Scary Story Essay Example for Free

Scary Story Essay When I finally fell asleep I was running. To this day I do not know what from. Whatever it was it must have been the most terrifying thing ever to exist for I seemed to be running without trying to. It was as if I had almost no control over my body. I wished to see what I was running from so I tried to open my eyes. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen. Perhaps I thought that my body would not respond to my commands as it didn’t with the running. Therefore it was a surprise to me when at my first attempt to open my eyes they did. I so wish I hadn’t. What I saw still haunts me most nights. I know that it was worse than any horror story ever made. For that reason I have great difficulty in dictating what I saw on that dreadful night not just emotionally but for the fact that the words do not exist to express exactly what I saw but I will do my best. It was worse than any horror story ever made there was a thick liquid dripping down the walls that looked suspiciously like blood. And it was not just dripping; it was splattered over the walls as if someone had been brutally murdered there. There were scratches in the walls, like someone- no not just someone- but a child by the size of the marks-had literally worn their fingers down to the knuckles trying to escape, as if that was there only way to survive. It did not seem logical that they stopped there at the time for it looked then like there were miles and miles left before the end of that gruesome tunnel. But then my feet felt as if they were on fire. I looked down and I saw then why those poor unfortunate souls had stopped there. Nails two inches long at least, sticking up out of the floor, and the walls and the ceiling, but these nails were red hot. I mean you could actually see the words scratched lightly on the wall ‘turn back’ ‘this is your doom’ and little scratchy tally marks all over the top of hundreds of tiny little skeletons all stuck on the spikes like spoils of war. As I looked at the skeletons time seemed to turn backwards these pale bleached white bones seemed to grow younger and then it started. They grew rotting flesh on the bones with maggots crawling in and out and then the flesh grew and grew, the maggots still crawling around. Then the flesh started growing and forming skin and then the faces started screaming out in pain calling out for their mothers and fathers. Then the screaming intensified louder and louder until it reached a deafening pitch and volume thousands of dead children screaming in fright, pure terror in their eyes but they were all looking in different directions, at the spikes that were brandishing them where they were slumped. Then the spikes started growing and lengthening. Growing through the bodies of these thousands of children, all still while they are screaming themselves ‘to death’ without taking a single breath. That was the only sign that they were not ‘living and breathing’, that and the fact that the blood from where the spikes bored holes in their young frail bodies was gushing onto the floor faster than I ran through that awful tunnel. The layer of blood was growing and taking over the floor until it was lapping over my still running feet which were stepping, I just realised, on every single spike they could find, until they grew too huge. I tripped while my foot was still speared by the now over foot long spikes. As I fell into the deep layer of blood collecting on the floor I felt the spikes attack every inch of my skin, gouging through my eyes, carrying on through my brain, paralyzing me and then shattering my skull until I was face flat in the blood. The blood of thousands of dead children swelling in my ears, filling my mouth as I try to scream out for help, going up my nose as I try to take a breath. I could feel myself dying. I could feel my own warm blood filling my skull and drenching my hair. I knew I was going to die. I tried and failed for one last breath, the blood of all those poor children. Children whose parents would have never had closure for their deaths, some still thinking that their babies will one day come home, knowing in their heart of hearts that they are dead and never coming back, filling my lungs. And then I woke up drenched in a thick cold sweat, terrified, of ever sleeping again.

Power And Interdependence In The Information A Media Essay

Power And Interdependence In The Information A Media Essay Introduction: In the article Power and Interdependence in the Information Age, Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.1 focused on the idea of complex interdependence2 in international system this concept is characterized by an increase in interconnections and the decline of military forces in order to achieve cooperation between states and various actors. This article aimed to provide further evidence to what extent is the international politics transformed by interdependence in modern global environment. It also highlights that the contemporary globalized world is significantly driven by information technology and the Internet, because soft power3 is becoming more utile for states and non-state actors. Keohane and Nyes approaches to the Information Age and to faces of power are bound up with neoliberal theories so the principal focus is the neo-liberal institutionalism. 1 Robert O. Keohane is a professor of International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences.  (Princeton University, 2008) Joseph Nye Jr. is current dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and former Under-Secretary of State. (Harvard Kennedy School, 2009) 2 Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. define complex interdependence as a state of affairs where institutions and interstate reliance play an important role such that it transforms the nature of the relationships between states and possible strategies that choose to pursue. (Future of European Foreign Policy Seminar, 2007, p.2) 3 Soft power is the capability to achieve required goals because others agree with what one wants. It grounds largely on the persuasiveness of the free information that an actor seeks to transmità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦information technology, broadly defined, is likely to be the most important power resource. (Keohane Nye, 1998, p.86-7) Summary: Over the 20th century, modernists pronounced that the technological progress will lead to transformation of world politics where states and their control of force will dwindle in importance but non-state actors will experience boom. Whereas futurists assume that the information revolution results in a cyber-feudalism where the government is replaced by communities aspiring to achieve citizens allegiance. States are more tenacious and continue to control peoples loyalties and frame politics in an information age, but they tend to be far more credible to a public. Critique: First of all, Keohane and Nye assert that earlier transnational flows were heavily controlled by large bureaucracies like multinational corporations and institutions.4 However, in these days, there is practically no institutionalized control over the free dissemination of information the power is widely spread to individuals and private organizations (NGOs) who undermine the monopoly of traditional bureaucracy 5, and governments possess less control of their agendas.6 Therefore the easy availability of technology and the Internet plays a key role in the decline of initial need for official institutions in the Information Age. Secondly, the main weakness of the article is the assumption that the information technologies are mainly located in the West. This seems to be irrelevant nowadays because the article was written ten years ago and from that time very significant shift in technological development has taken place throughout the world. For example in 2008 China said the number of Internet users in the country reached about 338 millionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ helping China overtakes the United States as the worlds biggest Internet  market [253 million].7 (China Today, 2009) Both authors primarily concentrated on the future progress of Western countries and underrated the emerging powers, such as China and India. 8 Furthermore, Keohane and Nye assumed that the dominant American market share in  ¬Ã‚ lms and television programs in world markets isà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to continue 9 but this prediction proved to be inaccurate. 4 Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye (1998), Power and Interdependence in the Information Age, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, Issue 5: pp. 83. 5 Nye S. Joseph (2002), The Information Revolution and American Soft Power, Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 9, Issue 1: pp. 61. 6 It is essential to realize that the persuasion and influence increases as more channels of contact between societies and organizations are created and states have to recognize other key actors in world politics. 7 China Today, 1/06/2009, China Statistics. http://www.chinatoday.com/data/data.htm, accessed 9 November 2010. 8 Chinas biggest Internet companies, including Baidu, Sina, Tencent and  Alibaba, are thriving, and in many cases are outperforming the China-based operations of American Internet giants like  Google,   Yahoo   and   eBay. (Barboza in New York Times, July 26 2008) According to Screen Digest research, in 2005, India produced 1,041 feature films, compared to 699 films made in USA. 10 These figures clearly indicate that other nations have increased their competitive ability and surpassed Hollywood. Apparently, the evolution of West modernity seems to be superseded by more rapacious East Asia. 11 Lastly, according to Keohane and Nye democratic states are more likely to familiar with the free exchange of information 12 because they are able to form information and use soft power. 13 The article emphasizes the necessity of ideology, context, credibility and transparency in democracy to form a truth and relevant information. However some scholars argue that democracy as well as totalitarianism could not be possible without the mass communications. 14 Unlike democratic states, totalitarian states repress competitive sources of information and are not reliable and transparent enough. But authors ignored that the sovereignty of democracies is influenced by free information flow because the decision-making of political leaders may be affected by other actors. Conclusion: In conclusion, it has to be admitted that the article is quite critical towards political realism and focuses mainly on the development and progression of Western world in the Information Age. Further studies and theories must be taken into account to present a current situation and improve our understanding concerning the complex interdependence as well as neo-liberalism in the Informative Revolution. Despite obsolete presumptions, the article has provided some detailed insights to demonstrate the values of power and the importance of interdependence in the Information Age. 9 Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye (1998), Power and Interdependence in the Information Age, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, Issue 5: pp. 88. 10 Screen Digest, June 2006, World Film Production/ Distribution: http://www.fafo.at/download/ WorldFilmProduction06.pdf, accessed 9 November 2010. Most prolific feature film producing nations in 2005: China 260 films; Brazil 90 films; Russian Federation 160 films; Latin America 275 films. (Screen Digest, June 2006, p. 206) 11 Despite the fact that China still controls the assess to the Internet and monitor a certain number of users (Keohane and Nye, 1998, p.93), it has maintained a dominant position in the Information Age. 12 Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye (1998), Power and Interdependence in the Information Age, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, Issue 5: pp. 93. 13 The Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 serves as an example of American soft power in action when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the fact that CNN was an American company helped to frame the issue, worldwide, as aggression. Had an Arab company been the worlds dominant TV channel, perhaps the issue would have been framed as a justi ¬Ã‚ ed attempt to reverse colonial humiliation. (Keohane and Nye, 1998, p.91) This case shows that CNN acted its role of reliable source of information very skillfully; it gained a respected international reputation due to its credibility and professionalism to frame the issue. (Keohane and Nye, 1998, p.91) 14 Nye S. Joseph (2002), The Information Revolution and American Soft Power, Asia-Pacific Review, Vol. 9, Issue 1: pp. 61.

The end of the road Essay -- Personal Narrative Papers

The end of the road At the end of a journey, it’s always strange to look back on the roads traveled and places visited. It brings with it a sense of nostalgia, a feeling of time passed with the inability, or perhaps unwillingness to go back. I felt like this at the end of the road trip I took this time last year from San Francisco to Alaska. I knew that most likely I’d never again visit those quirky villages in the depths of the Yukon Territory, or stand in the middle of the Alaskan Highway watching a herd of mountain rams cross, miles away from anywhere. And when we reached our destination, the journey seemed far away – separated from the here and now of Whittier, Alaska. And all we had as proof of the 3500 miles traveled were bills for gas and pictures taken along the way. At the end of my semester in EL170, I am left with a very similar feeling of nostalgia and a strange separation from my journey through writing. I look back at genres visited and works â€Å"completed† by our class, and I’m left with a sense of pride at how far we’ve come. And most likely I’ll never again visit where I’ve been, but that doesn’t mean that the memories of where I have visited won’t stay with me for a long time. Thinking way, way back to the world of Non-Fiction shows me just how unexplored my writing really was. Let’s face it, my non-fiction was pretty bad. I had never really written before or had any â€Å"coaching,† so I think my shortcomings were understandable. I found it easy to write because I was drawing from my own experiences, but I found it hard to write well. It felt forced to write about my own experiences. Of all the pieces I wrote, there was one that I liked – my Knowledge Tree. I think that this piece worked better than the othe... ... And it worked. Writing – done. Once I was over the writing hump, I faced the task of creating the digital story. It was difficult, but really fun and it was a great break from the monotony of text book studying which consumed the rest of my life. I feel like my digital story improves as it goes on, simply because I was getting the hang of the idea of the digital story and IMovie. But, in the end I was really proud of what I had made. It was a great experience and I will treasure my digital story forever. So now I’m at the end of my EL170 journey. This has been the best class that I’ve taken in college with the best group of people – professor and tutors included. We created a community in which I could safely release my first writing failures to the world. Words don’t do justice to this class, so I shall leave it at that, and wait for my next journey to start.

Comparison of Two Versions of Cinderella: Grimm vs. Perrault Essay

A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale. The main things that changes the way a story is written is the audience, the author must be careful not say anything to offend the people he is writing for. Charles Perrault is a French man who used to write for the nobility and the middle class, so it is expected of him to write with a lighter tone to satisfy his dignified audience. He describes the pampered lifestyle of the two step sisters who put on their â€Å"gold-flowered cloak[s]† and their â€Å"diamond stomacher[s], which are far from being ordinary† (Perrault). He emphasizes the materialistic things that the step sisters posses and describes their wonderful, carefree world. The only concern of the step sisters is the prince’s ball, the girls were â€Å"wonderfully busy in selecting the gowns, petticoats, and hair dressing† (Perrault) that was the only thing they worried about throughout th... ...errault’s â€Å"Cinderella† and Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm’s â€Å"Ashputtle† both feature a young heroine who despite overwhelming obstacles manages to change the course of her life, and live happily ever after with her prince. Both of the stories have a similar plot, characters, and events, but it’s the moral lesson that modifies the two stories and makes them different. The audience also impacts the story and the way it is presented. There are many things that authors consider before writing their story, and all their concerns reflect on the story. Charles Perrault’s concern was his audience, and he made sure that it didn’t offend the upper class. The Grimm brothers were not concerned about the upper class because they wrote their tales for ordinary people and they had no worries of people getting upset. All their feelings about values and morals are expressed in â€Å"Ashputtle.†

We All Have the Right To Life! :: abortion argumentative persuasive argument

We All Have the Right To Life! Life is a right held by all creatures on the universe, everything has life; however, everything also has it's own character or individuality. Every person is his or her own self and does what he or she wishes to do to a certain extent. Many people are opposed to an individuals decision on life they should realize that in America people have the freedom to do what they want. In Roman times, abortion ans the destruction of unwanted children was permissible, however civilization's aged and now there is a huge controversy about who chooses. In the 1970's the Roe v. Wade was tried in the U.S. Supreme Court. 'Jane Roe' took the District Attorney of Dallas county to the Supreme Court because she wanted an abortion and was not legally permitted to have one where she lived. She could not afford to travel elsewhere to have it "preformed" so she went to court. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court said that it was legal for any woman to have an abortion and terminate her pregnancy at any given time. The Roman Catholic Church has said that abortion is murder and violates all terms of human morality. My personal opinion lays between that of the Roman Catholic Church and the Supreme Court. I believe that a woman should have the right to an abortion only if she was raped and can not afford to have the child, or if she does not know who the father is. If the woman just want's to have an abortion for no reason, believes that the baby will be born with a handicap, or will be born with a disease, life threatening or not the abortion should not be permitted to take place. Within the past year President Clinton has vetoed a bill that will outlaw "partial birth abortions," I strongly oppose his decision and believe that he should have outlawed them. In New Jersey, there is an assemblywoman writing a bill that would outlaw them in New Jersey and fine each party involved twenty-five thousand dollars. Assisted suicide has also been a controversial topic concerning the right to life. I believe that everyone should come to accept the fact that people have

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble Case Study

Collaboration and Innovation at Procter & Gamble CASE STUDY 1. What is Procter & Gamble’s business strategy? What is the relationship of collaboration and innovation to that business strategy? i. Proctor and Gamble’s business strategy focuses on three main areas. This is to maintain the popular the popularity of its existing brands through advertising and marketing; the extension of its brand to related products by developing new products and the creation of new brands from scratch.To achieve these, the company aims to facilitate collaboration between researchers, marketers and managers. ii. By fostering interaction among employees P&G fosters informed decision making and the sharing of ideas and information which ultimately leads the company to produce quality products. 2. How is P&G using collaboration systems to execute its business model and business strategy? List and describe the collaboration systems and technologies it is using and the benefits of each i.P&G res earchers use collaborative tools to share data on various brands they have collected which allows marketers to access this data to create better targeted ad campaigns and likewise managers access data shared t be able to make informed decisions. ii. – P&G use a suite of Microsoft products such as MS Outlook, MS SharePoint and others that have unified communication and integrate services through voice and data transmissions and allow for instant messaging, email and electronic conferences, web conferencing with live meeting, and content management. P&G use social networking innovations -P&G uses blogs instead of emails that are open to anyone interested in their content and attract comments from others. – The company uses Connect beam which is a search tool that allows employees to share bookmarks and tag content with descriptive words that appear in future searches, and facilitates social networks of coworkers to help them find and share information more effectively â €“ It also uses InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research-related documents in digital format accessible through a browser-based portal. P&G have also adopted Cisco Telepresence conference rooms across the globe that allows researchers to communicate and share data. Some benefits of the Cisco Telepresence include the reduction of travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 3. Why were some collaborative technologies slow to catch on at P&G? Some collaborative tools were slow for P&G because employees resisted to the collaborative tool because in their opinion that would create more work and delays.Employees were more accustomed to emails 4. Compare P&G’s old and new processes for writing up and distributing the results of a research experiment. Researchers under the old process wrote up their experiments using MS Office tools then print them out and glue the papers page by page into notebooks or they would simply paste results of experiments into word documents and pass them out. Also data and speech recordings are entered into MS PowerPoint and emailed to employees.In the new method however, employees use a collaborative tool such as InnovationNet which contains over 5 million research- related documents in digital format accessible to employees via a browser-based portal. Also P&G uses a Microsoft SharePoint page where all presentations are posted. These presentations are stored in a single location and accessible to employees and colleagues in other parts of the company. 5. Why is telepresence such a useful collaborative tool for a company like P&G?Telepresence is a useful collaborative tool for P&G because it helps to foster collaboration between employees across continents and leads to reduction in travel cost, efficient flow of ideas and quick decision making. 6. Can you think of other ways P&G could use collaboration to foster innovation? Proctor and Gamble could use virtual world technology which creates online 3-D environments populated by employees who have in-built graphical representations of themselves known as avatars.P&G can use this virtual world to house online meetings, training sessions, and â€Å"lounges. † Real-world people represented by avatars meet, interact, and exchange ideas at these virtual locations. Communication takes place in the form of text messages similar to instant messages. P&G could also use Google Apps or Google Sites which is a collaborative that allows users to quickly create online, group-editable web sites in minutes and post a variety of files including calendars, text, spreadsheets, and videos for private, group, or public viewing and editing.Also Google a software such as called Google Wave which is part conversation and part document can be used as a collaborative tool. Researchers or any participant of a wave can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add or remove participants at any point in the process. Users are able to see responses from other participants on their â€Å"wave† while typing occur, accelerating the pace of discussion.

2000 U.S. Presidential election

The recap of the United States presidential elections of 2000 reveals it was one the most controversial election ever. The Democratic Party candidate Al Gore lost narrowly to the, Republican George W.Bush with a controversial small number of votes. Although the election was based on real issues that ranged from the international affairs, foreign policy, ethics and morality, they were overshadowed by the results at the count of the final vote. Al Gore enjoyed the popular vote but lost to George Bush because he lacked in the electoral votes. To the run up of the elections, opinion polls had predicted a closely run presidential race and it was not clear who would win the day[1].Al Gore had been nominated in the Democratic Party ticket and was groomed to succeed the outgoing democratic elect president bill Clinton. He defeated Senator Bill Bradley from New Jersey. From the start, Al Gore was receiving major endorsements from economic and political heavy weights in the party.Opinion polls used to show him as a front runner as majority of the people thought him of being tested and armed with necessary experience to propel America to greater heights, having been a vice president to Bill Clinton.In the Republican Party, George Bush was the party’s favorite. Potential aspirants in the party could not stand against him. To the traditional republican standards, George Bush was the right candidate. He was the son of a former President, Bush Senior, and the outgoing governor in one of the most populous state in America.Bush won the nomination by a large margin with his major competitor dogged with scandals that saw his support in the party plummet before the nominations. Bush’s running mate was Dick Cheney.The run up campaigns to elections were as heated as the elections themselves. The Republican themselves could be seen running advertisements that were favoring Ralph Nader, an independent candidate.This was an open bid to split the Democrats or the leftwing vote. Al Gore and Ralph Nader drew their support from the same people as they were espousing to tackle similar issues. The Republican had recognized a real threat from Al Gore and knew that if they drew on the obvious similarities, they could split the vote into two and secure a Republican win.The main differences that were propelling both parties were drawn from the issue of morality. Republicans traditionally have all along been at the fore front in safeguarding the morals in the society. Bush could also be heard making a scathing attack on the Democrats because of the Clintons scandal, vowing to restore morality in the nation and especially in the White House. However, despite the differences, both candidates were locked in a tight race as would be reflected in the elections that ensued.The preliminary reports on the elections on November 7 indicated that they were unexceptionally close. As expected, Bush had won decisively in the southern states and also in the rural states. Al Gore had recorded an early lead in the north eastern states.There were a number of states that were recording closely contested race but it became clear that it was in the state of Florida that the next president of the United States was to be announced. It is this state that remained the centre of focus as it held the key to deadlock. All the worlds’ eyes were glued on the outcome of the vote counting, for a period of close to one month.Initial reports by the media based on exit polls had indicated that Al Gore had taken the lead after clocking 25 electoral votes. A recap of the votes indicated that indeed Bush was ahead of Gore.After the media retracted the misleading news they were to place and declare that Bush was leading in Florida with a close but a decisive win. These reports too were misleading as the three Democrats rich counties had not completed their vote count and there were indications that Gore was closing in the gap.The media was to again retract the news on Bush’s lead and win. By the close of the day, Gore had closed in and the difference lay at 500 votes and he ordered a mandatory recount in a number of counties and also sought legal intervention.The United States Supreme Court quashed the complaints and gave a go ahead to the Florida state to announce the results. George Bush was announced the winner in the Florida state.[1]Wardle, Claire and Kate Kinks and Dan Orr, August 2001