Emergence of modern man Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emergence of modern man - Essay Example The purpose of this short paper is to explore the influences of evolution and natural selection on modern man and to analyse whether these are continuing to have an effect on our species. The reason that many scientists argue that evolution and natural selection does not continue to exert an effect on modern man is because there are so many protections from nature. Food availability is one of the most important things for a species’ survival (Bootle, 2011), but many humans living in the West do not have to worry about food availability because much of it is available very cheaply and nutrition is found all year round. Many food items can now also be preserved to last through the winter, and these developments have come from a high level of intelligence. This, however, may be one of the problems. Some argue that the effects of obesity on our population may be having an effect similar to that of natural selection in the wild (Bootle, 2011), and could be used as evidence against our collective intelligence. Disease is also another one of the biggest parts of natural selection in the wild (McKie, 2002). However, modern man has developed a number of ways to prevent disease. Even in prehistory, there is evidence that there may have been some attempt at preventative and curative medicine (Regal, 2004), which suggests that man’s high intelligence has a function of preventing parts of natural selection. In modern times, several diseases which would have killed people prior to reproduction (and thus have bred the trait out), such as asthma and diabetes, are present in the population because they can be treated (Regal, 2004). This could also be evidence that natural selection is not as powerful for man as for other species. Perhaps one of the most interesting elements of the human species is that it occupies a huge amount of space on the

To Da-duh Essay Example for Free

To Da-duh Essay The story is told by the nine-year-old version of the narrator. As a little girl, she doesn’t see or think much about everything. When she sees Da-duh, her grandmother, for the first time, she sees a â€Å"small, purposeful, painfully erect† figure and a face that is â€Å"as stark and fleshless as a death mask†. As the story goes along, the reader starts to understand the competition between the narrator and her grandmother from the point of view and the eyes of the narrator. As it is mentioned in the last paragraph, Da-duh and her granddaughter experience a competition in the story. The competition is about whose home is better, Da-duh’s home in Barbados Island or the narrator’s home in New York. Each argument starts from a simple thing, like â€Å"I know you don’t have anything like these in New York†. They both have strong will and heart; those feelings are shown in the dialogues they have during the narrator’s visit to Barbados from New York. This story has a lot of adjectives and symbolism to form the reader’s picture of the people and the places. For example, when Da-duh starts to hear about New York from her granddaughter, the author writes, â€Å"I came to know the signs of her surrender: the total stillness that would come over her little hard dry form, the probing gaze that like a surgeon’s knife sought to cut through my skull to get at the images there, to see if I were lying; above all, her fear, a fear nameless and profound, the same one I had felt beating in the palm of her hand that day in the lorry†. This is a pretty long and complicated sentence, but it’s filled with adjectives so that the reader can have a better feeling to the story. In â€Å"To Da-duh† story, the author uses a child’s point of view in explaining the tone and the mood in the story. The tone in every dialogue in the story shows a competition and love of each person’s home. In the end, an irony is shown when the narrator gets a house in a loft above a noisy factory with machines sounds that her grandmother was pretty afraid about. Within this irony, Paule Marshall ends the story with a sad and love feeling between the narrator and Da-duh.

Rasputin Essay -- essays research papers

Gregory Efimovich Rasputin is one of the most debated characters of the 20th Century. Thousands have discussed whether Rasputin was a holy man who came to the aide of the royal family or more simply, a cheat who thrived in womanising and in truth, a man who had a debauched sexual appetite. After all the word "Rasputin" in Russian mean "the debauched one". But in the following pages, I will try to explore a better side of Rasputin; I will attempt to give an accurate analysis of Rasputin and let the facts prove who Rasputin was. On 10 January 1869, in the midst of a harsh winter, Gregory Efimovich Rasputin was born in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye. Little is known of his background. His father, Efimy, was a farmer of moderate success, married to a wife, Anna, who had already provided him with an older son, Dimitri. Although later enemies were to allege that Rasputin's surname was in fact an insult meaning "debauched" in Russian, it had been the family name for years, derived from the word for a fork in the road. Pokrovskoye perched on the banks of the Tura River in Tobolsk Province; Pokrovskoye was a typical Russian peasant village where few if any were educated and town’s people were religious, narrow minded and fearful. When Rasputin was eight years old, he suffered his first tragedy. He was playing with his older brother along the banks of the Tura when Dimitri fell and was drowned. Shortly thereafter, Rasputin began to startle his fellow-villagers by making amazing predictions. In one incident, Rasputin correctly identified a horse thief. As a teenager, Rasputin paid a visit to the local Verkhoturye Monastery. Here he encountered not only the Orthodox Church he had known from his childhood but also a number of heretical sects. Principals among these were the Khlysty and the Skopsty. The first group held that only through sin could one truly repent and receive God's grace, while the second believed that if a penitent studied long enough, it was possible to attain a semi-divine nature and escape earthly judgment. When Rasputin returned to Pokrovskoye, he was a changed man: he impressed his fellow villagers with his impressive religious exhortations, spiced up with half-understood bits of doctrine he had picked up at Verkhoturye. Contrary to common belief, the "monk" Rasputin was in... ...holas had set a path to glory for Nicholas, who himself is man of poor intellect. Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich. At the time of his father's death in late 1894, Nicholas was an inexperienced youth wholly unprepared for the great task destiny had placed on his shoulders. Nicholas II was barely twenty-six years old at the time of his accession. During his son's golden youth, Alexander III did not allow his son Nicholas much participation in affairs of government. It is likely that Alexander III feared that his eldest son was not intellectually capable of handling the inheritance that was rightfully his. Therefore, the father kept postponing the son's introduction in to the daily running of Russia. Not one person, most of all Alexander III, ever imagined that this young and inexperienced Romanov would ascend the throne as early in life as he did. Czar Nicholas II’s mother Czarina Maria-Feodorovna was nortorouis as a mother who did not allow her children to grow. Therefor a ltering the young Czar’s behaviour to that all would regret. As Leon Trotsky once said: "His ancestors did not bequeath him one quality which would have made him capable of governing an empire"

Media on sex miseducation Essay

This research paper tackles the contentious issues of the impacts of media on sex mis education as well as the child mistreatment. The paper zeros down on the problem by analyzing the prevalence and extend of the problem in the society . It shows the root causes of this problem like the demand for sexual materials by the public that compels the media to mislead the teens on sexual issues as they advertise using such materials and the advancement of technology that has made spread of information to be unlimited. The paper highlights the anticipated risks like social decay, spread of sexually transmitted diseases and upsurge of unwanted pregnancies as the dangers which may arise if the problem is not adequately addressed. Lastly, the paper suggests the possible solutions to this problem as putting in place constitutionally entrenched regulatory agencies to control the content of media products, giving more training to the media personnel on this problem and designing information which portrays the positive aspects of sexuality like family planning as well s being advocator for children’s’ rights. Introduction With the advent of information and communication technology the mass media sector has recorded enormous continuous growth over the last three decades (Keenan, 2007). Basically media refers to the channels that are used to convey information to the people. Media can be classified into two categories namely: the print and the broadcast media. The broadcast media includes the videos, radios, movies, internet, both the cable and broadcast channels and TVs while the print media includes the magazines and the newspapers. Studies have shown that the radio is the leading media for communication in the developing world followed by the TV while in developed countries TV and internet take the lead respectively. The mass media is very vital in the conveyance of information to the people and as such, the content of the information being communicated is of paramount importance since it models the behavior and attitude of people on their daily lives (Turtorn, 2008). This is manifested in the way they respond to their political, economical, social and cultural environments in which they live. Essentially, media has been of great help in all spheres of mankind’s life though with its uncontrolled growth and advancement of technology world over it has resulted to social deterioration and decay. This is has happened in the developed countries and in some urban areas of the developing countries where accessibility to the mass media has increased many folds as compared to the past ( Keenan,2007). Due to this trend, the media has led to sex miseducation and child maltreatment. Studies that have been done by leading research centers from various parts of the globe have indicated that the young people forms the highest number of people who use media with sexually oriented and child abuse programs. This is especially on media like the TV and the internet. The effects of media on sex miseducation While the prime role of any media is to inform the public about various aspects of life affecting them, it is evident that revenue generation has substituted this noble role upon which the purpose of media is anchored. This is primarily taking place due to unrelenting pressure of competition in the media industry from media providers. To fetch more consumers the media they must offer what the consumers demand. Studies have demonstrated that consumers of the media products are mostly attracted by products that are sexually oriented. According to Jacobvirtz (1999), most media providers accrue the highest proceeds from advertisements. As such for the media providers to capture the advertisement revenue, they are indirectly compelled by the consumers to accompany their advertisements with some sexual content which will boost their sales by attracting more customers. Advertisements of this nature take lead in promotions of the tourism, beauty, alcohol and music industries that are of great interest to the youth. In his research Turton (2008),points out that various characteristics of the TV like its accessibility ,popularity ,ability to persuade have made it a prominent instructor that provides a chance for viewers to get informed about matters of sex and sexuality without fear. It presents sex as something for the youth, unmarried, beautiful and who admire to become celebrities. As result of such misconception, this has led to the young people being victims of sexually transmitted diseases and especially the sweeping HIV and AIDS which has prove to be incurable so far. In a study by Braunwald(1995),it was revealed that about 66% of media coverage carry sexual content and during every season the media programs are designed with more sex oriented content compared to the last season. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that media programs that have high popularity among the teenagers contain information that is related to sexual matters. The effects of media on sex miseducation has had far reaching impacts to the youth, for instance studies have revealed that increased accessibility to mass media is directly associated with loss of contentment for virginity among the adolescents. Studies further disclose that teenagers who are for the view that sexual content should be displayed on the mass media have high chances of not being contented with their first encounter of making love. In addition, adolescents who have access to TV programs showing high sexual content, deem the incidences of casual sex experiences positively unlike the teenagers who have not been exposed to such programs. Also, various surveys have disclosed that young people who watch sex related movies are usually against the use of condoms which is unlike to the other youths. Finally ,in a research that was done by the American Association the Pediatrics(AAP) it was demonstrated that youths who were highly exposed to sexual shows over the mass media had increased chances of getting pregnant or impregnating others as compared to their colleagues who lacked exposure to such shows.

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the second space shuttle disaster and the first shuttle lost on land happened on February 1, 2003. In this mission, six American astronauts and Israel's first spaceman died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated 200,000ft above Texas. They are David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool and Ilan Ramon. Rick husband is the Columbia's commander was a US air force colonel recruited to the space program in 1994. He made his first flight in 1999; last week's was his second.William McCool is the Columbia pilot was on his first flight. A naval commander and test pilot, he was selected for the space program in April 1996, and trained at the Johnson space centre. Michael Anderson is one of only a handful of African-American astronauts, Anderson had logged 211 hours in space before the Columbia disaster. A USAF lieutenant-colonel, he joined Nasa in 1994. Kalpana Chawla is an experienced astronaut who made her f irst flight on STS-87 in 1997. David Brown was a military flight surgeon before joining the astronaut corps.Laurel Clark joined Nasa in the same year as Brown, and was trained as a space flight surgeon. Lastly is the Ilan Ramon, an Israeli air force colonel, Ramon was his country's first astronaut. He took part in the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the 1981 bombing raid that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. With the Columbia accident, not only has the nation lost a four-billion-dollar shuttle, seven outstanding astronauts and priceless experimental results, it has also lost confidence in manned space flight and space exploration. February 1, 2003 was a sunny day.It was the perfect day for the Columbia shuttle return to earth. Everyone at NASA was excited for their return because the shuttle would bring back a lot of useful information from the 16 days mission. No one suspected tragedy will happen. At around 9am, the shuttle lost contact with NASA. The mission controllers thought it was a temporary problem because of the shuttle reentry into the atmosphere and also the temperature sensors on the inboard and outboard elevons (A control surface on an airplane that combines the functions of an elevator and an aileron. on the left wing had stopped functioning minutes before. NASA start to recognize something unusual happened when several 911 calls were made by the residents in Texas, Arkansas and the Louisiana area. The space shuttle Columbia and her seven crewmembers were lost. Immediately after losing of the shuttle and the seven crewmembers, NASA stopped all shuttle operations at Kennedy Space Center. They collected all the remains piece of the Columbia shuttle and grid on the floor of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Hangar.The Columbia Reconstruction Project Team attempted to reconstruct the bottom of the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident. The engineers found that a 20-inch piece of hardened insulation foam breaking off the main fuel tank and hitti ng the shuttle’s left wing during the launch on January 16th. They asked the top shuttle managers for outside agency assistance, but the request was denied. This is because the shuttle managers concluded that there was no safety concern due to the foam’s impact and decided to let the mission continue. Other possible causes were pilot mistake and space debris.After investigations continued in the next few weeks, some molten aluminum debris from the shuttle’s wing structure, as well as molten steel debris, had been found. When the engineers eliminated the other possibilities, they began to focus on the foam from the external tank only. When the shuttle reenters the atmosphere, the temperature on its surface can reach nearly 1649oC. So the Thermal Protection System (Various materials applied to the outer structure protect the orbiter from excessive heat) on the shuttle is critical. There are four different materials in the space shuttles Thermal Protection System ( TPS).There are high-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI) , low-temperature reusable surface insulation (LRSI), felt reusable surface insulation(FRSI), and reinforced carbon-carbon composite (RCC). The HRSI cover the high surface temperature reaches between 649 and 1260oC. The LRSI cover the low surface temperature reaches between 371 and 649oC. For another 2 materials are used in small amounts. Due to the temperature during reentry exceeds 1260oC at the nose cap, chin panel, forward external tank, and wing leading edge panels and T-seals, the RCC was break down.For reuse purpose and to prevent oxidation, the outer layer of the RCC is converted into silicon carbide in a furnace filled with argon with a temperature cycle up to 1649oC. The main reason of the shuttle to break down is because the foam from the bipod of the external tank was shed, and struck the shuttle’s left wing during the launch. It had damaged the wing’s leading edge RCC structures which allow ing reentry plasma to penetrate and disintegrate the underlying aluminum, damaging the wing’s structure.The foam of the bipod ramp is BX-250, polyurethane foam applied with CCF-11 which is used to cover outside of the tank to prevent ice and frost on the surface. The foam is to reduce the weight so it made by light material. The engineers couldn’t believe that such a light material could damage the wing of the shuttle. Thus, some research had done by the Southwest Research institute. They used a compressed air gun to fire a foam block of similar size and mass to that which struck Columbia and at same estimated speed.To represent the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, RCC panels from Enterprise and from NASA stock, along with fiberglass mock-up panels, were mounted to a simulating structural metal frame. In the final round of testing, a block fired at the side of an RCC panel created a hole 41 by 42. 5 centimeters (16 by 17 in) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly show that the foam could cause visible crack on the tested RCC panels. These cracks could lead the shuttle breakup during reentry. The final report of the Columbia Accident Investigation was released on August 26th, 2003.It concluded that this tragedy was caused by technical and organizational failures. The foam problem of the bipod area has existed for years, and NASA engineers have looked at a variety of ways to correct it. The report indicated that the space shuttle should not have been launched with this problem extant. The report further proposed that, although the shuttle had always returned to earth safely after the foam hit the wing during previous shuttle flights, the managers at NASA should not have rejected the engineers' requests to make sure Columbia's wing was not damaged this time.Finally, it suggested that NASA should have had a backup plan for fixing the shuttle in space and insuring the crew's safety if they found out the wing was badly damaged. On 26th Jul y 2005, a shuttle discovery was launched. NASA had formed an independent Return to Flight (RTF) panel to monitor its preparations. There are 7 out of the 26 RTF panel members issued a minority report prior to the launch. They questioning if Columbia’s lessons had been learned and also expressing concerns about NASA’s efforts.During launch, a large piece of foam separated from the external fuel tank, but fortunately did not strike the shuttle, which landed safely 14 days later. The shuttle fleet was once again grounded, pending resolution of the problem with the external fuel tank insulating foam. Reference: Columbia space shuttle disaster 2003. World news. http://www. guardian. co. uk/gall/0,,888045,00. html Space shuttles thermal protection system (TPS). US Centennial of Flight Commission. http://www. centennialofflight. ov/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/TPS/Tech41G2. htm Final report of Columbia Disaster. Columbia Accident Investigation Board http://caib. nasa. gov/ N ASA’s Space Shuttle Program: The Columbia Tragedy, the Discovery Mission, and the Future of the Shuttle. Marcia S. Smith Resources, Science, and Industry Division. Updated by January 4, 2006. fas. org/sgp/crs/space/RS21408. pdf Lessons Learned from the Columbia Disaster. Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). www. aiche. org/uploadedFiles/CCPS/†¦ /Presentation_Rev_newv4. ppt