Conclusion and implication Essay Example for Free

Conclusion and implication Essay Failure to make use of available hazard-reduction information and measures of known effectiveness constitutes another general policy issue. It is one that assists to stimulate the ongoing UN-sponsored International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (Mitchell, 1988). In many places it would be potential to mitigate losses simply by putting what is known into effect. For instance, the value of warning and evacuation systems has been proven repeatedly; yet such systems are often underused. Likewise, hazard-mitigation schemes offer consistent paths toward reducing the long-term costs of disasters but they are often resisted in favour of instant post-disaster relief, insurance, and compensation programmes. Why do individuals and governments fail to make optimal use of available knowledge? There is no single answer to this question. A large number of factors are involved. Lack of agreement about definition and identification of problem; †¢ Lack of attentiveness of hazards; †¢ Misperception or misjudgement of risks; †¢ Lack of awareness of suitable responses; †¢ Lack of proficiency to make use of responses; †¢ Lack of money or resources to pay for responses; †¢ Lack of harmonization among institutions; †¢ Lack of attention to correlation between â€Å"disasters† and â€Å"development†; †¢ Failure to treat hazards as related problems whose components require simultaneous attention (i. e. reciprocity); †¢ Lack of access by affected populations to decision-making; †¢ Lack of public confidence in scientific knowledge; †¢ Conflicting goals among populations at risk; †¢ Fluctuating salience of hazards (competing priorities); †¢ Public opposition by negatively affected individuals and groups. Underlying all of these explicit reasons is a larger problem. It is this: society fails to take care of natural hazards as complex systems with several components that often require simultaneous attention. We tinker with one or another aspect of these systems when what are required are system-wide strategies. Perhaps even more significant, we fail to address the direct connection between natural hazard systems and economic investment decisions that drive the procedure of â€Å"development† and affect the potential for disasters. That such links subsist has been known for a very long time: If a man owes a debt, and the storm engulfs his field and carries away the produce, or if the grain has not grown in the field, in that year he shall not make any revisit to the creditor, he shall alter his contract and he shall not pay interest for that year. But mainly of the decisions that are taken to build new facilities or redevelop old ones, or to take on new production and distribution processes, or to develop new land, or to effectuate a myriad of other development goals are not currently very receptive to considerations of natural hazards. They must become so. And that is a task that will require a great deal of effort by natural hazard scientists to go beyond the laboratory and the research office or the field study site to obtain an understanding of how best to apply their expertise in public settings. It will also need the users of scientific information about hazards (architects, engineers, planners, banks and mortgage companies, international development agencies, and investment financiers) to foster a mutually interactive correlation with the scientists who are producers of that information. â€Å"Development† is only one of the main public issues that overlap with natural hazards reduction. Others include: environmental management; public health; security (personal, social, and national); and urbanization. All of them are major hitch sets in their own right, each patterned by philosophical and managerial disputes and unsettled issues. Efforts to work out commonly supportive policies and programmes raise entirely new sets of appropriate issues for hazards experts. References: †¢ Dombrowsky, Wolf R. 1995. â€Å"Again and Again: Is a Disaster What We Call ‘Disaster’? Some Conceptual Notes on Conceptualizing the Object of Disaster Sociology. † International Journal of mass Emergencies and Disasters (Nov. ), Vol. 13, No. 3, 241-254. †¢ Crozier, M. and Friedberg, E. (1979) Macht und Organisation, Berlin: Athenaum. (in German). †¢ IDNDR (International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction). 1996. Cities at risk: Making cities safer †¦ before disaster strikes. Supplement to No. 28, Stop Disasters. Geneva: IDNDR. †¢ Maskrey, Andrew. 1989. Disaster mitigation: A community based approach. Development Guidelines No. 3. Oxford: Oxfam. †¢ Mitchell, James K. 1988. â€Å"Confronting natural disasters: An international decade for natural hazard reduction. † Environment 30(2): 25–29. †¢ Mitchell, James K. 1989. â€Å"Hazards research. † In Gary Gaile and Cort Willmott (eds. ), Geography in America. Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing Company, pp. 410– 424. †¢ Mitchell, James K. 1993b. â€Å"Recent developments in hazards research: A geographers perspective. In E. L. Quarantelli and K. Popov (eds.), Proceedings of the United States–Former Soviet Union Seminar on Social Science Research on Mitigation for and Recovery from Disasters and Large Scale Hazards. Moscow, April 19– 26, 1993. Vol. I: The American participation. Newark: University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center, pp. 43–62. †¢ Mitchell, James K. and Neil Ericksen. 1992. â€Å"Effects of climate changes on weather-related disasters. † In Irving Mintzer (ed. ), Confronting climate change: Risks, implications and responses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 141–152. †¢ Mitchell, James K. , Neal Devine, and Kathleen Jagger.1989. â€Å"A contextual model of natural hazard. † Geographical Review 89(4): 391–409. †¢ Myers, Mary Fran and Gilbert F. White. 1993. â€Å"The challenge of the Mississippi flood. † Environment 35(10): 6–9, 25–35. †¢ Parker, D. J. and J. W. Handmer, eds. 1992. Hazard management and emergency planning: Perspectives on Britain. London: James James. †¢ Showalter, Pamela S. and Mary F. Myers. 1994. â€Å"Natural disasters in the United States as release agents of oil, chemicals or radiological materials between 1980–1989: Analysis and recommendations. † Risk Analysis 14(2): 169–182. †¢ Setchell, C. A. 1995. â€Å"The growing environmental crisis in the worlds megacities: The case of Bangkok. † Third World Planning Review 17(1): 1–18. †¢ Wynne, Brian. 1992. â€Å"Uncertainty and environmental learning: Reconceiving science and policy in the preventive paradigm. † Global Environmental Change 2(2): 111– 127. †¢ Yath, A. Y. 1995. â€Å"On the expulsion of rural inmigrants from Greater Khartoum – The example of the Dinka in Suq el Markazi. † GeoJournal 36(1): 93–101. †¢ Zelinsky, W. and L. Kosinski, L. 1991. Emergency evacuation of cities. London: Unwin Hyman.

The Simpsons :: essays research papers

The Simpsons   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Simpsons† is a cartoon series produced by Gracie Films for Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Network. It began as a series for â€Å"The Tracey Ullman show† on April 19, 1987, and premiered as a series on December 17, 1989, in the 8pm-time slot. It started to be shown regularly on Sunday’s beginning on January 14, 1990. The second, third, fourth, and fifth season’s were brodcasted by Fox on Thursday nights in the 8pm time slot. It then returned to Sunday nights beginning with the sixth season. The first three season’s were animated by Klasky-Csuupo, who also worked on â€Å"The Tracey Ullman show.† Film Roman animated the fourth fifth and sixth seasons. Matt Groening changed television forever when he brought animation back to prime time with â€Å"The Simpson’s.† Groening also wrote and the fox entertainment series â€Å"Futurama.† â€Å"The Simpson’s† was Matt Groening’s introduction into the world of animation. Groening has also published many â€Å"Simpson Comics.† â€Å"Itchy and Scratchy† Bart and Lisa’s favorite cartoon. â€Å"Bartman†, Bart’s secret identity. â€Å"Radioactive Man†, Bart’s favorite comic book. Lisa Comics and Krusty Comics.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Simpson’s Family was created in fifteen minutes while Matt Groening waited in the foyer of James L. Brooks office. The Simpson’s family consists of six people. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Grandpa, and Santa’s Little Helper, the family dog. Homer Simpson is 36 years old and weighs around 260 pounds. He works as the safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. His favorite foods are donuts, pork rinds, and Krusty Burgers. His favorite beverage is Duff Beer. Marge Simpson is 34 years old and weighs about 135 pounds. She has fears of flying and has been convicted of shoplifting at the Kwik-E-Mart. Her hair color is blue #56 and her favorite singer is Tom Jones. Grandpa is around the age of 65 and has two sons; Homer J. Simpson and Herb, the result of meeting a girl at a carnival one night. His real name is Abraham Simpson, he lives at the Springfield Retirement Castle and his favorite past time is napping.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are three children in the simpsons family; Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Bart is ten years old and his idol is Krusty the Clown. His best freind is Millhouse and he is famous for classroom disruption, prank calls to Moe’s, practical jokes, and vandalism. Lisa is eight years old and admires Ralph Wiggum and Millhouse Van Houghte. Her hidden talent is picking winning football teams and her rival is Allison Taylor.

Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 22

Once we had put several blocks between us and the police precinct, we stopped in the shadows of a bare maple tree. â€Å"Well, thanks for the rescue – not that I couldn't have done it myself, eventually,† Damon said. â€Å"And now, I think I'm ready for a drink. Adieu, mes amis,† he saluted us, and spun on his heel, disappearing into the night. â€Å"Good riddance,† Lexi muttered. â€Å"What now?† I asked. â€Å"You heard the man. Let's go for a drink,† she said, grinning, and put her arm in mine. I walked with Lexi, but it felt wrong, somehow, to be able to go on with my existence so casually knowing that the Sutherlands had been murdered, and it had been partly my doing. What would I tell Margaret? She deserved to know some version of the truth, despite the fact that there would be no justice here. Creatures like the one who killed her family did not suffer consequences for their actions. Human lives were much shorter than vampire lives, but that didn't make them less valuable. In fact, it made their lives more precious. â€Å"So catch me up,† she said, squeezing my arm and pulling me out of my dark thoughts. â€Å"What's been going on since you left our fair city?† â€Å"I got married today,† I said. Her eyes widened. â€Å"Now I really do need a drink,† she declared. â€Å"Stefan Salvatore, you are going to be the death of me. I have heard of a lovely new place that gets its vodka straight from St. Petersburg and freezes it in a fancy little ice-bottle†¦.† She prattled on, leading me through what I had thought was my city, but New York with Lexi was an entirely different animal. Whereas I'd stuck to the shadows and back alleys, Lexi knew her way around glittering nightlife. Soon we came to what looked like an elegant private club. Thick red carpets covered every square inch of the floor, and gold, black, and red lacquer covered everything else, including a giant carving of a firebird that hung from the ceiling. A ma?tre d' came up, and after one look at Lexi, ushered us over to the most extravagant booth. It had velvet and cloth-of-gold pillows with far too many tassels to be perfectly comfortable. The strains of a piano filtered from the next room over, and I understood why she'd chosen this bar – Lexi always asked Hugo, a member of her vampire family in New Orleans, to play piano for her. â€Å"Married?† she said as soon as we were settled in and she had ordered us something. The image of the Sutherlands' bloody bodies scorched my vision for a moment. â€Å"How did you know where we were, really?† I asked, changing the subject. News didn't travel that fast unless it was about the war. It still should have taken her at least a week to get from Louisiana to New York, whether by train or vampiric speed. â€Å"I set one of my friends after Damon. I worried about you,† she admitted, a sheepish look on her face. â€Å"I know you can take care of yourself, but Damon is dangerous, Stefan, and I don't want anything to happen to you.† The waiter came over with our drinks. As promised, the bottle was encased in a block of bluish ice with flowers and herbs pressed inside, as fresh as the day they were frozen. I couldn't help touching a fingertip to a blossom that was near the surface, and feeling the ridge of rime that separated it from my skin. A human's heat would have melted the ice. A vampire's flesh was colder, kept in a similar state of perpetual frozen perfection. The waiter poured us each a shot in goblets carved from solid green malachite. I put my hand over hers. â€Å"Thank you, Lexi. For everything you've done. I can never repay you.† â€Å"No, you can't,† she said cheerfully. â€Å"But you can start by telling me everything. As I said before: married?† So I told her about my discovery of Bridget and being inducted into the Sutherland household, and Damon's insane plans. She giggled and gasped at every detail. I guess from an outsider's perspective, particularly a much older vampire, Damon's machinations might seem mild in comparison. â€Å"Oh, oh my God,† she said, unable to stop laughing. â€Å"A double wedding? You and Damon together? And no one ate the flower girl?† She waved the waiter over for another bottle of vodka. â€Å"Oh, how I wish I was there. Stefan! I didn't even get you anything†¦.† I smiled, wishing I could just sit there and continue to watch her laugh. But I had to finish the tale. â€Å"Are you sure it wasn't Damon?† she asked quietly, when I told her of the Sutherlands' murders. â€Å"There are a lot of things I can't predict about him,† I admitted. â€Å"I had no idea he would actually follow me to the ends of the earth just to make my life miserable – even after he murdered Callie. But I'm positive he had nothing to do with the slaying – he was just as surprised as I was. And he has not been one to hide his evil acts. Besides, Margaret even believed him and apparently she has a sixth sense about these things,† I said. â€Å"New York City isn't exactly the ends of the earth,† she said, but this time there was no humor in her voice. â€Å"But it's an odd coincidence that some other monster would set his sights on the very same family that you did.† â€Å"It wasn't a coincidence at all.† Lexi's face went ashen as I recounted what the lawyer had said. A look I had never seen before on her crossed her pretty face – dread. â€Å"Describe him to me,† she ordered. â€Å"He was huge. Blond hair, blue eyes. He seemed older than time,† I said, struggling to express the ancient menace I felt. â€Å"Evil. Just pure darkness radiating out of him.† â€Å"Did he†¦ did he have an accent?† she asked hesitantly, as if she already knew the answer. â€Å"Yes. I thought it was just part of whatever he was. But it could have been Polish or Russian. He said something about someone named Klaus?† Lexi thumped the underside of the table with her fist and looked away. â€Å"Who was it, Lexi?† I demanded. I needed to know. If he was going to be my executioner, if he was the one who had murdered the Sutherlands, at the very least I would get to know who my enemy was. â€Å"He mentioned Klaus?† she asked, speaking more into her glass than to me. â€Å"Everyone knows about him. He was one of the first vampires.† A hush seemed to descend over the restaurant, and the gas lamps flickered. I clutched my glass of vodka. â€Å"He is directly descended from Hell. Any piece of good, any sense of morality, anything at all that keeps you and me – and even Damon – from becoming a completely twisted, raving monster of pure evil – none of that is in him. There is nothing human about him. He has minions, other old ones who do his bidding. No one's ever seen Klaus – or at least lived to tell about it!† I digested this horrifying information, wrapping my hands around my glass. â€Å"This†¦ thing said we took Katherine.† Lexi paled. â€Å"If she was important to Klaus and he believes that you and your brother are responsible for what happened to her, you're in serious trouble.† â€Å"He mentioned a curse. Do you know what he's talking about?† Lexi drummed her fingers against the table, her brow furrowing. â€Å"Curse? Many vampires consider being confined to wander at night a curse, but I don't know what Katherine had to do with that.† â€Å"Do you think he†¦ did he turn her into a vampire?† I asked. â€Å"That's irrelevant,† Lexi said. â€Å"It's doesn't matter how or why he cares about her – just that he does. You have your own fate to worry about.† I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated. Once again Katherine had found a way to insert herself into my life and create havoc. While I felt guilty about what had happened to Katherine, I still blamed her for destroying my family, for turning my life into the mess it was now. Katherine had been nothing but selfish. She'd toyed with me and Damon, when Damon fell in love with her and I†¦ well, was falling in lust with her, not once did she think about the possible dangers for us. That we would die, that our brotherhood would be severed irreparably, that her sire might eventually catch up to her, hell-bent on revenge. â€Å"I have to get rid of him,† I said. Lexi shook her head. â€Å"You're not ‘getting rid' of anything that old and powerful, my young stripling. You're just a babe – and on top of that, your diet of rodents and birds hasn't exactly strengthened you. You and your brother working together couldn't defeat him. I couldn't take him on.† â€Å"Well, what do I do?† I demanded, my voice taking on a hard, determined edge. I had just been letting everything that had come along in my life control me – Damon and his stupid plans, getting married†¦. It was time I acted. Lexi rubbed her temples. â€Å"The best you can hope for right now is to figure out what his plans are – and then avoid them. You will need to live long enough to figure out a way to vanquish this old one, before he has a chance to tell Klaus where you are.† I nodded, thinking. â€Å"We need to go back to the mansion.† Lexi opened her mouth, but I put up my hand. â€Å"I know – but maybe he left something behind.† Lexi squared her jaw. â€Å"I'll go with you. My senses are more finely tuned than yours.† â€Å"You don't need finely tuned senses to catch the scent of Hell,† I told her, â€Å"but I appreciate the help.†

World War Two The Eastern Front Part 2

Part 1 / Part 3 / WW2 / Origins of WW2 Barbarossa: The German Invasion of the USSR On the western front Hitler found himself at war with Britain. This wasn’t what he wanted: Hitler’s targets were Eastern Europe, to crush the communism state and give his German Empire lebensraum, not Britain, with whom he had hoped to negotiate a peace. But the Battle of Britain had failed, invasion looked impractical, and Britain was staying belligerent. Hitler had been planning a turn to the east even as he was planning the invasion of France which he hoped would allow full focus on the USSR, and spring 1941 became the focus. However, even at this late stage Hitler was delaying as he was completely confused by Britain, but it became apparent to the Nazi regime that Russia was interested in territorial expansion too, and wanted not just Finland, but Romanian territory (threatening the Romanian oil the Third Reich needed), and Britain was unable to re-open the western front any time soon. The stars seemed to have aligned for Hitler to stage a quick war in the east, bel ieving that the USSR was a rotten door that would collapse when kicked, and he could seize the vast resources and move the focus back to Britain without facing two fronts.br/>On December 5th 1940 an order went out: the USSR was to be attacked in May 1941 with Operation Barbarossa. The plan was for a three pronged invasion, taking Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the centre and Kiev in the South, with the Russian armies that stood in the way quickly surrounded and forced into a surrender, and the goal was to seize everything between Berlin and a line from the Volga to Archangel. There were objections from some commanders, but German success in France had convinced many that the Blitzkrieg was unstoppable, and optimistic planners believed this could be achieved against a poor Russian army in three months. Much like Napoleon two centuries before, the German army made no preparations for having to fight in the winter. Furthermore the German economy and resources were not solely dedicat ed to the war and to the crushing of the Soviets, as many troops had to be held back to hold other areas.To many in Germany, the Soviet army was in a bad state. Hitler had little useful intelligence on the Soviets, but he knew Stalin had purged the officer core, that the army had been embarrassed by Finland, and thought many of their tanks were out of date. He also had an estimate of the size of the Russian army, but this was hopelessly wrong. What he ignored was the massive resources of the full Soviet state, which Stalin would be able to mobilise. Equally, Stalin was ignoring every and all intelligence reports telling him that the Germans were coming, or at least misinterpreting dozens and dozens of hints. In fact Stalin seems to have been so surprised and oblivious to the attack that German commanders speaking after the war accused him of allowing it to draw the Germans in and break them inside Russia. The German Conquest of Eastern Europe There was a delay in launching Barbarossa from May to June 22nd which is often blamed on having to aid Mussolini, but the wet spring necessitated it. Nevertheless, despite the build-up of millions of men and their equipment, when the three Army Groups surged over the border they had the benefit of surprise. For the first few weeks the Germans poured forward, covering four hundred miles, and the Soviet armies were cut to shreds and forced to surrender en masse. Stalin himself was deeply shocked and suffered a mental crisis (or performed a piece of daring cunning, we don’t know), although he was able to resume control in early July and began the process of mobilising the Soviet Union to fight back. But Germany kept coming, and soon the western portion of the Red Army was soundly beaten: three million captured or killed, 15,000 tanks neutralised, and the Soviet commanders at the front panicking and failing. It looked liked the Soviet Union was collapsing as planned. The Soviets m assacred prisoners as they retreated rather than have the Germans ‘rescue’ them, while special squads dismantled and moved over a thousand factories eastwards to resume arms production.br/>With Army Group Centre having the most success and nearing Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, Hitler made a decision that has been labelled fatal: he reassigned Centre’s resources to aid the other Groups, particularly South which had been slower. Hitler wanted to gain the maximum territory and resources, and this meant crushing Moscow and possibly accepting surrender when holding key regions. It also meant securing flanks, allowing foot soldiers to catch up, supplies to be bought up, and conquests consolidated. But this all needed time. Hitler may also have been worried about Napoleon’s single minded pursuit of Moscow.The pause was fiercely objected to by Centre’s commanders, who wanted to keep their drive going, but their tanks were wearing out and the paus e allowed infantry to arrive and begin to consolidate. The diversion allowed the encirclement of Kiev, and the capture of a vast number of Soviets. Nevertheless, the need to re-allocate reveals that the plan was not going smoothly, despite the successes. The Germans had several million men, but these could not deal with millions of prisoners, hold hundreds of square kilometres of territory and form a fighting force, while German resources could not maintain the tanks needed. In the North, at Leningrad, the Germans besieged a city of half a million troops and two and a half million civilians, but decided to let them starve to death rather than fight through the city. In addition, two million Soviet soldiers who had been rounded up and put in camps died, while special Nazi units were following the main army to execute a list of perceived enemies, both political and racial. The police and army joined in.By September many in the German army realised they were engaged in a war that may w ell have been beyond their resources, and they’d had little time to put roots down in the conquered lands before moving back. Hitler ordered Moscow taken in October in operation Typhoon, but something crucial had happened in Russia. Soviet intelligence had been able to brief Stalin that Japan, who was threatening the eastern half of the empire, had no plans to join Hitler in carving up the Soviet empire, and was focused on the US. And while Hitler had destroyed the western Soviet Army, now eastern forces were transferred freely to aid the west, and Moscow was stiffened. As the weather turned against the Germans – from rain to frost to snow - the Soviet defences hardened with new troops and commanders – such as Zhukov – who could do the job. Hitler’s forces still got to twenty miles from Moscow and many Russian’s fled (Stalin stayed put in a decision which galvanised defenders), but Germany’s planning caught up with them, and their lac k of winter equipment, including no antifreeze for the tanks or gloves for the soldiers, crippled them and the offensive was not just stopped by the Soviets, but pushed back.Hitler called a winter halt only on December 8th, when his troops had been stopped. Hitler and his senior commanders now argued, with the latter wanting to make strategic withdrawals to create a more defensible front, and the former banning any retreat. There were mass sackings, and with the cream of the German military command ejected Hitler appointed a man with far less ability to lead: himself. Barbarossa had made major gains and taken a vast area, but it had failed to defeat the Soviet Union, or even come close to the demands of its own plan. Moscow has been called the turning point of the war, and certainly some high ranking Nazis knew they had already lost because they could not fight the war of attrition the Eastern Front had become. Part 3.