Legal Rights of Black Americans free essay sample

A discussion regarding the legal rights of Black Americans from the time they were brought to America as slaves. Specific reference is given to the various laws that were passed during the 19th Century. In this paper the author discusses the situation of Black Americans and assesses whether the abolishment of slavery has provided any greater protection under the law. The author starts at the beginning of the 19th century and looks at how Blacks were taken into slavery and brought to America. The author moves on to discuss the Missouri Compromise and the discussions that took place regarding ?slave free states?. The author then discusses then various laws that were passed during the 19th century and how the issue of slavery was eventually brought before the nation. From the paper: ?For a brief period during Reconstruction, many African Americans voted, and some were elected to public office. In the late 1870?s, however, enthusiasm for ensuring black equality waned in both the North and the Republican Party, and by 1877, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South, blacks were left to the power of whites committed to restoring white supremacy. We will write a custom essay sample on Legal Rights of Black Americans or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ?

The Pros and Cons of Solar Power

The Pros and Cons of Solar Power The prospect of generating pollution-free power from the sun’s rays is appealing, but to-date the low price of oil combined with the high costs of developing new technology have prevented the widespread adoption of solar power in the United States and beyond. At a current cost of 25 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, solar power costs as much as five times more than conventional fossil fuel-based electricity. And dwindling supplies of polysilicon, the element found in traditional photovoltaic cells, are not helping. The Politics of Solar Power According to Gary Gerber of the Berkeley, California-based Sun Light Power, not long after Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1980 and removed the solar collectors from the roof that Jimmy Carter had installed, tax credits for solar development disappeared and the industry plunged â€Å"over a cliff.† Federal spending on solar energy picked up under the Clinton administration, but trailed off again once George W. Bush took office. But growing climate change worries and high oil prices have forced the Bush administration to reconsider its stance on alternatives like solar, and the White House has proposed $148 million for solar energy development in 2007, up almost 80 percent from what it invested in 2006. Increasing the Efficiency and Lowering the Cost of Solar Power In the realm of research and development, enterprising engineers are working hard to get solar power’s costs down, and expect it to be price-competitive with fossil fuels within 20 years. One technological innovator is California-based Nanosolar, which replaces the silicon used to absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity with a thin film of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS). Nanosolar’s Martin Roscheisen says CIGS-based cells are flexible and more durable, making them easier to install in a wide range of applications. Roscheisen expects he will be able to build a 400-megawatt electricity plant for about a tenth of the price of a comparable silicon-based plant. Other companies making waves with CIGS-based solar cells include New York’s DayStar Technologies and California’s Miasolà ©. Another recent innovation in solar power is the co-called â€Å"spray-on† cell, such as those made by Massachusetts’ Konarka. Like paint, the composite can be sprayed on to other materials, where it can harness the sun’s infrared rays to power cell phones and other portable or wireless devices. Some analysts think spray-on cells could become five times more efficient than the current photovoltaic standard. Venture Capitalists Investing in Solar Power Environmentalists and mechanical engineers aren’t the only ones bullish on solar these days. According to the Cleantech Venture Network, a forum of investors interested in clean renewable energy, venture capitalists poured some $100 million into solar start-ups of all sizes in 2006 alone, and expect to commit even more money in 2007. Given the venture capital community’s interest in relatively short-term returns, it’s a good bet that some of today’s promising solar start-ups will be tomorrow’s energy behemoths. EarthTalk is a regular feature of E/The Environmental Magazine. Selected EarthTalk columns are reprinted on About Environmental Issues by permission of the editors of E.

How to Use the Typical French Expression Ah bon

How to Use the Typical French Expression Ah bon The everyday French expression, Ah bon ?, pronounced  Ã‚  [a bo(n)],  is used primarily as a soft interjection, even when its a question, just as we say the equivalent in English, as in: Im going to the movies. Oh, really? The speaker is indicating interest and maybe a little surprise. Its the same in French. An Interjection With Many Meanings Ah bon,  literally means oh good, though  it  commonly translates into English as: Oh yes?Really?Is that so?I see. But there are a dozen more ways it could be correctly translated, too, depending on what you want to express. The expression ah bon, among the most common in the French language,  is, as we noted, really more of an interjection, and, in general, its used to acknowledge what another person just said, to reinforce a sentiment, or to ask for confirmation. Dont be fooled by  the use of bon. It doesnt carry the meaning of good here, so ah bon can be used when talking about both good things and bad things. Examples With ah bon, bon, ah, oh   Jai vu un film intà ©ressant hier. Ah bon ?  Ã‚  I saw an interesting movie yesterday. Oh, yes?  Nous avons dà ©mà ©nagà © aprà ¨s le dà ©cà ¨s de mon pà ¨re. Ah bon.  Ã‚  We moved after my father died. I see.Je pars aux États-Unis la semaine prochaine.  Ah bon?   Im going to the States next week. Really?  Jaimerais vraiment que tu viennes!  Bon, daccord. Id really like you to come! OK, I will.Bon, je reste.   Right, Ill stay.Il est venu. Ah bon  !   He came. Did he really ?Ils nen ont plus en magasin.  Ah bon  !  [with a ton of resignation] They dont have any more in stock. Oh well !Ah non alors  !   Certainly not !Ah oui  ?    Really ?  Pousser des oh et des ah To ooh and ah

Nursing as a Profession Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nursing as a Profession - Research Paper Example The question of whether nursing constitutes a profession or merely an occupation has been debated frequently but never conclusively answered, owing to the subjective interpretation of word connotations as well as a lack of consensus as to what profession entails. The Random House dictionary defines a profession as â€Å"a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science.† L. Harvey (2004) says that â€Å"A profession is a group of people in a learned occupation, the members of which agree to abide by specified rules of conduct when practicing the profession.† Over the years, several researchers have developed specific criteria regarding professions. This paper will focus on the eight criteria established by Dr. Lucie Kelly in 1981, and examine nursing in relation to those criteria. Kelly's Criteria for Professions 1) The services provided are vital to humanity and the welfare of society. 2) There is a special body of knowledge that is continually enlarged through research. 3) The services involve intellectual activities; individual responsibility (accountability) is a strong feature. 4) Practitioners are educated in institutions of higher learning. 5) Practitioners are relatively independent and control their own policies and activities (autonomy). 6) Practitioners are motivated by service (altruism) and consider their work an important component of their lives. 7) There is a code of ethics to guide the decisions and conduct of practitioners 8) There is an organization (association) that encourage and supports high standards of practice. (Chitty citing Kelly, 2005, p. 171) The first four of Kelly's eight criteria are easily addressed, as there can be no doubt of the vital nature of the services provided by nurses, who are frequently referred to in literature as â€Å"the backbone of the healthcare system.† It also cannot be disputed that there exists a large and continually expanding body of knowledge related to nursing. There is a great deal of personal accountability involved in nursing as well. Each day nurses world-wide make decisions within a professional context which have a significant impact on the lives of their patients, as well as colleagues and even administrators. Nurses are required to undergo profession-specific education, as well as to maintain awareness of current research in the field in order to perform their jobs effectively. Likewise, nursing can easily be demonstrated to meet the seventh and eighth of Kelly's criteria. The Code of Ethics for Nurses is well established, and there are several national organizations devoted to maintaining high standards for nurse accreditation, as well as an International Council of Nurses. Autonomy of nurses might be questioned: Do nurses control their own policies and activities? While it is clear that a nurse must make decisions on a daily basis and act on those decisions, nurses are subjected to policies within the confines of their employing institutions. Though nurses frequently execute the orders of doctors, the manner of execution is usually left to individual nurses. Thus, in the opinion of this researcher nursing meets the fifth of Kelly's criteria. The question of motivation is a thornier one. While many individuals choose to enter nursing for altruistic reasons, it seems unreasonable to expect that all nurses share that particular motivation. Ther e is a shortage of nurses world-wide, no doubt leading to many individuals choose this career path because it will provide a secure and reliable source of income. Nurses trained in an accredited program can always find

GSA Wants You Federal Contracts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

GSA Wants You Federal Contracts - Essay Example The system uses the most recent digital authentication technology to allow for electronic signatures and cater for data integrity. Advantages of Electronic over Classic paper Solicitations 1. Data security The electronic process ensures that the proposals are submit exactly as the contractors write them without unnecessary modification of information. It also ensures that the proposals are delivered directly to the responsible personnel without being passed through other parties. This eliminates the possibility of alteration of the content or loss of the proposals in the process of transportation (Brian, 2003). Unlike the paper process, which is subject to many-party handling hence providing opportunities for malicious altering of data, data security is assured. Paper process entails impairing with the interactive environment since the intended information from the original source may not go the intended personnel. 2. Ease of Applying There is software that enables one to complete th ese proposals easily with tools providing hint on what is required from the proposal. This helps one to provide the necessary information without much struggle. The software also helps one to look for errors easily and correct them in order to forward an understandable proposal. This is because the proposal must entail clear information and hence the process becomes easier since there is no room for assumptions. To some ambiguous phrases, it is essential that drafting of all the work is done and typed manually to create ease for one to detect any errors especially when the proposal is not using a good software. In addition, there is high possibility of leaving important information since the whole process is imagined (Safari Books, 2009). This would lead to impaired communication since the solicitation while have to be returned for completion of the required information and clarification of some ambiguous phrases. 3. Fast Delivery The submitting of the proposals is done online hence it takes very little time for the proposals to reach the targeted destinations after they have been submitted. This ensures fast interaction between the contractor and the prospective contractors hence leading to faster decision making process unlike the classic paper solicitations which have to be submitted manually hence taking a lot of time to communicate. 4. Ease of reviewing After the proposals have been sent to the GSA, it may be returned for correction or clarification on matters concerning responsibility, responsiveness, scope, subcontracting plan or pricing analysis. After the proposal is reviewed and in some cases returned, the electronic system offers an easy way for editing and adding the relevant information. Editing the original proposal is easier than the paper process whereby the whole document has to be retyped in order to allow addition of information and also printed again for resubmission. 5. Economical Compared to the paper process, the electronic submission is more economical in terms of space and funds. This is because it cuts down the printing costs and unnecessary occupation of space for filing documents since the proposals are stored in their computer databases. 6. Duration of Contract There should be negotiations about the period of the contract to make sure that the period allows my company to stabilize. The process must allow the company in its operations and recover from any losses it may have incurred during the

The Year of the Zombie :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

The Year of the Zombie Now a high-school senior, I still remember my freshman year with a shudder; it was the year my friends and I joked about as the "Year of the Zombie." It wasn't that I had contracted a rare medical disorder that transformed me into one of the walking dead. I had done what many diligent students do: sacrifice most of my sleep time for the sake of academic success. Don't get me wrong; my parents never mandated that I take all the honors classes I could gain admission to. No one told me to take three honors classes. No one, that is, except the little voice in my head that convinced me scholarly success was based upon the number of "H's" on my high-school transcript. The counselors cautioned me not to do it, students who had fallen into the trap before warned me against it and my parents just left it up to me. Through it all, I just smiled and reassured them, "Don't worry; I can handle it." The trouble was, I didn't have the slightest idea what lay ahead. I soon found myself mired in work. For a person whose friends teased her about being a neat freak, I grew increasingly messy. My room and desk looked like my backpack had exploded. There was no time to talk to friends on the phone, not even on the weekends. Going to bed at midnight was a luxury, 1 a.m. was normal, 3 a.m. meant time to panic and 4 a.m. meant it was time to go to sleep defeated. Most days, I would shuffle clumsily from class to class with sleep-clouded eyes and nod off during classroom lectures. There was even a month in winter when I was so self-conscious of my raccoon eyes that I wore sunglasses to school. My parents applauded my academic success, but hardly knew the price I paid for it. I vividly remember one night when my mother couldn't fall asleep. She kept going to bed and getting up again. Every -, time I heard her get up, I'd turn off my light so she wouldn't catch me still awake. By 5 o'clock that morning, I was so sleepy that I didn't hear her footsteps as she shuffled down the hallway. When she saw the light under my door, she came in and demanded to know why I wasn't sleeping.

School Physical Plant Management

School Physical Plant Management What do you understand with the term school plant? The school plant is the totality of all things that make up a school system. It involves the physical and material facilities in form of buildings, school site and the environment that embody the school. Moreover, a school plants include the site, the building and equipment and this include the permanent structures like workshop, libraries, classrooms, laboratories and semi permanent structures like the educational system itself.The school facilities consist of all types of buildings for academic and non-academic activities, equipment for academic and non- academic activities, areas for sports and games, landscape, farms and gardens including trees, roads and paths. Others include furniture and toilet facilities, lighting, acoustics, storage facilities and packing lot, security, transportation, ICT, cleaning materials, food services, and special facilities for the physically challenged persons. Descri be the 2 major functions of school plant?An Environment to Facilitate Learning The primary purpose of the teaching and learning process is to bring about in the learner desirable change in behavior through critical thinking. This process does not take place in a vacuum but rather in an environment structured to facilitate learning. Hence, this environment of an organization as all elements relevant to its operation and they include direct and indirect action elements. School facilities, constitute the major components of both direct and indirect action elements in the environment of learning. Feature Article –Â  Country School – Allen CurnowThese facilities play pivotal role in the actualization of the educational goals and objectives by satisfying the physical and emotional needs of the staff and students of the school. Knezevich (1975, p. 563) emphasized that the physical needs are met through provision of safe structure, adequate sanitary facilities, a balanced visual environment, appropriate thermal environment, and sufficient shelter space for his work and play. His emotional needs are met by creating pleasant surrounding, a friendly atmosphere, and an inspiring environment.The educational system has undergone tremendous changes in the form of its philosophy, broadened goals and objectives, new approaches to service delivery and architectural design, quantum leap in school enrolment, multiplicity of curricula programmes and extra-curricula activities, introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and expanded academic support services such as guidance services to students, teachers and the community, integration of the school and community. 3. In what ways does instructional program influence the nature of school plant? Schools exist for the purpose of teaching and learning.Human and material resources are deployed for this purpose. School facilities are the material resources provided for staff and students to optimize their productivity in the teaching and learning process. The realization that the transfer of knowledge does not only take place in the four walls of the classroom from the teacher to the students but rather that learning takes place through discovery, exploration, interaction with the internal and external environment has necessitated the creative and innovative development of teaching and learning facilities that reflect these changes.Schools exist to serve socio-economic and political needs of the ever-changing society, consequently, they are in constant interaction with their external environm ent. They receive inputs from the external environment in the form of human and material resources, processes them and empty same into the society as finished products and services. The quality of the products bears a direct relationship with the quality of the facilities deployed in the process of the production.This demands that state of the art facilities are provided in schools to prepare school leavers for life in the global village. Several studies have shown that a close relationship exists between the physical environment and the academic performance of students. Nwagwu (1978) and Ogunsaju (1980) maintained that the quality of education that children receive bears direct relevance to the availability or lack thereof of physical facilities and overall atmosphere in which learning takes place.For example, research findings have shown that students learn better when a combination of methods and materials are employed during teaching. Furthermore, emphasis has shifted towards gi ving individual attention to students as against teaching large classes which presupposes that all students in a class have the ability to learn at the same pace. The implication of the foregoing is that in designing school plant, provision should be made for individual and small group interaction and for large groups for academic and social activities.