Dualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dualism - Essay Example One key feature about dualism also has to do with the fact that greater percentage of the commentators who have discusses or written about the subject before appreciate dualism from the mind-body perspective. There seem to be this uniformity of agreement among the commentators because the mind-body perspective of dualism is considered to be the basis or history behind dualism whereby â€Å"humans have (or seem to have) both physical properties and mental properties† (Howard, 2011). In the following sections, the subject of dualism as presented from selected view points is discussed. Platonic Dualism The perspective of Plato’s dualism is related to the human life as well but Plato tackles the entities of body and soul instead of mind and body. Generally, Plato’s points and arguments on dualism are considered as the oldest. In his opinion, the body and soul of humans are two different entities that live for two different purposes. As such, Plato asserts that when o ne of the entities departs or dies, the other lives on. The College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences (2001) posits that Plato’s view on a separation of the body from the soul (in such a way that they are two different entiries) is perfectly backed by the Torah. The debate between Plato’s assertions that the soul lives after live is however challenged by the scholars of the Torah. This is because the latter argue that â€Å"when God communicates with the Hebrews in the Torah, his covenant explicitly references rewards in this life, not an afterlife† (College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences, 2001). This means that contrary to Plato’s beliefs that the soul lives after the body dies and that the souls faces reward or punishment based on the actions it performed when the body lived, scholars of the Torah refute this Socrates’ perspective of Dualism Socrates also holds a dynamic view of dualism with a lot of similarities with the views shared by Pla to. Actually, Socrates confirms that the body and soul are two independent entities of live and those they are the central point of human dualism. Idealistically, Socrates may differ from Plato in the sense that whereas Plato advocates total independence of the body from the soul and sees them as two individuals who never depend on the other, Socrates argue that the soul has a lot of relation and dependence on the body and that the body actually imprisons the soul as long as the body lives. To this end, â€Å"Socrates argues that death is a good thing because it frees the soul from the body in which it was effectively imprisoned† (Clark, 2010). The implication that is got from this assertion is that the soul is a representation of truth and wisdom and thus as an entity living in the human being, that is all that the soul seeks to champion. However, the body, which is more directed towards evil and lies is too powerful that if often times overcomes the soul and so hardly allow s the soul to operate independently till death separates the two. St. Augustine’s Dualism St. Augustine takes the subject of dualism to a more religious perspective than just being philosophical. From St. Augustine’s perspective therefore, dualism is debated more as a doctrine than a philosophical

Evaluation and Critique Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Evaluation and Critique - Research Paper Example The Montana edges an unidentified foreign object (UFO), which causes the submarine to stall as it malfunctions and sinks (The Abyss). In the meantime, media reports attribute the sinking of the Montana to a Soviet attack. The US military arrives at the location above the sinking, which happens to be near communist Cuba. Other vessels arriving in the area are believed to be Soviet spies. The US military dispatches group of SEAL officers to occupy an underwater exploration site with the intention of rescuing nuclear warheads carried by the Montana and to ensure that the ship is out of the Soviets’ reach. Tensions are building throughout, highlighting US-Soviet Cold War tensions, the dangers of environmental and nuclear damages as it becomes clear that a hurricane is fast approaching and could heighten the risk of a catastrophe. All the while SEAL officers dispatched below are showing signs of the ill-effects of the pressure associated with being under water (The Abyss). The alie n encounter is perhaps more telling as it brings the preceding themes of political tensions to a head and underscores the dangers of capitalism, both of which are the hallmarks of postmodernism thought. The aliens come into contact with SEAL lieutenant and shows him video images depicting past, present and future damages caused by mankind. The underlying message is man’s greed and mismanagement have led to self-destructive behaviour. Images of tsunamis, nuclear explosions and even the Vietnam War (The Abyss). As Simpson explains, Cameron’s approach in The Abyss distinguishes it from other futuristic science fiction film. A majority of this genre predicts disaster at some time in the future or presents a disaster and focuses on who will come out alive. The Abyss however, draws attention to past disasters, disasters in the present and predicts disaster in the future and in doing so attributes this to man’s own behaviour (Simpson). In line with postmodern thought, The Abyss focuses on post-war behaviour which has set up a series of bad and destructive behaviour fuelled by political tensions and capitalist greed (Forsyth). The narrative in The Abyss does not directly comment on capitalism, but it is inferred from the underlying political tensions and the technological progression that is a part of the destruction of the environment. The film’s narrative is more direct in its political commentary. The alien encounter represents a confrontation in which the SEAL lieutenant is able to see the damages caused by post-war political tensions from the perspective of an outsider. The underlying message is that this behaviour is counterproductive and will only grow worse with time and the results will be catastrophic. Postmodernism is about commandeering positive change, by highlighting flawed ideology and its corresponding behaviour (Forsyth). In this regard, the alien encounter in The Abyss serves as a soul searching exercise and a moment of re cognition. The underlying question for the viewer is whether or not the capitalist ideology is more sophisticated than the Communist ideology. After all, the capitalist structure shares equal responsibility for the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and is arguably more responsible for environmental damages that contribute to and heighten the risk of natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes. The postmodern message in The Abyss is therefore that the world is divided into two factions: man against nature as opposed

Role of women in colonial America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Role of women in colonial America - Essay Example In United States, early involvement of women can be traced before colonization of the country up to independence. While contribution of women is viewed to be minor, American women played significant role in colonizing the country, establishing the American identity and in the independence movement. 1Ann Bleeker identified three different categories of women in America. They include African American, native Indians and the Europeans. These groups of women came from very distinct backgrounds and they played different roles in colonizing and establishing the foundation of America. 2Bleeker noted that women who had settled in America from European continent had specific roles in the society. These roles included preparing food for the family, weaving, in addition to rearing and educating the children. The Jewish women were not an exception and 3Helena noted that they performed similar traditional roles just like women who had settled in America from Europe in the sixteenth century. 4Murr ay noted that women were not allowed to hold leadership positions or have social organization of their own. Their major occupation was home making but few owned property that they had mainly inherited from their families.

Evaluation and Critique Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Evaluation and Critique - Research Paper Example The Montana edges an unidentified foreign object (UFO), which causes the submarine to stall as it malfunctions and sinks (The Abyss). In the meantime, media reports attribute the sinking of the Montana to a Soviet attack. The US military arrives at the location above the sinking, which happens to be near communist Cuba. Other vessels arriving in the area are believed to be Soviet spies. The US military dispatches group of SEAL officers to occupy an underwater exploration site with the intention of rescuing nuclear warheads carried by the Montana and to ensure that the ship is out of the Soviets’ reach. Tensions are building throughout, highlighting US-Soviet Cold War tensions, the dangers of environmental and nuclear damages as it becomes clear that a hurricane is fast approaching and could heighten the risk of a catastrophe. All the while SEAL officers dispatched below are showing signs of the ill-effects of the pressure associated with being under water (The Abyss). The alie n encounter is perhaps more telling as it brings the preceding themes of political tensions to a head and underscores the dangers of capitalism, both of which are the hallmarks of postmodernism thought. The aliens come into contact with SEAL lieutenant and shows him video images depicting past, present and future damages caused by mankind. The underlying message is man’s greed and mismanagement have led to self-destructive behaviour. Images of tsunamis, nuclear explosions and even the Vietnam War (The Abyss). As Simpson explains, Cameron’s approach in The Abyss distinguishes it from other futuristic science fiction film. A majority of this genre predicts disaster at some time in the future or presents a disaster and focuses on who will come out alive. The Abyss however, draws attention to past disasters, disasters in the present and predicts disaster in the future and in doing so attributes this to man’s own behaviour (Simpson). In line with postmodern thought, The Abyss focuses on post-war behaviour which has set up a series of bad and destructive behaviour fuelled by political tensions and capitalist greed (Forsyth). The narrative in The Abyss does not directly comment on capitalism, but it is inferred from the underlying political tensions and the technological progression that is a part of the destruction of the environment. The film’s narrative is more direct in its political commentary. The alien encounter represents a confrontation in which the SEAL lieutenant is able to see the damages caused by post-war political tensions from the perspective of an outsider. The underlying message is that this behaviour is counterproductive and will only grow worse with time and the results will be catastrophic. Postmodernism is about commandeering positive change, by highlighting flawed ideology and its corresponding behaviour (Forsyth). In this regard, the alien encounter in The Abyss serves as a soul searching exercise and a moment of re cognition. The underlying question for the viewer is whether or not the capitalist ideology is more sophisticated than the Communist ideology. After all, the capitalist structure shares equal responsibility for the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and is arguably more responsible for environmental damages that contribute to and heighten the risk of natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes. The postmodern message in The Abyss is therefore that the world is divided into two factions: man against nature as opposed

Educational and Cultural Experience Essay Example for Free

Educational and Cultural Experience Essay In research undertaking the methodology section is one of the crucial areas to be tackled in a proposal document. This is due to the fact that it forms the basis of the results of research findings. A research can be faced with big challenges due to a wrong choice of the method to be used. To avoid this good planning of the method is essential and more in order to get reliable results. The issue of reliability establishes that a research should have the ability to show consistency in the results even after a study is done by different researchers repeatedly. Reliability in research study can also be enhanced through good structure of the methodology. When the correct data collection methods are used, proportional samples are collected and the correct method of analysis is used in a research can achieve validity. In a research, the research problem forms the basis of research (Morgan et al. ,1980), and this is where the study should focus on. The methodology can take on either the positivist approach also known as the quantitative, or take the post positivist approach also known as the qualitative approach. The qualitative approach is a more detailed than the quantitative approach as it lays more emphasis on the finer details of the data and in most cases, it involves a researcher’s judgment and interpretation. Quantitative approach deals more with quantification like calculating the population sample, population size among others. The choice of the researcher on either the qualitative or the quantitative approach depends on whether the research/study is inclined to the natural sciences or the social sciences (Finch, 1986); (Easterby-Smith et al. 1991). 3. 1 Role of the Researcher The role of the researcher is an integral part of the evaluative process in the qualitative research. I am a certified teacher of mathematics, music and elementary education. Prior to the classroom, more than ten years were spent in insurance investigative claims work. The occupation included extensive ‘on-the-job’ training in organization, communication and interviewing skills. I was also deployed to Kuwait and Afghanistan, respectively, and have over 15 years in the United States military acquiring certain proficiency as a planner, liaison, administrator and human resource specialist. Co-operative inquiry involves at least four different kinds of epistemology; in other words, ways of knowing. Presentational knowing results from experiential knowing and provides the first form of expression through narratives and various expressions of art. Presentational knowing is expressed through ideas and theories. Practical knowing is modeling how to do something and is portrayed in a skill or competence. These epistemologies are compatible with each other. If knowing is grounded in experience, expressed through stories and images, understood through sounds ideas, and expressed in worthwhile action in one’s life, then knowing will be ‘more valid’ (Reason, 1999). 3. 2 Research Design To appropriately analyze the participant’s stories, the research will employ a narrative framework that serves as a screen through which the story of the participant may be examined. This method also becomes an avenue for which the participant may critically reflect on his own perspectives in order to construct or reconstruct meaning in his own life world. The considerable narrative analysis approach requires a level of scholarship and sensitivity which I am preparing to employ. This approach involves a human science observer that is a sensitive of the subtleties of everyday life. Ardent reading of relevant texts of the humanities, history, philosophy, anthropology and the social sciences as they pertain to the domain of interest is a main ingredient to the effectiveness of this proposed research (van Manen, 1990). For this study, the researcher actively participates in examining the experiences of a translator in the delivery of translation of language and culture amidst the socio-political challenges of the past. Qualitative research is exploratory in nature and is best suited for understanding phenomena. The approach should remain pragmatic for the researcher in order to remain in a tentative state with regard to applicable variables or desirable themes which may enable appropriate examination of the individual’s experiences. 3. 3 Data Collection Methods During my 12 month deployment as a liaison officer, I commenced amicable communication with each of the translators who accompanied me to the daily meetings. During my tenure, I engaged in many open discussions concerning cultural and social differences, nuances in communication and language disparities. After a few months, I presented some of my proposal ideas and opened discussion to the possibility of participation in a study I was contemplating. Several of the translators asked me to serve as their advocate in order to petition for the United States Special Visa. So, over the last year, many of these translators have since relocated to various communities in the United States. Both secondary and primary data sources will be used. The triangulation method of data collection will involve the use of interviews, literature review and case studies (Zikmund 2003, pp. 1-745). The primary data method that was used is the questionnaire method of data collection. Questionnaires were distributed among the Afghan officials, Liaison officers, and interpreters. There were also case studies that were conducted for other three countries to know about the experiences of interpreters in the other countries compare with the ones in Afghanistan. This also drew an insight of the various experiences of interpreters in other countries. There was the use of literature review in order gather information on the educational and cultural experiences of interpreters generally. The literature in this research included research journals, books, articles and sources from university libraries (Dick, 2000). Interviews also form pertinent component data collection methods. This enabled the getting of a clear picture of the plight and livelihood of Afghan interpreter, their mode of operations, factors affecting them and future predictions on their cultural and educational experiences. The four categories of quality management in research were highly considered. They include; validity, reliability, ethics and rigor (Zikmund, 2003). Reliability of a research is its ability to have consistence in results. This was done through controlling the sample by stratifying the population to get a more representative sample. Validity is the ability of a scale to measure what it is intended to measure but not going beyond the topic of the study. The triangulation method was used to control this aspect in research. Ethics involves adherence to the norms accepted in gathering of information. This was ensured by providing secrecy on the information collected from the subjects. The rigor of the research was directed towards efficient sample size in a critical facet in any investigation. The main purpose a researcher will utilize a sample is to reduce the charges and collect important data faster (Zikmund, 2003). The key purpose of data collection was to ensure a rich set of description was obtained. To achieve this, the interviews were transcribed in real time by the interviewer. The responses were then reduced and analyzed by adopting principles of data codification and clustering (Miles et al, 1994). 3. 4 Sources Researches normally rely on secondary data to enable them gain initial insight into the research problem. The classification of secondary sources of information is on the basis of internal or external sources referring to information acquired within the organization or outside the organization. The secondary sources are liked for their cost saving aspects and time saving. Secondary sources of information are supposed to be searched prior to conducting primary research, and usually for the literature review section of a research. This is because secondary information provides useful background that identifies main questions and all other issues that will need to be tackled by the primary research (Steppingstones, 2004). The disadvantages that are associated with the use of the secondary sources range from the unavailability of pertinent information on the research topic, to the integrity, accuracy, and reliability of some secondary sources. Other disadvantages associated with secondary sources arise where data is available in a format other than that required by a researcher, and the age of the information particularly where the information is several years old and may not reflect the present circumstances. This makes it necessary to limit secondary information to sources which are not more than six years old (Steppingstones, 2004). The data gathered for this research is from a wide range of documentary sources relating to the cultural and educational experiences of interpreters in general as well as those specifically relating to the plight and livelihood of the Afghan interpreters. These mainly included policy documents, academic and the non-academic documents. First, journals on livelihood of Afghan interpreters were searched. Second, electronic databases were searched using key words like ‘interpreters’, ‘translators’ ‘Afghan interpreters’ and ‘experiences of Afghan interpreters’. Third, Afghan government website for International communication and the website for the International Security Assistance Force were searched. Literature review included both conceptual and empirical works with about 25 articles reviewed for this study. 3. 5 Interviews Interviews in a research are useful in getting information behind a participant’s experiences. This is particularly important because an interviewer may be able to pursue in-depth information regarding the topic of study, and also the fact that interviews serve as follow-ups to responses obtained from questionnaires. Qualitative research interview should seek to give a description and meaning of central themes regarding the experiences of the subjects, by seeking to cover both the factual and meaning level. It was important that a guided interview approach was adopted so as to ensure that same general areas of information are gathered from each interviewee (Valenzuela et al. , 2004). The interviews dwelt on the following areas: †¢ Educational and cultural background of interpreters. †¢ The relationship between educational background and cultural background of the afghan interpreters. †¢ How the educational and cultural backgrounds shape the livelihood and experiences of the afghan interpreters. †¢ What the future hold for the afghan interpreters and their plight given the limited educational background as well as the rigid cultural backgrounds. Once the data is collected through the open-ended interview process, the documents will be transcribed. After transcription, to ensure a correct analysis of the data, the participant will be shown the transcription and asked if what is written is aligned with their viewpoints. The data will then be analyzed from the transcription. Qualitative research is exploratory in nature and is best suited for understanding phenomena. The approach should remain pragmatic for the researcher in order to remain in a tentative state with regard to applicable variables or desirable themes which may enable appropriate examination of the individual’s experiences.

Characteristics and Features of CSS

Characteristics and Features of CSS Assignment 1: P1/m1 Introduction CSS was introduced in 1996. It was created to stop people from having to repeat a lot of code. For example, if someone wanted to change the paragraph text, they would have to do it every single time they wanted to change the properties. CSS has since become more adapted to having more features, for example you can now use the # and change the background to a massive array of colours. What is CSS CSS is a formatting language used to add styling to your page. This is done by having the CSS document linked into your html page. This page then has selectors and properties which affect the tags inside your html document. Characteristics of CSS CSS is written in the following this rule: selector {property: value;} an example of this would be: This would be used to change the full page to a grey colour. As you can see, the body is the selector, the rule is the background colour and the value is the colouring. The order of operations is how the page is read and ordering the methods of formatting into importance. The order goes as follows: HTML, Inline, Internal then external. How do we use CSS: Three ways of HTML accessing CSS Inline An inline style sheet only affects the tag it is in. This means that you can change small details of the page without changing everything on every single page. This is good because if you had an external style sheet/internal with everything in it. You would have to make a new tag just to change that one detail. Inline overrules external which means you can change small details. After HTML, inline is next on the order of operations. This means that it overrules internal/external. This is an example of the background colour being orange on a webpage: As you can see, the background colour is set to orange. And this would be a standard for every page with the style sheet attached. However, if you go to the body tag in html and add this line of code a line of code that would look like this: I would then change the colour of the background regardless of the background colour set by the external style sheet/internal. Another example of this being used would be with font styles. You would for an external style sheet put a P value followed by the attributes like this: and this would-be outcome: However, if I wanted to have a green text on one single piece of paragraph text you would then use inline styling. You would put something like this: and this would change the colour of what the external styesheet had set it to. This is good because if you again had a lot of paragraph text but you needed this to be slightly different for example you wanted the size to be a little bit smaller you would then have to create a whole new tag. This way you can change a few properties and only on that one tag. You would use internal when you only want to add a small change to a single tag. This is because inline only affects the one tag it is inside. You would not use inline when you either want to affect the full page or the full website because you would have to copy the code over and over again. Internal Internal styling takes place in the head of the html document. This means that if you are customising the page, you can see everything from scrolling. The internal styling is placed in a and a inside the tags. For this example, I am going to show you 4 different headings I created through internal. I will now show you the outcome and the text inside the body. This looks simple, neat and organised because it is. Unlike inline, the styling and the tag is separate. This means that you arent as confused by the styling as you might be if it was inline. Both internal and external are superior for this reason. I will now she you all the styling I used to get the outcome that you previously saw: As you can see, I can add a family of fonts. This means that if one font is not supported on a users computer they will see a different alternative font. I added a text-align because if I wanted to add these tags inside a shape they would stick to the right of those shapes. Font size is just formatting how big I want the text to be in opposed to how big it would default to if I left it with the html style. An advantage to internal styling is the fact that it overrules external in the order of operations. This means that if you had one stylesheet linked to all of your pages but you wanted a few small changes you wouldnt have to make a new stylesheet instead you can just change it in the head tag. A disadvantage would be that internal is under inline so if you have accidentally forgotten to remove a piece of inline code you dont want inside it you might miss it and have to go all the way through the document just to find what you are missing. You would use internal possibly as a backup. For instance, if the external stylesheet doesnt download properly and crash you would still see the website like normal because it would then turn to internal for the whole stylesheet. You would use inline when you want to make changes to the whole page but not every single page, like changing the font size of headings. You wouldnt use internal when you already have an external stylesheet set up normally because it simply isnt needed. Only as a backup. External External stylesheets allow someone to format their webpage (much like internal) but on a separate document. This means that you can have 2 or more workplaces (as you can link more than one stylesheet into your document) giving you a much cleaner workspace. This would be a massive advantage due to the fact that the stylesheet is easily accessable. However, it is a disadvantage because any change you make to the external stylesheet affects any html document that is linked to it.The stylesheet you attach would be a CSS document that you would use to format tags in. In terms of the order of operation, External is last. Putting the order to: HTML, Inline, Internal and then External. This is both a positive and a negative. It is a positive because you could have something like a background image like this: Which would set the background to: (and for reference if you zoomed out, it would tile) This could then be linked to every page and would set the background image to that. But if you wanted the background to be something else, a different image, you could use inline styling on the body tag to change it to that image. However, it could be called a negative because if you are altering someone elses website and you wanted to use external, they may have inline which would mean you had to go through each line of code to check. Some websites have over 900 on just the HTML page. You would use external when you want to make a stylesheet that will run on every single page (or a number of pages) because instead of having a long list of lines of code clogging up your HTML page, you would only have to deal with 1 line which would be the link to the page. You wouldnt use external if you only have 1 page because it would be impractical to have 2 pages when only 1 will be visible. (it would be more efficient to just use internal) Linking a stylesheet A fully linked stylesheet looks like this: Href: This is the path to the stylesheet. As you can see mine just says main.css which means that I dont need to go anywhere other than the file. Main equals filename and CSS is the document type. If for example you had to go back in the path. Before the file name, there would be a ../ This would look like this: And if you had to go forward in the path, you would see a /foldername then the file name. Type/rel This is done just to tell older browsers/mini browsers the actual document name because it tells them the document name. P2: Box Model What is it? A box model is something that allows a web designer/developer to create a layout to the page. This is high in accuracy due to the fact that you can edit right left up and down pixel by pixel. You also have options between margin and padding. Why do we use it? You would use this model to apply accurate spacing on your objects inside the webpage. You are also then able to work out how much space has been used and gives you an option for borders. How do we use it? An example of when you would use a box model would be when adding in a shape. As you can see here, you would add styling to a div tag like you can see here. This would set the size for it but not add anything to do with the box model. This means that if you added another box, they would be directly touching. Like this. To fix this you would want to add a margin-bottom like this: The issue would then be fixed and there will be a 10px gap between the two objects. Content: Content is the actual image or the text. The content is the centre of the box model and is what it is created to serve. This is because without the content there would be no need to have any spacing or any borders because there would be no item for it to be based on. Padding: Padding is the distance between the content and the border. This is to add inside space and make your spacing more accurate than just using margin which is the outside. An example of padding would be: In this example, I show the use of one number in padding. This means it affects the padding of up, down, left, right. I could use 4 numbers which would affect up, down then left right like this: This is good because it allows a lot of choice which is very precise. Border: The border is the outline after the padding. Without padding, the border would take place around the content. It would look like this: And the code will look like this: However, to move the border location you would need to add padding. This is due to the fact that padding is inside between the content and the border. If you wanted it to move further outside, you would need to add this line of code in: This makes the outcome look like this: You are also able to change the border style, currently I have the double border style but that can easily be changed my altering the value. For example I could set it to dashed like this: With the outcome of this I will now show 4 more examples of using borders. This is just a standard border with the colour defaulting to black. The margin is used to add a space between the bottom of each box. This adds a dashed border instead of the solid style and I have changed the colour to red. This has a bored style of dotted and the colour is set to green The border is the ending to the content area. You can set this to be 0 px which would make the border invisible to someone viewing it. You also have the option to choose things like Margin: Margins are used to add outside spacing after the border between objects. This is effective because it means that you are able to have some space before the next starts. Without margin you wouldnt be able to create a spaced website that has borders because the borders would always be touching and padding would be on the outside. An example of margin would be this: This shows spacing at the bottom without them touching. Without the margin, they would be touching which would look clunky and wouldnt look professionally made at all. This is what it would look like without the margin being added:

History of Beer :: Expository Essays Research Papers

History of Beer Between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, some humans discontinued their nomadic hunting and gathering and settled down to farm. Grain was the first domesticated crop that started that farming process. The oldest proven records of brewing are about 6,000 years old and refer to the Sumerians. Sumeria lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers including Southern Mesopotamia. It is said that the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by chance. No one knows today exactly how this occurred, but it could be that a piece of bread or grain became wet and a short time later, it began to ferment The Sumerians were able to repeat this process and are assumed to be he first civilized culture to brew beer. They had discovered a "divine drink" which certainly was a gift from the gods. The word beer comes from the Latin word bibere, meaning "to drink", and the Spanish word cerveza originates from the Greek goddess of agriculture, Ceres. A vitamin-rich porridge, used daily, beer is reported to have increased health and longevity and reduced disease and malnutrition. The self-medicating properties of alcohol-rich beer also eased the tensions and stresses of daily living in a hostile world. The use of yeast was not yet known at that time. The success of the fermentation process was left to chance, as the brewers unknowingly relied on yeast particles in the air. Considerable scientific research took place in breweries in the 19th century. A famous work from 1876 by Louis Pasteur was Studies Concerning Beer where he revealed his knowledge of micro-organisms. By establishing that yeast is a living microorganism, Pasteur opened the gates for accurately controlling the conversion of sugar to alcohol.