Justification Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Justification Report - Assignment Example From among the host of publications and journals reviewed, the following three are hereby recommended: Logistics Management The Logistics Management boasts of keeping â€Å"logistics and supply chain professionals up-to-date on the latest news and trends in transportation services, equipment and technologies† (EH Publishing Network, 2011). Its detailed subscription offer for new subscribers is detailed herein: Cover Price: $99.00; Sale Price: $0.00; Savings: 100% (12 issues free delivery within US and Canada). Diverse information ranging from top story, blogs, white papers, latest content, webcasts, with top indices provided monthly. As indicated under its subscription offer, â€Å"Logistics Management delivers news and resources for professionals managing the logistics and transportation operations for their companies. In these tough economic times, managing your transportation and distribution costs are more important than ever to help grow your company's bottom line. That' s why Logistics Management magazine is dedicated to delivering timely, insider information that you can use to better manage your entire logistics operation† (EH Publishing Network, 2011).

Video games Essay Example for Free

Video games Essay This is very useful as it tells the staff in GAME quickly and efficiently about the availability of software in the shop. It allows them to inform questioning customers. GENERAL SECURITY Â  CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) this device is used to monitor everything that is happening. They are based everywhere in the company, in every department. This device can pick out things like thieves who are stealing merchandise to finding out what caused a certain accidental incident in another part of the company. Â  Login Systems a login system is a security lock that allows only authorised people to access computers. A username would be asked for followed by a password confirmation. This is a simple method to keep out people from accessing files on computers that are important. These are on all the computers in the company. Â  Keypad- this device is used in GAME to restrict areas that are only allowed for people that are authorised personnel. The person would have to key in a password to gain access to the restricted area. All the departments have areas that are restricted. Â  Norton Anti-Virus this program scans the computers for viruses and removes them. This is very useful if you are connected to the internet a lot where a lot of viruses try to attack you. Â  Norton Internet Security this program gives you extra protection from internet abusers. This allows you to enforce parental control, intrusion detection, privacy control, ad blocking, AntiSpam and a personal firewall to keep out intruders. DEPARTMENT SPECIFICS This section is on the specific hardware, software and security used in each department. SALES DEPARTMENT This is the Hardware and Software used specifically in the Sales Department. Hardware Input. These are the input devices used only in the sales department. Barcode Reader The barcode reader in the EPOS system scans the barcode on the items and keeps track of what items are being taken out and being returned. This also lets the company know whether they are running out of any specific items. They can also in the future use the information they obtained from the EPOS system and evaluate whether they should stock up on more items or less. Â  Magnetic Strip Reader This device is like a barcode reader but it has some advantages. It can hold more information and it also has more security. In a barcode you could find out the code on the barcode because of the numerals under it, but in a magnetic stripe you have to pass it through its reader to obtain its code. In the GAME industry they accept credit cards that have a magnetic strip. They also let people register for a GAME card, which also has a magnetic strip. Hardware Output These are the output devices used only in the Sales department. Â  Receipt Printers These printers print out the item that was purchased and include other details such as the date it was purchased, etc. These receipts are extremely useful, as they will allow the customers to return goods that do not satisfy them or is faulty. A unique system of GAME allows the customer to return goods that do not agree with them as long as they still have their receipt. Software Application These are the application software only used in the Sales department. Â  MS Publisher this program allows the Sales department to create sophisticated marketing products. Products like posters, leaflets and other paper-based marketing goods. Â  MS Excel this program allows the sales department to produce a database on their customers. The reward card scheme allows GAME to keep a record of their customers and their history with GAME. GAME can use their database to find out what each customer has bought and returned. They can find out what each customer likes and dislikes. They can use this information to improve on what they need to do to make GAME a better service to the customers. Security These are ways security is handled only in the sales department. Â  Security Guards security guards are used in the sales department to guard retail shops from vandals, thieves and troublemakers. They are trained professionals that can handle all different situations. Â  Sensor Barrier this device is used in the sales department in the retail outlets. People have to go through it whenever they want to enter or leave the shop. If it rings then that means the culprit that caused it has an item that has not been bought but in fact is being stolen. It is very useful in cutting down shop robbery. Â  Finance Supervisor these are people who have been hired to watch over the people who are involved in the transactions of the money belonging to GAME. So if a worker is seen to be trying to steal some of the companys money, then the supervisor would report the culprit for arrest. PURCHASING DEPARTMENT This is the Hardware and Software used in the Purchasing Department. Hardware Input These are the input devices used only in the Purchasing department. Â  Barcode Reader The barcode reader in the purchasing department is used to key in all the items that are being bought in and out of the retailer. It helps it to determine how much of each product is in stock. Hardware Output. These are the output devices used only in the Purchasing department. Ordering Software this software is used to buy products from different manufacturers. Whenever the company is low on a product the ordering software would purchase more of that same product to restock. Security The purchasing department uses only the security stated in the general security section. FINANCE DEPARTMENT This is the Hardware and Software used in the Finance Department. Software Application These are the application software only used in the Sales department. Â  BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing Syst.

Cultural Diversity In The Fire Service Criminology Essay

Cultural Diversity In The Fire Service Criminology Essay Todays society is much more complicated than it ever has been. The change from even ten years ago is considered drastic. Workplace diversity is a vital component to any workplace, whether its private, public, state, federal, or any other entity. Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines diversity as the condition of having or being composed of different elements: variety; especially the inclusion of diverse people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization (Merriam-Webster). Workers in todays society are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects employees and job applicants from discrimination by employers. It protects from acts of discrimination via race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, education, and more, which is enforced by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC applies to most employers with at least 15 or more employees. The EEOC headquarters located in Washington D.C., along with its 53 field offices throughout the United States can investigate cases, while also providing other services such as: statistics, guides and templates for EEO surveys, outreach and education, enforcement and litigation, and initiatives. Benefits of workplace diversity are countless, but the following are a few that standout. Workplace diversity encompasses a three-dimensional approach, meaning that it is best for the employer, employee, and together as a whole. It increases adaptability, which means that employees with diverse backgrounds can couple together their experiences, talents, and suggestions to better the organization, which encompasses the three-dimensional approach (Greenberg). Within this three-dimensional approach includes a benefit called variety of viewpoints. By utilizing the variety of employees that you have in your workplace you can meet the needs of the business and the customers more effectively (Greenberg). When discussing workplace diversity a problem that can often occur is a breakdown in communication. While it is important that employers staff people of all different races and ethnic groups, it must be taken into consideration that there may be a language barrier. Communication is vital fo r any business or organization to properly function, so it is in the best interest of the employer to make sure that whatever information is being dispersed, is being done so that everyone has an equal understanding. A good way to establish the effectiveness of workplace diversity is to assess and evaluate your diversity process. This can be accomplished by an employee satisfaction survey, and will present the management team with obstacles that are present along with any policy that needs to be added or eradicated. When choosing a workplace diversity plan it must be comprehensive, attainable, and measureable. In order to do so, employer and employee, along with employee and employee must cohesively work together. The plan needs to establish the needs for the whole business, and not just a certain few who might have the most say so in developing such plan. Second, the plan must be attainable. In order to do this, you need to set benchmarks or goals to reach in a certain timeframe. Creating an attainable plan is realistic and makes sure that everything within it is accomplished. Lastly, the plan must be measurable. In order to do this you can look at similar workplace diversity plans for businesse s alike and compare and contrast benchmarks and reports. A measurable plan is one that is quantifiable, assessable, finite, and verifiable. In order to make sure you incorporate all of this into your plan, a simple rubric can be followed, which is S.M.A.R.T. (Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals). Specific Who, what, when, where, why? Measurable Tracking progress toward the attainment of goals. Attainable Set incremental goals to help you reach milestones. Realistic Objectives to which you are both willing and able to work. Timely Timeframes are required in order to reach goals, without any timeframe there would be unsatisfactory performance. Workplace diversity is very important for a successful business. By practicing effective workplace diversity with the simple guidance provided, you will not only produce a better workplace for your employees but employees will also produce a better workplace for the employer. Diversity in Recruitment A 2006 International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) report, titled Achieving and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, analyzed the factors that hinder diversity in the fire service. The findings in the report were based on a literature review and statistical analysis. The literature review prevented proposed solutions from research to the diversity problem. The statistical analysis was created after surveying a number of departments about their diversity and recruitment practices. The statistics were then used to validate the claims made in the literature (Fox, Hornick Hardin, 2006). Overall, the report found that there were five main obstacles to minority recruitment. They are listed below: 1. Most departments are passive on the issue. Diversity is not something that will happen unless departments are engaged in the community and the recruitment process. 2. Hiring processes do not measure all required job skills. If hiring processes focus on one particular attribute (i.e. physical vs. cognitive abilities) than the candidate as a whole will not be observed. 3. Any requirements for education, certification, or experience will hurt minorities. Often, traditional hiring pools score better in these areas than minorities. 4. Departments do not know how to reach the desired groups. Effective methods of recruitment to reach specific groups are discussed below. 5. Departments do not communicate a clear message of diversity. A diversity message should be used consistently from recruitment, to date of hire, to employment with the department. The study found that there were eight methods of recruitment that correlated directly to substantial recruitment of minorities. Each department used these in some sort of combination, so these are not necessarily listed in order of effectiveness (Fox, Hornick Hardin, 2006). 1. Word of mouth. This will probably be the most effective way to recruit for any job. However, fire departments can have members from the targeted group in their communities. 2. Formal advertising. Formal advertising could be print advertisements, radio spots, flyers, etc. These messages should be directed at the desired group. 3. Direct mail. Mailings can be used to inform candidates of deadlines and steps in the hiring process. This takes the burden of them and they will not miss a step. 4. Cadet/Explorer programs. These programs will help educate children and young adults about the possibility of the fire service as a career. This will help them compete with traditional applicants, since they often do have these opportunities. 5. News stories. The department can partner with local media outlets to produce stories about how the department values diversity. This would provide encouragement for minority applicants. 6. Diversity messages. Departments should have written diversity messages. These messages can be used in advertisement and recruitment materials. This would reinforce the candidates belief that the department values diversity. 7. Attend churches, cultural events, job fairs. This is the best way to get a message out to community to go out in it. Recruiters can take diversity messages to sell employment opportunities to minority candidates. 8. Candidate preparation. Offer informational sessions that will help minority plan for interviews, written tests, and physical agility tests. Do not allow these sessions to be filled with traditional applicants. This overview is by no means an exhaustive summary of the information contained in the report. There is much more knowledge contained in the seventy-one page document. Fire service administrators could study this publication to determine how it applies to these specific diversity problems (Fox, Hornick Hardin, 2006) Women in The Fire Service Women in the fire service dates back longer than anyone may realize. The first known female in the United States fire service was a slave from New York named Molly Williams, who was said to have fought fires during the early 1800s. The first all-woman forest firefighting crew was assembled in California in 1942 and the first female in North Carolina (Winston Salem) was Sandra Forcier in 1973. In a career that is traditionally dominated by men, white men especially, is seeing a change among the faces representing the fire service. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approx 11,800 women nationwide are employed as career fire fighters and of those 4.5% are white, 2.9% are black or African American. Women comprise about 4 percent of the volunteer fire service, an estimated 32,000 members (Wiling, 2012). Women are found in all ranks of the fire service, from recruit firefighter up to chief of department. Women fire chiefs lead organizations ranging in size from small volunteer departments up to those that protect cities the size of Madison, Wisconsin; county departments such as Cobb County, Georgia; and comparable agencies within the wildland fire service. There is no such thing as a typical woman firefighter. Women firefighters come from all backgrounds, races and ethnicities. They may be single, partnered, married, divorced, or widowed. They may be 62 and weigh 200 pounds, or 51 and weigh 110 pounds. They may have no children, or be mothers or grandmothers. They may be as young as 18 or as old as 70. They may have a high-school education or Ph.D. What this diverse array of women firefighters has in common is their dedication to their work and their commitment to serving their communities through the fire service (Brenda Berkman, Teresa M. Floren, Linda F. Willing, 1999). With all that being said and situations ever changing, there are many issues that are still a major concern for women in the fire service. To name a few of the issues, sexual harassment, sleeping and showering facilities and protective gear still pose a problem for women. Because of the lack of recruiting; the culture of the firehouse; physical agility testing that favors men and the lack of accommodations within fire stations for female firefighters makes it hard for females to even want to achieve their dream. So what can be done to help the process for recruiting and hiring more women for the fire service? Have a prerecruitment checklist: The application and testing process: Policy Development and Review: Recruit Training: Fire station Facilities and Firefighter Protective Gear. So, as you can tell women do seem to have a harder time joining fire departments, but like all other things in history, its slowly moving forward and being more acceptable. Good fire training creates a positive environment for new employees, improves the skills of current firefighters, and leads a fire department safely and progressively into the future. Bad fire training or none at allthreatens the safety of all firefighters, reduces morale, particularly harms women firefighters chances of success, and violates the departments prime directive to provide the best possible protection for the community it serves. Cultural Awareness in the Community The cultural diversity in the communities that we serve is constantly changing and there is no way to stop that. We, as professionals in the fire service, must find ways to adapt and learn about these new cultures in order to effectively serve the community. Failing to do so can result in a decrease in productivity and a bad reputation of your department. There are several ways that this can be accomplished; however, the first and most important one begins with us. We must understand that certain cultures have different values and beliefs than our own and we must be able to tolerate these differences. Showing respect for that culture is the first step in doing so. This must be shown not just verbally, but also in the methods by which we conduct ourselves. A persons body language can be a good insight to their feelings about a particular situation. Not showing any judgment is another big factor when dealing with a different culture. Stay away from any form of evaluation and try to explain things as safe or unsafe, instead of right or wrong. We must also show sympathy by putting ourselves into their shoes. Looking at something through their point of view can help us get a better understanding of how or why they do something. Lastly, we must stay focused on the end goal of breaking through a cultural barrier. There will be times where th is may get very difficult but we cannot allow frustration to interfere. Although changing our attitudes and following these tips will help, they may sometimes not be enough. This is where training on a particular culture may be necessary. The training can include anything from learning about how the culture works, including any activities that they may consider taboo, to how to communicate with the members effectively. Fire Service Court Cases Involving Cultural Diversity The fire service, like all other companies, businesses, and corporations, has undergone drastic changes in its ranks with the push to have a more diverse service, this push mainly due to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women (The Civil Rights Act 1964), and has led to many court case lawsuits against fire organizations for their disregard to the law. The majority of civil rights violation cases brought against a fire organization are for the discrimination against someone, or a group of people. Two major cases that have been brought against a fire organization are the United States v. City of New York, which was an employment discrimination case, and Ricci v. DeStefano, which was a landmark discrimination case dealing with firefighter promotions. With the diversity of the fire service changing the inclusion of women in the fire serv ice has increased, which has brought with it violations of the Civil Rights Act, dealing with sexual harassment. A case that was widely publicized was the lawsuit case of Michelle Maher v. The City of Fresno, which illustrated the burden that can be placed on a fire organization for violating the law. The fire service has been changing over the last thirty to forty years, with the inclusions of different types of minorities that have been entering the fire service. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the court cases that have been brought against the fire service for violating their rights, the inclusion of diversity in the fire service has been brought to the forefront of the organizations issues. Discrimination cases brought against a fire organization brought by the Civil Rights Act cause negative public opinions of the entire fire service. Discrimination, falls under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and refers to the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit (USLegal Definitions). There have been two landmark cases brought against a fire organization with the subject of racial discrimination, the United States v. City of New York, and Ricci v. DeStefano. The United States v. City of New York was as case brought against the New York Fire Department, involving discrimination of blacks and Hispanic firefighter recruits. The allegation accused the City of New York of using tests that were unlawful, by changing the scores accepted for hiring entry level firefighters, leading to a noticeable disparate impact on minorit ies. The city lost the case which awarded money, jobs, seniority, and noneconomic damages to individuals who were harmed by the Citys discrimination practices (DOJ). Ricci v. DeStefano was a reverse discrimination case that brought notice to a fire organization discriminating against non-minority employees, where firefighters mainly white firefighters were not given a promotion due to there being any African Americans able to pass a promotion test (Court). The court ruled in favor of the mainly white firefighters leading to the promotion of many of them, and having to settle paying over 5 million dollars to the fire fighter plaintiffs. With the lack of understanding the law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that the law protects both minorities and non-minorities against discrimination, led to millions of dollars spent in settlements, causing hardships on the fire organization involved, and the city they incorporate. With the increase in women firefighters there has been gender discrimination cases brought against the fire service, mostly coming in the form of sexual harassment. Sexual Harassment is a form of discrimination, under the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender (The Civil Rights Act 1964). The case of Michelle Maher v. The City of Fresno brought the subject of gender discrimination in the fire service to the front page news. Maher was a new firefighter recruit in recruit school and was told by a superior that she would not be successful in the fire service because she was a mother, and was not given the same opportunities as male recruits to improve her test scores (Michelle Maher vs. City of Fresno) which led to her being asked to resign or be expelled. Maher brought a sexual harassment suit against the city of Fresno, California, where the court found that she was discriminated against, leading to a settlement between Maher and the City of Fresno amo unting to 2.5 million dollars. This settlement brought financial hardship to the City of Fresno and the fire organization, which could had been a non-issue if the laws accompanied with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were fully understood. The fire service is not separate from other companies when it comes to the liability that is involved with not following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Those that have not followed the law have been burdened with court case lawsuits against them that have led to major settlements, some in the millions. Two court cases that have been brought against the fire service were the United States v. City of New York, which was an employment discrimination case, and Ricci v. DeStefano, which was a landmark discrimination case dealing with firefighter promotions. Both court cases being seen as landmark cases due to the scope of discrimination that these fire organizations were run. With the increase of women being involved in the fire service violations of the Civil Rights Act, dealing with sexual harassment and gender discrimination, there have been court cases brought against fire organizations dealing with this subject, one being, Michelle Maher v. The City of Fresno. This case was widely pub licized because it illustrated that some fire services were not welcoming of women being involved in their organization. The fire service has been changing over the last thirty to forty years, with the inclusions of different types of minorities that have been entering the fire service. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the court cases that have been brought against the fire service for violating their rights, the inclusion of diversity in the fire service has been brought to the forefront of the organizations issues, and when an organization or city does not follow the rules set by the law burdens are felt through the millions of dollars of settlements that are given.

College Binge Drinking: Not All Just Fun and Games Essay -- Essays Pap

College Binge Drinking: Not All Just Fun and Games For those who go out and drink in college, it is all about the good times, right? What everyone does not think about is the potential danger that drinking can cause, especially to the astonishing amount of college students who drink heavily on a regular basis. Alcohol abuse is the leading cause of death among teens and young adults, and according to many professionals, the high rate of binge-drinking and its effects on college students and the school or university is the top social issue on campuses. Despite all the attention given to this issue, especially in the past few years, no noticeable improvement has been seen. Drinking has even been called a â€Å"college pastime;† however, there is often a high price to pay for those who claim that they just want to have a good time, especially when it comes to the drinking that goes on at college campuses. Many first-time college goers need to realize that certain people have a higher tendency to drink heavily, and it is prove n that there is high risk for both those who do participate in this dangerous activity and for their non-drinking peers. It is a proven fact that young adults are among the heaviest drinkers in the United States, and college students tend to drink more than their non-college attending peers. These statistics don’t make all that much sense considering most people would say that they go to college to get ahead; however, if you use college as an excuse to go out and get drunk all the time (which many seem to do), then you might be worse off than those who do not go to college at all. Laura G. Hensley, a writer for the Journal of College Counseling, reports that â€Å"Binge drinking [also known as heavy episodic dr... ...k Groups.† American Journal of Public Health 93.11 (Nov 2003): 1929-1934. Academic Search Premier EBSCO. Roesch Library, Dayton. 26 March 2004. . Weitzman, Elissa R. â€Å"Social Developmental Overview of Heavy Episodic or Binge Drinking Among U.S. College Students.† Psychiatric Times 21.2 (Feb 2004): 57-60. Academic Search Premier EBSCO. Roesch Library, Dayton. 26 March 2004. . Williams, David, Adrian Thomas, Walter C. Buboltz Jr., and Maibel McKinney. â€Å"Changing the Attitudes that Predict Underage Drinking in College Students: A Program Evaluation.† Journal of College Counseling 5.1 (Spring 2002): 39-49. Academic Search Premier EBSCO. Roesch Library, Dayton. 27 March 2004. .

Dantes Inferno

The Inferno is more than just a fictional story about someone traveling through life. It is actually more like an autobiographical journey of life through its author, Dante Alighieri’s. He basically wrote with the personal purpose of recording where all of the people he came in contact within his life, will go when they die. This could be one of three places; Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. He went on to design specific, fitting punishments or rewards based on each person’s life. Dante then tied this all together and made himself a character that walks the entire length of the abstracted world.Written in the early 1300s by an angry Dante living in exile, he literally describes a man who has been trapped, and must find a way to escape. He also includes the hidden Renaissances darkness, and the people who are Manipulating. As Dante passes through the depths of hell he begins to see sins that would be punished and tortured in medieval times to the same acts that are displayed in the era of the Renaissance, and yet are treated differently. The Renaissances era that had a lot of influence on Dante and the journey through hell.Whether they were someone that betrayed him in his political career or the girl that he fell in love with when he was 9 years old, he found a way to integrate them into the Inferno. It’s not hard to notice that in the symbols, Dante considers trust and loyalty to be one of the most important human characteristics. He basically felt this way due to the point that he was betrayed and exiled away from his beloved homeland, by the pope. It is because of this that he places offenders of breaking these at the center of hell. Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302 and this is where his feelings that helped structured the story.When he comes out of the dark forest Dante is blocked by the three beasts. The beasts are a lion, a leopard, and wolf. The lion is seen to poses pride, the leopards' role is that of lust and the wolf represents is greed. The three ferocious beasts have three of the seven deadly sins. Canto 3 started the read when Dante comes to himself again and realizes he is lost in a dark, savage, threatening forest deep in a valley. He tries all night to find a way out; when he comes to the foot of a high hill and his way is blocked by three beasts.He thinks he's going to get past the leopard that comes first, but the lion is more fearsome, and the wolf drives him back, despairing, to the dark wood. He then sees a human shape and calls out for help. It is the shade of Virgil, When researched he was the great Roman poet of the time of the emperor Augustus, where he as a poet has learned so much, and Dante begs him for help against the wolf. Virgil tells him that the wolf is too fierce to get by, that she is ravaging all of Italy, and will do so until the person comes who can chase her back to Hell.But Virgil promises to get him out of the dark wood, not by taking him past the beasts, but by leading him through Hell. Once he has seen those who suffer in Hell, Virgil will lead him up the mountain of Purgatory, where souls become ready for eternal bliss, and then someone else will take over and lead him up to Heaven. Virgil can't go there because, living before Christianity had spread, and he was not a Christian. Dante accepts Virgil's guidance through hell, and they set out. The first circle he sees was beings that where not good enough to go to heaven, or bad enough to join the bottom of hell.As the reading continued I realized it also showed that the angles had a choice between heaven and hell, which made it different from anything I have read from the past. Canto 5, is when he first enters the Second Circle, Dante sees Minos, a horrible, snarling demon to whom each soul confesses everything. Minos warns Dante to turn back, but Virgil again asserts that Dante's journey is divinely ordained. Dante hears wailing again. Spirits pass through the air like a flock of birds, tormented by Minos; they have no hope of rest, and no hope of less pain. One long line of spirits gets Dante's attention, and he asks Virgil who they are.Virgil replies to him, all having died because of love, and Dante is bewildered by pity. Canto 34 is in the deepest depth of Hell, the lowest point in the whole universe. Virgil lets Dante know that he is about to see the being who is the ruler of Hell. Dante looks through the sadness and sees something that looks huge and like a windmill in the distance. The wind is strong, and he has to shelter himself behind Virgil. In the icy plain beneath them the souls are now completely buried in the ice, through which he sees them. When they get closer, Virgil makes Dante come out from behind him and look at Satan.Dante is so frozen and weak he feels neither dead nor alive, but he looks. There is the being who was once the fairest angel in Heaven, Lucifer, who rebelled against the one and only God who had made him so fair. Who was once beautiful but ug ly now from where he sits, he is much bigger than the giants Dante saw at the outer edge of the deepest pits. His head has three faces, one red, one white and yellow, one black. Two big bat wings sprout under each face, and it is the flapping of those wings that made the ice of Cocytus. He weeps tears and blood from each of his six eyes, and in each mouth he chews on a sinner.Virgil having seen everything, they must go. Dante holds tight to Virgil, with his arms around Virgil's neck, and Virgil goes right up to Satan and takes hold of his flanks, which are covered with hair. From tuft to tuft he descends to the midpoint of Satan's body, and then manages to turn himself upside down and start climbing. They reach a cleft in the rock and there Virgil puts Dante down on the edge. Dante looks back, and there are Lucifer's legs upside down. Dante is utterly bewildered. Virgil explains that the midpoint of Satan's body is the center of gravity of the earth.The story also reminds me of Reve lations more than just the relation of Rome. It is the same idea of describing others who have live into a different situation or character. Both Authors must have had similar feeling towards the groups, they both had hatred and wanted revenge. They describe the groups for who they were as a character that nobody would like. Dante Had made people change their family name, because he had shown a lot about the person to others, just because a relative was in the poem. He needed something to help him relived all the hatred he carried with him self; the Poem did not spike me as a comedy but more of a drama.

Assessment Writing Essay

My practical work in January 2005 was for option 1. It was a piece of devised drama work and was based on the theme of sisterhood. Our play was about a group of four, seven year old children coming together to help their friend Rachael who is ill. The children act together for Rachael and turn to witchcraft to make her healthier but it fails and at the end of the play Rachael dies. There were 5 people in my drama group which included Rachael, Yasmine, Emily, Rosie and myself. The main theme of our play was sisterhood also the friends acting together to try to make Rachel better this was how sisterhood was used. My contribution to the performance was as a performer. I had to play the role of one of Rachael’s friends who took part in the spell with the other friends. I also contributed by writing some of the play with the other people in my group. We practiced in lessons and during our lunchtimes so that the play would be ready for its performance date. To help me in my work I looked for information on the internet about health spells as we wanted to use one in our performance. I also looked on the internet to find out more information about leukaemia and its symptoms so that we could include them in our play to make it seem more realistic. I also looked at one picture and one painting. The picture was a war picture it symbolises women in the war and that they were needed to help to win the war. The painting was of what they look to be children who look as if they are casting a spell of some sort as the picture looks rather mystical. The most useful material I looked at was the information I found from the internet because it helped me understand the symptoms of leukaemia and to look at different kinds of health spells and for us to choose which one was more relevant for our play. Our piece was set in modern times, however the picture was set in the time of the Second World War and the painting was set it seems in modern times too. The picture and painting were similar to our play because the painting is of children looking as if they are casting a spell as it looks mystical and magical and they look very engrossed in what they are doing this is what we tried to do in our play when we cast the spell. The picture is similar to our play because it is about women pulling together to try and make a difference and in some aspects our play is about the children pulling together to help Rachael get better. The biggest differences were that the play was set in modern times and not in the Second World War and the play was about a group of friends not of women in the Second World War. The people who appear in our production are mainly children. In contrast, those in the painting and the picture are adults and children. You could tell this because the picture is of women coming together but the painting looks of children. We chose to perform in the style of naturalist because we wanted to make out the friendship of them to be as real as possible to create more of an effect with the ending. We used informal language as they were children playing and doing children things. In conclusion, I would like to say that the picture and the painting have helped me by seeing how many things use the aspects of sisterhood in many different ways and it is not always obvious. I contributed a lot into this piece of work, I am pleased with the out come and how the others performed in my group.

Free Essays on Participative Management

Participative management is a new approach in the work force today. Job enrichment, quality circles, and self-managing work teams are just some of the approaches. Companies share a common goal of increasing employee involvement. They want to raise the quality, performance, and productivity of their workers. The questions that follow will be answered in this paper. What is participative management? What are the advantages of participative management? How does it raise quality, productivity, and performance? How can it be successfully started, implemented, and sustained? What are the results of experiments done in the work force? Participative management is a process by which a company attempts to increase the potential of its employees by involving them in decisions affecting their work lives. A distinguishing characteristic of the process is that its goals are not simply acquired, they focus on the improvement of productivity and efficiency, but they are also fulfilling and self-enhancing in themselves. The key goals of employee involvement programs is to enhance the quality of the employees’ working life, management must be responsive to the requests of the employees. The best way to ascertain those requests is to ask employees. If workers can be motivated and given the opportunity to participate in the search for improved methods of job performance, and if this motivation and participation can be maintained over time, job performance should improve. Productivity is higher in companies with an organized program of worker participation. Employee participation can and does raise productivity. The most appropriate form will vary from company to company but participation works only when both parties want it to work. The solution to America’s pathetic productivity growth isn’t necessarily more capital spending (Lewis & Renn, 1992). People tend to accomplish what they decide they want to accomplish. Ideas, changes... Free Essays on Participative Management Free Essays on Participative Management Participative management is a new approach in the work force today. Job enrichment, quality circles, and self-managing work teams are just some of the approaches. Companies share a common goal of increasing employee involvement. They want to raise the quality, performance, and productivity of their workers. The questions that follow will be answered in this paper. What is participative management? What are the advantages of participative management? How does it raise quality, productivity, and performance? How can it be successfully started, implemented, and sustained? What are the results of experiments done in the work force? Participative management is a process by which a company attempts to increase the potential of its employees by involving them in decisions affecting their work lives. A distinguishing characteristic of the process is that its goals are not simply acquired, they focus on the improvement of productivity and efficiency, but they are also fulfilling and self-enhancing in themselves. The key goals of employee involvement programs is to enhance the quality of the employees’ working life, management must be responsive to the requests of the employees. The best way to ascertain those requests is to ask employees. If workers can be motivated and given the opportunity to participate in the search for improved methods of job performance, and if this motivation and participation can be maintained over time, job performance should improve. Productivity is higher in companies with an organized program of worker participation. Employee participation can and does raise productivity. The most appropriate form will vary from company to company but participation works only when both parties want it to work. The solution to America’s pathetic productivity growth isn’t necessarily more capital spending (Lewis & Renn, 1992). People tend to accomplish what they decide they want to accomplish. Ideas, changes...

Europe unions members essays

Europe union's members essays Technology is developing day by day and producing new communication machines. The types of communication become easier and the size of communication increased. Every house has a television, many house buy daily newspapers; a lot of people follow the monthly or weekly magazines and also read books and articles. It shows the facilities of media. Media can control the people by showing a film, writing false news that contains an ideology or idea. In addition to this, propaganda can be a selection for media. Consequently the conditions get better so these reasons make media stronger. Media distorts the information about these subjects economy, war, racism, patriotism to control the people. Firstly, media distorts information about economy. There are some reasons to distort information about economy like controlling people, decreasing pressure, changing the flow of cash, etc... There are a lot of examples about this distortion but many of them can not be referenced because it is hidden by everyone. For example, in Turkey, government use media to defend themselves in some situations mainly in economy. For example, nowadays, in the economy programmes on television is talking about the increase in the economy. Turkey's economy is increased by %9.9 and takes the first position in front of other economies in the world especially Japan. That is good in the first look but if it is studied in the details, the truth will be found. First in 2001, Turkey's economy is decreased some percent so the size of increase would be lower even the percentage is higher. Secondly, by saying the increase in economy is more than the Japan; the government try to show that our economy is better than Japan. It is very funny but these techniques force people to feel like that. More over, this numbers does not really show the situation of the economy. Now, the last five years, Turkey paid 188 billion dollars only for interests and IMF has arranged an economic progr...

Organizational Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Organizational Structure - Essay Example The 70/20/10 Rule is applicable to all employees; with 70% of day hours focused on management delegated duties, 20% diverted to daily idea generations or new projects while remaining 10% devoted to new idea specific to employees’ choice (Cordes, 2013, p. 78). NRO is led by director (DNRO), who is appointed by Defense’s Secretary in conjunction with Director of National Intelligence reporting to Secretary of Defense closely working with DNI and has supervises NRO’s responsibility with respect to its operational and management. Besides, there is Principal Deputy Director of NRO who is overseeing activities of NRO while coordinating and answerable to DNRO, executing NRO’s daily management as delegated by DNRO as well standing in for DNRO in case of absentia. The deputy Director of NRO who is an Air force General Officer exists and helps both PDDNRO and DNRO with operation of NRO as well as attached as senior Officer to uniformed and civilian Air Force NRO’s employees while coordinating NRO and Air Force’s operations. There exists other directorates; Signal Intelligence System Acquisition , Mission Intelligence, Corporate Staff, Deputy Director for Business Plans and Operations, Communications Systems Acquisition Directorate, Mission Operation , Management Services and Operations, System Engineering Directorate, Office of Space Launch, Ground Enterprise and Advance Systems and Technology Director that have served to ensure its uniqueness in successful operations. The structure is operated based on five regional centers and three directorates. There are four divisions of DIA’s regional centers and a functional center tracking and unearthing the Agency’s performance with respect to its regional responsibilities. The directorate of Operations is accountable for intelligence operations; Defense Attache System representing United States

Pros and Cons of Online Education Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pros and Cons of Online Education - Thesis Example This paper stresses that online education is technology dependent. This form of education relies on technologies of the certain specification as dictated by the service provider or e-learning supplier. This may become a huge challenge for students because not every student has technological appliances that meet those specifications. The ability of e-learning to become effective depends on the ability of students to utilize it. Online learning requires high bandwidth capabilities, which is not readily available. The speed of bandwidth varies significantly from one service provider to the next, which can affect learning. Material incompatibility is another factor that affects online learning. Most online learning materials are designed to suit a particular system, for instance, Microsoft, which is not compatible to with systems that use Apple Macintosh system. Although, setting standards will help in this area, it will also restrict the access to online education. Online education is n ot for everyone, especially people with disabilities. This essay makes a conclusion that the University was not just introduced to impart knowledge; it is a place where leisure and work existed side by side, shaping one another, and each playing its role in generating a graceful and well-formed personality. A reader today, is more likely to accept Newman’s views about university, as he describes it; it is an institution of irreplaceable value.

Internet and Social Networking Privacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Internet and Social Networking Privacy - Essay Example use privacy settings, social networks have agreed not to reveal any personal details with a third party unless the user provides consent, which authorizes the use of the information in question (Barras 1). On the other hand, the social network community have become private-sensitive to the extent of ensuring that they always use their privacy settings. In other cases, social sites ensure the utilization of private settings by providing default private settings for users (Hawkins 1). The social sites have also message alerts, which are sent to the user any time the private settings are changed to public settings (Hawkins 1). Teenage users should be cautious and choose the social networks, which have registered with independent privacy firms that guarantee the privacy of their personal details, and do not have any privacy flows. Social networking sites give priority to their users while overlooking on third parties. It is in this case that the social networking sites will strive to maintain the privacy of their users. Social sites will block any third party who wishes to access user’s private information. In essence, Teenage users should be cautious and choose the social networks, which have registered with independent privacy firms that guarantee the privacy of their personal information, and do not have any privacy

Emotional Brain Systems are critical for understanding the many facets Essay

Emotional Brain Systems are critical for understanding the many facets of emotional experience.Discuss with reference to the historical development of affective neuroscience - Essay Example Although feeling these emotions are normal part of being human, it is inevitable for some people to experience emotional disorders. In the absence of fully analyzing the normal brain function, it can very difficult to determine the main factors that trigger the sudden emotional changes. The study of affective neuroscience is very much focused on analyzing the relationship between the normal brain functioning with the human emotions and mood swings. Over the past 30 years, a lot of research studies were conducted to explore the significance of the brain system with different types of emotions including how the emotion is being processed in the brain despite the individual cognitive, motor behaviour, motivation, and language development (Dalgleish, 2004). The main purpose of this study is to examine the importance of studying the emotional brain systems as a way to enable us to understand the many facets of emotional experiences that we encounter each day. Upon going through the main discussion, a literature review will be gathered to enable the researcher compare and contrast the different historical point-of-view of other people with regards to the development behind the study of affective neuroscience. Emotional brain is basically â€Å"a part of the human brain that generates emotions† (Young, 2005). Upon examining whether or not the brain produces emotions in response to unconscious and conscious perceptions, LeDoux explained in his book entitled â€Å"Emotional Brain† that a test was conducted in animals revealed that the amygdale which is a small part of the limbic system is responsible in producing neuronal responses in case a frightening stimuli is present (Hendrix, 1997). Basically, there are two ways wherein sensory input can be processed by the brain as proposed by LeDoux. These are classified as the following: (1) high road; and (2) low road (Hendrix, 1997). The ‘high road’ transfers the nerve impulse straight from the ears

Enron Corporation Position Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enron Corporation Position - Essay Example The paper starts by giving a brief synapse of what Enron was and what the Enron Scandal was and why it caused the downfall of Enron. The paper will also discuss the ethical considerations of what Enron did to its investors and take a position on whether it was okay to sell stocks on what you believe will be the expected dividends. Enron was a company based in Houston and it specialised in commodities, energy and service corporation. The company was rocked by a scandal in 2001 and this was recorded as one of the biggest scandals of the century as a result of the fact that shareholders lost $74 billion and thousands of employees and investors lost their retirement accounts, and many employees lost their jobs (The ten worst corporate financial scandals of all time, nd). The main players in this particular scandal included the CEO Jeff Skilling and former CEO Ken Lay who kept huge debts off the balance sheet. In other words, the figure presented on the balance sheet revealed normal operations of the company which did not raise any suspicion among the investors. They also hoodwinked the investors by overstating their profits so as to attract many investors to pour in money into the company. However, things turned nasty when Sherron Watkins the internal whistle blower exposed them after witnessing high stock prices that fuelled external suspicions. Upon full investigation of the case, the main culprits were convicted of a criminal offence and the CEO was sentenced for 24 years and his partner in crime Lay died before his serving time. Andersen was also found guilty of fudging the company’s accounts. After the company was rocked by this scandal, it filed for bankruptcy. From an ethical perspective, it can be noted that what Enron did to its investors was not good especially to sell stocks on what you believe will be the expected dividends. The investors were not fully aware of the underhand dealings taking place behind

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship - Essay Example The paper presents arguments in favor of this statement and attempts to explore various dimensions of this statement. Discussion To define, â€Å"entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive venture with all attendant risks, while seeking profit as a reward† (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011). A glance at all other definitions of entrepreneurship will verify the fact that entrepreneurship, entrepreneur of entrepreneurial spirit is seen in line, primarily, with the elements of innovation and risk taking. Without any doubts, large sized companies and organizations create mechanisms and systems to diversify and decrease their risk over the period (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011) of time; however, small businesses are the ones that face great deal of uncertainty and ambiguity on a daily basis. Lack of abundant resources, limited funds, threat of competition, limited production capacity, narrow customer base, constraints in terms of conducting marketing research and others are factors that present challenges and risks to small business which are shared by almost all small businesses as well. Almost half of the new ventures and small businesses in UK and US fail in the first year, which is another proof and manifestation of the uncertainty that is faced by the small business and entrepreneurial ventures (Down, pp. 20-21, 2010). One can consider small businesses as examples of entrepreneurship because they share of the element of ‘need of constant innovation† with other entrepreneurial ventures. Important here to note is that this does not necessarily imply that large businesses can survive without innovation but the fact is that large businesses can delay innovation by using the other resources, competitive advantages and competencies at their disposal (Scarborough, Wilson & Zimmerer, pp. 41-42, 2010). When companies grow big, they develop a loyal customer base and develop other mechanis ms to retain customers. Their buyers associate certain level of quality with them and at least, with certain products and services, the buyers face certain switching costs due to which may hold the customers with the company for a longer period (Bridge, O'Neill & Cromie, pp. 263, 2003). Furthermore, when companies grow big, they either outsource the tasks of innovation or create separate departments for the same, and provide them with enough funding to experiment and keep an eye on the changing market trends. In case of both small businesses and entrepreneurs, there are no separate departments for research and development but the owner and the employees themselves must take out the time for coming up with new ideas and testing them thus creating a unique challenge for them (Lee-Ross & Lashley, pp. 52-53, 2011). Not only that constant innovation is a difficult task for small businesses but also at the same time, they need innovation more desperately than large companies do. As mentio ned earlier that large companies with their huge loyal customer base can survive in the market for quite some time since they have other factors to attract their customers; however, in case of small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, innovation is all that they have to attract and retain their customers (Allen & Meyer, pp. 63-68, 2005). Most small businesses

Emotional Brain Systems are critical for understanding the many facets Essay

Emotional Brain Systems are critical for understanding the many facets of emotional experience.Discuss with reference to the historical development of affective neuroscience - Essay Example Although feeling these emotions are normal part of being human, it is inevitable for some people to experience emotional disorders. In the absence of fully analyzing the normal brain function, it can very difficult to determine the main factors that trigger the sudden emotional changes. The study of affective neuroscience is very much focused on analyzing the relationship between the normal brain functioning with the human emotions and mood swings. Over the past 30 years, a lot of research studies were conducted to explore the significance of the brain system with different types of emotions including how the emotion is being processed in the brain despite the individual cognitive, motor behaviour, motivation, and language development (Dalgleish, 2004). The main purpose of this study is to examine the importance of studying the emotional brain systems as a way to enable us to understand the many facets of emotional experiences that we encounter each day. Upon going through the main discussion, a literature review will be gathered to enable the researcher compare and contrast the different historical point-of-view of other people with regards to the development behind the study of affective neuroscience. Emotional brain is basically â€Å"a part of the human brain that generates emotions† (Young, 2005). Upon examining whether or not the brain produces emotions in response to unconscious and conscious perceptions, LeDoux explained in his book entitled â€Å"Emotional Brain† that a test was conducted in animals revealed that the amygdale which is a small part of the limbic system is responsible in producing neuronal responses in case a frightening stimuli is present (Hendrix, 1997). Basically, there are two ways wherein sensory input can be processed by the brain as proposed by LeDoux. These are classified as the following: (1) high road; and (2) low road (Hendrix, 1997). The ‘high road’ transfers the nerve impulse straight from the ears

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Small Businesses are Entrepreneurship - Essay Example The paper presents arguments in favor of this statement and attempts to explore various dimensions of this statement. Discussion To define, â€Å"entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive venture with all attendant risks, while seeking profit as a reward† (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011). A glance at all other definitions of entrepreneurship will verify the fact that entrepreneurship, entrepreneur of entrepreneurial spirit is seen in line, primarily, with the elements of innovation and risk taking. Without any doubts, large sized companies and organizations create mechanisms and systems to diversify and decrease their risk over the period (Hatten, pp. 148-149, 2011) of time; however, small businesses are the ones that face great deal of uncertainty and ambiguity on a daily basis. Lack of abundant resources, limited funds, threat of competition, limited production capacity, narrow customer base, constraints in terms of conducting marketing research and others are factors that present challenges and risks to small business which are shared by almost all small businesses as well. Almost half of the new ventures and small businesses in UK and US fail in the first year, which is another proof and manifestation of the uncertainty that is faced by the small business and entrepreneurial ventures (Down, pp. 20-21, 2010). One can consider small businesses as examples of entrepreneurship because they share of the element of ‘need of constant innovation† with other entrepreneurial ventures. Important here to note is that this does not necessarily imply that large businesses can survive without innovation but the fact is that large businesses can delay innovation by using the other resources, competitive advantages and competencies at their disposal (Scarborough, Wilson & Zimmerer, pp. 41-42, 2010). When companies grow big, they develop a loyal customer base and develop other mechanis ms to retain customers. Their buyers associate certain level of quality with them and at least, with certain products and services, the buyers face certain switching costs due to which may hold the customers with the company for a longer period (Bridge, O'Neill & Cromie, pp. 263, 2003). Furthermore, when companies grow big, they either outsource the tasks of innovation or create separate departments for the same, and provide them with enough funding to experiment and keep an eye on the changing market trends. In case of both small businesses and entrepreneurs, there are no separate departments for research and development but the owner and the employees themselves must take out the time for coming up with new ideas and testing them thus creating a unique challenge for them (Lee-Ross & Lashley, pp. 52-53, 2011). Not only that constant innovation is a difficult task for small businesses but also at the same time, they need innovation more desperately than large companies do. As mentio ned earlier that large companies with their huge loyal customer base can survive in the market for quite some time since they have other factors to attract their customers; however, in case of small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, innovation is all that they have to attract and retain their customers (Allen & Meyer, pp. 63-68, 2005). Most small businesses

William Goldings Lord of the flies, and Stevensons Jekyll and Hyde Essay Example for Free

William Goldings Lord of the flies, and Stevensons Jekyll and Hyde Essay Both William Goldings Lord of the flies, and Stevensons Jekyll and Hyde focus on the duality of mans evil and the reasons for that sudden change in character. Golding is rather more interested in group evil, and the way that this develops in people, whereas Stevenson focuses on singular evil and the powers that drive a man to befriend the devil. In 1954, after being in the Second World War, Golding reflected on the evil he had seen in his fellow men, and was appalled at how cruel, animal like, and savage humans could be. He wrote this book to show the real nature of men and how taking away civilized society could change people very quickly into evil creatures, once the rules have all but gone, I learned during World War two just how brutal people can be to each other. Not Just Germans or Japanese, but everyone. I tried to point that out. Some have said that the brutality of the novel is impossible, its not, look at any newspaper, William Golding emphasizing the evil theme to his book. Being a teacher in the 1950s, he was in constant contact with younger children and was shocked at their naivety and lack of belief that evil existed in their picture perfect society. So on the island to represent evil, he created Jack Merridew. Jack is a parody of Hitler, who in the 1940s was trying to take over the world with his Nazi regime, Jack stabbed in the air with his index finger, this quote shows a certain likeness to Hitlers behavior and his very evil mind. Being brought up in Victorian England, Stevenson was living in a very class orientated society. Issues such as sex, crime, and murder were all both brushed under the carpet and forgotten about, or were never spoken of in social context. Middle class Victorian men were expected to be true gentlemen to whom sex was a very low priority. This ignoring of sex and other taboo issues led many men and women to lead double lives; in public they were very orderly and well conducted but behind closed doors or when darkness fell they would emerge and show the true nature of their wildly person. Evil was also another subject that was totally ignored, and consequently people denied its existence. So, in his book Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Stevenson aimed to show that evil was alive and well in Victorian London society and that middle class peoples double personalities could be very different and often a great deal more sinister than the face that they showed in public. The amount of evil and villainous material in Victorian literature was so little, so being influenced by such novels as Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and big crimes of the day such as Jack the Ripper, he decided to write and to explore the idea of what evil in texts would be like. In Lord of the Flies evil is explored and displayed in the form of two young boys; Jack and Roger. This alone is quite unusual as young boys are not usually classed or seen as evil characters, but this book is anything but usual in every sense of the word. In this novel the main evil character, Jack has a definite need to dictate over all others around.

Evaluation of a Learning Environment

Evaluation of a Learning Environment Every child has the right to be treated equally and for that to be done in a diverse setting. We can see that through the home corner this is so. The children have access to the materials in this area during their play time. There are many utensils such as a wok, chopsticks and knives and forks. This allows for cultural difference to be recognised. The child’s interests are met when they use materials that they may have used during break time for example. 1. In researching the best curriculum planning process for the home corner in my Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) setting I set out with the goal of incorporating Siolta’s Standards within my curriculum. I questioned the staff, parents and the children themselves to make sure everybody’s view was taken into consideration. Creating an appropriate environment for the children is of vital importance to ensure that the children to reach their full potential and to ensure that they reach their holistic development potential whether that be indoors or outdoors. I believe that the children should be able to move freely from each area and environment. In my ECCE setting the children can do this as there is a retracting canapà © in the area which allows for the children to play in all-weather circumstances. There are also retractable sliding doors. Standard 2 Environments: â€Å"Enriching environments, both indoor and outdoor are well maintained, safe, available, accessible, and adaptable and developmentally appropriate and off a variety of challenging and stimulating experiences.† (Donohoe and Gaynor 2011:49) Standard 6: Play â€Å"Promoting play requires that child has ample time to engage in freely available accessible, developmentally appropriate and well sourced opportunities for exploration, creativity and ‘mean making’ in the company of other children, with participating and supportive adults and alone, where appropriate.† (Donohoe and Gaynor 2011:50) These standards can only be put in place if the staff members are supportive and caring childcare professionals. 2. I carried out some research by conducting some questionnaire’s with both the parents and the staff. I also asked the children during recall time how they felt that diversity was included in their play in the home corner. As per Donohoe and Gaynor (2011:91) its states that â€Å"Pretend play provides an opportunity for children to make believe, role play and dramatize while planning, solving problems, using imagination, developing creativity and language and refining social and physical skills.† Aistear was included in the questionnaires and how it was included in the home corner. Well Being: Getting the children to make nutritional meals for themselves. For example mixing would promote the use of both gross and fine motor skills. Communication: Talking to one another about what meal’s they will make. New vocabulary. Recall. Exploring and Thinking: Take on different roles in the kitchen such as the chef. Mother making the dinner. Identity and Belonging: Gave the children a sense of been part of a team (at times.) The home corner is set out towards the back of the room in a corner. This area is spacious in size considering there are many other area’s such as the sand and water area and dress up corner. This enables the children to move freely from the kitchenette area to the table and chairs that are also in place. All of the utensils are washed and sterilised on a regular basis to ensure hygiene in particular the cups as the children tend to have these in their mouths during imaginary play. As mentioned there is a stole in place for the shorter children. This allows the children to reach come of the higher presses where some materials are located. The children have been shown how to use this piece of equipment safely by a staff member. By having a wide variety of equipment/ materials for the children to use in this area it promotes diversity and equality amongst the children. It also represents Aistear’s theme of identity and belonging. By providing such materials as chopsticks and rice for the children to use it represents some of the children. At times the children’s parents are asked to bring in something relating to the home corner that they use at home in their kitchen experience. As my setting is based on a HighScope setting I find that this is a great opportunity as it allows for the children to use these materials as part of their recall. As you can see from my research the staff member agrees with me that the positioning of the home corner is appropriate and spacious. It ensures that the child’s safety is of paramount importance ensuring that all materials are accessible. The kitchenette is firmly positioned and secured to the ground to avoid it falling over. The home corner has been made as realistic as possible. Such materials provided include real cups for the children to use and apron’s. As per the Pre-School Regulation 2006 Regulation 5 states that â€Å"A person carrying on a pre-school service shall ensure that there is sufficient furniture, play and work equipment and materials and that such furniture, equipment and materials are suitable, non-toxic, in a proper state of repair and are maintained in a clean and hygienic condition,† (dcya.gov.ie/documents) I find it good when the children dress up in the chef costumes that are located in the dress up area as they are role playing. I got a parent to fill out a questionnaire as part of my research. She mentioned that her son liked to play outdoors which is where he also likes to play in the crà ¨che. She seemed happy with the materials available to her son. Recommendations: In my opinion the utensils/ materials should be changed around according the weather. I would like to introduce a toy BBQ for the children to play with outdoors. Not only does this change the environment where the children generally play in. It allows for the children to think/explore/be imaginative by using materials outdoors. This also links with home as many parents use BBQ’s at home which the children see. By doing so it allows for different food to be used and utensils such as skewers (wooden in the crà ¨che) and tongs. This helps with their Holistic Development in the following ways: Physically: Children are standing up and moving around to gather materials out doors to put on the BBQ. Intellectually: New concepts are used such as placing imaginary food on the wooden skewers. Language: New vocabulary is gained in carrying out this activity. e.g. skewers, leaves, coal, different meats and vegetables. Social: Children use this time to build on relationships with one another by interacting with one another. Emotional: The children’s emotional needs are met e.g. happiness. I would also like for the children to be able to use the produce from the vegetable garden in their play both indoors and outdoors. This is in keeping with Siolta’s thoughts in relation to creating an enriching environment for the children to grow on a holistic level. Allow the children to move some of the kitchenette from indoors to outdoors(with adult supervision) I plan on implementing these recommendations by suggesting it during a team meeting with the room staff. Bibliography: Pre School Regulations 2006 Handbook http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/Child_Care_Pre-_School_Services_Regs_2006.pdf {online, 17th June 2014} Donohoe, J and Gaynor, f(2011_ Education and Care 4th Edition in the Early Years Spain: Gill and MacMillian. Katie GallagherPage 1

Free Narrative Essays - Before You Leap :: Personal Narrative Essays

Before You Leap One bright Easter day about four years ago, my family had gone to my grandparents' house to celebrate Easter like we usually do each year. We talked, ate, and had fun. Little did we know when we drove up to the house that, by the end of the day, we would be in a hospital emergency room. It all started when my cousin suggested that we have a water fight. We had water guns and "water Easter eggs." These were plastic eggs filled with water that would come open when you hit someone. My cousin Ryan and I were on one team and my cousins Philip and Lance were on another team. We played outside the house and also on a deck extending from the second floor of my grandparent's house. For about thirty minutes we played and got a little wet but nobody had been hurt. At one point during the game, when I was inside, my cousin Philip, who was on the deck, said "I've had enough. Come out here." "Is this a trick?," I asked. It seemed a little suspicious. "No, of course not. I'm just sick of this game." "Well, okay." I hesitated then decided to go out to the deck. "Ha! Got you!" said my other opponent, Lance, who was hiding behind the door with a water egg in his hand. "Liar!," I yelled at Philip. My instant reaction was to jump off the deck onto the grass below. I had done it many times before and knew that I would be okay. That way I could get away from Lance and I would not lose the water fight. The water egg whizzed right past my head as I vaulted over the railing of the deck. I shouted "Missed me!" without thinking about or looking at what was below me. The only thing that I was thinking about on the way down was not getting hit with that water egg. This thoughtlessness was my big mistake. Since I was not paying attention on the way down, I lost my balance and landed on my left foot in a painful fall. "Are you all right?

Roman Polanskis Repulsion Essay -- Film Movies

Roman Polanski's Repulsion Analysis of an aspect of visual form in the film ‘Repulsion’ In the 1964/65 film ‘Repulsion’ by Roman Polanski, the story is about the conflict between reality and fantasy or sanity and insanity inside the main character’s mind – Carol played by Catherine Deneuve. Therefore the narrative technique of symbolism is used to display visually to the film’s audience what happens to Carol’s mind. In this particular instance, the degeneration of Carol’s state of mind is symbolised. Carol’s state of mind degenerates, or breaks down because of her repulsion of masculinity in a sexual context. Through Carol’s eyes, we see masculinity as being aggressive, obsessive, crude/sexually suggestive, rapacious and sinister, and although these are masculine traits, they are not a full representation of males/masculinity in society. Therefore one can see that Carol has misunderstood and become very wary of men. She is a very pretty woman and the film uses her to display an almost stereotypical femininity – weak/ fragile and delicately featured – ironically, the complete opposite to Carol’s own view of men. And so, overall, the film basically represents male domination and female vulnerability. Also to highlight the difference between Carol’s reactions to men and her reactions to women, the writer has chosen to place her character in a beauty parlour. This is used to represent a pleasant but superficial world against a nasty one – through Carol’s eyes that is. From the beginning, one can tell that there are going to be elements of surrealism in the film by the style in which the credits are run. These opening credits run generally upwards (I say generally as some of the credits are at angles – but still maintaining an ‘upward-ish’ direction) over an extreme close-up shot of Carol’s face, and also some credits finishing on-screen at her top eyelids whereas some finish by running off-screen. During the film, we see Carol go to work at the beauty parlour. By the camera-man shooting over her shoulder, a personal view of her life and how she sees life around her. If the camera was used as her eyes, it would have made these scenes too subjective and too unsubtle. We can therefore look at the same things as Carol, but for our own sakes, though this does leave a certain ambiguity. For example, when Carol walks to work, she looks at an empty, da... ...late with the rotting rabbit and the cut-throat razor on it. This could symbolise that she is on the ‘razor’s edge’ and that it is rotting her mind away. It is unclear why Carol has become repulsed by men and sex. It is suggested that it is to do with something or even someone in her past, e.g. she might have been sexually abused by an older person. Maybe that is why she is repulsed by the landlord and in her irrationality, she attacks him. She also regards the photo of her when she was young with happiness. That, along with the bells and the sound of girls running around dubbed over the film at that point, could suggest that she went to a convent school, which are all girls, and therefore makes her feel safe and protected, as the beauty parlour does. Carol’s neurosis of life might be that she see men as sexual objects only, not as real people, and so she is repulsed. Then one can ask, why is she repulsed by this? And the only possible answers are that she might have been abused in her childhood, or something else deep and psychological of a very sexual nature affected her back then. But it is extremely hard to say exactly what, since we are never shown any part of her past.

What Was the American Diet Like 50 Years Ago

at was the I. What was the American diet like 50 years ago? a) Over the past 50 years, American diets have changed from leisurely family meals that were usually prepared at home using natural ingredients to today’s prepackaged, processed and convenience foods that are often eaten on the run with little thought towards nutrition or content. b) American diets have evolved in the last 50 years from natural ingredients to processed, high fat ingredients and will continue in the future to include convenience foods but with a greater emphasis on healthier choices. ) This wasn’t always the case. â€Å"Fifty years ago, people sitting down to a meal were simply looking for something hot, filling and, in most cases, inexpensive† (Heymsfield 142). c) Throughout the century, Americans experimented with various diets. d) In the 1950s, Adele Davis published a cookbook exploring a healthy approach to food. e) In the 1960s, there was a movement to use unprocessed food, natural i ngredients and macrobiotic cooking (Klem 439). f) The notion of a balanced diet was still quite abstract. ii) People weren’t as well informed about nutrition as they are today. ) While nutritional research was revealing new information about everyday foods, the American household underwent an important structural shift (Klem 438). h) In the 1940s and 1950s women began to enter the workplace in large numbers, it was then that the country became caught up in an explosion of convenience items. iii) Time for food preparation became more limited, and the industry responded with a wide variety of pre-packaged foods. iv) Products like Bisquick, Spam, instant oatmeal, canned tomato sauce and pre-sliced American cheese began to appear (Klem 438). ) By the 1950s, the refrigerator had replaced the old-fashioned icebox and the cold cellar as a place to store food. v) Refrigeration, because it allowed food to last longer, made the American kitchen a convenient place to maintain readily av ailable food stocks (Heymsfield 144). vi) This also allowed for pre-prepared foods such as TV dinners, which became very popular. j) Swanson’s was one of the first TV dinners, which came out during this time. k) Frozen dinners and fast food chains arose and became a growing trend. vii) Meals became quick and simple. viii) People started eating things for taste and popularity, not for ealth reasons. l) In the 1960s and 1970s, when nutritional research really began to gain the nation's attention, food manufacturers started to offer options that were both quick and health- conscious. ix) Instant orange juice and vitamin-fortified cereals appeared (Klem 440). m) Cereals came out to make people eat more grains, but over the years, large companies have decided that to make their cereal sell, they have to make it taste better. x) They added things like sugar, candy pieces, chocolate flavors, and numerous other things which are high in calories and high in fat in order to make their product taste better. i) This has made the idea of something healthy turn in to something less healthy over the years. n) The movement toward convenience finally caught up with movement toward healthy eating. o) This represents a drastic change from the 1950s, when people ate far more of their meals at home, with their families, and at a leisurely pace. p) â€Å"A hundred years ago there was no such thing as a snack food—nothing you could pop open and overeat,† says Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook and many others, and a consultant to Harvard Dining Services. ii) â€Å"There were stew pots. Things took a long time to cook, and a meal was the result of someone’s labor. † q) The 1950s were also an era in which the kitchen—not the television room—was the heart of the home. r) In 1941, the federal government established the first Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), and the concept of basic food groups was introduced. xiii) This period was also the â€Å"golden age for food chemicals† with hundreds of additives and preservatives brought to market for the first time. ) Convenience was most important, and by the 1950s, a large variety of convenience foods made meal preparation easier than ever before. t) Advancements in technology also led to faster meal preparation. u) During the late 50s and 1960s, American’s attitudes towards nutrition changed as scientific research and other factors combined to heighten awareness. v) In 1959 came the discovery that eating polyunsaturated fats might lower serum cholesterol. xiv) This was followed in 1961 by further evidence linking cholesterol with arteriosclerosis. ) By 1962, nearly 25% of American families said they had made dietary changes that included less cholesterol. x) That same year, Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, provided fodder for the debate concerning the possibility of synthetic chemicals reaching humans through the food chain. xv) There was controversy about food chemicals in general, and the modern consumer movement was launched in 1965 following publication of Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe At Any Speed. y) 50 years ago women still managed to burn up many more calories than their counterparts today. vi) Research suggests the housework and general exercise that stay-at-home housewives did in 1953 were more successful at shedding the pounds. z) The mothers and grandmothers of today's generation burnt well in excess of 1,000 calories a day through their domesticated lifestyle, according to the study by the woman's magazine Prima. xvii) But females today get through only 556, even though seven in ten think they are healthier than the post-war generation. {) Modern women also consume a lot more calories, 2,178 a day now as opposed to 1,818 then. viii) This could be down to eating more junk food, the study suggested, as women in 1953 were more likely to cook meals from scratch with a mixture of ingredients. |) Not everything in ‘the old days' appears to have been healthier, according to Prima, which compared the lifestyles of women in 1953 and those of today. xix) They would often eat twice as many eggs and used almost twice as much cooking fat and oil as women today. xx) They also ate more sugar and less chicken. }) Most meals were served with vegetables, although it was more likely to be swede, turnips and sprouts rather than the aubergines, mange- tout or rocket favored today. ) Appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers have also played their part in reducing the amount of calories burned, the research showed. xxi) Women in 1953 would spend three hours a day doing the housework, an hour walking to and from the shops in the town center, an hour on the shopping itself and another hour making dinner. ) Many had lunch to prepare, too, as many husbands came home to eat in the middle of the day. ) More calories would have been burned, of course, walking the children to and from school, since the family car was still a rarity. Today, women drive, rather than walk, have freezers, which mean fewer shopping trips, and use supermarkets, which provide everything under one roof. xxii) It is all a far cry from 50 years ago when they would have to traipse between the butcher's, to the baker's, the greengrocer's and other specialist stores. ) Women 50 years ago didn't, however, have the benefit of 45 minutes on the treadmill or an evening class in Pilates. xxiii) In 1953, their idea of relaxation was listening to Housewives' Choice while they washed up the breakfast things or Mrs.Dale's Diary when they stopped to enjoy tea and a biscuit for elevenses. ) The children needed playing with, too, as few families had a TV set to keep them quiet. xxiv) Evening entertainment involved listening to the radio again, curling up with a book or playing board games. xxv) And in a less disposable age there was always plenty of darning and mending to do by the fire. ) Prima edi tor Maire Fahey said the magazine decided to study the contrasting lifestyles following an earlier survey, which revealed how today's women were neglecting their health. xvi) ‘It is telling that modern technology has made us two-thirds less active than we were. It goes to show the importance of exercise in the battle to maintain a healthy balance. ‘ ) Exercise and diet are not the only things to radically change over the last half-century. xxvii) Fitness and nutrition in the United States have changed tremendously in the past five decades. ) Cutting calories and exercise was the most popular method of weight loss 50 years ago. xxviii) Some fad diets such as the Mayo Clinic diet–created in the 1930's–were existent, but not the most common option in weight loss.II. Where do most of our foods come from other than America? a) Here in the US, we have several key issues. b) Specifically, every year we produce less and less of the food that our ever-growing popula tion needs. c) There’s one word that sums up nearly everything we need to know about the food industry in the United States: conglomeration. d) According to the USDA, only about 1/3 of our fruit and nuts and 1/8 of our vegetables are imported. i) About two-thirds of those imports occur during the months of December to April, showing a strong seasonal component to it. ) Mexico is far and away our biggest supplier of fruits and vegetables, taking the top spot in both categories by about a 2-to-1 margin over 2nd place. f) Canada takes 2nd place in vegetables with China a distant third. (Note that these are in dollar figures, not volume, but the relationships should hold when converted. ) g) In the fruit category, most of it comes from Central and South America, with only China (4th) to break up the Top 6 of Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Ecuador. ) The US actually does produce most of its own red meat. i) As of 2008, only about 10% of our red meat was imported, predom inantly from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. j) Fish and shellfish are our major protein imports, with nearly 80% of those being imported. k) Most of that comes from China, Canada, and Thailand. l) There is one bright spot here: most of the food Americans consume is still produced here. i. Currently, between 10 and 15 percent of all food consumed by U. S. households is imported. m) According to the U. S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed domestically come from outside the United States. n) On the other hand, we are seeing a marked increase in imports over time. o) According to USDA data, from 1999 to 2010, there was a 43. 25% increase in import volume (111% increase on a dollar basis). ii. Population growth is a partial contributor, but in that same time period, the US population only increased about 10%. p) The top three countries that we import from are Canada, Mexico, and China. iii.We are actu ally Mexico’s largest trading partners, buying 77% of their exports. q) From 1995 to 2006, imports from China grew five-fold: r) According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the United States imported $4. 1 billion worth of seafood and agricultural products from China in 2006. iv. In 1995, it was $800 million. v. From 2006 to 2008, it went up another 25%. s) In 2008, Chinese imports reached $5. 2 billion, making China the third-largest source of U. S. food imports. About 41 percent of this import value was from fish and seafood, most of it farm-raised.Juices and pickled, dried, and canned vegetables, and fruit accounted for the other 25 percent. vi. According to the USDA, about 60 percent of all American apple juice, 50 percent of garlic, 10 percent of shrimp and 2 percent of catfish are imported from China. III. How has the typical American diet changed our health and affected rates of disease in this country? a) The sedentary 20th-century lifestyle and work habits brou ght its own unpleasant consequences, which were overeating and excess weight. a) The number of overweight Americans increased from 1970 to 1990 (Klem 440). ) By the 1990s, Americans had become more conscious of their diets, eating more poultry, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer eggs and less beef. ii) They also began appreciating fresh ingredients. c) As Americans became more concerned about their diets, they also became more ecologically conscious. iii) Some Americans turned to vegan or vegetarian diets, or only started eating organic foods, which are foods grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. d) At the end of the 20th century, American eating habits and food production were increasingly taking place outside the home. v) Many people relied on restaurants and on new types of fully prepared meals to help busy families in which both adults worked full-time. e) Another sign of the public’s changing food habits was the microwave oven, probably the most widely used new kitchen appliance, since it can quickly reheat or cook food and leftovers. v) Since Americans are generally cooking less of their own food, they are more aware than at any time since the early 20th century of the quality and health standards applied to food (Heymsfield 147). ) Two-thirds of American adults are overweight, and half of these are obese. (Overweight means having a body mass index, or BMI, of 25 or greater, obese, 30 or greater: to calculate BMI, a widely used measure, take the square of your height in inches and then divide your weight, in pounds, by that number; then multiply the result by 703. g) Even adults in the upper end of the â€Å"normal† range, who have BMIs of 22 to 24, would generally live longer if they lost some fat; add in these people and it appears that â€Å"up to 80 percent of American adults should weigh less than they do,† says Walter C.Willett, M. D. , D. P. H. ’80, Stare professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the School of Public Health. h) The epidemic of obesity is a vast and growing public health problem. i) He notes that three aspects of weight—BMI, waist size, and weight gained after one’s early twenties—are linked to chances of having or dying from heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and several types of cancer, plus suffering from arthritis, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring. i) â€Å"Weight is much more important than serum cholesterol,† Willett asserts; as a cause of premature, preventable deaths, he adds, excess weight and obesity rank a very close second to smoking, partly because there are twice as many fat people as smokers. vii) In fact, since smokers tend to be leaner, the decrease in smoking prevalence has actually swelled the ranks of the fat. j) The obesity epidemic arrived with astonishing speed. k) In 1980, 46 percent of U. S. adults were overweight; by 2000, the figure was 64. 5 percent: n early a 1 percent annual increases in the ranks of the fat. iii) At this rate, by 2040, 100 percent of American adults will be overweight and â€Å"it may happen more quickly,† says John Foreyt of Baylor College of Medicine, who spoke at a conference organized by Gifford’s Oldways group in 2003. l) Foreyt noted that, 20 years ago, he rarely saw 300-pound patients; now they are common. m) Childhood obesity, also once rare, has mushroomed: 15 percent of children between ages six and 19 are now overweight, and even 10 percent of those between two and five. ix) â€Å"This may be the first generation of children who will die before their parents,† Foreyt says. ) Today, Americans eat 200 calories more food energy per day than they did 10 years ago; that alone would add 20 pounds annually to one’s bulk. o) A recent paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition argued that the poor tend toward greater obesity because eating energy-dense, highly palatable, r efined foods is cheaper per calorie consumed than buying fish and fresh fruits and vegetables. x) One explanation for our slide into overconsumption is that â€Å"the character of modern Americans is somehow inherently weak and we are incapable of discipline,† says Ludwig. i) â€Å"The food industry would love to explain obesity as a problem of personal responsibility, since it takes the onus off them for marketing fast food, soft drinks, and other high-calorie, low-quality products. † p) Never in human experience has food been available in the staggering profusion seen in North America today. xii) We are awash in edibles shipped in from around the planet; seasonality has largely disappeared. q) Food obtrudes itself constantly, seductively, into our lives—on sidewalks, in airplanes, at gas stations and movie theaters. iii) â€Å"Caloric intake is directly related to gross national product per capita,† says Moore professor of biological anthropology Richar d Wrangham. xiv) â€Å"It’s very difficult to resist the temptation to take in more calories if they are available. r) People keep regarding it as an American problem, but it’s a global problem as countries get richer. † s) Still, the lavish banquet’s first seating is right here in the United States of America. t) â€Å"The French explanation for why Americans are so big is simple,† said Jody Adams, chef/partner of Rialto, a restaurant in Harvard Square, speaking at the Oldways conference. v) â€Å"We eat lots of sugar, and we eat between meals. u) Indeed, the national response to our glut of comestibles is apparently to eat only one meal a day—all day long. xvi) We eat everywhere and at all times: at work, at play, and in transit. v) But the most powerful technology driving the obesity epidemic is television. xvii) â€Å"The best single behavioral predictor of obesity in children and adults is the amount of television viewing,† says the School of Public Health’s Gortmaker. w) â€Å"The relationship is nearly as strong as what you see between smoking and lung cancer. viii) Everybody thinks it’s because TV watching is sedentary, you’re just sitting there for hours—but that’s only about one-third of the effect. xix) Our guesstimate is that two-thirds is the effect of advertising in changing what you eat. † x) Furthermore, in some future year when the Internet merges with broadband cable TV, advertisers will be able to target their messages far more precisely. â€Å"It won’t be just to kids,† Gortmaker says. â€Å"It’ll be to your kid. † y) Since the Industrial Revolution, and particularly in the last half-century, technology has enabled us to conduct an increasingly immobile daily life. ) Even a century later, before the invention of the automobile, many farmed or at least used their bodies vigorously every day. xx) â€Å"At higher levels of a ctivity, people seem to balance their caloric intake and expenditure extremely well,† he says. xxi) â€Å"If our grandparents were farmers, they were moving all day long—not jogging for an hour, but staying active eight to 12 hours a day. {) The way we do our work has changed, and so has the way we spend our leisure time,† he continues. xxii) â€Å"The average number of television hours watched per week is close to a full-time job! ) People used to go for walks and visit their neighbors. Much of that is gone as well. † xxiii) Not only do many adults spend their work lives in front of computer screens, but also the design of public spaces outside their offices eliminates physical activity. xxiv) In skyscrapers, it’s often hard to find the stairs; electronic sensors in public restrooms are eliminating even the most minimal actions of flushing toilets or turning faucets on and off. }) Furthermore, modern children â€Å"don’t have to forage or w alk long distances,† says Lieberman. xv) â€Å"Kids today sit in front of a TV or computer. xxvi) They ride to school on a school bus. xxvii) We even have them rolling their school backpacks on wheels because we are afraid of them overloading their backbones. † ~) In sum, we no longer live like hunter-gatherers, but we still have hunter-gatherer genes. xxviii) Humans evolved in a state of ceaseless physical activity; they ate seasonally, since there was no other choice; and frequently there was nothing to eat at all. ) To get through hard winters and famines, the human body evolved a brilliant mechanism of storing energy in fat cells. The problem, for most of humanity’s time on Earth, has been a scarcity of calories, not a surfeit. ) Our fat-storage mechanism worked beautifully until 50 to 100 years ago. xxix) But since then, â€Å"The speed of environmental change has far surpassed our ability to adapt,† says Dun Gifford of Oldways. xxx) Our bodies were not designed to handle so much caloric input and so little energy outflow. ) Different scholars and popular writers have argued that human beings have â€Å"evolved† to be carnivores, herbivores, frugivores, or omnivores, but anthropologist Richard Wrangham says we are â€Å"cookivores,† grinning at the neologism. xxi) â€Å"We evolved to eat cooked foods,† he declares. â€Å"Raw food eating is never practiced systematically anywhere in the world. † ) Cooking might be considered the first food-processing technology, and like its successors, it has had profound effects on the human body, as in the growth of bones. ) Various signals influence human growth; some come from genes, and others come from the environment, particularly for the musculo-skeletal system, whose job is engaging with the environment. xxxii) Less chewing of cooked food, for example, has altered the anatomy of our skulls, jaws, faces, and teeth. xxiii) â€Å"Chewing is a major activity th at involves muscular forces,† says skeletal biologist Daniel Lieberman. â€Å"It has incredible effects on how the skull grows. † xxxiv) Chewing can transform anatomy rather quickly; in one study, in which Lieberman fed pigs a diet of softened food, in a matter of months their skulls developed shorter and narrower dimensions and their snouts developed thinner bones than those of pigs eating a hard-food diet. ) The same thing happens with human beings. xxxv) â€Å"Since the beginning of the fossil record, humans have become much more gracile,† Lieberman says. xxvi) â€Å"Our bones have become thinner, our faces smaller, and our teeth smaller—especially permanent teeth—although we have the same number of teeth. ) More recently, with the Industrial Revolution, people have become more sedentary; they interact with their environment in a less forceful way. xxxvii) We load our bones less and the bones become thinner. Osteoporosis is a disease of industri alism. † ) In today’s world, where we not only cook but eat a great deal of processed food that has been ground up before it reaches our mouths, we don’t generate as much force when chewing.In fact, for millennia human food has been growing less tough, fibrous, and hard. ) â€Å"The size of the human face has gotten about 12 percent smaller since the Paleolithic,† Lieberman says, â€Å"particularly around the oral cavity, due to the effects of mechanical loading on the size of the face. Fourteen thousand years ago, a much larger proportion of the face was between the bottom of the jaw and the nostrils. † xxxviii) The size of teeth has not decreased as fast (genetic factors control more of their variation); hence, modern teeth are actually too big for our mouths—wisdom teeth become impacted and require extraction. The health hazards of sedentary life seem like an adult problem, but actually, the skeletal system is most responsive to loading wh en it is immature. xxxix) There is only one window for accumulating bone mass—during the first two decades of life. xl) â€Å"Peak bone mass occurs at the end of adolescence,† Lieberman explains, â€Å"and we lose bone steadily thereafter. Kids who are active grow more robust bones. ) If you’re sedentary as a juvenile, you don’t grow as much bone mass—so as you get older and lose bone mass, you drop below the threshold for osteoporosis. ) Furthermore, females get osteoporosis more readily than men because they start with less adult bone mass; as life spans lengthen, says research fellow in cell biology Jennifer Sacheck, of Harvard Medical School, older men will also begin showing symptoms of osteoporosis. ) Weight-bearing exercise only slows the rate of bone loss for adults; pre-adolescent bone growth is far more important to long-term skeletal strength. Hence, the sedentary lifestyles of today’s youngsters—and the cutbacks on school physical-education programs—may be sowing the seeds of widespread skeletal breakdown as their cohort matures. The dramatic upsurge in consumption of carbonated soft drinks, paired with the simultaneous decline in milk drinking, may also weaken future bones. xli) Both milk (lactose) and soda (sucrose, fructose) are sweet, but soda is sweeter, and today’s consumers are hooked on sugar. xlii) â€Å"We probably evolved our sense of sweetness to detect subtle amounts of carbohydrates in foods, because they provide energy,† says Walter Willett. ) â€Å"But now the expectations of sweetness have been ratcheted up. xliii) A product is not deemed attractive if it is not as sweet as its competitor. ) Sugars added to foods made up 11 percent of the calories in American diets in the late 1970s; today they are 16 percent. With agriculture, human health declined, says Lieberman, partly because farming is such hard work, and partly because it allows higher population densiti es, in which infection spreads more easily. ) â€Å"There was more disease, a decrease in body size, higher mortality rates among juveniles, and more stress lines in bones and teeth,† Lieberman says. ) Cultivating grain also allowed farmers to space their children more closely. liv) Hunter-gatherers have long intervals between births, because they do not wean children until age four or five, when teeth are ready to chew hard foods. (â€Å"You can’t feed babies beef jerky,† jokes Lieberman. ) xlv) Farmers, however, can make gruel—a high-calorie mush of roots or grains like millet, taro, or oats that doesn’t require chewing—and wean children much sooner. ) Grains, the source of products such as bread, baked goods, and corn syrup, did not become plentiful in the human diet until the establishment of agriculture. xlvi) So grain farming allowed bigger families and has changed the human situation in endless ways. But while people have eaten grains for a hundred centuries, until the last half-century, most grains consumed were not heavily processed. † ) In the last 50 years, the extent of processing has increased so much that prepared breakfast cereals—even without added sugar—act exactly like sugar itself,† says pediatrics specialist David Ludwig. ) In 1981, David Jenkins, a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto, led a team that tested various foods to determine which were best for diabetics. xlvii) They developed a â€Å"glycemic index† that ranked foods from 0 to 100, depending on how rapidly the body turned them into glucose. This work overturned some established bromides, such as the distinction between â€Å"simple† and â€Å"complex† carbohydrates: a baked russet potato, for example, traditionally defined as a complex carbohydrate, has a glycemic rating of 85 (ffl12; studies vary) whereas a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola appears on some glycemic indices at 63. xlv iii) Eating high-glycemic foods dumps large amounts of glucose suddenly into the bloodstream, triggering the pancreas to secrete insulin, the hormone that allows glucose to enter the body’s cells for metabolism or storage. lix) The pancreas over-responds to the spike in glucose—a more rapid rise than a hunter-gatherer’s bloodstream was likely to encounter—and secretes lots of insulin. ) But while high-glycemic foods raise blood sugar quickly, â€Å"they also leave the gastrointestinal tract quickly,† Ludwig explains. â€Å"The plug gets pulled. l) † With so much insulin circulating, blood sugar plummets. This triggers a second wave of hormones, including stress hormones like epinephrine. li) â€Å"The body puts on the emergency brakes,† says Ludwig. lii) â€Å"It releases any stored fuels—the liver starts releasing glucose. iii) This raises blood sugar back into the normal range, but at a cost to the body. † ) One cost, documented by studies at the School of Public Health, is that going through this kind of physiologic stress three to five times per day doubles the risk of heart attacks. ) Another cost is excess hunger. ) The precipitous drop in blood sugar triggers primal mechanisms in the brain: â€Å"The brain thinks the body is starving,† Ludwig explains. liv) â€Å"It doesn’t care about the 30 pounds of fat socked away, so it sends you to the refrigerator to get a quick fix, like a can of soda. ) Glycemic spikes may underlie Ludwig and Gortmaker’s finding, published in the Lancet two years ago, that each additional daily serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage multiplies the risk of obesity by 1. 6. ) Some argue that people compensate for such sugary intake by eating less later on, to balance it out, but Ludwig asserts, â€Å"We don’t compensate well when calories come in liquid form. lv) The meal has to go through your gut, where the brain gets satiety signals that slow you down. On the other hand, you could drink a 64-ounce soft drink before you knew what hit you. ) Since humans can take in large amounts of food in a short time, â€Å"we are adapted to receiving much higher glycemic loads than other primates,† says Richard Wrangham, speculating that nonhuman primates may be poor models for research on human diabetes because they have a different insulin system. lvi) The only component of the hunter-gatherer diet likely to cause extreme insulin spikes is honey, which Wrangham feels â€Å"is likely to have been very important, at least seasonally, for our ancestors. What is certain is that hunter-gatherers never experienced anything like the routine daily glucose-insulin cycles that characterize a modern diet loaded with refined sugars and starches. lvii) Constantly buffeted by these insulin surges, over time the body’s cells develop insulin resistance, a decreased response to insulin’s signal to take in glucose. lviii) W hen the cells slam their doors shut, high levels of glucose keep circulating in the bloodstream, prompting the pancreas to secrete even more insulin. This syndrome can turn into an endocrine disorder called hyperinsulinemia that sets the stage for Type II, or adult-onset, diabetes, which has become epidemic in recent years. ) Ironically, U. S. government agencies’ attempts to deal with obesity during the last three decades—encouraging people to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, for example—actually may have exacerbated the problem. ) Take the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid, first promulgated in 1992. ix) The pyramid’s diagram of dietary recommendations is a familiar sight on cereal boxes—hardly a coincidence, since the guidelines suggest six to 11 servings daily from the â€Å"bread, cereal, rice, and pasta† group. ) The USDA recommends eating more of these starches than any other category of food. lx) Unfort unately, such starches are nearly all high-glycemic carbohydrates, which drive obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and Type II diabetes. ) â€Å"At best, the USDA pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic—what to eat,† writes Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. â€Å"At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths. ) â€Å"Clearly, some food industries have for many years successfully influenced the government in ways that keep the prices of certain foods artificially low. lxi) David Ludwig questions farm subsidies of â€Å"billions to the lowest-quality foods†Ã¢â‚¬â€for example, grains like corn (â€Å"for corn sweeteners and animal feed to make Big Macs†) and wheat (â€Å"refined carbohydrates. â€Å") ) Meanwhile, the government does not subsidize far healthier items like fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts. xii) â€Å"It’s a perverse situation,† he says. â€Å"The foods that are the worst for us have an artificially low price, and the best foods cost more. lxiii) This is worse than a free market: we are creating a mirror-world here. † ) Governmental policies like cutting school budgets by dropping physical education programs may also prove to be a false economy. ) â€Å"There’s fast food sold in school cafeterias, soft drinks and candies in school vending machines, and advertising in classrooms on Channel One. ) Meanwhile there are cutbacks in physical education, as if it were a luxury.What was once daily and mandatory is now infrequent and optional. † ) Consider the flap that arose after the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report in 2003 recommending guidelines for eating to improve world nutrition and prevent chronic diseases. lxiv) Instead of applauding the report, the DHHS issued a 28-page, line-by-line critique and tried to ge t WHO to quash it. lxv) WHO recommended that people limit their intake of added sugars to no more than 10 percent of alories eaten, a guideline poorly received by the Sugar Association, a trade group that has threatened to pressure Congress to challenge the United States’ $406 million contribution to WHO. ) By the last decade of the 20th Century, Americans had become much more adventuresome eaters. lxvi) Variety of choice is nearly unbelievable. lxvii) Ethnic cuisine, once shunned, enjoys increasing popularity and the new foods introduced via that route add greatly to the variety of food choices. ) The trend toward eating out of the home continues to grow; in 1998, 47% of the food dollar was spent away from home. xviii) However, the concern for nutrition was higher than ever and that fact probably contributed to keeping some meals at home. ) Today’s families seem busier than ever. lxix) Rushing between work and school often leaves parents scrambling for time to prepare nutritious, good-tasting meals for their children. ) In fact, 44 percent of U. S. weekday meals are prepared in 30 minutes or less. ) As the quality of our diets has deteriorated over the last 50 years, certain diseases have become rampant. â€Å"Directly related to food, you hear a lot of talk about obesity-related problems in terms of diabetes, coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, and those happen in both men and women,† lxx) â€Å"Those are the general categories of ailments; there are also many specific diet-related disorders. † ) A majority of individuals are making less healthy food choices for better time management. ) Whether for good or bad, changes in diet and fitness have morphed the way people live. ) In the 1960s, it was still common to plant a garden or a fruit tree for food. xxi) Nowadays, this is not the case; in fact it is less common to grow a garden in the U. S than it was 50 years ago. ) Even quick, pop in the microwave or oven meals ha ve become more popular, despite the fact that the invention of the TV dinner occurred in 1944. lxxii) Between working and conflicting schedules, there are not as many home-cooked, healthy meals on the plates of children today. ) Obesity has reached epidemic proportions. lxxiii) In 2007 and 2008, 34 percent of Americans were obese and another 34 percent were overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. xxiv) In 1960 and 1962, only about 14 percent of Americans were obese and 31. 5 percent were overweight. lxxv) Since 1976, the number of obese children from ages 2 to 5 has nearly doubled. ) In 2011, people are looking for weight loss at a quick pace with diet pills, diet shakes, surgery and different diets such as the cabbage soup diet. lxxvi) There are more fad diets and methods of weight loss than ever before. IV. Are food allergies on the rise? If so, why? a) The number of kids with food allergies went up 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ) About 3 million children younger than 18 had a food or digestive allergy in 2007, the CDC said. c) A recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that visits to the emergency room at Children's Hospital Boston for allergic reactions more than doubled from 2001 to 2006. i) Although this is just one hospital, the findings reflect a rise in food allergies seen in national reports, said Dr. Susan Rudders, lead author and pediatric allergist-immunologist in Providence, Rhode Island. d) One theory is that the Western diet has made people more susceptible to developing allergies and other illnesses. i) The children in the African village live in a community that produces its own food. iii) The study authors say this is closer to how humans ate 10,000 years ago. iv) Their diet is mostly vegetarian. e) By contrast, the local diet of European children contains more sugar, animal fat and calorie-dense foods. v) The study authors posit that these factors result in less biodiversity in the organisms found inside the gut of European children. f) The decrease in richness of gut bacteria in Westerners may have something to do with the rise in allergies in industrialized countries, said Dr.Paolo Lionetti of the department of pediatrics at Meyer Children Hospital at the University of Florence. vi) Sanitation measures and vaccines in the West may have controlled infectious disease, but they decreased exposure to a variety of bacteria may have opened the door to these other ailments. g) Another theory is that children need to get exposed to common allergens, such as nuts and shellfish, from a much earlier age, to avoid developing allergies. vii) Some doctors have been recommending waiting until 2 or 3, but Ferdman at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is a proponent of giving kids nuts very early. iii) This could occur through breastfeeding or an unintended exposure to highly processed foods in the Western diet that may contain hidden sources of the allergens. h) Cooking practices can also affect the development of food allergies. ix) For example, roasting a peanut enhances its allergenic potential compared to other forms of preparing peanut. x) Peanut allergy is more common in the U. S. where peanuts are roasted, as compared to China where peanuts are boiled. V. Is the fast food industry hurting our waistlines and our health? How? ) American emphasis on convenience and rapid consumption is best represented in fast foods such as hamburgers, French fries, and soft drinks, which almost all Americans have eaten. b) By the 1960s and 1970s fast foods became one of America's strongest exports as franchises for McDonalds and Burger Kings spread through the world (Klem 443). c) The effect of fast food chains was infectious; they had become accepted in American society. d) Traditional meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace gave way to quick lunches and dinners eaten on the run as ot her countries mimicked American cultural patterns. ) In some ways, American food developments are contradictory. f) Americans are more aware of food quality, yet are still eating unhealthy foods due to their increasing dependence on convenience, and are also regularly eating fast foods (Heymsfield 148). i) â€Å"It’s hard for people to give up traditions,† states nutrition expert, Kathy Johnson. g) Spurlock’s total immersion in fast food was a one-subject research study, and his body’s response a warning about the way we eat now. h) â€Å"Super Size Me† could be a credo for the United States, where people, like their automobiles, have become gargantuan. i) â€Å"SUVs, big homes, penis enlargement, breast enlargement, bulking up with steroids—it’s a context of everything getting bigger,† says K. Dun Gifford ’60, LL. B. ’66, president of the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust, a nonprofit organization specializ ing in food, diet, and nutrition education. i) Steven Gortmaker, professor of society, human development, and health at the School of Public Health, observes that the convenience-food culture is so ubiquitous that even conscientious parents have trouble steering their children away from junk food. ii) â€Å"You let your kids go on a ‘play date,’† says the father of two, â€Å"and they come home and say, ‘We went to Burger King for lunch. ’† j) He notes that on any given day, 30 percent of American children aged four to 19 eat fast food, and older and wealthier ones eat even more. k) Overall, 7 percent of the U. S. population visits McDonald’s each day, and 20 to 25 percent eat in some kind of fast-food restaurant. v) But taking the family to McDonald’s for, say, Chicken McNuggets, French fries, and a sugar-sweetened beverage—a meal loaded with calories, salt, trans fats (the most unhealthy, artery-clogging fats of all, typ ified in â€Å"partially hydrogenated† oils), fried foods, starch, and sugar—makes Gortmaker shake his head. â€Å"I can’t imagine a worse meal for kids,† he says. â€Å"They call this a ‘Happy Meal’? † l) Humans can eat convenient, refined, highly processed food with great speed, enabling them to consume an astonishing caloric load—literally thousands of calories—in minutes. ) Gortmaker, Ludwig, and colleagues did research comparing caloric intake on days when children ate in a fast-food restaurant to days when they did not; they soaked up 126 calories more on fast-food days, which could translate into a weight gain of 13 pounds per year on fast food alone. m) Pumping up portion size makes good business sense, because the cost of ingredients like sugar and water for a carbonated soda is trivial, and customers perceive the larger amount as delivering greater value. vi) â€Å"When you have calories that are incredibly che ap, in a culture where ‘bigger is better,’ that’s a dangerous combination,† says Walter Willett. ) Furthermore, â€Å"Portion sizes have increased dramatically since the 1950s,† says Beatrice Lorge Rogers ’68, professor of economics and food policy at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. vii) For proof, consider a 1950s advertising jingle: â€Å"Pepsi-Cola hits the spot/12 full ounces, that’s a lot. † Well, it’s not a lot any more. o) For decades, 12 ounces (itself a move up from earlier 6. 5- and 10-ounce bottles) was the standard serving size for soft drinks. viii) But since the 1970s, soft drink bottles have grown to 20 and 24 ounces; today, even one-liter (33. 8 ounce) bottles are marketed as â€Å"single servings. ix) It doesn’t stop there. The 7-11 convenience store chain offers a Double Gulp cup filled with 64 ounces of ice and soda: a half-gallon â€Å"serving. † Surely, the 128-ounce Gallon Guzzle is on the horizon. p) Soft drinks are becoming America’s favorite breakfast beverage, and specialty sandwiches and burritos for breakfast are fast-growing items, part of the trend toward eating out for all meals. q) The restaurant industry—which employs 12 million workers (second only to government) and has projected sales of $440. 1 billion this year, according to its national association—ranks among the nation’s largest businesses. ) Today, Americans spend 49 cents of every food dollar on food eaten outside the home, where, according to Rogers, they consume 30 percent of their calories. x) That includes take-out food (which some parts of the restaurant industry now style as â€Å"home meal replacement†). s) â€Å"In some ways, you can see obesity as the tip of the iceberg, sitting on top of huge societal issues,† says Willett. xi) â€Å"There are enormous pressures on homes with both the husband and wi fe in the work force. t) One reason things need to be fast is that Mom is not at home preparing meals and waiting for the kids to come home from school any more. ii) She is out there in the office all day, commuting home, and maybe working extra hours at night. xiii) This means heating something in the microwave or hitting the drive-through at McDonald’s. u) There really is a time issue—people do have less time. v) Technology may have entrenched that passivity, while making food preparation easier and faster. w) Three Harvard economists, professors of economics Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, and graduate student Jesse Shapiro, argued in a recent paper that improved technology has cut the time needed to prepare food, allowing us to eat more conveniently. iv) For example, in 1978, they note, only 8 percent of homes had microwave ovens, but 83 percent do today. Food that once took hours to prepare is now â€Å"nuked† in minutes. x) Technology can also change what we eat. xv) Potatoes used to be baked, boiled, or mashed; the labor involved in peeling, cutting, and cooking French fries meant that few home cooks served them, the economists point out. xvi) But now factories prepare potatoes for frying and ship them to fast-food outlets or freeze them for microwave cooking at home. ) Americans ate 30 percent more potatoes between 1977 and 1995, most of that increase coming in the form of French fries and potato chips. z) In general, technology has enabled the food industry to do more of the work of preparing and cooking what we eat, increasing the proportion of processed victuals in the nation’s diet. xvii) Frequently, processing also folds in more ingredients; russet potatoes, for example, contain no added salt or oil, though most potato chips do. {) Within our laissez-faire system of food supply, the food vendors’ actions aren’t illegal, or even inherently immoral. viii) â€Å"The food industry’s major objective is to get us to intake more food,† says Gortmaker. xix) â€Å"And the TV industry’s objective is to get us to watch more television, to be sedentary. |) Advertising is the action that keeps them both successful. xx) So you’ve got two huge industries being successful at what they are supposed to do: creating more intake and less activity. xxi) And since larger people require more food energy just to sustain themselves, the food industry is growing a larger market for itself. † }) That industry spends billions of dollars on research, says Willett. xii) â€Å"They have carefully researched the exact levels of sweetness and saltiness that will make every food as attractive as possible,† he explains. xxiii) â€Å"Each company is putting out its bait, trying to make it more attractive than its competitors. ~) Food industry science is getting better, more refined, and more powerful as we go along. xxiv) They do good science—they don’t throw th eir money down the drain. ) What we spend on nutrition education is only in the tens of millions of dollars annually. xxv) There’s a huge imbalance, and it tips more and more in favor of the food industry every year. Food executives like to say, ‘Just educate the consumer—when they create the demand for healthier food, we’ll supply it! ’ xxvi) That’s a bit disingenuous when you consider that they are already spending billions to ‘educate’ consumers. † ) The food industry itself has begun to make certain investments in the direction of healthier eating. xxvii) â€Å"In the future, I see a convergence between food and health,† says Goldberg. xxviii) â€Å"The food industry has been warned of the backlash that could hit them, like it did tobacco. ) He suggests that the food industry will become more responsive to consumers’ health concerns regarding issues like bioengineered ingredients in foodstuffs. ) People â€Å"want a diversity of sources for their food, and traceability of sources,† he says. ) â€Å"The bar code will become a vehicle not just for pricing, but for describing and listing ingredients. † ) Even fast-food chains are changing; in the past year, they reported a 16 percent growth in servings of main-dish salads. ) Willet sees no reason why healthy eating should not be as delicious and attractive as junk food, and the franchisers may be headed that way as well. xix) McDonald’s is currently testing an adult meal that includes a pedometer and â€Å"Step With It† booklet along with any entree salad. In its kids’ meals, Wendy’s is trying out fruit cups with melon slices instead of French fries. xxx) Yogurt manufacturer Stonyfield Farm has launched a chain of healthful fast-food restaurants called O’Naturals. ) Doritos themselves are getting healthier. xxxi) Fitness expert Kenneth Cooper, M. P. H. ’62, founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, has been working with PepsiCo’s CEO, Steven S. Reinemund, to develop new products and modify existing items in a healthier direction. The company’s Frito-Lay unit last year eliminated trans fats from its salty offerings. xxxii) Frito-Lay introduced organic, healthier versions of Doritos and Cheetos under the Natural sub-brand. † xxxiii) As a result, 55 million pounds of trans fats will be removed from the American diet over the next 12 months,† Cooper says. ) PepsiCo is in 150 countries, and many of their healthier products will soon be promoted throughout the world. ) Physical fitness is good business for the individual and for the corporation. † ) PepsiCo sells plenty of food and beverages from vending machines, many of them in schools. xxiv) â€Å"You don’t resolve the obesity problem in children by taking the vending machines out of schools,† Cooper declares. â€Å"Kids will still get what they want. xxxv) Put better products in the machines and get physical education back in the schools. † ) Accordingly, PepsiCo is stocking some school machines with fruit juices from its Tropicana and Dole brands, Gatorade, and Aquafina bottled water; others offer Frito-Lay products that meet Cooper’s â€Å"Class I† standard: no trans fats and restricted amounts of calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. Fast food has become a staple for many individuals. xxxvi) Though fast food was developed in the 1930s, it has peaked in popularity during the past two decades. ) According to CBS HealthWatch, at least a quarter of all Americans eat at McDonald's once per day. 1) How have your own dietary practices changed over the years? 2) How have your dietary practices changed since taking a course in nutrition?