Making Physics More Realistic with Fiction

Making Physics More Realistic with Fiction Gabriel Alcantara One of the many questions that students who takes any major or minor subject, particularly physics, either in elementary or in college that actually makes sense is â€Å"When am I going to use what I have just learned in the real life?† But in reality, physics is found everywhere, from our cars and cell phones, the way we walk and interact with things, throwing stuff, to some of the not so familiar topics like in subatomic particles and in comic books. Some teachers and professors are looking into ways on how to present these ideas and concepts without making the student sit through hours of leaden and tedious technical discussions. From fictional examples and situation, to extraordinary cases like lifting a star and preventing falls with a single hand, students slowly realize that physics is just as important as breathing and clothing. And one good example of fictional, but true, example of the application of the concepts learned in physics is found in comic book superheroes. Now, the thought of superheroes is logically impossible, but their actions and their â€Å"super incredible powers† presented in comic books and in movies are actually governed by the laws of physics and nature (Trusted, 1991). From electricity, to lifting heavy objects, to shooting lasers out of nowhere, their power is also present in the real world, but in a less amazing and rather simple manner. In theory and in practice, the concepts of physics found in the stories of comic book superheroes helps in developing the logic of students to understand physics. As more and more teachers resort to more exciting and easy-to-understand examples which the students can relate, more and more students who have the same question above are now finding light in comic book superheroes. As any student who have gone through the first day of physics class, it is clear that physics is essentially the study of matter and energy; physics is an experimental science which deals with the basic elements of the universe and their interactions. (Young Freedman, 2012). There are a lot of theories and laws which govern the interaction of one matter to the other, and one of them is Newton’s laws of motion. There are 3 laws in it, which are the laws of inertia (an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force), acceleration (force is equal to mass times acceleration), and action and reaction (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). Physics also deals with electromagnetism, which is mainly concerned with particles having an electric charge, which is just either a positive or a negative charge property of a particle (Jones Childers, 1993). There are also discussions about momentum (which is the product of the objectâ€℠¢s mass and its velocity or speed), impulse (the change in momentum), and collision between two objects, whose examples are fairly simple, but not as exciting to learn. But, in order to do physics, one must have energy, either potential (energy at rest) or kinetic (energy in motion). With all these examples of the concepts in physics, their examples are just as technical as their discussion. One can deal with the laws of motion by observing the movement of a ball in a vacuum and applying external force, throwing a ball out of a cliff, pushing a wall, and a big winded wire induced by electricity to produce a massive electromagnet. These examples may seem simple enough to comprehend, but the physics in them is what makes them dreary to understand. One can simply put off the explanation by stating that the velocity, time, and height by which a ball drops from the cliff to the ground can be computed using the kinematic equation and the students just substitute values and solve. But one can make things a little more challenging by putting childhood favorite superheroes as examples. By replacing the ball with Gwen Stacy falling and Spider-Man catching her, students will get an essence of just how important these values are in the comics and in the real world. Comic book superheroes didn’t just exist out of nowhere, it also had a history. According to Wandtke (2012), from the early comic strips in England whose purpose varied from entertainment to revolutionary movements, a lot of today’s superheroes came from snippets of these strips. Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories were one of the early comic book novels, which were mass produced in newspapers and in print, and one of the earliest superheroes was Superman, who was a creation of Siegel and Shuster, which came from the idea of a bizarre visitor from another world with powers greater than any man known on earth who came to save humans from evil (Gifford, 1984). Superman first came known to print in the Action Comics #1 in 1938. After Superman, a lot of heroes joined in, like Flash (who had powers of incredible speed), Hawk-Man (power of flight), Captain America (Amazing strength from a â€Å"super soldier† serum, now called steroids), and Batman (with the occasio nal appearance of his sidekick Robin). In 1962, a boy named Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, who surprisingly lived, and became Spider-Man. Most of the beginnings of superheroes reflected their time, from the Great Depression to the World War, and discoveries in science like radioactivity and quantum mechanics (Daniels, 1995). With the rise of heroes came along with their enemies, like the Joker, the Green Goblin, Electro, Magneto, and many others. The addition of these villains added suspense and action to the stories. Several ages came into play, with heroes ranging from the Silver Age to the Golden Age, with one example of a Silver Age Flash meeting his Golden Age counterpart through an alternate universe (Duncan Smith, 2009). Movie adaptations of these comic books were released, which closely resembles the comic book counterpart with an addition of unexpected scenes. Now, what do comic book superheroes have to do with physics? A professor named James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota, who is an avid fan of comic books, started to use these heroes to conceptualize physics, as most us are unaware that most of the time, comic books gets their science right. While one may think that this is a silly idea, the fact that students can learn such a complicated subject like physics in such a sophisticated and animated way like in comic books is a great way to capitalize on an innovative way to teach something without hurting. Let’s take into consideration the case of the death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s girlfriend. The story goes as the Green Goblin kidnaps Gwen Stacy, bringing her to the top of Washington Bridge, luring ‘Spidey’ into battle, then dropping off Gwen to her apparent doom, but Spidey manages to catch her, by which to his surprise that she is dead. Supposing that Gwen weighs 50 kg, fell for half a second (0.5s ) and fell from 300 ft., she would have fallen with a speed of about 95 miles an hour, and the force needed by Spider-Man’s web to stop her would have to be 10 times the acceleration due to gravity (Kakalios, 2005). This explains the â€Å"SNAP† sound located next to her on the comic strip of her fall. This shows that it was the webbing of Spider-Man that killed Gwen and the concept of physics involved here were the definition of velocity and acceleration, momentum and impulse, and force. The same discussion also explains the physics behind airbags and how they prolong the time from the impact to rest (Jacobson, 2012). Compared to the earlier examples, this is easier to understand and visualize because most of the students are interested with Spider-Man and the discovery of something new. An example of when they get it right is in an issue of Super Boy (young Superman) where he coils a locomotive with metal wires, induces a current, and gets a big electromagnet. This d emonstrates simple electric induction where some may find it difficult to understand due to the terminologies like induction and repulsion and conductors and charges, but with Super Boy’s example, it all becomes clearer and easier(Weiner, 2008) (Kittel Knight, 1973). But sometimes, comic books get it wrong too. Another way to represent physics, particularly electromagnetism, is through Spider-Man’s villains, Electro and Magneto (whose names obviously represent the concept of physics they embody). In a scene where Electro faces Spider-Man, Spidey throws a metal chair to Electro and Spider-Man says that any metal can act like a metal rod, neglecting the fact that it has to be grounded for it to become a lightning rod (Jones Childers, 1993). But an episode in Superman actually gets it right when he drags someone, whom he tries to get information from, and runs along telephone cable wires, to the man’s panic, but Superman reassures him that they would be electrocuted unless the wires is grounded or when he steps on a telephone wire pole (Daniels, 1995). Students can easily learn electricity through this: wires or any conductor has to be grounded for it to become effective. But one shouldn’t be assured that the concepts presented are true all the time. But then again, Cyclops (a single eyed hero who shoots lasers from his eye band) got Newton’s Third Law of Motion wrong when he blasts a hole through the ceiling of Grand Central. If Newton’s Third Law of Motion holds, then he should have experienced an opposite reaction equal to his action of blasting a hole, unless he has a super neck strength (Booker, 2010). Present day objects are also works of the science that powers superheroes. An example is the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) where one’s body can be examined live using magnetic repulsion from a user generated magnetic field, polarizing (splitting and dividing) the water molecules, and pinging the target level for examination (Young Freedman, 2012). The same technology is used by Magneto, Spider-Man’s enemy, where he levitates himself using magnetic repulsion. This has not been done by, and to, a human being, but a group of researchers has managed to levitate a frog (Simon Geim, 2000). Another one is through Iron Man. His suit can be comprehended today part by part. The jet boots is something which many have tried doing, but only few have successfully flown 10 feet or higher. The exoskeleton suit is being worked up by the military for defense purposes and also it is being developed for those who have paralysis and body defects. The science behind the helmet, which co ntrols the suit according to the comics, is technologically feasible. Some technologies in Japan and America have done prototypes which allow mouse pointer manipulation through the signals sent by the mind to the helmet ([Distinctive Voices], 2010). And one perfect example for that is Stephen Hawking and how he is able to communicate through signal waves converted to audio through a machine on his wheelchair. But the Arc Reactor is an exemption to the rule, being purely fictional for now, for no technology today, which could explain how something on earth could how such enormous power in a small, confined space ([Russell Scott], 2014). A very complicated topic in physics, which is hard to understand from a simple person’s point of view is quantum mechanics. Quantum physics or mechanics deals with the behavior of a particle, particularly on a molecular, atomic, or in the nuclear scale (Young Freedman, 2012). It has to do with wave functions with the inclusion of Schrodinger’s equation which just simply states that force is equal to mass times acceleration for electrons, much like Newton’s second law of motion. This governs the existence of parallel and alternative universes, which up to now, has not yet been proven to exist. Using Schrodinger’s equation, given the force, there is a huge probability of locating the position of a certain electron in space (Beiser, 1967). Given a radioactive isotope (same element, different mass number) and the equation will give the probability of it having a half-life (reducing the original amount of substance by half through a time interval). Something o n a subatomic particle scale is hard to comprehend and represent, but comic books may provide some light in the teacher’s burden in teaching this topic. On the issue of the Flash # 123, four years after Everitt formulated a theory which states that there is a parallel and alternate universe and using quantum mechanics, one can go from one universe to another on a subatomic level (Booker, 2010). In the Flash issue, the Silver Age Flash meets up with his Golden Age counterpart, through which scientific explanation of Everitt’s theory was presented. The concept of time warp or time travel, which is synonymous to parallel and alternate universe theories, is not new to comics. A lot of science fiction movies have shown the movement of one person to another world through a machine of abduction of aliens. And in another comic book called The Atom, which talks about a physics professor who was trying to develop a shrinking ray, but was missing one key ingredient: a piece of a white dwarf star (because of the dwarf in the name) (Gifford, 1984). Quantum mechanics tells us that dwarf star weighs almost 50,000 tons, thus making it very dense. But the professor was seen huffing and puffing every line that he said in the speech balloon, which adds to the fact that that star was really dense. But essentially, with the white dwarf star, The Atom could exploit quantum mechanics and go beyond the atomic level, shrinking himself proportional to this atomic structure. While quantum mechanics does not disapprove of this, the ability to shrink someone has not yet been done or proven as of today (Wandtke, 2012). With all the given examples, of course not every concept of physics is present in comic books, so one should not rely on comic books to learn physics. One concept that has little instances of comic books is the concept of flight. With many superheroes with capes are seen flying, like in the case of Superman, physics cannot explain this phenomenon since there is no action from nature that could cause a cape to fly a 150 kg man (presumably) over the clouds. The concept of flight of airplanes doesn’t work on capes, and less likely on magic carpets. Another one would be how a normal human being could grow to as huge as hulk in a matter of seconds. Even with a huge amount of radioactive material, there is little chance that someone could be as strong as hulk, save for the bigger probability that a person could die due to radioactive contamination. Another is the explanation of Thor’s hammer. No one on earth could lift up Thor’s hammer, and science doesn’t have the knowledge to tell us what is inside Thor’s hammer (Kakalios, 2014). With an increasingly complicated world, people begin to overlook even the simplest of things in order to go directly to the big picture. With so many technicalities around, people are finding it harder to follow the trend of technology and the science behind them. But if one can present the idea to their audience in a manner which they could effortlessly grasp the main idea, then more people could be educated about a certain topic. Studies have shown that there is a declining rate of the student’s performance due to their teacher’s beliefs and methods of teaching (Caprara et al., 2005). Cases like this should not be overlooked and should be solved within the classroom. There are a lot of fun and meaningful ways to present concepts without the jargons. But when it comes to physics, there is no harm done in presenting it, superhero style. As long as the topic is relevant and correct, comic books can be seen, not just as a nuisance, but as an educational material worth giv ing attention to. REFERENCES: Beiser, A. (1967). Concepts of modern physics (Rev. Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Blackwell, L., Trzesniewski, K., Dweck, C. (2007). Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development, 78 (1), 246-263. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00995.x Booker, M. (2010). Encyclopedia of comic books and graphic novels. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press. Caprara, G., Barbaranelli, C., Steca, P., Malone, P. (2005). Teachers self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of job satisfaction and students academic achievement: A study at the school level. Journal of School Psychology, 44 (6), 473-490. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2006.09.001 Daniels, L. (1995). DC comics: Sixty years of the worlds favourite comic book heroes. London: Virgin Books. Duncan, R., Smith, M. (2009). The power of comics: History, form and culture. New York: Continuum. Gifford, D. (1984). The international book of comics. New York: Crescent Books. Jacobson, R. (2012, October 11). Spider-Math and Bat-Physics: Science in a Superhero World. Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/getting-superheroes-to-do-their-spider-math-and-bat-physics/ Jones, E., Childers, R. (1993). Contemporary college physics (2nd Ed.). Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Kakalios, J. (2014, November 12). Finally, Science Explains Why No One Can Lift Thor’s Hammer. Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://www.wired.com/2014/11/can-hulk-lift-thors-hammer/ Kakalios, J. (2005). The Physics of Superheroes. New York, New York: Gotham Books. Kittel, C., Knight, W. (1973). Mechanics (2d Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Roxas, C., Arevalo Jr., J. (1985). A History of Komiks of the Philippines and Other Countries. Quezon City: Islas Filipinas Publishing. Simon, M., Geim, A. (2000). Diamagnetic levitation: Flying frogs and floating magnets (invited). JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS, 87 (9), 6200-6204. Trusted, J. (1991). Physics and metaphysics: Theories of space and time. London: Routledge. Wandtke, T. (2012). The meaning of superhero comic books. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. Weiner, A. (2008, February 1). The Science of Superheroes. Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-gaming/article/2008-01/science-superheroes?image=4 Young, H., Freedman, R. (2012). Sears and Zemanskys University physics: With modern physics (13th Ed.). Boston: Addison Wesley. [Distinctive Voices]. (2010, September 7). Physics of Superheroes. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXd5Y0RXLb0 [Russell Scott]. (2014, August 8). The Physics of Superheroes w/ James Kakalios and Sidney Perkowitz | 1080HD. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GBGUVsnwMI

The Agriculture In Malaysia Economics Essay

The Agriculture In Malaysia Economics Essay Amounting to 12 of contribution from agriculture to nations GDP employing 16 of total population of Malaysia, various crops such as rubber, palm oil, cocoa, bananas, coconuts, durian, pineapples, rice, rambutan are grown. Being agricultural dominant country Agriculture Trade liberalization is expected to affect the economical, social and political sectors. Palm oil being the largest industry contributing higher portion in global liberalization of trade in oil fats markets as an export oriented industry giving continuous efforts to increase productivity and efficiency still efforts are required to compete with other edible oils. To overcome this, automation, research and development, quality control diversification are being recommended to enhance the industry. Incidences of poverty in the country have raised the protection of Paddy sub-sector in Malaysia which is one of the most highly protected sub-sector with a high degree of market intervention. Followed by the Paddy is the tobacco industry receiving subsidy, high tariffs and production quotas from government for protection purpose as it is cultivated in the poor regions of the country. Climate Located in the peninsula in south-east Asia, Malaysia has agriculture friendly climate. Being a hilly region it has become a disadvantage for cultivation of rice and other produces which require a flat land, which has resulted into import of the same. Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, Malaysia (MOA) MOA is Ministry of Agriculture who helps to private agriculture players and gather information, analyze it, do research and development, survey and provide required information and expert advice to agriculture, fishing and live stock to producer and framer. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Established in the year 1905 DOA handles agriculture sector related legal aspects. DOA has established state DOA has given responsibility of their respective state and work for their development. In 1926 Rubber Research Institute Malaysia was established realizing the tremendous development potential and immense demand within the rubber industry. Agriculture: Malaysias economic and social transformation In 10th Malaysian plan (2011-15) they missed out agriculture aspect for its future, resulting into economic and social transformation workers, with about half of these being temporary migrants. In spite of this agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry contributes 7-8% in GDP. Palm oil and Rubber despite the reliance on migrant labour palm oil and rubber continue to do well as demand of palm oil in food and non-food sectors is high, and demand of rubber as a industrial product is high. With a good backup of RD in both the products their production is high because of that they are exporting in neighboring countries helping them to gain higher profits. Rubber based industry: there are more than 500 manufacturers of rubber in Malaysia producing latex product contributing 18.1 billion to the countrys export earnings in 2011. The rubber based agricultural sector is producing a wide range of products such as gloves, condom, catheters, latex thread tyres and tyre-related products mountings, beltings, hoses, tunings, seals, and sheeting for the automotive, electrical electronics, machinery equipment and construction industries on a wide scale. Rice Malaysia is continuously facing problems for promoting improvement and change as it is a hilly region. There are many future plans as to innovation and up-gradation of the agricultural equipments. Food industry Malaysias food industry is a multi-cuisine food industry so its expecting to grow more in future and right now its 3rd largest producer of poultry meat. Malaysia has started organic farming in fruits and vegetables and has come up with logo Organic Malaysia. One of the largest processor in cocoa and 6th largest producer and exporter in spices. Food Agriculture Business Development Center Agri-BDC developed by ministry of Malaysia to support and develop agriculture and food sector. Center of agri-food business development is the sole information center and resource for public and private sector formed by the MOA to assist food and agriculture business community in the country with the objective to attract existing and new investors in agriculture sector. AGRO FOOD POLICY (2011-20): A continuation of 1998-2010 Third National Agriculture Policy aims at increase in income and food supply guarantee and production sustainability. Various product based, Agri-forestry approach have been made by the policy. 1) FOOD SECURITY POLICY: With the objective to overcome the food shortage food security policy is formed which aims at increasing production of the agro food sector, supply and quality consumption. MOA planned seven programmes in 2008-10 and five other programmes. 2) ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE (PRE) YEAR 2009-10: Economic stimulus package undertake project to stimulate countrys economy. For this two projects coconut industry development project and abandoned land development project have been entrusted to DOA. 3) 1MALAYSIA CONCEPT :With an idea to bring unity among all the races, Malaysia has brought a concept of 1Malaysia. It aims at the principle of justice for principle. It is envisioned that Vision 2020 is achieved with help of all levels of the society. The vision is to make Malaysia a developed country. 4) NATIONAL KEY ECONOMIC AREAS (NKEA): Government has launched the Economic Transformation Programme to make Malaysia a high income country. ETP emphasis on 12 North State Economic Areas like oil, gas and energy, palm oil, financial services, tourism, health, education, agriculture, IT tec. DOA is involved in two economic drivers project, Entry Point Project EPP 1 which focus on plants and herbs and EPP 7 which focuses on fruits and vegetable crops.

Negative Effects of Violent Video Games on Teenagers Essay examples --

Video games have been available to consumers for the last 30 years. They are a unique form of entertainment, because they encourage players to become a part of the game's script. Today's sophisticated video games require players to pay constant attention to the game, rather than passively watching a movie. My working thesis is â€Å" Although there are other factors that can lead to violent behaviors such as inner stress, playing violent video games are one of the main factors that can lead to violent behavior in teens relationships†. For the categorizing exercise, I brainstormed for the charting using some of the examples we hold in class. I found three main classifications to divide my evidence based on. Those categorizes are background of author, for and against, and type of evidence. The most important categorizes for my final paper is the background of the author, and for / against. The authors of both articles have an academic specialty background in the study of violence causes in teenagers. Although the two authors have two opposing opinions. The first one is Craig Anderson, got a PHD in psychology in Iowa state university wrote an article entitled â€Å"The Influence of Media Violence on Youthâ€Å", supported my working thesis about the harming effect of violent video games. He stated that violent video games increase levels of aggression in teenagers. He stated his argument based on his observations which claims that teenagers spend most of their times in front of games. He found out that when reducing the exposure to violent video games, teenagers tend to lessen the violent behavior. When I read more about this point from some other resources, I found out that there is another clear explanation to this claim. The main direction of... ...idn’t give anything. He found that those who played violent video games lack academic skills in reading and math. He concluded through his study that violent video games affects teenagers’ academic life too. I see that violent video game consumes so much time from teens’ lives that it drains their energies to lessen their concentration. As a conclusion, I found the charting exercise very useful to write the evaluating essay. I ended up with four main categories. The most important two are mixed together which are categories by for/against and background of author. Then I introduced the categories by the type of evidence and by effects. I found out that there are many counter argument for all categorizes, which gave me the space to argue for my working thesis. I reached that I have a good start based on the unique significant classification for my final paper.

Semantic Web :: Technology, The Green Guide

To establish the extent to which semantic web has been applied in the sustainable building technology domain, an extensive literature search was undertaken. One of the key findings of the review was that there was no real significant application of the semantic web to sustainable building technologies. The few studies with at least some sustainability issues in the built environment are in Macris and Georgakellos (2006) and Edum-Fotwe and Price (2009). Macris and Georgakellos (2006) explored the use of ontologies to help students to understand the contemporary global environmental issues, how they are linked and interrelated and to consider the different views of these issues, before reaching a decision or judgment. Edum-Fotwe and Price (2009), on the other hand, explored the use of ontologies in appraising sustainability of construction projects and development from the social component of sustainable development. The ontologies developed by Macris and Georgakellos (2006) and Edum-F otwe and Price (2009) are nothing more than academic papers and have never gone beyond prototypical system levels. However, it emerged that there is abundance of green/sustainability specifications/standards/ratings/metrics in the literature dealing with various aspects of sustainable constructions. Some examples of these specifications are the Market Transformation Programme database that contains the different building household appliances in the UK houses arranged in a well-defined taxonomy (Market Transformation Programme 2010; Firth et al. 2008; Wood and Newborough 2007), the Green Guide to Specifications (Anderson et al. 2009), the Uniclass (Smith et al. 1997) and the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED 2010). The Green Guide aims to provide a simple green guide to the environmental impacts of building materials which is easy-to-use and soundly based on numerical data. Uniclass is a new recent classification scheme for the construction industryindustry (Smith et al. 1997). It is intended for organising library materials and for structuring product literature and project information. It incorporates both CAWS (Common Arrangement of Work Sections for building works) and EPIC (Electronic Product Information Co-operation), a new system for structuring product data and product literature. The Green Guide is part of BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) an accredited environmental rating scheme for buildings. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed by the US Green Building Council, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. Semantic Web :: Technology, The Green Guide To establish the extent to which semantic web has been applied in the sustainable building technology domain, an extensive literature search was undertaken. One of the key findings of the review was that there was no real significant application of the semantic web to sustainable building technologies. The few studies with at least some sustainability issues in the built environment are in Macris and Georgakellos (2006) and Edum-Fotwe and Price (2009). Macris and Georgakellos (2006) explored the use of ontologies to help students to understand the contemporary global environmental issues, how they are linked and interrelated and to consider the different views of these issues, before reaching a decision or judgment. Edum-Fotwe and Price (2009), on the other hand, explored the use of ontologies in appraising sustainability of construction projects and development from the social component of sustainable development. The ontologies developed by Macris and Georgakellos (2006) and Edum-F otwe and Price (2009) are nothing more than academic papers and have never gone beyond prototypical system levels. However, it emerged that there is abundance of green/sustainability specifications/standards/ratings/metrics in the literature dealing with various aspects of sustainable constructions. Some examples of these specifications are the Market Transformation Programme database that contains the different building household appliances in the UK houses arranged in a well-defined taxonomy (Market Transformation Programme 2010; Firth et al. 2008; Wood and Newborough 2007), the Green Guide to Specifications (Anderson et al. 2009), the Uniclass (Smith et al. 1997) and the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED 2010). The Green Guide aims to provide a simple green guide to the environmental impacts of building materials which is easy-to-use and soundly based on numerical data. Uniclass is a new recent classification scheme for the construction industryindustry (Smith et al. 1997). It is intended for organising library materials and for structuring product literature and project information. It incorporates both CAWS (Common Arrangement of Work Sections for building works) and EPIC (Electronic Product Information Co-operation), a new system for structuring product data and product literature. The Green Guide is part of BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) an accredited environmental rating scheme for buildings. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed by the US Green Building Council, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Economic role of the government Essay

Economic systems are identified by how they answer the three questions of what, how, and for whom to produce. Similarly, they are theoretical representations of economies found throughout the world that demonstrate the distribution of control between people and the government. The economic systems exist on a continuum, with command economies on one side and the free markets on the other side. The United States has a free market economy but with a notable amount of government intervention, therefore it has a mixed economy. The government acts as a provider and regulator of the United States’ mixed economy through setting legal limits and sensible policies for economic functions for the people. In the United States, decisions are made by individuals acting as participants within the market. The federal, state, and local governments, however, make laws protecting private property and regulating certain areas of business. Practiced in the United States today, capitalism would be best defined as an economic system in which individuals own the factors of production, but decide how to use them within legislated limits. Nearly identical to capitalism, the free enterprise system is another definition for the American economy. The free enterprise system emphasizes that individuals are free to own and control aspects of production, yet expands on the fact that government places legal restrictions on freedom of enterprise. Zoning regulations, child-labor laws, hazardous waste rules, and other regulations limit free enterprise to protect the anticipated entrepreneur and his or her surroundings. When such rules are established, freedom has is boundaries and is considered a privilege. Consumers in a market economy have the advantage of being able to choose among products. Contrasting to freedom of enterprise, freedom of choice applies to only the buyers, not the sellers. Although buyers are free to make choices, the market has grown into an increasingly complex place. A consumer’s choice determines the success or failure of a good or service. The profit incentive is the desire to make a profit. This motivates entrepreneurs to establish new businesses, expand existing ones, and change the kinds of goods and services produced. The government has intervened in various areas of the economy to protect buyers. From a simple requirement  for companies to place warning labels on potentially dangerous products to regulating the prices that a company may charge, the government arbitrates in company dealings to help keep all consumers relatively satisfied and secure in their purchases. One of the most important characteristics of capitalism and free enterprise is the right to private property. That is, property not owned by federal, state, or local governments, but rather held by a person or persons. The right to all property-land, business, automobiles, and whatever else the person can afford-aids in the production of wealth and prosperity for all. According to the Constitution, the government has no power to seize private property unless payment is given to the individual. What are called the rights of property are the rights to risk investment and acquire new ways of producing while learning the benefits and downfalls of ownership. Among the economic goals of Americans are economic freedom, economic security, economic stability, and economic growth. To obtain these goals, individual opinions along with government decisions must fall into equilibrium. In order to have a well-functioning enterprise system, individuals are required to take on certain economic responsibilities. Such responsibilities include attempting to rise as a successful entrepreneur and obtaining the knowledge of possible government policies while analyzing the consequences of those policies. The United States illustrates the characteristics of a mixed economy by combining freedom of choice, the desire to make profit, and the right to property with government regulations.

Double Jeopardy: Necessary for Justice

This essay will argue that the amendments made to the double jeopardy rule were necessary to improve justice. It will first show that the amendments improve the possibility of achieving justice on principle and for victims by holding the guilty accountable. It will then proceed to examine claims that the implementation of the amendments can create injustice, arguing that the benefits for justice outweigh the costs of such injustices. Thirdly, the essay will discuss how the amendments, including the retrospective effect, improve justice as new DNA evidence is discovered.Finally, it will analyze improvements to justice through the amendments’ positive effects on the justice system. 1. Holding the guilty accountable In the Third Report of the Home Affairs Select Committee, it was stated that ‘the whole point of a criminal justice system is to bring criminals to justice’. The double jeopardy rule contradicts this, giving guilty individuals effective ‘immunity fr om conviction and punishment’ after acquittal. The adjustments hold such individuals legally accountable for their actions indefinitely, as opposed to until the verdict is announced.Hence although it is unlikely that all acquitted criminals will be brought to justice, justice is still improved in principle as they remain liable for their wrongdoings. The most tangible form of justice attainable from the amendments would be for victims and their family and friends. The double jeopardy rule creates an imbalance in the justice system as it protects in absolute terms the rights of the defendant over that of the victim and their families as in the case of Julie Hogg.The availability of appeal for defendants causes further injustice as the double jeopardy rule prevents retrials in the same situations in reverse scenarios. The amendments bring a balance to the justice system by attaining justice for victims and their families and taking their rights into account. 2. Interests of jus tice outweigh potential injustices against defendants There is a need to consider possible injustices against the defendant to ascertain whether such amendments ultimately advance justice, including buse of the amendments by prosecutors and investigators for personal vendettas and the acquitted defendant’s right to ‘repose’ through finality. By allowing only one appeal application and the strict approach towards the appeals process, an abuse of the process without merit would be highly difficult. Absolute finality for the defendant would unjustly give the defendant exclusive immunity. A victim can never be sure that they will not be summoned to testify again in court. The law also does not prohibit civil lawsuits against the defendant, which conflicts with the principles of ‘repose’.As they are not absolute and at times unjust, the abovementioned concerns take a subordinate role in the interests of justice. 3. DNA evidence and need for retrospective inclusion for justice Recent scientific developments could be instrumental in bringing guilty individuals to justice. The House of Commons references a scenario where DNA development caused retrospective identification of a criminal. It is with these developments in mind that amendments to the double jeopardy principle are necessary as it presents opportunities to achieve justice where it was previously impossible.Not including the retrospective provision would be severely unjust as it would cause benefits from the abovementioned developments to be lost and creates ‘arbitrary distinction(s) between persons who happened to have been acquitted before and after the relevant date’. 4. Positive ramifications for the justice system The way the justice system operates and is perceived is essential to the preservation of justice. The appearance of criminals who are untouchable by the law causes the law to look impotent and ‘may undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system’.The amendments to the double jeopardy rule maintain public trust in the justice system, with courts accepting a margin for error. The double jeopardy rule in effect allows a system where ‘judges are unaccountable to the appeal courts as to a crucial aspect of their responsibilities, at the same time providing them with greater powers’. The judicial body can make mistakes and past statistics on successful appeals support this notion. As such, the amendments to the double jeopardy principle improve justice by creating a more accountable system that is open to amendment.In conclusion, the amendments to the double jeopardy rule were a necessity in improving justice and creating more opportunities for justice to be achieved. It is however important to maintain the accuracy of the outcome of the retrials in order to minimize the potential for injustice, and with careful application and implementation of the amendments, the benefits for justice should be significant.BibliographyArticles Barkham, P. The Stephen Lawrence case (1999) The Guardian, http://www. guardian. co. uk/uk/1999/feb/23/lawrence. ukcrime9

Analysis of Gender Roles in Macbeth

In many cultures, such as European in society, women are perceived as the primary caretaker of the home among other oppressive notions that pertain to them. They were in charge of organizing social events, maintaining the family’s reputation, cooking, and cleaning occasionally with assistance from their children. They were considered to be of less value than their male counterparts and, thus, were not permitted the opportunity to have a role in politics, religion, and society. Since the time of Shakespeare, the majority of gender inequities in society have been abolished, and a new era of complete equality is on the horizon.However, there are barriers of ignorance, whose sole purpose is to hinder progression, that people have yet to break. Women have made efforts to gain equality in society since the 1800’s as seen by the writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, the first great feminist treatise. It listed and discussed her grievances concerning gender inequality and had a total influence on the art of travel writing as well as the Romantic Movement.A sign of this progress in society, other than women’s introduction into several facets of society (i. e. entertainment, business, politics, etc. ), is the adoption of gender role reversal, partly due to its comedic portrayal in television but also its necessity in some homes. As expected, there were some who were more conservative towards gender equality such as, William Shakespeare which was seen in his gruesome play, Macbeth that used this idea of general role reversal to oppose this idea.Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show the first instances of this peculiar gender role reversal, which occurs exceptionally early in the play when Macbeth is conflicted with the choice of either killing Duncan as according to the plan or spare his life as he begins to see the true wickedness of this act. Here Macbeth exhibits weakness, an inability to do something treac herous and soul sullying that was relatively common for men to do in plays written by the likes of Shakespeare.Because Shakespeare has established what he believes to be a typical man and woman in his assortment of plays, for example Romeo and Juliet, one can definitively claim that Macbeth is acting exceptionally feminine during this section of the play. Lady Macbeth demonstrates her masculinity as she taunts and ridicules Macbeth for even considering terminating their plan to kill Duncan, â€Å"excerpt†. She even goes as far as suggesting killing him herself if it weren’t for the fact that Duncan resembles her father; however, she compensates for her inability to kill Duncan by placing the bloody knife in the hands of the unsuspecting servants.This role reversal is accentuated by Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy that was essentially her grievances of being a lady and her burning desire to become a man because men have the inherent ability to be dastardly, â€Å"excer pt†. While her motives for unsexification are not the most benevolent, the fact that the only method of obtaining equal mental capacity to men is to physically be a man, which at the time meant being born as one or, evidently, replacing breast milk with gall, is Shakespeare explicitly exhibiting his misogynistic notions.Aside from the subliminal sexism seen throughout the play, Shakespeare’s project pertaining to traditional gender roles is seen as the play progresses, but the true message is exhibited nearing end of the play when Lady Macbeth’s guilt induced insanity causes her to commit suicide and Macbeth’s head is decapitated. Macbeth can easily be seen as either an elongated Direct T. V. commercial—if you reverse gender roles you will go insane. When you go insane, you will be hospitalized. When you are hospitalized, you commit suicide. Don’t commit suicide.Stay with tradition—or a 17th century PSA warning the public about what ha ppens if man and a woman choose to act as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do. Shakespeare obviously believes in traditional views concerning gender hierarchy, the questionable element of it, though, is how he conveyed this message. The consequences of both Lady Macbeth attempting to adopt the role of a man and Macbeth’s seemingly unintentional femininity were gruesome and grotesque that was used to convey a relatively simple idea; this passionate conveyance has several potential explanations.The first is, because Shakespeare’s plays are suffused with suicide, murder, and death in general, the reader is seeing an integration of gender role reversal with his style of writing which happens to produce a feminist’s nightmare. Shakespeare could have been modestly incorporating this idea into his play but it appeared to the audience as something more. Second is that the catastrophic ending was not unintentional but was for all intents and purpose to scare people into never tr ying to break tradition.Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s demise was due to their non-conformity; therefore, if one were to do as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth did, they would suffer the same consequences. Either way, an underlying theme in the play, if not the most prominent, is that chaos will ensue if the most intrinsic system of humanity is upset, thus, making Macbeth a cautionary tale for all women who dare challenge the system in an attempt to gain rights. However, some are oblivious to the blatant sexism and believe that any implication of this is simply being misinterpreted.