Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Word of God

We should read and study the Bible because it is totally reliable and without error. oThe Old Testament writers claimed many times they were speaking the word of God. Isaiah 1:2 â€Å"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: â€Å"Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. † oThe New Testament writers confirmed the Old Testament was God speaking. Hebrews 4:12 â€Å"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. oThroughout the Bible, God warns not to add, to take away from His Word. Rev. 22:18-19 â€Å"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, [19] and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of l ife and in the holy city, which are described in this book. † oJesus in His sayings confirmed the Old Testament as being without error. Luke 24:44 â€Å"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. † oThose involved in science say the Bible is not accurate, but every time science tries to disprove the Bible, it ends up proving it. The Bible has never changed over the thousands of years since it was written. The Bible is authoritative and can be trusted as such. No piece of literature even approaching its age comes close to having the supportive textual evidence indicating authenticity that the Bible has. It is simply the most reliable text in existence. We should read and study the Bible because there is so much false teaching. The Bible gives us the measuring stick by which we can distinguish truth from error. Amos 7:8 â€Å"And the Lord said to me, â€Å"Amos, what do you see? † And I said, â€Å"A plumb line. † Then the Lord said, â€Å"Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them;† All Christians should study the Bible each day. Psalm 119:15 â€Å"I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. Psalm 1:1-3 â€Å"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; [2] but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. [3] He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. † Th e best time to study is in the morning because the Bible refers frequently to things being done early in the morning. Isaiah 50:4 â€Å"The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning He awakens; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. † It is highly recommended that two Bibles be used. One is the main Bible and the other is a study Bible with full notes. The Bible should not be read as a textbook but as the word of God. Before even opening the Bible to read, it is best to ask the LORD to reveal something fresh that will help in one’s daily walk. The different approaches to reading the Bible are: oHearing oReading oWriting oStudying oMeditating oMemorizing. oApplication The following study aids will also be necessary to help understand the Bible: oA concordance (Young’s, Strong or Cruden’s) A Bible dictionary oA commentary on the Bible oVines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words oA good English dictionary oA notebook to record impressions oA Bible marker to highlight certain passages that make a special impression The Bible can be read through from beginning to end or a daily program followed where both Old and New Testament portions are read each day until the whole Bible is read. But keep in mind that the goal is not to get through the Bible as quickly as possible but rather to absorb it as the word of God. For centuries the Bible has been a fixed point of reference and no matter how far society and individuals have strayed, the Bible has served as a guide for human conduct, a moral framework producing a sense of right and wrong, a source of truth, an inspiration for the arts, music, literature and a beacon for personal behavior. Philip. 4:8-9 â€Å"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9] What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you† Bible meditation Meditation means pondering by talking to oneself, musing, thinking, or reflection. It involves allowing the mind to become saturated with God’s words. Meditation involves the heart; memorization involves the mind. Bible meditation contains the secret t o happiness, fruitfulness, freshness, progress, prosperity, success and victory over enemies. 1 Tim. 4:15 â€Å"Practice these things; devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Some ways to meditate are: oMemorize a section of the Bible oQuote the section (verse) to the Lord as a personal prayer oRepeat the section several times each time, emphasize a different word oVisualize the significance of each word as far as you can oRepeat the section and ponder on the full meaning of each word oRest – let the words grow in your mind, will and emotions. oUse section to talk with God oPonder each word for personal application oExpect God to bring this section to your mind for decisions and show you ew insights from it. The Bible equips us to serve God. Ephesians 4:11-13 â€Å"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (12) For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (13) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ† Memorizing Bible verses is important – more important than many people realize. It is not to score well with God and others, but to help disciples become more equipped for ministry. John 14:26 â€Å"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. † Jesus subdued the enemy at the temptation simply by quoting verses He had memorized from Deuteronomy. Jesus demonstrates both the importance and effectiveness of knowing and applying Scripture to combat temptation. (Matthew 4:1-7)

Friday, August 30, 2019

Psychological Theories of Pedophilia and Ephebophilia Essay

The problem of pedophilia and ephebophilia was recently highlighted with the successive scandals involving many catholic priests who allegedly abused children and minors. Although the problem was sensationalized with the recent scandals, it must be noted that it is not limited to the catholic clergy as â€Å"It’s a problem that strikes anywhere, every walk of life, every race, and every social level†. (Richmond, 2009) The article â€Å"Psychological Theories of Pedophilia and Ephebophilia† attempts to explain the underlying theories that explain the said sexual deviant behaviors. It distinguishes the difference between a pedophilia, an adult who has recurrent, intense sexual urges and sexual fantasies involving a prepubescent child below 13 years old and an ephebophilia, who has recurrent, intense sexual urges and sexual fantasies involving a pubescent child or adolescent between the ages 14 and 17 years old. In both cases, the offending adult is at least 5 years older than the victim. A further distinction was made between regressed and fixated pedophiles and ephebophiles. The latter primarily have sexual orientation towards adults and regresses into a sexual urge for children only under extreme duress. The former, on the other hand, are fixated on children and teenagers alone. The article cites earlier studies, such as that from Araji and Finkelhorn which view the theories of pedophilia according to four broad categories: emotional congruence, sexual arousal, blockage and inhibition. At the outset, the article clarifies that that there is no clear and definite pattern of their background. Their religious, vocation, socio-economic, education backgrounds are widely diverse, heterogeneous and complex, thus making it difficult to narrow down the specific characteristics of these offenders. Owing to the diversity of backgrounds of pedophiles and ephebophiles, the author investigates the causes of the disorders by analyzing them using two broad categories, (1. ) the psychological theories including psychic, social and environmental factors, and (2. ) the hypothesized biological strata of the disorder. By taking a multi-faceted approach, one is able to compartmentalize the types of offenders according to above theories, thus making analysis of these disorders more organized, direct, and systematic. Psychological Theories Psychoanalytic theories look at deviant sexual behaviors as stemming from early childhood trauma (ages 2-5 years), causing one’s arrested development and explains why the person eventually becomes the offender and repeats the offense later in adulthood in an attempt to mask the anxiety. Meanwhile, family system theories stresses the role of unresolved intergenerational family dynamics on certain family members which argues that deviant behavior is learned within the family, and eventually, spreads across family lines. Behaviorism and social learning theories stress the importance of learning our behavior. In other words, behavior is learned and acquired through early experiences that either brings guilt or pleasure or both. Biological Theories Biological theories attempt to connect deviant sexual behaviors with brain disease. It attempts to answer 2 basic questions, such as: 1. What effect does the brain have on perverse sexual behavior? 2. Can deviant sexual arousal be attributed to brain disease or damage? More specifically, psychologists have found a strong link between high testosterone levels among males and sexual aggression. Subsequently, studies suggest that the level of testosterone in fetuses can be affected by the mother’s intake of specific drugs and stress. Certain studies do seem to suggest a direct correlation between high levels of testosterone and deviant sexual behavior as proven by high levels of testosterone found among pedophiles and in another study, elevated levels of â€Å"luteinising hormone†. In this respect, an anti-androgenic medication such as Depo Provera lowers the level of testosterone in the human body and has been moderately successful in the treatment of sexually deviant men. REFERENCE Richmond, R. The National Institute for the Renewal of the Priesthood. (21 May 2009) Pedophilia not just a clergy problem, police expert says. Retrieved 17 June 2009 from http:// www. jknirp. com/richmond. htm.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Psychological Analysis of Fight Club Essay

Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk which was eventually made into a movie. The novel is different from usual stories in so many ways because it’s first and foremost, geared into the lives of young men. There have been a lot of books that revolved around the stories of young women that is why, I believe, Chuck Palahniuk was hugely successful in writing this novel. It’s focused on a life a man, the Narrator, whose name was never blatantly revealed but as the story progressed implies that his name was Jack. He symbolizes an ordinary working class man who, like everyone else, is looking for fulfillment in his life however he tries to accomplish this in odd ways. Jack is noticeably a disturbed person who is suffering from insomnia. The first obsession we would notice is his unusual collection: furniture. It’s soon begins to become a little bit more strange when he starts attending random group therapy sessions on medical concerns which he doesn’t even have. Attending these support groups has helped sleep at night but still he ends up crying to relieve stress from his dull, ordinary life. Eventually, when he still felt unfulfilled, he moves on to creating his underground â€Å"Fight Club† with a certain Tyler Durden. He then becomes more and more absurd, his obsessions become unhealthy. By the end of the movie, we learn that Jack suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder and that Tyler is actually his alter ego. Upon watching the film for the first time the revelation at the end would come off as a shocker but once you really analyze it, the juxtaposition of the events leading up to the ending and the probable reality is not very far. He shares his obsession with furniture collections with common homeowners today. People usually find comfort in having a properly furnished home; they feel a sense of accomplishment and think that it’s a reflection of their successes work-wise. Even with this, though, Jack still felt void and that his life is still meaningless. He starts going to a support therapy group as advised by his doctor. He does this to find acceptance and love from other people, which is also a common desire of human beings. Although he doesn’t really have that certain condition he’s attending support groups for, it was deemed successful until he met Marla Singer who, like typical ovies where girls tend to â€Å"ruin everything†, seems to have flushed all his efforts down the drain. Marla turns out to be, like Jack, a faker. She started attending the support groups like Jack does which eventually turned into a reflection of what he’s been doing. Moreover, he then turns to like her, to make things worse. Jack then finds himself immensely unhappy so out of his frustration he tries to come up of a resolution, hence, Tyler and Fight Club. Tyler is introduced as someone Jack meets on a plane ride; Tyler eventually becomes a huge influence in his life, who then becomes his co-founder of Fight Club. The first fight was between Jack and Tyler, which is in fact just Jack against himself. Other men begins to join their club, their members are mostly the ones that grew up without their fathers. Throughout the movie Fight Club soon escaladed into Project Mayhem where they blow up buildings owned by major credit card companies and setting everyone’s debt back to zero. When Jack realizes what he’s doing, he finds that Tyler is actually him and tries to commit suicide by putting a gun in his mouth. He still lives, but Tyler was gone. He wakes up in a mental hospital and the movie ends with the fight club members still trying to pursue the initial plan, stating that Tyler will be back. Fight Club is a fictitious story and also very far from reality but there were a lot of psychological truths presented, such as gender identity, Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego; and Maslow’s idea of self-actualization. These components make this movie absolutely interesting to watch and it leaves you with so much more to think about afterwards.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Economics overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economics overview - Essay Example Another prominent economic principle that applies to humans’ daily lives is that of consumer surplus. While supply and demand measures shifting prices, consumer surplus measures the surplus gained by consumers between the cost of buying an item and what they would otherwise be willing to pay. Consumer surplus occurs in all areas where goods are readily sold for discounts. Perhaps the most prominent example occurs at grocery stores where individuals enter the store with a set list and find that many of the items on the list have been discounted by the store. Still, another economic principle that occurs in humans’ daily lives is that of market efficiency. Market efficiency measures the degree to which stock prices reflect all available information ("Market efficiency," 2011). This is a prominent consideration when individuals invest in the stock market as it indicates that because of the efficiency of the markets investors will not be able to significantly capitalize on information as a means of profiting as the market almost immediately reflects all available

A CASE STUDY OF THE SOUTHCORP ROSEMOUNT MERGER

A OF THE SOUTHCORP ROSEMOUNT MERGER - Case Study Example Bower (2001) identified five different kinds of mergers: the over capacity M&A, the Geographic roll-up M&A, the product or market extension M&A, the M&A as R&D and the industry convergence M&A. According to Bower (2001) definition the merger between Southcorp and Rosemount will fall some in to third type of merger i.e. the product or market extension type. He identified major areas of concern in different types of mergers. For the product or market extension type the major concern is cultural or governmental differences. While Southcorp was an archetypical Australian wine firm linking vertically along the value chain with major focus on production and less focus on marketing, Rosemount was actually a family business, focusing on sales and marketing only and majorly outsourcing other functions. This difference of working culture can be compared with the one faced by Daimler and Chrysler, both very performing firms prior to merger but failing miserably after the merger (Weber and Camer er (2003). Culture can be defined as the set of commonly shared and important assumptions in a community†. As an organization is also a community of members i.e. employees, etc the set of commonly shared assumption held by members of the organization, can be called as organizational culture. Chatterjee et al (1992) claim that culture affects practically all aspects of the way people of a group interact with each other. There are diverse views on the relative importance of cultural integration, during or post merger, for the success of the merger. Some authors have undoubtedly favored that the cultures of the merging entities need to be integrated to achieve merger goals, while others have considered them as either partially or not important for merger success failure. Cartwright and Cooper (1993) argued that since culture is as fundamental to a company as

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Applying Balanced Scorecard Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Applying Balanced Scorecard - Assignment Example Businesses were faced by unclear situations of distinguishing an important aspect from what is not. Kaplan and Norton stated that the important aspects of a business should be presented in a balanced way. A balanced scorecard has three basic components that are important. They include strategic management framework, measurement system and communication tools (Blokdijk, 2008). The banking industry, greatly benefits from the balanced scorecard and management system. The BSC system helps managers in the banking sector accomplish the institution’s objectives. The major scorecard perspectives that can be implemented by managers are better-quality customer service and efficiency in the internal business processes (Blokdijk, 2008 p 113). Banks strategies are always based on the customer and therefore with improved customer service, the bank will end up improving on its profits, sales and turnovers. Banking industries are also able to improve by ensuring that they have efficient business processes. Blokdijk (114) states that with efficiency in the internal business processes, a banking industry will be able to retain its customers. With retained customers, the financial returns go up and the thus improvement in the

Monday, August 26, 2019

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World Essay

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World - Essay Example 151). As such, case studies are a valuable tool to gauge the ethical behavior of a company and to determine what course of action should be taken as future events dictate. PhramaCare is a factitious company, yet the situation presented can be considered likely to happen to almost any type of company, anywhere in the world. This paper will detail various ethical issues ranging from the treatment of indigenous populations to the methods of handling and dealing with whistleblowers. All the while, decisions made will be analyzed and potential consequences discussed. PharmaCare’s Treatment of Colberia’s Indigenous Population Regardless of the economic or political reasons governing a firm’s entry into another country, they have the ethical responsibility to act in the best interests of their host. In this case, PharmaCARE failed to abide by this code of responsible conduct. While there has always and will always be a disparity of wealth existent in the world, PharmaCA RE’s lack of compassion in dealing with the indigenous population of Colberia is particularly egregious. Rather than doing their small part in raising the standard of living among the people, they succeeded at continuing to keep the people of the country mired in poverty while they reaped the benefits. A responsible company sees their employees as partners, and even shareholders. As they contribute to the success of the company, they should be properly compensated. Naturally, few would argue that the people of Colberia should receive the same wage as those in the Western world, but they are certainly entitled more than $1 a day, particularly given the backbreaking work they were partaking in. In the end, however, there is little wrong with the executives of PharmaCARE living in luxurious compounds in Colberia. This is a standard practice with international corporations, as many employees leave their home country for years at a time, so they are granted living conditions simil ar to those that they are used to. This is does not excuse, however, the unethical treatment in terms of salaries and working conditions that the company was engaging in. Actions To Take Against Donna, Tom, and Ayesha Deciding to fire workers is often a painful decision, and one that potentially carries legal ramifications. Since New Jersey is not a right to work state, the situation becomes a bit more muddled. Without having the benefit of reading the contracts of employment for each respective employee, it is difficult to make a determination as to the legality of these particular firings, but in essence they could be termed legal. Donna had begun to develop poor attendance records and, even though she made the claim that it was due to mold in the work environment, Allen could argue otherwise. By properly documenting reported absences, if Donna lacks adequate proof the work environment causing her absentee rate to rise, the firing may be legally justified. It is also generally acc epted that companies can protect their reputation against employees who set out to damage it in the public. If the claims made by Tom end up being true, he would certainly have a case against an unjust termination. Barring that, however, Allen would likely prevail in a legal proceeding based on the comments he would make about the company in public. Likewise, Ayesha would need to prove that she was fired based on religious discrimination. If Allen can prove otherwise and demonstrate a history of poor performance, once again he could justify the legal

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Book exploration of Cooper, They Came to Japan Essay

Book exploration of Cooper, They Came to Japan - Essay Example The difference between the Japanese and the European social relations emanates from the strong traditional system structure of the Japanese culture, which contrasts with the volatile nature of the European culture. Thus, where the European ancient traditions can eventually be lost, the Japanese culture and traditions are never lost, but merely runs out of fashion (Cooper, 20). However, even when they are out of fashion, they still remain an important part of the social structure of the society, thus informing the subsequent transformations in the cultures and social structures, which draw their roosts from these traditional cultural systems. The Jesuit Christians were the most informed European group that visited and settled in Japan, since they landed in Japan earlier than the other Europeans (Cooper, 11). Thus, their observation and documentation of the Japanese social structure and social relations is more informative. Drawing from this Jesuit documentation of the Japanese social relations during the period 1543-1640, we are able to understand that the social system of the Japanese culture was built around five fundamental values, which were also shared with the Chinese value system (Cooper, 55). The social structure and the social classes in the traditional Japanese culture was not built purely based on the wealth and the material possessions of an individual, but on the respect and honor that the individual has earned, even in becoming wealthy and influential. In this respect, the merchants were not esteemed or regarded as members of the upper class of the society, owing to the fact that they were considered as a set of individuals that earned their wealth through unscrupulous means (Cooper, 56). Thus, the value system of the traditional Japanese culture during this era was firmly based on positive societal outlook and fulfillment of the fundamental social values that would then deliver

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Why is there such an abundant use of irony in poe's the cask of Essay

Why is there such an abundant use of irony in poe's the cask of amontillado What thematic purposes does it serve - Essay Example The main character, Fortunato, is portrayed as an important and cultured man. His name can be interpreted as "the man of fortune", but the irony is that he is faced with bad luck to have wronged a man with a deathless memory and a commitment to "not only punish, but punish with impunity" (Poe 848). The irony is that Poe does not tell readers the exact offense he has committed, and can make no evaluation upon whether Montressor's revenge is justifiable. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" (Poe 541).Readers cannot analyze and evaluate Montressor's right for revenge. An abundant use of irony is evident in contrasting characters of Fortunato and Montressor. Poe does not directly state that Fortunato is nave or Montressor is a very cunning man. Readers can guess and predict that these characteristics are probably true. Fortunato's ability to assess and judge situations accurately is questioned at the beginning of the story when he insists upon leaving his family and friends to descend into a damp wine vault in order to answer Montressor's challenge at judging the worth of a cask of wine. Montressor describes: "Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person, I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo" (Poe 848). His pride is great and he feels he alone is capable of making this evaluation; he pays a terrible price for this arrogance. The uniqueness of the short story is that Poe links two stylistic devices: humor and acute irony which leads to change from what is expected. As the two men proceed along toward Fortunato's ultimate resting place, Montressor's sarcastic remarks and exclamation add ironic details and black humor. He asks Fortunato about his health and long life, reveals his mason trowel when Fortunato mentions that he is a member of the secret Mason society, plays with the Fortunato by telling him that he intends to provide him "all the little attentions in my power" (Poe 852). Also, the irony is that Fortunato is dressed in the suit of a clown to join in the celebration of carnival. This detail gives some hints to readers about true nature and personality of this character. The irony is evident in the setting of the story. During the carnival season, Montresor encounters Fortunato and reports that he has purchased some Amontillado. It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much" (Poe 846). Fortunato becomes anxious to sample the wine in question and deliver an opinion as to its merits; so he is easily led into a niche where he is fettered with chains and immured by Montresor, who has both a trowel and some fresh mortar handy. Fortunato, who has been drinking and coughing, quickly becomes sober and begs to be released, but to no avail. An abundant use of irony is evident when Poe unveils life and destiny of Montressor. Through this character, Poe's portrays a fanatical person who has spent the best part of his life first planning and then executing the murder of Fortunato. Fifty years later, Montressor is still thinking about the corpse that has been quietly

Friday, August 23, 2019

Determination of the Explosive HMX in Soil Coursework

Determination of the Explosive HMX in Soil - Coursework Example The method is commercially designed for RDX and HMX testing for concentrations between 1-20mg/kg in soil samples, Marshall & Oxley (2008). EPA method 8510’s procedure adheres to the following steps; Extract soil sample with acetone If inorganic nitrates and nitrites are present the soil extract is then pasted through an ion exchange resin for their removal The Nitramines and Nitrate esters are then acidified and mixed with zinc dust, passed through reactants of target analytes of zinc dust A color then is developed using NitriVer3 powder pillow, which ranges from pink to deep red depending on the concentration of RDX/HMX in the mixture. Using a spectrophotometer, absorbance is then measured of the treated extract at designated wavelengths and the concentration of RDX/HMX of the unknown sample estimated by comparison to a known standard. Interferences of the sample analysis can be caused by the presence of solvents, reagents, glassware and other processing hardwares present in the soil sample. Hence, the soil samples must be rendered free of these materials by using specific selection of reagents and solvent purification using distillation process in an all glass system following guidelines on cleaning of glassware(). Chemical related explosives such as nitroguanidine (NQ), nitroglycerine (NG), nitrocellulose (NC), tetryl and pentaeythritol tetra nitrate (PETN) can cause pink color to develop if found present in the soil sample. In the absence of RDX and HMX on the pink color does not develop in the presence of Trinitroluence, Dinitrobenzene, 2, 6-Dinitrotoluene, Trinitrobenzene and 2, 4-Dinitrotoluene. Human matter present in the soil will cause a yellow colored extract but this precipitates during acidification leaving the extract cloudy interfering with the accurate determination of absorbance, Taibah University (2012). Other than the common laboratory glassware such as beakers, test tubes etc., the equipment used in this procedure include: A commercia l testing product, EnSys RDX soil testing system that specify the apparatus and materials necessary for test completion Spectrophotometer capable of reading absorbance of 507-510 nm Top loading or mechanical balance for weighing samples to -/+ 0.1g Spectrophotometer cuvettes two or more of 25ml and 2.5cm path length Alternatively; Analytical balance Wide mouth bottles of 125ml Glass volumetric pipettes ranging from 0.5ml – 25.0ml Graduated cylinders 10ml and 100ml Glass volumetric flasks 100ml and 250ml Filter units 0.45 or 0.5Â µm Syringes Spatula Vacuum desiccator – For preparing calibration standards in a fixed laboratory and storage of zinc dust Ion exchange tubes Alumina-A, 3ml Automatic pipet -500Â µl equipped with tips Measuring spoon for zinc dust Wrist action shaker Vials -40ml amber glass equipped with solid caps Reagents and standards; Acetone, CH3COCH3 Distilled water Analytical standards(RDX and HMX analytical standards) Stock standard solution Working s tandard solution Calibration solution Q2. Draw a cause and effect (fishbone) diagram to indicate the contributions to the uncertainty in the result for RDX in soil. Taibah University (2012) Reagent Humic matter Linearity Temperature Calibration Temperature Standard Sampling Standard Volume Temperature Extraction procedure

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Augustus de Morgan and George Boole s Contribution to Digital Electronics Essay Example for Free

Augustus de Morgan and George Boole s Contribution to Digital Electronics Essay Augustus De Morgan English mathematician and logician, was born in June 1806, at Madura, in the Madras presidency. His father, Colonel John De Morgan, was employed in the East India Companys service, and his grand father and great-grandfather had served under Warren Hastings. On the mothers side he was descended from JamesDodson,F. R. S. , author of the Anti-logarithmic Canon and other mathematical works of merit, and a friend of Abraham Demoivre. Seven months after the birth of Augustus, Colonel De Morgan brought his wife, daughter and infant son to England, where he left them during a subsequent period of service in India, dying in 1816 on his way home. Augustus De Morgan received his early education in several private schools, and before the age of fourteen years had learned Latin, Greek and some Hebrew, in addition to acquiring much general knowledge. At the age of sixteen years and a half he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and studied mathematics, partly under the tuition of Sir G.  B. Airy. In 1825 he gained a Trinity scholarship. De Morgans love of wide reading somewhat interfered with his success in the mathematical tripos, in which he took the fourth place in 1827. He was prevented from taking his M. A. degree, or from obtaining a fellowship, by his conscientious objection to signing the theological tests then required from masters of arts and fellows at Cambridge. As a teacher of mathematics De Morgan was unrivalled. He gave instruction in the form of continuous lectures delivered extempore from brief notes. The most prolonged mathematical reasoning, and the most intricate formulae, were given with almost infallible accuracy from the resources of his extraordinary memory. De Morgans writings, however excellent, give little idea of the perspicuity and elegance of his viva voce expositions, which never failed to fix the attention of all who were worthy of hearing him. Many of his pupils have distinguished themselves, and, through Isaac Todhunter and E. J. Routh, he had an important influence on the later Cambridge school. I. n spite, however, of the excellence and extent of his mathematical writings, it is probably as a logical reformer that De Morgan will be best remembered. In this respect he stands alongside of his great contemporaries Sir W. R. Hamilton and George Boole, as one of several independent discoverers of the all-important principle of the quantification of the predicate. Unlike most mathematicians, De Morgan always laid much stress upon the importance of logical training. In his admirable papers upon the modes of teaching arithmetic and geometry, originally published in the Quarterly Journal of Education (reprinted in The Schoolmaster, vol ii. ), he remonstrated against the neglect of logical doctrine. In 1839 he produced a small work called First Notions of Logic, giving what he had found by experience to be much wanted by students commencing with [[Euclid]]. In October 1846 he completed the first of his investigations, in the form of a paper printed in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (vol. iii. No. 29). In this paper the principle of the quantified predicate was referred to, and there immediately ensued a memorable controversy with Sir W. R. Hamilton regarding the independence of De Morgans discovery, some communications having passed between them in the autumn of 1846. The details of this dispute will be found in the original pamphlets, in the [[Athenaeum]] and in the appendix to De Morgans Formal Logic. Suffice it to say that the independence of De Morgans discovery was subsequently recognized by Hamilton. The eight forms of proposition adopted by De Morgan as the basis of his system partially differ from those which Hamilton derived from the quantified predicate. The general character of De Morgans development of logical forms was wholly peculiar and original on his part. Late in 1847 De Morgan published his principal logical treatise, called Formal Logic, or the Calculus of Inference, Necessary and Probable. This contains a reprint of the First Notions, an elaborate development of his doctrine of the syllogism, and of the numerical definite syllogism, together with chapters of great interest on probability, induction, old logical terms and fallacies. The severity of the treatise is relieved by characteristic touches of humour, and by quaint anecdotes and allusions furnished from his wide reading and perfect memory. There followed at intervals, in the years 1850, 1858,1860 and 1863, a series of four elaborate memoirs on the Syllogism, printed in volumes ix. nd x. of the Cambridge Philosophical Transactions. These papers taken together constitute a great treatise on logic, in which he substituted improved systems of notation, and developed a new logic of relations, and a new onymatic system of logical expression. In 1860 De Morgan endeavoured to render their contents better known by publishing a [[Syllabus]] of a Proposed System of Logic, from which may be obtained a good idea of his symbolic system, but the more readable and interesting discussions contained in the memoirs are of necessity omitted. The article Logic in the English Cyclopaedia (1860) completes the list of his logical publications. Throughout his logical writings De Morgan was led by the idea that the followers of the two great branches of exact science, logic and mathematics, had made blunders, the logicians in neglecting mathematics, and the mathematicians in neglecting logic. He endeavoured to reconcile them, and in the attempt showed how many errors an acute mathematician could detect in logical writings, and how large a field there was for discovery. But it may be doubted whether De Morgans own system, horrent with mysterious spiculae, as Hamilton aptly described it, is fitted to exhibit the real analogy between quantitative and qualitative reasoning, which is rather to be sought in the logical works of Boole. Perhaps the largest part, in volume, of De Morgans writings remains still to be briefly mentioned; it consists of detached articles contributed to various periodical or composite works. During the years 1833-1843 he contributed very largely to the first edition of the [[Penny]] Cyclopaedia, writing chiefly on mathematics, astronomy, physics and biography. His articles of various length cannot be less in number than 850, and they have been estimated to constitute a sixth part of the whole Cyclopaedia, of which they formed perhaps the most valuable portion. He also wrote biographies of Sir Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley for Knights British Worthies, various notices of scientific men for the [[Gallery]] of Portraits, and for the uncompleted Biographical Dictionary of the Useful Knowledge Society, and at least seven articles in Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography. Some of De Morgans most interesting and useful minor writings are to be found in the Companions to the British Almanack, to which he contributed without fail one article each year from 1831 up to 1857 inclusive. In these carefully written papers he treats a great variety of topics relating to astronomy, chronology, decimal coinage, life assurance, bibliography and the history of science. Most of them are as valuable now as when written. Among De Morgans miscellaneous writings may be mentioned his Explanation of the Gnomonic Projection of the Sphere, 1836, including a description of the maps of the stars, published by the Useful Know ledge Society; his Treatise on the Globes, Celestial and Terrestrial,1845, and his remarkable [[Book]] of Almanacks (2nd edition, 1871), which contains a series of thirty-five almanacs, so arranged with indices of reference, that the almanac for any year, whether in old style or new, from any epoch, ancient or modern, up to A.  D. 2000, may be found without difficulty, means being added for verifying the almanac and also for discovering the days of new and full moon from 2000 B. c. up to A. D. 2000. De Morgan expressly draws attention to the fact that the plan of this book was that of L. B. Francoeur and J. Ferguson, but the plan was developed by one who was an unrivalled master of all the intricacies of chronology. The two best tables of logarithms, the small five-figure tables of the Useful Knowledge Society 1839 and 1857), and Shroens Seven Figure-Table (5th ed. , 1865), were printed under De Morgans superintendence. Several works edited by him will be found mentioned in the British Museum Catalogue. He made numerous anonymous contributions through a long series of years to the Athenaeum, and to Notes and Queries, and occasionally to The North British Review, Macmillans Magazine, c.  Considerable labour was spent by De Morgan upon the subject of decimal coinage. He was a great advocate of the pound and mil scheme. His evidence on this subject was sought by the Royal Commission, and, besides constantly supporting the Decimal Association in periodical publications, he published several separate pamphlets on the subject. In 1866 his life became clouded by the circumstances which led him to abandon the institution so long the scene of his labours. The refusal of the council to accept the recommendation of the senate, that they should appoint an eminent Unitarian minister to the professorship of logic and mental philosophy, revived all De Morgans sensitiveness on the subject of sectarian freedom; and, though his feelings were doubtless excessive, there is no doubt that gloom was thrown over his life, intensified in 1867 by the loss of his son George Campbell De Morgan, a young man of the highest scientific promise, whose name, as De Morgan expressly wished, will long be connected with the London Mathematical Society, of which he was one of the founders. From this time De Morgan rapidly fell into ill-health, previously almost unknown to him, dying on the 18th of March 1871. An interesting and truthful sketch of his life will be found in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society for the 9th of February 1872, vol. xxii. p. 112, written by A. C. Ranyard, who says, He was the kindliest, as well as the most learned of men benignant to every one who approached him, never forgetting the claims which weakness has on strength. De Morgan left no published indications of his opinions on religious questions, in regard to which he was extremely reticent. He seldom or never entered a place of worship, and declared that he could not listen to a sermon, a circumstance perhaps due to the extremely strict religious discipline under which he was brought up. Nevertheless there is reason to believe that he VIII. 1 a was of a deeply religious disposition. Like M. Faraday and Sir I.  Newton he entertained a confident belief in Providence, founded not on any tenuous inference, but on personal feeling. His hope of a future life also was vivid to the last. George Boole George Booles father, John Boole (1779–1848), was a tradesman of limited means, but of studious character and active mind. Being especially interested in mathematical science and logic, the father gave his son his first lessons; but the extraordinary mathematical talents of George Boole did not manifest themselves in early life. At first, his favorite subject was classics. It was not until his successful establishment of a school at Lincoln, its removal to Waddington, and later his appointment in 1849 as the first professor of mathematics of then Queens College, Cork in Ireland (now University College Cork, where the library, underground lecture theatre complex and the Boole Centre for Research in Informatics are named in his honour) that his mathematical skills were fully realized. In 1855 he married Mary Everest (niece of George Everest), who later, as Mrs. Boole, wrote several useful educational works on her husbands principles. To the broader public Boole was known only as the author of numerous abstruse papers on mathematical topics, and of three or four distinct publications that have become standard works. His earliest published paper was the Researches in the theory of analytical transformations, with a special application to the reduction of the general equation of the second order. printed in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal in February 1840 , and it led to a friendship between Boole and D. F. Gregory, the editor of the journal, which lasted until the premature death of the latter in 1844. A long list of Booles memoirs and detached papers, both on logical and mathematical topics, are found in the Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs published by the Royal Society, and in the supplementary volume on Differential Equations, edited by Isaac Todhunter. To the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and its successor, the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, Boole contributed twenty-two articles in all. In the third and fourth series of the Philosophical Magazine are found sixteen papers. The Royal Society printed six important memoirs in the Philosophical Transactions, and a few other memoirs are to be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Irish Academy, in the Bulletin de lAcademie de St-Petersbourg for 1862 (under the name G Boldt, vol. iv. pp. 198–215), and in Crelles Journal. Also included is a paper on the mathematical basis of logic, published in the Mechanics Magazine in 1848. The works of Boole are thus contained in about fifty scattered articles and a few separate publications. Only two systematic treatises on mathematical subjects were completed by Boole during his lifetime. The well-known Treatise on Differential Equations appeared in 1859, and was followed, the next year, by a Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences, designed to serve as a sequel to the former work. These treatises are valuable contributions to the important branches of mathematics in question. To a certain extent these works embody the more important discoveries of their author. In the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of the Differential Equations we find, for instance, an account of the general symbolic method, the bold and skilful employment of which led to Booles chief discoveries, and of a general method in analysis, originally described in his famous memoir printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1844. Boole was one of the most eminent of those who perceived that the symbols of operation could be separated from those of quantity and treated as distinct objects of calculation. His principal characteristic was perfect confidence in any result obtained by the treatment of symbols in accordance with their primary laws and conditions, and an almost unrivalled skill and power in tracing out these results. During the last few years of his life Boole was constantly engaged in extending his researches with the object of producing a second edition of his Differential Equations much more complete than the first edition, and part of his last vacation was spent in the libraries of the Royal Society and the British Museum; but this new edition was never completed. Even the manuscripts left at his death were so incomplete that Todhunter, into whose hands they were put, found it impossible to use them in the publication of a second edition of the original treatise, and printed them, in 1865, in a supplementary volume. With the exception of Augustus de Morgan, Boole was probably the first English mathematician since the time of John Wallis who had also written upon logic. His novel views of logical method were due to the same profound confidence in symbolic reasoning to which he had successfully trusted in mathematical investigation. Speculations concerning a calculus of reasoning had at different times occupied Booles thoughts, but it was not till the spring of 1847 that he put his ideas into the pamphlet called Mathematical Analysis of Logic. Boole afterwards regarded this as a hasty and imperfect exposition of his logical system, and he desired that his much larger work, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (1854), should alone be considered as containing a mature statement of his views. Nevertheless, there is a charm of originality about his earlier logical work that is easy to appreciate.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Applying Psychology to Homelessnes Essay Example for Free

Applying Psychology to Homelessnes Essay Housing is a basic human want and plays an important role in ensuring the well-being children and adults. Stable housing is a necessary need for positive child and youth development in society. Although proper housing is essential for human biological and social development, statistics have shown a rising cases of homeless families with children in recent years because of inadequate affordable houses (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006). Homelessness is a complicated socioeconomic issue with several economic and social factors underlying it. The socioeconomic factors include; poverty, inadequate affordable housing, some biological and mental ill health, community disintegration and family breakdown. These are the factors which in combinations, would contribute to the frequency, and type of homelessness (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006). Homeless means to live without proper shelter; many people experience partial homelessness by living in uncertain, temporary, and sub-standard shelters. Homelessness has become national disaster in some countries. Some of the biological causes of homelessness are mental ill health (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006). Due to the hard circumstances that befall homeless people throughout their lives, statistics have shown that there are higher rates of mental illness affecting this population. During the year 2008 survey conducted by the U.S Conferences of Mayors, showed mental illness the third largest cause of homelessness in the United States (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2006). Mental illnesses can be biological and medical conditions which affect the normal activity of the human brain and mind. It often affects one’s moods, emotions as well as the thought processes. The functionality of the mind is diminished hence reducing their ability of the affected individuals to take care of themselves or their living environment hence may not care even if they are living in the streets (Nielsen, 2011). Mental illness also affects an individual’s ability to make and maintain friendship and relationships and therefore, issues involving mental illness can push those closer to the affected individual away. In such case the people closer may remain homeless by keeping away or they may dispose the affected individual to be homeless in the streets (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). The other biological factor leading to homelessness is depression. Depressive disorders have been proved to be the most common factor causing homelessness with nearly 25% of homeless individuals suffering from depression. It controls individual’s outlook on life and their ability to judge circumstances. It results to low self-esteem, a loss of interest in actions that were once important as well as incapacitating effect on people’s ability to relate to others (Nielsen, 2011). Depression can be trigger homelessness because one feels isolated and lonely being homeless (Ravenhill, 2008). The feelings of isolation and loneliness have adverse effects on the relationship and could trigger rooflessness, for example, parental neglect (Ravenhill, 2008) Identify and describe at least 2 social factors that may be related to becoming or being homeless. Talk about how these factors may play a role in homelessness and support your statements with research evidence, where necessary Social factor that can cause homelessness is economic insecurity in a community or family. According to statistical findings, in the year 2005, almost 60% of individuals earning an income of less than 30% of the HUD were paying more than half of their salary on housing and accommodation, and almost the same percentage of people were also living in poor and inadequate housing (Ravenhill, 2008). Inadequate affordable housing for rental and the high economic recession have contributed to the increasing number of homeless adults and children. Economic recession have led to the high number of unemployed and has also increased laying off of employees hence people cannot afford decent housing due to lack of the rental allowance. Violence at home is another social factor that has led to homelessness in the United States of America. Violence often predicts whether children and adults would experience homelessness or not. Research has shown that most homeless mothers with children have at one point in their families experienced domestic violence. Domestic violence may make somebody run away from home to safety and in the process the affected find themselves homeless in the streets. This social factor has mostly affected women and children. Women and children in homeless shelters and those affected by domestic violence shelters are affected by same experiences like exposure to traumatic lives. Intimate family violence often triggers housing instability and in the process, one partner may run away from home. The domestic violence can be brutal beating or sexual abuse to a partner or a child (Ravenhill, 2008). In solving the problem of homelessness, the government should increase housing subsidies and provide permanent accommodation for those people living in domestic violence affected families, and unaccompanied youths. Research has shown that families who get housing subsidies are likely to have permanent housing stability than those who do not receive housing subsidy (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2008). Reference Nielsen, S. (2011). Psychiatric disorders and mortality among people in homeless shelters in Denmark: a nationwide register-based cohort study. The Lancet, 377, 2205-2214. Ravenhill, M. (2008). The culture of homelessness. Abingdon, Oxon: Ashgate Publishing Group. The United States Conference of Mayors. (2006). A status report on hunger and homelessness in America’s cities. Retrieved April 27, 2014 from http://www.usmayors.org/publicationsNational Coalition for the Homeless. (2008). How many people experience homelessness? Retrieved April 27, 2014 from http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/families Source document

Comparison and Criticism

Comparison and Criticism OUR MISSION: * Comparison and Criticism Hofstedes aim was to evaluate work values, while Trompenaars Hampden-Turners questionnaires inquired into respondents preferred behaviour in a number of both work and leisure situations. What both studies have in common is that in both questionnaires the focus is on the ultimate goal state, and that the underlying values, the underwater part of the culture iceberg, are derived from a series of questions about more outer layers of the culture onion, closer to the top of iceberg. Trompenaarss system appears focus-oriented; it speaks a lot about what is on peoples minds and what is in their sight, it speaks about the logical organization and framework of their behaviour (specific vs. diffuse, internal vs. external control, universalism vs. particularism) and relationships (individualism vs. collectivism; achievement vs. ascription; neutral vs. affective). Hofstede, on the other hand describes some of values present in people and finally affecting their behavior. The difference therefore is that Trompenaarss investigation lies on the surface of the investigation of the persons culture, showing exactly the choice and manner in which the actions are planned and handled, while Hofstede tries to go in the very deep of culture layers and lets us make our own forecasts of peoples behavior based on the knowledge of the hidden part of iceberg. . Taking a closer look into the comparison between the dimensions themselves, we can notice similarities between the two theories. One of these is the closeness between the notions of collectivism vs. individualism of Hofstede and communitarianism vs. individualism of Trompenaars. For a marketer, from our point of view, there is close no difference which index to use. There is some degree of similarity in Hofstedes power distance index and achievement vs. ascription. One values the accepted degree of high class/low class lifestyle and secondary characteristics difference, while the other measures the motivation of the low class to move higher. A marketer can infer that customers are better evaluated with the high power distance index in relation of selling status-emphasizing products (like luxury brands), while Trompenaarss index is better used when selling low cost practical business tools (like cheap PDAs). We would advise to use the two indices together as they complement each other. Long-term vs. short-term orientation index of Hofstede has got something in common with the past/present/future orientation of Trompenaars. That is in the way, how i.e. short-term oriented cultures will show the same tendency to be populist, tradition-oriented as the past- and present-oriented cultures. After taking a look into evaluations of different cultures one can find that the results, obtained by the two theories are often counter logical. German corporate culture is hierarchical, as is claimed by Trompenaars in his studies. Whereas Hofstede identifies Germany as relatively low in terms of Power Distance. These differences in the approach attracted some serious criticism over the years. One of the most prominent points often criticized is Hofstede perception of culture as a static characteristic of societies and their representatives. This approach does not take into the account the cultural drift that can easily be observed as the time passes by. As a vivid example, one can take the comparison between, say, the UK of the Victorian age and the Post Second World War UK and just try to assess the Power Distance Indices. Apparently, over this period of time peoples behavior has altered enough to allow a society with a lot lower power distance, the expressions of which found their way in the art of the time as well as in the politics (Rise of the Labor Party in 1945-1951) people of lower class were have become conscious to demand equality in these dimensions with the former unapproachable higher class, the expression of wealth and power and respect to it have decreased, as well as PDI. S imilar drift patterns can now be observed today in some of the underdeveloped countries, like Mexico, where former strong collectivist communities are dissolving, as their member become more individualistic, pushed by their desire to be successful in the new highly commercialized society. The same can be said about political influence on the culture (transition from Communist to Capitalist values). In other words it is easily observable that through time cultures evolve. Therefore the estimations for indices are slowly becoming outdated. Hofstede was later pushed by this evidence to regularly update his Index database, still retorting that cultural evolution is a very slow process. However the problem that may be hard to identify is actually not the quantitative, but rather the qualitative obsolescence of the framework itself, that will sooner or later present itself. I.e. what was reasonable and precise description in the 1970s can be an incomplete, flawed and vague characterizatio n for 2010, and even more so for future. That is however just one of the many debatable things. Among the others are: 1. Question interpretation of the surveyed, i.e. will the question really be a precise way to determine the culture, as the culture and personality may directly affect the way the question is translated and thus produce errors in the resulting evaluation. 2. Researchers background diminishes the completeness of cultural description and offers one-sided look at the problem. This way it would be preferable for marketers to have a marketer, not a manager, to make the proper evaluations framework, which would be more suited for marketing decision making. 3. Ignoring the ethnic group and communities presence, national culture fragmentation. Just saying that Germany has low UAC index may totally confuse the policymaker, as this does not differ between East, West and especially Turkish communities. Moreover, a study carried out only in only one company (Hofstede) cannot give an outlook on the entire cultural system of a country. Conclusion As described in this paper, there are several approaches to the classification of the cultures of different nations. The ones that were observed closely here are Geert Hofstedes and Fons Trompenaarss classifications, so-called cultural dimensions. These, as shown have a number of things in common and many differences as well. Thus, a marketer has to make a decision, which part of which study is to be used to develop a successful strategy. However there is little doubt that some way of adapting the strategy to the local culture is to be used. We may live in a globalized enviroment, however, so far there is no mundial culture and different clusters of people, whether they are separated geographically, historically or socially; some may choose one product instead of the other because of their culture and values. All of that is to be taken into consideration. And there are so far not many standartised approaches to the culture evaluations, other than Hofstedes and Trompenaarss, which eco nomise time and enable the creation of a consolidated strategy in approach to culture. It is not surprising that some of the companies nowadays are already fully involved in applying these methods in their decision making, and the amount of them will inevitably grow as the studies of the theories are being held in many Universities and Business Schools, from wich the future excecutives will come. However one has to rememember, that both these method are quite controversial and obviously imperfect, therefore we should learn learn to use the questionnaires and the databases responsibly. Only in this way can they provide precise, trustworhy and calculated assistance to people learning to work effectively in other countries. 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We are a full service firm practiced in the design and administration of all areas of employee benefits programs. Our people are our most valuable resource, each a licensed agent, cross trained in all aspects of our operation. We are committed to helping our clients successfully manage the evolution of health care and the ongoing challenge of enhancing the value of compensation through employee benefits. Our well earned relationships and market shares with local and national carriers afford our clients the strongest possible negotiating leverage for their benefit plans. We are committed to quality work above sales volume and while we recognize service promotes good will, we sincerely believe it to be its own reward. * The Fringe Benefit Company Community * Chris Durkin gets a Masai warriors blanket from Ataulwah and Simon, Young Life leaders and friends in Tanzania and Unganda. * Orphans at the Koomba school in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Ryan Durkin, young life leader, with children from the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Chris Durkin gets acquainted with some village children in the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * After lunch potty party for the 1-2 year olds at Mother Theresas orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August, 2005 * Dedication plaque for the basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Shawn Durkin carries an orphan at the Muslim orphanage in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2005 * Brett Durkin with an orphan, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August, 2005 * Aaron, Brett, Garrett, Ryan and Chris Durkin, building the Young Life basketball courts in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania August 2005 * Julie, Young Life leader, with children in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania during the building of the basketball courts, August 2005

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Motif of Blood in Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Motif of Blood in Macbeth Shakespeare In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the motif of blood plays an important factor in the framework of the theme.   A motif is a methodical approach to uncover the true meaning of the play.   Macbeth, the main character in the play, thinks he can unjustly advance to the title of king without any variation of his honest self.   The blood on Macbeth’s hands illustrates the guilt he must carry after plotting against King Duncan and yearning for his crown.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare used the image of blood to portray the central idea of Macbeth, King Duncan’s murder.   The crime is foreshadowed in the second scene of the first act.   The king shouts, â€Å" What bloody man is that?† (I,ii,1)   He is referring to a soldier coming in from battle.   The soldier then explains to King Duncan of Macbeth’s heroics in battle.   One assumes that Macbeth is bloody just like the soldier.   The soldier describes Macbeth in action â€Å"Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, / Which smoked with bloody execution.† (I,ii,17-18)   This line connects Macbeth with killing, and hints at the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The evil deed of murdering the king becomes too much of a burden on the Macbeths.   The blood represents their crime, and they can not escape the sin of their actions.   Macbeth realizes that in time he would get what he deserves.   Since he can not ride himself of his guilt by washing the blood away, his fate may have been sealed.   They   try to use water for vindication, but Macbeth says that all the water in the ocean could not cleanse his hands.   He imagines the blood from the murder staining the ocean red.   Lady   Macbeth differs from her husband in this aspect.   She believes her conscience would be cleansed at the time her hands are physically cleaned.   She tells her husband to have the same beliefs as she or he would be driven to insanity.   Ironically, Lady Macbeth is the one that is driven to the brink of lunacy as she commits suicide at the end of the tragedy.     The image and scent of blood symbolizes the unending guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.   The blood on their hands represents the inability to annul the murder from their memories.   While sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth was aggravated with own hands.   She was seen muttering, â€Å"Out damned spot! Out, I say!† (V,I,39)   This proves that her evil deed in still on her conscience.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Advantages of Buying an Existing Website :: Sell Websites Buy Web Sites

Advantages of Buying an Existing Website Reprinted with permission of VotanWeb.com With any new website you have two challenges: developing the product or service and then seeing what if anything, people are willing to pay you for it. Regardless of a website's past performance, an existing website will, at the very least, have a history from which you will be able to make certain decisions. Even if the website was not profitable in the past, your strengths may lend themselves perfectly to turning it into a viable venture. Furthermore, you have the ability to verify what the website did in the past that resulted in the current status of the operation. Pros: The website is 'up and running' already. It is likely to have an existing client base. The previous website owners are likely to lend support and goodwill. There is a tried and tested website formula to emulate. The website can be sold on by yourself. Generally more chance of success than starting a similar website from scratch. Cons: A large investment is often required, Website transfer costs i.e. lawyer, analysis, accountant etc.. A large amount of time required to research the opportunities available. Ease of Investigation In order to buy the right website, you will be required to do a thorough investigation of its past activities, its operations, its current status, the competition, the industry and its future potential. You will accumulate this information and then you will have to determine how it measures up with you at the helm. Clearly, this information gathering will be substantially more accurate and easier to obtain when dealing with an existing website, as you will have the resources available from which to get the details. Infrastructure You will have the benefit of purchasing a website that has an infrastructure including customers, suppliers, servers, and systems. This will allow you to focus on building the business as opposed to a start up or new website where everything begins at ground zero. Purchase Price Differences Buying an existing website does not mean that it will cost you more. In fact, many times it's less expensive than launching a new website. Even in those cases where it may require a premium, at least you know what you are getting if you investigate it properly. A new website will require a whole series of studies that will indicate that "theoretically' the website should do well.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Medical Marijuana :: Medicine Drugs Essays

Medical Marijuana Marijuana has been hailed as a prescription for many ills and physicians once used it to stimulate appetite, relieve chronic pain, and treat asthma and migraines. But is marijuana really a medical miracle? If so, do its clinical benefits outweigh its drawbacks? Should we legalize marijuana? Is medical marijuana really worth the risks? These are the issues one needs to think about before making the decision to legalize marijuana. Marijuana is a drug that is derived from the dried and cut leaves of the hemp plant known as "cannabis sativa". Marijuana has a variety of street names such as "grass", "Mary Jane", "pot", "smoke", "reefer", "herb", and "weed". The active ingredient in marijuana is delta tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (3). . Marijuana has been used throughout history and in many different cultures to change mood, perception, and consciousness (to get "high"). Its effects range from increasing creativity to provoking mystical experiences, to heightening the capacity to feel, sense and share. After alcohol, it is the most popular of what are called "recreational drugs." It has been used around the world for other purposes. In some primitive tribes of South America, Africa, and India, "cannabis" is used in religious ceremonies and for medical purposes. African mine workers have used it to ease the drudgery of their work and many Jamaicans use it at the end of the day to relieve fatigue. It has been use d as an intoxicant in various parts of the world for centuries and in the United States, for the most part the 20th century. Marijuana was first described in print in a Chinese book of medicine, "Herbal," in the 2nd century B.C., and was used in China as an anesthetic 5,000 years ago. The ancient Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and East Indians used the drug to control muscle spasms, reduce pain, and to treat indigestion. It was commonly used in folk medicines in Africa and Asia. As early as 1611, marijuana was cultivated for its fiber in Jamestown, Virginia. In 19th century America, marijuana was used by the medical profession for treating spastic conditions, headaches, labor pains, insomnia, and menstrual cramps. It is still used as a medicine in the Middle East and in Asia (9). The controversy dealing with marijuana stems from the legalization of the drug for medical use.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Australian voice Essay

? The Australian voice is distinct as it expresses uniquely Australian values, such as ‘mateship’ and ‘support for the underdog’. This distinct voice also expresses multicultural and indigenous values, as part of the Australian identity. It may bevoiced publically or privately through effective language features. â€Å"The Castle† directed by Rob Sitch highlights the characters’ voices as reflective of Australian attitudes and values. It is through these numerous voices that we collectively create a distinct Australian voice that †¦.. (represents culturally specific qualities)†¦(expresses concern for one another)†¦ Individual Australian voices may be expressed privately, to communicate personal feelings or emotions. Darryl, as the main character (protagonist), has a strong emotional attachment to his house which is expressed through his personal voice. â€Å"A man’s home is his castle† is conveyed as the fundamental concept through Darryl’s distinctive personal voice. From the film, the sentimental tone of the quote â€Å"memories are not as important as a big driveway† ironically reveals Darryl’s idea that â€Å"memories and families are more important than money†. Darryl, acting individually against the group who embody authority in order to save his castle, stressesthis idea and reveals his emotional attachment to his land. The individual’s personal attitude is also highlighted through Australian slang which renders the Australian voice distinct from others. For example, the term ‘bloody’ which is frequently vocalised by Darryl in ‘The Castle’ such as ‘you bloody ripper’ and ‘the low of bloody common sense’ is a slang word for ‘very’. The verbalization of this type of Australian language conveys Darryl’s attitude and reveals his strong family values. Furthermore, the Australian voice is distinct because it is used to express fundamental Australian values and attitudes in addition to strong family values. This voice is expressed both through the private and public voices, and supports the Australian traditional values like ‘mateship’ and ‘support the underdogs’. Darryl Kerrigan helped his old neighbour Jack by saying â€Å"I’m gonna kick in for ya, mate†, using Australian idiomatic vernacular to emphasize his support for his less fortunate neighbor and the close relationship they share. What Darryl did is not only a representation of their close connection but also highlights Australian sense of sympathy for the â€Å"underdog†. The typical Australian value of mateship has been communicated by a distinct public voice, from which we can learn about other values that are distinctively Australian. Through the additional dialogue of Lawrence who is a retired lawyer (Q. C) ‘I’d like to help you to take it further, no fee. ’ which expresses his support for the underdogs (Kerrigan family). Through all above, we can see that when private voices often combine to project a public voice sharing ideals. Unique cultural voices are aspects of the distinct Australian voice, and they mayexpress Indigenous or multicultural values. Multiculturalism and the existence of Aboriginal cultures are significant parts ofAustralian society and those collective voices represent their own unique cultureyet are just as significantly part of the larger Australian voice. Distinct Aussiehumouris used by Farouk who has a heavy accent and broken English, as he said ‘plane fly overhead, drop value†¦ In Beirut, plane fly over head, drop bomb. I like these planes better. ’His self-deprecating humourshows his integration and acceptance into wider Australian society, whilst his cultural voice has become a part of the distinct Australian voice. This has shaped our understanding of the Australian Voice that represents the larger community as one that is multicultural. In conclusion, the study of Australian voice is thebeginning step towards a deeper knowledge and understanding of the inclusive nature of the DAV; representing culturally unique values and attitudes. A voice is more than the method of talking;it is the expression of people’s private thoughts and attitudes. Different voices among Australian society evoke a certain emotion of a group of people and affect their way of understanding as well. Those voices accumulatively create a distinct Australian voice.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Mix Racial and Cultural Groups Are Growing in the United States Essay

Mixed Racial and Cultural Groups is increased by a marginal number in the United States. The growth of these multiracial groups started to surface through migration of different ethnics and raised most of their families in the United States even through marriage. These are some of the issues that have been raised by individual people of having an entity separation of mixed race and cultural or to considered them as Americans without a hyphen. Thinking about this issue myself, and thinking of my two children who married to a different ethnic rather than Samoans. These questions come to mind about this issue: How, Why, and what the three words that needs a big explanation about this matter. According to multiracial Americans, Americans whose identity as two or more races identifies with just one group culturally and socially. From statistics that I got from online, stated that about 2.9% of the population in the year 2010 are self-identified as multiracial. The identity or the classification of the people’s identification is generally according to the culture they were raised in. Social segregation in many areas of the country is forming interracial unions or cultural group. The diversity of social conditions through migrations brought new groups of people to the United States. Through these migrations, mixed races started to rise when interracial marriage were born and started to increase in the United States. The movement of multiracial identity by more than one ethnicity has taken place and strong. Statistics from the year 2010 census in the United States shows that the largest multiracial groups were white and black which is 1.8 million. The other 1.7 millions are white and some other race, white and Asian is 1.6, white and American Indian and Alaskan Native is 1.4 million. I have learned that the largest growing group in multiracial is white and black which is about 134%. That is more than 1 million people. MIX RACIAL AND CULTURAL GROUP According to Susan Saulny of the New York Times, title Race Remixed, said that â€Å"sea of change is how we think about race, ethnicity and its place in society†. I believe that a challenge to trend towards multiracial from a sociological perspective is a leap that we should take. The understanding of racial and ethnic categories of their boundaries can be a problem to other multiracial groups. I think that ancestry is the biggest influence in identities through a number of generations through migrations. I also believe that each multi mix or racial group should be treated the same regardless of their identity. If they are legally citizens of the United States, they have the right to be treated equally. I believe that they have contributed to the wellbeing and welfare of the United States through their services in employment within the government, military or private companies. Regardless of the race and ethnicity, they should be treated and considered Americans. President Obama is good example of what I mean about treating them the same no matter what color of their skin or where they are from. I know that some of these mix race entities are trying to separate themselves with-in the United States but when they travel to other countries of the world, they considered be call Americans. As a citizen of New Zealand, I am proud to call myself to be an American and I respect the land that my children were born. What can the United States or these multiracial groups gain from wanting to be separated from their identity. Through my search online, I came across Mrs. Karissa Sulliva’s draft and she said that ancestry influences identities. She said that socialization is the crucible of racial and ethnic identity formation. Farley in 2002, construct racial and ethnic classifications which was adopted by the government for each race or reconsidered themselves to either refuse to identify their own race and ethnic category. MIX RACIAL AND CULTURAL GROUP I believe that mix racial and cultural groups are increasing daily by the number throughout the United States. However, research shows that children with an original multiracial identity grow up to be happier than those of single-race identity. Some of the statistics shows that another addition to the growth of mix race is through adoption of children from countries outside of the United States. According to Fact’s for Families 2010, parents are coping with these pressures in having open communications with the families about their culture and race. Encouragement and support in every multicultural group for families to be familiar with their language, traditions and customs within their families. They have to support and try to establish a good relationship by creating a network for their children, parents, family member, relatives and the community. In conclusion, the separation and classifications between mix racial and multicultural groups is not an easy task or thing to do. Two of my children are married to different ethnic. My oldest daughter is married to an African American and my son is married to a girl who is beautiful and white but has about four or five mix blood in her. I believe in democracy and the United States is nowhere in having a separation of any mix race and cultural group who are living in the United States. God Bless America, God bless the people of the United States. References: Perez, Anthony Daniel, Hirschman, Charles. The Changing Racial and Ethnic. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882688/ The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (March-2011). Facts for Families, no.71 Multiracial Children. http://www.aacap.org/galleries/FactsForFamilies/71_multiracial_children.pdf Dr. Nicole Martinez and Mrs. Karissa Sullivan. May 6, 2013 .docx.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

The main problems in supply chain of many industries are the excess of some products and the shortage of others because of unpredictable demands for these products. In this paper, a framework that helps manager to understand the nature of demand for their product and manage their supply chain in line with their product requirements is suggested. The products are classified into two groups according to their demand patterns: Primarily functional products and primarily innovative products. Functional products are defined as the products that satisfy basic needs. The demand for that type of products is stable and predictable. They have a long life cycle. The competition in the market is fierce due to this stability in demand that results in low profit margins. On the other hand, innovative products are the ones that have clearly unpredictable demands. They may have very short life cycle because of the imitators. But luckily their profit margin is higher compared to the functional products. The supply chain management for the innovative products should clearly be different from the functional products. The managers should determine their product type and follow a supply strategy has a perfect match with their product type. Otherwise, some problems arise from the mismatch between the type of product and the type of supply chain. The author classifies the functions of supply chain into two groups: physical function and market media function. Physical functions include converting raw material into parts, components and finished good, and also transporting the product. The cost in physical function of supply chain arises from the production, transportation and inventory storage. The market media function, on the other hand, is mostly related to ensuring that variety of products reaching the market place matches what customer want to buy. The cost in marker media function arises when supply exceeds demand or supply falls shortage. Since the demand for the innovative products is uncertain, the market domination cost for innovative products are dominant. According to their type of product, managers should follow a supply chain strategy that is physically efficient or market responsive. The best matches between supply chain strategy and the product type are efficient supply chain for the functional products and responsive supply chain for the innovative products. In efficient supply for functional products, there are two models introduced: comparative and cooperative models. In the competitive model of supply chain relations, the retailer and the manufacturer compete through price negations for a bigger profit pie. In cooperative model, the retailer and the manufacturer corporate to cut cost throughout the chain therefore the size of the pie is increased for both of them. One alternative can be using competitive and the cooperative models at the same time. But, in this situation the information sharing between the retailer and the manufacturer seems problematic. In responsive supply for innovative products, the first thing to do is to reduce the uncertainty. There are three coordinated strategies are suggested in order to reduce, avoid and hedge uncertainty. The first one is to find sources of new data that can serve as leading indicators and also to have different product share common components as much as possible so that the demand for components becomes more predictable. The second one is to avoid uncertainty by cutting lead times and increasing the supply chain’s flexibility. Lastly, once uncertainty is reduced, it can hedge against the remaining residual uncertainty with buffers of inventory or excess capacity.

Coastal management

THE LOBBY and several bedrooms parted company with the Holbeck Hall Hotel yesterday, leaving half of the four-star establishment behind. Engineers said heavy rain this spring after several dry summers was the probable cause of the landslip, which has sent sections of the hotel toppling into the North Sea. The north-east wing of the 30-bedroom hotel collapsed into Scarborough's South Bay on Saturday night. Guests had been evacuated early on Friday after huge cracks appeared overnight. The rest of the east wing gave way yesterday, leaving the hotel barely half intact, but what remains is likely to be demolished. Geologists say the east Yorkshire coast, with it's steep clay cliffs, has always been vulnerable. South of Scarborough, the 40-mile stretch of cliffs of Holderness is the fastest-eroding coastline in Europe and is experiencing the worst land-slips for 40 years. But Mr Michael Clements, director of technical services for Scarborough council, said sea erosion was not a factor in the Holbeck landslip. The cliffs below the hotel are protected at their base by a sea wall. The main problem, he said, was probably heavy rain which penetrated layers of sand and gravel in the cliffs, lubricating the clay which had cracked in hot weather. â€Å"There is a long history of cliff movements in the area,† Mr Clements said. â€Å"According to local records, the first Scarborough spa was carried away by a landslide in 1770, while the Holbeck cliffs suffered a major slip in 1912. Cliff stabilisation schemes were carried out further north at Whitby in the 1980's and at Robin Hood's Bay in the 1970's. In the fishing village of Staives, the breakwaters were recently raised. Pressure for further protection has run up against the obstacle of expense. â€Å"The cost of protecting these cliffs is phenomenal.† Mr Clements said. â€Å"The work at Whitby cost à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3.4 million.† Most developed areas around Scarborough have seawalls but this is not the case further south, where Mr Eddie Knapp, principal engineer of Holderness council, said there had been â€Å"unusually large and particularly worrying† land losses over the past six months. â€Å"The average rate of erosion is 6ft a year but this year it has been up to 65ft in places,† Mr Knapp said. At Skirlington, 65ft of land has recently fallen into the sea, carrying away 23 bases at a caravan park, while 70ft of land has gone at Aldbrough caravan park, leaving 15ft of unfenced land before a 60ft drop into the sea. A family living in a chalet at Atwick, near Hornsea, was rehoused when the cliff edge came perilously close. Mrs Sue Earle, chairman of the Holderness Coast Protection Committee, is to outline local concerns in talks at the Agriculture Ministry today. Mrs Earle, whose farm-house is 30ft from the cliff edge at Cowden, said: â€Å"Now that this has happened in a nationally-known resort, I hope it will help to bring the issue out into the open. Daily Telegraph, 7.6.93 South Coast subsiding as the sea level rises By Christine McGourty, Technology Correspondent PART of the south coast of England is sinking at a rate of almost an inch every five years, according to new research. The find comes from an analysis of tidal measurement data from 1962 until about 1985 by Portsmouth University researchers. The higher tide measurements were thought to be a combination of subsidence and rising sea levels. Discovery of the subsidence à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ from Portsmouth to Newhaven à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ follows evidence from around the world that global sea levels have risen by four to six inches over the past 100 years. The subsidence will add to the problems expected from the sea level rise associated with global warming. Sea levels on the south coast are expected to rise by at least eight inches by 2050. Dr Janet Hooke, director of the university's river and coastal environment research group, said: â€Å"Most previous studies showed the subsidence was confined to East Anglia. This is the first analysis to show that parts of the south coast may be subsiding too. The movement may have origins back in the last ice age.† Malcolm Bray, one of the researchers, said at the Institute of British Geographers' annual conference in Nottingham: â€Å"It seems frightening. â€Å"What we're doing now is to work out what it means for the local authorities affected. â€Å"We can't stop flooding à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ that's an act of God à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ but we may be able to minimise the impact through coherent local and regional strategies. â€Å"We need to study the coast over longer distances and look slightly further into the future to stop authorities doing something that could have detrimental effects on their neighbours. â€Å"Our research shows that some parts of the coast are independent but many parts are interconnected.† They found the stretch from Lyme Regis to Newhaven could be divided naturally into nine â€Å"coastal cells†. Dr Hooke said: â€Å"Some preventative measures need to be taken now while the opportunity is there. â€Å"We don't want to see building on very vulnerable zones, which could just create problems for the future with flooding and erosion. â€Å"Plans may be needed to manage conservation of wetlands which are particularly vulnerable.† The researchers welcomed the Government's strategy for coastline management, announced last October, and said that more coherent analysis of longer stretches of coastline were needed all around the country. * Navy beans, from which baked beans are produced, could be grown in England if the global temperature rises as predicted in the next century, according to a study. Researchers at Coventry University and Horticultural Research International have found that navy beans could be grown in Hampshire, East and West Sussex and Kent if the temperature rose by just 0.5C in the next century. The climate is too cold at present for navy bean crops and most are imported from America and Canada. Daily Telegraph 8.1.94 Erosion-hit resorts pin hopes on reef of tyres By Richard Spencer and Lynda Murdin RESIDENTS along the fastest eroding coastline in Europe are hoping a plan to dump millions of tyres in the sea as a protective reef will be given the go-ahead by the Government. Villages and the resorts of Withernsea and Hornsea on the Holderness coast in Humberside are in danger of slowly falling into the sea. If the Ministry of Agriculture grants a licence for the trial tyre-reef scheme, it could lead to one of the most ambitious coastal engineering projects in Europe since the Dutch reclaimed its polders from the other side of the North Sea. The area from Hull to the low, muddy cliffs of the Humberside coast has always suffered erosion. Spurn Head, the spit of land which juts out into the Humber estuary, has been washed away and re-formed six times in recorded history, while many villages already lie underwater. But, in the past five years, the pace of change has rapidly increased. Some homes have been abandoned and farmers are seeking compensation for loss of land and buildings. The Humberside trial would submerge a bank of 1.5 million compressed tyres bound with nylon and concrete into a tangle of ropes six or seven metres high, 110 metres long and 60 metres wide. Placed up to 1,000 metres offshore, it would be tested for its stability, effects on local currents and pollution. If it worked, the full scheme could place more than a billion tyres in seven, two-kilometre long strips all the way up the coast. Humberside County Council accepts that such an ambitious project is unlikely to go ahead quickly – possibly not even this decade. In the meantime, the coast depends on smaller schemes under the supervision of Holderness Borough Council. The most recent, at the village of Mappleton, was opened with fanfares four years ago but, while it has saved the village, it has also caused resentment. Other villages say that it has accelerated the rate of erosion elsewhere by preventing the protective sand that drifts down the coast from reaching the beaches. It raised expectations that other schemes could be put in place, hopes the Government dashed in 1993 with a review of policy imposing new environmental and financial demands. The Department of the Environment is expected shortly to approve a controversial à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.5 million, 1,000-metre sea wall around the North Sea gas terminal run by BP and British Gas near Easington. A full plan, which would also have protected the village, was turned down by the department. Mr Robin Taylor, Holderness's director of development, said this appeared to be because under the new guidelines schemes had to prove not just â€Å"cost-beneficial† but to be in the national interest. Saving gas supplies probably was, saving villages not. Mr Ambrose Larkham, who owns the Easington Beach Caravan and Leisure Park, is demanding a public inquiry. â€Å"The ludicrous thing is it is almost as cheap to build 1,600 metres while the equipment's there as it is 1,000,† he said. Mr Taylor said: â€Å"The question of why we are protecting the terminals and not the people of the village is likely to become very controversial. The issue is whether we should be protecting multinational companies and not our own residents.† But Mr Geoffrey Twizell, terminal manager for British Gas and himself a resident, said: â€Å"We are happy to contribute to any scheme that meets everyone's aspirations. Nobody would be talking about any protection at all for Easington if it weren't for the gas terminals here.† Daily Telegraph 1.4.95 Essex drops its guard to let nature take its course By A J McIlroy A TACTICAL retreat could be the answer to coastal erosion on the Essex coast, Government engineers have decided. Contractors from the Ministry of Agriculture and English Nature yesterday lowered the sea wall to flood 21 hectares at Tollesbury Fleet on the Blackwater Estuary. The area is being restored to salt marshes intended to absorb the power of waves that have been pounding artificial sea defences. If the experiment succeeds it will be extended along the Blackwater and to other saltwater estuaries. Roy Hathaway, of the Ministry of Agriculture's flood and coastal defence division, said tracts of coastal marshes were lost when drainage engineers in the 17th and 18th Centuries built sea walls to reclaim land for farming. Now, as a result of the gradual rise in sea level, many of the hundreds of miles of sea wall are crumbling. These are costing millions of pounds to repair, a financial burden that is â€Å"becoming increasingly hard to justify†. He said that to encourage private landowners to accept coastal flooding, the Government had written a â€Å"saltmarsh option† into its set-aside programme, the European Union measure to take farmland out of production. In exchange for allowing their land to become inter-tidal again, farmers would receive à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½190 per hectare per year for grassland and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 for arable land. The payments are guaranteed for 20 years. Mr Hathaway said the ministry was working with conservation groups to maximise the gain to wildlife by restoring the salt marshes. Daily Telegraph 5.8.95 SHORING UP THE COASTLINE By John Hodder THE PRETTY little Suffolk town of Woodbridge was snoozing under a cloudless sky, with a soft breeze taking the sting out of the sun. I gazed out over the placid surface of the River Deben. It was midday in midsummer and this was quiet, gentle England at its most benign – the sort of place, the sort of time that makes it hard to feel threatened by anything, let alone the forces of nature. Twenty-four hours later I was on the beach at Dunwich, 20 miles to the north. The conditions were not very different – the same blue sky and hot sun, cooled now by a rather more blustery wind coming off the sea. But here the threat felt very real – probably because here it is very real. Dunwich is at the mercy of the elements, as it has been down the centuries, and the cliffs just carry on crumbling. If the sea is left to its own devices over the next 70-odd years, the shoreline will retreat by about 200 metres. That, at least, is the experts'projection. Projections, of course, are not the same as firm predictions. But they underline what the problem is – in this case, chronic erosion. The first and obvious question is: â€Å"What can be done to stop it?† The second and much more taxing one is: â€Å"Should anything be done to stop it?† Neither question has an easy answer. If Dunwich is not simply to be abandoned to its fate, a difficult balance will have to be struck between its interest and those of its neighbours. Coastal protection is a tricky science. Nobody knows that better than Roy Stoddard. His title is senior engineer (coast protection) with the Suffolk Coastal District Council and it was to pick his brains that I had gone to Woodbridge. His job is to oversee the 30-mile stretch of coastline from Felixstowe to Southwold, an area whose sand and shingle beach is notoriously unstable when pounded by the waves of the North Sea. It has suffered grievously in a series of violent storms this century. The task of looking after it is now shared between the local authority and the National Rivers Authority (NRA), overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). They work closely together and their common enemy is the sea. The approach to coastal protection has shifted significantly over the past 20 years. â€Å"‘Fight against the sea' was the message until the 1970s,† says Stoddard. â€Å"Now we are not trying to fight against it so much as to work with it, using its peculiar ways to destroy its own energy.† That shift in approach is reflected in marked changes in the sort of barriers now being erected to stem the apparently relentless advance of the waves. As a result, the traditional beach scene is changing. For example, the solid sea walls built behind the beach – and the wide promenades that have accompanied them since Victorian times – are now out of favour. Walls merely repel the waves: they do nothing to reduce their speed or power, which is now recognised as the key to the successful preservation of the shor e. Instead, efforts are being concentrated on protecting and building up the beaches themselves. Similarly, a profusion of timber groynes jutting out at right angles into the sea – the time-honoured means of defence and a common sight along this coast – is seen as far less effective than a few large, rock-based structures shaped like fish-tails. The old wooden ones are fine for leaning against while you have your lunch or sheltering behind on a cold, blowy day. But they are not good at sheltering the shore. The main problem with them -apart from their propensity to rot – is that they cannot be made long enough or deep enough to significantly slow down the incoming rush of water. Hence the move towards the new fish-tail variety. A series of these has been built at Clacton, 20 miles to the south of Stoddard's patch. He is now proposing to develop the concept further by building two similar groynes at Cobbolds Point in Felixstowe, using rock and concrete. Despite their size, which might be considered ugly and intrusive, few people dislike them, he says, and the arguments in their favour are compelling. By confronting the sea farther out they do much more to take the steam out of the waves before they reach the shore. And the farther out you go, the more shore you protect by creating two calm areas in the lee of the two wings of the â€Å"tail†. Thus you help to build up a long stretch of sheltered beach. â€Å"Fish-tailed groynes are many times the length of wooden groynes but you only need one about every kilometre rather than one every 20-30 metres,† says Stoddard. â€Å"As well as being more environmentally-friendly because they enable people to walk along the whole beach – something they couldn't do before, at least not without stepping over groynes every few yards. â€Å"They have another advantage over sea walls. If you build them and find they don't work as well as you'd like, you can pick them up and move them. You can't do that with a massive sea wall.† Stoddard sees the introduction of fish-tail groynes as a â€Å"soft-engineering solution† in contrast to the old â€Å"hard† solution of building walls, which is now seen as causing more difficulties than it solves. â€Å"The problem is that whenever you build a hard wall it is almost invariably accompanied by the beach levels falling. The sea is thrown back off the wall and drags the sand and shingle out. Sometimes the wall itself is undermined – you can shore it up but in time the same thing will happen again.† Solid walls are the most concrete (literally) expression of the view that you must at all costs protect the land against the sea. That view is now being challenged. â€Å"You have four options,† says Stoddard. â€Å"Do nothing, hold the line, advance or retreat. Ten years ago the general view was that everything that could be saved should be saved. Now people are far more aware that harsh decisions have to be made.† Such decisions have worrying implications for places like Dunwich. There, to stop the erosion, you would have to start building some form of protective structure along the beach: merely reinforcing the shingle bank is not enough to stop continuing inroads being made into the coast. So why the hesitation over doing something more effective about it? Simply this: the erosion of the cliffs at Dunwich has positive benefits for the beach immediately to the south at Sizewell. Dunwich's loss is thus Sizewell's gain: that is nature's way. It is a conundrum repeated all along the coast. â€Å"If you have got to save the cliffs at Dunwich, you've got to find alternative means of feeding the beach at Sizewell,† says Stoddard. â€Å"In the end, you have to say that there are some places you won't protect – and people have got to come to terms with that.† Such a hard-nosed attitude can stir up fierce emotions, not least because of the way it could affect both the people who live there now and those who would like to join them. Consequently, it has serious implications for local planners. Do you, for example, go on allowing people to build houses near the sea, thus continually extending the number of years that you have to go on protecting that particular bit of coast – probably at someone else's expense? Another issue arousing controversy is the question of compensation for landowners whose land is gobbled up by the sea. At the moment there is no provision for compensation – indeed, it was specifically excluded from the 1949 Coast Protection Act. But as Stoddard says: â€Å"How do you tell a farmer that his 500 acres of productive arable land would be far better as salt marsh? The question of compensation is going to have to be addressed very shortly.† The difficult questions roll in almost as relentlessly as the sea. I pondered them late at night as I walked the beach at Aldeburgh, with the wind strengthening from the north-east and the waves crashing on to the shingle. They were still nagging away later still, as I lay in bed listening to the roar on the shore just below my hotel window. The sound that had been so soothing in the summer sunshine had taken on a darker edge. Suddenly the forces of nature seemed far less benign. Leisurely progress coastal protection has developed piecemeal over the past 150 years, driven not so much by pure science as by the demand to fulfil social expectations. It was essentially that pressure which led to the widespread introduction of sea walls. From the mid-19th century wealthy Victorians sought the development of coastal resorts. To realise their leisurely ambitions, engineers were drafted in to build the walls and the promenades which went with them. Over the years it has become increasingly obvious that such a haphazard approach is unsatisfactory and that activity on one bit of the coast could have damaging effects on another. The need for greater planning and co-ordination, recognised in the 1949 Coast Protection Act, is now universally acknowledged: it will be reflected in the six new shoreline management plans that are being prepared for the whole of the east coast, from the Humber to the Thames. 26.8.95 From Compton's Complete Reference Collection Landforms that result from erosion, or wearing away of the land, make up some of the most scenic coastal areas in the world. Sea cliffs that border many rocky coasts are an example. These cliffs were created when pounding waves weakened the lower portion of the rock to the extent that parts of the cliffs above tumbled into the water, leaving a rock wall with rubble at the bottom. Solid rock shores that lack beaches are easily destroyed by the sea. Beaches consequently protect the shore. Sometimes groins (short piers that extend out into the sea from 30 to 200 meters, depending on the nature of the beach) are constructed to protect the shores from erosion. This has been done along the coasts of the Black Sea. In recent years, some beaches have been artificially restored with sand taken from the sea bottom or from nearby dunes. This has been done on many beaches in the United States and on the island of Norderney in the North Sea.