Death penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Death penalty - Essay Example Advocates consider it a fair and just punishment and neither cruel nor unusual, quite the opposite; they consider it a fair and ethical punishment. This paper discusses why society feels the need to punish along with the legal, logical, and moral implications of the death penalty. This subject is literally of life and death importance and a major barometer for establishing the collective conscience of the American culture which is behind its European cousins on this as well as other moral and ethical issues such as health care, drug laws, education and gun control. Punishment Why We Punish Historically, the justification for punishing lawbreakers has been to â€Å"avenge the crime, to protect society by imprisoning the criminal, to deter that person and other potential offenders from the commission of crimes and to obtain reparations from the offender† (Wolfgang, 1998). Throughout recorded history, this reasoning has not changed much. The four main reasons the justice system p unishes criminals can be categorized by two main rationales. One is to obtain desired results which are deterrence, protecting society and seeking compensation. The other, retribution, involves punishing for crimes committed on humanity. Retribution is simply a fancy word for revenge. The need for revenge is one of the lowest forms of human emotion, a condition that is understandable in many circumstances,  but is not a rational response to a serious situation. â€Å"To kill the person who has killed someone close to you is simply to continue the cycle of violence  which ultimately destroys the  avenger as well as the offender. That this  execution somehow give 'closure'  to a tragedy is a myth.† (Schroth, 2008) Justifying Death Those who think that vengeance is a justification for continuing the death penalty usually point out the Old Testament reference of ‘an eye for an eye.’ Aggressive behavior must be met with equally aggressive forms of punishment . Interestingly, people who quote this Biblical passage to justify their position of using the death penalty is either intentionally ignoring or never read one of the most popular quotes in the Gospels of the New Testament. Jesus recalls the ‘eye for an eye’ reference and clearly rejects the statement before asking his gathered followers to ‘turn the other cheek’ instead. On the weight of that quote alone, all Christians should be strongly against the death penalty. However, the ‘eye for an eye’ excuse is still widely employed by people today. Those who adopt this viewpoint are certainly correct when they say that using the death penalty guarantees that the convicted murderer will not kill again. Additionally, the death penalty is the ultimate preventative measure. Persons opposed to capital punishment consider all life to be sacred and should be respected. Putting a murderer in prison for life with no possibility of parole is adequate punishme nt, is less expensive and achieves the desired result of segregating the person from society, forever, the same as the death penalty. By any religious or philosophical interpretation, legalized revenge is wrong and in the end more destructive to the fabric of society and its value system than was the crime itself. The decision to impose the death sentence is more of a cultural difference than one based on religious beliefs. Christians in America are generally in favor of the death penalty while their

How Muhammad Established Islam As A Major Political And Religious Force In The World Essay Example for Free

How Muhammad Established Islam As A Major Political And Religious Force In The World Essay While Muhammad was living with his wife Khadija, he often went to a cave outside Makkah called Hira, where he would reflect and pray. During one night in 610CE, when Muhammad was 40, he was in a cave on Mount Hira. God revealed himself to Muhammad. This was called the night of power, and it relates in Surah 95 of the Quran, which is entitled The Blood Clot. When Muhammad returned home, Khadija became his first believer. Then his cousin Ali, a freed slave called Zayd, and one of his closest friends, Abu Bakr, all became followers. There started one of the great religions of the world. Muhammad had a strong belief that there was only one God, the creator. He believed that all humans should be equal in their relationship with this creator. This undermined the tribes of Makkah who, especially the Quarish, rose up against Muhammad and his followers. All through his life, Muhammad fought to establish Islam, to gather followers, and to create a substantial political force. In the 22 years after the first revelation, until Muhammad died in 632CE, God delivered the Quran to Muhammad, his messenger. By the time that God had finished revealing the Quran, Muhammad had moved to Madinah. Hence we get Makkan and Medinan verses. The Makkan verses are usually shorter, more judgemental, and are found towards the end of the Quran. After the second revelation, the night journey, Muhammad migrated to Yathrib, 40 miles north of Makkah, to settle disputes with the pilgrims from that town. He went there with family and followers in 622CE. When he arrived, he built a house, which was later to become the first mosque. He then renamed the town Madinah. This is where the central community was established. After Muhammad died, no one knew if he had named a successor. Usually, it would pass to his eldest son. In the end the leader was chosen by the Muslim community as a person of great personal integrity. This is the belief of the Sunni branch of Islam, who did not want a government, but they wanted to rely on an authoritative ruler. The Shia branch believes that the early history was biased against Ali, Muhammads cousin. When Ali did become the leader, those who believed Ali to be the true successor formed the separate Party of Ali. The Shia branch wanted a leader from the family of Muhammad. Islam was greatly diversified by the achievements of the first four caliph successors to Muhammad. Here is who they are and what they achieved in their rule: * Abu Bakr (632-634 CE) He and his armies conquered Arab tribes, and they went as far as the Byzantine Empires borders. Abu Bakr had more than a personal belief of Islam and he had a belief of political ideology. * Umar (634-644 CE) He continued after Abu Bakr and captured Jerusalem and North Africa. * Uthman (644-656 CE) After Ali turned down the caliphate, Uthman was chosen and he expanded the empire through North Africa and Eastwards to India and China. * Ali (656-661 CE) He made Muawiya co-caliph, a disastrous move. Two parties were formed, one supporting Ali, the other supporting Muawiya. Islam today is the second largest religion in the world and it is growing fast. It is significant in the modern politics. It also contributes to art, music, architecture and philosophy. The religion has grown to have over 2 billion followers. However recently Islamophobia has stepped in. Islam has been treated very cruelly by the western media in the last few years. However Islam means to surrender, or submit, and it is linked closely to another Arabic word meaning peace. Indeed a Muslim is one who surrenders.

Stereotypes in the Film The Matrix Essay -- Movies Film Feminist Pape

Stereotypes in the Film The Matrix The purpose of this paper is to expose some of the stereotypes present in the film The Matrix, directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski. In order to accomplish this we shall see that although The Matrix is considered to be a film about rebellion, it contains several stereotypical portrayals, which actually make it a film that supports the status quo. We shall also see that the African American characters in The Matrix (the Oracle, Tank, Dozer, and Morpheus) are all depicted in the stereotypical servant roles. Furthermore, the women (Trinity and Switch) in this film are portrayed stereotypically; that is, they are either reduced to a caring/nurturing role or they simply help make up the background (they do not have a voice). Finally, Morpheus’ initial power and leadership is stripped away leaving him to play the stereotypical supporting and buddy role. The Matrix is considered by many people to be a cyberpunk triumph. Declan McCullagh from wired.com writes: "When Neo/Reeves wakes up from his VR slumber and unplugs from The Matrix, he joins a ragtag band of rebels led by the charismatic Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne). Their plan: To overthrow the artificial intelligences that have robbed humanity of reality" (McCullagh). Entertainment weekly also sees The Matrix as a movie about rebellion against oppression: "Neo is, of course, The One, the prophesied leader of the oppressed who will lead the people of Zion (an underground city populated by the last free humans) from bondage--but only if he can believe in himself and trust in the power of love" (Bernadin). Therefore, although the film appears to send a revolutionary message of a rage against ‘the machine’ or the matrix and its oppression, ... ...premacy should be the starting point of a renewed movement for racial justice" (hooks 118). Works Cited Bernardin, Marc. "The Matrix" 1999. <http://www.ew.com/ew/review/video/0,1683,846,matrix.html> (14 Apr. 2000) [address has moved to: <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/video/0,6115,270871~2|7696||0~,00.html> link updated by Dr P. 30 Oct 2002] hooks, bell. Killing Rage Ending Racism. New York: Henry Holt, 1995. McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, ed. Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. McCullagh, Declan. "The Matrix: A Cyberpunk Triumph." Wired News. April 02, 1999. <http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/18932.html> Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow, 1991.

Inclusive education Essay

The concept of inclusion has been adopted as a response to the mandate of Public Law 94-142 or the Education of the Handicapped Act of 1975 which aims to place disabled and mentally-challenged students in non-restricted environments where they have access to equal opportunities in education. Inclusive education is an academic program where children of varying abilities are placed in one class or group and allowed to interact together to facilitate learning. It aims to provide all types of students with equality and exposure to the same learning stimulus that is bound to create various learning experiences to different types of children. And although many educators recognize that this is a breakthrough scheme for integration and intellectual freedom (Porter, 2001), in some cultures, this is the traditional way of teaching preschool children since special classes for attending to disabled children have not yet been developed at that time (Duncan, 2001). The scheme may involve only partial inclusion where special or disabled students can be pulled out anytime from class as the need for it arises. Oftentimes, for this category, another teacher who caters to the specific needs of the disabled students is also present. Full inclusion, on the other hand, is usually applied for disabled or special cases of students with high levels of learning capacities. Similarly, George and Alexander (2003) noted that in cases where tracking or ability grouping could not be totally excluded, partial de-tracking is also a good alternative. Inclusive education is a form of recognition (Friendly and Lero, 2002) and value that goes beyond human rights and equality and is a contributing step to eliminating social exclusion in the community. It promotes active and meaningful participation to all members of a group or class and offer different prospects for the students who experience the different class activities in their own light. They are able to socially interact, treated equally despite cognitive, physical or financial levels and, most importantly, achieve happiness and security. These are the essential elements and goals of inclusive education (Sen, 1999). As the Laidlaw Foundation puts its, it requires an active change in current policies and programs and build community-based foundations that will benefit and develop equal opportunities for both children and families (Friendly and Lero, 2002). On the other hand, early descriptions of inclusive education provide less drastic measures for improvement. Kamps et al.(1994) note that the strategies employed in inclusive learning are cheap measures designed to center on techniques that are less invasive but improves both the academic and social learning of the children (Kamps et al. , 1994). They also add that despite an inclusive program, change will not be truly instituted if the techniques cannot be adapted to current educational classroom systems that are at in place (Kamps & Carta, 1989). The members of the Inclusion InterAmericana (2000) also agree that Inclusive education is a cheaper alternative to provide disabled students access to education as evidence by their limited resources and provision. Cooperative learning is one aspect of inclusive education, where students are classified into smaller learning groups created for the purpose of maximizing learning and development (Johnson et al. , 1990). This type of grouping, also referred to as a heterogeneous classification has aimed to ensure that each student receives the same high class standards of instruction and education. The access of all types of students to these educational practices will allow them to benefit in the same way that others students do (Daniel, 2007). This type of scheme not only follows a mandate to provide children with the equal opportunities in education but also aims to improve the skills of the students relative to the learning levels each child possesses (Yonezawa and Jones, 2006). The children in an inclusive class who, in an ideal situation, are helping each other learn also do not need to be in the same age levels as other students as in the case of a learning strategy in an inclusive set up called cross age tutoring (Barbetta et al., 1991). In contrast to inclusive education, a scheme called homogeneous grouping, or ability grouping or tracking, is a case where students are grouped according to similar cognitive levels. The grouping is done by determining abilities of students through studies on their previous test and activity scores and those with similar abilities are group accordingly (Daniel, 2007). Gamoran and Weinstein (1998), George (1988) and Slavin (1993) all note a lack of evidence that ability grouping is effective. In addition, Vang (2005) discusses the disadvantages of this scheme to students with poor learning abilities, those from the minority and even financially challenged children. As Friendly and Lero (2002) note, exclusion in any form results in not only vulnerability and inability to voice out to the proper forum but also reduces quality and limited capabilities of life experiences. They also stress that a changed path from exclusion will enable social cohesion and improve life prospects. This also applies not only to communities but also to students in classrooms as well.

Bmw Culture

With over 90 years in the industry the culture at BMW is an anomaly in the car manufacturing business. BMW teaches their employees the history of the company and their mission from day one. Problem times from years past are also told to the new employees. For example when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1959 and was saved by a local business man, these mishaps are used as learning tools to stop history from repeating itself. Regardless of your job title all levels work together to create ideas to better the brand and product. The regular hierarchy that you see within a company is not an obstacle when voicing your thoughts and ideas. Team brainstorming is done on a regular basis and everyone’s input is valued. BMW was one of the first companies to offer profit sharing in Germany to its employees. The leadership at BMW is one the values the employees and listens to their ideas. The type of open door leadership BMW allows for employees to feel as if they have value to the company and its achievements. Informal powwows are used to brainstorm for ideas with all levels of employees. It is sometimes referred to as a freewheeling idea factory. Employees from all different departments are known to get together and work on a single project. This culture allows for employees to feel as if they are valued and that their ideas are appreciated. No one is looked down upon when they present an idea even if they are not as â€Å"high up† as the other people in the room. This allows for great ideas to be given and fostered. The work environment at BMW is so highly sought after that over 200,000 applications are received annually. The job characteristics model involves increasing the amount of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback in a job. Three critical psychological states: (1) experienced meaningfulness of the tasks performed, (2) experience personal responsibility for tasks outcomes, and (3) knowledge of the tasks performed. Managers at BMW seldom have formalized training to learn their jobs. This forces them to work closely with other managers and their teams to figure out ways to improve the business. This is another example of how employees are tightly knight and feel as if their opinions matter. The line between management and subordinates is very thin. They work so closely together that the hierarchy is not as pronounced as in most companies. The heavy involvement of all employees increases productivity and job satisfaction. Organizational creativity is fostered at BMW in many ways. BMW looks to its workers to come up with ways to save the company money. Individuals whose ideas save the plant money receive bonuses. The more ideas you present the more money you earn. This pushes employees to come up with solid ideas that will benefit the company. This is a win win situation for both BMW and the employees. Satisfied and motivated employees are a vital part of BMW. Interdepartmental brainstorming is very common and they work closely to come up with ideas. People aren’t criticized for their ideas no matter how off the wall they might be. They are encouraged to think outside the box. The culture and work environment at BMW greatly influences the performance and production of its workers. Workers are so happy with their employment they are willing to work extra hours on heavy productions days and not get paid overtime. This practice is unheard of in most companies. Very rarely are employees willing to work extra hour and not be compensated with hour time pay. This is offset by the accrual of days off instead. Workers are also willing to move away from home for extended periods of time and work long hours. All of these things create job stability for the employees and help reduce layoffs. BMW is the leader in car customization. They are able to complete over 170,000 changes a month in their orders. This is unheard of in the car manufacturing industry. Such changes would set other manufacture back months but BMW is able to make the changes and stay on schedule due to the dedication of its employees. Other manufactures are looking to BMW to try to duplicate this process but have yet to reach this level. BMW is the leader of the pact when it comes to innovation and employees moral. More companies regardless of their industry need to follow this awesome example of teamwork. They would be able to produce more and spend less which is always the goal when running a business. After reading this case I see why over 200,000 people apply for a position there yearly. It seems like a great place to work and grow.

10 Reasons You Should Be Using Blog Comments

10 Reasons You Should Be Using Blog Comments Ask anyone how they promote their blog, and chances are pretty good that commenting on other blogs wont top the list. Most of us turn to social media to promote our blogs  because it works, and works quickly and measurably. With all of the social media outlets available, and a recent startling movement by a few large blogs to close blog comment sections, its easy to dismiss the idea of using your precious time going to blogs and leaving comments. Often, the comments you see are either great post, thanks!, blatant link spam, or (horrors) like something youd find in YouTube. Why Are Blog Comments Losing Favor? Bloggers have a love-hate relationship with their own blog comment section, too, for several reasons. Blog comments are not great for measurement. Judging your blog by the comments section can be disheartening. Though the number of comments helps towards your social proof, it is often less an indicator of actual readership and more an indicator of how controversial your post is. The truth is, blog comment numbers arent an accurate indicator of actual readership. Most readers dont participate on your blog, a phenomenon known as participation inequality. This means that 90% of the people lurk and dont participate, while 1% account for most of the participation. (Nielsen Norman Group) This means, as Nielsen pointed out, that blog comment sections arent a good place to get feedback because 1% of the people doing the talking might not be the most ideal percentage to base changes on. You might have nine readers that love what youre writing, but if you only hear from the one that doesnt (and more often than not, people are spurred on by a negative reaction to leave a comment), it is disheartening. Blog comments are tempting for spammers. Incessant spamming is one of the reasons Copyblogger decided to close the comment section on their blog. The amount of time it took to police spam comments, and the sheer volume, was a tipping point. In a little over eight years, Copyblogger has published more than 130,000 approved comments. Which is pretty amazing, right? But over that period, that’s only about 4% of the comments that were left on the site. The remaining 96% were pointless, time-wasting spam. Thats over 3 million spam comments that Copyblogger has had thrown their direction!  On my low-traffic personal WordPress blog, I am frequently blown away by the amount of spam I receive in the comments. In just a few months, the numbers climb high. Granted, I have a plugin in place to catch nearly all of it (as does Copyblogger), but there are still a handful each day that gets by and end up in my email asking for moderation. I can only imagine how much Copyblogger had to deal with. Numbers that big are terrifying to some degree when I realize how quickly, without a simple spam plugin, my blogs comment section would a disaster. Spammers are incredibly sneaky. Ever get one of those comments that you just cant be sure if its spam or not, its that real? Spammers know that many bloggers require moderation only on the first comment made on a site. Once theyve been approved, they have free rein. So they leave a comment that you decide is real, and open the door to them. The threat of spammers, and the wasted time dealing with them, is exhausting. Blog comments have to be moderated. When it comes to comments on my personal blog, I have my WordPress settings as tight as they can be and a strict policy in place as to what kinds of comments Ill allow (no insulting me or other readers, stay on topic, no excessively foul language, etc.).  Spammers and the bad behavior of netizens  have forced me to moderate my comments when in the early days of blogging I took pride in letting the discussion unfold in real time sans moderation. I regret that I have to moderate, but without moderation, conversation can turn ugly. Bloggers are responsible for what appears on their blog; it is their property. You do not want to allow questionable comments that insult, attack, threaten or suggest harm to another person. While logical fallacies, overused memes, and trolls are probably inevitable even in legitimate comments, most of the truly awful you can head off at the pass by simply keeping it from being published. Moderation of blog comments means comments dont appear right away. It means some commenters dont understand why their comments dont appear and they submit multiple similar comments. It means some folks get upset when they dont see their legitimate comment right away and get after you for censoring   them (yep, its happened to me). But without moderation of comments, your blog will be spam central. Long and short of it? Because of spammers and people who cant behave, your comment section is going to take some effort to maintain and protect. Moderation will be required. Bloggers are afraid of Google. The idea of your comments section somehow bringing a penalty to your site is terrifying to bloggers. Though Matt Cutts has reassured bloggers that taking part in blog comments in a legitimate way is perfectly fine, recent penalty action taken by Google has bloggers a bit on edge. With good moderation and spam controls, and making sure that links in the comments section are no follow (which WordPress now does) you can protect yourself somewhat. It is important to take a serious rein on your comments section and be purposeful about it. You dont have to be afraid of SEO penalties as long as you protect your own comments section and dont use other blogs comments sections as a way to spam for your own site. Conversation is on the social networks, not the blog. Another reason Copyblogger provided for ending their comments was that the discussion was happening elsewhere, on social media.  This is discouraging if you are trying to build social proof on your actual blog, and see social media comment streams as a form of sharecropping your content off of your blog property. A blog comments section might seem antiquated in the face of this new conversation. If youve been blogging a while, youve probably noticed that social media has meant two things for your blog comments: They have dwindled considerably as people go to social media. The comments are shorter as social media shortens attention spans or gives people a place to write their own thoughts. (In the early days of blogging, some blog commenters had no blogs; they used blog commenting as the way they built their online reputation and authority.) Comment systems, though, are evolving. Plugins that support social media integration, or a comment system like Disqus, help tie your blogs comments into that social pulse. In that sense, you can bring that outside conversation back onto your own property. People are doing it wrong. Yes, some people (as in, you and me an others) arent doing the whole blog commenting thing the right way. Its hard to have purely altruistic motives, sometimes. What is it were doing? Well We participate in blog comments for linking purposes.  If you head into it at all thinking that youll get a link back to your site, youre doing it wrong. Youll be moderated, spammed, and possibly penalized. All we have to say is nice post, good job.  A comment section is for conversation. While Im familiar with the feeling of enjoying a post, having nothing to say, but wanting to let the blogger know, it would be better to share the post on social media and say this was a good post rather than create acres of comments that say good job. Anyone else roll their eyes when trying to sift through good job! and I agree! comments to get to something meatier? Were trolls. Were just there to argue and be jerks. Lets admit it. Weve all lost it in a blog comments section somewhere, and hang our heads in shame at who we became. We dont understand our comment is in the wrong place. How many times have you read a blog post where the author helpfully suggested a tech fix of some sort, just to be kind, and the comment section quickly fills with people (of all temperaments) wanting help from the author troubleshooting why it didnt work?   Sometimes we mistake a blog post on a particular topic as the place to go for help on that topic, and it isnt. Blog comments are for the strong. New to blogging? You may or may not be ready for the emotional toll some blog comments can take on you, depending upon what kind of posts you write and how much of a flashpoint your topics are. Blog comments can be hurtful and discouraging if you let them get to you. Even if you moderate them, you are still going to read them whether you publish them or not. It can be an open door to letting people shred or mock what was a very important thing to write about. If you are prone to taking things personally or are unable to distance yourself from what random strangers say to you, blog comments can be a real drag on your motivation to keep blogging. On the other hand, if you stick with it, you learn a very valuable skill: how to ignore people who are insignificant in your life. Comments on your blog will either give you a thick skin or cause you to give up.Why Blog Comments Are Important After reading all of that–practically an entire blog post on why you should abandon blog comments ASAP!–you might be convinced to do just that. Surely they arent worth the hassle or the threat of your innocent blog commenting activity creating a penalty for your blog. Hold on just a minute. Most of us arent Copyblogger, and arent experiencing the level of spam they were. Most of us dont have the volume of conversation happening elsewhere that they do; our social media conversations are smaller and need a home base on the blog. And, most importantly, participating in the comment sections of blogs does have a positive impact. All of the negatives aside, I love blog comments on a carefully moderated blog. Why? 1. Discover new blogs. I have probably found more useful sites, links, information, and downloads not through online searches but by people in blog comment sections sharing a relevant source. Plus, a well-written comment with a thoughtful take on the topic will often cause me to visit the website of the commenter. That comment is a preview of how their blog posts will be. I have found a huge chunk of the blogs I load into my RSS reader through blog comments sections, and where do you suppose I turn when I want to find content to share? That RSS reader. Taking time and leaving a relevant, useful comment is a way to bring people over to your website. Plugging yourself shamelessly in every post is a turn-off. 2. Learn more about the topic. A well-researched blog post isnt all there is to say on a topic. Word count or time restrictions can keep your ultimate guide blog post from not quite being the ultimate guide. The experience, knowledge, and resources commenters can bring to your post in the comment section add to the understanding of the topic. Im fairly certain, for example, that when you get to the end of this post, youll be thinking she forgot to mention this important thing and youll take it upon yourself to mention it (hint hint). Thats the beauty of blog comments: readers get to help build on the original post, helping the author and other readers learn more about the topic. Whether opposing view or adding to the supporting view, theres more to be said about most topics, and readers can help each other by commenting. 3. The enjoyment of being a regular. A coffee shop near where I work knows what Im going to order before I order it. I love that. I love going in and having them pick up the conversation where we left off. Its the joy of being a regular. The comment section of your blog is where the regulars (or the usual suspects, if its that kind of blog :-) gather. They know each other, they know your blog and can link back to old posts or other specific comments from the past. Regulars help turn your blog from being a sequential posting of articles into something organic that references itself. Plus, theres the ownership issue. I have had a handful of people who have read and commented on my personal blog for more than ten years, some of whom Ive met and weve become real-life friends. When you comment (and get response) regularly on a blog, you almost feel like you have ownership there, that its important you stay involved. Thats exactly the kind of reader and commenter you want.  Heck, some regulars even police the comments section and help you, as if they were forum moderators. They feel like its partly their place, too, and they want to help keep it clean. Blog comment sections are like the coffee house of the internet, where you introduce the discussion and let the regulars get busy discussing it. 4. Networking that works. Taking part in your own blog comment section shows the world youre not a hermit.  It says that you   are not just a one-way street, blasting your content out to them but unwilling to hear them back. (This is especially important if you are trying to build your blog traffic and get a bigger audience.) Being a one-way content pusher is sort of the equivalent of handing out business cards en masse and not bothering to do much listening as you turn around and walk away. It doesnt work. The back and forth conversation in blog comments, and and honest willingness to listen, is good networking. Just like you find new blogs to read, you make connections with the other regulars and break free of the limited circles of your social media. Blog comment sections bring in people you might not have discovered, otherwise, and truly expand your networking circles. One-sided networking never works. In order to make connections that matter, we have to be willing to give and take, and meet people outside of our usual social groups. 5. People link to where theyre being talked about. Ive found that if I have written a post that is getting some serious comment action, involving other bloggers and asking questions often leads to them writing a post about the conversation, and linking to my original post.  When Ive had a long run in a comment section and been actively participating, and I think Ive left some pretty good comments, you know what I do? I link to the post and often blog about it. It functions on the same principle as why small town newspapers run so many photos of the local sports team. I learned early on as a small town newspaper reporter that mentioning the names of people in the community in stories, and featuring their kids in school activities, was how you sold papers. Its the same reason people buy that expensive Whos Who book: theyre listed in it. We like to promote whats promoting us. 6. Easier-to-follow conversations. A lot of conversation happens on social media, sure, but it isnt always easy to follow. Some might be on Twitter (where following a discussion is like chasing the tail of a kite on a windy day), others on Google+. Different people saying interesting things, but because those multiple conversations are on different platforms? Never the two shall meet. And, conversation on social media fades away as the news feeds change. Its always been a frustration of mine that this happens. Admittedly, some of the social features of some comment systems that adjust the order of the comments according to votes by readers can be confusing, as they arent a threaded in-order conversation. While that technique helps commenters police out bad comments (in theory) it does add to confusion, too. But, at least all of the discussion is in one place. Taking part in blog comment sections makes it easier for readers who find the post to follow along and make sense of how the discussion goes. Latecomers can see what has already been said. 7. Social proof for your blog. If you see a listing of four blog posts, three with 6 comments listed, and one with 145 comments listed, which post are you going to dive into? Probably the 145-comment post. Clearly there is something going on there and lots of people are actively talking. We like to see what others are talking about, and we are more likely to join in because there are enough others in the conversation that it wont be too terrifying (this is especially true for lurkers who dont participate much). This is social proof in action, the idea that where we see a crowd, there must be something good.  Asking questions in your own comments is a good way to keep the ball rolling. Comments help encourage other comments; its a very good reason to respond to comments in your blog posts. Blog comments are great social proof. The more you have, the more you get.8. Get new ideas for fresh content. Has this ever happened to you? You write a post about topic. The discussion is active, and you find yourself leaving long comments. Pretty soon you think its probably best to write a whole new blog post because the topic has expanded and given you a lot to talk about, all thanks to the blog comments section. At the very least, youve probably found yourself realizing that there were questions or directions your readers have suggested that would make a great new blog post (or two or three). Thats happened here on this blog, even. It was in our blog comments where a reader brought up the need for social proof. It was a comment that piqued my curiosity and got me doing some research. I eventually wrote a blog post. Ive also written blog posts based on comments found on other blogs, too. Inevitably, I link back to the other blog (win for them), and I get a great post idea (win for me). Plus, I have a legitimate reason to leave a comment and say I wrote a post about this here and perhaps get some new readers. The comment section is a great place for idea generation. Its a group of people, batting ideas around.

Sleep or Not to SLeep essays

Sleep or Not to SLeep essays If you could completely give up sleep without many physical side effects would you do it? Why or why not? Throughout the day and night, there are so many worries and stressful things happening in life that I wish could disappear, but they dont. Tears fall down my face very easily, over things that others would consider ridiculous to cry about. Therefore besides playing softball, spending time with my friends, boyfriend, and family; I consider sleep to be the next best thing to do. It is the activity that makes me feel rejuvenated, relaxed, happy and free. Never in a million years would I give up sleep, even there was not many physical side effects without it. The physical side effects are not exactly what Im concerned about, the emotional/mental effects are much more important to me. When I doze off into a nice sleep my body muscles are completely relaxed and numb to the surrounding world. No worries, stress or tears occurring in my life unless in a dream but still I wake up feeling wonderful. I feel as if Im in a heaven of pillows and I never want to escape it, everything is perfect and Im constantly blissful when sleeping. I feel that when it comes to sleeping dreaming is the most exciting part, which is where my imagination is loose and can run wild, thoughts are also inevitable. Every person dreams countless dreams and will never have the capability to remember everyone exactly. In these dreams the mind can perceive things anyway possible and thats what makes dreams so exciting. Giving up sleep would mean giving up dreams, but dreams are incredible and put things in your mind that I dont think could get there with out dreaming. Sleep is a key matter in my life and I dont think I could ever give it up, I always feel so great after getting a twenty minute rest or even a nine hour sleep. If Im ever upset or need to get things off my mind, I will either t ...