Health and social care Essay

Explain how the plan meets the health and wellbeing needs of the individual In health and social care the wellbeing of the individual is essential for all round health and well-being. Using the case of Miss JB, this essay I will explain how my plan will meet the health and wellbeing needs of this individual. To assist this process an action plan have been drawn up to support the short term, mid-term and long term goals of the individual to enable Mr JB to achieve his health and wellbeing needs. NOW TALK ABOUT WHAT HEALTH AND WELL BEING IS A person’s health and well-being is affected by a number of different factors. In general terms, health and well-being can be defined as†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ having a balanced diet (e.g. improved immunity, feeling healthy controlling weight) adequate rest and sleep (e.g. improved concentration, refreshes body, restores energy) regular exercise (e.g. improved fitness, weight control, circulation, mobility) supportive relationships (e.g. friends, family, professionals, improved self-esteem, self-worth) adequate financial resources (e.g. social security benefits, free prescriptions, free dinners, pension, mobility allowance) stimulating work, education and leisure activity (e.g. improve mental ability, valued) According to Mr JB BMI he is considered to be overweight and he does not get much exercise or sleep. Mr JB also lives in a confined space, sharing 2 bedrooms flat with 7 people. He is takes paroxetine and mirtazapine for stress and depression and does not spend any time with his family. Mr JB is at high risk I have created a plan to help improve Mr JB health and well-being. I have suggested the Mr JB move out of his parent’s house and buy a house of his own on a long term goal. I have also suggested to him that he could rent as an alternative action. The benefit of Mr JB owning his own home is he will have his independence, having his own space for him and his family and feel less stress about living with his parents. Having regular exercise will help Mr JB to lose weight; I have suggested that he exercise three times a week on a mid-term goal. For an alternative action he needs to lose 3 st one in 3-6 months. He need to join a gym, drink  more water and eat healthy (five a day fruit and vegetable). The benefits he will get are self-confidence, energy which will help him to spend time with his family, relief of stress and reduce the risk of a heart attack. Regular physical activity can help you prevent or manage a wide range of health problems and concerns, including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type two diabetes, depression, and certain types of cancer, arthritis and falls. Mr JB will also need to take paroxetine gradually. Stop Paroxetine hydrochloride abruptly can cause withdrawal symptoms or cause your original condition to return. In these instances, reducing the dose of Paroxetine hydrochloride gradually over time may reduce the chances of having these problems. Spending quality time and creating happy memories with his family will help reduce stress and strengthen the bond between him and his family which will result in being more relax less stress and help him to stop depending on his medication. I have suggested that he stop smoking because the amount he smoke long term can cause lung cancer, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Alternatively he should reduce that amount he smoke daily from 10 cigarettes a day to 3 a day and also used Nicorette patches to help him to stop over a period of 6 months on a short term plan. If he decides to follow the plan to stop smoking the result can be rewarding; less stress, reduce headache, feeling less tired, your sense of taste and smell improve and your heart will be less strained and work more efficiently which reduce that chance of lungs cancer and heart diseases. The recommended amount of alcohol to drink for a man is 21 units a week. Mr JB drinks 28 units a week. Your liver processes alcohol. It can only cope with so much at a time. Drinking more alcohol than the liver can cope with can damage liver cells and produce toxic by-product chemicals. The more you drink, and especially above the recommended limits, the greater the risk of developing serious problems such as: liver disease (cirrhosis or hepatitis); cancer; gut and pancreas disorders; depression; anxiety; sexual difficulties; muscle and heart muscle disease; high blood pressure; damage to nervous tissue; serious accidents; obesity (alcohol is calorie-rich). Also can mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and various other problems. I have suggested that Mr. JB reduce his alcohol intake by 19  units a week which is just under the recommended amount. The benefit of reducing his intake will reduce his chance of liver disease; You will immediately start having more money, reduce calories in take, Your liver will begin to rejuvenate All the little aches and pains throughout your body will slowly but surely go away, Your natural energy will slowly but surely return, You will find joy in all the little things of life, Your family will love the new you When I created this plan for Mr JB I thought about his preferences and circumstances I have chosen long term, mid-term and short term goal for him to achieve. I thought about what are his favourite five a day and encourage him to buy the and gradually introduce new ones if need. Mr JB like the idea of going to the gym so I suggested he join one, he work on shift base, so when he is on late shift I suggest that he take his younger child to school in the morning and pick them up when he is on early shift which will enable to spend more time with his children.

Case Analysis for Cirque du Soleil Case Essay

1. Describe how the touring show life cycle is supported by IT. While reading the case, you can access Cirque’s website and see actual applications (e.g. casting, ticket sales, and Cirque Club). According to this case, every step of the touring show life cycle is supported by IT. With regard to creation stage, IT plays an important role to improve this process. There is an application whose name is Open Eyes developed by IT. All of Cirque’s employees could access to Cirque’s Intranet and share interesting or surprising discoveries to others. Moreover, sharing this kind of information is significant to Cirque du Soleil because it keeps Cirque du Soleil staying top of the newest artistic rends. With regard to design stage, there are several applications created by IT to make those activities of design stage more effective and convenient. A costume application can save a lot of different measurements to costume patterns for every artist and keep this information in a database. The more important point is that this application connects with other applications to manage diverse sides of costume-making process. With regard to preparation stage, there is a Kin-Cirque application developed by IT to help artists practice reinforce their training experience. Physical fitness specialists could know how every artist’s physical condition develops. In addition, Kin-Cirque application connected with other applications to provide the exact physical measurements and needs of artists to equipment department. Then the equipment department can complete their jobs more easily. With regard to the diffusion of Cirque shows, IT has great influences on improving customer’s experience. There is an official website created by IT. People can access to this website from various parts of world. Especially the online forum where people can find special promotion, press galleries, and employment opportunities and so on was built up by IT. What is more, customers can purchase show tickets, select the seats, get the direction and so forth through an online box office. With regard to logistics stage, an e lectronic document management system and linguistic software are created by IT. They can coordinate and calibrate more than 150000 terms which depict countless equipment used at Cirque. Also they are stored in the Cirque’s databases. In addition, â€Å"IT roadcases† and VoIP technology which help Cirque du Soleil reduce a great  amount of time of touring infrastructure were developed by IT. Finally with regard to resource management, IT is widely applied to increase efficiency. IT developed an application which can assist the casting department to manage the artist bank and projects that could be old one, present one and future one. Applicants could submit their videos or performances via this application to conduct the recruitment process and their application materials would be stored in the databases. And that the Virtual Talent Scout was developed in Sep 2007. The pool of talent was enlarged by the Virtual Talent Scout. This increases Cirque’s abilities to deal with artist injury, increasing demand and accidents. In a word, to a large extent the whole touring show life cycle is supported and ameliorated by IT. 2. What was the level of alignment at Cirque du Soleil in 2008? According to the introduction of the case, the level of alignment at Cirque du Soleil is quite high in 2008.   First of all, the touring IT experts work closely with each other, even they are not in the same location. Everyone in the IT team performed as an integral and can resolve a big problem effectively and corporately. Secondly, there are a lot of servers all over the world. Employees can be easy to access to the applications and communicate with others, company, related department and so on very well. In short, in 2008 people at Cirque du Soleil can work together tightly and complete a great number of successful performances around the world. So it is a very high level of alignment at Cirque du Soleil in 2008. 3. What was the level of tension between the business needs and IT capacity? Through reading the whole case, I think the level of tension between the business needs and IT capacity is low. Because IT has improved the whole touring show life cycle and make the business effectively. Moreover, the most important point is that IT has help Cirque du Soleil to increase its customers and reduce the time of setting up the touring infrastructure which means cost of time. According achievements of IT, I could say there was a low level of tension between the business needs and IT capacity. 4. What are the key requirements, in terms of the IT architecture, of the support provided by IT at Cirque du Soleil? IT group needs to integrate the data from diverse activities. The design, ongoing improvement, growth of business, applications should meet the company’s business requirements. Moreover, IT group needs to do their best to make Cirque du Soleil operate efficiency  through information integration and management. Of course, IT group should maintain the databases and ensure all information is updated.

Personal Learning Lournal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Learning Lournal - Essay Example As Maslow has rightly pointed out in his theory, the motivation of an employee depends on the level of need that they are on. Hence only if the needs at the particular level are met will the employee show some kind of improvement in performance. In the meeting the CEO has been performing miserably, and it is clear from the previous meetings that she lacks leadership skills to a great extent. Although, I have been making efforts to try and contribute to the growth of the company, it is clear that the CEO has completely different ideas. All the meetings in the past have been rushed, last minute and with one or more of the members missing. This shows a clear lack of commitment and also a lack of authority on the CEO’s part. The CEO to a great extent has been assertive and has shown a very poor performance. I have been overloaded with tasks at the end moment, almost three to five hours before the lecture and am asked to complete others pending work. Due to my submissive nature, I have been giving in to all this and have been working although I have completed my part of the work way ahead of time. There is a clear lack of understanding on the side of the CEO that the group members have their personal lives as well which they are required to attend too. The diversity within the group has also been increasing the issues due to cultural differences. There is an obvious teaming up of people from the same country and an understanding only within them. This is very harmful for the group as the secret to the success of this project lies in team work and hard work. The CEO has been working with the intention that the group only requires to be led and has been extremely partial based on the cultural backgrounds of the people. Her style of leadership is mostly an authoritative style, where she has missed out on understanding the group dynamics and has focused on just giving orders to the group members. There has been a clear lack of

Analyze nonverbal communications and gender Essay

Analyze nonverbal communications and gender - Essay Example This is probably based on the evolutionary principle of "fight or flight" response. "When we experience excessive stress-whether from internal worry or external circumstance-a bodily reaction is triggered, called the "fight or flight" response. Originally discovered by the great Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon, this response is hard-wired into our brains and represents a genetic wisdom designed to protect us from bodily harm" (Neimark, 2009, pgh. 2). According to Kleinman (2007), "What scientists do know that you may not, is that human touch can actually improve your mental and physical health, lengthen your life, and even boost your career performance" (pgh. 1). This is not an uncommon happening, and from the moment babies are born they are being bombarded with external stimuli. Just like adults, "Babies differ in their perceptual styles and types of defenses. Some respond to auditory stimulation with a large repertoire of reactions while others respond with only single or global bodily responses" (Kernberg, et. al., 2000, pp. 102). Have you ever wondered if you can just tell the true em... Have you ever wondered if you can just tell the true emotions of someone just by looking at them It is true that you can generally guess what someone is thinking by looking at their face for contextual clues. As seen in the reading online, flight attendants usually faked smiles even when telling passengers unpleasant or negative comments. However, they realized that as long as they said whatever they had to say with a smile, it didn't really matter what exactly it was they were saying to the customer. "Flight Attendants must learn to interact with people from around the world, respecting individual customs and cultures while recognizing different comfort levels people have with flying. Two important traits you will need to succeed as a flight attendant are flexibility and a positive attitude" ("Flight Attendant-Express Jet," 2009). Also, from just looking at someone's face and body language, I was also able to detect the winner of a basketball game. The winner generally looked confident, appeared happy (as he was smiling), and held his body in a posture that exuded self-confidence. "According to a study comparing the reactions of blind and sighted competitors in the Olympics and Paralympics, the expressions of pride and shame may have evolved to be programmed into human behavior" ("Body Language of Winners, Losers Determined By Genetics," 2009). The loser, meanwhile, looked a bit slumped over, had a grumpy face (with a frown), and obviously looked upset that he had lost. III. The Human Body Appearances say a lot when it comes to men and women. "Studies examining women's satisfaction with their appearances frequently measure the linear effects of isolated variables on women's feelings. Previous research has examined the impact of

Workplace Literacy - Problem-Solving Letter Proposal Essay

Workplace Literacy - Problem-Solving Letter Proposal - Essay Example For instance, there are regular traffic jams during the mornings and afternoons. The central emphasis on cars as public transport also contributes to pollution. Although buses contribute to the pollution problem as much as cars, buses are able to aggregate the amount of people traveling, thus reducing the total amount of emissions in the atmosphere. Another major transportation concern is safety. The proportion of deaths from car accidents is increasing. In fact, the report of 2011 issued by the World Health Organization says that 1.3 million people die each year from traffic accidents (Joffe, 2011). This number is expected to increase to about 1.9 million deaths annually by 2020 if public transportation is not instituted. The number of traffic accidents during the year 2011, amounted to 544.179 thousand accidents, which amounts to 1.537 per day. The number of people injured in the same year amounted to more than (39.000) and (7.153) death with rate of (20) deaths per day. The cumulative recognition of these statistics demonstrates that transportation is a serious concern that strikes to the heart of pubic safety. In addition to the previously mentioned concerns, the nature of public transportation is additionally a significant civil rights concern. As you surely recognize driving is restricted to males (Jeddah, 2012). While many homes have their own drivers a significant amount do not. This leaves a majority of women without an adequate means of transportation. In both cases a significant amount of money is expended because the people who have their own driver have to pay for them and for the car. For people who don’t have their own driver, they still have to hire someone to take them to their jobs or schools or whatever destination they need to attend. This situation creates an instance where a large part of the working public

The Impact of South Korea's Pre-War Manufacturing Experience Essay

The Impact of South Korea's Pre-War Manufacturing Experience - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Korea is the third largest economy in Asia, next to Japan and China. An economic backwater in the 1950s and prior to that, South Korea has practically built its current economic progress from scratch. Its road to success is widely credited from the low-cost but high-quality export production which drives an annual trade growth rate of at least 12%, making the country the thirteenth-largest trading economy in the world. The Korean economy boasts of a long-term growth which converted the once low-income and war-torn country into an economic powerhouse in a span of mere decades. In fact, in just half of a century later since the Korean peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel, the southern state has demonstrated that poor and weak country, constantly being subjugated by its more powerful neighbors, can leapfrog the international hierarchy of development and practically eliminate the incidence of poverty. Today, its export-driven economy enabled the country to become the world’s largest shipbuilder, the third biggest manufacturer of large capacity memory chips, and a substantial player in the global automobile industry. The pre-industrial economy of Korea points to several factors for its system and influences – Japanese occupation; the conflicts, such as the Korean War and the Second World War; Korea’s partition; and, finally, and Park Chung Hee and his Korean Model. When Japan bested China in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, it began to interfere with Korean affairs until it fully annexed the country in 1910. In effect, it was the Japanese who developed Korea’s economy, educational system, and infrastructure. However, such hand in Korea’s development was harsh and that it was mainly geared towards designing the Korean economy to benefit further the Japanese economy and not for some altruistic reasons.

Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 42

Discussion - Essay Example This is evident with regimes or political parties whose organizational structure utilizes racial bases (Abdul 428). Mostly, the segregated category or race assumes the low class whereas the thriving one emphasizes on using the discriminating policies to maintain its class (Abdul 427). Unequal wealth distribution is a matter of concern especially to the society or state where it requires effective and timely rectification. This is because in many occasions, it yields to wrangles or wars especially if it entails diverse geographical and political blocs. Unequal distribution of wealth usually leads to uneven development especially in a state where the most favored people or region due to political influence, continues to thrive compared to others. Hence, indirectly this usually makes the state’s economy lag behind despite the most benefiting people belonging to the top class or the favored region (Abdul 427). It also leads to increased state of poverty where the affected people are unable to stabilize economically. This is because the already set policies usually act as a barrier between them and their destinies (Abdul 427). Therefore, I believe the implementation of policies by regimes or any authority to ensure unequal wealth distribution is unethical. Besides, it leads to more economic predicaments even to the favored categories, though indirectly. Abdul Aziz, et al. "Problem Of Unequal Distribution Of Wealth And Role Of Infaq (Donation) In Its Solution." Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 3.2 (2011): 426-429. Web. 27Th October

Higher Incidence of Diabetes Among the American Indians and Alaskan Essay

Higher Incidence of Diabetes Among the American Indians and Alaskan Natives - Essay Example Although the exact cause of this finding may vary from one case to another, it appears that genetic differences and racial or ethnic differences play a major role in this regard. Diabetes is affecting the lives of certain groups of the American population in a disproportionate manner and is, therefore, resulting in a number of health-related, social and financial problems; not only for the individuals suffering from the disease but also for those who are directly or indirectly involved with the patients. Diabetes is relatively more common among the American Indians and Alaskan Natives (Joslin and Kahn 514). The exact cause of why this disease affects these populations disproportionately is as yet unknown. With the passage of time, this disease is becoming more and more common among the people of young age belonging to these races and ethnicities. The prevalence of the diabetic disease is three times higher in American Indians and Alaskan Natives as compared to other American adults of similar ages. It is therefore essential to take corrective actions regarding prevention of diabetes in this population. As compared to other minorities, American Indian and Alaskan natives are extremely small in number and the term is used to refer to individuals having origins in the original people of South America and other people of the North that maintain tribal affiliation. The largest population of American Indians and Alaskan natives resides in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Washington, Alaska, and Michigan. Alaskan villages harbor the majority of Alaskan natives (Shinagawa & Jang 98).

My Vocational Profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

My Vocational Profile - Essay Example No one else can set the principles of one's ethics other than oneself. I give respect to people irrespective of their social standings and demand the same from others; though not in a reciprocative manner. Another thing is that I value work no matter however small and whatever kind it might be. Presently I am working part time as a waiter in a restaurant because it helps in getting some income and gives me a new opportunity to meet new people all the time. The activities of my interests might sound to be somewhat common but this is what they are. I like to visit new places and meet new people; especially people who are unlike me in thinking, in behaviour and in lifestyle. I try understand why they are what they are. I like to travel to different places, possibly alone, which gives me enough time to think and digest what I see. I like to learn new things from different sources. Reading also interests me a lot. The kind of readings includes current affairs, business trends, readings about various personalities and science related readings regarding latest discoveries and inventions. My dreams are the biggest source of my motivations. I am ambitious by nature.

Bretagne France Essay Example for Free

Bretagne France Essay Bretagne is found along Frances northern shore. Bretagne is also called Brittany and sometimes referred to as little Britain. It is a land of enchantment and wonders. It features rugged coastlines with some of the worlds most breathtaking views. It features more than 4,000 castles and medieval homes. Its an ideal destination for water sports enthusiasts, lovers of fine cuisine and seafood, and anyone fascinated by legends and history. The attractions, weather and scenery, and the festivals are what attract people the most. This region is full of numerous world-class museums and historic attractions. One of the best places to visit while in Brittany is Oceanopolis. It features 50 aquariums from tropical and polar species. The cathedral of St. Pierre and St. Paul is one of the last Gothic French cathedrals. The chateau de Combourg is a beautiful castle surrounded by greenery and water. The Grand Phare or Great Lighthouse is also a great place to visit, being 300 feet high. And finally the musee de la Faience is devoted to the famous pottery. Other fun things to do are outdoor water sports, including sailing, kayaking, surfing and scuba diving. Spa seawater treatments are also available for relaxing purposes. Being close to the ocean, the weather is fairly nice and warm year round. Rain occurs regularly which keeps the countryside green and wooded. Although it rains often, cloudless days are common and sunny in Brittany. In Brittany a common expression and response to people complaining about the rain is En Bretagne, il ne pleut que sur les cons, which literally translates as In Brittany, it only rains on the idiots. This means that if you don’t like Brittany, you should leave. Brittany has many festivals and events. They reflect Brittany’s culture and energetic music and dance. Some cultural festivals include the festival de Cornouaille, which is a festival that displays Brittany’s cultural diversity. Les Filets Bleus celebrates fishing traditions and the Festival du Film Britanniqu previews British films in France. Music festivals are also popular in France. Astropolis is a techno music themed festival celebrated in July. La Route du Rock plays pop and rock music. Les Transmusicales is known for showing brand new acts for undiscovered bands. They also have a festival all about activities dealing with the sea. The Fetes Maritimes de Brest is a sailing event that takes place every four years. The next race happens in July of 2012. La Route du Rhum is a transatlantic yacht race which also takes place every four years. The next race will be in November of 2014. Bretagne is a beautiful, fascinating mix of spectacular coastlines, ancient towns, magical islands and inland woods. With so many attractions and activities you will never get bored. The scenery and weather is unforgettably amazing. The festivals attract many tourists and French people to the area.

Rise and Failure of Monetarism in the 1980s

Rise and Failure of Monetarism in the 1980s Expand and Explain the Rise and Failure of Monetarism during the 1980s Monetarism, as an economic and political policy in the United Kingdom, (Hereafter UK) can be seen to have come to the fore in the late 1970s with the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party. The government’s brief experimentation with the concept was arguably over by 1982. However, the rise and failure of monetarism cannot be explained fully by analysis of the 1980s alone. It is necessary to consider the historical precursors to the elevation of monetarism as a key economic and political policy. A vital component in understanding this is the demise of Keynesianism as a desirable economic policy. Furthermore, we need to discuss to what extent monetarism it can be said to have failed completely. In addition to this the discussion herein will analyse the relevance of using macroeconomic terms to understand political, economic and historical issues. The essay will conclude that the rise of monetarism came about due to the nature of the global economy and that the study of monetarism is useful as it reflects not only the political complexion of the nation state but the wider global influences. Finally, the essay will concur with Bradford De Long’s theory that monetarism, a failure as a complete experiment, still retains an influence on modern economic thinking. Before embarking upon a discussion of the rise and demise of monetarism it is necessary to establish what is meant by the term. Monetarism is defined as ‘a system of controlling a countrys economy by limiting how much money is in use at a particular time’ (Cambridge Dictionary 2004, online). Monetarism, as promoted by Milton Friedman[1], focuses upon price stability, in contrast to Keynesian economics that place the greater emphasis on the rigidity of currency value. While the 1980s provide the main focus of debate the growth of the theory’s popularity can be traced to the 1950s. It is therefore necessary to briefly establish the precursors to the 1980s to comprehend the rise and fall of the monetarist system. Macroeconomic models, such as monetarism, can be an important tool in understanding history, economics and politics. During the late 1970s macroeconomic models were important not only in understanding economics but also because modellers were close to policy-makers. The economic modellers had an important influence on the events at the time and offer another way of understanding the historic and political significance of the early 1980s (Wren-Lewis 1995, p. 204). The benefits of such an approach is that one can move away from analyses dependent on concepts of national politics, concepts such as Thatcherism: Approaches which look at the recomposition of the British state during the 1980s in terms of ‘Thatcherism’ fail to conceptualise the global relations of exploitation in and through which the British state subsists (Bonefeld 1993, pp. 252-3). In contrast, the study of economic policy, in this case monetarism, cannot be divorced from the global political and economic issues of the time. It is important to this discussion that a wide view is taken to reflect the various impacts and influences on politics and economics. Such an approach is one adopted by many academic writers on the subject. For example Saad-Filho and Johnstone’s collected work on neo-liberalism includes a discussion of monetarism (Saad-Filho and Johnstone 2004) while economic, political and historical journals all contain reference to the political and economic changes of the period. Thus, monetarism as a concept allows us to deal with a number of combined elements simultaneously. Without the relevant social, political and economic environment an economic policy, like monetarism, would not have been able to take a foothold and assume dominance over Keynesian modes of thinking. However, such difficulties were apparent at the time. Economic planners were faced with difficulties that Keynesianism did not appear able to address. The problem faced by economic planners is most clearly illustrated by the growth of inflation. In the period between the end of the Korean War and the beginning of the 1970s, the inflation rate in the United Kingdom never rose above the 5% annual figure. However, this figure rose to 17%, then 27% and back to around 15% in 1974, 1975 and 1976 respectively (Kenway 1994, p. 124). Indeed, the world economy had become strained even by the late 1960s. As Harold Wilson took office in October 1964 at the head of the Labour Party, the Prime Minister was embarking upon a period of economic upheaval. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, sought to replenish Britain’s gold reserves, cut wages and improve exports of British goods. Hindered by industrial unrest he and his successor, Roy Jenkins, failed to control rising wages. This example is symptomatic economic difficulties that led to elevation of monetarism as a way of improving the economy. By the mid-1970s ‘Keynesianism appeared to be a spent force’ (Bonefeld 1995, p. 35). Not only was this the case but in contrast monetarism was on the ascendancy, as David Smith has summarised: For monetarists, and in particular British monetarists, the early 1970s were what the Great Depression had been for Keynes and his followers. Existing ideas about economic policy had been dealt a savage blow by actual events (Smith 1991, p. 45). One of these actual events was the move away from the Bretton Woods system.[2] This was a reaction to the economic difficulties that increasingly resulted in the disengagement of labour from capital. Monetarist policies sought to re-associate the relationship between the market and labour. As part of this process, advocates of monetarist policy sought to greater exploit the labour force, lower their wages and cut expenditure upon public services. Monetarism was designed to make market freedom the deciding factor in regulating the economy rather than maintaining labour at an artificial level. Its appeal was such that monetarism was being accepted as a viable economic school of thought in all western countries by the mid-1970s. Central to the philosophy of monetarism, as Bonefeld points out, was the abolition of employment guarantees as a pre-condition for economic recovery (Bonefeld 1995, p. 36). Power over the economy would be taken back from organised labour and the free market would regulate the relationship between money and the workforce. As part of this trade unions became undesirable and any false elevation of the role of labour, through artificial levels of employment and high wages, had to be addressed. Monetarism, therefore, with its emphasis on the strict relationship between money and exploitation of labour, appeared to offer a solution to the problem of people and governments spending ‘beyond their means’. In essence, monetarism offered ‘a capitalism of ‘value for money’’ with Labour subjugated to the same level as any other factor of production (Bonefeld 1995, p. 45). Monetarism’s appeal would not have been effective without apparent difficulties in the dominant economic theory of the time, Keynesianism. In part, the predominant Keynesian philosophy was undermined by the overly-confident position of its proponents. They failed to consider the threat to their dominant model and the serious competition posed by monetarism. However, this was in direct contrast to the reality of the economic landscape. In this respect the star of Keynesianism was on the descent in the eyes of many people: The old Keynesianism lost its hold within economics, not because economists ceased to believe in the importance of unemployment, but rather because they ceased to believe the Keynesian account of how those variables were determined and, in particular, the means by which the government could influence them. The transformation from Keynesianism to Monetarism required, therefore, a transformation of views about how the economy worked. (Kenway 1994, p. 10). The transition of views referred to by Kenway started to materialise with a growing appreciation for the monetarist system in some circles. On the academic front the cause of monetarists in the UK was boosted as Harry Johnson was appointed Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics (Hereafter LSE). His influence spanned the Atlantic from Chicago to London and he became a key academic proponent of monetarism. This position was bolstered as Johnson formed the driving force behind the Money Study Group at LSE, which was a forum for monetary theory and policy. The Money Study Group provided the respectable face of monetarism and highlighted the growing body of academic in favour of it. Academic support alone could not account for the elevation of monetarism over Keynesian philosophies. The House of Commons and the role of policy-makers were, of course, necessary for the successful implementation of any economic policy. Johnson and other economists, with the help of Conservative MP Richard Body, produced a pamphlet entitled A Memorial to the Prime Minister. The document was signed by eight leading monetarists and had the support in the House of Commons of forty Conservative MPs. The producers of the pamphlet, who called themselves the ‘Economic Radicals’, attacked the policy of Edward Heath’s government, but with little effect on his political position or outlook. Despite the ‘Economic Radicals’ making another public appeal in 1974 a second miner’s strike brought about two general elections and a Labour government. This was a failure for the Conservative Party but it ultimately pushed the party towards the Right and towards Ma rgaret Thatcher, a key proponent of monetarist doctrine. In the public sphere monetarism also began to attract some influential backing. David Smith has also demonstrated that monetarism began to find some powerful allies in the newspaper world of Fleet Street. Samuel Brittan, economic commentator for the Financial Times and Peter Jay, economic editor for The Times, both favoured monetarist economic philosophy. Eventually this favouritism evolved to open advocacy for monetarism and, as Smith argues, they were soon joined by others (Smith 1991, p. 52). Such support would have no doubt been invaluable for bolstering the attractiveness of monetarism. It put the debate into the public arena, allowing people to become involved or at least aid understanding of the debates in question. Furthermore, the influence would have had a reassuring effect on the City, a key ingredient in the success of any economic policy. Monetarism, therefore, was not an unknown ideal in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party swept into office. On the contrary, as had been discussed above, the Conservative Party had in some part been pushed to the Right of the political spectrum because of economic issues. However, it was not necessarily such a clear break from previous policy as one might assume. Instead one agrees with Bonefeld’s view that 1979 brought continuity as well as change: [T]he shift from Labour to Conservative government in 1979 comprises a complex of discontinuous and continuous elements. In the 1970s, there was an integration of monetarist policies with Keynesian forms of class collaboration; the incoming Thatcher government continued, in a more radical fashion, monetarist economic policies in a monetarist framework (Bonefeld 1993, p. 251). Bonefeld is careful to assert that the Thatcher government’s approach to economic policy, while more radical, was not revolutionary. As with the study of history it is vital to understand the continuity as well as the changes in society. With this in mind it is easy to see why Bonefeld was clear, as discussed earlier, in condemning those who viewed the period in Thatcherism. Not only were they ignoring the wider global ramifications, but also by studying Thatcherism specifically one is tending to ignore the continuity and place over-emphasis on change. As the Conservatives came to power they did so with a determination to beat high inflation rates in the United Kingdom. Their position had been weakened partially by previous national wage rises. This was in contrast to the ‘tight money’ principles of monetarism. Thus, while attempting to curb inflation the levels actually rose to 22% by May 1980 (Pugh 1990, p. 347). Thatcher’s government sought to adhere more firmly to the monetarist principles as a way of tackling monetarism. A key component of this was Geoffrey Howe’s budget of 1981 which is ‘generally taken to be the most dramatic demonstration of the fact that Keynesianism was no more’ (Smith 1991, p. 105). But there was some ambiguity about the aims and methods of monetarist policy as Pugh highlights: Though professed for many years by marginal figures in the economics profession, monetarism remained an unproved theory; and it was not clear what exactly constituted the money supply. For some years Chancellors of the Exchequer kept changing their definition in an effort to apply the theory in the real world (Pugh 1990, p. 347). Thus the concept of monetarism was a difficult one to grasp and the theory was harder to implement under real economic conditions. Yet, despite this there was some evidence to suggest that by 1981 the Conservative’s policy of monetarism was beginning to yield some positive results in the fight against inflation. But this came at a cost. The 1981 budget had introduced strict monetarist policies because although inflation had fallen in 1981 it had done so because the economy was in economic depression. Howe therefore set about implementing some heavy-handed deflationary measures. His budget brought with it large tax increases, a reduction in borrowing by the public sector which fell from  £13.5 billion to  £10.5 billion (Pugh 1990, p. 347). The fear was that this would lead to high unemployment. Mrs Thatcher could have been politically challenged at this point. A number of politicians disagreed with her stance and had they resigned they may have forced her hand. However, failure to do so emboldened Thatcher who embarked on a period of strengthening her position. She rid herself of the so-called ‘wets’ in her party, the likes of St John Stevas, Gilmour, Pym and Prior, while simultaneously promoting these close and loyal to her such as Norman Tebbit, Nigel Lawson and Cecil Parkinson. However, while the monetarist policy failed to halt Thatcher politically the economic consequences were widespread. Britain was set for the worse economic depression for fifty years, with unemployment reaching 2.7 million. The Conservatives continued to claim their policy was intended to aid the country in the long-term. Between 1983 and 1988 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, pointed to some economic growth as proof of the success of Conservative monetarist policies. Indeed, as Pugh points out, the Conservatives could rightly point to decreased union militancy as evidence of their success in redressing the imbalance between money and labour influence. However, as Pugh also suggests, this had as much to do with the high rates of unemployment as it did of any successful government policy (Pugh 1990, p. 348). Thatcher’s monetarist policies allowed the manufacturing industry to fall into decline. Although the period saw some expansion of service industry this was by no means enough to make up for the losses in industry. Furthermore, it sometimes exacerbated other issues. For example, as the service sector grew and demanded more use of computers the balance of trade deficit was increased as more computers were imported. Britain’s lack of a strong export sector heightened the economic decline and to protect the pound from currency speculation high interest rates were introduced. Not all of these difficulties were clearly evident at the time, for Nigel Lawson was claiming a mini-boom in the mid-1980s. The Conservatives won elections in 1983 and 1987 despite high unemployment rates. In this respect the monetarist principle of getting people to accept unemployment and move away from notions of guaranteed employment appeared to be working. However, what expansion there was came at the expense of mounting personal debt. Martin Pugh has shown how private debt per household rose between 1980 and 1989 from  £16 billion to  £47 billion. In the same period borrowing on mortgages shot up from  £43 billion to  £235 billion (Pugh 1990, p. 350). Lawson did not learn from previous mistakes either. The high rises in personal debt did fuel a consumer boom. Consumer booms in turn generate a feel good factor in society however it is unsustainable because of the levels of debt incurred. Furthermore, with the decline in manufacturing the demand for consumer goods had to be satiated by importing items, thus further expanding the trade deficit to new heights. Lawson then exacerbated the situation to an even greater extent. He continued to fuel the consumer boom but the economy turned down once more. Despite his protestations that this was only a temporary problem the fact remained that a second depression had been brought into effect. As Pugh explains this had substantial political repercussion: Monetarism had long since been abandoned as unworkable, so that the government had no weapons at its disposal except for the highly destructive use of interest rates which, at 13 per cent, severely handicapped industry. The appearance of a second depression with the decade undermined all the claims made for Mrs Thatcher’s radical economic strategy†¦ After twelve years in power Mrs Thatcher was to leave office with the economy demonstrably weaker than when she first took over (Pugh 1990, p. 351) There is no question of economics influencing the downfall of the Conservative Party and more specifically Mrs Thatcher. The cause and effects of depression appeared to be obvious signs of a failed policy in monetarism. However, debate continues to surround the point at which it is fair to say that monetarism itself failed or was superseded by newer economic thinking. Furthermore, it should also be considered whether or not monetarism ever failed entirely of if the policy has continued in some form. Thatcher had come to power as the world trade recession was worsening and the combination of these two economic factors was damaging as social historian Arthur Marwick explains: In this context the Government’s determination to adhere strictly to the principles of monetarism and to ruthlessly curtail public spending had very serious repercussions. Unemployment in 1979 had eased to 5.7%. In 1980-1 it took off astronomically and by the end of 1982 had more than doubled, with a rate of 13.4 per cent, and a highest-ever number of people out of work 3,190,621 (Marwick 1990, pp. 271-2). On these figures alone it would appear that monetarism was an ill-suited remedy to the economic difficulties. However, the Conservative government was implementing standard monetarist principles. They sought to lower taxation in an effort to reward greater free market enterprise. In direct opposition to socialist principles as much financial choice as possible was to be left with the individual. The state should, under these circumstances, take a back seat. Part of this deregulation took the form of attempting to limit the power of trade unions and channelling money into small businesses. Monetarism went hand-in-hand with de-industrialisation. Debate and uncertainty remains over whether monetarism can be said to have failed by 1982. Despite the debatable end of Keynesianism in 1981, arguably monetarism in its simple form did not last past 1982. The 1980-2 economic crisis meant policy-makers responded with Keynesian deficit demand management. In 1982, at a time when Mexico almost defaulted, the March 1982 UK budget appeared, to some people, to present another watershed in economic planning: To some commentators, March 1982 represented the end of the monetarist experiment. That was premature. But it was the start of the official process of unwinding the policy (Smith 1991, p. 106). It was premature because the flirtation with monetarist principles did not end entirely. After the 1982 budget some improvements in the economy were visible. For example, inflation fell; modest recovery was noticeable although unemployment remained high. But as politics began playing into the economic equation Howe sought to woo the electorate with economic incentives in the run-up to a 1983 election. By initiating a consumer boom before the election the economic cycle had returned to one of boom and bust. It is true that the Conservatives did not manage to adhere strictly to their own spending limits and therefore appeared to be undermining their monetarist economic roots. However, Marwick argues the reality is not as clear cut as this: But the very definite restrictions on expenditure in certain areas, the whole concept of ‘level funding’, that is to say funding that did not automatically make adjustments for inflation or pay settlements (as had been the general principle in the ‘consensus’ period), and the ready resort to high interest rates, continued to give government policy a distinct monetarist flavour (Marwick 1990, p.312). It is perhaps therefore wrong to discard the concept of monetarism post-1982. As Howe moved to the Foreign Office to be replaced by Nigel Lawson the UK saw a brief return to rigid adherence to monetarism. If viewed in light of Marwick’s comments this should not be seen as surprising for the monetarist undertones were still prevalent. Thus, alternatively Smith proposes that the January 1985 Sterling crisis marked the changeover point from pragmatic monetarism to pragmatism (Smith 1991, p. 123). Arguably then we can trace the rise and demise of monetarist policy and conclude, as Smith does, that a clear watershed was reached. However, an alternative discussion is purported by Bradford De Long who suggests that the New Keynesian ideas that appeared to supersede monetarism in fact actually contain many of the same elements, under a different name (Bradford De Long 2000, p. 84): We may not all be Keynesians now, but the influence of monetarism on how we all think about macroeconomics today ahs been deep, persuasive, and subtle (Bradford De Long 2000, p. 85). In this respect it may be incorrect to study the rise and failure of monetarism as a policy. This may be particularly incorrect if one talks only of the monetarist experiment and specifically 1979 to the early-to-mid 1980s. Monetarism did not begin in 1979 with Thatcher’s government and an analysis of it in terms of Thatcherism ignores too many other economic, global and political variables. In much the same way, if we adopt Bradford De Long’s conclusions it may be incorrect to talk of the failure of monetarism. However, as Pugh’s argument suggests it seems to be during Thatcher’s time that monetarism came to the fore of public knowledge. Arguably the peak of monetarism’s influence came in this period of the short experiment. However, the rise and fall of monetarism must take into account the wider implications outlined above to provide a more complete understanding. Furthermore, while its most public experimentation may have occurred in the 1980s t his does not preclude its existence and therefore its importance in either the period before or the period after. Bibliography Online Sources Cambridge Dictionary Online, http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=51549dict=CALD, (Accessed 12th June 2005). Wikipedia Online Encyclopaedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetarism, (Accessed 11th June 2005). Articles Bonefeld, Werner ‘Monetarism and Crisis’, in Bonefeld, Werner and Holloway, John (eds), Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money, (London 1995, pp. 35-68). Bradford De Long, J, ‘The Triumph of Monetarism?’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Winter 2000, pp. 83-94). Wren-Lewis, Simon, ‘Review. From Keynesianism to Monetarism: The Evolution of UK Macroeconomic Models’, The Elconomic Journal, Vol. 104, No. 428 (January 1995, pp. 203-5). Books Bonefeld, Werner, The Recomposition of the British State during the 1980s, (Aldershot: 1993). Kenway, Peter, From Keynesianism to Monetarism. The Evolution of UK Macroeconomic Models, (London: 1994). Marwick, Arthur, British Society since 1945, (London: 1990). Pugh, Martin, State and Society. A Social and Political History of Britain 1870-1997, (London: 1999) Saad-Filho, Alfredo and Johnstone, Deborah (eds), Neoliberalism. A Critical Reader, London: 2004). Smith, David, The Rise and Fall of Monetarism. The Theory and Politics of an Economic Experiment, (London: 1991). 1 [1] Milton Friedman was an American economist known for his promotion of laissez-faire capitalism. For a biography of the man consult the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman. [2] The scheme is described thus: ‘The Bretton Woods system regulated the international deficit financing of demand on the world market on the basis of an inflationary supply of dollars to the rest of the world’ (Bonefeld 1995, p. 35). Bretton Woods was so named after the New Hampshire village where it was devised in 1944.

What Does The Placebo Effect Say About The Mind-body Dilemma? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

What Does The Placebo Effect Say About The Mind-body Dilemma? When I was seven years old my family and I took my grandmother on a trip around northern India. It was her desire to make pilgrimages to the temples that were considered to be the holiest by the Swaminaryans, an orthodox sect of Hindus. At that time in my life, I couldn't even pretend to be interested in the activities occurring within the temples. Instead, I was mesmerized by my proximity to the wildlife that was lounging just outside of the actual walls of temples. In a two-week span of time I must have seen more than twenty temples, and by the end they all blurred together except for one. Although the temple itself was not magnificent, what was occurring inside has remained with me to this day. A male priest, who was sitting at the main alter, was pulling on elderly woman's hair causing her to scream hysterically. I discovered that the woman was suffering from a headache and was having it cured by the priest. More accurately, she was having the "ghosts" removed from her brain. For the individuals who were directly involved in the ceremony and for many of the people with whom I was traveling, exorcism was a perfectly legitimate way of curing an illness of the body. The cure had no pharmaceutical basis, but it was based in the people's belief system. The belief system for the circumstance that I witnessed was a ritualistic aspect of Hinduism. In the case of the exorcism, the individuals involved expected that the treatment would work, and as a result the treatment did work. The idea that people benefit from expectation alone is called the placebo effect, and it is not u nique to India or to the east. Placebos are medications or treatments that are benign and have no pharmacological properties 1)The Placebo Effect Real of Imagined. The category of placebo includes everything from the hair pulling I witnessed in India to the starch pills that millions of American women take along with their birth control. Until recently, placebos were considered important to Western medicine, in so far as they were part of a rigorous scientific method of testing and approving new medicine. In particular, a standard part of clinical trials is the division of patients into two categories. One category is given the medication being tested and the other is given placebo pills.

The Stamp Act :: essays research papers

The Stamp Act of 1765 was a tax put on the British American colonies, sponsered by George Grenville and was the first direct tax placed on them. Parliament needed means to help fund expensive costs of keeping troops inside the colonies, so they imposed a tax on all of the colonies everyday printed materials, such as pamphlets and newspapers, and all legal and commercial documents, which all needed to have a certain special stamp placed on it. Many agents of the American colonies that resided in London had suggested other methods to obtain the needed money but where ignored and the Americans where taxed. There were many Americans who did not elect members of Parliament and they greatly opposed the Stamp Act, for two reasons, because they didn't have enough money to pay for them and also it went against their new principle that said, " No taxation without representation." This new tax made many Americans very angered and their actions that came from this started the way towards the American Revolution. There was many forms of resistance, including the king and Parliament receiving many petitions, Americans boycotting the British goods, and printers and lawyers refusing to use the stamps for stamping documents. Another major point is that violence sparked up from the Sons of Liberty, and in New York rioters got so violent that the destroyed a British officer's house because he had said that he "would cram the stamps down America throats at the point of his sword." The Stamp Act Congress was the first conference that held multiple people from several colonies, and was formed of delegates from nine of the thirteen original colonies, which were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Ilsand, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Deleware, Maryland, and South Carolina. They met in New York over the dates of October 7th to the date of October 25th, and they created a

The History of Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance was driven by a force of great strides in humanity. This was a time for a re-awakening of educated thinking, great artistic endeavors, and an empowering factor of humanism to use free will to govern one's future rather than allowing the church to dictate the correct path in life. The city of Florence became the center for much of this activity, where artists and scholars were sponsored royally by like-minded families of great wealth and social power. More emphasis was put onto education as a means of freedom from ignorance instead of a reason to serve God. There was a shift in power from the church to a general secularization in all areas of life, with the main focus being on the enhancement in the studies of the arts. The arts were looked at in a new way, using humanism as the new religion and the new way to achieve the greatest possible virtue. The actual term Renaissance means â€Å"re-birth†, which is essentially what was taking place overall, in Florence and other Italian states. â€Å"For Burckhardt this period consisted, broadly speaking, of the 15th century in Italy, a time and place in which â€Å"medieval† man became â€Å"modern† man. -Italy-History of, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2000. (1) This was a re-birth of ideas, learning, communication, artistry and beliefs. All of these factors were culminating together to prepare the world for the dawning of a new age, and a new direction for man to move in. The Italian Renaissance began finding it's niche among the elite in Florence in 1360, however, this was just the beginning. The Renaissance proved to be more established by the early fifteenth century among the rest of Italy, and eventually the rest of Europe. . The world was changing and ready for a new way of thinking. No longer were individuals prepared to accept the teachings of the church as their guidelines in life. Society wanted more from life than what the church had to offer. Italian culture, most noteably in Florence, was growing wealthier. With this increase of wealth came a need to pursue personal limits in achievement, education, and ability. â€Å"In their society, successful individuals, usually men, clearly were capable of doing more in this world than traditional religious views allowed. † – Modern European History I, 1992. (2) The humanists came forth from this need to learn. They were the intellect behind the Renaissance and brought to light a new view of what should be taught and studied. They embraced the classics; translating many from the ancient Greek and Roman script they were originally created in, and redefining how these works were originally interpreted. They looked upon studies in grammar, rhetorics, poetry, history and moral philosophy as a means of elevating their self-worth, and discovered that man can create his own destiny rather than follow a pre-ordained fate determined by the church. By using education to further themselves in society, the free-willed humanists were setting the standards for educated thinking, that current modern day life adheres to. â€Å"Humanism was the most important single intellectual movement of the Renaissance. † – Eugene F. Rice Jr, 1970. (3) Humanism was not only focused on education; this way of thinking also held power over other aspects of the Renaissance. 2 As much of the educational aspect centered in Florence, so did the growing desire for beauty and culture to be represented in art; another strong factor of humanism. With it's economic and social standing becoming rapidly elevated, and due to the strong tradition of democracy it held, Florence would prove to have the ideal surroundings for the birth of artistry in the Italian Renaissance movement. At the beginning of the Renaissance, Florence was a well-established, commercial city primarily controlled by the rich merchant class and some of the very wealthy and powerful families that resided there. Families such as the de Medici family, would commission artists to design and build enormous churches, palaces and other monuments to cement the families' position in Florence. Using this type of backing sponsorship, the growing artistic community was able to flourish and thrive, and produce a mutitude of glorious works, focusing on a new embodiment of their skill. The human body was looked upon and studied with more detail and realism than ever before. This lead to more accurate and life-like art work, both in painting and sculpture. Much of the art moved away from the old themes of portraying the world and humanity as perfectly as possible, and concentrated instead on capturing the actual likeness of the subject matter, no matter how unappealing or distressing it may have been. With enormous financial sponsorship behind them, artists were able to concentrate soley on their craft and expand it into the new, Renaissance style. They met great opposition from the church but were able to continue moving forward with the ongoing support of their benefactors. The infallible teachings of the church combined with the power of the Pope, were constantly challenged by the humanists and those that followed this new style of thought. Citizens were more and more frequently pledging allegiance to the crown rather than to the Vatican, creating a steady decline of power from religion. â€Å"The Christian truth that had been acknowledged as comprehending all phenomena, earthly or heavenly, now had to co-exist with a classical attitude that was overwhelmingly directed toward earthly life. – Humanism, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2000. (4) Knowledge began to undermine the position of the church. An ever-increasing amount of followers of humanism reaffirmed the fact that humans are individuals and not just souls passing through earth on their way to eternity in heaven or hell. As individuals, every human had the right to discovering his own destiny and potential. These beliefs and views were strongly frowned upon by the church, who tried in vain to reassert their influence on society. Much of the great wealth of the era was also looked at as un-Christian, but the humanists argued that wealth was only a means to achieve greater virtue. Money was needed to fund and support the arts, which provided the tools to further enlightenment in these areas. The church however, could only accept this wealth if it was used for the greater good of society. This was an argument to prevail throughout the Renaissance. From the re-evaluation of education and art, society has derived an opportunity to determine their own destiny, based on the knowledge they choose to empower themselves with. Humanists may have opposed the church and it's teachings in order 4 to move forward with free will and choice, but without that opposition, life would not hold the amount of wonderment and variation that exists today. The humanistic efforts that began during the Italian Renaissance paved the way for society to become more independent in their thinking, more realistic in their arts, and more educated in subject matter that had been too long denied. The Italian Renaissance shaped and altered the â€Å"modern† world, bringing society out of the â€Å"medieval† times and onto the path that stretched toward the optimistic future.

Al Capone and the Prohibition

In the United States, the Prohibition marked the time when the production and sake of alcohol was banned.   This ban was the result of the perception that alcohol was a moral and social threat.   The Prohibition sought to decrease crimes and other unlawful acts.Unfortunately, the end result was the opposite of the objective.   Crimes increased, as people clamored for illegal alcohol.   The situation also caused the domination of gangsters, which provided the banned commodity.   Among all gangsters who played a role in the Prohibition, Al Capone was the most influential.   This research paper aims to discuss Al Capone and his effect on the Prohibition.The Prohibition was also known as the Noble Experiment (Kerr 564; McWilliams).   The period spanned 13 years, from 1920 to 1933 (Kerr 564; McWilliams; Poholek).   During this time, the  Ã‚   â€Å"manufacture, transportation and sale† of alcoholic beverages were banned (Clark 1; â€Å"Prohibition†; Kerr 56 4; Poholek).   The term â€Å"prohibition† was used to identify the moments in history when the alcoholic ban was in effect (Clark 1).In 19th century America, especially 1820s, citizens of the United States were consuming an average of seven gallons of alcohol per person every year (Clark 1).   This statistic had begun to bother political and religious figures alike.   They believed that alcoholic beverages were threatening society's institutions, especially the family and the community (Clark 1; Kerr 564).   Alcohol was considered as the â€Å"devil's advocate,† the cause of poverty, crime and death (Poholek).As a result, the Anti-Saloon League of America (ASL) was formed; this group brought the alcohol question in the political arena (Clark 1).   By 1916, U.S. Congress was dominated by dry members who were backed by ASL.   Supporters of the Prohibition were called â€Å"dry,† while opponents were referred to as â€Å"wets† (Clark 1; Kerr 564 ).   In 1917, the 18th Amendment was proposed; the amendment was about the prohibition of alcohol (Clark 2; â€Å"Prohibition†).   Two years later, the Volstead Act was passed to enforce the amendment (Clark 2; Poholek).   The Prohibition officially began on January 16, 1920 (Clark 2; Poholek).On the contrary, the Prohibition was characterized by the very elements it sought to avoid.   In the words of Mark Thorton: â€Å"Prohibition did not achieve its goals.   Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve† (qtd. in Poholek).   The deprivation of alcohol in American society exacerbated the social problems.   Despite the ban, the consumption of alcohol was at an all time high (McWilliams).   The period was also characterized by utmost disregard for law and an increase in crime rates (Clark 2).   The Prohibition failed in its endeavor, and in the process, made matters worse.The Prohibition actually paved the way for gangsters to gain power and authority.   Since alcohol was made illegal, the gangs found the situation as an opportunity to conduct business and earn money by providing the contraband (â€Å"Prohibition†; Poholek).   Because of the banning of alcohol, the public had to get their supply from gangsters; this made gangsters very rich, as bootlegging liquor proved to be a lucrative endeavor (Poholek).   Among all the bootlegger gangsters, Al Capone was the most famous and influential (Poholek).Alphonsus Capone was born on January 17, 1899 (Chicago Historical Society [CHS] 1).   He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.   At a young age, he was already part of gangs.   He dropped out of school at an early age and worked several menial jobs.   Near Capone's home stood the headquarters of Johnny Torrio, a gangster and future mentor of Capone (Bardsley 4).   While working his multiple jobs, Capone also did favors for Torrio.   In the process, the young Capone earned not only money, but also Torrio's trust.   In 1909, Torrio left New York for Chicago (Bardsley 4).   For a while, Capone and Torrio's paths did not cross.Back in New York, Capone worked for another gangster, this time it was Frankie Yale (CHS 1).   However, in Chicago, Torrio had made himself an influential underground boss (Allen 5).   With the Prohibition in full effect, Torrio saw the potential of an illegal alcohol industry.   He recognized how profitable the venture would be with the Chicago market.   However, he had to consider the competition, such as the rival gangs.   He had to find the right man to deal with his competitors (Allen 5).

An Road Accident Essay

It looked as if a storm was approaching. I was standing at a cross-road traffic junction, waiting to cross the road. I have always observed that particular cross-road to be extremely busy, with vehicles constantly on the move. I was headed towards the bus stop across the street, so I turned in the opposite direction of the cross-road to see if my bus was coming. As I turned back to have a look at the cross-road, I saw a flashy yellow sports car trying to beat the red light. Before I knew it, I heard a thunderous heart-stopping crash. The sports car had slammed head on into a green van right in the middle of the large intersection. Shattered windscreen glass was strewn all over the junction and the passers-by crowded round the scene. I saw one girl rushing to the telephone to report the accident. For a minute or two, nothing happened. Then, a man got out of the green van. His van was completely smashed in on the side of the collision. He looked shaken and furious. He walked over to the yellow car only to find that the driver was unconscious. Some helpful people went to the middle of the road to help the unconscious man out of his car. The police and the ambulance arrived at about the same time. They noted down the positions of the vehicles and began asking for witnesses to the accident. I volunteered to give some details since I had seen the whole thing. I did not have time to think about missing my bus.

Alpine Avalanche in Austria in 1999

The Avalanche in Austria that had killed more or less 31 people in February 1999 has been considered as the worst natural disaster during the past 30 years. The Alpine avalanche smashed into the Ischgl ski resort near the village of Galtuer. What is avalanche? Why it is happening?These two questions provide understanding on the natural disaster that most of us are not aware or are concerned. Snow Avalanche is the speedy downslide movement of snow ice associated with assorted debris such as rocks and vegetation (Definition and Characteristic-Avalanche). Avalanche happens when a bunch of snow becomes unstable; it then releases and speedily down slides either over an open or concerted area in an avalanche path. Its speed even reaches up to two hundred miles an hour and can wield a force strong enough to uproot or snap big trees or even destroy concrete structures. An avalanche may be preceded by an â€Å"air blast† that may also be capable of damaging buildings. Snow avalanche is a natural hazard along with rock avalanche, landslides, debris torrents that are all known as mountain slope hazards (McClung, David & Schaerer, Peter 2006, p. 14). These hazards presents serious problems for visitors and dwellers in mountainous terrain though mountain slope hazards are not as destructive as the so-called â€Å"big five† of the natural disasters such as earthquake, floods, tropical storms, drought, and volcanic eruptions. However, the Austrian avalanche in February 23, 1999 that claimed thirty-one lives mostly tourist from neighboring countries were said to be the worst alpine disaster in the world. Rescuers said aside from the 31 people dead, they rescued twenty-three of which eight were injured. Wendelin Weingartner, governor in the western province of Tyrol commented saying, â€Å"this is a catastrophe such as we have not had for centuries. † Eyewitness of the scene stated automobiles were trampled by big walls of snow or tossed like toy cars by the force of the avalanche. One house was sliced off its top floor as if by a giant razor blade. The disaster stranded up to seven hundred tourists in Galtuer but they were eventually flown out by the Austrian army to safety as well as the more or less 1000 foreign tourists. The impact of this avalanche was heavily felt in the village of Galtuer, which was reach, by the raging fast moving snow avalanche in a matter of only fifty seconds destroying seven modern buildings and burying fifty-seven people. The families of the victims were outraged as the village were supposed to be safe from the threat of avalanche. Galtuer was situated two hundred meters from the base of the mountains and is considered safe from avalanche based on the computerized stimulated test showing one in one hundred-fifty year event, would not reach the village. However, the massive built up of snow and the accumulation along the way as it slid down the mountain slope has grown so large at one hundred meters high when it trampled on the village. Investigation about what made the February 1999 Austrian avalanche so much worse than anything previously recorded revealed that from January 20 onwards series of severe storms brought warm, moist air from the Atlantic, which upon meeting with ice cold arctic air, resulted, to a record snowfalls of up to four meters. This was followed by very strong winds of up to one hundred-twenty kilometer per hour, which had increased the depth of snow on the mountains above Galtuer. David Waugh (2000) explains that as snowfalls, â€Å"it often forms two layers separated, as in sandwich, by a weaker layer† (p. 127). The warmer weather at Galtuer at the end of January caused melting and re-freezing until there was a much greater accumulation of snow. Although avalanche higher warning was given three times in the area, but it was quite impossible to predict the exact locations of avalanche with all the thousands slopes in the region. The build up of snow under a weak ground have made that very strong avalanche force that has brought enormous destruction on lives and properties. The February 1999 avalanche, which began at four in the afternoon of the twenty-third with a dry snow slab avalanche, fractured with a width of approximately four hundred meter. Scientist studying the nature of February 1999 avalanche discovered through a controlled experiment that avalanche increased in volume considerably as it moved downhill (Waugh 2000, p. 127). The scientist findings revealed that that the weight of snow that hit Galtuer was up to 400,000 tones and that the avalanche was one hundred meters in height and had traveled at the speed of three hundred kilometer per hour. The disastrous 1999 alpine avalanche has shown clearly that it is fundamental to have proper land use planning to protect mountain villages from the destructive effects of the snow avalanches. Walter J. Ammann, Stefanie Dannenmann, and Laurent Vulliet stated that proper planning of land use â€Å"requires a correct risk analysis procedure which implies the evaluation of the two essential components of risk: hazard and vulnerability† (Ammann, Dannenmann, & Vulliet 2006, p. 227). The vulnerability of Austrian structures and buildings against avalanche has been directly correlated to the impact pressure. However, the vulnerability component of avalanche risk is more difficult to assess because of the scarcity of suitable data to evaluate the effects of avalanches on people and properties. Despite of the efforts of the Austrian government to prevent the build up of snow in the mountain area, the incident that challenged the human capacity of creating safety standards against natural disasters prove to be no much against a simple actions of nature. The February 1999 avalanche in the village of Galtuer perhaps can be attributed to the human shortcomings despite of the prior efforts made to ensure the safety of everyone in the area, tourist and local people alike. Based on available literature, comprehensive studies were done on the characteristic and nature of avalanche only after the Galtuer incident happened. This suggest that the village of Galtuer which were assured of safety from the threat of avalanche were constantly in danger as studies done previously were not really sufficient to determine the true characteristic of avalanche. Besides, hazard zoning was inefficient as most of the destroyed houses were within green zoning which dangerous to the threats of avalanche. In this case, the February 1999 avalanche came as a big surprise costing lives and damages to properties. It was apparent that weather was particularly severe in the region with non-stop snowfalls over the duration of seven days accumulating up to 270cm. Local feedbacks about the weather condition estimates that strong winds, which are around eighty to ninety kilometer per hour, produced 10-20 tones of snow in an hour. The testimonies from survivors indicate that they were not at all expecting such tragedy would happen. A British survivor described the scenario as incredible and â€Å"absolutely terrifying† stating that a â€Å"huge cloud of snow† enclosed the village. In his article entitled, â€Å"Lessons Learnt from Avalanche Disasters† Alessandro Colombo stated that people ignored the warning believing that the situations were improbable. The 1999 Austrian avalanche was not a single disaster that happened that particular year as more avalanche occurred although not as disastrous as what happened in February 23 of that year. The two avalanches that successively and unexpectedly occurred have left many people dead and threats of new avalanches continues to bring fears and worries to people leaving in the area and tourist alike. The responsibility of the Austrian authorities is to make protect the safety of the people by enforcing necessary measures that will guarantee their safety. It is clear from this point that the authorities had not done enough to protect the people from the threat of the avalanche. Indeed, the Austrian authorities have been criticized for doing the evacuation earlier. Televisions and newspaper stated that that government should have taken more safety measures for the sake of the safety of the people, even at the cost of tourist business. Conclusions What happened in February 1999 in Austria is grim reminder that man cannot underestimate the forces of nature, which usually strike in an unexpected situation. The case of the sinking of Titanic during a very peaceful condition of sea is a further reminder that authorities cannot afford to be complacent about his accomplishment particularly when it comes to keeping the safety of the people. While the Austrian authorities admit shortcomings, the disaster had already claimed lives and wrought enormous destruction to properties. Although these events happened almost a decade ago, it is important that government take advance precautionary measures that will guaranty the safety of the people even at the expense of tourist industry. While Austrian mountain slopes continues to attract tourist from the around the world, the danger from the threats of avalanche remains. However, it is perhaps safe to assume that the lessons from the 1999 avalanche were already imbedded in the hearts and of the Austrian people. In other words, similar disasters may never happen again with the same magnitude of destruction both in humans and in properties. Reference List Ammann, J. ,W. Dannenmann, S. & Vulliet, L. (2006) Risk 21- Coping with Risk Due to Natural Hazards in the 21st London: Taylor and Francis Group Definition and Characteristic-Avalanche http://geosurvey. state. co. us/Default. aspx? tabid=399 Hopes fade to Find more Survivors from Austrian Avalanche (posted February 25, 1999) http://www. cnn. com/WORLD/europe/9902/25/europe. snow. 01/index. html McClung, D. & Scaerer, (2006) P. The Avalanche Handbook. USA: The Mountaineers Books Waugh, D. (2000) Geography: An Integrated Approach UK: Nelson Thornes

Types of Fallacies

FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE 1. Appeal to Force If you suppose that terrorizing your opponent is giving him a reason for believing that you are correct, then you are using a scare tactic and reasoning fallaciously. Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college. Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy.David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself. 2. Appeal to Pity You commit the fallacy of appeal to emotions when someoneâ₠¬â„¢s appeal to you to accept their claim is accepted merely because the appeal arouses your feelings of anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity, pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so forth.Example of appeal to relief from grief: [The speaker knows he is talking to an aggrieved person whose house is worth much more than $100,000. ] You had a great job and didn’t deserve to lose it. I wish I could help somehow. I do have one idea. Now your family needs financial security even more. You need cash. I can help you. Here is a check for $100,000. Just sign this standard sales agreement, and we can skip the realtors and all the headaches they would create at this critical time in your life.There is nothing wrong with using emotions when you argue, but it’s a mistake to use emotions as the key premises or as tools to downplay relevant information. Regarding the fallacy of  appeal to pity, it is proper to pity people who have had misfortunes, but if as the person’ s history instructor you accept Max’s claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve committed the fallacy of  appeal to pity. *Appeal to Snobbery 3. Ad HominemYou commit this fallacy if you make an irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself. It is a form of the  Genetic Fallacy. Example: What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the 1600? s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s only fourteen years old? This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning. That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence, not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally.If the fallacious reasoner points out irrelevant circumstances that the reasoner is in, the fallacy is a circumstantial ad homine m. Tu Quoque  and  Two Wrongs Make a Right  are other types of the ad hominem fallacy. The major difficulty with labeling a piece of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is deciding whether the personal attack is relevant. For example, attacks on a person for their actually immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the quality of their mathematical reasoning, but they are relevant to arguments promoting the person for a leadership position in the church.Unfortunately, many attacks are not so easy to classify, such as an attack pointing out that the candidate for church leadership, while in the tenth grade, intentionally tripped a fellow student and broke his collar bone. *Ad Hominem Circumstantial Guilt by association is a version of the  ad hominem  fallacy in which a person is said to be guilty of error because of the group he or she associates with. The fallacy occurs when we unfairly try to change the issue to be about the speaker’s circumstances rather than about the speaker’s actual argument. Also called â€Å"Ad Hominem, Circumstantial. Example: Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. Has any evidence been presented here that Acheson’s actions are inappropriate in regards to communism? This sort of reasoning is an example of McCarthyism, the technique of smearing liberal Democrats that was so effectively used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. In fact, Acheson was strongly anti-communist and the architect of President Truman’s firm policy of containing Soviet power. 4. Appeal to the PeopleIf you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is correct simply because it’s what most everyone believes, then you’ve committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is mistaken simply beca use it’s not what most everyone believes, then you’ve also committed the fallacy. Agreement with popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of truth, and deviation from popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of error, but if you assume it is and do so with enthusiasm, then you’re guilty of committing this fallacy.It is essentially the same as the fallacies of ad numerum, appeal to the gallery, appeal to the masses, argument from popularity, argumentum ad populum, common practice, mob appeal, past practice, peer pressure, traditional wisdom. The â€Å"too strongly† mentioned above is important in the description of the fallacy because what most everyone believes is, for that reason, somewhat likely to be true, all things considered. However, the fallacy occurs when this degree of support is overestimated. Example: You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this year.This is fallacious because of its implicitly ac cepting the questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is, for that reason alone, the best channel for you. If you stress the idea of appealing to a  new  idea of the gallery, masses, mob, peers, people, and so forth, then it is a bandwagon fallacy. *Bandwagon If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re committing the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t think too much about the reasons.The Latin term for this fallacy of appeal to novelty is Argumentum ad Novitatem. Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. Isn’t it time you bought one, too? [You commit the fallacy if you buy the vehicle solely because of this advertisement. ] Like its close cousin, the fallacy of appeal to the people, the bandwagon fallacy needs to be carefully distinguished from properly defending a claim by pointing out that many people have studied the claim and have come to a reasoned conclusion that it is correct.What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply that ‘new is better. ’ The key ingredient that is missing from a bandwagon fallacy is knowledge that an item is popular because of its high quality. Appeal to Past People (â€Å"You too†) 5. Accident We often arrive at a generalization but don’t or can’t list all the exceptions. When we reason with the generalization as if it has no exceptions, we commit the fallacy of accident. This fallacy is sometimes called the â€Å"fallacy of sweeping gene ralization. † Example: People should keep their promises, right? I loaned Dwayne my knife, and he said he’d return it. Now he is refusing to give it back, but I need it right now to slash up my neighbors who disrespected me.People should keep their promises, but there are exceptions to this generaliztion as in this case of the psychopath who wants Dwayne to keep his promise to return the knife. 6. Straw Man You commit the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying.Example (a debate before the city council): Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus’s discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Co lumbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It’s not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation.The speaker has twisted what his opponent said; the opponent never said, nor even indirectly suggested, that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. The critical thinker will respond to the fallacy by saying, â€Å"Let’s get back to the original issue of whether we have a good reason to discontinue observing Columbus Day. † 7. Missing the Point The conclusion that is drawn is irrelevant to the premises; it misses the point. Example: In court, Thompson testifies that the defendant is a honorable person, who wouldn’t harm a flea.The defense attorn ey commits the fallacy by rising to say that Thompson’s testimony shows once again that his client was not near the murder scene. The testimony of Thompson may be relevant to a request for leniency, but it is irrelevant to any claim about the defendant not being near the murder scene. 8. Red Herring A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information. Example: Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business?One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers. Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring. FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION 9. Beg ging the Question A form of  circular reasoning  in which a conclusion is derived from premises that presuppose the conclusion.Normally, the point of good reasoning is to start out at one place and end up somewhere new, namely having reached the goal of increasing the degree of reasonable belief in the conclusion. The point is to make progress, but in cases of begging the question there is no progress. Example: â€Å"Women have rights,† said the Bullfighters Association president. â€Å"But women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man. † The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress.Insofar as the conclusion of a deductively valid argument is â€Å"contained† in the premises from which it is deduced, this containing might seem to be a case of presupposing, and thus any deductively valid argument might seem to be begging the question. It is still an open question among logicians as to why some deductively valid arguments are considered to be begging the question and others are not. Some logicians suggest that, in informal reasoning with a deductively valid argument, if the conclusion is psychologically new insofar as the premises are concerned, then the argument isn’t an example of the fallacy.Other logicians suggest that we need to look instead to surrounding circumstances, not to the psychology of the reasoner, in order to assess the quality of the argument. For example, we need to look to the reasons that the reasoner used to accept the premises. Was the premise justified on the basis of accepting the conclusion? A third group of logicians say that, in deciding whether the fallacy is committed, we need more. We must determine whether any premise that is key to deducing the conclusion is adopted rather blindly or instead is a reasonable assumption made by someone accepting th eir burden of proof.The premise would here be termed reasonable if the arguer could defend it independently of accepting the conclusion that is at issue. 10. Complex Question You commit this fallacy when you frame a question so that some controversial presupposition is made by the wording of the question. Example: [Reporter's question] Mr. President: Are you going to continue your policy of wasting taxpayer’s money on missile defense? The question unfairly presumes the controversial claim that the policy really is a waste of money. The fallacy of complex question is a form of begging the question. 11. False DichotomyA reasoner who unfairly presents too few choices and then implies that a choice must be made among this short menu of choices commits the false dilemma fallacy, as does the person who accepts this faulty reasoning. Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer.This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or go by boat or train or airplane. The fallacy is called the â€Å"False Dichotomy Fallacy† when the unfair menu contains only two choices. Think of the unpleasant choice between the two as being a charging bull. By demanding other choices beyond those on the unfairly limited menu, you thereby â€Å"go between the horns† of the dilemma, and are not gored. 12. Suppressed EvidenceIntentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant is committing the fallacy of suppressed evidence. This fallacy usually occurs when the information counts against one’s own conclusion. Perhaps the arguer is not mentioning that experts have recently objected to one of his premises. The fallacy is a kind of fallacy of  Selective Attention. Example: Buying the Cray Mac 11 computer for our company was the right thing to do. It meets our company’s needs; it runs the programs we want it to run; it will be delivered quickly; and it costs much less than what we had budgeted.This appears to be a good argument, but you’d change your assessment of the argument if you learned the speaker has intentionally suppressed the relevant evidence that the company’s Cray Mac 11 was purchased from his brother-in-law at a 30 percent higher price than it could have been purchased elsewhere, and if you learned that a recent unbiased analysis of ten comparable computers placed the Cray Mac 11 near the bottom of the list. FALLACIES OF WEAK INDUCTION 13. Appeal to Ignorance The fallacy of appeal to ignorance comes in two forms: (1) Not knowing that a certain statement is true is taken to be a proof that it is false. 2) Not knowing that a statement is false is taken to be a proof that it is true. The fallacy occurs in cases where absence of evidence is not good enough evidence of absence. The fallacy uses an unjustified attempt to shift the burden of proof. The fallacy is also called â€Å"Argument from Ignorance. † Example: Nobody has ever proved to me there’s a God, so I know there is no God. This kind of reasoning is generally fallacious. It would be proper reasoning only if the proof attempts were quite thorough, and it were the case that if God did exist, then there would be a discoverable proof of this.Another common example of the fallacy involves ignorance of a future event: People have been complaining about the danger of Xs ever since they were invented, but thereâ₠¬â„¢s never been any big problem with them, so there’s nothing to worry about. 14. Appeal to Unqualified Authority You appeal to authority if you back up your reasoning by saying that it is supported by what some authority says on the subject. Most reasoning of this kind is not fallacious, and much of our knowledge properly comes from listening to authorities.However, appealing to authority as a reason to believe something  is  fallacious whenever the authority appealed to is not really an authority in this particular subject, when the authority cannot be trusted to tell the truth, when authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), when the reasoner misquotes the authority, and so forth. Although spotting a fallacious appeal to authority often requires some background knowledge about the subject or the authority, in brief it can be said that it is fallacious to accept the words of a supposed authority when we should be suspicious of the autho rity’s words.Example: The moon is covered with dust because the president of our neighborhood association said so. This is a fallacious appeal to authority because, although the president is an authority on many neighborhood matters, you are given no reason to believe the president is an authority on the composition of the moon. It would be better to appeal to some astronomer or geologist. A TV commercial that gives you a testimonial from a famous film star who wears a Wilson watch and that suggests you, too, should wear that brand of watch is committing a fallacious appeal to authority.The film star is an authority on how to act, not on which watch is best for you. 15. Hasty Generalization A hasty generalization is a fallacy of  jumping to conclusions  in which the conclusion is a generalization. See also  Biased Statistics. Example: I’ve met two people in Nicaragua so far, and they were both nice to me. So, all people I will meet in Nicaragua will be nice to me . In any hasty generalization the key error is to overestimate the strength of an argument that is based on too small a sample for the implied confidence level or error margin.In this argument about Nicaragua, using the word â€Å"all† in the conclusion implies zero error margin. With zero error margin you’d need to sample every single person in Nicaragua, not just two people. 16. False Cause Improperly concluding that one thing is a cause of another. The Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa is another name for this fallacy. Its four principal kinds are the  Post Hoc Fallacy, the Fallacy of  Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc,  the  Regression  Fallacy, and the Fallacy of  Reversing Causation. Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter.So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of Mars with Jupiter. 17. Slippery Slope Suppose someone claims that a firs t step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble. If the likelihood of the trouble occurring is exaggerated, the slippery slope fallacy is committed. Example: Mom: Those look like bags under your eyes. Are you getting enough sleep? Jeff: I had a test and stayed up late studying. Mom: You didn’t take any drugs, did you?Jeff: Just caffeine in my coffee, like I always do. Mom: Jeff! You know what happens when people take drugs! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s diet pill. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, don’t drink that coffee. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this: A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. †¦ Z leads to HELL. We don’t want to g o to HELL. So, don’t take that first step A. 18. Weak Analogy The problem is that the items in the analogy are too dissimilar.When reasoning by analogy, the fallacy occurs when the analogy is irrelevant or very weak or when there is a more relevant disanalogy. See also  Faulty Comparison. Example: The book  Investing for Dummies  really helped me understand my finances better. The bookChess for Dummies  was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount. So, this chess book would probably help me understand my finances, too. FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY 19. Accent The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented.Example: A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, â€Å"I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America. † With an emphasis on the wo rd â€Å"favor,† her response is likely to  favor  the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words â€Å"effectively defends,† her remark is likely to be  againstthe President’s missile defense system. And by using neither emphasis, she can later claim that her response was on either side of the issue.Aristotle’s version of the fallacy of accent allowed only a shift in which syllable is accented within a word. 20. Amphiboly This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning. Example: In a cartoon, two elephants are driving their car down the road in India. They say, â€Å"We’d better not get out here,† as they pass a sign saying: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Upon one interpretation of the grammar, the pronoun â€Å"YOUR† refers to the elephants in the car, but on another it refers to those humans who are driving cars in the vicini ty.Unlike  equivocation, which is due to multiple meanings of a phrase, amphiboly is due to syntactic ambiguity, ambiguity caused by multiple ways of understanding the grammar of the phrase. 21. Equivocation Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning. Example: Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. The term â€Å"nobody† changes its meaning without warning in the passage. So does the term â€Å"political jokes† in this joke: I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected. FALLACIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALOGY 22.Composition The composition fallacy occurs when someone mistakenly assumes that a characteristic of some or all the individuals in a group is also a characteristic of the group itself, the group â€Å"composed† of those members. It is the converse of the  division  fallacy. Example: Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human be ing composed of cells is also very lightweight. 23. Division Merely because a group as a whole has a characteristic, it often doesn’t follow that individuals in the group have that characteristic. If you suppose that it does follow, when it doesn’t, you commit the fallacy of division.It is the converse of the  composition  fallacy. Example: Joshua’s soccer team is the best in the division because it had an undefeated season and shared the division title, so Joshua, who is their goalie, must be the best goalie in the division. 24. Figure of Speech or Parallel-word Construction A fallacy characterized by ambiguities due to the fact that different words in Greek (and in Latin) may have different cases or genders even though the case endings or gender endings are the same. Since this is not widespread in other languages or since it coincides with other fallacies (e. g. quivocation, see above) writers tend to interpret it very broadly. Examples: â€Å"Activists have been labeled as idealists, sadists, anarchists, communists, and just about any name that can come to mind ending in  -ist, like  samok-ist, saba-ist, bad-ist,  and of course, who could forgetdevil-ist? † (The writer has the unsaid argument that any name ending in  -ist  is viewed as â€Å"trouble-makers† by our society. ) An introductory book on philosophy has an appendix entitle â€Å"List of Isms† the proceeds to list the schools of thought in philosophy. (Not all words that end in  -ism  is a school of thought: take for example,  syllogism. )