Things Are Not Always What They Seem

Thursday, September , 2011. This marks the start date of the Class of 2011's first and last full year at Oxbow Prairie Horizons School (OPHS), the new K-12 school in Oxbow, Saskatchewan. It's an absolutely gorgeous facility, complete with a large gym (equipped with top-of-the-line sound and lighting systems), integrated program for the functionally challenged students, large foyer, kitchen and even an extra gym. The building is plenty big and even has removable classrooms, but every rose has its thorn, right? Or in OPHS' case, thorns. Shortly after starting the 2011-2012 school term, and even shortly after moving into the school in March? of 2011, many staff and students have noticed a few glitches (so to speak) in the system. At first, small, piddly details that we can easily deal with (overcome? ). Like the room design of the biology, chemistry and physics labs where bulletin boards are blocked by the teachers' desk and computer or even by entire counters. Like in the canteen, we were lucky enough to have beautiful cupboards installed to store our merchandise, but when it came time to actually sell it/them, students were unable to see the products anyways. So, in turn, the cupboard doors were taken off completely. Eventually, the small problems began to arise more suspicions and more noticeable and elaborate ones were recognized. Toilets in the washrooms began to constantly flush, some having to be manuallly shut off. The office in the shop has no windows, it is just a small room enclosed of cement. The parking lot is poorly designed. Trying to see around parked vehicles to hitting oncoming ones is hard and it is nearly impossible to maneuver large vehicles around at all. The buses drop students off half a block from the main entrances and when students do enter the school, depending on the weather, are required to move outdoor shoes because the parking lot is either muddy, full of water, or both. Which is not only a bother to our janitors but also to visitors, who trip over shoes trying to enter the building. Wireless internet was the first of many large problems to be noticed by the students. They were told that if you have a class where you will be using laptops and it is a larger class, to bring a personal laptop to work on as there may not be enough laptops for everyone. So, some did, until they told that the principal wasn't given a password to the school's public Wi-Fi network and they were unable to do homework and sassingments anyways. Even now, after Mr. Petlak has been given the password and used it on student's computers, they are unable to access certain sites due to them being blocked. Sites that students use to complete and accomplish tasks and assignments. Why? Because staff at OPHS are unable to control this. It is government workers in either Weyburn or Regina that do. The base temperature of OPHS is, put simply, freezing. During September, where it can be twenty degrees celsius and above, most staff and students were already wearing sweaters and jackets to class. Which, in retrospect, is not uncommon for Oxbow. In the old high school, anyone working in the building would be wearing jackets, touques and mittens, unless you were in the science labs or the main office. There you would wear shorts, tank tops and flip flops. But with the excitment of the Horizons School close to being fully built, came the realization that we could actually wear seasonal appropriate clothing to school. Or so we thought. Now, in the new school, we freeze pretty well everywhere. With the exception of the Sr. Computer Lab, main office and the canteen (which are all normal temperatures), staff and students are still needing to wear layers and even haul blankets form class to class. Why? This is because of the poor commmunictation between our school and Weyburn, where they then decide whether or not to contact Regina to turn up the heat in jsut one particular room. Which, after the first few attmepts of doing so, we were told to use the thermostats located in each classroom. These allow teachers the ability to raise or lower the room temperature by 3 degrees. That's it. In one area of the school there is actually cold air being blown throughout its rooms. But for us to fix this, we must flip a breaker. Instead of simply pushing a button on a thermostat to raise the temperature, we are required to issue a complaint to the Weyburn office, who then decide whether it is a big enough deal to report to the office in Regina. And apparently, it isn't a problem for us to freeze. All of these problems can relate back to the fact that Oxbow has no power against the authority offices in Regina and Weyburn. We are not able to decide the climate of our classrooms, who has access to use our internet or even who is allowed put a screw in the wall to hang a picture. We are by no means, allowed to. A government office in that is 150-250 kilometers away makes the decision of what is and is not allowed. People who have no idea what goes on in our school, who attends or works there, what we are like or even where Oxbow is, has that discretion. Yes, our old school's had a very large laundry list: plumbing, heating, electrical and just overall renovating. This article is not set out to complain about our new school. We were in much need of a new facility and are greatly appreciative for the effort, time and hard work that were pput into building it. But, with that said, I find it hard to comprehend how certain, seemingly common sense issues are ignored. The new school in Oxbow has heightened the school's many previous strengths such as atheletics, drama, academics and even the staff and students as individuals. This school also has its negative effects though. And it is the students that are being effected. The future depends on them. So why does it have to be such a struggle to give them a proper learning environment? Teagan Loppe

An Analysis of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

Burning Books Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451 takes places in some sort of â€Å"perfect† world. In the novel people who â€Å"think† are considered outcasts and weird. Additionally, the population has almost completely removed books from their society. This can directly connect to modern American society in which, entertainment and material possessions seem to interest people more than books, and the small items in life remain unappreciated. Several people today do not enjoy reading. They have found an external source of entertainment in, television, radio, or music.Similar to the novel, today’s society has begun to abandon books. They don’t have much of a free will anymore and some may call it mind control. The society in the novel seems very similar to this because they never had a chance to express themselves or have unique personalities. Furthermore, various people do not appreciate the smaller items in life and look more interested in phy sical objects such as, money. Moreover, in Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse mentions to Montag how drivers may have not ever seen the grass or flowers, or even looked at nature.It seems like these two groups have completely removed â€Å"thinking† and â€Å"knowledge† from their lives in search of materials with â€Å"greater value. † These two societies have many similarities. Particularly, modern American society has begun placing books away and looking for other forms of entertainment. Today, individuals make it seem like money and material possessions are the most important in life. Likewise, those in Ray Bradbury’s novel appear to find more interest in Parlor walls and seashell radios instead of objects that allow more thought, such as books.

Causes of the English Civil War

Causes of The English Civil War In this assessment I will be analysing the many causes and roots of the English Civil war which broke out in 1642. The English civil war was a long chain of conflict and rivalry, which was set between two very powerful forces, who consisted of The Royalists (King Charles I, and his supporters), and the Roundheads (Parliament, and their supporters).The feud erupted on the 22nd of August 1642, and lasted for 7 years, when its final action took place in 1649. There were many reasons for this intellectual battle, including political arguments, economical arguments and also religious arguments, which will be categorised and stated in this essay. To begin with, one of the fundamental causes of The Civil War includes a religious argument, about James I’s and Charles I’s dedication to the ‘Divine Rights of Kings’.The Divine Rights of Kings was a religious doctrine, which states that a monarch is to have no authority to the will of hi s/her people, deriving the right to rule directly from the will of only God. James and Charles were both very firm, believers of The Divine Rights of Kings especially that, as to begin with James expected a great amount of attention from Parliament, by letting him make his own decisions, and did not expect any of his decisions to be argued with.However at this time, Parliament consumed a major advantage over James, as parliament contained a great amount of money, whereas James was constantly short of it. It was from his father that Charles acquired to also be a very strong devotee to the Divine Rights of Kings, as he realised the damaged relationship which was left between his father and Parliament, and blamed this action entirely on Parliament. This led to a complete ignorance with the Parliament, from Charles, and set his Godly rights to do as he pleased.But this action was considered a huge shock to Parliament, during this time, as parliament had experienced to be more powerful u nder the period of the Tudors, and anticipated current Kings and Queens to listen and abide by their commands, just like Elizabeth I had done, by being a succeeding sovereign, listening wisely to the Parliament, and standing by their rules. But the actions of Charles meant that the power of Parliament had been undertaken by the monarch, and their reputation continued to weaken. Because of this parliament now despised Charles very much. All these actions shows that TheDivine Rights of Kings is implied as a very significant reason to foundation of the civil war, as it is considered as the main reason for the start of the whole dispute and disagreement between the Royalists and Roundheads. This whole feud continued to develop, as parliament were increasingly getting more frustrated, with the fact that James I and Charles I, were acting even more foolishly upon idiotic decisions they made. An important political reason for this is that both Charles I and James I, thoughtlessly and carel essly, choses the most unhelpful advisors for themselves.James I choose the Duke of Buckingham, for the most idiotic reason; because he was good looking. James thought that the Public would be attracted to this reason, but unfortunately were not, as Buckingham came out to be very stupid and a waste of choice. Charles also foolishly chose his advisor, by selecting his best friend the Earl of Strafford, which was a he mistake as he public hated him, which led to a bad impression on the king. Another action that Gave Charles a bad impression was the amount of money that was wasted by him, by spending a hefty amount on insignificant things, such as cloths, parties and palaces.But this meant that Charles was continuously losing his money, and therefore, always ended up asking Parliament for more money. Charles found other ways to get more money, as he also need money for a war taking place against Spain at the time. One way Charles’s used was asking Parliament to increase taxes, s o that he could gain the money he needed, but unfortunately this didn’t happen as Parliament refused to give the money to Charles, as Parliament had a list of demand to get more power off the King.But Charles did not take any of this, as he would not allow his power to be destroyed and taken away by Parliament, and in a terrible rage of anger he made the simple decision to shut down Parliament in 1629 for 11 years, which changed England politically, as it meant that there was now less control over England, to guide its path! making this decisions also lead to consequences, as now that Parliament was gone, he needed to depend another resort to get more money.In 1635, Charles decided made a very important economic decision to resort to the ancient custom of demanding ship money. Ship money was an ancient tax, when kings were able to order coastal towns and villages to pay for the expenses of the navy and ships. However, Charles demanded more ship tax the following year, and int ended to ask for it every year. But this gained Charles a vast amount of complaints. Especially when in 1637, a man named John Hampden was prosecuted for refusing to pay ship tax. This made people very angry. And eventually in July 1641 ship tax was abolished.

Governments and corporations Essay

There was no question of ownership of oil, water and other resources freely available in the environment before governments and/or private companies claimed ownership of these resources with the pronouncement that they would process and distribute these resources fairly. Poverty is a result of unfair distribution of resources. Moreover, environmental degradation ensues when governments or corporations are too greedy for immediate profits to consider the environmental impact of their business decisions. Surely environmental degradation accompanies loss of life. On the other hand, sustainable development is defined as â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs† (â€Å"Adaptation to Climate Change in the Context of Sustainable Development†). The United Nations Economic and Social Council reports the following as an illustration of the ill effects of unsustainable development: †¦[The] rate of agricultural production growth at the global level has been about 2. 3 per cent between 1970 and 1990 and thus has exceeded population growth so that per capita supplies of food have increased. However, wide regional disparities remain: the situation improved greatly in East Asia but worsened in sub-Saharan Africa. There still remain large numbers of under-nourished people in developing countries†¦ The relentless exploitation of the natural resource base to achieve an increased level of agricultural production has resulted in increased natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation (â€Å"Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development†). The following case of the Aral Sea sheds greater light on the fact of natural resources being exploited when governments and/or corporations refuse to consider the trade-off that the concept of sustainable development is built upon. Situated southwest of Kazakhstan, northwest of Uzbekistan, and east of the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea is presently a salt lake. Until the 1970s, the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth largest lake, fed by the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers (â€Å"Aral Sea†). When the dictator Josef Stalin rose to power in 1941, and right up to his death in 1953, he desired to make the Soviet Union self-sufficient in cotton, which is used for both gunpowder and clothing. Hence, the successors of Stalin during the 1960s and 1970s allowed an unlimited amount of irrigation water to be tapped from both the Amu Darya in the south and the Syr Darya in the northeast – to quench the thirst of the cotton fields (â€Å"Dike Built To Revive Aral Sea; Soviet-Era Policies Turned World’s Third-Largest Lake into Saline Hazard†). According to environmentalists, cotton grown in a desert is sure to result in immense wastage of water. On the other hand, smaller quantities of water may be used to produce abundant food. Moreover, it has been claimed that the Uzbeks use a rather wasteful procedure to irrigate their cotton from the Amu Darya. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of its republics, the government of Uzbekistan has continued its old ruinous policy, as cotton happens to be the principle hard-currency earner for the landlocked republic in west central Asia. Hence, the world’s fourth largest lake that once supplied approximately fifty thousand tons of fish every year or one hundred pounds of fish per acre has lost a staggering ninety percent of its volume. And, this has happened in the past half century alone. Most of the fish in the Aral Sea have died because the water has turned too salty to be inhabitable (â€Å"Dike Built To Revive†). The Soviet policy of using unlimited water from the rivers that fed the Aral Sea has been referred to as a bad one because the successors of Stalin, and now Uzbekistan’s government, failed to take into consideration the science behind dried former sea beds. As though the death of fish is not a big deal, a dried former sea bed also spawns dust storms spreading salt, pesticides and fertilizers. This is exactly what happened in the case of the Aral Sea, as the area’s already fragile semi desert was ultimately damaged, turning its people into some of the unhealthiest on the planet. Here, anemia figures top ninety percent (â€Å"Dike Built To Revive†). Of course, the Aral Sea disaster is a typical illustration of governmental policies gone astray. Then there are corporations that refuse to consider that the natural environment is built on cause-and-effect relationships just like business management. In early September 2006, a toxic waste dumping scandal of truly globalized proportions came to light in the Ivory Coast. The Probo-Koala, a tanker chartered by the London-based shipping company, Tranfigura, set off from Amsterdam carrying four hundred metric tons of petrochemical waste to dump in Abidjan, the port city of the Ivory Coast (Vidal; â€Å"Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker Impounded by Estonia†). Tranfigura informed the Amsterdam Port Services that the waste was absolutely â€Å"conventional† (Vidal). However, it was later discovered that the waste contained hydrogen sulfide, which happens to be a poisonous gas, smelling as rotten eggs (â€Å"Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker†). At least ten people lost their lives in the weeks immediately following the incident in the Ivory Coast (Vidal). Moreover, seventy five thousand people sought medical treatment with complaints of nausea, nose bleeds, breathlessness, vomiting, diarrhea, skin damage, headaches, and swollen stomachs (Vidal; â€Å"Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker†). Undoubtedly, if the corporation responsible for sending toxic waste to the Ivory Coast had been conscientious to begin with, lives would have been saved. Even so, maximization of profits is the goal of all producers. Depending on the moralities of their owners and managers, they may or may not believe in the need to behave ethically. Unfortunately, many for-profit businesses around the globe are known to engage in unethical practices, which is the reason why the government must step in to regulate markets and the practices of various business ventures when it is believed that doing so would be of benefit to society. Governments have the right to charge corporations for the damages they inflict upon people and their environment. Then again, as the example of Aral Sea shows, even governments may fail to understand that the environment, like business, is built on cause and effect relationships. As expected, governments that make bad policies or wrong choices may only profit in the short run. In the long run, everyone must pay for faulty policies. Those who are subjected to such governments have to pay through the disastrous effects of bad policies on an immediate level. Their fault seems to be that they did not protest soon enough the bad policies of their governments. Regardless of whether they are able to do so, the fact remains that unbridled profit seeking behavior at the expense of the environment costs lives. Works Cited â€Å"Adaptation to Climate Change in the Context of Sustainable Development. † United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Sustainable Development. 8 May 2009. . â€Å"Aral Sea. † The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. â€Å"Dike Built To Revive Aral Sea; Soviet-Era Policies Turned World’s Third-Largest Lake into Saline Hazard. † The Washington Times (1 Oct 2005), p. A08. â€Å"Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker Impounded by Estonia. † Environmental News Service. 28 Sep 2006. 8 May 2009. . â€Å"Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. † United Nations Economic and Social Council. 11-28 Apr 1995. 8 May 2009. .

The Use of Virtual Engagement by the British Council Research Proposal

The Use of Virtual Engagement by the British Council - Research Proposal Example It is, therefore, necessary to have a center that offers a platform by which individuals and organizations can come together and discuss matters affecting climate change in the world. Virtual technology, in this case, can be very useful as it will ease the process through which communication is to be done. The British Council on climate change and sustainability initiated an idea of using virtual technology in addressing the issue of discussion on climate change and sustainability (Virtual Engagement: British Council’s Zero Carbon Centre, 2013). This center is to help the individuals and organization to share information on carbon emission and host events with topics on climate change and sustainability and create synergies (O’Neill 2008, 81). The use of virtual technology in the fight against climate change is a very noble idea. The use of virtual technology in zero carbon centers will include a number of topics including; I. Dr. Rebecca initiated the idea behind the use of virtual technology in the creation of the zero carbon centers. The research paper should address Dr. Rebecca Nadin, the director of the program in China. Her ideas led to the creation of the Zero Carbon Centre. Dr. Rebecca is considered as the pioneer of the program as she usually challenged her team to broaden the reach and thoughts of climate change. In addition, it should address the creation and the launch of the Zero Carbon Centre. The research should address the ideas that were brought together and the eventual creation of the center. It should address the procedure through which the center was created and the funding of the finances that were used to create the center. II. The use of virtual technology in the carbon center is the other topic that will be discussed. Communication is the key factor in virtual technology. It is used to bring organizations and people together.  

Business Continuity Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Continuity Management - Essay Example Some of the components of a business continuity plan are business and disaster recovery, crisis, incident and emergency management, product recall and unforeseen event planning. For this Business Continuity Management to be functional, it has to be grown (Eliot et al 2009, 1). From a simple obscure branch, it grows into a completely fledged conventional business practice. To affect this, one has to have some acquaintance in the key concepts of building a flexible organization and involve the use of a standard (BS 25999) as a channel towards best practice (Blyth 2009, p10). In this paper, we look at the implementation of business continuity management, its value with an effort to ascertain the context in which it is implemented in dealing with challenges that come with any business environment. Getting started with business continuity management According to Hiles (2010, p110) Business Continuity Management is a major component of comprehensive emergency management plan. It is thus an important asset for any organization, for it allows quick recovery form a disruption. It is not that organizations hope for disruptions to happen; it is only that in the current business environment, globalization has come with various uncertainties (Blyth 2009, p10).Therefore, a Business Continuity Management plan has to be clear to the participators, to the point and made in a way that it is directly meeting the needs of any given organization. It is, therefore, advisable that it becomes part of the manner in which an organization operates. In the past, this had always been a reserve for big multinational corporations. However, the recent past has seen a rise in the employment of such a plan with companies rising to the occasion of protecting its interest’s and its reputation (Eliot et al 2009, p1). Therefore, the firs t step involves the acceptance of its usefulness by the senior managers and the boss of a company. However, it should be of essence that this involves every employee, for it is part of their responsibilities. As a matter of fact, the existence of a business continuity coordinator is very essential. This is because; his team is given the responsibility of spearheading the whole process by providing the resources needed to manage the implementation of this BC program. Some of these steps concerned in the progress of this plan include: Understand the vulnerabilities of one’s company. Define the business continuity strategy. Develop a plan. Cultural change. Rehearse the plan. Background Business Continuity Management has its origins in catastrophe recovery planning. From this perspective, it grew to emergency planning before maturing into the ultimate new tactically focused management concern it is today(Blyth 2009, pp1-29). Having its roots in information systems, it has afforded to move from this technical focus to compliance focus. Some businesses are seeing beyond this s to a strategic focus. This has mainly been due to the chan ging requirements of both the stakeholders and the organizations. Relevance of business continuity management It is important for businesses that operate under risky environments such as finance, telecommunications, transportation and civic division to embrace this plan. This is because, the ability of them continuing to operate is majorly dependent on the organization as well

European Union Competition Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

European Union Competition Law - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the process has to be facilitated by EU vertical agreements and guided by the Competition law between the local distributors and the producers seeking new markets. The efficient distribution accompanied with proper after and pre-sales support makes part of pro-competitive process which ends up benefiting consumers. However, the vertical agreements between distributors and producers may also lead to the continuation of market partitioning and act as barriers to new entrants whose presence would have intensified the market competition and resulted in a declining pressure on prices. Thus the vertical agreements between distributors and producers can therefore be used in a pro-competitive way so as to promote the market’s efficient distribution and integration. The differences in prices among Member States that still exists offer incentives for new companies to access markets and also form barriers against new competition. This trend is as a result of the vertical agreements and constraints being pro-competitive in most cases. Enforcement priorities, modernization and more focus being put on effects has led the Competition Law actions to shy away from such agreements and lean towards restrictive practices which it considers being more serious. Since the enactment of Regulation No. 1/2003 as well as the prior notification requirement abolition, the EU Competitive Law decisions regarding vertical agreements have been almost non-existing concerning the Court of Justice litigation on this issue. 3. Following this premises, and without including the developments of major case laws in the adaptation of the new vertical agreement framework, the Law had correctly assumed that the Regulation No. 2790/1999 had come up with a system that was working smoothly. Consequently, the Regulation No. 330/2010 gave a full exemption to particular vertical agreement categories included with new guidelines4. Vertical agreements that ar e normally concluded between limited market power companies and lack competition hardcore restrictions are normally alleged to be pro-competitive and hence are covered by generalized exemption. Cross agreements which do not qualify according to exemptions do not face automatic prohibition but included as considering the vertical agreements beneficial effects, the undertakings and turnover should not undergo different treatment. Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) The EU Competition law has had remarkable impacts on vertical agreements including the way it affects the RPM5. Most lawyers and economist have argued that the Competition Law has had pro-competitive effects on RPM in relation to vertical agreements. The Supreme Court had a take in this during the Leegin case where it ruled to its favor but with a weak majority. The Competition Law has had both anticompetitive and pro-competitive affects on RPM but the situations leading to pro-competitive effects have proved to be of great sign ificance to vertical agreements. In a situation where there the RPM is strict, free-riding problems can be easily overcome in situations where pre-sale services are offered to consumers by retailers and go ahead to impact such services on the price6. In a similar situation, another retailer may resolve on doing away with the pre-sale services, hence ends up bearing the additional costs but supplies goods at a price that is reduced by taking advantage of the other retailers move to provide pore-sale services. In other