Social Unrest :: essays research papers

'All we lack is the will- the will to see that the greatest threat is not change, but our continued resistance to it.'; These words, expressed by the late, Senator Edward Kennedy, display perfectly how our society is reluctant to change when a change is needed. Any change or variation, be it in education, personal attitudes, or traditions can be difficult to achieve. One specific area of our society that is disinclined to change is the social unrest that plagues public schools. The results of this unrest come in the forms of emotional instability for students that may or may not lead to murder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Social unrest is happening in all schools across the United States. We hear about it on the news. We read about it in newspapers and in magazines. But what exactly are we hearing and reading about it? We are witnessing the results of this constant 'social unrest'; in schools. What are these results? Homicide and suicide. What scares most people and even myself, is that this could happen at any time, any place. Even Little Falls, New York. All too often seemingly normal, everyday students are violently venting their anger on their fellow classmates. They take the lives of other students, their own, and leave in the wake of their madness, emotional trauma for those who witness it. The real question is, however, why are they so angry? The answer to this lies in school hallways and cafeterias. Students in high school and even middle school, are 'bullied'; by other students, mainly your typical 'jock';, to the point where they simply cannot stand to go to school and be picked on. So what do they do? They come to school armed with automatic weapons, sawed off shotguns, and knives ready to take matters into their own hands. This has happened all too often and is becoming a part of our everyday life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In most cases, the students who decide to do a thing like this, are considered outcasts or 'Goths'; by other students. These are the kids who do not conform to a certain group. Who choose to go their own route, and seemingly suffer for it. This is one aspect of public schools that will always be present and one problem that cannot be stopped, only contained. A good example of a child who has the makings of one of these students, is Stephen, a young student in the short story, 'Stephen';, written by Jonathan Kozol.

Formative Assessment Essay

The Rape of the Lock, written by Pope in response to a feud between two friends about the theft of a lock of hair, is revolutionary in its evolution of the comic satire genre into the field of epic poetry. Pope, an avid student of the Greek epics (he produced his own translations of some that provided much of his income during his life), takes the basic skeleton of an epic: its structure, critical content and even linguistic points; and crafts around the skeleton a poem of wit and comedy that is at its core epic, but also uses this very epic backbone to undermine its tales own importance and to satirise the content that has been moulded around the form. This creation from Pope marks the offshoot of the epic genre, transforming it into mock epic, an independent genre that bears many of the traits of its forebearer in a new light. The transformations to the epic that Pope undertakes in the Rape of the Lock to satiric effect can be broadly split into transformations of heroic content and transformations of heroic language. The former can be clearly observed here: Pope takes a staple of epic writing, heroic weaponry, and twists its use to his satirical needs. The weapon itself is given, through the use of a similar description, equal place with great weapons like Agamemnon’s sceptre, whose lineage was used to reinforce Agamemnon’s dominance and power in the Iliad, being forged by Hephaestus and owned by the Gods from Zeus to Kronos. Belinda’s weapons lineage is far less great. Instead of a scepter, the weapon of kings and priests in Homer’s writing, Belinda wields a bodkin, a hair needle. Even that difference itself is satirical: Agamemnon’s kingship is of great import to the Iliad so the parallel with a bodkin, which links to the hair in question much like the scepter links with kingship, makes a clear statement on the relative importance of the quarrel in the Rape of the Lock. The lineage too satirises the pointlessness of dispute: no claim of divinity (and thus righteousness) is made on the part of Belinda’s weapon; in fact its lineage mainly consists of feminine objects with the only male mentioned in its lineage also being the only one to explicitly be mentioned dying. Perhaps Pope, often accused of being somewhat sexist, is using this contrast and development to imply that the whole issue is a woman’s trifle and nothing next to the male quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon. On top of this, the weapon is not the fixed centre of the lineage as in the Iliad, in which the weapon started as a divine weapon and stayed that way. Instead the object is mutable: it starts as signet rings, develops into a buckle and then becomes a bodkin. Pope changes up the epic formula of the mighty weapon into something changeable and thus insignificant, paralleling with the argument he is satirising, the implication being that it is insignificant and will easily be forgotten. The weapon also shows another perversion of the epic poem that Pope uses. Protection, be it through armour or weaponry, tends to have a high place in the Greek epics. Heroes often wear famed suits of armour or use shields/weapons to survive insurmountable odds (for example the reflective shield in Perseus’ tale in Ovid’s Metamorphoses that slays Medusa). This element of protection, divine or otherwise, is a theme that Pope subverts consistently. From the slyph Ariel who is â€Å"half dissolv’d† even by light to the â€Å"Cosmetic powers† of her dress and make-up, nothing effectively protects Belinda. The bodkin is no different, it fails to protect her locks from being cut in the initial case, and here, although she uses it to attack the Baron, it fails to return its charge, her hair, to her. Pope is modernising traditional epics, using these typical ‘protections’ to mock high societies fixation on appearance. All of her outward facing beauty and quaint bodkin’s cannot protect her from the advances of a single man, so what, Pope asks, is the use of all this artifice? Pope also mutates generic language elements from epic literature for his satirical intentions. In this passage, the clearest example is in his use of the ten syllable rhyming heroic couplet. Pope takes the rhyme of the couplet and uses it to link together two separate words or ideas, often to a comical effect. Here, in the lines, â€Å"Nor feared the chief the unequal fight to try, Who sought no more than on his foe to die. â€Å" Pope has the first line of the couplet set up the Baron’s bravery by expounding his fearlessness in fighting against Belinda in â€Å"unequal† combat (ironic in itself due to Belinda’s natural weakness compared to his â€Å"manly strength† referred to in the next couplet) before defeating the heroic xpectancy with a sexual pun; the phrase â€Å"to die† holding at the time a dual meaning referring to sexual climax, and often premature climax at that. His heroism is built up and destroyed within a couplet with the contrast of noble bravery and base desire providing a humorous and satirical twist on the typical heroism of the heroic couplet by suggesting that the drive behind the Baron’s actions is, at its deepest level, sexual, rather than noble or courtly.

Guide to Carbon Fiber Material

Carbon fiber is, exactly what it sounds like — fiber made of carbon. But, these fibers are only a base. What is commonly referred to as carbon fiber is a material consisting of very thin filaments of carbon atoms. When bound together with plastic polymer resin by heat, pressure or in a vacuum a composite material is formed that is both strong and lightweight. Much like cloth, beaver dams, or a rattan chair, the strength of carbon fiber is in the weave. The more complex the weave, the more durable the composite will be. It is helpful to imagine a wire screen that is interwoven with another screen at an angle, and another at a slightly different angle, and so on, with each wire in each screen made of carbon fiber strands. Now imagine this mesh of screens drenched in liquid plastic, and then pressed or heated until the material fuses together. The angle of the weave, as well as the resin used with the fiber, will determine the strength of the overall composite. The resin is most commonly epoxy, but can also be thermoplastic, polyurethane, vinyl ester, or polyester. DaveAlan/E/Getty Images Alternatively, a mold may be cast and the carbon fibers applied over it. The carbon fiber composite is then allowed to cure, often by a vacuum process. In this method, the mold is used to achieve the desired shape. This technique is preferred for uncomplicated forms that are needed on demand. Carbon fiber material has a wide range of applications, as it can be formed at various densities in limitless shapes and sizes. Carbon fiber is often shaped into tubing, fabric, and cloth, and can be custom-formed into any number of composite parts and pieces. Common Uses of Carbon Fiber High-end automobile componentsBicycle framesFishing rodsShoe solesBaseball batsProtective cases for laptops and iPhones The Apollo IE hypercar. Martyn Lucy/Getty Images   More exotic uses can be found in the: Aeronautics and aerospace industriesOil and gas industryUnmanned aerial vehiclesSatellitesFormula-1 race cars Some would argue, though, that the possibilities for carbon fiber are limited only by demand and the manufacturer’s imagination. Now, it’s even common to find carbon fiber in: Musical instrumentsFurnitureArtStructural elements of buildingsBridgesWind turbine blades   gilaxia/Getty Images If carbon fiber could be said to have any detractions, it would be production cost. Carbon fiber is not easily mass-produced and is therefore very expensive. A carbon fiber bicycle will easily run in the thousands of dollars, and its use in automotive is still limited to exotic racing cars. Carbon fiber is popular in these items and others are due to its weight-to-strength ratio and its resistance to flame, so much so that there is a market for synthetics that look like carbon fiber. However, imitations are often only partially carbon fiber or simply plastic made to look like carbon fiber. This occurs often in after-market protective casings for computers and other small consumer electronics. The upside is that carbon fiber parts and products, if not damaged, will almost literally last forever. This makes them a good investment for consumers, and also keeps products in circulation. For example, if a consumer is not willing to pay for a set of brand new carbon fiber golf clubs, there is a chance those clubs will be pop up on the secondary used market. Carbon fiber is often confused with fiberglass, and while there are similarities in manufacturing and some crossover in end products like furniture and automobile moldings, they are different. Fiberglass is a polymer that is reinforced with woven strands of silica glass rather than carbon. Carbon fiber composites are stronger, while fiberglass has more flexibility. And, both have various chemical compositions that make them better suited for different applications. Recycling carbon fiber is very difficult. The only available method for complete recycling is a process called thermal depolymerization, wherein the carbon fiber product is superheated in an oxygen-free chamber. The freed carbon can then be secured and reused, and whatever bonding or reinforced material that was used (epoxy, vinyl, etc.) is burned away. Carbon fiber can also be broken down manually at lower temperatures, but the resulting material will be weaker due to the shortened fibers, and thus likely not to be used in its most ideal application. For example, a large piece of tubing that is no longer being used may be split up, and the remaining parts used for computer casings, briefcases or furniture. Carbon fiber is an incredibly useful material used in composites, and it will continue to grow manufacturing market share. As more methods of producing carbon fiber composites economically are developed, the price will continue to fall, and more industries will take advantage of this unique material.