Tomahl Cook vs Nj free essay sample

State v. Tomahl Cook The case of Tomahl Cook vs. The State of New Jersey was a very grusome study in the tragedy of Katrina Suhan. Katrina was murdered February 14, 1998 in Old Bridge, New Jersey. She was only 15 years when she was brutally murdered by a cold-hearted ruthless murderer. Katrinas life was taken away from her at such a young age due to a sick human being. The experience of driving by where Katrina lived, where she was abducted, and where she was murdered was very moving. I found it very interesting to follow the trail of a murder as if I was on the case myself. The street where Katrina was abducted is a pretty busy street which is North Stevens St. in South Amboy. I could envision it at night how it could be an eerie place to be walking alone. As to why Katrinas friend Katherine and her parents let her walk home alone, baffles me to this point. We will write a custom essay sample on Tomahl Cook vs Nj or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The walk from Katherine’s house to Katrina’s apartment was a pretty far distance. When I drove by car from house to house, it took me approximately fifteen minutes. A fifteen minute car drive is about a fourty-five minute walk. Katherine’s parents should have never let Katrina out of the house at night to do that walk alone. Katrina insisted that she would be fine and would have no problem walking alone. I assumed she felt this way probably because she had lived in the area her whole life and knew it pretty well. A 15 year old girl shouldnt be walking alone in the midst of the night in any town. The abduction of Katrina could have been easily avoided if her friends parents took some responsibility. Driving down the road leading up to the hole in a wall led me to a spooky feeling. I could only imagine if I was walking alone at night into this tunnel with a feeling I would never escape. The next place I went to was the roller rink which was also located off N. Stevens in South Amboy. It is located approximately two miles away from Cardinal McCarrick High School where Katrina attended. I went inside the roller rink to observe the place and to get a feel of it. The place had an old fashioned feel to it with lights flashing and music playing. It almost felt as if I was back in the seventies. Looking from the outside at the building it doesn’t look like much as the building is very plainly painted white. Katrina and Katherine attended Roller Magic roller rink the night she was murdered for a Valentine’s Day party. Katrina loved to roller blade and often attended the roller rink regularly. Tomahl Cook has been there before and had observed Katrina was there and kept an eye on her. Katrina had no idea who Cook was, nor did she think he would cause any threat to her life. On the night of the Valentine’s Day party, Tomahl was present and was destined to find love with a girl. While he was there he spotted Katrina and had the urge for her to be his mistress for the night. This is when things took a turn for the worse instantly as Katrina had no clue what was coming to her this night. Inevitably, Cook abducted Katrina later that night when she was walking home from Katherine’s house. She was abducted in front of her high school. This is the next place I would visit on my journey through this case. Saint Mary’s is pretty big high school relatively in size. The school is located on Steven’s Avenue across the street from the church. This area during the day was extremely busy as Steven’s Avenue is a main street in South Amboy. There are plenty of houses in the surrounding area along with businesses. From the case study, when Katrina was abducted she gave out a scream which certainly anyone in the proximity of the area would hear. Cook acted fast and kidnapped Katrina and was off with her before anyone could see what had happened. People who lived in the neighboring houses heard the scream, but when they went outside they saw nothing suspicious. At this point it was too late and Tomahl was on a mission to make Katrina his for the night. Next I went to Katrina’s apartment where she lived with her parents which was located off Feltus Street in South Amboy. The area has been renovated with new townhouses surrounding her apartment building. The neighborhood seemed to be a nice area from how it looks now. Katrina had a very long walk that night to reach her destination. Unfortunately she would never make it back to her house the evening of Valentine’s Day. Instead she was brutally murdered and left to die in a field behind a bowling alley where now lies the Home Depot in Sayerville. Her body was found by people who were riding atv’s behind the bowling alley in a wooded area. Her skull was fractured as she suffered blunt force trauma which induced her death. The Home Depot was sincere enough to leave a space where a memorial lies for Katrina where her body was found. The memorial is a nice area where an engraved stone has Katrina’s information and the usual information a tombstone would read. Overall I found it to be a very interesting experience to go through the steps of the murder case. I could almost put myself in Katrina’s shoes that night when her life was tragically ended unfortunately. Tomahl Cook is serving a life sentence in prison which he absolutely deserves, but none the less I think he should have got the death penalty. I feel if any human being abducts somebody and murders them should have their own life taken away from them. I think this is the proper way justice should be served. A poor innocent girl on February 14. 1998 was murdered in such a painful matter for the purpose of sexual intent from a cruel and ruthless man. There are many ways this murder could have been prevented but unfortunately events like this, pave the way for future knowledge as we know today. We learn from these events which took place and adapt to them our lives presently.

More Names of Plants, Food, and Drinks Formed by Folk Etymology

More Names of Plants, Food, and Drinks Formed by Folk Etymology More Names of Plants, Food, and Drinks Formed by Folk Etymology More Names of Plants, Food, and Drinks Formed by Folk Etymology By Mark Nichol This post lists words derived from words in other languages as a result of folk etymology, a process by which speakers adopt the foreign terms after revising them by using existing elements from their native language. acorn: This word is descended from the Old English term aecerne, meaning â€Å"tree nut† but originally referring in various forms in Germanic languages to the trunk of a tree; by folk etymology, the current spelling derived from a false association with ac (â€Å"oak†) and corn (â€Å"grain†). (The word is, however, related to acre.) ketchup/catsup: Ketchup, which stems from various spellings of a Malay word probably based on the Chinese term koechiap, meaning â€Å"brine of fish,† originally referred to a fish sauce but now generally pertains to the tomato-based condiment; the word became a catch-all term for a variety of sauces and gravies, of which the most predominant in the United States, by the early nineteenth century, was tomato based. The variant catchup was eventually altered, perhaps from the influence of sup, to catsup, but ketchup predominates. chestnut: The name of a type of tree, the wood harvested from it, and the edible nut it produces stems from the Latin term castanea (probably itself borrowed from a language of Asia Minor) by way of Old French and Middle English. By the early 1500s, it was (redundantly) called a chesten nut; that word developed into the current form. couch grass: This term for various types of grass has nothing to do with furniture. The word couch, and variants quack, quitch, twitch, and witch, are all corruptions of the Old English word cwice, meaning â€Å"alive† and also the forebear of quick, meaning â€Å"alive† in addition to its primary sense of â€Å"fast† (as in the phrase â€Å"the quick and the dead,† which alludes to contrasting states of being). dogwood: The first element of these names for various trees and shrubs and wood produced by dogwood trees, and the berries they produce, has nothing to do with canines; dogwood is a corruption of dagwood, with the same first element as dagger. (The very hard wood of the tree was used for making arrows and skewers.) gin: Gin, the name for a liquor flavored with juniper berries, is a truncation of genever, related to the Old French term genià ©vre and the Dutch word jenever, all of which derive from the Latin word juniperus. gingerbread: The name of the molasses- and ginger-based confection has nothing to do with bread; the term derives from the Old French word gingembrat, a variation of gimgembre, meaning â€Å"ginger.† Gingembrat, and its Middle English derivation gingebred, referred originally to a ginger paste used both in cooking and medicine. gooseberry: This shrub and its berry have no association with waterfowl; the first element may be a corruption of the Old French term grosele or the German word Krausebeere. jerky: The name of the dried meat is from the word ch’arki, from Quechua, the language of the Incas, by way of the American Spanish term charqui, meaning â€Å"jerked meat.† (Jerked means â€Å"sun-dried.†) Jerusalem artichoke: The name of this sunflower and its edible tubers has no association with the Middle Eastern city; the first word is a corruption of the Italian term girasole (â€Å"sunflower†). (The second element of that word, which was adopted directly into English, is from the Latin word sol, meaning â€Å"sun.†) rosemary: The name of this herb has nothing to do with the rose or the name Mary; it is a corruption of rosmarine, from the Latin term rosmarinus, meaning â€Å"dew of the sea,† alluding to the flourishing of the plant near coasts. (Marinus, from which marine is derived, means â€Å"from the sea.†) sandalwood: Various types of wood have been used to make sandals, but sandalwood is not one of them. Sandal, in this word, derives from the Sanskrit term Ä andana-m, which may have alluded to its use for burning incense. (That Sanskrit word, which passed through Greek, Latin, Old French, and Middle English in various forms, may be related to the Latin word candere, meaning â€Å"glow† or â€Å"shine,† from which candle is descended.) shamrock: There’s no connection between the clover and the notion of a fake stone; shamrock is merely the Anglicized spelling of the Irish word seamrog. spare rib: This term for a cut of pork ribs alludes to its scarcity of fat, but the source is the Middle Low German word ribbesper; sper meant â€Å"spear† or â€Å"spit† and referred to the method of roasting the meat on a spit. (Spear, spar, and spire are all related.) (This post is a sequel to a previous post.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:85 Synonyms for â€Å"Help†Abstract Nouns from Adjectives50 Tips on How to Write Good

Braving the Middle School Book Talk

Braving the Middle School Book Talk When we writers began our quest in the literary world, we held several fantasies.â€Å"My book will sell more than Harry Potter†, â€Å"Johnny Depp will call and beg me to let him produce my book into a movie†, â€Å"Stephen King and I will be on a first name basis† (come on, I can’t be the ONLY one thinking of this!). But then we write, and lo and behold, that status doesn’t come, the fame and money dont come but other things come. Maybe you receive local recognition, an invite to do a book talk at a local book club, or school, or library. After a local newspaper mentioend my locally-published middle grade book, I was approached This is my fourth year of doing book talks to middle grade students, and I have come across some interesting tidbits I thought might help my fellow literary artists out there. Public speaking is a common fear. I used to be the lead singer in a band, and I had to talk, and I was scared to death of it. That was years ago. Of course since then stage fright has multiplied – and then to think, â€Å"You have to talk to kids! They have the attention span of†¦ a gnat!† Well that’s what teachers kept telling me anyway, but†¦ I approached my very first book talk in pretty much the same way I approach my writing. â€Å"Don’t think about it, keep a short outline in your head, step up, do it ignore the outline.† Truly, some people are better off at winging it, but for those of you who aren’t, here’s some advice from someone who has had to stand in front of ‘tweens’ for three years running. 1. Don’t be afraid. These are kids, they don’t work for the I.R.S. 2. You are their entertainment. You being there means they don’t have to do class work. They want you there! 3. Exude the joy of writing to them. They need to see it, feel it, hear it in your presentation or you’re just another grown up, talking. 4. Be prepared. Have samples, teasers, book marks. They love taking that stuff. True it may never make it home, but some of it will. 5. Plan entertaining answers for common question like: a. Are you rich and/or famous? My challenge to this is to let them know that though we can eventually gain a mass of riches, we write for the love of writing. One question I always ask is â€Å"How many of you here like to write?† and it never fails, I get one or two hands go up in a classroom, and they aren’t excited to let their friends know this. So my response is â€Å"That’s great. How many love to read?† More hands go up. â€Å"Well there ya go, you can’t read unless someone is writing, so you couple of writers will be fueling their reading hunger, get started.† b. â€Å"Miss Jones says that when we write, we have to do re-writes. How many times do you have to re-write the same story?† Answer? â€Å"Do you have a favorite song? Do you know it c. â€Å"I can never get ideas, all my ideas come from books I already know.† Answer:   â€Å"Ideas are all around you, just look for them. Writing to me is like a puzzle. It comes in pieces then as you write it puts itself together.† An example I give in every class is this one : â€Å"You know when you go to the grocery store with your mom and the cashier has a name tag ‘My name is Brian, ask me about my dog’. What about Brian’s dog? Well Fluffy died two weeks ago, but Brian has it in his freezer because he loves that dog and just can’t let go – and yes that’s dead dog hair on your Lucky Charms.† It always gets a laugh. Ideas are everywhere, a good exercise is to ask someone what they did over the weekend, and expand from there – and even make it a quick game. â€Å"We went to the zoo.† â€Å"Ahh, ok, so suppose you were at the zoo, and as you walked Basically, the audience wants you to sway them. They need to see the fire to write in you, and you will inspire. I love to share the fact that when I was in middle school I spent almost all of my time drawing comic books – or graphic novels as they like to call them these days – and that I credit my high school English teacher in lighting the fire in me to write. She pulled me aside one day and said â€Å"Why don’t you try writing a short story, I think you could do it.† I did. She liked it, and the rest is history. If you are an author of YA or Middle Grade books, contact the media specialist or lead teacher at your local schools and ask for a chance to speak with the kids. A good time for this is either during the month of November which is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), or during your local schools National Literacy Week. Either way you can wow them with your literary artistic skill and craft. Make us proud.

Walmart Vs. Target Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Walmart Vs. Target - Research Paper Example Company’s Profile Walmart Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 in Rogers, Ark by Sam Walton (Walmart Corporate Website, n.d.). Since the time when the first Walmart discount store has been opened, the company grew to 706 stores across the United States (Walmart Corporate Website, n.d.). Walmart’s headquarter is allocated in Bentonville, Arkansas (Walmart Corporate Website, n.d.). In 1969, the company incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Walmart Corporate Website, n.d.). Today the company operates in different formats, including Sam’s Club membership warehouse, supercenters, neighborhood markets, marketside and online stores. Envisioned 40 years ago Walmart’s mission of â€Å"saving people money to help them live better† continues to be an incentive for the overall company’s business operating. In addition to the mission statement, the company has developed the Walmart’s Ethical Standards Program and a strong ethical policy, focused mainly on the basic value of respect for all shareholders, including customers, associates, and suppliers (Walmart Corporate Website: Culture, n.d.). Target Target was founded in 1902 by George Draper Dayton and was called as the Dayton Dry Goods Company (Target Website: Our History, n.d.). The first Target store opened in Roseville, Minnesota, in 1962 (Target Website: Our Stores, n.d.). As of today, discount retailer has captured significant market share by having allocated about 1750 stores in 49 states (Target Website: Our Stores, n.d.). By doing business and developing strategic plans for the company, current Chairman, President and CEO of Target, Gregg Steinhafel, follows the idea that: â€Å"Diversity is much more than a goal or campaign; it is a core value of the giant retailer (Steinhagel, n.d.). The mission of the company is to â€Å"make Target the preferred shopping destination for its guests by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experien ce by consistently fulfilling its logo: Expect More. Pay Less (Target Website: Our Mission, n.d.). Besides its main activity, Target demonstrates a strong commitment to communities by providing support to: education activities, volunteerism, different social services, military and veteran assistance and some others (Target Website: Community Outreach, n.d.). Marketing strategies Walmart The key marketing strategy formulated as the Walmart’s logo was based on the principle: Always Low Prices, Always. Therefore, the company’s pricing strategy is to provide the goods sold at the lowest prices. To gain this competitive advantage the management of the company continuously works on the cost reduction programs. Additionally, in order to achieve the maximum amount of potential customers, Walmart began to focus its marketing strategy on different target markets, by differentiating its stores into: Walmart discount stores, Walmart supercenters, Walmart neighborhood markets, mark etside, and Walmart.com (Walmartstores Corporate Website, n.d.). While analyzing mainly the Walmart store format, it can be summarized that the size of an average store is 108  000 square feet; these stores are wide and clean; the aisles are brightly-lit and the shelves are stocked with various value-prices general merchandise product, including: family apparel, electronics, toys, health and beauty aids,

The effects of television on children's intelligence and education Essay

The effects of television on children's intelligence and education - Essay Example The negative influence of television on children has by far outpaced the positive sides of the television programs. Shaffer indicates that students and children who spend much of their time watching television becomes inactive an inattentive in school (9). This effect attributes to the low concentration span of children that would have exhausted in the process of watching television. BBC cites that watching television also allows individual children very little time to interact with others thus becoming less social. Lack of social interaction among children denies the individual child precious opportunity to explore and think about forces that act on the environment and thus the retard cognitive development. This further lowers the level of creativity of an individual child leading to poor critical thinking and performance when it comes to class activities and assignments. Long hours of exposure to loud noises emanating from television and overconcentration of television programs have led to poor attention in class especially when there is background noise. Watching television makes individual children adapt to visual images that move at fast paces, and may distract their attention when it comes to class work. According to Gunter and McAleer, adaptation on fast-paced visual television pictures may also affect listening skills of an individual child considering their exposure to picture communication rather than vocal communication (14). Some television programs that involve violence and commercial shows involving advertisements of alcoholic products may convince an individual child to start leading immoral life. The diversion of child’s mentality to alcoholic products and violent activities may have very negative impact on the intellectuality of individual child. As pointed by Shaffer, watching television becomes addictive to children who would want to spend much

Home School versus Public Education in Society Essay Example for Free

Home School versus Public Education in Society Essay Are we aware of what social environment your child thrives in daily? Are the teachers who are educating our children, the right person to get the job done? What are the success rates of our children in the coming future? Are there similarities between public school and home school? Do you know the answers to these questions? There are similarities between public education and home schooled children, but let’s face it, there are differences in who will be educating our children, how much school will cost out of our pockets, whether our children will develop healthy relationships with other children their age, and whether or not our children will become successful human beings in society. This essay examines all your concerns as parents with school-aged children, and what education method may be better for your child’s future. To many parents in society, it always has been a worry that socialization may become jeopardized in a home school bound child. Many people believe that public educated children learn about socialization from â€Å"the school of hard knocks† in a public setting because they have to learn socialization skills on how to act around other children, and teachers, by a trial and error process. Truth is many teachers just do not have enough time in the day to teach every child the correct way to interact with others socially. The good side of social interaction in public schools is that our children do make close friendships in school, and they usually last outside of the classroom walls. On the other hand, in a homeschool setting, each parent has the ability, and time, to teach their own children the correct way to act properly, socially. As long as the parent takes the time to interact with their child and take them to other social events in the community, with other children and adults, the child has an upper-hand to get the best socialization that a parent could teach them. Is this a real life scenario? A study done in 2003, conducted by the Home School Legal Defense Association, discovered that homeschooled children were either as equally, or involved more, in community activities, voting, and employment, than those educated from a public school. The downside to home schooling your child is that they do not get the constant interaction with children throughout their day, and maybe making it harder for your child to make friends near their home. One question to ask yourself, â€Å"Is your home located near other children close to your child’s age?† Public education offers college educated teachers to teach the students, while home school offers the students’ parents to become the educators. For instance, in a public school environment, the teachers are college educated, and very fluent in the area of study that they are teaching their students, so it may be easier to come up with ways to teach the students how to learn and retain the information they are taught. But does every student learn the same? No! Some students need more attention than others, and sometimes one teacher is just not enough for all the students present in their classroom. Whereas, in a homeschool setting, children are given homework and tested by their parents at their discretion of what they may think their child needs to learn more of and test to show they have the knowledge needed on the subject or material. If the parents don’t quite know how to teach all the curriculum materials on each subject, then home schooling your child may not work for you. As long as the student is learning the material, and the parent is not helping the child by giving them the answers, then homeschool is an excellent way for your child to learn. The parent has the full opportunity to teach their child the way they want them to learn, and be proud of them when they succeed in their studies. Success Rates may also vary from both education backgrounds. Boys generally have a higher rate of drop-outs than girls, in every state in the U.S. The National Center for Education Statistics did a study on the classes of 2010, in the United States, and found that 78% percent of students had earned their degree, on time, within the four years they had begun high school. That statistic was an all-time high of the past forty years, however, 1974 was the last year that those graduation rates were actually charted. More importantly, major cities generally have a higher drop-out rate than students from suburb schools. Generally, because of the changes in the economy, students can be seen dropping out to help out their family when times are tough. When the economy gets weak, high school students have a tendency to drop-out of school faster than they might otherwise have done. In 2005, the Education Department started publishing an official estimate of high school graduation rates, and, surprisingly, all 50 states agreed to a standard method of calculating those rates by this year, 2013. Currently there are only 4% of school-aged children home schooled in America. That number may seem quite small to hear, but it has risen up 75%, since 1999, to make that four percent, today. The number of kids, whose parents are not enrolling their children into public schools, is growing seven times faster than students seem to be enrolling in the k-12 school years in public schools, year by year. Although it is harder for non-traditional students, like homeschoolers, to receive scholarships for schools, due to the lack of recognition in their education background, they do, however, enroll and attain their four-year degree at a much higher rate than a public educated student. In conclusion, it does matter where you send your children to become an educated young adult. We need to all consider the positive and negative aspect of the education path we send our children down. There are some questions to ponder when doing so. Think about what environment you want your child to be involved in daily. Decide whether you want to be the educator, or someone from a school. Think about what social environment you think you will see your child truly blossom in. Lastly, decide whether or not it is the right decision for your child, not just yourself and the family. References: Michigan Department of Education (2012). â€Å"Home Schooling in Michigan†. www.michigan.gov Beverly Hernandez. â€Å"Is Homeschool for You?† www.homeschooling.about.com Ellen, Mary. (2012). â€Å"Homeschool vs. Public School: Who’s Better Socialized.† Off The Grid News. www.offthegridnews.com Layton, Lyndsey. â€Å"National public high school graduation rate at a four-decade high.† The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com Lawrence, Julia. (2012). â€Å"Number of Homeschoolers Growing Nationwide.† Education News. www.educationnews.org

Some Writing from Nancy Tucker :: Literature Papers

Some Writing from Nancy Tucker This page contains three pieces, Advice to Young Poets and Writers, Driving,and The Big Five- O. Advice to Young Poets and Writers Life is not easy. Write. Because you can, you must. Remember your roots, your pain. Use them. But roots and pain are not enough--move on from your own past. Look outward--use your eyes to see both what other people do not see and what other people see but do not talk about. Write. Learn to listen to the crickets, the dogs, the squeak of bicycles and to other people's stories. Ask questions. Wait for answers. Write. Look inward--test truth on your own pulses. Writing is both art and craft Use your skill, your talent to tell the truth--that's the point of being a writer. Write. Avoid self-righteousness--other people have truths, too. Laugh. And cry. In the same sentence, if you can do it well. Be afraid. Write anyway. Always, always, always do what your teachers say cannot be done. And when you teach, if you teach, remember you too are a learner: respect your students' truths even as you nudge them toward growth. Write. Begin now. Nancy Tucker April, 1997 Return to 313-2000 Return to 313work Return to 840 work Return to Nancy Tucker's homepage Driving It’s 6:30 and I drag my briefcase to my car, pull out of the parking lot and join the snake of cars heading home. The white line becomes my guide as darkness slips down behind me. I’m on the road again, Willie. Drivin’ my life away, Eddie. I eat flattened fruit ‘n’ pastry bars from a side pocket in my purse and wish for pasta in alfredo sauce or a thick burger and a beer. But I’m still driving, driving, driving, so there’s no hope of that. nt ? March, 2000 THE BIG FIVE-0H by Nancy Tucker I have a book on my nightstand called Aging Gracefully. Someone bought it for me, hoping it would give me hope and courage, I guess. It's next to another gift book, Women Turning 50. Oh yeah, you guessed it. In a few days. The Big 5-0. Half-a-century. Yeah, it boggles my mind, too- I'm gonna be 50. While I'm pleased that people think of me and care enough to give me books, I really believe that 50 is something that happens to someone else.