Ireland Essays (2794 words) - Great Famine, Malnutrition, Famines

Ireland The Great Starvation of Ireland I. The starvation in Ireland: 1845-1852 Over the years, the people of Ireland have suffered many hardships, but none compare to the devastation brought by the Irish potato famine of 1845-1857. A poorly managed nation together with ideally wicked weather conditions brought Ireland to the brink of disaster. It was a combination of social, political and economic factors that pushed it over the edge. After a long wet summer, the potato blight first appeared in Wexford and Waterford in September of 1845. The phytophora infestans were carried in on ships from Europe and America. Less than a year later, in August of 1846, virtually the entire potato crop in Ireland had been destroyed. The following winter became unbearable for the already starving nation. The westerly winds, which usually brought warmer air, failed, letting cold conditions from Scandinavia and Russia overtake the island of Ireland. The effects of malnutrition from starvation combined with the unusually cold temperatures aided in the spread of disease and ultimately death among the nation of Ireland. Starvation, respiratory disease, typhus epidemics, cholera, dysentery, scurvy, and deficiencies in vitamin A, all contributed to the loss of over a million Irishmen over a seven-year period. The practice of medicine at the onset of the blight was extremely inadequate. Ireland had only 39 infirmaries; this translated into one clinic for every 366,000 people. When looking at these numbers, one can easily understand why so many perished. Many of the deaths during the famine were never recorded, because of this the death toll may never be known. The number of deaths related to starvation is estimated to range from one to one and a half million people. According to Don Mullan, 200-300 mass graves were discovered, and in each grave over 1,000 bodies were identified. The infant mortality rate in some areas reached 50%. It was mainly the deaths of babies and children were the ones that often went unrecorded. The beginnings of the starvation are said to be a biometeorological phenomenon, however, the British reacted in a sociopolitical manner. Relief from the British government was slow and insignificant. The economic policies that existed were unhelpful and the British Parliament refused to make adjustments to provide for a national disaster. No free food was offered to the starving people as long as there was food for sale. Charities offered to undersell the merchants, but under Parliament policies, this was not acceptable. Ships carrying aid from other countries were intercepted before they could reach the hungry peasants. Several American groups contributed huge amounts of money, food, and clothing for relief purposes, but little, if any, reached the starving peasants of Ireland. In March of 1847, Quakers and religious charities began funding soup kitchens and workhouses. For many of the hunger victims, this was the only kind of aid seen during the years of the famine. Before the peasants were fed, many protestant groups ordered the peasants to condemn Catholicism. Meals served by soupers consisted of watery soup and bread. These meals did not provide adequate nutrition to keep the starving people alive and, many times, made it worse. People who are starving to death suffer from water retention and nutritional edema and by trying to hydrate them with watered down soup, increased their chances of mortality. The workhouses were overcrowded as well as unhealthy. There were as many as 173 workhouses in Ireland, more than the number of health clinics. The workhouses sometimes housed more than three times the amount of people they were originally built to hold. This promoted the spread of disease that was already rampant among the Irish. These aid efforts were halted to finance improvements in long term seed distribution. British soldiers were sent in during the 1846 food riots. The troops were placed in depots, ships, and harvest fields. This action was taken by the British to ensure that the peasants did not keep their produce. During the same year, an Irish physician by the name of Dr. Dominic Corrigan wrote, Starve in the midst of plenty, as literally as if dungeon bars separated them from a granary. When distress has been at its height and our poor have been dying in our streets, our corn has been going to

Beloved - Toni Morrison essays

Beloved - Toni Morrison essays The meaning of the character of Beloved in Toni Morrisons Beloved The character of Beloved in the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison, is symbolic of several important ideas that are essential to a complete understanding of the novel. In the context of the story itself, Beloved is a specter that has returned to haunt the woman that killed her when she was child. On a deeper, subconscious level to the characters within the story, the character of Beloved can be considered to be reminder of the past. Specifically, the character of Beloved helps two characters, Sethe and Paul D., to deal with their pasts. Finally, in a historical context, Beloved can be interpreted to be a symbol of the problems that developed between mothers and their daughters as a result of the atrocities experienced through slavery. This paper will examine all of these aspects in detail and also demonstrate how they are necessary for a greater understanding of the story contained within the novel and how they complement the historical context of the story. In the storyline of Beloved, the character of Beloved is a ghost that has returned to haunt the woman that killed her. It is important to understand the circumstances around her death in order to understand why the character of Beloved must return to her mother. The character of Beloved is the daughter of Sethe. Sethe is a black woman who has escaped a slave farm in the South with her children to the house of her mother-in-law, who is named Baby Suggs. The house is referred to as 124 in the story. Sethe fled a slave owner called Teacher, who is very sadistic man that had submitted her to many kinds of mental and physical torture. One of the particularly diabolical things about Teacher was that he had attempted to study, in a scientific manner, the slaves he kept as if they were animals, treating them as if they were less than human. Sethes three children flee to the house ahead...

Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art - Essay Example In aesthetics you have to see for yourself precisely because what you have to "see" is not a property: your knowledge that an aesthetic feature is "in" the object is given by the same criteria that show that you "see" it. To see the sadness in the music and to know that the music is sad are one and the same thing. To agree in the judgment that the music is sad is not to agree in a belief, but in something more like a response or an experience" (Eldridge 145: 2003).It has long been recognized that human beings find a variety of visual and auditory appearances to be extremely fascinating. Certain sunsets, flowers, birdsongs, and beautiful bodies, among natural things, and certain pots, carvings, vocalizations, and marked surfaces, among humanly made things, seem to engage eye or ear simultaneously with thoughtful mind. In experiencing such things, we feel we want the experience to continue for "its own sake, " at least for some further time. The Greek uses a phrase to kalon which means the fine, the good, or the beautiful, to describe many sorts of things that are attractive to mind and eye or ear, without sharply distinguishing natural beauty from artistic merit (or moral goodness). "In the Symposium, Socrates reports that the priestess Diotima once instructed him in how a lover who goes about this matter correctly must begin in his youth to devote himself to beautiful bodies, first loving one body, then many (as he comes to understand that they are alike in beauty), next beautiful minds, beautiful laws and customs, beautiful ideas and theories, until finally he will come to love the Beautiful itself, absolute, pure, unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors or any other great nonsense of mortality." (Eldridge 47: 2003) In pleasing us, natural and artistic beauty, according to Kant, serve no outer purpose. The experience of beauty does not yield knowledge, and it does not of itself enable the satisfaction of desires for material goods. Yet it is not nonetheless merely agreeable or pleasant; instead, the experience of beauty matters. Beauty in nature makes us feel as though the natural world were congenial to our purposes and projects. In feeling the beautiful natural object to be "as it were" intelligible or made for us to apprehend it, we further feel that nature as a whole, which seems to "shine forth" in beauty, is favorable to our cognitive and practical interests as subjects. To experience a beautiful sunset, according to Kant, is to feel (though not to know theoretically) that nature makes sense. Kant's terminology may be difficult, the experience he is describing is a familiar one. Beautiful objects of nature or art engage our attention. We love them by paying active, cognitive attention to t hem, even if we do not get anything from them or even if it brings out the inner most emotions from us. The above discussion brings us to compare art with emotions, the reason why identifications with artists and imaginative participation in experiences and emotions are available to us is that works of art are made things, products or instances of human action. To understand an action, including actions of artistic making, is to understand its suitable motivation by reasons in contexts. Actions of artistic making, including the making of both narrative art and non-narrative art, are concerned with the shaping of materials to hold attention on a presented subject matter. (In abstract work, the presented subject matters are often centrally the perception and gestural action of the artist and the possibility of the audience's imaginative participation in that perception and gestural action.) Whatever emotions figure in attention to this subject matter are emotions that members of the audience are solicited to experience and explore, as they participate in the attention that is embodied in the work. The understanding of art is much related to exploring, to understand art critically is to explore it imaginatively, guided by a range of relevant

Managing at a distance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing at a distance - Essay Example The central location has become the virtual office, the virtual enterprise, which has translated into the virtual work team. Utilizing virtual teams now allow organizations to bring together critical contributors in real time that might not otherwise be able to work together in a traditional work environment. Virtual teams can also add to the pool of resources available to any organization by opening the door to include people from outside the sponsoring organization such as supply chain affiliates, members of interconnected organizations, or external consultants. In many cases, the communication and insight from this type of 360 degree feedback is can give the organization an edge over their competitors. The result is what has come to be termed a distributed work groups, or virtual teams as they are more commonly known. Like any team, a virtual team works on interdependent tasks guided by a common purpose. Like anymore traditional team, the group needs to have consistent and hands on leadership in order to keep the team focused on the tasks at hand, and facilitate progress. However, because these teams are located across space, time, and organizational and geographic boundaries, the challenges of leading the team have become an entirely new endeavor. As one researcher described it, because of advanced technologies and communication tools global teams are developing the ability to "work together apart" (Grenier and Meters, 1992), In the light of these changing dynamics, leadership personnel must learn a new conflux of tools. "Management by walking around," a term made popular in the 1980's as a way to stay connected to those under the leaders direction is no longer possible. In addition, ineffective management styles which could be compensated for through personal contact now can destroy an organizations ability to communicate and achieve project goals effectively. Therefore, the team leader must be able to complete and facilitate a number of human relational dynamics without seeing his team face to face, including trust building, performance accountability, and conflict resolution. So how does the manager adapt his or her personal style to the needs of the virtual work team in order to overcome the barriers created by different locations and organizational cultures The manager must: 1. have a clear understanding of the project goals and objectives. 2. have a deep understanding of how or her own management styles, it strengths and weaknesses 3. work to improve on his or her weaknesses, and utilize his or her strengths in order to create an environment of transformational leadership. While many different personal evaluation tools have evolved during the past few decades, the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) seeks to help the manager understand his or her own personal weaknesses as well as strengths. The purpose of the SDI is to make the manager more aware of their own personality and relationship skills, both positively and negatively. The purpose of the SDI is not to give the learner a task list, but rather educate him to use his gifts more effectively while charting a path to develop his own weaknesses. In the work team environment, an unidentified weakness can destroy the moral or cohesiveness within the group more quickly because of the limited personal contact the participants have with each other. "Team leaders typically find that achieving alignment and commitment

Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Example for Free

Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Star Trek technology has become reality that we use in our daily lives. There are many different forms of technology fields that have been shown in Star Trek as a first that have become a reality rather than a Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) fantasy. Star Trek technology came from the great imaginative minds of writers and designers with little to no knowledge of science in the original series. It wasnt until the second series that they started to incorporate actual scientific methods and terms. Advancements in science have come about through the influence of creative people thinking of the future. This technology has been instrumental in how we conduct our lives. Contemporary technology has been influenced by Star Trek in many ways. Phones were around for many years before Star Trek; however, they were tied down to the house or office by wires and the bulkiness of the devices. No one could possibly make a phone call on the go, yet they could by using a phone booth. However, using a phone booth would not be of much use since it couldnt be carried around. One of the greatest inventors of this decade, Dr. Martin Cooper, decided to come up with a new form of communicating with the rest of the world. Dr. Martin Cooper found himself tripping over his phone cord when he saw Star Trek appear on the TV playing in the background. Cooper watched with envy as Captain Kirk calmly conversed while walking across an alien landscape. (Laytner, 2011) While Cooper watched Captain Kirk with his communicator, he was bewildered â€Å"And, suddenly theres Captain Kirk talking on his communicator,† remembers Cooper. â€Å"Talking with no dialing!† (Handel, 2005) With the idea set in his mind, he set out to make it a reali ty. In 1973, Martian Cooper, While working for Motorola, he [Cooper] created the first personal cell phone, citing Captain Kirks communicator on Star Trek as an inspiration. His first call on the 28-oz. (800 g) cordless cell phone — dubbed the brick — was to his rival at Bell Labs Research. (Grossman, 2007) However, this big brick of a phone didnt match the likeness of the communicator that Captain Kirk used, so in 1996, Motorola made the first flip phone named StarTAC. (Kessler, 09-0) These clamshell phones were highly sought after and held the cell phone design for many years until touch screen phones recently became more popular. Many Star Trek fans and even older more stubborn non-techies still try to keep the flip phone for the nostalgia of Star Trek and to keep pocket dialing to a minimum. In 1974, Ed Roberts created the Altair 8800, the first minicomputer that came in kits for consumers to put together, yet it wasnt a friendly user system since software wasnt invented yet. The Altair 8800 was named after a space system from the Star Trek series and was the basis for the basic computer language that Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Gordon Moore of Intel used to create new and more user friendly computers. This basic language that Ed Roberts created was inspired by Star Trek (Handel, 2005). When computers became a household name and personal were computers available to the general public, a new development occurred that would be called a laptop. Adam Osborne of Osborne Computer Corporation, the father of portable computers, introduced the first commercially available portable computer with software to run it, named Osborne 1 in 1981 (Scott, n.d.). In 1968, Alan Kay of Xerox made a concept and prototype of a portable information manipulator, named Dynabook, a different form of a portable computer that wasn’t user friendly or available to the general public (Maxwell, 2006). Without software, the Dynabook was hard to understand and use, so the Osborne 1 with its software and graphic interface to allow users to see what they were doing made it a true portable computer. Portable computers got an even newer facelift in 1993 when Robert Haitani developed the Palm Pilot, a first in personal data assistant (PDA) and a new form of portable computers. Robert Haitani, the designer of the Palm Pilot, said his first sketches were influenced by the Enterprise bridge panels and produced it. A few years later there was a combination of cell phones and PDAs since they shared hardware which resembled to the communicator in Star Trek. You could stand there and talk into it like Captain Kirk (Laytner, 2011). The Palm Pilot spanned PDAs which transformed into the current popular trend of tablets and smart phones. All the different technologies incorporated into the tablet and the smart phone can be traced back to their Star Trek influenced roots. Advancements in technology and science have been influenced by many sources. Star Trek played a large role in evolution of the modern technology by influencing many inventors. Even though the original series of Star Trek was written and designed with little to no knowledge of the technological advancements of the times, Gene Rodenberry wrote many views of how life would be with various forms of technology that weren’t even a reality, yet. Works Cited Grossman, Lev. (2007). Best inventions of 2007. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1677708_1677825,00.html. (Grossman, 2007) Time listed the best inventions and inventors of the 2007, and they had Martin Cooper listed for creating the first mobile telephone that wasnt mounted in a car in 1973. Laytner, Lance. (2011). Edit international. Retrieved from http://www.editinternational.com/read.php?id=4810edf3a83f8 (Laytner, 2011) Talks about the documentary How William Shatner Changed The World and the many inventions of many inventors help shaped the world now because they were influenced by Star Trek to reach for the future. Maxwell, John (2006) Tracing the Dynabook: A Study of Technocultural Transformations http://thinkubator.ccsp.sfu.ca/Dynabook/Maxwell-DynabookFinal.pdf (Maxwell, 2006) This thesis paper was great detail on Alan Kay, who made a from of portable computer that manipulated information, and his accomplishments and how the Dynabook became what it did. Handel, Alan. (Writer) (2005). How William Shatner Changed The World [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u304yVYoCJs

daves American Civil War :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was a long tiring winter after the Union army pushed the Confederate army further south. The Union captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. This is where I had to take over reporting the war for my brother Mike Bloom who was killed in the line of duty. It was his job that's is now mine John Bloom to report for the Union Observer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After these courageous Union victories the Confederate army General Sidney Johnston was forced to abandon much of west and middle Tennessee as well as Kentucky. Johnston felt that it was necessary to protect the only all weather access between Richmond and Memphis. Which was the Charleston and Memphis railroad. There he set up a new defensive line.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While this was going on I was stationed at Fort Shiloh with some 40,000 soldiers who were busy drilling yet mostly hanging around grasping the little leisure and rest time they ever saw. I asked one solider who just got out of the creek after a refreshing swim â€Å"Why he was swimming and not training†. His response was â€Å"Didn’t you know that Shiloh is the Hebrew word for place of peace† we both got a good chuckle out of that and he gave me some moon shine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After talking with the troops I decided it was time to ask the commanding officer who was General Ulysses S. Grant what the plan of action was.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I asked the General if he had any orders his response was â€Å"My superior General H.W. Halleck has ordered me to sit tight at Shiloh and wait for the reinforcement of General Don Carlos Buell and his army from Ohio to arrive.† I then asked him hat did he feel was the catalyst of this war? â€Å" Well in my opinion I fell that if the South just could have thought about their morals and how immoral slavery was which is why the North made it illegal and wanted it abolished from the South.† Are there any other reasons you think the war started? â€Å"Yes I also feel that when the South succeeded from the Union was also a large factor.† Thank you sir for all of that information the people up north will be enveloped with your opinion.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Little did I know that when I was sleeping that the Confederate troops were mounting an attack this night of April 5, 1862.

Deed of Undertaking Essay

Do hereby given an undertaking as under:- 1) That I have passed Xth std. / XIIth std. Examination through (Name of the School) Villa Theresa High School Is situated in Taluka Mumbai Dist. Mumbai City StateMaharashtra 2) That I am desires to take admission in Std. XI/XII in Jr. College (Name of the Jr. College) for the Academic Year 2014-2015 3) That while taking admission, I am required to furnish following documents. i) Statement of Marks of the last public Examination / Statement of marks of Std. XI th Examination of the Jr. College (Home Exam) ii) Passing certificate of the last public Examination iii) School leaving Certificate/Transfer Certificate. iv) Migration Certificate in Original 4) That I am also aware that my admission, is provisional and that the Jr. College shall have every right to assess independently, the truthfulness and the correctness of the documents mentioned at Serial Number (3) of this undertaking. That in the event, if it is subsequently found out by the Jr. College/Board that the particulars furnished in the admission form or the documents furnished while seeking admission are false and fabricated, in that event Jr. College authorities will have right to take action against me, including right to cancel the admission. 5) I am also fully aware of the fact that the Jr. College has given me provisional admission subject to grant of eligibility certificate by the Mumbai Divisional Boar, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 703 of Maharashtra State  Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education having its Head Office situated at Bhambhurda Shivajinagar, Pune – 411004. 6) In case if the Divisional Board reject my application, submitted through the Head of the Jr. College for grant of Eligibility Certificate, my admission to the Jr. College shall stand automatically cancelled. 7) In case if the Divisional Board grants me Eligibility Certificate with instructions to furnish certain documents within stipulated period, I here by undertake to fulfil the requirement within the stipulated time limit. 8) I am aware of the fact that, in case, if I fail to furnish the required documents within the stipulated time I shall not be eligible for admission in the Jr. College and as such my admission shall stand automatically cancelled. That I have read the contents of the undertaking and has properly understood the same and in witness whereof had signed on this Deed of Undertaking on this day of 2014 at place