African American vs. Caucasian Americans Essay Example for Free

African American vs. Caucasian Americans Essay At first glance some people might consider this paper to be on the racial side, however it was all written by observations made. There are many differences between African Americans and Caucasians, some people dont see the differences because of ignorance . You must read the paper with an open mind and take none of this to heart. African American and Caucasians function differently in public surroundings. When you see a young African American you usually see them in groups of four of more. However, when one of them gets into a disagreement five to ten more show up in their defense. They are a very close knit group of individuals. I have also noticed that when you see a young African American walking around they are usually singing, talking very loud or running around. Also when they are in groups they are very loud and take over the area that they occupy. On the other hand when you see Caucasians they are rarely in groups of three or more. To top it off when someone in one of their groups gets in trouble the rest of the group is nowhere to be found. Most times when you see young Caucasian people in a group they are for the most part within a normal speaking level. These two groups tend to act differently in the public due to their cultural differences. There are a number of differences between the churches of African Americans and Caucasians. At most typical African American churches there are no true sermons. The African American churches tend to do more entertaining rather than teaching. They also do a great deal of singing and dancing involved in there praising of God. They emphasize fellowship in their churches especially after church when they all gather and close the celebration with a meal together. However at a typical Caucasian church there are a few differences. To start it off when you first walk in you get a program detailing what will be happening through the service. They tend to structure the whole service around a sermon or story. The service every week is very predictable as to what will happen. The Caucasian churches are more there to teach the ways of the lord as they have interpreted it. Although not all the African American and Caucasian churches are along this line a majority of the main stream ones are.

Use of Symbols and Symbolism in To Kill A Mockingbird :: Kill Mockingbird essays

Use of Symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee effectively uses symbolism throughout her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Jem's nursing of the flowers denotes his courage that he nurses in order to be able to tolerate people's criticism of his family, especially of his father. He was forced to take care of the camellias just as he was forced to live with anger, disappointment and a big question mark in his young heart about the workings of grownups. Atticus "never thought Jem'd be the one to lose his head over this" (110). However Jem did 'lose his head' and now he has to find the strength to control his emotions in order to avoid further trouble. This courage was hard to find but Mrs Dubose did find it and managed to break herself from morphine before she died. She also made sure Jem got a white waxy camellia she had prepared for him. The waxy camellia, the "Snow-on-the-Mountain" (118), could be a symbol of courage. She built her spirit little by little just as when she was making the camellia. Now it is Jem's turn to build his own. And as the camellia out of wax does not wither, in the same sense, tru e courage may be hard to build, but once built, it never leaves you. Mrs Dubose's camellias are not the only flowers that can be seen symbolically. Mayella Ewell's red geraniums also carry an important meaning. During the Robinson trial the reader is given a description of the Ewell's property. It is said that "what passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs , broomsticks and tool shafts, all tipped with rusty hammer-heads, snaggle-toothed rake heads, shovels, axes and grubbing hoes, held on with pieces of barbed wire. Enclosed by this barricade was a dirty yard containing the remains of a Model-T Ford, a discarded dentist's chair, an ancient ice-box, plus lesser items: old shoes, worn-out table radios, picture frames, and fruit jars, under which scrawny orange chickens pecked hopefully". (176) The general picture one acquires by this description is that of a small dump, a place totally disordered like the "playhouse of an insane child" (176). One can easily guess the rank of the people who lived there. However, "against the fence, in a lin e, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson.

Why I Own A Computer

Computers are capable of doing more things every year. There are many advantages to knowing how to use a computer, and it is important that everyone know how to use them properly. Using the information I have gathered, and my own knowledge from my 12 years of computer experience, I will explain the many advantages of owning a computer and how they important they are in your everyday life. I hope this helps others understand why computers and the Internet are so important to have access to. Webster’s New World Compact Dictionary defines a computer as â€Å"an electronic machine that performs rapid, complex calculations or compiles and correlates data† (Computer, 1995, p. 226). While this definition gives one a very narrow view of what a computer is capable of doing, it does describe the basic ideas of what I will expand upon. We have been living through an age of computers for a short while now, and there are already many people worldwide that are computer literate. According to Using Computers: A Gateway to Information World Wide Web Edition, over 250 million Personal Computers (PC’s) were in use by 1995, and one out of every three homes had a PC (Shelly, Cashman, & Waggoner, 1996,p138). Computers are easy to use when you know how they work and what the parts are. All computers perform the four basic operations of the information processing cycle: input, process, output, and storage. Data, any kind of raw facts, is required for the processing cycle to occur. Data is processed into useful information by the computer hardware. Most computer systems consist of a monitor, a system unit which contains the Central Processing Unit (CPU), a floppy-disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, speakers, a keyboard, a mouse, and a printer. Each component takes a part in one of the four operations. The keyboard and mouse are input devices I use to enter data into the computer. From there the data goes to the system unit where it is processed into useful information the computer can understand and work with. Next the processed data can be sent to storage devices or to output devices. Normally output is sent to the monitor where I can view it or stored on the hard-disk or to a floppy-disk located internal of the system unit. Output can also be printed out through the printer, or can be played through the speakers as sound depending on the form it takes after it is processed. Once I had grasped an understanding of the basic parts and operations of a computer, I then discovered how computers were going to make my life easier and more enjoyable. Being computer literate allows you to use many powerful software applications and utilities to do work for school, business, or pleasure. Microsoft is the current leading producer of many of these applications and utilities. Since Microsoft is the largest software producer it stands to reason most people including myself probably use one of their products on a daily basis. As for myself, I use a variety of software products from many different software vendors. Microsoft has also produced a software package called Microsoft Office that is very useful in creating reports, databases, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents for school and work. Included in Microsoft Office, are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Word is a word processing program that makes creating professional looking documents such as announcements, resumes, letters, address books, and reports easy to do. I use Word everyday in my job. I write many letters and other forms of communications to my customers or fellow employees at Hewlett-Packard. Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, has features for data organization, calculations, decision-making, and graphing. I find it very useful in making professional looking reports. I also use it for tracking my sales and income using its spreadsheet capabilities. Microsoft PowerPoint is â€Å"a complete presentation graphics program that allows you to produce professional looking presentations† (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 1996,p. 2). PowerPoint is flexible enough so that you can create electronic presentations, overhead transparencies, or even 35mm slides. I don t use this as much as the others, but I do use it when giving tours to students who visit Hewlett-Packard. When I using the Internet it allows me access to a vast resource of facts, knowledge, information, and entertainment that can help me do my work and have fun. According to Netscape Navigator 2 running under Windows 3. 1, â€Å"the Internet is a collection of networks, each of which is composed of a collection of smaller networks† (Shelly, Cashman, & Jordan, 1995, p. 12). Information can be sent over the Internet through communication lines in the form of graphics, sound, video, animation, and text. These forms of computer media are known as hypermedia. Hypermedia is accessed through hypertext links, which are pointers to the computer where the hypermedia is stored. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the collection of these hypertext links throughout the Internet. Each computer that contains hypermedia on the WWW is known as a Web site and has Web pages set up for users to access the hypermedia. Browsers such as Netscape allow me to â€Å"surf the net† and search for the hypermedia of their choice. I have found millions of examples of hypermedia on the Internet. While surfing I also found art, photos, information on business, the government, and colleges, television schedules, movie reviews, music lyrics, online news and magazines, sport sights of all kinds, games, books, and thousands of other hypermedia on the WWW. Through the Internet I can use, electronic mail (E-Mail), chat with other users around the world, buy airline, sports, and music tickets, and shop for a house or a car. All of this, and more, provides me with a limitless supply of information for research, business, entertainment, or other personal use. Online services such as America Online, Prodigy, or CompuServe make it even easier to access the power of the Internet. The Internet alone is almost reason enough to become computer literate, but there is still much more that computers can do. One of my favorite reasons for having a computer is for playing video games. With a PC you can play card games, simulation games, sport games, strategy games, fighting games, and adventure games. Today’s technology provides the ultimate experiences in color, graphics, sound, music, full motion video, animation, and 3D effects. Computers have also become increasingly useful in the music, film, and television industry. I have used my computer to compose music, create sound effects, create special effects, and create 3D life-like animation. I haven t done this but I know its possible to edit previous existing movie and TV footage into new programs, as seen in the movie Forrest Gump. All this and more can be done with computers. I feel that there is truly no time like the present to become computer literate. Computers will be doing even more things in the future and will become unavoidable. Purchasing and learning about a new PC now will help put PC’s into the other two-thirds of the homes worldwide and make the transition into a computer age easier. I believe everyone should own a computer regardless of age. The time is now, and the future is here.

An Explanation of Acid Mine Drainage

In a nutshell, acid mine drainage is a form of water pollution that happens when rain, runoff, or streams come in contact with rock that is rich in sulfur. As a result, the water becomes very acidic and damages downstream aquatic ecosystems. In some regions, it is the most common form of stream and river pollution. Sulfur-bearing rock, especially one type of mineral called pyrite, is routinely fractured or crushed during coal or metal mining operations, and accumulated in piles of mine tailings. Pyrite contains iron sulfide which, when in contact with water, dissociates into sulfuric acid and iron. The sulfuric acid dramatically lowers the pH, and the iron can precipitate and form an orange or red deposit of iron oxide that smothers the bottom of the stream. Other harmful elements like lead, copper, arsenic, or mercury may also be stripped from the rocks by the acidic water, further contaminating the stream. Where Acid Mine Drainage Happens It mostly occurs where mining is done to extract coal or metals from sulfur-bearing rocks. Silver, gold, copper, zinc, and lead are commonly found in association with metal sulfates, so their extraction can cause acid mine drainage. Rainwater or streams become acidified after they run through the mine’s tailings. In hilly terrain, older coal mines were sometimes built so that gravity would drain out water from inside the mine. Long after those mines are closed, acid mine drainage continues to come out and contaminate waters downstream. In the coal mining regions of the eastern United States, over 4,000 miles of stream have been impacted by acid mine drainage. These streams are mostly located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. In the western U.S., on Forest Service land alone there are over 5,000 miles of affected streams.   In some circumstances, sulfur-bearing rock can be exposed to water in non-mining operations. For example, when construction equipment cuts a path through bedrock to build a road, pyrite can be broken up and exposed to air and water. Many geologists thus prefer the term acid rock drainage, since mining is not always involved. Environmental Effects Drinking water becomes contaminated. Groundwater can be affected, impacting local water wells.Waters with a low pH can support only severely reduced animal and plant diversity. Fish species are some of the first to disappear. In most acidic streams, only some specialized bacteria survive.Due to how corrosive it is, acidic stream water damages infrastructure such as culverts, bridges, and stormwater pipes.Any recreational potential (e.g., fishing, swimming) and scenic value for streams or rivers affected by acid mine drainage are greatly reduced.   Solutions Passive treatment of acidic streams can be conducted by routing the water into a purpose-built wetland designed to buffer the low pH. Yet, these systems require complex engineering, regular maintenance, and are applicable only when certain conditions are present.Active treatment options include isolating or treating the waste rock to avoid contact of water with sulfates. Once the water has been contaminated, options include pushing it through a permeable reactive barrier that neutralizes the acid or routing it through a specialized wastewater treatment plant. Sources Reclamation Research Group. 2008. Acid Mine Drainage and Effects on Fish Health and Ecology: A Review.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1994. Acid Mine Drainage Prediction.