Gay; To Be or Not To Be Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gay; To Be or Not To Be - Essay Example ut existence throughout my life – I knew that I wanted to keep on existing, and suicide was not something that crossed my mind overly much (no more than any other person who has lived through teenage years, probably). For me the question centered on my sexuality. Who am I? I asked myself, and what am I doing? Am I gay? These are questions that troubled me for much of my growth, and I spent a great portion of my development denying who I was. To be gay, or not to be gay, I asked myself, without even realizing that the question in being asked was probably answered. It is not like I was a child of the fifties or sixties, growing up in a time when being gay was the greatest sin one could ever imagine. By the time I had graduated high school it was the late eighties, and gay rights activists were already marching down streets in San Francisco and New York, academics were discussing a new Queer politic that was emerging, and gay people everywhere were being told â€Å"come out, you have nothing to fear.† But the problem is that this conception of being gay and coming out, that you know it internally but choose to hide it from society, is not something that actually happens very often. Before even having the option of â€Å"coming out† to friends and relatives, you have to have a great internal dialogue with yourself, and find out who you are. Doing this alone in your teens is not an easy thing, not by a long shot. I remember the first time I had an inkling that I might not be like everyone else (or at least, how I thought everyone else was – looking back now I’m sure I knew many closeted gay people growing up.) I was just entering the ninth grade, a time when many people are first learning about their sexuality, and I looked across my homeroom classroom at a close friend who was sitting their, wearing spaghetti straps (I had a somewhat lenient school) and cleavage somewhat exposed. Now this was someone who I had known for almost my entire life, and a

Biodiesel as an Alternative Fuel Essay Example for Free

Biodiesel as an Alternative Fuel Essay As time goes on, humans are discovering new ways to improve their means of living. Whether the upgrade affects us financially, socially, or if it helps the Earth, or better health and education, things are changing. Multiple enhancements in fueling one’s car have risen. Gas has become pricey, and the controversial argument that oil will one day perish are factors that have led people to find other alternatives. Biodiesel is an efficient alternative fuel, for the reason that biodiesel is a safe, eco-friendly, and affordable option. Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel. It is renewable and generated from a variety of vegetable oils and animal fats, not raw vegetable oil. Raw vegetable oil cannot be utilized because it has not undergone the process of transesterification. Transesterification is a process in which oils and fats are obtained organically and are combined with alcohol with the help of a Catalyst to form esters. Biodiesel can be used either in its pure form of 100% biodiesel, or can mix with petroleum as a biodiesel blend (ex: B20, 20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel). Biodiesel began in the 1890s with Rudolph Diesel. Diesel thought early diesel engines could run on pure vegetable oils and believed there would be a grand benefit to those living in poor areas where there was no petroleum. The modern biodiesel that is derived from the transesterification process did not surface until the 1930s in Belgium. But today’s biodiesel really began in Europe in the late 1980s. The early diesel engines ran on many substances, until vegetable oil seemed to be an efficient alternative. That is when Rudolph Diesel got to work and researched vegetable oil, concluding farmers could make their own fuel. However, Diesel died a short while after and petroleum became found in many forms. There was abundance of petroleum and in low cost, so the diesel engine was changed to match diesel petroleum fuel. The petroleum diesel spread quickly and biodiesel was ignored. Yet, the biodiesel industry kicked off after the transesterification process was launched and became a preferred method as an alternative fuel. All good things are flawed, and biodiesel does include some disadvantages. The production of biodiesel can result in more land use. If many of us switch to using biodiesel, there would be much land devoted to our biodiesel fuel needs. Biodiesel transportation and storage can be a hassle. Since biodiesel does not flow well during winter, storage can become an issue. Also, biodiesel cannot travel in pipelines. A truck has to transport it, resulting in higher cost. Biodiesel becomes a gel in cold weather and does not flow; therefore one can experience driving difficulties in the winter time. The diesel creates wax crystal which can clog filters and fuel lines in your car’s fuel system. Even with its disadvantages, biodiesel has not become a popular alternative fuel for nothing. It has many advantages that persuade people to make the switch. Biodiesel is easy to use, and any vehicle can be converted into a diesel engine car. Also, because biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel, one could switch from biodiesel to petroleum whenever wanted, without having to make any changes. Biodiesel pumps at gas stations across the country are growing daily. Pure, 100% biodiesel will have about 5%-10% less energy than petroleum diesel. Usually people notice very little change in their mileage or performance. When using a biodiesel blend, the numbers change. Using B20, there is less than 2% change in energy and users notice no change in mileage or performance. Using biodiesel is an advantage that is greatly helpful to the environment. Biodiesel is nontoxic, causing less damage than petroleum diesel if it is spilled or somehow released to the environment. It is also safer than petroleum diesel because it is less able to explode or catch on fire. The combustion temperature for biodiesel is higher than 150Â °C, and about 52Â °C for petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is safe to handle, store, and transport. B100 use reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than 75% compared with petroleum diesel. Using B20 reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 15%. Also, in both soil and water, biodiesel degraded at a rate 4 times faster than petroleum diesel. Because of its clean nontoxic emissions, easy use, and many other benefits, biodiesel is becoming one of the fastest growing alternative fuels in the world. Due to its expense, biodiesel is cost competitive with petroleum diesel. Millions of users have switched to using biodiesel and are enjoying its benefits. If we create biodiesel in a reasonable manner, it can help the world with the topic of petroleum supply. It’s clean, renewable, and cost effective fuel will provide us with economic and environmental advantages for the future.

Effects of Streaming on the Music Industry

Effects of Streaming on the Music Industry In the past couple of years, streaming has become one of the main ways to listen to music. With streaming is it having an Effect on the music industry that we have come to know of. This point has many Positive and Negative statement about the effects on the music industry. Some of the main Streaming Sites or Apps are Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. With these streaming sites, many of the CEOs believe that their apps have helped the music industry from going into a decline in most of its sales. Or Artists believe it is helping the profile platform for Musicians. Results from streaming in the past couple of years are that the rates of piracy have heavily declined because of Apps like Spotify and Pandora. Spotify has been one of the main impacts on the music industry from 2015, Due to its free subscription to stream music. CEO of Spotify Daniel Ek, claiming Now, finally, after years and years of decline, music is growing again, streaming is behind the growth in music, and Spotify is behind the growth in streaming.(Hassan, C, 2016) Lars Ulrich drummer of Metallica believes Streaming is a good way for musicians and artist to get a higher profile on themselves. He also states Its a choice for the fan to be part of, its a choice for the artists who are involved in making their music available on streaming services. Its a choice by the record companies that represent the artist. Fifteen years ago those choices didnt exist.(BBC news) But besides all these Positives there have been many negative remarks on the topic. When Apple music did their 3-month free trial, the apple artist wasnt actually getting paid for the music that the members were streaming. Which has made a contribute to Taylor Swift pulling her music off of Apple music because of a high based disagreement over payment. Payment is also a factor that most people disagree with when it comes to Spotify or Apple Music. When a some is played on Spotify it has to be running for more than 30secs for the artist to get paid which can go from $0.004 for the smaller artist to $0.0084 for the well-known artist. Which in conclusion has made some famous artist non-eager to join Spotify. In the US the revenue for music sale has been hovering are $7Bil since 2010, which only went up by less than one percent from 2014 to 2015 to $7.02Bil. With this, Cds and Downloads have started to become abounded as streaming has now risen to become one of the number one platforms for music listeners. With all the contributing statements Does streaming effect the music industry you can tell that most people are with thinking that it is positive or negative, but you do get people who think that it is both with good reason to back themselves up. in future years to come will we see a drastic change in the music industry thanks to streaming?. Bibliography: Hassan, C, 2016 Spotify CEO Claims the Music Industry Would Be Dead Without Spotify http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/02/17/71963/ Jones, R, 2016 Online Streaming drives increase in Australian Music Industry http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-11/online-streaming-drives-increase-in-australian-music-industry/7314660 Sisario, B Russell, K, 2016 Music sales remain steady but lucrative cd sales decline Is streaming good for Music 2015 http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33526045 Iahn, B Streaming effect on the music industry https://themusicuniverse.com/streamings-effect-on-the-music-industry/ Wolf-Mann, E, 2015 Spotify Music Industry Revenues http://time.com/money/4086968/spotify-music-industry-revenues/ University, A, 2016 How streaming is changing the music industry http://au.blogs.american.edu/audio-technology/how-streaming-is-changing-the-music-industry/ Ellis-Petersen, H, 2016 Streaming revenues bring big boost to global music industry https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/12/streaming-revenues-bring-big-boost-to-global-music-industry

HIV/AIDS Public Health Policies: A Comparison Between South Africa and

HIV/AIDS is still a current public health concern for all countries of the world. Research has helped progress the education and treatment of the virus, but some areas of the world still have difficulty with this public health concern. Out of all developing countries, South Africa has one of the highest percentages of their population living with HIV/AIDS while Cuba has one of the lowest percentages of their population living with the virus. In this paper, the public health policies of South Africa and Cuba regarding treatment, prevention and transmission will be discussed and compared. South Africa is one of the countries that are part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infected people in the world. This region contains 10% of the population of the world and has 60% of HIV/AIDS infected people living in this area (Jacobsen, 2008). By 2007, the amount of people that had died in South Africa that were infected by the virus reached over two million (Gilbert, 2008). Due to the amount of people infected with the virus, the government and medical community of South Africa needed to implement a plan to deal with the epidemic. The National AIDS Coordinating Committee of South Africa (NACOSA) was formed in 1992 to develop a national plan to deal with the issue (South African Government Information, 2007). The National Strategic Plan (NSP) was developed by the NACOSA review in 1999 which focused on the government improving â€Å"education, health services, reduction of poverty, the empowerment of women, and the provision of b asic services such as shelter, clean water, and sanitation† (South African Government Information, 2007, p. 18). In 2007, the South African government developed a National S... ...6 Gilbert, L. (2008). Public health and health professionals in the times of HIV/AIDS. South African Review Of Sociology, 39(2), 301-316. Gorry, C. (2008, July). Cuba’s HIV/AIDS strategy: An integrated, rights-based approach, MEDICC Review: International Journal of Cuban Health and Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.medicc.org/ns/assets/documents/Cuban%20HIV%20Strategy.pdf Jacobsen, K. H. (2008). Introduction to global health. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Peltzer, K., Preez, N., Ramlagan, S., & Fomundam, H. (2008). Use of traditional complementary and alternative medicine for HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. BMC Public Health, 8255-268. South African Government Information. (2007, March 12). HIV & AIDS and STI strategic plan for South Africa 2007 – 2011. Retrieved from http://www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2007/aidsplan2007/index.html

Communication Essay

Companies often organize their departments into teams that support each other to complete tasks or projects. When working in groups, communication is vital to the success of the team. Teams must work well individually as well as a members of a team. Communication on an individual level differs from communication within a group. Individually, you must actively listen and insure accurate understanding, offer to help solve problems, and focus on not being distracted by your own emotions. You cannot allow your emotions to distract you or cause you to miss the key points or misinterpret information. As an individual you must attend all group meetings, provide feedback and input to the discussions, and be respectful to others input and views. It is important that everyone in the group understand their role and responsibilities to the group. Everyone must contribute to discussions and meetings, and there should not be any silent members. To promote group discussion, you can start by going around the group and allowing each person to speak. This will allow each person a chance to be involved in the discussion and will spark topics of discussion. When working in a group, conflicts usually arise and should be dealt with immediately and directly. Ignoring conflict or disagreements will cause the team to be lose focus, become less productive. Most conflicts result from poor communication and misinterpretations. To resolve conflicts, it is important to locate where the break-down in communication happened. By talking through the conflict with the members of the group, and redefining tasks and objectives, the team can resolve these types of issues. To foster good communication within a group every member must listen to each other, work collaboratively to make decisions, adapt to changes and communication styles, assign specific tasks, set clear deadlines and expectations, and conduct follow-up meetings to review.

The Cherokee Removal essays

The Cherokee Removal essays The process of the removal of the Cherokees took place in 1838. This is when the Cherokees were evicted from their homes and work area into stockades by General Winfield Scott and his army. The Cherokees were related to the Iroquois of New England and also to northern New York. The Cherokees were divided into three separate groups before they migrated and spreaded out through out the southeast of the United States of America. Life for the Cherokees follow went with the women performing farm duties, raising crops, and the men of the Cherokees went out hunting for food. In the Cherokee life there were no leaders that ruled over them. The Cherokee life went on from generation to generation, meaning things were being passed down from one to another. Government wise the Cherokees were more democratic. As time went by, the Cherokee met up with the Europeans, who brought along many new things with them. The Cherokees started to bond with them a little bit more. The Europeans brought along diseases and helpful items such as fabrics and hatchets. The Cherokee started to hunt more for fabric and also started to barter much more with the Europeans. Due to the expansion and growth of the Europeans, the Cherokees without doubt were swept up into Europeans wars. Here is when fights and wars really started to break out, because of a conference that was taken place in South Carolina with, the colonial governor and some of his men killing some of the Cherokee. After the killing took place the British and the Cherokee started to attack one another. When all of the wars and disputes took place, against others, this was when Americans want to get rid of the Cherokee for good. If I had to argue for the Cherokees to stay I would tell president Andrew Jackson that first, there is really no reason why anyone or any army should come around make a cluster of people leave their area. Especially, when they were not bothering anyone at the time. Basicall...