The Ethics of Torture Essay Example for Free

The Ethics of Torture Essay Torture is causing pain and suffering to gain information and confessions. It’s a traditional, historical, well-understood term. Waterboarding is a form of torture in which a bound, gagged prisoner is forced to breathe in water. There are several techniques but all produce the same effects, a physical sensation of drowning and a psychological sensation of panic, fear and loss of control. Calling it anything other than torture is absurd. You wouldn’t call a bank robbery a â€Å"cash gathering technique,† even if the president said it was so. There are no such things as â€Å"enhanced interrogation methods. † That is the euphemism the Bush administration used in 2002 when they were redefining torture so the president could authorize it. There is never an excuse to torture a person, not even during war. It undermines our cause, endangers our soldiers on the battlefield by encouraging reciprocity, and it breeds more enemies of the United States than coercive interrogation methods will ever allow us to capture. As recently as November 12th of this year, Herman Cain and Rep. Michele Bachmann said during a Republican presidential debate in South Carolina that they would approve waterboarding of prisoners to extract information. They denied that waterboarding is torture, even though it’s been classified as such since the Spanish Inquisition. â€Å"Very disappointed by statements at S. C. GOP debate supporting waterboarding,† Senator John McCain wrote on Twitter two days later. â€Å"Waterboarding is torture. † This is a man who was a POW during the Vietnam War. Having been tortured at the hands of the North Vietnamese, he knows first-hand what that kind of treatment can do to a human being. If we truly believe ourselves to be a model for the world and an example for all of history, then why would we practice torture? When you pour water onto someone until he gasps for air and feels as if he’s drowning, you’re not enhancing your interrogation. You’re putting him through a hell as physical as it is psychological. You’re torturing him, by any sane definition of the term. When we deny any sort of justice or due process to individuals in the name of protecting America, we become the ultimate hypocrites. How can we as a nation, hold other nations to standards that we’re not meeting ourselves? In 2009, Dick Cheney told Fox News that, Those interrogations were involved in the arrest of nearly all the Al Qaeda members that we were able to bring to justice. Cheney’s statement begs the question, how many innocent people were imprisoned and tortured in our fanatical hunt for possible terrorists? Well, out of about 775 detainees held at GITMO, 420 were released without being charged. Less than 10 were ever convicted of terrorist activities. The abuse of prisoners can occasionally produce good intelligence but more often produces bad intelligence, Under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering. Often, information provided to stop the torture is deliberately misleading. Senator McCain has said that while being tortured, he was asked for the names of all the men in his regiment. He gave his captors the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line instead. The most obvious thing we can do is stand as an example of a nation that holds an individual’s human rights as superior to the will of the majority. Write your congressmen and tell them that the sanctioned use of torture by the government is wrong. If we as a nation build a wall of fear with the rest of the world, it’s a decision with far-reaching negative consequences. Through the violence, chaos and heartache of war, through deprivation and cruelty and loss, we are always Americans, and different, stronger and better than those who would destroy us.

A Life Course Approach To Health Psychology Essay

A Life Course Approach To Health Psychology Essay In the early years, illnesses were studied only in terms of single causes; one agent led to one particular disease. However, we now know that the health of individuals and societies are affected by a combination of factors such as hereditary factors, living conditions, socioeconomic status and social support networks. A life course approach to health focuses on all ages and stages of life and takes into account a wide range of processes that interact and influence peoples health from birth to old age ( Kuh et al, 2003) and also has implications on the way health care needs of people are considered. Based on the understanding that ones past and present life experiences are shaped by the wider socio-cultural context, we can study the current pattern of health and disease of an individual by looking into and examining their past life events for clues into present health related behaviour (WHO, 2000) such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and similar behaviours t hat have adverse effects on ones health and overall well being. Although, in the past, the Biomedical model of health which emphasizes on the biological determinants or external pathogens has proven to be effective in the control of massive infectious diseases ( Havelka et al, 2009), there is a crucial need to understand health and diseases from various other perspectives that take into account major influential factors such as biological, behavioural and psychosocial processes that run throughout the life of an individual and contribute towards both acquisition and attrition of physiological and psychological functioning. Such an approach aids in understanding the development and course taken by various diseases, leading to the formulation of preventive measures and treatment plans. A life course approach to health emphasizes on events from all stages of life, starting from the intrauterine environment and throughout adult life, subsequently studying how such events influence the risk for chronic illnesses and health outcomes later in life, whic h is why the narrow biomedical model has been broadened into an integrated model that looks at not only the biological determinants of health but also the psychosocial and behavioural aspects. On a simpler note, life course approach aims to understand how biological, psychosocial and behavioural risk factors during the fetal period, infancy, childhood and early adulthood accumulate and increase the risk for a number of diseases. Timing of physical growth and psychological transitions are known to be influential in the manifestation of various adult chronic diseases and therefore strongly affects an individuals capacity to be healthy (Osler, 2006). While ones genetic makeup or external pathogens (biological factors) may determine the onset of an illness up to certain degree, it can be debated that this is intensified by various personal behaviours and societal influences. A classic example of a life course approach to health would be the field of gerontology which studies how people age by examining an array of biological, psychological, social and lifestyle factors. Furthermore, if we were to consider cigarette smoking, a detrimental health related behaviour and a frequent ly used example in health related research, we can say that although an individuals family history of smoking( genetic influence) will definitely increase the risk of engaging in such behaviour, other factors such as exposure to smokers( peer/societal factor) or the need to live up to the expectations of others(psychosocial factor) will intensify the risk of smoking behaviour which, in turn, increases the risk for various health complications related to cigarette smoking, such as lung cancer, later in life. The importance of a life course approach lies in its implications for the way an individuals health is assessed, formulation of treatment plans based on past and ongoing events and training of health care professionals to equip them with a better understanding of peoples health and its underlying determinants ( WHO,2006). This paper focuses on the life course perspective on health, which is gradually becoming an efficient framework to study health and development of diseases, and also looks into the biological, psychosocial and behavioural processes that influence health throughout the lifespan. TIME, CRITICAL PERIOD AND ACCUMULATION OF RISKS The functional capacity of our physiological systems that increases during the early years of life reaches its peak in adulthood and begins to decline thereafter; external factors determine the intensity and speed of both the increase and decline. Therefore the lifespan perspective is defined by major concepts such as health trajectories, accumulation of risk factors, chains of risk, timing of exposure ( critical and sensitive periods), factors that mediate and modify the exposure-disease association and various adaptive strategies (Wethington, 2005). The life course perspective is a much broader approach than the Barker hypothesis or the Fetal origins hypothesis which focuses entirely on the relationships between early fetal environment and development of diseases later during adulthood and old age. It takes into account the contributions of both early biological programming (Barker, 1992) and later adult lifestyle factors which lead to the formation of biological, psychological and social chains of risks (Power et al, 1999). A number of researches (Smith, 2000; Lumey, 1998) and birth cohort studies reveal the existence of critical periods, not just during the intrauterine phase but also later in life, characterized by exogenous stimuli that have lasting effects on the structural and functional development of bodily systems leading to lifelong health implications. For example, fetal alcohol exposure during the first trimester is often associated with craniofacial abnormalities in conjunction with improper mental development (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) as well as low birth weight (Coles, 1994). Similarly, there are various sensitive periods, mainly during childhood and adolescence, when the timing of exposure plays a crucial role in determining the development of lifelong adaptive strategies, social skills and health behaviours that have direct implications on development of illnesses later in life. For instance, the period between birth to 4 years is very crucial for sensory refinement in children, whereby f ailure to attend to the differences in sensory stimuli can lead to a diminished ability to make sense of the broader social environment leading to deprivation of social interaction and formation of social relationships (characterized by accumulation of stress and anxiety) which will eventually lead to adverse effects on the health of individuals later in life. Accumulation of risk factors over time also determines the likelihood of a disease occurring, for instance people who belonged to a poor socioeconomic environment as a child are more likely to have had poor educational attainment, exposure to poor eating habits and nutrition, air pollution, passive smoking, detrimental lifestyle choices, infections due to childhood neglect and inadequate social support, all of which carries onto a similar pattern in adulthood and increases the risk of adult health complications such as poor immune system, coronary heart diseases, high blood pressure and so on (Kuh Ben-Schlomo, 2002). In addition, the life course approach aims to understand whether such early bio psychosocial factors lead to just additional risk or interact with later adulthood events to intensify long term health conditions. Hence, the life course perspective combines the Early programming model and cumulative pathway model; the former is concerned with Biopsychosocial events in early life, starting from the fetal period until childhood, that have life-long influences while the latter focuses on lifelong accumulation of stress through various social and behavioural expectations that ultimately affects an individuals overall adaptive system. So, this approach focuses on the determinants of health from early developmental phase and also over the course of lifespan where time takes the centre stage, focusing on different exposure-timing interactions resulting in different health outcomes. BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH Development of human beings is characterized by a number of biological, psychosocial and behavioural processes, each with different levels of importance at different developmental stages, and which involves growth, maintenance and loss of physiological and psychological functioning. Human development is, therefore, shaped by biological, social and behavioural factors working together (Myers et al). It is quite interesting to note that development is multidimensional in nature, involving the body, mind and emotions that interact and bring about significant changes at different stages in the lifespan and so it can be argued that the events that occur during such interactions or the individual lifestyle choices one makes will lead to either accumulation of risk or protective factors which will subsequently determine the susceptibility of individuals to adult diseases or chronic illnesses. So, the life course approach to health focuses on understanding the individual nature as well as th e cumulative impact of such bio-psychosocial and behavioural factors that co-constructs development and also health in the long run. A variety of behavioural factors or habits can have adverse effects on ones health. Some of the most commonly known factors include smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary pattern, level of physical activity, sexual behaviour and substance abuse. While excessive consumption of alcohol is associated with liver cirrhosis, untimely death and hazards to health from alcohol related violence, smoking is one of the leading causes of coronary heart diseases, asthma, lung cancer and a reduced life expectancy by seven to eight years (NWPHO data, 2005). In addition, poor dietary pattern/habit established during early childhood can increase the risk for obesity or malnutrition, leading to further health complications later in life such as weak immune system and eventually a decrease in life expectancy. Substance abuse and sexual behaviour (unprotected sex), like any other lifestyle habit, has devastating effects on health and general wellbeing, and in almost all cases they impact family and social relationships through events such as teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, unrest in the household, etc. Socioeconomic condition of people shape their risk for diseases later in life since both harmful exposures and opportunities are patterned by ones social environment, not to mention the life choices we make that are influenced by our social experiences. People interact with their social environment on a daily basis and such interactions affect their health either directly through psychobiological processes (experience of stress and anxiety) or indirectly leading to the development or modification of health related behaviours formerly discussed. The psychosocial factors that are known to impact ones health status include the social support network, work environment (ideal vs. stressful), work-home balance, sense of security, autonomy and so on. Stress and anxiety brought upon by such processes can lead to various psychological conflicts such as loss of self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, which will in turn affect the physiological functioning of the body. This brings us to the und erstanding that psychosocial processes or environment may have a role to play in disease aetiology (Cassel, 1974). In addition, it can also be argued that positive social support network facilitates behaviours that are considered healthy by the promotion of healthy eating, abstinence from substances and better adherence to treatments (Uchino, 2006). In his paper, Policy, Biology, and health, Bortz emphasizes that biological factors occur in various combinations to determine the functional well being of individuals. Although the human genome is often regarded as the ultimate determinant of human health, there are other equally important factors that influence health and well being, such as threats presented by the external environment (agents) and deterioration of internal bodily functioning. The life course approach to health is characterized by a temporal ordering of formerly mentioned biological, psychosocial and behavioural processes and is built on the view that these factors interact and have a cumulative influence on the development and course of illnesses in adulthood (Hertzman et al, 2001). So, the genetic makeup of individuals interact with intrauterine insults and various socially patterned exposures during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood that determine the risk for a number of health conditions and also accounts for socioeconomic, gender and ethnic inequalities in health ( Kuh, Ben-Schlomo, Lynch, et al, 2003). This approach helps us address some of the most common and emerging health conditions at present such as obesity, asthma and diabetes. In a study by Lamont et al in 2000, a number of early and later life factors were ordered temporally and the inter relationships were examined leading to the discovery of several potential disease pathway. In a similar study by Eriksson et al in 2001, these disease pathways were found to be influenced by a number of confounding factors and mediators and therefore, depending on the type and time of exposure, the pathways can be predominant in one of the following areas: biological, social, socio-biological and bio-social (Krieger, 2001). Specifically, if we consider respiratory problems like chronic bronchitis, improper lung development during the intrauterine period, in collaboration with later extraneous agents, will form the biological pathway to a greater risk of respiratory system dysfunction as an adult. Whereas if the individuals socioeconomic condition has led to adverse exposures during childhood, followed by detrimental health behaviour such as smoking, then the pathway to r espiratory diseases would be predominantly social. Likewise, the socio-biological pathway is characterized by the exposure to harmful biological agents as a result of adverse socioeconomic conditions. Or it can be the other way around whereby frequent infections during childhood would come in the way of proper development, leading to a low socioeconomic position during adulthood. RESEARCH AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS We can say that the life course approach to health is based on the Biopsychosocial model that maintains that both macro level and micro level processes interact and produce multiple effects on health. But the question arises as to how biological factors (micro level) and psychosocial factors (macro level) interact if they are on different levels. In order to address this issue, researches in health psychology adopts the system theory, according to which all levels in any entity are linked to each other hierarchically and that change in any one level will effect change in all other levels. Based on this understanding, researchers often take an interdisciplinary and multivariate approach to study the interacting processes, both within an individual and at the macro level and maintains that the process of defining an illness should always be done in terms of the biological, psychological and social factors (Oken, 2000). Health psychologists also carry out various prospective studies to evaluate events or variables relating to a particular health condition, such as intervening the smoking habits of people in one society and not in another and looking into the differences in the rate or prevalence of respiratory conditions in both the groups. Prospective longitudinal study is perhaps one of the popular research designs that health psychology adopts in order to follow a group of people and assess them on a number of variables over a long period of time and provides a good measure of factors affecting health of an individual. While correlational research has often been criticized for its inability to determine the direction of causality, researchers often make use of the retrospective approach to rearrange and understand the past conditions and how they lead to the present situation. The life course approach to health has various implications for clinical diagnosis of illnesses, development of treatment plans and training of health care professionals. By examining the Biopsychosocial processes underlying the lifespan development of individuals, health professional can formulate treatment plans and therapies unique to each individual; some may be a predominantly biological approach such as invasive methods while others may take a more psychological stance like cognitive behavioural therapy or relaxation therapy. Therefore, we can understand the health status of people only by viewing them in the social and psychological contexts ( Belar, 1997). CONCLUSION Health psychology strives to understand health in all its dimensions, recognizing all internal and external exposures throughout the life of an individual, giving more importance to the events that occur during the fetal period, childhood and early adulthood and their subsequent impact on adult health and development of illnesses. By downplaying the earlier assumptions that only current exposures or factors influence the onset of a disease or that illness is caused entirely by biological agents, it takes a rather multidimensional and multidirectional approach, taking into consideration the biological, psychosocial and behavioural processes occurring throughout the lifespan, their interactions and the cumulative impact on ones health and disease occurrence. In short, it integrates the lifelong progression of individuals from the intrauterine environment to the larger social environment; a progression that encompasses a series of social and biological factors that work together to dete rmine the health status of individuals in the long run. Health psychology, therefore, tries to explore all the underlying causes of ill health and subsequently develop treatment procedures to overcome them. Word count: 2755

Argument for the Existence of God :: Religion, Theology

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The following paper will provide a sound argument in favor of the existence of God. By demonstrating that an Atheist world cannot account for the preconditions of the laws of logic an Atheist cannot even account for a rational debate concerning the existence of God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The impossibility of the contrary†, the best and only proof that the nesesary truth of the existence of God is his revelation of himself to us that makes it possible for us to use logic. This could be translated, using only nessesary truths, into the form of:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  L: (laws of logic)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  G: (God exists)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   if L entails G L   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ================   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   G Logic is â€Å"the laws of reasoning that God has established.† If God has established these laws of reasoning that we call logic then how could the Atheist system account for the laws of logic. First they are immaterial and universal, and how could anything immaterial and universal be accounted for in a naturalistic (matter only) universe. Second if God has established these laws of reasoning then there would be no atheism. An Atheist wants to believe in laws of logic which are universal in application, but in order to escape the ultimate implications of this idea ( there is a God who imposes universal standards of reason.), the Atheist will try to maintain that the â€Å"laws of logic† are merely â€Å" conventions† of general agreement amongst them. This is philosophically non- acceptable, if logic were simply a matter of convention, it would be impossible

Richard Cory, by Edwin Arlington Robinson Essay -- Richard Cory Analysi

Many poets write about death and appearances. In the poem Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson, the author tries to communicate several things. Robinsons poem is about a rich man that commits suicide, and the thoughts of the people in town that watch him in his everyday life. In Richard Cory, Robinson is communicating that outward appearances are not always what they seem, an that money does not always make a person happy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Through the poem, Robinson never hints to any relationships that Richard Cory may have had. There is no mention of lovers, family, or even friends in the poem. I believe that Robinson was trying to communicate that companionship is essential to almost all people. Richard Cory was hiding his need for relationships if he had the need.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robinson may also have been trying to communicate that although money can make a person happy, they may grow tired of it over time. When you become very used to one thing over time, it may begin to matter less and less. People that are not as well off as others should not measure happiness by just dollars and cents. There is a much larger picture of personal happiness that should be addressed and maintained so that personal health and welfare are sustained.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think Robinson wants the reader to think that when Richard Cory died, he was probably a very lonely and sad man. A supporting fact of this would be the absence of relationship...

Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Dolls House Essay example -- essays r

Faults Written in the Stars During the Ancient Grecian time periods, tragedy meant death because one defied against an outer prophecy. Modern day tragedy was simply realism, the unspoken way of life. In Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Ibsen's A Doll's House, the main characters - Nora and Oedipus, are both constructed to illustrate flaws in society and how naive people are. Ibsen and Sophocles both developed tragedy into a central idea that all people surreptitiously understand. Nora and Oedipus make incompetent decisions that assist in discovering their fundamental nature as tragic heroes and provoke sorrow and pity among the audience. Oedipus lived his entire life in a dark shadow of ignorance, just like Nora. Oedipus' archetype of a tragic hero begins as an all-powerful, honorable king that believed he could solve any riddle, and acts rapidly on decisions. Oedipus lacked complete self knowledge, â€Å"I will speak out now as a stranger to the story, a stranger to the crime. If I’d been present then, there would have been no mystery, no long hunt without clue in hand† (Oe...

Possible Extra Terrestrial Life

Benjamin Hastings April 10, 2013 Did Someone Move in Down the Street? An Exploration of Possible Extraterrestrial Life in the Universe, Perhaps Our Own System Other life in the universe just makes sense. Think about it, there are trillions of other stars in existence in our universe, and most of those stars have satellites, and those satellites have satellites. There are literally hundreds of trillions, if not more, planets or planet-sized satellites orbiting stars. To think that none of these could have life on them is just to be naive.If it happened to our planet, out of hundreds of trillions of them out there, it can happen to another, and another. We can’t be alone; distant, maybe, but alone is just too far-fetched a theory. Belief in extraterrestrial life dates back quite far, even back to ancient society. â€Å"Regarding the existence of other worlds, the ancients of both Greece and rome were deeply divided. Arguing affirmative were the Epicureans, so called after Epicu rus (341-270 B. C. ), who developed certain ideas that had originated with Democritus and Leucippus two centuries earlier. Among the theories that we today consider most modern are†¦ hat life exists elsewhere in the universe†¦ Modern though these ideas may seem to us, they all indisputably date from antiquity†¦ † (Crowe- 3) We aren’t the first people to think that life must exist elsewhere, we’ve simply brought the thought back into popularity. But where could life be sustained? Bacteria have been observed to endure extreme conditions â€Å"in environments with very high or low temperature and where conditions are very acidic or very alkaline. † (Fix) Principles such as this suggest that â€Å"the search for life in the solar system should not be confined to the most benign environments. (Fix) Research and discoveries by Dr. Gene D. McDonald in Siberian permafrost showed that â€Å"single-celled organisms such as bacteria, archaeans, and f ungi repair cellular damage for tens of thousands of years – and perhaps many times longer—after being frozen solid. † (Hart) This is incredible when considering the damage the organisms sustain while being frozen; â€Å"even when all life processes appear to have stopped, processes that affect life do not. Organisms frozen in soil continue to be bombarded by radiation from elements within the soil itself.And at any temperature above absolute zero, all molecules vibrate a little. Thus, cells' DNA and other important molecules continue to sustain life-threatening damage. For organisms to remain viable for long periods of time, they must somehow maintain a minimal level of molecular repair. † (Hart) A breakthrough such as this suggests that if bacteria on Earth could survive temperatures this low, then certainly organisms outside of What we consider to be the inhabitable temperature zone could certainly adapt and survive on distant moons or dwarf planets.Mar s, the fourth and last Solar terran planet, could hold, or have held, life on its surface. Recent study of an ancient meteorite strengthens this theory. â€Å"The meteorite†¦ is made of igneous rock that solidified about 4. 5 billion years ago at the time that Mars formed. About 3. 6 billion years ago globules of carbonate minerals were deposited in cracks in the rock. The carbonate minerals may have been deposited when liquid water seeped into the cracks. The impact of an asteroid or comet on Mars 16 million years ago ejected the rock from Mars into interplanetary space.About thirteen thousand years ago the rock fell into the Antarctic ice fields as a meteorite. † (Fix) This meteorite was carefully studied for two years, revealing several different types of evidence of primitive life on the red planet. â€Å"Another piece of evidence was the discovery of inorganic compounds like iron sulfides that can be produced by bacteria and other terrestrial organisms. The most dr amatic evidence, however, is tiny structures in the carbonate globules that resemble microscopic fossils of ancient terrestrial bacteria. (Fix) Life may be closer than we think, but it also may have died out eons ago when the liquid water on the surface of Mars seemingly refused to stay in liquid form any longer. Titan, or Saturn VI, the largest Moon of Saturn, and second largest moon in the Solar System, seems promising for handling life. While being much cooler than our own planet, again, organisms that live there could adapt to the temperature, as well as atmospheric pressure it sustains; a pressure of 1. 6 bars, 60% than greater that of Earth. Titan’s atmosphere brings interesting points to itself because of its composition. Titan's air is predominantly made up of nitrogen with other hydrocarbon elements which give Titan its orange hue. These hydrocarbon rich elements are the building blocks for amino acids necessary for the formation of life. Scientists believe that Tita n's environment may be similar to that of the Earth's before life began putting oxygen into the atmosphere. † (Hamilton) This means that life on Titan has a potential to begin as it did theoretically on Earth, or could even have already even begun in very early stages, although these organisms would have to be highly resilient if they are anything like us. Titan's surface temperature appears to be about -178 °C (-289 °F)†¦ scientists believe lakes of ethane exist that contain dissolved methane. Titan's methane, through continuing photochemistry, is converted to ethane, acetylene, ethylene, and (when combined with nitrogen) hydrogen cyanide. The last is an especially important molecule; it is a building block of amino acids. † (Hamilton) Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is another highly considered candidate for life. Its surface is covered completely by a shell of ice, cracked and scarred by tidal forces deep beneath.The moon’s tidal forces â€Å"raise and low er the sea beneath the ice, causing constant motion and likely causing the cracks we see in images of Europa's surface from visiting robotic probes. This â€Å"tidal heating† causes Europa to be warmer than it would otherwise be at its average distance of about 780,000,000 km (485,000,000 miles) from the sun, more than five times as far as the distance from the Earth to the sun. The warmth of Europa's liquid ocean could prove critical to the survival of simple organisms within the ocean, if they exist. (Harvey&Burdick) This ocean, thought to span globally â€Å"with more than twice the volume of Earth's seas,† may have deep hidden secrets, â€Å"with conditions that might not be completely alien to some forms of life on Earth. Under its frozen crust, Europa may harbor the key ingredients required to create a habitable environment. † (Harvey) Europa’s closer, though still very far distance from the sun, along with what may be hidden in its ocean, make it p ossibly a better candidate for life within our own star system.One great physicist, Stephen Hawking, believes the possibility of life outside of our planet is too great to ignore. He jokes that â€Å"Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. † Although he is very fond of the theory of extraterrestrial beings, he does warn us heavily about them. â€Å"We should be careful if we ever happen upon extraterrestrial life†¦ Alien life may not have DNA like ours: ‘Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance. What we normally think of as ‘life' is based on chains of carbon atoms, with a few other atoms, such as nitrogen or phosphorous†¦ we can imagine that one might have life with some other chemical basis, such as silicon. † (dailygalaxy. com) Life to him seems undeniable in other parts of the universe, but he does suggest logically that it just may very likely not b e like us. This theory is to be respected, because many planets and subterran objects may fall in every planetary guideline to support life, just not in the way we see it in ourselves.Life must exist elsewhere, whether it be out neighbor, next door or down the block, or whether it be outside of our closely knit family of planets, moons, asteroids, etc. It could host similar structure to our own, or be composed differently, and therefore could survive completely different conditions from our own. Simply put, it may be considered to be foolish to completely ignore the possibilities of any terran planet to sustain life, because life is almost certainly out there somewhere, and it may be the in last place we think to look. Works Cited Crowe, Micheal J. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900.Cambridge UP. 1986. Print. Fix, John D. Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2008. Print. Hamilton, Calvin J. â€Å"Views of the Solar System: Titan. † solarviews. com. Solarviews, 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. Hart, Stephan. â€Å"Bacteria: Survival in Siberia† astrobio. net. Astrobiology Magazine, 2002. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. Harvey, Samantha and Autumn Burdick. â€Å"Solar System Exploration. † nasa. gov. NASA, 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. â€Å"Stephen Hawking on the Possibility of Non-Carbon-Based Extraterrestrial Life. † dailygalaxy. com. The Daily Galaxy, 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Choir

Frisco High 2009 Coffeehouse: A Night in Manhattan The director of the Frisco High choir is Tracy Bradstreet. During the performance, I didn’t see her direct the choir while they were singing. All the songs were in English. The whole performance was a Broadway theme. The choir overall was really good; the acting was nice. Although, the guys need to project their voices more. They’re too quiet and too shy!! I think that everyone needs to open their mouths more wide so we can actually understand what they’re saying.During the concert, there were a lot of solo performances. In the song Vanilla Ice Cream from She Loves Me, Elison Willis was the soloist. She was awesome, and so was Kenneth West when he sang A Heart Full Of Love from Les Miserables along with Allison Behne and Rebecca Carrington. Allison Behne sang On My Own from Les Miserables. I absolutely love her voice. Her vibrato is awesome! She can’t really sing the high notes though. Bring Him Home from Les Miserables was sung by Alex Nelson. At the beginning of the song, he looked kind of scared.Although, he has a nice voice, very strong; great vibrato. L. O. V. E. was performed by Shachi Merchant. His dance was awesome! But he needs to sing louder; I could barely hear him even with the microphone. Heather Caton sang Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. She was a little late for some parts; slow and fast here and there. I kind of heard a few flats. The ending was good, though. Pioneer Heritage Middle School Show Choir sang a song called It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.The guys (even though there was only three of them, all the more reason) need to sing louder!! They got to project their voice more. Half of the time, they sang faster than what the CD played. Near the end of the first Act, the Frisco choir sang a medley of Wicked the Broadway musical. All choirs (excluding PHMS) sang No One Mourns the Wicked. One word: wow. They sound so totally awesome when they all sing together! The guys could still sing a little louder though. Next, two girls (Meghan Horstdaniel and Nicole Hathaway) sang What Is This Feeling.They need to add more feeling into that song because during that song, Elphaba and Galinda show how much they loathe each other. It felt like Meghan and Nicole didn’t add a lot of hatred towards their enemy character. In the song Popular, Ashley Romo was the soloist. She had a really pretty voice. But the choir sang too fast when they sang â€Å"you†¦will†¦be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It just didn’t match the music. Dancing Through Life had two soloists: Taylor Duke and Frank Rosamond. Frank was really good with his solo.On the other hand, Taylor was okay. The choir rocked hard, though. Plus their dancing. Choir sang the song For Good and it was totally awesome! The last song they sang before intermission was Defying Gravity. The soloist, Jourdan Kolb had a pretty voice! Choir was great, once again and the ending of the song was magnifique! I wasn’t able to stay for the whole concert; just only the first Act. Overall though, Act I was really funny. They had cool props, but too many feedbacks with the microphone. They need to fix that.