The Significance of Fate and destiny in Two Novels essays

The Significance of Fate and destiny in Two Novels essays Topic: The significance of fate and destiny in the outcome of the main characters in Oedipus and Fathers and Sons Fate and destiny possess enormous importance in the outcome and change of the traits of all characters in a novel, especially the main characters. Sophocles and Ivan Turgenev novels both stress a lot on the significance of fate and destiny, increasing the degree of intrigue in the plot. In Sophocles Oedipus Rex and Turgenevs Fathers and Sons the theme of fate and destiny is very evident and contributes a great deal to the outcome of the main characters. In Sophocles Oedipus Rex, the main character, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, an excessively proud man, who continuously tries to escape the destiny and the fate that has been set for him. Throughout the novel there is constant foreshadowing about what would become of him and what events should occur throughout his life. Teirasias, a blind prophet, and Delphi, a fortune teller, both tell him that he will kill his father and marry his mother. In both cases Oedipus refuses to accept is in denial of his true life. Another event that shows foreshadowing of Oedipus life is when a drunken man calls him a bastard. There are also elements of irony in this play. When there is a plague on Thebes, Oedipus insisted on finding out what caused this. He later finds out that the murderer of king Laius, his real father, must be found in order to end this plague. This leads Oedipus to pledge to find this murderer and send that person to exile, even if it is someone close to him. This incident portrays the irony used by Sophocles; for the murderer is in reality Oedipus himself. Another use of irony is when Oedipus calls Teirasias a blind fool. Oedipus is metaphorically blind, even though his eyes can see. Even after all the prophecies and incidents, he refuses to acknowledge the fact that he is the murderer of his father Laius, and the husband of his own mothe...

90 Idioms About Tools

90 Idioms About Tools 90 Idioms About Tools 90 Idioms About Tools By Mark Nichol Hand tools have inspired a tool box full of metaphorical words and expressions. Here’s a list of many of those handy idioms. 1–5. angry/mad enough to chew nails/spit nails or ready to eat nails: enraged 6–7. another/final nail in the coffin: one of/the last of multiple factors that contribute to a failure 8–9. ax: a guitar or other instrument a musician might play while making a chopping motion (noun), or fire, reduce, remove, or terminate (verb) 10. ax to grind: grudge or motive 11. bed of nails: difficult or unpleasant situation 12. between the hammer and the anvil: facing a dilemma 13. bury the hatchet: end a dispute or feud 14. chisel (someone) out of: cheat to get something away from someone 15: chisel in: deceive or manipulate to get a share of something 16: chiseled: toned or well defined (as in facial features or body) 17. clamp down: impose controls or restrictions 18–19. coffin nail/coffin tack: a cigarette (or, rarely, a drink of liquor) 20. crowbar: insert or remove with force 21. drill: hit or propel with force 22. drill down: investigate or get to the root of 23. for want of a nail: abbreviation of a proverb illustrating that the lack of an insignificant part can have significant consequences for the whole 24–25. hammer (something) out: argue or negotiate toward an agreement, or play a piano loudly 26. hammer and tongs: with great determination and energy (as in â€Å"going at it hammer and tongs†) 27. hammer away: discuss something excessively or tediously 28. hammer home: press a point 29–30. hammer: a vehicle’s accelerator (noun), or do something with great force or persistence (verb, as in â€Å"I tried to hammer it into his thick skull†) 31. hard as nails: unfeeling or unsympathetic 32–33. has a screw loose/with a loose screw: is eccentric, mentally unbalanced, or strange/has eccentricities or is mentally unbalanced or strange 34. has one’s head screwed on right: is capable or sensible 35. hit the nail on the head: be accurate or right, or explain perceptively 36–37. nail: arrest or identify (or have sex with, but this sense is vulgar) 38. nail (one’s) colors to the mast: express opinion publicly (from the idea of attaching a flag to a ship’s mast to identify one’s national origin) 39. nail (something) down: agree on or accomplish something 40. nail (someone’s) ears back: severely scold someone 41–43. nail (someone)/nail (someone’s) hide to the wall, or nail (someone) to a cross: see â€Å"nail (someone’s) ears back† 44–45. nail (something) down: discover, or make certain or final or win decisively 46–49. nail Jell-O/jelly to a tree/the wall: try something futile (akin to â€Å"herd cats†) 50–51. on the nail: in full (as in â€Å"pay on the nail†), or under discussion (both British English) 52–53. put a wrench/monkey wrench into: disrupt or sabotage (the British English term is spanner) 54. put a nail in the coffin of (something): cause something to end or stop 55. put the hammer down: accelerate a vehicle 56–57. put/tighten the screws on (someone): pressure or threaten someone, or make something more difficult for someone 58. saw away at: move one’s arms as if in a sawing motion 59. saw wood: snore loudly 60. sawed off: short (said of a diminutive person or a shotgun with part of the barrel removed) 61–64. screw: cheat or deceive, or a jailer (also, copulate, or someone to copulate with, but these senses are vulgar) 65–66. screw around/off: waste time or act aimlessly 67–70. screw (someone) around/screw around with (someone): bother or harass (â€Å"screw around with (someone)† also means â€Å"copulate with† or â€Å"be promiscuous,† but these senses are vulgar) 71. screw around with (something): fiddle or play with 72. screw (one’s) courage to the sticking place: have courage or resolution 73. screw (someone) out of: cheat or deceive to deprive someone of something 74–75. screw (one) over: betray, or see â€Å"nail (one’s) ears back† 76. screw the pooch: make a significant mistake (vulgar) 77. screw up: make a mistake 78. screw up (one’s) courage: force (oneself) to be brave 79. screw up (one’s) face: make an unpleasant expression 80. screwed: in trouble 81–82. screwed up: made a mistake (verb phrase), or flawed or ruined (adjective) 83. take a hammering: suffer a severe attack or loss 84. tool: an unlikeable or easily deceived person 85. tool around: drive quickly but aimlessly 86. tools of the trade: whatever is associated with, or required to do, a job 87. tough as nails: determined 88. turn of the screw: an action that worsens a bad situation 89. under the hammer: for sale (alluding to an auctioneer’s hammer) 90. wrench: mechanic Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?34 Writing Tips That Will Make You a Better WriterHow to Address Your Elders, Your Doctor, Young Children... and Your CEO

Core Competencies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Core Competencies - Essay Example Besides the involvement of the health care professionals and the patient, the strategy may extend to the close family members to secure benefits to the ailing individuals. Several adjustments take place in the nursing profession to aid the success of the patient-centered care. Dissemination of information to the patients forms the primary strategy that aims to improve the patient-centered care. Educating the patient and the family members about a particular ailment is vital in improving care; an informed patient is in a position to make sound decisions about the treatment regimen they prefer (Constand, McDermind, Bello-Haas & Law, 2015). Availing information to the patient takes place through printed and electronic media and help in the participation of the patients in the management of their conditions. The current second trend that enhances the patient-centered care is participation and collaboration. The medical professionals accord the patients the opportunity to give their views on the preferred treatment regimen for a given conditions (Ronedo & Marston, 2015). The involvement of the patients gives the medical professionals the opportunity to have an understanding of the requirements for each patient. The patients have the chance to weigh in on their conditions and the treatment intervention they need. Mutual decision-making characteristic of patient-centered care is on the rise due to its confirmed benefits. It enhances the relationship between the nurses and the patient that translates to improved care. Another strategy tailored at improving patient-centered care is proper communication. Practicing nurses have the obligation of ensuring that the medium used for communication with the patients provide  affectivity and clarity (Constand et al., 2015). The type of communication addresses the needs and preferences of the patients. In some instances, where cases of language barriers exist, a translator may

Stochastic finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Stochastic finance - Assignment Example (a) The data used in this question has been obtained from Yahoo Finance (EODData.com.) and the companies considered are; AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP INC, RADIAN GROUP INC and PHARMATHENE INC. These three companies trade in stocks and are listed in National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASQAD), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX) respectively. To analyze the changing trend in stock prices, I have considered daily closing stock prices for each of the three companies listed above and extracted a 30 day information ending 12th May 2015 (see excel work book; sheet 1) (b) Sheet 1 of the excel work book shows the calculations for the logarithmic changes in the daily closing stock prices for each of the three listed companies in their respective stock markets. The table in the appendix section has the results to these calculations. A 30 day result is considered. The curve shown in the graph above clearly indicates the performance in the stock markets for the American company. The daily closing stock prices for American Airlines Group Inc, a company in the NASQAD markets tends to be stable by showing a regular drop in stock prices over the first few weeks. The growth rate however tends to shoot and hitting its maximum of $52.71 after which the drop is drastic and reaches its minimum of $47.01 before picking up gradually towards the end of the six week period. These changes in daily closing stock prices for American Airlines Group Inc are concentrated around its mean stock price of $49.13 and hence a normal distribution. Compared to the American Airlines Group Inc, the trend in Radian Group Inc, listed in NYSE, is a steady upward growth for stock prices for the first days within the analysis period. The price then changes the growth pattern suddenly and hits its highest of $18.45 before reducing to $16.7; the least price during the period. Stability in growth around the mean price of

The Story of the Stuff by Annie Leonard Essay Example for Free

The Story of the Stuff by Annie Leonard Essay The Story of the Stuff which is made by Annie Leonard was very interesting and enlightening. It made me realize that no matter how small the stuffs we use in our everyday life, it should not be taken for granted because the economic system is in crisis and we cant continue to run on a linear system since we live on a planet of limited resources. People become obsessed with consumerism, especially when it comes to new technologies. Things that we buy and then discard go through different phases: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Corporations have become bigger than our government and the first limit to the system is exploitation of our natural resources. We are consuming products to the point where 1/3 of our natural resources are already used up with 30% of our waste being shipped to other areas of the world. Due to these instances, almost all of our forest have already been cut down, and yet this corporations who still wants to cut them have no â€Å"corporate environmental responsibility†, what they want is always earning more profit. They should think that if all the resources in earth runs out, even money can’t revert the damage they have done to these non-renewable resources. Also they can’t already buy these resources from the over-exploited third world countries. Yet the government hasn’t done enough actions to address these problems. I find it appalling and irresponsible of our government. Maybe just maybe they are doing actions or made rules and regulations to minimize these occurrences but still it wouldn’t be enough since corporations can lend money to those corrupt officials whose minds are obsessed with money then poof, the corporations will continue its operations. It is not merely the fault of the corporations or the government, each indiv iduals also contributed on consuming the limited resources the earth have. In today’s time, consumers has become the new evil of the society, consumption has turned from necessity to excessiveness. Through planned and perceived obsolescence we have turned against everyone including ourselves. Consumerism led to tremendous increase in the variety of products. Each product life cycle from raw material extraction to its consumption has an  effect on the ecosystem as a whole. For example, due to toxics like dioxins and furans, there is change in the atmosphere thus affecting both flora and fauna of our planet. To cater to this growing hunger, production house does not maintain any standards in the degradation of human, social and economic capital. Rather than playing the role as a regulator, the governments are playing the role as a promoter. But there is a way forward, we and planet are complimentary not supplementary. We should start focusing on closed production loop, renewable energy, zero waste. Sustainable development is the way forward for sustainable life. We cant just start fresh with a whole new system, however I believe we can take the current system and revamp it in a way that we become more responsible as consumers and citizens. We need to take back our government and unite to see the big picture. By unity we create equity, boost our local living economies and promote sustainability!

Free College Essays - The Noble Othello in Shakespeares Othello :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Othello

The Noble Othello This character is so noble, Othello's feelings and actions follow so inevitably from it and from the forces brought to bear on it, and his sufferings are so heart-rending, that he stirs a passion of mingled love and pity which readers feel for no other hero in Shakespeare, and to which not even Mr Swinburne can do more than justice. Yet there are some critics and not a few readers who cherish a grudge against him. They do not merely think that in the later stages of his temptation he showed a certain obtuseness, and that, to speak pedantically, he acted with unjustifiable precipitance and violence; no one, I suppose, denies that. But, even when they admit that he was not of a jealous temper, they consider that he was "easily jealous"; they seem to think that it was inexcusable in him to feel any suspicion of his wife at all; and they blame him for never suspecting Iago or asking him for evidence. I refer to this attitude of mind chiefly in order to draw attention to certain points in the story. It comes partly from inattention (for Othello did suspect Iago and did ask him for evidence); partly from a misconstruction of the text which makes Othello appear jealous long before he really is so; [Endnote 2] and partly from failure to realise certain essential facts. I will begin with these. 1. Othello, we have seen, was trustful, and thorough in his trust. He put entire confidence in the honesty of Iago, who had not only been his companion in arms, but, as he believed, had just proved his faithfulness in the matter of the marriage. This confidence was misplaced, and we happen to know it; but it was no sign of stupidity in Othello. For his opinion of Iago was the opinion of practically everyone who knew him: and that opinion was that Iago was before all things "honest", his very faults being those of excess in honesty. This being so, even if Othello had not been trustful and simple, it would have been quite unnatural in him to be unmoved by the warnings of so honest a friend, warnings offered with extreme reluctance and manifestly from a friend's sense of duty. [Endnote 3] Any husband would have been troubled by them. 2. Iago does not bring these warnings to a husband who had lived with a wife for months and years and knew her like his sister or his bosom-friend.

Imagination in Romantic Poetry Essay

A large part of those extracts on Romantic imagination – which are contained in the fascicule on pages D64 and D65 – are strictly related to an ancient theory about Art and Reality’s imitation, the Theory of Forms concieved by a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician Plato – in Greek: ÃŽ  ÃŽ »ÃŽ ¬Ãâ€žÃâ€°ÃŽ ½, Plà ¡tÃ… n, â€Å"broad†; from 424/423 BC to 348/347 BC. The Theory of Forms – in Greek: á ¼ °ÃŽ ´ÃŽ ­ÃŽ ±ÃŽ ¹ – typically refers to the belief expressed by Socrates in some of Plato’s dialogues, that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image or copy of the real world. Socrates spoke of forms in formulating a solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to Socrates, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and see around us, that can only be perceived by reason – in Greek: ÃŽ »ÃŽ ¿ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ¹ÃŽ ºÃŽ ® – that is, they are universals. In other words, Socrates sometimes seems to recognise two worlds: the Apparent world, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of forms, which may be a cause of what is apparent. This theory is proposed in different ways in Blake’s, Coleridge’s Shelley’s extracts. The former says that â€Å"This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity† (A Vision of the Last Judgement, 1810) a place which resembles to a sort of otherworldly realm where â€Å"Exist [†¦] the Permanent Realities of Every Thing (the Form) which we see reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature (the Apparent world)†. A similar thing is exposed by Samuel Coleridge an english romantic poet who divides Imagination in Primary and Secondary. The former is â€Å"the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite†, the latter is an echo of the former who â€Å"diss olves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to re-create† (Biographia Literaria, 1817) a thing which is totally different from Fancy. Even in Shelley the poetry is presented as â€Å"something of divine [†¦] not like reasoning† (A Defence of Poetry, 1821) which beholds as the poet, the present, the past, and the future. In Keats and Wordsworth the poetry became â€Å"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings [originating] from emotion recollected in tranquillity† (Preface to Lyrical Ballads) and the poet â€Å"the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity† (A Letter to Richard Woodhouse, October 27th 1818). So Art is imitation, a feature of both of Plato’s theories. In the Republic, Plato says that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life. In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. It is even more of an illusion than is ordinary experience. On this theory, works of art are at best entertainment, and at worst a delusion. This theory actually appears in Plato’s short early dialogue, the Ion. Socrates is questioning a poet named Ion, who recites Homer’s poetry brilliantly but is no good at reciting anything else. Socrates is puzzled by this; it seems to him that if Ion has an art, or skill, of reciting poetry he should be able to apply his skilled knowledge to other poets as well. He concludes that Ion doesn’t really possess skilled knowledge. Rather, when he recites Homer, he must be inspired by a god. The Ion drips with sarcasm. Plato didn’t take the â€Å"art by divine inspiration† theory very seriously. But many ancient, medieval, and modern artists and aestheticians have found it irresistible.

Critical Response Paper

The development of political thought was always close-knit with the author’s epoch and regime of governance he lived under; however, in spite of the ethical and technological limitations, associated with the temporal factor, the majority of political scientists sought to build a universalized framework of justice and legitimate state power.John Rawls is distinguished for his positivist, or â€Å"realistic utopian† approach to justice and principles of peaceful coexistence among individuals as well as peace between government and population. However, the proportion of utopianism is much higher in his writings, as compared to the realism ratio, given that he fails to address the challenges, related to diversity and class inequality which are dominating the modern North American society.First of all, it is important to pay attention to Rawls’s dynamic and positivistic model of justice. According to the article, instead of seeking the ideal of justice beyond the exis ting order of affairs, the scholar tries to enable reasonable and gradual improvements of the internal structure and situation: â€Å"We can see this idea through the rather well-worn metaphor of the difference between the efforts needed to fix a boat that is at sea one plank at a time rather than trying to rebuild it from scratch. Generally speaking, it makes more sense to engage the first sort of repair job than a complete rebuild† (Mini-lecture, p.4).Interestingly, the author focuses predominantly on the strong points of the current ideas of justice as articulated both in legal terms and through societal behaviours.However, this task might appear extremely challenging given the focus of diversity in most European and North American policies. Diversity is a delicate issue, since there is a number of conflicts among beliefs, interests and practices, underlying each cultural or social group. Obtaining true impartiality also turns into a difficult task, as the society, which l acks uniformity in certain vital political issues, is likely to encourage its groups to perceive and assess the objective reality from the intragroup value system; as a result, such judgments can seem neither objective nor neutral.According to the article, â€Å"He does not propose a vision of justice that would stretch our character too and tries to build a theory that is responsive to our current conditions† (Mini-lecture, p.5).However, taking into consideration the above provided chain of reasoning, one can assume that the existing disproportion and divergence of political values will inevitably result in the necessity of â€Å"stretching† the philosophies or ideologies of certain minority groups, either religious or cultural. However, for the purpose of maintaining/ establishing social cohesion, this step can be justified, since the vast majority is likely to benefit from it.This excessive pluralism is partially addressed in the reading: â€Å"Bearing this point i n mind, he tries to find a way to build an impartial model for deliberating about principles of justice that everyone can reasonably be expected to endorse despite holding different religious and moral views† (Mini-lecture, p.5).The statement is quite abstractive, whereas the particular scenarios of its realization point to the existence of disparities in core values of each group. For instance, in the United States, there are several large Muslim communities, whose polity greatly resembles the lifestyles of Middle Asian societies. The U.S.-based communities might engage with political activity and unite into a faction, requiring, for instance, the cancellation of women’s right to take certain jobs, and referring to the fact that the existing state-of-art offends their vision of gender morality.Surprisingly, this faction might be supported by other political groups, which also share this view on gender equality – as a result, the society might be torn by the deba te over the true justice. As one can notice, the representation of the core values of liberty might be uneven in our society, so both federal and state legislations necessarily challenge the beliefs of a certain minority.  Furthermore, Rawls’s concept of justice and stability is quite unrealistic, since it provides an abstractive picture, barely imaginable in the current world. According to the political philosophy article, â€Å"His core insight is that a stable and enduring society is one that is also just, that is, where citizens are considered to be free and equal. More importantly, citizens have to be able to see themselves and each other as free and equal† (Mini-lecture, p.6).However, inequality is inescapable, it is often referred to as an engine of social and political development, which motivates individuals to participate in political processes. The true equality, as articulated in the paper, consists in people’s outlooks and convictions, yet the for mation of â€Å"equality beliefs† is normally realized only partly, since there still exist economic, social, regional, gender and age boundaries which make people feel underprivileged or superior.In this sense, Rawls refers to Kant and observes that the greatest political ideas were realized from the personal to the public, i.e. if an individual considers certain pattern ‘fair’, this pattern is likely to appear to be ‘fair’ in the whole society.However, this logic of reasoning fails to take into consideration the fact that the idea of equality was first born in autocratic societies, bearing much higher uniformity within its aristocratic and power circles, as compared to the modern Western world. Given that Rawls himself states that the relevance of political ideas depends on temporal and spatial (regional) factors, so the ideas of liberty and equality, which existed in the ancient world and Enlightenment society, are not fully suitable in the modern North American society.Thus, given that the author implies a positivist approach o the development of political values and proposes that they be formulated â€Å"from within†, Rawls should have also looked closely at specific cases and considered the workability of his perspective in real macrogroup situations.Reference listMini-Lecture. A Brief Introduction to Rawls’s Project, pp.1-10.

What will be will be essays

What will be will be essays Sophocles is sending the message, whatever is destined to happen will happen. There is no getting around it. There is nothing you can do to prevent that which has been ordained by the gods. After all, they are immortal and we are mortal. In the other books we read this course this theme is prevalent. In the Odyssey, it is Odysseuss fate to return home after 10 years of war and ten years of wandering. He has many brushes with death, he lost his entire crew, and his ship but he is still destined to get home. When we were reading the Metamorphoses I remember making the statement If the goddesss fall in love with you, your doomed. There was no way of evading their advances. You can run away from fate, but you can not evade it forever. Sophocles takes fate to a different level. He shows the futility of trying to alter fate. This fact is clearly understood in this story. At his birth it was ordained that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. The oracle of Apollo declared the omen, and thats all there was to it. Surely Oedipus, a new born baby was totally innocent. At this point it was nothing that Oedipus had done to justify such a tragedy. However that is what fate is. His parents, King Lauis and Queen Jocasta tryed to stop the prophecy from coming to past. What could they do? They didnt want to kill the baby. How could any sane person kill their own child. If they committed that act, and took the childs life, do you think this would have prevented the They sought an alternate solution to thwart the gods. Oedipuss feet was rivetted and he was abandoned at a mountainside and left to die. Fate rears its head again, or shall I say the gods intervened: the shepherd disregard his instructions to abandon the baby. He gives the child to ...

Mesozoic Era - the Geologic Time Scale

Mesozoic Era - the Geologic Time Scale Following both the Precambrian Time and the Paleozoic Era on the Geologic Time Scale came the Mesozoic Era. The Mesozoic Era is sometimes called the age of the dinosaurs because dinosaurs were the dominant animals for much of the era. The Permian Extinction After the Permian Extinction wiped out over 95% of ocean-dwelling species and 70% of land species, the new Mesozoic Era began about 250 million years ago. The first period of the era was called the Triassic Period. The first big change was seen in the types of plants that dominated the land. Most of the species of plants that survived the Permian Extinction were plants that had enclosed seeds, like gymnosperms. The Paleozoic Era Since most of the life in the oceans became extinct at the end of the Paleozoic Era, many new species emerged as dominant. New types of corals appeared, along with water-dwelling reptiles. Very few types of fish remained after the mass extinction, but those that did survive flourished. On land, the amphibians and small reptiles like turtles were dominant during the early Triassic Period. By the end of the period, small dinosaurs began to emerge. The Jurassic Period After the end of the Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period began. Most of the marine life in the Jurassic Period stayed the same as it was in the Triassic Period. There were a few more species of fish that appeared, and toward the end of the period, crocodiles came into being. The most diversity occurred in plankton species. Land Animals Land animals during the Jurassic Period had more diversity. Dinosaurs got much bigger and the herbivorous dinosaurs ruled the Earth. At the end of the Jurassic Period, birds evolved from dinosaurs. The climate changed to more tropical weather with a lot of rain and humidity during the Jurassic Period. This allowed land plants to undergo a large evolution. In fact, jungles covered much of the land with many conifers in higher elevations. The Mesozoic Era The last of the periods within the Mesozoic Era was called the Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous Period saw the rise of flowering plants on land. They were helped along by the newly formed bee species and the warm and tropical climate. Conifers were still really abundant throughout the Cretaceous Period as well. The Cretaceous Period   As for marine animals during the Cretaceous Period, sharks and rays became commonplace. The echinoderms that survived the Permian Extinction, like starfish, also became abundant during the Cretaceous Period. On land, the first small mammals started to appear during the Cretaceous Period. Marsupials evolved first, and then other mammals. More birds evolved, and reptiles got bigger. Dinosaurs were still dominant, and carnivorous dinosaurs were more prevalent. Another Mass Extinction At the end of the Cretaceous Period, and the end of the Mesozoic Era came another mass extinction. This extinction is generally called the K-T Extinction. The K comes from the German abbreviation for Cretaceous, and the T is from the next period on the Geologic Time Scale - the Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era. This extinction took out all dinosaurs, except birds, and many other forms of life on Earth. There are different ideas as to why this mass extinction occurred. Most scientists agree it was some sort of catastrophic event that caused this extinction. Various hypotheses include massive volcanic eruptions that shot dust into the air and caused less sunlight to reach the surface of the Earth causing photosynthetic organisms like plants and those who depended on them, to die off slowly. Some others believe a meteor hit causing the dust to block the sunlight. Since plants and animals that ate plants died off, this caused top predators like carnivorous dinosaurs to also perish.

Energy Sources of the Future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Energy Sources of the Future - Essay Example Three of these include solar power, wind power and biomass. Solar Power Solar power, or solar energy, is a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Solar power comes from the sun through the use of solar panels that contain solar or photovoltaic cells. In fact, one square meter of solar panel can generate as much as 100 watts of electricity (â€Å"Solar Power†). Once used only to power satellites, the solar panel is now used to generate power for houses and companies. Aside from the use of solar panels, solar power can also be used to heat water using glass panels on the roof. This powers up the home’s central heating system (â€Å"Solar Power†). Moreover, a third type of machine that utilizes solar power is a solar furnace. The huge array of mirrors in a solar furnace is used to concentrate all the sunlight into a small space in order to produce an extremely high temperature of heat. Solar furnaces may be used for scientific experiments. There are also solar-powered electric boats and solar towers. (â€Å"Solar Power†) On the subject of availability and renewability, solar power may be advantageous as it basically â€Å"needs no fuel† and is renewable as long as the sun shines (â€Å"Solar Power†). ... Even if only 2.5% of this radiation is converted into electricity, it would be enough for the total energy consumption of the whole nation in a year (Zweibel et al., University of Colorado). Another related development in the utilization of solar energy is the very recent invention of the nanocone-based solar cell. This particular type of solar cell, which boosts the light conversion efficiency of traditional solar cells by a whopping 80%, is in fact a result of the â€Å"minimization of defects and voids in semiconductors† (â€Å"New Solar Cell,† ScienceDaily). This property alone enhances electric and optical properties of the solar cell in order to convert sunlight to electric power more efficiently, thus increasing its availability while maximizing its utilization. Perhaps the only disadvantage of solar power is that, unless stored, it does not work at night and may be very expensive to build. (â€Å"Solar Power†) When it comes to environmental impact, solar power does not produce any pollution or waste (â€Å"Solar Power†). According to the Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States, primary environmental issues associated with solar power concerns only â€Å"how [solar power systems] are manufactured, installed, and ultimately disposed of† (â€Å"Environmental Impacts,† UCSUSA.org). Arsenic, silicon and cadmium are the major elements used in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells and are therefore hazardous to workers and anyone else who comes in contact with the solar panels. Safety regulations should therefore be strictly kept. Moreover, solar-thermal plants require cooling water, which may be costly or scarce in the southwest United States where the area is more

Health Effect of Antibacterial Products Coursework

Health Effect of Antibacterial Products - Coursework Example From this discussion it is clear that the utilization of antibacterial and antibiotic products has its advantages. For instance, a prolonged use of antibacterial products can lead to a number of issues. As implied earlier, prolonged use of such products may interfere with the natural body flora. There exist some microorganisms that naturally inhabit our bodies in large numbers. However, prolonged use of antibacterial and antibiotic products tempers with their optimal levels and at times wipe them out. Such a situation leaves the host (human) susceptible to infections due to suppressed immunity system. Worse still, diminished microbiome levels cause the immunity to attack harmless substances. As a result, allergies and autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and asthma set in.This paper discusses that gut flora impacts health in many ways. Studies have shown a correlation between the gut flora and weight. Obese people have relatively less gut flora. Also, when â€Å"good† bacter ia feed on some foods such as beef and eggs, they produce a compound that boosts the risk of heart diseases. Such knowledge forms the basis of advising people to reduce high cholesterol food intakes. Furthermore, the interaction between body cells and gut bacteria plays a significant role in the development of a fully functional immune system.  Surely, the utilization of antibacterial products serves the purpose in the short-run.