Child’s learning and development

Identifying the beliefs of Children ‘s Learning, Development, and the Social Influences that shaped them.A kid ‘s acquisition and development Begins from the minute they are born, the early old ages from birth to five are an of import milepost in a individual ‘s life, what a kid experiences in the early old ages has a major impact on their hereafter opportunities in life. A safe, secure and happy childhood is of import in its ain right. We can determine a kid ‘s acquisition from an early age, kids learn through experience and grownup engagement, hence interaction with babes and immature kids is basically of import, it helps to construct thoughts, creates believing and helps them develop as scholars. Babies are born with an involvement in people and a thrust to happen out about their universe. Detecting and measuring babes and immature kids is an of import footing in their acquisition and development. ‘Watching kids learn can open our eyes to the capacity of how they learn ‘ ( Pugh, 2001, p. 66 ) , and this shows us the importance of these first few old ages in a kid ‘s life. Over the decennary ‘s early instruction, policies and patterns have seen important alterations. We still use many of the earlier theories and methods through the Early Years Foundation Stage ( EYFS ) in our early instruction scenes today. The EYFS is portion of a 10 twelvemonth Childcare Strategy introduced in 2008, it relates to the Childcare Act 2006, and its purpose is to give immature kids the best start in life, it sets criterions to enable early twelvemonth ‘s suppliers to implement the rich and personalised experience many parents give their kids at place. It provides legal demands associating to larning, development, appraisals and public assistance. The EYFS rules which guide all practicians consists of four subjects ; a Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, Learning And Development. It implies that all kids from birth to five will get the same accomplishments and cognition in readying for school while at the same clip recognizing that all kids are persons that require single acquisition schemes. The building of early instruction and attention of kids and immature people dates back many old ages, every bit early as the seventeenth century. Friedrich Froebel a major theoretician was born in 1782 in Thuringia what is now Germany and was good known for stating â€Å"play is a kid ‘s work† , he formulated the thought of kindergarten intending ‘children ‘s garden ‘ as a agency of educating immature kids. Play and the out-of-door environment were of import in Froebelian kindergartens. His attack emphasized that kids are able to develop their capacity for larning through drama, and that active acquisition is indispensable with counsel and appropriate way. He believed that preparation of workers within the early old ages was indispensable, and the importance of parents as spouses in the instruction of immature kids. The influence of Froebel‘s methods are good established in early old ages scenes to day of the month, his work was one of the theories that made the footing of early instruction. Many recent theoreticians based their work on these early findings, and state, he was in front of his clip as one of the EYFS subjects and committednesss, of today provinces active acquisition. Active larning it is implemented through the acquisition and development rule of the EYFS, it provides physical and mental engagement, decision-making and individualized acquisition, and it occurs when kids are acute to larn and are interested in happening things out for themselves. Play is a dynamic procedure that develops and alterations, it provides kids with chances for developing cognitive, societal, emotional and physical accomplishments. ‘Froebelian kindergartens were seen to be in-between category ; despite this his methods were adapted for usage with deprived kids and households ‘ within developing twentieth century baby's room and infant schools. ( Pound, 2008, p. 16 ) . The first nursery school opened in Scotland in1816 by Robert Owen ( 1771-1858 ) , he was a factory proprietor who refused to use kids less than 10 old ages of age, he believed that instruction should be a common right for all kids, and that kids are inactive, contrived and by due readying and accurate attending can be formed into any human character. He managed their behavior through kindness, which in the19th century was unusual, kids every bit immature as 2 old ages attended his school. The gap of his nursery school influenced altering attitudes on kid labor, and set the footing of early instruction for immature kids. The start of the course of study method was one of Owens ‘s thoughts, his vision on education-inspired coevalss of militant ; he recognised the nexus between societal public assistance and early instruction this is an of import portion of pattern in modern twenty-four hours scenes. ‘His committednesss to instruction were extremist as were his thoughts on t he importance of equality, although his policies were a bold measure frontward, he was criticised as being rooted in his desire for net income. ( Pound, 2008, p. 13 ) ‘ ‘In the UK the development of early instruction was really slow compared to Europe, it was In 1870 that publically funded instruction became compulsory for kids age 5, the demand to understand these early childhood services is of import as they laid down the foundations of our instruction system ( Pugh, 2001, p. 8 ) ‘ During the 1960 ‘s the voluntary playgroup motion emerged. A missive sent to the Guardian by Belle Tutaev, a immature female parent of a four-year-old expressing concern to the deficiency of appropriate nursery proviso within our instruction system. For many old ages the chief agencies of early instruction was province primary schools, and this was aimed at kids over 5 old ages, after runing to the governments to no help she opened her ain playgroup, this progressed and by the 1970ss playgroups became a recognized signifier of pre-school proviso. Over the following 2 decennary ‘s the altering household forms and employment forms meant early old ages proviso were a much needed beginning, this saw the growing of private baby's rooms. Merely after a reappraisal in 1988 on early childhood and instruction services, ( The Education Reform Act ) did the authorities realise at that place was a turning job. It found defects, in uncoordinated services, which varied between different parts of the state, compared to the remainder of Europe there were low degrees of public support. It had different services ran by a diverseness of different administrations, this meant a broad scope of clients used them, all with different purposes and intents. The instruction system needed the authorities to step in. A figure of national studies was to be published, one of them the Rumbold study published in 1990, expressed concerns about instruction and the deficiency of entree to Early Years services. It highlighted the demand for the development of good quality proviso in the early old ages, and ‘believed it to be critical that all that work, or are involved with immature kids recognize the importance of their educational function and carry through it. She urged those who make proviso recognize the turning demand for and the enlargement of high quality services to run into kids and parents demands ( rumbold, 1990 ) . The study besides highlighted the manner in which immature kids learn are every bit of import as what they learn, and argued against the debut of formal acquisition. At the clip, this study was ignored but it is now used as a footing for best pattern in today ‘s Early Old ages scenes. ‘The constitution of the Early Childhood Education forum in 1993 meant conveying together all national bureaus working in the field, ‘ ( Pugh, 2001, p. 11 ) it clarified that an early twelvemonth ‘s policy is needed, and an enlargement in services, the forum gathered strength with over 45 national administrations by 1998. Its purposes were to defend kids ‘s rights and entitlements, back up the preparation development and instruction of early childhood practicians, and all those who work with kids and their households. The authorities took action and in 1995, funding for the instruction of 4 twelvemonth olds was introduced this was in the signifier of verifiers that could be redeemed in private, voluntary, or local authorization baby's rooms, the verifiers were highly criticised at the clip and was abolished in 1997 when Labour Government was elected. The election of the Labour Government brought large alterations in the manner our whole Education System was run, particularly Early Education ; its cardinal issue is to eliminate child poorness, and supply more household friendly policies and kids ‘s Centres. The Certain Start enterprise, launched in 1999 under the National Childcare Strategy plays a major function in making this, by assisting households in local communities of demand with kids under 4years old. The authorities pledged 1.4 billion lbs over 6 old ages. This meant that parents had entree to a multi bureau of services within the Certain Start Children ‘s Centres. They are now a cardinal influence within our communities assisting kids, households and society, by larning and developing life accomplishments in the early old ages so that immature kids turn up to be happy, healthy and are able to accomplish their ends in life. The Centres are at the Heart of the Every Child Matters Change for Children 2004. The green paper Every Child Matters was published in 2003, in response to a study by Lord Laming in 2001, into the decease of Victoria Climbie. Victoria was a immature miss who was horrifically abused, tortured and killed by her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao and spouse Carl Manning ; they were the people who were supposed to be caring for her. Black weaknesss within a figure of systems meant on 12 occasions over 10 months the opportunities to salvage Victoria were missed. Evidence from this Inquiry demonstrated the dangers of staff from different bureaus non carry throughing their separate and typical duties. The decease of Victoria showed a cardinal demand for an incorporate service that would be portion of a political docket for many old ages, despite the Children Act 1989 commissariats, kid protection schemes and services stayed within the societal service system, and the degree of communicating and co-operation between these and other services in wellness and instruction were v ariable. The Every Child Matters docket is recognised by five results ; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, do a positive part, and achieve economic well-being ; these results are a cosmopolitan aspiration for the authorities, and organize a strong footing for the EYFS course of study used in Early Education Settings to day of the month. The transportation of duty for kids under 8-years-old were made from the Department of Health, to the Department of Education and Skills and from 2001, an incorporate review service was introduced, conveying together all the services, enabling multi-agency working, which was an of import measure frontward. The Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership in local governments were besides introduced, assisting to increase degrees of proviso in Childcare. Working in partnership with the Local Education Authority, each authorization completed an audit, with a program to make the authorities ‘s marks for early instruction topographic points for all 3- and-4year-olds. This was made easier in the alteration of policy earlier, that allowed not maintained sectors to use for baby's room grants, ‘children in private twenty-four hours baby's rooms, pre-schools and some childminders could now entree their free half-day nursery proviso. In this manner the scheme started to undert ake the long-run split between Early Years instruction services and the child care services. ‘ ( Macelod- Brundenell, and Kay 2nd edition 2008 pg 352 ) . It has been without uncertainty that Early Education has come a long manner since Froebel in the seventeenth century, and the gap of Owen ‘s nursery school in 1816, but non many things have changed, it was apparent so that kids learn through drama and geographic expedition, and early acquisition is of import in the first five old ages. Possibly many coevalss of kids have missed out the opportunities given to immature kids of today. The EYFS has been an of import milepost for early instruction and immature kids, and is now the manner frontward in fixing a kid for school, but its existance is still in the primary phases, and many little nursery scenes may happen accommodating to these alterations and prolonging them quiet hard as the criterions and public assistance demands set are extremly high.Mentions( Department of Children Schools and Families. ( 2008 ) . The statutory Framework for the Early old ages Foundation phase Every kid affairs change for kids. Puting the criterions for Learning Development and attention for childeren from birth to five. Macelod-Brudenell Iain and Kay Janet ( 2nd Edition 2008 ) . Advance Early Old ages And Education For Foundation grades and degree 4 & A ; 5. Heinemann Oxford Pound, Linda. ( 2008 ) . How Children Learn From Montessori to Vygotsky. London: Step frontward publication. Pugh, Gillian ( 2001 ) . Contemporary Issues In The Early Old ages. Paul Chapman. London

Robert Gray

Composers often manipulate their chosen form of text to explore their concerns within the world. Throughout the poem The Late Ferry by Robert Gray the type of journey is seen to be long-term, emotional, confronting and challenging for individuals. Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree uses journey as being long-term, personal, confronting, emotional and mental. These are recognized by the usage of symbolism and metaphors. Robert Grays The Late Ferry contains a large amount of symbolism through the duration of the poem. The symbolism is what gives the audience an idea of what the journey itself is and what type of journey it may be.In the 1st stanza we see this symbolism as a mother watching her child leave her and enter the real world on their own â€Å"The late ferry is leaving now; I stay to watch from the balcony as it goes up onto the huge dark harbor†. This is exploring journey through the child leaving their mother and getting about on their own now, therefore for the child it is a journey of coming of age. Robert Gray can uncover journey to the audience by using light and darkness to juxtapose each other and showing what are the positive and negative times for the individual in this journey.The colour orange in stanza 4 is a symbolism for an element of hope. Hope that this individual will get used to be on their own and finding their way around through life â€Å"And out beyond the tomato stake patch of the yachts, with their orange lights† juxtaposed to the darkness symbolised in stanza 6 â€Å"the longer white feel nervously about in the blackness† this is also symbolic of a negative time as the person is nervous in a dark world trying to find the light to turn their world positive again.The technique shown in these quotes can be symbolism, juxtaposition and the re-occurring motif of the colour. This shows the audience when the journey can be great or when the journey can be tough. This is a way of Robert Gray showing his notion of journ ey in The Late Ferry. Shaun Tan and The Red Tree uses also uses symbolism and metaphors to create knowledge to the reader by clearly showing what journey they are on and what sort of journey it could be for the individual in the text.On the page where the girl is bottled up on a beach we can see what is happening in her life and why she is feeling this way. The writing on the page says, â€Å"no one understands† by it stating this and the picture of her to go with it we can see that the technique being used by Shaun Tan is social distance; she is distancing herself away from everyone, as no one understands her feelings she is going through. We feel as if she has been dehumanized and left to suffer, we show sympathy towards her.The notion of journey is being explored by Shaun Tan in this as we get so many emotions and right away we realise it is a personal, emotional journey. In The Red Tree we also explore journey through the image in frame 4, we are exposed to the idea that journeys can offer a change in perspective, ideals and behaviors. She is experiencing an inner emotional journey that is displayed through her being in a bottle and the message is on the shore instead of being in the bottle. This is represented through the dull colours- dark blue and black.These are symbolic of the type of journey she is on. We give empathy to this girl as we get the feeling that no one wants to talk to her and no one likes to her their emotions all bottled up. Through both the texts The Late Ferry and The Red Tree journey is explored and depicted by the usage of symbolism and colours. Although both composers are using the same techniques the type of journey is completely different to one another. Ultimately both composers clearly display in their text what is happening throughout the whole time of this experience for the individual.

Babylon Essay Research Paper In what today

Babylon Essay, Research Paper In what today is Iraq, there one time was a great civilisation known as Babylon, which at one clip could hold ruled the universe and was home to the 2nd admiration of the universe, the Hanging Gardens. Babylon was located in an ancient part surrounded by the Tigris and Euphrates River called the Mesopotamia country ( now southern Iraq near the terminal of the Fertile Crescent ) . This great civilisation foremost initiated around 3500 BC and began to crumple after the twelvemonth 323 BC. The Babylon civilization was successful because of the advanced citizens, cultural metropoliss, their engineering, and both political and legal systems. The capital of the Babylon Empire was a big metropolis in Babylon, which were place to 10,000 to 40,000 Sumerians and Semites ( names of Babylonians ) . The metropolis was discreet by a big wall to guard off any aggressors. Inside the walls there were several brilliant castles and temples utilized for mundane worship. The remainder of the metropolis had typical houses that had a cardinal courtyard established in every room. Narrow and writhing streets outside the wall at gaps located the houses where open-air markets at the bizarre took topographic point. Many people arising from two major civilisations populated Babylon: the mobile Sumerians and the cryptic Semitic. The Sumerians were the first people to settle in Babylon, after go forthing their fatherland in Sumeria, but bit by bit united with the Semitic. The Sumerians made the land into a great country to farm, rise farm animal, construct swamps, and irrigate canals. These lessons taught by the Sumerians instituted themselves in to Babylonian life. The Babylonians understood the proficient accomplishments of the Sumerians in irrigation and agribusiness. Keeping the system of canals butchs, weirs, and reservoirs exercised by their predecessors required considerable technology cognition and accomplishment. All of the tools and readyings the Sumerians used were inaugurated into Babylonian history. Due to Babylon? s location, agriculture was a methodical business necessitating great foresight, diligence, and skill. As in The Ancient Babylonian ( Davis: 4 ) , a papers written in Sumerian, but used as a text edition in the Babylon schools is a regular husbandman # 8217 ; s farmers calendar. It records a series of instructions and waies to steer farm activities from the lacrimation of the Fieldss, to the sifting of the harvested harvests. Babylon? s civilization is rather amazing. Law and justness were indispensable constructs in the Babylon manner of life. At the caput of the political construction was the male monarch, a more or less absolute sovereign who exercised legislative and judicial every bit good as executive powers. Justice was upheld by the tribunals, each of which consisted of from one to four Judgess. Often the seniors of a town constituted a court. The Judgess could non change by reversal their determinations for any ground, but entreaties from their finding of facts could be made to the male monarch. Evidence! either of statements from informants or of written paperss. Babylonian legal constructs have been inherited, in one signifier or another, by many civilisations around the universe. Babylonian art and arch itecture continues to astonish modern-day historiographers. To guarantee that their legal, administrative, and economic establishments operated efficaciously, the Babylonns used the cuneiform system of composing developed by their Sumerian predecessors. To develop their Scribes, secretaries, archivists, and other administrative forces, they used the Sumerian system of formal instruction, under which secular schools employed as the cultural centres of the land. Throughout Babylon? s history, it stayed as an independent state. However, near its terminal, others began to occupy and suppress this great civilisation. Babylon was portion of the Persian imperium from 539 B.C. until 331 B.C. when Alexander the Great took over the imperium. Alexander the Great loved Babylon so much he was able to do Babylon the capital of his imperium, but he? expired? in 323 BC and after that point the Babylon imperium began to crumple everlastingly. For case, Babylonian influence is permeant throughout the Bible and in the plants of such Grecian poets as Homer and Hesiod, in the geometry of the Grecian mathematician Euclid, in uranology, in star divination, and in heraldry. More than 1200 old ages had elapsed from the glorious reign of Hammurabi to the subjection of Babylonia by the Persians. During this long span of clip the Babylonian societal construction, economic organisation, humanistic disciplines and trades, scientific discipline and literature, judicial system, and spiritual beliefs underwent considerable alteration, but by and large merely in inside informations, non in kernel. Grounded about entirely on the civilization of Sumer, Babylonian cultural accomplishments left a deep feeling on the full antediluvian universe, and peculiarly on the Hebrews and the Greeks. Even contemporary civilisation is indebted culturally to Babylonian civilisation to some extent. On the other manus the Babylonn imperium has left us with many great promotion in many Fieldss and besides made their imperium sucessful. In decision the Babylonn imperium was one of the greatest civilisations of all time on this planet. 1.Breasted, James 1959 Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Babylon Harper and Row, New York 2.Budge, E.A. Wallis 1973 Babylon Civilization Dover Publications, Inc. , New York 3.Budge, E.A. Wallis 1976 Babylonian Ideas of the Future Life Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner A ; Co. , London 4.Davis, A. Rosalie 1982 The Ancient Babylonian Routledge A ; Kegan Paul, London 5.Davis, Charles H.S. 1894 The Babylonian G.P. Putnam? s Sons, New York 6.Jaynes, Julian 1976 The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 7.Wenke, Robert J. 1990 Patterns in Prehistory Oxford University Press, New York 8.Jantzen, Steven L. and Kringer and Neill. 1990. World History: Positions of the Past Houghton Mifflin Company, Canada. 9.Boersma, Jay 1998 Exploring Ancient World Cultures hypertext transfer protocol: //www.watson.org/rivendell/historyBabylon.html 10.Michael Smith and Sandeep Aggarwal, 1993 Ancient Civilizations hypertext transfer protocol: //home.echo-on.net/~smithda/

Select two approaches to counselling which might be useful in Essay

Select two approaches to counselling which might be useful in education, and describe their assumptions and methods. Critically discuss their relevance and suitability for counselling in schools - Essay Example A theoretical approach presents a position that regards the theory and practice of counselling. A school of counselling can be viewed as a grouping of different theoretical approaches, which are similar to each other in terms of fundamental characteristics, which distinguishes them from theoretical approaches in counselling schools. The three main schools, which influence psychotherapy practice and contemporary counselling are usually separated into three overlapping and distinct traditions or schools of theoretical approach that have informed the practice of counselling. They are the humanistic school, the psychodynamic school and the cognitive/behavioral school (Greig, 2007). The humanistic/existential school has its roots in the works of pioneers such as Rogers, Moreno, Maslow, Berne, Binswanger, May, Perls and Boss characterized by a belief in self-actualization and choice. The humanistic school sometimes incorporate existential approach hence gets the broader title humanistic-existential school. It is based on humanism, a system of beliefs and values which emphasizes the better qualities of human beings and individuals’ abilities to develop their human potential. The humanistic counselors often emphasize enhancing clients’ abilities to reason and behave in harmony with their underlying habits to actualize themselves as unique characters. Describing humanistic/existential approach to the development of mental disorders is a considerable challenge. Humanistic approaches in many aspects are philosophical in nature, speak to the nature of the individual’s condition, deal with values and prefer a holistic view of the person. The humanistic/existential approaches evolved as a reaction to the determinism of the early models of psychopathology. Many psychologists were disturbed that Freudian theory did not touch on the inner world of the client but categorized the client according to preconceived diagnoses. They described a client in terms of psychic

Lower Divison Capstone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lower Divison Capstone - Essay Example These new ventures are being opened in the lesser developed urban centers of Australia. Basic legal environment They are the factors associated with the legal environment of the firm. In Australia, there have been many changes in the legal framework of the firm such as increase in minimum wage, introduction of disability and age discrimination legislation and greater requirements of the firms to keep the standard requirements by the Law. These changes have helped JB Hi-Fi to be up to standard in offering the best services to the customers. It has also facilitated it new projects that aim at expanding the customer reach (Porter, M., 1998). Social environment Demand for a firm’s product depends on the social trends in a country, the willingness and availability affects the rate of demand. In Australia, like any other developed country, the population is aging because of increasing life expectancy and low infertility. This has resulted to very few people with the age below fiftee n years and being a threat to the company because the market is stagnant (Porter 1998). Economic environment These include taxation changes, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation and economic growth. Demand for a certain firm’s product may rise because of an increase in national income. Investments are always discouraged by increase in interest rates. Wage demand may be proved by inflation because overall demand drops. Taxation leads to increase in price because an increase pushes the price upwards thus discouraging demand, this call for new strategies to dominate the market such as starting up new ventures in other regions (Richard 2002). Managerial, operational and financial operations of the company Project management Project management defines the following: business and project goals and objectives, project purpose, scope and expectations, constrains and assumptions, roles and responsibilities, expectation and scope, project management, project budget, ground rules o f the project, the conceptual of the new advanced technology and project timeline. Many objectives and goals have resulted from implementation of this quality project by the management. These includes: market dominance, healthy competition, availing quality products at low cost, encouraging remunerations which enhances effectiveness and the ability of staff to perform their job, increases the security of the data and provides a flexible, open, reliable base for the future (Disaster Recovery 2011). Critical paths and Contingency planning In a project plan, a project schedule is the main plan included in any project management. The main purpose of project schedule is bringing project time, quality and cost under control. It also helps in linking resources such as time and task. Once the project manager has efforts estimates, work breakdown structure (WBS), he/she is fully equipped for project schedule. The risks involved in any project are avoided and analyzed by the project schedule; the Critical Path Methodology (CPM) comes in because it is one of the elements of the schedule network analysis together with Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011).

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Assignment Example Couple that with the differences in government country by country, in addition to various cultural differences, and the mutual understanding of these regional differences become even more important as we move through the 21st century. There are eight commonly defined regions in the world today, each with multiple states and cultures represented. What follows is a brief synopsis of one state in each region, its form of government, and the state of its economic growth in relation to the rest of the region. European Region Europe is typically divided into two or three separate regions due to its vast landscape, population, and cultural differences. For the purposes of the comparison, however, let us just focus on the country of Romania. The government of Romania is a form of a republic, drastically changed from the form of government in place prior to 1991. Today, Romania is in the European Union, pledging to maintain a form of democracy in their country. The president of Romania is ele cted by a popular and democratic vote. This office does have a term limitation of two terms, of five years each. Like much of Europe, the legislative body in Romania is dominated the by the Parliament, which has two distinct houses, both contained members elected via the democratic process. Romania has a sizeable military for a country of its size. . They spend 1.9% of their GDP on the military annually, which ranks them 76th in the world in terms of expenditures. While Romania has recently entered the European Union, its economy is still lagging behind that of other countries in the region. Widespread poverty exists and the country has had to receive economic reform packages from the World Bank to stay solvent. Their per capita GDP is $12,500, which ranks it 98th in the world. North American Region Mexico is a country in the North American region that has been relatively stable for decades now, even though it has its share of tumultuous times. The current system of government is th at of a federation and has been in existence since 1917. The government is representative of the people and is a hybrid of the democratic and republic forms of government. Mexico has a democracy, where the president and members of the legislative body must be elected to office by a democratic vote of the people. The Mexican military is quite sizeable due to its policy of compulsory service. All eligible males are expected to serve for a minimum of 12 months. Beyond this, however, Mexico spends little on their military – only 0.5% of their GDP. This ranks them 159th in the world. They depend on their allies, namely the United States, for assurances of protection from potential threats. Mexico’s economy has benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement and continues to grow annually. While they are the poorest country in this region of states, their annual GDP is $14,700. This ranks them as 86th in the world. Latin American Region Let us focus on the country of Ecuador when discussing states in the Latin American region. Like most countries in this region, a democratically elected president governs Ecuador. An interesting fact about Ecuador’s democracy is that voting is actually mandatory for any citizen aged 18-65 who can read. There are 130 members of the legislative branch of government, representing all provinces of Ecuador. Each of these members are elected by the people as well, serving out four year terms. Ecuador has a well-established army, navy,

What makes Rembrandt's art so loved by viewers over time Essay

What makes Rembrandt's art so loved by viewers over time - Essay Example long run, this interest made him profoundly influence innumerable artists who came; both in European and American these include Francisco Goya, Jim Dine, David Hockney and Vincent Van Gogh. Rembrandt was many times considered genius in his work, and this was as a result of the uniqueness of his work which included a range of themes that related to the life at that time the contemporary society. The many works of Rembrandt are such as The Night Watch, Self-Portrait with Two Circles, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Danae, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, Bathsheba at Her Bath among others. In considering Night watch that was a 1642 painting, is known for various aspects despite being a static military portrait. The Night Watch is a given portrait of the militia company of bold Captain Frans Cocq and Lieutenant Willem Ruytenburgh being at the center). Key elements are such as the effective use of light and shadow and perception of motion (Ackley,

International business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

International business - Essay Example 4 2.2.1 Presentation of the factors 4 2.2.2 Analysis of the factors 5 3. Conclusion 6 4. Recommendations 7 References 9 Bibliography 9 1. Introduction Globalization is considered as one of the most critical aspects of modern society. The historical development of globalization has been often related to the advances of technology. In practice, it seems that several factors have led to the globalization of markets and production worldwide. These factors are explored in this study. Emphasis is given on the key characteristics of these factors but also on their potential relationship. In addition, the different performance of these factors in regard to the promotion of globalization in different countries is discussed. It has been proved that there are certain factors that are closely related to the globalization of markets and production but their contribution in the enhancement of the globalization is not similar in countries internationally. The different cultural, political and econo mic characteristics of states seem to be responsible for the above phenomenon. 2. ... The latter form of globalization reflects the development of production standards, such as the ISO quality standards, that are respected internationally but also the potential of firms to establish their production units in foreign countries without facing resistance by the host country (Sobel 2009). 2.2 Which factors most contributing in the globalization of markets and production? 2.2.1 Presentation of the factors In the literature different factors have been found to be involved in the development of globalization, both for markets and for the production process. In regard to the globalization of markets emphasis is given on the following factors: the level of unemployment, the restrictions set for the establishment of foreigners, the economic support provided to businesses, the level of tax and the performance of the economy (Prempeh, Mensah and Adjibolosoo 2004). The educational perspectives and the chances for personal and professional development are also factors that can infl uence the decision of people to move to another country, an activity that is regarded as part of the globalization of markets (Blossfeld 2008). The globalization of markets is also affected by another fact: the number of buyers/ sellers within each market (Prempeh, Mensah and Adjibolosoo 2004). According to Vaidya (2006) the development of markets is affected by certain factors, such as the macroeconomic policies promoted by the government, the legal framework regulating business projects, the level at which a market participates in other financial markets globally and the level at which technology is promoted. As for the globalization of production, reference should be made to the

Labour market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Labour market - Essay Example AUSTRALIAN LABOUR MARKET Introduction There are several ways through which a person gains human capital. However, the two main ways are education and the second is experience or on the job training. Various skills are required to perform different jobs and the basics skills are acquired through studies or formal education. However, without experience or practice the education is not as effective. Therefore, even at work, the worker is always in the process of learning. Considering the level of skills in the labour force in Australia, the government has been consistently undertaking various projects to support the workers in various areas and trying to expand and equip the workforce. Australian Labour Market There are a number of programs and workshops to assist organizations and also to train workers such as Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL). They train workers in English language and numeracy skills linked to various jobs. Similarly, WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIAT ION, SYDNEY (WEA Sydney) has been operating for the past century assisting organizations and providing wide range of public lectures and lectures in various subjects although it has not been funded by the government a lot. Also training has expanded to fields relating to communication technology and digital communication. (IMMI, 2010) The relaxed immigration policy of Australia is the evidence that the Australian government is attracting immigrants from abroad to work in Australia as the country is deprived of fully skilled workers for respective jobs. The Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) on skill shortages conducted a research. According to the report it was found that seven out of ten Australian employers surveyed are still experiencing a skills shortage, and more than 85% believe  skilled migration  is necessary to the success of their organizations. Therefore, research results from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations are working to find out the area where the skills are lacking at state and national level as the ability to work matters on various factors such as season, geographical base and also knowledge. That is there might be a worker with a certain skill; however he or she might not be able to find the respective job in his or her locality and would be unemployed for sometime as he/ she would also not be aware of the job in some other locality. Therefore, there has been a shortage of workers in Australia. (IMMI, 2010) The Australian government therefore introduced a visa policy known as 457 visas in 1996 under which immigrants were given working opportunities in Australia. They allowed skilled people to temporarily work in Australia under an approved sponsor for up to four years. During times of economic progress the use of this policy was very effective as skillful employees invited from abroad could easily fill the demand gap. However, over the years it has undergone many changes since hiring employees from foreign countries reduces the opportunities for the local workforce. During times of the global economic recession like during 2009 the demand for the 457 visa workers fell and the usage of the policy reduced, but so did the demand for the

The Social Network Essay Example for Free

The Social Network Essay Darth Vader chose power over his love for Padme. He states that would rather rule the galaxy than raise a family with his wife. Due to his lust of power, he has lost morality to gain a higher status. Darth Vader disposes all of his potential threats, such as the younger Jedis, so that they would not block his path to gain power, not matter what the consequence. Both Darth Vader and Macbeth had a fatal flaw of power. Therefore intertextual links made via discourses still show the relevance between Elizabethan era and modern society. Archetypes are typical example of a certain person or thing. The archetypal character, Lady Macbeth, can be intertextually linked to Julia Guillard who both have the archetype of a seductress. During the play, the audience can figure out that Lady Macbeth is a seductress. A seductress can be defined as a woman who seduces or manipulates a man to get what she wants. Lady Macbeth can be seen as a seductress by manipulating Macbeths thought telling Macbeth that he is not a man because he could not provide her with any children and if he was unable to go through with the plot to murder Duncan. Macbeth was a man with a proud lineage and a reputation that has granted him the opportunity to be given titles and lands. Lady Macbeth had saw an advantage to this and convinced Macbeth that he could achieve more. Lady Macbeth wanted power and a higher status, but the only way was to force Macbeth into committing murders of higher statures. Lady Macbeth has a very prominent flaw that was her undoing. She was a partner of Macbeth in the killing of Duncan. Though she was not at the murder scene, she convinced her husband to kill Duncan as she could not commit such crimes herself. Julia Gillard can also be considered as a seductress. She meets the criteria of manipulation in order to achieve what she desires. If Gillard (along with others) had not convinced Rudd to slay the ETS, the polls wouldnt have been as terrible. Rudd wouldnt have got the chop and he may have survived, with Gillard to have logically succeeded him in time. By then climate wouldnt have been a problem for the government. But if the issue dominates the next national vote (whether it be a referendum or a general election), Gillard may, like Lady Macbeth, have created her own undoing. - (5) Julia Gillard manipulated Kevins into slaying the ETS, which has lead to Kevins downfall. It was not necessary for Julia to lead Kevin to his downfall as she would have become Prime Minister in time. However, her ambition of having a higher status in politics was strong, hence creating a flaw in her government, leading to her downfall. Both women have seduced their partners into becoming something greater, leading to their downfall. The audience can easily identify both women being the archetypal character of a seductress. Despite the fact that it Shakespearean plays were written over 400 years ago, it is still relevant to modern society. It is evident that the genre of tragic hero can still be found in modern texts such as The Scarlet letter. In addition, discourses of betrayal and lust for power apparent to films such as Star Wars and The Social Network which can intertextually linked to Macbeth. The audiences are able to recognise the archetypal seductress in Julia Gillard and Lady Macbeth. Through genre, discourses and archetype characters, the audience can still identify the intertexual links between the Elizabethan era and modern text. Reference list 1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Published on March 1981 2. The Social Network directed by David Fincher Columbian Pictures, 2010 3. Macbeth by William Shakespeare 4. Star Wars episode 3: revenge of the sith directed by George Lucas 2005 5. http://www. theage. com. au/opinion/lady-gillard-must-confront-climate-change-20110228-1bb3u. html, The age, Bella Counihan, Lady Gillard must confront climate change  http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/lady-gillard-must-confront-climate-change-20110228-1bb3u.html

Factors Affecting Empathy: Theories Analysis

Factors Affecting Empathy: Theories Analysis Empathy can be described as â€Å"taking the role of the other and seeing the other from his or her internal frame of reference† (Eagle Wolitzky, 2004, p. 217). In recent years, it has been one of the most popular topics in the field of psychology. Empathy is considered to be one of the most important skills in communication, connection and trusting others. To gain better understanding new studies concerning neuroscientific, developmental and social side of empathy were conducted. Empirical evidence showed that empathy is rather a multidimensional construct and can be divided into two concepts: cognitive empathy and affective (emotional) empathy. Cognitive empathy can be subdivided into perspective taking and fantasy as well as affective empathy can be subdivided into empathic concern and personal distress (Davis, 1983). However, as empathy is a quite complex process it has not been fully agreed whether cognitive and affective systems exist at all and if they do whether they interact or work as two separate systems. Despite all the contradictory and confusion concerning empathy it would be impossible to understand what regions of brain are active in the process of empathy, what is the mirror neurons purpose in this, how parenting and personal characteristics affect the development of empathy and how loneliness or personal distress influence empathy if the discipline of psychology didn’t pay so much attention to this crucial process. As it was mentioned before, in the development of empathy parenting and attachment style can be crucial factors which determine how empathic a child will be in later life. Taylor et al. (Taylor, Eisenberg, Spinrad, Eggum, Sulik, 2013) conducted a study to examine how ego-resiliency, parental support of emotional expression and sensitivity to children needs affect development of empathy in children aged 18-84 months. Moreover, it was expected that increased empathy would have an impact on prosocial behaviour in later childhood. Sample of 242 children were used and it was found that encouragement to express emotions as well as ego-resiliency at 18 months predicts increased empathy at 24 months. Furthermore, researchers found that growth in empathy also increased prosocial behaviour at the 72/84 months. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that only reports were used in the study which makes it less accurate. Also, it is possible that genes have an impact on development of empathy and mother might transfer it to a child. That could explain why mothers who are more empathic, more sensitive and encourages expressing emotions have children who score higher results in empathy tests. Another study partly supporting the previous one was conducted in Netherlands and consisted only of 16-22 months old girls. Researchers examined parental sensitivity, attachment style and its’ impact on empathic concern both at home and in the laboratory (Mark, IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2002). Van der Mark et al. (2002) found that empathy towards a mother increased from 16 to 22 months, however, empathic concern towards strangers decreased. Fearfully and insecurely attached girls found to be less empathic later on. Furthermore, this research found that sensitive parenting has no effect upon empathy. It contradicts the study mentioned above as well as a few other investigations which found that parenting is an important part of the development of empathy (Robinson et al ., 1994). The confusion might have appeared because of a sensitive development of empathy in this age group. It is important to remember that the study involved only girls and used quite narrow age group which prevents this research to be applied for a wider population. Taylor et al. (2013) in the previous study found that initially boys are less empathic; however, it increases with time and stabilizes in toddlerhood. Inconsistent finding and specific research sometimes can confuse and rise more questions rather than give answers. For this reason it is possible to find more articles supporting or disproving hypotheses. For instance, another study consisting 678 adolescents and their both parents were conducted in Belgium. Even though this research took a step further and examined older participants, it also took another perspective and looked at how perceived both parents need supportive parenting impacted emotional and cognitive empathy systems (Soenens, Miklikowska, Duriez, 2011) . Soenens et al. (2011) found that father’s need support with time affected perspective taking or in other words cognitive empathy in both, boys and girls. On the other hand, it was found that only girls’ empathic concern (emotional empathy) were affected by mother’s need support. The research shows that supportive parenting is important for development of empathy. Furthermore, Soenens et al. (2011) emphasizes the importance to divide empathy into emotional and cognitive in order to understand better the origins of empathy. Yet, this study didn’t include how parents perceived their own parenting style or what people, who know the adolescents, think about their emphatic skills. After all, evidence suggests that sensitive, need supportive parenting, secure attachment and individual characteristics are of great importance to the development of empathy. Even though some finding are inconsistent and contradict the other ones it was proved more than once that p arenting has a huge impact on both, cognitive and emotional empathy. However, it is useful to consider neuroscientific part of empathy and how genes or brain injuries can affect development as well as different systems working in the process of empathy. The field of developmental psychology helped us to understand how important maternal and paternal authority can be but it is not the only area of psychology which improved our understanding of empathy. Another field, which must be introduced when it is talked about empathy, is neuropsychology. Different areas of brain, mirror neuron system are known to be activated in the process of empathy and have been studied by neuroscientists for quite a long time. Now we can tell why autistic people or those who are diagnosed with schizophrenia have difficulty understanding how another person feels. One study tried to examine what regions of brain are activated in self-orientation and orientation to others and how direct gaze affects empathy (Schulte-Rà ¼ther, Markowitsch, Fink, Piefke, 2007). It was hypothesized that in the task of assigning emotions to yourself and to others Theory of Mind (ToM) mechanism would be activated as well as human Mirror Neuron System (hMNS), however they expected that different parts would be activated on different occasions (attributing emotions to yourself and attributing emotions to another person). Schulte-Rà ¼ther et al. (2007) also assumed that direct ga ze into a person would trigger empathy. 26 subjects looked at pictures with other people either looking directly to them or looking away and had to tell what they think a person is feeling and what they think they are feeling. Schulte-Rà ¼ther et al. (2007) using fMRI found that telling what you feel and what another feels activate brain regions related to emotional processing, hMNS and ToM mechanisms. Furthermore, researchers found that in both tasks Broca’s area is activated which is extremely close to mirror neurons. However, human brain is very complex organ and several different areas can be responsible for the same function, so it is still unclear which areas are responsible for cognitive and which for affective empathy as well as how they communicate to each other. On the other hand, it is not the only research which tries to uncover neurological side of empathy. For instance, Shamay-Tsoory et al. (Shamay-Tsoory, Aharon-Peretz, Perry, 2009) carried out a research to determine whether emotional and cognitive empathy are two independent systems controlled by different neurological bases. 64 subjects with brain damage in two different brain regions participated in the study. Researchers found that inferior frontal gyrus cortice is responsible for emotional empathy and ventromedial prefrontal cortice, for cognitive empathy. Study results support the research mentioned before on the importance of Broca’s area and. It was found that this area is most significant in emotional empathy and it also is essential element of hMNS. Shamay-Tsoory et al. (2009) also found Brodman area 10 (anterior prefrontal cortex) and 11(orbitofrontal area) to be the most crucial in cognitive empathy. Thus, emotional and cognitive empathy are two distinct systems controlled by different brain regions. Nevertheless, it is not clear if those two systems overlap in our brain. Both studies hold strong evidence of mirror neuron system’s impact on emotional empathy. However, we cannot forget that there are neural networks and temporal poles involved into the process of empathy. Financial Ratio Calculations | Profitability Calculations Financial Ratio Calculations | Profitability Calculations Financial ratios are useful indicators of a firms performance and financial situation. Most ratios can be calculated from information provided by the financial statements. Financial ratios can be used to analyse trends and to compare the firms financials to those of other firms. Sometimes, ratio analysis can predict future bankruptcy of a business. As we can see the performance of Systems Integrated PLC is related to the areas of profitability, efficiency and liquidity. First of all, the profitability of a company is clearly shown through the Return on Capital Employed ratio (R.O.C.E) and the gross profit percentage, the second one is reduced from 2009 to 2010 but about the first we can say that is getting higher. Moreover, we have the gross profit margin ratio and we can see that year by year is getting lower and this is not good for our business .Profitability depends on the obsolescence/damage/theft, or even the under/overvaluation of stock. Also, it depends on the general fall or increase in selling price. Utility companies tend to have low R.O.C.E ratios because of the high investments in fixed assets. For example, a high R.O.C.E may be due to the fact that some firms are using old-aged assets which are almost fully depreciated. Liquidity 4) Acid Test = (Current Assets Inventors) / Current Liabilities = (1822 935) / 1313 = 0.67:1 5) Inventory Holding Period = (Average Inventory / Cost of Sales) * 365 = [(850 + 935) / 2] / 7540 = 43 days 6) Customer Collection Period = (Debtors / Sales) * 365 = (842 / 11178) * 365 = 27 days 7) Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities = 1822 / 1313 = 1.4:1 8) Suppliers Payment Period = (Suppliers / Purchases) * 365 = (1313 / 7625) * 365 = 63 days 9) Interest Cover = EBIT / Interest Expense = 1366 / 105 = 13 times Secondly, liquidity is mostly shown by the current ratio and the acid test ratio. A current ratio of 2.5:1 is considered to be adequate. In addition to this, a high current ratio indicates that the firm is tying up its resources in unproductive assets. Also, indicates slow moving stock and slow paying customers. The sufficiency of a current ratio depends on the composition of the current assets and how soon the short/long term obligations have to be settled. Also an acid test ratio of 1.1:1 is considered to be sufficient, too. The numerator of a liquidity ratio is part or all of current assets. Possibly the most common liquidity ratio is the current ratio . The problem with the current ratio as a liquidity ratio is that inventories, a current asset, may not be converted to cash for several months, while many current liabilities must be paid within 90 days. Thus a more conservative liquidity ratio is the acid test ratio. Efficiency 10) Fixed Assets usage = Net Sales / Fixed Assets = 11178 / 2832 = 3.9 times 11) Total Assets usage = Net Sales / Total Assets = 11178 / 4653.5 = 2.4 times Lastly, efficiency is another important fact in a company. It is combined in three periods: the customers collection period, the suppliers payment period and the inventory holding period. We can see that at the fixed assets usage ratio of System Integrated plc has increased from the 2.9 of the industry to 3.9 times. In the second ratio, the total asset usage, System Integrated plc has almost the same percentage with the industry and this is good news for our company because is a very good percentage. The fact that some firms holding period is obsolete and that they have a slow moving stock is completely because of the high inventory holding specific period. Although, these firms aim at reducing this ratio so they could be more efficient and productive. Accounting is the language of business and its numbers are pertinent convey financial information. A lot of people are confused with the accounting numbers. The importance is high to know and to learn how to find meaning in those numbers because it helps you to understand where your business is going. Measuring accounting numbers and business transactions need a context to be significant. A list of numbers doesnt mean much without knowing what you are looking at. You can find meaning about the accounting numbers by looking at the description labels, such as customers names, account names or vendor names. Moreover accounting numbers are usually used for analysis and to answer questions. For example if you want to know how much rent expenses you have left in your budget, you need to look at accounting numbers. They can provide you prà ©cis information about how much rent you have spent and how much you have left cover. Accounting quantifies operations and gives people the aptitude to see a situation from a different viewpoint. You can make important decisions if you look your sales numbers for the year and when you mix that with expenses, you can gain many issues, such as if the expenses are too high for sales or if payroll its usually low. Furthermore, accounting numbers help us in many ways. For instance by looking at accounting numbers you can easily recognise old accounts receivable that you have to collect and also with the accounts you know who owes you and for how long. These numbers and accounts are helpful and valuable to any organization or a business. On the other hand, accounting number have their weaknesses too. We consider many reasons and factors for weaknesses in numbers in financial statements. Some factors are: the creative accounting, the off balance sheet financing, bias, the managerial pressures and objectivity. Creative accounting it is a firm of misrepresenting the performance and position of a business. This means that accountants apply particular accounting methods to a transaction to make statements look the way they want them to look. Companies are free to choose which policies to apply, so there is a space in regulations to perform creative accounting. One of the most important things is that some planned attempts to materially misstate accounting figures are illegal. The most common examples include tax evasion schemes. Besides that, some Off-balance sheet financing issues occur when the accountant does not put everything on the balance sheet. Usually Off-balance sheet financing aims in making the business to seem more valuable by inflating the value of assets and does not include some liabilities. Additionally we have Bias who is causing the nepotism of the preferences or partial. Bias influences with an unfair way users of accounting information. Bias is also broken up in categories of Disclosure bias, Estimation bias, Attributional bias, Judgement bias. Inventors are usually influenced by disclosure bias and estimation bias lead auditors to verify false information. Bias does not affect only numerically but it also affects narrative reporting which represents the image and icon of a business management. Judgement bias affects the financial reporting subliminally, inaccuracies might also occur from unconscious bias. Accounting decisions require professional judgement. Ambiguity builds upon concept of representation and occurs of the representation of accrual accounting and cash flow. The problem that is made by ambiguity is that ambiguity surrounds accounting numbers and so numbers does not actually exist but are estimated. If you are looking to make your own financial ratio calculations then take a look at our Financial Ratio Calculator Environment Essay: Climate Change Disease Environment Essay: Climate Change Disease The Effects of Global Warming and Climate Change on Infectious Disease Patterns Climate Change The earth’s atmosphere was first equated to that of a greenhouse in 1827 by Jean Baptiste Fourier (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). The ‘greenhouse effect’ describes the natural ability of the earth’s atmosphere and associated gases to retain heat radiated from the sun (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Upon arrival in the earth’s atmosphere, the sun’s radiation is absorbed providing a warming effect to the earth’s climate (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). A large portion of the absorbed radiation is reemitted back into the earth’s atmosphere for release (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Earth’s ‘greenhouse gases’, namely methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and perfluorocarbons serve as a barrier to the release of much of the reemitted radiation from the earth’s surface (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Although the ‘greenhouse effect’ and the associated ‘greenhouse gase s’ allow for the sustainability of life on earth, an overabundance of these gases has caused the emergence of global warming (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Since the turn of the twentieth century, global temperatures have increased by 0.6 °C as depicted in Figure I (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2002). Future Figure I. Increases in the average global temperature from 1880 to 2002. Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies predictions surrounding global temperature increases during the next century allude to a 2 °C to 6 °C increase (Climate Action Network Canada, n.d.). Because of its northern geography, the effects of global warming in Canada are expected to be more severe than other parts of the world with temperature increases forecasted between 6 °C and 10 °C (Climate Action Network Canada, n.d.). In northern Canada, birds foreign to the region, such as robins, are becoming more prevalent (Climate Action Network Canada, n.d.). Polar bears and other artic creatures are losing their habits to global warming due to the excessive melting of ice (Climate Action Network Canada, n.d.). As a result of the warming of the earth’s atmosphere, other climatic events have become more prevalent, hence the concept of climate change (Nugent, 2004). Specifically, extreme weather events and precipitation levels have risen and are expected to continue in an upward trend (Nugent, 2004). In the past decade, extreme weather events in Canada have drastically increased from less than 20 at the turn of the twentieth century to nearly 140 in 1999 (refer to Figure II) (Environment Canada, 2005). To compound on the increased prevalence of extreme weather events, by 2070, precipitation levels in Canada are expected to rise between 5 Figure II. Increases in extreme weather events over the past century as a result of global warming. Source: Environmental Canada and 25 percent as illustrated in Figure III (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). As a result of global warming and the subsequent increases in extreme weather events and precipitation levels, Figure IIII. Future predictions reveal substantial increases in precipitation amounts in Canada. Source: Natural Resources Canada alterations in infectious disease patterns are also anticipated (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Because the scope and consequences of global warming are complex and expand far beyond the increases in global temperatures, extreme weather events, and precipitation amounts, the remainder of this paper will focus on the interaction between climate change and infectious disease patterns in North America, especially Canada. Infectious Diseases To fully understand the connection between climate change and infectious disease patterns, a basic understanding of infectious diseases is needed. By definition, â€Å"infectious diseases are caused by invading organisms called pathogens [†¦such as†¦] bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and molds† (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). For a pathogen to produce disease, it requires the presence of three elements: host, environment, and time (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). This relationship is beautifully depicted in the epidemiologic triangle as seen in Figure IV (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Because the interaction between pathogens Time Figure IV. The epidemiologic triangle illustrates the connectedness and dependency of the host (disease-causing pathogen) on its environment and host. Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the environment is integral to the development, sustainability, and virulence of infectious diseases, climatic changes caused by global warming will alter the disease patterns of infectious pathogens (WHO, 2003). Specifically, increases in atmospheric temperatures, precipitation, humidity, and extreme weather events due to global warming will significantly change the environments in which infectious disease pathogens survive therefore altering their disease patterns (WHO, 2003). Infectious diseases can be grouped into four main categories based on their preferred environment and mode of transmission (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). Waterborne, foodborne, vector-borne, and rodent-borne infectious diseases are all caused by pathogens with varying environmental preferences (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). The prevalence and distribution of each of the four categories of infectious diseases has currently changed or is predicted to change as a result of global warming and climate change (Nugent, 2004). The next section of this paper will briefly discuss waterborne, foodborne, vector-borne, and rodent-borne infectious diseases respectively in relation to geographic spread, severity, and incidence rates. Waterborne Diseases Waterborne diseases are transmitted by pathogens that thrive in wet environments (Nugent, 2004). These pathogens are extremely sensitive to climate changes, namely water and temperature variations (Nugent, 2004). The climatic changes caused by global warming, specifically increases in precipitation and global temperatures will provide an ideal environment for waterborne disease pathogens to thrive (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Therefore, the prevalence of waterborne diseases is predicted to rise due to the increase in the associated disease-causing pathogens and excessive levels of precipitation (Nugent, 2004). Among the effects of global warming, larger quantities of precipitation will increase the chance of contamination in surface runoff water and groundwater (Nugent, 2004). Because of deforestation and the subsequent urbanization of many regions in North America, the amount of surface runoff water has increased (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Traveling long distances over urbanized surfaces, such as concrete, asphalt, and tar, increases the likelihood of water contamination from chemicals present at the surface (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Groundwater contamination is primarily a result of pesticide and herbicide use and the increased seepage into the soil due to excessive precipitation (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Substantial amounts of contaminated surface runoff water and groundwater may cause water treatment facilities to overflow, allowing a source of tainted water to enter into a region’s drinking and recreational water supplies (Nugent, 2004). Recent Canadian outbreaks of waterborne dise ases include â€Å"[†¦] E.coli in Walkerton, Ontario; Cryptosporidium in Collingwood, Ontario; and Toxoplasma in the greater Victoria area, British Columbia† (Natural Resources of Canada, 2007). The causes of these outbreaks can be traced back to surface water and groundwater contamination (Natural Resources of Canada, 2007). To quantify the risk posed by contaminated surface water and groundwater, the American Journal of Public Health published an alarming report, stating that â€Å"of the 548 waterborne disease outbreaks reported between 1948 and 1994 [in the United States], 133 were known to be from surface water contamination, 197 were known to be form groundwater contamination, and 218 had an unknown water contamination source† (Curriero, Patz, Rose, Lele, 2001). As precipitation levels continue to escalate as a result of global warming, the prevalence of waterborne diseases and their associated pathogens will subsequently rise. Foodborne Diseases Foodborne diseases can originate from two possible sources: (1) the exposure of food products to contaminated water and (2) the growth of disease-causing pathogens within various food products (Nugent, 2004). Increased amounts of tainted water combined with warmer temperatures provide an ideal breeding ground for algae (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Oceans and lakes contaminated with algae pose a threat to the surrounding aquatic wildlife and the creatures in the upper hierarchy of the food chain. Among other marine wildlife, fish and mussels are most at-risk for algae contamination (Nugent, 2004). Human consumption of algal contaminated fish and mussels can result in waterborne disease transmission (Nugent, 2004). Such an incident occurred 21 years ago in Prince Edward Island when â€Å"[†¦] 107 people were hospitalized and four died as a result of eating contaminated mussels† (Nugent, 2004). Other foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables are also prone to contamination from tainted water used for cleaning and irrigation purposes (Nugent, 2004). An example occurred â€Å"in 1997, [when†¦] 150 Michigan students and teachers contracted the foodborne disease Hepatitis A after eating imported strawberries† (Nugent, 2004). In addition to water contamination, foodborne diseases can originate from the development of disease-causing pathogens within the food itself (Nugent, 2004). Warmer temperatures caused by global warming may entice people to remain outdoors for greater periods, potentially putting themselves at-risk of consuming food that has been left without refrigeration (Nugent, 2004). Vector-Borne Diseases Disease-causing pathogens transmitted from insects to humans are referred to as vector-borne diseases (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). Vector-borne disease patterns will feel the effects of global warming more than any other type of infectious disease since â€Å"the most common vectors, arthropods, are cold-blooded, meaning that their internal temperature is greatly affected by the temperature of their environment† (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Climatic consequences of global warming will directly impact the vectors’ breeding and growth rates as well as the length of biting season and exposure to humans (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). Furthermore, increases in global temperatures and precipitation will stimulate the production, growth and transmission of the pathogens that vectors transmit (WHO, 2003). Therefore, vectors and the pathogens they carry are predicted to increase in prevalence in climates that have experienced or are predicted to experience an increase in average seasonal temperatures as a result of global warming (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). To further the effect of warmer temperatures on the production and growth rates of various vectors, floods and heavy rainfall produced by global warming can leave behind standing pools of water which make ideal habitats for breeding and growth (Landrigan Garg, 2002). The effects of global warming and climate change on vector-borne disease patterns have already become evident in Canada. Currently, the Canadian environment can sustain a variety of vector-borne diseases including West Nile virus, encephalitis, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). Between 2002 and 2006, Canada reported and identified approximately 2,300 human cases of West Nile Virus (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2007). Warmer Canadian winters allow mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus and encephalitis to survive through the winter months increasing their reproductive season and subsequent growth and biting rates (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). Lyme disease, carried by ticks is already present in much of the United States with sporadic occurrences in Canada (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). If the warming trends associated with global warming continue, the migration of ticks and their associated diseases to Canada will occur in the ne ar future (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). Vector-borne diseases not present in epidemic proportions in North America, such as malaria, the plague, and yellow fever have the potential for reemergence if current global warming patterns do not subside (Nugent, 2004). Rodent-Borne Diseases Rodent-borne diseases are transmitted to humans by rats, chipmunks, and squirrels (Nugent, 2004). The primary effect of global warming on disease-carrying rodents is a disruption or alteration to their food supply (Nugent, 2004). Food may become scare in regions experiencing droughts forcing rodents to relocate to other regions with a greater abundance of food (Nugent, 2004). In areas experiencing increased amounts of precipitation, such as Canada, the potential for survival, reproduction, and growth will increase for rodents inhabiting the region (Nugent, 2004). A shift in geographical location of disease-carrying rodents will disrupt the natural rodent-borne disease patterns associated with an area. In Canada, a shift in the geographical range of deer mice has caused the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome to spread to regions in the Yukon, where its presence has never been experienced (Natural Resources Canada, 2007). Shift in Disease Prevalence Over the past century, the western culture has seen a tremendous shift in prevalence from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. At the turn of the nineteenth century, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and influenza attributed to nearly 30 percent of all deaths in the United States (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). Currently, cancer and heart disease cause almost 74 percent of all deaths in the United States (Merrill Timmreck, 2006). The effects of global warming on infectious diseases patterns could cause a reversal in disease prevalence, from chronic diseases back to infectious diseases (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). Warmer temperatures and wetter climates create ideal breeding grounds for waterborne, foodborne, vector-borne, and rodent-borne disease pathogens (Nugent, 2004). Increasing the quantity of the disease-causing pathogens and the medium in which they survive could cause a reemergence of selected infected diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, and the plague in regions experiencing dra matic temperature shifts (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). Effects on the Canadian Health Care System Because global warming involves a complex array of environmental processes and consequences, its future trends and resulting climatic effects are difficult to predict (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). The subsequent changes in infectious disease patterns caused by global warming will be just as difficult to predict as global warming itself (Khasnis Nettleman, 2005). Therefore, the efforts of health officials and environmental specialists to predict and prepare for the effects of global warming on the environment and on human health will be primarily based on predictions. To best predict and prepare for the future outcomes of global warming, a wide array of specialists must be involved (Shope, 1991). Environmental specialists, such as meteorologists, biologists, and ecologists are required to predict the future climatic outcomes of global warming (Shope, 1991). Once predictions have been made by the environmental specialists, a wide array of health officials can attempt to forecast the res ulting disease patterns. Epidemiologists will be involved in identifying the distribution and determinants of infectious diseases as well as the control and prevention process (Bartfay, 2008). In conjunction with the epidemiologists, public health officials can communicate the predictions and findings of the epidemiologists, various health researchers, and environmental specialists to the public and other national and internal authorities (Bartfay, 2008). This process has currently been utilized in Canada in response to the emergence of West Nile virus (Landrigan Garg, 2002). Subsequent to the predictions of various environmental specialists and health officials regarding the changes in climatic conditions and infectious disease patterns, clinicians and hospital officials can prepare treatments and vaccines to counteract the shift in infectious diseases. Since most of the infectious diseases that have the potential for reemergence in North America have been previous eradicated from the continent, current vaccines are nonexistent (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). Due to the lack of vaccines and subsequent immunity, the North American culture is at risk for contracting and transmitting a wide array of infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, and the plague (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). Developing and implementing vaccines is a crucial step in protecting the public from a widespread, fatal epidemic (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). In the occurrence of an infectious disease outbreak, hospital personnel and health officials need to have the proper treatments and pr ocedures available to the public to avoid widespread morbidity and mortality. In short, the North American health care systems can expect to see a shift in disease prevalence. As a result of global warming, infectious diseases have the potential to become more prevalent. To effectively respond, infectious disease treatments and facilities need to be devised and implemented into health care systems across the continent. Furthermore, medical schools need to revise their curriculum to incorporate additional training for infectious disease treatment and prevention. Conclusion Global warming and the resulting climatic conditions is an issue that should have been attended to ‘yesterday’. Since consequences directly affect human health and associated ecosystems, global warming has become a worldwide crisis. Increases in temperature, extreme weather events, and precipitation create ideal breeding and growth habitats for many infectious disease-causing pathogens (Nugent, 2004). Among other diseases, infectious diseases transmitted through water, food, vector, and rodent sources are most at risk for being disrupted and altered (Nugent, 2004). Due to current and predicted global warming trends, northern climates could see a reemergence of a variety of infectious diseases including malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile virus (Nugent, 2004). In response to the shift, North American health care systems need to devise and implement associated vaccines, treatments, and facilities to effectively manage the newly reemerged infectious diseases. Because many infectious diseases have been eradicated from North America, the lack of immunity in the western culture could cause a continental or global epidemic with fatal outcomes (Longstreth Wiseman, 1989). To avoid the spread of infectious diseases, a collaboration of efforts between environmental specialists, health officials, and the public is necessary. Without the combined efforts from the global population, global warming and its subsequent health and climatic effects will eventually destroy mankind. As put in the words of Al Gore, â€Å"we are entering a period of consequences† (Gore, 2005). References Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.) Understanding the Epidemiologic Trianglethrough Infectious Disease. Retrieved March 13, 2008, fromhttp://www.bam.gov/teachers/activities/epi_1_triangle.pdf. Climate Action Network Canada. (n.d.) A Climate Change Primer. Retrieved March 14, 2008,from http://www.climateactionnetwork.ca/e/issues/cc-primer.html. Curriero, F. C., Patz, J. A., Rose, J. B., Lele, S. (August, 2001). The Association BetweenExtreme Precipitation and Waterborne Disease Outbreaks in the United States, 19481994. American Journal of Public Health, 91. Retrieved March 4, 2008, fromhttp://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/91/8/1194?maxtoshow=HITS=10hits=10RESULORMAT=fulltext=waterborne+disease+outbreaks+between+1948+and+1994andoreactfulltext=andsearchid=1FIRSTINDEX=0sortspec=relevanceresourcetype=HCIT. Environment Canada. (May, 2005). Temperature and Precipitation: Indicators of ClimateChange. Retrieved March 12, 2008, fromhttp://www.ecoinfo.org/env_ind/region/climate/climate_e.cfm. Gore, A. (September 5, 2005). Notable Quotes – Quotes on Global Warming. Retrieved March 7,2008, from http://www.notable-quotes.com/g/global_warming_quotes.html. Khasnis, A. A., Nettleman, M. D. (April, 2005). Global Warming and Infectious Disease.Achieves of Medical Research, 36. Retrieved February 26, 2008, fromhttp://academic.evergreen.edu/cirricular/per/downloads/khasnisnettleman2005.pdf. Landrigan, P., Garg, A. (July 2002). Climate Change and Infectious Disease. The GreenGuide. Retrieved March 6, 2008, fromhttp://www.thegreenguide.com/docprint.mhtml?i=91s=landrigan. Longstreth, J., Wiseman, J. (1989). The potential impact of climate change on patterns ofinfectious disease in the United States. In The potential effects of global climate changeon the United States: Appendix G Health. Retrieved March 3, 2008, fromhttp://www.ciesin.org/docs/001-488/001-488.html. Merrill, R. M., Timmreck, T. C. (2006). Introduction to epidemiology: Fourth edition.Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. (2002). GISS Surface Temperature Analysis –Global Temperature Trends: 2002 Summation. Retrieved March 15, 2008, fromhttp://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2002/. Natural Resources Canada. (October, 2007). Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: ACanadian Perspective – Health Effects of Climate Change and Climate Variability.Retrieved March 15, 2008, from http://www.adaptation.rncan.gc.ca/perspective/health_3_e.php. Natural Resources Canada. (October, 2007). Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: ACanadian Perspective – Looking to the Future. Retrieved March 15, 2008, fromhttp://adaptation.nrcan.gc.ca/perspective/intro_2_e.php. Nugent, Olivia. (April, 2004). Climate Change and Human Health. In Primer On ClimateChange and Human Health (chapter 2). Retrieved February 27, 2008, fromhttp://www.pollutionprobe.org/Reports/climatechangeprimer.pdf. Public Health Agency of Canada. (November 30, 2007). Current Report Week and Year-to-DateTotal West Nile Virus Cases: 2007. West Nile Virus Monitor. Retrieved March 6, 2008,from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/wnv-vwn/mon-hmnsurv_e.html. Shope, R. (1991). Global Climate Change and Infectious Diseases. Environmental HealthPerspectives, 96. Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://www.ciesin.org/docs/001-366/001-366.html. World Health Organization. (2003). Climate Change and Infectious Diseases. In Climate Changeand Human Health – Risks and Responses (chapter 6). Retrieved February 25, 2008, fromhttp://www.euro.who.int/document/gch/climchsum0903e.pdf.

Mother Courage and Capitulation Essay -- English Literature Essays

Mother Courage and Capitulation Brecht tells the reader that capitulation is not just an idea but a feeling and the reader's objection to the world is not as strong as it once was. He tells the reader this through Mother Courage's refusal to capitulate through out the entire work. In today's world, people like Mother Courage cannot relate to capitulation as a feeling because of the regulations that today's world has that Mother Courage's world did not. As technology advances in today's world, people place more and more restraints on individual's and society's personal freedoms and choices, such as the decision to refuse to capitulate. Mother Courage's extremely strong will and refusal to capitulate allowed her children to be killed, a mother's worst nightmare. She did what she had to do to survive and move on after each child's death. In today's world, women cannot make the kind of choices that Mother Courage made. This is because if a mother decided to make a decision that allowed for her survival but in turn the death of her children. If something like this were to happen, the government would step in and take the children away or imprison the mother for abuse. The idea of capitulation cannot be a feeling like Mother Courage had because, people in today's world cannot obtain the idea of refusal to capitulate without the repercussions that society has placed on refusing to capitulate especially when the lives of one's children is involved. In addition, there are gre...

Comparing Alcoholism in Grace and Dubliners :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Alcoholism in Grace and Dubliners What does it mean to be in a state of drunkenness? A person who is inebriated views his surroundings in a surreal fashion; reality exists on the periphery. The drunk is by default interacting with the world on an inferior level as opposed to those who are sober. Alcoholism is also a chronic debilitating disease. It resonates outward from the individual to all those that he has contact within his life. Joyce utilizes the character of the drunk in many of the stories in Dubliners, hardly a story skips a mention of drink. Among despair, isolation and dependence, alcoholism is a theme that runs through all the stories. Alcoholism is the focus in "Grace" where Joyce takes the symbolic alcoholic and shows us what Joyce believes is a part of the problem plaguing Dublin. When we first meet Tom Kernan, we are not even told his name. Kernan is an anonymous being-a drunk that is not differentiated from any other drunk. In his alcohol-induced state he is barely human. "He lay curled up at the foot of the stairs down which he had fallen...his clothes were smeared with the filth and ooze of the floor on which he had lain...a thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth" (Joyce 150). Kernan has quite literally fallen but also has fallen morally and spiritually. The crowd that surrounds him fairs better only in comparison to him. Instead of seeking immediate help, they all query as to what is his name. Who he is, is obvious, he is a drunk. Yet there is an unwillingness to address this by the crowd. The reason why he is lying on the floor is present but not acknowledged. Is this evasion part of the essence that makes up the people of Dublin? Surely it is for repeatedly the reader is shown or referenced alcohol but direct acknowledgment does not come. "'That's ugly'" (Joyce 153) we are told by Mr. Powers who has just been shown Kernan's bitten tongue. What exactly though is ugly? Solely the bitten tongue or the defeated man or the inhabitants of Dublin? Perhaps it is all of them. Kernan's physical maladies are demonstrative of his mental affliction. At first he has fallen, then his anonymousness persists because he cannot speak. He cannot speak at first because of the level of intoxication but also as we learn because of his bitten tongue.

The Name “Estella” in Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

The Name â€Å"Estella† in Great Expectations    The name of the characters in a Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, is very important. In the case of Estella, the name indicates her personality, her relation with other characters and even the way in which she moves along the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Spanish, the word for star is â€Å"estrella†.   Since Spanish is a â€Å"romance† language, estrella is undoubtedly derived from the Latin word for star.   Stars are cold but beautiful to see. The same is true for Estella: she has a cold personality but she is very pretty. Estella was given to Miss Havisham at night - which is when stars appear. The first time Estella appears is in chapter 8, in the Pip’s first visit to Miss Havisham's house. The first impression Pip has about Estella is also characterized by ambiguity: he thinks she is pretty but she is proud. Miss Havisham obliges Estella to play cards with Pip. The first time that the card game appears the battle of sexes occurs since, after her frustrated marriage, Miss Havisham educates Estella to scorn men and in the card game Miss Havisham wants to see a victory of a woman over a man. Estella wins but the most important thing here is that Estella does no t want to play with Pip because she thinks he is common. This shows the pride and the superiority in which Estella is presented in her relation to Pip, and it's also important because, from this moment, Pip wants to be educated to be at the same level that Estella – he hopes that he can reach out and touch a star. Stella (without the first 'e') is the name of Sydney's beloved. Probably he gave his beloved this name because she was married in the real life and so, he could not reach her. Stars are far away and they cannot be reached. In the novel, Estella is presented as an impossible dream for Pip. In the same way Pip has expectations in a material level, Estella would be Pip's love expectation. In Christianity, the star is related to the Virgin Mary. Stars are also used for orientation, to guide us at night. In the novel, Estella appears as a light, it is Pip's orientation and he always has her in his mind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If we look at the sky we can see different kinds of stars.

Socratic Seminar Questions

English 1-2 1984 Socratic Seminar Questions 3. Reading and writing for pleasure promotes independent thought, but it is not dangerous. It lets you express how you are really feeling inside. It is something private that you decide whether or not someone may look at it. In the beginning of the book 1984, Winston writes in his notebook. He hesitated about it for a while before he actually began writing. He let out what was going through his mind, it was going really well but then he suddenly stopped writing. The thought that he could get caught terrified him. Big Brother considers writing and reading for pleasure to be dangerous.If people were to read and write they would realize what has been going on, and this would bring an end to Big Brother. 4. Revisionism still exists today, and we have been victims of it without us even knowing. When we were younger we would learn about Christopher Columbus and how he sailed on three ships and how he reached the Americas were he kindly greeted th e Native Americans. But is this really what happened? What they didn’t tell us was how Columbus committed genocide. He deliberately slaughtered so many of these indigenous people. Him and his crew raped, tortured, burned, and killed these Natives.We have been victims of revisionist history. I do agree that knowledge of history is powerful. If you are able to control history, you control the past. In 1984 Winston works in the Ministry of Truth were he changes the history to make it seem like Big Brother is always right. That is why the people had a blind fold over their eyes. They couldn’t realize what was really going because of the rewriting of history. 6. Thought crime, according to the book 1984 is thinking of anything that the Thought Police and the Party says is illegal. Illegal is anything that creates individuality. Individuality for the party is not good.I do believe a form of â€Å"thoughtcrime† exists in our society today. We have our own way of thinki ng that might not go along with what society or the government believes. The government has laws that many people do not agree with. But we really can’t do anything about it. We have our own thoughts that the government may not like, but the government can’t do anything about that either. 5. In the book 1984 technology helps the Party control Oceania. Today technology functions through television, radio, phones, cameras, satellites, and the internet. I believe it is used for evil. Yes, technology an be very helpful, but is it really needed? Back in time people didn’t have much technology and they were still happy. Technology now a day is used for evil things. Many people cyber bully. Because of cyber bullying many children have committed suicide. This is what technology has led to. Music is also a big part in technology that is very influential in technology. The music we hear daily have messages behind them. Most of the music is about sex, revenge, getting drun k, doing drugs, and many other things. This is what our brain is recording, these messaged are in our head. That is why I think technology can be evil.

The Lost Duke of Wyndham Chapter Twenty-one

Can't sleep?† Jack looked up from where he was still sitting in his uncle's study. Thomas was standing in the doorway. â€Å"No,† he said. Thomas walked in. â€Å"Nor I.† Jack held out the bottle of brandy he'd taken from the shelf. There had not been a speck of dust on it, even though he was quite certain it had gone untouched since his uncle's death. Aunt Mary had always run a pristine household. â€Å"It's good,† Jack said. â€Å"I think my uncle was saving it.† He blinked, looking down at the label, then murmured, â€Å"Not for this, I imagine.† He motioned to a set of crystal snifters near the window, waiting with the bottle in hand as Thomas walked across the room and took one. When Thomas returned, he sat in the study's other wingback chair, setting his snifter down on the small, low table between them. Jack reached out and poured. Generously. Thomas took the brandy and drank, his eyes narrowing as he stared out the window. â€Å"It will be dawn soon.† Jack nodded. There were no hints of pink in the sky, but the pale silvery glow of morning had begun to permeate the air. â€Å"Has anyone awakened?† he asked. â€Å"Not that I've heard.† They sat in silence for several moments. Jack finished his drink and considered another. He picked up the bottle to pour, but as the first drops splashed down, he realized he didn't really want it. He looked up. â€Å"Do you ever feel as if you are on display?† Thomas's face remained impassive. â€Å"All the time.† â€Å"How do you bear it?† â€Å"I don't know anything else.† Jack placed his fingers to his forehead and rubbed. He had a blistering headache and no reason to suppose it might improve. â€Å"It's going to be hideous today.† Thomas nodded. Jack closed his eyes. It was easy to picture the scene. The dowager would insist upon reading the register first, and Crowland would be right over his shoulder, cackling away, ready to sell his daughter off to the highest bidder. His aunt would probably want to come, and Amelia, too – and who could blame her? She had as much at stake as anyone. The only person who would not be there was Grace. The only person he needed by his side. â€Å"It's going to be a bloody circus,† Jack muttered. â€Å"Indeed.† They sat there, doing nothing, and then they both looked up at precisely the same moment. Their eyes met, and Jack watched Thomas's face as his gaze slid over toward the window. Outside. â€Å"Shall we?† Jack asked, and he felt the first glimmerings of a smile. â€Å"Before anyone – â€Å" â€Å"Right now.† Because really, no one else had a place at this table. Thomas stood. â€Å"Lead the way.† Jack rose to his feet and headed out the door, Thomas right behind. And as they mounted their horses and took off, the air still heavy with night, it occurred to him – They were cousins. And for the first time, that felt like a good thing. Morning was well under way when they reached the Maguiresbridge church. Jack had been there several times before, visiting his mother's family, and the old gray stone felt comfortable and familiar. The building was small, and humble, and in his opinion, everything a church ought to be. â€Å"It does not look as if anyone is about,† Thomas said. If he was unimpressed by the plainness of the architecture, he did not indicate as much. â€Å"The register will likely be at the rectory,† Jack said. Thomas nodded, and they dismounted, tying their horses to a hitching post before making their way to the front of the rectory. They knocked several times before they heard footsteps moving toward them from within. The door opened, revealing a woman of middling years, clearly the housekeeper. â€Å"Good day, ma'am,† Jack said, offering her a polite bow. â€Å"I am Jack Audley, and this is – â€Å" â€Å"Thomas Cavendish,† Thomas cut in, nodding in greeting. Jack gave him a bit of a dry look at that, which the housekeeper would surely have noticed if she hadn't been so obviously irritated by their arrival. â€Å"We would like to see the parish register,† Jack said. She stared at them for a moment and a half and then jerked her head toward the rear. â€Å"It's in the back room,† she said. â€Å"The vicar's office.† â€Å"Er, is the vicar present?† Jack asked, although the last bit of the last word was covered by a grunt, brought on by Thomas's elbow pressing into his side. â€Å"No vicar just now,† the housekeeper said. â€Å"The position is vacant.† She walked over to a well-worn sofa in front of the fire and sat down. â€Å"We're supposed to get someone new soon. They send someone from Enniskillen every Sunday to deliver a sermon.† She then picked up a plate of toast and turned her back on them completely. Jack looked over at Thomas. Who he found was looking over at him. He supposed they were just meant to go in. So they did. The office was larger than Jack would have expected, given the tight quarters of the rest of the rectory. There were three windows, one on the north wall and then two on the west, flanking the fireplace. A small but tidy flame was burning; Jack walked over to warm his hands. â€Å"Do you know what a parish register looks like?† Thomas asked. Jack shrugged and shook his head. He stretched his fingers, then flexed his feet as best as he could within the confines of his boots. His muscles were growing tense and jumpy, and everytime he tried to hold still, he realized that his fingers were drumming a frantic tattoo on his leg. He wanted to jump out of his skin. He wanted to jump right out of his – â€Å"This may be it.† Jack turned. Thomas was holding a large book. It was bound in brown leather, and the cover showed signs of age. â€Å"Shall we?† Thomas asked. His voice was even, but Jack saw him swallow spasmodically. And his hands were trembling. â€Å"You can do it,† Jack said. He could not fake it this time. He could not stand there and pretend to read. Some things were simply too much to bear. Thomas stared at him in shock. â€Å"You don't want to look with me?† â€Å"I trust you.† It was true. Thomas could not think of a more inherently trustworthy person. Thomas would not lie. Not even about this. â€Å"No,† Thomas said, dismissing this entirely. â€Å"I won't do it without you.† For a moment Jack just stood there unmoving, and then, cursing under his breath, he went over to join Thomas at the desk. â€Å"You're too bloody noble,† Jack bit off. Thomas muttered something Jack could not quite make out and set the book down, opening it to one of the first pages. Jack looked down. It was a blur, all swirls and dips, dancing before his eyes. He swallowed, stealing a glance at Thomas to see if he'd seen anything. But Thomas was staring down at the register, his eyes moving quickly from left to right as he flipped through the pages. And then he slowed down. Jack clenched his teeth, trying to make it out. Sometimes he could tell the bigger letters, and frequently the numbers. It was just that they were so often not where he thought they should be, or not what he thought they should be. Ah, idiocy. It ought to have been familiar by now. But it never was. â€Å"Do you know what month your parents would have married in?† Thomas asked. â€Å"No.† But it was a small parish. How many weddings could there have been? Jack watched Thomas's fingers. They moved along the edge of the page, then slid around the edge. And flipped it. And stopped. Jack looked at Thomas. He was still. He'd closed his eyes. And it was clear. On his face. It was clear. â€Å"Dear God.† The words fell from Jack's lips like tears. It wasn't a surprise, and yet, he'd been hoping†¦praying†¦ That his parents hadn't married. Or the proof had been lost. That someone, anyone, had been wrong because this was wrong. It could not be happening. He could not do this. Just look at him now. He was standing there bloody well pretending to read the register. How in God's name did anyone think he could be a duke? Contracts? Oh, that would be fun. Rents? He'd better get a trustworthy steward, since it wasn't as if he could check to see if he was being cheated. And then – he choked back a horrified laugh – it was a damned good thing he could sign his documents with a seal. The Lord knew how long it would take to learn to sign his new name without looking as if he had to think about it. John Cavendish-Audley had taken months. Was it any wonder he'd been so eager to drop the Cavendish? Jack brought his face to his hands, closing his eyes tight. This could not be happening. He'd known it would happen, and yet, here he was, convinced it was an impossibility. He was going mad. He felt like he couldn't breathe. â€Å"Who is Philip?† Thomas asked. â€Å"What?† Jack practically snapped. â€Å"Philip Galbraith. He was a witness.† Jack looked up. And then down at the register. At the swirls and dips that apparently spelled out his uncle's name. â€Å"My mother's brother.† â€Å"Does he still live?† â€Å"I don't know. He did the last I knew. It has been five years.† Jack thought furiously. Why was Thomas asking? Would it mean anything if Philip was dead? The proof was still right there in the register. The register. Jack stared at it, his lips parted and slack. It was the enemy. That one little book. Grace had said she could not marry him if he was the Duke of Wyndham. Thomas had made no secret of the mountains of paperwork that lay ahead. If he was the Duke of Wyndham. But there was only that book. There was only that page. Just one page, and he could remain Jack Audley. All his problems would be solved. â€Å"Tear it out,† Jack whispered. â€Å"What did you say?† â€Å"Tear it out.† â€Å"Are you mad?† Jack shook his head. â€Å"You are the duke.† Thomas looked down at the register. â€Å"No,† he said softly, â€Å"I'm not.† â€Å"No.† Jack's voice grew urgent, and he grabbed Thomas by the shoulders. â€Å"You are what Wyndham needs. What everyone needs.† â€Å"Stop, you – â€Å" â€Å"Listen to me,† Jack implored. â€Å"You are born and bred to the job. I will ruin everything. Do you understand? I cannot do it. I cannot do it.† But Thomas just shook his head. â€Å"I may be bred to it, but you were born to it. And I cannot take what is yours.† â€Å"I don't want it!† Jack burst out. â€Å"It is not yours to accept or deny,† Thomas said, his voice numbingly calm. â€Å"Don't you understand? It is not a possession. It is who you are.† â€Å"Oh, for God's sake,† Jack swore. He raked his hands through his hair. He grabbed at it, pulled entire fistfuls until his scalp felt as if it were stretching off the bone. â€Å"I am giving it to you. On a bloody silver platter. You stay the duke, and I shall leave you alone. I'll be your scout in the Outer Hebrides. Anything. Just tear the page out.† â€Å"If you didn't want the title, why didn't you just say that your parents hadn't been married at the outset?† Thomas shot back. â€Å"I asked you if your parents were married. You could have said no.† â€Å"I didn't know that I was in line to inherit when you questioned my legitimacy.† Jack gulped. His throat tasted acrid and afraid. He stared at Thomas, trying to gauge his thoughts. How could he be so bloody upright and noble? Anyone else would have ripped that page to shreds. But no, not Thomas Cavendish. He would do what was right. Not what was best, but what was right. Bloody fool. Thomas was just standing there, staring at the register. And he – he was ready to climb the walls. His entire body was shaking, his heart pounding, and he – What was that noise? â€Å"Do you hear that?† Jack whispered urgently. Horses. â€Å"They're here,† Thomas said. Jack stopped breathing. Through the window he could see a carriage approaching. He was out of time. He looked at Thomas. Thomas was staring down at the register. â€Å"I can't do it,† he whispered. Jack didn't think. He just moved. He leapt past Thomas to the church register and tore. Thomas tackled him, trying to grab the paper away, but Jack slid out from his grasp, launching himself toward the fire. â€Å"Jack, no!† Thomas yelled, but Jack was too quick, and even as Thomas caught hold of his arm, Jack managed to hurl the paper into the fire. The fight drained from both of them in an instant, and they both stood transfixed, watching the paper curl and blacken. â€Å"God in heaven,† Thomas whispered. â€Å"What have you done?† Jack could not take his eyes off the fire. â€Å"I have saved us all.† Grace had not expected to be included in the journey to the Maguiresbridge church. No matter how closely involved she had become in the matter of the Wyndham inheritance, she was not a member of the family. She wasn't even a member of the household any longer. But when the dowager discovered that Jack and Thomas went to the church without her, she had – and Grace did not believe this an exaggeration – gone mad. It required but a minute for her to recover, but for those first sixty seconds it was a terrifying sight. Even Grace had never witnessed the like. And so when it was time to depart, Amelia had refused to leave without her. â€Å"Do not leave me alone with that woman,† she hissed in Grace's ear. â€Å"You won't be alone,† Grace tried to explain. Her father would be going, of course, and Jack's aunt had claimed a spot in the carriage as well. â€Å"Please, Grace,† Amelia begged. She did not know Jack's aunt, and she could not bear to sit next to her father. Not this morning. The dowager had pitched a fit, which was not unexpected, but her tantrum only made Amelia more firm. She grabbed hold of Grace's hand and nearly crushed her fingers. â€Å"Oh, do what you wish,† the dowager had snapped. â€Å"But if you are not in the carriage in three minutes, I shall leave without you.† Which was how it came to pass that Amelia, Grace, and Mary Audley were squeezed together on one side of the carriage, with the dowager and Lord Crowland on the other. The ride to Maguiresbridge had seemed interminably long. Amelia looked out her window, the dowager out hers, and Lord Crowland and Mary Audley did the same. Grace, squeezed in the middle facing backwards, could do nothing but stare at the spot midway between the dowager's and Lord Crowland's heads. Every ten minutes or so the dowager would turn to Mary and demand to know how much longer it would be until they reached their destination. Mary answered each query with admirable deference and patience, and then finally, to everyone's relief, she said, â€Å"We are here.† The dowager hopped down first, but Lord Crowland was close on her heels, practically dragging Amelia behind him. Mary Audley hurried out next, leaving Grace alone at the rear. She sighed. It seemed somehow fitting. By the time Grace reached the front of the rectory, the rest of them were already inside, pushing through the door to another room, where, she presumed, Jack and Thomas were, along with the all-important church register. An open-mouthed woman stood in the center of the front room, a cup of tea balanced precariously in her fingers. â€Å"Good day,† Grace said with a rushed smile, wondering if the others had even bothered to knock. â€Å"Where is it?† she heard the dowager demand, followed by the crash of a door slamming against a wall. â€Å"How dare you leave without me! Where is it? I demand to see the register!† Grace made it to the doorway, but it was still blocked by the others. She couldn't see in. And then she did the last thing she'd ever have expected of herself. She shoved. Hard. She loved him. She loved Jack. And whatever the day brought, she would be there. He would not be alone. She would not allow it. She stumbled inside just as the dowager was screaming, â€Å"What did you find?† Grace steadied herself and looked up. There he was. Jack. He looked awful. Haunted. Her lips formed his name, but she made no sound. She couldn't have. It was as if her voice had been yanked right out of her. She had never seen him thus. His color was wrong – too pale, or maybe too flushed – she couldn't quite tell. And his fingers were trembling. Couldn't anyone else see that? Grace turned to Thomas, because surely he would do something. Say something. But he was staring at Jack. Just like everyone else. No one was speaking. Why wasn't anyone speaking? â€Å"He is Wyndham,† Jack finally said. â€Å"As he should be.† Grace should have jumped for joy, but all she could think was – I don't believe him. He didn't look right. He didn't sound right. The dowager turned on Thomas. â€Å"Is this true?† Thomas did not speak. The dowager growled with frustration and grabbed his arm. â€Å"Is†¦it†¦true?† she demanded. Still, Thomas did not speak. â€Å"There is no record of a marriage,† Jack insisted. Grace wanted to cry. He was lying. It was so obvious†¦to her, to everyone. There was desperation in his voice, and fear, and – Dear God, was he doing this for her? Was he trying to forsake his birthright for her? â€Å"Thomas is the duke,† Jack said again, looking frantically from person to person. â€Å"Why aren't you listening? Why isn't anyone listening to me?† But there was only silence. And then: â€Å"He lies.† It was Thomas, in a voice that was low and even, and absolutely true. Grace let out a choked sob and turned away. She could not bear to watch. â€Å"No,† Jack said, â€Å"I'm telling you – â€Å" â€Å"Oh, for God's sake,† Thomas snapped. â€Å"Do you think no one will find you out? There will be witnesses. Do you really think there won't be any witnesses to the wedding? For God's sake, you can't rewrite the past.† Grace closed her eyes. â€Å"Or burn it,† Thomas said ominously. â€Å"As the case may be.† Oh, Jack, she thought. What have you done? â€Å"He tore the page from the register,† Thomas said. â€Å"He threw it into the fire.† Grace opened her eyes, unable to not look at the hearth. There was no sign of paper. Nothing but black soot and ash under the steady orange flame. â€Å"It's yours,† Thomas said, turning to Jack. He looked him in the eye and then bowed. Jack looked sick. Thomas turned, facing the rest of the room. â€Å"I am – † He cleared his throat, and when he continued, his voice was even and proud. â€Å"I am Mr. Cavendish,† he said, â€Å"and I bid you all a good day.† And then he left. He brushed past them and walked right out the door. At first no one could speak. And then, in a moment that was almost grotesque, Lord Crowland turned to Jack and bowed. â€Å"Your grace,† he said. â€Å"No,† Jack said, shaking his head. He turned to the dowager. â€Å"Do not allow this. He will make a better duke.† â€Å"True enough,† Lord Crowland said, completely oblivious to Jack's distress. â€Å"But you'll learn.† And then – Jack couldn't help it – he started to laugh. From deep within him, his sense of the absurd rose to the fore, and he laughed. Because good God, if there was one thing he'd never be able to do, it was learn. Anything. â€Å"Oh, you have no idea,† he said. He looked at the dowager. His desperation was gone, replaced by something else – something bitter and fatalistic, something cynical and grim. â€Å"You have no idea what you've done,† he told her. â€Å"No idea at all.† â€Å"I have restored you to your proper place,† she said sharply. â€Å"As is my duty to my son.† Jack turned. He couldn't bring himself to look at her for one moment more. But there was Grace, standing near the doorway. She looked shocked, she looked scared. But when she looked at him, he saw his entire world, falling softly into place. She loved him. He didn't know how or why, but he was not enough of a fool to question it. And when her eyes met his, he saw hope. He saw the future, and it was shining like the sunrise. His entire life, he'd been running. From himself, from his faults. He'd been so desperate that no one should truly know him, that he'd denied himself the chance to find his place in the world. He smiled. He finally knew where he belonged. He had seen Grace when she entered the room, but she'd stood back, and he couldn't go to her, not when he'd been trying so hard to keep the dukedom in Thomas's hands, where it belonged. But it seemed he'd failed in that measure. He would not fail in this. â€Å"Grace,† he said, and went to her, taking both of her hands in his. â€Å"What the devil are you doing?† the dowager demanded. He dropped to one knee. â€Å"Marry me,† he said, squeezing her hands. â€Å"Be my bride, be my – † He laughed, a bubble of absurdity rising from within. â€Å"Be my duchess.† He smiled up at her. â€Å"It's a lot to ask, I know.† â€Å"Stop that,† the dowager hissed. â€Å"You can't marry her.† â€Å"Jack,† Grace whispered. Her lips were trembling, and he knew she was thinking about it. She was teetering. And he could bring her over the edge. â€Å"For once in your life,† he said fervently, â€Å"make yourself happy.† â€Å"Stop this!† Crowland blustered. He grabbed Jack under his arm and tried to haul him to his feet, but Jack would not budge. He would remain on one knee for eternity if that was what it took. â€Å"Marry me, Grace,† he whispered. â€Å"You will marry Amelia!† Crowland cut in. Jack did not take his eyes off Grace's face. â€Å"Marry me.† â€Å"Jack†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she said, and he could hear it in her voice that she thought she should make an excuse, should say something about his duty or her place. â€Å"Marry me,† he said again, before she could go on. â€Å"She is not acceptable,† the dowager said coldly. He brought Grace's hands to his lips. â€Å"I will marry no one else.† â€Å"She is not of your rank!† He turned and gave his grandmother an icy look. He felt rather ducal, actually. It was almost entertaining. â€Å"Do you wish for me to produce an heir? Ever?† The dowager's face pinched up like a fish. â€Å"I shall take that as a yes,† he announced. â€Å"Which means that Grace shall have to marry me.† He shrugged. â€Å"It's the only way, if I am to give Wyndham a legitimate heir.† Grace started to blink, and her mouth – the corners were moving. She was fighting herself, telling herself she should say no. But she loved him. He knew that she did, and he would not allow her to throw that away. â€Å"Grace – † He scowled, then laughed. â€Å"What the devil is your middle name, anyway?† â€Å"Catriona,† she whispered. â€Å"Grace Catriona Eversleigh,† he said, loud and sure, â€Å"I love you. I love you with every inch of my heart, and I swear right now, before all who are assembled†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He looked around, catching sight of the rectory housekeeper, who was standing open-mouthed in the doorway. â€Å"†¦even – devil it,† he muttered, â€Å"what is your name?† â€Å"Mrs. Broadmouse,† she said, eyes wide. Jack cleared his throat. He was beginning to feel like himself. For the first time in days, he felt like himself. Maybe he was stuck with this bloody title, but with Grace at his side, he could find a way to do some good with it. â€Å"I swear to you,† he said, â€Å"before Mrs. Broadmouse – â€Å" â€Å"Stop this!† the dowager yelled, grabbing hold of his other arm. â€Å"Get on your feet!† Jack gazed up at Grace and smiled. â€Å"Was there ever a proposal so beleaguered?† She smiled back, even as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. â€Å"You are supposed to marry Amelia!† Lord Crowland growled. And then there was Amelia†¦poking her head around her father's shoulder. â€Å"I won't have him,† she announced, rather matter-of-fact. She caught Jack's eye and smiled. The dowager gasped. â€Å"You would refuse my grandson?† â€Å"This grandson,† Amelia clarified. Jack tore his eyes off Grace for just long enough to grin approvingly at Amelia. She grinned back, motioning with her head toward Grace, telling him in no uncertain terms to get back to the matter at hand. â€Å"Grace,† Jack said, rubbing her hands softly with his. â€Å"My knee is beginning to hurt.† She started to laugh. â€Å"Say yes, Grace,† Amelia said. â€Å"Listen to Amelia,† Jack said. â€Å"What the devil am I going to do with you?† Lord Crowland said. To Amelia, that was, not that she seemed to care. â€Å"I love you, Grace,† Jack said. She was grinning now. It seemed her whole body was grinning, as if she'd been enveloped in a happiness that would not let go. And then she said it. Right in front of everyone. â€Å"I love you, too.† He felt all the happiness in the world swirling into him, straight to his heart. â€Å"Grace Catriona Eversleigh,† he said again, â€Å"will you marry me?† â€Å"Yes,† she whispered. â€Å"Yes.† He stood. â€Å"I'm going to kiss her now,† he called out. And he did. Right in front of the dowager, in front of Amelia and her father, even in front of Mrs. Broadmouse. He kissed her. And then he kissed her some more. He was kissing her when the dowager departed in an angry huff, and he was kissing her when Lord Crowland dragged Amelia away, muttering something about delicate sensibilities. He kissed her, and he kissed her, and he would have kept kissing her except that he realized that Mrs. Broadmouse was still standing in the doorway, staring at them with a rather benign expression. Jack grinned at her. â€Å"A spot of privacy, if you don't mind?† She sighed and toddled away, but before she shut the door, they heard her say – â€Å"I do like a good love story.† Epilogue My dearest Amelia – Can it only have been three weeks since I last wrote? It feels as if I have gathered at least a year of news. The children continue to thrive. Arthur is so studious! Jack declares himself boggled, but his delight is evident. We visited the Happy Hare earlier this week to discuss plans for the village fair with Harry Gladdish, and Jack complained to no end about how difficult it has been to find a new tutor now that Arthur has exhausted the last. Harry was not fooled. Jack was proud as puff. We were delighted to – â€Å"Mama!† Grace looked up from her correspondence. Her third child (and only daughter) was standing in the doorway, looking much aggrieved. â€Å"What is it, Mary?† she asked. â€Å"John was – â€Å" â€Å"Just strolling by,† John said, sliding along the polished floor until he came to a stop next to Mary. â€Å"John!† Mary howled. John looked at Grace with utter innocence. â€Å"I barely touched her.† Grace fought the urge to close her eyes and groan. John was only ten, but already he possessed his father's lethal charm. â€Å"Mama,† Mary said. â€Å"I was walking to the conservatory when – â€Å" â€Å"What Mary means to say,† John cut in, â€Å"is that I was walking to the orangery when she bumped into me and – â€Å" â€Å"No!† Mary protested. â€Å"That is not what I meant to say.† She turned to her mother in obvious distress. â€Å"Mama!† â€Å"John, let your sister finish,† Grace said, almost automatically. It was a sentence she uttered several times a day. John smiled at her. Meltingly. Good gracious, Grace thought, it would not be long before she'd be beating the girls away with a stick. â€Å"Mother,† he said, in exactly the same tone Jack used when he was trying to charm his way out of a tight spot, â€Å"I would not dream of interrupting her.† â€Å"You just did!† Mary retorted. John held up his hands, as if to say – Poor dear. Grace turned to Mary with what she hoped was visible compassion. â€Å"You were saying, Mary?† â€Å"He smashed an orange into my sheet music!† Grace turned to her son. â€Å"John, is this – â€Å" â€Å"No,† he said quickly. Grace gave him a dubious stare. It did not escape her that she had not finished her question before he answered. She supposed she ought not read too much into it. John, is this true? was another of the sentences she seemed to spend a great deal of time repeating. â€Å"Mother,† he said, his green eyes profoundly solemn, â€Å"upon my honor I swear to you that I did not smash an orange – â€Å" â€Å"You lie,† Mary seethed. â€Å"She crushed the orange.† â€Å"After you put it under my foot!† And then came a new voice: â€Å"Grace!† Grace smiled with delight. Jack could now sort the children out. â€Å"Grace,† he said, turning sideways so that he might slip by them and into the room. â€Å"I need you to – â€Å" â€Å"Jack!† she cut in. He looked at her, and then behind him. â€Å"What did I do?† She motioned to the children. â€Å"Did you not notice them?† He quirked a smile – the very same one his son had tried to use on her a few moments earlier. â€Å"Of course I noticed them,† he said. â€Å"Did you not notice me stepping around them?† He turned to the children. â€Å"Haven't we taught you that it is rude to block the doorway?† It was a good thing she hadn't been to the orangery herself, Grace thought, because she would have peened him with one. As it was, she was beginning to think she ought to keep a store of small, round, easily throwable objects in her desk drawer. â€Å"Jack,† she said, with what she thought was amazing patience, â€Å"would you be so kind as to settle their dispute?† He shrugged. â€Å"They'll work it out.† â€Å"Jack,† she sighed. â€Å"It's not your fault you had no siblings,† he told her. â€Å"You have no experience in intrafamilial squabbles. Trust me, it all works out in the end. I predict we shall manage to get all four to adulthood with at least fifteen of their major limbs intact.† Grace leveled a stare. â€Å"You, on the other hand, are in supreme danger of – â€Å" â€Å"Children!† Jack cut in. â€Å"Listen to your mother.† â€Å"She didn't say anything,† John pointed out. â€Å"Right,† Jack said. He frowned for a moment. â€Å"John, leave your sister alone. Mary, next time don't step on the orange.† â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"I'm done here,† he announced. And amazingly, they went on their way. â€Å"That wasn't too difficult,† he said. He stepped into the room. â€Å"I have some papers for you.† Grace immediately set aside her correspondence and took the documents he held forth. â€Å"They arrived this afternoon from my solicitor,† Jack explained. She read the first paragraph. â€Å"About the Ennigsly building in Lincoln?† â€Å"That's what I was expecting,† he confirmed. She nodded and then gave the document a thorough perusal. After a dozen years of marriage, they had fallen into an easy routine. Jack conducted all of his business affairs face-to-face, and when correspondence arrived, Grace was his reader. It was almost amusing. It had taken Jack a year or so to find his footing, but he'd turned into a marvelous steward of the dukedom. His mind was razor sharp, and his judgment was such that Grace could not believe he'd not been trained in land management. The tenants adored him, the servants worshipped him (especially once the dowager was banished to the far side of the estate), and London society had positively fallen at his feet. It had helped, of course, that Thomas made it clear that he believed Jack was the rightful Duke of Wyndham, but still, Grace did not think herself biased to believe that Jack's charm and wit had something to do with it as well. The only thing it seemed he could not do was read. When he first told her, she had not believed him. Oh, she believed that he believed it. But surely he'd had poor teachers. Surely there had been some gross negligence on someone's part. A man of Jack's intelligence and education did not reach adulthood illiterate. And so she'd sat with him. Tried her best. And he put up with it. In retrospect, she couldn't believe that he had not exploded with frustration. It was, perhaps, the oddest imaginable show of love – he'd let her try, again and again, to teach him to read. With a smile on his face, even. But in the end she'd given up. She still did not understand what he meant when he told her the letters â€Å"danced,† but she believed him when he insisted that all he ever got from a printed page was a headache. â€Å"Everything is in order,† she said now, handing the documents back to Jack. He had discussed the matter with her the week prior, after all of the decisions had been made. He always did that. So that she would know precisely what she was looking for. â€Å"Are you writing to Amelia?† he asked. She nodded. â€Å"I can't decide if I should tell her about John's escapade in the church belfry.† â€Å"Oh, do. They shall get a good laugh.† â€Å"But it makes him seem such a ruffian.† â€Å"He is a ruffian.† She felt herself deflate. â€Å"I know. But he's sweet.† Jack chuckled and kissed her, once, on the forehead. â€Å"He's just like me.† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"You needn't sound so despairing.† He smiled then, that unbelievably devilish thing of his. It still got her, every time, just the way he wanted it to. â€Å"Look how nicely I turned out,† he added. â€Å"Just so you understand,† she told him, â€Å"if he takes to robbing coaches, I shall expire on the spot.† Jack laughed at that. â€Å"Give my regards to Amelia.† Grace was about to say I shall, but he was already gone. She picked up her pen and dipped it in ink, pausing briefly so she might recall what she'd been writing. We were delighted to see Thomas on his visit. He made his annual pilgrimage to the dowager, who, I am sad to report, has not grown any less severe in her old age. She is as healthy as can be – it is my suspicion that she shall outlive us all. Grace shook her head. She made the half-mile journey to the dower house but once a month. Jack had said she needn't do even that, but she still felt an odd loyalty toward the dowager. Not to mention a fierce devotion and sympathy for the woman they'd hired to replace her as the dowager's companion. No servant had ever been so well-paid. Already the woman earned (at Grace's insistence) double what she herself had been paid. Plus, they promised her a cottage when the dowager finally expired. The very same one Thomas had given to her so many years earlier. Grace smiled to herself and continued writing, telling Amelia this and that – all those funny little anecdotes mothers loved to share. Mary looked like a squirrel with her front tooth missing. And little Oliver, only eighteen months old, had skipped crawling entirely, going straight from the oddest belly-scoot to full-fledged running. Already they'd lost him twice in the hedgerow maze. I do miss you, dear Amelia. You must promise to visit this summer. You know how marvelous Lincolnshire is when all the flowers are in bloom. And of course – â€Å"Grace?† It was Jack, suddenly back in her doorway. â€Å"I missed you,† he explained. â€Å"In the last five minutes?† He stepped inside, closed the door. â€Å"It doesn't take long.† â€Å"You are incorrigible.† But she set down her pen. â€Å"It does seem to serve me well,† he murmured, stepping around the desk. He took her hand and tugged her gently to her feet. â€Å"And you, too.† Grace fought the urge to groan. Only Jack would say such a thing. Only Jack would – She let out a yelp as his lips – Well, suffice to say, only Jack would do that. Oh. And that. She melted into him. And absolutely that†¦