Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 12

Book Review - Essay Example Neil Shubin employs comprehensive, but conversational style to introduce the story of Big Bang carefully navigating its evolutionary path (Shubin 28). Despite the fact the many people are familiar with the Big Bang theory; the contemporary human being still has no clear understanding of the theory and would be very eager to listen to it whenever any chance comes by. The modern man has the interest of hearing the story of the big bang until some sense sinks in about intimate links that they share with other species. However, critically dissecting Shubin’s book, he fails to utilize the valuable opportunity to make these connections that are of fundamental interest to the modern man. Commencing with fossils, he tilts his vision skyward telling the audience how the human body reflects the 13.7 billion-year history of the universe. Beginning right at the minutest level, the molecular composition of humans, Shubin seeks to demonstrate why people look the way they do, tracking the creation of the universe via the development of various components of the human body such as genes, organs as well as cells. Shubin’s The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People is basically a hilarious presentation of the human body together with his dwelling-the earth, were shaped by the universe’s 13.7 billion year evolution cosmic and chemical forces (Shubin 190). Besides its emergence as one of the best fits for individuals with undying interest in science, The Universe Within incorporates landmark and late-breaking studies. Shubin’s argument is that all astronomers are paleontologists. According to him, a distant star light is an indication of conditions numerous years ago. Staring at stars was a means of exploring our own origins. Rocks and bodies are time shells that convey the authority of the enormous events that fashioned them. The

Greenland Glaciers and Global Warming Essay Example for Free

Greenland Glaciers and Global Warming Essay Global warming, which is the increasing of the average temperature within the air near the Earths surface and the oceans, has caused the glaciers in Greenland to melt, causing the water levels to rise and the climate to change. Global warming is an unfortunate event that is taking place in numerous parts of the world, enabling bizarre and, in some instances, unnatural changes in the weather. Global warming has become most noticeable in the polar regions, amongst the polar icecaps, or in the more iced-over regions of the world, such as in Greenland and the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, Greenland has become the most common area for quickly-dissolving glaciers, making it the most notorious for climate and weather changes throughout the world. It is difficult to connect weather changes to global warming, though it has been proven that some more pronounced changes are likely to come about, and in fact, already are. One of the most obvious changes involves an increase in precipitation, as well as changes in the average patterns of precipitation, which can lead to flooding and, in turn, drought. The sea levels worldwide will rise, and are rising, as the glaciers melt, which will cause Arctic shrinkage the shrinking of the Arctic region due to climate change. In time, this shrinkage could possibly be seen in other areas, including the Atlantic Ocean. Some other irreversible affects include the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and tsunamis. With the continuously melting Greenland glaciers, these risks are more likely to happen and these changes will only become more obvious and the melting becomes more rapid. Jason Box, a professor at Ohio State and a global warming researcher, has noticed a rapid and unsettling change in the amount of glaciers in Greenland. In an interview in regards to the melting glaciers and global warming, Box stated that we fly over the worlds fastest-deteriorating glacier; and in 2003, we didnt even recognize the place. It had doubled its speed (of shearing off ice) and lost about 6 miles of width (Feran). Box goes on to state the worries that he feels about global warming, as well as pointing out a slight change to weather happenings around the world for instance, a snowstorm in an area that, despite being cold, has never seen such harsh weather. Box feels that this weather event can be linked simultaneously with global warming from the Greenland region. In further studies done by scientists and other global warming researchers, it has been discovered that a huge portion of the Atlantic region is warming just as much and just as fast as the rest of the world (Wilkinson). The scientists have researched and discovered that the temperature has risen 2. 5 degrees in the past half century and that there has been a 140 percent ice loss within a decade. This has caused ice shelves to break up or disappear, exposing the glaciers behind them and speeding up the discharge of ice and fresh water into the ocean (Wilkinson). In the article, Dr. Ian Allison of the Australian Antarctic Division says that the activities taking place in the Atlantic are related to the rising of the air and water temperatures. Allison also stated that the melting of the Greenland glaciers are of the biggest concern, saying that its changes are even more noticeable than those of other regions. In Greenland, the rate of ice loss is getting greater over the last 10 years and the surface ice melt is definitely related to the warming. Allison, whos main focus is that of the Arctic and Atlantic regions, has been keeping close note on the melting glaciers, as well as trying to compare them to changes that have been taking place with weather. The more ice that the Atlantic loses, as well as the rest of the regions under the pressure of global warming, the more heat that comes back to it. When there is no ice to reflect the heat of the sun, the heat permeates through the water, causing the water to warm up even more. The heat is then spread to the remaining glaciers, which causes an almost domino effect, repeating itself until all that can happen is for the sea levels to rise. According to Alan Boyle, a science editor, Greenlands glaciers have been dumping ice into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate thats doubled over the past five years, as researchers have reported. Yet there are many scientists and researchers that are not as worried about the melting of the glaciers as others are; they claim that Greenland has gone through warming before, but the heat had been followed by cooling temperatures. Many of the researchers feel that the same thing is happening again. These scientists are not disregarding the possibility of global warming, but are wary to rule in Greenland as a current problem. Other scientists are against this, saying that Greenland has been warming up 2. 2 times faster than it has in previous years. Greenland is home to one of the worlds largest, and one of the most quickly dissolving, glacier, the Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier. The aforementioned glacier has gone from being completely stationary as of 1996 to flowing at a rate of fourteen kilometers a year by 2005; it is because of this that it is considered one of the fastest moving glaciers on the planet. It is also because of this, as well as Greenlands other quickly-melting glaciers, that will play a huge, unwanted role in the rising of the worlds sea levels (Biello). Greenland has become one of the biggest concerns of scientists, due to the alarming rate that its glaciers are melting, as well as to the obvious increase in the temperature. Since Greenland is home to some of the most quickly melting glaciers, as well as to the worlds largest, it will be one of the main purveyors of climate and weather changes throughout the world. Bizarre changes in weather have already been noticed, with many scientists blaming global warming on these changes. Regardless of the fact that Greenland is in a region of its own, what is taking place with its glaciers can affect the entire world; the weather will be the most pronouncedly changed. Horrific weather events will last longer than what is considered average, and they can take place in areas that would not normally see such conditions. Works Cited Biello, David. (17 Feb 2006. ) Greenlands glaciers: Melting and on the move. Scientific American. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. sciam. com/article. cfm? id=greenlands-glaciers-melti. Boyle, Alan. (16 Feb 2006. ) Greenlands glaciers losing ice at faster rate. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. msnbc. msn. com/id/11385475/. Feran, Tim. (24 March 2009. ) Glacier warning us, OSU researcher says. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. columbusdispatch. com/live/content/life/stories/2009/03/24/2_NOVA_ICE. ART_ART_03-24-09_D5_9ADB1F1. html? sid=101. Wilkinson, Marian. (23 March 2009. ) The ice caps are in trouble. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http://www. smh. com. au/environment/earth-hour/theice-caps-areintrouble-200

Argumentative Essay on universities lecturing systems

Argumentative Essay on universities lecturing systems Recently, the use of lecturing system in universities is being questioned for its efficiency. The dilemma is that should lecturing system in University be replaced with small classes. Small classes, as described by David Daniels in his article College Lectures: Is Anybody Listening? emphasis on having lesser students in a class. This encourages more interaction between lecturer and students, aiming to build active learners and the enable lectures to be sure of the progress of their students. He also stated that students now are lacking of listening skills meaning that lecturing system is no longer effective for them, showing the need of change to small classes system in educating students. Lecturing system on the other hand is a traditional way of teaching used in tertiary studies. The number of students handled by a lecturer is much more compared to small class system. We should continue using lecturing system as it show more advantages than using small classes in the sense of being more cost effective, building more independent students, decreasing absentees and by being fair in grading students. First, usually the numbers of students in universities are massive which small class system will not be able to fit in all students. However, if lecturing system is replaced by small classes in universities, it would be very costly seeing that more classes need to be opened for lessons to be conducted. An excellent example is more manpower is needed to operate. According to the former president of United States, he states that an average of 1.7 billion dollars is needed to train more lecturers to conduct small classes nationwide yearly (Viadero, 1998). Many universities are lacking of lecturers and using small classes will need the university to hire more lecturers to facilitate lectures. This means universities will have to fork out a lot of money to overcome the shortage of manpower. Electric bills will shoot up too as teaching aid such as projectors and computers as well as air conditioning to keep the temperature in room favorable temperature will need large electric consumption. All these factors will contribute in a larger operating cost. What do universities do to cover the cost? Increasing fees charged on students! This will cause education to be costly and unaffordable for those families earning lower income. The consequence of this issue will be chances of financially poor students getting higher education to be slimmer. Worse though, if the management chooses to hire non experienced part time lecturers to reduce the operating cost, small class will as well be meaningless. Lecturing system will save on this problem as this system enables a lecturer to handle more students. This will also solve the problem for universities where spaces are very limited as a hall will be enough to fit in all students for one lecture. Thus, continue using lecturing system not only provide a more affordable education for students but enable the campus to generate more profit as operating cost is reduced and student intakes are increased due to the better organizing of spa ce. Next, lecturing system will build more independent students. David Daniel claims that small classes enable lecturers know the progress of their students and help them improve. Yet, this situation causes students to rely on lecturers. What are they, the students without their lecturers? Will they be able to survive in the harsh life in work when they are graduated their studies? This is especially an issue among Malaysian students. They tend to blame lecturers for low grades. However, is the problem with the student or education system itself? Malaysian students are introduced to at least 11 years of small classes system before proceeding to pursue their higher education. If this issue occurs, this simply means there is a critical error in the system. Students are used to be spoon-fed with whatever they need to know and not by discovering with their own effort. Demolishing small class students used to have for their higher education will be painful for them but students must start to realize that they are actually responsible for their own studies. The duty of lecturers is just to guide them in tertiary level education. Only then students whom are used to be spoon-fed will be forced to look for additional information from various sources for their subjects. Teaching a man to fish is better than giving him a fish every day. Indirectly, it might shape more knowledgeable student as they will be exposed to irrelevant facts which seems to be not useful in the progress of looking what they want. Who knows if the information is applicable someday? Hence, lecturing system will be able to shape more quality students whom can independently improve themselves in their field of study. Furthermore, lecturing system is useful is decreasing absentees in class. David Daniels proposes that question and answer section in small classes can help to shape more active students. However, is this method applicable to all students? Intrinsic students who do not like to voice out will not feel comfortable being asked and pressured by questions from lecturers. However, these groups of students are being paid most attention by lecturers as they are too quiet and these lead more questions to be directed to them. The discomfort might cause them feel afraid to enter class. In lecturing system quiet students will instead get the sense of security because the large group of student does not allow lecturers to question students individually but as a group instead. The same situation applies to weaker students. Lecturers tend to emphasis their questions on them in small classes. It is true that lecturers are trying to help them as what David Daniels says to improve their analytical skil l, but students at this age are egocentric. How would they feel if they do not know how to answer a question in front of their classmates? They might feel ashamed for the rest of the period and their emotion will keep them away from concentrating. Worse still, they might fear being asked questions again. Involved students might be stressed out and try to escape from the threatening situation. Furthermore, students studying in universities are basically at their teenage age. This is the stage where they are most attracted by the opposite sex psychologically. In lecturing system, a larger crowd provides more targets for them to prey on. Such situation might motivate them to attend class more frequently as they might want to keep a good image in front of someone they are attracted to. Besides, they might work hard in order to get good results to be proud of. Eventually, lecturing system not only decrease absentees rate but lead students to a higher achievement as well. Moving on, lecturers teaching in lecture system are fairer in grading coursework compared to lecturers from small classes. According to David Daniels, small classes allow professors to discover who knows what before final examinations. However, what is the purpose of doing so? Allowing the lecturers to set questions according to what their students know? This will not help the students but give them an illusion of the marks they get. They thought they know a lot from the high grade they achieve but the fact is just the opposite. Since students result reflect on lecturers reputation, we cannot deny that there will be some irresponsible lecturers that would use this way to help students get better grades so they might be proud too. A win-win situation? In lecturing system, lecturers might not know the progress of their students but this enable them to set exam questions based on what students should know and not what students already know. If students did badly in their examination, it serves them right for not studying hard enough. They will eventually learn from their mistake and do better next time. It will always be better than pampering the students by helping them through examinations. Another good example will be the rate of grade inflation. Based on the statistic provided by The New York Times, the rate of grade inflation in private colleges using small class system is 38 percent higher than public colleges using lecturing system. Corresponding to this, we can say that the good relationship built between lecturers and students in small class system affect the judging ability of lecturers to grade fairly. Human are by nature emotional. Philosophically, emotion overrides the rationality part of a human. Thus, very often lecturers gave marks higher than what the student deserves especially for those who are closer and have a better relationship with the lecturer. On the other hand, lecturing system can avoid this situation from happening. The large crowd a l ecturer is handling will build a barrier between the student and lecturer. Saving on the relationship part, lecturer will be able to judge students coursework fairly. The larger number of coursework submitted also enable lecturers to compare the work and give marks accordingly. Therefore, those who really put in effort to do their assignment will deserve a better grade and be motivated to keep on with their hard work. Finally, lecturing system should not be replaced by small class system in universities as it obviously show more advantage by being more cost effective and beneficial to students. However, there are improvements that can be done for the system to be more effective. Universities should make sure hired lecturers are up to certain requirements and are able to facilitate the lesson effectively. While for the problem of student lacking listening skills and concentration as proposed by David Daniels, actions such as giving short breaks at certain time and projecting some short clips featuring jokes from subject of students interest can be taken. This can help to regain students concentration. Based on the reasons proposed, lecturing system is still the better way to be used in universities compared to small class system.

Michael Ondaatjes The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Essay -- Colle

The Perception of Violence in Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train robberies. The entire legend of Billy the Kid has been built around his criminal activities and notorious reputation; indeed, the more popular this myth becomes, the more people he is accused of having murdered. If anything, it was a cultural fascination with violence that "created" the legend, perhaps even more so than anything the "real" Bi lly ever did. Michael Ondaatje comments on this phenomenon and actually offers an alternative vision of who Billy the Kid was; perhaps he was not just a blood-thirsty killer but a man who, due to circumstance and human nature, was continually being pushed over the edge. Ondaatje is more concerned with the motivations behind the acts of violence than the acts of violence themselves: "A motive? some reasoning we can give to explain all this violence. Was there a source for all this? yup -" (54). If they shock, it is to shock the readers out of complicity and encourage them to think about the nature of violence and their own capacity for it. Though it is more ... ...nstitutes a "fit" subject for poetry. If love is deemed suitable, should the expression of violence be any less so? Both are part of the human experience; indeed, it is hard to imagine one existing without the other. As Billy says, "I am here with the range for everything" (72), a range which includes "hands that need the rub of metal/ those senses that/ that want to crash things with an axe" (72). Michael Ondaatje gives us this range and then leaves it up to us to define our own "edge"; what are we capable of?.... What is our potential? Works Cited and Consulted Mundwiler, Leslie. Michael Ondaatje: Word, Image, Imagination. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1984. Ondaatje, Michael. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Toronto: Anansi, 1970. Solecki, Sam. "Introduction." Spider Blues: Essays on Michael Ondaatje. Ed. Sam Solecki. Montrà ©al: Và ©hicule, 1985. 7-11.

Magazine Article on E-books

Cassettes-sidelined! DVDs –gathering dust! VHS-retired! Technology mutates and evolves leaving redundant platforms in its place. Much of the time technology is beneficial and change is good, however occasionally change is not so auspicious and we do not realise what we have lost until it’s truly gone. The book. The Bible, The odyssey and The Gruffalo (and that’s not even mentioning the poets).All books which have stood the test of time and are still being read as much today as the moment they were published; with these texts societies were bound and broken; lessons were learned and empires fell; all to the humble book. However the brazen veteran; the book; is endanger of being stripped of its crown by the young and brash E-book. In the words of Northrop Frye books are the only piece of technology which has not become socially defunct–Yet! They have stood firm whilst DVDs, tapes and vinyl like empires, rose and fell.However the frog like e-book with its dul l boring features and its fabulously annoying Wifi connectivity could be the bane of books. E-books are vastly growing in nature, like a weed; multiplying on every train, beach and plane you see them they are growing in number and his suggested by 2016 there will be nearly 10 billion of these dastardly devices roaming the world. Even the mere existence of E-books has created a whole new type of piracy where people are ripping off hard working authors and publishers by getting counterfeit e-books online for free.This illegal practice was consummated by the emotionless e-book. These characterless devices rob the tangible nature you get from books. The feel of the paper the smell of the ink all contribute to the sensation we get from reading. E-books rob this from us and sadly soon children will not understand this interaction as they will be more familiar with the blistering headache the monotonous e-book provides.

Three kings quarry essays

Three kings quarry essays The extraction of scoria comprises machine excavation from the cliff face or floor of the quarry where scoria is also extracted and processed on that site. Excavated material is transported on the trucks to the processing plant located on the centre of the site. The raw product is produced into various grades of useful material through several stages of crushing, screening and handling by conveyors. The finished products are transported to the stockpiles on the site awaiting sale and transport off the site. Layers of irregular intrusions are hard basalt stone which are associated with scoria that requires techniques other than excavations to break down the hardness. To do this, techniques used include a variety of drilling, blasting with explosives and rock breaking which have all been used previously in the past. Once these have been reduced into manageable sizes, it is then processed in a way scoria is also processed, or sold in large pieces for incorporation projects such as coastal protection works. Output from the quarry varies according to demand. It follows the cyclic nature of the construction industry and the scale of projects involved. The weight to strength surface area vesicular structure and colour of the scorias varied unique properties, sees it being used, for domestic drainage, landscaping jobs, infrastructure projects and many more. The quarry output grew steadily with the development of the surrounding community and reached its present capacity in the 1950s. Mines returns and company records show that annual production has exceeded 200,000 tones, but that demand averages 160,000 to 180,000 tonnes per year. ...