Where to Find Specific Types of Rocks and Minerals

Where to Find Specific Types of Rocks and Minerals Rocks and minerals are all around us. You can pretty much find interesting specimens in almost any natural environment but you have to know where to look and what to look for. If youre new to geology, there is no substitute for examining as many different rocks as possible to familiarize yourself with whats out there. This guide will give you a good idea of some of the best places to get started. Hunting Rocks: Beaches and Riverbeds Whether youre a kid or a grownup, one of the best hunting grounds for rocks is a beach. Ocean beaches boast a wide variety of specimens and since theyre spread out across large areas and renewed with every tide, youre pretty much assured of finding something interesting. Beaches are beginner-friendly. Just bring along some sunscreen, water, something to put your finds in, and youre basically good to go. Beach rocks tend to be of the harder rock varieties (igneous and metamorphic). They get a good grinding in the surf zone, so they tend to be fairly clean and smooth. However, since its not always possible to pinpoint their source of origin, beach rocks are known by geology fanciers as stones without context. A stone on the beach may have fallen from cliffs along the shore or have broken off of a submerged underwater outcrop; it may have even traveled downstream in a river from a great distance inland. River rocks are much more likely to originate near the riverbed and banks. River rocks tend to include more of the softer rock types, and the farther upstream you can go, the truer this is. If you plan to hunt river rocks, be sure to wear sturdy footwear and make sure youre not trespassing. Bedrock: Exposures and Outcrops While beaches and rivers are good places for beginners to launch their education in rock collecting, for a  more serious study of rocks, youll need to find exposed bedrock. Bedrock- or living rock- is an  intact formation that has not been broken away from its original body. A place of any kind where bedrock is lying out in the open ready for your hammer is called an exposure; a naturally occurring exposure is called an outcrop. Outcrops may be found at the beach or along a river bank. In fact, in many geographic regions, these are the only places to find them. For more, youll need to visit the hills or the mountains. If you take manmade sites into account, exposures are quite common. Building sites with their excavations are plentiful all over the country. Mines and quarries offer excellent exposures as well, and they have the advantage of being more permanent than excavation sites. The best bedrock exposures are generally found in road cuts, and amateurs and professionals alike rely on them heavily for their best finds. In civil engineering jargon, a cut or cutting  is the area from which soil and rock are removed to facilitate the building of a road. Road cuts have many good features: Theyre clean, especially when newTheyre easy to visit, alone or in a groupIf theyre on public property, hammering is generally not forbiddenThey expose rocks well, even soft rocksThey expose rocks in their context, including features and structures not visible in a hand specimen Hunting Minerals Minerals can generally be found wherever rocks are found. Thats a good starting point, but a mineral hunter needs to know more geology than the rock hunter. For instance, the mineral grains in rocks such as shale or basalt are too small to be viewed with a magnifier but even these rocks offer possibilities to those who know where to look and what to look for. Minerals grow in several main settings: Primary minerals form during the solidification of a melt.Evaporitic minerals form by precipitation out of concentrated solutions.Diagenetic minerals form at low and moderate temperatures during the consolidation of rock from sediment.Vein minerals form during injection of deep hot fluids.Metamorphic minerals form in solid rocks under prolonged heat and pressure. If you can recognize the signs of these settings, you can expect to find the typical minerals they give rise to. Even a plain-looking mudstone may have zones of alteration or contain veins or partings that reveal mineral nodules that formed during diagenesis. Rock Hunting Etiquette Unfortunately, many of the best places for rock and mineral hunting are on private property or in protected parks. Although many beaches are public parks, where collecting is prohibited, no one is likely to prosecute you for discreetly picking up a few pebbles- but use discretion. Road cuts are off limits wherever parking is not permitted, such as along a freeway. Railways are private property and should be avoided. Likewise, when visiting road cuts in a park- whether national or local- you should generally leave your hammer in the car. Most federal public lands, such as national forests, can be explored freely by amateurs, however, its forbidden for anyone to deface or remove any natural features- this includes rocks, and this includes you. For all other areas, the best rule of thumb is to leave the rocks looking no worse than you found them. Most excavation sites and rock quarries are on private property so youll need to get the owners permission before you start your collecting expedition. Due to liabilities, fear of property damage, and other concerns, the person who owns your hunting ground may have more reasons to say no than yes. Experienced, organized groups generally have the best shot at gaining admittance to private property, so if youre really serious, you might want to think about joining a club.

Why Learning Fractions Is so Important

Why Learning Fractions Is so Important It seems that many teachers will agree that teaching fractions can be complex and confusing, but that understanding fractions is a necessary skill for students to have as they get older. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution addresses how math is being taught in a recent article titled, Are we forcing too many students to take high-level math theyll never use? The author, Maureen Downey, notes that as a nation, we keep raising the bar for our students math performance, and observes that despite these high-level courses, many students are struggling with the complex teachings. Some teachers argue that schools may be advancing students too quickly, and they arent truly mastering basic skills like fractions. While some higher-level math courses are only crucial for certain industries, basic mathematical skills like understanding fractions, are crucial for everyone to master. From cooking and carpentry to sports and sewing, we cant escape fractions in our daily lives. Fractions Can Be Hard to Learn This isnt a new topic of discussion. In fact, in 2013, an article in the Wall Street Journal talked about what parents and teachers already know when it comes to math- fractions are hard for many students to learn. In fact, the article cites statistics that half of eighth graders can’t put three fractions in order of size. As many students struggle to learn fractions, which usually are taught in third or fourth grade, the government is actually funding research into how to help kids learn fractions. Instead of using rote methods to teach fractions or relying on old techniques such as pie charts, the newer methods of teaching fractions use techniques to help kids really understand what fractions mean through number lines or models. For example, the educational company, Brain Pop, offers animated lessons and homework help to aid kids in understanding concepts in math and in other subjects. Their Battleship Numberline allows kids to bomb a battleship using fractions between 0 and 1, and after students play this game, their teachers have found that the students intuitive knowledge of fractions increases. Other techniques to teach fractions include cutting paper into thirds or sevenths to see which fraction is bigger and what denominators mean. Other approaches include using new terms for words such as â€Å"denominator† such as â€Å"the name of the fraction,† so students understand why they can’t add or subtract fractions with different denominators. Using number lines helps kids compare different fractions- something that is hard for them to do with traditional pie charts, in which a pie divided into pieces. For example, a pie divided into sixths can look a lot like a pie divided into sevenths. In addition, the newer approaches emphasize understanding how to compare fractions before students go on to learn procedures such as adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying fractions. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal article, placing fractions on a number line in the correct order in third grade is a more important predictor of fourth-grade math performance than calculation skills or even the ability to pay attention. In addition, studies show that a student’s ability to understand fractions in fifth grade is also a predictor of long-term math achievement in high school, even after controlling for IQ, reading ability, and other variables. In fact, some experts regard the understanding of fractions as the door to later math learning, and as the foundation of more advanced math and science classes such as algebra, geometry, statistics, chemistry, and physics. The Importance of Understanding Fractions in Early Grades Math concepts such as fractions that students do not master in the early grades can go on to confuse them later on and to cause them a great deal of math anxiety. The new research shows that students need to intuitively understand concepts rather than just to memorize language or symbols, as such rote memorization does not lead to long-term understanding. Many math teachers do not realize that the language of math can be confusing to students and that students must understand the concepts behind the language. Students who attend public schools now must learn to divide and multiply fractions by fifth grade, according to federal guidelines known as the Common Core Standards that are followed in most states. Studies have shown that public schools outperform private schools in math, partly because public school math teachers are more likely to know and follow the latest research related to teaching math. Even though most private school students do not need to demonstrate mastery of Common Core Standards, private school math teachers can also use new techniques to teach students fractions, thereby opening the door to later math learning.

Case 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Case 2 - Essay Example Once the development team understands it needs teams instead of groups, it can proceed to form them. It would be waste of time for the organization to come to the realization, when much progress has been made, that it has workgroups instead of work teams. That would be a waste of financial and human resources and time. Good group members are likely to be people who share a group’s mentality and objectives. Group effectiveness is determined in large part by commonality of goals among its members. A group in which members have the same mission and vision is, more often than not, free of differences in actions. Members think and act as one. A good group member actively participates in group affairs; he is not an observant in the activities of the group. Whenever there is something to be done or discussed, good group members avail themselves to make efforts worthwhile. Finally, potentially good group members have the skill set required to contribute to the group’s success and activities. For example, it would be pointless to have a human resource expert in a group formed to develop better engineering techniques in an organization. This is not to say that a human resource professional has no role to play in such a group, but that his role would be so limited that it would cease to make sense. In such a scenario, the HR expert would be better suited to a group formed to explore better recruitment and retention strategies. Individual skill sets in a group should complement each other if any progress is to be made. The principles of diversity and personality are very important in managing conflict in groups. The development team must understand that its members must be different. There will never be an instance in which all members of a team agree on everything. There will also never be an instance in which all team members share the same background, experiences, culture, religion, or race (Robbins and Judge 263). The team should use

The underground water in the uae area and their quality, distribution Case Study

The underground water in the uae area and their quality, distribution and their effects in plantation - Case Study Example The need for water in agriculture, domestic and industrial use remain the primary areas where significant volumes of water are necessary to run the economy of U.A.E not to mention sustaining the livelihood of about 1.4 million people living in U.A.E (Heard-Bey 98). Because of poor quality water in most underground water sources, U.A.E have to contend with desalination of water as show in appendix A. While U.A.E has the least number of rainfall in the, a characteristic of many nations in the Arab Peninsula, the Emirates have the highest number of water use. The amount of water use per-capita in the U.A.E is the highest as compared to any part of the world. Despite the high rate of water use in U.A.E, there demand for water outstrips the supply given that U.A.E has less surface water. The primary source of water in the U.A.E is underground sources, which contribute to meeting the demand of water for domestic, industrial, and agricultural use. The underground water sources provide the h ighest amount of water from well such as one figure 1 depicts. Even with water quality being low due to salts, underground water remain significant resource. ... While the U.A.E have a varying landform, there are several aquifers. Appendix B shows a representation of the main aquifer system in U.A.E that provide underground water sources. In the U.A.E, the primary aquifer system that determine the distribution of underground water consist of alluvial aquifer system, the Batinah coastal plain aquifer, and the deep carbonate aquifer system. The alluvial aquifer system is made of sand, cobbles boulders, and pebbles and stores underground water of nearly 5,280 x 10 9 cm3. The second aquifer system—the Batinah Coastal Plain Aquifer—consist of course sand, boulders, and gravel. In this aquifer system, well sunk are shallow and allows drawing of water because water levels are high and often above the sea level. The third category of aquifer systems is the deep carbonate aquifer system. This system has thick carbonate rocks that stretch across the southern part of Abu Dhabi. This aquifer demonstrates the characteristics of a system unde r an artesian condition. Statistics from the U.A.E Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries reveal that all the seven Emirate have close to 76,000 sources of ground water. These wells produce water used for domestic purposes across the U.A.E. The cumulative production of water from these underground well totals to 137.5 Mm3. Most of the underground water sources have an age between 12,000 and 40,000 years pointing to water deposits that have taken long time to accumulate in the aquifers. Across the U.A.E, the main underground sources of water belong to three aquifers, which represent one of the factors that influence the distribution of underground water. Other factors that play a role in determining

Play Macbeth by WIlliam Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Play Macbeth by WIlliam Shakespeare Essay The play Macbeth was written by WIlliam Shakespeare in the 1600s. The whole play revolves around the theme of power. The theme of power is shown through ambition, betrayal and revenge using the symbolisms of sleep and blood. William Shakespeare used the issue of ambition to portray power in Macbeth. Macbeth was driven by his ambition of gaining power. Macbeths hunger for power made him blond to the atrocities and iniquitous deeds he was performing. In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth is stating that ambition was his only motivation to kill Duncan. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent,but only Vaulting ambition which oerleaps itself And falls on thother. Shakespeare used a horse metaphor to show the conflict of emotions in Macbeths mind.Macbeth thinks of his purpose to kill Duncan as a cavalry horse:but he has no motive to urge it into action so it stands still. Macbeths ambition is pictured as a rider springing into his saddle who overleaps himself and falls on the other side of his steed.Macbeth means that his ambition to be king would inevitably lead him too far. The quote is effective in defining Macbeths drive to ambition. Ambition is used by Macbeth to take the power from Duncan. William Shakespeare used the issue of betrayal to portray power in Macbeth. The issue of betrayal is shown throughout the play from the start when the Thane of Cawdor betrayed Duncan. Macbeth betrayed Duncan,his guest,king and relative by killing him to take the crown of Scotland. Macbeth betrayed his friend and colleague Banquo who stayed by his side when they were fighting against the Norwegians. Macbeth also betrayed Lady Macbeth his wife by dismissing her from formal duties. In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth is telling lady macbeth to hide their knowings of duncans murder under an innocent face. Away,and mock the time with the fairest show, False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Shakespeare used an iambic Pentameter to lend dignity and presence to Macbeth after his devious plans to kill Duncan. The quote is effective in showing that Macbeth would betray his king and guest and act innocent with the devious plan in his mind and stoop low just to gain what he wanted. Betrayal i s the weapon that Macbeth used to gain power. The issue of revenge was used by William Shakespeare to show power in Macbeth. Revenge was shown from the start of the play when the witches got revenge on the sailors wife who didnt give the witches any chestnuts. Banquo got his revenge on Macbeth when he came back as a ghost and frightened Macbeth as well as embarrassing him in front of other thanes. Macduff got his revenge by killing Macbeth who slaughtered his family. In act 4 scene 3 malcolm comforts macduff who heard that his family was slaughtered by Macbeth by telling him to make revenge his medicine to cure his grief. lets make us medcines of our great revenge To cure this deadly grief Malcolm is telling Macduff to make the revenge on Macbeth, a medicine that would cure his grief. Malcolm is implying that revenge is sweet. The quote is effective in showing that macduffs revenge on Macbeth was to cure his own grief caused by Macbeth. Revenge was the issue which made one person to rise up or fall down. Blood was a symbolism which helped to symbolize the issues that shows power in Macbeth. The word blood occurs frequently throughout the play. In act 1 scene 2, the wounded captain told a report which described the bloody war. Blood was also related to guilt after after macbeth had murdered Duncan. Once Macbeth and lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel like their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean. Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves. The enormity of Macbeths crime has awakened in him a powerful sense of guilt that will hound him throughout the play.

Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park Essay example -- Literary Analysi

The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park were published at either end of the twentieth century, a period which witnessed the creation of the modern picturebook for children. They are both extremely prestigious examples of picturebooks of their type, the one very traditional, the other surrealist and postmodern. The definition of ‘picturebook’ used here is Bader’s: ‘an art form [which] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page’ (Bader, quoted in Montgomery, 2009, p. 211). In contrast with a simple illustrated book, the picturebook can use all of the technology available to it to produce an indistinguishable whole, the meaning and value of which is dependent on the interplay between all or any of these aspects. Moebius’s claim that they can ‘portray the intangible and invisible[†¦], ideas that escape easy definition in picture s or words’ is particularly relevant to these two works. Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is not a ‘modern’ picturebook, and was written to a different concept of childhood than Voices in the Park, it certainly falls within Bader’s description. Susan Hill has described the events of the book as reflecting ‘the world of the Victorian nursery†¦ Naughtiness may be understood... ...h the message is conveyed. Potter’s juxtaposition of picture and word also rewards the reader for trusting the evidence of his or her eyes, rather than simply submitting to the authoritative voice. In comparison, Voices in the Park is infinitely complex and layered with meaning and symbol, wherever the reader should choose to find it. Moebius’s statement is fully realised here as Browne combines all of the technology of his medium - the words as text and picture, use of symbol, intertextuality and space - to portray ideas that remain intangible, and concepts that are infinitely open to definition. In this he displays the complexity of his and his readers’ experience, in the way that Potter, in her own way, did of hers.

Global Warming Essay

Large tracts of forests worldwide are now being cleared. Some are already cleared for industrial or agricultural purposes. The remaining trees may not be enough to absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide is used by plants to manufacture food. It is also called a greenhouse gas. This kind of gas retains heat longer compared to other gases. Surface temperature rises as more trees and plants are cut or destroyed. The resulting high surface temperature due to the accumulation of the carbon dioxide is referred to as the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts like the glass in a greenhouse. It traps heat from the environment. It causes air temperature to rise. The glass of the greenhouse prevents warm air from escaping (Williams 63-66). The air temperature inside the greenhouse rises as a result. This would lead to global warming. Moreover, global warming pertains to an increase of the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans in these present days. During the 20th century, the atmospheric temperature of the earth increased 0. 6  ± 0. 2  °Celsius. The upsurge amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the major causes of the component of warming. They are produced through the burning of agriculture, fossil fuels and land clearing and may precede to an upsurge in the greenhouse effect. There is an initial assumption that a greenhouse effect possibly takes place because of the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius during 1897(Jenner et. al 258). In addition, climate sensitivity denotes to the equilibrium response to upsurge greenhouse gases and different anthropogenic and â€Å"natural climate forcing† (Davidson 325). This will be revealed through observational and model researches. The said sensitivity is generally showed through the temperature response that is anticipated â€Å"from a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere† (Davidson 325). There is a report in 2001 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that evaluates the climate sensitivity between the scales of 1. 5–4. 5  °C. The intents of this paper are to: (1) understand what global warming really is; (2) know about the historical warming of the earth; (3) figure out the causes of the global warming and; (4) find out the expected effects of global warming. II. Background A. What is global warming? Global warming is defined as â€Å"the increase of average world temperatures as a result of what is known as the greenhouse effect† (Bellamy et. al 145). This would mean that it is an intense upsurge of world temperature which is the outcome of so- called greenhouse effect. There are many factors why the world is experiencing global warming. And one of these factors is the human activities like cutting down of trees that are supposedly be the one absorbing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are gases in the atmosphere that portray as glass in the greenhouse which permits sunlight to warm the surface of the earth but trap the heat when it â€Å"radiates back into space†( Bellamy et. al 157). When the greenhouse gases formed in the atmosphere, the earth starts to get warmth. Nowadays, most countries experienced global warming. It is one the outcomes of people’s irresponsibility because humankind tends to destroy the forest by cutting the old trees and never replaces them. The graph below shows the global temperatures from 1860 to 2000. Moreover, the earth’s surface is warmed by the Sun and radiates heat back into space. Gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane and CFCs in the atmosphere trap some of this heat, and warm the lower atmosphere. The atmosphere radiates heat back to Earth. This is called the â€Å"greenhouse effect†, and without it the Earth would be so cold that life could not exist. But many scientist fear that the huge amounts of these â€Å"greenhouse gases† released into the atmosphere by industrial processes and burning fossil fuels are warming the earth so much that they will eventually upset the world’s climate, and cause sea levels to rise. In addition, some scientists predict that the earth’s temperature could rise 3  °C by 2070. After this, the rise will level off and the temperature will stabilize (Bellamy et. al 163). If the Antarctic ice sheet melted, sea levels could rise; threatening low-lying areas such as the US coast. B. The earth’s energy balance. But for the greenhouse effect, life on Earth would not exist. The Sun emits radiation to the Earth. If we could imagine a flat surface at the top of the atmosphere, that radiation is about 340 watts per square meter (340 W/m-2). Just over 100 W/m-2 is reflected out again by atmospheric aerosols and clouds, and the Earth’s surface, leaving some 240 W/m-2 that heat up the surface of the Earth (Carwardine 76-77) . The system must be in balance—energy â€Å"in† must equal energy â€Å"out†Ã¢â‚¬â€so the Earth needs to re-radiate this amount back into the atmosphere. But the amount actually re-radiated depends on the Earth’s surface temperature: the hotter the surface is the more it will emit radiation. The outgoing radiation takes the form of â€Å"long wave† infrared thermal radiation. If the system balanced â€Å"naturally†, then the Earth’s surface would have a temperature of about –19 ° C (-66 ° F) since at this temperature 240 W/m-2 would be emitted (Carwardine 98). Obviously, something else must be happening because at such low average temperatures life would not exist. The Earth’s surface is very much warmer than this â€Å"natural† level (around 15 ° C/59 ° F) and hence far more radiation is emitted than the 240 W/m-2. What happens is that a lot of the Earth’s re-radiation bounces back to the Earth’s surface because it gets absorbed mainly by water vapor and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Water vapor, CO2, and a few other minor gases act like a â€Å"blanket†. The balance is secured as follows: Incoming solar radiation: + 340 W m-2 Reflected from clouds, the Earth’s surface, etc. : – 100 W m-2 Net incoming radiation absorbed by the Earth = + 240 W m-2 Outgoing radiation: – 420 W m-2 Greenhouse effect: + 180 W m-2 Net outgoing (thermal) radiation = – 240 W m-2 The way the system balances, then, is that the Earth’s surface warms up compared to what would happen if the Earth was not surrounded by a blanket of greenhouse gases. C. The anthropogenic greenhouse effects. The greenhouse effect refers to the way in which gases in the Earth’s atmosphere warm the Earth like the glass roof of a greenhouse—by letting sunlight in but keeping the reflected heat energy trapped inside (Johnston 550). These naturally occurring gases, notably carbon dioxide and water vapor, are called greenhouse gases. III. Discussion A. Historical warming of the earth During 1860-1900, global temperatures on seas and on lands had experienced great upsurge of temperature by 0. 75  °C as recorded in the instrument temperature record. Beginning in 1979, the land temperatures had doubled which was the same as the ocean temperatures. And in that year, the temperatures below the troposphere had upsurge between 0. 12 and 0. 22  °C every 10 years as recoded in the satellite temperature measurements. It was believed before that world temperature was stable two thousand years in the past 1850 with the assumption that temperature was stable maybe because of the regional wavering like the Little Ice Age or Medieval Warm Period (â€Å"Temperature record of the past 1000 years†. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). The graph below illustrates the reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperatures for the last 1000 years as stated to several older articles. B. Causes of the global warming There many causes why global warming is happening at present. These causes are generally or mostly based on man’s conduct. The causes why there is global warming because of the release of carbon dioxide from power plants, emitted cars, trucks, airplanes, buildings, methane, nitrous oxide, deforestation, city gridlock and carbon in atmosphere and ocean . C. Effects of global warming The great effects of global warming to our environment and for humankind are plentiful and wide-ranging. The major effect of global warming is the upsurge global average temperature. It also leads to â€Å"rising sea levels, altered patterns of agriculture, increased extreme weather events, and the expansion of the range of tropical diseases† (Johnston 554). The anticipated climate changes are also one of the effects of global warming. Not only that, it also affects the weather condition. IV. Conclusion Global warming has great effects to our environment especially to humankind. Global warming has many factors why it is occurring. One of these reasons is deforestation. Deforestation makes our environment warmth because of the remaining small amount of trees that are unable to absorb the large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and because of this; carbon dioxide traps the heat in the environment that causes the temperature to rise because it stops warm air to escape. References: 1. Bellamy, D. and Gifford, J. 1999. Wilderness Britain? a Greenprint for the Future. Sparkford: Oxford Illustrated. Popular work by leading biologist and environmental campaigner. 2. Carwardine, M. 2002. The WWF Environment Handbook. London: Macdonald Optima. Attractively illustrated handbook for the general reader. 3. Davidson, J. 2000. How Green is your City? Pioneering Approaches to Environmental Action. London: Bedford Square Press. Guide to community action for urban renewal.

Liberty in America from 1865 to 1941

Liberty is not just a wonderful thing. It is a rare thing. As much as we would like to wish otherwise there is far more tyranny in the world as opposed to liberty. Throughout history, there have been tyrannical monarchies and totalitarian regimes that impose their will on the populace. Actually, one does not even have to look into the historical past for examples as there are many nations this very day where tyranny rules. Those who live in the United States, however, can at least lay claim to living in one of the freest nations on earth. This is because the United States has built itself upon the concept of liberty, democracy and freedom. While there have been dark patches in American history, many of those dark periods have been overcome. One of the more interesting periods in the nation's history in terms of exploring liberty progression and regression would be during the time period from the end of the Civil War to just prior to American involvement in World War Two. During the Reconstruction Era, a tremendous amount of liberty was provided to African-Americans as freedom from slavery had arrived. Sadly, there was not much in the way of racial equality brought forth during this time period and many point to the apartheid like environment southern blacks had to endure. However, there was also the period of the Great Migration where many African-Americans moved north during World War One to take advantage of ob opportunities and a better living environment. No one impeded the migration as the liberty of being able to seek a better life was afforded. In addition, the liberties of the United States were afforded to people who lived outside the United States. This is evidenced in the significant immigration waves to the USA from Europe. These waves occurred throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century and all those who arrived were provided all the freedoms of the United States as well as being afforded the opportunity to take part in the democratic process. In addition to voting in the United States, many of these immigrants would go one to become major political figures. In fact, within a short number of decades many immigrants and African-Americans would become mayors of major cities. While liberty was not expanded quickly, it did expand and crossed all racial, gender and ethnic lines. Of course, at various times in American history there have been a number of challenges to liberty. Under President Woodrow Wilson, there were a number of famous assaults on the concept of liberty. This was most notable in Wilson's Sedition Act which essentially imposed the totalitarian concept of the â€Å"enemy of the state† on people who opposed Wilson's war policies. However, the way in which these procedures were enacted were so severe there is no way one could argue that these were sane policies. These laws arbitrarily targeted large numbers of the population and were quite random in their enforcement.. Thankfully, with the end of Wilson's tenure such practices would cease to occur with the exception of the Japanese internment during World War Two. The reason this aberration is pointed out is because it is an aberration. Such extreme methods are not the general practice of the United States as it remains a reliable beacon of liberty where such liberties are provided for all. Yes, there are stumbling blocks to liberties now and then but ultimately the United States remains the freest nation of earth and one that cherishes its freedoms.            

Lacsaps Fractions Theory essays

Lacsap's Fractions Theory essays 2.Deriving general expression of Numerator 3 3.Deriving general expression of denominator 10 4.Validating the general expression 14 5.FINDING ADDITIONAL ROWS USING GENERAL EXPRESSION 19 Lacsap's fractions are based upon Pascal's triangle. The general triangle's rule is "Starting with1/1 at the top, the numerator (top number) is increased by one each step to downward right, and the denominator (bottom number) is increases by one each step to the downward left. Each fraction on the inside thereby has the numerator of the fraction to its upper-right, and the denominator of the fraction to its upper-left." So basically, going to the right, the denominator increases but if we go to the left, the numerator increases, both by one. The purpose of this assignment is to examine a set of fractions presented in a symmetrical pyramid, and generate a general formula for the fractions with respect to the row and element number after considering the first five rows. Well be finding a general statement for En(r) of the Lacsaps fractions, where En(r) denotes the fraction, n stands for the nth row and r stands for the number in the row starting with r = 0. I am going to use MS-Office as a technological tool. Lets represent each of the Lacsaps fraction in the following form: where, n denotes the row number and r denotes the element number in the row starting from 0. Let N(n) represents the numerator of the fraction and denotes the denominator. Before trying to find a general statement, we should change all the 1s into fractions based on the numerator because all the numerators of each row are the same. Our pattern should look like this after doing so. Now we can separate the numerator from the denominator and work with it separately to get two equations which will be combined later on. 2. Deriving general expression of Numerator Since all the numerators have the same numerical value in the row, we wou...

Native American Influence on the Founding of the US

Native American Influence on the Founding of the US In telling the history of the rise of the United States and modern democracy, high school history texts typically emphasize the influence of ancient Rome on the founding fathers ideas about what form the new nation would take. Even college and graduate-level political science programs bias towards this, but there is substantial scholarship on the influence the founding fathers derived from Native American governing systems and philosophies. A survey of the documentation demonstrating those influences based on the work of Robert W. Venables and others is telling for what the founders absorbed from Indians and what they intentionally rejected in their crafting of the Articles of Confederation and later the Constitution. Pre-Constitutional Era In the late 1400s when Christian Europeans began to encounter the indigenous inhabitants of the New World, they were forced to come to terms with a new race of people entirely unfamiliar to them. While by the 1600s the natives had captured the Europeans imaginations and knowledge of the Indians was widespread in Europe, their attitudes toward them would be based on comparisons to themselves. These ethnocentric understandings would result in narratives about Indians which would embody the concept of either the noble savage or the brutal savage, but savage regardless of connotation. Examples of these images can be seen throughout European and pre-revolutionary American culture in the works of literature by the likes of Shakespeare (particularly The Tempest), Michel de Montaigne, John Locke, Rousseau, and many others. Benjamin Franklins Views on Native Americans During the years of the Continental Congress and the drafting of the Articles of Confederation, the Founding Father who was by far the most influenced by Native Americans and had bridged the gap between European conceptions (and misconceptions) and real life in the colonies was Benjamin Franklin. Born in 1706 and a newspaper journalist by trade, Franklin wrote on his many years of observations and interactions with natives (most often the Iroquois but also the Delawares and Susquehannas) in a classic essay of literature and history called Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America. In part, the essay is a less than flattering account of Iroquois impressions of the colonists way of life and education system, but more than that the essay is a commentary on the conventions of Iroquois life. Franklin seemed impressed by the Iroquois political system and noted: for all their government is by the Council or advice of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to c ompel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory; the best speaker having the most influence in his eloquent description of government by consensus. He also elaborated on Indians sense of courtesy in Council meetings and compared them to the raucous nature of the British House of Commons. In other essays, Benjamin Franklin would elaborate on the superiority of Indian foods, especially corn which he found to be one of the most agreeable and wholesome grains of the world. He would even argue the need for American forces to adopt Indian modes of warfare, which the British had successfully done during the French and Indian war. Influences on the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution In conceiving the ideal form of government, the colonists drew upon European thinkers like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, and John Locke. Locke, in particular, wrote about Indians state of perfect freedom and argued theoretically that power should not derive from a monarch but from the people. But it was the colonists direct observations of the political practices of the Iroquois Confederacy which convinced them how power vested in the people actually produced a functional democracy. According to Venables, the concept of the pursuit of life and liberty are directly attributable to Native influences. However, where Europeans diverged from Indian political theory was in their conceptions of property; the Indian philosophy of communal landholding was diametrically opposed to the European idea of individual private property, and it was the protection of private property that would be the thrust of the Constitution (until the creation of the Bill of Rights, which would return the foc us to the protection of liberty). Overall, however, as Venables argues, the Articles of Confederation would more closely reflect American Indian political theory than the Constitution, ultimately to the detriment of the Indian nations. The Constitution would create a central government in which power would be concentrated, versus the loose confederation of the cooperative but independent Iroquois nations, which much more closely resembled the union created by the Articles. Such concentration of power would enable imperialist expansion of the United States along the lines of the Roman Empire, which the Founding Fathers embraced more than the liberties of the savages, who they saw as inevitably meeting the same fate as their own tribal ancestors in Europe. Ironically, the Constitution would follow the very pattern of British centralization that the colonists rebelled against, despite the lessons they learned from the Iroquois.

MRKT discussion questions week04 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MRKT discussion questions week04 - Research Paper Example In low involvement product, differences in segmentation were not that evident and often ignored. The reason I can surmise why segmentation is more evident in high involvement product than low involvement product was that high involvement product takes so much resources and time from the consumer that segmentation becomes significant. For example, in the respondents whom I asked for their considerations before buying the car, the interviewees really made a careful thought before buying the car. Considerations like fuel consumption, maintenance, up front cost, performance, comparison with other cars, etc. were considered before buying the car if indeed it was a real value for their money. Here, cars that were positioned in the lower to middle segment in the market caught their attention. High end cars with exorbitant price tags were automatically struck off from their list. Therefore, the segmentation of the market in terms of price worked for my respondents even if they belong to uppe r middle class income bracket who could afford more expensive cars. To validate my initial assumption about segmentation, I asked a respondent why he is zeroing in on value cars and not the flashy cars which men typically like. He replied that he used to like but learned how to be frugal after the financial crisis because, as he said, â€Å"you never know, you might lose your job tomorrow.† He said that he has to be practical these days especially in high ticket items that will be purchased because of the uncertainty of the economy. Moreover, the money he saved from buying to value cars instead of the more expensive ones will go to his savings as a â€Å"buffer† during uncertainties. Comparing the car purchase with low involvement product, most of the respondents did not give much thought about the purchase and just put the product in their grocery baskets everytime they shop (the item I asked for low involvment product was shampoo). I asked them why and they replied t hat they are used to their brands already and they will only consider other brands if it is not available. I asked if price or other factors influence their buying behavior and they responded that only if it is very significant. But if it just within the price range of a regular shampoo, they do not mind slight difference. Perhaps this is more applicable to the segmentation of gender because the female respondents (two of them) were emphatic in having their particular brands due to reason that it â€Å"suits them† while the men were not that conscious about their shampoo and just pick up the same brand of shampoo out of familiarity but would not mind using another brand. 2. How would the marketing differ for the different segments you identify? High involvement products are high stake purchase for the consumers and they really take the time before making the purchase. As such, high involvement products are very conscious to position themselves according to the considerations of their target market. For example, in the car industry manufacturers that target the low to middle market astutely emphasize values in their products such as fuel efficiency, mileage, reliability and price. The reason for this positioning is that their market is price sensitive and they have to communicate and package themselves as the best value for their money. In the high end cars, they observably emphasize style, comfort and image to appeal to their market

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Research Paper

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Research Paper Example Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2010 will go down in history as a major health care reform bill that has been signed into law. It has a comprehensive coverage that would see 31 million Americans currently uninsured getting a medical cover. If this new proposal, the government will incur approximately $848 billion over the next 10 years, consequently, there will be a gradual increase in taxes and revenue is proposed to reduce the total cost of this cover by $131 billion within the same period (Eaton 2010). The proposed reform aims at achieving a number of strategic healthcare goals. Firstly, it aims at ensuring that every US citizen can access, quality and affordable health care. In essence, this is an important component of the entire reform agenda. In light of the increasing burden of increasing burden of disease and skyrocketing prices of health care services, the government undertook this deliberate strategy to ensure that there is universal health care insurance cover age. Today, the majority of US citizens continues to battle with out-of-pocket financing, which is prohibitively expensive (Junior 2010). Secondly, it aims at improving quality and efficiency of healthcare by establishing a vibrant health care workforce that would meet the growing demand for healthcare services. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence showing an increase in the burden of chronic diseases, this proposed health care financing in its full implementation will see the middle and elderly persons receive a comprehensive cover that focuses on affordable health care services for chronic diseases. United States (2010) states that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the fully paid patient protection  scheme, in the end, will ensure that more than 94% of Americans will be covered within $900 billion limits set by President Obama.