Teenage Alcohol Use Essay Example For Students

Teenage Alcohol Use Essay Certain things harmoniously co-exist: peanut butter and jelly, gin and tonic, steak and eggs; alcohol and teenagers do not. We are faced with an epidemic of monstrous proportions, which, if left untreated, will jeopardize the future of Americas youth. Only in the past few years have parents and teachers spoken openly about our national problem; they recognize the potential threat and hope to tame it as it continues to manifest. Unfortunately, the harm inflicted by Jack Daniels and his constituents could prove to be lifelong. Low self-esteem, and insecurities coupled with an unsatiable desire to fit in are three key elements in explaining teenage alcohol abuse. We will write a custom essay on Teenage Alcohol Use specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Low self-esteem is a part of adolescence, although teenagers run into difficulty when they dont outgrow this temporary stage. The pressure they receive from their parents to succeed often makes the students wonder if they can live up to the expectations. When the parents desires are not met, the teens think that they are worthless and undeserving. This cycle leads to the students ambition to forget about problems, worries, and parents. Alcohol fills this craving by rendering teens anesthetized, and when they emerge from the induced stupor, they want to repeat it all over again. People of all ages wrestle with personal insecurity, but this impediment especially targets high school and college students. Many students are not sure what profession they plan to pursue although society pushes them to choose very early in life. On the other hand, teens are taught to be young and free without caring about the personal ramifications. These conflicting ideologies leave many students bewildered and insecure. The easily available companion that bolsters their strength and aids their forbearance is alcohol. The loneliness, tumult, chaos, and despair are shoved into the background when they experience intoxication. The human need to feel a sense of belonging drives everyone to participate in social activities. Once this need is fulfilled, we settle into our friendly communities without bothering to look back. Unfortunately, not everyone finds their niche. Many students become lost in the intricate web of teenage cliques. They attempt to impress their peers by outrageous and uncharacteristic actions. These futile attempts often further the students from any meaningful relationships, thus, leading them back to the seemingly true comrade: alcohol. Adolescent and college age alcohol abusers often do not realize the full extent of their addiction. They usually try to hide their problem with superficial happiness, decent grades, or an ostensible love life. While many abusers can sustain this phony lifestyle for a period of time, an unforeseen mishap will send their lives into a never-ending downward spiral. Only time will tell the future of Americas youth; I just hope theres enough time to tell.

SCARED SHITLESS Professor Ramos Blog

SCARED SHITLESS Imagine being in a foreign country, it’s raining, you are cold, you do not have the slightest idea of where you are at, and people are screaming at you in a language you do not understand. This is how my first day in Germany went. It was September of 2018, I was eighteen years old when my grandma had taken me to Munich, Germany for my high school graduation gift. My grandma and I had just dropped our stuff off at our hotel and wanted to walk around for a bit. We had taken the subway from near our hotel to the center of town. We got off of the train and made our way to the surface. When we got to the surface, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I could hear my grandma say, â€Å"Oh my God.†, under her breathe as she looked up in amazement. There was a huge beautiful church with gold statues all over it. There were also statues of kings that used to rule and knights on horses. There were flowers all over the church as well that were blooming with vib rant shades of pink and blue. After checking the church out, we walked around Marienplatz, which is the center hub of Munich, just getting the feel for where we would be staying at for the next two weeks. It was about thirty five degrees out and there was a downpour of rain. My grandma and I had no idea where we were headed, but we were just going with the flow. We had seen a great deal of wonderful places until we made a wrong turn. We turned right in the center of a huge Syrian protest that was going on. We tried to quickly make our way out of a possible disastrous situation by moving along the outside of the crowd. People were waving around Syrian flags while there were other people with megaphones chanting phrases in Arabic while the crowd chanted along. We could see police on the other end of the square with riot gear on carrying sub machine guns trying to control the crowd, but it was not working. The crowd was getting even angrier. As we were swiftly walking through the crowd, there were men screaming at my grandma and I had no idea why. It’s pouring rain, we were cold, we were scared, we had no idea where we are at and there are people screaming at us in Arabic and German. What a great way to celebrate. As my grandma and I were now making our way out of the crowd when we finally spotted a familiar sight. It was the subway tunnel we had come out of when we first arrived. We now had an idea of where we were at and headed to the subway. I had noticed my shoe was untied, so we stopped so I could tie it. That is when we saw 3 police officers walking our way. I did not think anything of it since we had done nothing wrong. I quickly tied my shoe and we headed to the subway. Before we walked down the stairs leading to the train, we turned around and looked to see if they were still following right behind us and sure enough, there they were. As we made our way down the stairs, my grandma whispered to me, â€Å"What should we do?† We came up with two options: turn around and talk to them or just keep going and see if they even stop us. Of course in the heat of the moment, we chose to keep going and avoid a situation that might not even happen. As we were headed to the train, just as we thought we were in the clear, we could see even more men with Syrian flags getting off of the train. Some of them were screaming and chanting and harrassing people that passed by them or even simply looked at them. We looked back yet again and the police were still behind us. In that very moment, I was glad they were. I knew they would protect us if something were to happen to us or anyone near us. One of the protestors ended up getting in a scuffle with a German man, so the police officers that were following us, now had to intervene in the situation. We still have no idea why they were following us for so long. Our train had finally arrived. As we got on the train, yet another pair of police officers got on at the same time. Again, we thought nothing of it since we have still yet to do anything wrong or to even get their attention. My grandma and I found a couple of spots to sit at in the back corner of the train. We just sat there, silent, cold and our clothes soaking wet. We both looked up at each other at the same time and she cried as I laughed. We both had very different reactions to stress and fear. Just as our emotions and adrenaline were settled, the same police officers that got on the train with us were now staring at us walking our way. All I could think was, â€Å"Oh great.† They came up to my grandma and I and were trying to talk to us. Of course we could not understand them since we do not speak German. â€Å"Do you speak English?†, we kept repeating. It was apparent they did not because they just kept raising their voices at us to the point where they were scre aming in our faces. For the second time within two hours, we were getting yelled at in a foreign language. Finally a nice young lady stepped in that spoke both English and German. She turned to us and calmly said, â€Å"They want to see your train tickets.† So we pulled our tickets out and handed them over. The police officers checked our tickets, handed them back and then walked away. I don’t know how the young lady was so calm in such a hectic situation, but I’m grateful she was. We finally made it to our stop and walked back to our hotel. We headed straight to the bar in the lobby. As my grandma and I had sat down at the bar and grabbed our well overdue drinks, my grandma turned to me and said, â€Å"What a fucking day†, and proceeded to take a sip of her drink. This was the most surprising thing that had happened all day to me because I have never heard my grandma use profane language in my whole life. The very next day, we went on a tour of the city, who could’ve guessed who our guide was. It was the same young lady that helped us on the train. We ended up having a wonderful trip and we did not let the ordeal discourage us from having fun.

Top 5 Recommendations for Report Writing in 2012

Top 5 Recommendations for Report Writing in 2012 Reports are critical business writing documents. They typically convey your company's value to potential clients (proposals) or convey your product (consulting recommendations). Therefore, business decisions are based upon them. If content is missing or wrong, it is disastrous to your reputation. Here are my top five recommendations for report writing, based on discussions in our report writing training this year. Put adequate focus on planning your report, before you attempt to write one word. Are you concept mapping your report? You should be. A tool we often recommend for mapping structure and content is FreeMind. It is simple to use, free, imports fairly well into other tools, and exports as both an image and a pdf document. This ten-minute tutorial will have you up and running with this useful tool quickly. Make sure the report is framed for the audience, not what you best know or want to talk about. This applies to both content and language. Too often, we write from our perspective, instead of what our audience needs, and that is a mistake. Don't information dump. Be sure reports are delineated, and that you segregate and sequence business implications from minor factoids. Once you are certain content and organization are strong, hone the language. Be sure it is is clean, free of jargon and beaten to death gobbledygook, and grammatically correct. Then, hone it again until meaning is crystal clear. Reports are typically a business person's best opportunity to drive sales and convey value in business writing. Sharpen your skills writing this key document, and you will solidify your business value.

UK Buss Market - The Competitive Environment Essay

UK Buss Market - The Competitive Environment - Essay Example Competition plays a very important role in the growth of a market and economy. Increasing competition is the most effective way of enhancing the welfare of the consumers. Competition breeds entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and increases the efficiencies of the firms. It also results in low prices along with better services and products for the consumers. But perfect competition is very difficult to achieve as firms in a market continuously try to beat the competition and increase barriers to entry. Firms at time even come up with strategies and partner with rivals to keep new firms from entering the market. UK Bus Market – Background It has been 25 years since the UK Bus market was deregulated but still only a handful of firms account for the majority of the market. The competition in the market has stagnated and the existing big firms know that they have very little to worry with respect to new firms entering the market or existing firms challenging their market dominance. As a result of this there is no drive among the firms to innovate or improve the services. Pricing is also on the higher end negatively affecting the consumers. Also it has been found that the existing firms have avoided competing with each other with the intention to protect their territories. Firms have used short-term measures to ensure rival markets quit the market (BBC, 2011). There are around 1,245 bus companies in UK but 70% the market is accounted by Stagecoach, Go-Ahead, FirstGroup, Arriva and National Express. Competition Commission has proposed numerous measures to increase the competition in the market (BBC, 2011).... duct-Performance (S-C-P) model is an effective tool developed by economists to understand the relationship between relationship between the market performance, conduct and structure (Faulkner & Campbell, 2006). Even though the casual view is that the structure of a market determines conduct of the firms in the market and in turn the performance of the both the firms and the markets it is not always reliable. It is possible that conduct of firms in a market can affect the market structure, for example collusive prising agreements affects the structure of the market. It is also true that the performance of firms can affect the structure of the market, for example best performing firms in a non-homogenous market exert great market domination. Therefore, in the current context, the structure, conduct and performance will be analysed individually and then summarised collectively in the next section. Structure of UK Bus Market The most important characteristic of market structure is the nu mber of firms in the market. Even though there are around 1,245 firms in the market, the market is dominated by five firms whose collective market share is about 70% (BBC, 2011). The UK bus market is an oligopoly as it is controlled by a 5 major firms (Banister, 2002). The five-firm concentration ratio of the UK bus market is 66.7 Entry costs into the market are high as it demands huge capital investments to set up the service and have it running. Also the sunk costs of the market are high which has made it less contestable. The service offered here is non-homogenous and the firms have the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competitors through different marketing and branding strategies. Economies of scale is absent in the market. The Bus market is greatly vertically

The Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Business Environment - Essay Example Sole proprietorship which is also called single proprietorship is the simplest form of a business organization (Horgren et al 2000). In this set up, an individual establishes an organization and run it alone. A married couple who opts to open a small store can also be considered as a sole proprietorship. This type of business organization is seen to be the easiest to establish because it lacks the legal formality and other arrangements since there is only one owner. In terms of accounting, sole proprietorship also requires the simplest procedures. No corporate taxes are paid but the taxes on income are considered personal taxes. However, sole proprietorship is exposed to the difficulty of raising capital from other individuals and financial intermediaries. Also, the owner shoulder all the risks associated in the operations. Partnership is the form of business organization where two or more partners share in the profit which is usually determined by the amount of resources and assets that they share in starting the business (Keown et al 2005). In this set up, the business organization is benefited through the number of people which shares knowledge and skills in running the company. Income taxes are also deducted in the personal taxes paid by each of the partners. However, the number of owners can also become a problem especially in terms of decision making and profit sharing. Corporation is a business organization which has numerous owners all of which are separate entities to the business organization (Fraser and Orniston 2004). It should be noted that owners are insulated from the liabilities of the corporation since they are only liable for the amount that they invested. This form of business organization enjoys the benefit of having more individuals to fund the company’s projects and activities through selling of stocks. Also, stockholders are not necessarily managers of the company which delegates the responsibility to

The American West and Its Disappearing Water Essay Example for Free

The American West and Its Disappearing Water Essay The author outlined the geography of the semi-arid region of the West. According to him, although the West have rivers and large basins of water, the erratic nature of the landscape as well as the orientation of water flows cannot sustain large numbers of people. The convex nature of the river system allows only a minute flow of water into potential settlements and farms. People living in California, Arizona, and Idaho faced perennial shortages of water. These perennial shortages are due perhaps to the relative orientation of the settlements along river banks. Usually, the flow of water was downward, rather than upwards. The implication: there is relatively shortage of water to sustain irrigation-based agriculture. One can easily see the geographical distribution of people in the West prior to the 1900s. Most people preferred settling in either north of Arizona or West of California. In less than a century though, people began to transform the landscape of the West. Dams were built to provide irrigation and potable water to households and farms. The landscape of the West became a semitropical region (this is though misleading – only a significant area of the West was turned into ‘almost’ semitropical areas). As a result, settlements flourished. The area allocated to farming increased significantly. In essence, the attempt of the people to end the scarcity of water in the West became an attempt to change the orientation of the environment. The collective action of the people was not without political or economic support. Various legislations were enacted to increase water shortage funding. The state governments, with the support of some private individuals, allocated higher budget for constructing dams and modern irrigation facilities. All these efforts were made to neutralize the relative scarcity of water in the region. Environmental History of the West The first chapters of the book deals with the environmental history of the West From the 16th to the 17th century, the Spaniards attempted to colonize regions above California. Most of the expeditions sent by the Viceroy of Mexico failed because of scarcity of water in the region. The attempts of Spanish soldiers to divert water from rivers were futile. The same case can be said when the Americans arrived. The retreating of the desert forced many inhabitants to increase the supply of water from the rivers to households and farms. The relative demand of water by the settlers provoked what Reisner called ‘little imperialism. ’ The officials of the developing urban center (with the support of the population) manipulated the ‘common folks’ of the countryside to secure an efficient supply of water from the Owens Valley. In a sense, Los Angeles stole the Owens River for its own development. This generally led to the decline of the Owens Valley. The continuous use of the river caused perennial inflows which generally reduced the amount of water entering Los Angeles. The stealing of the Owens River was not without political support. The state government promoted homesteading to ensure maximum usage of the river. It sold public lands for settlement and irrigation-based agriculture. When the supply of water from the river withered, the state government ordered a general reversal of its reclamation policy. When the government saw the disastrous effects of its reversal, it implemented a new reclamation scheme. This time, only rich individuals were able to avail of the project. Newcomers and even those living near the Owens River were not able to avail of the project. In short, only some individuals were able to benefit from the project. Dependence on Dams and Aqueducts Most cities and urban centers depended much on dams and aqueducts. Dams provided electricity to the growing industrial and manufacturing sectors of the West. Although aqueducts were few, those constructed were efficiently used. After the Great Depression, the federal government launched several water-based projects. In the West, about 250 000 dams were constructed, of which several thousands were of obvious economic importance. The Role of the Federal Government The role of the federal government was evident. The federal government distributed large mount of capital to local, municipal, and even state governments for dam buildings and other related constructions. The political machinery of the federal government was intended to shove the disastrous effects of water shortage in developing urban centers, at the cost of the environment. A new class of people, the irrigation and dam engineers, gained enormous technical power. Most of their advices were followed by both the federal and state governments to the letter. The emphasis, of course, of these technical advices was on the economic importance of the building projects. There was little regard for the welfare of the environment. History of the Colorado River Basin Then came the history of the Colorado River Basin. It deals primarily with one fateful man-made structure, the Colorado River Basin. For many environmentalists, the project was powerful ‘sin against nature. ’ For the economic liberals in both government and the chambers of commerce, the project was an approximation of the ideal. The real effect though of the project could be best understood on the individual level. Because of the Colorado River Basin, agriculture in the West was heavily subsidized by the government. This created a general distortion in the prices of agricultural goods. Prices of agricultural goods in the West were substantially lower than the prices of the same commodities produced in the East. The general subsidy program of the government only hastened the urbanization of the West, which eventually resulted to further degradation of the river system. The New Deal: A New Chapter on Environmental Degradation Most of the policies implemented in the West focused on water-based projects. The projects implemented during FDR presidency in the West were politically motivated. The water-based projects were implemented to increase the mineral supply of the United States. This mineral supply was vital to the growing manufacturing industry in urban centers. With the outbreak of the Second World War, these projects doubled the supply of aluminum available to the armaments industry. Dams provided the necessary hydroelectric power to run the armaments industry. The damage to the environment was unprecented. To increase the supply of aluminum, mountains had to be ripped off. To power the armaments industry, additional dams would have to be built or those already existing over capacitated. Here again the theme of environmental exploitation is presented, although in a different condition. The demands of the war dominated the demands for a more responsible management of the environment. The Army Corps of Engineers vs. the Bureau of Reclamation After the war, the Army Corps of Engineers was tasked to build water projects around several rivers. The relative obsession of the Engineer Corps on efficiency shortened the life spans of river and outlet flows. Although the short term value of those projects could not be denied, its long term effects were generally disastrous. The author argued that only after 10 years (since the construction of those projects), their marginal value declined sharply. The Army Corps of Engineers clashed with the Bureau of Reclamation over the implementation of the Reclamation Act of 1902. This act gave the federal government the funding for constructing irrigation projects in semi-arid regions. The Corps of Engineers insisted that it was part of their duty to implement the said act. The Bureau of Reclamation reacted quickly, passing an implementing order to all its sub-agencies in California and Arizona. Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are generally an outline of the major steps undertaken by various presidents and NGOs to prevent further environmental degradation of the Arizona river system. Here, the author outlined the positive effects of restoring the environmental value of the river systems without due reference to its economic implications. According to the author, only political motivation can only save the remnants of the river system. This political motivation though is hard to achieve as the economic importance of the river system continue to dominate the minds of politicians. Environmentalist Tone of the Book The tone of the author’s environmentalist leaning can be found in the first pages of the book. It reads: a lot of emptiness amid a civilization whose success was achieved on the pretension that natural obstacles do not exist Thanks to irrigation, thanks to the Bureau [of Reclamation] states such as California, Arizona, and Idaho became populous and wealthy; millions settled in regions where nature, left alone, would have countenanced thousands at best what has it all amounted to? not all that much. Most of the West is still untrammeled, unirrigated, depopulate in the extreme Opposition against building of water-based projects increased considerably during the Nixon and Carter administration. Carter supported the move because it was part of his government platform. In any case, the building of water-based projects in the West fell by about 85%. Major Arguments in the Book Here are some of the major arguments of the author in the book: 1) The intrinsic value of the environment is more important than its perceived economic value. The economic value of an important resource would tend to decrease as more and more of its utility is consumed; 2) Environmental degradation is correlated with the level of economic usage of a particular environmental resource. Relying from historical sources, the author argued that economic usage of a particular resource is inversely related to sustainability. An optimum level of usage can only be achieved if an optimum level of degradation is achieved; 3) And, political motivation is both a key in environment degradation and environment protection. This proposition is evident in the book. The degradation of the Owens River and the Colorado Water Basin was politically motivated. Equally speaking, the solutions proposed by the Carter administration to relieve environmental protection were effective, and thus, are under the nexus of political motivation. Analysis Analysis Many of the author’s arguments are generally full of unnecessary fallacies. At some point, he argued that the ultimate cause of environmental degradation was faulty political policies. At some other point, he argued that the massive ‘excessiveness’ of the urban centers was the sole cause of increased environmental degradation of the river system. The contradictory nature of these two statements is obvious and unrelenting. It can also be said that most of the author’s arguments lack verifiable evidences. Historical evidences cannot be translated into verifiable evidences because of the static nature of the former. Multiple references to sources are a necessity in verifying historical claims. Conclusion Much of the author’s arguments need more authentic verification. The historical proofs provided by the author were either devoid of associated empirical facts or simply lacking in credibility. For example, the term ‘political motivation’ has multiple meanings in the book, but the author failed to clarify it. Reference Reisner, Marc. 1993. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. New York: Penguin Books.

Early Detection of Autism May Reduce Severity Essay -- Exploratory Ess

Early Detection of Autism May Reduce Severity Professor’s comment: The student wrote this paper for English 102: Writing in the Health Sciences. It is a feature article like you find in the New York Times. Notice that she cites her sources the way that journalists do, naming them in the article as though she both read their work and talked with them (but, because she is a student, she also includes a nonjournalistic reference list). This student has risen to the difficult challenge of addressing an educated audience of both critical scientists and non-scientists reading for interest—her article is people-oriented, follows an enticing and engaging structure, and provides new, clear, fascinating detail on a significant topic. Scientists are gaining a new understanding of how the brains of autistic individuals work. Their discoveries have led many to believe that early intervention may reduce the severity of the disorder. The brain continues to develop after birth. Therefore, early damage can often be compensated for if another part of the brain takes over the responsibilities of the damaged area. Because the brain’s ability to reorganize itself declines rapidly during the first few years of life, techniques that allow for early detection of autism are critical. Several such diagnostic methods have recently been proposed. Most of these are based on the analysis of videotapes of infants later diagnosed with autism. Autism is a developmental disorder that affects the functions of the brain. Individuals with autism most often have serious problems with social interaction and with communication and imagination, as well as unusual behavior patterns (rituals, preoccupations, and repetitive behaviors). D... ...999, March 7] Hashimoto, T., M. Tayama, K. Murakawa, and T. Yoshimoto. (1995). Development of the brainstem and cerebellum in autistic patients. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,1, 1-18. Lex, Carolyn. (February 1, 1999). Interview with a mother of an autistic child. Osterling, J., and G. Dawson. (1994). Early recognition of children with autism: A study of first birthday home videotapes. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,24, 247-258. Rasmussen, C. (1999). Sensory Integration. In Center for the Study of Autism.[Online]. Available: http://www.autism.org/si.html [1999, March 8] Teitelbaum, P., O. Teitelbaum, J. Nye, J. Fryman, and R. Maurer. (1968, November 18). Movement analysis in infancy may be useful for early diagnosis of autism. PNAS [Online]. Available: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/95/23/13982 [1999, March 7].