Thursday, December 26, 2019

D.C. v. Heller A Landmark Second Amendment Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller directly impacted only a handful of gun owners, but it was one of the most significant Second Amendment rulings in the countrys history. Although the Heller decision only specifically addressed gun ownership by residents of federal enclaves like Washington, D.C., it marked the first time the nation’s highest court gave a definitive answer on whether the Second Amendment provides an individual with the right to keep and bear arms. Fast Facts: D.C. v. Heller Case Argued: March 18, 2008Decision Issued: June 26, 2008Petitioner: District of Columbia et al.Respondent: Dick Anthony HellerKey Questions: Did the provisions of the District of Columbia Code that restrict the licensing of handguns and require licensed firearms kept in the home to be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment?Majority Decision: Justices Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, AlitoDissenting: Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, BreyerRuling: The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms and that the district’s handgun ban and trigger lock requirement violated the Second Amendment. Background of D.C. v. Heller Dick Anthony Heller was the plaintiff in D.C. v. Heller. He  was a licensed special police officer in Washington who was issued and carried a handgun as part of his job. Yet federal law prevented him from owning and keeping a handgun in his District of Columbia home. After learning of the plight of fellow D.C. resident Adrian Plesha, Heller unsuccessfully sought help from the National Rifle Association with a lawsuit to overturn the gun ban in D.C. Plesha was convicted and sentenced to probation and 120 hours of community service after shooting and wounding a man who was burglarizing his home in 1997. Although the burglar admitted to the crime, handgun ownership had been illegal in D.C. since 1976. Heller was unsuccessful in convincing the NRA to take up the case, but he connected with Cato Institute scholar Robert Levy. Levy planned a self-financed lawsuit to overturn the D.C. gun ban and hand-selected six plaintiffs, including Heller, to challenge the law. Heller and his five co-plaintiffs — software designer Shelly Parker, the Cato Institute’s Tom G. Palmer, mortgage broker Gillian St. Lawrence, USDA employee Tracey Ambeau and attorney George Lyon — filed their initial lawsuit in February 2003. The Legal Process of D.C. v. Heller The initial lawsuit was dismissed by a U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. The court found that the challenge to the constitutionality of D.C.’s handgun ban was without merit. But the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the lower court’s ruling four years later. In a 2-1 decision in D.C. v. Parker, the court struck down sections of the 1975 Firearms Control Regulation Act for plaintiff Shelly Parker. The court ruled that portions of the law banning handgun ownership in D.C. and requiring that rifles be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock were unconstitutional. State attorneys general in Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah and Wyoming all joined Levy in support of Heller and his co-plaintiffs. The state attorney general offices in Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, as well as representatives in Chicago, New York City and San Francisco, joined in support of the Districts gun ban.   Not surprisingly, the National Rifle Association joined the cause of the Heller team, while the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence cast its support to the D.C. team. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty petitioned the court to hear the case again weeks after the appeals court ruling. His petition was rejected by a 6-4 vote. D.C. then petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case. Before the Supreme Court Ruling   The case title technically changed from D.C. v. Parker at the appeals court level to D.C. v. Heller  at the Supreme Court level because the appeals court determined that only Heller’s challenge to the gun ban’s constitutionality had standing. The other five plaintiffs were dismissed from the lawsuit. This didnt change the merit of the appeals court’s decision, however. The Second Amendment was set to take center stage at the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in generations. D.C. v. Heller  garnered national attention as individuals and organizations both in favor of and opposed to the gun ban lined up to support either side in the debate. The 2008 presidential election was just around the corner. Republican candidate John McCain joined a majority of U.S. Senators – 55 of them – who signed a brief favoring Heller, while Democrat candidate Barack Obama did not. The George W. Bush administration sided with the District of Columbia with the U.S. Department of Justice arguing that the case should be remanded by the Supreme Court. But Vice President Dick Cheney broke from that stance by signing the brief in support of Heller. A number of other states joined the fight in addition to those that had cast their support for Heller earlier:  Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Hawaii and New York joined the states supporting the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court Decision   The Supreme Court sided with Heller by a 5-4 majority, affirming the appeals court’s decision. Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the court’s opinion and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Jr. Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented.   The court ruled that the District of Columbia must give Heller a license to possess a handgun inside his home. In the process, the court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms and that the district’s handgun ban and trigger lock requirement violated the Second Amendment. The court’s decision did not prohibit many existing federal limitations to gun ownership, including limitations for convicted felons and the mentally ill. It didnt affect limitations preventing the possession of firearms in schools and government buildings.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Descartes Argument for the Existence of God Essay

Descartes employs what is known as an ontological argument to prove the existence of God. Saint Anselm who lived during the 11th century first formulated this type of argument. Since then it has proved popular with many philosophers including Rene` Descartes. Even though ontological arguments have lost popularity with modern philosophers there has been some recent attempts to revive them. Descartes formulation is regarded as being one of the best because it is straight forward and relatively easy to follow. It is also useful when trying to understand Descartes to keep in mind that he talks about two types of existence. There is the normal everyday existence we experience and a special type of existence which he calls, necessary†¦show more content†¦Descartes argues that we can no more imagine God not existing then we can imagine a mountain without a valley. In this analogy Descartes is trying to draw out the distinction between ordinary existence and necessary existence. The idea of a mountain implies a valley. It may be possible to argue that one can imagine a mountain without a valley but such structures do not exist in real life. In the real world mountains and valleys are found together. So mountains imply existence of valleys but unlike the imperfect existence we find in the mountainous world, God’s existence is both perfect and necessary. For Descartes, necessary existence as opposed to ordinary existence is the key. Descartes is pointing out the difference between the existence of God and the existence of a mountain. Finite things, says Descartes, have possible or contingent existence. For example, a finite thing such as a mountain relies on volcanic forces and weathering to bring it in and out of existence. Necessary existence on the other hand is contained in the idea of God. Therefore, God does not need anything to bring him in and out of existence. Descartes goes on to say that if God’s existence was not necessary then he would have to rely on something else to being him in and out of existence. This would mean that God would be neither external to the physical world nor perfect. This is of course isShow MoreRelatedDescartes Argument For God s Existence Of God Essay1103 Words   |  5 Pagespaper, I offer a reconstruction of Descartes argument for God’s existence in the Third Meditation. Descartes tries to prove the existence of God with an argument that proceeds from the clear and distinct idea of an infinite being to the existence of himself. He believes that his clear and distinct idea of an infinite being with infinite â€Å"objective reality† leads to the occurrence of the â€Å"Special Causal Principle†. I will start by discussing and analyzing Descartes clear and distinct idea of an infiniteRead MoreDescartes Second Argument For The Existence Of God1642 Words   |  7 PagesPaper: Descarte s’ Second Argument for the Existence of God As with almost all of Descartes inquiries the roots of his second argument for the existence of God begin with his desire to build a foundation of knowledge that he can clearly and distinctly perceive. At the beginning of the third meditation Descartes once again recollects the things that he knows with certainty. The problem arises when he attempts to clearly and distinctly understand truths of arithmetic and geometry. Descartes has enoughRead MoreDescartes Ontological Argument For The Existence Of God1302 Words   |  6 Pages10/30/2014 Descartes’ Ontological Argument for the Existence of God The Ontological Argument for the existence of God is an a priori argument that aims to demonstrate that God’s real-world existence follows necessarily from the concept of God. In Meditation V of Discourse on Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes presents his version of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God. In this essay, I will argue that this argument fails because necessary existence for a conceptRead MoreDescartes s Argument On The Existence Of God1834 Words   |  8 PagesIn A Discourse on the Method, Descartes attempted to prove the existence of God in a priori manner. He did not trust his own senses when trying to prove the existence of God and therefore he relied on the ontological argument. By making the same assumption made by Anselm, which was that an ontological argument assumes that existence is a predicate of God, Descartes is able to conclude that ‘God exists’ is true by definition because the subject ‘God’ , who already contains all perfections, alreadyRead More Renà © Descartes Argument on the Existence of God Essay1528 Words   |  7 PagesRenà © Descartes Argument on the Existence of God The problem with Renà © Descartes argument about the existence of God has to do with his rationalist deductive reasoning. Descartes deduces that truth about the existence of God lies within his idea of a perfect God and Gods essence (as a perfect being who must exist in order to be perfect). A rationalist philosopher, Descartes discounts human knowledge as a product of our sensory data (our senses) but supports the epistemological stance thatRead MoreComparing Aquinas And Descartes Arguments For The Existence Of God766 Words   |  4 PagesAquinas and Descartes both have arguments for the existence of God, with some similarities and a multitude of differences. Descartes presents two major premises in his argument with his degrees of reality principle and his casual adequacy principle. It is possible for Descartes to be influenced by Aquinas, but the arguments for the same thing differ greatly that even if any inspiration Descartes could have pulled from Aquinas work is minimal, to say the least. Comparing Aquinas and Descartes they bothRead MoreEssay about The Existence of God: the Arguments of Locke and Descartes965 Words   |  4 Pages Descartes believes that Gods existence is clear and distinct. God exists because the thought of God is derived from a completely clear and distinct idea from within his being (which he concedes is a thinking being). Having come from distinct thoughts, the idea of God can therefore never be considered a falsity. From this very distinct idea of God comes everything else that one grasps distinctly and clearly. He states, From the fact that I cannot think of God not existing, it followsRead MoreThe Ontological Argument For The Existence Of God1509 Words   |  7 Pages Descartes’ ontological argument is an echo of the original ontological argument for the existence of God as proposed by St. Anselm in the 11th century. To illustrate the background of the ontological argument, Anselm’s argument works within a distinct framework of ontology that posits the existence of God as necessity by virtue of its definition. In other words, for the mind to conceive of an infinite, perfect God, ultimately implies that there must indeed be a perfect God that embodies existenceRead MoreDescartes Meditations On First Philosophy1712 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) contains six Meditations. In the first two of these Descartes addresses doubt and certainty. By the end of the second Meditation Descartes establishes the possibility of certainty by con cluding that he is a â€Å"thinking thing† and that this is beyond doubt. Having established the possibility of certainty, Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God. The argument he presents in the Third Meditation for the existence of God has been nicknamed theRead MoreDescartes Fourth Meditation On The Existence Of God1382 Words   |  6 PagesIn Descartes’ Fifth Meditation, he delivers an argument that has come to be known as the Ontological Argument. It is here that Descartes argues for the existence of God, through a priori reasoning. In order to understand both the strengths and weakness of this argument, I will first break it down into its main premises. From here, I will argue that despite the simplicity and use of reasoning in the argument, the weaknesses outweigh the strengths, and ultimately that the argument fails. To allow for

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Platos Reflection on Metaphysics free essay sample

A combination of the Greek word, meta, which translates to â€Å"after,† â€Å"beyond,† â€Å"along with,† â€Å"among,† and â€Å"behind,† and the Latin term, physica, that simply means the science of matter and physical properties. Philosophers refer to this term to theorize about the different elements of the world in which we live and the world that truly exists. One of the most prominent philosophers is Plato, who set the foundation for many modern philosophers on their perspective of reality through reason. Plato believed in two separate realities; the physical and the immaterial. He claimed that a dividing line existed between the two worlds, and the immaterial or intelligible is of more importance in the discovery of truth than the physical properties of our world. Comprised of intangible properties but that can be seen through logic, the immaterial world is grasping the reason behind the idea of an object and separating those elements from the subject. We will write a custom essay sample on Platos Reflection on Metaphysics or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Plato explicates the physical world as anything or objects that is identified by one of our five senses. Within the physical world are two subsets, image and tangible object. Image refers to the shadow or reflection of the image. In addition, the physical object is self explanatory; the object distinguished by touch, taste, smell, or sight. Although primarily disconnected, the two worlds cannot exist without each other and the knowledge that pertains to both. For example, Plato utilizes a ball as the subject to form an analogy of the collaboration between the two realities. From childhood, we are taught that a ball is a ball based on others perception and knowledge of it; not our original thought. The ball exists in the world of appearances, physical. However, its intangible properties such as, roundness, exist on a parallel plane. Plato describes that plane as the world of Forms. In an effort to further enlighten us, Plato sets guidelines for the properties to forms. First, forms are objective; ideas exist through reason and not experiential. Objects that we perceive are reliant upon our experiences and verbal confirmation of the object and not the actual perspective of the object. Therefore, one can surmise that our senses are isleading, and the reality in which we live is different from others and the true reality. Next, forms are transcendent. The property remains true in spite of time and space. Third, forms are eternal. As aforementioned, Plato believes forms are unchanging; true concept behind an object is unchanging, redness. The form is separate from our subjective image. True comprehension lies in individually analyzing each separate form that comprises the object an d identifies it as what we perceive it as. Forth, forms are models; truest essence of an idea to which an object copies the form and combines it with other elements to create a copied version of a sample of the form. Fifth, forms are intellectual species; can only be determined through reason separating the being from the object. Lastly, forms are perfection. In its purest state, a form is a singular entity. A material object collects bits of forms and its perfection making the object itself impure. A material object cannot be perfect in its existence because it is but an imitation of several forms that only alone are perfect. Plato’s concept of reality or the simultaneous existence of the two realities are at best intriguing and worthy of exploring. However, as he himself stated, we can never come in direct contact with the immaterial world. Therefore, how can true knowledge be acquired or ascertained? Once again, it is not until we are no longer part of this world that we may finally discover the truth behind this vast universe and the world or worlds in which we reside.

Monday, December 2, 2019

To Spare the Rod Reflections of Corporal Punishment free essay sample

Spare the Rod: Reflections of Corporal Punishment Benjamin Franklin was of a wise man, who expressed many unique aphorisms In Poor Richards Almanacs_ They related to his different outlook on life. And one of his aphorisms read: Spare the rod and spoil the child. I strongly disagree with the view expressed in this aphorism because I believe that physical punishment afflicted against children will only produce an aggressive and rebellious outcome.The assertion that Benjamin Franklins aphorism lies upon is that children will valve Into spoiled adults without the use of corporal punishment. This term has the meaning of Inflicting physical harm towards another being for their wrongdoing. Franklin holds a clear belief that children are bad, and commit bad things. In turn, they must be taught discipline and control in the form of corporal punishment. If not, then the children will carry down the path of doing whatever they please without any consequences to follow. We will write a custom essay sample on To Spare the Rod: Reflections of Corporal Punishment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They will ultimately be spoiled, and only care for their own needs. The fault behind Franklins aphorism can be demonstrated In the studies found by he American Psychological Association. They stated that the more often or harshly a child was hit, the more likely they are to be aggressive or to have mental health problems. This fact alone illustrates that it is both not healthy or effective in harming a child to make them behave. Corporal punishment on its own does not teach children right from wrong.Although it makes children afraid to disobey their parents, when the parents are not present, they will continue on to misbehave. There is a much more productive way In teaching kids orderliness and conduct than a beat or slap. Children deserve better treatment and love than that. Those who agree with Franklins belief share the same mindset that all children are fallacious and amiss. These supporters of Franklin insist on administering punishment against kids by physical means.Therefore, this affliction will teach them not to act in an inappropriate manner again. If nothing is done after a child commits an unsuitable action, then they will think it Is perfectly fine to do it yet again. This is crucial to utilize corporal punishment as a discipline technique. Evidently, there are many opinions to the question if corporal punishment is cogent or not. Ultimately, it only teaches that violence is an appropriate response to problems or frustrations with people.This can lead to a cycle of violence and damage in the childs future relationships. It will be more likely that children will become defiant and aggressive in the future. Many times a childs misbehaver is a result from a mistake in Judgment. We hope that our own mistakes serve as learning opportunities in turn, we need to apply this same idea to children. The right to physical safety and protection extends to soldiers, prisoners, and adults under the law. The most vulnerable among all, our children, must have the same right.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Hollywood Cinema Essay Example

Hollywood Cinema Essay Example Hollywood Cinema Essay Hollywood Cinema Essay Prediction of Dramatic Intensity Trends in Successful Hollywood Cinema â€Å" I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries. † (Frank Capra) Hollywood movies have several elements like drama, action and comedy skillfully weaved into them. However not all movies are able to make a mark with the average viewer or the critics. Some movies tend to handle these elements in a better way than others, making them successful box-office earners, while others despite some really interesting scenes are not able to make it. It is quite intriguing that despite a great storyline and well-written screenplay, some of these movies are not able to hold the interest of the movie audience through the entire run. Thus, is it possible that the pattern of these elements can be deciphered to reveal an underlying trend in successful Hollywood cinema? This paper attempts to uncover a paradigm of dramatic scenes sketched in the all time classic, My Fair Lady, based on a play by Bernard Shaw titled Pygmalion (1913). My Fair Lady was a landmark, academy award-winning (1964) movie produced by Jack L. Warner of the Warner Bros. Picture. It was adapted to the movie version from a musical play with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The movie was directed by George Cukor and starred Audrey Hepburn as a poor girl Eliza Doolittle, with a Cockney accent who sold flowers. Professor Higgins, an irascible and egotistical professor of phonetics, struck a bet with fellow linguist Colonel Pickering to transform the uncouth Eliza Doolittle into a charming lady who could pass of for the â€Å"Queen of Sheeba†. What followed was a dramatic and hilarious set of episodes that included the tutoring sessions and the bond that developed between Doolittle And Higgins. The movie was an immensely popular musical and swept the academy awards with eight Oscars including best movie and the equivalent of best male lead for Rex Harrison. That Audrey Hepburn did not win an award, was quite a matter of controversy. My Fair Lady has inspired and been spoofed by many theater plays and television programs. It impacted fashion trends across Europe and America with the exquisite costumes designed by Cecil Beaton. This despite the fact that Lerner did not find it anywhere near the version directed by Moss Hart for Broadway. He also disliked the fact that the movie was shot in the Warner Bros. studios, instead of its original settings of London. The following section of this paper will make an attempt to study and explore the movie as a subject of analysis for a presentation style or pattern that makes it stand out as such a remarkable piece. The section tries to isolate one outstanding characteristic component and how it is spread over the movie. It elucidates on the proposition of defining a scene-based trend for dramatic play in the movie, to uncover an underlying schema for dramatic intensity distributions, a measurable and mathematically applied concept developed in this paper that can potentially identify successful movies. The paper than proceeds to introduce mathematical parameters developed for the analysis and the methods used to collect the data. The data is the converted into a form that can be used to apply the analytical concepts and presented as a measurable, defined and self-explanatory. The fourth section of the paper analyses the collected and formatted data to discover plausible logically valid trends that can be observed strongly enough to   lead to a conclusion. The section then summarizes the observations in mathematical terms and outlines the trends and their interpretations. The last section of the paper draws a conclusion based on the observations made. It also extends on what are the implications of these observations. Methods for developing concepts used for identifying trends There are several elements and presentation styles that are adopted by Hollywood movies in their screenplay. These styles and their language have evolved over time. But what remains unchanged is the presence of basic elements of storytelling. When one of these elements dominates a movie screenplay, the movie is classified under a genre defined by the element. Of the basic story elements in a movie, counted amongst the most common and rudimentary is drama. While action and comedy might be absent or minimal in some stories, drama is an unavoidable element of a screenplay. Thus this paper chooses to study the drama component of the movie ‘My Fair Lady ‘ and isolate a pattern in the use of dramatic intensity in its screenplay. Several other components could be used as basic parameters to isolate a pattern like the level of surprise associated through every defined unit of the movie. An interesting extension of the study would be to compare the trends and interrelationships of different basic elements in a movie, and see how a dominating pattern can offset the weaker parameter. Additionally, if this method proves productive, the study of various elements over a large sample set of successful movies can give an insight into which elements dictate viewer choice most.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Free Essays on Michelangelo

Michelangelo Michelangelo was pessimistic in his poetry and an optimist in his artwork. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo’s poetry was pessimistic in his response to Strazzi even though he was complementing him. Michelangelo’s sculpture brought out his optimism. Michelangelo was optimistic in completing The Tomb of Pope Julius II and persevered through it’s many revisions trying to complete his vision. Sculpture was Michelangelo’s main goal and the love of his life. Since his art portrayed both optimism and pessimism, Michelangelo was in touch with his positive and negative sides, showing that he had a great and stable personality. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo Buonarroti was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create for him a monumental tomb. We have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five conceptual revisions. The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life- representative of the human striving for, and reception of, knowledge. The third level, it is assumed, was to have an effigy of the deceased pope. The tomb of Pope Julius II was never finished. What was finished of the tomb represents a twenty-year span of frustrating delays and revised schemes. Michelangelo had hardly begun work on the pope’s tomb when Julius commanded him to fresco th e ceiling of t! he Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. The overall organization consists of four large triangles at the corner; a series of eight triangular spaces on the outer border; an intermedi... Free Essays on Michelangelo Free Essays on Michelangelo Michelangelo the Optimistic Artist Michelangelo was pessimistic in his poetry and an optimist in his artwork. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo’s poetry was pessimistic in his response to Strazzi even though he was complementing him. Michelangelo’s sculpture brought out his optimism. Michelangelo was optimistic in completing The Tomb of Pope Julius II and persevered through it’s many revisions trying to complete his vision. Sculpture was Michelangelo’s main goal and the love of his life. Since his art portrayed both optimism and pessimism, Michelangelo was in touch with his positive and negative sides, showing that he had a great and stable personality. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo Buonarroti was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create for him a monumental tomb. We have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five conceptual revisions. The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life- representative of the human striving for, and reception of, knowledge. The third level, it is assumed, was to have an effigy of the deceased pope. The tomb of Pope Julius II was never finished. What was finished of the tomb represents a twenty-year span of frustrating delays and revised schemes. Michelangelo had hardly begun work on the pope’s tomb when Julius commanded him to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. The overall organization consists... Free Essays on Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti was born the second of five brothers on March, 6,1475 in a small village called Caprese, in Tuscany. Buonarroti's mother, Francesca Neri, was too sick and frail to nurse Michelangelo, so he was placed with a wet nurse, in a family of stone cutters, where he, "sucked in the craft of hammer and chisel with my foster mother's milk. When I told my father that I wish to be an artist, he flew into a rage, 'artists are laborers, no better than shoemakers." Michelangelo’s mother died when he was only six years old, and his father, recognizing his intelligence sent him off to a boarding school. As a child, Michelangelo was moody, secretive, distrusted people, and was quick to burst into fits of anger. His father was a minor official of Florence, with connections to the ruling Medici family. When Michelangelo turned 13-years old agreed to apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio shocking and enraging his father. After about one year of learning the art of fresco, Michelangelo went on to study at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens and shortly thereafter was invited into the household of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. During the years he spent in the Garden of San Marco, Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study corpses, something forbidden by the church, those who gave him permission received a wooden crucifix, carved exquisitely with Christ’s face. His contact with the dead bodies caused some health problems in him, which led to constant interruptions of his studies. By the time he was sixteen, Michelangelo had sculpted both the Battle of the Centaurs, and the Madonna of the Stairs. After the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Michelangelo’s generous patron and the father figure in his life, Florence was divided as many political parties fought for command. Michelangelo moved to Rome where he was able to examine many newly unearthed classical st... Free Essays on Michelangelo Michelangelo was born in 1475 in Caprese, Italy. He considered himself a citizen of Florence and requested that his body be buried there upon his death, which it was in 1564. If between these years, Michelangelo made his mark upon are through his painting, sculpture, architecture, and even poetry to become one of the greatest artists on of all time. At age 13 he began studying with the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, best known for his frescos in the Sistine Chapel depicting the calling of the first apostles, Peter and Andrew. After 2 years with Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo moved on to the Medici gardens where he learned sculpture. The Medici were one of the ruling families of Florence and he became acquainted with two future popes, Leo X and Clement VII. The early style of Michelangelo is best portrayed by his statue of David, of David and Goliath fame, which he produced from 1501 to 1504 in Florence. The fiery intensity clearly visible on David’s face is a trademark of both Michelangelo’s work as well as his personality and work ethic. Shortly after completing David, Michelangelo was recalled to Rome for two commissions by Pope Julius II. The first of these was Julius’ actual tomb, which was planned to be the most grandiose tomb of its day. Some of Michelangelo’s finest sculpture work is shown here, including the statue of Moses, the Bound Slave, and the Dying Slave. The second commission for which Michelangelo was recalled was perhaps his most famous painting work ever, the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Here he lay face up on scaffolding high above the floor of the chapel and painted from 1508 until 1512. Most notable on the ceiling are the 9 scenes from the book of Genesis, the opening chapter of the Bible. These scenes include God creating darkness and light as well as Adam and Eve and the Flood. These scenes are surrounded by numerous other old testament subjects as well as the ancestors of Jesus Chri... Free Essays on Michelangelo Michelangelo Michelangelo was pessimistic in his poetry and an optimist in his artwork. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo’s poetry was pessimistic in his response to Strazzi even though he was complementing him. Michelangelo’s sculpture brought out his optimism. Michelangelo was optimistic in completing The Tomb of Pope Julius II and persevered through it’s many revisions trying to complete his vision. Sculpture was Michelangelo’s main goal and the love of his life. Since his art portrayed both optimism and pessimism, Michelangelo was in touch with his positive and negative sides, showing that he had a great and stable personality. Michelangelo’s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it’s natural state. Michelangelo Buonarroti was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create for him a monumental tomb. We have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five conceptual revisions. The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life- representative of the human striving for, and reception of, knowledge. The third level, it is assumed, was to have an effigy of the deceased pope. The tomb of Pope Julius II was never finished. What was finished of the tomb represents a twenty-year span of frustrating delays and revised schemes. Michelangelo had hardly begun work on the pope’s tomb when Julius commanded him to fresco th e ceiling of t! he Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. The overall organization consists of four large triangles at the corner; a series of eight triangular spaces on the outer border; an intermedi...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Investigation of Investors in People in the UK Leisure Industry - Essay

Investigation of Investors in People in the UK Leisure Industry - Using Fitness First as a case study - Essay Example The corporation’s entire staff, clients, and vendors were affected directly or indirectly when incorporating change. Fitness First UK’s employees work hard in order that client scan recuperate from the stresses of daily life. Perhaps by implementing Investors in People, the largest health club organization, which caters to their external people (clients) can also provide cater to their internal people (employee) and reach its objective more effectively. Hence, the focus of this project was to evaluate how the Investors in People Standard, can be implemented the current policies of Fitness First UK. The Investors in People Standard, or the Standard, provides a framework for organization to follow. However, the framework is kept open and flexible so that organisations can adjust and customize to meet its needs. Based on the actions of the planning cycle, the Standard’s guidelines are to Plan, Do, and Review. It is not strictly structured in order that organizations can implement the Standard in the way that is best. This makes sense and is highly effective because each organization and its people are extremely unique. Investors in People UK list their framework: Scutt (1998) lists, â€Å"The current Director, John Layne, joined Airline Operations during 1994 and quickly identified the need to improve its business performance, customer service, and reduce costs. The Director was aware of the existence of Investors in People and saw it as the tool that would facilitate the implementation of a culture to achieve the required improvements†¦It was formally communicated throughout the function and gained very strong support from the Trade Unions. Fitness First is the largest health club operator in the UK and Europe. Having grown from a single health club, twelve years later Fitness First has 1.2 million members in fifteen countries. There are 166 Fitness First clubs in the UK, which is the focus of this case study. They

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com - Research Paper Example The research paper "Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com" talks about the path of Jeff Bezos who has established the Amazon in 1994, and what great decisions brought this company to the current success. Jeff Bezos underlines in his interviews that he is a really happy person and he says that it is necessary to be an optimistic person otherwise no positive results are reached. The risk is a controversial issue for Bezos. He claims that to found an enterprise is a rather risky activity and the largest risks should be eliminated at once. To be an entrepreneur is to have an appropriate mind for it otherwise it is very difficult to solve different problems and to make different solutions. Bezos tells that he has learned the importance of self-reliance from his early childhood. His grandfather told him that it was necessary to rely on oneself and support oneself by one’s own methods and strategies. There is no one around but you to fix a current breakage or to solve a current problem. A constant search for new opportunities is a perfect perspective for solving potential challenges or business hazards. Jeff Bezos demonstrates his flexible management nature and his ability to adapt new strategies of leadership and management. When Amazon had to deal with financial challenges of the Company in 2002, it should have dealt with more than $3 billion operating losses. With respect to the experienced challenges and losses of the Company, it is possible to outline the key elements of the Amazon’s business model.... Risk is a controversial issue for Bezos. He claims that to found an enterprise is rather risky activity and the largest risks should be eliminated at once. To be an entrepreneur is to have appropriate mind for it otherwise it is very difficult to solve different problems and to make different solutions. Bezos tells that he has learnt the importance of self-reliance from his early childhood. Thus, his grandfather told him that it was necessary to rely on oneself and support oneself by one’s own methods and strategies. There is no one around but you to fix a current breakage or to solve a current problem. Moreover, it is relevant to work with an open and a creative mind. A constant search for new opportunities is a perfect perspective for solving potential challenges or business hazards. Jeff Bezos demonstrates his flexible management nature and his ability to adapt new strategies of leadership and management. When Amazon had to deal with financial challenges of the Company in 2 002, it should have dealt with more than $3 billion operating losses. Therefore, with respect to the experienced challenges and losses of the Company it is possible to outline the key elements of the Amazon’s business model. The superiority of Amazon in the online market cannot be denied, because Internet was not captured by large book sellers till 1994. Brand establishment of the Company was dependant on advertising. Moreover, a spirit of community is evident on the Web site of Amazon (Isckia 2009, p. 334). The Company publishes different reviews of the customers and provides other interested persons with reliable reactions of other readers. Tastes of their customers are reviewed and the Company is able to

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Questions on Physics Essay Example for Free

Questions on Physics Essay What happens to the strength of an electric field when the charge on the test charge is halved? 6. What happens to the electric potential energy of a charged particle in an electric field when the particle is released and free to move? 7. A test charge experiences a force on . 30N on it when it is placed in an electric field intensity of 4. 5 x 10? N/C. What is the magnitude of the charge? Q= 6. 7 x 10-7C 8. What is the electric field strength 20. 0 cm from a point charge of 8. 0 x 10 C? E=1. 8X105 N/C 9. How much work is done to transfer 0. 15C of charge through an electric potential difference of 9. V? W=1. 35J 10. A voltmeter measures the electric potential difference between two parallel plates to be 60. 0 V when the plates are separated by 3. 0 cm. What is the electric field strength between the plates? 11. Describe two ways to increase the current in a circuit. 12. Sue finds a device that look like a resistor. When she connects it to a 1. 5V battery, she measures only 45 x 10 A, but when she uses a 3. 0 V battery, she measures 25 x 10 A. Does the device obey Ohm’s law? NO 13. Refer to the diagram below to answer the following questions. a. What should the ammeter reading be? 1. 5 A b. What should the voltmeter reading be? 27V c. How much power is delivered to the resistor? 40. 5 W d. How much energy is delivered to the resistor per hour? 1. 46105 J/hr. 14. For each of the following write the form of circuit that applies: series or parallel. e. The current is the same everywhere throughout the entire circuit. f. The total resistance is equal to the sum of the individual resistance. g. The voltage drop across each resistor in the circuit is the same. h. The voltage drop in the circuit is proportional to the resistance. i. Adding a resistor to the circuit decreases the total resistance. j. The voltage drop to the circuit increases the total resistance. k. If the current through one resistor in the circuit goes to zero, there is no current in the entire circuit. l. If the current through one resistor in the current goes to zero, the current through all the other resistors remains the same. m. This form is suitable for house wiring. 15. The load across a battery consists of two resistors with values of 15 ohms and 47 ohms, connected in series. n. What is the total resistance of the load? 62? o. What is the voltage of the battery if the current in the circuit is 97mA? 6. 0V 16. A 16. 0 ohm and a 20. ohm resistor are connected in parallel. A difference in potential of 40. 0 V is applied to the combination. p. Compute the equivalent resistance of the parallel circuit. 8. 9? q. What is the total current in the circuit? 4. 5V r. What is the current in the 16. 0ohm resistor? 2. 5 A 17. Describe how a permanent magnet differs from a temporary magnet. 18. A wire that is 0. 50m a nd carrying a current of 8. 0A is at a right angle to a uniform magnetic field. The force on the wire is . 40N. What is the strength of the magnetic field? B=0. 1 T 19. A beam of electrons moves at right angles to a magnetic field of 6. x 10 T. The electrons have a velocity of 2. 5 x 10? m/s. What is the magnitude of the force on each electron? F=2. 410-14 N 20. An electric wire inside the wall of a building carries a dc current of 25 A vertically upward. What is the magnetic field due to this current at a point10 cm due north of the wire? B=5. 0x10-5T 21. Describe interference. Is interference a property of only some types of waves or all types of waves? 22. What happens to a spring at the nodes of standing waves? 23. Water waves in a lake travel 3. 4m in 1. 8s. The period of oscillation in 1. 1s. s. What is the speed of the water waves? 1. 9m/s t. What is their wavelength? 2. 1m 24. The frequency of yellow lights is 5. 1 x 10 Hz. Find the wavelength of yellow light. The speed of light is 3. 0 x 10? m/s. 5. 910-7 m 25. If the pitch of sound is increases, what are the changes in the following? u. the frequency v. the wavelength w. the wave velocity x. the amplitude of the wave 26. The sound from a trumpet travels at 351m/s in air. If the frequency of the note is 298Hz, what is the wavelength of the sound wave? 1. 18m 27. A ray of light strikes a mirror at an angle of 38Â ° to the normal. What is the angle that the reflected angle makes with the normal? 38o 28. A ray of light incident upon a mirror makes an angle of 36Â ° with the mirror. What is the angle between the incident ray and the reflected ray? 108o 29. An object is placed 15 cm from a converging lens with a focal length of 10 cm. Determine the image location. Draw the ray diagram for this situation and describe the image. d i = 30. 0 cm 30. An object is 36. 0 cm in front of a concave mirror with a 16. 0 cm focal length. Determine the image position. Draw the ray diagram for this situation and describe the image d i = 28. 8cm

Friday, November 15, 2019

Unprincipled Ambition in Shakespeares Macbeth :: Free Macbeth Essays

Unprincipled Ambition in Macbeth      Ã‚   The Bard of Avon saturates the pages of the tragedy Macbeth with ugly feelings of ambition - unprincipled ambition which is ready to kill for itself. Let's thoroughly search out the major instances of ambitious behavior by the husband-wife team.    Samuel Johnson in The Plays of Shakespeare explains the place of ambition in this tragedy:    The danger of ambition is well described; and I know not whether it may not be said in defence of some parts which now seem improbable, that, in Shakespeare's time, it was necessary to warn credulity against vain and illusive predictions. The passions are directed to their true end. Lady Macbeth is merely detested; and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall. (133)       Blanche Coles states in Shakespeare's Four Giants that the protagonist's ambition was not the usual narrow, personal ambition:    He has admitted to a vaulting ambition. We have no other evidence of personal ambition except, possibly, his own word in this speech. Onrushing events crowd the thought out of his mind and out of our view. We do have ample evidence of his ambition for his family, ambition for a son who might succeed him. [. . .] We think normally of ambition as a personal thing, but it is not always so. Macbeth's stupendous imagination, as revealed later in the play, gives him a breadth of vision altogether out of keeping with a narrow, personal ambition. (50-51)    In "Memoranda: Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth," Sarah Siddons mentions the ambition of Lady Macbeth and its effect:    [Re "I have given suck" (1.7.54ff.)] Even here, horrific as she is, she shews herself made by ambition, but not by nature, a perfectly savage creature. The very use of such a tender allusion in the midst of her dreadful language, persuades one unequivocally that she has really felt the maternal yearnings of a mother towards her babe, and that she considered this action the most enormous that ever required the strength of human nerves for its perpetration. Her language to Macbeth is the most potently eloquent that guilt could use.   (56)    Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare interpret the main theme of the play as intertwining with evil and ambition:   

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Was Bill Cosby right or wrong?

Bill Cosby’s address at the NAACP on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of education was definitely a shock to the black community, as well as the nation. Bill Cosby was a comedian, and a figure that was looked up to in the black community, however this speech ruined his career and reputation. Bill Cosby’s speech split up the black community into two. One side strong believed in what Bill Cosby said and agrees with him, while the other side disagrees with him and despises him. This speech impacted the black community very much, and even ruined his reputation, however I believe that he said was true.Although, he expressed it in a cruel way that left you cringing in your seat, it is very much true and action should be taken. His speech was the last speech of the night that shocked the audience and left them speechless. In this speech, Bill Cosby talks about the generations’ problems and what the parents need to do to fix this. This generation has teenagers dropping out of school, ending up in jail and not having a future. This is not the child’s fault but the parents neglecting their child and not setting those standards. There is a huge difference in respect and behavior now and what it was back then.Back then you would not do inappropriate things because it would embarrass your mother, and your family. Nowadays, parents would just say, â€Å"You are getting your butt kicked,† or â€Å"You are going to get smacked. † This is not discipline, but a threat that does not work, nor teaches your child anything. Children need to be taught respect and values, instead of being spoiled constantly and dependent. Bill Cosby implies that the Brown v. Board of Education was not won to see teenagers dropping out of school, but to have successful and independent individuals. I strongly believe in what Bill Cosby said is true.There is such a high dropout rate and where do they would they end up? Working part time jobs, or in jail . As a mother watches her son go to jail, she is crying, but the question is, where were you in his life? Where did he get this influence from? Where was his father? A child needs guidance, they cannot be alone in the world without guidance because what would they do? They would not know how to do anything without learning. A parent should always be in their child’s life, and as they get older to see them become independent and not have to worry over them. Dorothy Heights went through so much even just to walk to the school.She needed national guards protecting her from whites that would spit and throw things at her. Then teenagers now are complaining about classes and whining constantly. Bill Cosby is not trying to degrade you or make you seem like you are the worst parent in the world. He is just telling parents that neglect their child to step it up, and teach their children to do well in school, or to be successful in the future. When you do not teach your child, or encou rage them, or set standards for them they will fall and not have that support to get back on their feet to keep trying. Why?Because they are not getting that support they need. Bill Cosby did not say this speech for no reason; he is making a point that the black community did not go through the civil rights era to see a fifty percent dropout rate, or failures. They went through the civil rights era to see the future leaders, to see strong independent individuals, and to see them become successful in life. You would say that his speech was definitely harsh on the black community and inappropriate to say at an anniversary of this court case, however I can understand why he would say his speech this way.Sometimes when you want people to take action and tell them the truth you are going to have to say it harshly because it is the only way it is going to stick in their minds. It is hard to send a message and take that message and take action upon it. He uses a lot of heinous phrases that makes you cringe, but it makes you think. It makes you think am I doing my job as a parent? Am I there for my child when they need it? He uses these anecdotes and questions to have you reflect and think about your family and the black community as a whole. He wants you to see the truth and what is happening in this generation.I understand that his speech should have been happy because it is the last speech at the night, but he is trying to say the truth that not everything is well in the black community. He wants to show you that the civil rights era did not happen for nothing, but it was for black rights. Teenagers in the black community nowadays are taking that for granted and do not think about that, but shrug it off as if it was not important. It may be harsh, but I know he said this to send a message to parents to be there for their children and not to spoil them with clothes and such, but to spoil them in education to be successful.Bill Cosby’s speech talks about the f aults of black society and the reasons for it and what should be fixed. There is such a high dropout rate and no one is doing anything to stop those dropouts from happening. Where are the parents that prevent that? Bill Cosby is proving this point that parents need to step it up and stop spoiling their children. They need to get an education for their children because it is hard to succeed in life without having an education. I strongly agree with Bill Cosby because it is not just in black society, but also in the nation. I see a lot of students nowadays disrespectful towards adults and their parents.I see students that ditch school and act like that is nothing. It is hurting themselves as well as their family. Having an education is leading you up to be successful, it is your own life and you choose your path. You do not choose a path for your parents, but for yourself because you want to be able to buy things and have a family. This needs to be taught by parents though and standar ds need to be set and support needs to be there for the child. The black community is split in two between agreeing with Bill Cosby and disagreeing with him. I am on the side that agrees, and I support Bill Cosby all the way.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Age of the Universe Essay

The age of the universe is said to be about 13.75 billion years old. The method used in determining this age would be attempting to find the age of chemical elements, oldest star clusters, as well as white dwarf stars. Scientists also try to find the universes rate of expansion, and behavior of globular clusters, which are spherical collection of stars. In order to find this, scientists can use radioactive decay to determine how old a given mixture of atoms is in rock samples. In order to find the rate of expansion of the universe, The Hubble constant was the basic cosmological model dependent on density and composition of the universe. Some formulas used by The Hubble Constant is that the earth is composed of primary matter and the age of the universe is 2/3(Ho) with Ho being The Hubble constant (1). Another formula is that the earth is said to have very little matter and the age of the universe is 1/ Ho, which is now considered to be more accurate (1). The age of the earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old, about 9.21 years after the universe was formed. The main theory of how the earth was formed is the Big Bang Theory, or a star explosion. Some also call is a supernova. This happens in the universe when the wreckage from an explosion crashed into a cloud of gas, bringing in the ingredients for our solar system. The formation of our sun came first from the collapse of a solar nebula. After about ten to twenty million years after this collapse, dust then clustered to grains, to lumps, to boulders, to planetesimas. Soon it became chunks of rock big enough to have their own gravitational field. So, some plantesimals became the embryonic form of planets in our solar system today. As more asteroids and other planets collided with planet earth, crust began to cool and water began to form and collect on the surface. References Age of the Earth . (2007, July 9). USGS. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html Age of the Universe . (2012, December 27). The Age of the Elements . Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/age.html How did the Earth form? | The Planets and our solar System. (2013, January 1). UK2Planets | The Planets in our Solar System. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.uk2planets.org.uk/how-did-the-earth-form/ How old is the Universe?. (2012, December 21). Universe 101 . Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_ag Life’s Origins Early earth was not a place for ideal living because it was a fire and hell-like environment. So much so, that scientists even called it Hadean eon, which is an ancient Greek word for down under. It was a place with many volcanoes and some scientists even say there were continental crusts and oceans. Even though it was extremely hot, scientists have found that some bacteria could survive these extreme conditions. According to Watson, by using zircon crystals, they could tell that early earth had a definite wet temperature. The atmosphere consisted of carbon dioxide, water, and volcanic gases. Today, not as many volcanoes exist. No one really knows when life was originated. Asteroids may have hit from time to time, having an effect on life’s atmosphere by causing organic molecules to synthesize. RNA and DNA are the genetic material for all life, and they are made up of long chains of nucleotides. Nucleotides are made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus atom s. An important step in the origin of life is the ability of all living things to reproduce. Starting with RNA being able to self-replicate itself, we then evolve into being able to pass genetic material onto offspring, and then natural selection. Miller and Urey built an apparatus filled with water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, but no oxygen. They hypothesized that this was the mixture of the atmosphere of early earth and boiled and condensed the water to keep it circulating. Miller and Urey kept this going for a week and used paper chromatography to be able to show that many amino acids and some other organic molecules were now in the flask. Many other scientists have tested this experiment and found that amino acids, protein molecules, adenine, and other nucleic acid bases were present. Some theories suggest an electric spark could have helped generate these amino acids and sugars in the atmosphere, others suggest the first origins of life could have met on clay. Alexander Graham Cairns- Smith says clay could help the organic compounds become concentrated and organize into patterns similar to genes today. Some scientists theorized that life was brought from somewhere else in space rather than beginning on earth, which is also known as panspermia. In reality, no one is sure of how life began because no one was around to know, but these theories have helped us gain a sense of fascination and knowledge of how life was originated. References 7 Theories on the Origin of Life | LiveScience . (n.d.). Science News – Science Articles and Current Events | LiveScience . Retrieved January 14, 2013, from http://www.livescience.com/13363-7-theories-origin-life.html Early Earth Not So Hellish, New Study Suggests | LiveScience . (n.d.). Science News – Science Articles and Current Events | LiveScience . Retrieved January 14, 2013, from http://www.livescience.com/241-early-earth-hellish-study-suggests.html How did life originate?. (n.d.). Understanding Evolution. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/origsoflife_04 Miller and Urey’s Experiment and Molecules of life. (n.d.). Anthropological Study of Workers, Occupational Health, Public Health, Textile Workers. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from http://anthropologicalstudy.blogspot.com/2011/03/miller-and-ureys-experiment-and.html The Origin of Life. (n.d.). RCN D.C. Metro | High-Speed Internet, Digital Cable TV & Phone Service Provider. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/A/AbioticSynthesis.html Ancient Life Radiometric dating is used to date materials based on comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay rate (1). Some different types are radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating, and uranium-lead dating. They provide important information about fossil ages and the rate of evolutionary changes. Radiocarbon dating is used to estimate the remains of materials with carbon as of 58000 to 62000 years ago (2). Potassium-argon dating is used to measure the product of radioactive decay of an isotope of potassium into argon. This method works for calculating the age of samples a little over a few thousand years. Uranium-lead dating on the other hand, can estimate the age range of a sample from about 1 million to 4.5 billion years ago (3). This method has two separate decay chains, uranium series, and actinium series, occurring by a series of alpha decays. It is important to have different types of radiometric dating because the earth has b een around for quite some time and a lot of changes has happened in each era, epoch, and eons. There was not as much oxygen dependency in earth’s early atmosphere as there is today. The result of oxygen presence is mainly because of volcanic activity as well as oxygen producing organisms like cyanobacteria, in the oceans of early earth. Cyanobacteria as well as blue-green algae produced their energy anaerobically, releasing oxygen and taking in CO2, and releasing oxygen. Oxygen gained a permanent presence in earth’s atmosphere 2.45 billion years ago for the aerobic organisms that inhabited. When the plates of earth’s crust shift, along with their liquid layers below, this is called plate tectonics. This results in how our continent and land mass appears throughout time. Kenorland, one of the first supercontinents of early earth broke up about 2.6 billion years ago. Another supercontinent called Columbia then formed about 1.8 years ago, and after that Rodinia formed from Columbia’s remains, that broke 550 million years ago. The breaking of these supercontinents caused the earth to have freezing temperatures. Oceans broke out and then Pangea formed and split into two supercontinents called Laurasia and Gondwana. Laurasia consists of what is now North America, Asia, Europe, and Gondwana of South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia. These continents in time spread and broke to form what we have today. Mass extinctions are when a species has become wiped out. There have been about five mass extinctions that have occurred so far. The first that occurred was during the Paleozoic era which was the end of the Ordovician. Scientist found that 60% of terrestrial and marine lives had disappeared out of nowhere. The next mass extinction was the late Devonian. The environment no longer provided enough for the survival of these organisms. The third mass extinction was the end of the Permian during the Mesozoic era, where scientist found that 85.5% of all marine species became extinct. The Triassic extinction is the fourth one that happened in the Mesozoic era. Marine invertebrate’s population decreased by 50%. The last mass extinction caused the dinosaurs, as well as plants and other tropical marine life to die out during the Cenozoic era. Global temperature and oceans caused flooding for 40% of all continents. One theory is that because of the quick change of CO2 in the atmosphere, mass extinction occurred. While CO2 in the atmosphere changed, surface layers in the deep oceans began to sink. CO2 increased too rapidly for creatures to adapt in time. Some theories suggest an asteroid caused some mass extinction, hitting the earth. The asteroid might have blocked the sun’s rays or cause the earth’s temperature to rise too high. Periods of intense speciation happens because of mutations. Mutations come from ionizing radiation and other factors. Species that do survive, mutate and cause this speciation. Some researchers say that Earth is hitting the sixth mass extinction because many species are endangered and decreasing population. Researchers also found that major mammals have become more and more rare that they could be extinct in about 30 years. These endangered species, researchers found, may be the result of human activities like habitat destruction and hunting. So, we are b asically in a sixth mass extinction, because human play the main cause. References Biello, D. (2009, August). The Origin of Oxygen in Earth’s Atmosphere. Scientific American. Retrieved from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-oxygen-in-atmosphere Plastino, W.; Kaihola, L.; Bartolomei, P.; Bella, F. (2001). â€Å"Cosmic Background Reduction In The Radiocarbon Measurement By Scintillation Spectrometry At The Underground Laboratory Of Gran Sasso†. Radiocarbon 43 (2A): 157–161. Parrish, Randall R.; Noble, Stephen R., 2003. Zircon U-Th-Pb Geochronology by Isotope Dilution – Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ID-TIMS). In Zircon (eds. J. Hanchar and P. Hoskin). Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Mineralogical Society of America. 183-213. Wilkins, A. (2011, January). A History of Supercontinents on Planet Earth. io9. Retrieved from: http://io9.com/5744636/a-geological-history-of-supercontinents-on-planet-earth

Friday, November 8, 2019

Communications History Essays

Communications History Essays Communications History Essay Communications History Essay The premise r evolves around collaboration among artists, both professional and amateur, from a variety of tedium who are submitting work, related to a specific project idea, which is then produced an d aired to the public via cable television. Its distinctive are its inclusively, which allows anyone to s vomit and participate, as well as the collaborative nature which results in a variety of con tent and a unique online community of creators. Whiteboard is relying on the everyday artist, insist dead of massive media corporations, which gives viewers the ability to relate and take owners hip of the finished product in a unique way. Whiteboard has significance to our present culture, be cause it reflects the shift in our systems to independent productions over large corporations and t he use of technology to produce quality media. Through the rise of social media websites such as Backbone, Twitter, Instars m, Youth and Vine, increased value has been placed on the idea of independent count .NET production. More value is being placed on viewer control and input by the general public. Hitter cord on TV provides a way for people, who may have no connection to large production c impasses, to shift from being a consumer and bystander to an active participant and contributor o art, with an ability to follow the process as the work is formed and ideas are refined. This collaborative variety show combines the homespun genuineness of an endearing Youth s rise, with the focus and production quality of a larger broadcasting company. That combined with the broad array of talents from many contributors provides distinctively individual artistic pieces that resonate with viewers. Technology has had a significant effect on the possibility of even producing a show such as Whiteboard on TV. Artists are recognizing that creativity no longer is confine d to being shared n art clubs and museums, but instead online artistic communities are growing g and becoming vibrant. Because of increased access to internet and the rise of video sharing the current generation is realizing that they now have more say, more control and more i input into what is broadcast and what is produced. Publishers are now printing books that are written by internet celebrities with large followings. Humans of New York is a great example of the is, the popular photo blob on Backbone has garnered a following of millions, which has result De in a New York Times Bestseller book. Whiteboard is unique, an article in the Boston Globe des scribes it as a Streakier for creative where all the profits are split 5050 with contributors. (Mutter) The tally of Whiteboard collaborators on the story is 1,440. For its first episode De which aired on January 18, 2014. Previously, there has not been an avenue for such a great t capacity of creative to collaborate, be paid, and shared their art with such a large audience The idea of open collaborative art pieces, reflects a slow shift in the desire of our culture to be able to participate in the television and media we consume. Whiteboard o n TV allows ewers to be captured not only by the work itself, but by the story of the piece e, and how it came to be. There is a amiable quality of a piece, when you know it was created by r jugular people who very possibly created this art in their own homes. Similar to the success of You tube channels, that garner millions of subscribers and intense fan followings, simply off of ho museum videos, we recognize that there is more of a platform and a desire for less manipulate d media. The heavily produced, full of advertising, large corporation controlled media that my own generation has grown up on is becoming less desirable. People have more desire to be apart of what is being shared and created in m Edie, and this is now spilling over into television, through Whiteboard on TV where previously it was primarily through social platforms like Youth. The benefit Of this being on television r ether than only the internet, is that the production value can be increased and more polished, me Aiding the homespun feeling of sites like Youth with the production quality and polished feel of r jugular cable television. The Rolling stone reflects that the amateurishness is essential to the shows charm and part fatwa makes the idea of contributing to the show seem so access bible Viewers are deciding that they would sacrifice the top quality production and high pap d acting, for something they feel they could participate in themselves. Whiteboard on BRI nags together deposited actors and creative, like Joseph Gerontologist and Ell Fanning, or c median Mindy Killing, with people like me and you who simply resonate with the them e of the episode, and use our creative gifting to contribute. The show acts as an equals zero, where privilege,higher training, or connections, do not necessarily indicate our success AS, it is edged instead by content quality, shifting the focus back to the art itself, not j just the star power behind it. The premise of Whiteboard on TV, should motivate us as Christians to recognize e the opportunities collaboration provides, in art and ministry and community. Self essences is a necessary quality to use collaboration in our Christian lives. By collaborating i ideas, it requires individuals to not be so focused on their specific vision, but instead o n how the different contributions fit together collectively. When the body of Christ does t his we can focus solely on Christ and following him, and the unessential details pertaining nomination or worship style become less of a hang up. Collaboration also r fleets diversity, because each person has a unique perspective and skill set to offer. This can greatly benefit the body Of Christ as we seek grow in our siftings and Our relate unships with Christ and with each other in Christian community. Whiteboard on TV also has a strong sense of inclusively, where anyone can be a contributor. This should be manifesting itself in the way we live as the body of Christ. We ought not to only surround ourselves with people like ourselves, or exclude people from the Body of Christ, but insist ad it must remain open to all.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Spoken English - Definition and Examples

Spoken English s Definition: The ways in which the English language is transmitted through a conventional system of sounds. Compare to written English. Spoken English, says linguist David Crystal, is the more natural and widespread mode of transmission, though ironically the one which most people find much less familiarpresumably because it is so much more difficult to see what is happening in speech than in writing (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed., 2003). In recent years, linguists have found it easier to see what is happening in speech through the availability of corpus resourcescomputerized databases containing real life examples of both spoken and written English. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) is a contemporary reference grammar of English based on a large-scale corpus. The study of speech sounds (or spoken language) is the branch of linguistics known as phonetics. The study of sound changes in a language is phonology. See also: Speech (Linguistics)ColloquialConversationConversation AnalysisDialogueKey Events in the History of the English LanguagePresent-Day English (PDE)Standard EnglishVernacularWhat Is Standard English? Examples and Observations: Academic Bias Against Spoken English[L]inguists have inevitably had a long-standing and intensive contact with standard English. The nature of standard English as primarily a written variety, together with the immersion of academics in written English, does not augur well for their recognition of structures that may be more typical of spoken English than written English.(Jenny Cheshire, Spoken Standard English. Standard English: The Widening Debate, ed. by Tony Bex and Richard J. Watts. Routledge, 1999) The Relationship Between Spoken and Written English[I]n the course of the languages history, the relationship between spoken and written English has come nearly full circle. Throughout the Middle Ages, written English predominately served transcript functions, enabling readers to represent earlier spoken words or (oral) ceremony, or to produce durable records of events, ideas, or spoken exchange. By the seventeenth century, the written (and printed) word was developing its own autono mous identity, a transformation that matured in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and first half of the twentieth centuries. (However, through at least the end of the nineteenth century, spoken rhetorical skills were also seen as critically important to people with social and educational aspirations.) Since World War II, written English (at least in America) has increasingly come to reflect everyday speech. While writing on-line with computers has hastened this trend, computers didnt initiate it. As writing growingly mirrors informal speech, contemporary spoken and written English are losing their identity as distinct forms of language.(Naomi S. Baron, Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where Its Heading. Routledge, 2000) Teaching IlliteracyOne main danger is that spoken English continues to be judged by the codified standards of written English, and that teaching pupils to speak standard English may, in fact, be to teach them to speak in formal written English. A test of spoken English may become a test of ones abilities to speak a very restricted codea formal English used routinely by dons, civil servants, and cabinet ministers. It is not very far removed from the language of formal debate. Such a view of spoken English can produce an artificial and unnatural English and can even promote a kind of illiteracy which is as damaging to users of English as not being able to write literate English; for to have everyone speaking and writing only one codea standard written English codegenerates an illiteracy almost as grave as would be the case if everyone were only able to use a local dialect.(Ronald Carter, Investigating English Discourse: Language, Literacy, and Literature. Routledge, 1997) Henry Sweet on Spoken English (1890)The unity of spoken English is still imperfect: it is still liable to be influenced by local dialectsin London itself by the cockney dialect, in Edinburgh by the Lothian Scotch dialect, and so on. . . . [I]t changes from generation to generation, and is not absolutely uniform even among speakers of the same generation, living in the same place and having the same social standing.(Henry Sweet, A Primer of Spoken English, 1890) The Value of Teaching Spoken English (1896)Not only should English grammar be taught with reference to the nature of language and the history of English, but it should also take account of the spoken, as distinct from the written, form. The reasons for this seem to me many and excellent. For instance, it is a misfortune that the English language makes its appeal to the educated mind, mainly through the written and printed form. The appeal to the ear and the appeal to the eye, which should strengthen one another, are thus distinctly separate and divergent. Our orthography encourages this separation. It is, therefore, the more important that textbooks of grammar should make some attempt to counteract this tendency.(Oliver Farrar Emerson, The Teaching of English Grammar, 1896) The Lighter Side of Spoken EnglishIf Opals goin to be a school-teacher, mebbe she wants summat to practice on, grinned her father.Oh, Pa, you mustnt say summatit isnt a word, remonstrated his daughter.Aint a word ! shouted her father with increasing excitement. Well, hear that! How do you know it aint a word?It isnt in the dictionary, said Opal.Shucks, disparaged Pa, whats the dictionary got to do with it? The words that git into the dictionary aint common talkin words nohow; theyre written wordsnobody puts talk into a dictionary.Why not? questioned Opal, astonished at her fathers apparent knowledge of the making of dictionaries.Cause why? Cause spoken words is too lively for emwho can go round and keep track of every word thats spoke? I can make up a hull mouthful myself, and no dictionaryll ever know anything about itsee?(Bessie R. Hoover, A Graduated Daughter. Everybodys Magazine, December 1909)

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Philosophy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Philosophy - Coursework Example art of the discussion, special emphasis is placed on the epistemological and axiological foundations, as well as overreaching sense of ontology of the philosophers. This way, it is possible to view the schools of thoughts from a holistic manner as they shape the entirety of the world around them rather than the personal opinions of the philosophers alone. From the perspective of Rene Descartes, idealism is a metaphysical and epistemological reasoning that argues that ideas and thoughts make up the fundamental composition of reality (Earnshaw, 2006). By implication, emphasis is taken away from the physical world and the physical things we see around us into a realm of what the mind is able to ensemble for itself. From his perspective, Descartes saw what we know as a manifestation of our own consciousness rather than the makeup of the physical world around this (Warnock, 2007). This is because from an epistemological stand point, Descartes saw the physical world as a revelation of what the mental consciousness had produced. In that situation, Descartes would rather assign the reality of life and the things around us to ideas and thoughts rather than the product of the physical. The impact that this position held by Descartes on contemporary education and contemporary thought is that it has shaped and brought about a way of learning whe re there is much emphasis on the power of mind to reason and conceptualize ideas rather than put emphasis of praise on the end result of learning. In effect, in between concepts such as metaphysical science and technology, the real make up of the world would be assigned metaphysical science rather than technology. It is in light of this that Descartes claimed that â€Å"I think, therefore I am† is the only assertion to viewing life that cannot be disputed (Barrett, 2010). The philosophical thought of realism has always held the opinion that all entities of the world have their own objective reality that is completely ontologically

Friday, November 1, 2019

Case study of marketing Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Of marketing - Case Study Example Recently it won the Best Supplier Engagement Award at the Ethical Corporations 5th Annual Responsible Award ceremony held in Londons Mayfair on 29th September 2014 (Nestle, 2014). It also won the Most Inclusive Employer of the Year award at the European Diversity Awards held in London (European Diversity Awards, 2014), and the Ministerial award for its significant environmental achievements and initiatives awarded by the government of Vietnam (Vietnam Investment Review, 2014). The achievements of the company in diverse field are indicative of the company’s commitment towards its stakeholders and for global causes. This essay aims to discuss various aspects related to corporate social responsibility and creating shared value and other similar initiatives undertaken by Nestle over the years. The term corporate social responsibility has been widely discussed and debated across various academic and non-academic fields alike. It is defined as "a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment by integrating social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders" (European Commmission, 2001, p. 6). The UK government describes the term as "the responsibility of an organisation for the impacts of its decisions on society and the environment above and beyond its legal obligations, through transparent and ethical behaviour" (gov.uk, 2014). Nestlà © embraced the concept of CSR and actively endorsed the principles laid down by the term. This is apparent from the corporate strategies of the firm which are built around customers needs and expectations. The company recognises and acknowledges the need of the consumers with regard to having access to information about the products they consume. Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s approach of catering to this need of the consumers helped significantly in developing and

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Creating a Competitive Strategy for a Discount Retailer (MKT 100) Essay

Creating a Competitive Strategy for a Discount Retailer (MKT 100) - Essay Example This has induced a lot of involvement and commitment from the managers of the stores. CanadaCo stores offer significantly higher level of customer service due to the reason mentioned above. The stores are cleaner, more attractive and better stocked. This has resulted in higher per store sales when compared to the competition and has lead to higher revenue and market share. Though CanadaCo has a wider variety of products, the product mix is similar to that of the competition. CanadaCo can expand the number of product categories and also include a number of varieties for each category. The SWOT analysis has given a clear picture of the current position of CanadaCo and also the potential challenges it has to face in the future due to the recent course of events. It is clear that UsCo is a big threat to CanadaCo as it has a larger infrastructure in terms of man power and number of stores. Moreover, the stores are centrally managed and hence, UsCo’s initial aim will be to gain a considerable market share in a short span by cutting down the profits. It is evident from UsCo’s approach in the United States, that it gives greater importance to market share. It has expanded rapidly by focussing on gaining consumer trust. UsCo also gives great importance to brand image and positioning, as the cheapest supplier of consumer goods. The pricing policy of UsCo has been set to meet the requirements of the target consumers. It is a well known fact that acquiring a new customer is about six times costlier than retaining an existing customer (Jobber, 2004). Hence CanadaCo can take initiatives to retain the existing customer base. This can be done by the introduction of Customer Loyalty schemes. As it is evident that UsCo will take initiatives in the future to expand its market share in Canada, CanadaCo should effectively counteract this by being the first mover in

Monday, October 28, 2019

September 11, 2001 Essay Example for Free

September 11, 2001 Essay On September 11, 2001 before 9:58am Eastern Central Time, the world changed forever. It is not overly dramatic to state this. America and the West is now faced with a new and highly dangerous enemy who hijacked planes and a religion in order to spread their blurred message of a new Islam in which all who do not believe as they do, are meant to meet a cruel death. It does not matter to these hijackers that 99% of Muslims do not adhere to these principles and who have openly condemned the actions of the violent minority. What only matters is the idea that America supports Israel and therefore is evil. America yields too much freedom to their people and as a result, is seen as a threat to Muslim countries. On September 11, 2001 in New York City, The Pentagon in Washington and in a field in Pennsylvania, the terrorists added to their long list of attacks on the West. There have been multiple attacks by Islamic terrorists before 9/11 and many more in the years since. Many of these attacks have been attributed to, either by various factions of the American government, or by the terrorists themselves who call themselves Al-Qaeda. The history of this terrorist group is relatively new in the history of Islamic terrorists but which have contributed a great deal to the West’s perception that Muslims sponsor terrorists in its many forms and that the Qu’ran supports it. What also is not in doubt is the way in which life in America has been changed while this society is at war. In every war, America has tightened its civil liberties in one form or another in order to put the successful completion of the war at the top of its list of proprieties. There has been a segment of the population that has decried these actions of the government. This is not a debate as to which sides are right and what, if any measures need to be taken in order that the war meets its swift and successful completion. This report is to analysis the ways in which the attacks on 9/11 have affected America, the justification that Al-Qaeda gave for their attacks and the response that America has given, both in the Middle East and here in America. The war continues and as long as it continues and American seeks to end Islamic extremists from their quest to entice a holy war through their murder of innocent people in Madrid, London, New York, Yemen, various parts of Africa and Bali as well as failed attempts recently at JFK airport where five African nationalists sought to blow up the airport but which was fortunately stopped. (Pearson, 2007 pg. A4) It seems like a necessary aspect of future life in America as the dangers of terrorists, both home grown and abroad who seek to disrupt and kill Americans which has prompted a tightening of the civil liberties in this country. As a result, in a time of war, certain changes to the way in which we live, are imposed on the general public by the government. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the country wanted to know the: who, what, where and why of this most tragic event. Not since the bombing of Pearl Harbor had America been hit with such a blow from an overseas source. In the coming days, it was presumed by the government that Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks. Despite the initial refusal to take credit or blame for the attacks by Bin Laden who stated in the immediate days following the attacks: â€Å"I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation,† soon changed into a proud proclamation of the responsibility which the government had known all along, belonged to Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Michaels, 2002 pg 108) It them fell upon the CIA and other various governmental groups who were part of the 7,000 member terrorist reaction force of the government to gather as much information about the above mentioned in order to help orchestrate a response, as well as being able to tell the public some important background information about a group, which before 9/11, few people had really known much about. (Page 2005 pg. A16) The origins of Al Qaeda date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. (Michaels, 2002 pg. 339) This was a highly controversial action on the part of the Soviet Union which eventually prompted President Carter to boycott the 1980 Olympics which were to be taking place in Moscow that summer. After the invasion, a young Osama Bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan in order to join forces with the Afghan troops in dispelling the Soviets from their lands. After a very expensive war which took more than nine years, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan and the force which was credited with this surprise victory, was soon labeled Al Qaeda. The mission statement of Al Qaeda consisted of three main points. They were their disapproval of what they considered to be US aggression towards the Iraqi people during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the US military occupation of the Arabian Peninsula and most of all, America’s support for Israel. Due to the fact that at that time, America regarded the Soviet Union as being by far, the worse and more powerful of possible aggressors to the United States that Afghanistan or Al Qaeda could ever be, it is believed that support was given to Bin Laden in the form of guns and other supplies. Peter Bergan, the celebrated CNN journalist and one of the first in the West to interview Osama Bin Laden, commented on the idea that America was somehow to blame for the aggression which Bin Laden showed to America on September 11 and other terrorist attacks on America during the 1990’s. â€Å"The story about bin Laden and the CIA- that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden- is simply a folk myth Bin Laden has his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. The real story here is the CIA did not understand who Osama bin Laden was until 1996, when they set up a unit to really start tracking him. † (CNN, 2003) The latter part of this statement is definitely true. One of the fundamental flaws of both the Clinton and now Bush administrations was the inability of the government to understand that region of the world: the Middle East and how it operates, thinks and functions. In failing to do so, the war in Iraq as well as other factions of the war on terror, are at a severe disadvantage. The real hatred that bin Laden had for America came during the Gulf War of 1991. â€Å"When Saudi Arabia allowed the American military to work from their air and land space against Iraq, despite the fact that bin Laden was no friend of Iraq at that time and even offered his services to Saudi Arabia in the event of an attack by Iraq, bin Laden vowed to carry out strikes towards the United States and relations both the Saudi Arabia government, its royal family, as well as his own family who would soon come to disowned him. (CNN, 2003) What was clear and unmistakable was the fact that in the years leading up to 9/11, Al Qaeda would make itself known to the United States to such a degree that in the immediate days after 9/11 there was little doubt as to who was responsible for the attacks. The government and others around the world was able to support their first impressions only days after the attack with a plethora of proof of past attacks and harmful and hateful rhetoric towards the United States of America. One of the earliest attacks after the Gulf War was the bombing of the World Trade Centers in January of 1993. Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb housed in the basement of the World Trade Center in an attempt to bring the massive structure down. Six people were killed and another 1,042 were injured. $300 million in damage had occurred but luckily, the structure was not destroyed. (Michaels, 2002 pg. 145) Yousef was eventually captured in Pakistan. In 1996, bin Laden, despite the lack of credentials within Islam to give such an edict, gave a fatwa or a religious edict which amounted to a declaration of war against the United States and all of its allies. Another fatwa was given on February 23, 1998 which stated: â€Å"The ruling to kill Americans and their allies-civilians and military- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and the holy mosque in Makka from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all of the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim†(CNN 2003) This was not the official stance of Islam because bin Laden did not possess the necessary credentials within Islam to give such an edict. In October 2000, Al Qaeda militants in Yemen bombed the missile destroyer the USS Cole in a suicide attack in which 17 servicemen and women were killed. The ship was damaged a great deal and the success of the attacks helped to embolden Al Qaeda for an attack on an even larger scale in the following year to occur. 9/11 was now being planned for a specific date to be fulfilled as soon as possible. After the attack on September 11, 2001, on September 27, 2001, the names and faces of the 19 hijackers were sent to the press, released by the FBI as part of their massive 7000 member force. The United States and soon to follow the United Kingdom placed their blame squarely upon the hands of bin Laden and Al Qaeda. This quick assertion as to who was to blame for the attacks stemmed in part to the various fatwas that bin Laden had sent to the United States as well, specifically the 1998 fatwa which called for the killing of American civilians on a large scale. Also, despite the fact that bin Laden originally rejected the idea that he was behind the attacks, in November 201, the US forces recovered a videotape which was retrieved from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in which it records bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden tape was released to the press in which he stated: â€Å"Terrorism against America deserved to be praised because it was a response to injustice aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel which kills our people. (Dobbs 2005) In other video tapes messages, some dated as recently as 2005, bin Laden confessed that he had personally directed the 19 hijackers and encouraged similar and future attacks to take place on not only America but in the West. This would soon come to fruition when a train bomb in Madrid killed 200 innocent commuters and over 190 were killed in Bali, an island off the coast of Indonesia in 2002. Other attacks in London and further attempts to attack America in multiple plans which have since been stopped has convinced many in America, as well as the American government, that new and strong measures must be taken in order to ensure the future safety of all American citizens. This increased protection has come in the form of the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act as being the most famous and self encompassing laws which the government has passed since the attacks on September 11th. One of the direct results of September 11 came in the form of governmental reaction and a desire to tighten the laws which had not functioned properly in the pursuit of keeping Americans safe which it states in the Constitution, is one of the most important functions of the government. The Patriot Act was passed only forty five days after the attacks on 9/11 which in comparison to the length of time it takes to pass any type of bill in Congress, this was done at lightening speed. The Patriot Act increases the ability of the federal government to enforce laws and to search telephone and email conservations and to spy on any that are deemed to be of a suspicious nature which may be harmful to the security of the United States and its allies. As a result, communication, financial, medical and other records; any records which are of a private nature are at the disposal of the American government when it is believed that its owner is either directly involved in or which contributes to any terrorist activity which puts the safety of America in jeopardy. Despite the controversial aspects of the bill, it was renewed on December 31, 2005. The Patriot Act is divided up into ten different titles or areas of interest which the newly formed Department of Homeland Security now has jurisdiction over these additions. They include terrorism, strengthening the borders, to crack down on international money laundering, strengthen the laws against terrorism, and enhance surveillance procedures and to improve intelligence and to provide for victims of terrorism and to promote the public safety of officers and their families. The last title, Title X states only: Miscellaneous. It is the vagueness of this and other aspects of the Patriot Act which has many at the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and others who are weary of government’s role in the lives of average Americans, which prompts outrage towards such expansions of the government’s power and control. The sheer majority of those who would criticize the government is no friends of terrorism and wants terrorism to be kept away from America’s shores. However, they are highly critical of the Patriot Act as they believe that when given additional power, more power from the government at the expense of the freedoms of the people, will be compromised. One example of this was the highly controversial surveillance program which President Bush used to spy on the email and phone conversations of hundreds of suspected terrorists or advocates of terrorism who were either making calls from or to America. Before the Patriot Act, any such surveillance programs would first require a court order. â€Å"During the Clinton Administration, more than a thousand such court orders were given to legally spy on the conversations of suspicious people. † (Michaels, 2002 pg. 87) President Bush felt that, and there were many to disagree, that under the increased powers which the Patriot Act gives the President, such court orders are unnecessary and only hamper the business of the government’s desire to keep America safe. Upon hearing this, many in Congress as well as their constitutions called for formal charges to be presented against the President. To date, no such charges which has been forthcoming? The Patriot Act falls under the large r government post called the Department of Homeland Security. Under this newly formed governmental organization, additional organizations were added to the government. The criticisms which are levied towards the Department of Homeland Security are two fold: One, it is seen by many as an intrusion on the average American’s civil liberties. Second, it is seen as simply an extension of ineffective governmental autocracy with their dealing of Hurricane Katrina being one of the worst examples. Since its formation only three short years ago, the Department of Homeland Security has been blamed for putting into practice, the surveillance of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who 99% of the time, end up having no possible connection to terrorism of any kind. These operations cost the government billions of dollars and serves as a further fleecing of America as viewed by many. Also, despite its ability to foil plans of numerous plots to bring damage to the United States through the form of another terrorist attacks, new reports often emerge about the incompetence of the Department of Homeland Security. In August 2006, a bipartisan group of senators on the Appropriations Committee described the Sciences and Technology Directorate, the department which is in charge of the research for the Department of Homeland Security, as â€Å"a rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course†. Michaels, 2002 pg. 199) However, this has not stopped the Department of Homeland Security from making public, the successes of the government who, by the end of 2004, had captured 368 individuals who were formally charged in criminal terrorist activities. The chief critics of Homeland Security, the ACLU, has stated that in these arrests, the gover nment has overstepped its boundaries and that such search and seizures tactics are unconstitutional as well as not being in the best interest of the American people. Since the war in Iraq not going as swiftly as promised, public support for the Patriot Act has faltered. In January of 2002, 47% of Americans were in favor of added measures by the government to stop terrorism, even if it meant the suspension of civil liberties. Two years later, in February of 2004, that number has dropped to 31% and is expected to further decrease. ( Page 2005 pg. A16) On September 11, 2001, the world as we know it changed forever. All those who were alive on that day will forever be able to tell their children and grandchildren where they were when they heard the news that America has come under attack by extremists as an attempt to bring America into subjugation towards their ideologies about the world. In the immediate months after the 9/11 the country was united against those who would seek to impose their ideology upon a democratic nation by way of terrorist attacks. In that surge of patriotism, the Patriot Act was passed which gave far reaching powers to the federal government in the form of increased power to regulate phone and email conversations as well as impose their will upon whomever the federal government felt was in league with terrorists in any way. These increased measures by the government has brought a lot of criticism from average Americans who are weary about this sudden and dramatic increase in the power of the federal government and see a furthering of the fleecing and ineffective use of the taxpayers’ money in the pursuit of these terrorists. Some derive this feeling from a disbelief in the severe motivations of the terrorists who have struck all around the world. Others derive these feelings because they so intensely hate the current administration and feel that nothing that they do is ever right or good enough. However, the majority who criticize the rapid increase in the government in this way, know all too well that the government runs like a highly ineffective and inefficient machine and that any efforts to stop the spread of terrorism to America, will come at a price of billions of wasted dollars, millions of hours of wasted time and to date, hundreds of people who have been sent to prison without the benefit of being formally charged, come to this new war on terror in the form of collateral damage. Some say that this is to be expected in a time of war. Others say that the federal government has gone too far in the expansion of their power in order to combat terrorism which it is felt, is not entirely true but that the spying of average Americans is the government’s true aim. Whatever the truth, all agree that another terrorist attack, similar to 9/11 must be avoided and that what happened on that day, which is still fresh in the minds of those who refuse to forget those who perished on that Tuesday morning; some jumping 1000 feet to their death, that those people should not have died in vain. To do nothing and hope that another attack will not come to American soil, does do a disservice to those who died and the pain that comes from the loss of a loved one. Al Qaeda is still alive and despite taking a major hit in Afghanistan, have since regrouped and have come back with a redoubled vigor as the troubles that America is having in Iraq seems to only embolden their cause. Whatever one believes about America’s roll in inviting these attacks or if such brutal hatred towards 3200 innocent men, women and children can have no justification as well as the more than 20 bombings accredited to Al Qaeda around the world or if the Patriot Act is seen as necessary or an intrusion of an ineffective and dishonest government, one must recognize that after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the world is a different and scarier place than it once was and it seems that in this new war on global Islamic terror, nobody is safe.