Miles Davis Essays - Savoy Records Artists, Miles Davis,

Miles Davis This book, written by Miles Davis, is the autobiography tht he wrote a few years before he died. In this book I found how he first became interested in jazz. It also explains how he became one of the best jazz players of all time. Miles was born in Alton, Illinois in 1926 and grew up in eastern St. Louis. He learned how to play trumpet while in high school on the trumpet that his father gave to him for his 13th birthday. He was a bog fan of jazz and said that the thing that made up his mind to be a musician was wheh he first heard Billy Eckstines band with Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, and Charlie parker playing the sax. He then moved to New York looking for Charlie Parker and to study classical trumpet at Juilliard School of music. Aftera while parkers drug problem began to take over his life, and this also affected Davis. Davis took some time toget over that, and by the late 50s he was a much bigger star than he had been before due to some of his recent recordings. In 1969, Davis started to record more electronic music, which was the start of the azz-Rock. Later on, when he came out with the albums A Tribute to Jack Johnson, and On the Corner, fans were dissapointed, and thought it was a terrible portrayal of the jazz they knew. Miles then sort of dissapeared from the view of the public eye between 1975 and 1981, but even when he came back, he wasn't as into playing anymore as he had used to be. He played again a couple times before he died in 1991 at 65 years old. As for the author's description of the book, it was all first person, because he wrote the book himself with the help of Quincy Troupe. My conclusion to this book strenghtens what I think about musicians. I don't understand why lots of famous people and especially musicians experiment with drugs. I would think that if their life is going well why mess with it. Another thing this book made me think about is that Miles is still a very widely known artist. Before reading this book I hadnt known that he died in 1991, I thought that him and his music was something that died long ago and only older people listened to. That is wrong though. I enjoyed this book and didn't realize before how much work it takes to live forever in history.

Differences Between Semantics and General Semantics

Differences Between Semantics and General Semantics General semantics is a discipline and/or methodology intended to improve the ways people interact with their environment and with one another, especially through training in the critical use of words and other symbols. The term general semantics was  introduced by Alfred Korzybski in the book  Science and Sanity  (1933). In his Handbook of Semiotics (1995),  Winfried Nà ¶th observes that General Semantics is based on the assumption that historical languages are only inadequate tools for the cognition of reality, are misleading in verbal communication, and may have negative effects on our nervous systems. Semantics vs. General Semantics According to Kodish and Kodish General semantics provides a general theory of evaluation. We can consider what we mean when we refer to this system by comparing it with semantics as people usually use the term. Semantics involves the study of language meanings. For example, when were interested in the word unicorn, what dictionaries say it means and its history of meanings, and what it might refer to, we are involved in semantics. General semantics involves such language concerns, but also involves much broader issues. Using general semantics, were concerned with understanding how we evaluate, with the inner life of each individual, with how each of us experiences and makes sense of our experiences, with how we use language and how language uses us. While were interested in what the word unicorn refers to and how a dictionary might define it, we have more interest in the person using the word, with the kind of evaluating that might lead people to look for unicorns in their back yards. Do they think that they have found some? Do they re-evaluate their search when they dont find any? Do they investigate how they came to be looking for unicorns? How are they experiencing the search? How do they talk about it? How are they experiencing the process of evaluating what has happened? General semantics involves an interrelated set of elements, which, taken together, can help us answer these and similar questions. (Susan Presby Kodish and Bruce I. Kodish, Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics, 2nd ed. Extensional Publishing, 2001) Korzybski on General Semantics General Semantics turned out to be an empirical natural science of non-elementalistic evaluation, which takes into account the living individual, not divorcing him from his reactions altogether, nor from his neuro-linguistic and neuro-semantic environments, but allocating him in a plenum of some values, no matter what (Alfred Korzybski, preface to the third edition of Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, 1947).Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), the founder of general semantics, maintained that the structural assumptions implicit in language are of necessity reflected in behavior. . . . Korzybski believed that if, through general semantics, people generally could be trained in the orientations of science in the handling of all their problems (instead of just some of them), many social and personal problems now deemed to be insoluble would prove to be soluble. There is a messianic flavor to Korzybskis writingsa fact which led to the dismissa l of his views in some academic circles. (S.I. Hayakawa, The Use and Misuse of Language. Harper Row, 1962)

Attribution Theory on human health behaviors

Attribution Theory on human health behaviors The analysation of health behavior is grounded on two premises, like in nations where industrialization is more particular, ratio of fatality from main reason of decease is a certain behavior pattern which is changeable (Stroebe and Stroebe 1995). It is now clearly known that people play active part in their health by adapting certain health behaviors like doing exercise and stay away from some others things like smoking, alcohol, drugs etc. For e.g. There is a study conducted in Alameda given 7 features in style of living: no smoking, moderate consumption of alcohol,7-8 hrs sleep every night, doing routine exercise, keeping preferable body weight, restrict snacks and regular breakfast- these altogether link with low morbidity and high long term survival (Belloc and Breslow1972; Belloc1973;Breslow andEnstrom1980) Abstract: Psychologists are interested in beliefs. The essay defines the health related behaviours and shows how behaviours give contributions in different risks to individ uals. It also helps to understand and Improve the health behaviours. It also describe few theoretical models which are helpful in making useful interventions in health behaviours for high risk population. Attribution theory deals with person’s own attributions for the causes of different behaviours. Self efficacy is a person’s confidence to follow up a specific behaviour. Attribution Theory: Firstly Heider (1944, 1958) worked on this theory. Then it is developed by Kelley (1967, 1971) and given a clear theory that attribution is form of given criteria’s: Distinctiveness, Consensus, Consistency over time, Consistency over modality. Kelly present that attributions are formed with these criteria’s. The dimensions of attribution are given below that changes the person’s behaviour : Internal Vs External: Example is that I am not selected for job because I had not given good performance Vs the person took interviewed didn’t like my gender. Stable Vs Unstable: Example is that my failure always follows me Vs I was just fail for that job only. Global Vs Specific: Example is that this failure affects other things in my life Vs not affected other things. Controllable Vs Uncontrollable: Example is that reason for my failure was controllable by myself Vs was not controllable by me. The four factors of attribution theory that act upon motivation in study: Ability: It is internal and stable component on which student have not great direct control. Task difficulty: It is external and stable component which is away from student control. Effort: It is internal and unstable component on which a student can have great control. Luck: It is external and unstable component on which a student has a very less control. Herzlich (1973) talked to 80 people regarding basic cause of health and illness. He found that health seems to be internal and illness found to be thing that received from the outer world. Brickman et al. (1982) recognized betwee n the reason of problem and its workable solution. As an example they verify that an alcoholic person accept the responsibility for becoming an alcoholic because of low willpower (cause), he also trust that with the help of medical treatment he will be recovered (solution).

CHS200 - Critical Thinking - Module 4 Case Assignment - Fallacies Coursework

CHS200 - Critical Thinking - Module 4 Case Assignment - Fallacies - Coursework Example All these features are evident in the fallacy of affirming the consequent that also incorporates a certain degree of assumption. Although Dr. Russell is new in the profession, Harold’s claims that he favors the new procedure do not suggest that he actually favors the procedure. Moreover, the place where Dr. Russell’s studied from as well as his claims should not influence the effectiveness of the new procedure. Hence, Harold’s irrelevant appeal to consequences is faulty. In responding to Harold, I employed fallacist’s fallacy. The response uses fallacist’s fallacy because it concludes that the truth value in Harold’s argument is false based on the premise that his argument contains a fallacy (Holt, 2006). Even though, Harold may be true in claiming that Dr. Russell favors the new procedure as effective, this is not evidence that Dr. Russell actually favors the new

Video Review Control Room Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Video Review Control Room - Essay Example It clearly narrates the motives behind that information gathering and the way the reporters of the news agency strived to present it. The documentary also presents the motives that the US army had created behind the attack that they planned on Iraq. CHANGE OF PERCEPTION ON THE WAR ON IRAQ. The documentary highlighted quite a few points that I, as general public was unaware of earlier. It may also have owed to the propaganda by the US dominated news agencies that the side of the story narrated by the video under discussion was earlier not known to the masses. The only way a person from the general public would look at the war was just what was imposed upon them by the American Media. The video shows that the American media created a hype before the invasion. The military used its nation’s media to tell the general public that Saddam Hussain was a threatening figure. The video narrated that revenge was induced in the American public by increasing the level of danger sometimes fr om yellow to Orange and then to danger level. These terminologies convinced the general public of the USA that what their president was authorizing was just the very right thing to be done at the moment. Thus, the overall scene before the initiation of war was that the American public got threatened from the existence of Saddam Hussain. He was portrayed as being capable of possessing and operating weapons of mass destruction that was a threat to the United States of America and to the entire world on the whole. It was even propagated that Saddam could give those weapons of mass destruction to Osama bin Laden or to anyone else. Instead of letting the American public realize what war actually meant and what was the exact meaning of attacking a Sovereign nation the propaganda overshadowed their realization. This video, on the other hand told the other side of the story. It told clearly that the Americans formulated information in a manner that it would go in their favor. As quoted by a n Al-Jazeera spokesman, â€Å"We want to show that every war has a human cost. We are Arabs like them. We are Muslims like them we are with the common Iraqi man. We care for them.† (Control room, 2008) The point of view about the Iraq-US war has changed in the perspective that thousands of innocent people including women and children both. Thousands of people lost their homes. Numerous innocent of civilian families died. All this was done at the cost of enforcing democracy and that too, for the public that was being devoid of their very basic right of shelter and food. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE VIDEO. The weaknesses of the video are the weaknesses of the organization itself. The organization was an Arab based organization Owing to that they had an emotional attachment with the Iraqi nation as a whole. Though not biased in favor of the Saddam regime the reporters and other team members of Al-Jazeera had their hearts connected to the civilian public that were under the Am erican oppression. Thus they can be termed as being biased in favor of the Iraqi common man. As quoted in the earlier part of the document a spokesman of the Al-Jazeera network quoted that since he was born in Iraqi and grew up in Iraq he had his heart with the Iraqis and recognized well what they talked like and how they felt. In line of the American military and government however, the weaknesses of the organization were that they weren’

Of Mice and Men Compared to La Strada Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men Compared to La Strada Essay This is shown by often showing her by the playful sea as well as being followed by animals and children throughout the film. Then there is Zampano, a rather dull muscle man who doesn’t think much before he acts. Yet, Gelsomina follows him with unwavering commitment throughout the film. Only once does she appear to doubt her place with him and shortly after us seeing her doubt her place the Fool, an innocent playful man, puts her back in the mindset that that is her purpose. After all everything has a purpose, even a pebble. The Fool, or Il Mato, is always messing with Zampano and is constantly outsmarting him. Right from the first time we see these two characters it is clear that Zampano despises the fool and eventually chases after him with a knife. The knife represents Zampano’s physical approach to things and how he is viewed in terms of masculinity. The Fool continues messing with Zampano, until Zampano accidentally kills him. His immediate thought it that his career is over and this shows just how physical he is and how he sees everything as â€Å"what can it do for me? †. He bought Gelsomina from her family, certainly not for her benefit but for his own. This behavior also shows in the way he treats Rosa, he views women as things that are there to benefit him. He didn’t realize his own strength and later says in the movie â€Å"It was only two punches, two punches! †. Here hes clearly trying to justify the wrong he unknowingly committed. This isn’t the only wrong. Towards the end of the film Zampano leaves Gelsomina with some money and her trumpet and years later finds out that she died because he left her there. I believe that him leaving her was foreshadowing her death because there is no way she would know what to do, she didn’t know how to survive without him. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, the main characters are the innocent simple-minded Lenny and his friend George, both of whom are very strong workingmen who travel around looking for physical labor that can be done. Lenny is mentally retarded and follows George like a puppy. George is often around animals, from the little mouse he was carrying in his pocket to the puppy he loved so much. In the beginning of the book George used to mess with Lenny because of his unwavering devotion but once he realized how genuine it was he stopped it immediately. George is described as a relatively strong man who is very smart and does the thinking for both him and Lenny. He watches out for Lenny and feels responsible for him. Lenny feels that his place is always right next to George. However in the end of this book George abuses Lenny’s trust and murders him with the gun used to kill Candy’s dog around the time they arrived. He even killed him the same way that they killed the dog, one shot, right to the back of the head. I believe Steinbeck having the dog killed, foreshadows the death of Lenny. Not just that he will die, but that someone who loves him will be the one to kill him. I think it shows that Lenny will die because he is always around animals, you’re supposed to associate him with animals and pets, and that this dog isn’t like most other dogs just like Lenny isn’t like most other people. They both have things working against them. For Lenny it’s being mentally retarded and for the dog it is the way that age has affected him. Both of these stories have a lot in common as far as archetypal symbolism goes. They both have the child-like, innocent character represented by Gelsomina and Lenny. By having these characters in these pieces the audience is given someone to care about and feel attached to. These two both act and are treated very much like children which makes it easy for us to see them in an innocent, positive light giving us someone to be interested in, we want to make sure they are okay and that nothing bad happens to them. There are many ways you can tell how innocent these characters are, both are shown with small animals a lot and Gelsomina is also shown in the same shot as the ocean a lot. These stories also have the physical male characters that very much affect the lives of the innocent characters. These physical characters would be George and Zampano, while these two characters themselves have very little in common as far as the time they lived and their profession their personal tales draw a surprising amount of parallels. These two are both protectors of the innocent characters, given the task to watch over them and are responsible for Lenny and Gelsomina. Both George and Zampano end up killing their innocent companion in the end. The deaths of Lenny and Gelsomina are both heavily foreshadowed. Zampano is very obvious with the fact that he doesn’t care what happens to Gelsomina and like having to take care of her. So when he leaves her by the side of the road it’s hard to be surprised because this was something you could see him doing to Gelsomina because he always treated her like a burden. However when George ends up killing Lenny it comes as a huge shock to the reader because he had always loved and protected him. Even though he didn’t want to kill Lenny it was for the safety of the people that Lenny interacted with so George felt he had to kill him. Both George and Zampano are very effected by the deaths of Lenny and Gelsomina. When they both realize what they have done, they return to the place where the story started. For Zampano and Gelsomina that is the ocean whereas for George and Lenny it is their own personal Eden in the woods. This is part of a reoccurring theme of cycles throughout these stories that are very important to the story. La Strada starts off with a shot of Gelsomina by the ocean, something much like her. It goes with the flow and doesn’t put up much resistance and is innocent and beautiful. At the end of the film, when Zampano has realized he is responsible for the death of Gelsomina he returns to the sea. The same is true for the beginning of Of Mice And Men, George and Lenny had just set up camp by a little river in the woods, a place where others had clearly been before. At the end of the book, Lenny was killed in that very spot after he ran away from the farm. These stories are both great examples of classic character archetypes and clearly show the heroes journey. Lenny and Gelsomina both clearly have a call to adventure, for Lenny it is going to work at a new farm with George and for Gelsomina it is when Zampano buys her from her family. They have their awakenings, Gelsomina’s is when the fool gives her the pebble and teaches her that everything has a purpose, George’s is when he crushes Curly’s hand. They have their helpers, the Fool and all the other men on the farm. Their transformations are a little different, for George it would be when he kills Curly’s wife and realizes he needs to run, for Gelsomina, though we don’t see it, it is when she realizes that she is alone and that Zampano has left her. Last of all is the return, unfortunately for our innocent characters this is tied into their deaths, and the actual killing/realization of their deaths.

Censorship of the Internet is Wrong :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Censorship of the Internet is Wrong       The Internet can be a very disturbing and adult medium. There are parts of the Internet that should not be viewed by children. Explicit information can be found which is intended for an adult audience but children who have access to the Internet have become exposed to this material. The question at hand is who is responsible for preventing these children from viewing this material. Censoring the entire Internet would be one capable option. Though this option would be effective but it wouldn't be practical. Censoring the Internet would limit what adults could view and communicate. Owners of Internet servers should know of the possible information and people that can be found in this medium. Having the access to the vast information available on the Internet, a responsibility is needed. Censorship of the Internet is not needed as a whole, but the reasons for censorship are understandable. These reasons though, should be the responsibility of the individual user, not the gov ernment. Relying on the government is not the answer.    Prevention of children viewing and having access to elicit material can be achieved without banning the material from the Internet. I fully believe in censorship of the Internet: Censorship by the parents for their children. All is needed is responsibility by the parents of the children. If you are a parent willing to provide your child access to the Internet, then you need to take precaution. Most parents would prevent their child from looking at the adult section in a movie store, which in many cases they can get access to, then why would they allow their children access to such material on the internet?    The Internet is something that most of us must buy access to and which we then choose to surf on our own. And does the government really have the right to tell parents what books and magazines they can let their children read at home or what television programs or motion pictures they should let their children watch? (Ford Marrin Esposito Witmeyer & Gleser, L.L.P.)    It is the parent's responsibility to limit the access of the Internet for their children. There are many options, which can prevent children from the access to the illicit material, which can be found through the Internet.

Nuclear power stations and national parks Essay

Who are the interest groups: *Local unemployed *Locals *National power grid *Workers *CND (campaign for nuclear disarmourment) *Green peace *Friends of the earth *Ministry of defence *The government *National parks *BNFL (British nuclear fuels) *Environment agency *CORE (Cambrians opposed to radioactive environment) *ICRP (international commission on radiological protection) *The world Conflicts with the national parks and nuclear power: *Pylons and power lines *Nuclear waste storage *Environmental pollution *High potential health hazard *National park tourism *Livelihood *Nuclear transportation through national parks *Increased leukaemia in area surrounding nuclear power stations See more of the above below; Pylons and power lines: There is considerable controversy not just over the sitting to the national park but also because of the associated high voltage transmission lines needed To connect the stations to the National Grid. Indeed to many observers the construction of these power lines has caused a greater visual impact on the landscape than the construction of the stations themselves. High potential health hazard: There is a high potential health hazard for nuclear power stations if there is a fire or explosion. In Chernobyl there was a meltdown, which they thought would go down into the earths mantle and start a volcanic eruption, but thankfully it didn’t. Environmental pollution: Between 1952 and 1995, Sellafield dumped 182 kilograms of plutonium down a pipeline into the Irish Sea. This amounts to 717 terabecquerels (TBq) of radioactivity–about half the fallout of plutonium in the entire North Atlantic from 520 atmospheric bomb tests in the 1960s. Nuclear waste storage: Tonnes of intermediate (liquid and solid) nuclear waste was being produced in sellafield before there was any known way of storing it safely. So it remained in the station until a ditch was dug for temporary storage. Nuclear waste can be stored safely by turning it into glass ingots by adding borosilicate to the waste, which allows waste to be stored for 50,000 years and not radioactive, and also able to be ground to fine powder sill be harmless. National park tourism: The tourism in the national park would go if there were an accident or proved high radiation levels in the national park, like in Snowdonia N.P or The Lake District N.P. There does not have to be an accident or proof of radiation to stop tourists though, If the plant is despised so much there will be no tourism in the park, then no Maintenance or conservation to keep it a national park unless funded by government. Livelihood: The locals livelihood would be affected by a nuclear power station, E.g. where once was a local green or park is know a towering power station and would be to imposing. Nuclear transportation through national parks: There is great opposition on the transportation of nuclear fuel or waste travelling through anywhere, but especially in national parks. If there were an accident or spill the area/park would be devastated for years if not centuries. There is proof that there is increased numbers of people with leukaemia around nuclear power stations: Here is a story of three girls that died from the radiation and acute leukaemia in sellafield. â€Å"A couple who say radiation killed three of their daughters have pledged to re-open the investigation into the deaths following a damming report into safety at British Nuclear Fuels. Joe and Stella McMaster of Fulwood, Preson, believe radiation from the nuclear industry is to blame for the deaths of their children, Judith, Jill and Lynn. The couple claim BNFL bosses have never explained the tragedies that have devastated their family and they say the revelations about safety at the nuclear giant’s Sellafield plant come as no surprise. Joe, 77, worked as a research chemist at British Nuclear Fuel’s Springfield plant near Preston for 30 years. He said an incident at the Springfields plant in the 1950’s which caused him to inhale Uranium UF6 gas sparked off a catalogue of health problems. Joe claimed his urine samples after the accident showed his uranium content to be 18 times above the normal level. Just months later he lost all of his teeth after they became so loose he could twist them around. But nothing prepared the family for the tragedies that were to follow. After already celebrating the birth of two daughters they were delighted when Stella became pregnant with twins. After a problem-free pregnancy the babies were born six weeks premature but one of the twins, Judith, died at just three days old.It was a hard loss to bear, but the couple consoled themselves with the knowledge that they had three remaining lovely daughters. But in 1973 their second eldest daughter Jill was taken ill. She started a nosebleed that would not stop and she was admitted to hospital for tests. The family were horrified when she was diagnosed as having acute leukaemia. She was moved to a hospital in Manchester where she died two weeks later. It was then that Stella began to question whether their deaths could be linked to Joe’s work with the nuclear industry. In 1988 the family suffered an other devastating blow when their eldest daughter Lynn, a mother of one, was diagnosed with a rare blood disease and died. When I worked at BNFL I was sworn for life to the Official Secrets Act, but now I could not care less. Now I just want to find out the truth,† said Joe. (Lancashire Evening Post 19/2/00) Stella and Joe strongly believe that the reactor fire at Windscale (now named Sellafield) in October 1957 played a vital part. At that time they were on a family holiday a few miles from the plant and the children were playing on the beach, drinking the milk and eating locally grown fresh vegetables. When they returned home they found out that the area had been badly contaminated – milk was being thrown down the drains and vegetables were unfit for human consumption. By then the damage was done. â€Å"We have been assured by medical experts that the timescale between exposure and deaths from leukaemia were correct, but oh no, BNFL still say it is unfortunate but really sheer coincidence†, says Stella. She maintains that when Joe retired at 60, his radiation body count showed 300 Becquerels, although it should only have been around 5. A private blood test confirmed chromosome defects due to radiation exposure. Neither his high body count, dismissed by BNFL as being due to a faulty machine, nor his chromosome damage were ever explained by the company. The couple have been trying to get to the truth for 10 years and will continue to do so. They are sure there are other families worldwide, either employed by or living around nuclear installations who are trying to get justice and they wish them luck. They believe the industry is one big cover-up and condemn the cavalier attitude of the 50’s and 60’s when employees, who were initially selected for being 100% fit, were deliberately exposed to unknown, but now considered unacceptable, risks to their health. They are appalled by the industry’s denials over Joe’s and their children’s health problems. He was never offered compensation for his accident much less any sympathy. â€Å"Never in our wildest dreams did we consider the far reaching consequences and the terrible tragedies. You don’t expect to outlive even one of your children, much less three. If BNFL had to sit at a bedsite and watch each child die, they might be a bit more compassionate† said Stella, â€Å"BNFL just do not want to know – they just brush it all under the carpet and hope we will give up our campaign for truth and justice, but we are sorry to disappoint them.† MP Nigel Evans, who has supported them, urged the couple to carry on fighting until they find out the truth. A BNFL spokesman said: We have had a meeting with Mr. McMaster to try and reassure him that his daughters’ deaths were not related to working at Springfield’s.† Sellafield nuclear power station: Sellafield, formally Windscale and home of the 1957 reactor fire, lies on the Irish Sea coast and alongside England’s famous Lake District. In an area of just one mile by one mile and a half, the site hosts the lethal legacies of nuclear weapons material production, decades of commercial reprocessing residues – and the reputation to go with them. With faltering nuclear prospects at home BNFL are turning to other countries for expansion with claims of expertise. Their failure to first put their own Sellafield house in order is a mark of their lack of credibility, as are the unsolved and long-term problems they leave behind in England. Calder Hall, opened by the Queen in 1956, and it generates enough electricity to supply a city the size of Leeds. Sellafield also has a host of other plants, including two reprocessing plants – one to reprocess the waste from the old so-called Magnox nuclear power stations and one, Thorp, to reprocess spent fuel from the newer privatised plants at home and abroad. Why is nuclear power so unpopular here? Originally because of its close connection with nuclear weapons. The original stations were built not to produce electricity but to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the public weren’t told that straight away – in fact not until the 1980s. The industry’s early habit of lying made people sceptical and suspicious. Add to that the sometimes-irrational fear of radioactivity and the appalling results of the Chernobyl accident and the dislike expand into a wish the industry would just go away. The UK Environment Agency regulates discharges of radioactive waste from the notorious Sellafield nuclear site into the sea and air. Sellafield discharges some 8 million litres of nuclear waste into the sea every day. These discharges have made the Irish Sea the most radioactively contaminated in the world, and the contamination has spread along the shores of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and as far north as the Arctic. There is no safe dose of radiation – any level may cause cancers and genetic damage. The Environment Agency is currently holding a public consultation on Sellafield’s discharges of one particularly controversial radioactive substance, known as technetium-99 (Tc-99). Tc-99 has a â€Å"half-life† of 213,000 years, which means it remains dangerous to countless future generations. It also builds up to high levels in marine life including lobsters, mussels, limpets, winkles and seaweed. In 1997 levels of Tc-99 in lobsters near Sellafield reached up to 42 times the European intervention level for food after a nuclear accident. High levels were also found in seaweed in Ireland and Nordic countries and, following international protest, the UK Government promised to act to stop these discharges. Although BNFL reduced its discharges of Tc-99 somewhat between 1995 and 1998, the discharges have since increased again. Discharges of many other radioactive substances have increased too, and there are plans to increase them further. Greenpeace believes that the Environment Agency and the Government are backtracking under pressure from BNFL, the publicly-owned company that operates the Sellafield site. The Government and the Environment Agency could and should act to stop the discharges now. Greenpeace claims that the ground that sellafield is as radioactive as the ground in Chernobyl. A reactor in sellafield Trawsfynydd nuclear power station in Snowdonia national park: The Trawsfynydd nuclear plant is situated on the shores of the Trawsfynydd Lake in North Wales. It was the first nuclear power plant in Britain to be built on a site inland. Its surroundings offer spectacular scenery and interesting wildlife. The plant is one of several Magnox reactors that belong to an earlier design generation which employs steel pressure vessels. The name â€Å"Magnox † reflects that the nuclear fuel is contained within a cladding made out of a magnesium alloy. Magnox stations pioneered the commercial use of nuclear power in the 1960’s and still supply much of Britain’s need for base-load electricity. Their image as the â€Å"workhorses† of the nuclear industry is derived from a reputation for high availability and safe performance. Trawsfynydd is currently being decommissioned. The reasons for shutting this plant down reflected some concerns that the steel pressure vessel was gradually becoming embrittled. Since the site is located within the beautiful Snowdonia National Park, it was considered important that the decommissioning should be made in such a manner that would leave the smallest possible impact on the environment. So they use the safe store construction. Safe store construction Diminishing the visual impact of the plant was one of the demands that the local public viewed as the most important. This is accomplished by reducing the height of the reactor buildings from 55 meter to 32 meters. That requires lowering the height of the tall structures inside the buildings, such as parts of the boilers and the refuelling machines. Safe-store structures of reduced height can then be constructed. 1993- 2004 Trawsfynydd Power Station lies within the boundaries of a National Park of considerable beauty and is located on the northern bank of Llyn Trawsfynydd. Following the decommissioning of the plant, the existing building structure is to be reduced in height and encased in a new ‘Safestore’ envelope. The objective is to reduce and in some cases eliminate the buildings impact within the National Park. The Safestore structure is to provide an aesthetically acceptable, cost effective means of long term, secure storage for specific radioactive materials and structures. As well as minimising the visual impact of the site the structure is based on the following criteria: The design life shall be 135 years. During the majority of this period it is proposed that the site will be unmanned. The structures shall be intruder resistant with a 9m wall also gives an improved visual balance between the lower and upper levels of the external elevations. The landscape within the site boundary will reflect the character of the natural surrounding landscape so the there are no visible boundaries and the landscape flows naturally through the site.

Nursing Home Administrator Essay

The delivery of Healthcare is a high touch enterprise that calls for interaction among every stakeholder within the healthcare sphere. Communication, whether interpersonal or intrapersonal, is a crucial part of these dealings and may be transformed by the intellectual use of communication tools. Information is the means of support of healthcare. Therefore, communication systems are the backbone that supports the whole idea. Care of patients in the nursing homes now almost unavoidably entails many different people, all with the need to share patient information and talk about their organization. As a result there is an ever increasing attention in the information and communication technology that sustain health services. There exists a huge gap in the wide understanding of the function of communication services in the delivery health care. This paper will review different types of communication methods for the health care organization, including the advantages and disadvantages of using traditional, electronic, and social media for health care communication. The review will then discuss effects of HIPAA and other regulations on the use of these media for health care communication. The significant role that communication plays among people in healthcare is often neglected. Basic and very important to all healthcare managerial functions, communication is the means used in the transmission of information and additionally makes an individual understood by the target audience. In a situation in which a nursing home faces transition of management and the residents are unable to communicate effectively, have no local family, and have not indicated that they approve the release of their medical information is a crisis many health care administrators face every day. In such situations, communication is a key challenge for administrators for they are solely mandated to provide information, which consequently affects performance in the organization. A communication system is any formal or informal structure that an organization uses to sustain its communication requirements. The system involves components like people, the message that is needed to be conveyed, the technology that mediates a conversation, and an organizational structure that characterizes and limits the conversation that occurs. They are therefore bundles of different kinds of components and the utility of the general system is measured by the correctness of all the components combined. The situation above poses a challenge due to the barriers between reception and feedback. Most of the people to be displaced have no idea why and may even lose their privacy in the process. In order to solve the crisis above, it is mandatory to review the pros and cons of different kinds of communications. Electronic communications are fast, they are cost-effective and quite convenient. However, these attributes enclose intrinsic disadvantages. The technology that helps people to keep on the go also may invade privacy and cut into valuable time meant for other social activities. Devices such as cell phones with mobility technology and portable computers facilitate communication at all times. This allows one to work and visit sites in public locations, such as trains and other social gatherings. This has enabled people to stop traveling long distances to work and may do so from home. The technology also encourages productivity, for instance, a person intending to meet a professional deadline may save valuable time by working on a mobile gadget before getting to the workplace. Electronic communication is also convenient and instantaneous. It distributes with the need to mail or fax a document that can be stored online or on a portable electronic device to protect it against any kind of loss. These advantages facilitate learning and research. A visit to a clinical website may help out an individual with a complicated health problem. Despite the good attributes, modern electronic communications leave individuals vulnerable to cyber-attacks and other forms of online criminal attacks. Additionally, online conversations may pose a physical threat to children. It also exposes people to violent materials and pornography that may become addictive and eventually a health issue. Interruptions and distractions brought about by the modern electronic communications compromise quality time and if left unchecked may damage an individual’s intelligence quotient. Another platform that has received a lot of attention lately is the use of social media in addressing health care issues and extraction of patient information readily available in the social sites. The social media outlets are widespread. An advantage of using it is that it is wide-reaching, user-centric and collaborative in nature. If health care centers embraced the platform, then an interactive channel is guaranteed as most of the users are cooperative. The social sites include blogs, wikis, videoconferencing, multimedia blogging, and the diverse websites. Traditional media usage in health care communication is well embraced due to the minimal threats contained. Traditional methods have a simple system of getting information and allow one to make informed decisions. They are simple to learn and understand. However, the traditional media cannot cover all the patients’ needs because of the lack of services and the one way channel. The traditional means is not interactive and may not always target the right audience. It does not always give accurate information and may be biased. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) created in 1996 is a charter with mandated regulations that institute standards to guard the privacy of every individual’s independently exclusive health information. Health care centers must conform to these privacy regulations and all the rules on the subject of the way health centers may or may not use or disclose protected health information (PHI). The regulations intend to shelter the identity, personality and privacy of healthcare patients. Consequently, specific aspects of the healthcare employee culture are needed to change in the manner that employees distribute information and discuss their clients. Healthcare establishments are also mandated to put into effect HIPAA fulfillment from within. This creates additional administrative and training costs. Knowledge of HIPAA effects on healthcare organizations helps to assess the costs, effectiveness, and benefits of the HIPAA regulations. Patients must make contact with the administration so that permission for healthcare providers to share information with each other is obtained. It is illegal for healthcare providers to acquire records from social networks. This only poses as a barrier to effective communication. According to this paper, communication is essential for any administrator to solve a health care crisis. Whether the health care patient in a nursing home understands the consequences of a new management or not, he or she is entitled to correct information regarding how the process will transpire. Organizations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are a good establishment to protect their (patient) privacy. However, certain sections of their standard regulations need to be changed for the sake of the illiterate persons without local families and completely unaware of whether to consent to his or her information being shared. With new developments in communications, health car e providers should face smooth communications rather than the old hard system. References HIPAA Compliance Guide: http://www.hipaacomplianceguide.com/ U.S. HHS, Administrative Simplification in the Health Care Industry: http://aspe.hhs.gov/admnsimp/

Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks

Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks You can do the dinosaur footprint math yourself: If the average Tyrannosaurus rex walked two or three miles per day, it would have left behind thousands of footprints. Multiply that number by T. Rexs multi-decade life span, and youre well into the millions. Of these millions of footprints, the vast majority would have been erased by rain, floods, or the subsequent footprints of other dinosaurs. However, a tiny percentage baked and hardened in the sun, and an even tinier percentage managed to survive to the present day. Because they’re so common, especially compared to complete, articulated dinosaur skeletons, dinosaur footprints are an especially rich source of information about the size, posture, and everyday behavior of their creators. Many professional and amateur paleontologists devote themselves full-time to the study of these trace fossils or as they’re sometimes called, ichnites or ichnofossils. Other examples of trace fossils are coprolites - fossilized dinosaur poop to you and me. How Dinosaur Footprints Fossilize One of the odd things about dinosaur footprints is that they fossilize under different conditions than dinosaurs themselves. The holy grail of paleontologists - a complete, fully articulated dinosaur skeleton, including imprints of soft tissues - usually forms in sudden, catastrophic circumstances, such as when a Parasaurolophus is buried by a sandstorm, drowned in a flash flood, or chased by a predator into a tar pit. Newly-formed footprints, on the other hand, can only hope to be preserved when theyre left alone - by the elements and by other dinosaurs - and given a chance to harden. The necessary condition for dinosaur footprints to survive for 100 million years is that the impression has to be made in soft clay (say, along a lake, coastline, or riverbed), and then baked dry by the sun. Assuming the footprints are well-done enough, they can then persist even after being buried under successive layers of sediment. What this means is that dinosaur footprints aren’t necessarily found only on the surface. They can also be recovered from deep beneath the ground, just like ordinary fossils. What Dinosaurs Made the Footprints? Except in extraordinary circumstances, its pretty much impossible to identify the specific genus or species of dinosaur that made a given footprint. What paleontologists can figure out fairly easily is whether the dinosaur was bipedal or quadrupedal (that is, whether it walked on two or four feet), what geological period it lived in (based on the age of the sediment where the footprint is found), and its approximate size and weight (based on the size and depth of the footprint). As for the type of dinosaur that made the tracks, the suspects can at least be narrowed down. For example, bipedal footprints (which are more common than the quadrupedal kind) could only have been produced by meat-eating theropods (a category that includes raptors, tyrannosaurs, and dino-birds) or plant-eating ornithopods. A trained investigator can distinguish between two sets of prints. For example, theropod footprints tend to be longer and narrower than those of ornithopods. At this point, you might ask: cant we identify the exact owner of a set of footprints by examining any fossil remains unearthed nearby? Sadly, no. As stated above, footprints and fossils are preserved under very different circumstances, so the odds of finding an intact Stegosaurus skeleton buried next to its own footprints are virtually zero. Dinosaur Footprint Forensics Paleontologists can only extract a limited amount of information from a single, isolated dinosaur footprint. The real fun starts when the prints of one or more dinosaurs (of the same or different species) are found along extended tracks. By analyzing the spacing of a single dinosaur’s footprints - both between the left and right feet and forward, in the direction of motion - researchers can make good guesses about the dinosaurs posture and weight distribution (not a small consideration when it comes to larger, bulkier theropods like the huge Giganotosaurus). It may also be possible to determine whether the dinosaur was running rather than walking, and if so, how fast. Footprints also tell scientists whether or not the dinosaur held its tail upright. A droopy tail would have left a telltale skid mark behind the footprints. Dinosaur footprints are sometimes found in groups, which (if the tracks are similar in appearance) counts as evidence of herding behavior. Numerous sets of footprints on a parallel course may be a sign of mass migration or the location of a now-vanished shoreline. These same sets of prints, arranged in a circular pattern, can represent the traces of an ancient dinner party - that is, the dinosaurs responsible were digging into a heap of carrion or a tasty, long-gone tree. More controversially, some paleontologists have interpreted the proximity of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaur footprints as evidence of ancient chases to the death. This may certainly have been the case, in some instances, but its also possible that the Allosaurus in question tromped along the same patch of ground as the Diplodocus a few hours, a few days, or even a few years later. Don’t Be Fooled Because theyre so common, dinosaur footprints were identified long before anyone had even conceived of the existence of dinosaurs - so these track marks were attributed to giant prehistoric birds! This is a good example of how its possible to be right and wrong at the same time. Its now believed that birds evolved from dinosaurs, so it makes sense that some types of dinosaurs had bird-like footprints. To show how quickly a half-baked idea can spread, in 1858, the naturalist Edward Hitchcock interpreted the latest footprint finds in Connecticut as evidence that herds of flightless, ostrich-like birds once roamed the plains of North America. Over the next few years, this image was taken up by writers as diverse as Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who referenced birds unknown, that have left us only their footprints in one of his more obscure poems. Source Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. To the Driving Cloud. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, Bartleby, 1993.

Cold War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cold War - Essay Example There was, however, also a policy in place to never give ground throughout the Cold War, meaning that there were frequent proxy conflicts throughout the world in order for either country gain an ideological advantage. These included proxy conflicts in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea as the best known examples. The United States also engaged in huge industrial efforts, to force the Soviet Union to match them – things like the Space Program and the Interstate highway system. These proxy conflicts, however, also caused many problems for the United States. Arming the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, for instance, led to those same arms later being used against America, while the proxy conflicts in Vietnam significantly reduced America’s attachment to fighting wars and reduced national moral. Furthermore, America supported essentially any regime that would aid in the fight against Communism, regardless of the consequences. This included the rather dictatorial Shah of Iran, who was the n overthrown by a revolution that included a huge amount of Anti-American sentiment. To this day America has to deal with a dangerous and Anti-American regime because of its habit of supporting dictators who had political moods that aligned with what the United States wanted during the Cold War. These are two types of blowback: one in which the US government faced international pressure because of its international intervention, and one in which its own populace raised against it in attempts to change the course of foreign intervention. The latter kind set rise to all sorts of things, including the Kent State riots, while also giving further impetus to the civil rights movements. The Cold War was the defining conflict that shaped America throughout the 20th century. It had an impact on every part of American life, from people who went off to wars to everyday American who lived under the threat of the bomb. Though it has ended, its shadow on American politics lingers to the present d ay. 1. US foreign policy in the interwar years was dominated by two principles: the Monroe doctrine, which indicated that the United States had a sphere of influence over the Americas that no other country could influence, and a significant policy of isolationism on the international stage. This was not complete isolationism, as the United States still had significant trading partners, but military isolationism was relatively extreme. Examples of this isolationism include America’s failure to join the League of Nations, which doomed the enterprise from the start. It was understandable that the United States wanted to be so isolationist, considering the history of European squabbles that could so easily engulf the young country if it were to get involved. 2. The Civil Rights movement was a movement, led by Black people from the South of the United States, to end oppression based on race and to gain basic liberties enjoyed by people of other races. Its roots can be traced back to the civil war, after which it was officially illegal to bar people from voting on the basis of race. Many Southern States, however, put together a series of laws and acts of intimidation that still prevented blacks from enjoying equal rights and protections. Lynching still occurred, it was still illegal for a black person and a white

Marketing Communication Plan for Gap 360 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing Communication Plan for Gap 360 - Essay Example all also identify that have an influence within the external and the internal micro and macro environment in the gap travel period and the market within which they operate. The key strengths of the company are a strong management team and deep market knowledge. This is supported by a healthy knowledge of web and strong design contacts that help to build a stronger travel network. Good understanding of social networking and internet marketing supported by plenty of financials support the Gap 360’s plans. The key weaknesses for Gap 360 is the economic slowdown and the rise in the number of small competitors has contributed towards rising costs of marketing and raise the difficulty in gaining the desired speed of SEO. The key opportunities that face Gap 360 include significant opportunities to hire top talent at cheap costs because of the economic scenario. Additionally, the company also has the advantage of economies of large scale operations in competition to smaller firms that operate with high overhead costs. Quick corporate structure and strategic partnerships can speed up the growth process for the company. The few threats the Gap 360 needs t o be careful about encompass the weak economic condition that reduces the disposable income at the hands of the consumer who, in turn, reduces his spending on leisure travel. Investment shortfall and inefficiency in operations might also cause serious setbacks (Hill and Jones, 2012; Goodley, 2010). The political scenario of United Kingdom is quite stable while the company organizes travel trips to those countries which are safe for leisure and educational travel. On the economic front, the company is facing tough times due to the weakening UK economy and the financial crisis that caused it. UK spending on leisure activities has reduced and there is a huge unemployment problem. The social scenario looks favourable to support gap year travels. The trend is also emerging in other nations like Australia, which might help Gap