An Escape

An ascent through a long narrow corridor of pines, tiny fox prints underneath my own, an abandoned campsite with a forgotten soda can sitting on a picnic table. Fierce orange leaves scattered amongst fallen berries floating down the stream to my right. A reprieve for my muscles provided by the flat, open field inhabited by my moose friend. For a few precious strides our feet hit the ground simultaneously as we travel parallel to each other—together and apart. She soon darts off, leaving me with a raised spirit embodied in a bittersweet half-smile. The geese above me watch awhile, but they too have better places to be. They honk staggered farewells as they fly south. On my own again, ascending, slipping, sliding, I forge through thick mud. Behind me I catch a glimpse of footprints I leave through a curtain of blonde ponytail. They don’t look quite like I thought they would; they’re much smaller. Nostalgia seizes me. I recall months ago, when someone juxtaposed my stride with the stride of a doe, springy and lithe. The sudden flapping of a grouse’s wings yanks me back, and my pulse quickens as I pinpoint where it came from. I laugh and keep pushing upwards, until trail intersects dirt road. My legs anticipate the descent, and I quicken my pace until the brush that crowds the sides of the road blurs into an audience, their branches skimming my shoulders like miniature pats on the back. When I reach the crest of the hill, I stop for a moment to catch my breath, only to lose it again at the wonder of my surroundings. On my right a crescent moon rises over a harvested field, and to my left the brilliant setting sun forces me to squint and shield my eyes. Caught amid the transition of night and day, my head bobs back and forth between the two as their silent battle for ownership of the sky continues. My feet start to move again, and I catch a glimpse of the waning sun in the side mirror of a dusty ’64 Impala parked on the side of the road. I am only racing the moon now. And race I do, for as the rose-colored sky surrenders to a deep eggplant peppered with stars, the residual warmth from the sun falls to the night’s chill. The city lights below wink at me as I descend and scraggly bushes morph into mailboxes. Eventually, tall birches are replaced by homes and childrens’ boot prints overtake raccoon tracks. The evening news is going unwatched in the living room of one house; a family is gathered around a dinner table at another. The headlights of a car cause me to slow my stride and shield my eyes as I reach the bottom of the hill and trot a few hundred yards on the sidewalk to my home. The porch light greets me and I linger under its glow awhile. My chest heaves and sweat begins to tickle the back of my neck as I turn and glance back to the trail, now shrouded in darkness. I open the door and my retriever waits for me, her tail hitting the wall like a metronome. She tells me with her amber eyes that I have been gone for too long.

The Goals of the U. S. Defence Department Network Essay

The Goals of the U. S. Defence Department Network - Essay Example The telegraph, radio, and telephone, which were the most commonly used medium of communication the past have been shadowed by the internet. The popularity of the internet has increased so much that it has become a worldwide network that has the capabilities to connect individuals via mobile/computer/smartphones/etc., irrespective of geographic constraints (Odlyzko, 2000, pp.31-56). The growth of internet can be attributed five major factors namely, technology, social, political, academic and commercial.  The Internet has evolved into a widespread information infrastructure but if one traces back its history it will be revealed that its origin is very controversial and complicated. Further, there are many factors that contributed its growth over the years including political, technology, academic, social and commercial. The objective of this study is to critically evaluate the factors that contributed to the growth of internet that consequently led to the development of e-commerce a s a new business practice. In the late 1950s, ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) was formed in the United States whose primary aims was to develop technologies that could endure any nuclear attack. A meeting between the private sector contractors, ARPA university with the representatives of US DOD (Department of Defence) in the year 1967 determined the possible protocols to be used when information exchange would take place via computers. This lead to the development of ARPANET in the year 1969. This network initially connected four sites – Stanford Research Institute, the University of California (in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara), and University of Utah. Most of the 70’s were dedicated by researchers to the development of protocols for moving messages across the system of networks, controlling network connections and also allowing remote access to networks.

Outline what is meant by Localisation of function in the brain. Are Essay

Outline what is meant by Localisation of function in the brain. Are all psychological processes localised - Essay Example Paul Broca, a French doctor is probably one of the fundamental key players in the discovery of the localization of functions in the brain (Glassman 45). Working at an insane asylum at Bicetre in 1861, Broca met a patient who was not able to speak coherently after a head trauma that later led him to conduct an autopsy on the man’s brain and successfully demonstrated that what the man suffered from was due to some damage on a specific part of his brain (Glassman 45, Santrock 48, Serendip). From this point, further studies were conducted and until today, are progressing not only to satisfy the curiosity in man but most importantly, to help cure patients suffering from brain malfunctions. Considering divisions in the brain, early anatomists assumed that specific parts of the brain perform specific functions (Glassman 50) and true enough, recent studies established such assumptions. Among the famous contributors to the study of the functions of the brain is a German physician named Franz Joseph Gall who theorized that the bumps and depressions in the skull had something to do with personality and intelligence (Santrock 48, Serendip, Sabatini). ... Divided into two hemispheres, the right hemisphere of the cortex was found to be responsible to the control of the left side of the body while the left hemisphere controls its opposite (Glassman 50, Feldman 79, Santrock 100). Plotnik (p. 74, 2005) and Feldman (82, 2008) describe the cortex as a thin layer of cells covering the forebrain which amazingly, still is divided into four lobes having more specific functions. He further discusses the frontal lobe as responsible for the accomplishment of the use of voluntary muscles, translating and executing emotions, behaving in an accepted manner, controlling actions and character and being attentive (p. 75). This, he said was proven by a case involving Phineas Gage, a foreman in Vermont in 1848 who met an accident at work, surviving from a 3.5 feet long, 1.25 inches thick and 13 pound-rod that crossed his head entering his frontal lobe and crashing his eye. After the surgery, the foreman exhibited drastic changes in his personality from be ing friendly to impatient. His decision making was also affected leading him to making promises he was not able to keep (Plotnik 75). This event is just one of the many cases that has furthered and established the assumption of being attentive and the acquisition of social rules and moral behaviors (Plotnik 76) which is very essential to a psychologist’s understanding and managing of patients. Other important parts of the brain that need to be magnified in the field of psychology are the hypothalamus and amygdala. The hypothalamus is formed by groups of neuron cell bodies that affect a person’s sexual behavior, temperature regulation, sleeping, eating, drinking, aggression and the expression of emotion (Passer & Smith 99).