Pynchon’s Vision of America in The Crying of Lot 49 Essay

First published in 1965, The Crying of Lot 49 is the second novel by American author Thomas Pynchon. The novel follows Oedipa Mass, a young Californian housewife, after she unexpectedly finds herself named the executrix of the estate of Californian real estate mogul, and ex-boyfriend, Pierce Inverarity. In reflecting on their history together, Oedipa recalls how her travels with Pierce helped her acknowledge, but not overcome, the poignant feeling that she was being held paralyzed and isolated from the world (and others) within a staid, middle-class existence by some invisible and nefarious external force. Moreover Oedipa struggles to understand why Pierce would name her the executor of his will considering her deep ignorance of finance,†¦show more content†¦To assess this vision of an American society heading towards stasis developed in The Crying of Lot 49, one must first discuss the concept of entropy. Broadly speaking, entropy refers both to the level of disorder and uncertainty in a system.The concept originates from thermodynamics, where it is used to describe the thermal energy in heat engine that is unavailable to be converted into work (i.e. transferred through a change in form or location).The second law of thermodynamics stipulates that within a self-contained system like a heat engine, the aggregate measure of entropy must remain the same or increase over time because with no external energy inputs, the system’s net energy flow gradually subsides as the gaps between its higher and lower energy particles decrease through the transfer of heat as they interact. This diminishing gap between particle energy levels, denoted in part by a stabilization in temperature and phase state (e.g. solid, liquid, or gas), reflects the system’s progression towards a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, or maximum entropy, where particles regress into towards a uniform set of cha racteristics and inertness as the net energy flow grows infinitesimal. In moving towards equilibrium the system also becomes increasingly disordered because in losing their distinctiveness particles become fungible, rendering attempts to impose order and coherence on the system by drawing relations and distinctions betweenShow MoreRelated PARADISE FLUBBED: Pynchon the New World Essay4618 Words   |  19 Pagesacross the sky, it is the sound of a V-2 rocket arcing up and over the English Channel.But the rockets vapor trail (which Pirate Prentice sees from kneedeep in the primordial mulch of his bananararium) points further on: over the Atlantic, on toward America, the New World, Tyrone Slothrops yearned-for, perhaps illusory home. The rockets path ends a fraction of an inch above the readers head, the rocket suspended, poised ... A tableau representing the possibile if not quite realized Apocalypse

The Vietnam War Essay - 2334 Words

The Vietnam War was a war between the Capitalist United States and the Communist North Vietnamese army. This war started in 1964 and it ended in 1975, when the US withdrew its soldiers. The US joined the war to stop the spreading of Communism, because they didnÂ’t want Russia to gain more allies, as they had been in a cold war with them for years. In my opinion, an event is significant if it is still remembered today, meaning that it is used in films, written about in books, and when people watch these films or read books, it could raise issues in their mind which also makes an event significant. If it was really important at the time, like all the soldiers died, which was only important to the US and Vietnam at the time but as for the†¦show more content†¦At the time of the war, a lot of people disagreed with it because many people died and got injured but the USA wasnÂ’t making any progress, just throwing money out the window and sending soldiers to death. This led t o protests all over the USA, where hundreds of thousands of people turned up to show that they were against the war and didnÂ’t support the US anymore. This is shown in Source 1 which is a picture of the anti-war protests in Washington. The biggest protests were in Washington at the White House, where more than 1 million people showed up. This definitely had a huge impact in the short term as the Government and the president didnÂ’t want to be unpopular, and actually changed their policy towards Vietnam, partially as a result of the protests I donÂ’t think it had a big impact the long term as people donÂ’t protest about the Vietnam War anymore, or talk about it as much as they did at the time of the war. This shows that the significance of the war has decreased over time in the USA. The war with Vietnam cost the US about 130 billion dollars. Most of this money was taken from tax payers who worked hard for their money but then part of it was taken away for a War that most people didnÂ’t want to be involved in or support it (these also caused protests). This meant that places like hospitals, schools etc. didnÂ’t get money from Government and had a decrease in their income. TheShow MoreRelatedThe War Of Vietnam And The Vietnam War1525 Words   |  7 PagesThe war in Vietnam is The United States and other capitalist bloc countries supported South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) against the support by the Soviet Union and other socialist bloc countries of North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and the Vietcong of war. Which occurred during the Cold War of Vietnam (main battlefield), Laos, and Cambodia. This is the biggest and longtime war in American history during the 1960s (Best 2008). It is also the most significant war after World War IIRead MoreThe Vietnam War On Vietnam1725 Words   |  7 PagesThe War on Vietnam Many believe that the way Americans entered the war against the North Vietnam communists was unjust. The United States got into a war that they had no clue on how to win. â€Å"The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The divisive war, increasingly unpopular at home, ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973Read MoreThe Vietnam War : Vietnam1170 Words   |  5 PagesBeyond Vietnam. The Vietnam War is one of the most traumatic episodes in the history of the United States. Not only because it ended with a defeat for the United States Army, but because unleashed the largest wave of protests in the country, in which the government lost support. Extended over more than a decade, between 1959 to April 30 of 1975, although the US intervened in 1965, in which American soldiers experienced in firsthand scenes of destruction and death. During the Vietnam War clashedRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of Vietnam920 Words   |  4 Pages1940’s Vietnam was trying to break free of French reign over their country. During this time period Vietnam was split into two parts, north and south. The Japanese had decided to take over Vietnam in 1942. They couldn’t capture all of Vietnam, so they decided to retreat. North Vietnam proclaimed independence on September 2, 1945 as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The State of Vietnam declared independence on June 14, 1949, but rema ined under French rule until August 1, 1954. South Vietnam was theRead MoreVietnam And The Vietnam War1711 Words   |  7 Pages â€Æ' The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track. It later exploded into a huge argument and then leads to a civil war spurring between NorthRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of Vietnam952 Words   |  4 Pageswords that describe the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War had 240 days of combat in one year. World War II had forty days of combat in four years(Interesting Facts). That statistic shows how rough the Vietnam War was. The fighting was constant between the two sides. This war was fought over politics and had many gruesome battles. Before the Vietnam war, Vietnam was in a revolution because they did not want to be ruled by France. Vietnam wanted to be independent right after World War II ended in 1945. JapanRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of Vietnam1534 Words   |  7 Pages The Vietnam War began November 1st, 1955 and ended April 30th, 1975. It was a long costly war that involved North Vietnam and their Southern allies, known as Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its main ally the United States. This war was very unpopular at home and would end with the withdrawal of the United States and the unification of Vietnam under communist control. Many think of war as something that just men are involved in but very rarely do people think of the role of women in the warRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of Vietnam1573 Words   |  7 PagesA. The Vietnam War occurred from 1955-1975, this included the North and South fighting over government structure of the newly independent state of Vietnam, having recently become independent f rom France. However, the USA was in Vietnam as a sort of protection for the South Vietnamese people, who had a weaker army force, but only a few thousand Americans were in Vietnam for that purpose at the time. On August 7, 1964, the USA entered the war for the purpose of fighting the North Vietnamese due toRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of Vietnam2003 Words   |  9 PagesThe Vietnam War in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia lasted from November 1st, 1955 to around April 30th, 1975. The war was split up between two sides, North Vietnam, who were allied with the Soviet Union, China, and most of the communist countries during this time period, and South Vietnam, who were allied with the United States and many countries that were against the belief of Communism. Although the United States did not necessarily have to get involved in the war, they believed that they had too soRead MoreVietnam And The Vietnam War1987 Words   |  8 PagesIn 1945, at the end of WWII, Vietnam started their war for ind ependence against their colonial rulers, France. Nine years after the start of the First Indochina War, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu which led to a peace conference in Geneva. At the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam received their independence from France. However, Vietnam was divided between a Communist North and a Democratic South. In 1958, Communist- supported guerrillas in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, began

The Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Market Economy. Essay Example For Students

The Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Market Economy. Essay The Advantages and Disadvantages Of A Market Economy. 27/9/96 Command and Market economies Neil SamtaniWhen considering the advantages and disadvantages of command and marketeconomies, you may notice that they are usually straight forward, yet, bothadvantages and disadvantages may merge at times, resulting in an unclear issue,that could be debatable whether it is for the good of the society, or for thegovernment. Therefore, what I am trying to say, is that no matter how hard youtry, it is always impossible to debate on which economic system is better. Bothhave their good points and their bad, but, each is aimed towards a communitythat will make use of it. This community has usually got a majority of peopleeither rich or poor, and, social class usually effects the way people may choosetheir government. In a market economy, the advantages are normally aimed towards themiddle/upper class in a community. This is why we normally find them in richercommunities (i.e. England, USA). The concept of a market economy is to allowpeople to get through life by themselves. Government usually does little tochange the economy, and, the control is given to the people with the money, or,rather, the people with the businesses. The main people in such an economy areusually the consumers, the producers, the owners of private property, and, thegovernment. These are the people with the power. The whole system revolvesaround private gain rather than the interests of everyone in a community. Sincethe rich are in control of the economy, their decisions result in the richgetting richer and the poor getting poorer. This is a perfect example of what Imentioned before, which is the way that you can not categorise all statements. This would be an advantage for the rich, but, a disadvantage for the poor. However, governments may also affect the situation, resulting in the richgetting richer, and, the poor managing to stay alive. The entire idea of the market economy is freedom. The freedom for peopleto do what they want, make what they want, and, sell what they want (to acertain extent). This can also be described as being able to decide WHAT isgoing to be produced (what products), HOW it is going to be produced(organisation, etc.) and FOR WHOM it is going to be produced. This is definitelyan advantage, as freedom and rights are allowed. Besides this, the norm is thatyoure wage is affected by the amount you work. The harder a person works, themore you would expect to get paid. This is another advantage, since people arepaid by the amount they work : a lot of work results in a high outcome, and ahigh income for the person. This is an incentive to work too, since, the pointstated previously can affect a person negatively, since, not enough work canresult in pay cuts or, even job losses. Since the economy is controlled by the rich, a problem that is bound tooccur is the economic growth rates increasing and decreasing. This can result inpeople either spending a lot of money (ending up with more people beingemployed) , and, people not spending a lot of money (ending up with people beingfired, to save money). This means that there is little job security, which isone of the disadvantages we are facing today. This means that not working hardcan result in no source of income. However, since the economic growth changes somuch, nothing can be certain. You can be rich one moment, and bankrupt the next. .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .postImageUrl , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:hover , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:visited , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:active { border:0!important; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:active , .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258 .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u77da3d3a8486f965a17a1ef7de160258:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: From Dirt to Duchess EssayThis also means that a man willing to work can not have a job, and below thepoverty line, which is another disadvantage. There are not always enough jobs toaccommodate the people with the ability to work. Advantages DisadvantagesEveryone has rights and freedom to build what they wwant, sell what theywant, and buy what they canafford.Poor people can not necessarily affordmuch. Since there is little government interaction with the community, thepeople have to manage to live without their help. It is usually possible to increase living standards by increasing yourlevel of work, or your quality of it.The economy is controlled by the rich,and, therefore the richhave the power. Their decisions would always be to getthemselves richer, and, that makes the poor poorer. There are strong incentives built into the system to innovate andproduce high quality goods (high quality goods = higher income, low qualitygoods = lower income / unemployment)Since the economy is controlled by thepeople, stable growth is is very difficult. This can result in job losses, dueto a the economic cycle.(boom followed by bust) This result in low job security. Free markets provide choice for the incentives to innovate, and theeconomy to grow.There are bound to be losses. Since job security is low, andthe economy can not always be predicted, bankruptcy is and poverty can creep upon anyone.

Causes and Correlates of Adolescent Drug

Question: Discuss about the Causes and Correlates of Adolescent Drug. Answer: Introduction: Experimentation with illicit drugs and substance use is common among youth population. This is the most common reason for early onset of drugs which exposes youth to developmental harm and risk of developing mental health problems. Early onset of drug is also associated with depression, anxiety, psychosis and educational under achievement among youth population. Due to such harm and health risk to youth population, it is necessary to evaluate how far policies and programs implemented for preventing early drug onset among youths have mitigated different risk factors of drug abuse (Modesto-Lowe et al. 2008). The essay particularly evaluates the effectives of this program and preventive strategies to identify strength and weakness in approach. Based on this evaluation, it recommends possible steps to improve current strategies to delay the onset of drugs. Preventative strategies for youth drug onset: Educational programs: As there is emphasis on early intervention to reduce the cost and harm associated with early drug onset among youths, it is necessary to evaluate education programs implemented for youths in Australia. The review of such school based educational programs for preventing alcohol and other drugs revealed that the school-based program has harm minimization goal and it mainly employed the principle of social influence approach or cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). By this approach, youth were taught to resist external pressure and strengthen their coping skills. CBT helped to analyse and modify the negative thinking pattern and behavior of school children. The CLIMATE program for alcohol and cannabis and other programs like SHAHRP, Life Education, Greenhouse project and Resilient Family Intervention gave mixed results. While CLIMATE, SHAHRP and greenhouse projects have significant effect in reducing risk, the other two programs gave no significant results. The main strength of these inter ventions was that the program was implemented by means of a computer-delivery method. This minimized the cost involved in recruiting and training the staffs for education and guaranteed flexible and consistent delivery of information. However, minimum efficacy was found for those schools which had minimum resource for internet based delivery of prevention and where teachers failed to adapt the program according to the needs of particular school (Teesson et al. 2012). Hence, in the future, it is necessary that resource of the school is developed to deliver internet-based educational program to promote efficacy. The key teachings of the educational program should also be supported by evidence (Bonomo and Bowes 2001). As the above evaluation suggested lack of resource regarding computer based program behind the reason for poor outcome of the program, this section particularly evaluates the effectiveness of the universal computer-based Climate School psycho-stimulants and cannabis module. In the randomized controlled study with secondary school children in Australia, students were randomized to computer-based Climate schools program and the usual health classes group. The Climate program was based on social influence approach to harm minimisation. The impact of the Climate Schools program on school children was that they decreased pro-drug attitude due to better awareness about the ill-effects of cannabis and psychostimulants. The frequency of experimentation use of drugs among children significantly reduced which resulted in subdued uptake. In comparison with children who received usual drug education, climate school group children had better used cannabis less often. The advantaged of computer-ba sed delivery was that use of cartoon story raised interest among children and they could recall the information very well. However, one limitation of the Climate School program is that although it reduced childrens intention to use meth/amphetamine among youths, it could not sustain these intention for longer time (Vogl et al. 2014). Hence, to sustain the long-term knowledge and preventive behavior related to early drug onset, it is necessary to continue ongoing intervention in a sequential and regular pattern. The feasibility of the program can be further increased by encouraging children to bring their own laptop to schools. Among all the alcohol education programs implemented in schools, the Climate Schools, All Stars and Project ALERT was most effective in yielding positive results for children. Many other programs lacked efficacy because of poor quality of research and inconsistency in approach. The programs which gave evidence of good effect included revealed use of multiple peer-reviewed publications as the reason for good outcome in such programs (Roche et al. 2014). Similarly, the study regarding primary school drug education in UK indicated that impact cannot be measure as understanding of true effects requires long timescale. Therefore, the study suggested that those programs are successful that are long-term and intensive on their goals and employ interacting teaching styles and wider community to mitigate the early drug use (Lloyd et al. 2000). Hence, the review suggest that most effective alcohol education program is dependent on availability of effective resource such as managing accessibili ty issues and training staffs in efficiently adapting the program in school setting. Furthermore, extension of supportive network is also essential to guarantee the success of the program such as collaboration with families and local community to bring a cultural change and reinforce preventive message not just in schools but at family and community level too. Preventative strategies for youth drug onset: policies: The National Drug Strategy (NDS) is one of the policies regarding the prevention of substance use, risk and harm in Australia. This was a supply reduction and harm reduction strategy to disrupt supply of illicit drugs, prevent uptake of harmful drugs and reduce drug related to harm to people. The National Drug Strategic Framework was implemented in Australia in 2004 which provided a balanced approach to reducing the supply and demand of drugs. Apart from training, monitoring and evaluation, the policy also focussed on research and other measures to prevent the harm associated with drug use (National Drug Strategy - National Drug Strategic Framework 2017). The goal of the national policy was to set an evidence based prevention agenda by means of strategic mapping of system and pathways that are interconnected with risk factors and outcome. The strategy was effective as it dependent on extensive review of scientific literature to implement corrective actions for the community. Extensiv e research was done in all areas related to efficacy of different risk and protection model, cost-effectiveness of alcohol and drug interventions, legal status of drugs, patterns of use in early years and impact on individual and families (Butler 2005). There is strong implication of the efficacy of this policy. The developments and actions mentioned in this policy can guide public level action reducing the harm of drug use among youths. In future, there is a need to invest in early childhood development and maximize human potential to take full advantage of the protection and risk reduction approach to prevention of drugs. Cannabis is one of the drugs highly used by adolescent children and young adults. They intermittently use this drug till the age of 20 for experimentation purpose and very few of them proceed to long-term regular use. Considering the high prevalence of lifetime use among females in between 1995 to 2000, a vigorous campaign was launched to take action against this practice. To distinguish harm reduction as a policy goal, the main criteria was to include harm reduction as a primary goal and to plan strategies that can bring net-reduction in drug-related harm. Some of the issues found in the strategy of harm reduction is that lack of longitudinal research on adverse health effects delayed making causal inferences. Secondly, the irrational policy and drug law reform acted as an obstacle in evaluation of action for explicit harm reduction. This issue is widely found in raising awareness regarding harm reduction for cannabis. The most probable chronic harm of regular use include cannabis d ependence syndrome, cognitive impairment, respiratory distress and the harm related to acute use include psychological impact such as dysphoria, panic attacks and paranoia. As adolescents particularly belong to high-risk group for adverse effect of cannabis, there is a need to consider legal harm of preventive cannabis use among youths (Swift et al. 2000). There is a need to develop a balance between harm reduction approach and acceptable public message so that other issues are not exacerbated. A realistic and flexible approach will help to yield positive results. Recent research findings should also be included in the strategy to reduce the harm related to enhance health and well-being of society. There is great argument regarding the implementation of the harm reduction approach into an adolescent context. This debate exists due to the views on zero tolerance and legalization of certain drugs. Zero tolerance approach is also not ethically correct because abrupt ban or disruption may also harm addicted individual or youths. Zero tolerance promotes complete prohibition of any form of drug use. On the other hand, legalization and decriminalization of drugs involves removing criminal sanction for possession and sale of drugs. Many oppose these two steps as by this means drug use will further increase among youths (Bonomo and Bowes 2001). Harm reduction approach can balance these two extreme issues by means of implementing two forms of strategies. The first may focus on reducing harms among drug users and other may focus on those vulnerable to initiating drug use. For example, educational campaigns related to safely injecting drugs can reduce blood borne infection and educational strategies on social context can educate young children about the risk of this drugs in their development stage. This would be a rational and relevant approach to achieve better response and prevent drug-related harm. Recommendation to improve program or strategies to current program and strategies: The review and evaluation of current program and strategies to delay the age of drug onset presents weakness in approach resulting in poor response or wide issues at public level. Although some programs were found to be highly effective in integrating right resource to reduce the use of drugs, other programs failed due to lack of adequate infrastructure and training in staff regarding implementing the program. This problem was mainly seen in educational program implemented at school level. For instance, Climate school program was highly efficacious in reducing drug related in harm in school children, however poor outcome was seen due to limitations in infrastructure and design of the program. To improve the performance of school-based educational program in reducing risk of drug use, there is a need to specifically target high-risk group adolescents. The advantage of focusing on high-risk group is that it will maximize preventive outcome for high-risk students as well as lead to positive health behaviour in other youths (Teesson et al. 2012). Secondly limitation found from the evaluation of approach was that educational programs and modules were prepared without integration of peer-reviewed intervention strategies to prevent drug use. This resulted in poor quality of prevention programs resulting in poor or moderate outcome. Hence, extensive research is required while preparing educational modules so that evidence based public intervention is delivered and the program has the potential to improve health behaviour in long-term too (Jenson and Fraser 2015). Improvement in primary prevention strategies for drug prevention is also necessary so and it should be based on theoretical foundation for prevention. For example, while designing educational programs, social determinants, risk and protective factors of health should be adequately covered (Munro and Ramsden, 2017). There are various public health system model available and selecting of these models should depend on the setting, context and severity of drug use issue in target group. Community based approach is necessary so that not just youths, but teachers, parents and local community groups are involved in curbing the menace of high drug use among children. To promote success of intervention, infrastructure and program should be tailored to the needs of the local community and keys actions should be consistent with overall program objectives (Spooner 2009). Conclusion: The essay focused on the public health issue of high prevalence and early onset of drug use among youths. Youths engage in this practice to experiment or gain the ecstasy of drugs. As many of them shift to lifetime consumption of drugs, it leads to many health related consequences such as drug dependency, psychological problem and paranoia. Hence, the evaluation of current educational program and policies was necessary to analyse the extent to which they are effective in delaying in early onset of drugs. This evaluation helped in the identification of limitations in the approach and proposed possible recommendation to yield better results and sustain them for long-term too. Reference Bonomo, Y.A. and Bowes, G., 2001. Putting harm reduction into an adolescent context.Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health,37(1), pp.5-8. Butler, S., 2005. The prevention of substance use, risk and harm in Australia: a review of the evidence.Drugs: education, prevention and policy,12(3), pp.247-248. Jenson, J.M. and Fraser, M.W. eds., 2015.Social policy for children and families: A risk and resilience perspective. Sage Publications. Lloyd, Ruth Joyce, Jane Hurry, Mike Ashton, C., 2000. The effectiveness of primary school drug education.Drugs: education, prevention and policy,7(2), pp.109-126. Modesto-Lowe, V., Petry, N.M. and McCartney, M., 2008. Intervening early to reduce developmentally harmful substance use among youth populations.The Medical journal of Australia,188(8), p.494. Munro, G. and Ramsden, R. 2017.Primary prevention: preventing uptake of drugs. [online] Available at: https://file:///C:/Users/SONY/Desktop/Shopify/Shopify/1315953_80810843_DrugUseinAustralianSociety.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. National Drug Strategy - National Drug Strategic Framework. 2017. Nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au. [online] Available at: https://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/publishing.nsf/Content/national-drug-strategic-framework-lp [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Roche, A., Battams, S., Cameron, J. and Lee, N., 2014.Alcohol education for Australian schools: What are the most effective programs?. [online] Available at: https://nceta.flinders.edu.au/files/7914/1534/0597/EN556.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Spooner, C. 2009.Causes and correlates of adolescent drug abuse and implications for treatment. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09595239996329 [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Swift, Jan Copeland, Simon Lenton, W., 2000. Cannabis and harm reduction.Drug and Alcohol Review,19(1), pp.101-112. Teesson, M., Newton, N.C. and Barrett, E.L., 2012. Australian school?based prevention programs for alcohol and other drugs: A systematic review.Drug and Alcohol Review,31(6), pp.731-736. Vogl, L. E., Newton, N. C., Champion, K. E., Teesson, M. (2014). A universal harm-minimisation approach to preventing psychostimulant and cannabis use in adolescents: a cluster randomised controlled trial.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy,9(1), 24.

Nitrogen Essays - Industrial Gases, Nitrogen, Pnictogen,

Nitrogen Nitrogen, symbol N, gaseous element that makes up the largest portion of the earth's atmosphere. The atomic number of nitrogen is 7. Nitrogen is in group 15 (or Va) of the periodic table. Nitrogen was discovered by the British physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772 and recognized as an elemental gas by the French chemist, Antoine Laurent Lavoiser about 1776. Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless tasteless, nontoxic gas. It can be condensed into a colorless liquid, which can be compressed into a colorless, crystalline solid. Nitrogen exists in two natural forms, and four radioactive forms (artificial). Nitrogen melts at -210.01 degrees C, (-349.02 F), boils at -195.79 C (320.42 F), and has a density of 1.251 g/liter at 0 C (32 F) and 1 atmosphere pressure. The atomic weight of nitrogen is 14.007. Nitrogen is obtained from the atmosphere by passing air over heated copper of iron. The oxygen is removed from the air, leaving nitrogen mixed with inert gases. Pure nitrogen is obtained by fractional distillation of liquid air; because liquid nitrogen has a lower boiling point than liquid oxygen, the nitrogen distills of first an can be collected. Nitrogen compresses about 4/5ths by volume of the atmosphere. Nitrogen is inert and serves as a diluent for oxygen in burning and respiration processes. It is an important element in plant nutrition; certain bacteria in the soil convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form, such as nitrate, that can be absorbed by plants, a process called nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen in the form of protein is an important constituent of animal tissue. The element occurs in the combined state in minerals, of which saltpeter (KNO ) and Chile saltpeter (NaNO ) are commercially important products. Nitrogen combines with other elements only at very high temperatures of pressures. It is converted to an active form by passing through an electronic discharge at low pressure. The nitrogen so produced is very active, combining with alkali metals to form azides; with the vapor of zinc, mercury cadmium, and arsenic to form nitrides; and with many hydrocarbons to form hydrocyanic acid and cyanides, also known as nitriles. Activated nitrogen returns to ordinary nitrogen in about one minute. In the combined state nitrogen takes part in many reactions; it forms so many compounds that a systematic scheme of compounds containing nitrogen in place of oxygen was created by the American chemist Edward Franklin. In compounds nitrogen exists in all the valence states between -3 and +5. Ammonia, hydrazine, and hydroxylamine represent compounds in which the valence of nitrogen is -3, -2, and -1, respectively. Oxides of nitrogen represent nitrogen in all the positive valence states. Most of the nitrogen used in the chemical industry is obtained by the fractional distillation of liquid air. It is then used to synthesize ammonia. From ammonia produced in this manner, a wide variety of important chemical products are prepared, including fertilizers, nitric acid, urea, hydrazine, and amines. In addition, an ammonia compound is used in the preparation of nitrous oxide (N 0) a colorless gas popularly known as laughing gas. Mixed with oxygen, nitrous oxide is used as an anesthetic for some types of surgery. Used as a coolant, liquid nitrogen has found widespread application in the field of cryogenics. With the recent advent of ceramic materials that become superconductive at the boiling point of nitrogen, the use of nitrogen as a coolant is increasing. In conclusion, it seems as if Nitrogen is very helpful in the modern world. It is used in dentists office's to using it for industrial applications. Without this element the world would be a little different in some fields.

Character Study - The Inspector from An An Inspector Calls essays

Character Study - The Inspector from An An Inspector Calls essays After watching an Inspector calls, I am sure it is obvious to any one who watches it that the inspector is not what he seems at all. At first you have no suspicions of the Inspector, but as the play gradually moves on it slowly dawns on you that the Inspector might be an impostor. In this essay I am going to write about a few different points, and who the Inspector might be. All of my theories may be correct but we will never know which theory is actually right. The Inspector is obviously as real as all the other characters in body and can eat and drink and is solid. I know that J.B.Priestley became very interested in the fourth dimension and time. That is why I think that the inspector may have gone back in time or there might have been a time slip of some sort to make sure that these people new what they had done. Another theory might be that the Inspector represents truth and is not a real person at all but just a representative of justice. I think that this is a very plausible idea and probably Priestley's own thought. I think that the Inspector gives it away when he gets far too emotional and worked up about things. A real police inspector would not get so involved. Here is an extract from the play, at the end of Act 2 where the Inspector gets too involved: Inspector: "(very sternly) Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab. (As Birling tries to protest, turns on him.) Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man. I'm losing all patience with you people. What did he Say? Here the Inspector gets to emotional about such a small thing. I also think that a real police inspector would treat Birling with more respect. It is true what Birling says about him being a public man and telling the chief of police because he is a friend. Here is an extract were the Inspector treats Birling with disrespect; it is near the beginning of Act 2: Sheila: (urgently, cutting in) You mustn't try to build up a kind o...

Analyzing Plato's and David Hume's View of Death Essay

Analyzing Plato's and David Hume's View of Death - Essay Example The following will break down his argument concerning ‘prior knowledge’ or ‘recollection’. In turn, the philosophy of David Hume will be presented. Concerning death, Hume was famously a non-believer in any type of an afterlife, and famously, when his good friend Adam Smith visited him when he was dying, he just joked about it with him and was quite cheerful [Norton 23]. For Hume, all that exists, is within the 'perceptable' world. Where Plato maintained that we have prior knowledge, Hume argues that any notion of 'continuity' or 'sameness' through time, is a notion not that we are born with, but have been conditioned to have. What might appear to come from beyond the senses, is just the product of conditioning that begins in perception and the perceivable world. To state or argue that we have a priori knowledge, is to necessarily posit this as succinct from the senses. In other words, this is a form of knowledge which can be understood as ‘interactingà ¢â‚¬â„¢ with the senses or perception, but it is also a form of knowledge which is distinct as well. Toward establishing this important distinction, Plato raises the problem with respect to the notion of â€Å"equals† and unequal's. However, he arrives at these abstractions through an argument which claims that â€Å"learning is recollection† [Plato 73B]. ... However, this process of learning necessarily involves ‘recollection’, and second, we are capable of making abstractions concerning this process of learning. For example, from the notion of similarity and difference, we can arrive at more abstract notions such as ‘equal’ and ‘unequal’. Further, we can abstract these notions from the sensible or perceivable objects which there are often predicated of: â€Å"what of the equals themselves† [Plato 74C]. The â€Å"knowledge of the nature of the equal itself† [Plato 75B], is a problem which leads Plato to distinguish â€Å"prior knowledge† [Plato 74E] from â€Å"perception† [Plato 75B]. This is an important argument in relation to Plato’s notion of a â€Å"dualism between reality and appearance† [Russell 134], and moreover, it is an important problem with respect to the ontological difference between ‘continuity’ and ‘change’ which wa s raised in the introduction of the present analysis. In a sense, the â€Å"nature of the equal itself†, is given a different ontological status than things which are ‘unequal’. For example, in the world of ‘perception’, all things are different or unequal. In other words, there is change, decay, growth, death, corruption, generation, and so forth. As mentioned in the previous section, all of nature is marked by a process of â€Å"becoming† [Plato 71E]. Thus, if everything which we perceive is different and changing, and yet we are capable of abstracting notions such as ‘equality’ – that is, we have â€Å"knowledge of the nature of the equal itself†, then, where does this knowledge come from? We could not have acquired this knowledge through

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster Research Paper

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster - Research Paper Example If left unchecked, these can result in casualties equaling or even exceeding the body count of the previous natural disasters. This being the case, this study intends to take a look at the specifics of the incident – what occurred, as well as how and why. Concluding the study shall be a brief reflection on the incident and its immediate and distant aftermath. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 The Disaster 5 Radiation – The Deadly Consequences 8 Reflection 14 Conclusion 15 References 16 Introduction The disaster that occurred at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant last March came right on the heels of the then-recent earthquake and tsunami that rocked the nation. The said occurrence was a consequence of these natural calamities, and was in fact joined by other nuclear accidents all over Japan. However, the one in Fukushima stands out as the largest. In fact, the magnitude of the disaster is said to be comparable to the tragedy at Chernobyl decades ago (Thomson- Reuters, 2011). The comparison to Chernobyl came courtesy of experts on the subject, which should say something on how catastrophic the Fukushima incident was. On the International Nuclear Event Scale, its rating was a 7, exactly the same as that of Chernobyl, whereas the Mile Island Disaster trailed behind at 5. As shall be explained below, the Japanese government tried to dismiss and downplay the incident to extent, but was eventually forced to concede to its magnitude. Fortunately, casualties resulting from the immediate disaster were relatively few. For sure, the natural calamities that preceded the disaster claimed over 9,000 more lives than the accident at Fukushima. Even then, the latter was still hardly equivalent to a slap on the wrist. The death toll immediately following the disaster numbered at 47. Two of these were Fukushima plant workers unlucky enough to get caught in it, and who sustained multiple external injuries before ultimately dying of blood loss. The other 45 who perished had been patients at an evacuated hospital in Futaba, and who had mostly been suffering from dehydration and starvation. Unfortunately, though, the relatively low immediate body count might be balanced out by an even bigger death toll if things are left the way they are now. As with the disaster at Chernobyl – and, more to the point, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the area remains irradiated, and cleanup efforts continue up till today. The threat of radiation is arguably the most terrifying thing to have come out of the disaster. The other consequences which have resulted from the accident cannot be seen by human eyes. However, these are unmistakably there, and can in fact result in a much higher body count if left unchecked. Even as it is now, the constant threat of being irradiated has rendered numerous surrounding villages and neighborhoods uninhabitable, which by itself is already a monumental setback for the unlucky ones living there (Maeda, 2011). The Disaster As already noted, the Fukushima disaster ranks among the biggest nuclear catastrophes in recent history, easily at par with or even exceeding what happened at Chernobyl (Thomson-Reuters, 2011) though still on a somewhat lower scale compared to the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs. Considering that multiple reactors were involved at Fukushima, in contrast with

Southwest Airlines' Cost Optimization to Create an Attractive Price Case Study

Southwest Airlines' Cost Optimization to Create an Attractive Price for Economy Class Travelers - Case Study Example There are many factors which have helped Southwest Airlines in its survival and success. This essay attempts to outline those factors and strategies on the basis of the following parameters: Financial Planning, Financial control, Costing, Decision making.Financial planning has played a vital role in growing its business. The correct timing of its decisions has made a huge difference in increasing market capitalization (Sims, 68). Southwest Airline has gained a further advantage by packing more seats into the aircraft which increase the seat kilometer revenue generated per block hour.Instead of buying more jets to deal with its growing business, Southwest planned and got better deals on the lease. Hence it paid substantially less per block hour for lease rental, than other carriers. Southwest has implemented its financial planning in such a way that low fares when combined with high frequencies and excellent punctuality have resulted in an increase in its revenues. Â  Southwest plans its finances very efficiently. Â  It hires new pilots with ten years contract and motivates them by offering a share in profits. This is an example of astute planning. It means that if Southwest was making losses at any particular time then the losses can be shared with the pilots. This strategy also makes the staff much more accountable. Another important aspect of financial planning was operating on low distance routes and targeting of road passengers.Southwest plans its expenditure very efficiently and effectively. The customer service strategy of providing a full meal was costly in two ways. One, it increases the per unit costs and secondly more staff is required to provide the service. Southwest’s plan of not following this trend has saved it the cost of food as well as the number of staff employed. In other airways, when six to eight employees per flight were required, southwest managed to function with only four. This kind of planning was crucial for decreasing the c osts and increasing the revenues.

Galileo Galilei And His Impact Theology Religion Essay

Galileo Galilei And His Impact Theology Religion Essay Galileo Galilei was a pioneer of modern science during a time period that revolved around religion, causing the great debate of religion versus science. His effect on his time period changed how people thought about the world and introduced science to everyone, rather than just the wealthy. His lasting accomplishments have made him one of the most influential scientists in world history. He made astounding discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, and physics; many of which are still used today. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564. He was born to a noble family but had financial struggles which his father, an accomplished lutenist, tried to fix by giving music lessons (Fermi, 1996). Galileo had displayed an exemplary ability to learn at an early age, and his father decided that Galileo should attend the University of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Fermi, 1996). During his time at school, Galileo became interested in natural processes and science, and his life as one of the most renowned scientists ever had begun. During the 16th and 17th centuries when Galileo lived, the Scientific Revolution was slowly gaining more influence. The revolution began with Nicolas Copernicus with his heliocentric ideas and ended with Sir Isaac Newton and the discovery of multiple natural laws (Hatch, 2002). The reason this explosion of scientific discovery was known as a revolution was due to the radical ideas that scientists had put forth in relation to the ideas the Church had established in Western civilization. Before the Scientific Revolution began, the general understanding of the world was solely based on religion. The Revolution allowed people to replace their religious belief with facts and reason. This was not an easy transition, however, because religion and science have opposing ideals and during the Scientific Revolution these ideals clashed. The Roman Catholic Church, the largest and most influential Christian Church throughout history, had massive influence in Western civilization in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Church dominated most of the Western social life as their interpretation of the bible was the only accepted explanation to natural occurrences in the world (Hatch, 2002). Most scientific theories at the time were proposed by theologians, and all science that was taught was through the texts of these theologians and was universally accepted as true (Newall, 2005). Aristotle and Ptolemy were also referenced heavily in the Church. Church influence had begun to wane early in the 1500s, however, because of the Protestant Revolution and the rise of scientific theories proposed by scientists. These scientists, such as Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, had done experiments and discovered that their results didnt match up with the Churchs results. This led to a conflict between scientific and theological scien ce (Newall, 2005). The beginning of the differences between accepted scientific laws given by the Church and the actual scientists began with the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and his De Revolutionibus, a book that explained that the earth revolved around the sun. Copernicus was timid about publishing the book because it went against almost 1400 years of the belief that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun revolved around it (Fermi, 1996). Unfortunately for Copernicus, his book was very difficult to understand and did not gain any popularity. The small group of scientists that could understand Copernicus book would usually lecture about it, as it proposed more factual evidence as opposed to the theological teachings (Fermi, 1996). These scientists who agreed with Copernicus were known as Copernicans, and sought to spread his ideas. One of the most prominent Copernicans was Galileo Galilei. Before Galileo began his research on the Copernican Theory, he conducted experiments on laws of motion. Galileo was taught Aristotelian science, which was very inaccurate at the time. Galileo believed that Aristotles theory that objects fall according to their weight was false, so he publicly demonstrated an experiment where he dropped a large ball and a small ball from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, noting that they landed at about the same time (Drake, 1980). Galileo states the difference in his experiment and Aristotles in his book De Motu (meaning On Motion), stating Aristotle says that a hundred-pound ball falling from a height of a hundred cubits hits the ground before a one-pound ballà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I say they arrive at the same time. You find, on making the test, that the larger ball beats the smaller one by two inchesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Speaking only of my tiny error, remain silent about his enormous mistake (Drake, 1980). Galileo called this the Law of Falling Bodies, stating that objects fall with the same acceleration (Drake, 1980). This was the precursor to Isaac Newtons first law of motion, which is still accepted today. Galileo made other great strides in physics and mathematics before he moved onto different subjects in science. Galileo has shown his mathematical skill when he created his military compass, or sector. This sector consisted of two rulers and an axis, and was used for many mathematical calculations (Fermi 1996). The sector was able to do many mathematical problems similar to our calculators today. During the sixteenth century, when there were many wars going on, it was especially helpful in military situations, such as figuring the formation of an army, the weight and arc of a cannonball, or the incline of certain environments (Fermi, 1996). This led to the sector being known as the military compass. In the early 1600s Galileo became interested in the invention of the early magnifying glass. He attempted to make his own version of the magnifying glass, and according to Stillman Drake (1996), he reasoned that one of the two lenses must be convex and the other concave, and on fitting such a spectacle lenses in a lead tube he found that it worked (pg. 46). His first magnifying glass was powerful enough to see ships approaching a couple of hours before they could be seen by the naked eye (Drake, 1980). After many hours of grinding and experimenting with different lenses, Galileo was able to create the first telescope. With his telescope, which was incredibly powerful for the time period, Galileo began his career as an astronomer. In May of 1609, Galileo used his telescope to look at the moon. He discovered that, contrary to everyones belief, the moon had mountains and craters all over it. Soon by January 1610, he had improved his telescope to be able to see Jupiter. Galileo noticed objects revolving around Jupiter and discovered them as moons (Shea, 2003). This was a huge step for Galileo in proving that the earth revolved around the sun and that the earth had a moon that revolved around it. After Galileo made his discovery, he published an article, saying: Here we have a powerful and elegant argument to remove the doubts of those who accept without difficulty that the planets revolve around the sun in the Copernican system, but are so disturbed to see the Moon alone revolve around the earth while accompanying it in its annual revolution about the Sunà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ our eyes show us four stars that wander around Jupiter, as does the Moon around the earth and these stars together with Jupiter describe a large circle around the Sun in a period of twelve years. (Shea, 1993) As Galileo observed the skies more frequently, he made more discoveries that proved Copernicanism was correct. While he made these discoveries, the Church had begun to persecute Galileo. Galileos work was censored by the Church while he published, so many of his studies werent completely published. The reason that Galileo was persecuted as opposed to other scientists before him was because of his ability to write in common Italian (as opposed to Latin) in a popular tone. This allowed everyone from scientists to bakers to read his works, and his works became immensely popular and were translated into several languages (Fermi, 1996). Because these works were so popular, it weakened the Churchs influence rapidly, forcing them to put Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life. Galileo lived almost 400 years ago, but his contributions to science and astronomy have made a lasting impression on our world today. His creation of the telescope and his studies of the universe completely revolutionized how we view space, and without him it might have taken longer for mankind discover the earth revolves around the sun. Galileo was also able to make great strides in physics, such as discovering that everything that falls will fall at a uniform rate. Many people credit Newton with discovering this law of physics as it is stated as Newtons First Law of Motion, but Galileo was the one responsible for creating the first experiments to prove the law true. Galileo was also one of the first scientists to take a stand against theological thinking and promote scientific evidence, which is still a conflict that exists today. Considering Galileos accomplishments throughout his life, he is one of the most important and influential scientists in world history.

Graduation Speech: Tonight We Cross the Finish Line :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Congratulations, County High Class of 2012, our thirteen-year marathon is over. Some of you may know I am a distance runner, part of an immensely successful cross-country and distance track program. We were fourth at the state cross-country championships, and we are the best senior boys team in the state. My involvement in athletics truly linked me with our school and granted me friends whom I will remember for a lifetime. One of the most important aspects of my time in high school was getting involved. Wherever your next journey takes you, don't sit back and watch the action. Take the initiative and you will experience the benefits. Just look around you. These are the people you grew up with, the people you were teammates with and the people you have survived dozens of classes with for the last four years. They are not merely faces in a yearbook. They are your people, your community, your family. They are the greatest benefit of being involved. Another concept I have learned from my participation in running is teamwork. No matter how hard we try, we cannot live our lives without others' help or without helping others. We must work together to succeed on the road ahead. This is the essence of teamwork. I know that even my personal success in cross-country and track is not solely mine. I know that my three district titles, one in cross country and two in track, in the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs, could not have been accomplished without my team's unequivocal support and for that, I thank them. However, along with the team element, we must remember one notion. Live life for you. Expect more out of yourself. Expect to reach the finish line, expect to finish first and expect to finish in one piece. Don't live your life striving to fulfill the expectations of your parents, your professors or your bosses. Live up to your own. Raise your expectations. Exceed them. Reach your potential. Now I have one thing to ask of you. Tonight, as we cross this finish line before us and set forth upon our next journey, strive to make a difference. Get involved to make our country a better place. Use teamwork to bring our people and the whole world together. I know to me personally, making a difference in our country and our world is paramount. Next week, I leave for the United States Military Academy at West Point, N. Graduation Speech: Tonight We Cross the Finish Line :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address Congratulations, County High Class of 2012, our thirteen-year marathon is over. Some of you may know I am a distance runner, part of an immensely successful cross-country and distance track program. We were fourth at the state cross-country championships, and we are the best senior boys team in the state. My involvement in athletics truly linked me with our school and granted me friends whom I will remember for a lifetime. One of the most important aspects of my time in high school was getting involved. Wherever your next journey takes you, don't sit back and watch the action. Take the initiative and you will experience the benefits. Just look around you. These are the people you grew up with, the people you were teammates with and the people you have survived dozens of classes with for the last four years. They are not merely faces in a yearbook. They are your people, your community, your family. They are the greatest benefit of being involved. Another concept I have learned from my participation in running is teamwork. No matter how hard we try, we cannot live our lives without others' help or without helping others. We must work together to succeed on the road ahead. This is the essence of teamwork. I know that even my personal success in cross-country and track is not solely mine. I know that my three district titles, one in cross country and two in track, in the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs, could not have been accomplished without my team's unequivocal support and for that, I thank them. However, along with the team element, we must remember one notion. Live life for you. Expect more out of yourself. Expect to reach the finish line, expect to finish first and expect to finish in one piece. Don't live your life striving to fulfill the expectations of your parents, your professors or your bosses. Live up to your own. Raise your expectations. Exceed them. Reach your potential. Now I have one thing to ask of you. Tonight, as we cross this finish line before us and set forth upon our next journey, strive to make a difference. Get involved to make our country a better place. Use teamwork to bring our people and the whole world together. I know to me personally, making a difference in our country and our world is paramount. Next week, I leave for the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.

Odi Case Study

Optical Distortion, Inc. HBS Case Study 9-575-072 Marketing Management MKT 6301. 002 – Fall 2012 Team Members Young soo Han Kevin Yang Jay Chi Lenny Liao Brad Standridge As of 1974 the chicken population in the US is already in excess of 400 million birds, with slow but steady growth expected through 1980. Given that fact that a great many of these birds live in tight quarters on very large chicken farms, a means of combating the chicken’s natural instinct to peck other chickens is needed. Pecking can actually lead to high mortality rates in flocks (cannibalization), which in turn raises the costs of farming.Debeaking has been used for some time with good results, but it has its own set of drawbacks. The lens developed by Optical Distortions, Inc. (ODI) holds the promise of reducing the threat caused by pecking, without some of the issues associated with debeaking. The specific advantages of these lenses will be discussed in the following report, as will a plan for mark eting this new product. By permanently inserting a pair of sight distorting lenses into the eyes of an egg-laying hen, studies have shown that cannibalization can be reduced from 9% to 4. %. Moreover, feed loss due to â€Å"billing† is substantially reduced relative to debeaked birds, allowing for much greater efficiency in feed consumption (less waste). Finally, given that lens insertion does not inflict the same trauma that debeaking does, egg production is not adversely affected. Given the above advantages, it is expected that farmers could increase their profit from egg sales by more than one-third (37%) simply by employing the use of the ODI lenses (Exhibit 1).Although the potential impact of the ODI lenses is substantial, there are some important assumptions underlying the anticipated value to farmers. For example, one of the biggest financial gains could be in the reduction in feed waste, so the assumption that hens with lenses will â€Å"bill† much less is crit ical. Test results have shown that flock mortality can be cut in half relative to debeaking, so another important assumption is that these positive results can be duplicated consistently in the field.Despite its disadvantages, debeaking is a practice which is familiar to chicken farmers, and the labor and cost associated with debeaking a flock is reasonably well known. It is assumed that a team of individuals trained to perform the lens insertion could process approximately as many chickens in an hour as they would if debeaking were done instead. This would keep the cost of insertion on par with debeaking and would thus lessen the concerns of the farmer. Tied to this is the assumption that a farmer’s own personnel could be readily trained in the art of lens insertion.Should this turn out not to be the case, it could prove nearly impossible for a large number of lenses to be deployed – a small team simply could not address the millions of chickens which would need to be targeted. If millions of lenses cannot be sold in the first year of business, ODI would find it difficult to survive against bigger competitors who are waiting to enter the market. This is thus an area of potentially high risk which needs to be addressed as early in the product introduction phase as possible.Bound up in the assumptions listed above is the underlying assumption that all chickens will respond in more or less the same way to the lenses. There are a number of factors which could allow ODI’s lens technology to quickly penetrate the market. One of the most important is the potential for farmers to experience a large profit increase (> 30% increase) through lower operating costs. Chicken farming is very price sensitive due to its low profit margin (roughly 6% profit on a dozen eggs from a debeaked bird).Use of lenses could allow this margin to increase to 8% or more (Exhibit 1); promoting this possibility should entice many farmers to give the lenses a try. Another key to quick market penetration is the achievement of one or two clear success stories. Given its very small size, ODI needs to focus its limited resources on product introduction at one or two large farms, continuing the focus there until the farmer/owner is pleased with the results. The farmer’s future endorsement of the lens approach would then be invaluable in generating interest from potential customers.As a means of attracting the participation of the first one or two trial farms, ODI could offer free lenses for up to 1000 birds, including insertion labor. It should be noted that penetration of the market can only occur if ODI can supply product in sufficient quantities. Given that there are millions of chickens to be serviced, it is imperative that ODI’s supplier be prepared to likewise supply millions of lenses on a consistent basis. The fact that ODI is bound by contract to a single lens supplier is itself a risk which must be analyzed.From a business continu ity perspective, it would be preferable if ODI could obtain its lenses from two different New World Plastics plants. This would then mitigate the risk somewhat should there be, for instance, a serious product quality issue at one of the facilities. As regards target segment, it would seem that the focus should be initially on farms with a flock size of 50,000 and over, since this would limit the overhead (fixed costs) needed to service these accounts (fewer sales and technical experts required).Also, by focusing on large farms, the sales team could interface with the farms directly, and there would be no need for a â€Å"middle man† to be involved in product distribution. Avoiding this intermediary would help keep costs down. Given the density of large farms in California (flock size of 50,000 or greater), it seems prudent not only to perform the initial product introduction there but to focus the entire first year of business in this single West Coast state. The first yearâ €™s planned production volume is approximately 20 million, essentially the same as California’s chicken population.Success in this region could later force farms in other states to implement the lens simply as a means of staying competitive. Rather than relying on word of mouth alone, ODI could promote its lens technology by participating in both industry trade shows and advertising in the leading poultry industry publications. Moreover, it is also possible that California’s Department of Agriculture could become an ally in promotion of lenses as a viable alternative to debeaking. It is proposed that lenses be sold at a price of $0. 09 per pair, which would in turn provide a profit per pair of $0. 026 (see Exhibit 2).Though the lenses appear to have a value to the farmer much greater than 9 cents, keeping the price in the â€Å"single digits† has a beneficial psychological effect and could help foster the perception that they are a good value. Moreover, if t he price grows much beyond this, the product will obviously be less attractive to farmers who might already be uneasy about adopting a new technology. Given a volume of 20 million units, a price of $0. 09/pair would produce an annual profit of $520,000. This sum would easily allow $250,000 to be directed toward future R&D (so the company can become more than a one-product company).Moreover, there would be more than a quarter of a million dollars remaining to fund rapid expansion the following year (to build a new regional office, for example). Exhibit 1 – Monetary Value of ODI Lenses to Farmers As regards putting a monetary value on the lenses, this can be estimated as follows: a. ($2. 50/hr*3 workers)/225 birds = $0. 033 (cost of inserting a pair of lenses in one chicken) This is essentially the same cost involved in debeaking a bird; for this reason it need not be taken into account when considering the benefits of lenses relative to debeaking. . Proposed cost of lenses to farmer: $0. 09 per pair c. ($2. 40*0. 045) = $0. 108 per chicken (savings in allocation for replacing dead chicken, relative to debeaked flock reduction in flock mortality from 9% to 4. 5%) d. ($158 / ton)(ton / 2000 lb)(156 lb per day / 20,000 chickens) (365 days) = $0. 225 per chicken (annual savings in feed assumes elimination of feed loss due to billing) e. Let’s see how b. and c. above translate into cost of production for a dozen eggs (assuming a chicken produces 22 dozen eggs per year): ($0. 108 + $0. 225 – $0. 09)/22 = $0. 11 per dozen eggs Thus, the cost to produce a dozen eggs would drop from $0. 50 (for a debeaked bird) to $0. 489, and a farmer’s profit per dozen eggs increases from $0. 03 for a debeaked flock to an estimated $0. 041 (assuming a selling price of $0. 53). This means a farmer’s profit could increase by approximately 37% if the lenses were used throughout the flock. Exhibit 2 – Pricing Considerations for a Pair of Lenses Fi xed Costs 1) Headquarters: $184,000 annually (for volume of 20 million pair) 2) Regional Office and Warehouse: $196,000 annually 3) Advertising in Trade Publications: $100,000 annually ) Participation in Industry Trade Shows: $100,000 annually 5) Costs of Molds: $12,000 x 3 = $36,000 (3 molds are needed to produce 21,600,000 pair annually) 6) Licensing Agreement with New World Plastics: $25,000 (per year, must be paid for 1st and 2nd year of production) Variable Costs $0. 032 per pair of lenses (cost to purchase from manufacturer, New World Plastics) So, in the first year of production, if 20,000,000 pairs of lenses are sold, the TOTAL COST would be: [($184,000 + $196,000 + $100,000 + $100,000 + $36,000 + $25,000)/20,000,000] + $0. 032 = $0. 064 per pair

Anthrax Virus essays

Anthrax Virus essays Anthrax is a horrible killer. Most that die are unknowing that they are even infected. The symptoms are black sores in the first instance, and abdominal cramp and vomiting and bleeding in the second. If the bacteria grows it will invade the blood stream and cause systemic disease. The inhaled spores are very fast acting. They travel very quickly to lymph nodes. Some of the cell stay in the lungs and cause fluids to build up. After its in the blood B. anthracis can expand because of their virulence factors. This affects the bodies immune defenses that are suppose to monitor the level of bacterial growth. The anthrax toxins also enter other cells and contribute to mortal illness. The toxins consist of three proteins: a protective antigen, edema factor, and lethal factor. These are harmless individually until they attach and enter cells. The way this happen is first the protective antigen binds to the cell where an enzyme trims off its outermost tip. Seven of those molecules form a ring that captures the two factors. Then the two factors attack the cells cytosol, and there they do their dirty work. They have now come up with ATR. It spans the cells membrane and protrudes from it. The protruding part has a receptor area, which are the attachment sites for particular proteins. The area is were the protective protein latches on or so scientist believe. Scientist would like to uncover the molecular interaction that enables protective antigen heptamers to move from the cell surface to inside the cell. I think that if they have come this far then its not long before they figure that out. The only anthrax vaccine approved for humans takes a different form. It consists of toxin molecules that have been treated to prevent them from making people ill. The way the do it is to grow a weaker strand and filter the bacteria cells from the culture and treating with formaldehyde to in ...

Essay Change Control

Essay Change Control Essay Change Control Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada Abstract Purpose – To explore the shared experience of organizational change from centralized allocation and control of services and resources to an empowering partnership approach to service delivery in one Canadian home care program. Design/methodology/approach – Applying an interpretive phenomenological design, data from in-depth interviews with a purposeful sample (n  ¼ 28) of providers, clients and informal caregivers were analysed using hermeneutic techniques, and validated by member checking and peer review. Findings – The overall experience of change was comprised of two dynamic change patterns: extrinsically introduced organizational development, facilitated by contextual factors; and intrinsically developed transformational change, impeded by the same contextual factors. The patterns together comprised participants’ enactment of an answer to the existential question, â€Å"To have or to be?† Research limitations/implications – While interpretive research does not elicit generalizable results, the ï ¬ ndings of this study illuminate the importance of choosing change strategies appropriate for the intended change, addressing what the change may mean to all involved, and confronting the contextual factors that undermine the change. Practical implications – New strategies are needed if engrained attitudes, values and beliefs about professional service delivery are to be changed. Originality/value – The interpretation exposes the nature of professional practice in health and social services, the impact of this work context on practice, and concrete strategies for managing organizational change. Keywords Organizational change, Health services, Home care, Social services, Canada Paper type Research paper Introduction Declining resources and organizational restructuring distract attention from efforts to develop more client-centred, empowering partnership approaches to health and social services delivery (Falk-Raphael, 1996; Montgomery, 1993; Stewart et al., 2003). Yet in the ï ¬ eld of home care, heightened consumer expectations and evaluations of approaches affording clients greater autonomy and voice in their care at home (Alberta Ministry of Health, 1993; Manitoba Ministry of Health, 1994; Saskatchewan Health, This interdisciplinary study was funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The ï ¬ ndings and conclusions are those of the authors. No ofï ¬ cial endorsement by the funding bodies should be concluded, nor should it be inferred. The authors wish to acknowledge the technical assistance of Ms Lisa Tran with the preparation of Figure 1. Journal of Organizational Change Management Vol. 19 No. 2, 2006 pp. 119-135 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0953-4814 DOI 10.1108/09534810610648861 JOCM 19,2 120 1996) support change in this direction. The limited research evidence suggests that clients demonstrate potential for involvement (Fast and Chapin, 1996), but changing care approaches to empower them as partners in care may be slow (England and Evans, 1992), stressful (Charles et al., 1996) and impeded by organizational barriers (Ferronato, 1999; McWilliam et al., 1994, 2001). Publicly funded home care programs in Canada currently confront this dilemma. Their services normally are delivered in a brokerage model by a diversity of service providers with varying degrees of client involvement in their care. Providers include case managers, often nurses or social workers by professional background, who assess client needs, and based on their assessments, decide, access, coordinate, monitor and control amounts and timeframes of resources and services. These case managers act as brokers, contracting direct in-home service from other provider groups, including professional nurses, occupational, physical and speech therapists, and social workers, and

Identity Theft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Identity Theft - Essay Example It has become necessary for people to be adequately educated about the risks involved and the necessary preventive measures. Identity theft is a crime in which an imposter tries to pretend to be someone else by means of using some key identification data of the victim. This may include social security numbers, credit card numbers etc. When communicating online it becomes even easier to appear to be someone else since the communication is not face to face but online and the distance between the two persons or parties gives advantage to the criminal. The crime may be committed to seek monetary or social or any other form of benefit. Recovery from an identity theft may be easier in certain cases of small thefts involving individuals but it may become very grave if reputed organizations are victimized and they end up spending large sums in repairing the damage caused to their goodwill (World Privacy Forum, 2012). The crime is very diversified and innovated in the present day. The old-fas hioned methods of rummaging through the rubbish bins or picking pockets have been replaced by software, viruses and programming scripts. Computer viruses have proved to be efficient ways of committing identity theft in which all possible identity material of any person or organization may be extracted and put to use in another part of the world and the victim remains oblivious to such activities. Identity theft may range from simply posing to be someone else to more lethal actions such as financial identity theft, child identity theft, medical identity theft to seek medical care or drugs while pretending to be someone else or identity cloning in which the criminal assumes the complete identity of a victim in daily life (Compton, 2012). The identity thieves operating online usually work by tricking you into providing your personal information to them through various methods such as phishing, luring with job opportunities, money scams or fake fraud alerts. Phishing involves an email s ent to a victim which redirects him to a fake website where you are required to fill up a signup form with your personal information. Similarly job opportunity forms are sent and personal information is extracted. Fake fraud alert emails are sent which seem to be legitimate mail from the victim's bank. The victim is informed that someone has tried to fraudulently access his account so he must send certain personal information for verification (Federal Trade Commission, 2006) Today the society is very susceptible to falling for such tricks of criminals since the spoofed websites developed by criminals are so similar to the original ones that an average person cannot identify and differentiate between the real and fake. A simple change of address form may be filled up by someone and the utility bills of the victim will end up somewhere else resulting in nonpayment of a charge and a bad credit report. Furthermore, the personal data commonly available on social networking websites may b e used by criminals to communicate with a victim's contacts and seek financial benefits while pretending to be him. An ATM or a credit/debit card may be duplicated and money drawn from a victim's account. Thus it is clear that every individual and organization must educate itself and others about the seriousness of the implications this crime can have. To address the crimes of identity theft, all countries and states

The World of Word Processing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The World of Word Processing - Essay Example The word processor for several years featured a monochrome display and the ability to save documents on diskettes or otherwise. The later models had innovations like grammar checking, formatting options, and the dot matrix printing (Ward, 2005). This Microsoft word is the most widely used processing software with over one billion users across the globe. Other commonly used word processing applications are the word perfect that dominated in the years of the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the Microsoft MS-DOS, and the open source application. The current word processor is very power and consists of images, graphics, and the text latter handled with typesetting capability. The term word processing, invented in the late 1960s by IBM, got recognition by the by the New York Times as a buzzword in 1971. The international Business Machines provided a program that would generate printed documents on a mainframe computer and described it as a word processor. The new software combined peoples, proc edures, and applications that would transform idea into printed communications. The original Microsoft word contained a dictating machine and a manually operated S electric typewriter. The term word processor was taken to mean a semi automated typewriters with some form of electronic editing and correction ability (Gordon, 2010). Most of the persons working in the United States as secretaries utilized the word processing and it had impact on their careers. By this time, the word processing replaced the traditional secretary and emphasized more on the administrative roles of the businesses and industry. The invention of the word processor occurred in two phases. There was first the standard operating system control program that vastly brought increased standardization in the 1970s. The format for all the files and memory had similar structure across all the machines of that class. To change the type meant stopping the printer and a manual change of printing element (Castro, 2003). Th e additional memory made bi-directional printing possible hence eliminated delay caused by the return of print head to the left of the margin possible at the start of every program. The second phase was the introduction of the Microsoft disk operating system to replace the control program Microsoft (Word processor is a facility that records keystrokes from the keyboard and prints the same onto a paper in a separate operation system. It is used in the production of any sort of printable material (Ward, 2005). The word processor encompasses a stand-alone machine that combined the keyboard text-entry and printing function with a dedicated processor for the editing of texts. The features and the designs varied between the manufacturers but new features added advanced the technology. The word processor for several years featured a monochrome display and the ability to save documents on diskettes or otherwise. The later models had innovations like grammar checking, formatting options, and the dot matrix printing. This Microsoft word is the most widely used processing software with over one billion users across the globe. Other commonly used word processing applications are the word perfect that dominated in the years of the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the Microsoft MS-DOS, and the open source application. The current word processor is very power and consists of images, graphics, and the text latter handled with typesetting capability (CP/M computers). The IBM for its microcomputers first chose this system though it

The decine and recovery of the US Steel industry Essay

The decine and recovery of the US Steel industry - Essay Example with foreign steel. However, this had significant, lingering after-effects that did not produce nearly the results expected or hoped for. Additionally, the power of labor unions added significantly to the decline of this industry during the same period, something that is currently being redeveloped by the U.S. political system. The steel industry has been plagued with lowered demand for steel products in construction and in automotive due to a variety of global economic factors being felt across the globe. This report highlights all of the factors behind the decline and the current slow recovery of the steel industry, including the aforementioned tariff and labor union influence, the existence of increasing pension payouts for Baby Boomer retirees, changing consumer and industrial customer buying behaviors, changing construction patterns globally, as well as the influence of Wall Street on this industry. Decline Factors – Tariffs and Labor Impacts In the early 2000s, the U.S. steel industry was plagued with considerable problems that were causing significant disruptions to profitability. First, there were many bubbles occurring in the stock market during this period that were eroding consumer confidence and reducing construction for materials requiring steel in their construction, such as automotive products and various consumer appliances. In an effort to help companies that were on the verge of bankruptcy during this period, President Bush imposed import tariffs as an effort to slow illegal dumping of foreign-made steel and also to boost profitability for these struggling industries. These tariffs consisted of a 15 to 30 percent commission by early 2002, however the end results of this effort were the production of internal disputes with domestic steel industry ownership who felt that this limited competitive edge and also made foreign buyers seek new market opportunities for the export of their own domestically-made steel (Blecker, 2002). Therefore, e ven though it represented more opportunities for domestic production to increase, it limited the scope of steel-related partnerships with disgruntled foreign steel producers and limited their expansion potential across the globe. Further, the backlash of various trade disputes did, indeed, force steel manufacturers outside of the United States to begin the process of looking for new export opportunities, thus eroding even more opportunities for this industry in the process. Additionally, during this time period, less regulatory presence in the steel industry gave considerable authority to various labor unions, such as the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), which began demanding higher wage increases for workers and therefore eroding profitability in an already struggling industry (Ikenson, 2002). What was occurring was that steel industries were already experiencing lowered demand for products both domestically and abroad and were on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. The powe r of these unions was exerted in an effort to prevent, at any cost, plant closings in an effort to save American jobs with the USWA. These efforts were ultimately successful, in conjunction with the new tariffs imposed, and forced steel industry owners to continue production and operate, essentially, in the red for a period of years until new regulatory powers began to erode the power of these labor unions. Today, there

Those who inspired me Essay Example for Free

Those who inspired me Essay Many people have numerous of people that may have influenced them once in their life. I only have three that really helped understand a lot in life. My mother, my cousin Tina and my cousin Tiffany are a big inspiration n my life. Without them I probably wouldnt be as successful as I am today. The first person that Influenced me the most is my mother. This lady has been there for me since day one. Without her wouldnt be here. She Is a very hardworking woman. Working two Jobs and managing two kids with not much support Is a big hand clap. My mother had me when It was her freshman year In college. Not once did she let that stop he from succeeding In life. I remember there were days when she would take me to school with her. Even though she had me while she was still In school, my mother graduated from college with her bachelors degree. She called me her little motivation and I was the reason why she worked so hard. The second person that Influenced me Is my cousin Tina. Whenever I need anybody to talk to she was always there to listen. She Is another hard working woman. Like most teens I would rather talk about certain things with the closet adult figure to me besides my mother. My cousin was and has lways been a very straight forward person. She will never tell you something just because you want to hear it. She rather be completely honest with you than to have you believing lies. As she always told me l been there done that, so I know what life was like as a teen. She has really helped me open my eyes and see a lot of things. The third person that inspires me is my other cousin Tiffany. She is one of those laid back, fun type of cousins but can also get very serious with you when it comes to your future. She has been in the naw for over 10+ years now and she has really inspired nd encouraged me to Join the naw as well. There have been times when I wanted to give up on everything because I felt like I couldnt do it but thank god for her cause she snapped me right back into reality quick. Well these are my main three ladies that have brought so much faith, love, encouragement, wisdom, inspiration, and so much more into my life. I am thankful for them each and every day that I wake up. As I get older I strive to be Just like them but maybe 10 times better. You can never go wrong with challenging yourself to becoming something so much better than what you are already aiming for.

Equity vs Debt Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Equity vs Debt Financial Statement Information - Debt and Equity Holders Debtholders and equityholders as claimants to a firm’s future cashflows are interested in assessing risk. Debtholders Debtholders are primarily interested in assessing whether the firm’s cashflow will be sufficient to make interest and principal payments on a timely basis The lower the probability of a cash shortfall, the lower the risk to the debtholder Debtholders therefore gather information about the firm’s liquidity, debt capacity and liquidation value of assets Equityholders Equityholders are residual claimants of the firm’s cashflows. Shareholders in effect, hold an option on the value of the firm’s assets, with the exercise price equal to the face value of the debt. It is well known that the option component of equity value increases with the variance of expected future cashflows – Black and Scholes (1973) and with the firm’s debt to equity ratio. Therefore, when equity has a large component of option-like characteristics, financial statement analysis focuses on assessing both the expected level and the variance of future cashflows when valuing equity. At extreme debt levels, the equity is a ‘deep in the money’ option and its valuation does not require the use of the option pricing model. More traditional valuation models suffice. Financial analysts are interested in assessing a firm’s Beta risk so that they can perform valuation of traded stocks, seasoned e... Equity vs Debt Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Equity vs Debt Financial Statement Information - Debt and Equity Holders Debtholders and equityholders as claimants to a firm’s future cashflows are interested in assessing risk. Debtholders Debtholders are primarily interested in assessing whether the firm’s cashflow will be sufficient to make interest and principal payments on a timely basis The lower the probability of a cash shortfall, the lower the risk to the debtholder Debtholders therefore gather information about the firm’s liquidity, debt capacity and liquidation value of assets Equityholders Equityholders are residual claimants of the firm’s cashflows. Shareholders in effect, hold an option on the value of the firm’s assets, with the exercise price equal to the face value of the debt. It is well known that the option component of equity value increases with the variance of expected future cashflows – Black and Scholes (1973) and with the firm’s debt to equity ratio. Therefore, when equity has a large component of option-like characteristics, financial statement analysis focuses on assessing both the expected level and the variance of future cashflows when valuing equity. At extreme debt levels, the equity is a ‘deep in the money’ option and its valuation does not require the use of the option pricing model. More traditional valuation models suffice. Financial analysts are interested in assessing a firm’s Beta risk so that they can perform valuation of traded stocks, seasoned e...

History 53 Judaism

HISTORY 53 FINAL 1 Id-According to the Old Testament, what massacre took place shortly after Moses received the 10 Commandments and why did it take place? Briefly list the main events in Moses’ life according to the Old Testament. Do any Egyptian sources confirm the events narrated in the Old Testament? 2 Id- When was the kingdom of Judah conquered by the Babylonians? Who destroyed the northern kingdom (Israel) and when? Who were the Prophets within Judaism and what was the focus of their message? How what they did and said can be compared to what Jesus did and said?When did Jewish people transition from pastoralism to agriculture and from being nomadic to sedentary? 3 Id-Where and when did Zoroastrianism originate? How did it influence Judaism in terms of the figure of the devil and the idea of afterlife? List 4 ways in which it influenced all Western religions and explain why some people argue that Zoroastrianism provides the foundation for much of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. 4 Id- When and why was the Temple in Jerusalem destroyed for the last time? Explain the differences between Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes. What was the Maccabean Revolt?What festivity celebrates this event? In terms of the 6 Ways, how did Judaism change after the destruction of the temple? 5 Id-What are the similarities and differences between Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism? In term of the 6 ways, what is the difference between the Kabbalah and Hasidic mysticism? 6 E-When was the modern State of Israel established? How long had it been since the last time that an independent Jewish state existed? Why is the state of Israel opposed by many Muslim states in the region? Which religions consider Jerusalem a sacred city? What does the term Zionism mean?How did the Enlightenment improve the condition of Jewish peoples in Europe? List 3 examples of European antisemitism. What kind of rationale did Christianity provide for antisemitism? Were Jewish peop le in Spain treated better under Islamic or Christian rule? When did the Holocaust take place? Approximately how many Jews died because of it? 7 E-Who was Mithra? List 3 similarities between Mithra’s and Jesus’ story? Why did Mithraism disappear? Approximately, how many people follow one of the forms of Christianity? Do we have any independent sources about Jesus written during his lifetime? What are the Gospels?Approximately when were they written? Roughly how many Gospels were written? When were the 4 Gospels canonized? Why is the information you provided so far problematic? What is the Gospel of Thomas? Is it part of the Bible? List at least 2 instances in which the Gospels contradict each other. 8 Id-What is the Resurrection? Which other gods in the Greco-Roman world were said to have been resurrected? What do the Gospels tell us about Jesus childhood, adolescence and early adulthood? Why was Jesus crucified? What was the relationship between Jesus and the Judaism of his times (similarities and differences)? Id- What religion did Jesus practice? What was Jesus’ position on judging others, on accumulation of wealth, on patriotism, and on separation of state and religion? How is this similar and/or different from the positions later taken by mainstream Christianity? 10 Id-Who was John the Baptist? What did Jesus do for 40 days in the desert? What was the political situation during Jesus’ life in his own homeland? Who were the Magi? 11 Id-Who were St. Paul and St. Augustine? When did they live? Why do some people suggest that they may be more important in the history of Christianity than Jesus himself?How did the idea of the end of the world shape Paul’s message? How did the position of Christianity within the empire change by Augustine’s time and how was his message influenced by this new context? 12 Id-What did the Edict of Theodosius in 395 say? Who was Constantine and why is he important in Christian history? The Roman empire was usually tolerant of many religions, so why did they persecute Christians? 13 E-How long did the Inquisition exist for? What was it? What was the Witch Hunt? How was confession obtained? Why were midwives often victims of the Witch Hunt? What is the idea of Manifest Destiny?How can it be justified religiously? How was Christianity used to justify the colonization of the Americas? When did the Crusades take place and what were they? How did St. Augustine lay the theoretical groundwork for the forced conversions of millions of people throughout the world? 14 Id-Who was John Calvin? How did Protestantism contribute to the development of capitalism? Does capitalism seem to fit with Jesus’ message about wealth? What major changes did Martin Luther advocate? What was Martin Luther’s approach on priestly celibacy? Who was St. Francs of Assisi and why was he criticized by Martin Luther?What was Martin Luther’s attitude toward Jewish people? 15 E-Did the creation of Protestantism occur peacefully? Why were many rulers attracted by Martin Luther’s message? In terms of the 6 Ways, how did Protestantism switch the emphasis within Christianity? When did the Council of Trent take place and how did it change Catholicism? Why was the â€Å"discovery† of the Americas troublesome for the Church? Why were the astronomical discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo opposed by the Church? What kind of changes took place during the 1962 Second Vatican Council? 16 Id-What are the 7 sacraments of Catholicism?Would it be fair to say that women had a subordinate role in Christianity until Martin Luther pushed for their rights? Why or why not? What factors contributed to the current decline of Christianity in Europe? What are the 3 major subdivisions of Christianity? 17 Id-When and where did Muhammad live? Why is it incorrect to refer to Islam as â€Å"Muhammadism†? How did Muhammad see his message in relation to Judaism and Christian ity? Why was Muhammad opposed by the Meccan elite? What does Islam mean? Approximately how many followers does Islam have worldwide? 18 E-What are the 5 Pillars of Islam?What are the two main subdivisions within Islam? What do they differ on? Which one is more popular (numerically speaking)? What is Sufism? Which one of the 6 Ways of Being Religious fits Sufism? Why has it sometimes being persecuted by some orthodox Muslims? What is the Hadith? Is there one or multiple versions of the Hadith? What is the Shari’a? Why is the Shari’a followed by some Islamic governments but not by others? When was the role of Caliph abolished? What terminated the Abbasid dynasty? 19 Id-At various times, Muslim governments have persecuted Jewish and Christian peoples or have allowed them to retain their religion.What was the most typical policy? How did most Muslims governments in the past approach the issue of freedom of religion for people who did not follow Judaism, Christianity, or Is lam? 20 Id-How did the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad differ from orthodox Islam? How did the war in Afghanistan contribute to the growth of Islamic fundamentalism? Which 1979 revolution has been heralded as a model for Islamic fundamentalism? What does the Koran say about righteous warfare? How was 9/11 justified by Islamic extremists? 21 Id-List 4 similarities between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.List 2 differences between Judaism and Islam, 2 between Judaism and Christianity, 2 between Islam and Christianity. 22 Id-What difference do you see between the view of sexuality held by Islam and Judaism and the one held by early Christianity? What is Tantrism? Is it part of which religions? What is the Taoist approach to sex? Is asceticism important in most Animistic cultures? What is the Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon)? 23 E-What is Stannard’s argument about the connection between the genocide of American Indian peoples and Christian teachings about sexuality and à ¢â‚¬Å"Holy† War?List 2 examples of how Christian teachings about sexuality affect modern American culture. Which one of the subdivisions of Christianity is still officially against contraception? List 3 religions that have strong sanctions against homosexuality. According to St. Augustine when is sex not sinful? According to St. Paul what is the ideal behavior in terms of sexuality? According to the Gospels, what was Jesus’ position on divorce and on sexual fantasies? 24 Id-List 3 examples of religious traditions using mind-altering substances. What is Amanita Muscaria? According to Gordon Wasson, which religious tradition was influenced by it?The use of mind-altering substances may fit best with which 2 of the 6 Ways of Being Religious described in class? 25 E-When did the Native American Church gain popularity among the tribes of North America? What 3 sources do various chapters of the Native American Church borrow from? Why have members of the Native American Church been arrested for much of the 20th century? Why were they denied freedom of religion by the U. S. Supreme Court in the early 1990s? What did Justice Anthony Scalia mean when he said that religious diversity is a luxury that the United States cannot afford?What is their legal status today? 26 Id-Where and when was the Baha’i religion created? What is its position toward other religions? Why was it (and still is) persecuted? What is its view of women, nationalism, relationship between religion and science, and concepts such as heaven and hell and the figure of the devil? 27 Id-In class we said that the modern world is seen the growth of both universalism and fundamentalism. What are they and what do they argue? What are their attitudes toward globalization? Why is the division of church and state problematic? Why is it necessary? 8 E-In what year was â€Å"The Age of Reason† published? What is the religious view embraced by Thomas Paine? How does Thomas Paine view Jesus? What is the essence of Paine’s argument? List at least 3 reasons why Paine holds a negative view of the Bible. Why does he believe Christianity to be hostile to science? What relationship—in Paine’s mind—should exist between religion and science? 29 Id-What role does nature play in Paine’s worldview? What does he say about the doctrine of Redemption? What does he say about miracles? What is his opinion of the Book of Ruth? What is Paine’s opinion of St. Paul?