Actinides (Actinide Series) Element Properties

Actinides (Actinide Series) Element Properties At the bottom of the periodic table, there is a special group of radioactive metallic elements. These elements have interesting properties and play a key role in nuclear chemistry. Actinides Definition The actinides or actinoids are a set of radioactive elements on the periodic table, usually considered ranging from atomic number 89 to atomic number 103. Location of the Actinides The modern periodic table has two rows of elements below the main body of the table. The actinides are the elements in the bottom row. The top row is the lanthanide series. The reason these two rows of elements are placed below the main table is that they dont fit in the design without making the table confusing and very wide. However, these two rows of elements are metals, sometimes considered a subset of the transition metals group. In fact, the lanthanides and actinides are sometimes called the inner transition metals, referring to their properties and position on the table. Two ways of including the lanthanides and actinides within a periodic table are to include those elements in their corresponding rows with the transition metals (makes the table wider) or ballooning them out to make a three-dimensional table. List of Elements in the Actinide Series There are 15 actinide elements. The electronic configurations of the actinides utilize the f sublevel, with the exception of lawrencium (a d-block element). Depending on your interpretation of the periodicity of the elements, the series begins with actinium or thorium, continuing to lawrencium. The usual list of elements in the actinide series is: Actinium (Ac)Thorium (Th)Protactinium (Pa)Uranium (U)Neptunium (Np)Plutonium (Pu)Americium (Am)Curium (Cm)Berkelium (Bk)Californium (Cf)Einsteinium (Es)Fermium (Fm)Mendelevium (Md)Nobelium (No)Lawrencium (Lr) Actinide Abundance The only two actinides found in appreciable quantities in the Earths crust are thorium and uranium. Small quantities of plutonium and neptunium are present in uranium orders. Actinium and protactinium occur as decay products of certain thorium and uranium isotopes. The other actinides are considered synthetic elements. If they occur naturally, it is part of a decay scheme of a heavier element. Common Properties of the Actinides Actinides share the following common properties: All are radioactive. These elements have no stable isotopes.Actinides are highly electropositive.The metals tarnish readily in air. These elements are pyrophoric (spontaneously ignite in air), particularly as finely divided powders.Actinides are very dense metals with distinctive structures. Numerous allotropes may be formed (plutonium has at least 6 allotropes!). The exception is actinium, which has fewer crystalline phases.They react with boiling water or dilute acid to release hydrogen gas.Actinide metals tend to be fairly soft. Some can be cut with a knife.These elements are malleable and ductile.All of the actinides are paramagnetic.All of these elements are silver-colored metals that are solid at room temperature and pressure.Actinides combine directly with most nonmetals.The actinides successively fill the 5f sublevel. Many actinide metals have properties of both d block and f block elements.Actinides display several valence states (typically more than the lanthanides). Most a re prone to hybridization. The actinides (An) may be prepared by reduction of AnF3  or AnF4  with vapors of Li, Mg, Ca, or Ba at 1100 - 1400 °C. Actinide Uses For the most part, we dont encounter these radioactive elements much in daily life. Americium is found in smoke detectors. Thorium is found in gas mantles. Actinium is used in scientific and medical research as a neutron source, indicator, and gamma source. Actinides may be used as dopants to make glass and crystals luminescent. The bulk of actinide use goes to energy production and defense operations. The primary use of the actinide elements is as nuclear reactor fuel and for the production of nuclear weapons. The actinides are favored for these reactions because they readily undergo nuclear reactions, releasing incredible amounts of energy. If the conditions are right, the nuclear reactions may become chain reactions. References E. Fermi (1934). Possible Production of Elements of Atomic Number Higher than 92.  Nature.  133  (3372): 898–899.Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 1230–1242.Theodore Gray (2009).  The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. New York: Black Dog Leventhal Publishers. p.  240.

Free Essays on Affirmative Action

There are many issues in today’s society that have two solid sides to them, sides, or positions, that cannot be proven absolutely wrong or right. Issues such as capital punishment, abortion, labor unions, animal rights and the list goes on and on. But one issue of this sort haunts our schools, our industries, and the subject, or core, of the issue has haunted our country for the last century. The subject of race, and the issue of affirmative action. In the case of affirmative action, like other controversial issues, each side is strongly supported and neither side can be proven right or proven wrong. The supporters claim it is the best way to ensure equal opportunity in the schools and in the workplace, while those opposing it claim that it merely takes away opportunity from one race, and unjustly hands it to another. The side of this fine line that will be exploited in the following paragraphs is the side opposing affirmative action. The results of affirmative action are more harmful than helpful because it negatively affects the general public, denies opportunity to the deserving, and is an abuse of law and power by government. First, affirmative action negatively affects the public by setting quotas and standards in fields of life that race should have no preference to. For example: colleges and universities. Standards should not be set on which percentage of which race should attend a college or university. An Ivy League school shouldn’t be required to have a percentage of students of each race and nationality. They should be allowed to enroll whom they feel best suits the educational requirements needed to be successful at the school. When standards are in effect students, who were accepted as a result of affirmative action, may find they cannot meet the educational requirements at the school and fail out. This in turn will more than likely either waste a years worth of work, and the individual will just attend another univer... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Free Essays on Affirmative Action Considering the subject of affirmative action the following questions frequently are raised: Is there a clear understanding of affirmative action roles/goals? What are the pros/cons of these programs? What are the "loop holes" in the system? Does seniority play a role in affirmative action? Addressing these key questions may help us all in our daily routine, as administrators and/or potential administrator in the public/private sector. Affirmative action programs throughout the United States have long been a controversial issue particularly concerning employment practices (public/private) and university student and/or staff recruitment. Most public agencies have some type of instituted affirmative action program. According to Cheryl Perry-League, Director of Equal Opportunity of the Port of Oakland, every business operating on Port of Oakland owned land must have a standing affirmative action program on record and businesses bidding to do work for the Port of Oakland must have an acc eptably diverse workforce. BACKGROUND To understand the role and/or goals of affirmative actions programs we should define what the broad definition of what affirmative action is and what caused its development. The phase "affirmative action" was used in a racial discrimination context. Executive Order No. 10,925 issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The order indicated that federal contractors should take affirmative action to ensure job applicants and employees are treated "without regard to their race, creed, or national origin." A person could define this statement as an order to imply equal access and nothing else. Subsequently, Executive Order 11246 issued by President Johnson in September 1965, "mandated affirmative action goals for all federally funded programs and moved monitoring and enforcement of affirmative action programs out of the White House and into the Labor Department." Affirmative action "refers to various efforts to deliberately ... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Discrimination is part of history, part of everyday life, and part of every single person in this country. Affirmative action is necessary in today’s American society to counteract the effects of past discrimination, and to help exterminate future tribulations. Although geared towards minorities, in a world dominated by white male’s affirmative action plays a major role in the elimination of prejudice against women and minorities alike. Established in 1964, as part of the Civil Rights Act, affirmative action was a huge step in American recovery from a Horrible past. A commission to enforce affirmative action was not put into order until years later. The Equal Employment Opportunities act was established in 1972, to enforce what was or other wise just an idea put on paper. ( The Columbia Encyclopedia, 659). Throughout the 70’s there were a few cases pertaining to the quotas being used, and their tendency of â€Å"reverse discrimination†. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 659) The dispute of reverse discrimination was acknowledged in certain cases, but most programs kept their existing policies. A case in 1979 sought out and achieved approval of quotas to be used in private businesses and unions using affirmative action. Affirmative action was broken down and rebuilt multiple times throughout the late 70’s and 80’s. In the 90’s, with the help of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, affirmative action was now a solid policy for the first time in 20 years. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 659) However, in 1995, the policy was run through the gamut once more, and restrictions were placed on the use of race when pertaining to government contracts. In 1995 using quotas was ruled illegal by the supreme court. Once more put through test of time, the late 90’s brought change again. The government programs previously affected by the 1995 make over, were now molded to aid anyone who is â€Å"socially disadvantaged.†( The Columbia Enc... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative action was created because of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s to increase diversity in America’s workplace. Since then, there has been plenty of controversy surrounding it. Today, affirmative action programs have become more of a discriminatory system which gives less qualified applicants an edge on sex and skin color and nothing else. These programs have evolved to be less about civil rights to become more of a stepping stool. They also have added an increase of tension between all races. Activists have complained about companies having quotas for minorities and women so they can have a certain percentage of their working population. Since this does not have an emphasis on people that are the best for the job, this can be detrimental to the operation of the job market. Affirmative action promotes the hiring of less skilled workers. It sometimes forces employers to choose the best worker, which is in the minority, they can find, regardless of whether they have the required job skills. For example, most universities and colleges have quotas for how many minority students they want or should enroll to the freshman class. Some people call the Affirmative Action Act â€Å"reverse discrimination†, but the act can be discrimination within itself. Reverse discrimination basically implies that we are discriminating against the â€Å"majority† instead of the usual â€Å"minority.† The Civil Rights Act was created to have employers to consider applicants objectively in filling jobs within their companies. This was highly needed years ago, today, people overall are more educated then before. We should not have to help people who are not truly struggling from this at the expense of people who are qualified. Affirmative action is based on race and sex; it is not accurately based for measuring those who are most in need. By lowering the bar of admissions to universities and the work force, we are promoting and ensuring ... Free Essays on Affirmative Action When people talk about the civil rights movement, the first thing that comes to mind is the famous speech â€Å"I have a dream† by Martin Luther King. His dream in short was to have equality among human beings. For the past thirty years, this country has been revolutionizing humanitarianism because there is greater concern for human welfare than one hundred years ago. The revolution began during the 1960’s, and during that era this county was drastically involved in changing the civil rights of minority groups. From this concern, a program called affirmative action evolved. Like other civil right movements, the affirmative action movement was implemented to promote equality. Affirmative action is an attempt by the Unites States to amend a long history of racial discrimination and injustice. According to The American Heritage College Dictionary, the term affirmative action refers to a policy or program that seeks to redress past discrimination by increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups. Since this was such a controversial subject, the program brought out two opposing sides that seemed to have reasonable explanations for both supporting and opposing the issue. The people that support affirmative action, argue that this advantage for people of color is needed because of the fact that how badly black people were discriminated against. Besides, they claim that because of the discrimination that once was, these people are at a disadvantage, and always have been, therefore equality of opportunity is needed. On the other hand, people that oppose this issue claim that the battle for equal rights is over, and that this advantage made for people of color discriminates against people that are not of color. As for myself, my opinion about this issue seems to be twisted. I believe that our county needed some kind of a law that would provide relief and equal opportunities to minorities that were discriminated against. Howe... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Stereotyping and the Media Stereotypes are a huge problem in today’s society, and can result in predjudice, mistreatment, and discrimination amongst people of all races, religions, and beliefs. Everyone seems to rely on stereotypes in some way, usually to describe differences between groups and to predict how others will behave. Problems with stereotyping include overgeralization, seeing what we already believe, avoiding power sharing, and to justify hostility. In order to change a stereotype held on specific people or groups of people, you must actually get to know those people you hold stereotypes on. This may confirm the stereotype, or be the exposure you need to correct your false data. The media seems to take in those stereotypes we hold and use them to their advantage, in my opinion to play on emotions for ratings. In other words, because of popular culture and our own cultural identities, we are drawn to watch television programs that we can relate to in some way, and with this comes creation an d reinforcement of different stereotypes. In my opinion, the media influences our stereotypes by taking the stereotypes we already have on a specific group, and then using those stereotypes with a character in a specific television show. For instance, someone may hold a stereotype on African American females as being loud and obnoxious. The television show â€Å"Martin† features an African American female named Sheneanea. Her character fits that stereotype of African American females perfectly. Sheneanea is loud, obnoxious and as ghetto as the come. If viewers have no contact with African American women other than through television, what choice do they have but to belive that all women of that particular race reflect the television image. Besides, did you know that on average, Americans watch more than 40 hours of television a week (Martin, pg. 166)? Another huge stereotype people hold is against gays and lesbians. The first ste... Free Essays on Affirmative Action The Unites States Constitution, in Amendment XIV, Section 1, states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (1)" Affirmative action can trace its roots back to the 14th amendment, although it did not really get started until Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, giving minorities equal employment rights. The overall strategy and outline for this plan were contained in Executive Order 11246, which was issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1972 (Gilbert et al. 2). This led to a wave of programs that were intended to further the equal employment opp ortunities for minority individuals. Affirmative action programs were intended to legally require organizations to be diverse. During the 1990's these programs have come under a lot of scrutiny and are being replaced with a concept known as diversity management. . Managing and valuing diversity are key aspects of organizational behavior, but the question lies in how to create the diversity within the organization. In this paper, I will examine several articles that will give us reasons that affirmative action should be replaced by diversity management, as well as one that believes that affirmative action is still needed in today's society. Mary Guy believes that affirmative action programs are still needed today. She noted that if we lived in a perfect world we would not have a need for organizations to have affirmative action programs (240). However, since people have a tendency to work around people that are most like us, programs are needed to ensure that... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative action by definition is a system designed to remedy past discrimination and eliminate current and future discrimination. This has become quite the problem in many areas. I have read and come to understand that this is an immense problem within the universities. In one university this has been pinpointed and tried in court numerous times, such as the University of Michigan. Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes perspective students, based solely on their race. America is a diverse country, racially, economically, and ethnically. We all believe that our institutions of higher education should reflect the diversity we try so hard to portray. Also, being in a university based on different backgrounds of many different people, this teaches you respect, understanding, and goodwill. So the question is, do the universities have the right to single out students solely because of their skin color on whether or not they’re academically equipped for their institution? There were two separate but parallel cases based on just that very question. The Grutter vs. Bollinger case decided on a 5 to 4 vote to uphold the University of Michigan’s law school affirmative action policy, which would be in favor of the minorities. The next case Gratz vs. Bollinger showed a 6 to 3 vote, which struck down the affirmative action policy for undergraduate admissions. In the first ruling of affirmative action in higher education admissions, the nation’s highest court ruled that race could be used in university admission decisions. They also had to put limits to the amount of play the factor of race can have in your actual admission process. My thoughts on this are very simple. I believe and always have believed that your mental ability has nothing to do with your background, your skin color, nor does it have anything to do with your religion. I was contemplating that thought and if you think about it, it re... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative action works. There are thousands of examples of situations where people of color, white women, and working class women and men of all races who were previously excluded from jobs or educational opportunities, or were denied opportunities once admitted, have gained access through affirmative action. When these policies received executive branch and judicial support, vast numbers of people of color, white women and men have gained access they would not otherwise have had. These gains have led to very real changes. Affirmative action programs have not eliminated racism, nor have they always been implemented without problems. However, there would be no struggle to roll back the gains achieved if affirmative action policies were ineffective. The implementation of affirmative action was America's first honest attempt at solving a problem, it had previously chosen to ignore. In a variety of areas, from the quality of health care to the rate of employment, blacks still remain fa r behind whites. Their representation in the more prestigious professions is still almost insignificant. Comparable imbalances exist for other racial and ethnic minorities as well as for women. Yet, to truly understand the importance of affirmative action, one must look at America's past discrimination to see why, at this point in history, we must become more "color conscious". History Of Discrimination In America: Events Leading To Affirmative Action. The Declaration of Independence asserts that "all men are created equal." Yet America is scarred by a long history of legally imposed inequality. Snatched from their native land, transported thousands of miles-in a nightmare of disease and death-and sold into slavery, blacks in America were reduced to the legal status of farm animals. A Supreme Court opinion, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), made this official by classifying slaves as a species of "private property." Even after slavery was abolished by the Thirt... Free Essays on Affirmative Action AFFIRMATIVE ACTION The original goal of the civil rights movement had been "color-blind" laws. However, many people believed that simply ending a long-standing policy of discrimination did not go far enough. They believed that affirmative measures to increase equality were necessary that’s why affirmative action was created. Affirmative Action, are policies used in the United States to encourage the increase of opportunities for women and minorities like favoring them in hiring and promotion, college admissions, salary increases, career advancement or scholarships. Depending upon the situation, â€Å"minorities† might include any underrepresented group, especially one defined by race, ethnicity, or gender. Generally, affirmative action has been undertaken by governments, businesses, or educational institutions to remedy the effects of past discrimination against a group, whether by a specific entity, such as a corporation, or by society as a whole. Critics charge that affirmative action policies, which give preferential treatment to people based on their membership in a group, violate the principal that all individuals are equal under the law. These critics argue that it is unfair to discriminate against members of one group today to compensate for discrimination against other groups in the past. They regard affirmative action as a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly prevents whites and men from being hired and promoted. But in the other side discrimination is, by definition, an unfair treatment of people because they belong to a certain group. Therefore, effective solutions must be given to aid groups that have suffered from discrimination. We might achieve one of the goals of affirmative action namely, increasing diversity in higher education by improving the odds for minority student engaging them in a high-quality education at every level. Affirmative action policies are the only way to ensure an integra... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Who Ever Is the Most Qualified When a person is being interviewed for a job, should it depend on their color or sex whether they get the job or not? My reply is it shouldn't depend on either of those two things. It should be determined by whether they are the best qualified for the job they are applying for. The effects of affirmative action are hurtful to many people. I truly do not understand why there is such a thing as affirmative action. Louis P. Pojman gives this as a definition; †Affirmative action is the effort to rectify the injustice of the past by special policies. Put this way, it is Janus-faced or ambiguous, having both a backward-looking and a forward-looking feature. The backward-looking feature is its attempt to correct and compensate for past injustice. This aspect of affirmative action is strictly deontological. The forward-looking feature is it’s implicit ideal of a society free from prejudice; this is both deontological and utilitarianâ€Å"(420). Just by this definitio n you could tell affirmative action was not well thought out. First of all you can not change the past. Therefore what ever is being done now about the rights of women and blacks does not compensate for how they were once treated. As Louis P. Pojman Said, â€Å"Sometimes a wrong cannot be compensated, and we just have to make the best of an imperfect world†(430). By giving an unqualified women a job over an over-qualified man does not fix all the problems we had in the past. Also if a black person and a white person both applied for the same job and the white person had more experience, should the black person just be hired to meet a quota? That would not be fair. This to me is doing the same thing we had done in the past except it is reversed against white people. By giving a job to a black person just because of their color is just as bad as turning them away for their color. Louis P. Pojman explains, â€Å"This message holds t... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative Action The first difficulty to a rational discussion of Affirmative Action is defining exactly what it is. Because it’s bring into play has been limited in certain respects by court decisions, certain descriptors are avoided, even if it is not entirely clear that they do not rightly be relevant. Affirmative Action is often defined by its deliberate result: a way of correcting the historical wrongs suffered by certain minority groups, especially blacks. But that could apply to any kind of reimbursement program, whether financial or educational, including one that directed certain actions to be taken. Any attempt to define Affirmative Action particularly launches one immediately on controversy, because it introduces the very elements that are so hotly contested or sighted. Affirmative action, in theory, is a matter of distributive justice, which is why liberals and progressives tend to look benevolently on it while conservatives and libertarians consider it a travesty. But in practice, does it actually advance the cause of justice in America? In some respects it has attempted to remedy the long-term effects of slavery and racial segregation; then again, programs that benefit women and recent immigrants cannot be defended on those grounds. Is it supposed to enhance "diversity" in colleges, professional schools and workplaces, or is it more specifically a set of programs for enhancing the class mobility of people who are structurally disadvantaged from birth? How can we decide whether affirmative action has been successfuland how can we decide whether affirmative action could ever be so successful as to become obsolete? (Bà ©rubà ©, Michael 2005) Affirmative Action may also contain acceptance of a minority applicant in cases where other applicants would be considered as unqualified, even though no qualified applicant is displaced. Affirmative Action is mainly occupied in applications to educational institutions, and in e... Free Essays on Affirmative Action The original goal of the civil rights movement had been "color-blind" laws. However, many people believed that simply ending a long-standing policy of discrimination did not go far enough. They believed that affirmative measures to increase equality were necessary that’s why affirmative action was created. Affirmative Action, are policies used in the United States to encourage the increase of opportunities for women and minorities like favoring them in hiring and promotion, college admissions, salary increases, career advancement or scholarships. Depending upon the situation, â€Å"minorities† might include any underrepresented group, especially one defined by race, ethnicity, or gender. Generally, affirmative action has been undertaken by governments, businesses, or educational institutions to remedy the effects of past discrimination against a group, whether by a specific entity, such as a corporation, or by society as a whole. Critics charge that affirmative action policies, which give preferential treatment to people based on their membership in a group, violate the principal that all individuals are equal under the law. These critics argue that it is unfair to discriminate against members of one group today to compensate for discrimination against other groups in the past. They regard affirmative action as a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly prevents whites and men from being hired and promoted. But in the other side discrimination is, by definition, an unfair treatment of people because they belong to a certain group. Therefore, effective solutions must be given to aid groups that have suffered from discrimination. We might achieve one of the goals of affirmative action namely, increasing diversity in higher education by improving the odds for minority student engaging them in a high-quality education at every level. Affirmative action policies are the only way to ensure an integrated society in which a... Free Essays on Affirmative Action There are many issues in today’s society that have two solid sides to them, sides, or positions, that cannot be proven absolutely wrong or right. Issues such as capital punishment, abortion, labor unions, animal rights and the list goes on and on. But one issue of this sort haunts our schools, our industries, and the subject, or core, of the issue has haunted our country for the last century. The subject of race, and the issue of affirmative action. In the case of affirmative action, like other controversial issues, each side is strongly supported and neither side can be proven right or proven wrong. The supporters claim it is the best way to ensure equal opportunity in the schools and in the workplace, while those opposing it claim that it merely takes away opportunity from one race, and unjustly hands it to another. The side of this fine line that will be exploited in the following paragraphs is the side opposing affirmative action. The results of affirmative action are more harmful than helpful because it negatively affects the general public, denies opportunity to the deserving, and is an abuse of law and power by government. First, affirmative action negatively affects the public by setting quotas and standards in fields of life that race should have no preference to. For example: colleges and universities. Standards should not be set on which percentage of which race should attend a college or university. An Ivy League school shouldn’t be required to have a percentage of students of each race and nationality. They should be allowed to enroll whom they feel best suits the educational requirements needed to be successful at the school. When standards are in effect students, who were accepted as a result of affirmative action, may find they cannot meet the educational requirements at the school and fail out. This in turn will more than likely either waste a years worth of work, and the individual will just attend another univer... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative Action Has it run its course By: Joan Siegel â€Å"It is a mistake to assume that the Negro, who had been a slave for two hundred and fifty years, gained his freedom by the signing, on a certain date, of a certain paper by the President of the United States. It is a mistake to assume that one man can, in any true sense, give freedom to another. Freedom, in a larger and higher sense, every man must gain for himself.† Booker T. Washington In his Autobiography The problem in a realistic model of Affirmative Action is due to the history, political evolution and complicated definition. Affirmative Action as such has never been a law or even government policy. Affirmative Action has been comprised of a series of executive orders, governmental programs, civil rights laws, and enforcement of equal opportunity practices. The basis for Affirmative Action dates as far back as, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which stated â€Å"all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Terri tory, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ( Marable, 4). Then in 1941, F.D.R. signed Executive order 8802, which outlawed discriminatory hiring practices by defense related industries holding federal contracts. Subsequently President Truman formed the Government Contract Compliance Committee that advocated the Bureau of Employment Security to act confidently and in a positive manner to execute the guiding principle of nondiscrimination in its role of placement counseling. Therefore the word Affirmative Action was not used until President Kennedy's executive order 10925 in 1961. The basic idea to eliminate prejudices has been around for over a century. I believe that when President Kennedy established Affirmative Action it was a necessary and ... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Affirmative action works. There are thousands of examples of situations where people of color, white women, and working class women and men of all races who were previously excluded from jobs or educational opportunities, or were denied opportunities once admitted, have gained access through affirmative action. When these policies received executive branch and judicial support, vast numbers of people of color, white women and men have gained access they would not otherwise have had. These gains have led to very real changes. Affirmative action programs have not eliminated racism, nor have they always been implemented without problems. However, there would be no struggle to roll back the gains achieved if affirmative action policies were ineffective. The implementation of affirmative action was America's first honest attempt at solving a problem, it had previously chosen to ignore. In a variety of areas, from the quality of health care to the rate of employment, blacks still remain far behind whites. Their representation in the more prestigious professions is still almost insignificant. Comparable imbalances exist for other racial and ethnic minorities as well as for women. Yet, to truly understand the importance of affirmative action, one must look at America's past discrimination to see why, at this point in history, we must become more "color conscious". History Of Discrimination In America: Events Leading To Affirmative Action. The Declaration of Independence asserts that "all men are created equal." Yet America is scarred by a long history of legally imposed inequality. Snatched from their native land, transported thousands of miles-in a nightmare of disease and death-and sold into slavery, blacks in America were reduced to the legal status of farm animals. A Supreme Court opinion, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), made this official by classifying slaves as a species of "private property." Even after slavery was abolished by... Free Essays on Affirmative Action As we look at the United States of America and its people today we can see that a large number of the population is racially mixed. It is almost impossible to say that a person is one thing or another. It seems that all existing races and nationalities are to be found somewhere in the country. Several reasons are the cause of such a vast diversity of people. One of the reasons is the idea of living the American dream. People from all over the world, especially poor countries, try to come to the U.S. to start a new, better life, it does not matter if legal or illegal. Upon arrival many have to find out that life is not easy as it sometimes appears, not even in America. Employment is difficult to find and those who find a job are often underpaid or have to deal with other difficulties. To prevent situations like these from happening the government has come up with a plan known as affirmative action to protect all people that are not white males. Affirmative action means taking positive steps to recruit, hire, train, and promote individuals from groups that have traditionally been discriminated against on the basis of race, sex, disability, or other characteristics. In this sense, affirmative action goes beyond equal employment opportunity, which requires employers to eliminate discriminatory conditions, whether inadvertent or intentional, and to treat all employees equally in the workplace. The requirements can be imposed on an employer in a number of ways: by federal law, for federal government contractors and subcontractors; as part of a conciliation agreement with a state or federal agency; or by court order. In addition, some employers voluntarily adopt affirmative action plans in an effort to create a more balanced workforce. Nevertheless the situation was not always as good as it is seems to be today. Due to the history of the United States of America, affirmative action has come a long way, however it still has to go even further b... Free Essays on Affirmative Action Introduction Affirmative action works. There are thousands of examples of situations where people of color, white women, and working class women and men of all races who were previously excluded from jobs or educational opportunities, or were denied opportunities once admitted, have gained access through affirmative action. When these policies received executive branch and judicial support, vast numbers of people of color, white women and men have gained access they would not otherwise have had. These gains have led to very real changes. Affirmative action programs have not eliminated racism, nor have they always been implemented without problems. However, there would be no struggle to roll back the gains achieved if affirmative action policies were ineffective. Affirmative Action in Businesses Affirmative action has had its greatest amount of success in city, state, and government jobs. Since the 1960s the area of law enforcement witnessed the greatest increase in minority applicants, and in jobs offered to minorities. This should be viewed as an extremely positive thing, because prior to affirmative action these jobs were almost completely closed off to minorities and woman. The influx has been greatest in the area of government, state and city, because this type of work is easier for affirmative action to watch over and regulate. Affirmative action has experienced considerably less success in integration in big business. This is doing to the fact that big business has been more resistant to affirmative action and harder to regulate. Affirmative action addresses preferential hiring programs. Many times people of color have been excluded from hiring pools, overtly discriminated against, unfairly eliminated because of inappropriate qualification standards, or have been rendered unqualified because of discrimination in education and housing. Court decisions on affirmative action have rendered illegal those qualifications that are no...

Shakespeare's Hamlet- Consider the significance and importance of the Essay

Shakespeare's Hamlet- Consider the significance and importance of the ghost to the play, to the other characters and to the audience, both contemporary and eliz - Essay Example The ghost may be the main reason for Hamlet’s continuing popularity. It is â€Å"the linchpin of Hamlet; remove it and the play falls to pieces† (Wilson 1935). The ghost drives the plot of the play, is a full-blown character in its own right, and it profoundly affects all the characters that encountered it. In addition to this, the ghost attracted the interest of the Elizabethan audience, for which the drama was first performed, and it continues to be the object of many current works of literary criticism. The ghost of Hamlet’s father appears in four scenes of the play. In two of these scenes (Act 1, Scene 1 and Act 1, Scene 4), the ghost appears to people other than Hamlet, specifically Horatio and Marcellus. Barnardo sees the ghost in the first scene, but he is not present in the fourth, or anywhere else in the play. In the other two scenes (Act 1, Scene 5 and Act 3, Scene 4), the ghost appears to Hamlet alone. It is interesting that only Hamlet can see the ghost in the fourth scene of Act 3, even though he is with his mother, in her bedchamber, at the time. Could it be that his contrived â€Å"antic disposition† (Jenkins 1982), the purpose of which was to help him discern the truth of what happened to his father, really did lead to an actual madness? Was he merely imagining the ghost’s presence, or was the ghost really there? It is true enough that at the beginning of the play, the ghost has every appearance of being real. Its presence is even enough to convince Horatio, the scholarly sceptic, that spirits exist. In his own words, â€Å"Before my God, I might not this believe without the sensible and true avouch of mine own eyes† (Jenkins 1982). Not only does Horatio believe that it really is a ghost he sees, but he is also convinced that the ghost is the spectre of Hamlet’s late father. He believes this because of the ghost’s costume. â€Å"Such was the very armour he had on when he

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames Essay

Cybercrime, privacy and security concepts in the film WarGames - Essay Example Therefore, he takes his time to engage in cybercrimes and hacking of computer security codes in search of games to play (Bischoff, 1983). His hacking practice eventually leads him to a US supercomputer that is highly secured, due to the sensitive nature of the information it contains. This information is potentially dangerous and capable of causing world destruction through sparking World War III, which is a war of nuclear weapons. The super computer was programmed to launch missile attacks automatically, on the event of being ordered to start such an action, after the Air Force Strategic missile operatives were unwilling to turn on the button which could spark off the nuclear missile attacks (Franklin, 2008). Considering that none of the operatives wanted to be the cause of the devastating attack that could wipe out the whole world, a super computer had to be programmed, which could easily be turned into action by a simple computer operation procedure. Therefore, initially perceivin g the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) program as another exciting game, David Lightman, (Broderick) embarks on a mission to unearth the backdoor password that can be used to hack into, and access the Supercomputer details (Bischoff, 1983). Being a computer whizz, and with the help of his friend who were also hackers, Broderick eventually manages to unearth the backdoor password and starts operating the computer program by running the nuclear war simulation, through his own computer (Franklin, 2008). Considering the threat posed by this computer operation, the simulation scares the whole security and military departments, since it almost causes a full blown World War III, which is a devastating war of nuclear missiles. This cyber crime and security intrusion into the US military department security systems is a form of black hat hacking. This is because, black hat hacking entails the process of violating and cracking computer security systems with malicious intentions of benefitin g oneself (Hanser, 2011). Broderick had been hacking other computer security systems previously, to gain access to computer games that he could play. In the process of searching for more interesting computer games, other than chess, poker and checkers which he had previously accessed, he embarked on searching for new games, which led him to the supercomputer, which seemed to possess a different nature of games than he had been used to (Bischoff, 1983). This practice of hacking into other computer security systems and accessing games to play, instead of purchasing such games from the manufacturers or retailers, is a selfish crime. Additionally, hacking into other security systems without the knowledge of the owners of the systems, regardless of the intentions an individual has, is malicious and damaging (Johnston, 2011). Therefore, this act of Broderick hacking and accessing the security systems of the US supercomputer and his continuation to simulate the war programs is a form of bl ack hat hacking, since it involves the violation of computer security and privacy laws (Subramanian, 2008). The fictional narration of this film falls under the following three categories: Cybercrime Cybercrime refers to any act of an individual to use computers or computer networks for crime. This can occur in the form of using the computer to commit crime or targeting other computers with some criminal intentions (Hanser, 2011).The film WarGames (1983), depicts both forms of crime. There is a crime of using computers to commit a violation of the acceptable computer privacy and security guidelines. Here, Broderick, who is a bright but highly unmotivated teenager, engages in the act of using

Sensation and Perception Essay Example for Free

Sensation and Perception Essay Memory – knowing the past Thinking – knowing the future Cognition = the influence of perception, memory, and thinking Aug 29th, 2012 Basic principles of perception 1.Stimulation -Many kinds of energy implode on the body Electromagnetic energy (light) Mechanical energy -Pressure waves in air Pressure on skin Body movement Thermal energy (heat) Chemical energy (molecules in air, food) -Energy changes detected by receptors 2.Information a.Our sensory systems evolved to pick up information (not just stimulation) b.In general, information is provided by change c.Change can occur over time, or over space 3.Transduction -The process of converting stimulus energy into nerve impulses -Generally, stimulus energy causes a change in a receptor cell’s electrical potential (voltage) -If change is enough, it will trigger â€Å"nerve impulses† 4.Transmission -For perception to occur, sensory organs (containing receptors) must transmit nerve impulses to the brain -Perception occurs in the brain, not in the sensory organs 5.Mediation -Our perception of the world is mediated by various processes between transduction and our conscious awareness -These processes alter the neural information -What we consciously perceive may not be an accurate reflection of the original stimulation 6.Interpretation -Sensory information is ambiguous (there are ALWAYS multiple possible interpretations) 7.Construction -Sensory information is â€Å"sketchy†; the brain â€Å"fills in† missing information 8.Modularity -Your brain consists of independent â€Å"modules†. These modules may construct different, possibly conflicting, interpretations of the world. -You â€Å"see† one interpretation of an ambiguous **Missed Class†¦locked out of room** Sept 5th, 2012 Signal Detection Theory (Slides and appendix in book) Sept 7th, 2012 The Eye Light -Light is electromagnetic radiation varying in: Wavelength Intensity Radiance – intensity of light as it leaves the light source Illuminance – intensity of light as it is absorbed by object (white objects higher in illuminance than black objects) Luminance – amount of light that is reflected by object 100 illuminance omits 40 luminants; albedo = 40/100= .4 Retinal Illuminance – light that reaches your eye Brightness – perception of radiance, illuminance, or luminance Lightness – perception of the reflectance (albedo) Brightness is a perception of the light; lightness is a perception of the object surface Myopia = nearsighted = focal length is shorter than distance  to retina Hyperopia = farsighted = focal length is longer than distance to retina Presbyopia = aged vision, lens can’t adjust because of age (reading glasses for old people) Sept 10th, 2012 The Retina Fovea is the part of eye where visual acuity is highest Vision involves â€Å"rods† and â€Å"cones† in the back of the retina Photopic = conesScotopic = rods Purkinje Shift – as illumination decreases, red objects lose brightness more quickly than green, blue; red goes to black whereas green and blue pass through shades of gray **2 Missed Classes – Canada** Sept 19th, 2012 Gestalt Psychology -Brief history of behaviorism, psychoanalysis -The laws of perceptual grouping October 1st, 2012 Distance Perception Why is depth perception important? -Effective action (e.g. grasping) requires correct perception of distance -Correct perception of size and shape requires correct perception of distance Size and shape consistency Just as an infinite number of object sizes and shapes can cast the exact same image on the retina, a single object can cast an infinite number of sizes and shapes of retinal image Size Consistency = we (usually) perceive the size of an object as constant, despite changes in the size of the retinal image Shape Consistency = we (usually) perceive The farther away something is from your eye, the less the retinal disparity will be Stereopsis -Retinal Disparity = the mismatch between the left and right eyes’ retinal  images -Stereopsis = the ability to use retinal disparity as a depth cue Motion parallax Interposition = idea that an object in front of another object will block that object out Aerial Perspective -Refers to effects of the air on distance perception Clarity = as light passes through more air, light is scattered and so the image gets blurrier oBlueness = as light passes through more air, long wavelengths are filtered out and so the image gets bluer Chapter 2 Transduction and receptive fields Signal Detection Theory -Always noise (random activity) Eye Movements EXAM 2 MATERIAL OCT 12TH 2012 Perceptual Ambiguity (Lecture 9) States of form perception 1.Feature extraction 2.Perceptual grouping 3.Figure-ground differentiation 4.Figural resolution 5.Pattern recognition Ambiguity – multiple possible interpretations – can occur at any level (2-5) Figure-ground differentiation -Some perceptual groups are treated as â€Å"figure†, other groups are treated as â€Å"ground† Yates Thesis -Yates. J (1985). The content of awareness is a model of the world. Psychological Review, 92, 249-284 -Visual images are inherently ambiguous (allow multiple interpretations) -Coherent action requires selection of one interpretation -We tend to represent in awareness the simplest interpretation of the most sensory data Figural Resolution -After â€Å"figure† has been differentiated from â€Å"ground†, it may still be  necessary to resolve the structure of the figure -Figural resolution influenced by†¦ Bottom up vs. top-down October 15th, 2012 Lecture 10 Pattern Recognition Pattern Recognition – knowing what figures in the visual field ARE. Requires interaction of sensation/perception with memory (pre-existing knowledge) Template Matching -Match of whole pattern to a stored pattern -Problems onfinite variation of problems No access to feature differences Can’t recognize†¦ Feature Analysis -Patterns are recognized by detection of particular â€Å"critical features† -Accounts for recognition of partially obscured patterns -Predicts that objects with more features in common are more confusable Problem: Not ALWAYS true Some confusions are predicted better by the whole shape New â€Å"configural properties† (or emergent features) arise from the combination of features †¢Impossible to define complex objects entirely by simple features Template Matching vs. Feature Analysis -Template matching emphasizes the whole, fails to account for importance of parts -Feature analysis emphasizes the parts, fails to account for importance of the whole -Possible solutions: Maybe more than one brain mechanism for pattern recognition oA â€Å"hybrid† approach that encompasses both the whole AND the parts Structural Theories of Pattern Recognition Objects are recognized by their â€Å"structural description†, how their parts are organized into the whole †¢DO NOT CONFUSE WITH STRUCTURALISM! (Structuralism assumed that the â€Å"structure† can be decomposed into elemental parts† Yates Thesis -We tend to represent in awareness the simplest explanation for the most sensory data Oct 17th, 2012 Three kinds of brain damage 1.Agnosia = â€Å"loss of knowledge† a.Prosopagnosia – loss of ability to recognize faces b.Object agnosia – loss of ability to recognize objects c.Word agnosia (alexia) – loss of ability to recognize written words 2.Object agnosia never occurs without either word agnosia or prosopagnosia Oct 24th, 2012 Light Light is electromagnetic radiation varying in: Wavelength Intensity Amplitude, if considered as a wave Number of photons, if considered as particulate Color is all in your head! â€Å"Hue† does not exist in the physical world – wavelength is a simple quantitative continuum, like intensity, or frequency of sound, or length, or weight †¢You brain CONSTRUCTS categories of perception, resulting in qualitative differences in the perception Dimensions of Color -HUE the perception of wavelength, or (in a mixture) dominant wavelength -SATURATION – the perception of purity (proportion of the dominant wavelength in a mixture) -BRIGHTNESS – perceived intensity Subtractive Color Mixture -A paint pigment absorbs certain wavelengths, reflects others -When two pigments are mixed, each subtracts out certain wavelengths -You see what’s left over Exam 2: Perceptual ambiguity Pattern recognition Color vision Sound Music The Ear Ear to Brain Visual Illusions Inner ear- cochlea, organ of corti, Moon Illusion – moon looks larger when at horizon than when it is over-head Perceived size = retinal image size x perceived distance EXAM 3 MATERIAL(FINAL EXAM)NOV 9TH, 2012 Final Exam Friday Dec 14th, 3:30-5:30 66 questions, appx. 2/3 material last 3rd of class Study 1st 2 exams for remaining 1/3 Don’t need to know every single experiment, just the general results Medial and lateral superior olives -Loudness in 2 ears and time of arrival in 2 ears

Analysis of Coca Cola Company Essay -- Coca Cola Case Study, SWOT Anal

1. Introduction For over 126 years, Coca Cola has been operated as world’s largest beverage company together with its subsidiary brands. The United States, as Coca Cola’s international headquarters, has one of the largest populations where Coke is the main beverage for most of the consumers. The purpose of this essay is to determine whether the environmental changes in the United States are beneficial for Coca Cola Company to operate more markets in the future. This essay will explore both the Coca Cola Company as well as the market in the United States. The tools used for this examination include a SWOT analysis of Coca Cola Company and PEST analysis of United States. In addition, we will examine Porter’s 5 forces of the beverage industry in the United States and we will conclude with a list of recommendations. 2. Company Background The Coca Cola Company has served various kinds of drinks from 1866 until present. As expected, Coca Cola Company made $48 billion net operating revenues, $9 billion net income, and $162 billion market capitalization in 2012. These huge amounts of earnings in 2012 proving that the Coca Cola Company makes big profit successfully within a year. Besides profit that is achieved, Coca Cola Company also ranked by Interbrand as World’s Most Valuable Brand with $77.8 billion in 2012. Moreover, the company supports over 280 physical activities or nutrition education programs in more than 115 countries around the world (The Coca Cola Company, 2013). 3. Country Background United States (US) is the world’s third largest country by size (9,826,675 square per kilometer) and by population with 50 states and the District of Columbia (316,438,601 people). The main urban areas by population are Washington, DC... ...a-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated. Wikivest. Retrieved on 28 January 2014 from http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Coca-Cola_Bottling_Co._Consolidated_%28COKE%29 SWOT analysis of Coca Cola. (2013). Strategic Management Insight. Retrieved on 20 January 2014 from http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/coca-cola-swot-analysis.html The Coca-Cola Company. (2013). Retrieved on 19 January 2014 from http://www.coca-colacompany.com Panda, T. K. (2007). Marketing Management: Text and cases (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Anurag Jain. Pestal Analysis of Coke. (2009). Scribd. Retrieved on 31 January 2014 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/18975870/Pestal-Analysis-of-Coke Wahlen, J., Baginski, S., & Bradshaw, B. (2010). Financial reporting, financial statement analysis and valuation: A strategic perspective (7th ed.). United States of America: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson: An Analysis Essay

Throughout chapters one and two of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, the narrator of the novel, Ruth, compares and contrasts the parenting styles of both her grandmother and great aunts towards her sister Lucille and herself. The girls have been between two different parenting styles, one that was caring but cautious, and another that was well-meaning but indifferent. The styles of parenting presented to Lucille and Ruth by the women in their life play an important role in how the girls will learn receive love and care in their lives. They have learned so far that love is fragile and true relationships cannot be forged in a day-dream manner. Slyvia’s parenting style is the best example of the day-dream concept. After losing her husband in a train accident, Slyvia (the girl’s grandmother), tries her best to nurture her granddaughters in an orderly but distant manner. The years that she raised her girls in this fashion was effective in the present, but the result of her surface level interactions with her daughters left her estranged from them in her old age. Ruth and Lucille’s grandmother sees her opportunity to take care of them after their mother’s death as a second chance to fix her past mistakes as a mother. Their grandmother believes that she never really fostered a strong bond with her daughters, she was able to learn her daughters’ routines in the house and have them do their chores in an orderly manner, but she never got to know who they were as people, and most importantly â€Å"She had never taught them to be kind to her. † (Pg. 19) This quote emphasizes the idea that Slyvia never taught her daughters how to truly love. I think it is the lack of intimacy she shared with her daughters that she regrets the most. Because Slyvia regrets her inability to know her daughters as people, she now wishes to distance herself from her daughter’s inner thoughts, most likely from the fear of shock. â€Å"Perhaps she did not wish to learn by indirection what Helen did not wish to tell her. † (Pg. 20) Lucille and Ruth’s mother was proven to be unstable, and her suicide shed light on the internal suffering she must have been enduring before she killed herself. Slyvia, I feel, does not want to ponder the idea that her daughter was severely unhappy, especially given the fact that she felt her time spent with her daughters in their youth was full of serenity. Ruth realizes that their grandmother is over-consciousness but she believes it’s due to her heightened sense of perception. â€Å"I think that she was aware of too many things, having no principle for selecting the more from the less important, and that her awareness could never be diminished, since it was among the things she had thought of as familiar that this disaster had taken shape. † (Pg. 5) Ruth and Lucille’s grandmother has always been cautious in her parenting style because she is afraid to lose her charges like she lost her husband, fleetingly and without notice. And, it is this nervous cautiousness that has harbored a sense of quiet awareness and self-duty both her daughters and granddaughters. The self-duty becomes even more necessary for the girls to carry-on with their lives after their grandmother passes. They are handed off to their great aunts Lilly and Nona after Sylvia’s death, and their awkward pretentious sense of nurturing leaves an even bigger sense of distance in mother figures for the girls. Lilly and Nona had no genuine compassion for their god nieces; they simply were taking care of the girls because it was the dutiful thing to do. An example of their stiff compassion can be shown on page 29 of the novel â€Å"They were, though maiden ladies, of a buxomly maternal appearance that contrasted oddly with their brusque, unpracticed pats and kisses. † The quote is describing the two aunts as motherly appearing figures, but in contrast they were actually very far from being as warm and affectionate as true mothers are capable of being. Ruth’s conclusion after staying a few days with her aunts of their temperaments can be seen in the following quote. â€Å"Lily and Nona, I think, enjoyed nothing except habit and familiarity, the precise replication of one day in the next. † (Pg. 32) The two aunt’s like routine and they dislike anything disrupting that routine especially children. They have no patience or energy for doing new things, and they are not willing to adapt to Ruth and Lilly’s home town wholly, they often talk about moving the girls back to their own home. The contrast in the grandmother’s and the great aunt’s parenting style is self-explanatory. The grandmother’s affection was overzealous while the great aunts’ display is hollow. The girls are affected in a way that paints their image of love, their grandmother taught them to be intuitive of other’s feelings, while their great aunts’ have shown them that people are not always selfless. The most important thing the girls have yet to experience in a parent/child relationship however is a true bond of love and full awareness of who the other is as a person. The girls so far have been taught to feign emotions that are proper, and to show surface level respect for their mother figures.