Disadvantages of Nuclear Power Essay Example for Free

Disadvantages of Nuclear Power Essay High-level radioactive waste is very dangerous, and can remain so for tens of thousands of years before decaying to safe levels. It is highly radioactive and is a major barrier to the expansion of nuclear power. If there is to be a nuclear renaissance, a sophisticated method of dealing with this waste must be refined. This point itself has sparked a surprising number of debates. For example, how do you write danger on a concrete box, when in 5,000 years the word danger may no longer exist? What symbols could we use to let people know to leave it well alone? As you can see from the graph below, the radioactivity of nuclear waste takes about 10 000 years to return to that of the original ore. The black line, indicating the total waste products, is the important one. Accidents Consider the words Chernobyl, Three Mile Island or, more recently, Fukushima. What do you think when think of them? Some people were (are) so terrified of the threat of radiation and various other scary things from previous accidents that even the idea of such things happening again makes them completely averse to nuclear power as a whole. In terms of disadvantages of nuclear power, this is a big one. Whatever improvements in safety the nuclear industry has developed, public opinion may very well rest in these events. Theres no right or wrong answer here. Technically speaking, nuclear power remains one of the safer energy sources, but Fukushima has reminded the world what can happen when something goes wrong. Proliferation Some forms of nuclear reactor, known as breeder reactors produce plutonium, which can, conceivably, be used to make nuclear weapons, most likely in the orm of a dirty bomb. This is a conventional explosive mixed with radioactive material with the intention of spreading the material across a wide area to do even more damage. There are other reactors which do not have this problem, but it is another issue that must be addressed before the possibility of a nuclear future can be taken seriously. In fact, there are reactor designs, and fuels for them, which would also significantly reduce the amount of waste produced. Fuel Nuclear fuels are, physically, even rarer than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels at least are made on Earth, albeit over millions of years. Heavy elements like Uranium are only made as stars die, in supernovas. Our solar system actually formed from the remains of another star, at which point heavier elements were made. Essentially, once theyre gone, theyre gone. Only in particle accelerators can heavier elements be made.

Software Patent/Copyright Issues in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) :: Software Technology China Essays

Software Patent/Copyright Issues in the People's Republic of China Introduction This paper is an analytical essay on global ethical issues on software intellectual property in China. It will focus on the software patent and copyright issues that are prevalent in the PRC (People’s Republic of China, including Taiwan (R.O.C. – Republic of China), and Hong Kong). The paper will include personal experiences encountered in this region of the world. In addition, it will include an in-depth analysis on the topic with industry and academic references to defend a particular moral/ethical position, in which software piracy may seem a part of the Chinese culture but is clearly ethically unacceptable. Background Information technology is a key driver in the globalization and growth of the world economy. The total worldwide package software market has been estimated at over $135 billion [1]. Piracy causes significant loss internationally. According to the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the worldwide revenues of business-based PC applications were over $17.2 billion. The piracy rate in China ranked amongst the highest at 96 percent. Software has the distinctive characteristics of digital goods – it is expensive to produce for the first copy (high-fixed costs) and inexpensive to reproduce and distribute for subsequent copies (very low, approaching zero, variable costs). These characteristics make it similar to a public good in that sharing it with others does not reduce the consumption utility of the product. One of the main causes for software entertainment copyright issues in China is that there is a huge imbalance between the people’s demand for filmed entertainment and its constrained â€Å"legitimate† supply. The government quotas severely limit import and distribution of films and television shows, cable television offers a sparse selection of entertainment programming options, and modern cinema screens are in short supply. Hence, the black market has emerged to meet this need that would otherwise go largely unfilled. [9] In addition, software piracy is big business with a lot of money at stake. Selling pirated goods at huge volumes make piracy highly profitable. And in a job-hungry economy, piracy creates hundreds of thousands of jobs that the government may be reluctant to threaten with more rigorous anti-piracy measures. [9] Personal Experience In the last five years, I have had the opportunity to travel to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, three times. Sure enough, a common theme in all three of these geographies is being able to buy pirated goods for cheap.

Scholary vs Popular Media Focus on Sexuality Paper

It’s a Quick Way to Get What You Want†: A Formative Exportation of HIV Risk Among Urban Massachusetts Men Who Have Sex with Men(MSM) Who Attend Sex Parties was an article retrieved from the AIDS Patient Care and STD Journal it was published in October of 2010. The authors of this article are Matthew J. Mimiaga, Sari L. Reisner, Sean Bland, Kevin Cranston, Deborah Isenberg, Maura A. Driscoll, Rodney VanDerwarker, and Kenneth Mayer. The main focus of the research was to investigate the HIV sexual risk behaviors of MSM who reported attending and/or hosting sex parties in Massachusetts in the past 12 months. Men who have sex with men at these sex parties are at greater risk of receiving HIV or an STI due to the fact there are other factors involved like alcohol, drugs, higher mean of anonymous partners, and unprotected sex(Migiaga, 2010). This study took place at the Fenway Health a health care and research facility. There were 40 preselected participants who completed an in depth, semi structured qualitative interview and an interviewer-administered comprehensive quantitative assessment series for a hour and a half. The study/interviews were conducted by one of two trained interviewers. That asked questions like†¦ How would you define a sex party? When did you begin hosting/attending sex parties? Describe the sex parties you attended/hosted? Are condoms and lube available at these parties? What kind of sexual behaviors do men engage in and what HIV and STI risk behavior do you see happening? Do you participate or organize these parties? Any rules involved in your parties? While asking these questions they also assessed psychosocial factors like depression, anxiety, problematic alcohol used and history of drug or alcohol abuse, and the trauma history (like childhood sexual abuse). Results/conclusion of the study suggested that the men who attended these parties are at great risk of acquiring or transmitting the HIV due to the reasons explained throughout the article(Migiaga, 2010). â€Å"Party, Play—And Pay† was an article recovered from the Newsweek Journal that was published in February of 2005. This article gives a very detailed brief account of what a sex party full of men on crystal meth is like other wise known as â€Å"Party and Play†, or PnP for short. The authors describe the sex party scene as a room full of about 30 to 40 men paying 20 dollars a piece to the host of this party, they put all their belongs in hefty bags for safe keeping while they walk around in the nude having sex with multiple partners unprotected and using illegal drugs. The authors mention several factors that were putting these men at risk such as drug usage, multiple partners, and unprotected sex. They talk about how one person on meth and having hundreds of unsafe sexual encounters could have been the result in a powerful drug-resistant strain of HIV. Leaving health officials and the community leaders to take a long look on how crystal methamphetamine is playing an enormous role in the spread of the AIDS Virus and HIV(Jefferson, Breslau, Darmen, Childress, & Juarez, 2005). The authors depict how crystal meth leaves its users with a euphoric and hypersexual feeling, leading in binges with multiple partners for several days. In the article, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, men that are high on crystal meth are four times more likely to engage in unprotected sex than those who are not high. The article also reveals that many men pop Viagra to counter temporary impotence. This mix of drugs makes users more open to unsafe sex, thus leading to a greater risk of contracting HIV. They concluded the article with an interview on someone who has lived the life of the â€Å"Party, Play—And Pay† and how they lost everything!  Both of these articles are referring to the great epidemic that is infecting the gay community-HIV. They talk about how behaviors like attendance of private sex parties, drug usage, sex with multiple partners, and use of unprotected sex are assisting in the growth of HIV amongst the gay community. Even though these articles are providing a lot of the same information, they are very different. The scholarly article compared to the public media article is a lot more in depth and have factual numbers that were taken from the direct study. The authors of a scholarly article seem to leave â€Å"no stone unturned† and no question unasked. The scholarly article encompasses an abstract-giving a description on the whole study which then leads to the introduction, methods used for example the design and the setting where the study took place and they how data was collected, how the candidates were chosen to participate. It also discussed how the qualitative interview was preformed and they questions that were asked, the article gave a quantitative assessment and the approach that was taken to retrieve the information, thus ending in results, conclusion and the discussion. The scholarly article provided information, numbers, percentages, and averages about the demographics, sexual behavior, and psychosocial characteristics of the men who were interviewed and surveyed in this study. It is written in a very formal tone, in great detail, displayed the authors’ findings to be displayed for other experts and students in a specific field to study and review. All of the authors who wrote on the scholarly were experts with degrees. Most of the scholarly articles found consisted of more then just one or two pages and they have specific guidelines. The authors cite their sources though out the article and they also include a list of references at the very end. Graphs and data were included. Once the study is completed and the article is written it goes through a â€Å"rigorous† peer review process (Unknown, 2009). The public media article gave an informal tone (Unknown, 2009) to the whole â€Å"HIV, drugs, gay men, and sex parties. They used information, facts, numbers, and percentages from different sources like the â€Å"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention† and other various resources instead of conducting their own control study, survey, or interviews researched amongst a trained research team. Scholarly and popular media both provide a great amount of information, just presented differently. Scholarly articles seem to provide you with a more intellectual approach(Unknown , 2009) to the topic or what you are trying to learn and can be used perfectly in an academic environment, but unlike the popular media article its just numbers, demographics, facts taken from a research and its subjects. It lacks the real stories and visual pictures of human beings and how they are being affected by this epidemic. Talking about how some people lost their jobs, homes, family, and life to the life-style that lead them to AIDS or HIV, as a result hitting a little closer to home and how it’s affecting today’s gay community and what they are doing to counter act these behaviors. Professors like to advertise scholarly and peer reviewed articles simply because it is an array of factual information written by the subject matter experts in a very formative way. Sex is something that is not formally studied often and that’s why people have many different perceptions of what sex is really like. Sometimes these perceptions can lead to a lot of misleading information. Sex can be common to some but not so common to others due to the fact there are many aspects to sex like bisexuality, homosexuality, and heterosexuality. No one knows it all when it comes to sex and this is why you should leave it to the experts. This is perhaps why scholarly articles are preferred and â€Å"hyped up† by professors. Scholarly and public media articles can be very reliable depending on the source and their credentials. Conducting this review of the differences of a scholarly/peer reviewed article and the public media had shown me the pros and cons to both types of articles. If you are looking for an article that is reliable academically and that has been reviewed by many of subject experts-scholarly articles are what you’re looking for. If you are looking for informal information with very little statistics but reliable information on the subject matter you can read a public media article. In conclusion, if you really want to know more about the subject, look up both the scholarly and in public media articles just to gather a wide assortment of information from different variable resources.

How I Think Theologically By Howard W. Stone And James O....

In their book, How To Think Theologically, Howard W. Stone and James O. Duke convey to their reading audience on the very first page of their introduction that â€Å"†¦Christian theology is at its roots a matter of faith seeking understanding.† The premise of the book argues – no states emphatically â€Å"†¦their (christians’) faith makes them theologicans.† It is this foundational point on which the entire work pivots. So Stone and Duke are asking their readers to buy in to the realization that by merit of our Christianity, we all are theologians. Once their readers have been garnered by this knowledge, they seek to take that audience to levels of thinking correctly in relation to theology – both methodically and methodologically. This critical book review seeks to understand theologically the arguments Stone and Duke are making and evaluate the effectiveness and thoroughness of this text. In order for the reading audience to buy in they offer the above mentioned definition of Christian theology. One can readily see, then, as believers in Christ’s work at Calvary - His obedience in death, His submission to burial and His glorious resurrection from the dead we indeed can accept forgiveness and hence be Christians. And, as such we think on our faith, teachings and understandings in matters of faith. This process, in effect is theological reflection. And, although Stone and Duke have varying theological views in some areas, they both agree on the points of this book on the journey ofShow MoreRelatedThe United Church Of Christ, By Howard W. Stone James O Duke1764 Words   |  8 Pagesorg/ministers_leaders-box Howard W. Stone James O Duke, in their book How to Think Theologically state, â€Å"To be a Christian at all is to be a theologian. There are no exceptions.† Google’s definition of a theologian is â€Å"a person who engages or is an expert in theology. Theology, according to Google is 1) the study of the nature of God and religious belief and 2) religious beliefs and theory when systematically developed. It is with these definitions in mind that I prepare my paper for ordination