Liabilities of the company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Liabilities of the company - Essay Example The use of insurance is a great way to protect assets. The three most important items that must be protected by insurance are property, income, and liabilities. Most large corporations have billions of dollars in physical assets. These assets such as buildings and machinery should have insurance against fire and natural disasters. On March 11, 2011 Japan was struck by the 4th largest earthquake in the history of mankind. A natural disaster can occur at any time since these are natural events that occur at random. Some of the natural disasters coverage that companies should seek includes earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, fire, and floods. The liabilities of a company are an important aspect of the capital structure of a company. Normally liabilities of corporate debt are hard to protect against. A method that can be use to create a certain level of protection for debt is to use a portfolio approach to protect the debt by formulating a strong portfolio of financial instrumen ts that serve as a safe haven in case the company is not able to pay for its debt due bad operating results. The liquid portfolio can be partially liquidated to create cash that the firm can use to pay its current debt and other operating expenses such as payroll. Another important asset that must be protected is inventory. ... Insurance can also be used by corporations to protect against workers claims and lawsuits by internal and external stakeholders. When a lawsuit is filed it is often better to settle out of court to lower legal costs and to reduce the impact of bad publicity to the company. The corporate image of the company is sacred. Back in 1998 Nike Corporation lost half its customers instantly due to the revelation of a sweetshop scandal. The use of an internal control system is extremely beneficial to a company. It can be used in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of the entire staff of employees. One of the benefits of the use of internal controls is that it safeguards the assets of the company. The most valuable asset of a company which must be protected at all times is the cash. Cash is the most liquid asset in existence. In the international arena the currency of most countries is different. Three of the most valued currencies in the world are the U.S. dollar, the Euro, and th e British Pound. The U.S. dollar is used as the reserve currency in the majority of the countries in the world. Internal controls can also be used to minimize the theft of inventory in a company. A way to protect the inventory is by placing hidden cameras across the entire warehouse where the inventory is being kept. In the retail environment cashiers must count the money when the cash register is cash out and the manager must verify the amount. Both employees must sign a document regarding the cash. The cash should then be taken to a safe prior to the money being deposited in the bank account of the company. The use of internal controls can prevent the managers and the accounting staff from colluding

Forest Fires Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Forest Fires - Lab Report Example Forest fuels at that time grew progressively drier, additionally; the early summer thunderstorms gave lightning without sufficient rain. The fire that was initially assumed to be easily containable began on June of 1988 with storm Creek Fire, Red fire and Fan fire all manifesting. June of the same year become more challenging as Mink & Clover fires and Lava fire began. By August of 1988, a lot of damages had occurred with other fires starting within the same park. Most notably was the fire of August 20, 1988, "Black Saturday" a day that huge amount of land was burned, and many witnessed dense smoke ever. This was a month that many other roads became impassable due to the intensity of the fire. Despite suppression efforts, the 1988 fires ultimately seized only with the coming of the mid-September snowfall. What then followed was the full evacuation of citizens who leave around the park and forest reforestation efforts. There are various actions taken by the forest managers key among them the implementation of a new fire management plan for Yellowstone in 1992. The implemented plan helped address future related fire concern including detailed guidelines for managing or handling natural fires and provision of more resources towards fire management. The other action has been more surveillance to manage future fire incidences quickly. The final management action has been in line with more ecological awareness to ensure polluted free environment. One can argue that these initiatives have been fruitful since no major fire has emerged in the area. My approach to the fire would be to handle the fire immediately before it becomes unmanageable. This is possible through more prompt aerial surveillance. Yellowstone fire of 1988 was majorly accelerated initially by reluctance (Gomez et al., 95). The management was more reluctant initially with the belief that it was a natural fire that

Should college athletes be paid Essay Example for Free

Should college athletes be paid Essay Should College Athletes be Paid? Maybe it was the annual spectacle of March Madness and the fact that UCONN came out of nowhere as an underdog to win their 3rd national NCAA men’s basketball title. Maybe it was the excitement of watching the UCONN football team playing in its first ever BCS Bowl against Oklahoma last year. Whatever he reason, the media and sports critics always ignite a fresh debate over the merits of paying college athletes for their services to the schools. Over the past few months, PBS, ESPN and HBO each aired major specials and documentaries on the relative injustices or justice – deepening our your view of the current college Division 1 (D1) system that allows amateur players to generate billions (that is correct, billions) in revenue each year for their respective schools and the NCAA organization, but prohibits them from receiving a dime of it or any compensation that might be offered from other sources deemed private or public. Coaches can sign multimillion-dollar contracts, endorse products, and rake in lucrative speaking fees. Is this fair? Are we being ethical and righteousness treating young and innocent individuals in this matter? Should we as a society allow these individuals to be taken advantaged in this matter? These are just a few questions many people ask, and the answers are not clear-cut as one might think. To pay or not to pay? The question everyone asks every year since the explosion of D1 College sports over the past couple of decades. The debate over the pros and cons in paying college athletes won’t end until changes are made or someone does something about the current system. My goal throughout this paper will be to present and clarify some of these arguments and why someone could make changes amendable to everyone involved. I will focus my arguments and debate on three major issues. (1) Should we pay students athletes and how much should they be paid? (2) How would they get paid and the challenges in managing this process, can the schools afford it? (3) And finally, what ethical issues, if any, would this pose to our schools and society at large? In conclusion, I will share my opinion and recommendation on what should be done to address this ongoing dispute. My discussion through out this paper will focus on  the â€Å"Primetime† college sports programs in the NCAA; Men’s College Basketball and College Football. As these two sports represent virtually the face of the NCAA and college sports on TV and to the public. While the other college sports are as important to student athletes and schools, they don’t drive the same level of viewing power and revenue numbers for the NCAA and their respective schools. In my opinion college is suppose to be a place you go to earn an education an d determine your future career. Although many college athletes are going to the school that offers them the most money potential at the next level of their carriers, paying the athletes based on their current star power or future potential could have the potential to turn the entire college arena into a bidding war. You would stop seeing athletes go to a place because of tradition or loyalty, but instead to whom would pay them the most money. This in turn would kill the magic of college sports and the purity of the game. Where only a few large schools would have enough capital and buying power to buy the top performing and premier student athletes. If this would to happen, the Butler Bulldogs would have never made it to the NCAA College Basketball finals against UCONN just this past May, as Butler could never compete with the deep pockets of schools like Duke, Syracuse, UCONN, and Georgetown, just to name a few. You may also see free agency enter college sports. Although they would have to sit a year, what would stop players from jumping universities because of money? It would dramatically change the college sport world, as we know it today. Butler again comes to mind, as most of their top athletes would jump ship to another school after they finished 2nd in the 2010 NCCA finals, in the hope of getting more money. In the long run, paying college athletes will make it ok to pay non professional athletes and thus you could then see high schools develop the same principles. If you are paying a player at the college level because they bring in money, then Bloomfield High, New Britain high and other dominant high schools would do the same, and you then re-create the problems I already mentioned. While the arguments above raise good concerns, I do have some major issues with college athletes not getting paid as well. If an ordinary student receives a grant or scholarship based on their intellectual power of monetary limitations, then its perfectly legal for the student to get a job while in college and use that money for whatever they want. Ive seen this happen. One of my friends in college got a $50K  scholarship to Northeastern; no strings attached (except for keeping up the GPA), paid tuition with that money, and then used his talents after schools hours to become an independent contractor whil e still attending school. He made enough money on the side to buy a used car in cash and pay for a couple of spring break vacations and a few other â€Å"luxuries† currently unavailable to college athletes. While college athletes get free room, board, books, tuition and fees covered by the scholarship, they don’t have the luxury or option to earn extra money for additional expenses (car, travel, vacation, nice dinner, etc.) as they spend most if not all of their time practicing or traveling when outside the classroom, limiting the amount of time they have to find any part time job. On the other hand, they are plenty of non-athletic students in college who have an equally difficult time having a normative college experience because the job that they do work is used to cover the enormous expense of room, board, books, tuition and fees. Furthermore, many of those non-athlete students have to take on mounds and mounds of debt to be able to afford the very things the athletes are given. I bet more than a few of them would gladly give up their play money for the chance to finish college without being $100-150k in the hole. That being said, I am convinced that student athletes deserve t he same opportunity regular students have. They should have the opportunity to earn additional money to cover expenses currently covered by their parents, friends family or bank loans. Do I feel that the players should be paid some amount of money to pay for additional expenses? Yes. The amount of money these kids generate is in the Billions and they get nothing (monetary) in return, as if these athletes use college as the tool that it is, then they should at least be getting an education. However, it does not make sense for college players to have no money and barely able to get by, while someone makes a substantial amount of money off their talents. However, the payment should be controlled and limited to a defined amount. More on this a little later. In the past, Maryland’s head basketball coach Gary Williams made a public statement in which he denounced the present system of not paying athletes. His proposal was to give those players in revenue-producing sports a stipend of $200/month. While I agree with Mr. Williams approach and argument, I disagree with the payment amount and structure. In my opinion his argument makes perfect sense and achieves a realist solution. He  points out that college athletics – specifically basketball and football are making a fortune for the NCAA, the schools, the coaches, the staff and filtering down to just about everyone else in the athletic department and sometimes even to other parts of the school. However, not a c ent is being given to those who are actually providing the product on the court and field. You know, the product that we love to watch and talk about during water breaks in the office, the product that creates so much exhilaration every weekend to millions of people across the US and world! Again, I realize the argument is that they are being given free housing and a free scholarship, etc. The problem is that there isn’t another kid at the school that has to have a life based upon $0 extra income to buy what he wants. As I mentioned above, these individuals don’t have the time to work and earn extra money, so they will be tempted to take some extra cash or a trip or a meal at a fancy restaurant from a â€Å"friend† or â€Å"acutance†. Who wouldn’t be? And there lies the problem. The student athletes under the current system will always be faced with the hard decision not to break the rules and laws, which honestly, other students don’t have to deal with. As I pointed out before and Williams makes the same point, regular kids are allowed to receive living expenses and spending money as part of financial aid from family, friends or even strangers. Since athletes cannot, they are clearly being discriminated against. The student athlete might bring thousands if not millions of dollars to the school and more importantly the NCAA in one way or the other, but how much does any other student bring to the school? In addition to the moral argument of making students paid employees of the school while attending school, there’s the cost argument. Can the NCAA and schools really afford it? The answer might surprise and shock you at the same time. The NCAA negotiated an $11 Billion (with a B) deal for the 2011 NCAA tournament. Not the regular season, just the tournament – and that’s just NCAA basketball. Doing some analysis show that, there are 346 Division One schools in basketball. If each one of them has 13 players, that’s 4,498 players. Divide $11 Billion by 4,498 and you get†¦ over $2 million per player! These figures clearly indicate that both the NCAA and schools could afford to pay the students athletes some monetary figure, more on that later. Clearly the argument is no longer about money! Or is it? Between 2004 and 2010, fewer than 7 percent of all Division I sports programs  generated positive net revenue, according to NCAA data. Fewer than 12 percent of all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools — 14 out of 120 — did so in fiscal year 2009. For that matter, the NCAA reports that only 50 percent to 60 percent of FBS football and basketball programs make money. In other word s, a significant chunk of top-level FBS programs are losing money. Should those programs be obliged to pay their football and basketball players, even though they aren’t actually producing a net profit. Paying student athletes large sums of money based on their natural ability would destroy the college sports, as we know it today and potential drive schools out of business into bankruptcy. Obviously a large majority of D-1 schools can’t afford to pay students athletes even if it was legal today. So, where’s the money going? As I mentioned before, the NCAA is signing record deals with the networks, shouldn’t that money go back to the schools? Nobody can answer this question with certainty, but one thing is clear, the NCAA could afford to compensate the student athletes, based on their current revenue streams. My recommended solution will address this disparity in D-1 schools and their ability to lash out money to pay student athletes. Indeed, with many coaches and college experts, the biggest problem with paying players isnt a money issue. Its the legal and structural chaos that would result. In an interview with PBSs Frontline that aired a few weeks back, NCAA president Mark Emmert said it would be utterly unacceptable to convert students into employees. Emmert had reason to be adamant. What happens when college athletes become employees? Can they collectively bargain? Can they strike? Do injured players receive workmans comp? Are players at state schools eligible for subsequent retirement benefits? Do only football and mens basketball players receive salaries? Should a star point guard earn more than a third-string center? Should an All-American quarterback earn more than his entire offensive line? Who decides and who controls all of these decisions? The NCAA? The School? Since student athletes are prohibited in gathering any additional money, the NCAA is making efforts to help support the future of college sports by helping to funnel $750 million over 11 years into funds strictly designed to benefit these athletes. This money is ideally going to be used by the NCAA to help fund student-athletes who are looking for clothing, emergency travel, educational and medical expenses, personal needs and also a injury  insurance. Even though this is a very nice touch by the NCAA organization, it however does not address the real issue of allowing college athletes in earning money, which can be used a the discretion of the student-athlete. Until that day comes, the future student-athletes have a lot of hard work, dedication and lessons to be learned from before they are all worthy enough of being able to accept salaries for their individual efforts. It is a fact that since its birth, the NCAA has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry and some experts feel college athletes should begin to benefit financially from the large revenues. The NCAA brought in more than a billion dollars more than what the NBA generated globally in the 2009-10 season, according to the most recent estimate from Forbes. One of the biggest revenue-creating sports a part of the NCAA today is college football that has come a long way since the establishment of the Harvard, Yale and Princeton football association. Recently in the last five years a few football teams have financially stood out amongst their competitors in the NCAA. NCAA players, coaches and officials constantly argue for the paying of student-athletes because for them the primary reason for massive profit earnings is due to the thanks of the hard work of their student-athletes. College athletes are constantly seeing their jersey numbers on the racks of their campus bookstores but instead of seeing any of the profits all they see is their coaches racking in multi-million dollar contracts year after year. In total there are 119 Division I-A football teams competing in the NCAA today and out of those a reported 42 of those team’s coaches received more than $1 million salaries, at least nine receiving more than $2 million. In Basketball, the University of Connecticut last year signed a 5-year contract with coach Jim Calhoun worth approximately $11M – including speaking and media fees. This is one of the biggest reasons why players argue for their own salary incomes due to the financial successes of their own coaches and seeing them living extravagant lifestyles. Meanwhile, would each salaried player on a given team be paid the same amount? If not, who would decide whether the All-American linebacker deserved more money than the All-American wide receiver, or whether Kemba Walker was more valuable than the star power forward, Jeremy Lamb. Would 18-year-olds be negotiating â€Å"contracts† with officials in their athletic department? Would they be hiring agents before high-school graduation? And how would all this affect  those sports programs that depend on football and basketball revenue to stay afloat? To pose an discuss these questions is to realize that paying college athletes merit salaries based on their â€Å"book value† is simply unrealistic and unfeasible. Still, the current NCAA rules are deeply flawed, and many players are indeed being ex ploited. Let’s face it: Big-time college football and basketball basically function as minor-league systems for the NFL and the NBA, respectively, while creating massive profits for everyone except the athletes. Scholarships are financially valuable, sure. But according to many experts, the average scholarship falls about $5,000 short of covering an athlete’s â€Å"essential† college expenses. Closing that gap — My proposed solution would address the majority of these concerns, if not completely eliminate them. Many experts have reach a determination that college sports have already effectively become professionalized. Given the N.C.A.A.’s abandonment of standard honored amateur principles, many experts argued, that there’s not a good enough reason preventing athletes from engaging in the same entrepreneurial activities as their celebrity coaches. Big-time college athletes should be able to endorse products, get paid for speaking engagements and be compensated for the use of their likenesses on licensed products. After all, aren’t non-athlete students allowed to go on a TV show like â€Å"MTV SpringBreak† and receive money for their appearances and efforts? If non-athletes students are a llowed, why can’t students athletes appear on ESPN shows and get paid for it? They should! They should be allowed to also negotiate an actual contract with the N.B.A. as part of a final project in a finance class, and have an agent from the day they decide to. In the past few years, the NCAA has cracked down on players taking illegal benefits from â€Å"agents and boosters†. USC was under two years of probation for the Reggie Bush affair. Cecil Newton openly shopped his son around to SEC schools. And just a few months back, the University of Connecticut was found guilty and punished by the NCAA for violating its rules and laws. Schools, coaches and athletes decide to take these risks and break the rules because they know what’s a stake, millions and millions of dollars. All of these things are clearly against NCAA rules, but how fair are the rules? We all know how much money colleges bring in off of the hard work of these kids, and we all know what its like to be young and poor. Should college football players be paid or at least allowed to accept benefits? After long  hours of research, deliberation and studying both sides of the argument in paying student athletes for their services to the NCAA and respective schools, I came up with the following recommendations. Frist and foremost, student athletes should continue to receive scholarships from their schools with the same benefits as they receive today. I also think that we should not pay large salaries to these athletes based on their personal ability or star potential as it would turn college into even more of a business and less of an academic institution. Furthermore if would open the floodgates for paying athletes very large sums of money. It has been said again and again; more money more pr oblems. However, I also believe that it is unfair for these athletes not to receive anything for the services they provide to their schools which yield millions and millions of dollars in profits, prestige recognition and increase in student enrollments, all very positive for the school’s bottom line. In my opinion, students’ athletes should receive from the NCAA NOT their schools a yearly payment (for all 4 years) equal to the average school annual tuition amount– in other words, take all D1 schools, average out the full tuition across all schools and make that the payment to every school athlete. This money would come from the lucrative contracts the NCAA signs with TV networks, clothing companies, etc. While in some cases this represents more income than what students could need, it would eliminate calculating complex and unfair student payments, and give student athletes additional spending money. It would also avoid any student athlete from choosing one school over the other because of this payment, as it would be the same independent of what school they eventually select. This approach would also eliminate the fact that a majority of D-1 schools have a negative balance sheet and realistically can’t afford to pay any student athlete’s salaries. If not else, it certainly would be a great deterrent for the vast majority of otherwise good players, but not ready to jump to the NFL or NBA early.

Pure Enantiomers of Phenylethylamine Mixture

Pure Enantiomers of Phenylethylamine Mixture Introduction The purpose of this laboratory was to resolve the pure enantiomers of ( ±)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (racemic) mixture, by separating their diasteriomeric derivatives using (+)-tartaric acid. The differing enantiomers form different salts with acids. Two molecules that are enantiomers have nearly identical physical and chemical properties although this may be true, the salts that are formed after the reaction with acid have distinct properties. Some salts are less soluble [(+)(-)] than others, and therefore crystallize from the mixture in a nearly pure stereoisomeric form. When using NaOH as a strong base to treat the salt, it allows for the isolation of the enantiomer (Lab Manual, 2007). Polarimetry is a common method used to distinguish between enantiomers, based on their ability to rotate the plane of polarized light in opposite directions (+ and -). This allows the observer to determine the enantiomeric purity, and therefore the composition of the mixture (Wade, 2007 Chemical Reaction: (-)-amine (+)-amine less soluble salt [(-)(+)]: crystallizes more soluble salt [(+)(+)] remains in solution 2NaOH + 2H2O (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (Lab Manual, 2007) Procedure: Instead of using a 50 mL beaker to boil the amine solution in, we used a 50 mL Erlenmyer flask For the rest of the proceduce refer to pg. 18, 22-24 (Lab Manual, 2007) Observations: The crystals were given a 4 week crystallization period and afterward, the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine- (+)-hydrogen tartrate salt was observed to be a white crystalline solid, and the methanol was a transparent liquid. Two very distinct layers were visible following the reaction with the NaOH (strong base) and addition of the methylene chloride (CH2Cl2). The top layer was translucent in some places and opaque in others, very cloudy, white liquid, while the bottom layer was transparent and also liquid. The resultant mixture following the three separate extractions was close to transparent Discussion: When the (+)-tartaric acid was added to the racemic mixture, ( ±)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, (-)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate, and (+)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate salts were formed. The (-)-amine-(+)-hydrogen tartrate was much less soluble in methanol, and therefore crystallized out of the solution (Lab Manual, 2007). This method of separation was proven to be quite successful, as the percent yield of this crystallization was 73.1 %, which is relatively high. The presence of impurities, as well as the inability to completely crystallize the salt from methanol most likely attributed to any discrepancies. It is also possible that although the (-)(+) salt is less soluble than the other salts, it still has some sort of solubility, and therefore crystallizes rather slowly (hence the mandatory 2 week waiting period, in our case it was 4 weeks). As well, the other salts, despite their high solubility in methanol, may have still crystallized very slightly over the long waiting period, adding to impurities Addition of NaOH resulted in the formation of two distinct layers: a white, cloudy aqueous layer (top), and a clear amine layer (bottom), and allowed for the isolation of (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (Lab Manual, 2007). The addition of 5 mL of water to the flask confirm that the top layer was the aqueous layer, since it increased relative to the bottom layer and the water was absorbed here (Lab Manual, 2007). The aqueous layer consisted of the (-)-amine, along with sodium tartrate, and water, while the amine layer included any impurities. The sodium tartrate readily dissolved in water, while methylene chloride (CH2Cl2) was added to dissolve (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine (boiling point ~ 186oC), since it had a lower boiling point (40oC), and could easily be removed through heating (Synthesis and resolution of alpha-phenyethylamine. After a filtration process, including a series of extractions, there was percentage yield of 61.3% for the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, which is a lower yield than the original 73.1 %, indicating that there was a loss of amine during the second part of the experimental procedure. The main cause of this error was the accidental disposal of much of the amine layer, in which a small amount of (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine was still present. The presence of some impurities may have also affected results, however, they would have instead increased the yield and lead to misleading results. Another possible cause of error is the slight leakage out of the glass stopper on the separatory funnel when the solution was shaken. There was a bit of solution that leaked out the bottom or squirted out the top when releasing the pressure in the funnel. Subsequently, the error that substantially lowered the yield of the product greatly increases the optical purity of the mixture. The observed rotation of the final sample was -31. 8o (levorotary, left hand rotation) and the specific rotation was -33.8o compared with the empirical specific rotation of -40.4o  ± 0.2o (Lab Manual, 2007). The resultant optical purity was 83.7%, which is considerably high. Aside from the previously mentioned disposal of the organic layer, numerous other errors, such as the presence of impurities may have contributed to deviations in the optical purity. The negative (counter clockwise) rotation essentially confirmed that the enantiomer being isolated was the (-)-ÃŽ ±-phenylethylamine, and the high optical purity demonstrated that the extraction was accomplished with much success and considerable accuracy, since the final product was mainly (-)-amine, despite the relatively low yield.

Raskolnikovs Crimes Essay -- Literary Analysis Crime Punishment

In every age we live, there is a constant struggle between finding a cure to our neurosis with the advent of urbanization and finding qualities in nature that supersede our abilities in enhancing modern man. With that kind of chaos come various forms of behaviors and actions, most of which stem to arguments of good versus evil. Dostoevsky insists that men have the choice between good and evil every moment of their lives; no matter the circumstance, they have the choice between moral and immoral. Crime and Punishment is a story of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s struggle with the ideologies of his time. The young and impoverished law student is torn between unifying and nihilistic cultures afflicting nineteenth-century tsarist Russia. Through a journey of crime, it becomes clear to Raskolnikov that his ultimate failure was caused by his transgression in murdering cold-heartedly, attempting to prove his self-worth by crossing the law. As Raskolnikov’s guilt overwhel ms him and becomes unbearable, his only solace is confession to the crime. Serving his prison term in Siberia, Raskolnikov comes to the realization that reason cannot beat the human conscience. Motive is central to any crime committed. When put on trial, a prosecutor must first prove that the accused acted in the crime, and then he/she must prove the criminal possessed a â€Å"guilty mind.† There is neither doubt nor denial that Raskolnikov murdered the old pawnbroker and her half-sister. As he was approaching the old woman’s house, Raskolnikov protested to himself, â€Å"Can it be, can it be, that I will really take an axe, that I will strike her on the head, split her skull open . . . that I will tread in the sticky warm blood, break the lock, steal and tremble; hide... ...roit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 69. Print. Hackett, Francis. â€Å"Crime and Punishment.† Horizons: A Book of Criticism. New York: B. W. Huebsh, 1918. 178-185. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 74-75. Print. Jones, Malcolm V. Dostoyevsky: The Novel of Discord. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1976. Print. Miller, Robin Feuer. Critical Essays on Dostoevsky. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986. Print Strakhov, N. â€Å"The Nihilists and Raskolnikov’s New Idea.† â€Å"Crime and Punishment† by Feodor Dostoevsky: A Norton Critical Edition †¦ Essays in Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975. 485-487. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 69-70. Print.

Free Narrative Essays - Drag Racing Dreams -- Personal Narrative Essay

Drag Racing Dreams      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The heat was unbearable as I pulled up to the starting line.   The smell of exhaust gases and burned rubber filled the air.   The starting light received my fullest attention, zoning everything out of my conscience.   3...2...1...green light!   I stomped my foot on the accelerator as I side stepped my clutch.   Shifting into second gear, I flipped the switch to my nitrous oxide system.   Instantaneously I was thrown back into my seat.   All of a sudden a loud pop disturbed the smooth roar of my engine.   Halfway down the track my engine shut off and forced me to coast the car to the finish line. My teammates were already waiting at the end of the drag strip.   Unable to restart my car, we pushed it back to our pit area.   My hopes were crushed as I went over the fact that my day of racing was already over.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Drag racing is a big part of my life.   All of my spare time is spent working on my 1996 Honda Accord.   With a big import drag racing approaching quickly, I spent most of my waking hours for a week tuning my car.   Sweat and hours of hard work finally prepared my car for racing.   The interior was stripped down to the sheet metal and contained only the driver's seat to reduce weight.   The whole exhaust system was removed to gain that little edge of power, which is essential for racing.   My car was finally race ready, waiting to tear up the track.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The following day, our race team met up at the track.   In the pit area, we changed out our street tires for high per... ...p;  Ã‚   Even though I made it to the final rounds of elimination I lost the final and most important race.   However, I didn't care about the loss because I knew that instead of making it this far, I could have been standing on the sideline with a broken car instead of racing.   I realized that any obstacle would be overcome if you pursued it hard enough.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pursuit of happiness and achieving goals is an important part of life.   Difficulties and a lack of results should not discourage one's strive for happiness.   If the desire to accomplish something is great enough dreams can be achieved no matter what the hardships or the time it takes.   Difficulties will make the achievement of a goal much more sweet because of the rewards of overcoming the little kinks and knots of life.

Position Argument on Medical Marijuana

There seems to be a constant need to provide conflict in our society. Everywhere you turn you will find articles fighting against the legalization of medical marijuana, which in this state, is already legal. What an interesting concept having to continue to defend the legality and why it should be legal in the first place. Heaven forbid we have something that actually helps people tolerate the pain they have to constantly live with. Why would we want to give them some relief? We are actually putting some income back into the economy instead of throwing it away to some criminal or helping the Mexican Cartel make a profit. Now why in the world would we want to do that? These are the questions that come to my mind when I hear about everything going on with the cannabis issue. Let’s get down to some brass tactics as they say on everything that is being said against this issue. First off you hear, it is a gateway drug to addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin. Well that is funny, because if you survey the people hooked on cocaine and heroin, in most instances you will find that they actually abused beer and alcohol first. They did not start with marijuana. This is according to polls taken by a number of organizations looking into the addictiveness of this type of pain killer. There is no evidence that marijuana is addictive. People like to use marijuana because it makes them feel good. Now it has been proven to be an effective pain killer. What is the problem then? Look at all the people sitting in jail right now for using marijuana or trying to distribute marijuana. Our tax dollars pay for all these people sitting in jail for using marijuana simply because our government went and listed it as a Schedule 1 drug way back in the 1950’s. Even though it has been proven that it is not addictive and should not be listed this way-we can’t seem to get them to change this. The only reason it seems that this isn’t being done is because the pharmaceutical companies have our politicians and government in their back pocket. They support them financially. Well that, of course, is way more important than maybe providing someone with pain relief. Our economy is in the toilet right now. I’m just thinking about how many new jobs would become available if we were opening medical marijuana dispensaries all over the country. That doesn’t ven include the growers and caregivers that would now have an income coming in. Instead, they continue to keep marijuana illegal in most states. How many farmers could continue to stay in business if they could legally grow marijuana as a crop for sale? It just doesn’t make any sense when you look at all the people on unemployment or who have lost everything because there just isn’t enough work out there. Yet, there is millions and millions of dollars spent every year on illegal marijuana. There is also millions and millions of dollars every year spent on trying to stop the drug cartels bringing in marijuana for illegal sales. Then there are millions and millions of dollars spent every year on putting people in jail and maintaining them for the use or sale of marijuana. All of this money going out and no profit coming in. Who is making the profit? The drug cartels make the profits. What do they do for us? Well, let’s see, they kill and exploit people. There was a report that said 6,000 people were murdered by the cartels last year, many of them were innocent children, police officers, reporters and politicians. Shouldn’t we spend our money legally and help the people of our country earn a living, instead of helping these drug cartels make a profit. What do you think? Now we have to touch on the issue that it isn’t a medical pain killer. Where do people think â€Å"Marinol†, the product used to assist cancer patients, came from? It uses THC which is derived from the marijuana plant. The FDA approved this drug. Did you know that the use of this drug can cause hallucinations? Smoking a â€Å"joint† doesn’t do that. Yet they just don’t want to approve marijuana itself. Whose pocket do you think they are being held by? The excuses are that it is smoked not ingested. Who cares? If it relieves pain by the natural use of this plant, then let us use it! Especially since they are not finding any terrible side effects like they do with most of the other pain killers people are addicted to like vicadin and methadone. What about the cocaine and morphine that is prescribed by many doctors? Do you know the history of marijuana? It goes back to 2737 B. C. where an emperor in China used marijuana for treatments of gout, malaria and poor memory. Ancient cultures in Egypt, Rome, Greece, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and India had many uses for marijuana. It was used for religious purposes, stress and pain relief. We actually used marijuana hemp seeds and roots for inflamed skin and V. D. in the late 18th century according to our American history. It became illegal, except for medical use, by â€Å"The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937† and of course you had to pay a tax to use it. It only became illegal in these United States in the 1950’s when the FDA listed it as a Schedule 1 substance. This means it is suppose to be a high value for abuse with no medical value at all. Research has proven so differently. There have been many attempts to change this by various reform groups over the past 30 years but the FDA still has not responded. It is amazing, that our own federal government grew & supplied a number of medical patients with medical marijuana in 1978. Why is this even an issue now? There are more deaths from alcohol or tobacco use than ever reported by use of marijuana. Alcohol abuse can cause death to the user or unfortunately to the innocent people that end up in a car crash with the abuser. Alcohol abuser’s can end up with a destroyed liver. Alcohol abuse is usually the main cause of domestic violence acts. Yet, alcohol is legal. How many of these types of incidents have you heard of from marijuana use? You’ve heard of violence from cocaine and heroin users, but marijuana, I think not. Now we go to tobacco. Addictive, yes highly, just ask the millions of people that can’t quit but would love to. How healthy is this? You hear all the time of the problems caused by â€Å"second hand† smoke. That isn’t even the problems caused for the actual smoker. Cancer and breathing disorders are on the top of the list of disease caused by the use of tobacco. Again, this is legal. Does this make any sense to you? Marijuana does not cause violence, addiction, death, cancer or breathing disorders. Yet, it is an illegal drug? It should not even be a drug. It should be classified the same as tobacco and alcohol at the least or put with the list of â€Å"herbal† remedies used today. After all it is a plant. Personally, I believe there seems to be too much controversy over this subject. Just legalize it and be done with it. Now people have jobs and patients have an alternative pain medicine to use. Put it in the category it belongs. Give us the money the drug cartels get and help put our economy back on its feet. Isn’t this what living the American Dream is all about anyways?