Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Mesolithic and Neolithic Essays

Mesolithic and Neolithic Essays Mesolithic and Neolithic Paper Mesolithic and Neolithic Paper With Reference to examples, compare and contrast the impact made by Mesolithic and Neolithic peoples on Irelands cultural landscape. The extraordinary landscape that the island of Ireland has to offer, cannot be described in words. The individual on looking at the sights of the country feels a sense of ineffability. The Ice Age brought about the most dynamic changes to the physical landscape, shaping it and creating the wonderful sights of the natural land we can see today. (Although, from that time we have altered Irelands landscape, yet have not come close to the same scale of changes that were produced by the Ice Age). For all its destruction, the beautiful landscape that the Ice Age left behind played a large part in the unfolding human history of Ireland- the glacier deposits helped the land become fertile, supporting vegetation and trees which would become useful resources for the first people to arrive on the island. In addition, the heavy weight of the glaciers helped flattened areas that could then be used for building. However, it is not these natural sights, which people take notice of, Irelands economic activity has increased rapidity over the past number of years, due to the tourist attractions which have been promoted throughout the world. The Mesolithic and Neolithic sites such as Newgrange Passage Tomb, Mount Sandel, Magheraghanrush in County Sligo, Deerpark Court Tomb and Cashelkeelty in Kerry attract thousands of tourists to the country, and are the constructed developments and findings created and left by the first settlers in Ireland. Around 9,000 years ago at the end of the Palaeolithic era, there began a new period in history, known as the Mesolithic Age (Greek mesos middle and lithos stone). It is during this time the first settlers came to Ireland from Scotland (It is thought that these settlers first colonized the northeast of the country from Scotland. Although sea levels were still lower than they are today, Ireland was probably already an island by the time the first settlers arrived by boat. There is nothing surprising in this, though, for most of the Mesolithic sites in Ireland are coastal settlements. Clearly, the earliest inhabitants of this country were seafarers who depended for much of their livelihood upon the sea. In some ways this economy was forced upon them, for many centuries were to pass before the treeless permafrost was transformed into a densely forested fertile land) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Early history of Ireland. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki /Early_history_of_Ireland It was at the end of this period that much of the fantastic constructions that exist still in this present age (sites such as Newgrange Passage Tomb, Mount Sandel etc ) began to emerge, from the Neolithic peoples in the Neolithic period. During this time in the islands existence, the impact of these early settlers on Irelands cultural landscape is thought to be much more significant than that of the Mesolithic people that lived before them, and it is this, which is to be discussed. Mesolithic people lived in a hunter-gatherer society, were food was caught went needed for the family (usually hunted by the dominant male(s) of the group)- evidence of this comes from the Fourth International Congress of Primatology, Portland, Oregon, Male and Female Behaviour in Primate Societies. The origin of male political power has been sought in the dominance behaviour of the nonhuman primates. Data from the living hunting and gathering peoples offer a corrective to this viewpoint. Several theorists have developed models of early human groups that placed males at the centre and females drawn in from outside through exchange networks. These models contradict the known facts about hunting and gathering peoples, among whom we find a social grouping consisting of both males and females at the centre. The burden of the hunter-gatherer evidence (along with that from primate field studies) favours a model of early human society in which females wielded considerable political power as a result of their economic independence and their ability to exercise discretion in their choice of spouse. springerlink. com/content/r615266521271760/. We can establish that the sorts of animals the Mesolithic people consumed ranged over mammals, birds and fish including, wild boar, hare, wolf/dog, wild cat, thrush, eagle, wigeon, teal, mallard, salmon, trout, eel, seabass and a variety of other species, based on the findings at Mount Sandel. (J. P. Mallory T. E. McNeill The Archaeology of Ulster; From Colonization to Plantation. 1991 P. 13).

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Perkins Loan Forgiveness How Does it Work

Perkins Loan Forgiveness How Does it Work SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you take out a loan, the expectation is that you'll pay back all the money you've borrowed (plus interest, of course). It usually takes pretty catastrophic circumstances for a federal student loan to be canceled, like your school shutting down before you can get your degree. The Perkins loan program is different, in a good way - it offers loan forgiveness/cancellation in a wide variety of other, happier circumstances. In an effort to encourage graduates to pursue certain public service careers, the loan program offers loan forgiveness, or cancellation, to borrowers in certain professions. If you have a Perkins loan and enter one of the fields I outline below, you could have up to 100% of your loan canceled. Read on to learn more about cancellation eligibility the loan cancellation process! How Does Perkins Loan Cancellation Work? If you decide you'd like to work in public service after you graduate from college, you can apply to get your Perkins loans canceled at a specific rate on an annual basis. The exact public service jobs eligible for cancellation will be discussed in the next section. If you work at a particular job for a long enough period, you could get up to 100% of your loans canceled. The chart below outlines the annual rates of loan cancellation for almost all eligible borrowers; you'll notice that 5 years of working = 100% loan cancellation. You'll note in the next section, however, that not all professions qualify borrowers for 5 full years of loan cancellation rates. Annual cancellation rates for VISTA/Peace Corps volunteers are slightly different: 15% for the first and second years, and 20% for the third and fourth years, for a total of 70% maximum cancellation. Year Worked % of Loan Canceled First Year 15 Second Year 15 Third Year 20 Fourth Year 20 Fifth Year 30 If you're working at a job that would qualify you for loan forgiveness, your school should defer your loans. This means that interest won't accrue and you won't have to make monthly payments before your loan undergoes cancellation. Then, if you apply for loan cancellation and are approved, your loans will be forgiven at the rates described above. All in all, it's pretty simple! Eligibility: When Do You Qualify for Forgiveness? There are many different professions and career paths that qualify for Perkins loan cancellation. Although you may not know exactly what you want to do when you graduate, you might have an idea of what jobs might (or might not) be congruent with your professional goals and interests. Hopefully, the following information will help you decide whether it's right for you to pursue a cancellation-eligible path. The following chart outlines all post-graduation jobs you could take in order to qualify for loan cancellation. Most are eligible for 100% cancellation, if you work at that job long enough (refer to the chart I posted in the previous section for annual rates of cancellation). The best thing to do if you have any questions about this chart would be to contact your school's loan office or loan servicer. Cancellation Condition Amount Forgiven Borrower’s total and permanent disability or death 100% Bankruptcy (rare; bankruptcy court would have to rule that repayment is an undue hardship) 100% Closed school (before student could complete program of study) 100% Service in the US armed forces in a hostile fire or imminent danger pay area Up to 50% if service ended before 8/14/2008 Up to 100% if service began on or after 8/14/2008 Full-time firefighter* Up to 100% Full-time law enforcement or corrections officer Up to 100% Full-time nurse or medical technician Up to 100% VISTA or Peace Corps Volunteer Up to 70% Librarian with a master’s degree working in a Title-I eligible elementary or secondary school or in a public library setting serving Title-I eligible schools* Up to 100% Full-time attorney employed in a federal public or community defender organization* Up to 100% Full-time employee of a public or nonprofit child- or family-services agency providing services to high-risk children and their families from low-income communities Up to 100% Full-time staff member in the education component of a Head Start program Up to 100% Full-time staff member in a pre-k or child care program that is licensed or regulated by a state* Up to 100% Full-time qualified professional provider of early intervention services for the disabled Up to 100% Full-time speech pathologist with a master’s degree working in a Title-I eligible elementary school or secondary school* Up to 100% Full-time special education teacher of children with disabilities in a public or other nonprofit elementary or secondary school Up to 100% Full-time teacher of math, science, foreign languages, bilingual education, or other fields designated as teacher shortage areas Up to 100% Full-time special education teacher of children with disabilities in an educational service agency* Up to 100% Full-time teacher in a designated educational service agency serving students from low-income families* Up to 100% Full-time faculty member at a tribal college or university* Up to 100% *For service that includes 8/14/2008, or began on or after that date. How Do You Apply for Perkins Loan Forgiveness? Have you gone through the above chart, and come to the conclusion that you may be eligible for Perkins loan cancellation at some point? That's great news! The process through which you actually apply for loan cancellation is pretty simple, but it requires you maintain a good channel of communication with your school. Perkins loans may be government-backed, but your Perkins loan lender will actually be your school, not the federal government. If you want to get your loan forgiven, and you think you're eligible based on the eligibility circumstances described above, you have to apply for cancellation with your school. You should get annual forms for loan cancellation from the school where your Perkins loan was received; check in with your school's student loan or financial aid office about when and how to get these forms. After you graduate, you should contact your school at the beginning and end of each year to notify them about where, and in what subject area, you are working. This is important because you don't want to end up with any unpleasant surprises; if you thought you were working a job that you believed would qualify you for loan forgiveness, but didn't check in to confirm with your lender, you might find that you don't actually qualify. If you take away one piece of advice from this section, it's that you should actively communicate with your school about how and when you can arrange Perkins loan cancellation. As with most things in life, open communication with your school is the best policy when it comes to arranging for loan cancellation. How to Make the Most of Your Perkins Loans Perkins loans come with a lot of built-in perks, which obviously include options for cancellation. Even if you're not sure whether you'll pursue a cancellation-eligible career in public service, you can still take steps to make the most of your Perkins loans. They don't accrue interest while you're in school, and the 5% interest rate is competitive (especially when compared to many private loans, with interest rates closer to 10%). In order to take advantage of the Perkins loan program, you just need to think ahead! Here are some tips and strategies to help you do just that. By your senior year, ask yourself whether it's likely that you'll end up working a cancellation-eligible job. If you think you'll hold any of the positions described in the big chart above within the next 8-10 years, consider how long you'd be willing to work in that position to get part or all of your loans canceled. Estimate how much Perkins loan debt you'll actually graduate with. If you'll graduate with a larger amount of Perkins loan debt, it might be a financially savvy option to seek out a cancellation-eligible position, even if you only cancel 15-30%. If your Perkins loan debt is relatively small, and you're not interested in a public service job or career, it might not be worth it to you to work a cancellation-eligible job post-graduation. Are you already on track to become a teacher, librarian, health care professional, or attorney? Even if your long-term career goals don’t involve working in a non-profit or public agency, starting off in a loan cancellation-eligible position could save you a lot of money in the long run (depending on your debt and, of course, professional interests and aspirations). Don't consolidate your Perkins loans. If you think you might qualify someday for loan cancellation, don't consolidate your Perkins loans - you'll lose loan cancellation options. If you're fairly certain you won't ever qualify for cancellation, and you can consolidate at a better interest rate, it might be a good financial move. Is working in public service a good fit for your long-term goals, both professional and financial? It's important to weight the pros and cons. What's Next? Perkins loan cancellation sounds pretty great, right? Learn more about Perkins loans and how to get one here. Even if you don't qualify for a Perkins loan, there are other federal student aid programs that could help you pay for school. Check out our guides on Pell Grants, Direct Unsubsidized loans, and Direct Subsidized loans. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: