Gene Kranz Essay

Apollo 13 directed by Ron Howard is the story of the real space mission that took place in 1969. The three astronauts had always dreamed of landing on the moon but not long after the astronauts launched into space did they realize that the task would be near impossible due to an explosion of an oxygen tank. Getting home safe became their next mission. A character in this film from whom I learned something is Gene Kranz played by Ed Harris. I learned that thinking calmly helps you and people around you to think positively in hard situations and that instead of being scared and giving up in tough situations, you should think outside the box and find an solution. The audience learns from this about the importance of the idea(s) of leadership attributes and skills. Gene Kranz is an important character in Apollo 13 because even with a responsibility of the whole mission which is going to through a crisis, he was still calm and determined as ever. For example when the whole staff is tensed and worried, Kranz voice cut through a simple command, â€Å"Let’s work the problem, people but not make worse by guessing. This shows me that Ron Howard knew that every problem has a solution, or at least the damage could be managed, but you have to be methodical and work through the issues. Stop worrying, and start working. Another example of a lesson from Gene Kranz is When the NASA director said that this could be the worst disaster in the history of NASA, Kranz cut him off. â€Å"With all due respect sir, I think this is going to be our finest hour.† This shows that he more focused on the positive goal than think the negative. This positiveness also gives him and people around the confidence needed to complete the mission. This is how the sc ript and director show us the importance of leader’s positive attitude in tough situations and what I learn from him. Another reason Gene Kranz is a character from whom to learn is because he never portrays any fear or sense of panic that he might be feeling and always thinking clearly as to what can be done next. Always in control and remain in the moment. For example when he says â€Å"We’ve never lost an American in space, we’re sure as heck not going to lose one on my watch Failure is not an option! By this example Rom Howard shows us that leaders are supposed to have these attributes of Firmness and Flexibility. Being on a firm to do  something and think of flexibly ideas of how to do it. We could also see this when he says â€Å"I don’t care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. As NASA’s scientists worked the problem, Kranz made them think outside the box. They broke down systems and used the parts to create new tools and systems that helped saved lives. By showing us these things which he does/says/ experiences, director emphasises the idea of never treating failure as a possible option or outcome which is also important in our own lives. Gene Kranz is an important character from Apollo 13 because the director uses him to teach me lessons about being able to think calmly in tough situations like an anchor in a storm and that to never be scared of failure and give up. These ideas are also importa nt to my own life because there may be a lot of tough situations coming up in my life, which may only be solved only if I don’t get scared and think calmly. If I get scared of failure and back off my life would end being a regrettable one.

Impact of Poverty on Children Essay

According to data from UNICEF, a child in the United States is more likely to live in poverty than any other developed nation (American Psychological Association, 2012) Children living in poverty suffer from lack of nutrition. Lack of nutrition can lead to premature birth and/or low birth weight (APA, 2012). Inadequate access to healthy foods can lead to obesity (Dalton, 2007). Lack of food can lead to hunger or food insecurity (APA, 2012). Malnutrition can lead to deficits in cognitive and social development (APA, 2012). Failure to thrive can be a result of under nutrition (APA, 2012). According to the American Psychological Association (2012) poverty can lead to poor academic achievement. Stress connected with living in poverty affects concentration and memory (APA, 2012). Lack of encouragement to promote literacy and reading readiness (Cuthrell, Stapleton, & Ledford, 2010). No exposure to activities such as museums and camps (Cuthrell et al., 2010). Several states with school districts in low-income areas receive much less in state and local funding than other school districts (Hutchinson, 2013). Poverty and lack of insurance affects children’s health. Barrier to children receiving proper vaccinations (Becton, Lee, & Nieman, 2008). Children are a greater risk of behavioral and emotional issues (APA, 2012). Increased risk of asthma, anemia, and pneumonia (APA, 2012). Exposure to lead and other environmental contaminants (APA, 2012). Micro social work Working with families with children to provide services for food and health care. Collaborating with other agencies to provide services such as health departments, community service boards, and mental health service providers. Working with schools to ensure child(ren)’s needs being met. Assisting family with nutritional education and access to healthy foods. Macro social work Work with community to increase support for Head Start and preschool programs for all children. Policy and laws must address the lack availability of services and health insurance for children living in poverty. Advocate for school systems to better educate teachers to deal with children living in poverty – hire teachers who care about student’s achievements (Cuthrell et al., 2010). Encourage school boards to eliminate all sugary foods and drinks from school campuses. Encourage communities to be proactive in assisting families living in poverty with food and educational programs. Work with policy to promote increase in wages and employment opportunities (Fass et al., 2009). Social Constructionist Perspective Children in poverty have a place in society – do not move up in class. Children in poverty have certain characteristics: not intelligent, slow-minded, dirty, obese, wanting hand-outs, criminals. Children in poverty should not aspire to improve their circumstances. Society class structure gives the need for children and families to live in poverty. Poverty is accepted as a norm – need change of thinking. Social Behavior Perspective Children in poverty expect to grow up to live in poverty. Children in poverty thinking is reinforced by their environment. Children in  poverty do not have high expectations or goals. Children living in poverty continue the cycle of the parents and grandparents previously. Conflict Perspective Children in poverty are a non-dominant group. Children in poverty have no voice. Children in poverty are results of social and economic injustice – unequal division of power. Children in poverty affect all facets of society Schools and all children affected by policies such as: No Child Left Behind Act – teaching more to state testing versus academics and knowledge. Children in poverty cost an estimated $500 billion in lost productivity and spending on health care and criminal justice systems (Fass, Dinan, & Aratani, 2009). Children in poverty are more likely to be poor as adults, continuing the cycle increasing chances of chronic poverty ((Fass et al., 2009). The research on children living in poverty reinforces how the environment can and will affect an individual’s situation. Poverty influences a child’s health, education, and future well-being. If a child is not given the same opportunities as other children not living in poverty, the struggle to rise above poverty can be overwhelming. The cycle of poverty will only change when there is an equality of resources. The change starts at the micro level with the individual child and the family receiving services. To break the cycle, the change must be at the macro level with change in policies and laws. Agencies and social workers must give the children living in poverty a voice that can be heard. References American Psychological Association. (2012). Effects of poverty, hunger and homelessness on children and youth. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/print-this.aspx Becton, J. L., Lee, C., & Nieman, L. Z. (2008). The effect of lack of insurance, poverty and paediatrician supply on immunization rates among children 19-35 months of age in the United States. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice3, 14(2), 248-253. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2007.00841.x Cuthrell, K., Stapleton, J., Ledford, C. (2010). Examining the culture of poverty: promising practices. Preventing school failures, 54(2), 104-110. Dalton, S. (2007, January). Our vulnerable children: poor and overweight. Southern Medical Journal. pp. 1-2. Fass, S., Dinan, K. A., & Aratani, Y. (2009, December). Child poverty and intergenerational mobility. National center for Children in Poverty. Retrieved from http://nccp.org/publications/pub_911.html Hutchinson, E. D., (2013). Theoretical perspectives on human behavior. Essentials of human behavior integrating person, environment, and the life course. (pp. 39 – 42). Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications. Compare/Contrast Krystal and Jessica both want to work with immigrants to help integrate them into the schools and society and overcome barriers. My desire to help children in poverty could be viewed as similar as both groups have barriers due to their status. Immigrants and poor people are looked upon as being less of a person. Each group I believe is affected by the conflict perspective. The unequal balance of power and resources prevents immigrants and poor people access to the same opportunities. If there is not a balance or equal opportunity to services and resources, how can immigrants and people living in poverty achieve the successes of those with access? The environment in which immigrants and poor people are exposed to everyday does not meet the basic needs of acceptance and hope. If children are to succeed in the classroom they must be given the tools and support to do so. Things such as food, shelter and language are taken for granted by society when there is not a need. How is a child who cannot understand what a teacher is saying or is being bullied by other children because of their different speech or clothing achieving success in the classroom? How can a child who has not eaten since lunch in school the day before concentrate on what is being taught by the teacher? Society must take responsibility for these  children. Social workers must advocate at all levels: micro and macro – to ensure immigrants and children of poverty are receiving equal access to opportunities available to others. Social workers and society cannot accept poverty as a norm. Social workers and society cannot accept lack of resources and/or funding an excuse to not properly educate children of immigrants.

Chapter 12 The Patronus

As far as he was concerned, the stripping-down of a brand-new Firebolt was nothing less than criminal damage. Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the common room. Harry and Ron supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn’t try to persuade her to come back. All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again. Wood sought Harry out on the night before term started. â€Å"Had a good Christmas?† he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, â€Å"I’ve been, doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the Dementors come to the next one†¦I mean†¦we can’t afford you to — well –â€Å" Wood broke off, looking awkward. â€Å"I’m working on it,† said Harry quickly. â€Å"Professor Lupin said he’d train me to ward off the Dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he’d have time after Christmas.† â€Å"Ah,† said Wood, his expression clearing. â€Å"Well, in that case — I really didn’t want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And have you ordered a new broom yet?† â€Å"No,† said Harry. â€Å"What! You’d better get a move on, you know — you can’t ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!† â€Å"He got a Firebolt for Christmas,† said Ron. â€Å"A Firebolt? No! Seriously? A — a real Firebolt?† â€Å"Don’t get excited, Oliver,† said Harry gloomily. â€Å"I haven’t got it anymore. It was confiscated.† And he explained all about how the Firebolt was now being checked for jinxes. â€Å"Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?† â€Å"Sirius Black,† Harry said wearily. â€Å"He’s supposed to be after me. So McGonagall reckons he might have sent it.† Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker, Wood said, â€Å"But Black couldn’t have bought a Firebolt! He’s on the run! The whole country’s on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?† â€Å"I know,† said Harry, â€Å"but McGonagall still wants to strip it down –â€Å" Wood went pale. â€Å"I’ll go and talk to her, Harry,† he promised. â€Å"I’ll make her see reason†¦A Firebolt†¦a real Firebolt, on our team †¦She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do†¦I’ll make her see sense. A Firebolt†¦.† Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry that he had the shortest life line she had ever seen. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry was keen to get to; after his conversation with Wood, he wanted to get started on his anti-Dementor lessons as soon as possible. â€Å"Ah yes,† said Lupin, when Harry reminded him of his promise at the end of class. â€Å"Let me see†¦how about eight o’clock on Thursday evening? The History of Magic classroom should be large enough†¦I’ll have to think carefully about how we’re going to do this†¦We can’t bring a real Dementor into the castle to practice on†¦.† â€Å"Still looks ill, doesn’t he?† said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. â€Å"What d’you reckon’s the matter with him?† There was a loud and impatient â€Å"tuh† from behind them. It was Hermione, who had been sitting at the feet of a suit of armor, repacking her bag, which was so full of books it wouldn’t close. â€Å"And what are you tutting at us for?† said Ron irritably. â€Å"Nothing,† said Hermione in a lofty voice, heaving her bag back over her shoulder. â€Å"Yes, you were,† said Ron. â€Å"I said I wonder what’s wrong with Lupin, and you –â€Å" â€Å"Well, isn’t it obvious?† said Hermione, with a look of maddening superiority. â€Å"If you don’t want to tell us, don’t,† snapped Ron. â€Å"Fine,† said Hermione haughtily, and she marched off. â€Å"She doesn’t know,† said Ron, staring resentfully after Hermione. â€Å"She’s just trying to get us to talk to her again.† At eight o’clock on Thursday evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom. It was dark and empty when he arrived, but he lit the lamps with his wand and had waited only five minutes when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn’s desk. â€Å"What’s that?† said Harry. â€Å"Another Boggart,† said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. â€Å"I’ve been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch’s filing cabinet. It’s the nearest we’ll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we’ll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we’re not using him; there’s a cupboard under my desk he’ll like.† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry, trying to sound as though he wasn’t apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor. â€Å"So†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. â€Å"The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry — well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm.† â€Å"How does it work?† said Harry nervously. â€Å"Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus,† said Lupin, â€Å"which is a kind of anti-Dementor — a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor.† Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club. Professor Lupin continued, â€Å"The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it.† â€Å"What does a Patronus look like?† said Harry curiously. â€Å"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it.† â€Å"And how do you conjure it?† â€Å"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.† Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys’ was going to do. Finally, he settled on the moment when he had first ridden a broomstick. â€Å"Right,† he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of his stomach. â€Å"The incantation is this –† Lupin cleared his throat. â€Å"Expecto patronum!† â€Å"Expecto patronum,† Harry repeated under his breath, â€Å"expecto patronum.† â€Å"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?† â€Å"Oh — yeah –† said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broom ride. â€Å"Expecto patrono — no, patronum — sorry — expecto patronum, expecto patronum† Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas. â€Å"Did you see that?† said Harry excitedly. â€Å"Something happened!† â€Å"Very good,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Right, then — ready to try it on a Dementor?† â€Å"Yes,† Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding†¦Any second now, he might hear his mother again†¦but he shouldn’t think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn’t want to†¦or did he? Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward Harry, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold broke over him — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto –â€Å" But the classroom and the Dementor were dissolving†¦Harry was falling again through thick white fog, and his mother’s voice was louder than ever, echoing inside his head — â€Å"Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I’ll do anything –â€Å" â€Å"Stand aside — stand aside, girl –â€Å" â€Å"Harry!† Harry jerked back to life. He was lying flat on his back on the floor. The classroom lamps were alight again. He didn’t have to ask what had happened. â€Å"Sorry,† he muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses. â€Å"Are you all right?† said Lupin. â€Å"Yes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it. â€Å"Here –† Lupin handed him a Chocolate Frog. â€Å"Eat this before we try again. I didn’t expect you to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had.† â€Å"It’s getting worse,† Harry muttered, biting off the Frog’s head. â€Å"I could hear her louder that time — and him — Voldemort –â€Å" Lupin looked paler than usual. â€Å"Harry, if you don’t want to continue, I will more than understand –â€Å" â€Å"I do!† said Harry fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. â€Å"I’ve got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can’t afford to fall off again. If we lose this game we’ve lost the Quidditch Cup!† â€Å"All right then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Lupin. â€Å"You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on†¦That one doesn’t seem to have been strong enough†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry thought hard and decided his feelings when Gryffindor had won the House Championship last year had definitely qualified as very happy. He gripped his wand tightly again and took up his position in the middle of the classroom. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, gripping the box lid. â€Å"Ready,† said Harry; trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about Gryffindor winning, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened. â€Å"Go!† said Lupin, pulling off the lid. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto Pat –â€Å" White fog obscured his senses†¦big, blurred shapes were moving around him†¦then came a new voice, a man’s voice, shouting, panicking — â€Å"Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off –â€Å" The sounds of someone stumbling from a room — a door bursting open — a cackle of high- pitched laughter — â€Å"Harry! Harry†¦wake up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin was tapping Harry hard on the face. This time it was a minute before Harry understood why he was lying on a dusty classroom floor. â€Å"I heard my dad,† Harry mumbled. â€Å"That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him — he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn’t see. â€Å"You heard James?† said Lupin in a strange voice. â€Å"Yeah†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Face dry, Harry looked up. â€Å"Why — you didn’t know my dad, did you?† â€Å"I — I did, as a matter of fact,† said Lupin. â€Å"We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry — perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced†¦I shouldn’t have suggested putting you through this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No!† said Harry. He got up again. â€Å"I’ll have one more go! I’m not thinking of happy enough things, that’s what it is†¦hang on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory†¦one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus†¦. The moment when he’d first found out he was a wizard, and would be leaving the Dursleys for Hogwarts! If that wasn’t a happy memory, he didn’t know what was†¦Concentrating very hard on how he had felt when he’d realized he’d be leaving Privet Drive, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment. â€Å"Concentrating hard? All right — go!† He pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark — â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM!† Harry bellowed. â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!† The screaming inside Harry’s head had started again — except this time, it sounded as though it were coming from a badly tuned radio — softer and louder and softer again†¦and he could still see the Dementor†¦it had halted†¦and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry’s wand, to hover between him and the Dementor, and though Harry’s legs felt like water, he was still on his feet — though for how much longer, he wasn’t sure†¦ â€Å"Riddikulus!† roared Lupin, springing forward. There was a loud crack, and Harry’s cloudy Patronus vanished along with the Dementor; he sank into a chair, feeling as exhausted as if he’d just run a mile, and felt his legs shaking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into a silvery orb again. â€Å"Excellent!† Lupin said, striding over to where Harry sat. â€Å"Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!† â€Å"Can we have another go? Just one more go?† â€Å"Not now,† said Lupin firmly. â€Å"You’ve had enough for one night. Here –â€Å" He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes’ best chocolate. â€Å"Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry. He took a bite of the chocolate and watched Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor. A thought had just occurred to him. â€Å"Professor Lupin?† he said. â€Å"If you knew my dad, you must’ve known Sirius Black as well.† Lupin turned very quickly. â€Å"What gives you that idea?† he said sharply. â€Å"Nothing — I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin’s face relaxed. â€Å"Yes, I knew him,† he said shortly. â€Å"Or I thought I did. You’d better be off, Harry, it’s getting late.† Harry left the classroom, walking along the corridor and around a corner, then took a detour behind a suit of armor and sank down on its plinth to finish his chocolate, wishing he hadn’t mentioned Black, as Lupin was obviously not keen on the subject. Then Harry’s thoughts wandered back to his mother and father †¦ He felt drained and strangely empty, even though he was so full of chocolate. Terrible though it was to hear his parents’ last moments replayed inside his head, these were the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he’d never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again †¦ â€Å"They’re dead,† he told himself sternly. â€Å"They’re dead and listening to echoes of them won’t bring them back. You’d better get a grip on yourself if you want that Quidditch Cup.† He stood up, crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. This meant that with Lupin’s anti-Dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, Harry had just one night a week to do all his homework. Even so, he was not showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted. â€Å"How’s she doing it?† Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books. â€Å"Doing what?† â€Å"Getting to all her classes!† Ron said. â€Å"I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday’s lesson, but Hermione can’t’ve been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she’s never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she’s never missed one of them either!† Harry didn’t have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione’s impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape’s essay. Two seconds later, however, he was interrupted again, this time by Wood. â€Å"Bad news, Harry. I’ve just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She — er — got a bit shirty with me. Told me I’d got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn’t care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first.† Wood shook his head in disbelief. â€Å"Honestly, the way she was yelling at me†¦you’d think I’d said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall’s severe voice. â€Å"As long as necessary, Wood†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦I reckon it’s time you ordered a new broom, Harry. There’s an order form at the back of Which Broomstick†¦you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy’s got.† â€Å"I’m not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good,† said Harry flatly. January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but Harry still hadn’t ordered a new broom. He was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolt after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron standing hopefully at his shoulder, Hermione rushing past with her face averted. â€Å"No, Potter, you can’t have it back yet,† Professor McGonagall told him the twelfth time this happened, before he’d even opened his mouth. â€Å"We’ve checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall tell you once we’ve finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me.† To make matters even worse, Harry’s anti-Dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as he had hoped. Several sessions on, he was able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the Boggart-Dementor approached him, but his Patronus was too feeble to drive the Dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semitransparent cloud, draining Harry of energy as he fought to keep it there. Harry felt angry with himself, guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents’ voices again. â€Å"You’re expecting too much of yourself,† said Professor Lupin, sternly in their fourth week of practice. â€Å"For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren’t passing out anymore, are you?† â€Å"I thought a Patronus would — charge the Dementors down or something,† said Harry dispiritedly. â€Å"Make them disappear –â€Å" â€Å"The true Patronus does do that,† said Lupin. â€Å"But you’ve achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, You will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground.† â€Å"You said it’s harder if there are loads of them,† said Harry. â€Å"I have complete confidence in you,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Here — you’ve earned a drink. Something from the Three Broomsticks. You won’t have tried it before –â€Å" He pulled two bottles out of his briefcase. â€Å"Butterbeer!† said Harry, without thinking. â€Å"Yeah, I like that stuff!† Lupin raised an eyebrow. â€Å"Oh — Ron and Hermione brought me some back from Hogsmeade,† Harry lied quickly. â€Å"I see,† said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious. â€Å"Well — let’s drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I’m supposed to take sides, as a teacher†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he added hastily. They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something he’d been wondering for a while. â€Å"What’s under a Dementor’s hood?† Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. â€Å"Hmmm †¦ well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon.† â€Å"What’s that?† â€Å"They call it the Dementor’s Kiss,† said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. â€Å"It’s what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and — and suck out his soul.† Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer. â€Å"What — they kill –?† â€Å"Oh no,† said Lupin. â€Å"Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no†¦anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever†¦lost.† Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, then said, â€Å"It’s the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him.† Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black. â€Å"He deserves it,† he said suddenly. â€Å"You think so?† said Lupin lightly. â€Å"Do you really think anyone deserves that?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry defiantly. â€Å"For†¦for some things†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He would have liked to have told Lupin about the conversation he’d overheard about Black in the Three Broomsticks, about Black betraying his mother and father, but it would have involved revealing that he’d gone to Hogsmeade without permission, and he knew Lupin wouldn’t be very impressed by that. So he finished his butterbeer, thanked Lupin, and left the History of Magic classroom. Harry half wished that he hadn’t asked what was under a Dementor’s hood, the answer had been so horrible, and he was so lost in unpleasant thoughts of what it would feel like to have your soul sucked out of you that he walked headlong into Professor McGonagall halfway up the stairs. â€Å"Do watch where you’re going, Potter!† â€Å"Sorry, Professor –â€Å" â€Å"I’ve just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room, Well, here it is, we’ve done everything we could think of, and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it at all — you’ve got a very good friend somewhere, Potter†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry’s jaw dropped. She was holding out his Firebolt, and it looked as magnificent as ever. â€Å"I can have it back?† Harry said weakly. â€Å"Seriously?† â€Å"Seriously,† said Professor McGonagall, and she was actually smiling. â€Å"I daresay you’ll need to get the feel of it before Saturday’s match, won’t you? And Potter — do try and win, won’t you? Or we’ll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Speechless, Harry carried the Firebolt back upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower. As he turned a corner, he saw Ron dashing toward him, grinning from ear to ear. â€Å"She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it? Tomorrow?† â€Å"Yeah†¦anything†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, his heart lighter than it had been in a month. â€Å"You know what — we should make up with Hermione†¦She was only trying to help†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah, all right,† said Ron. â€Å"She’s in the common room now working — for a change.† They turned into the corridor to Gryffindor Tower and saw Neville Longbottom, pleading with Sir Cadogan, who seemed to be refusing him entrance. â€Å"I wrote them down!† Neville was saying tearfully. â€Å"But I must’ve dropped them somewhere!† â€Å"A likely tale!† roared Sir Cadogan. Then, spotting Harry and Ron: â€Å"Good even, my fine young yeomen! Come clap this loon in irons. He is trying to force entry to the chambers within!† â€Å"Oh, shut up,† said Ron as he and Harry drew level with Neville. â€Å"I’ve lost the passwords!† Neville told them miserably. â€Å"I made him tell me what passwords he was going to use this week, because he keeps changing them, and now I don’t know what I’ve done with them!† â€Å"Oddsbodkins,† said Harry to Sir Cadogan, who looked extremely disappointed and reluctantly swung forward to let them into the common room. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry was surrounded by people exclaiming over his Firebolt. â€Å"Where’d you get it, Harry?† â€Å"Will you let me have a go?† â€Å"Have you ridden it yet, Harry?† â€Å"Ravenclaw’ll have no chance, they’re all on Cleansweep Sevens!† â€Å"Can I just hold it, Harry?† After ten minutes or so, during which the Firebolt was Passed around and admired from every angle, the crowd dispersed and Harry and Ron had a clear view of Hermione, the only person who hadn’t rushed over to them, bent over her work and carefully avoiding their eyes. Harry and Ron approached her table and at last, she looked up. â€Å"I got it back,† said Harry, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt. â€Å"See, Hermione? There wasn’t anything wrong with it!† said Ron. â€Å"Well — there might have been!† said Hermione. â€Å"I mean, at least you know now that it’s safe!† â€Å"Yeah, I suppose so,† said Harry. â€Å"I’d better put it upstairs.† â€Å"I’ll take it!† said Ron eagerly. â€Å"I’ve got to give Scabbers his rat tonic.† He took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys’ staircase. â€Å"Can I sit down, then?† Harry asked Hermione. â€Å"I suppose so,† said Hermione, moving a great stack of parchment off a chair. Harry looked around at the cluttered table, at the long Arithmancy essay on which the ink was still glistening, at the even longer Muggle Studies essay (‘Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity’) and at the rune translation Hermione was now poring over. â€Å"How are you getting through all this stuff?† Harry asked her. â€Å"Oh, well — you know — working hard,† said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin. â€Å"Why don’t you just drop a couple of subjects?† Harry asked, watching her lifting books as she searched for her rune dictionary. â€Å"I couldn’t do that!† said Hermione, looking scandalized. â€Å"Arithmancy looks terrible,† said Harry, picking up a very complicated-looking number chart. â€Å"Oh no, it’s wonderful!† said Hermione earnestly. â€Å"It’s my favorite subject! It’s –â€Å" But exactly what was wonderful about Arithmancy, Harry never found out. At that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boys’ staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder — and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet. â€Å"LOOK!† he bellowed, striding over to Hermione’s table. â€Å"LOOK!† he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face. â€Å"Ron, what –?† â€Å"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!† Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like — â€Å"BLOOD!† Ron yelled into the stunned silence. â€Å"HE’S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?† â€Å"N — no,† said Hermione in a trembling voice. Ron threw something down onto Hermione’s rune translation. Hermione and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs. Chapter 12 The Patronus As far as he was concerned, the stripping-down of a brand-new Firebolt was nothing less than criminal damage. Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the common room. Harry and Ron supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn’t try to persuade her to come back. All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again. Wood sought Harry out on the night before term started. â€Å"Had a good Christmas?† he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, â€Å"I’ve been, doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the Dementors come to the next one†¦I mean†¦we can’t afford you to — well –â€Å" Wood broke off, looking awkward. â€Å"I’m working on it,† said Harry quickly. â€Å"Professor Lupin said he’d train me to ward off the Dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he’d have time after Christmas.† â€Å"Ah,† said Wood, his expression clearing. â€Å"Well, in that case — I really didn’t want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And have you ordered a new broom yet?† â€Å"No,† said Harry. â€Å"What! You’d better get a move on, you know — you can’t ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!† â€Å"He got a Firebolt for Christmas,† said Ron. â€Å"A Firebolt? No! Seriously? A — a real Firebolt?† â€Å"Don’t get excited, Oliver,† said Harry gloomily. â€Å"I haven’t got it anymore. It was confiscated.† And he explained all about how the Firebolt was now being checked for jinxes. â€Å"Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?† â€Å"Sirius Black,† Harry said wearily. â€Å"He’s supposed to be after me. So McGonagall reckons he might have sent it.† Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker, Wood said, â€Å"But Black couldn’t have bought a Firebolt! He’s on the run! The whole country’s on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?† â€Å"I know,† said Harry, â€Å"but McGonagall still wants to strip it down –â€Å" Wood went pale. â€Å"I’ll go and talk to her, Harry,† he promised. â€Å"I’ll make her see reason†¦A Firebolt†¦a real Firebolt, on our team †¦She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do†¦I’ll make her see sense. A Firebolt†¦.† Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs. The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry that he had the shortest life line she had ever seen. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry was keen to get to; after his conversation with Wood, he wanted to get started on his anti-Dementor lessons as soon as possible. â€Å"Ah yes,† said Lupin, when Harry reminded him of his promise at the end of class. â€Å"Let me see†¦how about eight o’clock on Thursday evening? The History of Magic classroom should be large enough†¦I’ll have to think carefully about how we’re going to do this†¦We can’t bring a real Dementor into the castle to practice on†¦.† â€Å"Still looks ill, doesn’t he?† said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. â€Å"What d’you reckon’s the matter with him?† There was a loud and impatient â€Å"tuh† from behind them. It was Hermione, who had been sitting at the feet of a suit of armor, repacking her bag, which was so full of books it wouldn’t close. â€Å"And what are you tutting at us for?† said Ron irritably. â€Å"Nothing,† said Hermione in a lofty voice, heaving her bag back over her shoulder. â€Å"Yes, you were,† said Ron. â€Å"I said I wonder what’s wrong with Lupin, and you –â€Å" â€Å"Well, isn’t it obvious?† said Hermione, with a look of maddening superiority. â€Å"If you don’t want to tell us, don’t,† snapped Ron. â€Å"Fine,† said Hermione haughtily, and she marched off. â€Å"She doesn’t know,† said Ron, staring resentfully after Hermione. â€Å"She’s just trying to get us to talk to her again.† At eight o’clock on Thursday evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom. It was dark and empty when he arrived, but he lit the lamps with his wand and had waited only five minutes when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn’s desk. â€Å"What’s that?† said Harry. â€Å"Another Boggart,† said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. â€Å"I’ve been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch’s filing cabinet. It’s the nearest we’ll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we’ll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we’re not using him; there’s a cupboard under my desk he’ll like.† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry, trying to sound as though he wasn’t apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor. â€Å"So†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. â€Å"The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry — well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm.† â€Å"How does it work?† said Harry nervously. â€Å"Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus,† said Lupin, â€Å"which is a kind of anti-Dementor — a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor.† Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club. Professor Lupin continued, â€Å"The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it.† â€Å"What does a Patronus look like?† said Harry curiously. â€Å"Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it.† â€Å"And how do you conjure it?† â€Å"With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.† Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys’ was going to do. Finally, he settled on the moment when he had first ridden a broomstick. â€Å"Right,† he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of his stomach. â€Å"The incantation is this –† Lupin cleared his throat. â€Å"Expecto patronum!† â€Å"Expecto patronum,† Harry repeated under his breath, â€Å"expecto patronum.† â€Å"Concentrating hard on your happy memory?† â€Å"Oh — yeah –† said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broom ride. â€Å"Expecto patrono — no, patronum — sorry — expecto patronum, expecto patronum† Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas. â€Å"Did you see that?† said Harry excitedly. â€Å"Something happened!† â€Å"Very good,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Right, then — ready to try it on a Dementor?† â€Å"Yes,† Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding†¦Any second now, he might hear his mother again†¦but he shouldn’t think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn’t want to†¦or did he? Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward Harry, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold broke over him — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto –â€Å" But the classroom and the Dementor were dissolving†¦Harry was falling again through thick white fog, and his mother’s voice was louder than ever, echoing inside his head — â€Å"Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I’ll do anything –â€Å" â€Å"Stand aside — stand aside, girl –â€Å" â€Å"Harry!† Harry jerked back to life. He was lying flat on his back on the floor. The classroom lamps were alight again. He didn’t have to ask what had happened. â€Å"Sorry,† he muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses. â€Å"Are you all right?† said Lupin. â€Å"Yes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it. â€Å"Here –† Lupin handed him a Chocolate Frog. â€Å"Eat this before we try again. I didn’t expect you to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had.† â€Å"It’s getting worse,† Harry muttered, biting off the Frog’s head. â€Å"I could hear her louder that time — and him — Voldemort –â€Å" Lupin looked paler than usual. â€Å"Harry, if you don’t want to continue, I will more than understand –â€Å" â€Å"I do!† said Harry fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. â€Å"I’ve got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can’t afford to fall off again. If we lose this game we’ve lost the Quidditch Cup!† â€Å"All right then†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Lupin. â€Å"You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on†¦That one doesn’t seem to have been strong enough†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry thought hard and decided his feelings when Gryffindor had won the House Championship last year had definitely qualified as very happy. He gripped his wand tightly again and took up his position in the middle of the classroom. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, gripping the box lid. â€Å"Ready,† said Harry; trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about Gryffindor winning, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened. â€Å"Go!† said Lupin, pulling off the lid. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry — â€Å"Expecto patronum!† Harry yelled. â€Å"Expecto patronum! Expecto Pat –â€Å" White fog obscured his senses†¦big, blurred shapes were moving around him†¦then came a new voice, a man’s voice, shouting, panicking — â€Å"Lily, take Harry and go! It’s him! Go! Run! I’ll hold him off –â€Å" The sounds of someone stumbling from a room — a door bursting open — a cackle of high- pitched laughter — â€Å"Harry! Harry†¦wake up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin was tapping Harry hard on the face. This time it was a minute before Harry understood why he was lying on a dusty classroom floor. â€Å"I heard my dad,† Harry mumbled. â€Å"That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him — he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn’t see. â€Å"You heard James?† said Lupin in a strange voice. â€Å"Yeah†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Face dry, Harry looked up. â€Å"Why — you didn’t know my dad, did you?† â€Å"I — I did, as a matter of fact,† said Lupin. â€Å"We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry — perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced†¦I shouldn’t have suggested putting you through this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No!† said Harry. He got up again. â€Å"I’ll have one more go! I’m not thinking of happy enough things, that’s what it is†¦hang on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory†¦one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus†¦. The moment when he’d first found out he was a wizard, and would be leaving the Dursleys for Hogwarts! If that wasn’t a happy memory, he didn’t know what was†¦Concentrating very hard on how he had felt when he’d realized he’d be leaving Privet Drive, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more. â€Å"Ready?† said Lupin, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment. â€Å"Concentrating hard? All right — go!† He pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark — â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM!† Harry bellowed. â€Å"EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!† The screaming inside Harry’s head had started again — except this time, it sounded as though it were coming from a badly tuned radio — softer and louder and softer again†¦and he could still see the Dementor†¦it had halted†¦and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry’s wand, to hover between him and the Dementor, and though Harry’s legs felt like water, he was still on his feet — though for how much longer, he wasn’t sure†¦ â€Å"Riddikulus!† roared Lupin, springing forward. There was a loud crack, and Harry’s cloudy Patronus vanished along with the Dementor; he sank into a chair, feeling as exhausted as if he’d just run a mile, and felt his legs shaking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into a silvery orb again. â€Å"Excellent!† Lupin said, striding over to where Harry sat. â€Å"Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!† â€Å"Can we have another go? Just one more go?† â€Å"Not now,† said Lupin firmly. â€Å"You’ve had enough for one night. Here –â€Å" He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes’ best chocolate. â€Å"Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?† â€Å"Okay,† said Harry. He took a bite of the chocolate and watched Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor. A thought had just occurred to him. â€Å"Professor Lupin?† he said. â€Å"If you knew my dad, you must’ve known Sirius Black as well.† Lupin turned very quickly. â€Å"What gives you that idea?† he said sharply. â€Å"Nothing — I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lupin’s face relaxed. â€Å"Yes, I knew him,† he said shortly. â€Å"Or I thought I did. You’d better be off, Harry, it’s getting late.† Harry left the classroom, walking along the corridor and around a corner, then took a detour behind a suit of armor and sank down on its plinth to finish his chocolate, wishing he hadn’t mentioned Black, as Lupin was obviously not keen on the subject. Then Harry’s thoughts wandered back to his mother and father †¦ He felt drained and strangely empty, even though he was so full of chocolate. Terrible though it was to hear his parents’ last moments replayed inside his head, these were the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he’d never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again †¦ â€Å"They’re dead,† he told himself sternly. â€Å"They’re dead and listening to echoes of them won’t bring them back. You’d better get a grip on yourself if you want that Quidditch Cup.† He stood up, crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. This meant that with Lupin’s anti-Dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, Harry had just one night a week to do all his homework. Even so, he was not showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted. â€Å"How’s she doing it?† Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books. â€Å"Doing what?† â€Å"Getting to all her classes!† Ron said. â€Å"I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday’s lesson, but Hermione can’t’ve been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she’s never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she’s never missed one of them either!† Harry didn’t have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione’s impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape’s essay. Two seconds later, however, he was interrupted again, this time by Wood. â€Å"Bad news, Harry. I’ve just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She — er — got a bit shirty with me. Told me I’d got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn’t care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first.† Wood shook his head in disbelief. â€Å"Honestly, the way she was yelling at me†¦you’d think I’d said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall’s severe voice. â€Å"As long as necessary, Wood†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦I reckon it’s time you ordered a new broom, Harry. There’s an order form at the back of Which Broomstick†¦you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy’s got.† â€Å"I’m not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good,† said Harry flatly. January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but Harry still hadn’t ordered a new broom. He was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolt after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron standing hopefully at his shoulder, Hermione rushing past with her face averted. â€Å"No, Potter, you can’t have it back yet,† Professor McGonagall told him the twelfth time this happened, before he’d even opened his mouth. â€Å"We’ve checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall tell you once we’ve finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me.† To make matters even worse, Harry’s anti-Dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as he had hoped. Several sessions on, he was able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the Boggart-Dementor approached him, but his Patronus was too feeble to drive the Dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semitransparent cloud, draining Harry of energy as he fought to keep it there. Harry felt angry with himself, guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents’ voices again. â€Å"You’re expecting too much of yourself,† said Professor Lupin, sternly in their fourth week of practice. â€Å"For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren’t passing out anymore, are you?† â€Å"I thought a Patronus would — charge the Dementors down or something,† said Harry dispiritedly. â€Å"Make them disappear –â€Å" â€Å"The true Patronus does do that,† said Lupin. â€Å"But you’ve achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, You will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground.† â€Å"You said it’s harder if there are loads of them,† said Harry. â€Å"I have complete confidence in you,† said Lupin, smiling. â€Å"Here — you’ve earned a drink. Something from the Three Broomsticks. You won’t have tried it before –â€Å" He pulled two bottles out of his briefcase. â€Å"Butterbeer!† said Harry, without thinking. â€Å"Yeah, I like that stuff!† Lupin raised an eyebrow. â€Å"Oh — Ron and Hermione brought me some back from Hogsmeade,† Harry lied quickly. â€Å"I see,† said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious. â€Å"Well — let’s drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I’m supposed to take sides, as a teacher†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he added hastily. They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something he’d been wondering for a while. â€Å"What’s under a Dementor’s hood?† Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. â€Å"Hmmm †¦ well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon.† â€Å"What’s that?† â€Å"They call it the Dementor’s Kiss,† said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. â€Å"It’s what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and — and suck out his soul.† Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer. â€Å"What — they kill –?† â€Å"Oh no,† said Lupin. â€Å"Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no†¦anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever†¦lost.† Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, then said, â€Å"It’s the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him.† Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black. â€Å"He deserves it,† he said suddenly. â€Å"You think so?† said Lupin lightly. â€Å"Do you really think anyone deserves that?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry defiantly. â€Å"For†¦for some things†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He would have liked to have told Lupin about the conversation he’d overheard about Black in the Three Broomsticks, about Black betraying his mother and father, but it would have involved revealing that he’d gone to Hogsmeade without permission, and he knew Lupin wouldn’t be very impressed by that. So he finished his butterbeer, thanked Lupin, and left the History of Magic classroom. Harry half wished that he hadn’t asked what was under a Dementor’s hood, the answer had been so horrible, and he was so lost in unpleasant thoughts of what it would feel like to have your soul sucked out of you that he walked headlong into Professor McGonagall halfway up the stairs. â€Å"Do watch where you’re going, Potter!† â€Å"Sorry, Professor –â€Å" â€Å"I’ve just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room, Well, here it is, we’ve done everything we could think of, and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it at all — you’ve got a very good friend somewhere, Potter†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Harry’s jaw dropped. She was holding out his Firebolt, and it looked as magnificent as ever. â€Å"I can have it back?† Harry said weakly. â€Å"Seriously?† â€Å"Seriously,† said Professor McGonagall, and she was actually smiling. â€Å"I daresay you’ll need to get the feel of it before Saturday’s match, won’t you? And Potter — do try and win, won’t you? Or we’ll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Speechless, Harry carried the Firebolt back upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower. As he turned a corner, he saw Ron dashing toward him, grinning from ear to ear. â€Å"She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it? Tomorrow?† â€Å"Yeah†¦anything†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, his heart lighter than it had been in a month. â€Å"You know what — we should make up with Hermione†¦She was only trying to help†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah, all right,† said Ron. â€Å"She’s in the common room now working — for a change.† They turned into the corridor to Gryffindor Tower and saw Neville Longbottom, pleading with Sir Cadogan, who seemed to be refusing him entrance. â€Å"I wrote them down!† Neville was saying tearfully. â€Å"But I must’ve dropped them somewhere!† â€Å"A likely tale!† roared Sir Cadogan. Then, spotting Harry and Ron: â€Å"Good even, my fine young yeomen! Come clap this loon in irons. He is trying to force entry to the chambers within!† â€Å"Oh, shut up,† said Ron as he and Harry drew level with Neville. â€Å"I’ve lost the passwords!† Neville told them miserably. â€Å"I made him tell me what passwords he was going to use this week, because he keeps changing them, and now I don’t know what I’ve done with them!† â€Å"Oddsbodkins,† said Harry to Sir Cadogan, who looked extremely disappointed and reluctantly swung forward to let them into the common room. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry was surrounded by people exclaiming over his Firebolt. â€Å"Where’d you get it, Harry?† â€Å"Will you let me have a go?† â€Å"Have you ridden it yet, Harry?† â€Å"Ravenclaw’ll have no chance, they’re all on Cleansweep Sevens!† â€Å"Can I just hold it, Harry?† After ten minutes or so, during which the Firebolt was Passed around and admired from every angle, the crowd dispersed and Harry and Ron had a clear view of Hermione, the only person who hadn’t rushed over to them, bent over her work and carefully avoiding their eyes. Harry and Ron approached her table and at last, she looked up. â€Å"I got it back,† said Harry, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt. â€Å"See, Hermione? There wasn’t anything wrong with it!† said Ron. â€Å"Well — there might have been!† said Hermione. â€Å"I mean, at least you know now that it’s safe!† â€Å"Yeah, I suppose so,† said Harry. â€Å"I’d better put it upstairs.† â€Å"I’ll take it!† said Ron eagerly. â€Å"I’ve got to give Scabbers his rat tonic.† He took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys’ staircase. â€Å"Can I sit down, then?† Harry asked Hermione. â€Å"I suppose so,† said Hermione, moving a great stack of parchment off a chair. Harry looked around at the cluttered table, at the long Arithmancy essay on which the ink was still glistening, at the even longer Muggle Studies essay (‘Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity’) and at the rune translation Hermione was now poring over. â€Å"How are you getting through all this stuff?† Harry asked her. â€Å"Oh, well — you know — working hard,† said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin. â€Å"Why don’t you just drop a couple of subjects?† Harry asked, watching her lifting books as she searched for her rune dictionary. â€Å"I couldn’t do that!† said Hermione, looking scandalized. â€Å"Arithmancy looks terrible,† said Harry, picking up a very complicated-looking number chart. â€Å"Oh no, it’s wonderful!† said Hermione earnestly. â€Å"It’s my favorite subject! It’s –â€Å" But exactly what was wonderful about Arithmancy, Harry never found out. At that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boys’ staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder — and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet. â€Å"LOOK!† he bellowed, striding over to Hermione’s table. â€Å"LOOK!† he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face. â€Å"Ron, what –?† â€Å"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!† Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like — â€Å"BLOOD!† Ron yelled into the stunned silence. â€Å"HE’S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?† â€Å"N — no,† said Hermione in a trembling voice. Ron threw something down onto Hermione’s rune translation. Hermione and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs.

Management research coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management research coursework - Essay Example Thus, the purpose of the article is revealed that after analyzing various aspects of educational validity, the article will provide a research methodology framework for assessing the educational validity of business gaming simulation. Thus, the introduction is solely aimed at depicting the background that necessitates the study, and also at narrating the outline of the research paper. Thereafter, a brief explanation is provided about the method used to conduct research, the usual methods section seen in a research paper. The writers point out that the research was conducted ‘using total enterprise simulation’ (Stainton, Johnson & Borodzicz (2010, p. 705). Then, the researchers resort to a brief literature review to show that the assessment of validity is an ongoing issue and that an effective research methodology for business gaming simulation is yet to come. The article also makes the purpose clear that it is aimed at analyzing validity from an educational or learning p oint of view. The next section goes deep into the concept of educational validity and finds the two elements; design and implementation as the factors that dictate educational validity. ... The next section looks into the other factor in educational validity; that is implementation. The researchers show how a simulation should be implemented. The first point is incorporating practical experience will present real life problems, thus giving the students a chance to reflect upon what they learnt. In addition, they bring in the point that while the ‘learning by doing’ approach is adopted, there is the need for a facilitator to provide coaching, support and motivation. The researchers, after analyzing the problems involved in achieving educational validity, move on to developing a methodology framework for assessing the educational validity of a business gaming simulation. It is pointed out that none of the presently available studies has developed a process for designing, implementing and validating a total enterprise simulation. It is necessary for any research dealing with educational validity to assess the internal educational validity, external educational validity and external representational validity. According to Stainton, Johnson, and Borodzicz (2010, p. 710), internal educational validity means the ability to teach the student the relations in a business environment and external educational validity means the resemblance of the simulation with the real world environment. If it represents a real world environment, it has got representational validity. Three theoretical propositions are made to assess educational validity. According to the first proposition, if the participants understand the causes of their business results, the internal educational validity is evident. According to the second

2 essay of 2500 word, just choose from the list

2 of 2500 word, just choose from the list - Essay Example In this context, the success or failure of such cooperation depends on the success or failure of the foreign policies exchanged between nations. Focusing on the current scenario of international politics, foreign policies can occur as a result of mutual international cooperation, or political exploitation leading to even war. For instance, the political mayhem in Iraq can be described by means of analysing its foreign policies depicting a diverse picture of the country along with its various political parties, coalitions and other military disagreements. This section attempts to discuss the notion of foreign policy in general. Current political scenario on the international platform strongly advocates for the rapid rise in the importance of foreign policy. This further highlights the need to analyse the various meanings associated with the notion of foreign policy. This section tries to precisely describe the different connotations of foreign policy along with a number of examples from the foreign policies of various nations. The most important point in this analysis is to understand the basic issues and objectives of foreign policies with regard to its increasing complicated nature across countries. Understanding the notion of foreign policy involves its applications in specific case studies. That is to say, the theory of foreign policy can best be described in terms of some empirical examples. While defining the concept of foreign policy, the issue of ethics has a significant role to play. Ethics is further associated with the concepts of human rights and ‘mutual respect’ (Smith and Light, 2001). In this context, ethics is related to ethical behaviour, that is, behaviour in accordance with a set of moral rules incorporated with natural as well as universal laws. Along with these moral rules, the aspect of virtue is also included. That is to say, in the words of Smith and Light (2001), â€Å"the focus is not so much on what people ought to do when faced

Should I vote for a second fiscal stimulus bill Essay

Should I vote for a second fiscal stimulus bill - Essay Example l investments by performing two things: cutting taxes levied on households and firms, thus increasing disposable income, the money that consumers can spend on goods and services and increasing the incentives of creating new businesses; or it may itself spend more to increase the level of demand. Since a fiscal stimulus translates to an increase in government purchases, our focus is on the latter policy. Now consider an increase in government purchases: An increase in government purchases increases planned expenditure, which then in turn stimulates the production of goods and services and thus increases income. In a pragmatist fashion, when the government spends to create livelihood projects, the number of jobs increases and so does the production of goods and services. This however has ramifications because as people have more income, their demand for products increase, thus they would want to spend more and save less. This in turn increases the interest rate to give people more incentive to save in banks. However, this interest rate however is the same interest rate that firms consider before borrowing money from the bank and investing in a business venture. And this is where the trade-off stems from because the higher the interest rate, the less likely firms will build new businesses and contribute to the increase in output of goods and services and, of course, to economic output or income. Hence, just by simple deduction, a fiscal stimulus really swings both ways in affecting our gross domestic product. To put things in perspective, according to the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the unemployment rate decreased from 10.2 percent last October to 10.00 percent this November. Productivity increased from 6.9 percent during the 2nd quarter of 2009, to 8.1 percent during the 3rd quarter of the same year. Also, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics also reports a projection of total employment to increase by 15.3 million, or 10.1

Franchise Feasability Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Franchise Feasability Study - Essay Example What is a franchise, and how does it work? Franchise is a business arrangement undertaken between two parties for the purpose of marketing a product or service. The franchiser (party selling the product or service) enters into an agreement with the franchisee (party buying the product or service) to provide marketing and selling expertise under its banner, for a fee. The franchisee is at liberty to operate in areas not directly under the jurisdiction of the franchiser (Definition: Franchise@ Sterling Knight, Commercial Mortgages, Sterling Knight, www.sterlingknight.co.uk). What are the rules set out by the Australian Franchise Standards to enhance profitability and high standards of personal and professional conduct? Does Garuva have the qualities to market their services through franchisees in Melbourne and Sydney? What does the Australian Franchise Standards mean in the context of this research, and does Garuva bar and restaurant, meet the suitability criteria of the Australian Franchise Standards to expand its operations through a franchise in the port cities of Sydney and Melbourne? The Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) expects its members to maintain a high level of standards in personal and professional conducts, to enhance public perceptions of a franchise.... teria of the Australian Franchise Standards to expand its operations through a franchise in the port cities of Sydney and Melbourne The Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) expects its members to maintain a high level of standards in personal and professional conducts, to enhance public perceptions of a franchise. In return, FCA will help safeguard the investment of its member franchisers and the businesses of its franchisees, and protect franchise networks from unfair or unethical attacks. Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is a well developed, industrial, tourism, and sporting city. This makes Brisbane an ideal destination for holiday makers as well as businessmen, not forgetting the local population that draws as much as 16% of the state's total wages. The same can be said of Sydney and Melbourne. Cosmopolitan cities that they are, Garuva would definitely benefit from operating franchises there. This research will exemplify the business potential in the field of food and beverag es and undertake the study of business expansionism through franchise. 2.0 Executive summary Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is situated to the north of Sydney. It accounts for 10% of the State's total jobs. Wages drawn is equal to 16% of the State's total wages bill. With its industrial areas, international sea and airports, lush green parks, theatres, hotels, outdoor and indoor sports, and tourist spots, which include the world famous Sunshine and Gold Coast, Brisbane is the place to be. An adventurer's and tourist's destination, Brisbane is among the most-sought-after destinations for Australian and international travellers. Approximately 60% of the country's meat export, and roughly 40% of her car imports happens through the Port of Brisbane (Elizabeth Nosworthy, 2001,

Finance and Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Finance and Accounting - Essay Example This paper will expansively present the accounting policies and the changes adapted by JP Morgan Chase in order to successfully face the modern day challenges. A complete analysis of the major changes incorporated by JP Morgan chase will be expansively presented in this paper. The oldest financial services in the world is without a doubt JP Morgan Chase, it has its presence in well over 60 countries. They are the leaders in investment banking, wealth management and a host of other services. The biggest change that ever took place in the history of the financial institutions was the merger with Bank One. This change primarily took place because the other banks like the Bank of America were almost ready to merge with other big banks like FleetBoston. This merger took place because the financial institutions came under increasing pressure during the time of recession. The announcement of this merger was made on 14 January 2004. The Wall Street reacted very positively because of this mer ger and the NASDAQ witnessed growth soon after the merger took place. This paper declares that this change took place because the two financial institutions wanted to downsize and cut the deadwood out. The aim was to save about $2.2 billion over three years and it was planned to eliminate as many as 10,000 people. This again goes to show how desperate even the biggest financial institutions were at the time of recession. Mergers and acquisitions were very common and these overtures were the initial signs which showed that almost all the big financial institutions were panicking. ... This again goes to show how desperate even the biggest financial institutions were at the time of recession. Mergers and acquisitions were very common and these overtures were the initial signs which showed that almost all the big financial institutions were panicking. Volatile corporate banking was the major factor on which JP Morgan primarily functioned. â€Å"Wall Street analysts generally praised the merger, and investors climbed on board. Typically, the shares of the acquirer fall, reflecting the cost of the acquisition. In this case, investors are signaling they believe the combined company will make up for that cost by holding the shares in the $39-$40 range, about where they were before the deal was announced. J.P. Morgan has been on a roll, with its shares up about 74% in the past 12 months. Bank One shares jumped about 15% when the deal was announced, matching the premium J.P. Morgan will pay. Such a move is typical in an acquisition.† (JP Morgan Chase) The investors looked less enthusiastic with the deal between Bank of America and Fleet-Boston. This deal was for a whopping $48 billion. The shares of Fleet-Boston were driven up as a result of this deal because Bank of America offered 40% premium in this deal. The shares of Bank of America however came down and the investors lost a lot of money consequently. Big mergers take place because both the companies involved in the merger want to grow at a tremendous pace but this merger was not very useful for both the financial institutions. The collapse of WORLDCOM in the year 2005 signaled trouble for JP Morgan chase, the institution had to pay a whopping sum of $2 billion. This sum was paid to the different shareholders who had lost a lot of money as a result

Human Behavior Experiment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Behavior Experiment - Essay Example The video builds insight, using the two cases, on the bystander effect phenomenon (The Human Behavior Experiments, 2014). The video explains that individuals will follow authority even when the person is aware that it will result in a negative experience. The Milgram’s experiment was responsible for such a study whereby electric shocks were thought to be administered whenever the learner failed to answer the questions correctly. In addition, the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) by Zimbardo supplemented the study by illustrating that people would continuously follow authority blindly. The reason for such an act is that the people with authority are thought of being morally correct. As such, people are obliged to follow the orders given by such people in the case where they think disobedience would have dire consequences. As such, authority is deemed to be legally based and individuals have a responsibility to respond to legitimate authority. The documentary applies to criminal justice in the sense that every individual is liable to any misfortunes that occur in their presence if it is deemed that they acted in an ignorant and negligent manner. As such, it is a criminal offence to abscond or fail to help an individual who needs urgent help before his or her demise. In addition, the law enforcers are responsible for mitigating crime. As such, failing to incorporate them to a criminal activity constitutes a crime against the state; hence, a criminal offence. Individuals have a sole responsibility to report cases of criminal activities, lest they stand liable to any misfortunes. Authorities ought to know their roles when handling wrongdoers. As such, suspects or prisoners would never have to comply with harsh orders from the officers. In addition, there ought to be platforms for reporting cases of immorality that force individuals to obey commands blindly. It is prudent to note that individuals have a responsibility to apply moral judgment beyond the legal

Major reasons for losing clients at work and steps to be taken in Research Paper

Major reasons for losing clients at work and steps to be taken in eradicating these problems - Research Paper Example The project also strives to propose possible measures of addressing these problems. The research questions that will guide the survey include: What are the causes of customer complaints, which are the most important in terms of frequency, and which resolutions are feasible to management. Data collection will be conducted through online focus groups while content tracking and run charts will be applied for data analysis. Table of Contents 1.Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 2.Framing the Research 5 2.1Reviewing My Professional Context 5 2.2 Review of External Knowledge 6 2.3 Training 7 2.4 Motivation 8 2.5 Communication with Staff 8 2.6 Equipments 8 2.7 Customer Complaint Analysis 9 2.7.1. Error or Unreasonable Expectations 9 2.7.2. Reasonable Mistakes 10 2.8 The Iceberg Theory 10 2.9 Fishbone Theory 12 Fishbone Diagram 13 2.9.1 Economic Theory 14 3.Research Purpose & Research Questions 15 4.1 Research approach 15 4.2 Methods of Data Collection and Research 16 4.2.1 Stage 1: Alternative Method of Data Collection (RQs A & B) 16 4.2.1 Stage 2: Alternative Method of Data Analysis (RQ C) 18 6.Conclusion 21 7. ... I am delegated to deal with complaints and recommendations that are received to a dedicated email address on a daily basis from the clients. My position in the organization gives me an opportunity to oversee the day-to-day activities of the organization. This is because I have to authorize all the paperwork before it is entered onto the company’s database. My position empowers me with vast knowledge that enables me access adequate data and information vital for this research. However, although I have access to this information, I have not systematically identified what are the causes of the growing number of complaints. The purpose of the project is to identify the main causes of complaints within the company. The organization is having difficulties with complaints i.e. 20 complaints per month within the last 3 months. This is making the company experience financial losses as considerable resources are being channeled to improvement strategies aimed at curtailing these complai nts (Young, 2008). However, these strategies are proving inefficient. The company image is also being soiled by increased complaints; lowering its competitiveness. Complaints are also wasting precious time that could otherwise be utilized by employees in improving productivity within the company. The complaints come in a repetitive pattern signaling that their causes could be interrelated, or recur even after the staff have addressed them and confirmed that everything is in order. This act of irresponsibility on behalf of the temporary staff can be mainly due to lack of training provided to them. This is because they are on temporary contract and lack job

Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legalized Essay Example for Free

Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legalized Essay The illegal use of anabolic steroids by professional athletes is often a hot button topic in the news. Steroids were banned due to the negative side effects associated with its use. Despite the ban, many athletes are suspected of illicit steroid use to enhance their performance. There is great cost associated with random testing to determine if such athletes use steroids. Anne Whitaker and Rosalyn Carson-Dewitt, in the article, â€Å"Point: Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legalized†, make a somewhat effective argument as to why it should be legalized. This article provides an argument for the legalization of anabolic steroid use by athletes. The authors parallel the use of cosmetic surgery and unhealthy diet regimens by models and actresses and the use of steroids by professional athletes to stay at the top of their games. The authors provide factual information regarding steroids and the effects its use has on the body, followed by their opinion as to how legalization would benefit not only the sports world, but also society as a whole. Whitaker and Carson-Dewitt provide a number of facts regarding the characteristics of steroids, the effects of their use, and the history of its illegalization. They describe different methods for use: cycling (on and off use of a particular dose), stacking (taking multiple steroids simultaneously), and pyramiding (increasing and decreasing the dosage over time) (Whitaker and Carson-Dewitt, 2011). The authors go on to describe the physical effects of steroid use such as organ damage, stroke, cancer and high blood pressure (Whitaker and Carson-Dewitt, 2011). The authors then provide a timeline as to the banning of steroid use in various professional sports organizations followed by a national ban. It is the opinion of Carson-Dewitt and Whitaker that steroids should be legalized. They opined that legalization would have manifold benefits: increased safety and regulation of steroid use, decreased access and use of steroids by teenaged children; and reduction in the costs associated with testing. While, on the surface, these opinions seem to be logical, the arguments are not all supported by facts. The claim that legalization of steroids would reduce its use by teenagers, simply because they would be prescribed by doctors, is baseless. Teenagers would likely continue to access steroids through the same methods currently used. The cost of testing may or may not be reduced as regulation would still limit the amount of steroids to be safely used. Testing would still occur to verify that legal safe limits were observed. The factual information contained in the article is sufficient to provide a perspective from which to understand the authors’ argument. The authors fail, however to provide factual information to support their claims. This results in an argument that sounds plausible on the surface, but falls flat with any amount of critical thinking. For this reason, I believe the authors failed to make a compelling argument. References Carson-Dewitt, Rosalyn, and Whitaker, Ann. â€Å"Point: Performance Enhancing Drugs Should Be Legalized.† By: Points of View: Steroids, 2011.

Ruler Dropping Test to Measure Reaction Time

Ruler Dropping Test to Measure Reaction Time Problem statement It takes every person a little time to react to any event. For example, there is a small delay before you try to catch a ball moving towards you or trying to catch a falling glass from a certain height. This time is called your reaction time. There are many ways that you can measure your response time. Some of the methods are very easy (without calculation). One of the simplest and common methods of calculating response time is the ruler drop test. Most of the athletes use this methods to calculate their response time. In our engineering physics class we were asked to use this method to calculate our reaction time. For this assignment we were to be in small groups and measure everyones reaction time by getting 10 measurements from each student and determine who has the fastest reaction time. After taking the initial measurements we were also tasked to calculate the errors of those measurements. Coming up with a plan to asses this we encountered some major problems such as, How fast is our reaction time? With each measurement does our reaction time increase? Why we tend to catch the ruler in the middle rather than the beginning? How to improve our reaction time? After we have done this assignment we plan to solve each one of those questions while providing the answers to our assignment. What is reaction time? In this method one of the students drops the ruler, the student see it starts to move and nerve signal travels from his eye to his brain. The brain simulates the signal and sends it to his finger muscles which move to catch the ruler. The whole process takes between 150 and 220 milliseconds. The process of catching the dropped ruler begins with the eye watching the ruler expecting of it falling. After the ruler is dropped, the eye sends a message to the visual cortex (which simulates what we see), which perceives that the ruler has dropped and its falling. Then the visual cortex sends a message to the motor cortex (nerve stimulation) to start the process of catching the ruler. The motor cortex sends a message to the spinal cord, which sends a message to the muscle in the hand/fingers. The final process is the process that makes a muscle to become tighter of the muscles as the hand grasps the ruler. All of these processes involve individual neurons that transmit electrochemical messages to other neurons. How to proceed the test. What do we need? An accurate ruler. Two people(one to release the ruler and one to catch it) How to proceed. When we do this test one person has to hold the ruler and release that ruler at an unpredictable time. When the ruler start to fall (the test) the other person (test subject) has to pinch his fingers together catching it. This is his reaction to the falling ruler. The distance that we take (to measure) is the distance between the bottom of the ruler and the top of the thumb where the ruler has been caught. It is very unlikely that a student can stop the ruler at the same distance twice in a row. That means that we can get a more accurate measure of that students reaction time. We are conducting this experiment several times and take an average of our results. For this assignment we take 10 measurements from each student. How to calculate. To calculate ones reaction time we use the 3rd kinematic equation, 1 s= displacement. u= initial velocity. t=time taken. a=average acceleration. Proving, To prove the 1st equation, 2 We know that the first kinematic equation is, Applying this to the 2nd equation, How to use this to calculate reaction time Because the ruler is dropped down, Calculation To calculate the reaction time for each person we took 10 measurements from each person to get an accurate value. To get the most accurate value we calculated the mean of each person. Down below are the measurements we got. Every value is on cm scale. As proven above we are going to use two equations to calculate each ones reaction time and determine who has the fastest reaction time. 1 2 Looking at the results we found, we can see there are four people with a reaction time of 0.165s. This brings the idea of errors in this calculation and method.   What can be the errors in this measuring method? Thought processing speed is different in each individual. As I explained above when I was describing reaction time to catch the ruler the test subjects muscle has to work. Depending on the thought processing speed it varies. Because we are taking average metes of each person you can see all the averages are on the same range. That means even if one person went too far with the meters he can catch up with others with fast reaction time. Other thing is because the measuring system is analogue, people can make mistakes such as the person who is dropping the ruler is not consistent with his work (dropping the ruler). That can lead to errors. Conclusion Ruler dropping test can be the easiest way of measuring reaction time but it has its own pros and cons. This method requires very minimal amount of items to conduct the test. This method also not require a specialized pace to conduct the test and can be easily set up for the test. However there are few disadvantages as well such as this requires at least one assistant to support the test subject. Also because its simple it can be incorrect when it comes to the calculations as we can see above. In our given assignment we were to find a way to measure the reaction time using the ruler drop test. This leaves us with only one question, is it reliable to measure our reaction time with this method? REFERENCES [1]B. Mackenzie, Ruler Drop Test, Brianmac.co.uk, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/rulerdrop.htm. [Accessed: 22- Mar- 2017]. [2]File:REACTION.DOC, Physics.nmsu.edu, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://physics.nmsu.edu/research/lab110g/html/AREACTION.html. [Accessed: 22- Mar- 2017].