The Last Lecture: Dr Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture: Dr Randy Pausch Carnegie Mellon University asked a set of Professors to give a message of a lifetime as if it was their last lecture before their death. Ironically for Dr. Randy Pausch, it was his last lecture because he had learned that he is going to die soon due to Pancreatic Cancer that has spread to his liver. That is what it is we cannot change that, we just have to deal with it. Dr. Pauschs inspirational speech was not about death; it was about life and how to achieve your childhood dreams. His sense of humor and enthusiasm is what triggered the audience to become inspired with his life lessons. Randy Pausch started off his speech by introducing the elephant in the room which he told the audience that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will die soon because of it. He chose to tell them about the cancer at the beginning because he believes that if there are issues distracting your audience, address them sooner rather than later. He says that we have to deal with what we are facing because it is not in our hands to change the future. Therefore, instead of feeling depressed, we should try to enjoy the time that we have left. If I do not seem depressed as I should be, sorry to disappoint you. He makes it clear that he is not in denial of whats going on, he is just dealing with the situation in a positive way. Randy knows that he has ten tumors in his stomach and that he only has six months to live; he chooses to spend them with his family rather than worrying about the future. Pausch uses a couple of techniques in his lecture to inspire the audience with his talk. He knows that the audience might get emotional when they learn that he is doing to die soon due to sickness so he creates a sense of humor throughout his lecture as much as possible. For example, he told the audience that even though he is dying soon, I am in much better shape than most of you, and he starts to make push ups to show that them that he is physically strong; the audience respond with laughter and applause. Pausch laughs, smiles and tells a lot of jokes throughout the lecture instead of feeling depressed and sad. Throughout his speech he gives away his stuffed animals, wears an Alice in Wonderland hat, and wears a football jacket because he believes that audience is more likely to have fun and cherish life if they see you doing so in your speeches. Moreover, he could have used a serious tone for this speech. He could have stressed every word as if it were a matter of life or death; however, that would have drawn more attention to his condition instead of his main messag e and the point of the talk was to learn something out of it instead of feeling sorry for him. Due to these reasons, Pausch told the audience at the beginning of the speech that he will not talk about the cancer, wife, or children because the audience is going to get emotional including himself as they are very sensitive topics to discuss. Randy Pausch introduces the main points of the lecture and what he will exactly talk about. Even though Pausch tries to give the impression that the speech is not personal, to some extent it is as the content of the speech are on the personal lessons Randy Pausch has learned through life, and he illuminates these through personal stories. The first topic he addressed is his own childhood dreams and shows the audience pictures of him as a child smiling and looking happy all the time to reveal that he had a great childhood. He also stated that one of the many great things that his parents allowed him to do is paint his own room as he had the chance to express his creativity. As a child he believed that if a man can land on the moon, anything is possible. As a child he always wanted to become an astronaut but he never did; however, NASA created a competition for college students to design a certain project and the winners would go up in to the air in Vomit Comet, (a plane used by astron auts to practice before traveling to the moon) and experience weightlessness as if they are on the moon. Pausch was so excited that his students won until he learns that faculty members are not allowed to join. He makes this point by explaining that this was like a brick wall in his life and Brick walls are there for a reason, they let us prove how badly we want things. Moreover, he didnt give up and he had to fake as a journalist as they were allowed on the plane. Another dream that Pausch shared is the dream of becoming a professional football player and play for the national team which he never did. I got more out of that dream that I didnt accomplish, more than any other dream that I did accomplish. Also, his coach in school would make him do extra push ups, laps, and practice so Randy thought he was making him practice extra just because he didnt think he was good enough until someone told him when you are screwing up and no one is bothering to tell you anything , thats when they give up on you. Moreover, the critiques in our lives are the ones who basically love you and care about you. Also, Randy tells the audience that even though he never got to play as a professional football player, football is still a part of him and while talking, he wears his football jacket and ball and starts playing with it. Another point that Pausch makes that I personally thought it was important is that almost every thing we learn, we learn indirectly. He e xplains that by saying that when we send our children to play football, we dont actually send them to play football but we actually send them to learn skills like teamwork and sportsmanship. Another dream that Pausch shared is the dream of sharing knowledge with other and he did when he was selected to write an article in Wikipedia. Pausch believes that one of the most significant things in life is to share knowledge and pass it on to others. He expresses his humor by saying that being selected to be an author of Wikipedia, now I know that it is a reliable source that you can use. The next dream he introduced is Being like/ meeting captain Kirk which he intended to write it that way to amuse the audience and make them laugh. It was his childhood dream to be like Captain Kirk because it was a show that taught leadership skills. Even though he wanted to be like Captain Kirk he got to meet the actor. Another dream that Randy talked about is being an imagineer at Disney Land. The first time he went to Disney Land as a kid, instead of saying I want to experience this he said, I want to make stuff like that. One thing Randy learned during his experience that I thought was important is When you are pissed off at somebody, you just have to give them time and they will impress you. I believe that he is right because there is no real reason to be upset at anyone as we are all human beings who make mistakes. Also, life is too short to be upset with loved ones and you never know when your life will end. Moreover, Pausch became one of the imagineers who designed the game of Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland. This experience forever changed him as he learned that artists and engineers can invent great things together. Another important thing that he learned which I also thought was important was that all good things come to an end and you should try to enjoy it as much as you can. Later on, Dr. Pausch taught a course at Carnie Mellon University for ten years about building virtual worlds. When Pausch stopped teaching the course he gave handed it someone better to run this course. When you have something so precious, you should hand it to someone better than you. There are many lessons with certain techniques that he used to persuade the audiences with, which were about life that I thought, are important to mention. Its important to have parents and mentors in your life. In this part of the speech, Pausch showed pictures of his parents on rollercoaster to once more create a sense of humor. Also, he said that it is very important to give up the time to help others as we are blessed to have what weve got and others need our help. Moreover, dont complain, just work harder. He gave an example of a baseball player Jackie Robinson who swore he would not complain if people spat on him. I think he gave this example to imply that people complain too much; he is dying and he chooses not to complain. Also, when he was in school and complaining to his mother, she said I know how you feel, remember when your father was your age he was fighting the Germans. Once again she uses this example to create a sense of positive energy in the atmosphere. Another imp ortant message is Have fun I am dying and I choose to have fun. He believes that he cannot tell other how to have fun; it is like telling a fish how to swim in the sea. Finally, apologize when you screw up. I am sorry, I am wrong, and what can I do to make things better. Pausch believes that many people apologize but they are too egocentric to ask What can I do to make things better? In my opinion one of the most memorable moments in the lecture is when Pausch said focus on others, not you and as an example, he got out a huge birthday cake as its his wifes birthday and the audience started to sing Happy Birthday to his wife. In this moment, Randy reveals his emotional side when he hugged his wife. It is very emotional because although throughout the talk he tried to be as enthusiastic and energetic as possible, when it came to his wife he couldnt resist but give a sad face. Also, showing emotions is one of the best ways for a speaker to connect with an audience. Moreover, throughout the lecture he reveals the dreams that he had as a child and how he fulfilled each dream; but in my opinion, I think he the most important dream of all that he wants to fulfill but cannot is the dream of: to live longer and see his children grow up; unfortunately, he cannot fulfill that dream. Dr. Randy Pausch concluded his lecture in a very strong way by summarizing his key points to get his audience to think about what he said. In addition, he reaches back to one of the concepts introduced earlier which was the head fake and reveals that his entire speech has been a pair of head fakes; which makes the audience rethink the whole speech in their heads. Finally, at the very end he reveals that the whole speech was not for the audience but for his wife and children. As a viewer, I realized that at the end of the lecture that Pausch was seizing every opportunity to make speeches and write a book for his children as they are too young to have memories of their father. Moreover, all the childhood dreams and life lessons he has taught throughout the lecture were talks that he wants his children to one day know about them and follow those life lessons he has talked about. In my opinion, even though Dr. Randy Pausch tried to hide his emotional side throughout the lecture, the lecture was to some extent touching to the audience. The fact that hes dying in a couple of months ,yet giving a lecture on how to achieve your dreams and live your life is somewhat emotional to the audience. In addition, his situation makes the audience feel sorry for him even though if its not his intention to this speech. I believe that the speech wouldnt have been that successful if another person who was not ill would have given the same speech. Besides the skillful techniques Pausch used, the audience wouldnt have been as persuaded as they were by a different person preaching the exact same words because they psychologically feel like the need to listen to him because he is dying and in a way they feel sorry for him. Moreover, I believe this reason is one of the several motives to why Dr. Randy Pausch was listed as one of the hundred most influential people in the world.

Essay --

Aulia Akbar Ramadhan 2B3206 Walt Whitman Rostow is United Stated economist, and also a father of ecomonic theory and growth. In Rostow view through his Stages of Growth Model, there are five stages in the process of economic growth and development. The five stages are The traditional society, The precondition for take off. The take off, The drive to maturity and The age of mass consumption. In these stages Rostow point out that both of the precondition stage for take off and take off stages is very important for a country economy growth. Capital and Technology raising, is one of the most important factor for a country to achieve economic maturity for economic development. After the end of the take off stages, in general most of the economies experienced lower economic growth rates. Also at the end of the stages, the age of mass consumption, is only for country that the most people there already live in the prosperity. The country that already on these stage is mainly from West. In the case of Indonesia, Indonesia economy experience the Stage of Development when Indonesia lead by President Soeharto. Soeharto make Rostow theory as the foundation of his long term development plan. This long term plan was conducted every five years, it is called Pelita.In Pelita I which occurs between 1969-1974, Soeharto target is to raise Indonesia agricultural and food production. Based on Rostow view at this time Indonesia economy is at the traditional society stage, because many agriculture industry born in here, also people still farm with traditional way. In Pelita II 1974-1979, the growth still little, but it can bee seen that time Indonesia economy is on transtition to evolve to pre take off stage and to the take off stage. Indonesia economy f... ...untries. In indonesia case, demand side GDP is still larger than supply side GDP, this can be seen that people in Indonesia still very consumptive, also In Indonesia, the size of the domestic market have become the largest contributor to economic growth. Indonesia has relatively less affected and already immuned by the weakning of the global export market. The high consumption in Indonesia is negate by the acceleration of infrastructure, productivity, and efficiency of the national production chain in order to be not dependent on the import mechanism. There is also demand pull inflation happen. Demand pull inflation is inflation that is caused due to the increase in aggregate demand compared to the amount of goods and services offered. Because the quantity of goods demanded in Indonesia is greater than the goods offered, then there is an increasing on the price.

Enron Corporation Essay

I  Ã‚   The Beginning When Enron Corporation declared a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2001, it left the public especially its investors and stockholders reeling from such financial scandal and collapse.   Enron had allegedly overstated its profits by $586 million since 1997 in order to protect the firm’s balance sheet and practiced insider trading as well fraud and conspiracy. Enron had been the seventh largest company in the United States and had been one of the largest financial contributors to the Presidential elections, especially the Bush family. To the outside world, Enron portrayed a picture of success.   However, upon closure inspection on the inside, Enron was on the brink of collapse. When Enron’s stock price hit its highest at $90, the executives who allegedly knew of the offshore accounts of Enron started selling their respective shares and to encouraged the public to continue buying the said stocks.   However, the executives knew that the stock prices would not increase anymore but still reassured the public and its investors that the prices of stock would reach a high $130-140 per share. By August 2001, Enron’s stock prices had dropped from $90 to a measly $42. It became evident that the company had fraudulently induced and fooled the public, investors and stockholders to buying the company’s stocks and shares. Amidst all these, Enron founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay continued to reassure the public to remain calm, and asked the investors to buy the company’s shares as the company will regain its profits in the succeeding months. Nonetheless, in October of 2001, the stocks plunged to $15 but the investors saw this as an opportunity to buy Enron stocks at such low prices. But the truth about the company’s financial standing became public and the stock price finally hit rock bottom at $1 per share. II   Basis of the Charges Stockholders and investors gathered and instituted a class-action suit against Enron and its officers in order to recover the millions of investment they made on Enron as result of the false representation and fraud by the company. Enron top executives specifically its Chief Executive Officers, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were charged and convicted with the collapse of the energy giant. Kenneth Lay faced seven counts of fraud and conspiracy while Skilling faced 31 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors about Enron’s financial position. In 1987, Enron auditors found out a billion-dollar oil trading scandal in its New York offices.   Traders had been engaged in this kind of practice – falsifying transactions in order to boost their volume and profit thereby fattening their bonuses as well. Although CEO Kenneth Lay knew of this, he did not fire the traders nor contacted the authorities in order to cover up their problems. But this incident did not deter the traders and six months later, competitors began to grow suspicious because if word got out, Enron’s trading partners could have demanded that the company cover its positions with cash, which the company did not have (Fowler).   Thus, the traders were fired and charged but not until they were able to transfer million of dollars into their personal accounts.   Enron for its part was able to get away by bluffing the market and reported $85 million in loss but sources claim that the loss totalled to at least $135 million. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who joined Enron in 1990, did not care much about the expenses incurred by the company as long as the margins looked good.   He was also more concerned with the revenues increases and widening profit margins instead of the cash flows which was practiced by his predecessor. So enamoured were the top executives in increasing business profit that when a deal failed or fell apart, more effort was placed into hiding the consequences instead of rectifying and owning up to the problem.   After taking over as chief operating officer, he renewed the almost non-existent post of chief financial officer and delegated many of the management responsibilities. In theory, Enron had mechanisms that would assess risk and accurately report financial numbers. These mechanisms required that deals should be strictly analyzed which included review by the legal department of the originating unit, the corporate legal department, chief risk officer and chief accounting officer.   However, due to the insidious practice of the company, auditors and accountants were bullied to over ride the system and departments were able to determine the total value of their proposals by manipulating the long-term price of whatever product was sold or bought.   The company also used a â€Å"mark-to-market† accounting system pushed by Skilling which allows a company to report as current revenue the total value of a deal over its projected lifetime (Fowler). This system made earning appear good which in turn pumped up the stock prices and increased the value of stocks which executives received as bonuses. III Trial As the stunned investors witnessed Enron’s stock prices plunged, the government began a massive crackdown on the executives who were responsible for the collapse of the company, and would end up in the conclusion of convincing and proving to the jury that Lay and Skilling, the two top executives of the company, where guilty of massive fraud and were thus guilty. Government prosecutors were at first overwhelmed with the girth of the corporate fraud.   Nevertheless, they began to take measures to respond to these kinds of crimes and a barrage of criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions began to surface.   Thus, in 2002, the Presidential Corporate Fraud Task Force filed criminal charges against more than 900 defendants, of which 60 are chief executive or president level and successfully prosecuted or convicted 500 of them. The case against Lay and Skilling were heard by US District Judge Sim Lake and lasted nearly four months while the jury deliberated for six days.   The defense counsel initially attempted to persuade the judge to move the trial away from Houston, Enron’s hometown as they were afraid that the jury might be influenced by anger due to the resulting loss of jobs and money and would see them as a way of revenge. Kenneth Lay faced seven counts of fraud and conspiracy fraud and conspiracy while Skilling on the other hand, faced 31 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors about Enron’s financial position.   Although both asserted their innocence of the charges against them, they were convicted for a total of 29 criminal counts as well as conspiracy to hide the failing health of the company by selling boosterich optimism to Wall Street and the public (MSNBC). Lay, who was convicted to 6 counts of conspiracy, securities and wire fraud in the corporate trial and 4 counts on separate personal banking trial, surrendered his passport and posted a $5 million bond secured by the family.   His sentence also carried a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison for the corporate trial while 120 years in personal trial respectively.   Ã‚  Skilling on the other hand, was convicted by 19 counts out of the 28 charged as well as one count of insider trading while being acquitted with the remaining charges. The charges against   these Enron top executives prospered as other executives turned the table and plead guilty in their respective charges in order to receive lower sentences than that prescribed.   Among the former employees who testified against Lay and Skilling was Ben Glisan who is now serving a 5-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy.   According to Glisan, both Lay and Skilling knew that the company was in deep financial trouble but tried to hide it instead. Ultimately, the jury rejected Skilling’s defense that no fraud happened at Enron save for those committed by a number of executives skimming millions in secret side deals, while bad publicity and poor market confidence resulted in the collapse of the energy giant. III. Effects of the Enron Collapse As the jurors found that these once-wealthy and powerful executives repeatedly lied to cover up the real position of the company by covering up accounting and auditing failures which eventually led to its collapse in 2001, the left a devastating effect in the business world as well as the lives of the investors and shareholders.   The demise of Enron wiped out more than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in retirement savings and costs more than 5,600 to lose their jobs. The anger of the public over the recent corporate scandals led to the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was designed to make company executives more accountable. Although public distrust for white-collar trial could not actually reverse the damage done to investor confidence, the Lay and Skilling trial however has become a start of a healing process for public-investor relations to be righted again. IV Timothy Belden    Apart from the other key witnesses who were former Enron employees and who testified against the top two Enron officials, Timothy Belden particularly made the charges against Lay and Skilling stick, ending in their conviction.   Belden who was the first person to be charged in the manipulation of Western Energy markets, initially engaged in lengthy dance with federal officials over his plea and eventual cooperation in testifying against Lay and Skilling.   He pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiracy and admitted that he gave false information to California’s electrical grid operators.   Belden is also said to be the â€Å"mastermind behind the strategies described† in memos that spelled out how Enron manipulated the California market (Schreiber). Beginning in the mid-nineties, California was among the first states to deregulate electricity.   The deregulation occurred just as when companies were leaving the state in numbers thereby creating a recession. The deregulation was supposed to reduce the ten percent of the tax payers’ bill while breaking the old methods of greedy companies.   As California deregulated the wholesale side of its energy markets, it also kept price caps in the retail side. It coincided with the State’s decision to bar utilities from signing long-term cheap fixed prices which forced them to into an unpredictable market.   Thus, the utilities were made to pay exorbitant prices but were not able to pass on to their consumers the prices they incurred.   Enron promised to deliver power more efficiently and build new plants that can run on cheaper fuels. Commencing in 1998 until 2001, Belden as well as other executives from Enron devised a fraudulent scheme in order to obtain increased revenue for Enron from wholesale electricity consumers and other market participants in the State of California. The schemes perpetrated by Belden and the other Enron executives required them to submit false information to the companies supplied by Enron and misrepresented the nature of electricity which the company was supposed to supply. Despite being paid to relieve congestion, the company however, did not do so and instead imported as well as exported electricity in order to receive higher prices from the companies they supply. Of particular interest in the course of the trial is a transcript of conversation between Belden and one of the operators of the power plant wherein the two discussed shutting down one of Reliant’s power plants in California to create a shortage in order for the prices to skyrocket. As the scheme worked, causing the power prices to arrive at high and unjust levels in California, it thereby became illegal under the Federal Energy Policy Act. In his testimony, he called California’s post-deregulation power market dysfunctional and said his company bought cheap electricity in the Northwest to sell in California at a profit (Baker). This practice created the appearance among consumers that there was shortage of electricity, thereby having the need to jack up the prices. Enron was able to pocket off almost $1 billion in a period of nine months in 2000 and 2001. Belden admitted however, that he only met with Lay and Skilling once during a colleague’s party.   But nevertheless, Belden’s testimony proved to be a very crucial one as it confirmed and proved that Lay and Skilling knew of what was happening in California but turned to hide it instead. As company vice-president and head of Enron’s West Coast trading operation, Belden supervised a staff of 120 that went from $50 million in earnings in 1999 to $800 million in 2001, while California’s power markets disintegrated into panic and sky-high prices. When one of Enron’s lawyers started investigating these â€Å"irregularities† as a response to the investigation conducted by the California Public Utility Commission. The lawyers found out of Enron’s tactic of using advantage of the energy crisis and revealed through a memo that Enron created false congestion lines, transferred energy in and out of state to avoid price caps and charged for services the company never actually provided (Swartz).   And yet, inspite of the information the lawyer gave to the top executives, and traders have been told to return the money made on improper trading, the executives at Enron still decided against it despite knowing that the practice was illegal.   For Belden and the other traders, sending the money back would mean that the other companies will know what Enron was doing.   Nevertheless, Belden and Enron continued on with the practice.   Skilling, on the other hand, fully knew well of the said practice by the company in 2001 as he was already tipped by one of the executives who learned of the previous investigation. During examination, Belden admitted to US District Judge Martin Jenkins that he did it because he was trying to maximize profit for Enron. Belden claimed that he was only following Enron’s instructions as he handled his trades (CBS News).   According to Belden’s counsel, Enron knew fully well of Belden’s action but was never disciplined nor sanctioned at all. In fact, Belden may have reaped bonus for such practice as revenues from his trading unit climbed from $50 million in 1999 to $500 million in 2000 to $800 million in 2001.     When he was charged with conspiracy, Belden after a long time of dealing and negotiating with the federal government, decided to turn against Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, claiming that the two top executives knew of the practice he and other traders did as indicated by the internal company memos which described how Enron took power out of California at a time of rolling blackouts and shortages and how it sold out of state to elude price caps (CBS News).

Words Made Using Periodic Table Element Symbols

Chemical element symbols are one- and two-letter abbreviations for the element names. They are used to make the periodic table and chemical formulas easier to read. You can combine the symbols to make words. Here is  a list of English words made from periodic table  element symbols. There are thousands of words that can be written using these symbols, so experiment to see if you can write your name or fun messages that show your chemistry savvy. Words Made From Element Symbols AcAcIAs AcNe AcTiON AgITaTiON AgNOSTiC AlCoHoLiC AlIMoNY Am AmErICaN AmISH AmPUTaTiON ArGeNTiNa AsPIrIn AtLaNTa AtTeNTiON AuTiSTiC BaNaNa BAlLiSTiC BaPTiSm BArF Be BeArS BeErS BErSErK BODy BONFIRe BUNCH BrUNCH BUTaNe CaN CaNDY CaNNIBAl CHeErS CHINa ClOCK CoOK CoPErNiCuS CuFFLiNKS CuIrAsS CuISiNe CuP CuTeNeSS CYCLiC CYClONe CYNiCs CYSTeINe DYEs DyNAmITe DySFUNCTiONAl FeTiSH FIRe FLaSH FrAcTiOn FrOLiC FrY GeNeSiS HeINOUS HeLiCoPtEr HeReTic HOOK HOOKErS HoSe HYMn HYPErBOLiC I IRaN IReLaNd IrON KNIFe LaDy LaOs LuBrICaTiON LuCIFEr MoCK MoCKEry MoNaCo MoNTaNa MoRe MoTiOn, MoTiON NArC NAtO NeON NePAl NO NON AlCoHoLiC NUN OF OHIO OsMoSiS PaKISTaN PAlEsTiNe PIRaTe PLaY POISON PoLiSH PSYCHIC SCaNdAl ScOTCH SePTic SiCKNeSS SiNGaPoRe SiPHON SNIPEr SOCIOPaTh SPAm SPaN TeAm ThAt TiCK US USe UTaH VAtICaN VIRuS VOICe VOTe WAr WAtEr WAtCH WASH WASP WITh YArN YIKEs YOU YOUTh YUCCa YUCKY YUPPIEs