Julie Heffernan Self Portrait as Wunderkabinett Essay

| Julie Heffernan Self portrait as Wunderkabinett | | | 7/2/2013 | Museum Visit Assignment | | | Julie Heffernan Self portrait as Wunderkabinett Museum visit assignment The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC is a timeless building and a work of art itself. The building was designed with a contemporary style and is an outward expression of its artistic, belongings inside. I visited the Museum on Tuesday, July 02, 2013, at around 2 in the afternoon. I was within the museum for about 2  ½ hours, observing the exhibits. The building itself exceeded my expectations, but the inside took my breath away. Every detail within was elaborate and intended with thought; from the glass windows, to the straight lines of the architecture, to the†¦show more content†¦The artist creates a focal point with the only woman whose face viewers cannot see. The women’s dress appears to have caught on fire and produces luminosity around the chandelier, forming a shadow within the corners of the room, which brings the viewers eyes from the main woman, up to the chandelier, as shown in the picture to the left. Heffernan’s paintings exp ress her untamed imagination with majestic fantasy, dream-like subjects, yet she paints with a very classic technique. When I first viewed The Self Portrait as Wunderkabinett, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel came to mind. Michelangelo illustrates the desire and describes the oneness that humans anticipate with God through salvation. The artists painting technique is traditional, with the sensible and realistic proportions of the human body, the distinguishing lines, the application of shadow, the intricate detail on every object within the painting, and the use of traditional complementary color pairs. Julie Heffernan was born in 1956. She was raised in Northern California but resides in Brooklyn, New York today. She received a BFA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and incredibly, her Masters of Fine Art in Painting from the Yale School of Art. A significant moment that contributes to her talent as an artist was in 1986 where she lived in Berlin for two years, stud ying and practicing constantly during her stay. Her process for creating a new

Belbin Essay examples - 784 Words

BELBIN Belbins theory suggests that in any co-operating business there is always a large team of people who are involved in the businesses success to the present and to the future. They are people who have certain jobs that they have to do, and their jobs are described by these names. A plant, co-ordinator, monitor evaluator, implementer, completer, resource investigator, shaper, team worker, and finally a specialist. These people co-operate as a team to be as successful as possible in their business, they do not only contribute as a team to achieve to be successful, but they also have done this so it makes it easy for everyone how takes part in the business. Now I will through each of these team role people: Plant Is a creative†¦show more content†¦Implementer This is disciplined and very reliable and also has to be conservative and efficient. He usually has to think how to turn important issues into practical actions. In TESCO he would be the person responsible of the finance of their business. The disadvantages would be that the person would be counted as inflexible and slow to respond to new possibilities. Completer Finisher This person would be required to help in painstaking conscientious and anxious moments. He is required to search the errors and emissions or to deliver on time. In TESCO the team role person would be called the trouble shoots. The team workers main problem would be he is inclined to worry unduly, and also he is usually reluctant to delegate. Resource Investigator This team worker simply has to be extrovert enthusiastic communicative so he can explore opportunities so this way he can develop contacts. In TESCO this person simply would be the team worker responsible of the market research. His problems in his job would be that he will be seen as over optimistic, and will often loss interest once the initial enthusiasm has passed. Shaper This team role person has to be challenging and also dynamic at the same time. At all times the team member thrives on pressure, these are the skills required to overcome obstacles. In TESCO this team member would be the design team instructing how to overcome these obstacles. But this teamShow MoreRelatedBelbin Team Roles808 Words   |  4 Pagesin 1981. Belbin put forward that management teams require a mix of individual characteristics working together to be most effective. His roles numbered 8, this was revised to 9 later with the addition of the specialist role.(Belbin,1981) The growing commercial success of Belbin’s original book and increasing adoption of the work in organisations (Furnham,1993a) resulted in greater evaluation. Furnham highlighted several question marks in terms of the Team Role theory and in turn Belbin himself andRead MoreStrengths and Limitations of the Belbin Modelof Team Roles1333 Words   |  6 PagesQuestion; Critically review the ways in which the Belbin model of team roles might be applied to the recruitment and selection of new team members like the John Lewis Partnership . Consider and outline both its strengths and limitations. Table Of Contents - Introduction Page 1 - Meredith Belbin’s model of team roles Page 1 - Applying Belbin’s model to the selection process Page 1 - Efficiency of application; the strengths and limitations Page 1-2 - ConclusionRead MoreBelbin Framework1676 Words   |  7 PagesTEAM ROLES: BELBIN FRAMEWORK Over the last few years, work teams have become a common and increasing characteristic of organisational life. Organisational successes, gains in productivity, quality and profitability are all attributed to team working. There are a number of factors which contribute to the performance of teams; for instance, the organisational structure within which the team works, the type of task to be accomplished, resources available and the characteristic of the team and theRead MoreThe And Benefits Of The Belbin Theory1353 Words   |  6 Pages www.leadershipsolutions.co.nz(Belbin-The benefits) To view the responsibility of people play within the company in accomplishing objectives,there is need to pay particular attention on Belbin’s theory. The Belbin theory demonstrates roles people play, which are explained as follows: People oriented roles: This comprises of the team workers, managers, coordinators. They play an important part in making sure that the work within a group is kept going. Coordinators are the ones who assist withRead MoreThe Team s Belbin Profiles1918 Words   |  8 Pages1.1 1.1 The Team’s Belbin Profiles The failure and success of various project teams isn t dependent on the level of intellect but instead on the variety of behaviours demonstrated by each individual. There are nine roles in total and each team member can acquire a variety of those roles to different extent (Belbin, 1971). My team had three coordinators; Wu Chang, Tsolaye and myself. Coordinators are responsible to delegate tasks to each member of the team (Belbin, 1971), but in my team Wu ChangRead MoreThe Theory Of Building A Team With Belbin1088 Words   |  5 Pagestest each member was assigned a role from Belbin’s Theory of Team Roles. This was done to ensure that all the teams where balanced as the theory of building a team with Belbin’s Team Roles is that one person weakness is another person’s strength. Belbin (2010). On the second week of the challenge I took up the role of leader of the group, a position that I was very unsure about. Within the following report I will reflect on my devel opment as leader, what I learnt and the effects that my leadershipRead MoreThe Theory Of Building A Team With Belbin1080 Words   |  5 Pagesthe test each member was assigned a role from Belbin’s Theory of Team Roles. This was done to ensure that all the teams where balanced. As the theory of building a team with Belbin’s Team Roles is that one person’s weakness is another’s strength. Belbin (2010). On the second week of the challenge I took up the role of leader of the group, a position that I was highly unsure about. Within the following report I will reflect on my development as leader, what I learnt and the effects that my leadershipRead MoreThe Work Of Belbin And My Personal Experiences988 Words   |  4 PagesThe work of Belbin and my personal experiences The Financial Post (2015) stated teamwork is key to success; this is true in the context of building careers as at some point you will have to work in a team, which is sometimes challenging. Steve Jobs also believed in the importance of teamwork â€Å"Great things in business are never done by one person they’re done by a team of people.† (BusinessNewsDaily, 2013). There are many different aspects of teamwork for example; skills, team conflict and groupRead MoreRole Of The Belbin Team Role Theory1654 Words   |  7 Pagesare doing. This will allow the staff to have a better idea of how to perform to their highest ability. In order for this to happen, hierarchy in the work place has to be set. So staff in the work place knows who is clearly in charge of them. â€Å"The Belbin team role theory†, has allowed companies to take up test to see who is most appropriate for the role they are best fit for. By having this test staff will know what area of work they are bes t at and this will also help staff excel in the areas ofRead MoreTeam Roles for Team Effectiveness Essays1070 Words   |  5 Pagesby who created this team role, British psychologist, Dr Meredith Belbin. In 1969, Dr Belbin was invited to use this business game as a starting point for a study of team behavior (Belbin.com, 2014.) And he started to research teams at Henley Management College in 1970s. At that time, he carried to observational research, analysis to determine which factor can influence the successful of team and failure of team.In 1981, Meredith Belbin expounded Team Role theory in his seminal book and increase the

Close Encounter Essay Research Paper The air free essay sample

Near Encounter Essay, Research Paper The air was get downing to chill, the twenty-four hours? s warmth a thing of the yesteryear. Stars shone from up above, and she was grateful for little favors. Their soft freshness was soothing on the alone state route she was going, which was about pitch dark now. William claude dukenfields of maize grew midst on either side of her. Dark shadows, every bit tall as herself, thick plenty to hide person, thin plenty to travel about in. She remembered childhood yearss spent playing fell and seek in the chaffs. They were good concealment topographic points. She shivered at the idea. There were no street lamps. Not this far out of the manner. And she still had plenty left to go. Anything could go on on these roads after dark. She laughed at herself. Anything could go on during the twenty-four hours on these roads. No 1 was around either clip. Yet? she wished it was twenty-four hours. A cool zephyr passed, raising goose bumps on her bare weaponries. Two autos speeded past her. Even people safe in their autos wanted out of there fast. She wished her pa would pick her up when he said he would. Then she wouldn? Ts have to walk the 10 kilometres place from a trip to civilisation. Tonss of parental concern at that place. And so it happened. She heard what she had been fearing to hear: footfalls behind her. Possibly she was merely imaging it. That happened when you walked for hours on chilling back roads. She strained to hear nil, yet the sound continued. Whoever it was, they were scuffling along with overdone attempt ; the sound was unmistakable. She quickened her gait, and tried to be quiet at the same clip, trusting whoever it was, didn? T see her until she got around the following crook. Then she would merely conceal in the maize chaffs until he was far in front? Yet the alien had other programs. He quickened, more so than she, and she could hear the grating sound of his places acquiring closer and closer. She practically ran around the crook, non caring now if he saw her or non. The feeling of maize chaffs as she dived into their privacy hadn? t of all time felt so good. Quickly stooping down and out of sight, she stopped and waited for the alien to travel on. She clutched her oral cavity, surrounding the breath that came out in pant. Minutes seemed similar hours as she sat at that place in the cold, inquiring if she would of all time see the visible radiation of twenty-four hours once more. Finally, she climbed out, calculating that, as no 1 had come in after her, the alien had continued on. She felt like express joying at her infantile fright. She was 16, excessively old to be making cockamamie things like that. Yet that same infantile fright returned the 2nd she emerged. There he was, waiting on the other side of the street. He wasn? t traveling anyplace ; he had no finish. His lone programs were to follow her. She couldn? t shriek, couldn? t move, and couldn? t even breathe. The featureless silhouette on the other side began to talk. ? I? m non traveling to kill you, wear? T concern. I merely didn? T want to hold to walk all the manner place by myself. ? The voice belonged to an stripling, and was in itself instead reassuring. ? Who are you? ? she demanded shakily. ? I? m Mike Weist. Who are you? ? ? Christine. How come I? ve neer seen you before? ? ? I don? T cognize? at that place? s a batch of infinite between the farms, and my house is right on the school boundary line, so we could be neighbors and non even cognize it. ? ? What side of the boundary line? ? ? The E. ? Her house was west of the line. He was right. She knew there was a good five kilometers between her farm and the following. If it weren? T for school, she? 500 neer see anyone besides her household. ? So you likely go to White River? ? he asked, mentioning to the name of her high school. ? Yeah, ? she replied shakily. She was non at easiness with this alien. In the dark it would be easy for a middle-aged paedophile to present as a teenage male child. He seemed to feel her uncomfortableness, and began to speak in slow, easy tones. He talked about what a bitch it was to drive half an hr to school every twenty-four hours. He talked about music, his friends, how he was neer traveling to be a husbandman. He talked about what he wanted to make after high school ; he was in class 12 purportedly. He was traveling to acquire a large academic scholarship to some university far off and neer come back to this God forsaken topographic point. While speaking about his hereafter though, he seemed so sad, as if dreams were great but world was excessively rough. Finally, she came to the realization that, whether she liked it or non, she was stuck walking with whoever this was, for the following hr. If he wanted to kill her, he would make it whether she participated in the conversation or non. ? What do you desire to be? ? she asked after his explicating his college programs. He laughed. ? That? s the amusing portion ; I don? T know! Something of import. Not merely a soiled old husbandman. ? ? ? If it wasn? T for fa rmers, the universe would hunger, ? ? she quoted quietly. Her male parent frequently said that to her and her brothers while turning up. He glanced over, ? You got a point at that place. ? ? But I? m merely every bit bad as you. I want to acquire out every bit fast as I can excessively. ? ? Oh yeah? What do you desire to make? ? ? I don? T know if I want to travel to university, possibly merely travel to some college in a metropolis with more than 10 people in it. That would work for me. ? ? I know, it gets reasonably lonely out here. ? She shivered uncomfortably. She didn? T know what his programs for counterbalancing that solitariness were. ? Hey, you don? Ts have to be scared out of your head. I? m non traveling to ache you. ? She was used to empty promises from those closest to her, why would she swear a alien? ? It? s non that bad, ? she said quietly. ? You wear? t get bored out here? ? ? I visit my friends from White River a batch. ? ? That? s a reasonably long thrust. ? ? I normally walk. ? ? You walk the whole 20 kilometers? ! ? Great, she thought, he? ll be out here waiting for me now. ? No, my friends normally drop me off where the paving ends. They don? T want to damage their dazes. It? s non 20 kilometers to there anyways. ? ? Don? T want to give out any information about where you live eh? ? ? I think it? s apprehensible. ? ? Trudat, ? he agreed. She burst out laughing. She had neer heard anyone say that except on Television, and it sounded, well, amusing, coming from a mid-west state yokel. That was all that was needed to interrupt the ice. Her guard was still kept up, but they began to speak more freely, express joying and jesting during the following hr. She was every bit lonely as he claimed to be. Her? friends? in White River was Michelle ; there was no 1 else. No 1 else wanted to be her friend, and she wondered if it was the same with Michelle, no 1 else threatened to take Christine? s topographic point as Michelle? s best friend. The human company felt nice in her sodium? ve being. She about wished the dark would last everlastingly. She arrived at her house. The visible radiations were on, gratefully, her brothers had some friends over imbibing. She could her their exuberant behavior half a stat mi back. ? There? s my house, ? she said unhappily. ? Alright, cool. I guess I? ll be seeing you around subsequently so? ? ? Yeah, decidedly. ? They trudged along farther. And right in forepart of her house, in the visible radiation, she saw his face for the first clip. A beautiful daze of blond hair spilled over his brow. Green eyes peered out shyly from a face deeply tanned from out-of-door work on the farm. He was better looking than she would hold of all time imagined. And he seemed to be interested in her, the miss cipher wanted. On urge, she turned up and kissed him good dark. She doubted she? 500 of all time meet him once more anyways. And she neer did. ***Two and a half months subsequently on Halloween Night ? What do you intend, you? ve had a fellow? ? Michelle demanded. Christine was kiping over her house that dark. ? Well, he wasn? T truly my fellow, I met him one dark walking place on Pitton ; you know where you drop me off at? There. And we talked for hours, and so kissed. ? ? What school does he travel to? ? she asked, determined to happen truth that she was lying. ? He goes to Brookfield, you know how the school line is truly close to my house. ? ? What? s his name? I know a batch of people there. ? Michelle had four cousins at Brookfield, and went to all their parties because her ma made certain she was invited. ? Mike Weist. ? Michelle? s face went space. ? How long ago was this? ? ? August 12th. ? She would neer bury that twenty-four hours. ? Christine, are you lying to me? ? ? No! I? m non that hapless! ? ? Christine, didn? T you hear about Mike Weist? ? ? No, why? ? ? Christine he was killed in a house fire on August 6th. ? ? How could you say something like that to me? Something good eventually happens to me, and you try to do it sound like I? m lying or something? Possibly you? re covetous, I don? T know, but I don? T attention! Let me bask my minute! Don? Ts make up gross crap like that to frighten me! ? Michelle? s face was ashen. ? You? re certain it was the 12th? ? ? I? thousand sure. It was my birthday, and we had the small jubilation at your house, retrieve? ? Michelle went to delving about in different debris shortss and found what she was looking for: a cut out newspaper article. Right in the Centre was what she dreaded to see: the tan face with the piercing green eyes, smiling with lips she thought she had kissed. And right below, in the caption, read: 17 year-old Michael Weist was killed during a tragic house fire on Pitton Rd. Funeral service will be held on August 8th, 2000. Christine fainted.

Mid-Continent Earthquakes And Their Effect On Concrete Structures Essa

Mid-Continent Earthquakes and Their Effect on Concrete Structures Disasters come in many shapes, sizes, and forms yet all are detrimental to people and structures of all types. The most terrifying of all disasters are natural disasters, the force of nature is rivaled by no man made disaster. One of the natural disasters that has terrorized as well as fascinated humans through out history is the earthquake. Most earthquakes are associated with areas such as Southern California or China, but the most detrimental aspect of disaster is the element of suprise. In this case areas such as Central North America and North Turkey have been visited by the violent shock of a mid-continent earthquake. These earthquakes are violent and cause mass amounts of structural damage and total destruction of many structures. Concrete being a very brittle material is affected greatly during an earthquake but through technology many advancements have been made to compensate for the damaging effects caused by an earthquake. This paper will discuss mid-continent earthquakes of the past, their effect on concrete structures, problems effecting concrete structures, and alternative materials and solutions to bypass those problems during future earthquakes. Mid-Continent Earthquakes A series of earthquakes occurred between December 1811 and February 1812 in the New Madrid Seismic Zone which is in the Mississippi River Valley. These earthquakes may have been caused by a series of buried faults and anomalous rock formations that formed 500 million years ago when tectonic forces tried and failed to split North America in two. This structure known as the Reelfoot Rift is the zone of weakness that could account for the earthquakes during this period (Reducing Losses 1995). This series of earthquakes was characterized by ground warping, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving stream banks. An area of over 600,000 square kilometers was damaged during the 1811-1812 period of earthquakes (USGS 2000). During the earthquakes ground shaking occurred as the land moved up and down and caused trees to bend, chimneys to fall, and log cabins to be thrown to the ground. Liquefaction was also a problem during the mid-continent earthquakes where the shaking transformed water saturated soil or sediment into a thick quicksand like slurry (Reducing Losses 1995). Sand bars and points of islands in the Miss. River gave way while some whole islands disappeared. This period of earthquakes was also characterized by deformation which is either elastic or inelastic. Both types of deformation were apparent during the earthquakes. When the rocks snapped back after movement during the elastic deformation large cracks in the ground were opened up. Inelastic deformation occurred when land was uplifted while other parts sunk and remained in that position. This uplift of the ground and the waves moving during the ground shaking gave the appearance that the Miss. River was flowing North. A very recent mid-continent earthquake occurred in Turkey called the Izmit Earthquake. The rupture appeared to be about 110 km in length and occurred during August of 1999. This earthquake occurred along a strike slip fault where there were recorded offsets of 1.2m to 4.9m (USGS 1999). There was a mass destruction of buildings and as a result about 300,000 people were killed or injured (USGS 1999) while many were left homeless in campsites where diseases were rampant. Ground shaking was tremendous as a result of the 7.5 Richter scale rated earthquake where many buildings were flattened. Deformation was evident in the Izmut Bay where the fault leaves the eastern side of the bay and slumps along the crack formed scarps (USGS 1999). Sag ponds were a result of the liquefaction that occurred along the strike slip fault. This earthquake was devastating to the residents of northern Turkey but a lot of valuable information was extracted in order to prevent that magnitude of disaster in the future. Effects and Problems of Earthquakes on Concrete Structures Earthquakes are very detrimental to concrete structures which are very brittle and struggle and often lose to the violent shaking of the earth and the many ramifications that are brought about by the shaking. Damage to the structures are caused by the materials inertia and resistance to movement that causes the concrete to fail and ultimately the collapse of the building. Ground acceleration is the key aspect from an engineering point of

Young Goodman Brown Essays - Abrahamic Mythology, Satan, Free Essays

Young Goodman Brown Essays - Abrahamic Mythology, Satan, Free Essays Young Goodman Brown "Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. "Young Goodman Brown" is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In "Young Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own community. "Young Goodman Brown" begins when Faith, Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an "errand". Goodman Brown says to his "love and (my) Faith" that "this one night I must tarry away from thee." When he says his "love" and his "Faith", he is talking to his wife, but he is also talking to his "faith" to God. He is venturing into the woods to meet with the Devil, and by doing so, he leaves his unquestionable faith in God with his wife. He resolves that he will "cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven." This is an example of the excessive pride because he feels that he can sin and meet with the Devil because of this promise that he made to himself. There is a tremendous irony to this promise because when Goodman Brown comes back at dawn; he can no longer look at his wife with the same faith he had before. When Goodman Brown finally meets with the Devil, he declares that the reason he was late was because "Faith kept me back awhile." This statement has a double meaning because his wife physically prevented him from being on time for his meeting with the devil, but his faith to God psychologically delayed his meeting with the devil. The Devil had with him a staff that "bore the likeness of a great black snake". The staff which looked like a snake is a reference to the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake led Adam and Eve to their destruction by leading them to the Tree of Knowledge. The Adam and Eve story is similar to Goodman Brown in that they are both seeking unfathomable amounts of knowledge. Once Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge they were expelled from their paradise. The Devil's staff eventually leads Goodman Brown to the Devil's ceremony which destroys Goodman Brown's faith in his fellow man, therefore expelling him from his utopia. Goodman Brown almost immediately declares that he kept his meeting with the Devil and no longer wishes to continue on his errand with the Devil. He says that he comes from a "race of honest men and good Christians" and that his father had never gone on this errand and nor will he. The Devil is quick to point out however that he was with his father and grandfather when they were flogging a woman or burning an Indian village, respectively. These acts are ironic in that they were bad deeds done in the name of good, and it shows that he does not come from "good Christians." When Goodman Brown's first excuse not to carry on with the errand proves to be unconvincing, he says he can't go because of his wife, "Faith". And because of her, he can not carry out the errand any further. At this point the Devil agrees with him and tells him to turn back to prevent that "Faith should come to any harm" like the old woman in front of them on the path. Ironically, Goodman Brown's faith is harmed because the woman on the path is the woman who "taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser." The Devil and the woman talk and afterward, Brown continues to walk on with the Devil in the disbelief of what he had just witnessed. Ironically, he blames the woman for consorting with the Devil but his own pride stops him from realizing that his faults are the same as the woman's. Brown again decides that he will no longer to continue on his errand and rationalizes that just because his teacher was not going to heaven, why should he "quit my dear Faith, and go after her".

Facts About the Dwarf Seahorse

Facts About the Dwarf Seahorse The dwarf seahorse  (Hippocampus zosterae)  is a small seahorse  found in the Western Atlantic Ocean. They are also known as little seahorses or pygmy seahorses.   Description: The maximum length of a dwarf seahorse is just under 2 inches. Like many other seahorse species, it has a variety of color forms, which range from tan to green to almost black. Their skin may be mottled, have dark spots, and covered in tiny warts. These seahorses have a short snout, and a coronet on top of their head that is very high and column-like or knob-like in shape. They may also have filaments extending from their head and body.   Dwarf seahorses have 9-10 bony rings around their trunk and 31-32 rings around their tail.   Classification Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: ActinopterygiiOrder: GasterosteiformesFamily: SyngnathidaeGenus: HippocampusSpecies:  Zosterae Habitat and Distribution Dwarf seahorses live in shallow waters populated with  seagrasses. In fact, their distribution coincides with the availability of seagrasses.  They may also be found in floating vegetation. They live in the Western Atlantic Ocean in southern Florida, Bermuda, Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico. Feeding Dwarf seahorses eat small crustaceans  and tiny fish. Like other seahorses, they are ambush predators, and use  their long snout with a pipette-like motion  to suck in their food as it passes by. Reproduction The breeding season for dwarf seahorses runs from February to November. In captivity, these animals have been reported to mate for life. Dwarf seahorses have a complex, four phase  courtship ritual that involves color changes, performing vibrations while attached to a holdfast. They may also swim around their holdfast. Then the female points her head upward, and the male responds by also pointing his head upward. Then they rise up into the water column and intertwine tails.   Like other seahorses, dwarf seahorses are ovoviviparous, and the female produces eggs that are reared in the males brood pouch.  The female produces about 55 eggs which are about 1.3 mm in size. It takes about 11 days for the eggs to hatch into miniature seahorses which are about 8 mm in size.   Conservation and Human Uses This species is listed as  data deficient  on the  IUCN Red List  due to a lack of published data on population numbers or trends in this species. This species is threatened by habitat degradation, especially because they rely on such shallow habitat.  They also are caught as bycatch  and caught live in Florida waters for the aquarium trade. In the U.S., this species is a candidate for listing for protection under the Endangered Species Act. References and Further Information: Irey, B. 2004. Hippocampus zosterae. Animal Diversity Web. Accessed September 30, 2014Lourie, S.A.,  Foster, S.J., Cooper, E.W.T. and A.C.J. Vincent. 2004. A Guide to the Identification of Seahorses. Project Seahorse and TRAFFIC North America. 114 pp.Lourie, S.A., A.C.J. Vincent and H.J. Hall, 1999. Seahorses: an identification guide to the worlds species and their conservation. Project Seahorse, London. 214 p.  via FishBase, September 30, 2014.Masterson, J. 2008. Hippocampus zosterae. Smithsonian Marine Station. Accessed September 30, 2014.NOAA Fisheries. Dwarf Seahorse (Hippocampus zosterae). Accessed September 30, 2014.Project Seahorse 2003.  Hippocampus zosterae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. www.iucnredlist.org.  Accessed September 30, 2014.

Describe social hierarchies and discuss their relevance for ethnic Essay

Describe social hierarchies and discuss their relevance for ethnic studies - Essay Example better comprehension of the processes of social stratification and inequality in the general society but more importantly the business world (Karin 7). Ethnic minorities encounter a lot of challenges such as labor market discrimination to an extent that some of these people face health differences where those with low socio-economic status are at a disadvantage. Significantly, a good example is where in the United States there are groups that experience inequality through discrimination when it comes to acquiring jobs i.e. Africans, Asians and Latinos (Karin 23). It is very hard to find people from these ethnic groups in the top level management of prominent organizations; once they get jobs in these organizations and are at the bottom of the hierarchies, it is very hard for them to get any promotions or even job upgrades. Generally, ethnicity is a significant category of social hierarchies in contemporary societies that contain a significant number of ethnic communities with most parts of the society dealing with challenges associated with racism, ethnic discrimination, ethnic identity or even minority rights. This has actually resulted to the ethnic communities in the United States relying on social ties and latter groups that look upon state agencies for employment and trying to find ways that they can employ so as to improve labor market chances like acquiring high level skills (Karin

Concumer Behaviour and Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Concumer Behaviour and Marketing - Essay Example Culture plays a multidimensional phenomenon which is much more than nationality of a country. Today, marketers, functioning in a multicultural scene are commonly confronted with two questions; â€Å"What is culture in the marketing context?† and â€Å"What is the role of culture as a factor influencing individual ethical decision making?† (Srnka, 2004, p.1). The project makes an analysis of the cultural differences between nations and how they influence the marketing strategies of companies launching products in those countries. It discusses about how a particular marketing strategy impacts on its consumers. It explains to what extent the global consumers culture prevails in society. Finally, it makes an analysis of the various options present before the marketers of companies when they launch a new product in a different country having a different culture. Key points in global consumer culture Consumer culture refers to the system where a common â€Å"set of behaviour s† is found across all the places. Culture refers to a uniform set of values that exists among a selected group of individuals (University of Northern Iowa, 2008). The concept of global consumer culture gets impetus from the expansion of the businesses across all the global corners. According to Mazzarella (2004) global consumer culture is â€Å"at one and the same time, ideology and social process, as something continuously made and remade through constantly shifting relations, practices, and technologies of market mediation†. To be more specific the dissemination of the global consumer culture is shaped by the flow of varying cultural resources which are referred by Appadurai (1990) as mediascapes, ideoscapes, technoscapes and financescapes. Globalization is mainly envisioned as few selected global brands like Mc Donald’s, Coca-Cola and Nike. To some extent this is a result of the marketing executives in America who view global village as one where people trave l in the same car; have same food; and have a similar television program viewership. These views are further reinforced by a group of international editors and journalists who associate globalisation with Mc Donald’s and Coca Cola pictures which indirectly refers to the gradual spread of the small American brands throughout the world. These two American brands rank forty-second and thirty-first respectively and represent the face of globalisation. As per Belk, a uniform global culture leads to homogeneity of global consumption. The consumers are increasingly listening to a similar type of music, adopting the same fashion technique, dining in the same restaurant etc. As per Alden, Steenkamp and Batra look upon global consumer culture as common sets of consumption linked symbols that facilitate to categorise members. Financescapes refer to the international flow of currency, capital and different financial instruments which facilitate running of the market. The examples include remittance business, flourishing derivative markets etc. Technoscapes refer to the flow of mechanical and informational techniques across the globe. A common example here can be the global revolution of cell phone. Smith (1991) states that a global media helps in the spread of global consumer culture thereby developing its global identity. Mediascapes

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet Essay Example for Free

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet Essay Many people fear the Internet because of its disadvantages. They claim to not use the Internet because they are afraid of the possible consequences or are simply not interested. People who have yet connected to the Internet claim they are not missing anything. Today’s technological society must realize that it is up to them to protect themselves on the Internet. Children using the Internet have become a big concern. Most parents do not realize the dangers involved when their children connect to the Internet. When children are online, they can easily be lured into something dangerous. For example, children may receive pornography online by mistake; therefore, causing concern among parents everywhere. Whether surfing the Web, reading newsgroups, or using email, children can be exposed to extremely inappropriate material. To keep children safe, parents and teachers must be aware of the dangers. They must actively guide and guard their children online. There are a number of tools available today that may help keep the Internet environment safer for children. Musicians are also concerned with disadvantages to the Net such as, accessibility and freedom. They are upset because the Internet provides their music online at no charge to consumers. File-sharing services, such as Napster, provide copyrighted songs to all Internet users. The main concern is the music is free! Musicians feel they are not getting paid for their work. Because of Napster, it is almost impossible to close down all file-sharing services because there are too many of them to count. Another major disadvantage of the Internet is privacy. Electronic messages sent over the Internet can be easily tracked, revealing who is talking to whom and what they are talking about. As people surf the Internet, they are constantly giving information to web sites. People should become aware that the collection, selling, or sharing of the information they provide online increases the chances that their information will fall into the wrong hands. When giving personal information on the Internet, people should make sure the Web site is protected with a recognizable security symbol. On the other hand, this does not mean they are fully protected because anyone may obtain a user’s information. In other words, the most common Internet crimes are frauds. Today, not only humans getting viruses, but computers are also. Computers are mainly getting these viruses from the Internet, yet viruses may also be transferred through floppy disks. However, people should mainly be concerned about receiving viruses from the Internet. Some of these dangerous viruses destroy the computer’s entire hard drive, meaning that the user can no longer access the computer. Virus protection is highly recommended. Despite all of the terrible disadvantages of the Internet, there are numerous advantages. In fact, the advantages weigh out the disadvantages. The most common thing the Internet is used for is research. Children and students are among the top people who use the Internet for research. Nowadays, it is almost required that students use the Internet for research. The Internet has become one of the biggest sources for research. Almost everyday, research on medical issues becomes easier to locate. Web sites have become available for people to research diseases and talk to doctors online at sites such as, America’s Doctor. Entertainment is another popular reason why many people surf the Internet. Downloading games, going into chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people have discovered. There are numerous games that may be downloaded from the Internet at no charge. Chat rooms are popular because users can meet new and interesting people. In fact, the Internet has been used by people to find life long partners. When people surf the Web, there are numerous things that can be found. Music, hobbies, news and more can be found on the Internet. Another popular thing to do on the Internet is to check out the news. Almost all local news can be obtained through the Internet. Up to date sports scores are probably the most popular looked at news. Sports scores are updated on the Internet as soon as the game ends. Weather is also a popular source to look up on the Internet. Using the Internet to get the weather allows people to view weather all over the world. Live radar all over the country and local forecasts are just to name a few of the things that may be obtained for weather information on the Internet. Shopping online has also become a huge success and is considered a great advantage of the Internet. No matter what people are shopping for, it can be found on the Internet. People do not even have to leave their homes. A few companies have collected millions of dollars using the Internet for selling. Clothing is probably one of the most bought items online. Almost every major clothing store has its on Web site. In fact, In US, people can even go grocery shopping online using such sites as Priceline.com. Just one click of the mouse on the items they want to purchase and the items are delivered to their front door. Unfortunately, this kind of service is not yet available in Malaysia for the time being. Groceries and clothing are only a few of the items that may be bought on the Internet. In conclusion, today’s society is in the middle of a technological boom. People can either choose to take advantage of this era, or simply let it pass them by. The Internet is a very powerful tool. It has many advantages; however, people need to be extremely aware of the disadvantages as well.

Giovanni Da Verrazano :: essays papers

Giovanni Da Verrazano Giovanni da Verrazano was a Florentine explorer and navigator. Although he was Italian, he was employed by the kind of France to find a passage to the Pacific Ocean. The exact date of his birth and death are not known, but historians believe that he was born in 1480, and he died in 1527. In 1524, he started on a voyage and discovered Cape Fear. He is believed to have been the first European to sight the New York Bay, but it was not explored until Henry Hudson's voyage in 1609. Verrazono also explored the North Carolina coast and he visited the Chesapeake region and then northward to Nova Scotia. In fact, he explored much of the American coast line. When Giovanni was 39, he explored more of the coast, sailing his 100-ton ship Dauphine for the French. While on this mission, he discovered a "beautiful" harbor in April and gave the name Angouleme to the island that will later be called Manhattan. But Giovanni wasn't flawless. While he was still on this journey, he mistook the large body of water to the west of the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Pacific Ocean. A map by Sebastian Munster shows the false "Sea of Verrazano." His voyages affected all men because he discovered some important lands that are vital to us today, such as Manhattan. If he had not discovered these expanses, maybe someone else who had different intentions would have found them, and then our whole American history would be different. He could have burned the lands and sold them to Australians, but he didn't. He was responsible, and returned to the King of France with pride. He set a good example for our present day explorers. We may not be searching for new lands, but there is always a new frontier to be explored. There is not a lot written about Giovanni's personal life and his personality, but from what I have read, he seemed to be an adventurous individual who just wanted to explore and discover new lands. He may be overlooked in most of the history books, but without him, America might not be what she is today. His discoveries are so important because they paved the way for future explorations. He sighted many places, and then other explorers came after him and finished his explorations. He opened a lot of doors for other men, and he does not get the credit that he

Fifth Business Essay

Robertson Davies wrote a novel that explores the psychological issues of the human condition and this novel is called Fifth Business. The characters in this novel often create false images and in several points throughout Fifth Business they deal with experiences and incidents in unique ways. One of the human species greatest abilities is the ability to mask emotions, thoughts and actions by lying and concealing the reality of a situation. In this classic novel, there is a constant battle between appearance and reality in most, if not in all of the characters involved. Boy Staunton and Dunstan Ramsay seem to be very close friends, but they have always had a secret rivalry in their relationship that consists of jealousy and differences. Dunstan Ramsay hides how he really feels towards Diana Marfleet, and Leola Cruikshank hides who she really is to fit the standards set for her by her husband Boy Staunton. The battle between appearances and reality is shown on a number of different occasions in Fifth Business. For example, this battle surfaces between two of the main characters, Dunstan Ramsay and Boy Staunton. The relationship between these two is a very complex one. They appear to be both friends and enemies to each other. From the very beginning of their friendship when they were young boys, Boy is always trying to make Dunny feel less than what he is. Boy had more of an attachment to materialistic objects compared to Dunny and although Dunny never has an intention of competing with Boy, Boy sees Dunstan as a rival. On the other hand, Dunny shows how unimportant materialistic objects really are to him. I though twenty-four dollars was plenty for a ready made suit, and four dollars a criminal price for a pair of shoes. I changed my shirt twice a week and my underwear once. I had not yet developed any expensive tastes and seen nothing wrong with a good boarding-house. † (Davies, 111) But as they grow up and Boy becomes a successful business man, he helps Dunstan with his financial investments by giving him advice and own personal knowledge. â€Å"I was filled with a sour scorn that I now know was nothing but envy, but then I mistook for philosophy. I didn’t really want the clothes, I didn’t really want the girl or the booze, but it scalded me to see him enjoying them, and I hobbled away grumbling to myself like Diogenes. † (Davies, 113) Boy spent his energy on making sure he was always above Dunny and Dunny secretly envied boy despite the exterior of friends they gave off to the world. Furthermore, when looking at Diana and Dunstan’s relationship, the reader finds yet another example of the battle between appearances and reality. Dunstan makes it appear that he is in love with Diana, when in reality, he is not. Not only does he make it appear that he is in love with her, but he also shows just how easily someone is able to hide the truth – separating reality from appearances. Diana wants a life with Dunstan. She is ready and willing to settle down with him and start a family and because they were going to bed together, Diana was under the impression that Dunny felt the same way she did. Dunny does nothing to make her think that he does not have the same romantic feelings as she does and because of this appearances collide with reality. That did not include Diana. She seemed to assume that it did, and perhaps I was unfair to her in not checking her assumptions as soon as I became aware of them. But, to be frank, I liked having her in love with me; it fed my spirit, which was a low ebb. I liked going to bed with her, and as she liked it too I thought it was a fair exchange. † (Davies, 81) Dunny even admits that he became aware of her feelings and her thoughts and failed to tell h er the truth for his own selfish reasons. He states that he liked having Diana in love with him to boost his own self-esteem and he also admits he hid his true feelings because he liked going to bed with her. Dunny’s defense for his decision is his age. â€Å"I was too young to be truthful about such a matter† (Davies, 83) Thus, this relationship shown in Fifth Business shows that the ability to hide reality with a different appearance is easily attainable. Another example of this battle between appearance and reality is shown in the constant self-identity fight going on within Leola Cruikshank. In this situation, Leola is pressured to change who she is to fit to the extremely high social standards of her husband, Boy Staunton. Boy is constantly tearing his wife down by behaviour such as dressing Leola differently, making her learn a new language and changing her small town girl persona to that of a high society woman. â€Å"She did not see why she should become stuck up and talk as she had never talked before, and behave in ways that were unnatural to her. † (Davies, 144) Reality is fighting appearance in this situation. The reality of the situation in Boy and Leola’s early years of marriage is that Leola was just being herself, and Boy made it clear that that was not good enough. Before Boy shaped her into someone different, Leola’s real, natural personality made a regular appearance. â€Å"If Boy let her shop alone she always came back with what he called ‘another Mary Pickford rig-out’, and if he took her shopping in Paris the session often ended with tears, because he sided with the clever shopwoman against his indecisive wife, who always forgot her painfully acquired French as soon as she was confronted with a living French creature. (Davies, 144) Leola cannot handle the pressures of trying to please her husband by being somebody who she is not. Leola ends up crying and slowly starting to hate her life and herself for not being able to maintain her high social reputation. She is unable to maintain the appearance Boy had created for her and reality is shown after Leola ’s suicide. The theme of appearances versus reality rises in Fifth Business quite often. This conflict is shown through Dunny and Boy’s relationship, as they seem like friends, but on the interior they have secret rivalries against each other. It is also shown when Dunny fakes his feelings for Diana and lastly, it is shown in Leola’s act to be the perfect trophy wife when in reality, she is not. The characters in Fifth Busniess often create false images and pretenses seperating the appearance of a situation from what they actually are in reality and because of that, Robertson Davies novel Fifth Business shows a great contrast between appearances and reality.

Death Penalty in South Africa Essay

Witbank was established in 1890 and early attempts to exploit the coal deposits failed until the railway from Pretoria reached the area in 1894. It was proclaimed a town in 1903 and became a municipality in 1914. Despite attempts by governing bodies to establish the use of the name, eMalahleni, for the city as well as for the district, locals still tend to call the city by its original name. Similarly to the anglicised pronunciation of Johannesburg, English-speaking residents pronounce the name as â€Å"wit†¢bank† and not as â€Å"vit†¢bunk† as in the original Afrikaans pronunciation, nor as â€Å"vit†¢bank† as English-speaking visitors are prone to say. There are many stories about the city and its origination but the top story would be the arrival of Winston Churchill at the nearby Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Colliery during his escape from Boer imprisonment in Pretoria, on his way to Delagoa Bay (later Lourenco Marques, and then Maputo, in Mozambique). Some local residents, loyal to the Crown, assisted him in hiding and making the final leg of his escape, thus gaining Witbank the consequent credit once the details of these events could be made known. The town has grown since then from a farming community into a business destination where companies such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Evraz, Eskom, Exxaro, Joy, Komatsu, the Renova Group, SAB Miller, SAMANCOR, Shanduka Beverages, Xstrata and Zenith Inc amongst many others have found substantial returns on their investments. Witbank is located along the railway line linking Pretoria to Maputo and for many years served as the transport gateway to the Mozambiquean port. In recent years, this line has been under frequent threat of collapse due to underground coal fires in disused mines in the area. Two national highways, the N4 from Pretoria and the N12 from Johannesburg, converge at Witbank and then continue to Komatipoort, on the border of Mozambique. Together, these routes form the Maputo Corridor, a strategically important alternative to the South African ports of Richards Bay and Durban on the Indian Ocean shores of the country. Witbank is in a coal mining area with more than 22 collieries in the municipal radius. There are a number of power stations (such as the Duvha Power Station), as well as a steel mill (Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited) nearby which all require coal. The farm land surrounding Witbank is fast being bought by investors, coal mining companies and real estate developers to accommodate the rapid growth of the city which is good for local businesses and residents. Likewise, the sustained growth of the commercial areas and suburbs has presented significant challenges to the municipal government. Potable water supplies, sewage treatment, electricity distribution, refuse collection and road maintenance are particularly affected, arousing sustained ire amongst the local residents. Relatively high summer rainfall since 2008 has caused significant damage to municipal roads, creating large numbers of potholes and leaving large amounts of debris on the road surfaces. As Witbank is en route to travellers from the Gauteng province to the Kruger National Park, attempts have been made to capture some of the potential tourist spend. Apart from a few hotels, there are many guest houses. These vary from the utilitarian to the luxurious, and also cater for many of the business travellers visiting Witbank as well as those travelling to Nelspruit, Swaziland and Mozambique. A casino complex is accessible within a few hundred meters from the N4 highway, providing two hotels, cinemas, ten-pin bowling and restaurants as well as the traditional gambling facilities. The Highveld Mall is built immediately next to the casino and is a retail hub for locals as well as for many residents of towns in the vicinity. Mpumalanga i/? m? pu? m l / (name changed from Eastern Transvaal on 24 August 1995), is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally â€Å"the place where the sun rises† in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6. 5% of South Africa’s land area. In the north it borders on Limpopo, to the west Gauteng, to the southwest the Free State and to the south KwaZulu-Natal. The capital is Nelspruit (recently renamed to Mbombela). Prior to 1994, Mpumalanga was part of Transvaal Province. Mpumalanga Travel Guide / Formerly known as the Eastern Transvaal, Mpumalanga is one of South Africa’s top tourist destinations. People are drawn to Mpumalanga by the magnificent scenery, by the fauna and flora and by the saga of the 1870s gold rush era and a wealth of fascinating tribal legends. Aptly know as â€Å"Paradise Country†, few regions in the world can match the extraordinary beauty of the Mpumalanga Lowveld and escarpment. Mountains, panoramic passes, valleys, rivers, waterfalls and forests characterise the landscape. This is also Big Game Country, the setting for dozens of sanctuaries teeming with wildlife and birds. Among them, the Kruger National Park is world renowned, as are several of the luxurious private reserves on its western boundary. The entire Mpumalanga area offers exceptional opportunities for bird-watching, hiking, horse-riding and fishing. Streams once panned for gold have become the haunts of eager anglers and lazy trout. Steeped in the history of pioneers, hunters and fortune seekers, fascinating gold rush towns abound. Barberton and Pilgrim’s Rest are among the most famous. A special, additional dimension occurs in the Middleveld region which is inhabited by Ndebele people, notable for their traditional costumes and attractively decorated houses.

Department of Transportation essays

Department of Transportation essays The Department of Transportation was created in 1967. It is responsible for overseeing over 100,000 employees and using its $58.7 billion budget to it best possible ways. The United States transportation system includes around 3.9 million miles of public roads along with 2 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines. There are 120,000 miles of major railroads, over 25,000 miles of used waterways as well as more than 5,000 public-use airports. This department also includes more than 500 major urban public transit operators and more than 300 ports on the coasts. It is for this reason that the Department of Transportation has such a great responsibility, so many workers, and large budget that probably doesnt go as far as it looks. These are all very expensive areas to maintain. The person at the top of the Department of Transportation is the Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta. He is the first Asian American to serve as a member of the cabinet. He and his family were forced into internment camps during World War II. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. After his graduation from college he served in the military as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea. He then worked for his fathers insurance company before he entered politics in 1967 when he was elected to city council. Only four years later he became the first Asian American mayor of a major city, San Jose. By this point he was already taking interest in transportation decisions in his city. After his term as mayor was up, he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Here Mineta served as an active member of congress from 1975 to 1995. He loyally represented Californias Silicon Valley. He had a varied agenda that consisted of legislation ranging from science and technology, economic growth, and transportation issues. In the house, he was chairman of transportations committees. As well as this, he was a c...

Social Media Analytics Tools How to Choose the Best One For Your Brand

Social Media Analytics Tools How to Choose the Best One For Your Brand Here’s something we say around the office: â€Å"If you can’t measure it, you didn’t actually do anything.† That goes for every strategy and tactic we execute. Including social media marketing. In order to measure social performance, you need a robust set of tools that can measure your core metrics and KPIs. That’s where having a solid suite of social media analytics tools comes in. They’re essential for gathering all your important performance metrics in one place, and producing reports that prove you’re making a meaningful impact on your business. Best of all, we’ve built robust social analytics features right into , making our platform your go-to destination for measuring and reporting on social media performance. In this post, we’ll cover: How makes it easy to plan, schedule, and measure all your social media content in one place. How to use our full social analytics suite to measure every post and campaign. How stacks up against other tools on the market. Ready? Let’s go.

Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 6

Strategic Management - Essay Example The essay "Strategic Management" describes the strategy actions for satisfying the customers, responding to the constantly changing industry and varying market conditions, or managing each functional piece of business or making the business grow in terms of company size and sales revenues. The strategy of the business has to answer the following questions: where we are now, where we will be in the future, and how will get there. The five strategic management tasks are: develop strategic vision and mission; setting objectives; crafting the strategy; implementing and executing the strategy; evaluating and correcting. It is general knowledge that developing the vision and mission of the business is the first step in strategic management tasks. After coming up with the vision and mission, the next step is to set up the company objectives to be accomplished. The objectives could be to have a bigger market share in its specialty product line or service. Another major objective that the company can come up with is to generate bigger sales and lesser costs and expenses for the near and far away future. Another objective is to open up one hundred branches every year around the world. Another objective is to satisfy customer needs and get new customers. Again, another obvious objective is the enter the territorial waters of the competition and â€Å"beat† them in their own game of marketing by offering better products and prompt services. The third task of strategic management is crafting the strategy. This is the how of management.

Gender Portrayals in Modern Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Gender Portrayals in Modern Art - Essay Example The essay "Gender Portrayals in Modern Art" investigates gender portrayals in the modern art. This essay is based on the gender concept and the issues that have had an immense influence on the way gender in modern art is perceived and portrayed. To begin with, one needs to differentiate between modern, post modern and contemporary in order to understand the journey charted by gender portrayal in art over the ages. The modern portrayals of art depend to a great extent on the stereotypical depictions of features within art, while post modern depends on the vertical rather than the horizontal, which is a case of portraying a traditional feature in a new light. The contemporary period can be considered to possess a number of artists that can be considered of substance and grace in the corresponding field. This particular era in history was marked by the upsringing of various trends in arts and the foray of women and other unlikely sections of the society into the world of art. Mary Kelly is one of the artists of the contemporary period. She is known to be a feminist and fighting an important advocacy through her works. Femminism became a strong benchmark for the society in that particular period, which can be seen through the various art forms and literature created at that time. Unlike the modern times, feminism was not reflected in policy changes as yet and was still confined to mere forms of expression. This was one of the key features of Mary Kelly’s life as has been discussed below. ... After her undergraduate course in Arts, she studied her Masters in Arts in the European Region (Felsen, 2008). There are different works that are considered as significant in her career. One is the exhibit presented in the Rosamund Felsen Gallery which can be considered as a recent work. Kelly is known to present underlying messages in her work specifically pointing out to her topics of inclination such as cultural principles specifically pertaining to femininity. Art and Mass Media by Betty Ann Brown is a volume that chronicles the rise of western culture in context of its influence on art. This has been studied from the perspective of various art forms, ancient, medieval and modern so as to demonstrate how cultures are capable of affecting art forms and rendering finer detail to the structure in terms of gender portrayal as well as sexuality in art. (Brown, 2005; P 2 - 4). The volume has conceptualised the way art has been seen and used since 1985 with the advent of mass media and especially the Internet. This conceptualisation has reached a phase where the influx of ideas related with the use of technology and mass media has grown to such heights where it accommodates a whole new dimension of art in terms of gender portrayals. It is said that the way something is built has a large bearing on how it is perceived. In the case of art, the use of mass media has accentuated the play of technology and the portrayal of genders to the extent that the very way that an art form is conceptualised depends on the factors that are a part of the culture surrounding it. Since 1985, the play of mass media has begun on a note that has created the scope to create gender in art beyond what has been seen in the conventional sense. The rise

GSA Wants You Federal Contracts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

GSA Wants You Federal Contracts - Essay Example The system uses the most recent digital authentication technology to allow for electronic signatures and cater for data integrity. Advantages of Electronic over Classic paper Solicitations 1. Data security The electronic process ensures that the proposals are submit exactly as the contractors write them without unnecessary modification of information. It also ensures that the proposals are delivered directly to the responsible personnel without being passed through other parties. This eliminates the possibility of alteration of the content or loss of the proposals in the process of transportation (Brian, 2003). Unlike the paper process, which is subject to many-party handling hence providing opportunities for malicious altering of data, data security is assured. Paper process entails impairing with the interactive environment since the intended information from the original source may not go the intended personnel. 2. Ease of Applying There is software that enables one to complete th ese proposals easily with tools providing hint on what is required from the proposal. This helps one to provide the necessary information without much struggle. The software also helps one to look for errors easily and correct them in order to forward an understandable proposal. This is because the proposal must entail clear information and hence the process becomes easier since there is no room for assumptions. To some ambiguous phrases, it is essential that drafting of all the work is done and typed manually to create ease for one to detect any errors especially when the proposal is not using a good software. In addition, there is high possibility of leaving important information since the whole process is imagined (Safari Books, 2009). This would lead to impaired communication since the solicitation while have to be returned for completion of the required information and clarification of some ambiguous phrases. 3. Fast Delivery The submitting of the proposals is done online hence it takes very little time for the proposals to reach the targeted destinations after they have been submitted. This ensures fast interaction between the contractor and the prospective contractors hence leading to faster decision making process unlike the classic paper solicitations which have to be submitted manually hence taking a lot of time to communicate. 4. Ease of reviewing After the proposals have been sent to the GSA, it may be returned for correction or clarification on matters concerning responsibility, responsiveness, scope, subcontracting plan or pricing analysis. After the proposal is reviewed and in some cases returned, the electronic system offers an easy way for editing and adding the relevant information. Editing the original proposal is easier than the paper process whereby the whole document has to be retyped in order to allow addition of information and also printed again for resubmission. 5. Economical Compared to the paper process, the electronic submission is more economical in terms of space and funds. This is because it cuts down the printing costs and unnecessary occupation of space for filing documents since the proposals are stored in their computer databases. 6. Duration of Contract There should be negotiations about the period of the contract to make sure that the period allows my company to stabilize. The process must allow the company in its operations and recover from any losses it may have incurred during the

UK Diverse Society

UK Diverse Society ECA TASK 1 In what ways can the UK be described as a diverse society? Choose three examples of diversity and write and essay which: describes each of them in turn considers which aspects of diversity are negative and which are positive for one of the examples. The diversity of family life in the UK today The diversity of places in which people live The diversity of cultures in the UK Britain today is a richly diverse society in which people with very different ways of life coexist. Diversity means being different, being unlike and variety. Diversity can describe differences within a society or between societies and applies to the unique contributions   to the group characteristics made by the individuals such as beliefs, sexual orientation, ethnic background, cultural perspective,  and so forth. Family, place and culture mean different things for different people but are usually associated with connectedness. This essay, though, will first analyse family, place and culture as causes and consequences of social diversity and, secondly, it will describe the relationship between places and life chances and how diversity can bring inequality. During the past decades, social change in Britain has brought structural and functional diversity into family (Sherratt et al. 2004, p.30). Families today come in many shapes and sizes, there is no right or wrong structure. The main types of family, nuclear and extended, have increased with reconstituted and single-parent families. Families can be formed by married, unmarried or same sex couples   with dependent, independent or no children at all. National statistics for 2001 (ONS, 2002 data set ST32217 and ST33218 ) show that one in five families with dependent children are headed by lone mothers, three times the number obtained in 1971. This may be explained by rising rates of divorce, cohabitation and live births outside of marriage. These figures suggest evolving family structures but also a general maintenance of conventional gender ideology. Hence, different beliefs and practices in relation to the division of labour may bring diversity to family life.  In this respect, You ng and Willmott (1973, cited in Sherratt et al. 2004 p.26) predicted a more egalitarian family whilst Morris (1990, cited in Sherratt et al. 2004 p.26) denied the attrition of the traditional gender roles.   Another source of diversity in family life is regional diversity. The inner London boroughs have higher concentrations of minority groups than the rest of the country (ONS, 2001). Ethnic diversity as a source of family diversity is defended by Berthoud (2001) among others. This author argues   that Asian families are more traditional, have high rates of marriage and are more likely to have extended families comprising three generations. By contrast, West Indian households have a higher proportion of lone mothers and low rates of partnerships. Similarly, geography and ethnicity bring diversity to the places where people live. Whether rural or urban location, owner-ocuppied or rented, house, flat or even a caravan, there are multiple places to live in Britain today. Places where people influence their experiences and social relations (Sherratt et al. 2004, p 88). In inner London boroughs, like Islington and Camden, not only there is more ethnical diversity than in the rest of Britain (ONS, 2001), but   affluent professionals inhabit the same street as jobless, low-income families or live next to council estates while having no connection with them, as exemplified by Graef (2003). In other parts of East London though, Mumford and Power (2003, cited in Sherratt et al. p. 97) noticed how diverse neighbourhoods can still maintain a sense of community spirit through local social networks. The transition from dwells and neighbourhoods to homes and communities can be done via a sense of attachment and belonging that is part of t he broad meaning of culture (Sherratt et al. 2004, p.96). Culture is all shared beliefs and socially communicated demeanour, that distinguishes a group of people, whether this is a family, a neighbourhood, a community or a nation (Sherratt et al. 2004 p.38-45). People identify with others within their culture but distinguish from people in other cultures. Hence, diverse cultures lead to diverse ways of living, and these can bring people into conflict over how it is acceptable to live. On the other hand, cultural diversity brings richness and choices and shapes identities bringing connectedness. The culture in Britain, including language, food, arts, clothes, leisure activities, religion or relationships can be seen as a sum of the diverse cultures that constitute its society. Cultural mixing is not a new concept, as noted by Sherratt et al. (2004 p. 76). It started with trading in prehistoric times and was further fueled by imports and immigration.   The only thing new about cultural exchange is how easy it is now.   With modern informa tion technology it is possible to experience other cultures on a whim. But the globalisation of culture has a downside. Scott-Clarke and Levy (2003) exemplify the devastating social effects of cultural imperialism caused by American television in Bhutan. In the same way, the aforementioned diversity of places where people live reflects choices, variety and opportunities but there is a drawback. Utilizing the Weberian term â€Å"life chances† (Weber 1948, cited by Sherratt et al. 2004, p. 85) to describe an estimate of an individuals ability to enjoy the economic and cultural goods of a society, it is easy to see how the distribution of such goods is usually asymmetrical. Peoples life chances are influenced by salary, wealth, housing and education (Sherratt et al. 2004, p 87). Therefore, family, culture and where people live shape life chances. The importance of housing tenure in life chances is debated amongst sociologists. Saunders (1988, 1990, cited in Sherratt et al. 2004 p. 88) outweighs the importance of home-owning status to occupation but this argument is contradicted by Forrest and Murrie (1995, cited in Sherratt et al. 2004, p. 89) and criticised by Watt (1993, cited in Sherratt et al. p. 89). Clearly, home equity can be used as collateral or improve children with inheritance, giving control to peoples lives. On the other hand, Sherratt et al. (2004 p. 94) points out how the UK shows a general pattern of geographical clustering of poverty and wealth and how this clustering affects peoples ability to access housing, education and employment opportunities and directly impacts in the quality of health services. A direct consequence could be seen in the different life expectancy for different areas in Britain in 1998-2000 (ONS, 2002) accounting up to 10 years of difference for men between Westminster and Glasgow city. Personal wellbeing is then affected by the ability to afford a home in a neighbourhood that improves rather than limits life chances. In conclusion, Britains society is undeniably diverse. Living in Britain has implications on how people live, whom they live with and where they live and these differences shape British society. Social change has brought diversity to family, neighbourhoods and culture. There are many different types of families today. Diverse neighbourhoods may or not share a sense of community. Cultural diversity shapes our identity. Where people life affects their health and prosperity. Diversity brings richness but also inequality. References Berthoud, R. (2001) ‘Family formation in multi-cultural Britain: three patterns of diversity, paper resented at Changing family patterns in multi-cultural Britain Institute for Social and Economic Research University of Essex. Available at: http://www.sociology.org.uk/as4fm1.pdf [Accessed 24-27 January, 2008] Graef, R. (2003) ‘Two families living side by side. But the gulf between rich and poor keeps them worlds apart The Observer, 20 July. Available from: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1001753,00.html [Accessed 24-28 January, 2008] ONS (2001) National Statistics: Ethnicity: Regional Distribution. Available from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=263 [Accessed 24 January 2008] ONS (2002) National Statistics: Families with dependent children headed by lone parents: Social Trends 32, data set ST32217. Available from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=4992More=Y [Accessed 24 January 2008] ONS (2002) National Statistics: Births outside marriage as a percentage of all live births: Social Trends 33, data set ST33218 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=6369 [Accessed 24 January 2008] ONS, 2002 Health Statistics Quarterly, issue 13. London. Available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/HSQ13_v4.pdf [Accessed February 2, 2008] Scott-Clarke, C. and Levy, A. (2003) ‘Fast forward into trouble The Guardian,14 June. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,975769,00.html [Accessed 24 January 2008] Sherrattt, N., Darkes, T., Pearson, C., Williams, C. and Woodward, K. (2004) Understanding society, Milton Keynes, The Open University. TASK 2 Write no more than 250 words to answer the following questions: In what ways do you feel that your study skills have improved during the course? What do you now think are the strengths and weaknesses of your study skills? How would you like to make further improvements? My study skills during this course have improved qualitative and quantitatively. From a natural science background I have had to leap into social sciences, where comprehending the material is more important that memorising it. Multiple-choice questions have been substituted by essay writing, where you have to reason, argument and reference your statements, not just tick the correct answer. Reading and note taking have been tasks of outmost importance. I feel I have had to strip texts to their bare bones and build their bodies again with my own words. One of my skills is interpreting graphs and numeric data, as this is something I do very frequently in my job. One of the most difficult things has been to accept that there is usually more than one answer in social science questions, and there are no right or wrong, but different opinions and an open debate. It has been a revelation to discover that, in social sciences, we, as individuals and as a society, are the researchers and subjects of study, and the dynamic implications of this duality. I have signed up for DD100 to further improve and polish my new skills. Y157 has opened my appetite for social matters and I want to learn more. My newly acquired skills are going to be put to the test.

Malnutrition Essay examples -- Social Issues, Poverty, Vitamin Deficie

Introduction Malnutrition is a global challenge in low-income and middle-income countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia (Shetty, 2002, Black, et al., 2008). More than ten million children under five years of age die annually worldwide and percentage of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa is approximately 41% and another 34% in south Asia (Black, et al., 2003). It was estimated that more than 50% of these child deaths could be attributed to the potentiating effects of malnutrition in infectious disease such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infections (Rice, et al., 2000, Caulfield, et al., 2004). As a result of essential nutrient deficiencies in the daily diet as well as the impact of recurrent infections malnutrition is a major contributor to the global burden of disease especially in children under five years of age (Black, et al., 2008). The high prevalence of illness and child deaths associated with chronic and recurrent infections in third world countries contributes largely to poor nutrition there (Rice, et al., 2000, Caulfield, et al., 2004). Aspects involved in the aetiology of numerous deficiency diseases depend on the interaction between social, demographic, genetic, infectious and societal conditions (Manary & Solomons, 2004, Black, et al., 2008). Poverty is the main determinant of malnutrition in these communities (Sachs & McArthur, 2005). It is well known that the political situation and poor economic growth, changes in climate conditions as drought or overpopulation cause a scarcity of certain foodstuffs, a high prevalence of infectious diseases, civil conflicts and wars, natural and unnatural disasters contribute to increased malnutrition (Shetty, 2002, Mul... ...ar colostrum, provides a critical dietary source of vitamin A for infants and young children (Sommer & Davidson, 2002).Besides it is necessary to improve maternal nutrition and vitamin A status in poor societies because breastmilk comes from the mother (Latham, 2010). Conclusion As a result of essential nutrient deficiencies in the daily diet, numerous deficiency diseases remain pervasive and damaging conditions in developing world particularly in low income and middle income countries. Malnutrition, clearly, is not a simple problem with a single, simple solution. Multiple and collaborative interventions implant in prevention approaches can be effective because malnutrition has many causes. There is a wide range of sectors and organizations need to determine priorities for resource allocation among nutritional, health care, economic and education policies.

Pilgrim by Timothy Findley Essay

Pilgrim is introduced in the story in a strikingly interesting manner – a suicide attempt resulting to his death – a â€Å"temporary death† which only lasted for a few hours. From the beginning of the story which was supposed to be the end of the central character’s life, the character of Pilgrim presented a big mystery. Having failed to commit suicide, Pilgrim was though to be schizophrenic so he was placed in a clinic where he tells his astonishing story of how his life – or rather â€Å"lives† – spanned 4,000 years. The introduction of Pilgrim set the whole plot of the story. It introduced many mysterious questions that were seemingly illogical and irrational – Is Pilgrim really a madman or an immortal? Which side should the reader take – one who supports theories on psychological disorders or one that accepts the possible mysteries of life? Having lived â€Å"multiple lives†, why did Pilgrim want death? Such questions only show that Pilgrim was a very complex character – one that symbolized a wide selection of societal themes. Pilgrim, A challenge In the story, the character and nature of Pilgrim satisfied the intellectual and psychological challenge that Dr. Jung was looking for. The peculiar life of the supposed schizophrenic provokes many philosophical, spiritual, psychological, and scientific questions and these questions direct the action of the other characters. As they interact with Pilgrim, the other characters adapt his mythical makeup and doing so encourages them to question their own identity and their own real story of existence. As an effective and astounding mystery novel, this plot relation between the characters is also adapted by the readers. As one goes deep into the story, readers are encouraged to share with the questions of Pilgrim’s character. Findley and Pilgrim Pilgrim was a Timothy Findley character who presents all of author’s favorite themes. Findley loved to write about the past and history and that is probably why Pilgrim was depicted as a man who spanned several lives – not forward, but back to the past. This character also depicted isolation and war, though not literary. In the story, Pilgrim was seemingly â€Å"isolated† because he was one of a kind – the â€Å"immortal† supposedly who cannot die no matter how he tries to do so. Moreover, there was no other story character that showed support for Pilgrim’s claims. Logic demands story characters – and even the readers – to disregard what Pilgrim believes in. So, in that sense, he is alone, isolated, and is at war with himself and rationality. What’s more obvious here is the fact that Findley tries to evoke people to be more conscious with their own identity and sanity in the same way as Dr. Jung was after he examined the case of Pilgrim. Pilgrim was presented as â€Å"nothing† in the story – an ageless and genderless with no exact definition of himself other than the notion that he was a human being. However, that presentation also made him â€Å"everything† about the story – from how it began, how other characters behaved, how the readers will react, how the story will progress, and how the story will end. This character served as the â€Å"backbone† of the story, a character which summarizes the plot, setting, ideas, and themes that can be found or deduced from the novel. What does Pilgrim represent? â€Å"I have lived many times, Doctor Jung. Who knows, as Leda I might have been the mother of Helen–or, as Anne, the mother of Mary†¦. I was also crippled shepherd in thrall of Saint Teresa of Avila; an Irish stable boy and a maker of stained glass at Chartres†¦. I saw the first performance of Hamlet and the last performance of Moliere, the actor. I was a friend to Oscar Wilde and an enemy to Leonardo†¦. I am both male and female. I am ageless, and I have no access to death. † The character of Pilgrim can be interpreted in two opposing ways – from a psychological and irrational standpoint or following a mystical approach. Taking into account the view of another prime character in the story – Dr. Carl Jung, Pilgrim is a representation of the psyche or the â€Å"collective unconscious†. He is just a schizophrenic – who, because of his condition – seemingly had experienced different personalities which he himself concocted in his unconscious. The fact that he recognized that he had â€Å"multiple lives† implied that he has finally became in touch with consciousness after he has spent years imagining that he â€Å"lived† the lives of multiple personalities. This claim is supported by the fact that Pilgrim remembers nothing about being a child again after being â€Å"reborn† several times. Using the first line of reasoning, there is no point in analyzing the behavior and actions of the character because all of the irrational actions will only lead to the fact that he is psychologically ill. If Pilgrim is taken as a schizophrenic character then analyzing whether he is just or unjust is pointless because a mentally ill individual does not have a concrete concept of justice and righteousness nor is he capable of making the right decisions. On the other hand, if analyzed using a mythical standpoint, Pilgrim is taken as a special being – an immortal. If the concept of Pilgrim’s immortality is accepted, then the actions of the character can be further analyzed. Immortality, an illogical â€Å"ability† which is doubted but definitely aspired by many is presented as the key to the full understanding the complex persona of the character and the motivation he has for his actions. In the story, Pilgrim doesn’t talk and he exerts all of his efforts on committing suicide. His main goal is in contrast of what most people want to avoid – â€Å"to die†. To explain this willingness to die in this case, it should be noted that unlike normal human beings, Pilgrim has lived multiple lives. Pilgrim lived as both male and female for thousands of years. He has witnessed to some of the greatest events of human history and he was involved with many notable people who have shaped the world’s history and culture. Despite being part of the continuous evolution of the society, he also experience and endured the miseries of being a human being. And, based on that experience, his willingness to die implies that perhaps most of the aspects in human life were more wearying than pleasing. Pilgrim’s persona provides character to the novel The character of â€Å"Pilgrim† can be analyzed as what the term means – a journey. Pilgrim is society and Pilgrim’s life is human history – a mixture of ages, genders, values, and events that affected the evolution of the human life. As noted by Pilgrim, society has witnessed more hardships than progression – there were more revolutionary wars than radical advancements. So, it might be better if the society will end the changes that it had to endure. But, society cannot die – no matter what it does to destroy itself. Throughout the long human history, civilizations have been developed and destroyed by various factors but as represented by Pilgrim’s temporal deaths, these social groupings will always be born again. When the society is reborn, it then takes a new form – just like the new persona that Pilgrim develops each time he â€Å"lives again†. As such, in the same way that Pilgrim needs Dr. Jung – the society also needs logic and reasoning to â€Å"cure† the delusion of weariness and restore its willingness to exist no matter how hard it may be to live and live again. Reference: Timothy Findley, Pilgrim. New York. HarperCollins. 2000 (c1999). 486 pages.

Alberta Tar Sands

â€Å"Only when the last tree had died and the last river has been poisoned†¦will we realize that we cannot eat money†. This is an old Cree saying that is very applicable today. Is the mining of the Alberta tar sands worthwhile, knowing its devastating effects on the environment? There are very valid points for both arguments, being them economical, political, environmental, or moral. The mining of bitumen is not something that is sustainable for the environment, or the companies involved. Although these open-pit mines produce much of the world’s oil, people should consider paying more at the pumps rather than destroying the only world we have to live in. The tar sands in Alberta essentially benefit every country but Canada, and everyone will have to pay the price of the damage caused to the environment. Pollution is caused in the production of bitumen, as well as in its consumption. The first documented European discovery of the tar sands in the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta was made by Alexander Mackenzie in 1773. Over one hundred years later in 1899, Charles Mair and a party of Dene natives explored the Athabasca area by request of the Canadian government. 1 Mair and his party stayed at the northern fur trading post of Fort Chipewan. 1 Following his visit to the region, Mair made a very prophetic statement: â€Å"That this region is stored with a substance of great economic value is beyond all doubt, and, when the hour of development comes, it will, I believe, prove to be one of the wonders of Northern Canada†. 1 Commercial development of the Alberta tar sands first began in 1967 by Suncor . The oil crisis in 1973 sparked investor’s interest in mining development in Alberta, and Herman Kahn proposed that the Canadian government begin mining the tar sands. 1 However, the Trudeau government believed that it would overheat the economy, create steel shortages, unsettle the labor market, and drive up the Canadian dollar. 1 Now, instead of Canada mining the tar sands, global companies from the United States, China, Japan, Korea, France, and Norway have invested a total of 200 billion dollars in the Alberta tar sands. These investments account for sixty percent of global oil investments. Bitumen is defined as a naturally occurring semisolid mixture of hydrocarbons. The fields of bitumen are naturally occurring all around the Athabasca water basin. Most of the Alberta tar sands lie so deep underground that it must be removed by first separating the bitumen from the sand using steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). 1 SAGD works by using water from the Athabasca River and heating it into steam. 1 The steam is then pumped into the ground using hoses. Steam melts areas of bitumen from top to bottom, and the liquid bitumen drains from to the bottom of the pit where it can be collected. This method was created by University of Alberta chemist, Dr. Karl Clark. It was first used by Suncor in 1965. Bitumen is considered one of the world’s dirtiest oils, because of its many impurities. 1 These impurities make a complex mining system necessary. Clearly, the harsh reality of having mined all of the clean oil is that we must now mine the dirtiest. Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta has changed dramatically due to the growth of the mining industry’s presence in the tar sands. 1 The growth in the area is said to be exponential, with no chance of slowing down anytime soon. This growth has completely changed the identity of the city. Housing in Fort McMurray is scarce and expensive. 1 It is nearly impossible to live in Fort McMurray unless you work in the mines. This has destroyed small business owners in the city, because they cannot get anyone to work for them at a reasonable wage. Also, the high average family income has caused high inflation rates. The mine employees who live in the city temporarily have caused the city shortfalls in roads, schools, and health care. Although shocking, these are typical problems that face cities that experience such a large econo mical boom in such a short period of time. The Canadian government has no regulations for the reclamation in the Athabasca region. 1 There is also little known as to how the diverse ecosystem of the region can ever be returned to its natural state. The wetlands that once covered the area cannot be replaced. Also, the large oil companies have not found any way to destroy the toxic waste byproducts in the tailings ponds. 1 In an effort of reclamation, 7. 5 million tree seedlings were planted in the area, but many did not survive because of the state of the soil. Syncrude spent 0. 20% of its total budget on reclamation efforts in 2005. There is estimated to be no bitumen left in forty years. The Alberta government fears that the cost of the reclamation will fall on taxpayers when the global companies leave. This is why it is essential for hold these companies accountable for reclamation while there is still money to be made in the tar sands. Bitumen requires much more energy in production than standard crude oil. 1 Producing one barrel of bitumen takes three times as much energy as producing a barrel of crude oil, and it creates three times as many pollutants. However, bitumen only sells for half the price of crude oil. Every day, the amount of natural gas needed to heat four million homes is used to boil water into the steam needed in SAGD. 1 The mines also use as much water per year as a city of two million people. To produce one barrel of bitumen requires the excavation of two tons of earth, and three barrels of fresh water from the Athabasca River. 1 1. 3 million barrels are exported every day. 1 Because of the oil production, the region has some of the most polluted air on the planet. The three hundred tons of sulphur that is released into the air per day has caused Alberta’ s eastern neighbor, Saskatchewan, to have recurring acid rain. This is just another example of how the destruction caused by oil production will ripple throughout the country. The forests in the area of the Athabasca oil sands have experienced extensive clear-cutting to make room for open-pit mines. 1 It is estimated that the mining developments in the region will eventually destroy a forest approximately the size of Florida. 1 Because of the destruction of the soil, the spruce and pine trees that once covered the region will never be able to grow in the now salt-rich soil. 1 This will obviously have a detrimental effect on the wildlife in the region. Already, the moose, deer, beaver, waterfowl, and other animals that once lived in the region are now scarce. 1 The delicate ecosystem of the area has been destroyed. The tailings ponds along the Athabasca River are used to hold the toxic waste that is produced in the production of bitumen. 1 These ponds now cover twenty-three square miles, and 400 million gallons of this toxic waste is produced daily. 1 It contains salt, phenols, benzene, cyanide, arsenic, as well as other carcinogens. 1 The tailings ponds pose a threat to wildlife that unknowingly enters the ponds believing them to be fresh water. This reality made headlines when 500 ducks were killed in the ponds on April 28, 2008. 1 The ponds are also not properly contained. Not only to the toxins leak into the groundwater, but many of the ponds leak directly into the Athabasca River. 1 There seems to be no real solution to this problem, as not even the experts know how to properly discard the waste in the tailings ponds. Canada has no official water policy, as well as the worst record of pollution enforcement among industrialized nations. 1 The tailings ponds contaminate the water, and Suncor and Syncrude are legally allowed by the Alberta government to ump 150 pounds of arsenic into the Athabasca River per year. 1 One hundred years ago, all of the water in Alberta was potable; it must all now be chemically treated. 1 Also, twenty-three percent of Canada’s freshwater can no longer support aquatic life because of watercontamination. Already, deformed fish are being found in Lake Athabasca. 1 Fort Chipewan is downstrea m from Fort McMurray and the mining operations. As an aboriginal people, they eat fish and wild game from the area. 1 They also drink the water from the Athabasca River. Five cases of cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile duct, have been recorded in Fort Chipewan in the last five years. 1 Cholangiocarcinoma typically occurs in one in 100, 000 people. 1 In 2006, Fort Chipewan’s population was 915. 1 These statistics speak for themselves; however, the province has denied the community a thorough health study. 1 The current state of Fort McMurray is due to the exponential growth that has taken place in the city. 1 However, the city’s seemingly thriving state makes it at risk for drugs, prostitution. Nearly half of mine workers test positive in drug screening. Therefore, most companies don’t do drug testing, because they would have nobody to work if they did. 2 The city and surrounding area have high rates of people driving while impaired, and road fatalities on Highway 63. 1 As well, the province of Alberta has the lowest voter turn-out in the country. 1 Fort McMurray has a high divorce rate, and a suicide rate thirty-one percent above the provincial average. 1 The city also has a high drop-out rate for high school students. The entire city is caught up in the money, not seeming to realize that their income is based on an unpredictable and unreliable market. The people living in Fort McMurray expect the money to keep on coming, and the people from outside of the city are only there for the money; when they’ve made the money that they went there to make, they will eventually leave. Alberta women also experience the highest level of abuse in the country. The province’s premier says that this is â€Å"the price to pay f or prosperity. Unfortunately, to some degree, he’s right. ElDean Kohrs is quoted as saying that â€Å"a history of power production synonymous with boom development usually leaves behind spiritual depression, divorce, drunkenness, dissension, and death†. The people of Fort McMurray can only hope that once the bitumen is gone, the city will not end up like the Klondike City of the gold rush. Although there are many devastating environmental effects of mining bitumen in the Alberta tar sands, the mining gives way to many opportunities for economic gain. The global demand for oil is a huge factor in why it is beneficial to mine the area. The Alberta tar sands are the world’s last remaining oil field, and have attracted sixty percent of global oil investments. 1 Although bitumen is referred to as ‘dirty oil’ it cannot be argued that all forms of oil cause some kind of environmental damage. Canada is now the second largest exporter of oil in the world. It is without doubt that the tar sands would eventually need to be mined, knowing our growing rate of oil consumption; but the rate of the growth is what has frightened people away from the idea of mining the area. Many of the large oil companies are making large strides in making better environmental choices. Suncor has reduced its water consumption by thirty percent in the last two years, and Syncrude has reclaimed twenty-two percent of its disturbed land. The Canadian government has also spent six billion dollars on climate change projects in the last fifteen years. 1 These are positive signs showing that the ways of mining land are changing for the better. The tar sands have also prompted growth all over Alberta. All major cities in Alberta have seen substantial growth in population over the past five years, and this growth as made Alberta one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada. Bitumen mining has also had a large effect on the Canadian dollar. 1 Between 2003 and 2006, the Canadian dollar went from sixty-four cents to eighty-seven cents on the U. S. dollar. This value is nearly parallel with the price of crude oil. Canada’s main exportation priority has become providing the United States with oil. 1 Canada is now the single larger exporter of oil to the U. S. 1 The U. S. has a high demand for oil, as U. S. citizens currently consume twenty-five percent of the world’s oil. 1 However, because of our high exportation, the Free Trade agreement is under intense scrutiny. It would seem that the agreement is no longer benefitting both countries. In summarizing the arguments, you could come to several conclusions. You may believe that the devastating effects on the environment are not worth mining bitumen. You may believe that to stay economically strong, Canada must mine the Alberta tar sands and have high exportation to the Unites States. Morally, it is clear what is right; however, economic decisions are never easy to make. The mining has devastated the region, and it is easy for a person to say that is wrong. However, these same people would not be ok with walking to work, or with paying high prices at the pumps. It is an ethical dilemma that faces the people today, between what we know is right, and what we are willing to go without. It is undeniable that the argument for the thesis is much stronger, but it may not have much validity to people concerned with the economy. The mining of bitumen is not sustainable, and will eventually recreate the identity of northern Alberta. 1 We can conclude that mining the Alberta tar sands has a detrimental effect on the environment that will eventually affect the entire world. â€Å"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world†-John Muir.