...graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard University, his MA in Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia University. Dr. Tyson is the recipient of eighteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson”. He was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University from 1991 to 1994, when he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist. His research dealt with problems relating to galactic structure and evolution. He became acting director of the Hayden Planetarium in 1995 and director in 1996. From 1995 to 2005 he wrote monthly essays for Natural History magazine, some of which were collected in Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007), and in 2000 he wrote an autobiography, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist (Encyclopedia Britannica). In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public, he wrote Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the...
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...Service * Writing Guidelines * Mandy's Market * Contests * Annual Tanka Contest * Tanka Time * Where Tanka Prose Grows Poetry Analysis: Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Written by Kerry Michael Wood User Rating: / 9 ------------------------------------------------- Top of Form PoorBest Bottom of Form Poetry Analysis: Those Winter Sundays (Poem by Robert Hayden) I met Bob Hayden in the late 1970s when I, a callow high-school teacher, joined him and others in a textbook authorship project. I was in awe of the former poet laureate of Senegal and later America's first black poet laureate. A soft-spoken gentleman behind thick-lensed glasses, he put me at ease with his unassuming camaraderie. He didn't speak much about himself. Other co-authors and editors sketched for me his early life: the fact that he had no birth certificate but was born with the name Asa Bundy Sheffey of parents who then separated; how at 18 months he was given to next-door neighbors who renamed him, though he was never legally adopted; how once he became a literary figure, he refused to be called a Negro poet and by so doing won the friendship and respect of Harlem Renaissance writers like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. I treasure my memory of Robert Hayden. *************************** Robert Hayden's tribute to his foster father demonstrates the effectiveness of understatement, brevity and artful imagery. Mingled with respectful...
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...Lies, damn lies and fiction-Answers and Questions 1. Explain what “unverifiable” means and how it is important in this article. Saying something is unverifiable means that it is impossible or rarely able to be confirmed, or proven to be true. The article “Lies, damn lies and fiction” talks about Stephen Glass, a The New Republic reporter that wrote unreal events. The word “unverifiable” is important in this article because Glass’ sources in his articles were not able to be proven to be true. 2. Describe “Hack Heaven” and explain the story behind Ian Restil. "Hack Heaven", an article written by Glass redacts the story of Ian Restil; a 15-year-old computer hacker who broke through the online security system of a "big-time software firm" called Jukt Micronics. Once inside, Restil posted every employee's salary on the company's web site alongside a bunch of nude pictures, each bearing the caption "THE BIG BAD BIONIC BOY HAS BEEN HERE BABY." According to Glass, instead of reporting this case, The Company executives decided that they required to hire the teenage hacker, who had obtained the services of an agent, Joe Hiert, described as a "super-agent to super-nerds. 3. Ultimately the sentence “a frightening story. But not true” is repeated twice. Why? Consider as well where this sentence is placed. What is the effect on you-the reader? The use of the sentence typed twice...
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...Friendship exists everywhere in the world around and most of them are very complex. Sometimes in every friendship there is sacrifice. In Ann Brashares novel, ‘Forever in Blue’ there is a perfect demonstration of friendship and the power it has to make a difference in someone’s life. The relationship between the four main characters, Lena, Carmen, Tibby, and Bridget, is a strong one and they all share a special bond between one another. They all depend on one another and rely on each other. There are three instances where this general theme appears in the book. When Tibby has no idea of what she should do next and then Lena arrives to comfort her. Another instance would be when Carmen is at her opening night and she thinks that no one is there to support her and then she sees her three best friends in the front row and she suddenly feels jubilant. The final situation where you see the power of friendship is when Lena finds out that the Traveling Pants are gone. She then decides to go to Greece to find them and to her surprise, there are her friends waiting to go with her. These four characters are the perfect example about friendship and the power it possess. In the novel, you can already tell that one of the main characters, Tibby, has been through a lot in life and that she has this kind of resentment towards people that aren’t her friends. So it is good that she has them to keep her grounded. In the novel, Tibby has a problem. She thinks that she is pregnant causing a major...
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...Angela Jamison Mr. Grubbs Y.A. Literature 12 October 2012 Ann Brashares was born in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She became an editor when she decided to take a year off of school, but stayed there because she loved her job so much. She then wrote her first book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ("Ann Brashares author bio"). She said she got the idea from talking with a friend who shared a story about a summer where her and her friends shared a pair of jeans ("Ann Brashares author bio"). The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about how four very different best friends find a pair of jeans that fit all of them. They decide the jeans are magic because they are all different sizes. Carmen is bigger, Lena is tiny, Tibby is normal sized, and Bridgett is athletic, tall, and lean. So, if the jeans fit all of them, then they must be magic. They decide to share the jeans over the summer and send them to each other throughout the summer because they will all be in different places. Lena went to Greece to see meet her grandparents, Bridgett went to Mexico for soccer camp, Carmen went to visit her father, and poor Tibby was left working at the local grocery store. However, this summer would change all of their lives. For the most part, each one of them experiences a search for love even if they did not mean to. Lena fell in love with someone while in Greece, Bridgett with a soccer camp counselor, Carmen re-established her relationship with her father, and Tibby gained a new friend...
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...Definition Essay: Democracy Read the following quotations: “There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.” Alexis de Tocqueville (French Historian and Political Scientist, 1805-1859) “Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams (Second President of the United States) “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” Abraham Lincoln (Sixteenth President of the United States) “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright and Essayist, 1856-1950) Write an essay in which you define the word Democracy. Basic Requirements: o Introduction paragraph with thesis statement (HINT: This thesis statement will propose your definition of the word Democracy.) o 2-3 body paragraphs that correlate with your thesis statement and support your definition o A concluding paragraph that reminds me of your key points and effectively argues your definition As you write your essay, you must: o Focus on defining the concept of Democracy. o Effectively organize your ideas using the provided graphic organizer. (A five-paragraph essay is not necessary; however, you do need a definite introduction, body and conclusion.) o Include supporting...
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...Tyranny and American Democracy Oppression is something dreaded by everyone. This universal fear was a much larger problem in the 1800’s than it is today. Tyranny was a fear that the Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and Alexis de Tocqueville had in common. The Federalists feared tyranny of the majority, or faction while the Anti-Federalists feared tyranny of the aristocracy. Tocqueville feared “soft despotism” but supported tyranny of the patriarchy. While the Federalist and the Anti-Federalists were the visionaries for America who tried to prevent different tyrannies, Tocqueville discusses the hypocrisies in America that the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists were against. The Federalists strongly believed that the newly founded republic needed a large, centralized government in order to discourage tyranny of the majority. Hamilton voices this opinion when he says “a firm Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the States as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection.” (Hamilton, 66, Federalist No. 9) This is because a large, centralized government uses the system of the checks and balances, which prevent domestic faction and revolt. The Federalists made it clear that they opposed a mob ruling and the minorities being denied their rights. The main danger the new republic faced, they argued, was the superior force of an “interested and overbearing majority.” (Madison, 72, No. 10) The Federalists solution on how to deal with majority faction...
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...Market Driven Democracy The first fifty years of the 19th century set the terms of the United States' economic and democratic systems. The interweaving of politics, commerce, trade, and society began in this time and those first bonds formed still effect United States life today. This connection between economics and life is rooted in the emergence of the market economy, which served to establish the ideals of American “democracy” that we connect with now. This divergence from the former moral economy served to make the United States actually less democratic, forever establishing an upper class of owners and forming social roles about race, class, gender and family that encouraged inequality and persist today. This establishment of inequality is exemplified in the images of work attached to the prompt, and show how these roles were seen and formed within the culture. The image of the Erie Canal Workers shows the change from an earlier ideal of American life and labor, where ones labor was to be used to work and cultivate your own land to sustain your own living. This image of the Erie Canal workers shows the exact opposite of this self owned concept for labor. All of these men are essentially being used as machines, good for nothing but labor, to work and make use of the land owned by someone else, for someone else's profit. The fruits of their labor would not be actual fruits as they might previously have been, but a monetary amount, to be budgeted as best as possible to...
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...Term paper - Besides summary, the discussion part should further involve a comparison of social thinkers. Read and discuss more original and/or secondary readings. Give your own views, and try to conduct a dialogue with the existing views. In this thesis, I will give a summary of the works by Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx, a discussion on their ideas as well as a comparison of the two thinkers. Alexis de Tocqueville is an aristocrat thinker From France that provides the most famous and influential views on democracy. In his work “Democracy in America”, he regards America as a land of liberty and democracy due to reasons like mores, geographical and historical advantages, but also provides a foresight on the future of democracy in America, and the threats to democracy and possible dangers of democracy. He believes the puritans were the one that contributed the most to American democracy, since they were all middle-class men with no salient differences when they first settled down in America. Also, they brought religion and political liberty to Amercia. Marx and Tocqueville holds different views on human nature. For Marx, he reflected on what it means to be truly human. Since he thinks that all species-beings are communal beings, he disaprroves things like religion, wage-labour and other forms of alienation that bring us far away from our communal nature and we must overcome them. For tocqueville, he emphazied a lot on dignity and liberty and he thinks that we are all...
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...Case study: Michael Novak: Capitalism and the corporation The problem investigated is the growth of corporations and capitalism to the extent that they become unavoidably inseparable in order to maintain a cohesive, civil society. Corporations have been with humanity since the beginning of organized government. Capitalism can be loosely defined as the economic freedom to allow for the building of wealth, both individually and corporately. In order to provide for that freedom, governments must be in one accord with corporations to that end. Adam Smith’s writings tell us in the course of history that countries may finally become a “Nation of Commerce” as part of a natural progression. He further suggests an individual’s economy is inevitably woven into the fabric of society and that fabric should be allowed to grow without the interference of politics, which we can fairly judge as governments of all kinds (Smith, 1776). To this point, both Smith and Novak concur that, “sources of private capital and private wealth, independent of the state, are crucial to the survival of liberty”. (Novak, 1997, p. 32) The American corporation faces the responsibility of creating a social good beyond the four reasons given by Michael Novak. First, it creates jobs. Second, it provides desirable goods and services. Third, through its profits it creates wealth that did not exist before. Fourth, it is a private social instrument, independent of the state, for the moral and material support of other...
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...Understanding the credibility of a source is important for succeeded in writing clear and accurate papers. This assignment showed me that some sources can easily be manipulated to insert one’s own opinion, which can lead to misinterpretations of the facts. Not only did I find sources that where bad, I begun to understand what a good source looks like. The majority of these sources seemed to come from either books or scholarly databases. The first question I answered was “who wrote that the people get the government that they deserve?”. I found this answer on a website called the Big Apple. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote this statement in his book called Democracy in America. The source I found this information from did not seem credible. The website was not from a dot mil or org domain. Also, the website sited the majority of its content from Wikipedia. This leads me to question much of its content. The second question I answered was “How were the colleges Smith, Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, Vassar, and others collectively known?” I found a book on the subject by using the search engine Google scholar. This Guides to Educational Planning contained information on how to plan for your college experience and succeed. This book had great information on the Seven Sisters, the answer to the question. The third question I answered was “who first invented the modern concept of city police and what were or are they called?”. The answer to this question was the Romans. The information...
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...industrial revolution in its complexity, and the degree of the impact it inflicts on the societies and cultures. We well remember from our history lessons what the Industrial Revolution has done to the people of 18th, and 19th Century Americas and the Europe. In the end a great society had been built, but the price of it was rather high. Armesto, F.F. (2008) The World a Brief History. “Industrialization uprooted lives, disrupted families, and imposed bleak working conditions in cities rife with filth and disease. Visiting the British city of Manchester in 1835 , Alexis de Tocqueville, considered the greatest social analyst of his time, recoiled from factories that keep air and light out of human habitations which they dominate; they envelop them in perpetual fog here is the slave , there is the master; there is the wealth to some here the poverty of most.” Yet she wrote, “From this filthy sewer, pure gold flows.” Alexis de Tocqueville words still apply to the majority of the world’s population; since the majority lives in a perpetual poverty; poverty even greater, from the time when the globalization process picked up its momentum in 1990’s, and 2000’s. The globalization process at the present moment benefits very few people; mostly people living in the cities of the developed countries of Europe and America, to a lesser degree in Asia. If I were a student of one of the liberal universities of America or Europe; I would be most likely ridiculed and scorned for writing...
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...Adamova (2013: 1) is tyranny of the majority founded in public opinion. Tocqueville notes with profound insight that democratic tenets include equality of social conditions, liberty, and active participation of individuals in political matters amongst others however he laments the possibility of democracies becoming a tool of oppression of the minority emotionally amongst others if the majority are allowed to will absolute power and have unrestrained influence over government .It should be noted however that whilst Tocqueville was greatly concerned about the possibility of democratic tyranny he also touches on the subjects of class oppression and democratic or soft despotism which will be illuminated below. Ryan (1994: ix) states that Alexis de Tocqueville...
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...Alexix de Toqueville's book, Democracy in America, compares the way the French and American governments function. Specificity in chapter 11, Liberty of the Press in the United States, contrasts the media and how they portray "news". He starts off by saying that "the press does not affect political opinions alone, but extends to all the options"(p. 1). Later in the chapter he also references how the media is the most common, if not only means of getting information. He compares the French to the American media to justify his claim that the press can cause a great influence on how you view facts, and how the press can influence your opinion. "The press cannot create human passions, however skillfully it may kindle them where they exist"(p. 3). He goes on by stating in America political news is not affected by passionate citizens you truly care about the actual problems, rather than American passion in news mainly focuses on petty interests and consumerism. The intellectual part of the media have been depleted if not completely removed from our grasp. Whereas in France the main focus of the press is based on political interest and advertisements are limited. Other points Tocqueville make on American media is how we attack each other's ideas. "The United States has no metropolis;... instead of radiating from a common point they cross each other in every direction the Americas have nowhere established any central direction of opinion”(p.4). Our opinions are no longer formed on facts...
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...Aristotle and Alexis De Tocqueville’s teachings on morality and happiness creates a similarity in their virtues that protecting rights of the people help produce happiness in a democracy. Aristotle discusses in the essay “ The Aim of Man”, that we aim to set goals to lead us into happiness. He believes that happiness is an activity for our soul. The soul is an inanimate object that can be driven by passion, which drives a person to do certain tasks in their life. These actions lead into happiness if the task is done successfully. Aristotle’s teachings on happiness collides with Alexis De Tocqueville’s teaching that Americans need a daily support of some energetic passion. Happiness from Americans will occur by protecting the American people’s...
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