Smallpox Blankets during the French Indian War :: Smallpox Disease

A different perspective on a smallpox epidemic during the French and Indian War appears in Andrew J. Blackbird's History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan. Blackbird, Chief Mack-e-te-be-nessy, was a member of a distinguished Ottawa family from the northwest shore of the Michigan lower peninsula. He wrote his History late in life, after a long career in education, politics, and public service. Blackbird's book, like many similar autoethnographic texts, is a combination of autobiography, history, ethnography, and polemic. He opens with a conventional reference to inaccuracy in current histories. In the course of correcting the record he relates the story, preserved by elders of his nation, of a smallpox epidemic during the height of the French and Indian War, about 1757. Blackbird's story is unique because of the unusual disease vector. It was a notable fact that by this time [1763] the Ottawas were greatly reduced in numbers from what they were in former times, on account of the small-pox which they brought from Montreal during the French war with Great Britain. This small pox was sold to them shut up in a tin box, with the strict injunction not to open the box on their way homeward, but only when they should reach their country; and that this box contained something that would do them great good, and their people! The foolish people believed really there was something in the box supernatural, that would do them great good. Accordingly, after they reached home they opened the box; but behold there was another tin box inside, smaller. They took it out and opened the second box, and behold, still there was another box inside of the second box, smaller yet. So they kept on this way till they came to a very small box, which was not more than an inch long; and when they opened the last one they found nothing but mouldy particles in this last little box! They wondered very much what it was, and a great many closely inspected to try to find out what it meant. But alas, alas! pretty soon burst out a terrible sickness among them. The great Indian doctors themselves were taken sick and died. The tradition says it was indeed awful and terrible. Every one taken with it was sure to die.

Corporal Punishment :: essays research papers

Dear Sir, I am writing in reply to the recent publication of an item on the topic of corporal punishment. I do not agree that it is needed to bring discipline back into our schools. It is assumed that a child who has been caned would be less likely to commit another offence , but this was never proved and , in fact , one theory holds that severe corporal punishment increases the likelihood of future offences. There are better ways to discipline students than hitting them. Some parents may believe that spanking a child may be beneficial but apart from being potentially dangerous physically, it can lower their self esteem, hinder their academic abilities and may even contribute to disruptive and violent behaviour. Some pupils may feel so afraid to go to school that they are tempted to play truant. Over the past few years we have become more and more obsessive over bringing our lives into the twenty first century and now , here you are telling us that we should bring back corporal punis hment, a system which is looked upon as old fashioned ! Discipline should begin in the home . Parents have and should accept the task of instilling in their children respect for right and wrong, respect for others and all the other basic lessons of living, working, playing and learning with others. They should try to teach him to control himself and take responsibility for his actions and their consequences .Unfortunately, because some parents find it difficult to do this from infancy , the teachers role is all the more difficult. Still, restoring this rule is not the way to resolve theses difficulties. Get to children in infancy and their early years and their lives will be shaped more fully for future growth. Restoring their teachers’ power to hit them across the bottom or knuckles doesn’t fit that picture. Forget corporal punishment. Roald Dahl’s book entitled â€Å"Boy† tells about the times when corporal punishment was allowed to take place in all sc hools. A passage from the book tells of how , aged nine, Dahl was caned six times for talking during prep. Even though he had had a perfectly good excuse he got the same punishment another child would probably have got for defacing school property or stealing. I think that this reinforces my earlier suggestion that teachers may take advantage of their authority and harass pupils they may have taken a dislike to.

Why the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Train

Levitating Trains The Maglev trains â€Å"A train is a connected series of rail vehicles propelled along a track to transport cargo or passengers. † -Wikipedia Trains now days are most commonly used for the transport of passengers across long distances, they are fast enough to reach a constant speed between 65 km/h to around 120km/h, although the record speed of a conventional train is of 575 km/h, held by the French TGV. It needed some modifications (shorter and higher voltage) and had passengers in it.Although, the record for non-conventional train is held by the JR-Maglev, a Japanese experimental train reaching the 581km/h without passengers (precaution) on a Magnetic-Levitation track. Answering how a train works is a very hard question, assuming we are talking about locomotives; they all have a generator behind the crews cab about half the size of a Volkswagen Beetle that powers the train with electricity by spinning, but the electrical output requires a lot of energy, tha t’s why there is a huge and powerful diesel engine that provides this power.Ignoring what the possible price of putting down a rail could be, I am going to calculate the price of having to get wheels and how long they last. A single axle 2 wheels costs $33, on the average commercial train there is about 636 wheels, so there is 318 axles, which adds up to total of $10,494 . There isn’t an exact schedule on how often they change train wheels, it all depends on the rail and how much braking the train does, for example, if it’s a very curvy â€Å"road†, more braking is applied and the more the wheels get wasted, and eventually, this slows down the entire vehicle.Regular trains also suffer from bumps and weather can play a difference in the performance of the train, the fact that the train is connected to the rail and to the floor deteriorates the materials and can make a huge sound, and if it’s a train that goes by a big town, there might be noise comp laints. Since friction seems to be the root of all problems, why not remove it? Friction is a natural force that occurs when an object or more encounter moving over each other or two objects rubbing against each other. How can a train overcome this?If only it could levitate†¦ well, needless to say, as I have mentioned a few paragraphs back, there is such a train, one that levitates with magnetism, the Maglev train, which by the name might sound Russian, but the mastermind behind it is Alfred Zehden (German), although he gave it a name in English: Maglev (MAGnetic LEVitation). The train levitates with electromagnetic (the interaction of electric currents with magnetic fields) C-shaped arms, with the top part of the arms connected to the train and the inside part holding the magnets, so the rail is situated in the space within the C.Since friction was the factor that was creating the problem, now that there is a clear (15mm) space between the rail and the train â€Å"wheels† there is no friction involved, so now the train speeds up faster to its average speed of 430km/h and it also slows down easier without any sound, and it goes unaffected by non-extreme weather, if the town has a power there is no problem because it has its own generator and also let’s not forget it is super cool because it is a LEVITATING TRAIN!Another feature it has is that regular locomotives can only run at a minimum speed of about 30km/h, with electromagnets there is no such problem, the train can cruise around at whatever it’s chosen speed is. The price of a regular (and might I add, boring) locomotive is around $2,300,000 with an added $35,000 for fuel and repairs, whereas the maglev has a more expensive staring price of 1. 2 billion, although it is expected for the price to fall to 1,800,000 in the next 30 years.In the long run and in this case a very long run because trains are one of the vehicles that last the longest, the maglev is more profitable than regu lar locomotives Cultural: As far as I am aware, culturally there shouldn’t be any problem with the maglev unless there is some cult out there that I’m not aware of that hate electromagnetism. Political: If anything, on the long run the government profit from this investment, considering it’s the fastest commercial train in the world, it gets a lot of attention. On the other hand, only 4 countries have patented the idea and of those only 2 (Aichi, Japan and Shanghai, China) have constructed the rains and 2 other under construction in Seoul, South Korea and a second one in China, which leads to think that other governments are afraid of bringing these ideas to their country and then end up being an absolute failure. Environmental: The maglev train actually does benefit the environment since there is less friction and therefore less fuel is used, and also less resources to replace train and rail parts since they won’t deteriorate because there is no friction involved. Social: Everyone is going to want to ride the super cool levitating train because it’s a SUPER COOL LEVITATING TRAIN!In conclusion, I think I have stated my point very clearly and we have solved the friction problem thanks to our friend electromagnetism. -August Paloluoma P. S please ignore Social, I still don’t know why I wrote that down†¦ Bibliography: URL: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Maglev#Technology Title: Maglev Latest date modified (LDM): 3 November 2012 at 18:01. URL: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train Title: Shanghai Maglev train LDM: 31 October 2012 at 14:51. URL: http://science. howstuffworks. com/transport/engines/maglev-train. htm Title: How the Maglev train works LDM: 26 January 2012

Statement of Academic/ Career Goals

Being fond of pharmacy and with a desire to be a pharmacist, I m currently an undergraduate student in College of Arts and Science with my majors in Chemistry. I’ve always dreamt of becoming a pharmacist while studying in USA for which I am eager to work hard and whole heartedly. I was also in Letters Dean’s list in 2007-fall semester and joined the Chemistry school department symposium in 2008. I am also a social servant and have been a lifelong volunteer in Taiwanese Social Organization that took take care of impoverished patients in persistent vegetative state (PVS) suffers in nursing home environment. By serving there I gained experience in cost reduction and acquired leadership and managerial skills. I always wanted to achieve something high in academics due to which I have high spirits and faith in me. The reason for selecting United States among the numerous choices was the excellent learning environment found there which is the only way to fulfill my academic aspirations and for which I am ready to strive as much as possible. The way of teaching and inspiration that comes from United States attracts me the most which unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find in my country Taiwan. The learning environment at United States positively reinforces and encourages the students to think, express and be creative whereas in other countries punishments are used to push students along with cramming studies. In the United States, I believe that EMU is the platform where I can pursue my highly spirited goals and where my skills can be enhanced and polished because of the learned science faculty available there. I’ve been enrolled at this grand institute for more than a year and through my hard work have been able to complete 50 credit hours up till now. Even though I was faced with a lot of problems and financial constraints, I never compromised on my result and attained an overall GPA of 3. 07 and maintained an excellent GPA of 3. 4 in my major. This institute opened me to a new world of science where I saw my dreams coming to be true. This period holds strategic importance in further nurturing my interest and convincing me with the passing time that EMU is the right place for me for providing quality learning. EMU not only played a role in increasing my knowledge and skills but also made me learn other important things. The first thing that I learnt at the place was the significance of honesty. The institute explained me new definitions of cheating and plagiarism which had been never taught before and I eventually realized their importance in building my personality once I began to study at EMU. It made me more creative, self dependent and work harder since I learnt to complete assignments and reports with the help of my own ideas and information acquired through hard work from different sources. This also helped in nurturing my grammar and composition skills which were tremendously improved. Moreover, my interpersonal skills improved drastically in the university’s environment which was previously hidden in the Chinese culture I came from. My introvert nature disappeared and I was able to interact freely with my professors and classmates while frequently raising questions which was not so in my old country school. EMU has taught me to be individualistic and self-reliant while at the same time made me affluent and interactive. By studying at EMU, I’ve been able to acquire a professional knowledge through the courses and lectures taught by my learned professors. I had to take a lot of science courses since I was in the pre-pharmacy program. This was the point where my interest in Chemistry developed and eventually I became fond of it. Previously, I had an impression that Chemistry is a tough subject but the professors and learning environment at EMU made everything easy for me and my interest in Chemistry was further nurtured. In the initial semesters I learned about the basic principles and laws of Chemistry while in the last semester this knowledge became more profound and in-depth. All this knowledge and courses are adding up to my skills which will make me appropriate to pursue a career in pharmacy. Moreover, at EMU I’ve learnt to collaborate and work as a team. This skill was acquired by working in labs where I gained not only practical skills but also attained the spirit of a team. I am now experienced at handling chemical apparatus and equipments for the purpose of using them in experiments. This demanded considerable hard work because of the language barriers due to which I had to preview lab manuals and practice a lot before coming to the lab. But since I am not afraid of hard work I did everything that it took to acquire complete knowledge. Breaking the language barriers was one of the greatest achievements for me and that built in me self confidence and strength to face challenges. This actually allowed me to help my classmates with their problems related to labs, equations and graphs. The language obstacles instead of serving as a hindrance actually motivated me to strengthen my English skills and communication power due to which I started being careful on every detail. Besides Chemistry, I also focused on Biology and Physics which advanced my researching and citation, and measurements and calculations respectively. I also felt the warmness of American culture at EMU since my classmates understood that I came from a different cultural background and helped me in every way in understanding the language and accommodating into an American culture. Studying at EMU has changed my life, and I truly think that EMU is the right place for me to accomplish my dream of being a pharmacist. The promising environment and the learned faculty encouraged me to take a further step towards my goal. Delving more into my career aspirations I assimilated more and more knowledge which made me more eager to learn. For all these reasons I have made my decision to complete my bachelor degree of Chemistry at EMU and then apply for pharmacy schools. I have high aspirations to pursue what I yearn for and want to live up to my dreams in order to be proud and self-satisfied. I am also aware of the fact that behind every dream there are hardships and I am ready to strive and work hard for achieving what I plan to. My philosophy in life is the belief in hard work because this can earn me what I strive for and I look forward to develop my specific skills and competences for achieving my long-term goals. For this my bachelor degree from EMU is very important for my future. I have financial troubles but your scholarship can serve as a blessing to me and help in fulfilling my long awaited dreams. Statement of Need I am a Taiwanese student working hard to achieve a career in my field of interest. Like all other students, I am also striving to attain the skills and knowledge for expanding my horizons of intellectual abilities. In order to accomplish this, I have decided to shift to US since it is a land of excellent education which can quench my thirst for knowledge. Though adjusting in American culture is difficult but I have tried my level best to handle all the obstacles and have been able to adjust quite well. I want to pursue career in pharmacy so that I can help people in their pain and sufferings which has always touched me. I come from a single family since my dad passed away when I was 13 and my mom was the only person who had to work to earn a living for the whole family. She is now a 70 year old retiree and the whole family has to live on her pension plans. To date, I have completed my education from my previous savings and help from my family. Since I have a younger brother and an elder sister, I cannot use much of the savings of my family and therefore, I am left with a meager amount which is not enough to complete my under graduation. My family income is my mother’s pension plan and her whole life savings which have almost exhausted. She has mortgaged her only house to a bank so that I continue studying in US in order to seek the dream of becoming a pharmacist. I am in a strong need for scholarship which is the only way through which I can make my future. Since I am categorized as an international student I have to pay a higher sum of money than the US residents which further worsens the problem. Moreover, the US government does not permits international students to work and regards it as illegal therefore; I don’t have any source of income at present. My annual tuition fee is around $32000 apart from living, renting, transportation, books, eating etc. Since I am living without my family members therefore, I have no family support and have to manage all the expenses myself. The total expense of tuition and living becomes enormous and cannot be managed with the loaned amount and my mother’s pension plans. This is why I am in a dire need of your scholarship so that I can continue my education and get the degree I promised my mother and myself. All these factors are a hindrance towards my academic progress therefore, I m writing this with great hope and faith in your scholarship program which can help in removing my worries and troubles. I need this scholarship desperately because I have exhausted my savings and family income on previous tuitions in US. My request for financial help is well intentioned and your scholarship can provide me with a relief after which I can devote my maximum attention to my dreams and aspirations of becoming a successful pharmacist.

Policy Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Policy Paper - Essay Example In Texas, two-year old Riley Ann died on the spot when she was supposedly flung to the other side of the room during an â€Å"obedience training session† with her mom and stepfather. (Callebs, S., 2007) According to the mother, the toddler was having difficulty saying â€Å"please† and â€Å"yes, sir†. Obviously, this situation has gone beyond reasonable. Riley Ann’s parents were sent to jail for parricide. In Montreal, Quebec, a 9-year old autistic boy was found lifeless in his classroom on April 17, 2008 due to suffocation from a therapeutic blanket wrapped around his head by his teacher as a punishment for being disruptive. (Glocwood, R., 2009) Corporal punishment for children is not a new thing. It has been practiced even before civilization as we know it. Since ancient times, corporal punishment on children has been recorded in literature, art and science. (Ten Bensel, Rheinberger, Radbill, 1997) In ancient Rome, corporal punishment was seen as both necessary and virtuous: â€Å"Most of the ancient philosophers and law-makers were in favour of flogging children, not only as a means of inducing them to conduct themselves well and tell the truth, but also an aid to education itself† (Scott, G.R., 1951). Even now some people even refer to the Bible which contains phrases such as Proverbs 23:13 that talk about disciplining children: â€Å"Withhold not correction from the child: for it thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.† According to early Christian sources, children’s obedience was a necessary element of family life. Didache 4-9 and Barnabas 19-5 warned parents not to withhold corporal punishment from son or daughter but to â€Å"teach [didaxeis] them the fear of God† from their â€Å"youth† (neotetos). (Horn, C. and Martens, J., 2009) For decades the right to punish or discipline children as families saw fit was considered a parental privilege. (Marotz, L., 2009) Different forms of punishment have

Technology in our Lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Technology in our Lives - Essay Example However I still believe that technology has a big impact on our lives nowadays. The newer generations can’t think about living without technology. Ask a teenager what their most prized possessions are and you will come up with answers such as laptop, iPod, digital camera, PlayStation and many more such technological devices that have taken the world by storm and have become a necessary part of many people’s lives. Many of the technological inventions such as cars, airplanes and bullet trains have made transportation easier. Gone are the days when people commonly used horses and camels as modes of transportation. With the invention of modern modes of travel it is possible to reach far off places in a very short time. Most of us use these modes while travelling to work or school. A person travelling on a horse to go to their office is a rare sight now thanks to technology as people prefer faster modes of travel. With technological advancements came the inventions such as television, cell phones, and internet. All these inventions have led to the world becoming a global village. With their help we can communicate over long distances and know what is happening anywhere in the world just by clicking a button. Technology has even led to advancements in medicine. With the help of technology new medicines are being developed that can cure many diseases. As a result many lives can be saved. Electricity is another invention without which we cannot dream to live now. Imagine if there is no electricity the country. There is a total blackout. The world will come to a halt. Most of people’s work requires electricity. Be it as simple as for running the AC or as complex as running a power plant both require electricity to function. I believe that now it is impossible to live without technology. We are so dependent on some of the technology that we use today that it

White Paper- Software Testing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

White Paper- Software Testing - Essay Example This section recommends the application of alpha testing to solve the issue in question as it allows the developers to see the test software working in real time in a practical setting. The involved number of test clients should be limited when the software is not yet ready for release either commercially or for open source purposes. The online application under the alpha test is a web-server application that has been a victim of frequent hacks. As a result, the cost of maintenance has been on the rise and this has lead more time loss which would otherwise have been used developing better versions of the same application. This alpha test utilized prototypes, to test the application in its beta stage, on a weeklong correction meant to regain the faith from the users who feared that their data could be compromised. However, there were no expectations of the software’s full possession in functionality for which it was developed for and specifically for this stage. The reason is because alpha testing is normally conducted to make sure that the application is developed on all core functions and proper acceptance of input to provide output as expected without errors. Before the customers cloud receive the improved version free of security risks, the developers had to ensure that they provided sufficient improvements as pertains to robustness and sustainability. Such a final product in an application was meant to deliver a positive image for the app. This would lay a strong foundation for the beta testing to confirm acceptability. Alpha testing was chosen for the sole reason in that it handles the procedure that would meet the expectations of eliminated security risk that was easily conducted by the application developers on a test environment that was controlled to avoid losing code to external competitors who could use it for competition, maliciously.