å"guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder† however, was charged for â€Å"conduct unbecoming of a United States Marine† (Reiner et. al., 1992). PFC Louden Downey and LCpl Harold Dawson were â€Å"dishonorably discharged† because of that (Reiner et. al., 1992).   

Engineering Ethics Essay

â€Å"The need for safety is proportional to the danger of having an accident. Nothing is fool-proof, yet we must try to minimize risks. If the public is willing to run or to take such risks, who are engineers to refuse? † In my opinion, the above argument is very valid and it indeed reflects the position of engineering as a process. The reason why I support this argument is because first of all, the advancements the society has been able to make are due to the milestones that have been achieved by engineers. There will always be a demand for innovation so that life may become what the society wants it to be: smooth and efficient (Davis, 1998). To design the systems which are able to bring about these comforts, we as engineers must base our practice on the mathematical and physical principles that have been established through empirical research (Baura, 2006). Any measures to safeguard the safety in the use of systems and devices designed by engineers are constant and depend on certain constants; and these constants are in turn dependent on external factors. When this chain of determinants fails to hold up, then risks will arise. Nevertheless, it is our professional responsibility as engineers to bring innovation to the society. Due to unforeseen circumstances, engineering processes or the products of these processes may malfunction, causing danger to their users or other third parties. But through exhibiting an affinity for these processes and products, the society is virtually signing an agreement to face the associated risks as a matter of choice; and engineers cannot dissuade them (Davis, 1998). However, all engineers have a role of ensuring that the profession is approached with diligence so that the risks emanating from its processes are as low as can be possible (Davis, 1998). This is our obligation to the society, our conscience and our employers and the profession. That is what makes a holistic engineering practice. Relationship between risk and safety To understand the relationship between risk and safety it is important to first understand the meaning and implication of the two terms. Risk in the engineering context can be defined as the probability of an accident arising from an engineering project or a product of an engineering project (Baura, 2006). Safety on its part can be defined as the state of having a defined degree of certainty that adverse effects or accidents will not result from a process or the use of a specific device or system. With the above definitions in mind, it can be concluded that risk and safety are inversely proportional entities. Applied to engineering ethics, their implication is that we as engineers must strive, as a matter of being professionally competent, to minimize risks as much as can be possible so that safety can be increased (Baura, 2006). Risks have many dimensions in that they can occur in any stage of engineering, raging from design, implementation of the design and in the application of the product of the design (Davis, 1998). The same is translated to safety since the two are mutually interdependent, related by the rule of inverse proportionality: the higher the risks associated with a system or a process, the lesser the safety of the people interacting with it. Determining whether an engineer is responsible for an accident Under the unfortunate eventuality that an accident has occurred in an engineering project or in the use of a product or system designed through the engineering process, whether or not an engineer should be held responsible is a matter resolved by examining if he or she stuck by the pre-defined standards of professionalism and ethics (Baura, 2006). This is one of the main concerns of engineering ethics. It is a field in the study and practice of engineering that deals with the setting and unilateral enforcement of the standards that govern the practice of engineering as a profession. According to these standards, an engineer is supposed to exhibit diligence, morality and high levels of engagement to the process (Rabins, Pritchard & Harris, 2008). When these attributes are not followed to the letter, safety may be compromised. In case an accident happens and the engineer in charge of the event or system that caused the accident is found to have diverged from recommended standards of competence, then he or she should be held responsible for the accident (Baura, 2006). As discussed above, all engineering processes always involve some risks no matter how minimal. An accident may occur not because of negligence on the part of the engineer in charge but because of other factors outside his or her control (Davis, 1998). Determining if an engineer is responsible for an accident therefore is a matter of evaluating the circumstances that led to the accident. If there is sufficient proof of negligence, then the engineer should be blamed; but if all evidence shows that the engineer stuck to the recommended standards of professionalism and ethical responsibility, then he or she should not be blamed (Davis, 1998). It is just part of the risks involved in the job. Standards of due diligence Moral, ethical and professional standards of diligence applying to the practice of engineering are defined for each specific discipline by societies comprised of experienced engineers. These societies define an elaborate set of standards which an engineer needs to be familiar with and show competence in before he or she is licensed to practice. Among these is the National Institute of Engineering Ethics (NIEE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (AMSE). In different countries, national societies exist which liaise with the international societies for easier implementation of these standards of due diligence (Rabins, Pritchard & Harris, 2008). Regulating and enforcing Standards Professional engineers who have garnered sufficient experience in the profession have the moral and professional obligation of inducting graduating engineers to the practice. They, in collaboration with engineering societies and educational institutions should ensure that student engineers are taught engineering ethics as part of the regular curriculum. Upon graduating, engineering students should be made to undertake competence courses and examinations so that the required standards of ethical and professional are ingrained into their conscience before they can be licensed to operate as engineers (Davis, 1998). There should be levels so that an engineer graduates from one level to another depending on experience garnered; experience which should be evaluated in terms of his or her level of competence. Practicing licenses should be suspended for engineers who show incompetence in their practice. Competence, Personality and Morality Good (competent) engineers are those who apply the standards of diligence prescribed in the engineering code of ethics. A bad (incompetent) engineer is one who does not value the above standards (Rabins, Pritchard & Harris, 2008). The are parameters (or standards of due diligence) include being knowledgeable, having the skills or expertise necessary for a given task and having the ethical stand to be able to take responsibility for the process itself incase of any unforeseen eventuality (Baura, 2006). A good engineer wholeheartedly dedicates his service to his clients, employer and to the society. When all or any of these virtues are missing, then we have a bad engineer. No matter how skilled an engineer may be, he or she can be branded incompetent if he does not inject ethics into his or her practice. There is a relationship between being a good engineer and being a good person since all ethics have a common foundation. Morally competent people are more likely to be professionally competent (Baura, 2006). A person of good character in personal life transfers the virtues that define good character into his or her profession. Based on this analogy, good people are likely to make good engineers and vice versa. An individual’s moral competence can be established by evaluating his or her approach to issues requiring decisiveness and strength of character (Rabins, Pritchard & Harris, 2008). This is when morality and ethics come into play. Morally incompetent people tend to place the end before the means whereas morally competent people exhibit dexterity in balancing between their acts and the likely outcomes, putting into consideration the welfare of other people directly or indirectly affected by the issue at hand. Evaluation of an individual’s morality is extremely hard since morality is essentially an intrinsic characteristic (Rabins, Pritchard & Harris, 2008). Every human being develops a unique moral outlook based on the environment and the experiences that he or she had while growing up. Since these are unique to each individual, no one has the moral right to impose his or her moral values on another (Baura, 2006). Morality can never be universal, just like knowledge. However, moral evaluations are still very necessary since as human beings and as engineers, we must build a consensus tending to those competencies which can be agreed upon as binding so that we live and practice harmoniously, exhibiting collective social and professional responsibility. References Baura, G. (2006) Engineering Ethics: An Industrial Perspective. Burlington, MA: Academic Press. Davis, M. (1998). Thinking like an Engineer: Studies in the Ethics of a Profession. Oxford: Oxford University Press Rabins, M, Pritchard, M. S. & Harris, C. (2008) Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Belmont: CengageBrain.

The Secrets to Raising Smart Kids

The article titled â€Å"The Secrets to Raising Smart Kids†, by Carol S. Dweck has many key concepts and interesting points. Most of the people presume that outstanding and superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. More than three decades of research indicates that exaggeration on talent or intellect, and the idea that such traits are inborn, leaves people susceptible to failure, and uninterested to learn. (Scientific America: Psychology Reader, 2008, pg 69) According to a survey conducted by the author Carl S.  Dweck in the mid-1990s, â€Å"85 percent of parents believed that praising children’s ability or intelligence when they perform well is important for making them feel smart. However, the author’s work shows that praising a child’s intelligence makes a child fragile and defensive. † (Scientific America: Psychology Reader, 2008, pg 72) In a study published in 2007, the author and the two psychologists Lisa Blackwell and Kali H. Trzesniewski monitored 337 students for two years during the transition from junior to senior to determine how their mind- sets might affect their math grades. As what the researchers predicted, â€Å"the students with a growth mind -set felt that learning was a more important goal in school than getting good grades. The students who held a fixed mind -set were concerned about looking smart with little regard for learning. † (Scientific America: Psychology Reader, 2008, pg 72) The author suggests that if we encourage a growth mind-set in our schools and homes, we will give our children the support to succeed in their goals and to become a responsible workers and citizens. Teaching people to have growth mind-set, which encourages a focus n effort rather than on intelligence, produces high achievers in school and in life. Myers Discussion Chapter 10 of the textbook posted some questions about intelligence: Does each of us have an inborn general mental intelligence, and can we quantify this intelligence as a meaningful number? To what extent does it result from heredity rather than environment? According to David Myers, intelligence is a mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. Since the mid-1980’s, some psychologists have sought to extend the definition of intelligence beyond Spearman’s and Thurstone’s academic smarts. â€Å"Howard Garner views intelligence as multiple abilities that come in packages†. (Myers, 2010, pg 407) Robert Sternberg agrees that there is more to success than traditional intelligence, and he agrees with Gardner’s idea of multiple intelligences. â€Å"However, he proposes a triarchic theory of three, not eight. They are analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence†. (Myers, 2010, pg 411) The author David Myers discussed that intelligence test scores maybe misinterpreted as literal measures of a person’s worth and potential. He argued that we must remember the competence that general intelligence tests sample is important, but it only reflects one aspect of personal competence. Our practical and emotional intelligence are important too, as do the other forms of creativity, talent and character. Genetic and environmental influences shaped our intelligence, and thus there are many ways of being successful, our differences are variations of human adaptability. (Myers, 2010, pg 439) Relevance in My Life This article has a great relevance in my life. I took an advance math class last year on site, and I thought I will have a hard time with the subject. However, I realized my mind-set affected my math grade. I belong to a student with a growth mind-set. I believed that learning is more important in school than getting good grades. I was praised by my professor for my effort in asking questions after class, and I did not lose confidence when faced with the harder questions. I was not surprised that I got an A better than my classmates who have fixed mind-set. After all, I believe that I can expand my intellectual skills. According to David Myers, â€Å"challenges are energizing rather than intimidating. They offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts†. I am glad that I took this psychology class because I am learning a lot from this subject. I am planning to transmit a growth mind-set to my four-year old daughter by telling stories about achievements that result from hard work. I could also help my child provide explicit instruction regarding the mind as a learning machine. In this way, she will learn that intelligence can cover a wide area of things, and thus it can be earned, just like respect.

Chief Seattle Oration Analysis

Seattle Chiefs Ovation The arrival of the European colonists in New England in the 17th century pushed the Native Americans to the west and eventually sparking their demise. Intensive logging impacted their environment, epidemic diseases from Europe claimed lives of thousands of Native Americans, and the Euro-Americans simply took over regions and the land of the native community. The Native Americans were outraged by their inferiority and on the colonist’s treatment of the environment.The Chief Seattle’s 1854 Oration is a speech in response to a proposed treaty in which the Indians were persuaded to give up thousands of acres to the US government for a sum of 150,000 dollars. The Chief Seattle’s Oration is considered to be the most profound environmental statements in history. The Chief Seattle was the leader of the Dkhw’Duw’Absh, and a prominent figure in the Indian-American relationship of the time. At this time, numerous Native American’s were being scattered out of their tribes by the American’s and it was believed that they would be extinct.In the speech, The Chief Seattle attempts to convince the American conquerors that they should treat them fairly despite their inferiority to the American people. Through figurative language and his respect for nature, the Chief appeals to the Governor of their decision to take over Washington making of their time. Prior to the colonisation of North America by the Europeans, the Native Americans lived peacefully and they saw their environmental as communal. Their low-impact technologies saw them live in harmony and respecting the environment.Their religion revolved around the belief that animals, plants, rocks, mountains, rivers, and stars had souls. Upon arrival, the European colonists immediately began take natural resources for European trading and usage. Large forests were cut down for firewood, trading, and agriculture; animals were killed for skin, the girdling of the trees prevented the leaves from growing and eventually killing it. For every person added to the population, one or two hectors of land was cultivated.This trend continued on until the beginning of the 20th century, and to this day, 1/3 of America’s forests have been cut down causing devastating environmental disruptions. The land which was once peaceful and quiet, home to the Native Americans who respected and loved it had changed horribly. Throughout America’s history, the capitalist Americans viewed the natural resources as a possibility for economic growth. The formation of a free market meant that government legislation and fiscal policies were inadequate to prevent environmental demolitions.From the Colonisation up to the 20th century, the United States government failed to apply sustainable growth. This reflects on how our world economy is working. Governments fail to advocate environmental issues in order to boost the economy. The Chief Seattle underlines t he value of the environment. He chief treats nature as a living thing. â€Å"Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. This use of personification in this line relates to how the rain is coming from the sky, but with the incursion of the Americans, nature’s natural course is twisted, thus a cloud will overcast the compassionate tears of the sky. The Chief is sympathetic towards his people; he states that â€Å"my people are few. They resemble the scattering tress of a storm-swept plain. † The Chief underlines the value of the trees, and whilst most of the mass logging occurred during America’s colonisation, the biodiversity was badly affected during this time period.This relates to how the Native American race is slowly coming to an end and it resembles the logging of the trees cut down by the Americanâ€⠄¢s. Hence, the Chief emphasises that his men are part of nature therefore they are dying with it. Furthermore, the chief argues that the Euro-Americans never appreciated nature. â€Å"Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valley’s, its murmuring rivers, and its magnificent mountains. † The Chief highlights that his race valued nature, and the love of nature goes on after their deaths.The tone of the speech suddenly becomes more aggressive in the 9th paragraph. He argues that â€Å"your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as a friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. † The chief states that there will come a time, when their civilisation will come to an end and God will be unable to help them. This can be related to the damage we are doing now with climate change.Global warming is now considered a threat to our world, with growing average temperatures; the climate is changing and can cause devastating natural disasters. Global Warming has been scientifically proven to be all caused by human’s destroying the world’s biodiversity and harming the earth’s atmosphere. Logging contributes to global warming, by deregulating the oxygen in the atmosphere. Therefore at this time, the logging of trees destroyed the biodiversity, and the Chief contended that whilst the Euro-Americans cut down trees, it will backfire on them and destroy their civilisation.In the last paragraph, the Chief quotes that â€Å"these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. † The Chief describes that the legacy of his tribe will live on. This describes how the Natives have so much respect for their land, and they will value it forever, and live on with for eternity.Moreover, The Euro-Americans and the Native American had contrasting views on the environments. The Natives had a belief that the environment is sacred and should be preserved, whereas the Euro-Americans preferred to economically benefit from nature. During this era, the industrialisation of America was booming, and the timber industry was at its peak. Nothing was known of the consequences for destroying the environment, however the Native Americans had their tradition to respect the environment and preserve it forever however this belief was uncommon to the European settlers.