Lynn Margulis - Biography of an Evolution Scientist

Lynn Margulis - Biography of an Evolution Scientist Lynn Margulis was born March 15, 1938 to Leone and Morris Alexander in Chicago, Illinois. She was the oldest of four girls born to the travel agent and lawyer. Lynn took an early interest in her education, especially science classes. After only two years at Hyde Park High School in Chicago, she was accepted into the early entrant program at the University of Chicago at the young age of 15. By the time Lynn was 19, she had acquired a B.A. of Liberal Arts from the University of Chicago. She then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin for graduate studies. In 1960, Lynn Margulis had obtained an M.S. in Genetics and Zoology and then went on to work at getting a Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of California, Berkeley. She ended up finishing her doctoral work at Brandeis University in Massachusetts in 1965. Personal Life While at the University of Chicago, Lynn met the now famous Physicist Carl Sagan while he was doing his graduate work in Physics at the college. They married shortly before Lynn finished her B.A. in 1957. They had two sons, Dorion and Jeremy. Lynn and Carl divorced before Lynn finished her Ph.D. work at the University of California, Berkeley. She and her sons moved to Massachusetts shortly thereafter. In 1967, Lynn married crystallographer Thomas Margulis after accepting a position as a lecturer at Boston College. Thomas and Lynn had two children- a son Zachary and a daughter Jennifer. They were married for 13 years before divorcing in 1980. In 1988, Lynn took a position in the Botany department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. There, she continued to lecture and write scientific papers and books over the years. Lynn Margulis passed away on November 22, 2011, after suffering uncontrolled hemorrhaging caused by a stroke. Career While studying at the University of Chicago, Lynn Margulis first became interested in learning about cell structure and function. Particularly, Lynn wanted to learn as much as possible about genetics and how it related to the cell. During her graduate studies, she studied the non-Mendelian inheritance of cells. She hypothesized that there had to be DNA somewhere in the cell that wasnt in the nucleus due to some of the traits that were passed down to the next generation in plants that did not match the genes coded in the nucleus. Lynn found DNA within both mitochondria and chloroplasts inside of plant cells that did not match the DNA in the nucleus. This led her to begin formulating her endosymbiotic theory of cells. These insights came under fire immediately, but have held up over the years and contributed significantly to the Theory of Evolution. Most traditional evolutionary biologists believed, at the time, that competition was the cause of evolution. The idea of natural selection is based on the survival of the fittest, meaning competition eliminates the weaker adaptations, generally caused by mutations. Lynn Margulis endosymbiotic theory was the opposite. She proposed that cooperation between species led to the formation of new organs and other types of adaptations along with those mutations. Lynn Margulis was so intrigued by the idea of symbiosis, she became a contributor to the Gaia hypothesis first proposed by James Lovelock. In short, the Gaia hypothesis asserts that everything on Earth- including life on land, the oceans, and the atmosphere- work together in a sort of symbiosis as if it were one living organism. In 1983, Lynn Margulis was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Other personal highlights include being the co-director of the Biology Planetary Internship Program for NASA and was awarded eight honorary doctorate degrees at various universities and colleges. In 1999, she was awarded the National Medal of Science.

Definition and Examples of Double Negatives in English

Definition and Examples of Double Negatives in English There are two different definitions of double negatives in English grammar: A double negative is a  nonstandard form using two negatives for emphasis where only one is necessary (for example, I cant get no satisfaction).A double negative is a  standard form using two negatives to express a positive (She is not unhappy). Examples of Double Negatives for Emphasis I wont not use no double negatives. (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons, 1999)Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous. (Geoffrey Chaucer, The Friars Tale in The Canterbury Tales)Nor never noneShall mistress of it be, save I alone.(William Shakespeare, Viola in Twelfth Night)You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks! (Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer)Badges? We aint got no badges. We dont need no badges! (Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948)The world dont owe me nothing. (Delta bluesman Honeyboy Edwards)Listen here, Sam, this  wont do you no good, you know. (Judith Lennox, Middlemere. Hachette, 2004)I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.† (Muhammed Ali, February 17, 1966, quoted by Stefan Fatsis in No Viet Cong Ever Called Me Nigger. Slate, June 8, 2016)June Cleaver: Oh Wally, I wonder if youd mind going to the supermarket for me.Wally Cleaver: Well, I guess I could. Im not hardly doing anything.June Cleaver: Wally, you never use not and hard ly together. Either youre not doing anything, or youre hardly doing anything.Wally Cleaver: Oh. I wasnt sure, so I stuck em both in.(Beaver Finds a Wallet. Leave It to Beaver, 1960) Mencken on Double Negatives Syntactically, perhaps the chief characteristic of vulgar American is its sturdy fidelity to the double negative. So freely is it used, indeed, that the simple negative appears to be almost abandoned. Such phrases as I see nobody, I could hardly walk, I know nothing about it are heard so seldom among the masses of the people that they appear to be affectations when encountered; the well-nigh universal forms are I don’t see nobody, I couldn’t hardly walk, and I don’t know nothing about it. (H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 1921) Definition #2: Double Negatives to Express a Positive It is hoped that American teachers may not find this Manual inappropriate to their use. (J.M. Bonnell, A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition. Morton, 1867)Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902)I know a college president who can be described only as a jerk. He is not an unintelligent man, nor unlearned, nor even unschooled in the social amenities. (Sidney J. Harris, A Jerk, 1961) Triple Negatives You better not never tell nobody but God. (Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982)We try every way we can do to kill the game, but for some reason, nothing nobody does never hurts it. (Sparky Anderson, quoted by George Will in Baseball Lit. 101, 1990) A Triple Positive I got interviews with all three remaining  residents, and one of them told me Ruth Singh had received a visitor that night. So it was worth going back. Information that could lead to an arrest, as they say.Yeah, right, thatll happen.Well done, Meera, a triple positive to make an emphatic negative- nice use of English.(Christopher Fowler, The Water Room. Doubleday, 2004) Quadruple Negatives Why, sir, I never knowed no manner o luck on no ship nowhen and nowhere, wi unmarried females aboard. (Lovepeace Farrance, quoted by George Choundas in The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues. Writers Digest Books, 2007)Right down on the ground his stick he throwed.And he shivered and said, Well, I am blowed.And he turned away, with a heart full sore,And he never was seen not none no more.(Robert J. Burdette, Romance of the Carpet)Proscriptions Against the Double NegativeMost kinds of double negative are inappropriate in spoken and written Standard English except in jocular use . . .. This was not always so, however, and the double negative remains one of the best illustrations of what was once a perfectly acceptable locution being driven by the decisions of grammarians, not out of the language, but out of Standard use. (Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Columbia University Press, 1993)The prohibition on double negatives may have begun with Robert Lowth, an 18th century Bishop of London, who wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar. In it he stated that two Negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative. Perhaps his high status as a bishop led people to believe that his strictures on language were divinely inspired. The ban stuck. In the late 19th century, for example, an educator commented: The student . . . is instructed how contrary to reason is a Double Negative. Yet it never entirely disappeared. It is still found in some varieties of English, as in the old music hall song: We dont know no one wot don’t want no nine inch nails. (Jean Aitchison, The Language Web: The Power and Problem of Words. Cambridge University Press, 1997) Like many rules that are apparently based on logic, the view that double negatives are illogical is an artificial  rule introduced in the eighteenth century. It first appears in James Greenwoods An Essay Towards a Practical English Grammar (1711), where we find the statement, Two Negatives, or two Adverbs of Denying, do in English affirm. As is usual in such works, no support for the claim is offered; it is certainly not based on practice, since double negatives had been common since Old English. (Simon Horobin,  How English Became English. Oxford University Press, 2016) The Lighter Side of Double Negatives Albert Collins: Im not sharing with no one.Gene Hunt: What is that, a double negative? Dont they teach you anything in nutter school these days?(Andrew Vincent and Philip Glenister in Life on Mars [UK], 2006)You shut up! You just shut up! Youre a nasty horrid person and we dont want you playing in our house! Alice is my friend!I wasnt doing nothing, I was only talking. I didnt touch nothing, I neverThats a double negative! Youre a stupid uneducated little snot, and you live in a council estate, and youre not allowed to play with nice people! That was a double negative, Alice, did you hear it? Thats what happens when you ask them in. Youll be picking up all sorts of language.(Alan Coren, Baby Talk, Keep Talking Baby Talk. Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren, ed. by Giles Coren and Victoria Coren. Canongate, 2008)Dr. House: You two shower together?Dr. Cameron and Dr. Chase: No!Dr. House: Double negative. Its a yes.(Half-Wit. House M.D., 2007) Also Known As:  negative concord

Working Groups and Teams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Working Groups and Teams - Essay Example Within that group, teams may be formed to achieve specific tasks in the way of achievement of the overall goal of the group. Group is a larger term as compared to a team. Another fundamental difference between a group and a team is that individual members of a group do not need to have concern with the achievement of the other members of the group whereas people forming part of a team have concern with and are affected by the performance of other members of the team. Challenges of communicating in a team are more than those in a group. Groups normally have a well-established and organized system of communication. There is a process through which message is conveyed and received, e.g. through emails or letters. The challenge of communication in a group is that it is more time consuming as compared to communication in a team. For example, let’s suppose the member of a political group writes a letter to the chairman of the party. The chairman might take long to reply. On the other hand, people working in a team are generally in constant connection with one another. Even if they are working separately at different places, they communicate through cell phones. Since the performance of one team-member affects that of all others, team-members are concerned to maintain constant contact with one another. However, communication in a team is very challenging since the team-members develop friction among one another while constantly working together. â€Å"Conflicting goals can quickly turn into personal dislike† (Mind Tools, 2012). Team members become agitated, develop attitude problems, and enter into dysfunctional conflicts. These team members avoid talking to one another and if they have to, there is always a risk that the conversation might end up in an argument. Effective collaboration within teams is more difficult to achieve as compared to the groups. The leader of the group can generate a

Process essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Process - Essay Example of learning this process is to avoid keeping the baby uncomfortable without full bath that relaxes them, saving money on professional services and the most important is that bathing time offers perfect bonding time between a parent (either the mother or father) and the infant. The first step is to decide where the baby will take a bath. The choices in this case are the kitchen sink, the regular wash tub or have a special washing tub for the infant which is the ideal size. The secret in this step is to ensure the parent is in a comfortable position so that he or she can be able to grip the baby steadily as well as wash them without losing that grip. This should be followed by regulating the temperature of the room and of the bathing water. After deciding which room is idle to wash the baby in, regulation of the room temperature is required so that the baby dos not chill during the bath. This is closely followed by regulation of the water to a temperature that is not too hot or too cold. If one has a thermometer, the ideal temperature should be between 90 and 100 Fahrenheit. If not testing the water with the wrist which is sensitive will guide the parent on the ideal temperature. The next step is to prepare the baby’s clothing such as the towel, the clothes, diaper, wash cloth, lotion and bathing soap. There is also the alternative of baby shampoo though care should be made to ensure that is tear-free. This should be followed by undressing of the baby and then dipping it in the water feet first. A firm grip of the baby with one hand under the neck is needed in order to support the baby as well as prevent it from wobbling its head which is still not firm at this stage of development. Use the soap and wash cloth to wash starting from the head moving downwards and ending with the diaper area. Any skin folds should be thoroughly cleaned. Having completed the bathing, towel and dry it and apply lotion (this is optional) and dress the baby. Hand the baby over to

Terrorism Definition Essay Example for Free

Terrorism Definition Essay Terrorism is just a word in English, but it is a hazard for mankind. Terrorism is the use of fear and acts of violence in order to intimidate societies or governments. People who do terrorism are called terrorists. Terrorism is a world-wide problem. By now, the governments throughout the world are realizing that terrorism is a serious threat to dealt with. Every terrorist acts usually takes days and even months of preparation. Terrorist are usually young, but the brain behind them are old, seasoned politicians. Terrorists mostly recruit younger people in their group as it is easy to brainwash them. Few of the terrorist attacks the world would never forget are the mid air bombings of Pan Am flight 103, the 9/11 attacks in which 2 civilian planes were hijacked and then later crashed into the famous World Trade towers in Manhattan, New York, the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, the 26/11 in which terrorist attacked the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi Trident hotels of Mumbai and left the world in shock. Many people lose their lives in such attacks. Around 3000 innocent people lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. Many of you might not know that World Trade Centre was a centre of attraction for all these terrorist attacks. Well before 9/11 incident the World Trade Centre already got a choke through bomb blasts in 1993. This was said to be a failure one as they aimed for twin tower attacks and missed their task. These terrorist activities are carried out by professional terrorist groups with the Al Qaeda being the most famous one. If you have been reading the newspaper you would have noticed the ongoing terror activities in Syria and Iraq. This militant act is being carried out by another terror group called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or simply known as ISIS. Most of the government across the globe have special intelligence branches to counter such attacks. A few famous intelligence boards are the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Government of India and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States Government. But there are evidences that the government of Pakistan had been sponsoring jihadist groups and other groups like the Al Qaeda and the Taliban to fight against its enemies like India and the United States. Many international organizations like the United Nations are continuously working to prevent such activities and also to give aid to countries which have been a victim of terror attacks Pesticides are designed to kill and because their mode of action is not specific to one species,  they often kill or harm organisms other than pests, including humans. The Organization estimates that there are 3 million cases of pesticide poisoning each year and up to 220,000 deaths, primarily in developing countries. The application of pesticides is often not very precise, and unintended exposures occur to other organisms in the general area where pesticides are applied. Children, and indeed any young and developing organisms, are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides. Even very low levels of exposure during development may have adverse health effects. Pesticide exposure can cause a range of neurological health effects such as memory loss, reduced speed of response to stimuli and reduced visual ability. Many studies have examined the effects of pesticide exposure on the risk of cancer. People can be exposed to pesticides by a number of different routes including: occupation, in the home, at school and in their food. There are concerns that pesticides used to control pests on food crops are dangerous to people who consume those foods. These concerns are one reason for the organic food movement. Many food crops, including fruits and vegetables, contain residues after being washed or peeled. The United Nations through the media is spreading the awareness of the need for organic farming through media channels, radios etc.

armenian genocide Essay -- essays research papers

By the late 1880's there were approximately 2,500,000 Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire. Since World War I, the number of Armenians in Turkey has barely reached more than 120,000. The difference can be accounted for in the large number of Armenians who were slaughtered or forced to flee to other countries in the period from 1894 to 1921. The tension began when Armenians in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire started to impress upon the people the idea of Armenian self-government, under the encouragement of Russia. As the number of revolutionaries grew, they formed into various political groups, ad finally into two revolutionary parties. The first party, developed in 1887, was called Henchak, meaning "The Bell." The second, called Dashnaktzutiun, meaning "Union," was established in 1890. During this time, Sultan Abdulhamid II, the leader of the Ottoman Empire, was promoting nationalistic feelings and animosity towards the Armenians among neighboring Kurdish tribemen, in hopes of suppressing the revolutionaries. The persecution that resulted, along with an escalation in taxes, gave the Armenians two solid reasons for a revolt. In 1894, Armenians in Sasum fought back by refusing to pay the required taxes. Their revolt was not successful- Armenian villages were burned and thousands of people w ere killed by Kurdish tribesmen and Turkish troops. Two years later, the Armenians again attempted to rise against the Turkish autocracy. Hoping t...

Moi…Yeah What About It?

At this darkness blocked my blurry vision, and a warm coppery taste was my only comfort, it had been my comfort for so long now. It was only a friend and I'm nearly dead. But when you get accused of going with your cousin you'd expect it of a friend. I was fourteen when it started, just over a year, you'd think I'd be all cried out, but I've learnt, gradually, save them, save them for the nights when you close your eyes and he's giving you what you want, and what you need†¦ love. Corny you might think, but the good things make you cry more than the bad. Every time he's not smoked bit too much skunk, sput, or what ever else he does, we'll cuddle and he whispers those three little words every girl longs to hear from a tall dark and handsome older guy. ‘I love you' But where's the truth in it. Most guys of sixteen think those three word can bed a girl. Well if they're vulnerable enough it's a definite thing. That's where trouble starts. Sex its just another word for hurt, blood, committing yourself and signing freedom and friends away. And all to some guy that thinks you want to spend the rest of your life with cos they popped your cherry. Its not reality, not to me and it shouldn't be to you. Loves a trap, an evil thing. It makes me feel sick, even just thinking about the hell I was put through in as shorter amount of time as a year. I thought I was being brave every time I was alone and my cloudy green eyes cried. I was surprised myself, as every moment we spent in each other's arms was a good time. I thought I'd never have to be alone. But now I know the sparkles all gone, and the stitches are here. He wasn't scared to show anyone the hate and anguish he felt inside for me, not even my mother, the first time, he hurt me was in front of both our families we sat down to a meal, in my house, a time we all thought was good. But I was dragged by my hair into the kitchen viewable from the dinning table. I knew what was coming I had seen his eyes when he had fought previously with lads, those eyes looked straight at me. I began to run to the side door, which was positioned at the side of his masculine, strong aftershave smelling body; my head was spinning as I was thrown back towards the sink. My head in the bowl with the dishes from the pervious course, and he kicked me right in the spine. My father was no longer around he had left us when my brother and I were just three years old. My brother and I thought the same; people said it was just telepathic, I screamed as the broken dishes cut into my made-up face. The phone rang. I heard it, I heard it through the screams and shouts, of my mother and the warnings of that bastards family. My mother ran to the phone hoping and praying it was someone with power that could help, she wasn't let down, my brother, he said he felt something and Wiz was driving him down to the house, my mother yelled down the phone hoping Wiz would hear, I'll never forget the words she said it was the first time I had ever heard her swear, I heard them words over and over in my confused and unsure head, â€Å"GET YOUR BLOODY FOOT DOWN and HURRY THE FUCK UP† I'd had enough my body couldn't take any more of his beating, I lay collapsed on the cold tiled floor coated in warm blood clotted in little ball, coughed out of my tooth missing mouth. I heard the screeching of tyres out front, as my brother ran in followed by four sets of other heavy footsteps. Screams and shouts were all I heard nothing I could make sense of. I was kicked one last time in my stomach before everything went dead. I was alone. I was alone in a bed, with tubes pumping all kinds of shit into me, I tried to move but my body refused, to leave me only lying still. I was there for a few days unable to move my bruised limbs, my brother and his mates came in every so often and comforted me, I didn't feel safe around guys though and refused to speak to them. The one person that made me feel safe was a younger lad I had met on a holiday that year, my mother had paid for him to fly from his home near Stoke to be with me for a few days. My brother had told me I had called out his name numerous occasions. I was unable to remember. I still thought about him though, when visiting times were over, I still loved him. I thought that nothing could change that, not even a hospital bed. My mother had told me a million times that he was bad news for me. I knew she was right but I always had the last word. I always blamed it on my dad leaving though; I made my mum feel bad because I never had a man to tell me how really men were. But really I should take it out on him he's the one who couldn't keep his pants up, well his ankles always were cold, my mum said anyway. I kind of understand now though why my mother never got with another, she could have had any one. She was the most beautiful woman who graced the earth. My brother always use to boost my confidence when I was younger saying I was like her, but no one ever could be as pretty, so perfect. I loved her more than anyone could love anything in the universe. But my love for her was too deep I was told, he told me. I believed him too. I was gullible and he was charming. I HATE HIM SO MUCH. He changed my mother's perspective in my live; my whole world, and left me behind. My life was complicated, it always had been. No person, how sophisticated, how intelligent could understand my head, the way I would think. I used to write stories and draw strange looking picture, all the teachers thought I was ill in the head from the first day I walked through the school gates Primary and High. They can all drop dead just as every other down looking snob in this world can. They don't understand anything, half of them don't even have kids of their own, and how can they stand in front of a teenager and tell them how they should treat people with respect when they have no respect for us. Teachers always said I had a foul mouth†¦ and. So have 70% of the rest of the pupils in this school. That old line they spoon feed you every time their on their periods are just in a bad mood, â€Å"Miss Potts' you have the most dramatic and over active imagination I have ever had enter this room, now leave† That's meant to be an education don't be daft. I admit to the charges with my hands up but I've had a bad life, as have others but I took the easy way out and became a little bitch, smoking, drinking etc. It was just what school life has lead me into. I think about life doing things right sometimes but that's not me it isn't possible for me now. Things when I got out of hospital weren't any different between him and me; I'll call him that because his name sends shivers and spikes down my spine. I carried on seeing him, yeah I know I was stupid, but he told me he'd change just to spend a few moments of his life with me in his arms. My family didn't find out for a while, but when my brother caught me and him upstairs in my room he disowned me, I tried to cover up what we were doing but I think clothes all up the stairs were a clear give away. No one was meant to come home, my mother in London and my brother meant to be at a friends', what's the chances ay? Low High well shit happens doesn't it? I convinced my brother it was the best thing to do keeping it a secret from my mother as she was suffering from severe depression, give you a guess who it all started with. Lol. Obvious don't you think? We didn't talk my brother and I until I assured him it was all over. He believed me. I had tried to brake it off with him but his dark eyes seduced my mind hypnotising me, they told a story of that day when I nearly died. My life's never been perfect, and never will be now. I had dreams, ambitions. I was going to be an artist, I wanted people to know who I was and what I had been through but how do you tell the story, of getting beat up by a demon, that lived around the corner from your humble warm loving home. I had ideas but I'd have to find him again to make my work publishable, to kill me obviously. No artist I've ever heard of got famous when they were alive so I'd need some help wouldn't I? After I told my brother I had stopped seeing him, it was around three months until we finish properly, I had been in hospital again, slipped a disk in my back this time, it happened over three days, it started over a cig, how sad, my best mate of a few years wouldn't spare her last fag for him and I got bollocked for it. I tried to run but I was never a sprinter, my legs weren't long enough, he caught up to me within a few moments of me dropping my bags out side the schools gates, he dragged me to the floor by my long brown ponytail, I lay there frozen scared to move as his three best mate screamed at him to leave me alone because I was a cheap tart after a shag. Later that night though he found me, came down to another of my mates looking for a shag off of me. Yeah you know the story, I did it, a shags a shag as my mates brother told me. The next time he threw a paddy was the next night; guess what this was over as well, a lil bit of lippy, apparently I looked like a whore, and his mates would find it as an offer. It was a repeat performance of the previous day although a man dressed in a dark suit came to my rescue; he told me he was always there for me if I ever needed him. I didn't even know the guy, it was the first time I'd seen him but I thought I could come to some kind of arrangement with him. He was sexy and I was feeling low and on the rebound. The next time, I find it hard to talk about It was thought I would never be able to have kids, that broke my heart, I really wanted kids in the future lil boy and girl Cona and Carmel. I thought that they were cute names for kids and different for when they grew up. My story with him ended when a couple of weeks I found my self sat in a doctors surgery with a urine sample on the desk, and a pregnancy test boxed up lay next to it, along with that protein tester thing. I'd put on weight and me and the doctor both knew exactly what was going on. I sobbed as I told the doctor my life story; he was touched and offered me a tissue over the long wooden desk I leant on with one hand on my stomach. I quit my sobbing and stood up to leave. No appointments were made, no nothings were said.

How Great Companies Think Differently Essay

This article highlights principles that leading companies employ to differentiate them from other companies that focus only on profits. These leading companies attempt to transcend the short-term bottom line mentality and aim at social involvement that will produce longevity and sustained profits over the long haul. Part of making money in the long term is longevity, and the way to longevity is to build an â€Å"enduring institution†. This is done through being more socially conscious and planning for better quality of life for employees including a healthy work life balance, and to provide a meaningful life purpose for workers that build people and society. The point is to remain financially viable for the long term because that’s the best way to serve society, the employees, and consumers. Key Takeaways 1. Businesses must invest in employee empowerment and engagement, and must adopt the attitude that employees are interested in more than just a paycheck. Companies must balance public interests with financial concerns, and attempt to improve the lives of consumers. Viewing the company as a societal institution and communicating a common purpose provides an identity for employees and helps protect against uncertainty. A larger purpose and vision inspires employees to think bigger and beyond the four walls of the company. 2. Business should have a clear, long term focus on a higher purpose than just financial achievement. This is achieved by investing in â€Å"the human side† of the organization. Listening to the interests of employees and possibly offering opportunities to pursue those under a sort of corporate sponsorship. Doing so should lead to deeper emotional connections to the company, which again supports longevity. 3. Moods are contagious. Moods can transmit institutional values, inspiring positive emotions about the company. It is therefore vital that leadership model the behavior that supports the long term corporate/social vision. If values are clear and well understood, they can be appealing to employees. Having employees who are emotionally engaged with the values gives them a sense of purpose greater than corporate goals, and feeds longevity because employees are bought in to the corporate values rather than a personality. 4. Globalization detaches the company from a single specific society. The global markets require purpose and vision that goes beyond a single company or societal group. This is positive because it feeds innovation and cultural sensitivity to the markets the company serves.

Subvert and Suborn

Subvert and Suborn Subvert and Suborn Subvert and Suborn By Maeve Maddox A reader has asked for a discussion of the words subvert and suborn. Both are verbs and both have been used with meanings no longer common. Deriving ultimately from a Latin word for â€Å"to overturn,† subvert came into English from French subvertir, â€Å"to raze, destroy completely.† The meaning has developed from the literal destruction of a town or building to mean the overturning of an established practice or belief. Example: Critics assert that allowing women to become priests would subvert apostolic teachings regarding the role of women in the Church. Subvert was once used to mean the bringing down of a nation or a state, but now the sense is â€Å"to undermine without necessarily bringing down the established authority.† Example: Efforts are being made by means of sabotage to subvert that country’s efforts to build a war machine. Socrates was accused of subverting youth with his teachings. This sense of subvert is â€Å"to corrupt or pervert a person, or a persons mind, causing the person to turn away from a path or belief regarded as right or proper.† Jazz and rock music have been criticized as subverting youthful morals. Literary critics use the word subvert in terms of challenging and undermining a conventional idea, form, or genre by presenting it in a new way. An example of this use of subvert is the way Joss Whedon took the clichà © of the helpless, usually blonde, beauty who enters an alley to be murdered by a monster, and turned it on its head to create the character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He â€Å"subverted† the horror genre. Subvert applies principally to the overthrow of ideas. Suborn has to do with causing an individual to commit a crime. Like subvert, suborn entered English by way of French. It meant â€Å"to induce a person to commit a crime, especially to give false testimony.† It now means â€Å"to cause a person to commit perjury.† The fictional ADAs on TV’s Law and Order often use the term â€Å"suborning perjury.† The legal term is defined as â€Å"the criminal offense of procuring another to commit perjury, which is the crime of lying, in a material matter, while under oath.† Note: ADA stands for Assistant District Attorney. In most U.S. jurisdictions, the District Attorney represents the government in prosecuting criminal offenses. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and NumeralsGrammar Quiz #21: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive ClausesThe Difference Between "Shade" and "Shadow"

How Meteors Form and What They Are

How Meteors Form and What They Are Experienced stargazers are familiar with meteors. They can fall any time of the day or night, but these bright flashes of light are much easier to see in dim light or darkness. While they are often referred to as falling or shooting stars, these bits of fiery rock actually have nothing to do with stars. Key Takeaways: Meteors Meteors are flashes of light made when bits of space rock speed through our atmosphere and burst into flames.Meteors may be created by comets and asteroids but are not themselves comets and asteroids.A meteorite is a space rock that survives the trip through the atmosphere and lands on the surface of a planet.Meteors can be detected by the sounds they give off as they pass through the atmosphere. Defining Meteors Technically, meteors are flashes of light that occur when a small bit of space debris called a speeds through Earths atmosphere. Meteors may be only about the size of a grain of sand or a pea, although some are small pebbles. The largest can be giant boulders the size of mountains. Most, however, result from tiny bits of space rock that happen to stray across Earth during its orbit.   Looking at an incoming meteor descend through Earths atmosphere, as seen from the International Space Station. NASA How Do Meteors Form? When meteors hurtle through the layer of air surrounding Earth, friction caused by the molecules of gas that make up our planets atmosphere heats them up, and the meteors surface begins warm up and glow. Eventually, the heat and high speed combine to vaporize the meteor usually high above Earths surface.  Larger chunks of debris break apart, showering many pieces down through the sky. Most of those vaporize, too. When that happens, observers can see different colors in the flare surrounding the meteor. The colors are due to the gases in the atmosphere being heated up along with the meteor, as well as from materials inside the debris itself.  Some larger pieces create very large flares in the sky, and are often referred to as bolides. Meteorite Impacts Larger meteors that survive the trip through the atmosphere and and land on the Earths surface, or in bodies of water, are known as meteorites. Meteorites are often very dark, smooth rocks, usually containing iron or a combination of stone and iron. Many pieces of space rock that make it to the ground and are found by meteorite hunters are fairly small and incapable of doing much damage. Only the larger meteoroids will create a crater when they land. Nor are they smoking hot- another common misconception. Meteorite Hunters. NASA Johnson Space Center The piece of space rock that made Meteor Crater in Arizona, was about 160 feet (50 meters) across. The Chelyabinsk impactor that landed in Russia in 2013 was about 66 feet (20 meters) long and caused shock waves that shattered windows across a wide distance. Today, these kinds of large impacts are relatively rare on Earth, but billions of years ago when the Earth was formed, our planet was bombarded by incoming space rocks of all sizes. The fireball created as a superbolide flared over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2013. This was shot with a dashcam. Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY. Meteor Impact and the Death of the Dinosaurs One of the largest and most recent impact events occurred nearly 65,000 years ago when a piece of space rock about 6 to 9 miles (10 to 15 kilometers) across smashed into Earths surface near where the Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula is today. The region is called Chicxulub (pronounced Cheesh-uh-loob) and wasnt discovered until the 1970s. The impact, which may actually have been caused by multiple incoming rocks, had a drastic impact on Earth, including earthquakes, tidal waves, and sudden and extended climate change caused by debris suspended in the atmosphere. The Chicxulub impactor dug out a crater some 93 miles (150 km) in diameter and is widely associated with a huge extinction of life that likely included most dinosaur species.   Fortunately, those kinds of meteoroid impacts are fairly rare on our planet. They still occur on other worlds in the solar system. From those events, planetary scientists get a good idea of how cratering works on solid rock and ice surfaces, as well as in the upper atmospheres of the gas- and ice-giant planets.   Is an Asteroid a Meteor? Though they can be sources of meteors, asteroids are not meteors. They are separate, small bodies in the solar system. Asteroids supply meteor material through collisions, which scatter bits of their rock throughout space. Comets can also generate meteors, by spreading trails of rock and dust as they orbit the Sun. When Earths orbit intersects the orbits of comet trails or asteroid debris, those bits of space material can get swept up. Thats when they start the fiery trip through our atmosphere, vaporizing as they go. If anything survives to reach the ground, thats when they become meteorites.  Ã‚   Asteroid Vesta has supplied some meteorites that landed on Earth. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Meteor Showers There are a number of chances for Earth to plow trails of debris left behind by asteroid breakups and cometary orbits. When Earth does encounter a track of space debris, the resulting meteor events are called meteor showers. They can result in anywhere from a few tens of meteors in the sky per hour each night up to nearly a hundred. It all depends on how thick the trail is and how many meteoroids make the final trip through our atmosphere.   A sample of what a meteor shower provides in the night sky. The meteors of the Orionid Meteor shower appear to radiate from the direction of the constellation Orion. They are, in reality, bits of dust from a comet vaporizing in Earths upper atmosphere. Carolyn Collins Petersen

History and Political Science Exam Questions Essay

History and Political Science Exam Questions - Essay Example The case study countries can be said to relatively conform to the ideal model of liberal democracy. The three constitutional forms mentioned above are depicted in the case study countries. Political competitiveness is observed in the U.S, Nigeria, France and Russia. Elections are held after a specified period of time, and constitutional provisions allow for free and fair elections. Spain on the other hand practices democracy through a constitutional monarchy. While such a political process may not be competitive, transparency in governance is provided for by political laws. Q2 The growth and development of the civil society is an important aspect of the larger population within a country or a state. The management of human capital in the civil service is primarily undertaken by the civil society, and it therefore accounts for the major needs of the larger society. The development of the civil society and its influence to the state are intertwined. A developed civil society is one tha t accounts for the diversity and dynamisms realized in the state and one that further seeks to match this trend with the performance of the state. It therefore stands a strong ground to significantly influence the state. Q3 Centralization of legislation is the basis upon which unitary states function. This is form of legislature is however not necessarily the best in the contemporary world. Political systems and governments seek to uphold efficiency and effectiveness of governments, thereby delegating legislation duties. The concentration of authority and power to a single unit of governance is longer deemed as an aspect of democracy. As a result, political systems and governments of the modern times tend to create organs of governance that function just as the overhead arm of government. Decentralized legislature is thus a key defining factor of democracy. EXAM 2 Q1 The Rational Actor Model makes four assumptions that fail to conform to the real world phenomena. As a result, the us e of this model in the evaluation and assessment of foreign relations is limited, and to a more extent unrealistic. The model assumes that governments are unitary in nature, cost and benefit analysis is the mode of policy formulation, actors execute decisions faithfully and ineffective policies are optimized through adjustment (Held, 2006, p.329). These assumptions are unrealistic since they do not account for the ulterior motives of actors in foreign relations. On the same note, policy formulation keep conflicting with other policies already in place, and therefore optimality of policies is not realistic. Q2 Foreign policy making is subject to both rational processes and political influences. The extent to which these two factors affect foreign policy formulation and implementation is crucial in determining whether the goals of foreign policy reflect political interests. Foreign policies are formulated and implemented by states that identify foreign relations issues that need to be addressed by these policies. Due to this aspect, the rationality of foreign policy making is lost. This is due to the fact that the emerging foreign policies reflect collaborative political interests, and are therefore deemed to serve purposes that are beneficial to the formulating agencies even when the rationality of these policies is questionable. EXAM 3 Q1 States are endowed with powers within their jurisdiction to formulate and implement policies, among them