System of Structuring Cities and Understanding Interactions between Essay

System of Structuring Cities and Understanding Interactions between Individual Components within Sets - Essay Example Jane Jacobs illustrates this point most clearly in her chapter in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, â€Å"Uses of Sidewalks: Safety.† In this chapter, Jacobs attempts to analyze the ways in which sidewalks serve as a safety network for various cities. They do this in several ways, from the most basic, elevating and separating pedestrians from bikes and cars which could be dangerous to them, to much more complex systems. It is incredibly important, however, that Jacobs recognizes that the sidewalks in and of themselves do very little to create or destroy a safe environment. Jacobs indicates that people are not merely â€Å"passive beneficiaries of safety or helpless victims of danger† on sidewalks (30), but rather, everyone who participates in the interactions involved on sidewalks, from people in houses and businesses bordering the sidewalk, to the cars bordering the other side, to the pedestrians actually on the sidewalk, all have an important part to play i n keeping these sidewalks safe. She then identifies the human factors that help to keep a feeling of safety or un-safety on sidewalks. Things like high turnover of housing, little community feeling and empty streets with occasional traffic but easy access all lead to feeling (and reality) of un-safety – people are not likely to intervene on each other’s behalf and there is not a high enough mass of people and inter-person respect to provide a feeling of safety. But Jacobs is quick to point out that this safety is not merely a reflection of population density, because if it was, Los Angeles, which is nearly entirely suburban, would have a low rather than high crime rate (32). She also makes it very clear that police cannot solve this problem, and that in fact places with high police presence tend to be the most dangerous – police cannot solve the problems of unsafe cities (31). So to Jacobs the problems of creating safety in cities must rest with people – how to create public spaces in streets and sidewalks that discourage feelings of un-safety while encouraging feelings of community that create a safer environment for everyone. The idea of people being the fundamental unit of architecture appears in the works of Christopher Alexander and Le Corbusier as well, though they take almost opposite tracks to understanding how to fascilitate people’s use of cities. Both recognize very clearly that the living, breathing city is created by people – not the physical spaces, but the people that inhabit them. Alexander takes a natural view of cities, using semilattice and set theory to describe the ways a cities parts interact, through people. He strongly dislikes artificial cities, saying that there is something necessarily missing from them, and that artificial cities tend to create a â€Å"tree† system, where each component is only interrelated to each other through its connection to the whole (80). Each leaf is only conn ected to each other leaf because they are connected to the tree – not because they have any particular relationship to each other.

Essay questions for history Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Questions for history - Essay Example Since the earliest humans lived a nomadic lifestyle, mainly foraging, or hunting, and they no doubt used wooden spears and wood for shelter there is very little lasting evidence of where they lived. Some groups appear to have become isolated and this turned out to be a risk factor, since they did not develop so many new adaptive techniques for survival. It appears that humans wandered out from the central African Savannah, reaching north and east into Asia and from there travelled to Europe and the rest of the world. Tracing their flints and axes is a way of showing how they communicated with each other through trade. [2] There are different theories why people might have stopped being hunter gatherers and started early forms of agriculture. The climate is one reason, since hunter gathering was the only option available in the colder parts of the world during the ice age, and agriculture just was not possible then. As the world’s climate warmed up, however, growing plants became more of an option. Another reason for agricultural lifestyles may be that the food sources became scarce when people began to increase in number. Once a herd of animals is hunted to extinction it is very difficult for that area to recover and become able to host human inhabitants again. The most convincing reason, however, is that certain locations such as river deltas, provided such a rich soil that plants grew readily in the wild, and people naturally settled there for longer and longer periods to take advantage of the crops. Eventually people would have learned to maximise the return from crops, use irrigation and plowing and sowing techniques, so that they could produce a very large excess of food. This in turn enabled them to live in larger groups, which was good for safety, and learn new arts and skills, which made them better able to

The Challenge Of Human Cloning: Pros And Cons

The Challenge Of Human Cloning: Pros And Cons Nowadays, due to cloning disobeys human beings moral value, it has become a thorny issue even though it can benefit human beings and our society in lots of areas. Specifically, it is generally thought that it is immoral and unethical to clone human beings for various reasons, but the morality of human cloning cannot be reached yet since it is still a new technology. Additionally, attitudes toward it differ widely. Critics argue that cloning can be a risk factor of affecting human beings uniqueness, cause psychological and physical effects on human beings, result in the potential harms to the society and create strange kinship, and instability of cloning technology; however, advocates claim that cloning also can advance biomedical technology, improve the medical standards, and protect our environment. Moreover, it is undeniable that potential danger exists in human cloning which may cause serious consequences, but we cannot ignore the huge benefits that human cloning could bring such as the medical science improvement. Hence, it is essential to show the pros and cons of cloning. Some people argue that cloning of human beings is unethical because it deprives human beings uniqueness and brings social issues. Life is a creation, not a commodity, said President Bush, Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured. No human life should be exploited or extinguished for the benefit of another (President par. 15). President Bush is carrying out a prohibition order; he believes that human cloning is unethical and immoral. In addition, cloned people may lose some special values each person should have. In this world, every person is unique, but human cloning would break this situation. However, cloned people are non-natural products and it is unfair for the people who are cloned. Imagine if there are two exactly same Brad Pitt, will he still be the unique actor as before? Furthermore, cloning technology can promise the same appearance, but not able to guarantee to clone peoples personalities since characters are related with peoples growth environment and are formed in the process of human growth. Thus, President Bushs speech reveals that why it is unacceptable for human cloning. To demonstrate, in article Medical Research, it shows that human cloning technologys instability is a big issue for peoples safety and human morality. In article Science, it mentioned about an experiment of creating hybrid embryonic stem cells, which is a new creature by combining a human cell with a cow egg. It challenges human ethnic theory in a brave step, but it is also intolerant for human morality. Therefore, since human cloning technology offends our social morality, article Medicine and Health provides a new way of thinking article Science by emphasizing its immorality and unnatural. Human cloning prompts a series of social problems, and it also causes complex family issues. Moreover, it could make the cloned people suffer psychological blow, and complex family relationships of cloned people will bring future negative impact on both survival and growth. According to my interview with Professor Peter Cherbas, who works in Biology department in Indiana University Bloomington, Human cloning is a process of copying others, so compared to the normal laws of human society, it is an unnatural product, says Professor Cherbas, and a cloned person would not have a father and a mother just like we have, and it appears that they will have awkward position in the family which is hard to accept by cloned people. Cloning is the creation of cells or whole animals using DNA from a single parent, by passing the normal reproductive process (What is Cloning par. 2). This means a cloned child is the descendant of a single person, while usually the proliferation of human needs the com bination of opposite sex. In this case, cloned children will only have one single biological related mother, which could result in some psychological trauma since it is impossible for them to have a complete family and they have to accept the truth of their mothers have the exactly same appearances with themselves. We need to respect life, and it is worthless to risk mankinds future and it is also unfair for the cloned people to suffer something that normal people do not have to face. Human cloning could lead some complex family relationship and unethical kinship. Furthermore, it is unethical that cloned people are separated from parents relationship and other human relationship. Moreover, it would be awkward that the cloned child can be the mothers child or her twin sister. Due to the cloned person only has one single parent, the family relationship is abnormal and it will be a big challenge for the cloned people to build their family relationship or kinship. Specifically, the cloned person will be in an embarrassing position in the family. For a man, the cloned child could either be his son or his twin brother; for a woman, the kid can be her daughter or her twin sister. Moreover, the mother or the father has to face a person who has exactly same appearance with themselves which is awkward. Someone might desire to clone their dead family member. However, there is no substitute for humans life or an individual person. Cloning might bring back the body of the lost family member, but it absolutely will not be the dead one you know since science cannot guarantee the same characters and thoughts. For instance, CC, the cloned cat mentioned above, does not quite look like its mother, Rainbow, a calico tri-colored female. At one year CC also has a different personality from her mother, being much more playful and curious (Lauritzen 458). Therefore, even though it may have chances to bring the dead back to life, he or she will not be the same person you know before. Human cloning technology is still limited significantly, and its instability is likely to lead to a series of new infectious diseases and thus cause the loss of humans various genes. Ultimately, it could lead to an uncontrollable disaster around the whole world. During the process of researching organ cloning, it is really easy to develop some new diseases which may cause huge consequences. So far cloning animal organs is still a new technology, and new technology often has limitations and safety issues. If cloned animal organs were transplanted into human bodies, I personally think the consequences would be disastrous, says Professor Peter Cherbas, after all, animals and humans are different species, so genes will be different for sure. You know, there is no 100% guarantee in the world. It shows that the uncertainity of human cloning can make people exposed to all kinds of diseases easily and can lead the whole human beings to extinction ultimately. Thus, human cloning has potential danger and it lacks stability as well. On the other hand, others hold that human cloning can bring huge benefits to medical treatments such as organ cloning and fertility problems by promoting scientific progress. Particularly, organ cloning provides great chances for those people who need organs. According to a recent survey conducted by COLUMBIA, Missouri (CNN), At the moment, approximately 75,000 Americans, awaiting organ transplants. Many people died of shortage of organs. Meanwhile, large amounts of organs are in need, but the offers of human donor organs still keep steady. However, researchers say they have taken a major step toward cloning pigs whose hearts, lungs and kidneys could be safely transplanted into humans (Research). With the development of the cloning technology, scientists could clone human organs instead of using animals organs. Secondly, cloning can help infertile couples to have their own children so that they do not have to use other peoples sperm or eggs. Furthermore, even lesbians and gays can ha ve children of their own as well. For example, if the male or husband is sterile, or does not produce sperm, DNA from one of his cells could be inserted into a de-nucleated egg from the female or wife who would also bear the child. Both would then be contributing to the make up and birth of the child. If the woman is infertile, another womans egg could be used along with the DNA of the infertile woman or her husband or partner (Lauritzen 456). It shows that people have rights to get a bright future since human cloning will benefit many people and widen the modern medicine worlds horizon. Therefore, human cloning technology can improve medical improvements, and huge potential strengths of human exist in cloning technology. Another benefit of cloning is that it could be used to treat many incurable disease so that many patients can regain health. Moreover, cloning technology covers diseases such as cancer, the Parkinsons disease, and other disease. Additionally, cloning technology can also prevent genetic disease to some extent, and this would greatly improve the population fitness. In article Medical Research, it illustrates specific points and detailed examples to explain human cloning technology can provide chances to cure various diseases. To illustrate, It was thought that embryonic stem cells had the potential for a great number of medical applications, including the development of laboratory-created organs for donation, and treatments for ailments including heart disease, diabetes and Parkinsons disease, among many others (Medical). Specifically, it helps better explain how human cloning cures diseases. However, because of the governments complete ban on it, human cloning technology cannot bring its advantage to medical area. However, advances in technology are always built on the basis of risk. Thus, if human cloning is delayed, it will be a loss of scientific success and a torture for many unfortunate suffers because the diseases could have been prevented. Besides the advantages of human cloning mentioned above, another huge benefit is that it could be used to protect environment and increase the amout of endangered wildlife. Luckily, scientists have successfully cloned some endangered ones. The recent report surprising success in cloning mouflon (a species of wild sheep) is notable for several reasons. The success rate was much greater than when the domestic sheep, Dolly, was cloned. It is also noteworthy that the donor nuclei were obtained from dead donor mouflon (Ryder 372, 373). The success of cloning a mouflon proves that cloning could be used to collect endangered wildlifes gene data. The activities of humans have led to the extinctions of many species. If we have a gene database of endangered species, we can maintain the ecological system by saving endangered plants and animals. According to a video of Sky News, British scientists are using a pioneering form of cloning to help save the northern white rhino from the brink of exti nction. There are only nine of the animals in captivity and even fewer out in the wild (Sky News). It proves endangered wildlife could be protected by the technology of cloning and thus to maintain the ecological system. Therefore, maybe after several years, pandas can be seen in every country around the world. In short, cloning technology plays an important role in fighting diseases and it can help people stay healthy as well. Simultaneously, cloning still needs some improvements because it is not absolutely safe at the moment, and it has the possibility that it might lead to a lot of harms and disasters. Personally, I am of the opinion that cloning should be encouraged in a right way because I think its advantages are greater than its disadvantages. There is an old saying that goes No pains, no gains. Technology is improving, and social is making progress as well. Finally, it is true that social morality is important, but the projects which are beneficial to mankind cannot be measured based solely on the standards of morality.

The Three Deaths in Hintons The Outsiders Essay -- The Outsiders

During the course of the novel â€Å"The Outsiders† there are three linked deaths that change the relationships between the Curtis brothers in many different ways. The soc, Bob Sheldon, dies first. When Ponyboy and Johnny flee after Darry hit Ponyboy they run into their rivals Bob and his best friend Randy Adderson. Bob takes Ponyboy and starts drowning him until Johnny gets his switchblade out and kills Bob. After this, Johnny dies. Dally (a greaser with a criminal record) sends Ponyboy and Johnny to an abandoned church so they can hide after what they did. When they go to leave after a few days, the church catches on fire with a few elementary school kids trapped inside, so they go into the church to save them. When Johnny gets the last kid out, a piece of the roof falls on his back, breaking it. The last death is Dally. After Johnny dies, Dally goes crazy and robs a store. The police chase him and shoot him down because he pulled out a gun at them. As you can see at the beg inning of the novel, the brothers are constantly getting into arguments about stupid little things, but after Darry hits Ponyboy, things change. After these deaths, Ponyboy’s grades start dropping and he starts to lose sight of himself. Him and Darry get into many more arguments until Sodapop Curtis tells them to promise to stop arguing because it’s tearing him apart. They both agree and it makes their relationship really strong at the end of the novel. Although the Curtis brothers do not have a close relationship at the beginning of the novel, after experiencing the deaths of Bob, Johnny, and Dally, it makes their relationship stronger. The first death that occurs is of Bob Sheldon. After Ponyboy comes home from a late light with some of the soc girls, Darry ... ...n they are in the hospital when Johnny, Ponyboy and Dally return from Windrixville and Johnny is dying. Ponyboy realizes that Darry does actually care about him; he is just strict because he wants him to be better. At that point Ponyboy thinks that everything is going to be all right because he understands Darry now, but it just goes back to normal with all of the arguing. Finally Sodapop steps in after Dally dies and everyone is sad and feeling helpless. He tells Darry and Ponyboy to promise to never argue again because he doesn’t like it, and they agree. All of these conflicts in the novel â€Å"The Outsiders† started with Darry hitting Ponyboy in the face. This lead to many different relationship problems between the Curtis brothers and three deaths that made the relationship very strong. Work Cited Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. Puffin: New York, 1997. Print.

Federal Jurisdiction Essay

Henry, a resident of Nevada, sued Adam, a resident of Utah in the Federal Court in California. He sought $60,000 damages for personal injuries arising from an automobile accident that occurred in Los Angeles, California. Does the Federal Court have jurisdiction? No the federal court does not have jurisdiction over this case. In order for this case to fall within the guidelines of a federal suit it would have to qualify for diversity of citizenship. Diversity of citizenship exists in suits between (1) citizens of different states, (2) a citizen of a state and a citizen of a foreign country, and (3) a state and citizens of another state. In this case since Henry is a resident of Nevada and Adam is a resident of Utah he can file the suit in California where the accident occurred but it must be in state court. Diversity of Citizenship has a minimal jurisdictional amount of $75,000. Henry is only asking for $60,000 in damages. The only other way for this case to be tried in federal court would be if Henry could prove that the lawsuit contains a federal question. For this there is no jurisdictional amount. Civil actions that would fall under this may involve matters such as bankruptcy, anti-trust, securities regulations, patents, copyrights, trademarks, taxes, elections, the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and those rights secured to individual citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment (Morgan, Shedd & Corley, 2010). The information given does not show where any of the federal questions come into play. However if this case could be tried in federal court it would actually benefit the defendant as it has the advantage of allowing for the jury to be selected from an area larger than the county where the case arose. This hopefully will reduce the possibility of jurors tending to favor the plaintiff. Henry would be better of hiring a personal injury attorney. What rules of procedure will the court use? The court selected by the plaintiff must decide both whether it has the jurisdiction to hear the case and, if it has, whether another forum is more suitable for the disposition of the case. In this case they would use the rules of procedure for civil cases under the state of California judicial rule. Why? The case will have to be tried in state court versus federal court because it does not qualify as a federal case. In the state court it would be seen as a civil case brought against Adam by Henry. What rules of substantive law will the court use? The court would use the substantive law,  including conflict of laws principles, of the state in which they are sitting. In California they would use civil law. References Morgan, J., Shedd, P., & Corley, R. (2010). Business law. (3 ed., pp. 3-40). Redding, CA: BVT Publishing, LLC.

Jollibee’s Success in the Philippines Essay

Jollibee is the Mcdonald’s of the Philippines. From a simple ice-cream parlor in 1975, it has explored the concept of hot meals and sandwiches in 1978 and since then revolutionized the concept of fast food in the Philippines. 1984 saw Jollibee hit the Top 500 Philippine Corporations. 1987 landed the fast food chain into the country’s Top 100 Corporations. It became a billion-peso corporation in 1989. Today, there are 600 branches of Jollibee in the Philippines and about 50 abroad. Analysis of Jollibee’s Success in the Philippines The Philippines is a small, third-world country in south-east Asia. Like many asians, Filipino people eat their meals with rice and they prefer it home-cooked. However, due to the urbanization of the capital city in the late 70’s and the modernization required for economic development, Filipinos had to settle for less than the best: the turo-turo style. Way before the term â€Å"fastfood† reached the vocabulary of the Filipinos, people in the Philippines had eaten turo-turo style. Turo-turo is where ready-to-eat and ready-to-go entrees arrayed in steam-heated trays, are always ready to be eye-balled by hungry and harried customers. If you wait more than 20 minutes to get your food, it’s not considered as a turo-turo restaurant. Jollibee’s claim to have revolutionized the concept of fast food in the Philippines is probably correct. The company claims that the secrets of its success are â€Å"superior menu line-up, creative marketing programs, and efficient manufacturing and logistics facilities. It (success) is made possible by well-trained teams that work in a culture of integrity and humility, fun and family-like. † Success did not come easy as Jollibee is not exactly the first â€Å"fastfood† in the Philippines. Wendy’s from the USA came first and that is where Jollibee â€Å" conceived† the idea of sandwhiches and hotmeals served in less than twenty minutes to cater to the urbanized city of Manila. Competition has been tough for the first few years however Jollibee made the right decision to â€Å"Philippinize† its concept starting with market research. It was hypothesized that the Filipinos love not actually the home-cooked meals served by their wives but the smell and aroma of the meals served at home. Capitalizing on this theory, Jollibee launched the slogan, â€Å"langhap-sarap† which in English translates to â€Å"smells delicious†. Also, knowing the heart and soul of every Filipino is the family, Jollibee made itself cater not to individual professionals in the modern city but to the family as a whole. Jollibee became a red, giant bee mascot children adore. Jollibee easily became a household name in the market. The most notable commodity Jollibee offered is the chicken joy. When you step inside a single branch of Jollibee, you can actually smell the crispy, golden chicken being deep fried to juicy tenderness. In Jollibee, hamburger patty is being eaten with gravy and served with rice and they call it the burger steak. Same as any product, this one â€Å"smells delicious†. Another notable thing about Jollibee is how spaghetti is flavored. The spaghetti of Jollibee is sweet as Filipinos put sugar in their spaghetti and not much tomatoes. This menu line-up thanks to research on the wants of Filipinos, target customer and the use of mega-superstars as endorsers put Jollibee at the top of the fastfood industry in the Philippines. Jollibee in the USA The Jollibee branch located in San Francisco area is supposed to cater to the voluminous home-sick Filipinos working in the city. This Jollibee branch looks like a normal Jollibee branch in the Philippines. The most notable difference is the price of the food. Jollibee in the USA is more expensive than McDonald’s. They also accept credit cards which is a facility not found in any of the Jollibee branches in the Philippines. The commodities sold is also very different. Though they market it as the same â€Å"smells delicious† chicken joy from the Philippines, the chicken hardly smells nor looks delicious. It doesn’t have the same crispy juiciness as that of the local branches and it tastes mostly of salt. The burger steak is still served with rice though the hamburger patty is bigger and spaghetti is not as sweet as it should be, Filipino-style. The fusion of two states could be blamed for the high pricing as Jollibee might be adjusting to the cost of putting up a branch in San Francisco where raw materials are considerably more expensive. However, the objective of catering to home-sicked Filipinos is not met, in my opinion, as this Jollibee, though the same as in the home country in name, is not the same in every other aspect.