Suicide prevention Professor Ramos Blog

Suicide prevention Depression causes many things from anxiety, to social regression, and most of all suicidal tendencies.   According to the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention, there are about 105 suicides per day. Some people have either attempted suicide or has had an ideation about it. Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. Not only does it affect adults but children as well. 1 in 100,000 children age 10 to 14 dies by suicide each year. It’s a topic that you don’t really bring up to kids but it’s something that you should talk about with your children. It should be implemented in schools since children and teens are in school most of the day. Some stressors such as managing a workload, worrying about if the fit in and finding the balance with school and home can be stressful too. There are many life stressors that contribute to it such as mental illness, relationship problems, bullying, financial difficulties or a recent loss of someone clo se to you. There are many risk factors and we need to be more vigilant and know the warning signs for it such as aggressive behavior, talking about death, and social withdrawal. The sooner you see the warning signs the better in getting the help they need right away. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of deaths in the United States. Since the rates are rising we need to find ways we can prevent it. For example, having school-based awareness programs for kids and teenagers Such as letting them know they can speak to their teachers or their parents if they are feeling suicidal. Since school or home life can be stressful it would help to possibly have an emotional support service dog, An emotional support dog can be beneficial by providing mental and physical benefits They can come in throughout the day to provide comfort. In these programs they could learn how to create a safe environment for themselves, they would learn different kinds of coping skills and problem-solving skills. Another way would be to take medication for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety or trauma-related disorders. There are currently about 22 antidepressant medications that are approved by the FDA that can help out. These could be a risk factor as well.   With the help of medication or talk therapy, it can be a great big help to some people. Talk therapy such as counseling, or a psychiatrist will give you a better understanding of your mental health, how to overcome your fears, how to improve your relationships with friends, family and yourself. With their help, you both can work together to manage your stress and improve the quality of your life. Lastly, we have suicide prevention hotlines that can help. Maybe you are not comfortable speaking to someone in person. Hotlines would help by phone or text there are many ways you can get help. It’s a safe place where they keep everything confidential and its free. You will be set up with a crisis worker who is trained to help people with emotional distress or if they are having a suicidal crisis. Maybe you are seeking help for a friend or you are worried about a friend they will help you and provide resources on what to do and how to get help quickly. These programs could help prevent suicides by bringing awareness to it. It can save lives too by educating children at a young age that’s it’s okay to speak to someone if they are feeling sad, lost, hopeless. Learning these skills at an early age would help them when they become an adult. Teachers should also be mandated to know the warning signs of their students if they are a suicidal risk. As a result, by having these programs kids will learn many ways to prevent suicides. They would also learn how to effectively manage stressors and what to do if they are having a problem. Mental illness can be another risk factor and can be helped by taking medication or talking to a medical professional. Another way would be to call a suicide hotline. That is why it’s important to speak to your children about this topic even though it can be overwhelming but we have to teach them at a young age so they can use these skills when they become adults. Works cited NIH â€Å"The national institute of mental health† https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide.shtml CDC â€Å"center for disease control and prevention https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/prevention.html â€Å"Save suicide awareness voices of education† https://save.org/about-suicide/suicide-facts/ NAMI â€Å"National alliance on mental illness† https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions/related-conditions/risk-of-suicide American Foundation For Suicide Prevention â€Å"Treatment† Treatment

32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes

32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes It was a historic moment when Thomas Jefferson, along with other members of the Continental Congress, drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress declared the people of America independent from the British colonies. It was the moment of truth all Americans had waited for. If the effort of severing ties from the British succeeded, the leaders of the movement would be hailed as true American heroes. However, if the effort failed, the leaders would be guilty of treason and face death. It was the clever wording of the Declaration of Independence, followed by some smart strategies employed by the leaders that sparked the Independence movement. What followed was a relentless power struggle to gain absolute independence from the British monarchy. July 4, 1776, was the historic day when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Every year, Americans rejoice and celebrate Independence Day, or the 4th of July, with great fanfare. Amidst colorful parades, flag hoisting ceremonies, and barbecue parties, Americans remember the suffering their forefathers endured to win them precious freedom. Patriotic Quotes for Independence Day Erma Bombeck: You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.Adlai Stevenson: America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.Elmer Davis: This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.Joseph Addison: Let freedom never perish in your hands.Dwight D. Eisenhower: Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.George Bernard Shaw: Liberty is the breath of life to nations. Woodrow Wilson: The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation.Harry Emerson Fosdick: Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.Ralph Waldo Emerson: For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?Daniel Webster: May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!John Dickinson: Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all!By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.Hamilton Fish: If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.Benjamin Franklin: Where liberty dwells, there is my country.Thomas Paine: Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.-  Thomas Paine: In a chariot of light from the region of the day,The Goddess of Liberty cameShe brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,The plant she named Liberty Tree.He that would make his own liberty  Ã¢â‚ ¬â€¹secure,  must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men.James G. Blaine: The United States is the only country with a known birthday.Paul Sweeney: How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.Hubert H. Humphrey: We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit.George Santayana: A mans feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.Bill Vaughan: A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.John Quincy Adams: All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.Aurora Raigne: America, for me, has been the pursuit and catching of happiness.Gerald Stanley Lee: America is a tune. It must be sung tog ether. Lee Greenwood: And Im proud to be an American, where at least I know Im free. And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.John F. Kennedy: And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.John F. Kennedy: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.Oliver Wendell Holmes: One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!Let freedom ring from the curva ceous peaks of California!But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi.From every mountainside, let freedom ring. Abraham Lincoln, The  Gettysburg Address, 1863: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Health Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health Economics - Essay Example The studies conducted by Shadick and colleagues focused on assessing the cost effectiveness of the vaccination against the Lyme disease by developing a decision analytic model. However, the evidence gathered for such an experiment may be not being considered as robust as it may seem because the probabilities and costs used by Shadick and Colleagues were taken from the literature which may not be considered as entirely satisfactory as it may seem. Further, best estimates were used on the base case analyses whereas the ranges used in sensitivity analysis were considered as clinically plausible only. Further, the evidence for compliance and risk effects were taken from relatively newer and recent trials which may not have considered as entirely satisfactory and untested due to lack of time tested empirical proofs. Further the evidence for cost effectiveness and management of Lyme disease were taken from one study only and the dollar values were updated up to 1998 only which may not entirely be considered as entirely accurate and relevant. Based on the above, it may be easily inferred that the evidence may not entirely be considered as robust as it lacks in many areas which were conceptually not corrected/designed according to the relevant economic variables. Any health state rated between zero and one can be rated as death or equivalent and perfect health whereas anything below zero on visual analogue scale may be termed as worse than death therefore based on three given states of A, B, C at 0.1, 0.45, 0.8, we can assign a utility of death or equivalent because all the utilities are greater than zero but less than one. Therefore, the utility assigned to all three states are effectively representing one state because all three are less than one and greater than zero. Q#1(d) An incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) can be less than $40,000/- per quality adjusted year only if the persistence of vaccination efficacy is considered at three years. The traditional studies suggested that the cost effectiveness ratio, under two year time horizon of vaccination efficacy, the overall cost reach to $105,000/QALY. However, when this time horizon is stretched to three years, the incremental cost effectiveness ratio can reach up to $29,600/QALY. It is also important to note that Shadick & Colleagues took a radically larger efficacy period as in comparison to traditionally used. Q#1(e) With the increase in the vaccination cost by 100% i.e. from $150 to $300, the overall cost saving/QALY would decrease and the program would have moved up into the league table indicating smaller cost savings from the vaccination. The cost saving however is taken in terms of the costs averted while using the given vaccination. Q#2 Shadick and Colleagues considered a decision analytic model as one of the valid tools for making economic evaluation. Decision analytic tool is used when the intention of the researcher is to make justifiable and defendable decisions. Since, economics always involves a relative degree of abstraction therefore it sometimes becomes critical that such model for economic valuation is used which can provide researchers considerable degree of comfort while defending assessments made. (Arsham, 1994). Making comparison with earlier studies provide a peer reviewed evidence which can help researchers to take on the research

Maureen Down, Tea Obreht and Stephanie Elizondo Essay

Maureen Down, Tea Obreht and Stephanie Elizondo - Essay Example The third reading by Griest is set in Moscow, Beijing and Havana. These three places are defined by diversity of practices in relation to cultural and social aspects, all of which the author presents her experiences across the all the three places. In all the readings, the visits made by the writers are characterized by local customs practices, all of which are uniquely undertaken in every city highlighted in the readings. In other words, the three readings depict a lot of local customs, an outstanding similarity in all the three readings. Saudi Arabia is slowly opening its social and economic doors to the international world. Amid this progress, there are limitations that her social context has to overcome to allow this process. The Saudi Arabian society has previously observed locked tourism doors, but Maureen Dowd presents the new phase in Saudi Arabia in relation to tourism pursuits. In so doing, the persons to whom these doors are open are limited, and only highly knowledgeable fellows are welcome in Saudi Arabia. The most significant account that cannot fail to be captured in Saudi Arabia is misogyny. Being an Islamic state, Saudi Arabia has a notable disregard for women. In other words, they are inferior to men, and thus highly submissive. The cultural and social context of Saudi Arabia is characterized by enormous and rich local customs that are unique to every single social setting observed here. The dominant local custom is the position of women in the cultural, social, economic and political aspects. There are legal provisions that restrict women from engaging in certain activities that cut across the aforementioned aspects. Practices that women engage in are highly monitored, and any deviations from the norms are highly punishable. Maureen Dowd (55) quotes, â€Å"A Saudi woman can’t even report harassment by a man without having a mahram, or male guardian, by her side.† Amid the integration of international practices in the social cont ext of Saudi Arabia, this local custom remains uniquely observed, and few women, if not none are up to violate this custom. "Twilight of the vampires" by Tea Obreht presents an account of a vampire-like society, where there seems to be a hunt of undead real people. In a nutshell, the reading is an account of unfortunate events that befall Tea Obreht in daily quests and interests in life. The Serbia and Belgrade simultaneous happenings pose a bad omen to what the author, the mother, the grandmother and the journalist are supposed to partake. Amid the devil-like interventions that Tea Obreht experiences, the spirit to press on remains vibrant. The underlying dilemma in "Twilight of the vampires" provides an opportunity to note the customs and practices undertaken in the Balkans society. The most notable local custom in this environment is the one realized from Tea Obreht (19) quote, â€Å"Whereas garlic, holy water, and crucifixes are commonly accepted apotropaic across the Balkans, scissors under the bed are also popular, as is the black-handled knife buried in the doorstep to cleave incoming evil in half.† Cities highlighted in the "Twilight of the vampires" to practice this custom as a way of dealing with incoming devils or bad luck. Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s text is rich in cultural diversity. The text presents and

Importance Of Sound In Movies Film Studies Essay

Importance Of Sound In Movies Film Studies Essay As we know, the film sound design is divided into two main categories. The first is sound effects design, mostly non-musicals. The second is film scores composing, in other words, the background music that is written specifically along with a film, mostly musicals. Film score ought to contain cue tracks. Each track is an individual piece, which will typically be a composition from instruments. Nowadays, a growing number of film scores include a mixture of orchestral and electronic instruments. The notion of a point of audition can have two meanings: 1. A spatial sense: from where do I hear, from what point in the space represented on the screen or on the soundtrack? 2. A subjective sense: which character, at a given moment of the story, is hearing what I hear? (Chion, 1994) Sound is indexical in our natural way of listening. Sound conveys time information more accurately than visuals. When sound occurs, an event of material interaction is taking place. Sound fertilises and enhances the visual landscape, makes us able to make an outline of information about the source as well as the cause. In short words, sound reflects the physical reality of the scene, immerses the listener into the world, which makes the environment comes alive. What is important to the audience is to know what produces the sound and where it comes from. Diegetic sound is sound whose apparent source is in the space-time continuum of the scene onscreen. Diegetic sound is sound that the film leads us to believe the characters can hear. (Chion, 2009) For indicating the materiality of the sound source more accurately, the dimensions and distances more precisely, sound effects design has more to be considered. While some sound effects are recorded while they are produced, most of them are added or created afterwards. Production mixers normally ask that all action cease for a few moments on each location so that they may record the continuous background ambient sound in that space, such as water lapping on shore. Editors will later have to reinsert ambience under dialogue and effects created during postproduction for continuity with production sound. Sounds from disparate sources must be adjusted with tools like equalisers and filters to match and flow seamlessly. Choices of characteristics imparted to the sound in reverberation, pacing, timbre, volume, and mixing of sounds with each other may not only decide our sense of the physical reality of the space, but also suggest a number of feelings, such as loneliness, joys, paranoia and so on. Reverberation is an essential tool for placing a sound in a space to indicate how far we are from a sounds source. You can clarify an element of the plot with sound, or you can make things more ambiguous, which is often what you want to do. In such close-ups of sound we must be careful, however, to bear in mind the specific nature of sound which never permits sound to be isolated from its acoustic environment as a close-up shot can be isolated from its surroundings. Music played in a restaurant cannot be completely cut out if a special close-up of say two people softly talking together in a corner is to be shown. The band may not always be seen in the picture, but it will always be heard. The close- ­up will contain the whole acoustic atmosphere of the restaurant space. Thus we will hear not only the people talking, we will also hear in what relation their talking is to the sounds all round them. We will be able to place it in its acoustic environment. (Weis, 1985) Sound can heighten realism or it can diminish it. Sound can draw attention to a detail or draw attention away from it. (Sider, 2003) The microphone is not as selective. The sound designers have to eliminate that unintended cacophony from global for audience. The camera shoots directly at a ticking clock, we may hear the ticking. But a few seconds after the character looks away, the ticking will be gradually dropped out. Inception is a film that tells a story about inception of idea in dream. The movie itself is a mind altering brainstorm and an intelligent experience. It implants much plot clue using a very good sound design. In fact, it is also a successful aural inception. This is a going through of all the interesting technical points in this film. The thing that differs Inception from the other film is the simultaneous hierarchy architecture. It is common in this film that multilayers of sound happen at the same time in the movie. And in different levels of dream, the audience get different pace of sound. You can tell somebody what part of the world they are in, depending on what kinds of sound you play. The basic timeline and plot are based on dream within a dream. Even if the characters are in dreams, we expect them to follow the laws of physics. The very use of sound in this film is that the sound is used for connecting the different layers of dreaming. The song used for the musical countdown to make the dreaming characters aware of the impending kick is Non, Je ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf. There are 3 versions of Non, Je ne Regrette Rien, which are the original, the slowed version and the super-slowed version. When time is shifting between the dreams, the original Non, Je ne Regrette Rien is slowing down and being cross-faded with Zimmers score. When the musical countdown is heard down a level from its origin, its slowed down by 300%, and when it passes down another level, it slows by 300% again. By slowing down Non, Je ne Regrette Rien by 300%, the sound becomes very similar to the slow horns in Half Remembered Dream at the beginning of the film. When Cobb and Ariadne descend into limbo, without any headphones on to re-adjust the tempo of the music, that same score is heard slowed down by 300%. As Cobb and Ariadne wash up on the shores of Cobbs subconscious, the loudest and most drawn-out horn section of the entire soundtrack takes place in the end of the score 528491. The audience is not the only part involved hearing the slowed score, but so are the characters in the film. Many different films have made use of first person perspectives. It is just like experiencing life from the  first  person  point of view of  Malkovich in the movie Being John Malkovich  (1999). The first-person aural perspective has an immense impact on viewing film. The first person perspectives will surely make the audience feel in the characters way. The audience hears what exactly the characters hear. Since the characters can hear the music with us, the score itself is a hint at what layer of a dream we are viewing. Knowing this, it becomes possible to distinguish between dream and reality by merely hearing the music. The fact that score never dips into the slow droning in the reality level is a pretty good proof that the top level in the movie is indeed reality. The better-defined film sound became in the high frequency range, the more it induced a rapid perception of what was onscreen. This film has a very good dynamic frequency range. As for low frequency, there is the shaking of the building and the thunder sound. As for high frequency, there is water lapping and the gun shot recording. Mysterious electronic sound at the beginning implies that it is going to be a very unusual film. The water lapping and waves sound on shore goes from right to left according to the water flowing on screen. It can be a live record, but more probably is reinserted when post production. We Built Our Own World begins when Cobb is lying on the shore. It provides a strong sense of desolation when Cobb is looking at his children, which means he is not in the reality. The sound of spinning top is much louder than it should be because the filmmaker wants us to focus on the spinning top but not anything else. Then the spinning sound gradually fades out after switching views. Recording the background voices in a restaurant where Cobb was having a meal with Saito was a clever way of delivering the idea that they were in a very big building. We can hear low-frequency noise which sounds like the ground that is shaking at the same time. And then it gets louder and louder. All the above information that sound conveys is a clue that they are actually in dreams and lay the groundwork for the building collapse soon after that. Later the audience can hear the shaking sound of the tables and the glasses very clearly. Then the ticking sound of the clock goes faster and faster, which means we are travelling from dream to reality. Without sound, the audience do not even know what is going on. Sound inevitably carries much useful information in this collapsing scene indeed. The audience can hear background riot voices when there is only inside-house shots taking on, which means these background voices come from the riot people outside. Then we hear a simulated explosion sound which makes us feel we are in the scene. When Cobb is talking with Mal, we can hear ambience sound of water lapping sound again while we cannot see the shore, which means the shore is right beside the building. One Simple Idea takes place when Cobb is trying to steal an idea from Saito in dream. That is obviously a working theme that calms the audience down and tells the audience that Cobb is in the process of doing something important. Sound designer should record the building collapsing sound or simulate it in post-production in order to immense the audience into a surround atmosphere of danger. The background music Dream Is Collapsing is a magnificent piece that we can feel the dream is in the process of collapsing. In the gun shot scene, we cannot see the bullet or the fire light but we can hear very loud gunshot so that we know they are firing at each other. When Cobb is falling into water, it seems that we can hear what Cobb is hearing. Because Cobb is dreaming, so actually he is in two layers of world. In the upper layer dream, we here the water bubble sound when Cobb is drowning into water and water is running into his ears, thus causing a reverberation. But in the dream within a dream, the water is crushing into the building from everywhere, and then we should hear a sound like massive water drop on the ground, which is very similar to waterfall sound. When the scene goes back to drowning Cobb, we hear a pulse with its frequency getting faster and faster, which means he is crossing one dream layer up. We can hear the sound of a moving train when we see the characters are sleeping and dreaming together, which means in reality they are actually dreaming in a moving train. The sound designer perfectly builds up three layers of world using sound as a clue to the audience, but it is hard for the audience to notice these little clues. Anyway the sound clue will become clear when the audience watch the film a second time. When the dreaming character listens to the music on headphone, the audiences hear Non, Je ne Regrette Rien as if they are the dreaming character. Again there are two layers of sound at the same time. In the dream layer, the character can only hear a highly filtered version of Non, Je ne Regrette Rien in a low voice as if someone is whispering beside the ears. Sound images are often used in the film for the purpose of creating an atmosphere. Just as the film can show visual landscapes, so it can show acoustic landscapes. (Weis, 1985) Sound can describe an acoustic space. (Sider, 2003) Sometimes sound is simple enough to tell the audience what is happening, we do not need an extra visual image showing the detail. When Cobb drags Saito to the ground, there is no image showing Cobb has loaded the gun, but the audience hear a bullet loaded sound, which means Cobb is threatening Saito and probably he is going to kill Saito if Saito does not tell the secret of his company. That same thing happens again in the scene when Cobb is about to kill himself in dream. When Cobb is playing the spinning top, we hear the familiar Old Souls again. Every time when Cobb is not sure if he is in dream, the theme Old Souls will appear. It feels like a looping paradox. We can never make it right; we can never go out of the paradox. That is what Zimmer tries to convey to the audience through Old Souls. When Cobb is having conversation through telephone, we hear Cobb is speaking normally, but obviously reverberation is added to the voices come from the other end and these voices are so clear as if we are hearing it from Cobbs first person perspective. The sound designer has to make it clear so as the audience will not miss any information or emotion that Cobb receives from the telephone. When they mention Mal in the telephone, the background music suddenly changes into a soft and sad piece. That means Mals dead is really a nightmare for Cobb. He cannot stop his endless grieve about Mal. The microphone is placed in two places to record the speech in a big concert room between Cobb and his architect teacher. At first it is a close-up record. When the scene changes into a wide shot, the audience can hear a distant record version with more echoes which makes the ambience sounds more realistic than before. And that truly helps push the audience into the world. During the conversation, the background music Old Souls comes up again because they are talking about the idea of designing dream. One Simple Idea is a good choice of background music when Cobb is teaching Ariadne how to design a dream world like maze. That music simply draws the audiences attention to difficult staff they are going through but not itself. That is to say, when background music goes off or goes down without any supporting emotion, it leaves the space for the audience to stay in the visual and the profound idea naturally. To make the story more logical and each plot scene connected better, a good, logical and complicated sound design is required. Even if it is in dreams, the ambience sound goes like it is in reality. When Cobb is talking with Ariadne, the voices of the other people around are still available. In order to surprise the audience with a later explosion scene, the designer would rather let the audience believe this is a reality scene at first. So everything sounds as normal as daily life at the beginning. In fact few people can notice that the Non, Je ne Regrette Rien is fading in in the explosion scene when the dream is collapsing, which means the headphone on Ariadnes ear is playing to wake her up. A ground moving sound is simulated in the scene that Ariadne is folding the ground upside down in her dream. Everybody knows there is no way to record this sound in real life, we have to record the other sound, such as rock moving on the ground, to replace the imagined sound in the scene to make it sounds like what it should be. Radical Notion is on the way when Ariadne makes everything functioning radical and unbelievable in her experimental dream. The two gradually switching chords make us feel the way like How could it be like that? What an amazing thing! If the scene has a big change, it is a good practice to insert a background music which is in completely different style from the music in the scene before. Actually the Mombasa theme has already begun long before the chasing takes place, but again it is a gradually fading in, which means something excited should be just around the corner. We can hear sound similar to helicopter and also the sound of wind when Mal is sitting on the window. The moment when she jumps out, the background music suddenly changes into a sad tune. That seems to say it is not in dream but in reality. So it deserves to be a tragedy definitely. And this theme lasts until Cobbs narration is over. When they are taking action to hijack the son of the companys head, the music becomes very intense from that time. When Arthur is having gun fire, we hear the sound from his angel but not enemies angel because we only need a first person record. The sound the enemies are hearing is not that important to the plot. We can notice that whenever the speech between the characters is over, the background music will soon get louder. The sound designer does not want the background music cover our semantic listening. It is always a serious headache to record the sound when several driving cars are firing at each other, because there is often fast switching shot. In the film, the car braking sound, the gun fire sound, the braking glass sound because of the gun shot and the water lapping sound, every sound mix with each other at exactly the same time. So post production edit for the recorded sound is obviously needed at this specific moment. Some part of the sound is reinforced while some is reduced or diminished. It is the way to select useful sound information for the audience. When we see a close-up shot of a glass of water is shaking, we get a glass shaking sound. After the shot switches to peoples face, we still get that glass shaking sound. This time we know what it is the glass that is generating the sound. And also we can judge the shaking intensity simply by the acquiring the volume of the glass shaking sound. When the glass hits the table and breaks, we hear a sound which is similar to metal ringing and the ringing keeps lasting for a long time. And that is the time when Cobbs attention is extracted by his subconscious. That ringing is a clue that he may lose himself in thinking about Mal and his children. He simply cannot run away from the idea. The sound designer has to think of a best way to deliver the sound in a virtual environment. When the scene is switching between two levels of dream, especially at the conjunction point, sound effects do not necessary have to complete a sudden change. Sometimes for the consideration for continuity the sound from the upper level will pass on to the next level. The wind blowing sound and water lapping sound from the upper level become the thunder sound causing by the strange weather in the next level. This is a very good example of designing sound according to the requirement of plot and environment. I have to say that this is really a very smart sound design. A close-up shot on Robert Fischers face with a thunder sound above makes the whole scenery more nervous. Robert Fischer definitely feels anxious about being in dream with a strange continuing thunder sound above. The very clear fast breathing sound of Robert Fischer also reveals his anxiety. We can hear almost all the detail from Robert Fischers mouth so clear that it sounds like the microphone is just around the mouth of Robert Fischer. Thus it has to be a later recorded version of syncing facial expression with a close-up recorded sound. The messy footsteps sound is a good way to show a chaotic scene, thus reflects peoples tension. When Robert Fischer is escaping with Cobb from the men who were sent to abduct Robert Fischer, the sound of footstep is getting louder and quicker. At the best part of the film when five levels of dream are interacting and the shots keep switching between these five levels every few seconds, there is no speech, only the sound effects with magnificent background music which sounds like orchestra march. That particular background piece makes up the best part of the film, telling the audience this should be a spectacular moment that they would never see in any other film. In a word this piece stirs the emotion to the climax of the whole film. When the characters on the third and fourth level of the dream put on headphone on the second level, they hear a distorted version of Non, Je ne Regrette Rien. All the perception on the upper level has a reflection effects on the deeper level. In here, the music reflection effect is distortion music sound. The music at the shore of Cobbs subconscious is a woozy piece. It makes us dont know where we are. In fact it is the fifth level of dream. It is also desolation piece that few people can enter this level of dream so far. It becomes a strong kick with a long horn when the music Non, Je ne Regrette Rien is on. This time it is not a distorted version, it is a new recorded slow version of Non, Je ne Regrette Rien. Let us take a look at the film score part of sound design. What can film score does to the film? The obvious first thing to say: It makes you feel a certain way. It adds emotion, it evokes feelings, and it creates a mood. They can establish the pace of a scene. Directors are constantly asking composers to write a piece of music which will make the scene seem to go faster, or slower, than it goes. (Sider, 2003) A good film score will push the audience into the movies plot. It should reach the perfect interaction point between audio and visuals. Usually the composer is shown an unpolished rough cut of the film, and talks to the director about what music styles should be followed. Once a composer has the film, they will then work on composing the score. Some composers prefer to work with traditional paper scores, but if it comes to score like Inception that contains odd ambient and electronic noises, it has to be written in a computer-based environment. In some instances, film composers may be asked by the director to imitate a specific style. As seen in many film DVDs, the orchestra performs in front of a large screen depicting the movie, assisting the conductor to synchronize the music with the film. Films often have different themes for important characters, events, ideas or objects. So we divide the whole soundtrack into pieces of scores. By convention, the film soundtrack is constructed so as not to draw the audiences attention to itself but to accompany the film unless it is part of the plot. The director, composer, and music editor will have a spotting session, running through and agreeing on where and what kind of music is needed. The composer of the Inception scores is Hans Zimmer, whose music is characterized by high audible. Because Inception is based on the practice of entering dreams and planting an idea in someones head, the soundtracks to Inception should be designed as dream-like and create a complete sonic world to immerse the audience into each layers of the dreams. The original soundtrack album is largely an atmospheric album. The soundtrack has to be composed in ways that are quite unrealistic so that the audience will not notice the background music. Listening to this soundtrack really guide me to recall most of the main plot, at the same time music is the perfect embodiment of the films theme. It is an aural journey into ones imagination which creates images and story lines in my mind. It is a soundtrack to the imagination, or perhaps, dreams. In viewing period, the film score will never grab the limelight of the film itself, but to help the audience build up the courage of the dream and promote the development of the plot. Inception movie scores rely more on real live instruments rather than digital audio samples. The whole soundtrack is a combination of electronic and classical. Traditional orchestra can be heard here and there in each track. Some cues even play with electric guitar, odd ambient and electronic noises. Dream Is Collapsing is one of the most powerful tracks in the score. It is seen as perfectly rational that all characters in this scene keep calm and behave naturally with having a house collapse. This technique increases the contrast of the characters rational behaviour against the powerful background score which tells the audience that it deserves to be a nervous scene. Dream is Collapsing is very well done and incredibly addictive. Dream is Collapsing is the most memorable song. Radical Notion begins with heart beat which makes the audience lulled into a false sense of security. Those low chords that switch up and down before lie underneath strings as if a beast is softly breathing, or perhaps, it implies that it is the dreamer who is breathing, and always with a slowed down version. Recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition Radical Notion is a track that walks in familiar territory in terms of the string ostinatos. It is a motif which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. It is a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeated idea may be a rhythmic pattern in itself. Starts off playing the main motif rather dramatically then dips into some too cool for school stuff before playing around with the little motif some more. The last moments of the track gets aggressive. Old Souls reflects Mals anxious about living in dreams. It makes the audience puzzled, wondering if they are living in dreams. And the vibrating electronic underscoring is used in such a special way. It is a long and effective track that continues the atmospheric feelings of the album. Old Souls is a cue that leads us into the conversation between Cobb and Mal and make every audience puzzled with what they are doing and why they are acting like that. Most of the original background cues have something in common, but some of cues have slight differences. Mombasa is the only percussion in the score, which has distinctive flavour from the rest of the score. What is occurring on screen is a chasing scene which lasts about 4 minutes. Thus the accompanying soundtrack should be a very fast on-going rhythm in order to provoke audiences emotions. The Hi Octane element provides intense personal experience and delivers a paranoid sense of being chased when Cobb is running to get out of the chasers. It has a fairly light start, but it soon explodes into an action cue. Dream within a Dream brings back the motif heard in Dream is Collapsing but adds some too cool for school percussion. Waiting for a Train is the longest cue of all, which feels very mysterious and nostalgic when there are too many musical elements and emotion changing blended in. Around 3 minutes, it changes the feeling completely and the atmosphere becomes a little darker in nature. At around 5:30, it gets more dramatic as there are almost only synths left. In stark contrast, Edith Piaf is in there at around 7:04. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien is a classic, but it still sounded strange there. The female voice wakes up the dreamers. All of these form 9 minutes and 29 seconds of continuous wonderfulness. Great inspirational scores and soundtracks should all have the quality of independence from their intended film. Time may be one of the most beautiful epic songs in the soundtrack that can be appreciated independently from Inception. It gives a sense of closure by building up an emotional thread from beginning to end. There is no doubt that Time should be the main title in this original soundtrack album. The piano gets the view feeling sentimental, which brings tears to the eyes, especially at the very end after the audience has experienced all the dreams in the film. This is probably the one that most people will truly love and listen to a thousand times without being tired of. What Time did was no pure sensationalism, the fate of a sense of desolation in which the melody is along with the spinning top, so that we cannot distinguish if it is a dream or not. It is not just orchestral music, but every form of music because you never know when you might need to use some electric guitars. Great composers adapt to the story and to their directors vision. It can be said that sounds greatest influence on the film is manifested at the heart of the image itself. (Chion, 1994)

The Benefits of School Uniforms As A Mandatory

In a time when the academic status quo is coming into question throughout America, educators, civic leaders, parents, students, and legislatures are left cycling through a myriad of standardized options to ameliorate the system. From gender-segregated classrooms to the implementation of national standard tests grading both students and teachers, suggestions abound on ways the American public might make its school system a better functioning environment for the socialization and academic study of its children. Among many other suggested and sometimes implemented deviations is the option of school uniforms as a mandatory part of American schools. Already a part of many school environments, usually private, parochial, or urban, uniforms come with a heady line of debate to the forefront of systematic discussion. Those in support of uniforms in both primary and secondary school environments stand in staunch opposition to those who suggest it might not only detract from the creative development of a child but may ultimately be a waste of time, money, and effort. Many critics of the school uniform movement proclaim that uniforms cannot â€Å"fix† anything about the failings of the American school system, and that it is, in fact, the morals, attitudes, and determination of those in the academic environments that create good schools, not uniforms. Yet, the detractors seem to fall short of reasons to not use school uniforms; those schools that have implemented them as a regimented part of school life support the uniforms as a mechanism to focus children on their work and away from each other, equalize the exceedingly hierarchical playing field of consumer popularity supported by the capitalist marketplace, and undermine the social tensions prevalent in the teenage years that account for so much wasted time, effort, and emotion during the classroom day. Contemporary American culture supports the performance and display of class and status as an important component of society; American schoolchildren replicate these trends, particularly those associated with familiar celebrities and elite brands, overpopulate the classic schoolyard. As a result, a culture of dress code policies and school uniforms have been instituted to counteract the peer competition, ostracism, tensions, and even theft that distract children from their schoolwork. Holloman, Lillian O. Dress-Related Behavioral Problems in the Public School Setting: Prevention and Policy – A Holistic Approach. † The Journal of Negro Education. Vol. 65, No. 2, Educating Children in a Violence Society, Part I. (Summer, 1996. ) p. 267-281. In her review of the uniform policy of urban schools, Holloman reflects on the current violence that infects public schools where there is no system in place to counteract the social problems set in motion by the capitalist-spawned problems of material competition. She addresses not only the problems these play in all schools, particularly in terms of stress, the development of male-female relations, and socialization of American school children, but carries her discussion further to the way these issues play out in lower and working class ethnic groups. She says that while students at all schools must face the issues of material competition represented by clothing in the classroom, it is a situation far more exaggerated for the urban black demographic. She includes the work of other sociologists and academic thinkers in her analysis of the school uniform option for the public schools most frequently attended by blacks. In this environment, she discusses the frighteningly frequent occurrence of violence as a result of material competition between students, with armed assailants stealing one student's jacket in the middle of a school day in Washington, D. C. While national attempts at school security have limited the level of danger in the schools, it has not limited the violence nor the lasting psychological effects it has on impressionable teens. Because the emotional implications of the violence that frequently ensues as a direct result of the clothes student wear to school in urban black environments, Holloman fully encourages the use of school uniforms, even if they detract from a student's ability to cultivate a unique sense of self through physical expression. Holloman ways the costs and benefits of the uniform, but ultimately sides with the student's safety, suggesting that time outside of school will be enough to encourage individuality among students. Likewise, she says, students are at school to learn, and positioning them in the safest environment to do so is the responsibility of all academic communities. Meadmore and Symes, Daphne and Colin. â€Å"Keeping up Appearances: Uniform Policy for School Diversity? † British Journal of Educational Studies. Vol. 45, No. 2. (Jun. , 1997. ) p. 174-186. Meadmore and Symes analyze the policies pertaining to school dress codes that instituted standard uniforms across the whole of Australia. They investigate the devolution and marketization of schools, as well as the growing state control over local practices. While their work is Australia-oriented, they strictly examine the social themes at play internationally that cause teenagers to misuse their freedom of dress in schools to a point that uniforms are a suitable tool to address the need of schools to control what goes on inside their walls. Likewise, Meadmore and Symes take an in-depth look at the transformation of schools over time, since formalized schooling in Australia has its roots in the private/public system of England, where uniforms have been traditionally mandatory. The English system, along with a desire for proper socialization to â€Å"the American way† for immigrant children in the 19th century, was the basis for the American school system's development, and its lack of uniforms is particularly interesting. Since public schools do not traditionally require uniforms in the halls of America while private schools, modeled more strictly on the elite British schools usually do, the work of Meadmore and Symes is easily extrapolated and integral to the academic discussion of the viability of uniforms in schools. Jacobson, Paul B. â€Å"Personal Expenses of High-School Students. † The School Review. Vol. 52, No. . (Jun. , 1994. ) p. 350-355. Jacobsen, a well-respected University of Chicago academic sociologist, states that ‘secondary education has always been selective. ‘ While this double entendre refers to the past of secondary education as something only afforded to the privileged and now those only adept enough to swim the seas of high school, its significance is important in the modern day American school system. While education still takes place in these schools, he says, it is clear that the education has also left Western Civilization and extended to the malls, shops, and boutiques where clothing becomes a mark of who a student is. It is not about sweaters to stay warm or long skirts, demure in their affiliation with a religious group or cultural standard, but instead about carefully relating brand and styles to characteristics populated by society's superstars to make a statement about who you are on the inside with each item of clothing. While this is not necessarily inherently bad, it is a powerful beast that changes the face of modern education. Jacobsen denounces free clothing choice at school not because of this reason but because of how it plays out in society; may parents and students cannot afford to play this game with attire in the schoolroom setting, which is already augmented in cost by musical instruments, school supplies, and athletic gear. As all of these aspects of education increase in expense, parents and students should not be forced to keep up to merely stay afloat in the mean world high school society, and as a result, he says, uniforms are a necessary alternative to the status quo. Brunsma, David L. The School Uniform Movement and What it Tells us About American Education. Washington, D. C. : Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2004. Brunsma provides the most thorough and sizeable analysis of the issues in the American school uniform debate. He examines the impetuses, debates, legal issues, and effectiveness of policies where uniforms have been implemented throughout the United States, further embellishing the work with anecdotal components that remind the reader that the issue of uniforms, while seemingly minor, actually has large ramifications on the future of American school systems and the expectations made of American children. His debates analyze both sides of the argument, as well as providing a comprehensive history and case study review. While Brunsma's conclusion is that uniforms do not make schools better, its intellectual review of the current literature on the matter disengages the reader from his opinion and, ironically, supports the implementation of a uniform code. His position is based on a simplistic desire to remain in a non-commercialized world where Gucci and Yves St. Lauren have not invaded the seventh grade classroom, but his review of case studies reveals that it in fact has. The evidence he presents clearly supports the use of uniforms, as the difference between a Sears-bought turtleneck and one purchased at Saks are far more insignificant than the way materialism plays out throughout an entire wardrobe. His analysis, while contrary to his personal opinion, shows that uniforms boost school climate, morale of students, work to eliminate high levels of competition, and support a focused academic atmosphere. All of these works, in addition to the great bevy available in academic journals, newspapers, and bookshelves, provide a great source of questions from which one can more strictly analyze the issue of school uniforms in the American classroom setting and the questions with which one needs to examine the costs and benefits of their implementation.

Gay Marriage Should Not Be Condemned - 1108 Words

Introduction There has been heated debate’s concerning gay marriage’s in the world. Some people support gay marriage while others do not. Gay marriage is a marital union that involves two adults of the same gender. For instance, a woman and another or marriage involving two men would constitute a gay marriage. Generally, this issue has been prevalent in the developed countries such as the United States; but it is a fact those kinds of marriages exist in other countries in the world over, only that the participants do not have the courage to come out in the open due to the restrictions imposed by their conservative countries. What remains as the big question is whether gay marriages should be accepted. Gay marriages Despite the much conservativeness by the some people, states and institutions, there are myriad reasons why gay marriages should not be condemned. From the pace that this issue is taking, it is clear that it has already had rots and therefore it has already become part of the society. On the basis of the need for a society to embrace that which is inevitable, it is crucial that the contemporary society learns to embrace the fact that gay marriage is there and from the look of things, it is there to last. This can be analogized with the confidence that is displayed by football teams. Every team believes that it is going to win against the other; otherwise it would not engage in the competition. Only one team wins at the end of the day. It is clear that the gayShow MoreRelatedThe Catholic Church Should Accept That Gay Marriage1526 Words   |  7 Pages The Catholic Church should accept that gay marriage is morally acceptable and doesn’t contradict their beliefs. Gay marriage has been a topic of controversy ever since the 1970’s. May of 1970 to be exact. 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